Re Zero Arc 4 PDF

ARC 4: ETERNAL CONTRACT: PHASE 1
CHAPTER 1: IN THE PLACE WE HAVE RETURNED

—It almost seems as if the overcast sky is reflecting the state of Subaru's mind.
Six dragon carriages stand lined outside Crusch's mansion. Among the vehicles are those already
loaded with the Arlam village escapees, and one special carriage left empty for Subaru and Emilia.
The journey will be long. That they are not riding alongside the children as they had on the way
over is because Subaru has mountains of things he must discuss with Emilia, and because not even
he is insensitive enough to arrange that she and the children be together.
???: “It will be lonely here.”
Calls a voice from behind Subaru as he quietly gazes over the line of carriages.
He turns his head, for his sight to land on Crusch. With the damp air stroking her green hair and her
eyes downcast, Subaru nods.
Subaru: “Say we stay ages and nothing'll move along, and say we keep leeching off you and that's
nothing going. —But, I know that resting quietly's what I should be doing really.”
Clenching and unclenching his fists, Subaru smiles wryly as he considers his physical condition.
Thinking back on it, Subaru had first come to this mansion to restore his ailed body. Roswaal's
underlying intentions had slipped in there, and loathe to say it but the clown's wishes had
beautifully come into fruition. A facade-destroying, purpose-defeating fruition but still.
Crusch: “Should it be your will to do so, Natsuki Subaru-sama, our household would have no
complaint in providing you indefinite stay... would be beyond what I can say, I'm sure.”
Subaru: “I'm happy for your kindness, and I'm sure there is a lot I could learn, but our side has piles
of issues we need to sort out too. If we don't do things about the White Whale and about SLOTH
after we've calmed our situations down, the merchants are going to grab everything.”
Shaking his head at Crusch's friendly answer, Subaru thinks about the Julius-includant Anastasia
faction.
Thinking only of the circumstances around the White Whale and Sloth subjugations, and viewing
this best-called three-party joint-warfare in terms of balancing gains and losses, Anastasia is the
overwhelming victor.
Crusch's faction had succeeded in the four-hundred year achievement of slaying the White Whale—
However, the damages their leader Crusch had sustained were beyond disregard.
With Subaru's group having become the lynchpin for slaying SLOTH, Emilia's faction was in the
same position—but that matters were progressing without Roswaal boded ill. And although their
damages had not been as severe as those suffered by Crusch's faction, as far as Subaru was
concerned a tremendous wound remained.
Anastasia's faction, which had lost a section of its mercenary squad but retained its candidate, her
Knight, and other combat forces in good condition had not been the axle of either subjugation effort
—but they possessed the valuable dividend of having preformed a large role while sustaining
minimal damage.
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Damages—Compared to the two factions who would hesitate on when to go public due to their
extremity, that Anastasia lacked such was huge.
Even if only to keep Anastasia's faction in check, they must keep in a tight relationship with
Crusch's faction.
Crusch slips a weary sigh at Subaru's partly-mercenary decision. Subaru furrows his brows at her,
but with a slightly shamed expression she gives a wave of her hands.
Crusch: “Nevermind,”
Crusch: “That was truly womanish of me. Simply, being incapable of offering even the slightest aid
to a benefactor leaves me entirely ashamed with my insufficient self...”
Subaru: “Instantly getting the debt repaid would be a nice story for the helper, but you don't need to
give that much consideration when you're having a hard time yourself. Or really, I've already gotten
my repayment.”
Says Subaru as he glances at the head of the line of carriages.

There stands clearly adorned with more ornamentation compared to the other carriages is a high-
quality VIP vehicle, and the dragon pulling this honourable carriage is—
Crusch: “A story without greed. Healing a wounded dragon, and then wishing to adopt it.”
Subaru: “She's the man who saved my life... or not, dragon. We haven't known each other long, but
she might be the partner I've skirted the line of death with the most in my life. Since it'd mean
getting involved in my future troubles too I figured it would be an unbearable idea from Patrasche's
perspective.”
???: “—I would find no need in being concerned on that matter.”
The soft denial of Subaru's words as he glances at the earth dragon—Patrasche—comes from
Wilhelm. The old swordsman had been checking the condition of Patrasche's carriage until then,
and he nods in recognition of his cutting in on their conversation.
Wilhelm: “It is not so common that a Diana, a picky breed even among earth dragons, present their
body in protecting their rider. This dragon is considerably attached to you, Subaru-dono.”
Subaru: “Although it isn't that I remember doing anything so big. It was only that I chose a dragon
who clicked when they said I could choose whichever dragon I liked before the White Whale
battle.”
Good affinity, would seem the truth of it. It was another point where his luck had simply been good.
Subaru suspected that had it been any dragon but Patrasche, he would not have survived either the
White Whale or SLOTH fights. Meaning,
Subaru: “My body won't be satisfied by any dragon except you now! Oh, Patrasche, you minx!”
Touching his palm to Patrasche's smooth flank region, a flirty Subaru glimpses up a Patrasche. She
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looks down at him with eyes suggesting absolute disgust for his lovey-dovey behaviour and gives
her body a jerk, intending to strike his outstretched finger.
Subaru: “Augh, close! Look, even if it's to cover up your embarrassment, pulling that's going too far
yeah. Ever since that time I put too much energy into classroom chores in middle school, this finger
stuff makes my heart-rate go crazy! I'm so traumatized!”
Wilhelm: “The dragon is merely teasing. Such intimate banter in itself occurs exactly because there
is an unwavering bond of trust between you.”
Subaru: “Does this look like banter!? Feels to me like I'm just prattling off at her, and she's rejecting
me with body language!”
Their bond of trust communicates without words in dreadful situations, but separate the two from
some dismal scene temporarily and this happens. Having a proud Madame as his partner was
unexpectedly difficult. Although even with her cold behaviour she ultimately still lets him pet her.
Subaru: “My name'll be acknowledged as part of the White Whale subjugation, and the SLOTH
subjugation means Emilia-tan's safe and protected. And then I get a ground dragon that I like... it's
unbeatable compensation.”
Wilhelm: “That you do not realise how momentous a feat it is to have slain the White Whale could
be called part of your charm, Subaru-dono. The world will doubtless come to reward you in a more
appropriate manner for the deed. I do await the day.”
Subaru: “Though, not like I think it was really anything that ridiculous. Running around waving
food in a whale's face is a real thing, you know?”
With that not-humble statement from Subaru, Wilhelm's eyes take on a look as though he is seeing
something rather pleasant. The warmth of the gaze gives Subaru discomfort, and he shakes his head
to drive the feeling away.
Subaru: “Well, Patrasche aside... It appears I'll shortly be parting with you, Wilhelm-san. Please
take care to look after your injury.”
Wilhelm: “Your concern is appreciated. —It appears some distance is between us now, and matters
will presently settle merely with bloodshed. Someday, I shall surely stand alongside you once again.
Until then.”
Wilhelm's wound—the haemophilic cut inflicted by the previous Sword Saint, Theresia. Faced with
the reality of this old injury having reopened, Wilhelm's eyes host a sharp glint. His focus is set on
the two Cardinals of Sin who assaulted Crusch, GLUTTONY and GREED.
Should there be anything other than the White Whale associated with the death of the wife of the
sword demon, being that those two were the most recently present, they would be the most likely
contenders.
Just like Wilhelm, Subaru holds an intense grudge against GLUTTONY.

He would most likely end up having to eventually face the Cardinals. They're the leaders of a group
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Subaru would much rather like to avoid, but GLUTTONY alone is different.
He would assuredly defeat this Cardinal of whom he knew only the title, there being many things he
had to get back. Crusch's memories were one of those, and most importantly—
???: “Subaru-kyun. Rem-chan's secured, come check.”
A cat-eated someone leans out of Patrasche's carriage to speak—it's Felis. Subaru runs over to the
carriage to peek inside. And, with one seating area of the spacious interior dismantled to give room
for a simple bed, there he sees sleeping a single girl.
Rather than her familiar maid outfit, it is a thin blue gown which garbs the body of this blue-haired
girl. In wakeless sleep and forgotten completely by those around her is that single girl.
Who loved Subaru, and Subaru had willed to love back, that girl.
Subaru: “She's not gonna get thrown off or anything right?”
Felis: “Nyow I paid proper attention to that. Myaybe I'm not perfect but I am still a practitioner of
the healing arts? Or really, with hyow treatment on Rem-chan's wounds finished ages ago, it's pretty
hard to call her sick or a patient, mhm!”
Her face appears relaxed as Subaru gazes on, Felis' tone in speaking to him thoroughly casual. But
his expression is clearly different from usual, him apparently still feeling a keen sense of his own
impotence.
That said Subaru suspects the reason for his acute feeling of powerless is not Rem, but his
unparalleled master.
Felis: “You're really taking her home with you?”
Subaru: “I'm taking her back. Even if she convalesces here, it's not like she'll heal... Er, I mean, that
wasn't me being sarcastic at you or anything.”
Felis: “I knyow that. Subaru-kyun, you're nyot that mean of a person.”
Felis smiles wryly, when his eyes suddenly narrow and he jabs his raised finger at Subaru's face.
Felis: “Myore importantly,”
Felis: “It's true for Rem-chan too, but isn't the bigger problem here you, Subaru-kyun!?”
Subaru: “Me?”
Felis: “Mm-hmm, and you knyow it. Your gates are still past their limit, aren't they? Forcing so
much mana through them while we were midway through recovery means your gates's entrances
should be myore than a little dyamaged. Is your body sluggish?”
Subaru rotates his neck and shoulders.

He finds nothing out of sorts with his body, having been treated for external wounds. He tries
jumping on the spot and so on, but nothing particularly in line with Felis' concerns happens.
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Subaru: “Nywell, looks like no problem. And anyway you have the part where I wasn't using it like
someone who uses it. Nevermind the gates or whatever, magic isn't something you use like an
everyday thing.”
Felis: “That's what syomeone who dyoesn't use magic would think. If it were Feli-chan, being
unable to use magic'd be nyothing but an emergency, but... well, gyuess it's fine.”
Subaru speaks nonchalantly and with no sense of crisis. Felis gives up on pressing the issue any
further, but does make a show of pulling back and tilting his head, his eyes big and wide.
Felis: “But you're still nyot allowed to be pushing your gate, 'kay? I was trying to get the toxins out
of your body, Subaru-kyun, but the dyamage that did to your torn-up gates isn't healed. Give it
proper time for recovery, and... two months, gyoing by looks.”
Subaru: “Two months. You know, that's a low hurdle for someone who went seventeen years
without using magic.”
...is how he jokes around at that diagnosis, but Subaru remembers that it hasn't even been two
months since he entered this world. His personal time had it closing in on four months, but still a
month and a half in real time—and he felt he'd come an extremely long way.
Thinking of all that had happened over that period, he could no longer tell how high that hurdle of
'two months of peace and quiet' really was.
Subaru: “Well, there's no way I could constantly be getting mixed up in commotions like that all the
t—oh man, did I just trip a flag!? I feel like I heard something go 'pyi-kon!'”
Felis: “I am afraid to say that treating the brain is outside of Feli-chan's expertise.”
Subaru's own words stupefy him as Felis replies in a much colder tone.
Hearing that, Subaru judges that he should end the conversation about here. After a moment of
thought, Subaru quietly holds his hand out to Felis.
Felis: “Nywhat?”
Subaru: “Just, I feel like I haven't thanked you properly for all the help you've given me. There's
healing my body, and, straight-up, if you weren't around for the White Whale and SLOTH, there's
lots of places where things wouldn'tve gone right at all. ...And, I'm grateful to you for Rem.”
Felis: “...I dyon't think you're being mean or sarcastic, but that's all it turned into.”
Subaru: “That's me activating my skill, KUUKI YOMENAI. Please put up with it.”
He says the words with honest feelings of thanks, but they do not please Felis. But at least the
feeling itself probably got through. Felis grasps Subaru's outstretched hand, firmly completing the
handshake. While feeling Felis' palm,
Subaru: “Thin fingers, tiny hands. Rugged, manly fingers... was the development I was expecting,
but it didn't happen.”
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Felis: “This perfectly dressed-up adorable Feli-chan couldn't pyossibly show everyone such a
disappointing development. Nyot a single unwanted hair or patch of rough skin, entirely natural.”
Felis proudly raises his ungrasped hand and flashes a glimpse of the pale legs beneath his skirt.
Boldly exposed to the inviting beauty of slender, womanly legs, Subaru's shoulders droop in
dejection.
Subaru: “But, he's a guy.”
Felis: “Yes, Feli-chan is a man in mind and body both.”
Subaru: “If you're that proud about it, what's with the outfit. What about this is a guy?”
Delicate clothes on men was impermissible—was not how antiquated Subaru's thinking was, but he
could at least tell that Felis' behaviour plummeted far along a path antithetical to masculinity.
Felis places his finger to his lips at Subaru's question, and while seductively waving his hips,
Felis: “'Cause Crusch-sama said this outfit suits Feli-chan soo weeell. For each to each, the visage
which most brightens their soul suits. —All Feli-chan's doing is answering to Crusch-sama's words
with full devotion.”
Subaru: “But that's something...”
That the present Crusch wouldn't know, is how Subaru goes to continue before he stops himself.
Felis would already know that without Subaru having to say it. Doing so after he had purposevully
brought it up would only hurt, but more importantly, it was preposterous to speak as if it was
something bad for Subaru himself when around Felis.
If people talking about Rem as if they knew her irritated himself, then that meant Felis definitely
didn't want to hear those words from Subaru.
???: “—The Karsten clan can be damned.”
Subaru: “...Huh?”
Abruptly, those words hammer on Subaru's eardrums.

Quiet, cold, an intonation with emotions frozen. The question of 'Who was that?' carries enough
strength that even though Subaru has been hearing this voice from right in front of him, he is slow
to put it together.
His head drooped, Felis' bangs prevent his expression from showing through.
Keeping that posture, Felis' grip on Subaru's hand strengthens.
Felis: “Crusch-sama alone absolutely will I protect.”
Subaru: “Fe-Felis?”
Felis: “Soooo!”
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Felis' voice suddenly bounces back up as he raises his head. His eyes house the same mischievous
look as always, and as if that second of transformation was a lie,
Felis: “You hafta keep your promise too, Subaru-kyun! Don't, and I'll make the mana inside you go
crazy 'till you go insane and die!”
Subaru: “Don't say that while smiling! Also don't threaten partners in your ally!”
Felis: “But more than a threat, it's a death sentence?”
Subaru: “That's worse! Geez.”
Subaru shakes his hand out of the handshake and turns his back to Felis. He glances over to see if
their ruckus brought any change in Rem—but it amounts to nothing more than a faint hope.
Letting out a small sigh, Subaru forgets his betrayed hopes as he exits the carriage. He then
discovers Emilia, carrying some luggage from the mansion and talking with Crusch and Wilhelm.
Emilia: “Ah, Subaru. Is Rem-san's bed properly set up?”
Subaru: “Yeah, Felis did it perfect. With me and Patrasche's exquisite combination, we could have a
whole Kinoshita Grand Circus and she won't fall off.”
Emilia: “I don't really get it, but the hunch I have is sooo bad so let's not have a grand circus,
okay?”
Subaru: “There's a shame. My heart was pounding anticipating how you'd feel about the tightrope.”
That said his EXPOSING MY LIFE TO DANGER BY MY OWN DEVICES, COULD THE BEATING OF THIS
HEART POSSIBLY BE LOVE!? Plan is really the epitome of causing trouble just to reap the benefits.
Although, hearing the phrase REM-SAN come from Emilia prompts a pain of a magnitude he had not
anticipated to stab Subaru through the heart.
Emilia's narrow for an instant as she sees Subaru shut his mouth. But before she can bring it up,
Felis emerges from behind Subaru and hops down to the ground.
Felis: “Now, looks like the carriages're all ready, and stretching it out'll just make the goodbye
harder. —If you would have any final remarks, Crusch-sama.”
Crusch: “Yes, right.”
Felis goes to Crusch, her taking a step toward Subaru and Emilia. Being up above is rude, and so
Subaru exits the carriage as Felis had and heads to Emilia's side. Crusch takes a deep breath, and
with her hand to her chest,
Crusch: “Firstly, although I am unsure how many times I have restated this, I am deeply grateful to
the both of you. I believe that the fact my life still remains although my memories are lost, and that
I am still connected to the wish I held before my memories were lost, is explicitly because of my
collaboration with you two. I thank you very much.”
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Emilia: “N-no... I didn't do anything deserving your gratitude, Crusch-sama. I've been almost
completely out of the loop on what's happened the last few days.”
Subaru: “Well, in real terms it's an empty achievement for Emilia-tan. But my efforts were
definitely in there, so relax. My achievements are my Emilia-tan's achievements.”
Subaru cheerfully taps his hand to his chest as he backs up an obliged Emilia. She glances at him
and gives a small nod.
Emilia: “Thanks. —I don't remember becoming yours yet, though.”
Subaru: “Aguh. Someone saw through my plan to use the situation to say that to a third party where
it couldn't be denied!?”
Emilia: “I'm always vigilant and don't leave openings. …Ah, we've gotten completely off topic. I'm
sorry.”
Subaru presses his hand to his chest and retreats far backwards, Emilia sighing at him as she
apologizes to an abandoned Crusch. But she looks on pleasantly at the pair's back-and-forth.
Crusch: “No worry, you two simply get along so well it provokes jealousy. I'll also need to swiftly
be open with Felis and Wilhelm-sama, as I was before.”
Felis: “Feli-chan's heart and body are always fully open to Crusch-samaaa.”
Hands to his cheeks and his body swaying to and fro is Felis. Ignoring the boygirl wobbling like an
octopus behind her, and with her capacity to accept this situation alone unchanged, a feminine smile
rises on Crusch's face.
Crusch: “Let us meet again soon. I desire that my relationship with you, Emilia-sama and Natsuki
Subaru-sama, be both familiar and eternal.”
Subaru figures that not any fabrication, but her truest feelings.
She had lost her memories, but not her purity. The trappings of lies and pretence suited her life,
which radiated the word 'sincerity', not at all.
And her statement clearly conveyed that. Emilia's eyes shoot open in surprise, and with her lips
faintly trembling,
Emilia: “I... I'm an opposing candidate to you, Crusch-sama. Even if we're allied now, we'll
definitely go back to competing with each other.”
Crusch: “Yes, that is right. With Emilia-sama as an opposing candidate, I will have to firmly
endeavour so as not to lose.”
Emilia: “But even if I weren't, I'm a half-elf. A silver-haired one. ...aren't you afraid?”
Subaru: “Emilia-tan, that's...”
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Not something you need to ask, Subaru intends to say to stop her. But seeing and recognizing the
seriousness and intensity in Emilia's eyes, he can't continue.
Emilia was asking that question with full earnesty. As someone who knew even a fragment of her
emotions here, he couldn't frivolously butt in on that query.
And more importantly, Subaru knew the person being asked this question was Crusch Karsten. —
And the lack of necessity to interrupt.
Crusch: “The manner of a soul's being determines the value of the being's existence. Both yourself,
and strangers, should live in a manner that brings them most brilliance, that brings their soul no
shame.”
Emilia: “—”
Crusch: “...is what it seems I was fond of saying before. How to say... now that my viewpoint has
become more objective, how high and above those words sound.”
Her hand to her mouth, Crusch holds back an incompletely surpressed smile at her past self.
Hearing her stuns Emilia into complete silence.
Crusch: “Emilia-sama, would you yourself believe your manner of living embarrassing?”
Emilia: “...I would, not. I live believing that no matter what the people around me think, I can keep
living without hating myself.”
Crusch: “Then there is nothing to lament or fear. You polish yourself, pile effort upon effort,
maintain your own way of being without err—you are the possessor of a wonderful soul.”
Smiling, Crusch holds the hand on her chest out to Emilia.
Crusch: “I am glad to have become your acquaintance. No fear is in me in the least.”
Emilia: “—hk”
Emilia bites her lips as if feeling a pain in her chest as she and looks down at the offered hand.
Without any hurrying her along, Crusch silently waits for Emilia's response.
Eventually, timidly, Emilia's fingertips meet Crusch's palm, and the two share a gentle handshake.
Crusch: “Stay in health. I will be awaiting the next, surely not distant, time we may meet.”
Emilia: “I'll... No, next time I'll have become someone who can stand directly before you, too,
Crusch-sama. Until then, stay well.”
The two candidates for ruler pledge their will to fight between them, and the promise is shared.
Watching their exchange from aside, a sense of accomplishment wells up to fill Subaru's chest. This
was a manifestation of one of the things Subaru had suffered, struggled, been wounded for, and now
finally acquired.
Although not that he had gotten here while perfectly preserving every absolutely every single thing.
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Subaru: “I don't want to make it your fault for me to have a reason to forget all I've accomplished
like this and look all depressed.”
Glancing back at the carriage, the image of the girl sleeping inside rises beneath Subaru's eyelids. He
couldn't forgive himself for using Rem as a reason to look downwards during a situation that
should've been a blessing. Rem wouldn't have wanted anything like that—though, him thinking like
that was more than likely his ego.
Crusch: “Natsuki Subaru-sama too, stay in health. I will be praying from my heart of hearts for your
future activities, and... for her recovery.”
Subaru: “I think it's best there aren't so many situations where I'm doing any big activity, though.
...straight up, I'm someone who's only useful as an absolute last resort. What happened to Rem isn't
unrelated to you either, Crusch-san. I will do something, no matter what.”
Crusch presents her hand to Subaru as well. Accepting it with a handshake somehow feels
shamefully awkward, so Subaru answers by slapping his palm against hers to obfuscate the feeling.
A small clap peals out, and that is the end of the contact between Subaru and Crusch. Seeing her
rebounded hands, Crusch gives a small blink. And,
Crusch: “Absolutely, let us meet again.”
Crusch and Felis give a dignified bow, seeing Subaru and his group off.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—A suffocating atmosphere fills the carriage on the journey back home.
This Patrasche-drawn carriage Crusch had given them as repayment was most likely another
symbol of her thanks—even disregarding its ornamentation it is clearly of expensive make, the
softness of its seating and glamour of its décor crossing the line for a lack of calm.
Nearly ten people could board and the spacious carriage would likely still have room to spare, and
with only three people occupying the space the overwhelming vacancy is a natural result.
The ones guarding over the silence in the carriage are Subaru and Emilia, as well as a sleeping Rem.
No urge strikes Subaru to part from the Sleeping Beauty's side, and Emilia's absence of talk is
perhaps also her manner of consideration for the unconscious Rem.
Consequently the only atmosphere that floods though the carriage is unpleasant.
Subaru: “—Hrn.”
Can't have it like this, thinks Subaru as he crosses his arms.

Boisterousness would be inexcusable, but there are many things they need to discuss. There was
their stance toward the Royal Selection going onwards, and further over these few days of alliance
with Crusch their parties had failed to even completely consolidate information.
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Rem's situation, and how she would be treated at the mansion when no memories of her existed
outside of Subaru, was another agonizing prospect. Merely thinking of what Ram would say after
seeing the sleeping Rem threatened to send chills down his spine. But of course he couldn't avoid it.
Subaru: “I know it's just them being considerate, but if this's what it was gonna be then emotionally
it mighta been better to be with the brats...”
Among the carriages returning to Mather's domain is of course a vehicle carrying the children who
had accompanied Subaru and Emilia on the ride over. Those children should presently be riding in
carriages with their parents, and here was outcome of the proactive villagers figuring and caring that
the two would discuss matter they were better off not hearing. Although, their kindness does feel to
have backfired.
Now, what to do—thinks Subaru as he mulls over the consequences for once and looks up. When—
Otto: “It almost seems like not broaching the topic is troubling things, maybe? I can't take this
heavy silence anymore...”
Subaru: “Just butting yourself right in and what do you say? Or rather, you were here?”
Otto: “Isn't that too cruel!? Of course I'm here! Don't you remember on what condition I helped you
in the first place!?”
Spit flying and only his face showing though is a yelling Otto. He sits on the driver's platform
where he serves as the driver, his face thrust through the communication window between the
platform and carriage proper, as he mentions the utter silence inside the carriage.
Subaru tilts his head, nodding.
Subaru: “I remember, I remember. Yep, it was that you wanted to meet Roswaal. ...But man, that's
kinda, eh.”
Otto: “What is it?”
Subaru: “No, was just thinking it's one thing if you're just into guys, but when the partner's
Roswaal... ...Ah, my preferences are normal, and since there's Emilia-tan it's gonna be trouble if you
put your sights on me.”
Otto: “That's not what the request is about! Just what exactly do you think I am?!”
Subaru: “A merchant who spices things up?”
Otto: “He's treating me like something bawdy!”
Otto's eyes peel open with a look of sincere upset. Subaru gives a sighing shake of his head,
Emilia's eyes wide as she watches the pair's exchange.
Emilia: “It's like... you two get along sooo well. I'm surprised.”
Subaru: “Hey hey, cut that out, you silly Emilia-tan. Lumping me in with this money-hungry dead
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man... You see, I'm a dead man hungry only for your love.”
Otto: “A dead man!? A dead man!? Or actually, I should mention that I'm not money-hungry or
dead!”
Subaru: “Shut up, Otto.”
Subaru sighs at the riotous merchant, standing up and briskly walking over to the carriage's front.
He grabs the cover to the dividing window.
Otto: “Ah, wait, if you do that then it'd be like you're excluding me—”
Subaru: “Yup, shutting you out!”
He seals the cover shut with a bang, and the face of the fussy, hollering man disappears from view.
Dusting his hands off each other and cloaked in the feeling of finishing off a job, he glances back to
find Emilia looking up at him blankly.
Subaru: “Pfff.”
Emilia: “Heehehe.”
During that period of looking at each other, the two inadvertently burst into laughter.
They leave themselves to their laughing for a while, until their voices slowly fade out into silence.
And now that they'd had that laugh,
Subaru: “Wasn't like me to read the awkward mood and keep quiet.”
Emilia: “Nope, not like you at all. The Subaru I know is someone who's always energetic,
ridiculous, noisy and chipper to the point it doesn't line up with my feelings at all.”
Subaru: “I kinda have a feeling you could translate that as 'puts on false bravado and is socially
dense.'”
Either way, that Otto's existence had undone the atmosphere in the carriage was fact.
Although he loathes to feel grateful for it, Subaru mentally thanks Otto as he goes to sit next to
Emilia. She smiles wryly at him as he naturally plunks himself down beside her.
Emilia: “You're already zipping over to sit beside me, Subaru.”
Subaru: “Well, wanting to be close to a girl you like is natural or should I say obvious? I wanna be
close as possible so I can suck up the air you breathe out, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “That was making me feel shy until halfway through, then it suddenly turned sooo
uncomfortable.”
Her face red from his upfront affections, Emilia scrunches her face up at the highly perverted
content of the second half. Tilting his head at her reaction,
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Subaru: “No look, I just thought I'd be the same me as always and then that sentence just
happened.”
Emilia: “Right, because that's the kind of person you are. That kind, which is why I can never grasp
the things you say properly, so...”
Trailing off at the end, Emilia speaks while staring intently at Subaru.
Scratching his head, Subaru worried and figures he should pick up from where she hesitated.
Subaru: “This's the male mentality of being unable to even flirt seriously without dressing it up as a
joke. That I like you, and view you erotically, and want to help you are all completely true facts. It's
okay to believe in that.”
Emilia: “I do believe that, but whether I accept it is another story.”
Subaru: “That's fine. Believe, and from there I'll work to make you accept it.”
Subaru dimly reflects on how fucking alpha male that sounded. And in reality Emilia is notably
aflutter in hearing it.
She endeavours to preserve her calm expression, but her cheeks and ears are so red as to betray her.
Surely, she had never been presented with unconditional fondness like this before. Although of
course the flirter Subaru had no experience in this either, and his face is utterly beet red.
Either way,
Subaru: “This is more like me than looking down and being depressed. Right, Rem?”
Emilia: “...What did you just say?”
Subaru: “I wanna pick up that pretty hair of yours and ogle the back of your neck so hard, Emilia-
tan.”
Emilia: “And you immediately cover it up. ...You're worried about Rem-san, aren't you?”
Subaru smiles bitterly and gazes at the sleeping Rem.
Subaru: “I'm worried. I'm super worried. I've been thinking this whole time I have to do something,
and I'm sure I'll constantly be thinking about it. I do want to think of you as my number one, but...
this isn't something I can put a number on. Sorry.”
Emilia: “Getting mad at that would make me a bad girl. I'm not going to be mad when it's
something so important. ...You can tell just by looking that she's someone important to you.”
Just like Subaru, Emilia looks over at the sleeping Rem, narrowing her eyes. Emilia's lips quiver,
and after a moment of hesitation,
Emilia: “You love her, don't you?”
Subaru: “Love her, love her a lot. I love her as much as I love you, Emilia-tan.”
15
Emilia: “Saying this is a bit, but... Subaru, are you cheating?”
Subaru: “I was planning to keep relatively to one path, but I don't think a guy who could receive so
much devotion and not have their heart moved'd have blood or tears in them to shed anymore.”
Subaru recalls the loop of the past several days, and all the uncompensated love Rem had given him
over that time. Receive all that, and how could a heart not be stirred?
Before he had even noticed it, Rem's existence had come to occupy a relatively oversized portion of
Subaru's heart.
Emilia: “Even though you said you love me.”
Subaru: “Just saying, I do love Rem back, but it's Rem's love for me that's crazy. Completely head
over heels, it's an utter mystery.”
Arms crossed, Subaru inevitably had to have some doubts about all that uncompensated love
proffered to him. Did he really have enough merit to him for a girl as well-done as Rem to love him
so much?
Even now he had to wonder it. That said, he was simultaneously thinking that he'd have to become a
man who matched up to that merit.
Emilia's mouth loosens into a smile at Subaru's self-assessment.
Emilia: “I think I understand.”
Subaru: “Huh?”
Emilia: “Why Rem-san loves you sooo much. It's definitely 'cause whenever she was nearby, you
only ever showed her your good parts. Subaru, you're like a disease that sometimes does things
that're sooo cool.”
Subaru: “A disease. ...Well, I can't refute that.”
Scratching his cheek, Subaru pouts in dissatisfaction. Emilia pays Subaru's appeal no heed, and
saying, “Mhm,” composes her face and closes her eyes.
Emilia: “You won't get me so easily.”
Subaru: “That means there's a good challenge. One day I'll make you crazy in love with me too,
Rem'll wake up, and I'll hold both your hands in a League of Nations ruling. Ahh, just thinking
about it makes me grin!”
Emilia and Rem pulling on both arms, hand in hand with each. Wouldn't that be a scene to just put a
smile on the face.
Which was why unconditionally, no matter what, someday he would--
Subaru: “Need to have you pull me 'till I'm torn apart.”
16
Emilia: “I don't know what you're thinking, but I have a feeling I have to tell you this now—don't
be torn apart.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The conversation in the carriage continues smoothly from there.

Their migration was originally planned to take almost half a day anyway. Even with their large
number of topics to discuss, Subaru and Emilia have plenty enough time to talk about them.
They swap information on what happened over the past several days, lastly bringing in Otto as they
plan how to proceed from hereon out.
Ultimately, their conversation amounts to—
Subaru: “In the end, we can't come up with a real plan without talking to Roz-chi.”
And the talk returns to its origin point.

Basically, Roswaal is the only one who comprehends the faculties and military strength that
Emilia's faction possesses, and without him the faction cannot keep going.
Subaru: “Well, we can probably expect that Ram and Roswaal've met up, and're on their way back
to the mansion too. Though first I'd slap him across the face then start talking from there.”
Otto: “That's quite an aggressive stance to take towards your employer the Margrave, Natsuki-san.”
Subaru: “I'd say I have the right to get away with that much, and without that he's done that much
wrong he can't be allowed to get away with.”
Emilia doesn't seem to disagree, allowing Subaru “Just one” slap. They continue along in the
carriage as their ends, entering Mathers' domain and passing through the forest, to arrive at Arlam
village—where they immediately notice something is off.
The village looks exactly like it was when they last left it, or perhaps even more dreary and
deserted. There's no signs of anyone having returned.
Otto: “It doesn't look like anyone is here, Natsuki-san. It doesn't feel as if it's been attacked, but as if
nobody's returned.”
The villagers, Subaru, and Otto disembark the carriages and split into groups to look around the
village—and Subaru comes to that same conclusion.
The excessive silence does strike Subaru with flashbacks of the previous slaughter of villagers at
Betelgeux's hands, but he manages to confirm that possibility as only a needless fear.
This however presents a different problem.
Subaru: “I think Ram said that SANCTUARY is... seven, eight hours away from here. How is it that
they didn't get back before us, when we stayed at the Royal Capital for three days?”
Otto: “Perhaps they're unable to gather that the Witch Cult subjugation is completed, and are being
17
cautious?”
Subaru: “You're saying this about Roswaal, who sat back while his territory was attacked? My
impression is that if Roswaal and SLOTH fought face-to-face, Roswaal'd win about eighty, ninety
percent of the time. I don't think SLOTH really does things face-to-face though, but... even so, he
could at least do recon.”
Roswaal can fly, so recon on his attacked territory should be easy for him. And if he did recon, he
should've been able to tell that the Witch Cult in the area'd been repelled and things were safe. That
he hasn't done so means—
Subaru: “He's playing it safe, or...”
Emilia: “Something happened at SANCTUARY?”
Subaru and Emilia nod to each other. They'll have to figure out what's the status of SANCTUARY
before they can understand what the circumstances are.
Their concerns go on to be concerns for the villagers.

About 60% of the population went with Ram's group, with the remaining 40% in Emilia's group
being the children, their parents, and members of the village's young men brigade. With only these
people, the village's faculties will lower considerably. The future is not looking good for them.
Subaru: “Either way, we have to do something. ...Let's go back to the mansion for now. I want to get
Rem settled in. Otto, I bet you don't have anywhere to say so come to the mansion too.”
Otto: “Wuahgeuh!? I-Intruding on the Margrave's mansion!? If you're going to place me in such an
outrageous position, it would be easier that I stay overnight in the carriage!”
Subaru: “Shut up, you're involved. We're already in the same boat. I'll be working you 'till you're
practically dead.”
Subaru, Otto, and Emilia have Patrasche pull them onward towards the mansion, parting with the
villagers. The distance is 15 minutes by foot, but 5 by carriage before reaching the familiar Roswaal
mansion. Subaru didn't have any leeway to give the place a good look around last time, and seeing
the mansion again is pretty emotional.
Subaru: “Doesn't look like anything's changed, though. ...Doesn't feel like Ram's come back.”
Emilia: “But, if nothing's changed inside, Beatrice should be there. I hope she knows where
SANCTUARY is.”
Subaru: “Oh, right, crap. Neither of us know where SANCTUARY is. See if there's some way for us to
check if Roz-chi's safe, too.”
Subaru: “Ugh. Anyway, for now all we can do is pray Beako knows something.”
Otto: “Did you just say 'ugh' while looking at me?”
18
Subaru: “Ugh. You're being too self-conscious. No one cares about you as much as you think.”
Otto: “That's a terrible thing to say!”
Ignoring a snubbed Otto, Subaru leaves the carriage in the front garden and heads for the mansion's
entrance. First he'd call Beatrice, then look around the mansion, then get Rem's bedroom secured,
then plan what to do next.
Subaru: “I'm back, Roswaal mansion. Now, how would my nostalgic old home be...”
Subaru pushes the door open and peers inside, falling stock silent. Because the inside of the
mansion is not what he predicted.
Carpets blanket the floor of the entry hall. The expensive-looking vases aside the large ascending
staircase are adorned with flowers. The crystalights overhead cloak the environment in their glow,
deemable as parallel world chandeliers.
This was the entrance hall as he remembered it, but it completely defies his expectations.
Because compared to what he envisioned, it's—
Subaru: “It's not disturbed... it's all orderly!?”
The carpets don't have a single wrinkle, the flowerpots beside the staircase are shining, the
chandeliers have been adeptly maintained, compounding the intrinsic beauty of the crystalights.
The unsettling scene dumbfounds Subaru. All his reactions are thus slow.
???: “—Who's—!?”
Hearing this quiet, faint sound and yet guided by his confusion, Subaru looks towards its source.
But by the time his consciousness catches up with the silhouette being there, it's already too late.
The shadow has already rounded behind him.
With the figure towering in from behind, Subaru sees it.
Rising clearly from amidst the silhouette, she sees a maw of monstrous fangs.
The next instant, Subaru's world goes black.
19
CHAPTER 2: JEERS AND THANKS
—Subaru oh Subaru, your dying is so pathetic.
Shaking his woozy head awake, Subaru uprights himself and looks about the surroundings.
He is supposed to be someone quick to wake, but perhaps the fuzziness in his mind is because this
was not genuine sleep. Subaru gets his brain working in an attempt to recollect on what happened
before he lost consciousness, and what first arises in his thoughts is the fact that he recognizes
where he is.
Subaru: “The mansion's living room...”
Emilia: “Ah, Subaru, you're awake?”
Right after Subaru has that little mutter, Emilia opens the door and pokes her head into the room.
She walks over to a Subaru rested on the couch with her hair in a plait and expression somewhat
sunny, where she bends over to match his eye level.
The intensity of her stare prompts Subaru to huddle his shoulders up slightly.
Subaru: “Eerrm, what was it that just happened again, Emilia-tan?”
Emilia: “We heard you scream right after you entered the mansion. Me and Otto were super
shocked. And when we ran inside and looked around...”
Subaru: “I was sleeping?”
Emilia: “That's not really the right word... but, it's mostly not wrong?”
Emilia puts her finger to her lips and tilts her head. Subaru judges from her relaxed reaction that the
situation isn't anything urgent, but that doesn't erase the mystery of what was the fanged creature he
saw before losing consciousness.
???: “Emilia-sama, may I intrude?”
A woman's voice calls from outside and there comes a knock on the door. Emilia answers with a
“Yes,” and the door slowly opens.
Subaru watches on with no particular intention at the opening door, when suddenly a doubt hits
him.
—He was pretty sure this voice was one he had never heard before.
Woman: “I have brought refreshment and additional handtowels. —Ah, it appears you have
awoken.”
The speaker is a woman with long, blonde hair and perfectly straight posture. Her movements are
polished and fluid, with not a single one feeling wasted, and she's wearing the maid uniform of the
Roswaal mansion. There is indeed a pitcher and handtowels on the tray she's carrying, which she
places on the table in the middle of the living room without producing a single sound. Full marks.
20
—So long as you ignore her build and vicious smile.
She's just a little taller than Subaru and about as muscular, making her feel awkwardly burly for a
woman. Her warm smile is ruined by a clearly visible swarm of sharp fangs. Her sharp, green eyes
host a feline glint—predatory and carnivorous.
Woman: “It graces me to have made your audience. My humble station is to serve the mansion of
Margrave Roswaal L. Mathers, Frederica Baumann being my...”
Subaru: “Freakface!”
Subaru interrupts her polite introduction with just a little too much honesty. Frederica's expression
hardens, she blinks and blinks and blinks—and her eyes fill with tears.
Frederica: “Huu, euhu...”
Subaru: “Wha?”
Emilia: “Subaru, you idiot!”
Frederica turns her face away, Subaru is struck dumb, when he's suddenly hit with a painful attack
pulling on both his ears. He yells in pain and shifts his gaze to find an angry Emilia.
Emilia: “How could you say that to a girl? Frederica's been so dedicated to your...”
Frederica: “I-I humbly request that Emilia-sama might desist. It is not anything. I-I would be the one
who has done wrong. My being called to return to the mansion has rather elated me, and I have had
become carried away. ...I have forgotten that my appearance is displeasing to people.”
Frederica tugs on Emilia's sleeve and shakes her head, using her other hand to conceal her mouth.
Frederica: “I offer my apology for having caused shock. I further request forgiveness for my
previous discourtesy. To think that Natsuki Subaru-sama be mistaken for an interloper upon his
return...”
Subaru: “Interloper? ...Ah, wait. I think I kinda get what the story is.”
Emilia releases Subaru from his punishment. He rubs his ears.
Subaru: “Frederica-san, who'd come back to the mansion, mistook me for an interloper and
attacked. And then Emilia-tan came in, you two talked, smoothed out the misunderstanding, and
now we're here... right?”
Frederica: “Exactly correct. ...You would appear to be rather the quick thinker.”
Subaru: “If I couldn't get that much from the gist of the conversation, it'd be... No, firstly.”
Subaru sees Emilia point to Frederica with her chin, Emilia being behind Frederica and out of her
21
view. Subaru understands what Emilia means so much it hurts. So Subaru gets off the couch and
goes to face Frederica.
Subaru: “I apologize for suddenly saying something so horrible to you as my first words on our first
meeting. Even as a prank or while waking up, what I said was unforgivable for a woman. I leave it
up to your choice... but I'd appreciate it if you please didn't make it hurt too much.”
Blah blah womanly feelings Subaru bows his head and is READY for PUNISHMENT.
HOWEVER!
Frederica: “—Huuhuu. You are quite an interesting one.”
Frederica merely smiles and bows back.
Frederica: “It is myself who must apologize. In accordance with the words of Emilia-sama, I have
made you to undergo a test.”
Subaru: “Test?”
Both Subaru and Emilia tilt their heads in confusion. That Emilia is also puzzled here doesn't
exactly make sense. Frederica tilts her head as well, her smile deepening.
Frederica: “Regardless of my intention that I may protect the mansion, my actions towards Subaru-
sama, a guest, were discourteous. I have already resolved that I might accept responsibility in the
utmost by presenting you my neck.”
Subaru: “Er, resolving yourself for that is way too hasty. I'm someone who understands if you talk
to him, okay?”
Frederica: “...Would be what Emilia-sama had firmly insisted. While she most fervently, ardency
enough that it seemed my I might blush merely in listening, devoted to Subaru-sama lines upon
lines of evocative rhetoric.”
Subaru: “Fwauhh!?”
Hit with this shocking statement, Subaru squawks and he looks over at Emilia. She attempts to
cover up her blush—
Emilia: “Fred. Er. I. Ca.”
—or would if she had one, and glares at Frederica, hand on her hip with her gaze
uncharacteristically dangerous. Frederica's like “My my, how frightening,” unphased.
Frederica: “Emilia-sama appears to lack in charm as always. And when your usual pattern of
blushing and becoming flustered regardless of the veracity of my statements is so beautiful.”
Emilia: “I-is it? —but, you won't fool me today. I've learned from being fooled over and over and
over. Frederica, you cross your eyes when you lie!”
22
Frederica: “That I surely would not have considered. Incidentally, Emilia-sama, would you have
noticed that your ears grow longer when you tell lies?”
Emilia: “No way!”
Emilia frantically grabs her own ears—inadvertently surrendering this match to Frederica. Subaru
sighs and slumps his shoulders.
Subaru: “Feels like a perfect defeat. ...do I need to introduce myself to you by telling you my
name's Natsuki Subaru?”
Frederica: “Indeed, and of course I accept. So let us proceed in our acquaintance.”
Frederica removes her hand, exposing her fanged smile. Between seeing these weapons and her
burly body, this time Subaru is for sure exhausted.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “That reminds me, I think I heard about you. A maid who'd quit working a little before I'd
come to the mansion. I came to the mansion a month ago... so you quit three months ago?”
Frederica: “That would have been the case. My resignation had been due to personal reasons. It was
horrifically lonely, being separated from here. ...Although it happens that my return occurred sooner
than I had expected it.”
Frederica's sleeve hides her smile. Cover up her mouth, and with her beautiful blonde hair and
dignified gaze, she becomes conceivable as the very picture of a gorgeous woman.
That said, her mischievous personality and fanged mouth utterly negate that impression.
Subaru: “So three months ago means she's an acquaintance of yours, Emilia-tan?”
Emilia: “Harrumph. Seems she is.”
Subaru: “Who says 'harrumph' anymore? Also sulking like that is so outdated it's cute, man.”
So Emilia's there too, sitting on the couch, not even looking at Subaru much less Frederica. Seems
she's only participating with her listening, otherwise not getting involved. She's been like this ever
since she belatedly realised what Frederica pulled on her. Anyway.
Subaru: “And you've been here for two, three days. We left the village three days... no, if you count
travel time it turns into four. Feels like we just missed each other.”
Frederica: “It had surprised me as well, to return to the mansion and discover it unpopulated.
Fortunately, a note had been left in the Master's office, which allowed things be settled with little
confusion.”
23
Subaru: “A note?”
Frederica: “Yes, from Ram. To have her summon me to the mansion, and then find she'd chosen
that sort of non-committal means of getting in contact... To simply say that such a thing would be
like her would be presenting her too soft a treatment.”
From that statement and her wry smile, Subaru figures that Frederica and Ram have known each
other for quite a long time. Which means she should've also known Rem for quite a long time.
Subaru: “Ram called you back to the mansion, meaning?”
Frederica: “I am afraid the reasoning is not entirely clear to me, either. Although I believe that the
one concerned, Emilia-sama, may perhaps know.”
They both look at Emilia, but she stubbornly keeps her gave averted, still indignant. But Subaru can
tell that her gaze and attention is thinly, sporadically focusing on him.
Subaru: “Emilia-tan, cheer up... or, actually, I'm not even the one who got you angry this time,
Frederica apologize properly.”
Frederica: “Please forgive me, Emilia-sama. I am sorry for what I have done. To see you again after
such a time delighted me, and even I may be prone to temptation.”
Emilia: “...You won't tease me like that anymore?”
Frederica: “No, I shall not. Under no circumstance shall I tease Emilia-sama in the same form I did
at that juncture.”
Frederica's defence smells to Subaru of sophistry. But our dear goddess Emilia easily falls for it,
and her peeved expression loosens.
Emilia: “All right. I won't be angry any more. Okay?”
Frederica: “Yes. My deepest apologies, Emilia-sama. —She's so easy.”
Only Subaru heard that little whisper at the end there, and he startles to look at Frederica, but her
face is the picture of innocence. Unawares to her being 'easy', Emilia pokes a finger to her cheek.
Emilia: “Umm, the reason Ram called Frederica back to the mansion... right.”
Subaru: “Yeah, yeah. Rushing to call back someone you fired'd mean there's some kind of
emergency business... or, at least that's one idea that comes to mind.”
And emergency business re: the mansion and Arlam village means the Witch Cult attack. Since she
knocked Subaru unconscious in basically a second, she's definitely another one of the weirdly-
military combat maids of the Roswaal mansion. Calling her over for emergency firepower would
make sense, so—
24
Emilia: “It was because Ram's dismal at housework, so the mansion was in an awful condition. A
few more days and the place would've been totally unlivable.”
Subaru: “A serious reason! Ram really is all talk and no results... no wait, she already knows she's
hopeless! She's right, but at least try putting in some effort to improve!”
Emilia gives a wry smile at Subaru's yelling, then looks around the room—or no, rather he gaze
seems to be observing the whole of the mansion.
Emilia: “But, thanks to Frederica being back, the mansion's all tidy now. I think Ram made the right
decision to leave it to someone who could do it, instead of making the situation worse out of some
weird stubbornness.”
Subaru: “I'm sure you didn't mean it to but that hurts, that line! And but I'm sure that that's no
reason for her to give up immediately!”
Frederica: “Ram aside, I have been given the pleasure of the first worthwhile job of mine in some
time. Fortunately, as not anyone was present, I have been able to clean and tidy during hours which
would usually be spent providing waiting service.”
There is awe to be had at Frederica's ability to work work work. While swallowing down the reality
of her prowess as a domestic choreswoman, Subaru conversely and painfully comprehends.
Comprehends the powered fostered by GLUTTONY's authority, to realign the world in accordance
with the erasure of Rem's existence, that is.
Subaru: “Ram can't keep the mansion going herself, so asking someone else to do it's the natural
conclusion...”
This being why Ram called Frederica back to the mansion. Frederica's a substitute for Rem, who
the mansion would otherwise collapse without. Only Subaru realises this sad truth.
Subaru and Frederica have a little back and forth with Subaru getting out of his funk by asking
whether the maids in Roswaal's mansion ever end up doing anything sexual. Frederica's like '???
Did the Master say something to you when he hired you?' and Subaru is fucking blown by how
perfect and awful the persuasiveness of that reply is. Frederica corrects her posture, saying “By the
way,” dropping her voice.
Frederica: “The driver of the dragon carriage parked outside the mansion has been left there for
approaching an hour now... would you find this to your liking?”
Subaru: “Hm? Oh, you mean Otto. Huh, we left him for an hour. ...Eh, well, I'm sure it's fine,
whatever. I do want to let Patrasche get a proper rest in the stables, but we don't have to worry like
that about Otto.”
Otto: “I'm supposed to be an ally who skirted the line of life and death with you, but you are just
excellent at being heartless, Natsuki-san! I never would've thought I had lower priority than the
ground dragon!”
25
And thus appears Otto in the doorway, glaring at Subaru, shoulders heaving, breathing ragged.
Subaru slowly stands up and shakes his head, sighing.
Subaru: “You're wrong. You've got it wrong, Otto.”
Otto: “I have what wrong. If you think you can take back what you said, it's too late...”
Subaru: “You don't have lower priority than the ground dragon. You have infinitely lower priority
than the ground dragon.”
Otto: “So my stock just fell twice!? That only makes things even worse!”
Extremely satisfied with Otto's reaction, Subaru directs his gaze to the window. Patrasche and her
carriage should be parked there beside the front gates. Picking up on where Subaru's going with
this,
Otto: “I brought Patrasche-chan into to the stables. She's a prideful, finicky girl, but it seemed like
she didn't want to be any trouble to you, Natsuki-san, and behaved.”
Subaru: “Hearing that from you makes me doubt your Blessing of XENOGLOSSY works.1 Man, as a
human she'd be full-speed-ahead kuudere, that Patrasche. Just when did I hit that flag?”
Otto: “I... don't know what you're talking about. More importantly...”
Otto: “What would you like done with the girl sleeping inside? It'd be sad to keep her locked up in
the carriage the whole time. If you're busy, I could bring her along to her room, or...”
Subaru: “—don't touch Rem.”
Otto offers without any ill intent, but Subaru replies with a voice so cutting and cold that it even
surprises himself. He can see it when Otto unwittingly flinches.
That low, dark whisper reflected his grave and viscous intentions. Fortunately it seems the girls
didn't hear it, but the strangeness of his own voice makes Subaru tremble slightly as he continues.
Subaru: “...I'll bring her in, so you don't have to do anything. Wouldn't want your hips groaning
from holding up a girl.”
Otto: “Let me just say, merchants have to carry heavier things as part of their work. I doubt I'm as
weak as you think I am, Natsuki-san.”
Otto goes along with Subaru's joking after a second of hesitation. Subaru sighs, feeling grateful for
it. He knows that he crazy overreacted, and that he hadn't intended to even say it—but the fact that
1 Like fuck I can translate 言霊 so take this. Xenoglossy is the biblical, miraculous ability to understand languages
that one has had no prior learning or exposure to. 言霊 more accurately is the concept that words in themselves
hold power, and can in themselves actualize results. If you really wanted me to go wild I'd call it the Blessing of
MEME MAGIC. If you wanted me to be more sensible I'd call it the Blessing of the ACTUALIZING WORD.
ALTERNATIVELY alternatively you could go literal with Blessing of WORDSOUL.
26
it came out unconsciously is exactly why it's a problem. His nerves are so on edge that regardless of
whether it's good- or ill- intentioned, he's regarding anything that tries to interfere with Rem with
intense hostility.
Subaru: “This isn't a good trend... Shit, I'm pathetic. Why I am goddamn always like this...”
Get past one thing and then he immediately stumbles on the next stone in the way. Why could he
never hold onto something strong, to keep him always standing straight and fair?
If Rem could be there, if he could gaze at Emilia—if he was with them, then surely that unshakable
something was supposed to be in his possession.
Subaru: “My just desserts.... no, Rem's the one paying for it. What a fucking gigolo I am.”
There had to have been a better path.

Subaru had presumed until the conclusion of the last loop series that he had worked to the utmost of
his ability. But there had to have been a better, more perfect, best and optimum outcome. Subaru
miscarried on finding the route which lead to said outcome, instead capable only of compromising
down a decent path and arriving at an imperfect future. Sacrificing Rem was his reward.
Were he smarter, he would have noticed it.

The note that Crusch's envoys had delivered before Emilia and the others evacuated the mansion
was blank—Subaru had put that down to interference from a witch cultist inside the envoys trying
to stir chaos, but that didn't exactly make sense.
The cultists shouldn't have realised the threat Subaru's group presented at that point, and it was
unlikely that they'd go with using such a roundabout method of swapping the letter to promote
distrust inside Emilia's faction. And if they were going to do that, it'd be much more effective to
alter the content of the message, rather than making it blank.
Why did the letter turn blank? If it wasn't because of the cultists, that left only one answer.
Subaru: “Rem wrote the letter. I requested the letter be sent, Crusch-san got the letter, and the
delivery itself went though. Only the content disappeared.”
That was the destiny of existences with their names and memories eaten by way of GLUTTONY's
authority.
When an existence is erased from the world, what remains is a hodgepodge universe riddled with
hashings-over. To notice the awriness required conscious awareness of it, but being that the
existence was erased, even registering the irregularity was impossible.
If he had stopped to more thoroughly consider what the blank letter meant, seen through to the truth
of things more adeptly, he just might have been able to do something.
Thinking back on Emilia's statements, the letter had reached the mansion before the final day. Were
the letter was blank by then, then Rem was attacked by Gluttony around that time period. Not much
time had yet passed since Subaru parted with Rem. The chance that he'd get back to her was
minuscule, but there.
But Subaru had overlooked that chance. And now he didn't understand why he had. Hadn't he felt
something was off?
Ram and Emilia should've known that Rem'd stayed in the Royal Capital—so why had she never
27
come up in conversation with either of them?
Subaru: “—ah.”
And he noticed it.

He slaps his hand to his forehead, approaches the wall, and slams his head into it as hard as he can.
It hurts. But one time's not enough. He repeats it once, twice again.
Emilia: “Wh—Subaru!?”
Everyone else is stunned silent at Subaru's behaviour, Emilia the first to react. She grabs Subaru's
shoulder from behind and forces him to turn around.
Emilia: “Why're you doing this all of a sudden? This isn't the first time you've done something
strange, but this time it's... Ah, look, your forehead's all red.”
Subaru: “I'm so incredibly astounded at the limits of my own idiocy, seriously.”
Feeling the coolness of Emilia's fingertips touching his forehead, Subaru shakes his head as hard as
he can, his expression one of self-derision. He looks Emilia straight in the eye.
Subaru: “Emilia-tan, a request.”
Emilia: “Wh-what is it? Hold on, Subaru, your face's so close, your eyes look scary...”
Subaru: “Wondering if you could insult my stupid, unsalvagable self.”
Emilia: “Huh?”
Emilia's eyes widen in surprise, Subaru firmly grabs her shoulders so she can't get away, and brings
his face even closer.
Subaru: “Please. With no forgiveness for me, insult me.”
Emilia: “I-I'm telling you I can't do that. I don't think anything's your fault at all...”
Subaru: “Do something about that!”
Emilia: “But even if you tell me to do something...”
Subaru: “Please! If you can do it, I'll sacrifice my soul to you, Emilia-tan!”
Emilia: “Hearing something that serious just makes it more troubling! Well, since there's no
choice...”
Emilia clears her throat and looks up at Subaru.
Emilia: “Subaru, you idiot.”
28
Subaru: “Ughuh”
Emilia: “You stubborn, selfish, bratty, overenthusiastic, bad-tempered rascal.”
Subaru: “Ughuhhuhhgh”
Emilia: “Always worrying about others when they don't ask for it, don't know your place. So soft
that you'd support a detested half-elf. You step forward instead of me when I get spoken down on
and depressed, you act rashly, denounced, reckless.”
Subaru: “Ughhu... huh?”
Emilia: “You don't give clear answers I ask you questions, you're a coward who uses vague words
to escape. You're a moron who saves me when I'm having trouble even after our big fight. You're a
scoundrel who gives me the answer I want when I'm hopeless and want something done. You're a
lazybones who slept while everyone else was running around cleaning things up after everything
was over. Subaru, you dunderhead.”
Subaru: “Who says dunderhead anymore? ...I mean, Emilia-tan.”
These weren't the words Subaru'd expected. They weren't shredding his heart, leaving ugly wounds,
but profoundly kind, and wounded both Subaru and Emilia. Emilia pouts.
Emilia: “What?”
Subaru: “That's seriously how you think of me?”
Emilia: “Honestly, I feel my true feelings just jumped out. So much that I don't even know what I
just said, I left myself to the momentum. ...Do you think they're my true feelings?”
Subaru: “Who knows. I think it's hard to judge whether things you say when leaving yourself to
momentum are what you truly think or not.”
Subaru, at least, had experiences of regretting what he's said when going off momentum. Where
those things his true feelings, or a divulging of his temporary emotions at the time? No one knows.
Subaru: “Thanks, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “All I did was complain about you. And you thank me for it... Subaru, are you a pervert?”
Subaru: “I'm a pervert specialized in Emilia-tan. If the words're from you and aimed at me, my
pleasure centres get stimulated whether it's verbal abuse, slander, a haiku on driving safely.”
Emilia: “I don't know what that last one was, but I'm sooo sure it doesn't matter I'll ignore it. —So,
are you satisfied now?”
She responds with a suppressed laugh, but in the end Emilia's eyes turn gloomy. Subaru gives a big
29
smile.
Subaru: “Yeah, I'm fine. Ah, no, actually I might not. But if you give me a good-luck kiss to help
me be brave, Emilia-tan, then maybe...”
Emilia: “Unfortunately, the wishing booth has been closed for today.”
Subaru: “Goddamn! A failure! Why am I always... too late...hk!”
Subaru falls to his knees in regret. He gets back up after a period of regretting and looks around the
room as if absolutely nothing just happened.
Subaru: “Anyway, a little bit of business' come up. Sorry you guys, but I want just a bit of time. I
don't think it'll take that long, but... what's with that face, Otto.”
Otto: “I feel as if I should make a claim for damages after being forced watch that exchange, but
putting the price negotiations off for now... what are you going to do?”
Subaru crosses his arms and tilts his head. Oh yeah Otto doesn't actually know there's someone else
in the mansion. So what's the best way to explain where Subaru's going off to? After a moment of
deliberating, Subaru uncrosses his arms.
Subaru: “I'm going to a stinky mouldy room to see a shut-in drill loli.”
This flagrant abandonment of responsibility only shunts Otto into disarray further.
30
CHAPTER 3: REUNION AND DISAGREEMENT

Subaru leaves Emilia and the others behind in the living room to stroll around the mansion by
himself, stopping at the second floor hallway of the mansion's main building, where he finds a door
faintly tugging at his consciousness. He opens it.
Subaru: “Hey, been a while.”
Surprise it's the Forbidden Archive. The lord of the library is sitting on a ladder's step, flipping
through a book.
Beatrice: “—Think the mansion's gotten noisy, and you come back, I suppose.”
Beatrice looks up at Subaru, immediately losing interest and turning her gaze back to the book.
Beatrice: “If you've come back, Bubby should be back too, in fact. It's bothering me that I sense the
girl and that other unnecessary pest've come along as well, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Puck's charging his batteries so he won't be showing up, and I don't like you treating
Emilia-tan like an afterthought. I'll ignore how you're treating Otto though, he's a pest.”
Beatrice: “So irritating, in fact.”
Beatrice snorts at Subaru's shitty joke and repositions her crossed legs. Subaru slowly walks over
toward her.
Subaru: “That aside, it's been ages since we've seen each other like this. Last time was when Betel...
no, that didn't happen... so it'dve been right before I left for the Capital. That's like ten days.”2
Beatrice: “How it always is, I suppose. Betty has little interest in the passings of time outside during
her time inside the room, in fact.”
Subaru: “I don't really get it. Also, look away from the book when you're talking to people. Though,
I know you're so happy to see me again after ten days you're practically blushing.”
Beatrice: “I wouldn't mind making that loose mouth of yours puke up blood while your face goes
pallid, in fact?”
Subaru can't help smiling at her unconcealed irritation.

Whenever Subaru converses with the guardsman of the Forbidden Archive, it inevitably results that
his intentions unintentionally get onto the track of attempting to demolish her nonplussed expression
and stubborn attitude.
Telling jokes, teasing her, stirring up her indignation, having her snipe back. There is enjoyment to
him even in these exchanges, though he does not know why he feels like this only about Beatrice.
Beatrice: “That you've come back means it's safe to say that racket's settled down, I suppose.”
2 The stuff Subaru's about to talk about got cut in the anime so you get to experience this exchange in Beatrice-
vision.
31
Subaru: “So you noticed it.. Actually, duh, of course you did. Emilia-tan and Ram said they'd gone
around looking for you too, so apologize to them afterwards.”
Beatrice: “Betty? Apologize? I haven't the slightest idea to whom and for what reason that is
necessary, in fact.”
Beatrice closes the book and stands up. She returns the thick tome to the bookshelf, and reaches to
grab the book beside it, having some problems due to her height. Subaru goes to stand beside her,
and,
Subaru: “This one, yeah?”
Beatrice: “...One next to it, I suppose. If you're going to meddle, meddle properly, in fact.”
Subaru: “Completely ungrateful loli... oop, don't drop it. Thing's heavy enough that if it falls on
your foot, it won't be pretty.”
Subaru's a bit surprised at the weight of the book he goes to pick out one-handed. He happily and
carefully hands the book over to Beatrice, who accepts it by hugging it to her chest. Subaru glances
over the title but is too illiterate to read it.
Beatrice: “I won't thank you, I suppose.”
Subaru: “That's the typical response for tsundere and tight-lipped characters, but honestly when I
hear that I think it's exactly the same as a 'thank you.'”
Beatrice knits her eyebrows in irritation and looks away. Subaru scratches his head at her
stubbornness.
Subaru: “You absolutely don't have to apologize to me really, but do go and apologize to Ram and
Emilia-tan. Since it worried them that you stayed in the mansion.”
Beatrice: “Their worrying was nothing I....”
Subaru: “Don't you say some tired line about not asking for it. Most people in this world get born
without asking for it, and get worried about even when they'd rather not. ...That second half's
nothing about you, and only an issue since the people around you are good people.”
Emilia obviously gets full marks for 'good person' on her normal behaviour, Ram's normal
behaviour is a failing grade but it's the insides man the insides. Beatrice is unconvinced by the
wheedling and bites her lip.
Beatrice: “But they did leave the mansion in the end, I suppose. ...They left Betty.”
Subaru: “What're you saying. Couldn't be, no way you're saying you didn't really wanna be left
behind.” and something about distancing herself through 'Gate Shut-in' like a right nuisance.
32
Beatrice: “It's Gate Crossing, in fact. Don't change it to some pointless, stupid name, I suppose.
...and your speculation is an insult to Betty, in fact.”
Beatrice seems a different breed of dangerous than usual, which perplexes Subaru. He can't have
her getting pissed before getting onto the main topic, but that said it's not like he has a magical
medicine on hand to cure her mood.
Subaru: “Well, whatever. If you're gonna be that stubborn, I'll tell Emilia-tan you cried saying 'thank
you, thank you!' for you.”
Beatrice: “Don't make things up, in fact. I haven't shed a single tear in a long time, I suppose.”
Subaru: “What, is this you saying you think it's embarrassing to cry? If you go through your
childhood thinking like that, you won't know how to express yourself when you're an adult. Get
your shameless crying done while you're a kid.”
Beatrice: “Indicative words coming from the man who cried on the lap of the girl he loves, in fact.”
Subaru: “Could you please forget about that!?”
Remembering that page of his dark past makes his face so hot it feels it's burning. That said it's an
equally bright memory in the depths of his heart.
Beatrice goes back to sit on the ladder and starts reading the book Subaru gave her. She's obviously
not interested in speaking, but retreating would make Subaru's coming here pointless.
Subaru: “Anyway, putting aside the topic of crying or not crying... could I ask you something?”
Beatrice: “Could or could not, asking is at your liberty, I suppose.”
She flips a page, basically saying 'Whether or not you get an answer is another story.' Subaru takes
it as permission more or less and nods.
Subaru: “—You know, for noticing the racket that went on outside, you were pretty nonreactive.”
Which was not what he was supposed to say, and instead is just a rehash of a topic they just went
over. Beatrice looks up from the book, her gaze piercing. Subaru gulps.
Subaru: “W-While you were pretending you didn't know about it, things outside got pretty serious,
you know? A bunch of weird mysterious guys surround the mansion...”
Beatrice: “Stop, in fact.”
Subaru: “If it weren't for me, who brought reinforcements in from the Capital, who knows what
would be happening by now. And it's not like I had a smooth ride getting back here, eit....”
Beatrice: “Stop, I suppose.”
33
Subaru: “Tearjerking to both speak and hear, I traversed the path of a crying queen bee—hk!”
The slam of Beatrice shutting the book cuts Subaru off partway through. His face sours as he
figures the noise intentional, but he faces Beatrice's piercing gaze.
Beatrice: “Get to the real topic already, in fact. —You weakling.”
Subaru: “...ahh.”
He can't refute it. Beatrice saw right through Subaru's attempt to flee, flee from a question he should
ask but is terrified of the answer.
Subaru: “Do you...”
His breath catches, he closes his eyes, he listens to his heartbeat. He sees visage of a lovely, smiling
girl beneath his eyelids.
Subaru: “Do you remember Rem?”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru talked to Beatrice only once in a world after the White Whale subjugation.
He spoke with her intending to evacuate her away from the Witch Cult, was refused, and in the end
left her in the mansion alone. He didn't remember all the content of their talk vividly, but there was
one thing he noticed that he couldn't let slip.
There was one single time during that exchange where Beatrice mentioned her worry about Rem,
who should've come back with Subaru.
By that point, the letter that had reached the mansion was already blank.
Meaning he had proof that it'd been after Rem had been attacked by the Cardinals of Sin, and
Beatrice still said Rem's name.
Subaru: “Please answer. You remember the Rem who was in this mansion, right?”
His words ultimately changed from a 'I want you to remember' to 'You should remember'.
That occurred because of the conviction that recalled memory gave him, and also as a show of
bravado to inspire his heart as it near sinks into timidity.
Beatrice quietly looks at Subaru. Her eyes don't seem to hold any emotion and it's impossible to tell
what she's thinking, even though it's usually so easy to understand her feelings. It's like time's
stopped, and Subaru's heart starts to burn with impatience.
Subaru: “Hey...”
34
Why won't you say anything.

You know her or don't know her— it's not a hard question to answer. That said of course there's
only one answer Subaru wants: for Beatrice to laugh at how dumb the question is and say of course
she knows Rem.
Memories eaten, named consumed, erased from the world—what a ridiculous story. If she
experienced it as Subaru had, and felt righteous indignation at the world's absurdity, good. And if
she came to think that she and Subaru search for the true nature of this common point between
them, better.
So, please say you know her.

Please say that you haven't forgotten about her—about Rem—like Emilia, like Crusch, like
Wilhelm, like everyone else.
He wanted to hear her answer. He didn't want to hear her answer. His heart twisted with the
contradictory desires.
Beatrice: “—I don't want to answer, in fact.”
And he gets back an answer that's neither yes or no. Subaru's thinking grinds to a halt for a moment,
and he waves his hands around, panicked.
Subaru: “W-wait. What's with this 'I don't want to answer'. The question's only answerable with a
'YES' or a 'NO'.”
Beatrice: “I don't know what 'yees' or 'noh' mean, I suppose. So Betty's answer will be the same, in
fact. I don't want to answer.”
Subaru: “I'm telling you that's not an answer!”
He swings his arms from up to down and takes one single, strong step towards Beatrice. She doesn't
react. That stubbornness makes the unease in his heart escalate into an unstoppable blaze.
Subaru: “This isn't what I want to hear from you!”
Beatrice: “Why must Betty tell you what you want to hear, I suppose. ...I'd prefer you didn't get too
rowdy, in fact. You'll disturb the library, I suppose.”
Subaru: “You...hk!”
Subaru approaches Beatrice with the intention to force her to look at him. To ask her face-to-face
how she could say such unfeeling things. But the second he attempts to touch her, Beatrice looks at
Subaru, and her eyes are trembling with emotion, which makes Subaru's hand stop.
Beatrice: “Your question is inquiring about somebody eaten by GLUTTONY, in fact.”
Subaru: “—! So you really do...”
35
Beatrice: “If you know of Gluttony's authority, it's enough to make a rough guess, I suppose.
Roswaal, Bubby, and Shaula would also know, in fact.”
Subaru: “Roz!?”
He wasn't expecting that name. Roswaal knew about Gluttony's authority—meaning there's a
possibility he remembers Rem. But no before getting on that,
Subaru: “How much do you all know about the Witch Cult? Roswaal should've known that if
Emilia's being a half-elf got out, the Witch Cult would get active. But if I hadn't acted, the mansion
and the village would've been hopeless. What's going on here?”
Beatrice doesn't answer.
Subaru: “Rem and Crusch-san both said there had to be some kind of countermeasure planned. I
can't help but think that there wasn't. If there was, those horrible things wouldn'tve...”
Beatrice: “It's impossible for Betty to know just how far Roswaal has thought things through, I
suppose. But... I doubt he had nothing planned in advance, in fact.”
But no matter how hard he scours his memory, Subaru can't come up with anything suggesting
Roswaal's hand in the Betelgeux fight.
Subaru: “I'm not misunderstanding here, right. Or overestimating. If Roswaal'd done something, my
going through so much hardship wouldn'tve...”
Beatrice: “If you don't know, then surely nobody knows, in fact.”
Uncomfortable with Beatrice's disappointment at his lack of understanding, Subaru notices that
they've gotten off topic.
Subaru: “Wait, more importantly the Witch Cult. If you know about the Witch Cult, how about
telling me everything you know. About the Cardinals of Sin, and about GLUTTONY. I have a
mountain of questions... about this, too.”
Puck dodged questioning on the matter, so he has some hope asking Beatrice. He takes a black tome
out of his pocket, the cover and insides faintly stained with blood.
Subaru: “I know the Witch Cult's deeply connected to this thing. I can't read it, but seeing as you're
the watchman of the Forbidden Archive...”
Beatrice: “—a gospel.”
Beatrice's eyes go wide. Her lips quiver slightly as she stares at the gospel, her gaze going over the
unreadable text on the cover, looking as if she can't believe it.
Beatrice: “Why, how do you...”
36
Subaru: “Stole it. ...is not how much I wanted this book. Didn't I tell you? The cult surrounded the
mansion, up to no good. I took this from the ringleader. Its owner... isn't in this world anymore.”
Beatrice: “Took it... but, that's...”
Beatrice's voice shakes as she reaches out for the gospel. Subaru hands it over and she traces her
fingers over the cover.
Beatrice: “The owner is... dead, you said, I suppose.”
Subaru: “...Yeah. Dead. Chewed up in a carriage's wheel. ...I killed him.”
Objectively speaking, Betelgeux didn't die directly at Subaru's hands. But that his death came as a
result of Subaru's actions, that Subaru was prepared for events to go in that direction, and that
everything had extended from Subaru's activities, was unavoidable truth.
Subaru had meant to kill Betelgeux. If he didn't take his life, Subaru's soul understood that things
between them would never be settled.
He undoubtedly did have WILL to kill Betelgeux. But he wouldn't say he didn't hesitate or regret
dirtying his hands. He hadn't put on any bravado about it to others, and so he wouldn't lie to his own
heart.
He wouldn't forget killing, or Betelgeux's attempt to kill him. Neither would he say anything
sentimental, like he was living on carrying the life of the man he'd slain. Betelgeux was a thing that
should die. Subaru completely believed that and killed him.
That's all there is to it.
But Beatrice doesn't react.
Beatrice: “You left Betty behind too, I suppose, Juice...”
Subaru: “—? Who?”
Beatrice: “You don't need to know, in fact. More importantly, if you're the one who killed SLOTH,
what happened to the Witch Factor, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Witch, Factor?”
Subaru knits his eyebrows and tilts his head in confusion. Beatrice looks at him with some
suspicion, narrowing her eyes as if searching for some emotion in his expression. Subaru has no
idea why she's doing this. He clicks his tongue in annoyance.
Subaru: “Don't wave jargon around at a guy who knows absolutely nothing. What's this 'Witch
Factor.' Doesn't sound like anything good.”
Beatrice: “You don't know? You really—seriously? Then for what on earth purpose did you kill
SLOTH, I suppose. I don't understand, in fact.”
Subaru: “Was just clearing away some loose sparks! What is it you want to say?!”
37
He's getting tired of the conversation not meshing together while Beatrice in contrast starts getting
silent. She puts the back of her hand to her lips, in thought, and stares down at the gospel's cover.
Beatrice: “You don't know. ...This reaches outside of Betty's jurisdiction to make any judgements, in
fact.”
Subaru: “What're you just agreeing to yourself ab—uuoah”
Shaking her head, Beatrice throws the gospel at Subaru. He scrambles to catch it, succeeds, and
breaths a sigh of relief.
Subaru: “Hell was that. I'm not gonna call it a dangerous book, but it's definitely still a creepy book.
Treat it more carefully!”
Beatrice: “—It's proper that you be the one to hold onto this, I suppose. Will the Witch Factor
choose, or not? Either way, the selection is closing in, in fact. If this helps you make your
judgement then, I'm sure Juice will rest in peace, I suppose.”
Subaru: “A beverage resting in peace! What do you—me...”
Unable to understand even a single bit of this conversation, Subaru struggles to get the words out.
Before he can say anything more, a feeling of unease runs down his spine. He instinctively guesses
that he's hearing the sound of spacetime bending.
Subaru: “You're really kicking me out, huh. You haven't even told me anything... Do you seriously
think I'm going to leave!?”
Beatrice: “Why must you ask your questions, and hear responses, by speaking with Betty, I
suppose. I'd prefer you stop your selfish... prideful behaviour, in fact.”
Subaru: “Pr...! —If you could just tell me what you know, that'd be fine! I don't want anything more
than that! So, I'm saying, you...”
Beatrice: “—Betty's...”
A force starts to pull Subaru backward out of the room. Surprise he's getting kicked out.
Subaru: “Beako... Beatrice!”
Beatrice: “What's instigating their exit is your body, and your soul, in fact.”
Subaru: “What're—”
Beatrice: “Your soul which desires to hear not the answers, your weakness which desires to avert
your eyes from reality, your ego which desires not to gaze upon your sins, are distancing your body
from the Forbidden Archive, I suppose.”
38
Subaru: “I—”
Beatrice: “Betty isn't... just a tool for your convenience, I suppose.”
Subaru: “—!?”
Beatrice: “I'm not a thing for you to ask questions you want to ask, when you want to ask them, tell
you what you want you hear, in the way you want to hear it, for your convenience, in fact.”
It's a bullseye—except not, and it feels like he's getting punched from a completely unforeseen
direction. He's shocked, and the hollow it opens makes Subaru's resistance against the force pulling
him out slip.
Subaru: “Cra—”
He manages to catch himself on the edge of the door out and hold firm, half-kicked out and half not.
He breathes out, clenches his teeth, looks forward. Directly before him is Beatrice—her expression
sad.
Beatrice: “You best ask Roswaal the things you want to know, I suppose. —Neither Betty or Bubby
will speak to you, in fact.”
Subaru: “...Why do you look like you're gonna cry.”
Beatrice lowers her gaze. Her hands reach out, entwine with Subaru's fingers—and unhook them
from the door.
He is sucked out, thrown out, barred out.

Out of the door, out of the Archive—and out of Beatrice's heart.
He gets dumped in the hallway, door slams behind him. He immediately reaches to open it again,
but he's too late.
Subaru: “That drill loli...”
The door opens to a guest room. He tries using his Forbidden Archive sixth sense to find it but gets
no pulls. He's not meeting Beatrice again today.
Subaru: “What's with this. If you know something, why not tell it, you damn brat. A sulky shut-in
like you is the picture of the Natsuki family's eldest son.”
He kicks the door and lets out a long breath. He can't get the image of Beatrice's last expression out
of his head.
Subaru: “If you're that close on the verge of crying, don't lock yourself up all alone. Idiot.”
After all, if he thinks that he's the one who made her make that face, he can't put the blame on her
for it anymore.
39
CHAPTER 4: THE NEXT PLACE

Subaru returns to everyone else, ashamed. Everyone's still in the same place he left them except
Otto, who's sat down where Subaru was sitting and looks to have been talking with Emilia. Subaru
pulls a displeased face at another man interacting with Emilia and doesn't try to hide it as he turns
toward Otto.
Subaru: “If you're going to have cheery chipper talks with Emilia-tan while I'm away, just die.”
Otto: “It's impossible for me to wait in silence doing nothing with my personality. Actually, why is
that the first thing you say after coming back, honestly? I think I just got vented at, but it still hurt.”
Subaru: “S-stop seeing through people like you know what's going on. We're never seeing each
other again once we settle the promise for buying that oil. Don't misunderstand.”
Otto: “Could you please not talk as though there were any kind of misunderstanding-provoking
something between us!?”
Otto yells at tsundere mode Subaru, who instantly loses interest in Otto and resets his orientation
toward Emilia. Having waited quietly for the two to finish their conversation, she stays seated as
she gazes up at Subaru.
Emilia: “Did you see Beatrice?”
But what she's really asking is, did you achieve whatever that thing you left to do with Beatrice
was. Technically the answer is yes, but in terms of Subaru's intentions it's no.
Subaru: “No, didn't work out.”
Emilia: “Right. Well, there's no helping that. When Beatrice hides her location with Gate Crossing,
you can't find her no matter what you try. Neither me or Ram've seen her at all...”
Subaru: “No, I did see her. She was being cranky or I guess in a fit of ennui and wouldn't answer
my question. It's such a dumb episode.”
Emilia: “...You saw her?”
Emilia's eyes open wide in shock. Although feeling some puzzlement at that reaction, Subaru nods.
Subaru: “My well-honed gut instincts told me exactly which room she was in. Well, even though I
met her my conversation skill's so low I didn't achieve what I actually went there for.”
Emilia: “I've been thinking this for a while but, you and Beatrice... get along so well, Subaru.”
She whispers in a low voice, a finger to her lip as if in thought. Subaru's face turns the sourest he
can make it. Though, it's not an expression which just popped out unconsciously, but one which
required some amount of intentional effort.
40
Subaru: “Really rather not get along with Beako. She's my nemesis, has been ever since I came
across her. You know she sucked out my mana the first time we met? Not enough time's passed for
me to change my impression of her.”
Emilia: “Even though you reconciled with Julius after everything? Subaru, sometimes you get sooo
stubborn over completely pointless things.”
Subaru: “Sticking through with pointless stubbornness makes a man! ...is the kind of
misunderstanding someone painful like me keeps making. Also I haven't reconciled with Julius. I,
hate, him, foooreveeeer.”
Emilia: “Yes, yes.”
Emilia gives a small laugh and ignores him. Subaru's mouth twists into a dissatisfied frown, but
internally he feels relieved for the change in topic.
Subaru: “Oh yeah, where'd Frederica go? Leaving my Emilia-tan alone with Otto... crossing the line
for failures of judgement.”
Emilia: “Putting aside whose I am for another occasion... Frederica's in one of the guest rooms
getting it organized. —She's preparing Rem-san's sleeping room.”
Subaru: “Ah, is she.”
Subaru's voice goes low, Emilia narrows her eyes as if pained. Although hating that he made Emilia
make that face, he can't endure through the keen pain in his chest when he thinks about Rem. He
shakes his head once to dispel the emotion from his expression, and smiles to keep Emilia from
feeling any further gloom.
Subaru: “Which means we have to get Rem out of the carriage soon. Leaving her in the carriage
forever'd be sad... Which reminds me, sorry for before, Otto.”
Otto: “No, no need to worry about it. After all, she's your... ah, very many things to you, Natsuki-
san. I won't go too far in saying anything while she's in that condition.”
Subaru: “I couldn't bear the thought of you touching my Rem with your money-grubby fingers,
and... ...Honestly, sorry.”
Otto: “That's not something someone who's honestly sorry would say! And if I'm to add, my feeling
is that someone who only just called a different woman 'my' would not be in safe position to say
that line!”
Subaru: “It's my adorable love strategy where I use you to make Emilia-tan jealous. Don't make me
spill it, idiot.”
Otto: “But you spilled it yourself!”
Smiling at overreacting Otto, Subaru glances at Emilia. Confirming that she's smiling a little and
41
her gloominess is gone gives Subaru some space for relief.
Emilia: “You two get along sooo well. Even though you've barely known each other long at all.”
Subaru: “Wait, you're jealous of him!? You know, compared to you, Emilia-tan, Otto's nothing but
playtime, playtime. Me, I wanna get serious playing fire with you, Emilia-tan.”
Otto: “Why am I being dumped. It's completely irrelevant to reality, but it's still upsetting!”
Emilia puts a hand to her mouth, her shoulders shaking in laughter.
Emilia: “Sorry.”
Emilia: “I know now's not a good time to be laughing like this, but I can't hold it anymore. Don't
you two think that maybe, you'll come to know each other for sooo long?”
Subaru: “Like, he's a travelling merchant? Once his business's done, he's gone in a flash. ...Or really,
I can't stand other men who aren't me with no established shipping targets getting close to Emilia-
tan.”
Otto: “I have no idea what you're saying but I hate that I can tell it's something incredibly stupid
when we've barely known each other!”
Though Subaru's phrasing was somewhat exaggerated, the sentiment was unmistakably his truest
feelings. For a Subaru who'd been open with his feelings for Emilia and pursued her with force
enough to knock birds out of flight, having other men interacting her set his heart ablaze with
unbearable envy.
He surely had more envy, and more possessiveness, than most.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Frederica finishes preparing the guestroom and returns to the living room, upon which everyone
calls the chit-chatty time as over.
Otto: “I'm thinking about looking around the nearby village for a bit. I'm in possession of the deed
to sell cargo for all the other merchants, and I can distribute some of it to the villagers at my
discretion. I'll have the Margrave shoulder the cost for this afterwards, though.”
So Otto runs off to the village to do some merchanting, but that said what's he's doing is most
definitely helping out the villagers in their people-power-insufficient village. He's only pretending
to be naughty.
Frederica: “One of the rooms in the servant's quarters has been prepared as instructed.
...Mysteriously, it appeared that the cleaning in that room alone had been tended to with exceeding
scrupulousness.”
42
Subaru: “Scrupulousness... Second floor, furthest room back?”
Frederica: “—Yes, indeed. That single room looked as though all except the bed had been
discarded... would it happen that you might know why?”
Of course the reason is because it's Rem's room originally.
Subaru: “...No. Just a feeling, doesn't really mean anything.”
Frederica, taking prudent consideration of Subaru and his answer, says nothing.
It appears she has an extraordinarily great disposition for maidhood. Likely it had been Rem and
Frederica who kept the oversized Mathers mansion going all by themselves. Ram not included.
They go round to the back of the mansion, where they find Patrasche tied up in the stable. Subaru
pats her snout.
Subaru: “Sorry for not telling you you did a good job, Patrasche. Lots's happened and it's really
overdue, but I'll be counting on you from hereon, partner.”
Patrasche licks his hand. Frederica tilts her head at their skinship.
Frederica: “It is rather attached to you, isn't it? I am impressed to see that you have tamed such a
clearly excellent ground dragon.”
Subaru: “It's not really that I tamed her though, yeah? If it's hard to get normal ground dragons to
like you, then maybe Patrasche's emotions're just leagues deeper than others. Or maybe because I'm
not very reliable she has no choice but to tag along with me.”
It's been only three, four days since he met Patrasche—and she's saved his life so many times. He
hasn't given her anything back. Just a blessing, meeting this dragon.
Patrasche licks Subaru's hand and bumps her snout against Subaru's cheek, catching him by surprise
and making him give a wry smile.
Frederica: “I sense that I have come to understand your nature as well, Subaru-sama. —Thank you
for your service.”
Says Frederica with a tender gaze as she watches Subaru and Patrasche dick around. Patrasche stops
moving for a sec to stare at her, then goes back to playing with Subaru. Subaru senses that the girls
just had a moment of communion. Anyway.
Subaru: “Sorry for making you wait, Rem. It must've been cramped and dark in here. I'm taking you
up to your room now.”
So after he's done messing with Patrasche he goes to the inside of the carriage where Rem's sleeping.
She doesn't pout at being left behind and say, 'Subaru-kun is such a mean person,' or smile or
Subaru's apology.
43
Frederica: “—I had heard the circumstances, yet I am still surprised.”
So Frederica can't hide her surprise at seeing Rem the first time. Subaru tilts his head at her, she
shakes her head.
Frederica: “Ah, no.”
Frederica: “Her appearance is perfectly identical to Ram's. The only difference looks to be in hair
colour... the account of them being twins is true.”
Subaru: “I know it's dubious when your memories're gone, but I'm glad you believe it. If you could
remember her as someone who doesn't pull mean-spirited bullying, I would be happy.”
Subaru reaches his hand out to touch Rem's cheek. He doesn't feel any warmth or cold—there's
definitely signs of life, but the insides aren't there anymore. Reconfirming this makes the unhealing
wound in his heart again reopen. He knew that would happen but he still had to do it.
Frederica: “Subaru-sama. I would believe it acceptable should the one tasked to carry her be me.”
Subaru: “I want to do it, please let me do it. Bringing Rem to the mansion... to her room is
something I would like to do. I apologize for my selfishness.”
Frederica: “No matter, I simply felt my chest tighten for a moment. Your eyes look like a
murderer's, but you truly are kind.”
Subaru: “My heart does feel pain when casually dissed!”
Subaru picks up Rem to transport her. She's light.
Subaru: “I'll wake you up soon. So come on and get mad at me for feeling how soft your body is
right now.”
Frederica: “An admirable line, although it feels to have been soured.”
So Frederica's kind of fucking amazed at that line. Anyway they nod goodbye to Patrasche and
leave her in the stables, Frederica taking the lead as they head back to the mansion, going to the
servant's quarters on the east side, Rem's sleeping room aka Rem's original room.
Frederica: “It appears that you have spoken with Beatrice-sama.”
They're going up a staircase. Subaru looks up at Frederica's back, her eyes narrow and she looks
down at Subaru with a gaze that definitely looks threatening. But Subaru, being someone who
continually gets misunderstood in the exact same way due to his sanpaku3, understands she's not
really being threatening.
3 Where the whites of the eyes are visible beneath the pupil when eye is at rest. Makes people look like murderers
and those with the condition are rumoured to attract accidents and violence (source: Wikipedia). Like fuck I'm
going to point this out every time so keep in mind that this is what sanpaku is.
44
Frederica asks if Beatrice was well, since Fred hasn't seen her ever since she returned to the
mansion. Subaru's like well I told Emilia too but nah she wasn't really doing well, she was in a
worse mood than usual so he didn't get to talk with her properly. Frederica responds like '...i see,'
and seems concerned.
This prompts Subaru to wonder just what exactly Beatrice's position in this mansion is. Her standing
and history've never really been brought up to him. She sits in the Forbidden Archive all day, treats
Puck like a big brother, acts like a kid when interacting with Subaru, and then there's that
>deeply implying foreshadowy talk that just happened last chapter. Mysteries abound.
Subaru: “Uhh... Have you been working for the mansion long, Frederica?”
Frederica: “My my, could you be interested? Between Emilia-sama and the girl you are holding...
and additionally Beatrice-sama, you would be quite the fickle man, wouldn't you.”
Subaru: “Don't just slip Beako in there, I'm not into younger girls. Isn't it apparent that my arms're
already buried in Emilia and Rem? Frederica, you're... straight up, it hasn't been long, but I think
you're a type I have trouble with.”
Frederica: “It seems I've accidentally come to be hated.”
Subaru: “See, it's this feeling where it feels like Roswaal's servants are leading me round the nose
which's why it wouldn't work. Ah, I mean it's entirely a personality affinity problem, I don't hate
you or anything.”
Frederica blinks and puts her hand to her mouth to hide her fangs as she smiles.
Frederica: “There is no need for such concern. You would be quite the worrier, Subaru-sama.”
Subaru: “It's because you hurt me when we first met. You laughed it off, but you were at least half-
serious about it, right?”
Frederica falls silent, this time surprised indeed. Her smile vanishes and she stares at Subaru, her
gaze seeming to read into him. She gives a small sigh.
Frederica: “It is not especially often that the insides of my heart have been discernible by others. I
would be grateful should you refrain to intrude.”
Subaru: “Just putting some things straight after I wound up intruding and trampling around. My
eyes're nasty too, not like I can fault you for it... well, I mean my whole family's that way.”
His parents had nasty-looking eyes and thus such was their child.
At dinnertime when the three of them sit around there in silence, eating their personal mayonnaise,
it must look like nothing less than black magic at the dinner table.
Thinking objectively about the memory makes Subaru's expression sour. Frederica sighs again.
45
Frederica: “Uncomfortable—would not be how I would describe you, but you are a peculiar one.”
something something I understand why Emilia-sama behaved like that.
Subaru: “Emilia-tan what?”
Frederica: “Nothing of note. I had simply truly angered Emilia-sama this time. Now, why would
you have asked me as to the length of my employment?”
Subaru: “Uhhhh”
Subaru: “Basically, I wanted to talk about Beako... about Beatrice. If you've been a maid here a long
time, I thought I'd ask you since when has Beatrice been here.”
Not like he asked, but Subaru figures Frederica's a little older than him—23, 24 or thereabouts.
Assuming she's been a maid for 10 years-ish, being that Beatrice is like 12, Frederica should know
the answer to this. But Frederica shakes her head.
Frederica: “My apologies, but I would not know. When the time first came wherein I had been
enabled to service this mansion, Beatrice-sama had already been secluded inside the Forbidden
Archive.”
Subaru: “Ahh, well. Time spent as a maid doesn't necessarily mean time spent working in Roz-chi's
mansion. It's not like you got experienced working here exclusively...”
Frederica: “I am afraid you would be mistaken, Subaru-sama.”
Subaru knits his brows. Frederica straightens her posture, her expression noticeably gloomy.
Frederica: “The only mansion I have been enabled to service would be the Master's. My being
brought here as a new servant would have been when I was twelve years of age. It has already been
over ten years since then.”
Subaru: “...uh, isn't that weird? I mean, counting backwards, that makes it so Beako's been cooped
up in that moldy stinky room since she was a toddler.”
Frederica: “Would you still be yet to understand it?”
Frederica shakes her head as if faulting Subaru's unreasonable stubbornness about this. Subaru can
guess what this means. Basically,
Subaru: “Her appearance doesn't change. ...She really isn't a human.”
Frederica: “A librarian bound by covenant to oversee the Forbidden Archive since prior the Mathers
family's conception—this would be her, the Great Spirit Beatrice-sama.”
It doesn't feel like a lie. Subaru's forced to accept it. That Beatrice is something on a completely
different level from what he anticipated.
46
Subaru: “Great Spirit... is the same title Puck has, but man they look and whatever nothing alike.”
Frederica: “The absence of a contractor and her ties to the covenant... no, to say any more would
exceed the bounds of what is acceptable territory for me to broach. I request you forget.”
Subaru: “Really no way that's happening.”
And this makes it how many times Subaru's been >implying >implied >implying by someone who
clearly knows things? It doesn't look like he's getting any more out of Frederica though, and Subaru
sighs. Then he remembers that they've been stopped here talking the whole time.
Subaru: “Frederica.”
Frederica: “Please forgive me, Subaru-sama. Even I am prone to slips of the tongue. That an
individual has appeared who shows concern for Beatrice-sama had simply overjoyed me. I humbly
request that I may be forgiven.”
Subaru: “That is fine, but my arms shall soon reach their limit.”
His arms are shaking as he stares up at Frederica, his face stiff. Rem's body's light and he'd acted
tough by saying he'd be fine as long as he had love etc, but his failing arm strength and stamina of
his back which he'd been ignoring now assault him.
Frederica: “Oh dear.”
Subaru: “Move aside promptly, please!”
Rather than hand Rem off to Frederica, he shoves her out of the way and races to the guest room.
He hears someone running behind him, indicating Frederica's following. He reaches Rem's room.
Emilia: “—Took you a while.”
and Emilia's waiting there, looking bored as hell.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
They settle Rem down in the bed and pull the blanket up to her chest. She's breathing and has a
heartbeat. Just how much time will pass before she wakes up again?
Subaru: “It all depends on how hard I work.”
He brushes her bangs off her forehead and glances back at Emilia standing behind him.
Subaru: “Sorry for the wait. Splurged a bit talking with Frederica. The lactic acid in my arms's gone
something crazy thanks to that.”
47
Wow fuck how I phrased that. Anyway Emilia says it's good to splurge on talking (fuck how I
phrased that). Emilia: “What did you talk with Frederica about?”
Subaru: “Rehabilitating shut-in girls, but firstly tried for some info gathering. The way the shut-in
behaviour started and how long it's been going are deeply connected to the approach to take with
them afterwards.”
Emilia: “Wow, really? Subaru, you know so much about SHUT-IN. It's amazing.”
Subaru: “Sometimes the things you say without ill intent do pierce me through the chest, Emilia-
tan. Like right now.”
Subaru's face screws up. Emilia tilts her head and gives a wry smile, then a small shrug.
Emilia: “Which means you couldn't get anything out of Beatrice?”
Subaru: “Her mouth was firm and would not stir. By the way, I don't know how many times I've
asked this but... how's Puck?”
Emilia: “—Nothing, he's not responding to me. This does happen sometimes, but the length this
time is sooo bad. I'm seriously worried.”
Emilia reaches to her chest and pulls out a green, glowing crystal pendant. It's Puck's thingermajig
where he usually hangs out, but he hasn't manifested for days. The idea of him being absent is
weird, but at the very least he's not responding to Emilia's calls for him.
Subaru: “It happens sometimes? But this time it's got you worried, too.”
Emilia: “He'll come back when I really, truly need his strength. I'm sure it's not as if he can't see me.
I've asked him before what he's doing when goes away, but he's never told me.”
Subaru can't hide his disappointment at this since it seems Puck knows things. Now everyone who
seems to know something about what's going on has firmly sealed their mouth.
Subaru: “Puck and Beako too, everyone's gone and shut their mouths... I'm defeated.”
Emilia: “Seriously. ...Subaru, what do we do?”
Subaru puts his hand to his forehead in thought and looks at Emilia as she calls him, who is staring
at him imploringly and with faith.
Subaru: “Now that everyone who seems to know something's shut up, I think all we can do next is
leave. ...Well, even if where know where he is, who knows if he's gonna talk.”
Emilia: “You mean Roswaal.”
Subaru: “I figure now's a great time for a chat cutting all the underground circumstances loose.”
48
Subaru nods, confirming Emilia's guess. The two seem to be of the same mind in how to progress,
and Emilia pats her chest in relief.
Emilia: “Thank goodness, it looks like you're in favour of it too. I was wondering what I'd do if I
got opposed again, like with Roswaal or Ram.”
Subaru: “I might oppose depending on the content, but you do know I fundamentally agree with
you all the way, Emilia-tan? And even if I oppose, I want you to trust that it's because of my love
for you.”
Emilia: “Oh, 'love' as if... Subaru, you just say things to make others happy sooo often.”
Emilia turns her head away in surprise. Subaru's cheeks go slightly red as he clenches his fists.
Emilia: “So, I have a proposal for Subaru, who's allying with me.”
Subaru: “Yup yup, let's hear it, say whatever you want.”
Subaru respectfully places his hand to his chest and bows, Emilia closes one eye and pouts as if to
say 'you're just doing that because I want to see it' and looks back. She lets out a breath and stares
into Subaru's dark4 eyes.
Emilia: “We have to talk to Roswaal, and there's the refugees from the village, too. So I'm thinking
of going to SANCTUARY.”
Subaru: “SANCTUARY...”
The name's come up a lot but unfortunately since Subaru didn't reach Sanctuary in that one loop
(cut in LN/anime) he doesn't know where it is, although it's the destination for Ram's B group of
evacuees fleeing the witch cult. But now that at least Betelgeux's squad of cultists is down, the
group that went to SANCTUARY should be out of danger, just like the mansion.
Emilia: “I was told I'd have to go there someday, and I think now's a good chance. Because it's
certain that this time, Roswaal'll definitely talk about things.”
Subaru: “Wa-wa-wai, time out! You're not saying you're leaving me behind, are you?”
Emilia: “Huh?”
Subaru holds his palm out at Emilia, somewhat spoiling her enthusiastic talk. But he has to say this.
Subaru: “I know you're motivated too, and I agree with this plan but I'd seriously rather not be left
behind. I know I'm powerless and stupid, but even so I'd hate not being at your side doing my best.
I'm aware of how selfish this is, though, ha!”
Emilia's eyes go wide. But what he's saying is undeniably his true feelings. If he's not at her side, he
4 Black. The japanese call their own eye colour black. It's not really black. But I must preserve the darkness.
49
can't protect her. He can't act for her. Not being conceited, his presence was almost certainly
necessary to help her. He didn't want reward for this, it's just something Subaru himself wants to do.
Emilia's expression is still shocked at his enthusiasm. He judges that she's still undecided, so,
Subaru: “You can't stop me. I'm stuck to you, Emilia-tan. Getting left behind is a no thanks. This
SANCTUARY and Roswaal—in the face of my blazing love, all obstacles'll—”
Emilia: “It wasn't as though I was going to leave you. Come with me.”
Subaru: “Don't leave me behind don'tdon'tdon't—what did you just say?”
Subaru was on the verge of getting down rolling around on the floor like an autist there. Emilia puts
her hand to her mouth, still blushing slightly.
Emilia: “I said, come with me. I'd be so anxious I couldn't bear it, being all alone.”
Subaru: “E-Emilia-tan...”
Emilia: “I rely on you, Subaru. I don't think you're weak or stupid at all. I need your strength.”
This shocks Subaru beyond description. His jaw drops and he falls silent. Unease runs through
Emilia's expression. Her hand meanders as if deliberating whether or not to touch Subaru.
Emilia: “Er, um, uh, what is it? Did, did I say something strange again...?”
Subaru: “You've got possession of my motivation switch, Emilia-tan. It turns on and off at your
word on full automatic. Can't bear it.”
Subaru covers his face with his hands, toying with Emilia. Emilia doesn't get she's being toyed with
and is in disorderly confusion. Subaru savours the feeling.
???: “—it appears you have concluded your talk.”
Subaru: “Huwawhegh!?”
And Frederica knocks on the door and enters, cutting the conversation off. Emilia's unsurprised, but
Subaru's trying to hide his heart palpitations. Frederica more than likely guesses Subaru's emotions
and without even a fragment of concern arising on her face,
Frederica: “I would present no objection to your venture to SANCTUARY. However, a period of two
days would be necessary to finalize preparations.”
Subaru: “Preparations? So you're coming too?”
Frederica: “Due to my overseeing of the mansion, I'm afraid I would be unable to accompany you.
Instead, I shall inform Subaru-sama's ground dragon as to SANCTUARY's whereabouts.”
Subaru: “Patrasche?”
50
Subaru's eyes go wide at the proposal.
Frederica: “Ground dragons are intelligent creatures. Should one tell them the way, they are fully
capable of discerning the path regardless of a lack of guideposts. Further, your one is particularly
intelligent. I doubt there will be any problems.”
Subaru: “You're just getting better and better, Patrasche. Seriously, how did I hit that flag?”
Frederica: “More importantly, there are several matters on which I must speak with you.”
Frederica: “Now that you are travelling to Sanctuary, there are several things I would desire that
you keep in mind. Especially when considering Emilia-sama's lineage, do take caution.”
Emilia: “—Yes, I'm prepared. Since it's a place with some history.”
Emilia nods, her eyes filled with a strong will. Subaru goes to stand beside her.
Subaru: “Honestly, not like I know anything about Sanctuary except its name but... my ultimate
goal is to be Emilia-tan's strength. Please, tell me anything.”
Frederica: “Your impurity is so pure it conversely becomes refreshing.”
She's pretty fucking blown at that line too, blinks once to push the emotion back, and raises a finger.
Frederica: “Then, I shall speak about Sanctuary. The first thing I would like you to keep in mind
is...”
“You'd like”
“Us to keep in mind?”
Subaru and Emilia tilt their heads at the same time, Frederica nods with a “Yes”, and her tone drops
slightly.
Frederica: “—Please be careful of an individual named Garfiel. Should there be anyone in

Sanctuary with whom you must be most cautious during your interactions, it is him.”
51
CHAPTER 5: TEAM EMILIA

So they end up departing for SANCTUARY two days later. Frederica's there at the stables telling
Patrasche the route, and Subaru suggests that she tell him the location instead to lessen some of her
workload, but she refuses by saying that SANCTUARY is a pretty important place for the Master and a
servant such as herself couldn't possibly divulge that information of her own accord, and honestly
she'd rather not even be telling the ground dragon.
Subaru's forced to accept this and spends those two days in boredom hanging out with the Arlam
villagers and going back to his position as a servant doing odd jobs around the mansion.
Emilia's still disappointed at Puck's absence and spends her time timidly going down to the village
with Subaru to try to close the distance between herself and the villagers, and reading documents
and books Subaru can't understand, to bolster her knowledge.
A few changes happened over that period.
Otto: “Aaaah! How did the chaos and clutter even get this bad!? The documents which need full
perusal, the documents which you can skim over, and the documents not worth skimming over
haven't been sorted, and so this!”
And there's Otto arranging documents at terrifying speed. He's glancing over the documents to the
point he gets the gist of the content, throwing it onto a mountain of papers stacked up on the desk,
and continuing to do this one document after the other. Subaru watches on in wonder, hand on chin,
at the dizzying speed of Otto's eyes and hands, his head looking to be running so fast it'll spout
flames.
Subaru: “Man, amazing. Me, even if I look at the lines of text, what it says is nothing but
gibberish.”
Otto: “I am not touching the content of these. Right now, my only intention is optimizing the
processable ones related to account booking, processable petitions, and various miscellaneous ones.
Or rather, this document filing truly should've been done once they were first received... or no, I'm
sure that this sorting method has some law which only the one who regularly deals with them
understands.”
Since the one who deals with these documents is Roswaal, Otto's laments are more than likely right.
It's like Roswaal to have a bitch of a sorting system. But now that he's gone and others can't
understand said system, all that's left is to start over resorting them from step one.
Otto: “Alright, that should be about finished. Now is to arrange them in chronological order...
though maybe I should subdivide the ones awaiting processing and the ones already processed
first...”
Subaru: “Methodical or perhaps it's neuroticism, either way you're definitely a type A.”
Otto: “What is that, that 'taeype ahye.' It doesn't sound like it means much good.”
52
Subaru silently wagagagaggles his hand at Otto's staring, denying him explanation. Not like Subaru
believes in blood type personality analyses, but it's great conversation material. By the way Subaru's
a type B. The whole Natsuki family is a type B. Doesn't feel that great to have everybody you tell
that respond with an 'I knew it.'
Otto: “Actually, I just thought something.”
Subaru: “What, your hands've stopped. You had a good pace there keep going.”
Otto: “I'm not adverse to this, being an advocate of efficiency, but isn't there something off about
this situation in the first place? Why is a mere travelling merchant such as myself inside the
Margrave's office, brow sweaty, frantically sorting documents? Isn't my position here off?”
Subaru: “Sure took you a while to notice.”
Subaru tilts his head and gives a meanypants smile. Getting Otto to sort the Margrave's documents
is all part of Subaru's plans. Plans, to secure personnel for Team Emilia.
Emilia's position in the Royal Election isn't exactly favourable. Sure you have Subaru who's
generally recognized as her knight who's succeeded with repelling the Witch Cult and the White
Whale subjugation, but given how nasty the environment around Emilia is it's unclear how much
effect those successes had. Emilia's starting point is way behind the other factions'. And then you
have the fact that her backer, Roswaal, has kept his true plans invisible. Honestly as a backer,
Roswaal is just a plain failure.
There's the fact he had no counterplans against the Witch Cult, and now the fact that even though
they've got past the danger they still can't contact him. He's such a fucking pain it's no longer clear if
he's enemy or ally. And then you have Ram who's Roswaal's devoted servant, Frederica who has
great consciousness of her maidly position, and Puck and Beatrice who aren't talking to Subaru and
Emilia.
So right now there's no one Emilia can talk to without worries. Of course Subaru wants to be that
person, but the range of what Subaru can do is in fact less than a normal person.
So Subaru zeroes in on Otto.
Subaru: “Basically it's the strategy of 'if you have no allies nearby, why not just make one?'”
Otto: “I feel you just said something incredibly improper, but what you're talking about has nothing
to do with me, yes?!”
Subaru: “Huh, I don't know. Hrm, really don't know. Oh, Otto-san. The documents here have yet to
be sorted.”
Otto: “Ah, sorry. Erm, let's see.. Mining Site for Magical Crystals and Reserves in Stock this...
shouldn't this document be absolutely forbidden for outsider inspection!?”
Subaru: “Ahhh nooo, you saw it. Ugh, you saw it. Ahhhh. Alright. Mhm, well, I'll talk this over
53
with Roswaal real good, so you relax.”
Otto: “That there's nothing relaxing about this at all actually makes it amazing!”
Otto tears his eyes away from the document while Subaru grins super duper. Otto is fucking stunned
at Subaru, and with his lips trembling,
Otto: “It couldn't be that you're not really supporting me, and are showing me forbidden documents
to have me removed? To trample over and settle all my compensation from our deal?”
Subaru: “'Ydungetit. I'm fully intending to pay for your stock and fulfil your request. So I'm
thinking I'll drag you in deeper making your escape even less possible.”
Otto: “Isn't that excessively malicious!? Why are you trying to burden this simple greenhorn
travelling merchant with such a heavy load, please stop!”
Subaru wonders if he's gotten too carried away, his expression vanishes, and he mutters a “Sorry.”
Subaru: “Feel I kinda pushed too far out of impatience. Impatience from all these packed-in affairs,
where the tangled threads show no sign of unravelling. I'm sorry for not asking about your
circumstances too.”
Otto: “Uh, no, seeing you can suddenly get so collected is also kind of unsettling. ...Um, I wonder if
I should ask. Why do you have such high expectations of me?”
Subaru goes over to the table. It's true that from neither Otto or Subaru's perspective they've had a
long companionship or done anything particularly trust-building.
Subaru: “Saying it straight up, the reason I'm so attached to you isn't anything like that. It's not as if
I evaluated you personally, and the fact you mentioned the terms when we first bumped into each
other is huge.”
Otto: “Frank, aren't you. —I understand, but, terms?”
Subaru: “That you're factionless, devoted to no one in the Royal Selection. That you're sharp with
weighting profits and losses, and your views on winning over allies through business negotiations
are easy to understand. And most importantly, that you don't look at Emilia, a half-elf, with a
discriminatory view, I guess.”
Otto falls silent. All the terms are definitely important considering the conditions Subaru's in, and
Subaru's judged that Otto clears them all. Otto waits for Subaru's response, the look in his eyes
different from when he's joking, lit with a composed glimmer and wavering as if he's guessing
Subaru's thoughts. Appraising Subaru.
Subaru: “And this one is just going off patten, but.”
Otto: “—Let's hear it.”
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Subaru: “I feel we'll do well with you. Honestly, I'm really not doing anything more than getting
Emilia-tan more allies, but if that ally can get along with me too then that makes it even better. Ah,
and there's also that you don't have any opposite-sex interest in Emilia-tan. Should you ever, even
were you effectively an old playmate of mine, I would be forced to slay you...!”
Otto: “So it's only your rivals in love who get exterminated!”
Subaru: “Feel my chances of winning if a rival's there are straight zero! Don't you take my lack of
faith in myself lightly. I can count all the people in my life who've given me approval on one hand.”
His parents, Rem, Wilhelm, Emilia, and conditionally Julius and Reinhardt. And he realises that he's
suddenly, somehow gone over one hand. That he's gotten these judgements passed on him makes him
wonder if it's safe to think that he's progressing in a slightly more respectable direction. Not
that there's been any visible changes to him.
Anyway,
Otto: “Grief, it sure is refreshing just how little you hide what's in your chest. Never let your poker
face drop in front of a merchant as if, you realise that you're easy, exploitable game at the
bargaining chair?”
Subaru: “If this chair were a bargaining chair I might've gotten myself into a bit of a hustle, but the
people here aren't a merchant and his game, it's me and you. Though, if you're saying that you were
intending to be in that position, I'll shift my gears and attitude.”
Otto: “Which is you saying you'll be assessing my qualities as a merchant. This is exactly what
you'd call 'doing something in the same breath'... what exactly to do here.”
Otto sighs, his previous tense caution disappearing from his nonetheless troubled expression. He
closes one eye at Subaru who looks completely indifferent to this.
Otto: “My bringing this up in this location sure is something though, Natsuki-san. My goal is... it
isn't anything so outrageous as to tell people about it, but I do have a dream.”
Subaru: “I have a feeling that a man's dreams are restricted to being either so ridiculous they sound
like an exaggeration or so ridiculous they have to be kept secret but, could you tell me it?”
Otto: “I hate that I can agree with that. ...You see, I'm the second son of a well-to-do family of
merchants. I was brought up in that affluence when I was young, but my position wasn't one where
my family could particularly do anything for me when it came to eventually becoming
independent.”
Subaru isn't sure how much this place's sibling circumstances line up with those in the original
world, but it seems like family businesses and nobility are hereditary, and generally the oldest son is
the inheritor.
Otto: “I studied the fundamentals of commerce while helping my older brother in running the
business, and became independent after saving up some foundation money. I bought a carriage with
my ground dragon Frufoo and from there... well, I'd say the BLESSING I was born with made it go
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reasonably well.”
Subaru: “Blessing'd be... Blessing of XENOGLOSSY, was it. Yeah, it definitely seems like you could
make some easy money with a blessing to talk to animals, depending how you use it.”
Otto: “It isn't useful enough to be worth mentioning. I'm sure it comes with more troublesome
problems attached than you think, Natsuki-san. Either way, that's how I ventured around for years,
and over that time there sprouted what you would call a dream.”
Subaru straightens himself in his seat to listen properly. Otto smiles affably.
Otto: “It's truly mundane.”
Otto: “It's the same dream any travelling merchant would wish for. —to possess your own castle of
a store in a single fixed place, and continue doing business while staying put. If you can achieve
that in a large town somewhere, there's no greater joy for a merchant.”
Subaru: “And that's your dream?”
Otto: “It's a stupid wish. Because after all my travelling round and round, ultimately what I want is
to reach the same place as the house I was born and raised. But well, if I go and mention it, then I'd
have to say that that environment is a symbol of happiness to me.”
Otto scratches his cheek at the awkwardness, speaking quickly to hide his embarrassment. Subaru
understands and agrees with his answer, and settles deeper into his chair as he considers whether he
can come up with a good reply. But before he can,
Otto: “As a merchant's second son, as a merchant, as a future huge merchant, I couldn't possibly let
the opportunity to have a player as big as the Margrave in my debt escape me. And that would be
without mentioning the debt's connectedness to one who may become the future Ruler, it's an
exceedingly gigantic business opportunity that would never come again even if I redid my entire
life.”
Subaru: “Alright, then you're all good with helping us. Thanks, I'm glad. Knew you'd say this, Otto.
Now keep sorting the documents.”
Otto: “What!? You know I just said something rather neat just then? You don't think that reaction's
too weak!?”
Subaru: “If I sincerely answered that with deep emotion I feel like I'd lose. ...Well, either way if an
outsider were watching this it'dve been an Out! for you the second you touched those documents, no
hope of escape. Kehkehkeh.”
Otto: “He's terrible no matter what angle you look at him, this man!”
So they basically wound back in the same rhythm as where they started, but Subaru has to be
thankful for Otto. Definitely would never say so though.
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Otto: “I will just be letting you know, I'm different from you, Natsuki-san, who is Emilia-sama's
ally unconditionally. Our present arrangement is merely an acquaintanceship with conditions
attached. Should a factional dispute come about between Emilia-sama and the Margrave, I will be
choosing my side after properly considering the gains and losses. Please don't mistake me for a
perfect ally.”
Subaru: “Which's why you deliberating on the scales balancing Emilia-tan and Roswaal is perfect
I've got you in my hands. I'll drill Emilia-tan's goodness right into you sooner or later, relax. —Did
you hear everything we just said good and clear?”
Subaru turns his head in another direction at the end there. Otto's expression goes dumbstruck, and
he follows Subaru's gaze. And standing there is,
???: “Uh-huh... I mean, yes. I heard loud and clear, Subaru-sama.”
A girl in a maid outfit with chestnut-coloured hair, a smile on her lovable face. This was the second
change that had occurred in these two days at the mansion.
Leaving Frederica to tend to the mansion alone (Subaru's also helping but his ability as a servant is
equivalent to half a person and his body hasn't finished healing) seemed like it'd be physically
impossible so they went to hire a helper from Arlam Village and surprise it's an enthusiastic Petra
Leyte who's hired temporarily for now.
Subaru: “You're still so little, and you're already out of your house being a maid. You're amazing,
Petra.”
Petra: “I'm already twelve, so I'm a grown-up who can work... I mean, adult. Subaru, -sama please
treat me like a proper adult.”
Subaru something somethings telling her to get mastery of polite language from Frederica if her
temporary maidiness is temporarily coming off. Also he's always going to treat Petra like she's a
cutie.
He messes up her hair with aggressive headpats and she ends up clinging to him which wasn't what
he expected but leagues better than her abusing or spitting on him. Subaru judges that Petra's
affinity for being a maid with her unexpectedly solid upbringing is pretty high. It's probably safe to
judge that she's better at cleaning and preparing meals etc than Subaru already if you include
Frederica's backing her. Subaru fucking useless.
Anyway so she's been standing there listening in on the conversation from outside the door the
whole time. Otto's face goes red as he realises he's been had.
Otto: “A-A set-up!?”
Subaru: “It's nothing to get that worried about. Just a third party's presence making your previous
statements go down in the public record. A touching piece of craftsmanship made to secure the
jury's conviction... is how I'd appreciate you to think of it.”
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Otto objects to the use of the term 'piece of crasftsmanship' and questions what exactly is 'touching'
about this.
Otto realises that all his paths out are already gone and is half crying as he yells. Subaru smiles and
shoots Petra a thumbs up.
Subaru: “Great work, Petra. But won't Frederica get mad at you for using your time on this?”
Petra: “This time is the time when I am cleaning the hallways. If I am cleaning the hallway outside
of the Lord's room, even if I spend more time than usual, she will not get mad.”
Subaru: “You're a crafty one. So even a little girl is still a woman...”
Subaru's kind of saved by Petra's presence, because she's one of his helpers who isn't being
influenced by Roswaal. There isn't as much she can do for Emilia as Otto, and the influence of her
presence might be less than Subaru. But she's not scared of Emilia. And that alone makes her a
saving grace for Emilia, definitely.
Subaru: “Having lots of allies's the most ideal outcome. And questioning what you can do isn't the
issue here. What's important is wondering what is it you want to do for her sake, and about
progressively becoming able to do something. Besides, if we're gonna talk about the number of
things we can do, it turns into something awful with me involved.”
Subaru is aware that if you balance him in terms of pros and cons, he's more cons.
Subaru: “You're still super super little, but you go do you best from here on. Now, this makes us the
founding members of Team Emilia.”
Subaru engages fistbump mode. Ottto and Petra fistbump back, then look at each other.
Otto: “I never said anything about joining this team, okay? Please don't misunderstand?”
Petra: “I wanna be on the lady's side, but I don't really wanna lose to her on anything important...”
So this isn't exactly the most promising lineup of allies but hey since they're all cool with
fistbumping there is no doubting their goodness.
And this was how Subaru spent his two days.
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CHAPTER 6: ON THE ROAD TO SANCTUARY

Frederica bows as she sees them off on the morning of their departure, telling them to take care and
to tell the Master that she's currently there taking care of the mansion. Her bowing is so fucking pro
it intimidates you into correcting your own posture.
Anyway so Emilia and Subaru are there too, Emilia apologizes for leaving at such a busy time, and
seeing as Roswaal's absent she thinks that honestly she's supposed to be acting as the regional Lord
here, but...
Subaru follows in saying that both him and Emilia-tan are absolute rubbish at that kind of work. He
can manage odd jobs but things with numbers are out of his league, and even with Otto's sorting it's
not like that'll help things.
While they know that putting off all this document processing and shit is going to bite them in the
ass later, their only option is to block their ears to it.
Subaru: “It feels like going back to school without finishing all your homework from summer
break. I mean, I wasn't the type to fail to hand in my homework though.”
Emilia: “I don't really understand, but isn't that a good thing? But my chest actually hurts sooo
much. It's not that I feel guilty, but I know we're doing something bad just leaving this stuff
behind.”
Subaru: “It's not our fault. ...is how I can rationalize it, but might be difficult for you, Emilia-tan. I
know that knowing things are visibly getting worse's really not comfortable.”
Leaving things alone that really can't be left alone is fucking frustrating. But their power is
insufficient. All they can do is call on someone whose power is sufficient.
Otto, who'd been talking with with Patrasche and Frufoo (who are leading the carriage) until then,
casually joins in the conversation to say the carriage's all ready, commenting that even though it's
only been a few days since all the stuff that happened in arc 3, Patrasche is rearing to go.
Subaru remarks that she's a good hardworking girl which she's probably getting from her original
owner and not him, and asks Otto if it seems like the directions and all that seem good.
By the way as a casual observer to Otto speaking with a couple ground dragons he looks fucking
insane but Subaru decides not to comment on that.
Otto says there don't seem to be any problems and Frederica's directions are all good. He predicts
they'll be able to make the journey in half a day.
Subaru: “Right right... But you're seriously coming too?”
Otto: “Isn't it a given!?”
Otto: “Since it'll be my first meeting with the Margrave. My wish was to be introduced to him, but
59
imagining how you'll end up introducing me while I'm not present... augh it's terrifying so I really
can't leave it up to you.”
Subaru: “Hey, all that trust's gonna make me blush.”
Otto: “Yes, for how little we've known each other I do trust you very much. Being that you're adept
at succeeding precisely at doing the things I'd really rather not be done!”
Subaru frowns, Emilia laughs and again comments that Otto and Subaru get along sooo well, they're
always having these friendly squabbles whenever she looks at them and she's jealous.
Subaru: “If it is what you wish, I'll be friendly as you want Emilia-tan but not squabbles, flirting. If
I hand the argument dialogue patterns I have with Otto over to you, my friendly dialogue patterns
with Otto won't be many.”
Otto: “All we'd have left between us would be jeering and fistfights then!”
Subaru's pretty confident in the good or rather bad efficacy of his mouth, but he has some unease at
the prospect of physically fighting Otto. Since he knows that even though Otto looks kinda delicate,
he's actually pretty fit. Since Otto's punched him before during a loop in arc 3. Subaru'd more than
likely lose in a straight fight.
Subaru: “Thinking like that, my offensive worth really is low. I knew that but it's still depressing.”
He loses to Otto and can't win against magic-using Emilia either. Frederica one-shotted him
beautifully. There's no point even bringing up his prospects against Rem or Beatrice. So in the
mansion's rankings, the opponent Subaru can win against is—
Subaru: “Huh, now that I think of it the only-person-I-could-probably-win-against Petra isn't here,
what happened?”
Emilia: “Just exactly how that turned into a thought of winning or not winning is scary, so I won't
ask about it, but Petra-chan's been in the mansion for... ah, there she is.”
Indeed is Petra running over from the mansion, her new maid outfit flapping everywhere.
Petra: “Pl-please, wait. Suba, Subaru-sama...”
Subaru: “I'm not going to do anything as mean as suddenly drive off when you're in such a rush, I'm
not Otto. I wouldn't, right, Otto?”
Otto: “Did you forget what you just said three seconds ago!?”
Petra puts her hands to her knees, her breathing ragged while Subaru jokes around waiting for her to
catch her breath. She wipes her forehead and looks up, lets out a long breath to expel her fatigue,
and smiles like an angel.
Petra: “I want you to please take this before you leave. Please hold on to it.”
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And she presents him with a handkerchief. It's white with golden stitching around the edges, the
delicacy with which it was made, and its high quality, clearly apparent. And on the other side,
Subaru: “Embroidery, huh. Wow, it's really good.”
It seems that Petra sewed the embroidery herself. Grey and pink with black outlines, it's a very
familiar image to Subaru. Emilia leans in to peer at it and gives a small laugh.
Emilia: “Haha”
Emilia: “It's the Puck Subaru drew. It's amazing, you did it really well.”
Subaru: “I did do really well with my chibi Puck. I didn't think I'd get to see it again.”
Petra: “I make sure to get my stamps after radio callisthenics every morning.”
This is referring to the stamp cards that the village children have, which Subaru stamps after radio
callisthenics every morning using a potato with a drawing carved on it. The one Petra's sewn is the
most recent chibi Puck, GLOOMY MONDAY.
Subaru: “That said, you did really good. Even a sewing master such as myself could lose to this.”
Petra: “Can you please... no, could you please take it?”
Subaru: “Would you be able to accept it? Or abouts. —Of course, I gratefully accept. My heart
kinda doesn't approve of using this to wipe off blood and sweat and tears, but I'll keep it in my
pocket as a good luck charm.”
He carefully folds up the handkerchief and very, very seriously stows it away in his breast. He
narrows his eyes with a look as gentle as he can possibly manage (objectively it looks pretty
fucking nasty) and gives Petra a big, nasty-looking grin. Petra puts both her hands to her cheeks,
blushing.
Petra: “I will be waiting for your safe return. Ah, and the lady and the noisy man too.”
Emilia: “I feel like an extra.”
Otto: “Isn't that assessment of me kind of horrible!?”
Frederica begins exuding extreme amounts of pressure from behind Petra. It seems that her maid
lessons are going to become a lot stricter after this. Petra, live strong.
So anyway Subaru and Emilia note that if they keep talking like this it's going to get rid of the point
of leaving early in the morning, so they get ready to set off. Subaru enters the carriage and reaches
his hand out to Emilia.
Subaru: “Here you go, Emilia-tan. Right into my chest.”
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Emilia: “Maybe it'd be nice to look at the scenery from the driver's platform every once in a while?”
Subaru: “Aaah, cold! EMK (Emilia-tan Maji Koakuma)! —Dah, waaah!”5
Subaru goes to withdraw his hand, but Emilia forcefully tugs it before he can, and easily walks
beside him into the carriage as he pitches forward. Her hair tickles his nose as she passes, and she
goes to sit opposite him, staring at him as she tilts her head.
Emilia: “What is it?”
Subaru: “Uhrhumm, nothing?”
Subaru goes and plops himself down beside her. Emilia smiles at how he's treating the inside of this
spacious carriage as if it's small. Otto mutters about this not being a date as he goes to sit on the
driver's platform and grabs the reins.
Otto: “Well then, we'll be setting off. I'll be praying you don't bite your tongues, or anything.”
Subaru: “Hey, you should be the one keeping steady. I'm counting on you to slam the breaks when I
give that signal we came up with beforehand. Don't and I won't get to push Emilia-tan down.”
Emilia: “That's what you're planning?”
Otto: “Me!? I'm not going along with this nefarious plot, and now I'm suddenly complicit!?”
Emilia looks at Otto and Subaru with something close to scorn, Otto has his yell, and Subaru idly
thinks about how that kind of unreasonable yelling kind of suits Otto while he balls his hand into a
fist.
Subaru: “Well, destination, SANCTUARY! Departure, engage!”
Otto: “Who are you to speak like that!?”
Subaru mutters about Otto not playing along while he pokes his head out of the window and turns
to look at Frederica and Petra.
Subaru: “You two take care of the mansion. And... I'm counting on you for Rem.”
Frederica is like leave it to me, in exchange I'm trusting Emilia-sama and the Master to you.
Petra: “Be careful, and come home safely.”
And blah blah blah, thus ends their pre-departure tension release back-and-forth.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
5 Emilia-tan is Seriously a Little Devil
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FREDERICA and PETRA scene.
It's basically just Frederica grilling Petra for not having good enough consciousness of the master-
servant relationship esp. re: Subaru. Getting touched is a no go. Gonna make Petra write lines on
that. And can't slack off on cleaning and meals and providing Beatrice-sama service. Get back to
work Petra or we'll run out of time for studying.
Petra enthusiastically runs off to finish her work. Frederica watches her go, smiling faintly and
exposing her fangs. She hides her smile with a practices gesture as she looks towards where the
carriage was—where Emilia and the others have departed from.
Frederica: “I have done exactly as ordered, Master. Whether or not Sanctuary is overcome will
depend on Emilia-sama and Subaru-sama.”
She closes her eyes, bathing in the wind.
Frederia: “Will Emilia-sama be able to overcome it? Bound by witch's blood, that inescapable,
deadlocked paradise.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “So Puck really hasn't shown up the whole time.”
Emilia: “No, he hasn't. I've called him so many times, and I can feel him inside the crystal, but...
this is the first time he's gone so long without coming out, I'm a little worried.”
So they're sitting next to each other talking in the carriage, which is under the effects of the
WINDBREAKER blessing and thus there's no annoying noises getting in or shaking.
Subaru: “Thinking back, he hasn't shown at all since we went back to the mansion. The last time we
saw him was...”
Emilia: “For me it was in the Royal Capital, when we were at Crusch-sama's mansion. I thought
everything was the same as usual, but for some reason I didn't see him from that morning on. He
wouldn't come even if I called him... I thought I might've made him mad, and was kinda anxious.”
She fiddles with the ends of her hair as she bows her head, her face not visible to Subaru. Her hair's
in a braid and has been the past three days. Subaru stares at it, and Emilia guesses what he's getting
at, nodding.
Emilia: “The last contract I had on the day I talked with Puck was 'HAIR IN A BRAID.' He didn't tell
me what to do with it afterwards, so I've been keeping this."
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Subaru: “That thing about you having a contract with Puck over your hairstyle was actually serious.
That's crazy light.. or is it? They say a girl's hair is her life, so that'd mean your contract with Puck
has your life in its grips.”
Emilia: “I think it's sooo light as compensation. I didn't know about this until I left the forest, but
Roswaal was shocked at how light the conditions were, when I was contracting a spirit on Puck's
level. That honestly there would need to be a more enormous amount of mana given, or more
complex conditions.”
Emilia smiles without strength. Subaru nods and comes up with some bullshit to get rid of her weak
smile.
Subaru: “Well, 'restricting a piece of Emilia-tan's time' in itself makes for outrageously heavy
compensation, if we're saying how I'd go about it.”
Emilia: something about talking too friviously about this kind of thing = wind up being impudent “I
kinda want to keep important things off for more important times.”
Subaru lightly raises his hands and shakes his head.
Subaru: “I've got all the lines to tell you in more important settings right in store, Emilia-tan. Right
now what I'm doing is showering you with the sweet words that're safe for me to tell you.”
Emilia gets kind of flustered, saying Subaru's mouth is definitely in good condition seriously holy
shit, no don't look I think I'm blushing. She hides her face in her hands, and Subaru smiles as he
recognizes his goal as complete.
Subaru: “Either way”
Subaru: “Without Puck, we've really got some worries on our combat strength for this journey. We
can't count on Otto as a fighter, and there's no need even mentioning how useless I am. But things'll
be pretty dicey for you without Puck, right?”
Emilia: “Ah, so that's it. I'll just say, I can still use magic fine even without Puck. And it isn't just
Puck, I'm contracted with the minor spirits, too. We don't have any problems understanding each
other, so they can fight. No matter what happens, I'll protect you.”
Subaru: “Oh no he's so courageous. And wow I'm pathetic. Someday I'll be the one telling you that
line Emilia-tan so just wait a little.”
Emilia: “I'll be waiting without expectations.”
A group of spirits start gathering and glittering around Emilia's fingertips—their existence feels
slightly weaker than the lesser spirits that Julius uses: these are minor spirits. This is a wide
departure from Puck but at least they're not powerless.
Subaru: “And if you start saying that, then my dependency on others hasn't changed at all since the
White Whale. I relied so much on Rem, and before then... wait, have I never actually gotten through
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anything by myself!?”
Subaru has a moment of fucking horrified amazement at this.
Subaru: “But, SANCTUARY. Wonder what it's like.”
He stares at the scenery out the window. He thinks he heard the word SANCTUARY during the loops
in the mansion—somewhere in the middle of the second loop. He'd let the opportunity to talk about
it get away and now this was the result.
Just going by the name, Subaru doesn't figure SANCTUARY's a dangerous place, but Frederica's
warning is enough to make him raise some caution.
Subaru: “Be careful of Garfiel, huh.”
Emilia: “You haven't met him either, then. All I've ever heard of him is his name. Frederica wouldn't
tell me anything more specific.”
Subaru and Emilia had tried to get more out of Frederica on this 'Garfiel' character, but she'd just
stubbornly refuse by saying “I'm under pledge.” For some reason Emilia seemed to draw back on
questioning further at that.
Subaru: “Man, we really should've gotten more out of her. Someone who knows this guy is
someone dangerous, and then says all they know is their name is way too bipolar.”
Emilia: “There's nothing we could do, it's a pledge. Avowals are sacrosanct and divine, not to be
infringed upon. Contracts and pledges and covenants, their firmnesses are identical even if their
weights differ, and they should be treated evenly.”
Subaru can only think of this contract, pledge, covenant stuff as some kind of wordplay, and he
suddenly has a thought come to him.
Subaru: “What ties you and Puck is a contract. Frederica's refusal to stop upholding her duties to
Roz-chi is a pledge. And what the Kingdom and the dragon share is a covenant... right? I haven't got
anything wrong here?”
Emilia: “There isn't that much of a difference in how you'd use them but, contracts are avowals
made between individuals. A pledge is an avowal directed from one person to another. Covenants
are binding in a way that exceeds the individual and even time. Is how I think of them, since that's
how I was taught them.”
Subaru: “Got it. Yeah, if you have that it mind it does fit with the conditions.”
Subaru: “But you know,”
Subaru: “You sure decorated that with some really fancy lines. Avowals are sacrosanct and divine,
was it.”
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Emilia: “Avowals... promises are important things. This is kind of obvious for pledges, but contracts
don't have any kind of force that compels you to keep them. They don't, there isn't any, but you still
keep the promise. You work hard to keep them. Even if no one sees you do it, even if nobody
notices it, you keep the promise. You and your partner devote yourselves to that.”
She stares at Subaru as she speaks. Her tone is soft, and definitely not anything accusatory. That in
itself causes Subaru's heart anguish.
Emilia: “And because you believe in that, you work your hardest to fulfil the avowal shared
between you. Promises, are things made to build ties of trust between you, right?”
Subaru: “I cannot apologize enough for that time!”
Subaru gets down on his hands and knees, head bowed down and brow touching the carriage's floor.
Emilia blinks in surprise, and after a few seconds of considering what she just said and how that
lines up with Subaru's behaviour,
Emilia: “Ah, it wasn't like I was blaming you or anything. It's true you didn't keep your promise,
and that because you went on speaking without apologizing for that properly I did get all
'aughhhhhh.'”
Subaru: “Ithurtsithurtsmyearstheyhurt!”
Emilia: “Maybe I have a part of me which considers avowals too heavily and deeply. Look, I'm a
practitioner of spiritual arts, so contracts are more familiar to me than they are to ordinary people.
Contracts with spirits are what spiritual arts practitioners should respect more than anything else, so
they get oversensitive... uh-huh, to me promises are so, sooo important. Subaru, do some reflecting
after all.”
Subaru: “Ithurtsithurtsmyheartithurts!”
Now Subaru understands clearly why Emilia got so pissed that time in the Capital. That wasn't just
the anger of having a promise broken. For Emilia, promises in themselves held extremely heavy
meaning. When faced with Subaru's casual breaking of them, even someone kindhearted like her
couldn't keep calm. Because Subaru trampled over something important to Emilia's heart.
Emilia: “Did you reflect?”
Subaru: “I reflected. Deeper than oceans, taller than mountains, wider than sky, grander than
space.”
Emilia: “Then alright, I'll forgive you.”
Subaru lifts his head, Emilia pokes him in the forehead. Emilia puts said finger to her lips and gives a
thin smile. Relief from the fact she's not mad, and recognition that what she just did was adorable
stops Subaru from saying anything further. He's sucking air in and out like a fish, Emilia oblivious to
this turns her head in the direction of their travel.
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Emilia: “SANCTUARY and Garfiel. And then Roswaal and the villagers... there's so many people we
have to talk to, it's making my heart pound.”
Subaru: “What'reya saying, you're not gonna be exposed to any danger. Believe in me, shield #2.”
Emilia: “You're second? Where's the first?”
Subaru: “Sitting on the driver's seat flirting with my Patrasche.”
Emilia really does crack up at this one, smiling. Fully satisfied, Subaru goes to think about the
various barriers waiting ahead of them.
Ever since he came to this world, problems have been arising consecutively leaving him no time to
rest. The anxiousness he has swirling in his heart about going to this unseen Sanctuary is larger than
he anticipated. There's the fact that Frederica kind of inspired that type of thought, and the many
doubts including Roswaal and the villagers' failure to return. And Puck's lack of response to their
calling him, and all the factors provoking anxiety which have been left behind in the mansion.
Emilia: “Were you thinking about Rem-san?”
Subaru: “...You can tell?”
Emilia tilts her head as she stares at a silent Subaru. Her silver hair spills from her shoulders, and
she fiddles her fingers through the edges, the end of her braid swaying.
Emilia: “I can tell.”
Emilia: “You know, you're allowed to think that I'm paying as much attention to you as you're
paying to me.”
Subaru: “So Emilia-tan, that's a 'please assume I'm watching you round the clock every hour of the
day'?”
Emilia: “Ah, no call it a half of a half of a half of that.”
Subaru: “...Three hours....!”
Emilia: “From there a half of a half of a half of...”
Subaru: “Hearing the exact number'll hurt me that's enough!”
Subaru says that he's not worried, since Frederica and Petra are taking care of her, but there's still
this feeling of anxiety that he can't really express. Emilia says that's a shouganai since it's what
worry is after all, and that that's how important Rem is to him. It's enough to make her a little
jealous. Subaru goes to tell her that he loves Emilia-tan just as much as Rem before he catches that
that was what Emilia was dangling for. Emilia confirms that she was bullying a little and
apologizes, sticking her tongue out, and Subaru winds up completely forgiving her over that.
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Emilia goes on to restart the topic, this time pointing out that the person Subaru's more worried
about is Beatrice. Subaru asks Emilia if she can read his mind. Emilia points out that he hasn't been
acting as if he isn't worried (like he usually does), so it's proof that he's sooooo worried.
Subaru says it's not anything serious enough to be 'worry', it's just because he never got to meet her
again after ending that conversation like a couple breaking up. Leaving the mansion without seeing
her again is just a little bad. Juuust a little. A tiny bit. A smidge. A crumb.
Emilia: “That sounds like a cowardly way of saying it, but perhaps I'm just hearing things.”
Subaru: “No 'hearing things' more like hearing me.”
Subaru hides his happiness that she focused on that part of what he was saying and smiles as he
looks over Emilia, who tilts her head.
Subaru: “Leaving Beatrice's shut-in status to get worse kinda makes me feel as an original shut-in
like I've sorta got an extreme responsibility here a little.”
Emilia: “Shut-in... Subaru, you really do know a lot about this. Do you think Beatrice will come
out?”
Subaru: “It's a hard one, this. It's no good to just forcibly pull them out without having some big
occasion for it, but just letting have their time is spoiling them way too much. Honestly every single
goddamn shut-in out there is just a pain for... ah! And so was I!”
Subaru: “When we get back, I'll have to talk with Beako 'bout lots of stuff. Didn't manage to get her
to talk about the things I needed to make her talk about.”
Emilia: “It feels like Beatrice and Puck both know things, but are hiding them.”
Subaru: “Agreed. Frederica's the same, but everyone connected to that mansion has this habit of
dropping implications and leaving the answers for later. Call it a syndrome. A bad syndrome. That
Beako, everything she said while giving back the gospel bothered me.”
So Subaru is still holding onto the gospel in his luggage, worst case scenario so that he can ask
Roswaal about it. That said the gospel's creepy so he's keeping it in the very bottom of his bag, as if
to hide it.
Emilia: “—Looks like we've entered the forest.”
Emilia suddenly says that, although she doesn't look outside the window to confirm it. Subaru does
and behold yes it's certainly getting greener.
Subaru: “It's impressive you knew without even looking outside.”
Emilia: “It's mixed, but I do have Elf blood. Elves have an unbreakable connection to forests, to the
point where we're called the race of the fore—”
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Subaru: “—!? Hey, hold on!”
Emilia: “—”
And Emilia's body wavers, looking about to collapse, before Subaru swoops in and catches her.
Emilia looks to be in anguish, her breathing shallow.
Subaru: “E-Emilia-tan? What happened, Emilia!?”
Emilia can't reply. Discounting her shallow, rapid breathing, she has no fever and isn't sweating.
Subaru immediately determines he won't get anywhere dealing with this himself, so he runs to the
front of the carriage and jams his head through the window connecting to the driver's platfrom.
Subaru: “Otto! There's trouble, Emilia suddenly collapsed! Do you have medicine, or...”
Otto: “Ah—Natsuki-san, I'm sorry.”
Sweat arises on Otto's brow, his voice devoid of strength as he turns to look at Subaru. Subaru
notices two changes—the carriage has stopped, with Patrasche and Frufoo standing still between the
trees. Subaru hadn't even noticed.
And the other, bigger change—
???: “Comin' so boldly face-to-face, pretty brave'f ya, outsider.”
Says someone, spoken as if they're spitting it at them, with not a speck of good will present. With
that single line alone, it's enough to get a grasp of personality of who said it. And the appearance of
the person standing before their carriage does nothing to betray that impression.
He has short, spiky blond hair, with a conspicuous white scar on his forehead. The sharp look in his
eyes is enough to be neck-in-neck with Subaru's sanpaku, and his feline canines are frightfully
white. His slouch makes him short for a man, but the ferocious aura exuding from his body would
make any refrain from belittling his petite stature.
Guy: “Ain't like I care where yer from, but you sure're a case of BRITTLE AS A WHITTLED PICKET.”
Subaru: “Uh, wha?”
Says Subaru dumbly at this phrase he's never heard before. The guy gives a single short, breathy
“Ha.”
Guy: “Hmm? Quit freakin' out, oi. Sure, yeah, yer luck's not good. Since right here where you tried
sneakin' in, you would up runnin' into the amazin' me.”
He gives a ferocious smile, his fangs clicking together. His fists fill with further power and he takes
a low combat stance.
Guy: “Yer run outta luck, showin' up in fronta the amazin' Garfiel. Yer wound up bein' a
69
BANZOMANZO SWEPT LEFT N' RIGHT!”
With that assertive but uninformative phrase, the punk stomps the ground. The next instant, a great
impact comes rushing at Subaru, world turning upside-down.
70
CHAPTER 7: THE TEST SITE

The instant the punk stomps the ground, Subaru gets the feeling the world is tilting. But this is of
course impossible. So it has to be Subaru 'getting the feeling'. The ground beneath Garfiel's feet rips
up and flies away, the attack doing nothing more than sending the carriage flying.
Faced with this see-saw of force, Subaru gets the sensation of being vigorously pressed upwards,
the carriage sliding through empty air. All Subaru can do is keep holding Emilia close.
The carriage slams back to the ground, its entire frame creaking. This thing isn't a fuck cheap
carriage either—it's built for liveability and durability, and it's still getting wrecked by this one
strike. But now that it's been thrown almost halfway onto its side, it's in no condition for them to
immediately start getting away.
Faced against something that can do this, they have no option of escape. They're forced to confront
the punk.
His face sill poked out of the carriage window, Subaru puts his hand to his forehead in pain, having
bumped his head with the fall. Luckily he's not bleeding. Emilia also looks unharmed.
Subaru feels relief at that, which instantly turns sour and hurried as he remembers what the present
conditions are. Right in front of him as he looks up is,
Subaru: “Patrasche!!”
Who, fangs beared, leaps at the punk, having cleverly unbound herself from the reins. She's aiming
for Garfiel's neck, intending clearly to tear it to shreds. But.
Garfiel: “Excitin' choice. Yer a good dragon... a good girl, aren'tya. Ya know how they say, THE
SOUND OF BROKEN BONES'S JUST ANOTHER SIGN OF LOVE .”
And Garfiel catches Patrasche's bite by thrusting his arm into her mouth. But Patrasche's whole
body, including her jaw, freezes completely still, rather than swallowing Garfiel's arm whole. The
reason why soon becomes clear as the muscles of Garfiel's arm flex—his arm strength is simply
strong enough to overpower Patrasche's jaw and prevent her from biting down, sealing her mouth
shut.
Garfiel: “All good, you. Great thatya moved right away, better yer not givin' up now. You pass.”
Her mouth still sealed, Patrasche whips Garfiel across the face with her tail. Subaru's taken hits
from that thing before and knows the strike isn't going easy at all. But for all the force and hostility
in the strike, Garfiel easily intercepts it with his left hand, grabbing hold of Patrasche's tail. He
exposes his beastly fangs as he smiles.
Garfiel. “Won't hurt ya. Lights out.”
He gives a big wave of his arm, and Patrasche flies through the air in an arc so easily it seems like a
joke. After revolving through space she lands softly on her side on the ground. The attack isn't even
71
enough to make the ground vibrate, a completely quiet attack on Patrasche. Subaru can't believe it,
his throat going dry.
Subaru: “He-he flung away Patrasche...?”
Garfield: “I'mma completely honest guy. Threw her nicely so didn't hurt her. Now to end this 'fore
she gets up!”
Garfiel leaps for the driver's platform of the carriage, where Otto is. Otto leaps up to face Garfiel.
Otto: “Guh... but, don't underestimate me! I am your everyday merchant, too, you see! Do keep in
mind that I have had hoodlums attack me during my business before. Now, if you would rather not
fall prey to the Swein family style of hoodlum repelling arts, I would advise you surrender
immediately! ...would advise!”
Garfiel: “Shuddup, rookie. Ain't like some no-effect move'sve yers're gonna beat the amazin' me,
lights out.”
Otto strikes a high-spirits battle pose. Garfiel instantly gets over to him and calmly pokes him in the
forehead. Otto crumbles. He goes flying back toward the driver's platform and faints without
voicing even a single sound.
Garfiel: “Now, goin' from looks, guess you two're allth's left.”
Says Garfiel, staring at Subaru with a gaze sharp enough to almost rip him to shreds. There's only
four strides of distance between them. But considering how he closed range on Otto, the distance
between them is actually no distance. Subaru can't come up with the conditions he needs to start
searching for the solution here, and their only potential counter to this guy, Emilia, is still
unconscious for unknown reasons. Most importantly, he has to protect her.
Subaru: “I...”
And the next instant, Garfiel's in front of him. Subaru fully expects Garfiel to claw him to shreds.
All Subaru can do is offer his own body as the target, turning so that Emilia isn't facing Garfiel,
protecting her.
Several seconds pass. The time feels longer than it really is, and Subaru nervously opens his eyes to
see the five clawed fingers stopped there right in front of his eyes. Garfiel's expression looks as if
he's seeing something fishy and he clicks his neck.
Garfiel: “Prioritizin' protectin' her without goin' feran'attack, what's with that. After you get done in
she's gonna get the same treatment either way. Don't think it's a bad call?”
It's sound logic, and for various reasons Subaru can't speak up to refute it. Perhaps uncomfortable
with Subaru's silence, Garfiel waves his clawed hand about.
Garfiel: “And then yer slow to come back. Ain't that I thought you'd be able't move, but... man, you
sure're nothin' useful.”
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Subaru: “Y-you...”
Garfiel: “Hmmm?”
Subaru attempts getting some noise out of his frozen throat. Garfiel looks even less impressed with
him, and draws his face even closer.
Garfiel: “Yer whisperin', now speak up.”
Subaru: “You're... Garfiel, right. The one Roswaal and Frederica know.”
Garfiel: “—Frederica?”
Garfiel's expression loses its aggression for the first time. For a second some animalistic charm
shows through, then he instantly hides that with an unpleasant look.
Garfiel: “Why's that name comin'... no, hold on. That girl yer holdin'... 's the silver-haired... half-
witch?”
Subaru: “She's a half-elf. Don't you dare call her that to her face.”
Garfiel: “—Haa. 'S with that, yer face's gotten all pumped all the sudden.”
The anger at hearing Garfiel diss Emilia is enough to make Subaru's fear disappear. Garfiel clicks
his fangs happily.
Garfiel: “Which makes this the rumoured Emilia-sama, huh. Any half-witch comin' here 'round
now'd have to be involved with Roswaal.”
Subaru: “You...”
Garfiel pointedly ignores Subaru, now stressing the 'half-witch' bit. Subaru moves to stand up, but is
firmly blocked by Garfiel's outstretched hand.
Garfiel: “MORONS CHEWING MELTED IRON FEEL ONLY PAIN. You got no hope'a winnin' 'gainst the
amazin' me. Behave 'n accept the strength gap 'tween us. —You know you could really get hurt?”
Garfiel balls his outstretched hand into a fist, his knuckles clicking. The wise decision here for
Subaru is to hold back his anger, and wait for a chance afterwards to take vindication. Thus,
Subaru: “Get fucked.”
Garfiel: “Hmmm?”
Subaru: “I don't wanna get hurt. I'm sure you'll beat the hell out of me. But, you know. —That's no
reason to let disparaging comments that'd sadden her slip.”
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He gently settles Emilia on the carriage's luggage bed and brushes the hair on her forehead away
with a finger. Subaru stands up and closes distance with Garfiel, coming so close they're almost
butting foreheads. Close enough to feel each other's breath, within range of each other's arms.
Subaru: “Take back that bullshit moniker, and never use it again.”
Garfiel: “...Don'tcha think yer lackin' in too many ways to say that to the amazin' me? 'Cross the
face, to the guts, in the shins, want me to beat you everywhere you got pieces?”
Subaru: “Try it. You won't get to do it for free. I'll bite the fist coming for my face, grab the arm
coming for my stomach, spit on the leg coming to kick me, give you some payback.”
Strong emotion wells up in Subaru's chest as he threatens back to Garfiel's threats. That said,
Garfiel's silent hostility makes a wave of terror run through Subaru. Garfiel could literally one-shot
Subaru if he wanted.
Subaru judges that Garfiel is someone who of all the ridiculously strong people he knows, has put
his efforts into keeping ridiculous combat ability. He's not quite at the level of Reinhardt, the peak,
but somewhere around Wilhelm or Julius.
Even the tiny threats that Subaru's just voiced are not possible for him to actually enact. But even
so, he meets Garfiel in a glaring match head-on. Knowing he would lose was no reason to retreat.
And the reason it was no reason to retreat, was right there behind him.
Garfiel: “—Heehaha.”
Subaru: “—Huh?”
Subaru is confused, Garfiel moves as if to answer Subaru's doubts.
Garfiel: “Heehahaha! 'S some pretty bitin' words, those, oi.” something something so slurred I have
no fucking clue.
Subaru: “What're you... ow! Ah, what, ow, wait, that hurts!”
Garfiel's shoulders shake as he laughs, and with extreme force, he taps Subaru on the shoulders. It's
not an attack, but regardless it's enough to chip away at Subaru's stamina gauge.
Garfiel: “'S fine, you pass. Stuck through all the way. I ain't fond of the half-witch... half-elf, but I
gotta give an exception t'you if yer gonna persist in protectin' her that much.”
Subaru: “Since you corrected yourself, it's fine but... no, this really hurts! Stop tapping me forever,
are you trying to kill me!?”
Subaru shakes Garfiel's arms away and backs off. Garfiel tilts his head and crosses his arms.
Garfiel: “Cold, aren't ya. Let's call everythin' up to now water under the bridge n' forget it. Y'know,
havin' a small mind's proof the guy's gotta small thing?”
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Subaru: “That's the first time you've used a saying I actually remember hearing, but there's nothing
necessary about that second part! A! Ny! Way!”
Subaru: “You're Garfiel, so it's safe to say you know Roswaal, yeah? And I'm allowed to think that
though that sudden run-in was a shock, you're not intending to fight us now, right!?”
Garfiel: “Stop makin' a racket, 's 'nnoying. Yer don't gotta be panicked I ain't gonna eat ya.”
Subaru: “With how violent you were being before, who could just believe that...?”
Garfiel sticks his finger in his ear in irritation, but agrees with Subaru's sentiment. Though it seems
like there's part of Garfiel that isn't that easily read, Subaru's relieved that they can definitely
communicate. Then he remembers,
Subaru: “Ri, ght... we don't have time for this! Emilia suddenly collapsed. Even though we were
talking normally until just a minute ago.”
Garfiel: “Collapsed, did she, that half-elf. Well, 's obvious. Where d'ya think you are? Ain't worth
the panic.”
Garfiel shrugs, Subaru furrows his brow in doubt.
Garfiel: “You woulda heard 'bout what this place is from Roswaal n' Frederica, yeah? Then of
course this'd happen... what, seriously, you really didn't know?”
Subaru shakes his head. Garfiel clicks his tongue in frustration and mutters,
Garfiel: “That fucking pervert bastard...”
Garfiel: “So Frederica didn't tell you anythin' either. Go a while without seein' her and her
personality winds up takin' after her owner. No savin' her.”
Shaking his head, Garfiel snorts in irritation. He notices Subaru's questioning gaze.
Garfiel: “Got it, got it.”
Garfiel: “Her condition don't look any good, but it ain't anythin' life-threatenin'. 'Said, if you don't
wanna see her lookin' in any more pain, get away from here on the double. I'll guide you 'sfar as the
village.”
Subaru: “She'll come to if we get away from here?”
Garfiel: “Ain't that what I just told you? Let's get outta here, hey, you gonna be sleepin' here
forever? Stand up.”
Garfiel goes over to the driver's platform and kicks the fallen Otto. Otto, who's been fainted all this
time, whines.
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Garfiel: “You the driver? After I get the carriage back upright, yer drivin' us to the village.” Take
your time and I'll kick you so hard your ass caves in.
Otto: “Actually, what is even happening here, exactly!? Although judging by what I just heard, I
would figure myself a casualty!”
Otto gets up and bitches at Garfiel. Which is pretty bold when directed at someone who just poked
you into oblivion, but Garfiel seems to agree with it and looks back at Subaru.
Garfiel: “Hey. This guy always so energetic?”
Otto: “Even if you ask that man for a judgement of what I'm like, you're unlikely to get a reasonable
estimate so I would prefer you please stop! Isn't it enough for you to judge this person known as me
with your own eyes?! And apologize! Please apologize!”
Garfiel: “Hmm!? Lookit you, getting' all energetic n' feisty, 're you underestimatin' me!? I mighta
gotten a bit 'head of myself and walloped someone who didn't need wallopin', so now you go and
get over it!”
Subaru: “Can the two of you shut up!? Emilia-tan's still suffering, so you go grab those reins! And
you put the carriage upright!”
So thus starts the chaos as they get to this. Emilia still hasn't woken up, but her brows do faintly
scrunch up, and she mutters as if sleeptalking,
Emilia: “...shutup.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Garfiel: “Thinkin' back, I didn't introduce myself. My amazin' self is called Garfiel... eh, just
Garfiel's fine. I'm the strongest man there is. Nice to meet ya.”
Subaru: “Right, I'm Natsuki Subaru... huh? What was that? You said you're the strongest?
Seriously?”
So the two of them are talking in the carriage as it gets moving, Subaru withdrawing his hand
before they can complete a handshake. Subaru is surprised and Garfiel is mystified.
Garfiel: “Well I said it, didn't I? Ain't like there's anythin' weird 'bout it.”
Subaru: “No, it's just that I didn't expect there to be anyone who'd say 'I'm the strongest' completely
upfront. That aside, don't you think that title's just a little too big?”
Garfiel: “You really don't think my amazin' self's a fittin' match for strongest?”
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Subaru: “I recognize that you're crazy strong, but if we're debating whether you're the strongest... no
matter how I think, there's already someone flitting through my brain.”
Reinhardt.
Garfiel: “Heh, well whatever. One day my amazin' self'll prove yer mistaken thinkin' wrong with
my own two hands. Least for now keep A RED-NOSED TODNOZZ FEELS THE COLD in mind.”
Subaru: “Even if you tell me to keep that in mind, I don't know what it means...”
Garfiel seems uninterested in explaining his incomprehensible sayings. Subaru stares outside the
carriage window, Emilia sleeping on his lap, using the opportunity to comb his fingers through her
hair. Her expression's already getting more relaxed that it was before.
Subaru: “Well, I missed the chance to ask you about this before, but you know Roswaal... yeah?”
Garfiel: “You've at least heard my name before, yeah? 'S kinda a guess, but 's probably 'cause of all
the people related to Roswaal, my amazin' self's blatantly the strongest.”
Subaru: “That wasn't really the point... I do remember you being called someone influential,
though.”
No way he's being called influential because of his combat power, right? But Garfiel's clearly not
the politician-type that Subaru expected.
Subaru: “This just gives me more questions to ask Roswaal about SANCTUARY. I'm supposed to be
acting to find a solution to problems, but everything just points to the number of problems
increasing, what's with this?”
Subaru's expression clouds over. Garfiel clicks his tongue.
Garfiel: “SANCTUARY.”
Garfiel gives a small wave of his hand and turns his head towards their destination—that is,
SANCTUARY.
Garfiel: “Yer just callin' it that 'cause that's what Roswaal forced down yer throat. Nevermind you
not knowin', but that he didn't let you know's bullshit.”
Subaru: “Honestly I agree with you, but there's a limit to badmouthing people while they're not
around or being mean so let's stop. ...did saying that bother you?”
Subaru tries to capitalise on Garfiel's slip, but instead he gives a somewhat unbefitting, sarcastic
smile.
Garfiel: “Think it's 'bout time Sleepin' Beauty got up. We're plenty far from the barrier.”
Subaru: “What's the barrier... ah, Emilia-tan?”
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Subaru notices Emilia fidgeting on his lap. Her eyes open dimly and she absent-mindedly looks
around the carriage, her consciousness still not fully awoken, and fixes her gaze on Subaru.
Emilia: “Mornin', suhbaru...”
Subaru: “You're insane adorable when you're waking up but now isn't the time for this, Emilia-tan.
Does anything feel weird at all, or does your head hurt or anything?”
Emilia: “Uhh, no? I don't feel anything strange, but...”
Emilia suddenly gets up with plenty of energy and Subaru hurriedly turns his face away from her,
just barely dodging a headbutt. Emilia remains oblivious to this close call as she glances back at
Subaru.
Emilia: “A-are you okay, Subaru? I, went and collapsed when I said I'd protect you...”
Subaru: “You don't need to worry, we somehow made it through! We got successful contact through
dialogue. Human connections can come together through the tool of communication, and right here
is where we managed to take that first step. I'm a total loner though.”
Emilia looks to be fine. And also, super cute. As always.
Garfiel: “See? Just like how I said.”
Garfiel smiles at Subaru, and Emilia is surprised to notice another presence inside the carriage. She
immediately gets Subaru behind her and takes a protective stance.
Emilia: “—Who are you!? Letting you know, I won't allow you to lay a single finger on Subaru!”
Subaru: “It's okay, Emilia-tan! Also I'm begging you please stop doing things that validate me as the
heroine! My gauge is is really starting to get there!”
He gets himself out of this position of being defended and goes to face Garfiel again.
Subaru: “That's Garfiel. Right after you collapsed, he attacked... I mean, came to ride on the
carriage. It's not like we've welcomed him into the group, but he'll be coming with us until
SANCTUARY.”
Emilia: “This is... Garfiel? The one Frederica mentioned?”
Garfiel: “'M int'rested in what she said 'bout me, but I'll put that off for later. We're gonna be
reachin' the village soon.”
The forest opens up, and now they can finally see their destination.
Garfiel: “Most gracious welcome, dear Emilia-sama and entourage.”
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His tone is far more scornful than respectful. He spreads his arms open wide as Emilia and Subaru
stare at him.
Garfiel: “To the place Roswaal so fancifully calls a fucking SANCTUARY—the decrepit ruins of a
deadlocked test site, where a gathering of idiots live out their days.”
Subaru: “Test site?”

Emilia: “Idiots—”
Garfiel puts his hand to his mouth, and smiles as if to obfuscate his hideously complex feelings.
Garfiel: “Us residents call it the WITCH OF GREED'S CEMETERY, though. Ain't nothin' to laugh 'bout,
ehh, oi.”
He laughs as if mocking himself. Quiet, low, like a curse, like a blessing, his laugh echoes through
the carriage.
And hearing that, Subaru knows that if a Witch is again putting their sights on Emilia, the one to
brush away those sparks has to be him.
SANCTUARY approaches.
79
CHAPTER 8: A LONG-AWAITED REUNION

Subaru pokes his head out the carriage window to stare down at SANCTUARY, which is just a few
hundred meters out from where the forest opens up. He sees wooden houses spotted around in the
distance, and the place has nothing in particular that grabs the attention—it just looks like some
needy village from this distance.
Subaru: “Place's thick with a depressing atmosphere...”
The old, stone gates at SANCTUARY's entrance only reinforce that impression, and the short fence
around the village gives the place a closed-off vibe. Hearing that, Garfiel forcefully taps his knees.
Garfiel: “Sure is. 'S a depressin' place. Jussayin', the people inside're even more depressin'. Every
fuckin' anybody's got this gloomy look, like they're livin' but they're dead.”
Subaru: “Pretty disparaging, aren't you. But, hearing that just makes this place sound even less like
a SANCTUARY.”
Subaru reconsiders what he's about to say,
Emilia: “What would 'Witch of Greed's Cemetery' mean, exactly?”
But Emilia gets there first. Her expression's resolute, but her fingers catch on the hem of Subaru's
clothing. Subaru is fully satisfied with this truth of being relied upon, but simultaneously has mixed
feelings, having a guess as to why she's uneasy.
Subaru: “Witch—it's common knowledge that the being called the WITCH is the Witch of Envy. The
existence of other witches for the other deadly sins is practically unknown to the masses.”
Emilia: “Wha, really? But wouldn't they have been well-known people for the last 400 years?”
Garfiel: “What yer sayin' ain't wrong, Emilia-sama. Yeah, think Subaru's got it. The Witch of Envy's
too famous n' overshadowed the others. 'Most no records're still 'round 'bout the other witches eaten
by the Witch of Envy. But well, still get some exceptions.”
Emilia: “And this place would be one of them?”
Emilia's eyes are wide, her knowledge on the witch cult somehow worse than Subaru's. Subaru
suddenly gets a really bad thought that blows away his carefree feeling. If there's several witches,
Subaru: “T-there's no way there's a Witch Cult for every witch, right? Thinking of how much effort
plucking off just one Cardinal of Sin took... augh just give me a break.”
Going off Betelgeux's ramblings, it's safe to say there's at least one sect that worships the Witch of
Envy, Satella. And the two Cardinals that Subaru would absolutely have to defeat someday,
GLUTTONY and GREED, would fall into that same sect. But if there were adherents for the other
witches as well—
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Otto: “That's a terrifying thought, Natsuki-san, but there's no need to worry.”
Different from the witch-ignorant Emilia and not-quite-trustworthy Garfiel, Otto's word has
credibility and consciousness of the public thought. The things Otto knows are more than likely the
things any normal person would know.
Otto: “The Witch Cult... isn't something I'd especially like to speak about but, the only figure they
worship is the Witch of Envy. One would hesitate to speak of witches outside of the Witch of
Envy.”
Subaru: “They'd prefer the Witch of Envy? What? You mean the others are even worse than the
Witch of Envy?”
Otto: “I would mean people are terrified of what the Witch Cult might do if they hear the name of a
witch that isn't the one they worship. Are you aware of the incident in the Empire of Volakia in the
south where a city was annihilated?”
Subaru does remember hearing about this (from Wilhelm while looting Betelgeuse's body which got
cut in the anime). If he remembers correctly,
Subaru: “The Cardinal of GREED destroyed an entire city in the Empire of Somethingorother all by
himself. There was a hero but even he couldn't stop him.”
Otto: “The details of what happened are excessively boorish and leave a thin impression but, the
reason the Witch Cult did such a thing was terrifying. It was the single most flourishing city of
business in the insular Volakia, but... it appears some rumours came about that witch-related items
were appearing on the market.”6
Subaru: “Witch-related.”
Otto: “Even now it's unclear what it was. But, there are more than a few dilettantes out there who
desire such items. If it had just been something related to the Witch of Envy, it could've been settled
there as simply being bad taste, but... as a result, a whole city was destroyed.”
So GREED likely acted either out of desire for that item, or to remove it. The Empire of Volakia
stimulated the Witch Cult, and such a result befell them.
Otto: “Ever since, it has been taboo to have any involvement with witches outside the Witch of
Envy, so as not to stimulate the cult. ...Although, that didn't cut off some of the shameless back-
alley dealing going on.”
Subaru: “Weird to hear that kinda spite coming from you. It's almost like you were involved in it.”
Otto: “...It wasn't anything so big. It's simply that I had some relatives in that city who were dragged
into the mess. It would've been over 15 years ago now, and I would've been a child. It has nothing to
do with me.”
6 Not clear whether 'items' is singular or plural.
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It's clear Otto isn't going to go into this any further so Subaru gives up on trying anything more on
the topic. Seeing that Subaru's had his chat, Garfiel touches his hand to his chin.
Garfiel: “All satisfied?”
Garfiel: “My amazin' self doesn't know the details. But the old gramps n' grans here keep sayin' the
place is the Witch of Greed's Cemetery to the point it's a PEROMIO FESTERED FROM HEARIN' IT, so
no way it's wrong.”
Subaru: “You have no idea how interested I am in knowing what exactly's getting festered but,
guess you don't know the specifics either.”
Garfiel: “My only interest's in my amazin' self bein' strongest. 'F you want the specifics you gotta
grab Roswaal by the collar'n get'im talkin'. Dunno'f you can do that now, though.”
Subaru: “—? What's that mean?”
Otto: “Excuse me. We're just about to arrive, but is it alright for us to simply continue inside?”
Garfiel: “Nah.”
Garfiel hops out of the carriage.
Garfiel: “Go in without sayin' what's goin' on, and all the jitterbugs'll see outsider's n' invaders n' go
full on attack n' it'll be a straight PERFORATED MAGMARIN LAUGHIN'.”
Subaru: “Okay, leaving it to you. Actually, thinking about it, that'd make your position here
something like SANCTUARY’s patrol. Going by conditions when you ran into us.”
Garfiel just waves the question away, refraining to answer. Subaru knits his brows at this, but
Emilia goes “Ah” in surprise which captures Subaru's attention. He follows Emilia's pointing finger
with his gaze, to see someone standing.
???: “—You've returned, Garfiel. You certainly didn't take your time.”
Garfiel: “Didn't hafta make a round through the forest. Not often I see you away from Roswaal,
huh. Finally sick'a it?”
Ram: “Were such a thing to be truth, this place would surely be little more than burned-out ashes,
set aflame by my desperate hands. Express your thanks to Roswaal-sama that no such thing has
happened.”
Garfiel: “'S incredible logic, I don't get it at all!”
It's Ram. Garfiel's smiling happily at her, but Ram's expression toward him is cold and not
particularly full of emotion. Seeing it makes Subaru's shoulders go lax in relief.
Otto: “Ahh, so she would be the older sister I've heard about. I see. This is kind of self-evident, but
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she looks exactly like the sleeping young lady.”
Since Otto's never seen Ram before.
Subaru: “—Ram!”
Subaru leans forward, waving his hand at her, and Ram notices him. Her eyes narrow as she stares
at Subaru, and she shrugs, shaking her head.
Ram: “I would not know how far a territory your noble considerations have broached, Barusu, but
your late arrival is certainly disappointing. Had you noticed the irregularity sooner... ahh, Barusu
could never manage that.”
Subaru: “If you're going to say 'a territory your noble considerations have broached', stick with that
tone the whole way, don't change it! Also this goes for Roswaal too but it's tough to figure out, you
know, what it is you two want. But you're sure good at complaining afterwards!”
Ram droops her shoulders and then looks at Emilia, standing next to Subaru. Emilia's also relieved
to see Ram's safe. But Subaru manages to catch a fleeting instant of pain that runs through Ram's
expression, but the instant disappears into nothing.
Ram welcomes Emilia-sama as well and advises that Roswaal is waiting, so follow her to the
building in the back. Garfiel you escort the driver to somewhere appropriate.
Garfiel complains about being turned into the errand boy and that there are ways of asking for
things that actually make people motivated to do them.
Ram: “If you would like to eat my homemade cooking, endure it. Although I have nothing to say if
you would rather squander this exclusive chance through your own actions and verbal errs.”
Garfiel: “Fine! Fine! You ain't a comprehensible lady, but that's a good thing. Oi, driver guy. Park
the dragons n' the carriage at the end there n' follow me.”
Otto: “I am fairly certain I did introduce myself properly, so would you please stop with the
humiliating moniker!? Or actually, being left alone with this man would place me in not
insignificant danger!”
Subaru shoots Otto a thumbs up.
Subaru: “I'll pick up your bones!”
Otto: “That is unmistakably not a phrase you would use to convey anything positive! Seriously, if
something does happen I'll be claiming for compensation!”
Otto goes and parks the carriage and accompanies Garfiel deeper into the village. Subaru rubs
Patrasche's snout for a bit and watches her off.
Subaru: “Now,”
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Subaru: “There's lots of things I want to ask and talk about, but am I really going to get to have a
conversation in that vein anytime soon?”
Ram: “...Permission has not been granted for me speak on matters. More desirable is that you
converse directly with Roswaal-sama. I haven't an idea how far Garf let his mouth slip, however.”
Subaru: “Garf... oh, Garfiel. He's a lot different from the impression I had of him when all I knew
was his name. Which reminds me, there's something kinda bothering me.”
Ram: “What is it?”
Ram's brows knit and her gaze is strict, but Subaru just crosses his arms.
Subaru: “Does he love you? That's sorta what it felt like from what he was saying.”
Ram: “...And just when I began to wonder what you'd say.”
Ram sighs, sincerely dumbfounded at that one. But since she didn't deny it, Subaru can't hold back a
seriously out-of-place grin.
Subaru: “I won't say he's got strange tastes. You look cute. ...and I think he has the willpower to
keep loving you over a long period of knowing you.”
Ram: “That there are males in the world captivated by my abounding intellect and beauty is
unavoidable. Although, I have already devoted my all to the one I should devote my everything, so I
wouldn't say I desire it.”
Ram turns her back to Subaru and begins escorting. Subaru is kind of thrown by how smoothly she
crushed Garfiel's dreams, and terrified of bringing up the topic he really should bring up.
Subaru: “Being scared of bringing up Rem's name when it's this late already. Not like I'm expecting
anything.”
He's terrified of confirming it. There was already Emilia and Petra, but now he's asking whether her
biological sister has forgotten her.
Subaru: “Can't help being depressed at the assumption. Anyway, let's follow Ram, Emilia-tan. —
What is it?”
Ever since Emilia'd gotten out of the carriage with him, she's been looking around the surroundings,
seemingly unable to calm down.
Emilia: “Nothing,”
She shakes her head.
Emilia: “It's just kinda like, I can't calm down. What it call it... like I have a weird feeling, or... I
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don't really know how to say it.”
Subaru: “Can't calm down. For me who kept home out of people anxiety, everywhere new has that
kind of feeling, but... I don't really feel anything especially bad here.”
Subaru joins Emilia in looking around the place, but the only real impression he gets is one of some
needy old village. The age and lack of repairworks on houses stand out more compared to Arlam
village, but the difference is slight enough to be chalked up to measurement error. But that's not
saying there's nothing uncomfortable about this place. Subaru doesn't understand what exactly it is
either.
Subaru: “Got no choice even if we put our guards up, Emilia-tan. Ram and Roz-chi are here, so all
we can do is say that there's probably no danger.”
Emilia: “It's not exactly putting my guard up... no, I'm okay for now. But honestly, I wish I could've
talked about things with Puck.”
Emilia touches the green crystal at herself, seriously uneasy about Puck's absence. Subaru's not fond
of her seeing her weakness, or himself for not being a presence than can be relied upon for her.
Emilia: “—Subaru?”
Subaru: “Let's go. No matter what happens, just leave it to meat shield #2.”
Subaru takes her hand she used to touch the crystal, turning his head away as he speaks, and starts
walking before she can object. Emilia of course is forced to follow behind. Subaru figures that what
he just did was something liable to make flames spout from his face with how embarrassing it was,
but his emotions acted quicker than his thoughts. Funnily enough it seems not thinking is fine.
Emilia: “—Yeah.”
Emilia doesn't shake her hand free.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
So the house the wind up going to is comparatively more preserved that the other buildings in
SANCTUARY, made out of stone and about the size of an ordinary single-story house in the original
world. Its rooms are divided in a simple floorplan and it's a comfortable enough place. But for
Subaru, who's gotten accustomed to Roswaal's mansion and Crushe's mansion, it feels cramped.
Roswaal: “Heeellooo, Emilia-sama, Subaru-kun. It feels as though it's been quiiiiite some time
since we've last seen each other, hmmm?”
And there's Roswaal, smiling relaxedly and waving at Subaru. It's the first time Subaru's met
Roswaal face-to-face since going to the Capital. Considering that he hadn't run into Roswaal at all
during the last cycle of loops, that makes it closer to a month in Subaru time. Now Subaru has done
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plenty of grumbling over Roswaal over that time, and had thought to give him that slap across the
face as the first thing he'd do upon their reunion, but.
Roswaal: “Fiiiirst of aaaall, that you're safe is more important than anything, Emilia-sama. I heard
aboooouuut the problems around the mansion from Ram. Should anything have happened to you,
I'd suuuuuurely have no will to go to on living.”
Subaru: “If that's what you think then you should've had less terrible preparations in... no, more
importantly, what the heck's happened with you. What exactly is this.”
Roswaal's laid on the bed, his entire body covered in not-superficial wounds, bloodstained bandages
wrapped around him.
Faced with Subaru's question and Emilia's silent gaze, Roswaal uses his relatively uninjured left
hand to flip up the bandages over his left eye.
Roswaal: “Oooohh dear, you asked about theeeese? You are awaaaaare I am still a man? Simply
exposing such a disgraceful sight is enough to wound my pride, so I'd appreciaaaaate it if you could
understand my feelings and put this aside.”
Emilia: “There's no way we could do that. What really happened, Roswaal. To get injured like that...
and especially, when it's you.”
Emilia's fingers trembles as she reaches out, hesitating to touch the wounded Roswaal. Roswaal
gives her a bitter smile and looks up at the ceiling.
Roswaal: “Now,”
Roswaal: “Juuuust where to beeeegin. Weeeeell, these injuries of mine could perhaps be called
wounds of honour, although such would have a strong implication of being unavoidable by my
dignity is how I would liiiiiike to answer.”
Emilia: “Stop trying to get away with roundabout speech. I'm asking you seriously. Roswaal,
answer me back seriously.”
Roswaal: “...It appeeeeeeears even Emilia-sama is not in the best of tempers. Buuuut considering
where we are, peeeeerhaps there's no avoiding that.”
Subaru feels some discomfort at Emilia's stern tone at the exact same moment Roswaal points it out.
Emilia's eyebrows raise slightly, and she frowns a little at the recognition that what he's pointing out
is true.
Emilia: “I feel like I just can't calm down. What in the world is this place? We're calling it a
SANCTUARY, but I can't think of it like that at all. Which would make this place...”
Roswaal: “A witch's cemetery, is a muuuuuch more easily agreed term for it.”
Roswaal's tone drops. Emilia looks toward Subaru, her emotions incredibly complex, and Subaru
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nods to her in recognition of her confusion.
Subaru: “Wait, let's sort out all at once what we want to ask. If we keep talking like this, the
conversation's going to go in some jumbled direction and we won't get anything coherent. We won't
get even a single conclusion.”
Roswaal: “Oooooooh? In the short time I've gone without seeing you, you've become quiiiiiite good
at partitioning boundaries. Subaru-kun, coooould you have had some chaaaaange in your mental
state?”
Subaru: “If we're going to talk about that the conversation's gonna go on for ages, so once I'm done
asking you my questions I'll sum it all up and brag. Ah, right. Just one thing.”
Subaru lifts a finger at the joking Roswaal, glaring at him.
Subaru: “We're in an allegiance with Crusch now. You probably heard about it from Ram, but I hope
this makes you feel satisfied for leaving me behind.”
Roswaal: “—I am deeeeeeefinitely satisfied. You truuuuuly were a find.”
Subaru sighs and closes his eyes at a satisfied Roswaal. Subaru expected this, but it looks like his
actions've just been going exactly with Roswaal's intentions. Anyway.
Subaru: “First, the people from Arlam village. Ram was fine so they're probably okay, but are the
evacuees actually fine?”
Roswaal: “Yoooou can relax about that. Perhaps my current situation doooooesn't make this sound
credible, buuuuut I do have my position as Lord. I wholeheartedly work myself to protect my
people. Everyone's living in the village cathedral.”
Subaru: “The cathedral. Putting that off for now, the next point'd be...”
Relieved at this at least being confirmed, Subaru shoots Emilia a glance. She nods.
Emilia: “Tell us about this place. You called it SANCTUARY. But Garfiel called it the WITCH OF
GREED'S CEMETERY. Which one is true?”
Roswaal: “Both are true, Emilia-sama. This is the site of the once-Witch of Greed's—of Echidna's
end, and a place I personally should call Sanctuary.”
Subaru: “—Witch.”
Emilia: “Echidna...”
Roswaal's reply comes quietly, with none of the clownish behaviour he'd been showing up until
then. What he's saying is unquestionably true. Emilia's breath catches, and after blinking several
times,
Emilia: “Witch of, Greed... a witch destroyed by the Witch of Envy, a different witch.”
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Roswaal: “Yeeeees, exactly. No matter where you look in this world's history, her name remains
nowhere. Except narrowly, in the memories of those who knew her.”
Subaru: “Waitwaitwait, isn't what you're saying weird.”
Somewhat overpowered by Roswaal's gaze, which has one eye narrowed, Subaru continues,
Subaru: “If my memory's right, the Witch of Greed... was done in by the Witch of Envy 400 years
ago. I can agree that this place is where the witch met her end 400 years ago but... there no way it
doesn't sound like you knew her yourself.”
Roswaal: “Iiiii wouldn't say that Iiiiii myself knew her. It's a kind of spoken legacy passed down
through the Mathers family... through the Roswaals for geeeeeenerations.”
Subaru: “Spoken legacy... then, the head of the Mathers clan from forever ago had some connection
with the Witch of Greed?”
Emilia: “—Echidna.”
Subaru: “Huh?”
Emilia's eyes open wide. Her gaze fixes on Roswaal, and after muttering “Echidna” once as if in
confirmation,
Roswaal: “Goooo ahead, refer to her by name. Dooon't you think the address WITCH OF GREED has
a nasty aura to it? And it's cumbersome.”
Emilia: “Er, right. So the site of Echidna's end is this village, which the Mathers family has been
managing for generations... is that it?”
Roswaal: “Yeeeeees, that would be it. Although 'managing' implies more haaaands-on dealing with
it than there is. Echidna's influence still remains here thickly, so entering without taking the proper
methods is not possible. That you have been able to enter... means Frederica assisted you, I am
sure.”
Roswaal nods. Subaru steps forward to get the conversation moving.
Subaru: “I get that this is Echidna's cemetery, and that it's under your management. What I don't
understand from there is its purpose, and why you and the villagers haven't left.”
Roswaal: “This may sound strange coming from me, but you suuuuure accepted that eeeeeasily.
And just when I'd been keeping this place's being a witch's cemetery cooooonfidential.”
Subaru: “The Witch of Envy's another thing, but I don't know about whatever this witch Echidna
did. Being frank, it's probably something that even people who aren't me barely know about either. I
think it's way too simplistic to suppose someone's evil just off the word 'witch'. Do you think it's
possible just going off the word 'half-elf' to imagine how cute Emilia-tan is?”
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Emilia: “...hk. D-Don't you say anything unnecessary. Surprise attacks are off-limits.”
A red-faced Emilia lightly pinches Subaru's side at how that serious talk casually turned into
flirting. Subaru smiles wryly at this adorable counterattack, and Roswaal laughs disgustingly.
Roswaal: “It seems yooou two closed quiiiite some distance between yourselves while I wasn't
watching. I wondered what on earth you'd do about that break-up you had at the Capital, but
seeeeems you did well.”
Subaru: “It's a sorta-love that came at the end of a lot of ups and downs, though. I've got mountains
of things to brag about, but let's get back on topic and get those answers. What this place's purpose
is, and why you haven't left.”
Roswaal: “It feels you've lost your immaturity and become dependable, gosh. Noooow, the reeeason
the villagers and I haven't returned... Speaking plainly, perhaps you'd say we caaaan't go back to
going back.”
Subaru: “Can't go back to going back?”
Subaru's brows knit, Roswall nods and smiles.
Roswaal: “Currently, eeeeeveryone of us, all the villagers are in a state of confinement. Aaaaand,
the moment you entered here, you two wound up in the saaaaaame position.”
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CHAPTER 9: THE CEMETERY

So the word 'confinement' isn't exactly a nice one and considering the circumstances it's unlikely to
be one of Roswaal's shitty jokes. Subaru and Emilia ask if Roswaal was injured by the villagers,
then, with Subaru reflecting that if there's someone in the village who can actually hurt Roswaal like
this it's seriously bad. Since Roswaal is like OP and eradicated a whole forest of Ulgarm on his own.
Roswaal say it seems they've misunderstood and he didn't get attacked by anyone, so they don't
need to be so cautious or try to get revenge for his sake.
Subaru's like relax you haven't earned a favourable enough impression for us to recklessly risk our
lives for you, then points out what he's saying doesn't mesh with the fact that he's 'in confinement',
but Roswaal says some bullshit vaguely explaining nothing, and Subaru puts together that Roswaal
being injured has nothing to do with the people of SANCTUARY.
Roswaal: “It isn't strictly that there's nooooo relation but, if you were to ask whether the direct
cause was due to them I would answer nooooo. So, thaaaat's the sort of thing it iiiiiis.”
Subaru: “So, there's an indirect connection.”
His head tilted, Roswaal blinks at Subaru, looking somewhat daunted. Roswaal gives a small sigh.
Roswaal: “It feels like I'm seeing a child who's all grown up.”
Subaru he's touched on what the root of what the situation is, and thinks of what words to use for
his next question BUT
Ram: “—Barusu, would you care to display some sympathy for Roswaal-sama?”
Ram comes in with a tray of some steaming hot, fragrant tea which she sets down on the table.
Subaru also suddenly realises how nasty this interrogation of Roswaal is when he's like actually
hurt.
Ram: “Have you satisfied yourself with your so thorough interrogation of this wounded Roswaal-
sama? In pain, in agony, on the verge of tears—Roswaal-sama's countenance is drained.”
Subaru: “You're telling me to reflect but that phrasing kills any motivation to do it. And what's with
this pained, anguishing, crying personality you've set up? Doesn't fit him at all.”
Roswaal: “Uu, it huuuuurts, I'm in anguiiiish. Your words pierce scars into my thoughtful,
considerate heeeeeart.”
Subaru furrows his brows in irritation at Roswaal's stupid little banter play. Emilia clears her throat
to get the mood back on topic.
Emilia: “Anyway,”
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Emilia: “It's plain to see that Roswaal's physical condition is less than good, so let's finish our talk
quickly. You haven't had any healing magic done?”
Ram: “As healing magics are outside of my area of expertise...”
Roswaal: “I'm aaaaalso specialised in destruction. I can do generally anything proficiently when it
comes to demolishing, afflicting, bewildering, but not a speck of recovery.”
Subaru: “Man, terrible. This's one of those 'make sure you train your support moves as well as
offence' cases.”
That said when Subaru plays games with skill trees he tends to spec entirely into crazy offence, so
he can't exactly be too hard on Roswaal here, and is stuck having a weird kind of understanding of
this situation. Emilia sighs.
Emilia: “Puck isn't here so it won't be at my usual level, but I'll administer healing magic for you.
I'll need to concentrate for it, so it'll kinda have to be after we're done talking.”
Roswaal: “The Great Spirit isn't here?”
Roswaal's eyebrows raise, and his eyes narrow. His expression is somewhat cold and definitely an
uncommon look for him.
Subaru: “Seriously never see you with that face. You're that surprised that Puck's not here? I didn't
realise you were a secret fluff connoisseur...”
Roswaal states that the only time he's ever been in contact where he's been close enough to
potentially touch Puck was during the mayonnaise fiasco, since Puck is terrifying. After that little
digression, his brows crinkle and he stares at Emilia with his yellow eye, and asks her if her being
off is something coming from a point different than usual.
Emilia is confused and said that there's nothing really different except Puck being missing. Her
feeling off started happened around the time the entered the forest before getting to SANCTUARY,
where she felt the reactions from the spirits as being dull. And whenever she's been outside, she's
been feeling a weird kind of gaze on her.
This is apparently the reason her expression's been clouded ever since they parted with Garfiel.
Emilia says it feels like she's being stared at, and that it feels sooo bad. She thought she might've
just been imaging it, so she didn't tell Subaru.
Roswaal says that Emilia's not mistaken, that this place is uncomfortable for spirits, and that the
people living here have nothing but negative feelings toward Emilia.
Roswaal's ruthlessness in saying this makes some pain flicker though Emilia's eyes, and Subaru
opens his mouth to bitch at Roswaal, BUT
Garfiel: “Well, 'say 's 'bout there to leave't off. Don't push someone all wounded 'round t'hard. THE
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SPOTTED BEAK THAT RAN NOWADAYS IS HOT.”
Subaru: “Probably unfortunately, my level of comprehension isn't high enough to be able to agree
with that.” Something complaining about there being no proper translation of what the hell Garfiel
is saying half the time.
Anyway Garfiel's there leaning on the door, showing his fangs and looking around the room.
Garfiel: “Gran's house's meant'a be the widest, but with so many people here's cramped up 'n stuffy,
oi. Made the right choice leavin' that noisy guy behind after'll.”
Subaru: “Now that you mention it, Otto's not here... did he go home? Did you eat him?”
This question startles Emilia, but Garfiel gives a big smile and slaps his knees.
Garfiel: “F'sure my amazin' self'hs some carnivore blood but nah he ain't eaten. 'Specially when it
seems he'd just get noisier right when I'd go to eat'm. 'S worried 'bout the carriage'r the dragons'r,
somethin'... eh, he came up with some random reason'n left.”
Garfiel waves a hand dismissively, plops himself down in a chair, and looks up at Ram.
Garfiel: “Tea.”
Ram: “I'll go outside for a moment to gather the leaves, would you wait for me?”
Garfiel: “I kinda got an idea where this's going, but what exactly are you planning to with those
leaves?”
Ram: “I have no intention of wasting precious tea leaves on someone who will not recognize either
their fragrance or flavour. Would be my answer.”
And Ram seriously leaves the building. Subaru looks at Garfiel, Garfiel stares at Ram's exit.
Garfiel: “'S worth'n goin' after a strong-willed lady. Ain't weird for a male 't get drawn in by a
strong, excellent female either.”
Subaru: “Males and females, we're not sexing chickens here so you can stop with that chirp-chirp-
chirping at her. She might be like that, but she's definitely a young maiden, that Ram. Which
means...”
Garfiel: “Hmmm? Hell'r you sayin'. 'M givin' her proper lady treatment yer ain't gonna find better.
'Sayin, first'a all, we're...”
Garfiel's eyebrows raise as he realises something, his face sours, and he glares at Roswaal.
Garfiel: “Y'bastard, you ain't told'em yet.'F'd been just you getting' beat up'd be a story t' laugh at.
But since th' half-elf's... since Emilia-sama's here, it'sanuther story.”
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Emilia: “—Huh?”
Garfiel's expression just get more pissed as he snarls at Roswaal.
Garfiel: “You knew th' problems here'd wrap us in too the second Emilia-sama entered SANCTUARY.
So th'hell's this. You still ain't even got t' the main point yet. 'You assholes just come here to have a
play?”
Half of his anger is directed not at Roswaal, but Subaru and Emilia. And the anger he aims in
Emilia is particularly furious. Subaru goes to stand before her to protect her as she shrinks her
shoulders up slightly.
Subaru: “Wait. I understand that you're angry, but it's not apparent to us why you've gotten angry.
Isn't talking with someone who doesn't understand anything nothing but annoying?”
Garfiel: “This's what'm sayin' I don't like. That the people involved don't even...”
Subaru: “The ones looking down on the people involved and pushing things forward would be you
and Roswaal. If you're agonising over some problem and want to do something about it, then follow
through properly with your accountability here. Asking people to understand you without telling
them anything, that's on par with past-me for shamelessness.”
The pressure radiating off Garfiel strengthens. Despite the height difference between Garfiel and
Subaru, and the fact Garfiel's seated, the pressure is so immense that Garfiel may as well be an
enormous boulder to Subaru. And considering that Subaru is naturally timid, it's inevitable that he
would avert his gaze and take a step back here, faced with this. BUT
Emilia: “...Subaru.”
Subaru feels dainty fingers gripped on the hem of his clothing. Emilia's voice is laced with reliance,
and it confers his knees with strength.
Emilia is standing behind him. She's uneasy, and depending on Subaru.
As if he could do something as pathetic as have his knees give out in front of her.
Garfiel ends up being the first one to break the glaring match between him and Subaru. He clicks
his tongue, leans back in his chair, and furiously runs his fingers through his short, blond hair.
Garfiel: “Fine! Yeah, I getit! 'S jus' lashin' out b'fore! Yer sayin' I lost my cool, 's my bad, okay, oi!”
Subaru: “Nah, I'm not telling you that. But have you never had anyone tell you your personality's a
damn pain?”
Garfiel's emotional vantage point narrows just a little, and he immediately becomes objective again
and can admit his faults. Subaru thinks this is such a difficult personality to deal with that he ends
up smiling bitterly rather than being indignant. Garfiel gives a punctual sigh.
Garfiel: “Shutit. My amazin' self'll shut up, so you get the conversation movin'. Since the talk's
gonna go nowhere'f I come'in 'n ain't that goddamn annoyin'.”
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Subaru: “That you can do that much self-analysis and then make a full revolution without changing
at all is amazing.”
Garfiel: “No point'n praisin' me, 'm too dumb to understand it.”
Subaru is just completely fucking blown away at Garfiel, who snorts. And then Ram comes back
and presents a steaming cup of black tea to Garfiel.
Ram: “Here is the very essence of terrible tea.”
Subaru: “Isn't that line more normally used when you're being self-deprecating?”
Ram doesn't give a shit and Garfiel accepts the cup, downing the hot tea in one gulp. Ram gives a
deep sigh.
Ram: “As always, you're a man for whom brewing tea is worthless. Not someone suited to me.”
Garfiel: “'S just tastes like leaves. If yer gonna wet yer throat 's just th'same 's water. Yeh?”
Subaru: “I agree that tea's just the taste of leaves, but even I'm reluctant to agree with that out-there
logic. Ram, are you gonna give him the other cup too?”
Ram gives the other cup of tea she has to Garfiel, the tea having the faint colour of 'dead leaf.'
Subaru notices this but doesn't stop Ram. In fact he endorses this.
Garfiel: “What, yer pretty on th' ball. 'Pressed you knew one cup wasn't enough.... Gak! Augh!? Oi,
you asshole this's just leaf soup!”
Ram: “If you're going to wet your throat, water, tea, and leaf soup would all be the same, yes?
You've tasted some, so do drink the rest. I'll twist it off if you leave any.”
Says Ram as she glares at Garfiel's crotch. This is enough to make Subaru unconsciously cross his
legs. Garfiel's face twists in anguish as he reluctantly drinks down the cup. Roswaal cracks up.
Roswaal: “Ahaaaaa. Are you all worried about myyyyy condition and giving me a rest? Ooooor are
you plotting to make me laugh so that my wounds reopen? If the latter, yooooou've certainly
succeeded!”
He's actually not bullshitting and some blood's oozing out from beneath the bandages on his chest,
which he lightly presses down on. The relaxed atmosphere changes instantly and a pale-faced Ram
goes over to Roswaal's side, placing her hands over Roswaal's hand pressing the bleeding down.
Ram: “My deepest apologies, Roswaal-sama. And while I was even present...”
Subaru: “Or really, you know this's because of your joking around?”
Ram's glare shoots through Subaru which shuts him up. He zips his lip and looks over Roswaal—
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the bleeding's there but it's nothing serious. But probably, his wounds had only just been closed up,
making this the most essential time for Roswaal to be recuperating.
Emilia: “Roswaal, I'll have to heal..”
Roswaal: “Noooooo, that will not be necessary, Emilia-sama.”
Emilia summons spirits but Roswaal stops her. The spirits waver, seeming kind of lost. And Subaru
notices that Garfiel is staring at Emilia with eyes so intense it's eerie.
Roswaal says that Emilia has more important things to be doing right now, since he's not in any life-
threatening condition or anything. So she should prioritise those other things.
Emilia's like there's no way I could do that, leaving behind someone injured to do something else, as
if.
Roswaal asks if she'd say such a thing even when the matter he's referring to is something necessary
for her to secure the throne in the Royal Election.
Emilia's face goes stiff and her eyes open wide. Roswaal's yellow eye gleams bewitchingly, as if
peering into Emilia.
Roswaal: “This SANCTUARY is nothing more than a plot of land passed down through the Mathers
family for generations, but as far as it concerns your future, Emilia-sama, it holds great... yes,
greeeeeeat significance. I had always intended to one day invite you here. —Aaaaalthough your
visit wound up happening somewhat sooner than I'd planned.”
Emilia: “It's necessary...? But, what do you mean when you...”
Roswaal: “The problem this Sanctuary possesses is exquisitely close to the problem you possess.
Thus, it is possible you might find it here. Your foundations, that is.”
Subaru sees Emilia's expression go stiff, Roswaal seeming to anticipated the reaction. Subaru gets
an itchy, impatient feeling, but before he can say anything, Roswaal points at Garfiel.
Roswaal: “A role for you, Garfiel. Escort these two through SANCTUARY—no, escort these two to
the cemetery.”
Garfiel: “—Wow, sure 'bout that?”
Garfiel laughs, his voice low. Roswaal nods and lightly pats Ram's hair as she goes to change his
bandages.
Roswaal says that it's essential Subaru and Emilia know what the present conditions are, and that
explaining can be done after sunset, but not the tomb.
Garfiel notes that the sun will set soon, but also that this makes the story complicated. Either way
he'll do the escorting.
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Garfiel urges Subaru and Emilia to come along, but Subaru resists since they've gotten nothing out
of their convo with Roswaal and wants to keep talking. Ram objects saying that Roswaal's wounds
have opened and that the priority is to have his bandages changed and let him recuperate, so Barusu
you go to the tomb. She follows up by telling Subaru to calm down since they'll talk once it's
nighttime, Roswaal won't be running away. But, if you don't go to the tomb by sunset, it'll escape.
Subaru: “Never heard of such a mobile tomb before.”
Subaru feels Emilia's gaze pierce through him, her eyes devoid of strength and wavering with
emotion. She's leaving the decisions of what they should do to Subaru.
Subaru decides the answer's obvious and they're going to the tomb. It's necessary after all. But
afterwards they'll definitely be getting a proper conversation with Roswaal.
Roswaal's okay with this and hints that after they've gone to the tomb, they'll have more to talk
about.
So Roswaal's satisfied and Ram and Garfiel agree, with the two of them moving to start getting to
their respective businesses. But before they can, Subaru raises a finger.
Subaru: “Just one more thing,”
Subaru: “There's something I want to ask you before we go to the tomb.”
Roswaal: “Mmm, alright? So long as it's something eeeeeasily answerable, go on and ask
anything.”
Subaru: “Then I'll oblige. —Does the name 'Rem' sound familiar to you?”
The first one to react to the question is Ram. And not in the way that Subaru desired.
She tilts her head, as if she's never heard the word before. While Subaru's in the middle of being
dejected with this result, Roswaal mutters the name to himself in rumination.
Subaru: “...So?”
Roswaal: “Hm. Sorry, buuuut I don't think it sounds too familiar. It resembles Ram's name, but I'm
suuuure that wasn't you making a slip of the tongue.”
Subaru: “Is that... right. No, it's okay. If you don't remember, that's inevitable. In, evitable.”
And thus did Ram and Roswaal casually destroy Subaru's faint hopes. These are the two people
who knew Rem the longest. And both of them forgot her.
This truth smoothly settles itself in to the cavity inside Subaru. And once again, stronger than ever,
Subaru becomes conscious of this:
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He really is the only one in the entire world with memory of Rem.
Emilia: “Subaru, are you okay?”
Says Emilia with a concerned voice as she touches Subaru's sleeve. Subaru savours the feeling of
her fingetips as he closes his eyes once, and forces his face into a smile so she won't see him
looking depressed.
Subaru: “I'm fine. Not like I had any weird hopes, and I did know this could happen. —My resolve
that I have to do something is firm.”
Emilia: “Right. We'll do something. I'll be helping you.”
This firm promise heals Subaru's fractured heart. He shrugs.
Subaru: “Restoring Rem means the feelings of love I pour wholeheartedly onto you, Emilia-tan,
will get split. Not envious or anything?”
Emilia: “If it means the volume of the feelings you give me goes down, then I might be. But that
isn't going to happen. Since you said you already had my portion and Rem-san's portion properly set
out.”
Subaru didn't expect that comeback and winces, unable to reply. Emilia smiles, her face faintly red.
Emilia: “Let's go, Subaru. I want Ram and Rem-san to meet each other soon too.”
Subaru: “Uh, uhuh. Right. Yeah, you're right.”
Perhaps having Ram see Rem again would call back her memories, or stir Ram's lost love for Rem.
Ram: “Barusu.”
And right after Emilia follows Garfiel out of the room, Ram calls him to stop before he can follow
the two. She's suddenly standing right beside him with replacement bandages for Roswaal in her
hand.
Subaru: “What is it? If you're looking for bandage play, after I'm gone you can have all the time you
want with Roswaal...”
Ram: “The only one to enter the tomb will be Emilia-sama. You are absolutely not going in.”
Says Ram, so quietly even Roswaal wouldn't hear it. Subaru's brow furrows.
Ram: “—If you don't want to be imprisoned by the spuriousness of a witch, absolutely do not enter
the tomb.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
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The air inside the tomb is cool and clear, with a refreshing atmosphere different from what the word
'refreshing' implies, as it welcomes Subaru.
His footsteps echo through the tomb with each step he takes, asserting his presence in this place
whether he likes it or not. However, the sound of his footsteps in fact brings his heart comfort.
Amid a darkness where even just a few meters ahead is invisible, inside a miasma where your own
existence feels to be wavering, those footsteps become a kind of rescue.
Unaware of where he is and leaning on the tomb's wall for guidance, he walks and walks without
getting anywhere, Subaru feels the illusion that he's standing in place. But his footsteps alone defied
that, and assured him of his forward advance.
He couldn't hope to guess how long he'd spent in the darkness already. His thoughts are vague, and
his throat is frozen. Despite how far he's walked, no exhaustion besieges him, the sensation in his
limbs far too dulled for such a thing.
But he keeps walking. He has to keep walking. He must not stop.

To stop still was impermissible. As was to fail to move forward. Even when it might seem the
weight of the burden upon him may force him to crumble, he absolutely must grit his teeth and
continue walking.
Because if he doesn't, how could there be anything for her—
???: “—I see, so this forms your basis. How precisely intriguing.”
And with the echoing of this voice, the eternal darkness abruptly comes to a close. This void which
seemed a boundless pinnacle far beyond the edge of the world transforms into a narrow, stone
hallway. Beneath his feet is a pile of dust which mutes any noise of footsteps, and most critically,
the filthy atmosphere which seems to be worsening his chest now spreads.
Completely different from the dark world he had just been in, this was place was an old ruin firmly
possessing a sense of reality—the exact surroundings Subaru had predicted just before he entered
the tomb. Subaru is speechless.
Someone is there, walking toward him. And that someone is—
???: “Sorry that this welcome turned into a bit of a tease. I hadn't planned so, but quite haplessly am
I a creature of greed. It's impossible for me to escape what is called the 'thirst for knowledge.'”
A woman, as perfectly white as a field submerged in virgin snow.

Her hair is long enough to span down to her back, pure white as frost. The few areas where her skin
is exposed reveal her flesh to be so beautiful as to be nearly transparent. Her eyes host an intelligent
gleam, and only her simple outfit is pitch-black—a woman symbolising dichromaticism and
adorned with beauty.
Most anyone would be charmed by her at first sight—but Subaru, standing directly before her, has
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his entire body assaulted with an overwhelming terror of a like he's never experienced before.
Even more intense than when he'd first encountered the White Whale.
The woman's hair sways as she narrows her eyes, and she immediately gives a small, perfunctory
nod.
???: “Excuse me. I haven't given you a single introduction of who I am. Sorry for these piling
discourtesies. It's been a long time since I've had contact with people, so it seems I'm not quite back
to form.”
Different from the tone of her voice, her expression barely changes at all as she shakes her head.
She looks at Subaru, who continues to suppress his shivering, as she places her hand to her chest
and quietly introduces herself.
???: “My name is Echidna. But maybe you'd understand it better if I introduced myself as the Witch
of Greed?”
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CHAPTER 10: THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE INCARNATE

About 15 minutes after leaving Roswaal's recuperation hut. Garfiel announces they've reached the
tomb, which is an old ruin made of primitive stone construction, with some shallow cracks along
the walls and dense thickets of ivy growing over it. Definitely over 100 years old.
The entrance faces out toward the forest, but half the structure in itself is swamped by the forest so
it's hard to gauge how large the tomb is. If this tomb is dedicated entirely to the WITCH OF GREED,
then perhaps it's safe to consider it something like a pyramid in the original word.
Subaru: “Guess important people wanting to sleep in giant tombs is the same, no matter what age or
world you're in...”
Subaru tilts his head at the huge scale of the tomb as he rubs his chin. Subaru, being someone who
lives in the moment, doesn't have much interest in what his value will be after death. There's also
the fact that he's not the kind of gigantic person to have their name applicable for remaining in
history. Anyway.
Emilia, standing beside Subaru, looks up at the ruins and asks Garfiel what exactly they're supposed
to be doing here. Subaru, having the same question, also looks at Garfiel, who clicks his teeth as he
turns to face them.
Garfiel says they can get the details from Roswaal after they're done here, but for now he wants
Emilia to enter the tomb.
Emilia asks if that's okay, and tries to get confirmation that nothing will happen if she does enter.
Garfiel says that the sun's up. Even if you go to the back of the tomb, the TRIAL won't start.
Preparations aren't ready yet either, and first they have to check whether Emilia is qualified or not.
It seems Garfiel could just forcibly push Emilia inside, and Subaru interrupts to stand between them
before he can, and hurriedly asks that Garfiel slow down and explain what the hell is this 'trial' and
'preparations' and 'qualifications'.
Garfiel scrunches his nose up and is like, you really think that's a good idea, you'll understand
everything if you go back to Roswaal after she enters the tomb. Garfiel admits he's bad at doing
logic and shit so if he does the explaining it'll turn into a mess.
Subaru tells Garfiel he's pressuring them to sign a contract without reading the contents, no way
they're not gonna be terrified. He goes on to say that if Garfiel's bad at talking about things in an
organized way, then all he has to do is politely answer Subaru's questions one at a time.
Garfiel accepts this but advises they keep it short so the sun doesn't set on them.
Subaru: “This is the CEMETERY... meaning, it's safe to call this the Witch of Greed's tomb, right?”
Garfiel answers that it is, but honestly, no one knows if there's actually any bones buried here. That
it's the Witch of Greed's cemetery, at least, is what both he and everyone in the village were taught.
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Subaru asks what the TRIAL is. Though honestly after the past several weeks he's had, the word
doesn't leave him with a very good impression.7
Garfiel: “Relax, I hate gettin' tested too. So, well, the TRIAL... I dunno the content.”
Subaru: “Hey now.”
Garfiel: “Don't get mad. It ain't like I'm messin' with you. 'S just, I dunno what'll happen inside the
tomb. 'F you don't bust through that Trial, you ain't gonna be released from this deadlocked testin'
site.”
Subaru: “Released... who exactly?”
Garfiel: “This's where th' QUALIFICATION's is. Guys with the qualifications can't leave the testin' site.
'Long as the TRIAL ain't over, you ain't getting outta the witch's possessive hands.”
It's not exactly the best explanation, but it doesn't seem like Garfiel's trying to be misleading on
purpose. That he's failed to give his information more cleanly might just mean his understanding of
all this is also vague. Subaru puts the pieces of what Garfiel's said together.
Subaru: “So only people who're qualified can enter the tomb, and if those qualified people don't
pass the trial, they can't leave SANCTUARY... is about right?”
Garfiel: “Ehh...? 'S sorta like that... maybe?”
Subaru: “I had it pretty succinct and you're really saying it's still not good enough?”
Garfiel tilts his head. Subaru looks at Emilia, she picks up in voicing her conclusion in the wake of
the answer they've reached.
Emilia: “I fell unconscious before when I entered SANCTUARY... was that what was happening
then?”
Subaru: “So that was the boundary line, and you fainted because we crossed over into entrapment
range? No but, me and Otto were lively as anything right then...”
Garfiel: “'S 'cause you ain't qualified.”
So looks like they've figured out the answer as to why Emilia mysteriously fainted back then.
Garfiel points at Subaru with one hand, then at Emilia with the other.
Garfiel: “Half-elf Emilia-sama's qualified. Full pure-blooded human Subaru ain't. So yer free to go
in n' out as ya want. But it means you can't take the Trial.”
Subaru: “Waitwaitholdup. So basically, thinking about what you just said, then it'd mean this?”
7 The 'Ordeal' Betelgeuse talks about in arc 3 uses the exact same word that I'm translating as 'Trial' here.
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Subaru: “That the people who can take the trial are half-elves... no, people who are half-human and
half-demihuman. Which'd mean everyone living in Sanctuary fits that description.”
Garfiel: “—Yeah, 'guess I didn't tell you.”
Garfiel nods and blinks, satisfied. The next instant, his eyes turn golden and his pupils narrow to
slits. His canines elongate and his fingernails sharpen into daggers. His petite body seems to
enlargen—wait no that's not a 'seems.' Short golden fur sprouts down to cover his back, and covers
the entirety of the exposed flesh on his legs.
Garfiel: “My amazin' self's still got alotta blood left. 'V got my own speciality of ANCESTRAL
RETURN.”
Subaru: “...Wow. Can I pet you?”
Subaru forces back the excited shaking in his fingers. But Garfiel returns back to his original form,
thoroughly declining the request. Emilia takes a step forward.
Emilia: “So this village really is a gathering of demihumans...”
Garfiel: “More accurately, 's a gatherin' of demihuman n' human mixed things who came here. 'S a
just goddamn bunch of random races n' similar standin's who're here by choice. 'F you wanna bring
up that bastard Roswaal's DEMIHUMAN FANCY then that's probably part'a it too.”
Emilia descends into thought as Subaru considers it too. The people here would understand the
anguish that the scorned, ostracised Emilia has suffered. That might just be nothing more than
licking each other's wounds. But what did Emilia think about there being something out there for
her that could possibly turn into a thing of licking each other's wounds?
Subaru has no idea how to heal Emilia's wounds without worsening them, having not tasted the
same pain as her. This truth grated on him and vexed him greatly.
Subaru gets back on topic by saying they more or less understand what's up with the 'qualification',
so next is the trial. Subaru acknowledges that Garfiel said he didn't know the content, but at least
the trial starts after sundown.
Garfiel affirms that and again says that he doesn't know the details. The only reason they're here
right now it to check whether Emilia's qualified to take the trials. The trial will start at night, so if
they try then they'll wind up seriously doing the real thing.
Subaru nods at this and stares at the tomb's open maw. Bound in thick ivy, the tomb waits for them,
its darkness beckoning. The weight of the word 'TRIAL' also tips this off, but it's highly unlikely this
is going to get settled just with your average spelunking of an old ruin.
More than anything else, sending Emilia into a place that might be dangerous is extremely difficult
to bear for one Natsuki Subaru.
Subaru: “Sorry, Ram. Doesn't look like I'll be able to stick by your warning.”
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Garfiel: “Whattyou said?”
Subaru: “Shunting Emilia-tan in there's ripping my chest apart with anxiety. So why not shunt you
in Garfiel, as validation and a sacrifice?”
After a second of being dumbfounded, Garfiel gives his knees a hard slap.
Garfiel: “That's somethin' yer'd us'ly say when offerin' yerself up t'go!”
Subaru: “There's mountains of things I wanna do and say to look cool, but just for example let's say
something happens here, then after considering probabilities of survival I'd say this'd be suited to
not-me and instead you. You can stomp the ground to bits and stuff so looks like you've got plenty
of leeway to live. You're the strongest.”
Garfiel is pleased and agreed with this assessment of being the strongest, nevermind the trial, no
matter the danger it's a PENNY-PENNY DOESN'T SURRENDER.
But his good mood immediately vanishes.
Garfiel: “But,”
Garfiel: “Sorry 'cept I can't go in. Contract.”
Subaru: “...Contract?”
Garfiel: “Yeah, 's a pain. 'N toppa that ain't like I even made it.”
Garfiel kicks the ground, clicking his tongue. Honestly doesn't seem like he can go in. So things
aren't looking great. To send Emilia in alone is not happening, but the plan of having Garfiel scout it
first is also a no-go. Subaru can see only one remaining option.
Subaru: “Could you wait here for a sec while I go look for Otto?”
Emilia: “The sun will set while you're off doing that. —It's okay. I'll go.”
Emilia's resolve looks to be hardened as her gaze turns to the tomb's enterance, her eyes hosting
caution for whatever may happen inside. More than likely, she's expecting nothing gentle.
Embracing the same anxiety and fear, that Subaru lacks the strength to pull her hand back truly is
pathetic.
Subaru: “Just a little ways inside... no, if it's just the entrance area then me going in ahead to check
should be—”
Garfiel: “Fine, 's what yer thinkin'? You ain't qualified. Someone who ain't invited tries enterin' the
witch's tomb, and they turn out like Roswaal.”
Subaru: “Like Roswaal... you mean, his wounds were because he went inside?”
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Subaru forces down his shock at this as he turns back to Garfiel. Arms crossed, Garfiel nods.
Garfiel: “'S what happens to unqualified guys who go in at night. 'Cuz it was him that's all that
happened, but wouldn't be weird f'r a normal unqualified person to just burst 'f they went in.”
So Subaru finally understands what Roswaal was getting at with all his roundabout talk. He said he
wasn't hurt by any specific person, which in other words meant this. But that gives rise to a new
question. Why did Roswaal enter the tomb?
He's unqualified. And he surely should've known that.
Subaru: “...Yeah, I'm going in first.”
Subaru puts the Roswaal question aside for now. Emilia and Garfiel are stunned silent for a
moment.
Garfiel: “Oioi, 'd ya hear what I just said? 'S dangerous t' go in without qualifications. Roswaal
turned out like that 'since it was night, but that doesn't make it safe just 'cus it's afternoon.”
Emilia: “Exactly. It's dangerous so you're stopping, right, Subaru? It'll definitely be fine if I go. It's
not something I'm grateful for, but being half-elf could be helpful here...”
Subaru: “You know, it still does make me happy you're worried for me.”
Emilia pulls back on Subaru's sleeves, but Subaru unhooks her fingers.
Subaru: “If you calm down and think about it, this is just the obvious outcome for our roles. That it
might be dangerous inside's the same no matter who goes in. We barely have any information in
advance, but enough to know that it could be dangerous for me. So then it turns into a story of what
we all can do afterward.”
Emilia: “What we can do?”
Subaru: “On the million to one chance something dangerous happens inside and someone gets
injured, I can't heal Emilia-tan. If Garfiel's a man of incredible surprises and he's really a crazy-
skilled healing magic user then it's another story, but...”
Garfiel: “'Can just spit'n most wounds to heal'em.”
Subaru: “...is the suspect's testimony. Regardless if it's me or Emilia-tan, if there's a chance one of
us is getting hurt, I'd like to keep healing magic user Emilia-tan leftover as insurance.”
Emilia seems to get somewhat swayed by this, but shakes her head, not giving up the central point.
Emilia: “A serious injury... or a life-threatening injury wouldn't be something I could heal. Puck
isn't reacting, and I have a limit. Roswaal's injuries are settled down right now, but...”
Subaru: “Well, those wounds of his sure did look pretty nasty. ...But y'know well, try believing in
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the dirtiness of my living and see what happens. I'm more than pretty sure that I rank near the top in
this world for tenaciousness.”
He smiles at Emilia, his words here being not a joke at fucking all. In complete honesty, Subaru
doesn't think it's that common for there to be people as bad as giving up as him. If given infinite
chances to challenge something, he'd surely challenge it infinitely.
No matter how many times he breaks, shatters, he'll keep struggling to reach the answer he desires.
For Natsuki Subaru, this was—
Subaru: “If you wanna, promise? Then you can rest easy. I absolutely am going to return to you,
Emilia-tan. I won't be leaving your side.”
Emilia: “—It's a promise.”
Subaru holds out his little finger as he speaks, his tone somewhat joking, and is surprised at how she
bites at his proposal more than he expected. She holds her pinky out too and tilts her head slightly.
Emilia: “Um, what do we do with the fingers?”
Subaru: “Er? Ohh, we link our fingers together like this... uuhwuah, Emilia-tan your fingers're so
dainty and white and cute and...”
The look in Emilia's eyes urges him to continue. Subaru clears his throat.
Subaru: “Pinky promise if I lie swallow a thousand neeedles.”

Emilia: “Pinky promised!”
They release the pinkies. THE PROMISE IS MADE. This time with the understanding of how
serious promises are for Emilia, so no way he's going to treat this one lightly.
Subaru: “Alright, I'll go take a quick look inside. I'll be trying to look around while calling out,
please keep calling back from outside so I don't get lonely.”
Garfiel: “Seriously can't tell'f yer cool or yer awful.”
Subaru: “Just an advocate of cautiousness.” And he notes how easily he's totally destroying Ram's
warning.
Mentally, Subaru humbly apologizes to her. Spuriousness of a witch—not peaceful-sounding vocab,

but not something he wanted to voice to Emilia. She'd almost certainly end up stressing that she be
the one to go in even harder.
Emilia: “Subaru. If you think it's dangerous, come back straight away.”
She doesn't look happy about it. Subaru shoots her an original kind of thumbs-up using his pinky
and flashes her a smile, then peers forward—into the tomb.
He scales across the ivy underfoot and strains his eyes as he stares into the tomb, where the dark
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makes everything more than a few meters in invisible. But it doesn't look like there's any signs of
anything disagreeable living here.
Subaru fires himself up by using the Japanese version of 'nothing ventured nothing gained' which
has to do with catching tiger cubs and shit. Not like Subaru wants a tiger though.
HOWEVER in terms of fluffy a tiger cub is a very desirable target BUT too dangerous to try for so
Subaru wouldn't say he'd attempt it.
And, the instant he steps on the cold floor of the tomb—
Subaru: “—huh?”
He feels a sensation as if the ground under his feet is fading.

Stupefied, Subaru looks down. The floor is disappearing.
With the floor beneath him going out of existence, he has no way to support his body as he falls
forward. He reaches his arms out but they don't touch either the walls or floor, and Subaru proceeds
to fall into the darkness below, screaming.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The falling goes on for a fucking while. And at the end of it and after his walking around, he meets
the girl. Which is where he is now.
Subaru: “Which makes you the one I found after all that falling, walking around helpless, trembling
in hunger. ...I sure hope you're all satisfied.”
Echidna: “Yup, definitely satisfied. It doubtless seems you're a someone far beyond what I
expected.”
The back of her hand pressed to her mouth, she laughs like kukukuku as Subaru stares back at her
with a cautious gaze. He forces strength into his legs so that he's always ready to run, and opens and
closes his hands, prepared to grab her at any moment. It's a pretty shitty attack plan.
Echidna: “You don't really need to be that on-guard. And besides, I'm pretty sure you can judge
yourself that even against me, you're not too likely to win? Bravery and recklessness are easily
confused things.”
Subaru: “Sorry, but giving up after losing isn't in my character. And telling me not to be on-guard...
do you really think I can do that when I'm talking to someone who introduced themselves as the
Witch of Greed?”
Echidna: “I see. You're exactly right. That was my mistake.”
Subaru's filled with rebellion and irritation, but Echidna's attitude doesn't falter. This could be
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because she has room to be so lax, or amusement at Subaru's struggling. That kind of completely
unimaginable, transcended aloofness. Her gaze is that of someone reading a manga, looking down
at the characters. To her, Subaru's no different.
Which is why Subaru keeps on maximum caution when facing her.

She exerts pressure leagues above the White Whale. And introduced herself as the WITCH OF
GREED. This wasn't some kind of trifling problem of her legitimacy. It's the fact that she's so
overwhelming that even Subaru can sense she's not someone who can just be laughed off.
But she shoots Subaru, sweat arising on his forehead, a glance.
Echidna: “Though, it really does hurt that I'm being treated so cruelly. You know I am just what I
appear, a weak little girl? When a man looks at me with eyes like that, it's definitely not that I don't
get ideas.”
Subaru: “You know that 'little girl' of yours has DEATH FLAG written all over it? Just saying, my
sense of caution hasn't been anything ordinary for quite a while.”
Thanks to dying so fucking much.

Going by Subaru's honed danger judgement, this chick is on par with Betelgeux.
Echidna: “So I guess we can't have a real conversation. That was unavoidable. —Alright, then how
about we do this?”
She raises her hand before her forehead. Right after Subaru swallows his breath at this action, she
clicks her fingers. And the world changes completely.
The cold stoneworks of what felt like the tomb's bottom disappear, and in its place comes a field of
green grass, swaying in the wind—and a little hillock, atop of which the two are standing.
Subaru: “Wha—!?”
Echidna: “If you didn't want to hang out back there, how's this?”
Subaru looks around the surroundings in surprise as Echidna smiles at him and seats herself at one
of the chairs arranged beside the white table atop the hill. She indicates Subaru take the seat
opposite.
Subaru plonks himself down at the recommended seat. Steaming cups of tea are arranged atop the
table, which Subaru looks at speechlessly.
Echidna: “Don't worry, there isn't really anything dangerous in there. If you want I could drink one
first. Though I don't have anything I could show you if you doubt me, and ask whether or not
poison works on witches.”
Subaru: “...I'm bested. Now that we're here my sense of normalcy is just thrown. How did this place
happen? Can you use teleportation magic or something?”
Beatrice has used such magic on Subaru before to dump him in barn in Arlam village from the
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Forbidden Archive. Julius said that's some crazy magic shit but since Echidna's a witch her being
able to use it wouldn't be surprising.
Echidna: “Teleportation... ahh, yin magic. Nope, you'd be mistaken. There's lots of flaws in that
magic. I don't really prefer to use it. What this is is just a tiny bit of an extra kind of entertainment.
Since here, I've got some workable freedoms. This place is my castle.”
Subaru: “Your, castle?”
The field goes on, disappearing without end past the horizon. Yup this sure is something like a
fantastic rather than realistic place. Recognizing this, Subaru swallows his own saliva, shrugs, and
lets a smile rise on his face.
Subaru: “Sorry, but no matter how far I look there isn't a castle or even a shed. So what? Are you in
the middle of rebuilding this castle of yours? Or did you lose everything except the table and chair
to loan payments?”
Echidna: “Huhuhu. You truly are interesting. If you exclude other witches, it's easily countable how
many people could joke around in front of me like that without it deteriorating. I really didn't think
that after death, that count would increase.”
Echidna smiles as she counts off on her fingers, extremely satisfied that she can add Subaru.
Subaru's face scrunches at a phrase he can't just overlook here. After death.
Subaru: “If you're really the Witch of Greed, then going by my memory, you're supposed to be
dead. Even the reason I came here in the first place was to stop by your grave.”
Echidna: “And I thank you graciously for that. I would like for someone to leave some flowers for
me at the entrance. But I'm not quite the most favourable toward liquor, so if my offering could be
something sweet, that'd be great.”
Subaru: “So there's a culture of giving offerings here, in this world... I haven't got any souvenirs and
I completely forgot to buy flowers. So I hope you're satisfied with just getting my smile.”
A smile like a field of blooming flowers. Poisonous ones.

Echidna cheerfully hums at this, picks up one of the cups on the table, and wets her throat.
Echidna: “Even when I was alive, I've never had so much fun drinking tea. Mmhm, even in death
there's things to see. The new discoveries never run dry.”
Subaru: “Whether of not the two of us can have a conversation yet is still dodgy, you know.
...Goddamn it, I'll drink it. I'll drink it!”
It being absurd to keep going while so on edge when speaking to someone with completely no
guard up, Subaru snatches a cup of tea and swallows it all down.
It tastes not like water, or tea or black tea—a mystery flavour. But nothing unpleasant.
Echidna: “You certainly are brave, drinking up something offered to you by a witch.”
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Subaru: “Haa. As if something like this could frighten me. Sides, if you wanted to kill me I'd be
nothing but ashes by the next panel. A cup of tea's nothing to be on guard about.”
Subaru places the emptied cup back on the table.
Subaru: “It wasn't good or bad, but what kind of tea was that?”
Echidna: “It's something produced inside this castle of mine. If forced to say, it's my body fluids.”
Subaru: “What the hell did you just make me drink!?”
Subaru kicks down his chair as he stands up and desperately tries to puke up the bodily fluids he
just drank. Echidna laughs.
Echidna: “That does hurt. I didn't think it was so bad, going by how you looked.”
Subaru: “There's lots of hot girls out there whose bodily fluids I don't have the resolve to drink so
no! Or really even if I had the resolve I don't want to drink anything called 'bodily fluids'! My
fetishes are vanilla!”
Subaru is not excited by spit or sweat or whatever excretions. He thinks.

If they were Emilia or Rem's, he might just think otherwise. His heart quietly hides the thought.
Subaru: “Fuck, I can't puke it. —Hey, this isn't going to do something bad to my body or anything,
right?”
Echidna: “You relax now. The body absorbs it unfathomably easily. Well, they're body fluids.”
Subaru: “You didn't say anything so clever, stop smiling!”
Says Subaru, kind of fed up with Echidna's self-satisfied grin. Looking refreshed, Echidna takes
another sip from her cup.
Echidna: “Either way,”
Echidna: “You really are a mysterious character. That you're standing in front of me normally, like
this, is proof of that.”
Subaru: “How. Are you saying that you're too much of a hottie so normally people have their eyes
implode? Let me tell you, my eyes're constantly feasting on my ideal for hot girls. So even when I
look at you I don't really think you're super cute that often.”
Echidna: “Nope, normal people who stand in front of me puke. Isn't that interesting?”
Subaru: “Um, no!?”
During this exchange, Subaru sits back down in his seat and stares at Echidna. Hair and skin white
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as snow. Black clothes which looked like a mourning dress, and her somewhat childish looks which
convey her a subtle, spicy kind of beauty.
Echidna: “Now—”
Echidna sets her emptied cup of tea down on the table and traces her finger along its lip.
Echidna: “Talking like this is definitely fresh and delightful for me, but... I'm sure it's not the same
for you, right? Don't you have things you want to say, to ask?”
Subaru: “...Yeah I, do. Yeah, I do! I got consumed by the atmosphere and completely forgot, but
exactly. You... no, first of all where are we? Are we really inside the tomb?”
Echidna lightly strokes her hair.
Echidna: “Your question's half correct and half incorrect. There's no doubting that your body's
inside the tomb, but your mind's inside my castle. If I were to tell, this place is a dream.”
Subaru: “A dream? I haven't got your face down nearly well enough to be dreaming about it.”
Echidna: “A dream, but that doesn't really mean it needs to be your dream. This is my castle—so,
it's my dream. Don't you know somewhere similar to this?”
Subaru's breath catches. He gives a small shake of the head.
Subaru: “O-On what basis are you...”
Echidna: “Nothing definite. I just kind of thought you would. Your attitude resembles someone
who's averting their eyes from something they know, is just what I'm thinking.”
Subaru: “...I honestly don't know. But, what you're saying's not wrong.”
Echidna's phrasing wasn't exactly harsh, but Subaru ends up feeling accused anyway. And in
complete honestly, Subaru can't control the conflicting waves of emotion fighting in out in his chest.
Echidna isn't saying anything incorrect, but Subaru's reply isn't a lie either.
When Echidna told him this was a dream, Subaru both understood and accepted that simultaneously
with his surprise. As if such a sensation was something he already knew well, that his heart
understood.
Why did he think like that? No matter how hard he searches his memories for the reason, he finds
nothing.
Subaru: “I'm accepting that this is your dream for now at least. So how can I get out?”
Echidna: “I'd say waking up from the dream, or being woken up from outside. But I don't have a
body to do anything to you from outside, and waking up yourself from inside someone else's dream
is tricky. If I don't think to wake up, I suppose you wouldn't be awoken.”
Subaru: “—! Then, you...”
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Subaru shivers. The term 'Echidna's castle' now gains a more vivid feeling of truth to it. Subaru's
soul, trapped here, is in the palm of her hand. The spuriousness of a witch—the truthfulness of these
words multiplies.
Subaru: “Aren't... planning to let me out?”
Echidna sighs.
Echidna: “I mean, whatever? If you want to go back I'll let you go back? It wasn't me who called
you here, you came all by yourself, sooo.”
Some banter about Serious-san which is far too beyond me.
The time they've known each other is short, but Subaru hasn't got a grasp of her character. Though
you could also say you shouldn't be able to understand someone called a witch in such a short time.
Subaru: “Anyway, if you can let me out then do let me out. There's a girl up there who I'm sure's
worried about me. If I've got the time to be drinking your bodily fluids, I want to be helping her
relax.”
Echidna: “I'm fine with that, but are you?”
Subaru: “With what.”
Echidna: “Going back when I'm right in front of you. —Getting a chance to talk with the Witch of
Greed really isn't something anyone but you could get so easily, even if it's their desire.”
Right. She's right. In regarding her entirely as a threat, Subaru overlooked something huge. If she's
the Witch of Greed, and truly is the existence that was called as such in life,
Subaru: “You... know the answers to the things I want to know?”
Echidna: “Asking me for the whereabouts of knowledge—are you?”
Echidna gives her kukukuku laugh again, her smile this time notably more cheerful than before. A
pressure even more intense than what she was radiating before hits Subaru.
The atmosphere warps, and the atmosphere of blue skies and green fields instantly starts collapsing.
The sky shatters, the field catches flame, the world beyond he horizon progressively collapses.
Feeling a non-existent jolting, Subaru hurriedly reaches his hand to the indeed existent table. The
second he touches it, it breaks apart in his hand like grains of sand.
Echidna: “You really are an interesting being.”
The scenery around Echidna morphs, terrifying patterns embracing the world. The darkness
expands, coiling around Subaru's legs and proceeding to his whole body. Subaru frantically moves
to escape, but the world's collapse has already expanded to the area nearby the couple. There's
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nowhere to run to. And the world's still disappearing.
Echidna: “If we're just trading questions and answers, this space is plenty. Knowing the things you
want to know. A thirst for such a thing—greed for such a thing, is something I approve.”
All that remains is the two chairs that Subaru and Echidna are seated in. Within arm's range of the
other, a world of two chairs dedicated for a conversation. There's no visible end to the darkness
beneath them. Probably not a joke, if they fell they'd never return.
Subaru's spine freezes. Echidna's in good spirits.

She claps her hands, and while staring at Subaru, her eyes glimmering,
Echidna: “So, what do you want to ask? If you're doing it to acquire knowledge, I'll answer any
question. Is it about the WITCH OF GLUTTONY Daphne, who created godforsaken beasts to save the
world from hunger? About the WITCH OF LUST Camilla, who sought to fill the world with love and
gave emotion to those without others? About the WITCH OF WRATH Minerva, who punched all
people into health while lamenting the strife-filled world? About the WITCH OF SLOTH Sekhmet,
who drove the Dragon beyond the Great Cascades just for some peace and quiet? About the WITCH
OF PRIDE Typhon, who brought judgement upon criminals with the innocence and ruthlessness of a
child?”
None Subaru's heard of before—no. This was a list of information almost certainly not present in the
world's existing history. Overwhelmed by the information load, Subaru doesn't speak. Echidna's
smile widens.
Echidna: “Is it about the WITCH OF GREED Echidna, thirst for knowledge incarnate, whose vestiges
even now linger posthumously in this world, desiring all wisdom there is?”
Echidna: “Or,”
Echidna: “The one who destroyed all the witches, making enemies of the world she marked as her
feed, the WITCH OF ENVY—is it about her?”
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CHAPTER 11: SLOTH TO WRATH BY PRIDE

So Subaru's fucking terrified of Echidna.
He can't breathe. He can't register the beating of his heart. Not even sweat rises on his brow, and he
can't blink without Echidna permitting it. Absolute isolation.
Echidna: “Crap, guess I overdid it on the menacing. It's always been that when I get so excited, I
wind up saying too much. Sure is a pain, this witch's nature.”
Even if she realises she overdid it, that doesn't reduce the overwhelming pressure she's exerting in
the slightest.
Their friendly back-and-forth is fucking gone. The girl standing before Subaru now is not a girl. In
the truest meaning, she is only a WITCH.
Echidna: “This happened every so often when I was alive. It did when the royals of every country
came to me to borrow my wisdom and... well, I suppose you have to have some caution while
looking at me.”
Echidna shakes her head and looks at Subaru with her black eyes. Subaru trembles at his
emotionless self reflected in her eyes, Echidna smiling.
Echidna: “Then, maybe this'll suit your fancy?”
The change happens abruptly.
Simultaneous with Echidna's muttering, Subaru crinkles his brows, uncomprehending. Echidna's
smile melts into the darkness, and right after Subaru blinks—
???: “What're you lookin' at—you?”
Subaru: “...Wha?”
???: “You're staring.”
Says a girl now there before Subaru, kicking her legs and puffing up her cheeks. Her dark green hair
is shoulder-length, her cheeks as red as an apple. Her tan skin goes well with her white dress, and
her sweet, youthful loveliness scatters freely about her surroundings. She has an artificial barette of
a blue flower which looks to be her characteristic.
A harmless, innocent little girl—now sitting where Echidna was, staring at Subaru.
Subaru: “Eh, uh, ah? Wa, wait. E-Echidna? Where'd she go?”
Girl: “'Chidna? I dunno where 'Chidna went—but what's with you.”
Subaru: “M-Me? My name's Natsuki Subaru. A lost man neither invited nor summoned, just in the
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middle of going home after some tea... currently troubled by the sudden disappearance of the
landlord...”
Girl: “Ehhh. So—you're 'Baru.”
The girl smiles happily at Subaru's honest self-introduction, which even in this situation makes
Subaru's chest go all warm and fluffy.
The situation is complete chaos, but the instant Echidna disappeared, Subaru got released from all
that crazy pressure. Thinking about it more calmly, this girl sitting before Subaru could just be
another victim dragged here from somewhere else. Have her cooperate to escape from here—
though Subaru doesn't know how much help she'll be, Subaru goes to raise his head.
Subaru: “Okay, first we'll pull a while the cat's away mice will play and work out a plan for getting
out of here. Since there's so little footing to work with the room for thought is pretty narrow but,
first of all would your name...”
Girl: “By the way—'Baru. Are you a baddie?”
Subaru: “...be something you could tell me... what?”
The girl's legs sway and the chair rattles as she goes back and forth. She pouts.
Girl: “Iiii saaaaiiiiid,”
Girl: “Are you a baddie—or not a baddie. Which?”
Subaru: “Every human is a creature of sin, for which living cannot proceed devoid of victims. Thus,
we may have become criminals upon the very instant of our conception in this world. But even so,
people live. They are aware that although it produces victims, they cannot acquire things of worth
without creating those victims... or such kind of philosophical banter feels pointless with a little girl
but, is that what you mean?”
Girl: “Hnnn—I listened but—I don't get it. Ehhh—whatever—just to check...”
Subaru tilts his head. The girl tilts her head at an even deeper angle.
She grabs Subaru's outstretched hand. Feeling how soft it is fills Subaru with new resolve to get her
out of here safely.
Subaru: “I think about this when I'm dealing with Petra too, but man I'm unexpectedly fond of kids.
Even though I hated them for being so noisy before...”
Girl: “SINSCOSTNOTHINGBYPAINALONEATONED”
Subaru: “Nuh?”
The girls whispers to herself quickly. Subaru, unable to catch it, raises and eyebrow and goes to
look at her when he gets hit with a light shock. Alongside the feeling of his arm being tugged comes
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a feeling of liberation as if letting go of a heavy load.

Subaru turns his head, looks around to see what happened, but there's no changes to the world. Just
him and the girl, no sound or wind. But in the girl's hand she grasps a man's arm, severed from the
shoulder.
Subaru: “—!?”
Girl: “It doesn't hurt—so you're not a baddie—good.”
And so Subaru realises his right arm's been plucked off. He feels no pain and there's no bleeding.
The bone, veins, arteries, and pink muscle enveloping them is plainly visible dangling from the
points of severance and looks like something edible you could get at a butcher's. If you removed the
unacceptable reality that it was all protruding out from his own right shoulder.
Subaru: “Uawh, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! A-arm... my aaaaaaaaaaaaaarm!?”
Girl: “But it doesn't hurt—stop yelling. It'll fall if you move too rough—you won't get it back.”
Subaru: “Y, you, youu!? Putting aside you severing people's arms, what, what the fuck are you
saying! G-give it back! Give it back!!”
Subaru glares fucking daggers at this kid while touching and screaming at his open flesh. Give me
my arm back fuck. It doesn't even occur to him that such a thing is impossible.
Girl: “ERRSACTASFETTERSNEVERUNBOUND”
This time it's his legs as he goes to step forward, which shatter like glass from the knees down.
Unable to stop this, he leaves his body to momentum and falls forward into the little girl's lap.
She catches him gently as he shivers, and slowly pats him like a mother soothing a beloved child.
Girl: “You're not a baddie—but you think you're a bungler. You're a kind—good boy. You're so sad
—you're suffering.”
Subaru: “Wh, what the hell.. a-are you...”
Neither his right arm or is shattered legs are giving him any pain. Not bleeding either. She tilts her
head.
Girl: “Typhon's the W ITCH OF PRIDE.”
Subaru: “Pri...!?”
This shock again brings Subaru's thoughts to a stop. There's anger and fear, but he has absolutely no
consciousness of either. He only just met the WITCH OF GREED, Echidna. And now he's suddenly
making contact with the WITCH OF PRIDE. These witches who were destroyed, and supposed to be
dead, are—
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???: “—huu. Looks like I'm up next. haa. No choice but to do it.”
And down comes a tired-of-the-world voice from above, Subaru's shock making him moan with
absolutely all his might. All he did was blink, again. The world hasn't changed at all. He's still
missing his arm and legs. But despite that—
???: “haa, You're pretty heavy. Even though those missing limbs should be lightening you up a bit.
huu. That's a man for you... though don't you think it's better when men and women in themselves
are meaningless, are we're just souls?”
The person supporting Subaru has changed from Typhon to a different woman.
Her magenta hair stretches extremely longer than average, and she gives the impression of being
extremely fatigued but beautiful. Her skin and lips are abnormally pale. Her eyes are narrowed
more with a deficiency of will to live than with sleepiness, and the way that she makes every breath
seem like a pain spreads her environs with a gloomy atmosphere. She's wearing a black robe, but
the filth and frayed patches scattered around it give an incredible impression of this seriously being
the only thing she wears.
She sighs as she looks down at Subaru.
Woman: “haa, You're quite the luckless one too, aren't you. Tossed around by Echidna, then me and
Typhon... huu, having face-to-face meetings with three witches in turn, that's something you'd only
get with say, that moron Flugel or Reid, swisher of sticks.”
Subaru: “Are you, a witch too? That kid before, and Echidna...”
Woman: “haa, I'm Sekhmet. huu, It's really a chore but I guess you could call me or not call me the
WITCH OF SLOTH. haa, Not that I'm asking to be called on at all, it's really all a bother. huu,
Chatting makes me listless, so can you stay quiet?”
Subaru: “Give me a break. I think I'm gonna go crazy. If I don't talk with somebody I'm going to see
what my reality is right now and that is bad. Please, tell me what to do here.”
Subaru has his only good limb, his left arm, grip onto Sehkmet's dress as he cranes his head up to
look at her. Sekhmet sighs with the unconcealed emotion of 'this is a fucking pain'.
Sekhmet: “You've got nothing from your right shoulder, haa, or your knees down. huu, By that style
it looks like Typhon? That girl doesn't understand others' pain. haa, She's exactly a child made
ruthless through her innocence. huu, it's sure something to pity. haa.”
Subaru: “Will, my arm and legs... r, return to normal?”
Sekhmet: “huu, Nothing I can do... ahh, actually this works fine, haa. This was a pain for me too,
huu, so I'll just leave the rest to her and go to sleep. haa, breathing's such a damn chore. Do you
ever think like, if we could get out lifetime's supply of air into our lungs all in one go, we could
settle things there without breathing our whole lives, haa.”
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Subaru: “If that happened our lungs'd burst and we'd die, more importantly what about my situation
he...”
Still looking as entrenched in ennui as ever, Sekhmet bewilders Subaru with her fucking ridiculous
proposition. Subaru goes to tell her off since he wanted a more serious talk with her after pleading
with her, but,
???: “—Did you really just say 'die' in front of me?”
Comes a bloodthirsty voice.
Again, the person before Subaru has changed. That old thicket of hair is gone, and the thing to
replace her in Subaru's gaze is,
Subaru: “...Boobs?”
???: “—! Wh-where are you looking! Where!?”
Subaru tries to look up to see the face of his new conversation partner, but his vision is interrupted
by protruding masses of flesh around the beast region and he doesn't reach the face. The feeling of
this person's lap is plumper than Typhon or Sekhmet's, and her build over all is abundant in
womanly curvature.
She lifts Subaru up easily, one handed—despite his missing arm and legs, Subaru should still have
quite some weight for a woman to carry.
Woman: “You look in the person's eyes when you're talking to them, the eyes! I swear, men are
always like this, unbelievable!”
And viola she's a blue-eyed beauty with wavy blonde hair. She's wearing a short skirt with clothing
that looks easy to move in, and even considering that she's sitting right now, she's pretty short. But
her big chest and abundant curves give her a salacious air.
She glances at Subaru with some anger.
Woman: “Right arm missing. Legs missing from knees down. No bleeding or pain... you got
punished by Typhon! That girl... she went off doing whatever she likes again, she's just awful!”
Her eyes cloud over with fury. Her speech is filled with anger, her attitude with fury, her actions
with violent passion, but tears well up in her eyes.
Subaru: “A-are you crying?”
Woman: “Of course I'm not crying! I'm just mad! Right, I'm mad! At that Typhon, making these
wounds and just leaving them there! And at this world that lets her do these awful things! And at
people fighting and hurting each other and making each other suffer, the craziness of it all!”
And she tosses Subaru into the air.
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Subaru: “Whu?”
Woman: “I won't forgive it! Not pain! Not fighting! Not wounds! As if I could leave it like this!!”
The next instant, a flurry of blows from the woman's fists assaults Subaru. The punches come with
extreme speed and force, and Subaru is jettisoned away. BUT
Subaru: “Bhuh—?”
The blows should've been enough to send him flying, but he immediately hits the end of the world.
It's barely any distance at all. The shock of slamming against an invisible wall penetrates Subaru's
whole body.
Woman: “—Safe! Don't you dare think you're getting away!”
Just as Subaru's about to slide down the wall, another hail of fists pounds down at him, sandwiching
him between her punches and the invisible wall. The force of all her punching transfers through him
into the wall and the foundations of the world start to shake.
Battered around so thoroughly he has no idea what's up down left right anymore, Subaru's
consciousness goes white. All that fills his vision are the fists, and the girl with a torrent of tears
rolling down her face. At he watches the tears scatter into space, he goes to try and complain that
he's the one who wants to cry here when once again a fist pays a visit to his face.
Endless torture in the deepest ring of hell—which ends suddenly.
Woman: “With my fists, I'll restore the world! With my anger, I'll purify the world! My wrath, my
healing fists, are how I answer!”
The next instant, the would shatters, broken to pieces by the force transferred through Subaru to the
wall. The rain of punches stops, and next comes the feeling of something soft. He's back in the field
with the tea party.
Subaru gets up and looks around, dumbstruck. The girl strides over to his side, patting her hair
down, and glares at Subaru.
Woman: “Right arm!”
Subaru: “Hweh!? Uh, yesmaam!”
Subaru unconsciously raises his right arm at him being called, to find that his arm is properly back
in place and everything to his fingertips is back and restored.
Woman: “Legs!”
Subaru: “Are there too. I can stand, walk, moonwalk!”
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He hops up to his feet and indeed does a confirmatory moonwalk. The girl crosses her arms and
nods with full satisfaction as she watches Subaru slide away across the field. Subaru burns that
picture, which emphasises her breasts, well into his memory.
Subaru: “Y-you really helped, thanks. But, just going with the conversation, you'd be...?”
Woman: “I'm the WITCH OF WRATH, Minerva! Nothing worth introducing myself!”
Subaru: “Really now!”
Minerva: “Nope, it wasn't a big deal! I just can't permit there being people being injured, or injured
people where I can see them! It's nothing worth being passed down to the hereafter!”
Subaru: “And yet you still go ahead with working for your own great exploits! You're one of those
people who doesn't listen to what others say, a type I am not very good with!”
Minerva turns her back to Subaru, who's waving his healed arm around.
Minerva: “Anyway, if your wounds are healed then I've got nothing to do here! Now don't you get
hurt by even the tiniest bugbite! That's a promise between you and a witch!”
Subaru: “I couldn't do that even living in a sterilized room! And don't just make these promises!
Breaking a promise with a witch sounds like comes with a seriously heavy penalty!”
Minerva: “No it doesn't. Just, when it happens... Every one will be healed.”
Subaru: “Don't say that like you're gonna kill everybody, it's scary!”
But seriously it's true Subaru's injuries are healed now. She really does heal people by punching
them.
Echidna: “—Now,”
So Minerva dashes off, but before she disappears she turns around and blam now she's Echidna. She
tilts her head, looking at Subaru cheerfully.
Echidna: “I let you meet some other witches to prove to you how harmless I am, but how did it go?
If your attitude towards me softened a little, then waking them up from their sleep was worth it.”
Subaru gives a deep sigh, and slowly raises his head.
Subaru: “No mistake, you are a witch. ...Humans don't think anything like this.”
Is what his spits at her with all the intensity he can muster.
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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.”
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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.”
8 Alpha Leporis is a hare.
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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.”
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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
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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.”
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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,
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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.
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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
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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...”
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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.
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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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CHAPTER 13: ROSWAAL'S INTENT

The first thing Subaru feels when he wakes up is the touch of someone's fingertips stroking his
forehead.
Subaru: “With how dainty and soft these fingers are and how careful this stroking is this is Emilia-
tan.”
Emilia: “—You're right, is it just me that the way you guessed that was sooo terrifying?”
Subaru opens his eyes, but the palms of Emilia's hands are blocking his view of the world. Subaru's
cheeks loosen into a smile at the glimpses of Emilia's beautiful face peeking though the gaps
between her fingers.
Subaru: “Nywhat. I just figured that the only person who'd be pepping me up in this context'd be
Emilia-tan and I went with my gut. Of course I don't actually recognize people by the touch of their
fingers.”
This relieves Emilia a little. She asks if he thinks he can lift himself upright.
Subaru, lying on a bed, uprights himself. He looks around to find he's in an unfamiliar building. The
bed he's on is shabbily built, not even comparable to the beds in Roswaal's mansion that Subaru's
used to. Anyway Subaru thinks back on what happened before he fell unconscious.
Subaru: “How much of that was imagination, and how much of that was reality?”
Subaru puts his hand to his forehead and he puzzles over his somewhat indistinct memories of what
happened inside Echidna's supposed dream, and looks at Emilia. She's sitting on a chair beside the
bed quietly waiting for Subaru to gather his thoughts.
Subaru: “Ummm,”
Subaru: “There's plenty of things I wanna ask and wanna talk about, but... well, first there's
something I have to say.”
Emilia: “Mhm, what?”
Asks Emilia as she tilts her head. —But, there's no smile in her eyes. Her gaze pierces through
Subaru, who scrunches his shoulders up.
Subaru: “I can't describe how sorry I am for making you worry. I got kinda carried away.”
To the extent that he was conceited enough to think he could be Emilia's vanguard. And as a result
he crumbled on the first step. A light sigh escapes from Emilia's lips.
Emilia: “Auugh. I was really, really worried. You screamed and fainted right after you went in.”
Subaru: “Nevermind the screaming, I fainted?”
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Emilia: “Dead away. You were even convulsing so I really didn't know what to do. It didn't look like
you'd been injured, or effected by any kind of strange magic...”
Subaru now figures that when he had that sensation of falling immediately after he'd stepped inside
the tomb, he was already inside the WITCH OF GREED's dream. What Subaru's instantaneous
collapse had really done was force an unneeded burden on Emilia.
He'd gone in there to check there was nothing dangerous, for Emilia's sake. What a fucking laugh.
Subaru's face screws up with self-loathing.
Garfiel: “—Eh? Ohoh, well now ain't you up finally.” I have no idea how to phrase this jab.
So anyway Garfiel's there and comes in through the room's creaky door. He glances over Subaru's
set-up on the bed before turning his gaze to Emilia.
Garfiel: “See, ain't it right like how I said, there ain't anything weird goin' on with his body. 'S just
what it looks like.”
Emilia: “...but still, of course you'd be worried. When someone collapses so suddenly for no
apparent reason. Maybe you're used to seeing that, but I don't think getting used to it is a good
thing.”
Garfiel: “Ha, stop th' blusterin'. Yer're goddamn 'bout'a cry with how panicked yer were seein' him
all collapsed. PALER THAN A PALEMIGRO's what yer were.”
Emilia: “Wha—!?”
Emilia's face goes super fucking red and she stands up, her chair clattering as she does.
Emilia: “I-I wasn't crying. I mean I was worried and panicked, but I wasn't really...”
Garfiel: “Mhm, yeahyeah. 'S was a secret, eh, 'n secret. Real sorry. But ser'sly don't think it matters
anythin'. It ain't somethin' t' hide.”
Emilia: “But it is. If he heard I was worried, that... that I was about to cry, he'd...”
Emilia glances at Subaru.
Subaru: “Hm? Ah, you can keep going. Go on, go ahead, uheehee. Mmhm, really, man. Emilia-tan
was crying with how worried she was about me. Uh-huh, uehehheh.”
Emilia: “...somehow, I just knew you'd react like that.”
Emilia's shoulders fall, devoid of strength. Although indiscreet Subaru can't hide his joy about
having made his honey bunches of oats sincerely worry about him. Seeing the couple's reactions,
Garfiel mutters a very meaningful, “Ah, got it.”
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Garfiel: “My bad. Man, ain't this rare. Me sincerely recognizin' my screwups.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: “If you train it properly, even a dog will practice enough self-restraint to eat only after
receiving permission.”
Says a voice sharp enough to cut. Each word is well-punctuated, but laced with a ghastliness that
prevents Subaru from interjecting between the breaks.
???: “Meaning, you could say that abiding by an order, something achievable even by a dog, is the
absolute minimum form of a promise.”
High-pitched footsteps sound out from the wooden floor at an even rhythm, pacing left to right to
left to right, whittling away at Subaru's mental stockpile.
???: “Now then—”
The speaker's emotionless gaze pierces through Subaru.
???: “What to call a creature that cannot keep the promises even a dog can abide? Do you know,
Barusu?”
Subaru: “I am so sorry for not following your warning!”
Screams Subaru as he gets to his knees and bows his head deeply. But the speaker just tilts their
head.
Ram: “Did it sound to you as though I desired an apology? It almost seems that you didn't hear my
question, or even what I'd been saying just beforehand. Considering that you didn't listen to my
warning, it's certainly not impossible to agree with that assessment.”
Subaru: “Could you please stop with this prickly, indirect sarcasm!? I reflected, and I seriously
think I did wrong, and now here my heart's still getting crushed! It'd be less awful if you just told
me off straight!”
Ram: “Why couldn't you have just died.”
Subaru: “Too straight!”
But considering what he did, Subaru has to accept being content with Ram's merciless scolding. She
went out of the way to warn him, he completely betrayed it, and because of that caused lots of people
lots of problems all over the place.
Roswaal: “Aaaaalright now. Abooooout there is where to forgive him, Ram. I'm sure you've already
received a veeeeery similar lecturing from Emilia-sama? Repeating it woooon't do anything
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eeeeexcept delight Subaru-kun the masochist.”
Subaru: “I'm not a masochist. That I keep stepping on landmines is just my nature!”
Social stupidity, is another thing to call it. Subaru puffs out his chest, and Ram gives a fucking deep
sigh as if she's sincerely fucking dumbfounded at this. She silently turns her back to Subaru as she
goes over to Roswaal, who is still in bed.
Roswaal: “Noooow then,”
Roswaal: “Fiiiirst of all, that you've returned safely is more important than anything. Lots of
arrangements have gooooone awry because of your stumbling before the Trial. Although all your
actions are, is juuuust some callow bungling.”
Subaru crosses his arms and gives a small snort. Emilia, standing next to him, chides him by
pinching his side.
Subaru: “Ow. Owie, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “Usually I'd want to defend you, but you were bad today. ...If I knew Ram had told you that,
I wouldn't...”
Have let you gone first, is what it seems like she's going to continue with, when she stops. Subaru
shoots her a wry smile as he internally mutters, “That's why I didn't tell you.” If Emilia'd known
about Ram's warning, she wouldn't have let Subaru stubbornly take a dangerous role. But on the
flipside, if Ram hadn't warned him, Subaru wouldn't have been so insistent to be Emilia's vanguard.
So basically,
Subaru: “Your warning made nobody happy, Ram.”
Ram: “To speak as if I was the instigator of these events is to be a dog. ...Or actually not. If I don't
amend that to 'lesser than a dog', it would be an insult to dogs.”
Is Ram's counterattack, packed with so much scorn that Subaru actually kind of finds it admirable.
Anyway Roswaal loosely rearranges the posture of his legs on the bed.
Roswaal: “Incidentally, Emilia-sama... how was the cemetery?”
Emilia: “...There was Subaru, so I didn't get to look around very carefully. But I do remember the
nasty smell in the air and the uncomfortable prickling on my skin.”
Emilia's brows scrunch up slightly. Fundamentally, she's the type to get ambiguous when giving
negative appraisals of things. Roswaal gives a small laugh at this notably candid appraisal Emilia's
made, before looking at Garfiel who's leaned with his back against the wall.
Roswaal: “Garfiel. Have the QUALIFICATIONS been confirmed?”
Subaru raises his eyebrows and looks at Garfiel. Garfiel aggressively scratches at his hair, exposing
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his sharp canines,
Garfiel: “My amazin' self didn't go any further thn' the fronta the entrance but... the cemetery's
lights turned on all good n' right. Emilia-sama definitely's qualified t'take the TRIAL.”
Subaru: “The cemetery's lights?”
Garfiel: “'S a bunch of candle-lookin' things inside the cemetery. They got some trick where they
catch fire'n light up when qualified guys go in the cemetery while sun's up. Guys who get that
welcome safely're qualified t'take the TRIAL at night.”
Roswaal: “And if something lacking those qualifications forcibly enters the cemetery, theeeeey turn
out like me ooooor Subaru-kun.”
Roswaal spreads his arms out, indicating his own physical state, the bandages covering his entire
body even now stained with blood.
Subaru: “Man, really feels like there's a difference in how heavily our penalties were. Did you get
up to more mischief than me, who just entered the place?”
Roswaal: “Mischief, suuuuch as?”
Subaru: “Pissing across the tomb's entrance or something. That'd get the cemetary's manager mad.”
Roswaal: “If I diiiid, then that would mean that yoooou collapsed in a place tiiiiiinkled with my
wee.”
Subaru briskly brushes off his whole body at that, his face disgusted. Roswaal smiles at Subaru's
behaviour and shakes his head.
Roswaal: “Buuuuut,”
Roswaal: “Faced with the same refusal but met with differences in severity... is soooomething I'm
impressed you noticed. The difference in the wounds that Subaru-kun and I haaaave indeed is large.
But the reason is simple.”
Emilia: “...Mana Gate frenzy.”
Emilia: “When I entered the cemetery, it felt sooo bad. I think it's because something was meddling
with my gate. I didn't have problems with any of the conditions, so it looks like it let me go... but
for people who don't match the conditions, it bares its fangs.”
Emilia: “The interference goes through the gate to attack its target. ...Which means, the more gates
the person has, the more damage the interference will do.”
Roswaal: “Correct. Aaaand when you're me... well, it's a miiiiiracle I didn't burst.”
Roswaal closes his eyes and looks at Subaru like, “Good thing you're untalented.”
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Subaru: “So basically, a mage overflowing with ability would be near-death. All I got was a loss of
consciousness. Man, it's a good thing I've got such little potential as a mage.”
Emilia: “I, I mean yes, but... Doesn't that judgement of yourself hurt?”
Subaru: “I'm relatively accustomed to being made aware of the things I can't do and can't achieve.
It's okay, Emilia-tan, it's by things only I can do that I show my love for you. So for now are we
good to start that list with 'whispering you husky loves'?”
Emilia: “After the Royal Selection's over and things've calmed down I'll think over it for you.”
Subaru: “So at least three years away!?”
Subaru: “But,”
Subaru: “Leaving the qualifications or whatever aside, that place kills mages. No idea who set that
up, but all there's to say about them is they're a dick.”
Roswaal: “Considering that the Mathers family has managed the cemetery for generations, you
realise the one who constructed the algorithms wooooould have been one of my ancestors.”
Subaru: “Er, sorry... or not really. The hell. That fits way too well with my image of your ancestors.
It's like they're reincarnating all over, Roz-chi's family.”
Behold, the theory of the previous generation's head dying and using the next generation's head as a
puppet for their will. Just thinking it is fucking terrifying and Subaru shakes his head to deny it.
Roswaal smiles as if caught off-guard by a joke.
Roswaal: “There was a clan that researched such magic buuuuut they were almost definitely
plucked to nothing quiiiiiiiiiiiite a long time ago. ...And, though you're saying the cemetery's
environment kills mages, theeeeeere's a more accurate way to describe it.”
Subaru: “Being?”
Roswaal: “It's simple. —That place is filled with witch's miasma. It's a nightmarish environment
that makes people passing mana through their gate go insane. Thaaaat's what you call miasma.”
Subaru knits his brows at the word 'miasma.' He trawls his memory to find where he's heard to
before, and if he's right, it was when talking about—
Subaru: “The Witch of Envy. If I remember correctly, the place where she's sealed is full of that
miasma or something or other...”
Roswaal: “Hoooow impressive that you knew. Weeeell, that's because it's a well-known story. Even
now, the shrine with the witch-sealing stone where the Witch of Envy sleeps is filled with miasma
thick enough to distort everything in the observer's view. If the miasma in the cemetery rejects
things unfitting to the conditions, the shrine's miasma is an indiscriminate mind-invading, flesh-
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destroying, soul-degrading phenomenon of genuine malice. It's rumoured that even followers of the
Witch Cult, with their machinations to revive the Witch, caaaaan't get anywhere near it.”
Subaru: “So even the cultists can't get in... no, actually that's apparent. If they get in and can
unfasten the seal, they'd win by distracting public attention somewhere else and rushing into the
shrine.”
Subaru thinks of Betelgeux, who screamed that reviving the Witch was his ultimate goal.
Even that love-shrieking madman hadn't started enacting any plans to free the Witch through direct
methods. Considering that he was actually a spirit, maybe the better way to think is that he'd be
powerless when faced with miasma.
Roswaal: “Aaaaanyway, the Witch's own miasma prevents anyone from approaching the Witch's
seal, so no one can unseal it. And that's without touching on that you'd have to sneak by the Sage
Shaula, guarding over the land from the Watchtower, iiiiiiiiiiif you want to approach the shrine.”
Subaru: “I've heard that somewhere before, that Sage Shaula. That makes her the second Sage I
know. Flugel, and this Shaula.”
Roswaal: “Flugel, the tree Flugel? Iiiiiit's true that he's called a Sage, buuuut to compare him to
Sage Shaula is just a liiiiiiitle rough.”
Subaru: “What. They're both Sages, don't play Sage favourites. You won't get away with slighting
Flugel-san in front of me, when I kinda owe him.”
Either way, Flugel seriously helped out for the White Whale subjugation. Mr. Flugel couldn't have
possibly thought that the tree he planted would help exterminate a monster 400 years in the future.
Whether or not he'd be happy about that is another story.
Subaru: “With a tree that gigantic, the felled portion can definitely be used for lots of different...
actually no, maybe there's a chance it all blew up during that commotion with the time bomb?”
Roswaal says some bullshit and calls Emilia's name in a low voice, getting the focus back on her.
Emilia raises her head.
Roswaal: “To return to the topic, that you're qualified is mooooore important than anything. Now
you can take the TRIAL in the cemetery. And in saying, there's something I have to ask.”
Roswaal says solemnly, in a low voice devoid of any clownishness. Emilia's gaze turns serious as
well.
Roswaal: “It is a simple question. —Will you be willing to take the TRIAL?”
Subaru: “I got something to ask before she answers. Why exactly does she have to be taking this
TRIAL?”
Says Subaru before Emilia can answer, taking a step in front of her and raising his hand. Ram's eyes
take a dangerous glint, but Roswaal puts her in check by also raising a hand.
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Roswaal: “Sooooounds like a question yooooou'd ask. If the TRIAL isn't taken, those with the
QUALIFICATIONS can't leave Sanctuary. Perhaps you've heard this much froooom Garfiel?”
Subaru: “Yeah. But that's no reason for Emilia-tan having to do it. That Witch of Greed's cemetery
goddamn reeks of mould. We don't know if something dangerous'll happen in there. How could
Emilia-tan, important person and Royal Selection participant, be forced to go in there? The heck is
up with that?”
Roswaal: “Hmmm. Weeell, call it sensible and it iiiiiit's sensible logic. Iiiiif we're just looking for
someone to take the TRIAL, then a different qualified person... that alone, theeeeen I wouldn't care if
Garfiel did it.”
Garfiel: “Eh? The amazin' me, seriously? Ain't like I really mind. I challenge the TRIAL n' blast right
through n' it'll be a BARBARMOA'S RIGHT-RIGHT-LEFT.”
Garfiel points to himself with his thumb and smiles wide. Subaru ignores what he's saying and
focuses more on whether what he's saying can be trusted. If the Trial's something that only has to be
beaten by one person, then there's no need for Emilia to do it. It's better that someone else qualified,
who has a more certain chance of getting through does it.
Even if that meant, worse case, that it be the qualification-granted Subaru.
???: “Nyerr, that'd be a tidge'r a problem.”
Says a voice Subaru's never heard before from the entrance of the room. Subaru glances back in
surprise and looks at Garfiel, leaned against the door, who waves his hand in front of his face.
Garfiel: “Ain't the amazin' me. 'S this old hag.”
Says Garfiel as he uses his hand to indicate to the space beside him. Subaru lowers his gaze to find
someone even more petite than Garfiel there, standing beside him.
???: “Who'ser old hag. Were yer raised as er ferl-mouthed, stinking little brat?”
Says a tiny, tiny little girl with long, wavy pink hair, her attitude that of an adult.
Her facial features are well organized, and she's a cute little girl. About as old as Petra, so around 11
or 12. Her hair is fine and fluffy. She's wearing a white robe where the sleeves are so long that they
dangle, her hands only just peeking out.
Going by how she speaks and how Garfiel addressed her,
Subaru: “I thought it'd be coming someday but seriously how is this where it shows up, the
loligranny!”
Girl: “I gotter feeling I just gert called something innerpropriate, er is it just me?”
Emilia: “Uhmm, I think he uses 'loli' a lot with Beatrice... it means small, right?”
The little girl looks up unsatisfied at a stunned Subaru, who hears Emilia's muttering, which shows
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clear proof of her high experience points in knowing Subaru. Subaru raises a finger.
Subaru: “Yes, correct Emilia-tan. To be more specific, it means 'too young to be in my conquest
range'. By adding the words 'loli' and 'granny' together, we complete the miraculous combination of
a youthful exterior and a granny's interior! Personally loli characters are out of my reach anyway so
you have that, but I can understand the excellence of gap moe!”
Girl: “Gyahp moay?”
Subaru: “Girls who usually act like the chivalrous older sister type, but some tiny parts of
childishness or lack of everyday knowledge or sincere gullibility show through, that is yet another
form of gap moe!”
Emilia puts her finger to her lips saying, “So there are girls like that...”, her face showing assent.
That Emilia didn't notice that those traits all applied to her is unbearably adorable for Subaru, but
the little girl doesn't look so pleased.
Girl: “So? I dern't know what this loli yer talking abert is, but yer mean me with that 'granny granny
granny' yer doing. We gert someone even ruder than Roz-bo on their ferst meeting here.”
Subaru: “Oop, excuse me for that, mademoiselle. My name is Natsuki Subaru! Heartthrob
witchbeast hunter. Well, but I mean I wasn't the one who got the finishing blow on either of them
though.”
He says with an energetic thumbs up, and his introduction comes to a somewhat disappointing
close. He points his palm at the little girl, who looks suspicious about all this.
Subaru: “Now I've given my name, so time for you to please introduce yourself as well. Give a
simple profile of hobbies + skills. If you could throw in your most attractive feature too then that's
even better.”
Girl: “...Lewes Meyer. I'm sermething like the representative erv this Sanctuary, more er less.”
Her fingers alone peeking out of her sleeve, Lewes scratches her forehead.
Lewes: “Didn't nertice it when you werr sleeping, but yer really a sad boy who goes past just being
rude. Feel it wers a waste giving yer the bed.”
Subaru puts together that the bed he was sleeping on is the one Lewes is talking about, so that
means...
Emilia affirms that this is Lewes' house. It's close to the cemetery, and Garfiel carried Subaru here.
She thanks Lewes for everything.
Emilia bows her head, Lewes shakes her head loosely. It seems that the two have become
acquaintances while Subaru was asleep. And if it's true that Lewes was looking after him,
Subaru: “I'm sorry for being rude and inconsiderate of what you've done for me. That you lent me
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the bed sincerely helped me out. And my apologies came late too, sorry for all this piling up!!”
Lewes: “...What, I'm serprised. So yer not like Gar-bo and can give an honest apology. Yer were
Natsuki... yer Subaru. Su-bo, then.”
Subaru complains a little about that form of adresss sounding like a sibling giving a weather report
but it's fine, he'll be calling her Lewes-san.
Lewes loses her dissatisfied expression.
Subaru: “By the way,”
Subaru: “You said before that it would be a problem, but why is that? Is there some kind of problem
that would happen if Garfiel cleared the TRIAL?”
Lewes: “Quick ter change gears, aren't yer. Yearh, yer right. It's a problem. A big problem. Anyone
from Sanctuary tries challenging the TRIAL, and it goes against the contrect.”
Subaru: “Contracts again...”
Subaru's face sours and he looks at Roswaal. Roswaal shrugs.
Roswaal: “Uuuuuunfortunately, that contract is completely unrelated to the Mathers family... is not
how unrelated it is to cleeeeeearly assert that, but the Mathers aaaaaren't the main culprit. My
family is eeeeeextremely auxiliary in it.”
Subaru: “Your defence proclamations are whatever so get explaining. Details of the contract's
contents, in three sentences.”
Roswaal: “Striiiiiiict. Weeeell, putting it simply, the TRIAL must be overcome for the residents of
SANCTUARY to be released, buuuut the one to challenge the trial needs to be someone from the
outside wiiiiith qualifications. Sooooo, with the current situation...”
Emilia: “I'm the only one who can do it, is what it is.”
Roswaal nods and looks at Lewes.
Roswaal: “Aaaaand, all the residents of SANCTUARY have aaaaaalready agreed. They're expecting
that Emilia to challenge the TRIAL, and cooooonquer it.”
Emilia: “I don't want you to think I'm shying away by asking this, but... just for example, what
would happen if someone other than me challenged the TRIAL?”
Lewes: “Nobody, er at least nert since I've been erround, has challenged the Trial. So I can't say
anything to yer example. That no-one's challenged it is the same fer both residents and outsiders.”
Subaru: “No one at all until now? I'm terrified to ask but, Lewes how old are you.”
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Lewes: “Well at least I don't know abert the time when this place wers made. I think it's been
erround one hundred and something-teen yeers, but...”
Subaru: “Way more than enough! You're the oldest person I've met until now, at least.”
If you ignore spirits and witches with mental bodies. Subaru then glances at Emilia with concern,
but even so, Emilia's expression doesn't lose its darkness.
Emilia: “Anyway, I understand the circumstances.” And she boldly accepts the challenge of taking
the trial.
Subaru: “You're really attractive when you're brave and determined, Emilia-tan, but shouldn't we
look for a slightly more careful plan? We search for a backroad or a sidepath or something, and I
don't think we'll be too late to do the challenge afterwards.”
Emilia: “I think it's sooo not good to rain on people's parades when they're motivated.”
Subaru: “It's just, there's something suspicious or I guess we're being forced onto this ride or I
guess, something but I can't get rid of this uncomfortable feeling, honestly. Things seem a little too
organized, like preparations were in place for us to go on this path and now it's even going as far as
controlling the traffic.”
Emilia: “I have no idea that means. Subaru, sometimes you say things that're sooo bamboozling.”
Subaru: “Who says bamboozling anymore?”
Emilia's gaze only gets sharper. Subaru frantically waves his hands about.
Subaru: “Nonono,”
Subaru: “Nevermind that, I mean that this situation feels way too set up. Being called into a place
where mixed races can't leave means you have to endeavour to get out, Emilia-tan. And on top of
that, everyone's already gotten everything explained and understood.”
Emilia: “Set up, by who.”
Subaru: “Who? There's only one person who coulda.”
In response to Emilia's question, Subaru does a turn on the spot. Once he reaches the end of his
rotation, he jabs out his finger straight ahead.
Subaru: “You!”
Garfiel: “Ehh? My amazin' self?”
Subaru: “Er, no, sorry, I turned too far. Thiswaythiswaythisway—there, you, Roswaal.”
Roswaal: “Nooooothing could've been sloppier.”
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Roswaal immediately closes one eyes, and with Subaru reflected in his yellow eye,
Roswaal: “Buuuut, your guesses are as good as always. These circumstance aaaaaare something I
desired and created. Ooooof course, I didn't go as far as contributing the stage itseeeeelf.”
Subaru: “You know, I think I've got it.”
Subaru: “First, I thought your injuries were strange. You should've known that you're not qualified
to challenge the TRIAL. This land is under the Mathers family's management, and you're
acquaintances with Garfiel so this's apparent.”
Roswaal: “That's... correct. Mhm, you're right.”
Subaru: “So, you should've known that your unqualified self'd be rejected if you tried going in. But
then why did you enter the tomb? Some kind of arbitrary rebellion against the world? Or you
crossed the limit of how long you could suppress your masochism? Both ideas are likely, but I think
it was neither.”
Roswaal: “Myyyy gooooodness. Iiiiis this the image of me that's inside you, Subaru-kun?”
Subaru: “Meaning,”
Subaru: “If being injured like this is exactly what Roswaal intended, there's significance to it. And
I'd wager that significance, probably, is connected to the Royal Selection.”
Roswaal goes silent.
Subaru: “Also by the way something I wanna ask real quick. The Arlam villagers are gathered
inside the cathedral right now, yeah?”
Off Subaru goes doing a high-speed topic change, aiming his question this time at Ram. She nods.
Ram: “Yes, they are. The civilians are all together in the cathedral... which would place them in
confinement by the residents of Sanctuary.”
Subaru: “There you go, confinement. Before, our talk wound up getting cut off to go see the
cemetery, but... what exactly is with this 'confinement'. Why is it necessary for these guys from
Sanctuary to confine Roswaal and the villagers?”
This time, Subaru points the question at Garfiel. His sharp gaze narrows further.
Garfiel: “Ain't it obvious?”
Garfiel: “'Sayin', this ain't us try'na getta way outta some troubled times. It don't feel good for'r
problems t'be left lyin' there n' then have the Lord n' his tag-alongs come 't use our circumstances
nicely.”
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Subaru: “And your problems are of course...”
Lewes: “That we can't leave Sanctuary fer the outside werld, 'd be it.”
Some gloom runs over Lewes' face, her voice thin.
Lewes: “Just like how I said befer, it's already been a hundred and some decades since I wers born.
But I've never gone ertside Sanctuary. I've been bound ter this land by contract ever since my berrth.
Which's why I'd half but given up, but... I haven't let go'er hope.”
The mood of the room changes. Lewes and Garfiel have just given the reason why Subaru and the
others are confined here—that is, they just confessed motive for the crime. Subaru hadn't been
consciously aware of this until now, but his relationship with these two is one of detainers and
detainees. An assailant and a victim.
Subaru: “So then it's that. You're taking the villagers as hostages... and your demand's to be released
from SANCTUARY.”
Lewes: “Dersn't bother me if that's how yer take it. And, the person who can ferfil that condition
is...”
Lewes glances at Emilia.
Emilia: “Me. —That's what's happening here.”
Emilia accepts this with understanding, and closes her eyes for several seconds. When she opens
them again, there's not a trace of doubt. Her resolve is firm.
Emilia: “You haven't done anything bad to the villagers, have you?”
Garfiel: “'F course not. Treatin' them nasty when's like this's 'same 'xact thing as lashin' out. 'D
rather die than be that dishonest.”
Emilia's ability to put herself second truly is amazing. That her attention turns to the villagers and
strangers when she's also deciding to challenge a maybe-dangerous Trial is good proof of that.
Perhaps that strength and weakness of hers is why Subaru never stops being allured to her.
Roswaal: “Yoooou don't look satisfied.”
Subaru: “...Of course I'm not. None of this changes that we're just going along with your intentions.
All that's changed is us going from not realising we're going along with it, to us knowing that even
though we realise we're going along with it we have no choice but to go along with it.”
Subaru grits his teeth to hold back his frustration and clicks his tongue at Roswaal, who's looking at
him with a smile in his eyes. Subaru then suddenly glances back at Roswaal as if remembering
something.
Subaru: “I forgot to mention this, but about the motive behind those injuries.”
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Roswaal: “Mmhm mmhm, do go on. Iiiiii won't be grading you.”
Subaru: “It's a performance. No, it's an opening gambit.”
Roswaal's expression hardens slightly. Subaru closes one eye.
Subaru: “I doubt the Arlam villagers'd accept being in confinement so easily. Some backlash must've
happened. To settle that, I think something indicating action was necessary. If you the Lord could've
got violent and driven Garfiel away or something, that would've been fine, but... the people of
Sanctuary are under your governance too. You can't do something like that.”
Roswaal: “Hmm. Aaaaand what happens then?”
Subaru: “They have no choice but to swallow down the conditions Garfiel's side puts out. That is, the
release of the mixed-races from Sanctuary. But for that, Emilia-tan's cooperation is entirely essential.
But, neither the residents or the villagers would just accept that. Which means the story's simple. —
If you go to challenge the TRIAL, which shows intention to follow the residents' demands, as well as
displays a will to release the villagers from confinement, everything works.”
Roswaal goes silent.
Subaru: “I don't know if you predicted how much damage you'd take from the miasma, but if you
estimated it wouldn't kill you, it'd be unfavourable for you not to challenge it. Ultimately, the more
damage you take, the more serious your attempt appears and the more sympathy you earn. And this
arrangement also puts expectations on the next big challenger.”
So basically, fucking everything about him being wounded is exactly according to Roswaal's
intentions, and exactly how he played the whole scene out. The villagers know how strong Roswaal
is. And the Trial can wound him this badly. So what would they think of someone who could come
along to scale this wall and save them?
Subaru: “That's all. It's just an impression built off a bundling of malice and prejudice, but how's the
answer sheet look like?”
Roswaal: “—Myyyyy, I aaaaaaam surprised. I am truly, sincerely, sincereeeeerely surprised.

Juuuust what on earth has happened to yoooooou over the past few daaaaaays?”
Roswaal laughs from the back of his throat, claps his hands, and pulls his face back into a cheery
smile.
Roswaal: “Woooooonderful. You certainly reached what's almost peeeeeeeerfectly the correct
answer. I didn't believe you'd be able to read this far. Iiiiiiiindeed, you truly weeeeeere a find.”
Subaru: “Lovely, thanks. Makes me wanna puke.”
Unable to hide the bad feeling in his chest, Subaru shifts his gaze aside. Roswaal's intentions are
clearly for Emilia's benefit, and that Subaru internally does approve of them just makes his chest
feel worse.
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Emilia hasn't noticed this little chat going on between the two, and Subaru has absolutely no
intention of telling her about it.
But if Emilia is always facing only forward, then good.

Subaru didn't want to inform her, who desires purity and nobility, of the dark background dealings
going on. If Subaru covering himself in mud can get Emilia to receive showers of praise, then good.
As of yet, Emilia has no achievements recognised for the Royal Selection, and no firm stance.
Subaru again resolves to work as hard as he can to help her.

Behind Subaru's back, with his weight leaned onto the bed, is Roswaal.
Roswaal: “...Almost, the correct answer. That waaaasn't the only reason I entered the cemetery.”
He mutters so quietly that it only reaches the ears of Ram, who lowers her pained gaze.
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CHAPTER 14: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Roswaal: “The White Whale has fallen, and the Cardinal of Sin targeting the mansion has been
repelled. We are now allied with election candidate Crusch-sama. Any one of these battles alone is a
considerable achievement—Hmmmmm.”
Says Roswaal, still in bed, as he rubs his chin and closes his eyes. Subaru's told him all that's gone
on while he's been absent.
Ram: “...To be blunt, these activities sound braggartly and suspect. When did you become a
character in an action play, Barusu?”
Subaru complains that it's kind of irritating hearing her say that but he can't exactly disagree he
thinks it sounds unbelievable too. Both by his own and by others' estimates its just SLIGHTLY
crazy levels of doing shit.
Roswaal: “This is uuuuunmistakably an unexpected result. Even I... no, not anyone cooooould have
predicted that you would have done thiiiiiiis much.”
Roswaal nods, seemingly over his surprise. His expression is still weirdly serious for him as he
stares at Subaru, who is seated in a chair at Roswaal's bedside.
Roswaal: “First, allow me to convey you my gratituuuuuude. —I thank you for protecting my land
and people. And, being her backer, I cannot thank you enough for the great services you have
devoted to Emilia-sama.”
Subaru: “O, oh. Huhhah. Ummhuh, I hear that and even I might just maybe slightly wind up curling
up a little. I didn't do anything that...”
Ram: “It seems you don't quite understand the weight of Roswaal-sama's thanks, Barusu.”
Ram takes a step forward and looks down at Subaru, who is attempting to get Roswaal to stop, with
her penetrating gaze.
Ram: “To interrupt your superior when he is speaking, and evenmoreso to fling denials at an
expression of gratitude, are fundamentally unforgivable acts. That is without mentioning that
Roswaal-sama commands the station of Margrave, an important individual who bears full authority
over a section of the Kingdom of Lugnica. —His words of gratitude are infinitely heavier than what
you believe, Barusu.”
Subaru goes silent.
Ram: “Considering Roswaal-sama's superior position, it is no simple act that he may bow his head
or proffer words of gratitude to an inferior. Do understand more prudently that he is doing so.”
Subaru has no refutation to this and lowers his gaze. Roswaal casually raises a hand like oh lol no
big dealio.
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Roswaal: “Ram's making a sliiiiiiiiiightly tremendous exaggeration. My words don't nearly have
sooooooooo much worth.”
Ram: “Roswaal-sama.”
Says Ram concerned. Roswaal gives a nod.
Roswaal: “Thaaaaat said,”
Roswaal: “Leaving aside the weight of gratitude given from my position, the weight of what you've
done, Subaru-kun, is obvious to anyone's eyes. Aaaaaaand I can easily imagine being the recipient
of much disappointment and grumbling for not giving appropriate compensation, soooo.”
Subaru: “...Then, you mean you're conciliating?”
Roswaal: “Through appropriate compensation. —Subaru-kun, do you remember what happened in

the hall for the Royal Selection?”
Subaru's throat catches, Roswaal narrows his eyes. Even now remembering what happened then
makes Subaru's chest burn with shame and self-ridicule.
Subaru: “I remember. Wouldn't forget it. ...Better I don't forget it, I think.”
Roswaal: “Then, here is how I would like to reward your achievements. Let us make when you said
then become the reality. —The morning we leave here safely, I will appoint you as Knight.”
Subaru raises his head, for a second unable to comprehend what he's hearing. He blinks, still
shaking, as Roswaal gives him a nod.
Roswaal: “Someone who has preformed great deeds of participating in the White Whale
subjugation alongside the Duchess, and slain one of the Witch Cult's Cardinals of Sin, should not be
anonymous. Your name should both receive the honourable title of KNIGHT Natsuki Subaru,
simultaneous with the nation speaking of you with such honour. —No longer would anyone be able
to laugh at what you said then.”
Subaru thinks over the loops of arc 3.

His immature daydreams folded before reality, he despaired, sank into lunacy, scorned everything as
he succumbed to lust for revenge, was saved by love—and now was here.
And with this 'HONOUR' that Roswaal's talking about, everything from that time will be undoubtedly
proven as valuable.
—Including, remaining inside not a single person but Subaru, Rem's achievements.
Subaru: “...I accept, gratefully. That is, so long at it gives those battles significance.”
Roswaal: “Let no one mock your prideworthy achievements. You acquired the right to stand, chest
high, at Emilia-sama's side. By your own power.”
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Subaru: “...Really, not just my power.”
Subaru mutters to himself, Roswaal's brows crinkle, apparently unable to catch what Subaru said.
Subaru closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and after opening his eyes again gives a light shrug.
Subaru: “Man, that was a serious little talk. Go too long like that and we'll have a character
breakdown, then it'll be embarrassing when we go back to normal so let's reign it in. My face's
already burning hot.”
Roswaal agrees that they've been incredibly unlike themselves in this little chat, having an actual
serious talk and all.
Roswaal relaxes his expression too to match Subaru's grinning and the atmosphere of the room
changes. Ram gives a small sigh.
Ram: “Now then,”
Ram: “Next would be that you have questions you would like to ask Roswaal-sama, correct,
Barusu? You distanced even Emilia-sama from this conversation for that purpose.”
Subaru: “Your being prickly's speeding the conversation ahead but that's actually a help. ...I'm not
treating Emilia-tan like she's a nuisance, just if she was here Roz-chi'd probably clam up.”
Indeed Emilia is not in the room.
Ram: “Which was why you made her accompany Lewes-sama for a survey of Sanctuary. Although
Emilia-sama seemed rather discouraged when she heard you would be staying behind?”
Subaru: “I'm glad she's counting on me, but considering what's coming up I can't just run full-
throttle off cravings for what's right in fronta me. She'll probably meet up with Otto somewhere, so
worrying about her being alone isn... what if that bastard Otto makes a move on Emilia-tan. Emilia-
tan's super crazy cute now I'm worried.”
Roswaal: “I dooooon't quite think it's good to make yourself worry midway through talking?
Regardless, your ideas aren't iiiiiiincorrect. —If the content was something I diiiiiidn't want Emilia-
sama to hear, I definitely wouldn't voiiiiiiice it.”
Subaru: “Knew it.”
Subaru: “You're intentionally limiting what information gets to Emilia-tan. ...what the hell are you
thinking, doing that?”
Roswaal: “You doooon't think it's necessary I be selective with information? Royal Selection
Candidate Emilia is infinitely aaaaaaabove me in importance. However, her knowledge hasn't been
polished enough to befit her qualifications. Pushing too much ooooon someone midway through
their leaning would merely be forcing them, soooo...”
Subaru: “From the guy who can and did set Emilia-tan up with that carefree learning environment,
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some nice platitudes. That the people who know things aren't saying anything, when the situation's
stuck due to lack of information, doesn't make any damn sense. It can't be a positive for you either.”
Subaru clicks his tongue, holding himself in as he speaks quietly. Roswaal closes an eye at the quiet
Subaru and silently stares back.
It's pretty often that Roswaal stares at Subaru like this—with just his left, yellow eye. Subaru
fidgets in discomfort at the gaze, which is making him uneasy for no particular reason. Roswaal
smiles.
Roswaal: “Weeeeell, I did figure that one day I'd be prooooobed rather intensely with questions?
Which is precisely why I've preeeeepared my resolve for just this time.”
Subaru: “Resolve?”
Roswaal: “Resolve to answer your questions, with only mooooderate evasion. Wouldn't you say the
fact I can't run away and am seriously wounded makes rather greeeeeeat seasoning for it?”
Subaru: “...Seriously, a blue moon.”
Roswaal: “Iiiiiit's rather sad hooooow little you trust me. Although, considering how our
relationship has been until now, I think this was unavoidable.”
Subaru: “I'm sorry for being so blatantly wary, but with everything that's happened, yeah. You're
just slightly excessively secretive. ...Is it really safe to trust you this time?”
Roswaal: “Naturally.”
Roswaal nods and spreads his arms.
Roswaal: “Your achievements over the past several days have given me more than enough proof to
open my sealed heart. You can relax. I now believe in you, aaaaaaand you've made my deepest of
hearts recognize and welcome you inside, as a co-conspirator.”
Subaru: “Hold it. I'm feeling signs that I'm about to get burdened with a kinda heavy cross here. You
don't have to open your heart up that much, let's just kinda touch it a little.”
Roswaal: “Goodness, I'm so enthused but he just puuuuuushes me aside.”
Subaru: “No, I mean like I said when you suddenly shove everything out at me, it's kinda heavy or I
...”
Subaru stops himself with this stupid conversation that sounds like a new couple having a rocky
start and clears his throat.
Subaru: “Anyway,”
Subaru: “Nevermind that co-conspirator stuff or whatever, for now let's have you answer what I
want to ask. —Why are you keeping information from Emilia-tan. Let's start there.”
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Again, Roswaal closes one eye and stares at Subaru.

Roswaal's limitations on Emilia's information feed had an immeasurable influence on what
happened last loop. If Emilia knew that her Half-Elf lineage would stimulate the Witch Cult, she
might've been able to take better countermeasures to Betelgeux's attack on Arlam Village.
And unpacking that, it'd influence Subaru's efforts that loop well, and the circumstances around
Rem would—
Subaru: “Answer, Roswaal. You should be like me in that if you want Emilia-tan to be Ruler, her
dropping out halfway through'd be a problem. Then why are you purposefully hiding information to
Emilia-tan's disadvantage? It doesn't make sense.”
Roswaal: “Here is how I will answer that question. —What you're saying is exactly correct, and
because it is exactly correct, I am keeping information from Emilia-sama.”
Subaru: “...!? I don't gettit. Are you saying that hiding information and disadvantaging Emilia's
something necessary for her to win the Royal Selection?”
Roswaal: “Precisely. You doooon't think there's value in that?”
Subaru's brows knit in clear confusion. Seeing that reaction, Roswaal shifts in the bed, making it
creak.
Roswaal: “Subaru-kun, I'm sure thiiiiis is what you're meaning to saaaaaay. If the Witch Cult heard
of Emilia-sama's participation in the Royal Selection, they might move. The Witch Cult in reality
did move, and attacked my lands. I should've planned that this attack may happen, and should've set
countermeasures in place for it.”
Subaru: “...That, that's it. Exactly it. Anyone would think it, it's plain as day. Maybe I didn't know
about it, but it's self-apparent, everyday knowledge that the Witch Cult and Half-Elves are related,
right? And you should've known that too. So then, why weren't any preparations... no, even before
that, why did you leave the mansion and hole up in SANCTUARY?”
Roswaal: “I've been in confinement here, so it isn't as though I left the mansion unattended for
several days on...”
Subaru: “You can drop the semantics. You got injured like that by challenging the cemetery to settle
the Arlam villagers. That is, it's a result of me getting people out of the village to counter the Witch
Cult... That you didn't come back before then was intentional.”
Roswaal: “Arguing with someone who gets angry at logic does pay off. Truuuuuuly, a good trend.”
Roswaal gives an unexpectedly carefree shrug. Subaru takes a step forward, not pleased with this
result, BUT
Subaru: “...Ram.”
Ram: “Roswaal-sama is burdened with injury. Even so, he surely could burn you to nothing with
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just one finger... but I will not permit any violent action in my presence.”
Subaru: “Do you seriously agree with this. You're exactly the same as me in getting treated like a
throwaway pawn, here. He knew they'd be coming for the village, and ran away just by him-
fucking-self. Do you really forgive that?”
Ram: “Forgiving or not forgiving doesn't come into it. Ram permits every one of Roswaal-sama's
actions. How he chooses to treat me, and how he chooses to throw me away, are the same thing.”
Subaru: “You—!!”
Faced with Ram's incomprehensible loyalty, a surge of extreme emotion clogs Subaru's throat.
That Subaru doesn't immediately turn to violence is either because Subaru's rationality manages to
make the judgement that he couldn't be a match for either of these two, or—
Subaru: “...You've fallen victim to this unintelligible crap because, Rem.”
Ram: “—? I don't know who you're talking about, but I have no connection to this stranger's name.
Roswaal-sama is everything to me, all except him is trifling."
While Subaru knows that Ram's loyalty for Roswaal's always been abnormal, it's now turned into
something different and borderline-insane. And a big cause for that was Ram's forgetting of Rem's
existence.
Subaru don't know the details of Ram and Rem's past together, by going by the scraps and pieces he
got from Rem, the two had a codependant relationship. Subaru knows about Rem's guilt and
inferiority complex, and how dependant she was. And though it's not so obvious in Ram, sometimes
fragments of it peek through in her interactions with Rem.
Just like how the majority of Rem's world was comprised of Ram, Ram's world was comprised of
Rem and Roswaal. Subaru's interference began welcoming new factors into Rem's constrained
world for the first time, and she started to change. But Ram's world is still one of dependence, and
still constrained.
Now that Ram's forgotten the existence of half of what filled her, Ram's world is now entirely
comprised of Roswaal.
And that's the root cause of her extreme, overly-loyal behaviour toward Roswaal.
Roswaal: “Dooooon't provoke Subaru-kun too much, Ram. Subaru-kun doooooesn't really intend to
do anything violent wiiiiiiith me. His foot juuuuust came forward a little.”
Ram: “As you say, Roswaal-sama.”
Roswaal: “Mhm. All calm, aaaaaall calm. Right, Subaru-kun? You might look angry, but yooooou
aren't completely enraged right now. You certainly wooooouldn't lose control and punch me, and
would neeeeever choose the option of wasting this conversation.”
Subaru: “What, are you goddamn getting at...”
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Roswaal: “Iiiiiiiit's very simple. Until rather recently, you would've had an outburst somewhere
during our conversation up until now, started raving, and ruined this chance for conversation. You
haven't done that, and although swallowing down your anger, you can proceed in the argument...
yooooou've grown up.”
Roswaal give a stupid little bullshit clap as Subaru's reward for this, and Subaru feels the violent
urge to start fucking raving burn hotter and hotter. But giving in to that urge would be exactly what
Roswaal wants. Subaru exhales deeply, pushing back the wave of fury.
Then Subaru realises that what he's doing is just affirming what Roswaal's saying and can't help but
be unsuppressably annoyed with himself.
Roswaal: “Noooow, it wouldn't be very adultly to bully someone young any further than this. Since
you've shooooown me signs of your maturation, I should display more of my capacity as an adult
prooooooperly.”
Subaru: “...Do go ahead. Anyway, give a precise answer to my question. Answer without any
dodging. Why did you hide information on the Witch Cult from Emilia? Why, knowing that the
Witch Cult were coming, did our biggest combat asset—you—leave the mansion!?”
Roswaal: “Both your questions are answerable with one response. —I acted as I did so that I would
not face the Witch Cult.”
Subaru: “Wha—?”
Subaru's slow to understand what the fuck he's hearing.
Subaru: “I don't get it. So that you wouldn't fight the Witch Cult... what for? You know this can't be
some bullshit about them being physiologically unpleasant for you, right!? You... if you were there,
we would've gotten them all in one swoop. And the casualties...”
Roswaal: “I see. I dooooo believe that if I'd been there, the casualties from this ruckus
woooooould've decreased. I do try to accurately understand my own ability, and I'm aware of my
position as one of the ten most powerful persons in the country. I'll assert it clearly. If I had been
there, the Witch Cult's attack would've been smoothly repelled.”
Subaru: “If you knew that then why the fuck—!”
Roswaal: “Because I knew.”
Roswaal holds Subaru, who's spitting everywhere, in check by pointing at him, and then points with
that same finger up at the ceiling.
Roswaal: “If I had acted, the achievement would've gone to neither you or Emilia-sama, correct?
Even if I receive fame, that's nothing to do.”
Subaru: “——wuh.”
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Subaru honestly doesn't understand what he's hearing.

He quietly prays for this to be a shitty joke of Roswaal's and waits for his reply, but Roswaal only
tilts his head.
Roswaal: “You realise I'm not going to deny it? It was a disaster I knew was going to happen. Is
there any reason at all for me nooooot to use it well?”
Subaru: “Y-you... do you even understand what you're saying?”
Roswaal: “—? Iiiiii don't know what about it you have a problem with, Subaru-kun. Or maybe it's
that. The damages from the villagers who left Arlam, or the soldiers from the mercenary group or
Crusch-sama's private army who helped to repel the Witch Cult... is it about you wondering whether
you could've done something about those losses?”
It's like Roswaal plucks it straight out of Subaru's heart and throws it back at him as if Subaru doing
such a thing is completely obvious. This time, Subaru truly does feel something well up in his heart
of hearts.
Before, when talking with Puck, the spirit's remark to the sleeping Rem of “It's thanks to her that
Lia's saved,” enraged Subaru.
That incident made Subaru painfully aware of the indescribably huge trench between his his feelings
and the spirits'. Otherwise said, the rage Subaru felt then made him understand that the two of them
were fundamentally creatures of differing origin.
This doesn't pass for Roswaal. Roswaal understands why Subaru's mad, and knows what Subaru
wants to say—and knowing that, he can make cruel judgements.
However, that was,
Subaru: “Hindsight bias, isn't it. I basically understand what you're trying to say. I can understand
that whoever took command of the activities counter to the Witch Cult's attack would secure an
achievement with not insignificant effect on the Royal Selection. ...and I also understand that if that
person was you, we wouldn't have gotten the result we wanted. But!”
Subaru bares his teeth, and while giving a big swing of his arm,
Subaru: “How many people do you think died because you disappeared without telling them
anything!? No, they weren't big causalities. They weren't, but they weren't zero either. People did
die. And not just us, the Witch Cultists were...”
Roswaal: “If I was there, nothing would change about the Witch Cultists being dealt with. All of
them would turn to ashes. I'll accept your reproaches for the losses on our side, but complaining for
the enemy's side is raaaaaather absurd.”
Subaru: “—hk. But, there must've been a more peaceful... no, that's not the problem here! Every
goddamn thing you're saying is just fucking hindsight! Oh you're right that it went well. Few
casualties, cult wiped out. Emilia-tan safe, the Arlam villages evacuated without trouble. ...But this
and that and this, all of it was just timing. Being honest—”
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Being honest, before Subaru could do anything—the villagers, the mansion, Emilia...
Subaru: “They should've, died. Unlike this time, without things going well... Everyone in suffering,
traumatized, cruelly... killed.”
Covering his face, Subaru frantically strangles the teariness out of his voice before it can leak out.
Beneath his eyelids, Subaru sees the scene of that hell he couldn't forget.
The village burned down. Cadavers scattered about. Corpses of children. And Rem's body dumped
in the mansion's garden. A freezing, ending world.
—If not for Subaru's RETURN BY DEATH, that world would've never been overwritten.
Subaru: “If you were there, that wouldn't have happened. ...You knew, and you let everyone die. So
many times, you killed them...”
Roswaal: “It's bothering to be put in an incorrect position. The attackers were the Witch Cult,
nooooooot me. And you prevented that attack with your very own hands—these casualties you're
referring to don't exist. —You're speaking merely blather upon blather.”
Subaru: “—Am I now.”
Subaru answers Roswaal's indifferent words in a low voice, dropping his shoulders.
Blather—If that's what it's determined as, then Subaru can't do anything to overturn that judgement.
So long as he can't bring up RETURN BY DEATH, there's no way for him to fault Roswaal for
something that realistically NEVER HAPPENED.
Subaru: “...What if I'd stayed a useless, good-for-nothing wreck, what would you've done then.
You're the same as me in wanting Emilia to be ruler. The odds were too one-sided, it wasn't even
something to gamble on. ...It's infinitely more likely that everything would've ended there.”
Roswaal: “But, you defied that probability. —Are you perhaps unsatisfied?”
Subaru: “I am unsatisfied. You don't look like the kinda guy to leave everything up to
uncertainties.”
Some people go into battle wielding only their luck. Some people work as hard as they can to ready
the circumstances to their advantage, and leave only the final scrap of the battle to luck.
And some people prepare everything from start to finish, deciding their victory from the outset.
Subaru: “You're not the type to make a bet in the first place. Why did you make one here?”
Roswaal: “—Because I believed. In you.”
Says Roswaal, his voice low.

A snicker slips out from Subaru's throat.
Subaru: “So you're not gonna answer me seriously.”
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Roswaal: “Putting aside whether or not I believe in you, I truly am being sincere. After all, I decided
that for tonight and in this room, I woooooouldn't deceive you. I'll say when I can't tell you
something, and I won't speak if you ask something inconvenient. But I pledge that what I am saying
is not falsehood.”
Subaru is sceptical of how far he can trust Roswaal's words here. Being that his amicability toward
Roswaal has dropped unanimously thanks to this conversation, Subaru doesn't have leeway to just
accept it at face value.
Subaru's gaze sharpens even further than just his sanpaku. Roswaal tilts his head.
Roswaal: “I will say it again. —The reason I made the judgement I did, is because I believed in you.
I believed that if you saw Emilia-sama in a poor state of affairs, you would work frantically to
secure an alliance with Crusch-sama, proceed then to pour effort into repelling the Witch Cult,
succeed, and achieve.”
Subaru: “Even saying for argument that this's true, how the hell could you believe in me! What do
you know about me!? Did I look like someone who'd done anything over the month we'd known
each other to make me worth trusting?”
Subaru: “Of course I didn't. When we last saw each other, I was bonafide garbage. That that garbage
became less awful in any way was because of what came after. And that 'what came after' doesn't
exist anymore, except inside of me. —What the fuck about me were you believing in!?”
Roswaal closes one eye, looking at Subaru with his yellow eye, making him uncomfortable. Subaru
stomps the floor to shake off the gaze.
Subaru: “It's fucking ridiculous. You're saying you believed that a braindead little idiot brat would
do well for you, abandoned all your subjects and ran off to go piss around. I can't even describe how
fucking frivolous you were, staking your reputation and future on this!”
Roswaal: “...It seems our conversation for today will be eeeeeeending here.”
Mutters Roswaal kinda sadly. Subaru catches the muttering, and his annoyance only compounds.
Subaru: “Aaauhg!”
Subaru: “If you're not in the mood to have a proper conversation, everything you said's useless. And
even if you tell me anything after this, I already don't trust you anymore.”
Roswaal: “I sincerely do regret that your opinion of me has declined sooooo far. ...I don't believe it's
necessary to confirm this, but when it comes to what we spoke about tonight, Emilia-sama.”
Subaru: “'Course I'm not telling her. Whether I say exactly what we talked about, or play it up,
there's no benefit in telling her about it.” Something something bitchy.
No matter where Roswaal's true intentions lie, having discord bloom between him and Emilia isn't
desirable for the Royal Selection going forward. And then you have Emilia challenging the trial,
which'll boost her reputation—all exactly as Roswaal planned.
155
Roswaal: “You understand most everything, and harbour unbearable anger toward me... but even so
you're incapable of flipping tables or any such thing. Yoooooou are indeed exactly what I had
anticipated.”
Subaru raises his head, Roswaal's expression twists into something truly repulsive.
Roswaal: “You truly are worthy as my co-conspirator—Mmhm.”
Subaru: “...The death you're getting won't be anything nice.”
Roswaal: “I am aware. Unmistakably, I will go to hell. Which is why I must devote myself into
abusing my power now, before that happens.”
Subaru shoots Roswaal a sharp glare, silently turns his back to him, and storms out of the room.
There's no point talking with Roswaal any further. If he's not going to speak of his true intentions,
then any conversation with him will be fruitless.
But.
Subaru: “—Do you really fucking think everyone and anyone's going to dance how you want them
to?”
His hands balled tight into fists, Subaru renews his resolve.
Roswaal wants Emilia to challenge the TRIAL, to overwrite the scorn the villagers and people of
SANCTUARY have toward Half-Elves. And perhaps that will happen, but Roswaal isn't considering
the burden he's placing on Emilia. Just how hurt, and how whittled her heart will be at the end of it,
is probably also in line with Roswaal's desires. Then,
Subaru: “I won't let that happen. She... Emilia, will I protect.”
It might've just been a witch's caprice, but with the qualifications Echidna gave him, Subaru'll
overturn Roswaal's plans. Subaru'll stop the pain, the tears, the everything that could come about
from Roswaal's devices.
Subaru: “—That's what I have to do in this SANCTUARY.”
Floating in the sky, beyond the reach of Subaru's outstretched hand, is the pale moon. Subaru
clenches his fist, hard, as if to grasp it. The image of a lovely, silver-haired girl rises in his mind as
he resolves to smash straight through that FUCKING CLOWN's plotting.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Ram: “—Was that truly to your liking?”
Subaru has left the room, but Ram and Roswaal are still there. Roswaal shakes his head, devoid of
strength.
156
Roswaal: “I did anticipate that he'd react liiiiiiiike that. And although I understood this, how truly
depressing it feels to gouge into the heart of someone young.”
Ram: “There is no need to speak lies before me.”
Roswaal is like thanks for the consideration, but I was being absolutely honest right there. What did
it look like I was having a jolly old time doing that, to you?
Ram readjusts the disturbed bedsheets, and in doing so, feels something hard around Roswaal's
chest. Ram pulls the hard object out from under the sheet.
Ram: “Roswaal-sama. Here.”
Roswaal: “Aah, sooooorry sorry. I suspected something cooooooomplicated'd happen if Subaru-kun

spotted iiiiiit. But spreading it out beneath my behind'd be well deserving of punishment. Need to
be careful.”
Roswaal accepts the object, treating it valuably, and lightly strokes the cover. He puts a finger to his
chin.
Roswaal: “Anyhow,”
Roswaal: “Emilia-sama's confirmed to be qualified, and Subaru-kun's kindled up. When the TRIAL
begins tomorrow night.. what do you believe will haaaaaapen, Ram?”
Ram: “I could not ever hope to infer entirely your thoughts, Roswaal-sama. ...Would you have
knowledge of how events may proceed?”
Roswaal: “It's not convenient to thaaaaat extent. It is superior compared to the uncompleted ones
the Witch Cult possess, but it's still merely a counterfeit unable to reach what she desired. How far
could its writ possibly determine that conversation with Subaru-kun?”
Roswaal sighs. Ram's eyebrows raise slightly.
Ram: “Then, what you said to Barusu was...”
Roswaal: “To some extent it was a performance... but the majority was my sincere feelings. Ahya
but, naturally, I did know about Subaru-kun becoming so angered. I knew, but I'd still have some
comment I'd like to make as well, woooooouldn't I?”
Roswaal cradles in his arms, so so tenderly, a black tome.

His fingers brush the tome, slowly, slowly, stroking it endlessly.
Lovingly, so lovingly, slowly, so slowly—.
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CHAPTER 15: QUALIFICATIONS AND TRIAL

Early the next morning, Subaru goes to the old, ruined tomb again. He hadn't had the time to do it
yesterday, but now looking at the tomb more thoroughly, it's clearly in surprisingly good repair.
There's the ivy reaching over the entrance, but otherwise the ruins have been carefully weeded and
the tomb itself shows signs of damage and degradation to the walls having been mended.
Subaru: “I kinda don't get how the people here really feel about this tomb.”
I mean Garfiel and Lewes want Emilia to take the trial, which'll get them out of Sanctuary.
Subaru: “Thinking like that, the witch's just some big nuisance for Garfiel and the others, but they're
treating the tomb so importantly like this...”
Otto: “It might just be the opposite. This tomb would be what's binding everyone to this land. Then,
they surely musn't let the tomb collapse before anyone can complete this TRIAL they have here. If
tearing it down would release them, it feels as though Garfiel would've done it long ago.”
And Otto's there too.

He'd slept in the dragon carriage last night, got startled awake by Subaru and forced into this early-
morning tour of the tomb. With much complaining.
Otto: “But in saying, receiving a chance to hope for some uncommon item at the WITCH OF
GREED's cemetery, of all things... it was worth being brought along. Perhaps there wouldn't be some
kind of, WITCH OF GREED-ish something around here. It could be a profit.”
Subaru: “You start advertising you've got a witch-related item up for sale, and won't the Witch Cult
hound you endlessly? Send off the announcement from here and the place'll be a sea of flames, I'm
sorry about waking you up gimme a break.”
A quiet falls over the surroundings, the only noise being the chirping of insects in the trees and the
rustle of wind through the leaves. Perfect, fresh atmosphere for a morning stroll.
Otto: “Although, we're not just here to breathe in this pleasant air and leave, are we? If you really
wanted to enjoy a morning stroll, you wouldn't have called me, you would've called Emilia-sama.”
Subaru: “Emilia-tan's surprisingly not a morning person. She's dangerously adorable when she's all
spaced out and still waking up but... eh, I'll get to that after thing'sve calmed down. That talk from
yesterday's gotten me weirdly stressed which's probably playing into it, so I'm giving her a little
more sleep.”
Otto: “So, while the Princess is sleeping, us men will get up to some nefarious plotting. How
naughty of you, Sire.”
Otto narrows his eyes and shrugs, playing along, but honestly what he's saying is the truth of it. If
Emilia or anyone else saw what they were doing at the cemetery here it'd be inconvenient.
Otto: “Alright, so what will we be doing? I'm not especially confident in my magical skill, so the
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majority of what I do is utilizing water and wind for things such as, silencing the noise of footsteps
or making myself disappear for an instant behind a flash of light... ah, I can also make footsteps
sound out from an entirely different location...”
Subaru says that this magic utilization profile sounds like it'd be incredibly useful for a robber.
Otto asserts that he is not a robber no sirree. Although he has no compunctions on eavesdropping.
Otto is in HIGH ENERGY and GOOD SPIRITS. Subaru points at the tomb.
Subaru: “I'm thinking of popping inside the tomb for a sec. If things go like I expect, the lights
inside the tomb'll turn on and my outlook's looking good. If it's no good I'll probably just dead
collapse so could you pull me out then.”
Otto: “Do I seem like someone who'll just nod and say, YES, UNDERSTOOD, after hearing that
explanation!? 'Dead collapse', what is that, please stop, that's terrifying.”
Subaru looks at Otto with a gaze suggesting he's talking to an uncooperative child.
Subaru: “Listen now, this is the Witch of Greed's cemetery. Actually, people who go in without the
witch's permission get their consciousness tugged right away. I got done in sound asleep yesterday.
It's a dangerous place, so don't you go in.”
Otto: “If yesterday didn't work, Natsuki-san, then it just shouldn't work for you. Why are you going
inside knowing that you'll collapse, if you're just doing it to be a bother then let's stop here. Or
rather, if that does happen, how am I meant to help you?”
Subaru: “Just one after another with the questions... If you think you can get answers to everything,
you'll devolve into a man of spoiled character.”
Otto: “Please do tell me, Mr. Obfuscates-Explanations-With-Tenable-Words!”
Subaru clicks his tongue and his face sours at Otto's accurate reading of what he was doing. Looks
like Otto's got the knack of dealing with Subaru.
Subaru: “Look. Here's a rope I've borrowed from the carriage. It's tied around my waist, so if I
hypothetically do faint then could you gently, peacefully, lovingly pull me out.”
Otto: “I suspect that no matter how gentle, peaceful, and loving I am you'll wind up covered in dirt,
dust, and scratches.”
Subaru: “Circumstances are circumstances. Here I'll lend you the rope.”
Otto: “But I'm the one lending you!?”
Anyway Subaru hands Otto the rope, Otto gives the knot around Subaru's waist a good check and a
strong pull, confirming that it all looks fine. Otto's a dependable man, even if he's complaining the
whole way about it.
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Subaru: “He's a trader but manipulating him's so easy, right in my hands... How I wonder if this
boy'll be okay.”
Otto: “He's forgotten that I am literally holding his lifeline, this man.”
After sharing some wry joking, Subaru heads for the tomb's entrance. It's perfectly dark inside the
tomb and he can't barely see shit and it still feels like the ground'll crumble out from under him the
second he steps inside.
Subaru: “Well, not like the ground actually crumbled, and if I do collapse it'll be on the very first
step so that actually makes it easier.”
Otto: “Natsuki-san, go whenever you'd like, but please give a signal saying when you are going.”
Subaru: “Right, going.”
Subaru is READY. Worst case and he'll just be invited back to the witch's tea party. That said the
party involved losing his arm, getting punched into health, drinking bodily fluids BUT—
Subaru: “Compared to being on the brink of living and dying, this is so much less awful—!”
He steps inside, and—
Subaru: “My foot is, properly, on the ground. It didn't crumble.”
So at least he doesn't fail on the first step. Feeling some relief at this, Subaru takes a second step
inside, getting swallowed completely by the tomb's darkness. Probably, Otto can't see him anymore.
Otto: “Are you still there, Natsuki-san? Just like when you entered, when you collapse please give a
signal saying that you are collapsing.”
Subaru: “That might be kinda tough. I'd hate to accept that I'm collapsing, so if it seems like I'm
collapsing I'll scream 'I don't wanna collapse!'”
Otto: “He stresses a complex and unnecessary pride, this man!”
Confirming each other's positions with this back and forth gives Subaru relief. The relief pushes
Subaru on to the third step, then the fourth—
Subaru: “—oh”
Otto: “Oh...”
And the inside of the tomb dispels its darkness, revealing itself. The lights installed along the
corridor walls at even intervals, coming about to Subaru's shoulders, are alit with wavering flames.
The corridor's made of the same material as the tomb's exterior, and is wide enough that if two
Subarus stood side-to-side with their arms outstretched it'd be pretty cramped. Height is such that if
Subaru jumped he'd hit his head. If Rom was here, he'd have to slouch or he'd be dragging his bald
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head across the ceiling and start a fire from the friction of it.
Otto: “...The lights have turned on. What are the conditions for this, exactly?”
Subaru: “People who can take the Trial at night get this kinda welcome. ...Worst case, I thought I
might've just spaced out and been daydreaming, but...”
Subaru touches his forehead, recalling the sensation of Echidna's fingertips touching him there in
the dream.
Subaru: “I got my souvenir from the tea party all set. Kinda feels like she went off and took the
compensation for it herself, but anyway I'm not planning on telling anyone about it.”
Otto: “I can see inside as well, but judging by what you've said, what will happen to me if I enter
too? Do you think I could rob the WITCH OF GREED's tomb?”
Subaru: “An evil magician I know tried going in and his whole body got busted up, he's recovering
now. Got nothin' on what'll happen to you.”
Otto: “That's incredibly terrifying!”
So Subaru could try going further but he'd probably end up dragging Otto inside too so Subaru
gives up on that idea. Either way, Subaru's got the qualifications for the Trial, and Subaru judges it
safe to regard everything Echidna told him as credible. Including the stuff about the witches.
Subaru makes some 2ch jokes to himself putting together that 400 years ago the witches were off
doing whatever the fuck they liked and terrorizing the populace and he is so glad he got transported
into this century and not that one.
Thinking about the Witches of Sin and the mess with the Witch of Envy makes this generation feel
very nice. But then he thinks about the wickedness of the Cardinals which counterbalances that.
Everyone titled as Witches is just fucking unbearable.
Anyway Subaru recognizes preparations as all set, and decides they'll wait until night to see what
happens with Emilia-tan's trial. Now that Subaru can take it, he'll be taking advantage of their
higher flexibility of options and adapt to how the situation sees fit. It's kind of a shitty haphazard
plan.
Subaru returns to the tomb's entrance and meets back up with a worried-looking Otto, unfastening
the rope around his waist and dumping it beside the tomb's entrance.
Subaru: “It could be useful for something, or I guess you'd say I might suddenly use it tonight so
let's leave it here. Sorry for forcing you into this, Otto.”
Otto: “No, so long as you're safe it's all fine... but, more importantly, you look very empty-handed.
You go into a tomb and don't procure anything, then what on earth were you doing in there?”
Subaru: “It's really hard to tell how much of what you're saying is serious, is this just your acting
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style? I don't belong to any faith but I am religious, I'm not gonna do something like robbing
tombs.”
He doesn't believe in any God in particular, but pays respect to the many many gods out there ala
secular nation Japan. The narration makes a little jab about how you could call that a bunch of
cowards overworried about the existence of inconvenient ghosts and curses etc.
Otto: “Of course every word of it was a joke. More importantly, if this was all it was, I wasn't really
needed, was I? Why did you bring me along?”
Subaru: “No, whether or not I could get in itself was kinda dicey, and if I collapsed it'd be a burden
to somebody, and if I popped it'd be burned into their souls forever, and I figured the best one to be
the victim was you.”
Otto: “What kind of selection is that!? It certainly feels like you picked through process of
elimination!”
Subaru: “You idiot, when I consider who to burden the first name that comes up is yours. Don't
make me say it, it's embarrassing.”
Otto: “As a human being you should be embarrassed by that, that logic!”
Garfiel: “Ain't y'two bein' a damn racket right early in the mornin', oi. Havin' a shoutin' match
smack above where the witch's sleepin's YOOHOROROI CROWS BECAUSE DAWN 'xactly.”
Subaru: “He sure is a pain, that Yoohororoi. When I next see him I'll be sure to let him know.”
Subaru separates his gaze from the tomb's entrance and looks to the forest at his side, seeing the
INTERLOPER to the conversation aka Garfiel, who rubs away the sweat on his brow.
Garfiel: “Just sayin', 's coincidence we bumped into each other. My amazin' self was off doin' my
daily runnin' round the outskirts of Sanctuary, and here ya were. Y'don't needta be so wary.”
Subaru: “We're not wary. Sides, we weren't talking about anything that'd be that problematic for you
to overhear. Right, Otto. Absolutely nothing would've been problematic if he heard it!”
Subaru aggressively taps Otto's shoulders.
Otto: “Wueeeuh?”
Otto: “Ah, ahh, exactly, we weren't particularly doing anything problematic or suspicious? Just a
little graverobbing rehearsal or I suppose um, a quick look around or, well that's all we were up to!”
Subaru: “Amazing, Otto. I've never seen someone so good at digging their own grave before a
grave before.”
But it looks like Garfiel masterfully tuned out Otto's somewhat-confession.
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Garfiel: “Nwhat, ain't like 'm gonna tell or get mad or anythin'. If yer not bustin' things up, doin'
anythin' that'd be a drawback for SANCTUARY, then I ain't gonna do anythin'.”
Subaru: “Really, now. I'm sincerely grateful for that guarantee. Most unfortunately, if I got into a
fight with you I feel I'd have absolutely no chance of winning.”
Garfiel: “Yer pathetic even 'fore the fight's started... 's what I'd liketa say but, I'll stop here. Ain't a
surprise you see my amazin' self 's an opponent. After all, I'm the strongest!”
Garfiel's eyes sparkle, full of confidence. And honestly trying to refute him here would just be
stupid. Even though Subaru kinda wants to bring up the topic of supermonster Reinhardt. He
swallows the urge down.
Subaru: “Well,”
Subaru: “It's about time for Emilia-tan to be waking up, and I wanna have our daily morning routine
so I'm thinking of heading back. You're still halfway through your jog. Then we'll...”
Garfiel: “Yer goin' back to the cathedral. Then, I'll see ya off 'till there.”
Surprised by Garfiel's proposal, Subaru goes to decline it before Garfiel interrupts him yet again.
Garfiel: “Jus' listen 't what people tell ya. Or, in the first place your lot sh'better stop wanderin'
round SANCTUARY. Ya don't know what'll be out there.”
Subaru: “—? Heck is this. That's a pretty weird thing to say to someone. I mean it almost sounds as
if there's something dangerous here.”
Garfiel: “That's what'm sayin' I'm tellin' ya.”
Garfiel clicks his teeth and approaches Subaru and Otto, lowering his voice.
Garfiel: “Pisses me off shamin' my group, but the people livin' in Sanctuary ain't a single monolith.”
Subaru: “What do you mean by that?”
Garfiel: “The village chief granny's ideas, takin' Roswaal n' the humans hostage, n' getting' Emilia-
sama t' take the trial n' break th' promise with the witch's all completely legit. And most people
here're takin' th' granny's side and goin' with those ideas... but some people ain't.”
Garfiel's tone drops.
Garfiel: “Fer the guys who wanna stay holed up'n Sanctuary forever, yer bein' here's a problem. Ya
dunno what they'd do to mess up Emilia-sama takin' the TRIAL.”
Subaru: “You mean... there's a chance they could aim their designs at me and Otto?”
Garfiel: “Thinkin' there's a chance they could slap Emilia-sama herself 'round too, though. Eh, it's
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EVEN BREATHING GETS RAGGED OUTSIDE THIS HOLE. While yer with me, that bunch ain't gonna try
anything annoyin'.”
Garfiel speaks cheerfully, but now Subaru's uneasy about having left Emilia behind. So uneasy, that
it's really more like loathing for his own idiocy at not realising that possibility himself.
There was a divide between people of SANCTUARY and the Arlam villagers when they first met. So
then, why had it not occurred to Subaru that there could be factions?
There was no way everyone would approve of the way things were going. There had to be some
people who didn't want their situation to change the way Lewes' plan would make it.
Subaru: “I have to get back now!”
Garfiel: “Oop, scared ya bit too much. You don't gotta be that panicked, they ain't gonna do anythin'
while it's still light out, and Emilia-sama's back in the cathedral right now anyway. You really think
they're gonna pull somethin' where there's other people loiterin' about? 'F they're gonna pull
anythin', they're gonna pull it on people like you and that noisy guy, putterin' bout in small
numbers.”
Subaru: “Ghuhm... that, right. If they go against the majority's will, it worsens their position, so they
can't act rashly.”
Subaru lets out a sigh and gets his frenzied heartbeat under control. Then he suddenly notices
something, eyebrows raising.
Subaru: “Did you maybe think it'd be dangerous for me and Otto to be walking around alone, and
come out here to help us?”
Garfiel: “...Eh?”
His face still averted from Subaru and Otto, expression not visible to them,
Garfiel: “'S no way that'd be it. Coincidence. 'S coincidence, 'm sayin'.”
Subaru: “Behold, Otto. This is a correct tsundere. When we met him yesterday was his incredible
tsun, and now here we're getting some more lovable dere.”
Otto: “Hmm, being someone who experienced that tsun to the forehead, I have some difficulty
accepting parts of what you're saying, but I can't deny that there is a masculine instinct in me which
wonders whether this man is trying to manipulate us into thinking perhaps he surprisingly isn't that
bad of a person.”
Subaru: “Holy hell you're so easy.”
Otto: “He got me!!”
Otto's scream echoes through the morning forest, startling birds into flight. Rowdy Otto on one
hand, and impossible-to-hate amicable Garfiel. While with these two, Subaru feels for the first time
in this world that he's gotten, in the truest meaning, a couple of partners in crime he can treat
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equally.
Subaru: “But I'm pretty damn easy too.”
And his cheeks loosen into a small smile.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The atmosphere while standing outside the tomb waiting that night is clearly different to what it was
that morning.
Emilia: “Night comes, and it really does feel like a tomb. It looks creepier than yesterday.”
Says Emilia, who fiddles with the end of her braid. She glances at Subaru.
Emilia: “Do you think it's fine to go in yet?”
Subaru: “It'd be easy to tell if it had 'Opens 7:00pm' written across the front, but it really doesn't
have anything there.” Subaru figures that if the Trial just kinda starts 'around' night, then the
surroundings being dark would be enough of a sign.
Emilia: “Right. Then, I suppose I'll go.”
She gives a small sigh, apparently not yet fully determined. While waiting for her to get herself all
embravened up, Subaru tilts his head to look behind them. You have SANCTUARY team of Garfiel
and Lewes, Roswaal Representative Ram, and for some reason Otto. Thinking in terms of Team
Emilia, if you add on Emilia and Subaru to Otto, they're suddenly the majority.
Subaru: “Or you think in terms of who's left back in SANCTUARY, and we're immediately the
smallest team here. It's a hard world, or I guess it will be with what's coming up.”
Emilia: “What're you mumbling about? It's kinda making me sooo curious.”
Subaru: “Talking to myself. You get yourself and your heart all set and prepared for what's next,
Emilia-tan. Though since we didn't get to hear about the TRIAL's content, the unease here is
amazing...”
Emilia: “But everyone until now who's challenged would be the same in that. I couldn't be so
sneaky as to be different. With the same conditions, I'll do my best.”
Emilia balls her hands into fists, getting pumped, and Subaru puts his hands to his eyes, feeling the
radiance. His own self who tried to get a witch to help him cheat now just looks sneakier. My god is
Emilia straight-laced and fair.
Subaru: “Auuugh it's too EMK (Emilia-tan Maji Kishidou).”9
9 Emilia-tan is Seriously Chivalrous
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Emilia: “Ah, I feel it's been a while since I've heard you say that.”
Emilia gives a small laugh, Subaru's usual line getting a good smile out of her. Subaru nods,
deciding there is yet some worth in his joking.
Subaru: “Anyway, we don't know what could be inside, so if you feel any danger say so
immediately. You call my name, and I'll be there in an instant.”
Emilia: “But you'll swoon if you come in.”
Subaru: “Who says swoon anymore?
Emilia pouts.
Emilia: “But,”
Emilia: “Thank you, for worrying about me. ...Puck hasn't shown up at all, and I really am sooo
anxious. I feel like I'm completely leaning on you right now, Subaru.”
I have no idea what the fuck Subaru's referencing here but he's referencing something, COME
REST YOUR BODY AGAINST ME, also Emilia-tan is light as a feather so if he's not touching her
he gets anxious over whether she's really there or not.
Emilia: “The way you're wiggling your fingers's creepy so no.”
That said, Emilia's stress has now unravelled and she does a little stretch.
Emilia: “It kinda feels like my shoulders've gotten a little lighter. Subaru, has this been your aim
even since we first met?”
Subaru: “If I could do that kind of therapy, I wouldn'tve been a lonely boy who made things like the
peak of origami DRAGONSOULMOBILE in his overwhelming free time all by himself.”
And how did he brag about his mastery of the fingercrafting arts. Of course that said the only
people he had to show it off to were his parents.
Emilia tilts her head at Subaru's ludicrously shitty tale of the past, not understanding shit. But it's
cute so Subaru crosses his arms and nods, judging everything as good. Still not looking like she
really gets it, Emilia turns toward the tomb.
Emilia: “—This time, I really am going. Pray that I'll come back safely.”
Subaru: “I'll be praying so hard the Bhudda's ears spurt blood.”
And she disappears into the tomb, the lights in the corridor turning on.
Lewes: “Yer look down, squert.”
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Subaru indeed looks anxious. Lewes gives a granny-esque smile unfitting to her youthful features.
Lewes: “Yer don't have to worry, it's alright. It has this osterntatious name erv TRIAL, but it's
nerrthing life-threatening.”
Subaru: “You know the Trial's contents?”
Lewes: “I've taken it befer. If yer a half-breed and it judges yer qualified, it's natural to do. In the
end I wersn't able to beat it, but... lookiere, I'm still 'round'n kicking.”
Lewes does a little hop to prove her healthiness. It's charming and it looks like she's doing it to
sweep aside Subaru's anxiousness, which Subaru appreciates.
Subaru: “Were you hit with a curse that keeps you a loli on the outside but super-accelerated your
insides into a granny? Emilia-tan'd still be lovable if that happened to her, but it's the real Emilia-tan
that I like, personally.”
Lewes: “Dersen't that reply make my seriousness look stupid. Yer like Gar-bo, dunno how to
respect yer elders, Su-bo.”
Subaru: “That's not it though? Honestly, I am feeling a little better now. I'm sorry for making you
worry.”
Subaru bows his head, Lewes is shakes her head like like “But why didn't yer do that to begin
withhh” and makes a show of wiping away tears with her sleeves. Meanwhile, Garfiel's there with
his arms crossed and expression serious, quietly glaring at the tomb. And surprisingly, Otto and
Ram are talking about something, and even look to be hitting it off well. Subaru barely ever gets
that with Ram.
Subaru pledges to himself to have Otto give him lessons on how to talk to Ram without pissing her
off, then turns his attention back to the tomb. He realises that at some point, his hands had come
before his stomach in a praying position, thumbs together.
The waiting's hard. If he's going to have to wait so long, then maybe it would've been easier that he
take the TRIAL. At about the same time he has that conceited thought, the change comes.
Everyone swallows their breath. It's an instinctive reaction to losing their light source and the world
plunging into darkness, AKA
Subaru: “The cemetery lights're out!?”
Lewes: “They're meant ter stay on while the TRIAL's going, but...”
Subaru: “Then this's an irregular development?”
Lewes looks kind of lost too, even though she should know what's going on, and Subaru judges that
things aren't going as anticipated. Garfiel's uncrossed his arms and is running over. Neither Ram,
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brows furrowed, or a panicked Otto, look like they could give an answer either. And thus,
Lewes: “Su-bo!? Yer won't get ter enter without the qualifications...”
Subaru: “I took the training course and am properly qualified. —I'm going in. No matter what, I'm
dragging Emilia-tan outta there and coming back!”
As fucking if he could just stand here waiting doing nothing.

The second Subaru steps inside the tomb, the lights come back on. Subaru senses Lewes and Garfiel
catch their breath at this from behind his back, and he races into the tomb before anyone can speak
to stop him.
The air in the corridor's dusty as ever, and every breath seems to degrade the lungs. Putting all his
power into each step, Subaru rushes to the end of the corridor—to the back of the tomb.
Subaru: “Fuck, I messed up. I shouldn'tve had this weirdly trumpcard-esque mood, and just gone in
with Emilia...”
Subaru says as he runs, until the lights in the corridor expand, and he realises he's reached a small
chamber. He slides to a stop and looks the place over. It's really nothing more than a rectangular
space with four walls. There's nothing else in there, except a door in the very back bordered by pale-
blue lights.
And on the floor before the door, Subaru sees a silver-haired girl, collapsed prone.
Subaru: “—Emilia!!”
He runs straight for her, intending to pick up her delicate body and get her out of here WHEn—
<—first face your past>
Subaru feels a whispering at his ear jolt his consciousness. He has no time to wonder what's up with
it.
He falls to his knees, collapses gracelessly, and tumbles like a doll. He rolls along the floor with the
momentum, coincidentally coming to a stop beside Emilia.
At an unconscious Emilia's side, Subaru's is too pulled into unconsciousness—
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Whenever Subaru wakes from sleep, he always feels a choking sensation as if lifting his face
from a pool of water. The feeling resembles rising up from the sea known as slumber, desiring to
breathe in the air known as reality—
???: “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, SON!!”
Subaru: “hdmfsiudfmhsdifhsjdkf!!”
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That poetic awakening comes on this morning in the form of Subaru receiving a ruthless,
destructive attack.
Relishing the feeling of a weight pressing down on his body and agonisingly squeezing the air out
of him, Subaru pushes the weight aside as hard and he can, coughing violently.
???: “Heyheyheynow, whatwhatwhat's this. Waking up in the morning to my love-filled diving

press's regular thing. Negligence Is The Enemy flaring up in here!”
Subaru: “Ghak, eughgkk, expecting way too... much of a sleeping opponent... or, what.”
the hell just happened? Subaru seems to ask as he raises his head, teary-eyed. And, gazing down at a
Subaru half-ejected from the bed, is somebody standing before him who rolls his neck.
???: “Once again I ask, what's this. It almost looks as though you're seeing your naked middle-aged
dad early in the morning!”
Says Subaru's half-naked middled aged dad—Natsuki Kenichi—as he takes a pose, laughing
heartily, blessing his son with wakefulness.10
10 菜月賢一 / Vegetable(&Rapeseed. Energy, brightness)-Moon Wisest. / The 'Ken' in Kenichi's name is the same
'Ken' in the word 賢者/賢人 'Wise Person' translated here as 'Sage/sage' respectively.
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CHAPTER 16: MORNING IN THE NATSUKI HOUSEHOLD

Subaru can brag that whenever he wakes up naturally, he instantly wakes up fully. But when he's
woken up by an external factor, this isn't the case. Drowsy and sluggish, with a dull ache in his eyes
as he rubs them, he looks around his surroundings—the familiar territory of his room.
Bookshelves stuffed full of manga and light novels, as well as discarded shirts and jeans scattered
about, adorn this room. Piles of half-read books occupy the desk, which has long been forsaken of
its proper role, an old television set now converted exclusively into a game station being the
finishing touch to this scene.
Subaru clicks his neck as he sits atop his futon, which gets aired barely fucking ever, but for some
reason feels unease at this extremely obvious environment. —Call it something in his chest,
jabbering and astir.
Kenichi: “Heeeeeyhey, ignore him like this and this finely-aged pops of yours's gonna cry! The
morning's bright, sunny, fresh as anything, so you follow the mood and leap right outta that bed.”
Subaru: “You mean, greet the day refreshed after being woken up by a diving press? Please do not
speak silliness. My bones feel creaky and so I shall now return to slumber.”
Subaru flops back down on the futon, turning his back to Kenichi, declaring the lack of room for
negotiations.
Kenichi: “Whaaaaat iiiiiis thiiiiiis!”
Kenichi: “His rebellious age! It's his rebellious age! I knew it was gonna come someday, but not
even my heart had been prepared for that day being this very morning! I should've skimped on
preparing breakfast, and made better preparations to converse with my son. Goddamn, my
powerlessness's stunning...”
Subaru: “What're you doing grabbing someone's leg while sayin... hey, wa- ahh! Agugughguh!”
Kenichi: “Aaaaall right, today you and me are gonna talk all through the dawn. First comes body
language! Figure four, figure four! Look'ere, this wakeup-wrestling move works good!”
And Kenichi catches Subaru in a figure-four leglock, transmitting incredible damage to Subaru's
knees and shins. Unable to counter the pain, Subaru cries out in agony, Kenichi again giving the
most fucking lively laugh in the entire world.
Kenichi: “Oho, whatnow whatnow. You're body's gotten big and you work out every day, don't think
it's embarrassing for your fight against a single middle-aged man to be so close? Mwahahaha... ah,
no wait, ahh! Aguguhguhguh!”
Subaru: “Imbecile! For you to have chosen the easily-reversed figure four as your surprise attack
shows even you've grown old, dad! Just by flipping myself over, I rebound the damage back at the
foe who set me in this figure fo... ah, wait, don't flip over my flip over... aguhow! Owow!”
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Their wrestling goes own, the assailant and victim continuously switching between the two of them
as they cry out in pain. Their boisterous jostling about knocks some books off the desk, the games
stacked there falling down. WHEN
???: “—Just a mo, you two. Mom's getting hungry, I kinda wanna have breakfast.”
An uneven knock comes at the door alongside that carefree voice, and the pair's hectic movements
stop. Standing at the doorway is a woman with nasty-looking eyes, mantled in an absent-minded
kind of air. The sharpness of her gaze makes her seem a little displeased, but Subaru knows from his
17-year relationship with this woman that actually she's not thinking about anything in particular at
all.
Immediately obvious as family by the nasty-looking eyes inherent between them, is Subaru's
mother Natsuki Naoko.11 Kenichi sticks his tongue out as he jumps to his feet.
Kenichi: “Sorrysorry, suddenly fell into a skinship trance with Subaru. Though you coulda just got
to eating before us.”12
Naoko: “—? Today's a morning where we can all have breakfast together, why would I eat before
you? It's better to eat while everyone's all together.”
Naoko tilts her head. There's no sarcasm or anything in it, she's just seriously wondering and that's
why she asked. Kenichi gives several vigorous nods.
Kenichi: “Right, ain't that it exactly. Just what you'd expect of my wife, she gets it. Breakfast's
tastier when everyone's eating together!”
Naoko: “I don't think the flavour really changes whether it's breakfast or lunch or dinner, though?
When everyone eats together you can do all the dishes at once.”
Kenichi: “Oh, you meant dishes. Right, sorry. I got myself just a little pumped up.”
Kenichi's shoulders slump. Naoko looks at him a little perplexed before switching her gaze to
Subaru, who's still sprawled out in a heap.
Naoko: “You come to eat too, Subaru. I worked hard on today's meal for you, after all.”
And she gives a happy smile so faint that only someone who knew her very well would see it.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Still kinda sleepy, Subaru rubs at his eyes as he reluctantly goes down to the dining table on the
house's first floor, feeling the attacks from Kenichi guiding his dull consciousness into proper
11 菜月・菜穂子
12 Kenichi and Naoko refer to Subaru using his kanji writing, 昴. The narration continues to use the katakana version,
スバル. A font change indicates that the kanji writing has been used.
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sobriety.
Subaru: “Mom. I know you said you worked hard on this for me, but...”
Naoko: “Yup. Mom worked hard on this for you. It was lots of trouble getting it ready early in the
morning.”
Brags Naoko. Subaru sighs, Kenichi arriving at the table via the bathroom, looking things over and
giving an 'ohhh!' in surprise.
Kenichi: “Amazing, Subaru. Your plate's got a special menu. You gotta green forest.”
Subaru: “Thanks for saying it. Yeah, really feels like that. ...What exactly is this? Why does only my
plate have a horde of peas piled on it?”
Subaru points at the plate set on the table before his usual seat. The peas are piled so thick that it's
impossible to tell whether they're drowning the other foodstuffs out or whether there was just no
other food on the plate in the first place. By the way Subaru hates peas.
Naoko: “Well, aren't you always saying that you hate peas, Subaru? I don't think it's good being
picky. So, I wondered if using this opportunity to eat lots of them'd help you defeat that.”
Subaru: “So relying on that vague maybe-that-happened-sometime memory, you decided to fix my
pickiness. And saying 'this opportunity'... there isn't really anything special about today, though?”
Kenichi: “Huhu, tenderfoot, Subaru. See, whenever and no matter what the time, you never get to
experience this very present instant of the day called 'today' except for now. You might see it as just
another identical day coming to visit you, but in actuality you're overlooking countless 'PACKED'
instants which...”
Subaru: “That's enough for now.”
Kenichi literally dances into the conversation and Subaru pushes him back, giving a deep sigh as he
seats himself before the peas. He pushes the plate away.
Subaru: “Anyway, I gratefully accept that you prepared this for me, but I'll hold back on the peas. I
don't wanna fill my stomach with something I hate first thing in the morning.”
Naoko: “There you go with that again. Alright, then what'd you do if all the food in the world
except peas disappeared. You'd eat them then.”
Subaru: “If that happened I'd die of starvation soon, and eating some peas wouldn't change that. So I
absolutely would not eat them.”
Subaru crosses his arms and pushes out his chest.
Subaru: “Even if Armageddon came, I absolutely would not eat peas.”
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Kenichi: “I swear, going on hating foods without trying them's a waste of life. Ah, Mom, these
tomatoes you've put in my salad. I hate'em so you eat them.”
Subaru: “There's my father... contradicting himself beautifully in the first and second halves of one
damn statement.”
Kenichi picks the tomatoes out of his salad and puts them in Naoko's, nicking Naoko's boiled eggs
in return. Watching this established secret couple mutual understanding, Subaru presses his hands
together, intentions aimed at the two things set out on the table that aren't peas—a steaming miso
soup and toast caked in honey.
Subaru: “I always wonder this, but what's with the east-west blend?”
Naoko: “I have wakame for the soup, and I love honey on bread.”
It's not an answer but trying to probe into that would be a fucking pain. Subaru, Kenichi and Naoko
itadakimasu and go for their soups in perfect sync.
Kenichi: “Oh, this soup... Say, Mom, did you get better while I wasn't looking?”
Naoko: “You can tell? I recorded a three-minute afternoon cooking show yesterday.”
So what.
It's more than likely that Naoko is in fact saying the exact truth here and 'recorded' a cooking show.
Without watching it. And has yet gone without watching it. And besides,
Subaru: “Dad's here in the morning, so he's probably the one who made the soup and toast.”
Kenichi: “Ohoho, sharp eyes, my son.” Then he makes a phoenix wright reference and Subaru
bitches at him not to play outdated games that said it's a masterpiece.
Subaru: “Oh, yeah,”
Subaru: “It's seriously way late to be mentioning this, dad why are you barely dressed? I know it's
warmed up, but a tanktop and boxers's way too casual.”
Kenichi: “But you're wearing boxers too, aren't you? Your dad had a bit of that, woke up just a little
early had some high energy went in the garden and rubbed himself down with a dry towel, some of
that.”
Subaru: “Isn't doing that pointless when it isn't cold out?”
Kenichi: “That's just a problem of motivation. You worry about something that useless before you
get running, and are you really ever gonna reach your destination? Mom you say something here
too.”
Naoko: “That's right, Subaru. It might not've been chilly out, but Mom was watching your dad rub
himself down with a properly freezing gaze.”
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Kenichi: “Wha!? My wife's not backing me up!?”
Naoko: “Huh... but I did back you up. I said it was properly cold.”
Kenichi: “That's not backing up that's a death blow!”
Kenichi rattles the chair as he sways back and forth, displeased. Naoko sees this and is like 'that's
kicking up dust, gotta clean it later.'
Eyes lowered, Subaru watches them go at it as he continues with breakfast. He pushes the plate of
peas over to Kenichi, Kenichi pushes it on to Naoko, and Naoko pushes it back to Subaru, the cycle
continuing.
Subaru: “...We're in a perfect pattern of nobody eating these. The heck do we do with this giant load
of peas. Mom take responsibility eat them.”
Naoko: “But your mom hates peas...”
Subaru: “Weren't you just trying to make people overcome their pickiness!?”
Naoko: “Ah, don't misunderstand. Your mom doesn't just hate peas, it's... more like small, round
things in general. Putting them in my mouth makes me feel sick.”
Subaru: “I'm not misunderstanding anything here, you're just getting less and less credible!”
Subaru vaguely thinks that actually oh yeah he can't remember ever seeing his mom eating beans, as
he pushes the plate over toward Kenichi.
Subaru: “Nnywell, the wife's responsibility is the husband's to take, so dad eat these.”
Kenichi: “Don't say such sad things, Subaru. Our family's one of the few close and friendly ones
out there nowadays. Meaning, if you and Mom hate something I hate it too.”
Subaru: “This's some concern that made nobody happy, this green plate!”
In the end the Pea Issue is solved by Kenichi proposing to bake them into a pilaf, a pilaf so thick the
peas disappear. Subaru's fine with that but Naoko is stubborn that the things she hates are the things
she hates. The men are left with cleaning the peas up.
Subaru: “Thanks for the meal.”
Kenichi: “Oui, gobbleguts. Alright, time to swoosh-swoosh-swoosh the dishes, and get going with
some digestion exercises until school, Subaru!”
Subaru: “Tired of hearing this pattern of pressing me to go to school. Sides, I don't remember being
raised as some cheeky brat who goes running straight after eating.”
Kenichi flashes a smile as he dumps the tableware into the sink, Subaru shrugs and stands from the
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dinner table. Subaru quietly leaves with a, “I'll sleep until afternoon,” scratching his head as he
heads for his room on the second floor—when his legs suddenly freeze.
Subaru: “Wh, at?”
An ache runs through his temples, Subaru lightly presses down on his head and squeezes his eyes
shut. Lights flicker beneath his eyelids, something hot fizzles in the back of his throat.
Something's strange. Something is strange.
Glancing back, Subaru catches sight of his parents' faces.

His invitation rejected, Kenichi pouts in discontent. Naoko's wiping the dining table down with a
cloth, looking back at Subaru with a sad gaze.
Faced with his parents' gazes—registering the emotion packed in each, a heat he can't ignore
ravages his chest. Subaru feels his face blaze hot, and he quickly turns away so his parents won't see
his expression, and as if running he—nah, he really does just run back into his room.
Subaru: “Why? Why, why did that turn strange?”
Putting a hand to a chest, he surprises himself at the speed of his own pulse, and breathes in. He
plomps down onto the futon as if collapsing, and unable to calm it down, his gaze darts around the
room.
Room's the same as when he woke up. Hasn't changed a bit since he went to sleep yesterday night.
Endlessly, endlessly, same unchanging stagnant room it's always been.
As if it's displaying the stagnancy of its master, Subaru.
He glances at the clock, and it's just about to turn 8AM. School starts at 8:30, and it's about 20
minutes away from his house by bike. He can still make it.
But Subaru doesn't go to get changed, and instead just sits there on the futon, hugging his knees as
he stares at the hand of the clock. The minute hand quietly makes ten rotations—the deadline's
breached. Now, he will no longer make it in time for school.
Subaru: “So, there's nothing I can do. Right, there's nothing.”
If he had just a little more time for him to gather his resolve, perhaps he could've gone to school.
But reality heartlessly conveyed upon Subaru a time limit.
That said, the usual selection for today no longer pressed on Subaru. Even so,
Subaru: “...Usually, this'd calm me down. So why?”
His pulse still unsettled, his ragged breathing shows no sign of clearing. Confused at his irregular
physical state, even the chattering of his own teeth scares him.
—For Subaru, this time every morning is the most terrifying time the day.
Subaru: “Calm down, calm down... time's already up. It's okay to calm down now. It's okay.”
Pushing down on his shivering body, Subaru entreats himself. What's accidentally become his daily
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ritual of fear is already over. He knows he's going to slam straight into the exact same fear
tomorrow morning, but for today he's passed that juncture.
No one's rushing Subaru, and no one's cornering him. So who's driving his heart into a panic has to
be, no other option, Subaru.
Go to school—the time when that option alone forces anguish on Subaru.
This is the time when Subaru faces his own weakness, regardless of the long time he's spent
truanting, at being unable to start anew. Ravaged by self-loathing and complexes as he merely waits
for time to move, freed only from that pit once he confirms the deadline for school starting has
passed.
It's exactly because he suffers it every day that Subaru knows better than anyone the relief that
comes with that freedom. He also knows his weakness, for clinging to that relief, and the
repulsiveness of his inevitable, continuing excuses.
Being permitted absolutely all of that, he should've passed the target hour, but—
Subaru: “Why, just today...”
The guilt, self-loathing, and clinging discomfort isn't disappearing.

His unease makes him want to shred away at his own chest. His breathing still faulty, he sweats as
he writhes atop the futon.
His parents' faces when he left the dining table aren't getting out of his mind.
The same behaviour as always, same conversations as always, same back-and-forth as always, same
betrayals as always, same sloth as always—that's what it was supposed to be.
But for some reason, just today, those same actions as always are making his chest suffer.
—Thinking back on it, something was off about today from the instant he woke up.
It's a routine thing that Kenichi comes up with various ways to torment Subaru awake. Even after
becoming a parasitic truant, his dad's behaviour toward him hasn't changed. That is, the back-and-
forth with him this morning was exactly the same as it had been for the past 17 years—so why was
it that today, something other than the diving press was paining him?
Naoko's misdirected thoughtfulness more often than not ends up being completely unhelpful, but
even so she prioritizes Subaru. That shut-in Subaru and housewife Naoko end up spending a lot of
time together is inevitable. Even so, as though she's leaving it to time, she continues watching over
Subaru with warm eyes. —It's often at the dining table that he accidentally ends up registering that
gaze.
But even now, with the time for school to start already passed, the panic in his chest continues its
burn.
Subaru: “Something's strange. What is it? Did something happen? Yesterday I...”
He goes to look back on what he did yesterday—when a numbing sensation interrupts him. Heat
runs through the back of Subaru's eyes, as if rejecting his attempt to touch the memory. He goes to
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again challenge the sea of his memories—and stops. The answer's the same.
Yesterday, the day before, the day before that, Subaru spent the day doing nothing.
The aching pain in his chest has nothing to do with anything special happening.
Today was just a day where he'd be feeling that guilt and pain. He simply hadn't seen his parents'
sincere faces, and now seeing them overlapping had to be it.
Kenichi: “—Miiiind if I come in, Subaru?”
At about the same time Subaru's getting sick of his as-yet erratic pulse, a voice whacks him over the
head from behind his room's door. Subaru looks over in that direction to see Kenichi with his upper
body peeking through the doorway slip sliding his way into the room, his clever footwork being
extremely reminiscent of the King of Pop.
Subaru: “Doesn't entering someone's room before hearing whether it's okay to come in defeat the
purpose of asking?”
Kenichi: “Heyhey, a parent and child tied together by solid bonds as you and I, have no reason to
parley over something small like knocking when... no, actually we do. Yup, when you're a boy
going through puberty sometimes you just wanna hole up in your room. Got it. I'll be coming back
after I've given you plenty of time.”
Subaru: “Don't just come up with these ideas and set aside realistic time for them! And I'm fine!”
His voice getting ragged at the unwanted concern, Subaru honestly feels relief at having an out to
obfuscate the raggedness of his breathing. Kenichi gives a suspicious “Reallyyyyy?” and
moonwalks back into the room.
He faces his son staring up at him, and takes a pose as he jabs his finger up toward the heavens.
Kenichi: “Now, Subaru. I'm sure this's pretty obvious, but turns out I have a day off today.”
Subaru: “Yeah, kinda noticed. When you're helping with chores on a Monday morning even I'd
notice. So, what?”
Kenichi: “Hey now, don't rush to the ending. There's just a couple things I wanna talk about, so
huuuh maybe we could use this opportunity to talk about them all together.”
Subaru: “Talk? You mean, telling me to at least wash my own dishes?”
Kenichi: “That too. Your dad hates doing dishes. I like making stuff so the preparing and cooking
itself's fun, but once that's gone I lose motivation.”
Kenichi wobbles and sways down, crumbling. Subaru knits his brows at his until-then overactive
father, sensing that his dad's kinda hesitating. He's giving the two of them time to get themselves
readied for the coming conversation by joking—Subaru can't do it well, but that he does do similar
things is just personality.
It's a natural resemblance.
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Subaru: “—Ow.”
The second he thinks that, a sharp pain again assaults Subaru's head, needles stabbing his temples.
While feeling a creaking in his skull as if his bones are shaving away, Subaru lowers his head to
conceal his pained expression.
Subaru: “S, so? My unmotivated dad's here to talk with me.”

Kenichi: “Mhm, right. Subaru, is there... somebody you like?”
Subaru: “—This's middle school!!”
The topic's so stupid Subaru forgets he's in pain. His cheeks pulled back in anger, Subaru raises his
head.
Kenichi: “Oohhhohhh”
Kenichi: “That kinda overreaction's a confession that there is somebody you like.”
Subaru: “Hell are you saying looking so satisifed. I'm too dumbstruck and anguished and lamenting
to speak.”
Though honestly, Kenichi's off the mark.

Subaru as of present has no interest in girls. Doesn't have one, won't get one. Might just be his
presuppositions though.
Kenichi: “Whaaat, that's boring. Didn't your dad give you some good advice when you were little?
Girls're weak to years-long promises, so if you set the flag with whatever prime girl for ten years
down the line, it opens that story route for you when you're a teen.”
Subaru: “And then I went and sincerely accepted that, pressed girls all over the place for pinky
promises, and now the whole region's got a ban on pinky promises. Because there were too many
cases of scary-faced little kids going to force little girls to swallow needles!”
Kenichi: “...It's a good thing your dad's lovable mask is hereditary. You got short legs, Mom's eyes,
your dad's tension and Mom's carelessness, the status allocations when you came out of Mom's
tummy were way too screwed up.”
Subaru: “You said that when I was still attached to the umbilical cord...”
The two of them sigh, losing some of their tension.
Subaru: “So?”
Subaru: “What were you actually talking about? I have the important duties of going back to sleep
and also going back to sleep again after that, so please leave your business after the beep, quietly
leave the room and go chat with mom.”
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Kenichi: “Don't you drive me away with a natural flow. And even if I talk with Mom she wouldn't
get it. My wife and your mother's the lifeform with the worst suppositions in the world. I mean it's
cute though.”
Subaru's expression gets tired at this natural flow into going on about your lover.
Kenichi hmms at he looks up, cheekily touching his nose.
Kenichi: “Eh, what. The weather's good—let's go have an open-hearted father-son talk outside.”
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CHAPTER 17: LOVE STORY

???: “Oh, Ken-san. Funny seeing you out so early. Got sacked?”
Kenichi: “Don't be stupid, the whole place breaks down without me. It'd be bad if my working stole
everyone's jobs, so I'm taking out my gas and injecting everyone with some motivation.”
The bicycling owner of the neighbourhood bakery addresses Kenichi happily, but Kenichi responds
by shooting him the middle finger. They go on having their bawdy little chat for a while before
parting.
Kenichi: “I swear, any goddamn everyone sees a guy on a day off and it's all 'unemployment,
unemployment'. Me, having a family to support, wouldn't mess the hell up like that. That's why
even if I did do something that'd stain my hands in a way that'd get me fired, I'd do it in a way that
wouldn't leak, hehheh.”
Subaru: “...As someone you're supporting, I pray from my heart that you don't use methods that'd
stain your hands in the first place.”
Hands buried in his track suit pockets, Subaru, who had gone to the side of the path waiting for the
conversation to end, shrugs. Kenichi shakes his hands and head at his son, who is standing in shade
and bathed in wind.
Kenichi: “Lose your spirit of adventure and you'll never fully mature as a man or a person. And of
course doing anything bad's not in the picture, but it's fun to probe the limits of that line or I
mean...”
Subaru: “You're way past the age for jokes, calm down. A guy over 40 can't always be talking like a
little brat.”
Kenichi: “Man, I think all men have a brat somewhere in them even as adults. Or actually, it's cause
you, who's fundamentally meant to do these stupid talks, didn't join in the conversation in the first
place that your dad has to have this stupid talk. What's with that, yoooou.”
Subaru: “As if I could have a friendly chat with some old stranger.”
Kenichi: “He's not a stranger. He's the owner of the bakery I always stop by when I sometimes buy
bread coming home. Also he was one of my underclassmen in high school.”
Even knowing that now, not like Subaru'd get it.

He'd never taken a hard look at the bread's packaging, and he'd probably never stopped by the
bakery once. Subaru wordlessly exerts an aura of wanting to end this conversation, and Kenichi
clicks his tongue.
Kenichi: “Don't you think it's a slight to the Mister Sun to look so fed up on such a bright, sunny,
fresh as anything day? You look like you're getting interrogated.”
Subaru: “If I'm getting interrogated, it'd be thanks to my dad who dragged me outside at this hour...
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even though I said no, and he forced me.”

Kenichi: “That rebellion's just for show you followed along nicely. He loves his dad, Subaru does.
Now relax, I love you too. You're in second to Mom though!”
Kenichi starts walking again, laughing and giving Subaru a rigorous slap to the back. His face
scrunches up at the force of it, and Subaru feels some unease at how high Kenichi's tension is.
That said Kenichi usually has this kind of tension even in quiet, peaceful times, but considering he
has some moodiness to him too, he should've stayed sulky for longer after that conversation with
the baker.
It looks like Kenichi's overflowing with excess emotional reserves today.
—In complete contrast with Subaru, whose chest feels so pained it may collapse, just by walking
beside Kenichi.
Subaru: “So...”
Kenichi: “Hm?”
Subaru: “So, you dragged me outside because you wanted to talk about something. Even though
you'd never go that far that usually... what're we talking about. Something you couldn't talk about at
home?”
Something you didn't want mom hearing, is the nuance of Subaru's question. Either way, he has a
bad feeling about it. Probably gonna be a scolding about his apathetic lifestyle.
Usually Subaru'd pull his futon's cover over his head and ignore it, but that's not gonna work so well
outside. Otherwise he'd yell and interrupt what Kenichi was saying. If Subaru did something so
shameful outside, even Kenichi'd once again, find Subaru—thinking that far, Subaru shakes his
head.
Subaru: “When it's my father, there's a chance he might even find that shame funny...”
Kenichi: “I got no idea what kind of crazy thing you just imagined, but it's nothing that wild and
funny. Sometimes I just wanna go out and have a normal family talk out beneath the sun.”
Subaru: “Really now, don't believe it at all. ...I guess, I'll pass it though.”
Kenichi: “Yupyup. By the way, Subaru, do you... want a brother or a sister, which?”
Subaru: “When you're 17 hearing that question is nothing but terrifying!!”
Kenichi: “Kidding, kidding.”
Kenichi: “While yes your Mom and I do still flirt, at our age of course we don't do any kind of
'becoming one' stuff anymore. Meaning, you are the one holding all of my and mom's love.
Rejoice.”
Subaru: “Ahh, right right, happy happy. ...You really are just joking though, right?”
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Kenichi: “Heyhey, cut that out. You get nasty like that and I might take it as a set-up and get all
pumped up.”
Now that this's looking less and less like it'll end as being just a joke, Subaru ends the conversation
by staring wordlessly at Kenichi. Kenichi gives a wry smile, getting the point.
—Subaru and Kenichi are walking along a path barely ten minutes away from their home. It's a
region that a river well-known in the neighbourhood flows through, with sakura trees planted across
the bank, making a sightseeing spot in springtime. It's not spring anymore though, and instead of
pink cherryblossoms it's green leaves bathed in the sunlight.
This was where they were headed. Subaru'd worried that Kenichi might've been dragging him to
school at first.
A strong wind scented with foliage blows over the embankment, and if Subaru stretched a bit he'd
probably be able to see the river flowing lazily on the other side of the dividing fence.
Kenichi: “There didn't used to be a fence here. Me 'n my buddies always came here together to play
in the river. Say, you remember Ikeda? He came here one day when there was a typhoon to look at
the crazy flow, and got swept away... If this old qualified-lifeguard guy hadn't happened by I
suppose he woulda died.”
Subaru: “Sounds like this fence is your and Ikeda or whoever's fault.”
Kenichi: “You can say whatever you want, but... no, hold on? The timing kinda does overlap, huh.”
Kenichi goes over to the fence and stares down at the river, tilting his head. Subaru stands behind
him, looking bored, and restlessly glancing around the area.
It's morning on a weekday so of course not many people are around. Or more precisely, Subaru and
Kenichi are the only people around. That said it's a tricky place for people to get to in the first place.
Only people who'd be around at this time would be the place's caretaker or those driven by whimsy.
Suddenly, Subaru hears the sound grass crunching beneath someone's feet.
???: “Ohh? Wonder who it is, and turns out it's Ken-chan. Now aren't you at just the age to be
playing in rivers.”
Kenichi: “Who's calling me... The old man from the caretaker's hut, you're seriously still doing this
job? Or actually you'll be the one surprised here, I'm not wearing my swimtrunks today so I'm not
getting in the river.”
???: “Lose the idiocy. You're the guy who went saying boxers and swimtrunks're same thing at a
glance and jumped in wearing his underwear. That said, gosh has it been a while.”
This guy is a short, old man wearing a green uniform. Going by the conversation and the logo on
his back, he's probably the embankment's caretaker.
And if he knew Kenichi back when he was playing in rivers, he's a bit of a veteran.
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The two laugh and the caretaker claps his hands.
Caretaker: “Right, now if you're here where's Ikeda? Thanks to him getting washed away all the
time, I've gotten to be the leader in 'times you picked up someone in a net.'”
Kenichi: “Ikeda won big in the horse races ten years ago, flew to Thailand rich, and disappeared off
the map. Still get cards for New Year's and summer, winter and Obon and Christmas, Father's Day
and Mother's Day though.”
Subaru: “Someone who sends cards that incessantly's hardly off the map...”
Mutters Subaru who unconsciously slips into tsukkomi mode. The caretaker hears the muttering
and, as if noticing Subaru's existence for the first time, his eyebrows shoot up.
Caretaker: “Oop, you've brought someone along.. hm? Could he just happen to be...?”
Kenichi: “Yup, he is. My son. Nope, I should change that to my beloved son.”
Caretaker: “Ahh, I knew it! His face does look like yours when you were... actually no, it doesn't
really. Doesn't take after you. Takes after his mother... maybe?”
Subaru: “Haha. I would get that a lot. Especially about the eyes.”
Subaru's face is exceedingly plain except for his stupidly characteristic sanpaku, which are very
obviously from his mother. The caretaker approaches Subaru.
Caretaker: “I see I see, but still, it's surprising. Ken-chan's had a child for this long. Well, I've
gotten old too. Not strong enough to go save a drowning Ikeda anymore.”
Subaru: “I doubt that Ikeda-san would be playing and drowning in rivers anymore either, at his
age...”
Caretaker: “That's what I'm hoping, but... this bunch never really could settle down. Specially your
father, was nothing but causing ruckus all over. Suppose you could tell that just by walking around
town?”
Subaru: “...Yes, I suppose.”
The caretaker knits his brow, puzzled, at Subaru's vague response. Then the wrinkles deepen.
Caretaker: “Hm? Fine that you're Ken-chan's son, but.. today's meant to be Monday. What're you
doing at the embankment out here with your father?”
Subaru: “—hk!”
Showered in a question he didn't want to be asked, Subaru's expression stiffens in pain.

Next comes the sharp, stabbing headache identical to the one he got in his room. Subaru closes his
eyes at the pain, so intense he feels he might unconsciously wind up grabbing his head in his hands,
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and turns away from the caretaker with a, “Please excuse me,” running away.
Kenichi: “Ah, oi, hey, Subaru! Sorry, pops. We'll meet up another time so let's talk then.”
Caretaker: “Ah, yes... looks like I said something I shouldn'tve. Apologize to him for me.”
Subaru doesn't hear this exchange.

For now he's running, away from the creaking pain in his skull, toward a place where his
hammering pulse can settle down, leaving the embankment behind.
Kenichi, following behind him,
Kenichi: “Nothing to apologize for. —Next is his problem.”
He mutters.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Kenichi: “Here. A nice, cold, love-filled cola. Shook it so it's good and tasty. ...Is what I wanna say,
but doesn't look like this's the time for it.”
Subaru: “...There's no such thing as a vending machine that fills things with love. Thanks.”
Subaru savours the feeling of the can's coldness on his palm as he puts his finger to the tab. Then he
closes his eyes for a second in thought, points the can in a direction empty of people, and pulls the
tab. A huge stream of cola bursts out. Subaru feels the can he's holding get a third lighter as he
watches the spray.
Kenichi: “Heyhey, what's this, that was supposed to get you. I even used my two-layer make-it-
sound-like-I-did-it-then-say-I-didn't-but-I-actually-did-it technique.”
Subaru: “I know your patterns. How long do you think I've known you, dad? Me thinking there's no
way you wouldn't do it is a kind of trust in itself. Ah, my hands're sticky.”
He takes a sip of the cola. This does nothing to dislodge the weight in his chest.
Kenichi: “So, calmed down?”
Subaru: “...Tricky to say.”
Subaru seats himself deeper on the bench, gives a long sigh and slumps his shoulders. Kenichi's
standing before him, sipping his cola, one eye closed in thought.
They're in a children's park now. No one's here, and no dads sneaking in during summer vacation to
play on the swings either.
Kenichi: “In some sense, right now, I'm getting the feeling that if I go play on the swings I'm not
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going to smile at it. What'd you do, Subaru. If your dad played on the swings on the way back from
the convenience store.”
Subaru: “Take a picture with my cellphone and upload it on Twitter. Tweet, MY DAD PRESENTLY
FREE FROM GRAVITY.”
Kenichi: “Ah, Twitter. Your dad's got an account too. I'm following and getting followed by
everybody, screen's a complete mess.”
Subaru gives a languorous sigh and searches for a topic. Just, something, anything other than what
they talked about at the embankment—and again the creaking pain returns to Subaru's skull.
Anxious at how the pain's coming at progressively more frequent intervals, Subaru stifles his
reaction and stubbornly ignores it.
Subaru: “...You were just buying drinks at a vending machine, but it sure took you a while. Did
something happen?”
Kenichi: “Hm? Nothing big. Was a high-school girl hanging out truanting in front of the vending
machine. Told her to go to school, gave her a drink and swapped email addresses with her.”
Subaru: “I seriously can't believe you can get email addresses that fast.”
Subaru has no words for Kenichi's power of getting high school girls' email addresses in the
timespan of a toilet break. Kenichi tilts his head.
Kenichi: “Really?”
Kenichi: “If it's just email addresses they hand'em over quick. My phone's contacts list's getting
near three digits of high school girls.”
Subaru: “Add up all my contacts and you'd wonder if I'm gonna hit two digits, and you've got three
digits of just high school girls. ...Dad, don't get in some nasty relationship with a high school girl
and wind up in the newspaper, okay?”
Kenichi: “What're you saying, you.”
Kenichi: “I'm not gonna get in a saucy mood over some bratty highschool girl. My love's already all
aimed and set, got none of those passionate cravings for anyone outside my family.”
Subaru: “Categorize it like that and I'm a target too!”
Kenichi: “...Well, I do have love for you. You wonder if it's not entirely off the table?”
Subaru: “I don't, no! You're the one who should be getting asked what the heck they're saying!!”
Kenichi laughs at Subaru's flipping out. The way he laughs is vulgar, but for some reason doesn't
make people uncomfortable. No, actually that describes all of Kenichi's actions.
Everything he does unmistakably diverges from normalcy, is over-the-top, overdramatic, and the
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kind of thing that makes people recoil, but for some reason everyone receives it favourably.
Walking around with Kenichi, first time Subaru's done it in a while, makes that assessment feel
poignant and real. Subaru's run out of fingers on his hand to count how many times Kenichi's been
spoken to just by walking down the street. No matter where they go, there's someone who can
remember some tale of the past with Kenichi, and if it's someone just meeting him for the first time,
he cheerfully and casually responds back to deepen the friendly bond between them. And he doesn't
hide any of it.
His temples throbbing in pain, Subaru's breathing turns more ragged with every breath. The sharp
headaches aren't just an interval thing anymore, but on-and-off intermittent. Needles seem to stab
through his skull, unlikely to heal if simply left alone. But it's nothing to go to the hospital for.
Subaru doesn't know the cause of the pain, but he likely does know the reason for it. Kenichi:
“You aren't looking good, Subaru. Want me to piggyback you back to the house?” Subaru:
“Don't piggyback me, don't haveta go back. ...Since if I do go back, it'll be with you.”
And going back to the house where Naoko is will only make his condition worse. Subaru's starting
to understand what this pain is, and what it is that makes it compound. If it's what he's imagining,
then returning back home to Naoko alongside Kenichi exactly is going to make that pain spike to its
absolute limit. Meaning,
Subaru: “I'm getting lectured by my own damn body.”
His body's now wailing at his guilt for his constant running away.
The period of terror spend in his room hugging his knees, staring at the clock. The restless pain,
panic, and sharp headaches that came regardless him crossing that junction.
The discomfort's almost as if someone is screaming, ranting, scolding Subaru from inside his own
skull.
—Don't know who you are, but what the hell do you think you know about me?
Kenichi: “You know what, Subaru. —Is there somebody you, like?”
The topic suddenly changes. It's the same unfunny joke Kenichi asked back in Subaru's room. The
first time Subaru just laughed it off and gave a reply, but this second time is vaguely irritating him.
The endless pain in his head also factoring in, Subaru goes to give a displeased reply when—
???: <—Subaru>
Suddenly comes to him is the illusion of a voice, clear as a silver bell, swaying his heart.
Subaru lifts his head, looking for the source of the voice. But no matter where he looks he can't find
the voice's owner—the only other person in the park is Kenichi, whose brows jump up in surprise.
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Kenichi: “What? You look as if a hot girl who shouldn't exist suddenly called your name.”
Subaru: “It might actually be exactly that so I really have no reply but... You didn't call my name
just then? Dad, you haven't been practising how to sound like a hot girl, have you?”
Kenichi: “Your dad's the master of lotsa little tricks, however not that one. Alright, I'll practice it as
conversation stuffing so ask me that question again in about a month.”
Subaru: “It's not conversation stuffing... seriously, what was that?”
Kenichi looks dumbfounded. Subaru averts his gaze and ruminates over that voice he just heard.
The silver-bell voice was awfully gentle, but filled with a spark, so much so that Subaru forgot his
headache for that second alone.
A saving voice of which he knew not the source—with his headache calmed by the voice of a
goddess, Subaru's expression slightly loses its edginess. And, with Subaru's breathing now
somewhat organized,
Kenichi: “Alright, so the question. There somebody you, like?”
Subaru: “...What've you been on about. What're you getting at by asking this. Supposing there was,
you wouldn't know her even if I told you her name.”
Kenichi: “Well that's exactly why I don't know her. Maybe the girl you like just happens to be in my
phone's contact list.”
Subaru: “If this hypothetical girl I like gave you her email address, well even centennial loves do
fade.”
Kenichi pouts. Subaru downs the rest of his cola.
Subaru: “You don't have to be indirect about it. You can just ask it straight-out. ...Why aren't I going
to school.”
Kenichi: “You're being considerate of people for once, but man you still can't read the mood, son.”
Kenichi: “Well,”
Kenichi: “I did want to talk about that, so you're not wrong.”
Subaru: “I do think... it's bad of me.”
Kenichi: “There's no real need to think. Just absent-mindedly think about whatever ideas you have,
and if you've got no ideas then eh, well to a certain extent you've got a body where you can
overlook that.”
Kenichi finishes his cola too and sits down next to Subaru, the wooden bench creaking. The two go
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on looking ahead, neither seeing the other's face.
Kenichi: “Dunno what the world at large believes, but I don't really think school's everything. I'm
saying this as someone who didn't go to school seriously in the first place. I ditched my highschool
graduation ceremony, and my little sister had to get my diploma for me.”
Subaru: “I've heard this story so many times already. My second aunt went to the same high school,
so when she graduated they handed her your diploma too. Ears're blistered from hearing it.”
Kenichi: “Well, let's keep going 'till they're whiskered, too. So, I don't think you have to go to
school if you don't wanna. Now that I'm my age, looking back I suppose I do sometimes think yes
that not seriously going to school was a loss but, that's not a clear thing in your case yet.”
Kenichi seems to be staring off somewhere in the distance, looking serious. Subaru glances at this,
and thinks that yup, my dad really is unfair.
Goes around usually showing nothing but stupid crap, and then puts it all away in a setting like this.
Kenichi: “Don't think it's alright? On average, humans live for 80 years now. You've got 80 years,
so I don't care if you waste one or two. You'll recover while you're still young and shape up fine.
Fortunately, you have my earnings helping out on that one too.”
Kenichi: “If you're living you're gonna crash into problems you can't really answer. When I crash
into those problems, I run around 'till I get the answer but, maybe rolling around inside your room's
a way to get an answer too. I won't complain while you're deliberating. But if you're starting to give
up, then ehh well maybe I'll butt in.”
Subaru: “...Why.”
Kenichi: “Hm?”
Subaru: “Why did you suddenly get in the mood to talk about this today. ...There's nothing really
special about today. Today is just, the Peas Day.”
Kenichi: “Plate full and overflowing.”
Even though he's just had a can of cola, Subaru feels his throat rapidly go dry. While taking harsh,
gasping breaths, Subaru waits for Kenichi to answer his question. Seeing Subaru's situation,
Kenichi tilts his head.
Kenichi: “Hrmmm,”
Kenichi: “Why was it. It happened to be my day off, and just while I was having my towel rubdown
this morning I thought, the morning horoscopes said Aquarius’s in perfect form, and your
expression today was... it's really only a teensy bit, but I felt it'd gotten better.”
Subaru: “My face, got better?”
Kenichi: “Your expression. Your face's the same as always, only takes after Mom's eyes, a bad guy's
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face.”
Kenichi: “Dunno what happened, but your face didn't look like one of a guy who just stays holed in
in his room all day. Though going from what Mom said, sounds like yesterday you didn't go out and
you should just be some guy who stays holed in his room all day.”
Subaru: “...That's, what it should be. I did surf the grand waves the internet yesterday though.”
Kenichi: “If people could mature doing that, then I wouldn't get a straight rise of lost girl lambs
coming to me with their problems on Twitter, I'd get a straight decrease.”
Subaru: “So you're even doing that...”
What Kenichi's saying isn't really clicking for Subaru. It should really be exactly like his mother
said, the Subaru of yesterday should just be the same slothfully-indulgent time waster he'd always
been.
It's only been a day, but saying that that aura about him's suddenly changed is,
Subaru: “Dad's mistaken or stuck on some idea, otherwise he hasn't been paying attention to me
properly.”
Kenichi: “That last one really does sting! But even still, waiting here on my cellphone's a
hardlocked picture of baby you and your lovely devil smile.”
Subaru: “Lovely's fine, but the devil part's coming from how you can tell my eyes look nasty even
when I was a baby.”
Yesterday's still yesterday, today's still today. Subaru's still spending his time changing absolutely
nothing.
And he thinks that's okay, and he thinks he'll go ahead and do that. And if he continued doing that,
Kenichi and Naoko would surely eventually realise it.
—What Subaru truly desires, that is.
Subaru: “—gghuahh!”
The second he thinks it, a pain slams him like fireworks going off in his face. The creaking of his
skull is so intense it feels his brain's going to burst out. Subaru, still seated on the bench, breaks
down.
His heartbeat again turns into an alarmbell, the sound of blood rushing through his veins and
arteries clearly audible to him. The world before him blurs, splits into two, into three.
The rising feeling of nausea, and the arcane core of heat in the back of his chest asserting its
existence.
Tormenting the being known as Subaru in their different ways, as if screaming their complaint.
Kenichi: “Hey, this seriously looks bad. Are you okay, Subaru?”
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Concerned, Kenichi puts his hands on Subaru's shoulders. Subaru raises his head, and even while
the sweat rises on his brow,
Subaru: “Ahh... yeah, I'm okay. Just, a little dizzy...”
???: <—It was tough, wasn't it?>
Subaru: “—!?”
Again, the silver-bell voice sends goosebumps down Subaru's entire body.
A voice filled with affection and sympathy. The voice seems to melt Subaru's strained heart, directly
interfering with the screams of the suffering, the pain, the creaking, the heat—all uniformly
weakening.
What was this voice. Why did this pain and suffering retreat from this voice.
He had a feeling he knew this voice. That he'd always been seeking it. Yearning and yearning,
pursuing and pursuing, clinging, releasing, but again getting it back—
???: <Thank you, Subaru.>
Subaru: “You're...”
The image of silver hair dancing in the wind burns itself beneath his eyelids. Sparkling amethyst
looking at Subaru from straight ahead, every sound from her lips filling him with affection.
??? <You saved me.>
What, what, what, what, what was this.

Who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who was this.
—The reason for his suffering was probably this girl. That he had pained, suffered, faced
experiences so bitter he seemed about to puke, was probably this girl's fault.
???: <—Subaru.>
His breath catches. His throat burns. Something builds up behind his eyes.
???: <There's no helping it, so...>
His fingers tremble. His legs lose all strength. His throat cramps, his lungs seeming to spasm.
???: <You're always covering things up like that, Subaru...>
Covering his face with his trembling hands, holding back a sob from his cramped throat, spilling the
gathered heat from his his eyes, Subaru—
???: <Why did you save me?>
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—The answer was already inside him.
The second he found it, the whirlpool of every little unpleasant thing inside him vanishes.
The creaking in his skull, the welling nausea, the dizziness blurring the world, the ringing of his
frantic heartbeat signalling a selection closing in, all of it resolves back to normal as if guiding
Natsuki Subaru ahead.
He lifts his head, wipes away his tears with his sleeve.
He stares at his dampened sleeve, rotates his arm to shake off the vestiges of the tears, and clenches
his hand into a fist.
Subaru: “Sorry, for worrying you. I'm okay now.”
Kenichi: “Really? It's good if you're calmed down, but I was pretty dang worried.”
Subaru: “Yeah, I'm sorry. And, about that question from before.”
Subaru unhooks Kenichi's arms from his shoulders, and looks him straight in the eye.
Thinking about it, despite all the times the two had talked today, Subaru had never once looked at
his father's face directly.
Inside his chest, Subaru laughs bitterly at his own weakness.
Subaru: “—There is somebody I like. So I'm, okay now.”
Imaging that silver face burned into his eyelids, Natsuki Subaru's resolve to face his past becomes
definite.
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CHAPTER 18: KIN

—Subaru feels his head clearing.
The chorale of pain and suffering fades down to nothing, Subaru's thoughts focusing on only one
thing—his resolve to face his father, standing right before him.
Subaru: “I've got somebody I like. Even though it's me.”
He repeats his answer. In voicing it again, Subaru recognizes that his heart is beginning to walk.
Kenichi blinks at the confession, realising that what Subaru just said diverges from the flow of how
that conversation was going.
Kenichi: “...Do you now.”
Kenichi says quietly, lending Subaru his ear. That attitude's a lifesaver for Subaru. He must've
known all along that he had people who would listen to him like this, and yet he'd kept his mouth
shut for so long.
Now, Subaru thought, was time to end that.
—Because if he did, there was someone there who'd push him forward.
Subaru: “I do. I'm not some brat who just curls up into a little ball in his room anymore.”
Even Subaru doesn't know how much he's really changed. Even while insisting he's not a brat, he
has enough self-awareness to recognize that he is.
He hadn't taken notice of his courage to lift his head, his resolve to face his weakness, his resolution
to not flee from something unpleasant, nothing.
He used to be worse than a brat. Now, he had just finally accepted that he was one. That was all.
And even that was something he certainly hadn't achieved by himself.
The silver face drifting in his mind tickles at Subaru's chest. That face was the light which gave a
motionless, stagnant, frozen Subaru heat.
Silver—fundamentally a cold colour, but here it transmitted Subaru an incredible warmth, the
strength to step forward. And as if floating on that heat,
Subaru: “I remember what I was scared of, why I withdrew into a ball, everything. —No, it's that I
already knew everything. I knew, and pretended I didn't... While I feigned ignorance about my
weaknesses that only I noticed, there was someone...”
Someone who he couldn't fool. He knew who.
Subaru: “I wanted you or mom to slap me.”
Kenichi goes quiet.
Subaru: “I wanted you two to slap the useless, minuscule, paltry, idiotic, complacent garbage that I
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was. ...I wanted to make you give up.”
Kenichi's silent gaze doesn't waver. Subaru sees himself reflected in irises the colour of his own, his
fundamentally sharp eyes looking weaker than ever.
Subaru: “I used to just be good at doing everything well. There was running, studying... I could
immediately do the things my friends couldn't, I was actually mystified why nobody else could do
them.”
Call it a child's conceit, or an adorable feeling of omnipotence.

Young Subaru improved more quickly than his peers at athletics, studying. He ran faster than those
around him as if it was obvious, was cleverer than kids his age as if that were natural, became the
centre of his surroundings as if it was agreed—
<Yup, you definitely are his son.>
That was the appraisal he heard from adults and people in the neighbourhood, endlessly.
Knowing that 'he' was his dad, those around him had recognized him as being his father's son. —
For a young Subaru, hearing those words was a point of pride.
Even from his son's eyes, his dad—Subaru's father, Natsuki Kenichi—was a character of great
allure.
Laughed a lot, talked a lot, cried a lot, angered a lot, moved a lot, worked a lot.
Never afraid to publicly declare his love for Subaru and Naoko, people who adored his father were
always in his vicinity, him constantly standing in the middle of a crowd of people's smiles.
His father was Subaru's greatest pride, and being that the people said father treated most dearly was
his family—himself and his mother—inspired in Subaru a sense of superiority so strong as to be the
pride of hubris.
—I want to be like my father. I want to be being like my father.
As far as young Subaru was concerned, the size of his father's back was the size of the world itself,
the world being something he viewed only from atop his Father's shoulders.
And so Subaru spent his days with happiness inside happiness.
But,
Subaru: “When did it start... Don't really remember, but I think it when I lost to someone in a
footrace. Since then, I stopped being the best at things I was best at. People faster than me started
showing up, people who solved problems quicker than me started showing up. I knew I was
gradually, but definitely falling, and I thought that was peculiar.”
The glittering stars in the sky inside Subaru's heart had become distant.
Reach out his hand, run circles beneath the sky, but the stars shining their light down on Subaru's
surroundings were disappearing, and the night darkness and silence which enveloped him,
compounding.
But even amidst this arcane sense of unease,
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Hearing those words was Subaru's salvation, a hope to cling to.

Even if he wasn't the fastest, wasn't the smartest, those words where what supported young Subaru's
dignity.
Rather than train his running, rather than devote himself to his homework, what he ended up
prioritising was doing stupid things.
Sneaking into school with his friends at night, drawing a white line all through the town, chasing a
famous and dangerous stray dog out of everyone's hangout spot—doing that would stop everyone
from tiring of him, and Subaru protected the stars that yet remained.
Subaru: “Putting effort into study's ridiculous. What's so boastworthy about running fast. What I'm
doing, smiling with everyone, is infinitely greater, infinitely stronger.”
For the sake of preserving that mistaken pride, he had to keep running.
He did what everyone feared, he challenged what everyone hated, following through to the end so,
so carefully, so as not to lose where he was.
Subaru: “But, if I was going to protect myself like that, I always needed to make the next thing
bigger. I couldn't do something smaller than what I'd done before. People'd think I was someone
small if I did, and that'd be something terrible.”
Thus Subaru's actions had to get steadily more extreme.

And if anyone asked why he did such things, he answer was because he was Natsuki Subaru.
—Yes, because that had to be Natsuki Subaru.
Natsuki Subaru was braver than anyone, wilder than anyone, freer than anyone, and had to keep
being an existence everyone admired.
So he strained himself, continued through the strain, concealed that he was straining, and so that
even himself wouldn't notice it, he fooled both himself and the people around him that he could do
more, much more.
After all, he was son of Natsuki Kenichi, Natsuki Subaru.
Subaru: “I thought I could do anything. I made myself believe I would do everything. And doing
that, the things I did and things I achieved turned stupid, turned into nothing but mindless ruckus...”
Like an insect lured to a flame, unaware of the burn, desiring the heat.
Had he truly been a bug, Subaru would've been so enchanted by the fire he would've burned to
nothing.
But Subaru wasn't an insect, and his friends around him were infinitely more human than him, too.
—Probably, there wasn't any particular trigger for it.
Subaru had a group of similarly brattish-faced friends. Like teeth falling from a comb, their
numbers began to decrease.
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Subaru: “I thought they were stupid. You'll never get to experience these fun things if you're not
with me. They can regret and do whatever, spend their time in uselessness, that's all fine. I'm
looking someplace higher.”
If he continued to search for the stars' whereabouts, he would settle everything without losing sight
of the stars above his head. But the supposedly-boundless stars which blanketed that sky
disappeared, until only one single twinkling light remained, which Subaru stared at, ran toward—
and suddenly, when he looked down from the starry sky to the ground,
Subaru: “I was the only one left around me.”
Of course this happened.

Subaru, never looking back to what was around him, endlessly pursuing stars invisible to everyone.
The friends who thought it fun at first couldn't keep up with the—still no ending point in sight—
escalation of inhibition.
Unaware of this, and mocking those who left as idiots, those who remained felt anxiety and doubt
towards Subaru's thinking.
One by one the friends at Subaru's side disappeared, and before he had even realised, the only one
remaining beneath the starry sky was him.
Disgruntled and displeased, when he looked up at the sky to forget—
Subaru: “That shining, shimmering star supposed to be over my head, was already nowhere I could
find it.”
Having lost sight of the starlight, having lost the friends around him, left all alone in the darkness of
night, Subaru finally realised it.
—I was never anyone special.
Those magic words which inspired young Subaru such pride, which brought such vitality to his
heart.
At some point, they turned into a curse.
Subaru: “You can tell just by going outside and wandering around town. Wherever you go,
wherever you look, traces of my dad remain. ...Well, of course they would.”
Subaru's constrained world was surely the exact same scenery he had seen from atop his father's
shoulders.
For a Subaru who sought to reach the same heights as his father, no matter where he looked in this
constrained world, he could find not a single place untouched by his father's lingering scent.
The world consequently transformed into a terrifying place for Subaru.

What simultaneously chewed at Subaru's heart was his own unfortunately-recognized banality, and
the shame keeping him from wanting his parents, and those who knew his parents, to know about it.
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Favoured by everyone, relied upon by everyone, smiled upon by everyone.

That the son of Natsuki Kenichi, Natsuki Subaru—worried by people's opinions of him and
curled timidly in a little ball—was a tizzied coward terrified at the wideness of the word, was an
impermissible thought.
Negative judgements passed on him were a disgrace to the father who asserted his love for Subaru,
and surely would bring him disappointment from same father. Nothing was more frightening for
Subaru.
For elementary and middle school, Subaru successfully kept to his plans to end the years without
standing out.
The classmates who had known him back in early primary did tilt their heads at this quietened
Subaru—but, being children in a delicate period, they went spending lively days without noticing a
single scrap of the darkness harboured in their classmate's heart, and forgot such trivialities.
What Subaru got truly skilled at during his entrenchment in that time, most probably, was passing in
the shadows when among his classmates, while playing to completion the role of the same
mischievous son as ever when among his family.
As submissive as a weed in the shade at highschool, yet recovering his old wildness when back
home, was how Subaru acted, as if he were two different people.
Tales of his war stories after coming back from school made his mother grin as she did her chores,
and brought a smile to his work-tired father's face.
—Perhaps his parents had noticed that every single word from his mouth was bullshit. Even now,
Subaru wasn't sure that they knew.
Painting over his elementary and middle school years—the majority of his life—with lies, the
human known as Natsuki Subaru crafted a false image.
Everyone forgot about the old Subaru's misdeeds, and his existence became recognized as a
classmate who didn't stand out and who people knew the name of, but nothing more.
Although feeling a tinge of loneliness at that frail connection, what more encompassed Subaru's heart
was fear. This name he held of 'Natsuki' itself held a certain power, and awe devoted toward it.
Subaru: “Thinking of it now, that was a pretty dark way to live. But by doing that, I got through
primary and middle school. And getting through middle school, I became a highschooler... local
high school, but guess there were standard grade score problems. Barely any of my classmates went
on to that same high school, so...”
Even though Subaru had acquired a habit of thinking about everything backwards, he still had one
fragment of courage left to urge him forward towards this chance at a sudden change in
environment.
Mustering up that minuscule drop of courage, Subaru gritted his teeth and raised his head.
Entering highschool, a new place. A mass of unknown faces, yet-uncertain relations.

There, even if people judged Subaru as Natsuki Subaru, there would surely not be a single person
simultaneously judging him as NATSUKI KENICHI'S SON. And there, then maybe—just maybe he
would again see the light of the starry sky he had lost.
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The way Subaru used that courage definitively brought him stumbling off that path.
Subaru: “Even I have to say that was an incredible failure of a high school début. I mean, of course.
When you have someone who didn't establish any real human connections through elementary and
middle school, and they're breathing ragged and nasal in a room full of unknown faces, forcing
away their tension, and they do something ridiculous... even an idiot would know what would
happen.”
He didn't know what an idiot would know would happen, which upon reflection meant Subaru
hadn't even been on an idiot's level.
He didn't want to discuss the details. Results are speculation.

Regarding human relations, Subaru had no models of behaviour greater than his father, so when he
went to build connections with new people in a new environment, his only available reference was
his father.
—Even the actions which would earn smiles when he was young, now when preformed in a school
appropriate for persons welcoming their secondary sexual characteristics and accordant mental
changes, were nothing but poison.
Subaru: “Poison's poison. Deadly poison. And it was one of those real conspicuous, red-and-white
speckled mushroom 'I AM DEADLY POISON, EAT ME AND YOU DIE' ones, too.”
The foot he lifted to tread into this new environment slipped on the first step, and Subaru plunged
into the Abyss. Spending his time with a social position established at some socially dense,
incomprehensible, random guy, he suddenly thought it one day.
—Ahh, I don't wanna go to school today.
Subaru: “I think it was a morning where dad and mom were both out of the house with things to do.
I was thinking it'd be a pain, and laid there through the time when I usually woke up... and when I
did rush to get myself up, shocked that it was already noon, and I went to stand up to get dressed,
that was when.”
He noticed that his heart, and body, were terribly calm.

When attending class, sitting at his seat beside the window, pretending to sleep and wordlessly
letting time pass, fear and anxiety constantly tormented Subaru's heart.
All he ever thought about from the second he arrived was how he didn't want to be there, and going
back home. Actually no, it was from the moment he woke up that he spent his time thinking only of
coming back home from school.
It wasn't that he was being bullied. It wasn't that he was being ignored.
It was simply that Subaru had built up a wall from his side. The thought of touching someone's
kindness, and winding up embracing hope terrified him. Whenever he thought of possibly seeing
the starlight again, unease took him.
One day finished without spending those hours in pure agony. Enchanted by the feelings of
liberation and relief, and lethargy, Subaru's feet steadily grew further and further away from school.
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Subaru: “Then I'd be skipping three days a week, and then even skipping one of those two days
too... it didn't even take two months before I stopped going to school completely.”
He didn't want to talk about what his days were like after that.
No longer going to school, Subaru's heart filled with relief. There was liberation at being distanced
from school, where he had to pass time in agony, but the more prevalent things filling Subaru's heart
were a kind of resignation and affirming acceptance.
No big reason for it, persistently complacent and now a truant, Subaru.
Highly doubtful there'd be anyone who'd see that Subaru and think YUP, YOU'RE DEFINITELY HIS
SON, and most importantly—if his parents could just be disappointed in seeing that pathetic Subaru,
both his mother and father would surely stop LOVING him.
If an unloved son received valuations as being useless, that would be insignificant to them.
If a beloved son was deemed as something useless, then that would surely anger them. Sadden
them. People seeing them would know their circumstances were pathetic, and they would further
look down on them.
The thinner the relationship between Subaru and his parents became, the more that concern would
disappear and things would surely improve.
And so, Natsuki Subaru—
Subaru: “I don't goddamn love you. I goddamn hate you. You're... not my goddamn son. I wanted
you to do that, say that, and throw me away. I wanted to make you give up on me.”
Anticipating the presence of stars which shouldn't exist, a hope still flickering, he looked up at the
sky.
That pathetic, unmanly human called Subaru—that idiotic being unworthy of being Natsuki
Kenichi's son—wanted to be freed.
—Not even Subaru himself had realised that this was what laid in his heart.
Facing and exposing the innards of his heart, putting it into words, Subaru for the first time realised
the ugliness of his own heart. How minuscule he was, in his unwillingness to recognize his
weaknesses and idiocies, in his averting his eyes, in his attempts to push even this onto someone
else, made him feel sick.
That Subaru nevertheless would complete things without giving up on himself, without abandoning
himself, was because had a support.
???: <Well, I love you, Subaru-kun!>
A dim, flicking blue light now overlapped with the silver face beneath his eyelids.
A gentle breeze blew into Subaru's heart, filling his chilled limbs with warmth, restoring him.
???: <Let's start from here. From step one... no, from zero!>
Saying that, she pushed forward a Subaru who was supposed to have ended.
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She made a Subaru who could no longer walk and now faced downwards raise his head, took his
hand, embraced his chest, kissed his forehead, and gave him courage.
With the silver light enchanting him and conferring him heat, with the blue warmth pushing his
back and prompting him to walk forward, a Subaru who was supposed to have ended once again
started from zero.
Since he could realize that, since he could remember that, since he resolved to start walking again
from zero—the past, what came before zero, had to be settled.
Kenichi closes his eyes and goes quiet after hearing Subaru's long monologue. Seeing that, Subaru
desperately forces his coming weakness and spinelessness back down his throat.
Given the time to reflect like this, it's exactly because his mental state has changed at least even
slightly that Subaru can now recognize the ugliness of his true heart.
Both now and before, Subaru pushed the consequences of his own actions onto others to clean up.
He didn't have the courage to give up on himself. He didn't want to scream that he was the worst
person in the world. He wanted to be the protagonist of a tragedy, so he silently waited for someone
to be the villain.
Subaru believed that by not attending school, by spending his days in sloth in his room, by having
his imbecilic self continue in this—then, one day Kenichi would break down the door, and end
Subaru's world for him.
Unconsciously, from the bottom of his heart, Subaru expected that conclusion from his days of
sloth.
It was in that deadlocked mentality that he came to this parallel world. And even here, Subaru
exhibited his complacency, and eventually—
Kenichi: “—Subaru.”
Kenichi opens his eyes. This draws Subaru out of his sea of meditation and back to the reality
around him—to his father's face before him. And,
Kenichi: “Father Headbutt!”
Subaru: “Adauuadh!?”
Subaru eats a terrible strike to the forehead, whining as fireworks flash across his vision. He pushes
down on the sharp pain on his brow, to find Kenichi standing up off the bench and looking down at
him.
Kenichi: “See that, Subaru. That was my love-filled Father Headbutt, a strike of anger.”
Subaru: “You're calling it a headbutt but that was a kick! Getting your face close as a feint, this's
crazy elaborate!”
Kenichi: “It's cause you're sitting and I'm standing that I pulled it off. But man, my body really has
gotten stiffer. Absolutely can't get like before. Been slacking on my after-bath stretches.”
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And so Kenichi starts doing some callisthenics. Subaru rubs his stricken head, half in tears, unsure
how to react to this expectedly unexpected reaction. What Subaru'd anticipated was—
Kenichi: “But, Subaru. You're, man... you're kinda an idiot.”
Subaru: “Uuueguh”
Kenichi's point-blank words split Subaru in two, a sobbing-sounding noise coming out of his throat.
Kenichi crosses his arms and snorts.
Kenichi: “You're damn worrying like nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh... Where from me and Mom did you
manage to get that timorous thinking? You're inheriting that straight from your Mom's little brother.
You know, the tiny bald fat one, the one who always looks so worried.”
Subaru: “That's going too far.. no but I mean yes, uncle is the reason I decided on not going bald or
getting fat as benchmarks for my life.”
Kenichi: “Lotsa things you just said're getting at me, but the biggest one's that. Ain't fond of you
thinking you're trying to get me to hate you, and then being so passive about it. Holing up in your
room, never going to school, turning into an Apathy Syndrome patient... and thinking that doing
that your dad's gonna flip out and scold you's absolutely nnrrrrrooop. ...Are you an idiot? You
wanna get told off? You a girl with the wrong idea who didn't get enough skinship? All that
wrestling we did this morning, and that's really still not enough for you?”
Subaru: “The phrasing you used in lots of places there's so wrong but the point of it's right so I can't
actually refute it...”
Kenichi: “If you want me to throw you away, put more effort into it. Just who do you think could
throw away their own kid closed up in their shell? You wanna be hated, then go slaughter half of
humanity for no real reason. Then I'll hate you.”
Subaru: “You don't even get villains like that in shonen manga anymore! That's ridiculous!”
Kenichi: “—For me, what you said is just as ridiculous as that.”
Subaru goes speechless. Kenichi bends down to match Subaru's eye level.
Kenichi: “Even if you're slow as a snail, or too dumb for times tables, or go bragging on some self-
harm blog for attention...”
Subaru: “I'm not that slow or dumb or idiotic...”
Kenichi: “Even if you were that slow or dumb or idiotic, I wouldn't hate or abandon you. Isn't that
obvious? After all, I'm your father, and you're my son.”
Kenichi straightens back up.
Kenichi: “Anyway, you sure do treat me like some superman. From what you were saying, I'm like
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some high-tech mega-giga perfect-flawless super-ultraman.”
Subaru: “Redundancy.”
Kenichi: “You don't know this, but my worrying, regretting, failing, crying, wailing, getting
rejected... doesn't happen very much. Cause my face's good. You didn't get my looks though.”
Subaru: “Presumption.”
Kenichi: “I was inexperienced too, when I was your age. I mean yes my name did get pretty big, but
that didn't mean I was anyone special. Just that I was a bit of a time-stopper.”
Subaru: “Then you should've stopped time last year when you got hit by that car.”
Ba-dum tssh.
Kenichi offers his hand out for a high-five, which Subaru has to reciprocate. And Kenichi grabs
Subaru's arm tight.
Kenichi: “Now, I suppose it's fine to keep twisting my stupid idiot pain-in-the-ass son's wrist to
knock that personality out of him, but...”
Subaru: “Ow! Aaaugow! Wai, my wrists's.... Owww!”
Kenichi: “...looks like you've already been broken and gotten back up enough that this'sn't
necessary.”
Kenichi releases Subaru's arm. Subaru stands up while shaking his pained hand, Kenichi staring at
him with one eye closed. Kenichi gives a small snort.
Kenichi: “Thought it this morning too, but you suddenly changed a lot from just a moment ago
again. What's going on with that face.”
Subaru: “...I told you. I've got somebody I, like.”
That silver light pulled Natsuki Subaru's hand ahead.
Subaru: “And, there's someone who told me that they, liked, ones like me.”
That warm, blue light gently pushed Natsuki Subaru's back forward.
Subaru: “They don't know anything about me being Natsuki Kenichi's son. When I'm with them,
I'm just Natsuki Subaru. ...No.”
Subaru shakes his head, and looks his father straight in the eye.
Subaru: “No matter who I was with, I was Natsuki Subaru. Burdening myself and bothering myself
with some weird outer show, and crushed beneath an imaginary weight. I finally understand that
now.”
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Kenichi: “Took you damn ages. Y'know, I'm the backbone of a family, here. You haven't got an
inheritance and you're off burdening yourself and bothering yourself before you're even a member
of society. The bills'll slap you hard.”
Subaru: “You only just did something more painful to me than a slap!”
Kenichi: “Sorry sorry”
Kenichi: “Anyway,”
Kenichi: “What's this about you saying you have somebody you like, and somebody who says they
like you? You're two-timing them? With your social position, Subaru?”
Subaru: “Don't talk about my social position! Even I know it's way too much luxury! But that's
what it is! What's so wrong about having two stars in number one!?”
Not that he was trying to get the conversation sobered up, but they were Subaru's sincere feelings.
He loved Emilia. He also loved Rem. Those two made him stand, made him walk, and even though
before Kenichi, even though facing his past, they gave him the strength not to flee.
The sky of stars which once covered the whole of the heavens above—and the glittering starlight he
saw then.
The two of them beamed down upon Subaru's head with their light, strong, in no way inferior to the
old others. And surrounding those Number One stars shone the glow of those supposedly-
disappeared, different stars.
This was the sky of stars he had gained in a world outside his shut-in room, where he frantically
suffered, sorrowed, cried and wailed, screamed and raged, smiled and ran, rejoiced and advanced.
Kenichi: “Well, 's all fine. Do what you want. So long as you sort it out without breaking the law, I
ain't really gonna object. Like me, you've got some talent to you when it comes to duping others.”
Subaru: “If I really did then I wouldn'tve messed up my high school début slipped out of place
worrying and been friendless. I can't pull it off like you can, dad.”
Kenichi: “You know I really think that's not the case? I mean, you're my son. And also, I think
you're misunderstanding lotsa things, but that's the worst one right there.”
Subaru: “Right there?”
Arms crossed and wagging a finger, Kenichi nods at Subaru, who's tilted his head.
Kenichi: “Yeah,”
Kenichi: “I'm this fulla energy when I'm with you or Mom, but yknow your dad does know proper
TPO? Maybe you don't know this since this's what I'm always like when I'm with you, but if your
dad does these things with everyone they're gonna recoil, oi.”
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Subaru: “Wait, wait, wait...”
Kenichi: “Isn't it obvious? See someone this high-energy on the first meeting and you're not gonna
approach. This stuff's off limits until we're already friendly. Since I wait 'till it's a little hotter to
unbutton. I endure from an April start to a June end.”
The shocking truth. Turns out, Subaru's dad was a sensible guy who properly adapts his behaviour
to who he's talking to all along.
Ignorant of this, referencing off his regular dad, If I act like my dad everyone will definitely
absolutely no mistake like me! Was Subaru's shallowness.
Subaru: “Then what even was all that time I spent stagnant...”
Kenichi: “Eh, well I don't think it was useless. It's because you had that, that you are who you are
now. Do those stars you found really not make up for that time?”
Subaru raises his head. The reply comes to him instantly.
Subaru: “—Yes, they do. No matter how many chances I have, I'm going to keep wanting and
running for the sky of stars I have now. So, I'm glad I am who I am now.”
Kenichi: “Right. ...Well so, wasn't it all good then?”
Kenichi smiles in relief. Seeing that smile, something hard, heavy and swollen inside Subaru's chest
drops. He senses the darkness he harboured clearing, his melancholy being cleansed.
It was a pretty selfish and complacent feeling, but for Subaru, having it right now was a lifesaver.
He got to face his past, separate from the person he had been until them, and while still holding who
he had been until then, walk forward with pride as who he was now.
Subaru: “I'm sorry, for keeping quiet on so much. I was full of feelings I couldn't even sort out
myself, and caused problems for you with my truancy. I truly do regret it. Truly.”
Kenichi: “I'm saying dunworry. It's my mistake for not noticing you were so into that too-super me.
I'm who should be sorry, for being too big of a presence for you!”
Subaru: “It's completely true but it's amazing how little I wanna accept it now!”
Kenichi: “Ha ha ha, don't be shy. You're my son with my blood in you. Definitely, you're an
amazing genius who has it in you to be half as cool as I am.”
Subaru: “Just half? Genius's something that gets more refined with each generation.”
Kenichi: “Cause half of you's from Mom. Considering my coolness and negotiation skills, feels like
the counterbalancing negatives from Naoko're way too strong.”
Subaru: “I'm sorry mom, I have no counter to that!”
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Kenichi: “But, this took some of the load off your shoulders. Nothing to do 'bout your getting stuck,
everything's from here on out, here on.”
Subaru: “Ah, yeah. Umm, I caused so much trouble for you and I'm..”
Kenichi: “If you're thinking 'sorry', then just take the time to properly pay me back. You look after
me and Mom well in the future, first-born son.”
—Hearing that, Subaru goes still.
He had the resolve to apologize for the whole of the conversation until then, and the determination
to confess to Kenichi his feelings. In doing so, Subaru thought he would finally melt the malaise he
had held for so long, and get to face his mother and father with cheer.
Subaru: “—guueh,”
Thus, the second he heard the words 'from here on out,' what surged up though Subaru's entire being
was—
Subaru: “...I—I'm so sorry.”

Kenichi: “Subaru?”
Subaru: “I'm sor—sorr, so, sorry—I, sorry, s-sorry—soh, ree... hk,”
A torrent of tears blots out Subaru's vision, turning the world blurry. He covers his face with his
hands and frantically wipes at the flowing tears. But no matter how hard he does, the tears don't
stop. They don't stop. They won't stop.
Subaru: “I'mso, sorry... I—I... you two, any more... so—I'm so, sorry...”
—He realised it.

Somewhere within his heart, he had realised it long ago.
From the instant that he narrowed his eyes at the brilliance of the new world's sunlight, Subaru
knew it as if it were writ.
—He would never be able to return to the old world.
He had conveyed his deepest of hearts to his father, confessed the dark feelings lodged in his chest,
nevertheless gained forgiveness, and received support for his resolve to start walking—and had
been raised well enough to be capable of it all.
Subaru: “But despite that, I... without, repaying anything... I'll never, see, you again... I'm sorry. Sor
—sorry. ...I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.”
The tears don't stop. The emotion's so intense he might fall into a squat at any moment.
But even so, Subaru remains standing upright—and what's keeping him from collapsing is the body
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holding him in an embrace.
With his large, firm hands, about the exact same height at his son, Kenichi holds a bawling Subaru
tight and soothingly taps him on the back, saying,
Kenichi: “—You always were such a difficult son. I swear.”
Soothingly, lovingly, Kenichi maintains the embrace indefinitely.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Kenichi: “Calmed down?”
Subaru: “—Yeah. Sorry. I really, just cause so many problems.”
Kenichi: “Seriously. Just look at my shirt. Chest bit's gotten all flaky with snot and tears. So
embarrassing I can't go prowling round the neighbourhood right.”
Subaru's stopped crying. Kenichi bounces his finger off Subaru's forehead and laughs. Subaru
watches Kenichi, his own face thoroughly cried-out, his gaze sorrowful and apologetic. Kenichi
sighs.
Kenichi: “Don't know why you started bawling, but I bet that was embarrassing so I'll keep it secret
for you. Now, express to me your gratefulness.”
Subaru: “...Yeah. I am grateful. I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, more than anyone in the
world, am grateful.”
Kenichi: “Even I'm gonna blush hearing that one.”
Kenichi scratches his cheek and smiles embarrassedly. Subaru can't keep looking at Kenichi's face
there for long, and winds up averting his gaze. Kenichi shrugs and waves his hands as if flicking a
bug away.
Kenichi: “Now, home and home you go, blubberbug. Your dad feels like strolling a little longer, so
I'll take a bit of a detour back. Some weird rumours're gonna start circling if I go walking around
with a crying you.”
Subaru: “...What a parent and child our age were up to together'd be a story in itself.”
Kenichi: “Seriously. We go home together now, and your friends's rumours'll embarrass you hard.”
Subaru: “That line can be fatal depending who you're saying it to so be careful how you use it.”
Unintentionally entering straight-man mode, a lash of homesickness spears Subaru's heart. Subaru
grits his teeth to stifle the feeling dead and turns his face away.
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Subaru: “So,”
Subaru: “I'll be going home ahead. Try not to get interrogated or whatever.”
Kenichi: “Sorry to crush your expectations, but all the policemen 'round here are my buddies.
They're not gonna give me anything even if I prompt them.”
Subaru: “Don't prompt them.”
Same Kenichi as ever. Subaru again feels Kenichi's attitude save him, and feels thoroughly sick of
his same old weakness as ever. Just how far was he going to go feeling satisfied with relying on
others to protect him? Hopeless.
And further, he didn't want to expose his weakness before Kenichi. Subaru gives a sharp sigh, turns
around, and starts walking. Quickly, to soon disappear from this scene.
Kenichi: “—Hey, Subaru.”
Subaru's feet stop.
Kenichi: “I'm sure you've got a lotta stuff too. So I'll keep it down to just one thing.”
Subaru says nothing.
Kenichi: “Do your best. I'm expecting things from you, son.”
Subaru feared others having expectations for him, others being disappointed in him.
The unease of possibly betraying his father's expectations constantly gripped Subaru and never let
him go. Which was why, in the face of his father's expectations, a symbol of terror for Subaru—
Subaru: “—Yeah. Leave it to me, dad.”
His back still turned to Kenichi, he jabs his finger to the heavens.
Subaru: “My name is Natsuki Subaru. Son of Natsuki Kenichi. —So I can do anything, and will do
everything. Your son's damn amazing.”
Kenichi: “Yup, I know that. After all, half of you's from me!”
Kenichi's hearty laugh pours over Subaru's back. A smile rises on Subaru's face.
Back still turned, Subaru starts walking.

His knees shake not. His heart wavers not. He simply looks firmly ahead, and walks.
—With the owner of the back he had always stared up at now staring at his back, he walks.
And see how much power that fact alone gave him, thinks Subaru.
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Never stopping, Subaru walks on.
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CHAPTER 19: HOMEWORK

Subaru heads for home through the familiar townscape while sorting out his heart.
There's several strong emotions in Subaru's chest as he walks.

He'd never gone wandering around like this, while the sun was up, since he became a truant. That
this scenery, which he was supposed to have walked through many times, appeared different was
probably not entirely due to the sunlight.
Subaru: “Well, not like truants go walking around under the dazzling Mister Sun often.”
Couldn't bear becoming the subject of rumours or being taken in by the police.
Even if Subaru's unnoticed true desire was for his parents to hate him, he didn't want it to be from
doing something that'd get the police involved.
There's memories all along the path back home. Feeling the ground under his soles in confirmation,
he walks through the quiet—more rather, unpopulated—townscape. Around the time he stops
noticing the dried tears on his cheeks is when he reaches his house's front gate.
He takes a breath, and stops.

Eyes closed, he swallows down all the multitude emotions in his heart.
Subaru: “—I'm home.”
He opens the door and waits for a reply. But the reply he absolutely should be getting isn't coming.
Furrowing his brow in confusion, Subaru takes off his shoes and goes inside, scanning his gaze
about for his supposedly-present mom.
Naoko: “...Welcome home.”
—Says Naoko as she glances back at Subaru, herself standing before the refrigerator, a bottle of
mayonnaise in her mouth.
Subaru: “...I'm home.”
His stress gone elsewhere, Subaru's shoulders slump as he smiles wryly and gives that reply.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “When I didn't get a reply after saying 'I'm home,' I was worried something'd happened.”
Naoko: “Nothing happened, silly. Look, mom's mayonnaise was all empty. So I was just sneaking a
sip of Dad's mayonnaise when... Lately, I've been feeling that you and your dad's voices sound
alike, Subaru. I can't tell you apart over the phone.”
Subaru: “That conversation kinda jumped, but so it's because you couldn't tell me apart from dad
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you were hiding. Or I mean, if you were trying to hide I think you'd want to be stealthier about it.”
Meeting his mom face-to-face in the living room, Subaru sucks up some of the contents from the
mayo bottle and casually sets it on the table. Naoko tilts her head.
Naoko: “We'll keep it a secret from Dad. Drinking Dad's mayonnaise... Look, don't you think it's
economical to taste the great flavour of mayonnaise and the flavour of Dad at the same time?”
Subaru: “There's no good way to respond to what sounds like some recorder-licking weirdo's court
testimony! And saying that putting two things you like together's the best, are you in middle
school?!”
Naoko: “So, what happened to Dad? You left him behind? Subaru, when did you become fast
enough to leave your Dad behind?”
Subaru: “It's not like I could ever win in a footrace with dad anywa... or no, actually...”
Last time Subaru and Kenichi had had some kinda footrace, Kenichi left Subaru faaaaar behind. But
that had been years ago. Comparing them now, Subaru definitely wouldn't be left behind so far, or
even lose.
Subaru: “In the end, I was taking half-measures with damn everything.”
Leaning back on his chair so that it squeaks, Subaru gives a big stretch. Naoko puts her hand to her
mouth and smiles.
Subaru: “What? Something funny?”
Naoko: “Just thought you looked exactly like Dad when you did that. He's always stretched his back
while leaning on the chair-back. Then he'd put too much force into it and topple over.”
Subaru: “So not just our voices, even our mannerisms are alike. Can't tell whether that's a good or
bad thing.”
Naoko: “I think it's good. —Yup, you definitely are his son.”
Subaru's heart gives a single, hard thump and he desperately manages to keep himself from groaning.
Naoko blinks in surprise at seeing Subaru's face stiffen and eyes jolt open. Subaru quickly manages
to settle the throbbing down.
Subaru: “Feels like I'll wind up staying if I keep being here too long, so...”
Subaru stand up and scratches his cheek.
Subaru: “So hey, there's sorta something I wanna ask you.”
Naoko: “Yup, go ahead.”
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Looking as if she's feigning ignorance about not recognizing Subaru's hesitation, Naoko casually
glances back and forth between Subaru and the mayonnaise. Probably she wants some mayo just as
must as she wants to hear her son go on with this. Completely dumbfounded by his mom's same-as-
ever attitude, his face breaking out into a small smile, Subaru,
Subaru: “—Do you remember where I put my school uniform?”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Subaru puts on his ironed white shirt and neat, clean slacks. He fastens his belt as he stands
before the mirror, and with some struggling, gets his deep-green tie on. Then he puts on his navy
blazer, and,
Subaru: “Student Natsuki Subaru, complete... Been like three months.”
Subaru gives a sigh at a job all done. This blazer outfit was mandatory every day, and tying the tie
was a fucking pain, so he hated it for eating away at his precious sleeping hours. Even though he'd
been tying it for two-and-a-bit years he still hasn't gotten good at it, which is pretty fucking uncool.
But since this is his last time, his feelings about it are complicated.
Subaru: “It's the last time, so should I have it perfect, or just have it how I always do it?”
The answer's already inside him. He ties the tie shittily and just leaves it like that, turns around,
looks over his room and grabs his schoolbag.
Now matter how you looked at him, this was an exemplary high-schooler all ready to go to school.
Subaru: “But unfortunately forget homeroom, feels like third period'd be starting now. Nothing
goddamn exemplary about setting out when the sun's already this high.”
Subaru goes to leaves his room. But right before he exits, he glances back as if remembering
something. For a Subaru who had never moved houses once in his life, this room was the only place
he could ever call 'My Room'. The place where, ever since he'd been given it after entering middle
school, he'd spent almost six years waking and sleeping. Likely, this would be the last he'd ever see
of it.
Saying nothing, Subaru silently bows his head.
After he ends that long, long bow, Subaru raises his head and in good spirits turns his back to the
room. He clicks the door shut. He goes back down to the living room to see Naoko waiting there,
and her sharp eyes open wide in surprise.
Naoko: “My. When you asked where your uniform and shirt was, I thought you might want to burn
them and got everything ready... but that's all wasted now.”
Subaru: “When your son asks you where his uniform is your thoughts turn to immolation? Or I
mean, when you say 'got everything ready' for the burning, those potatoes and those skewered
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franks and stuff are...?”
Subaru shivers as he looks at the cooking ingredients lined up on the table, at a loss for words.
Naoko looks a newly-dressed Subaru once over.
Naoko: “Mmhm, looks good. That outfit makes you feel like an adult, and right now balances your
eyes so they look slightly tempered down.”
Subaru: “My mom's robbing me of said temper with that 'right now'!”
Naoko: “Why are you being so touchy? Want some mayonnaise to calm down?”
Subaru: “Right now, I'm not really in the...”
Naoko: “Well of course you're not.”
Naoko holds out a bottle of mayonnaise with an 'S' written on the cap, demarcating it as Subaru's
personal stash. At hearing Subaru's rejection, Naoko nods as if she expected that response.
Naoko: “After all, you don't really like mayonnaise.”
Subaru goes silent.
Naoko: “You just drank it with us because me and dad love mayonnaise.”
Naoko sets the Subarunaise on the table and idly spins it around as she speaks. Subaru's throat
clamps shut in surprise. Panicked, swallowing his breath and with his lips shaking,
Subaru: “Wh, what makes you...”
Naoko: “Okay Subaru, which would you choose, the world or mayonnaise?”
Subaru: “Um, that'd be the world...”
Naoko: “You see?”
Subaru: “That example's awful!! How're you getting all 'you see' and satisfied at that! Anyone
who'd pick mayonnaise there doesn't really like mayonnaise they just hate the world!”
Subaru glares at the mayo on the table, then gives a small snort.
Subaru: “...How long have you been thinking that?”
Naoko: “Since forever. If me or Dad had no mayonnaise we'd be depressed like the world was
ending, but that doesn't happen with you, Subaru.”
Subaru: “I'm despairing at the height of this hurdle you're asking.”
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That said, Subaru's status as a Mayolover is not in question. Whenever you ask what seasoning he's
going to go for it's mayonnaise. Mayonnaise for all fried foods. Snacks are mayonnaise flavoured
with extra mayonnaise spread on them.
But if you were going to ask why was so attached to mayonnaise—
Subaru: “You two looked like you were savouring it so much, and I wanted to savour it the same
way. Man my father complex-mother complex resulting family complex was intense...”
Naoko: “Can you add a super to that?”
Subaru: “Thus dubbed Super Family Complex aka Super Famicom—augh just shut up.”
Subaru gives a sigh and reaches for the mayo on the table.
Naoko: “Ah,”
Subaru: “—phhhfah. Ah, it's good! Authentic mayonnaise really is different! The other replicated-
ingredients mayonnaise is fine too, but yes it's the unhealthy uses-synthetic-colouring mayonnaise
that's the real thing! Theirs is mayonneeze.”
He swallows down the once-full bottle of mayonnaise in one go, savouring the sour taste burning
down his throat. This, was the mayonnaise that mayonnaise junkies couldn't ever stop loving.
Subaru: “Maybe I lose to two you when it comes to mayonnaise love, but I still am an adherent to
the mayonnaise I can't ever stop loving. I swear it on every cap of every bottle I've drunk.”
By the way Subaru keeps a personal collection of all the caps of all the mayo bottles he's eaten in
his room. There's 776. And with this new guy, it's 777.
Subaru: “Triple sevens. Mind putting this cap in my closet afterwards?”
Naoko: “Ooh, three sevens is lucky. Dad was overjoyed a little while ago when he got four sevens,
too.”
Subaru: “Literally love in a different multitude!”
Naoko happily takes the cap. Subaru can't just accept what he's just heard, his sense of
accomplishment being spoiled, but he immediately fixes his face anyway.
Subaru: “Now... well, bout time to go.”
Naoko: “Ah, if you're going to the convenience store, I'd like a cream puff so buy one.”
Subaru: “Looking at my outfit could you please use your imagination a little before speaking!?”
Subaru spreads out his arms, indicating himself. Naoko smiles.
Naoko: “Kidding, kidding.”
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Naoko: “You're going to school this late? It makes your mom happy, but... won't you stand out in a
bad way? Isn't it something you could do tomorrow?”
Subaru: “Stop crushing your son's fledgling motivation. I'm already neck-deep in a willpower shot
down by others harshly and by myself well.”
Naoko: “If you really were that kind of boy, Subaru, then your mom wouldn't have had so much
trouble.”
Naoko: “Now, your mom's gonna get her jacket so wait here a mo.”
Subaru: “Wait here... wait, you're seriously coming too? Getting outta being a shut-in then going to
school with your parents is something you'd do in a punishment game!”
Naoko: “I won't go as far as school. I'm just going to the convenience store to buy some mayonnaise
and cream puffs. Can't impose that much on you.”
Subaru: “Wha!? But this feels like you're asking me to come with you!?”
Naoko gives an apathetic 'yeah yeah' at Subaru's yelling and goes off to her room. Indeed she will
be accompanying Subaru halfway to school.
Subaru: “Nonono... give me a break here. Come on.”
Says Subaru as his cheeks loosen in relief.

—At the fact the time until he would have to say his farewells to his mother had lengthened, and
that even when confronted with his weakness he had the resolve for such a thing.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Naoko: “It's been a long time since we've last walked together like this, Subaru.”
Subaru: “Really? Feels like we go to buy things at night together like all the time.”
Naoko: “Haaa. Okay so, going from the conversation's flow I obviously mean at daytime. You need
to read between the lines of what people are saying.”
Subaru: “When I'm hearing the rights and wrongs of making suppositions like that from you, I can't
just agree with it!”
Even though Naoko's a complete fanatical like a demon tier airhead, and is unaware of being an
airhead, and you have to explain everything to her if you want to communicate with her, and stress
builds up as you talk with her, Subaru loves talking with his mom.
Naoko: “I'm glad it's warm out today. What did you talk with Dad about?”
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Subaru: “Ah, there's some basic level mom-talk stuff—first and second parts don't tie together at all.
Well there wasn't really a theme so you had that, but, uhhhh...”
Subaru tilts his head. If he's going to get detailed about his talk with Kenichi, he's going to have to
mention his embarrassing inner feelings, and complexes, and that he cried. It was necessary to get
that all out, but it was exactly because he thought he'd only be doing it once that there was that huge
wave of emotions, so doing it again here would not be great.
So,
Subaru: “The big points were... the story about Ikeda-san, and some tales of the past I guess.”
Naoko: “Ahh, Ikeda-kun. Won in the horse races and moved to Thailand, was swindled by his
young wife there and lost all his belongings, and now shunted into physical labour while getting
scorched black.”
Subaru: “Uh that's kinda the first time I'm hearing of the tragic development in that second half!?”
Naoko: “He sent a letter saying, 'I could not get used to dirty money after all. My body may be in a
poor state, but my heart is fulfilled.'”
Subaru: “Your experiences in some unknown place meant you got to take your mask off, Ikeda-
san... That's not personally insignificant here!”
Ikeda-san only went to a different country rather than a different world. That said, finding a fellow
comrade out there in a place he hadn't expected, Subaru casually prays Ikeda-san good luck.
Naoko tilts her head.
Naoko: “Hmmm,”
Naoko: “So, did those tales of the past make you feel like going to school?”
Subaru: “Ahh, yeah, well I mean if you're putting it simply. It was a chance for me to look back at
how ridiculous everything I was thinking of then was. And so,”
Naoko: “You decided to stop doing absolutely everything like your Dad.”
Subaru goes silent. Naoko gives a big wave of her arms as she walks.
Naoko: “You always tried so hard, Subaru, and completed lots of things non-committally. You had
lots of opportunities for that since Dad's got so many random interests... You must've been
exhausted.”
Subaru: “M, mom... how much about me, do you...”

Naoko: “Okay so, Subaru.”
Even Subaru hadn't known his own true feelings. Subaru's stunned silent at Naoko's talk which
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>implies she knew about it all along. He raises his head at her calling his name. Naoko circles
round to stand before him, and looks Subaru straight in the eye.
Naoko: “They say it all the time. That children pay more attention to their parents than their parents
think.”
Naoko: “But you know, the opposite's also true. Parents pay infinitely more attention to their
children than their children think. I'm your mom, I've been paying infinitely more attention to you
than you think I have, Subaru.”
Subaru's just fucking stupefied. All of his efforts in ever hiding his true condition were actually
completely pointless.
Naoko: “I put a suppository in you when you were small, so I've even paid attention to your
bumhole. Subaru, the only part of your body I haven't seen is your internal organs.”
Subaru: “Uh please excuse me. That conversation had been heading somewhere nice, your
airheadedness truly didn't need to show up there.”
And besides nevermind family it's pretty fucking rare for anyone to ever get a chance to see their
internal organs. Although that said Subaru has been blessed with a few chances to do so.
Anyway,
Subaru: “The mayonnaise, and why I was a shut-in, too...”
Naoko: “Your mom would've done something if she could. But it seemed like no matter what I'd do,
it definitely wouldn't work out. But,”
Naoko gives a small smile and stares into Subaru's dark irises.
Naoko: “It looks like somebody, not me or Dad, did do something for you. I think that's extremely
great. I'll have to thank them.”
Subaru: “...Yeah, you're right. They taught my hopeless self that I was hopeless. They told my
hopeless self that I wasn't hopeless. That's why, like I am right now, I'm able to walk.”
Who made him realise his foolishness, who gave his foolish self acceptance.
Ah, hell.
Subaru: “They're amazing girls. They seriously are wasted on me.”
Naoko: “But you're not going to give them up to anyone, right?”
Subaru: “Well of course not. Whether they're appropriate for me or not isn't a problem. And if it's so
bad that I'd be handing them down to someone else, even with them being inappropriate for me, I'd
make them mine. I'd be raising my worth from thereon out, see.”
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Naoko: “Mmhm. —Yup, you definitely are his son.”
Considering Naoko knows Subaru's true heart, she probably also knows how significant those
words are to Subaru. And while knowing, she's telling them to him.
Subaru: “Am I really, made from him properly? Can I really, be his son properly?”
Naoko: “Don't worry. After all, half of you is from me, Subaru. You'll fill your quota by becoming
half as cool as Dad.”
Subaru: “So you know your genes making up my body are inferior!?”
Naoko: “If you become half as cool as Dad... then why not have other half just be Subaru?”
Subaru goes motionless, dumbstruck, stupefied.

Naoko: “Not all of you is going to be like Dad. I mean, if all of you is the same as Dad, Subaru,
there'll be two of Dad and your mom'll be lost.”
Subaru: “A woman's heart sent wavering by her husband and son, is this erotica?”
Naoko: “Noo, you stop, aughh!”
Subaru: “Guh—bwaaah!?”
Naoko socks Subaru with a surprisingly sturdy right-hook to the face in embarrassment and turns
her back to a pained, teary-eyed Subaru.
Naoko: “So, Mom thinks it's good for Subaru to do his best to be like Subaru.”
Subaru: “That was full of good vibes, but I'm kinda bleeding, here.”
Naoko: “Speaking of blood, don't iron pipes taste like blood when you lick them?”
Subaru: “Situations extreme as that don't really happen much... oh man, it's middle class mom-talk
stuff, suddenly off-topic questions.”
Even if you try explaining to her that it's because the iron in blood and an iron pipe are made of
similar materials, it's hopeless. She'll just ask you why you're talking about something off-topic.
So,
Subaru: “Me being like me, huh.”

Naoko: “Yeah. While thinking to become like Dad, become Subaru.”
Naoko, a little ways ahead of Subaru, suddenly stops walking and glances back to him, pointing at
the right path of the split in the road just ahead.
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Naoko: “So, the convenience store's this way so Mom'll be stopping here... will you be okay on
your own?”
Subaru: “Scars deep enough to warrant that worrying... actually were there, yeah.”
Naoko's concerns aren't superfluous.
Subaru: “I'll be okay. The things I have to do and want to do overlap perfectly. I don't have any
reason to close myself up anymore.”
Naoko: “I see. Then good. Do your best.”
Naoko nods in relief, and with a spring in her step, starts heading down the right-hand path. Subaru
will be going down the left-hand, so this is where he and his mother part.
Their goodbye. One certainly much, much longer than his mother thinks.
Subaru: “Mom!”
Naoko stops and turns around. The sight of his same old mother as always burns into Subaru's
eyelids.
Subaru: “Ah...”
Subaru hesitates.
If Subaru doesn't say anything here, his mom will continue on without knowing how long this
goodbye is going to be. Also, she'll lose the chance to see Subaru break down crying. If he doesn't
his face to be stained with tears seeing his mother for the last time, perhaps it's better he keeps his
mouth shut.
That self-deceit wearing the veneer of being considerate,
Subaru: “There's something I have to do. This goodbye'll be a long one.”
was not something Natsuki Subaru would permit.
Naoko says nothing.
Subaru: “I'll be going kinda far away, and I don't think we'll be able to contact each other. I think,
it'll cause a lot of worries for you. I won't do anything dangerous... isn't something I can assert.
Since I have to save a girl in peril from situations which're entirely dangerous.”
Subaru: “I think it'll worry you and Dad. Since it'll be different from yesterday where I was
somewhere you could see me, it'll be somewhere your eyes can't reach. But, no matter where I am,
I'll be thinking of you two, and I'll never forget you...”
Naoko: “Subaru.”
Subaru: “I don't want to not be your child anymore, and I don't want to do things that'd make me
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hate myself. Definitely do know that this isn't a case where I can say, 'relax and see me off'. But I...”
Naoko: “Subaru.”
Even Subaru's starting to not understand what the hell he's saying until Naoko's calling snaps him
out of it. Subaru raises his head to find his mother standing directly before him.
Naoko: “Subaru. —It's okay.”
Subaru: “...I-it's okay?”

Naoko: “Because I know what it is you want to tell me, Subaru. You don't need to work that hard to
search for the words.”
Subaru: “You know? ...how? ...hk”
Naoko: “Because I'm your mother, after all, Subaru.”
There's absolutely no logic in it, but it probably has some completely irrefutable basis to it.
The back of Subaru's eyes turns hot. He only just experienced this sensation like an hour ago. Just
how many times does Subaru have to cry like a child here? If he drains out all his tears like this,
will he be able to acquire an unshakable heart of iron?
Subaru: “T-this... childish... so, lame...”
Naoko: “If crying when you want to cry is lame, then that means every baby born is lame.”
Subaru: “Not what I... mean...”
Naoko: “Uh-huh, I know, silly. In front of me or Dad, you're a child no matter how old you are...
when you want to cry, do cry.”
The world blurs. The tears well up. Subaru wipes and hides his face with his sleeve, concealing his
face from Naoko. Naoko respects his stubbornness by not trying to peer in or anything. But she
does stretch herself up and slowly pats his short hair.
Subaru: “...I'm sorry, mom. I'm, ultimately, still without doing anything for you...”
Naoko: “It isn't that I had you because I wanted something, you know? I had you because I wanted
to give something. It's because I wanted to give love, that I had you, Subaru.”
—Then, Subaru had already received that love an uncountable number of times.
Naoko: “If you want to do something for me and Dad, then it's fine for you to give that feeling to
someone else. If that someone is the girl you love, Subaru, and you also make a child which you
want to give love to... isn't that just the greatest?”
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Subaru: “...Yeah, it is.”
Naoko: “Right? Not a single thing your mom says is ever incorrect.”
Smiling, Naoko tousles Subaru's bangs and gives his chest a push. Subaru takes a step back thanks
to that and raises head, to see his mom looking up at him.
Naoko: “When your face gets messier from crying, it looks even weirder and more like your
mom's.”
Subaru: “...I'm impressed you can say that while referencing your own face.”
Naoko: “I'm confident that it's the face Dad loves. So it's safe for you to be just as confident as me
that Dad loves you, Subaru.”
Subaru: “We're just talking about faces here though but okay!”
Subaru forcefully wipes his face with his sleep, his eyes red but the tears stopped. Bawling like
crazy, showing off his true feeling and getting consoled, and then feeling refreshed at the end of it
all, weirdo.
Subaru: “Ahhhgeez, all this crying's so damn pathetic.”

Naoko: “But crying's good. Subaru, you cried a heap when you were born. At first you cried so
much anyone would find it disgraceful. At lots of things, in lots of places, you cried.”
Naoko: “But if you can smile at the end of all that crying, then everything's okay. What's important
isn't the beginning or the middle, it's the end.”
Subaru: “You mean, if the results're good then everything's okay?”
Naoko: “Interpreting it like that is incorrect. Here, take it as homework from Mom.”
He would never get to check the answers.

A farewell taking the name of homework. One day he would find the answer, and there it would
come to him naturally.
Both his mother and father, rather than complain at their son as he goes off somewhere unknown at
the end of being a shut-in, sent him off with smiles.
Subaru had loved his parents, his environment, and this place completely.
Subaru: “—I'll be going, then.”
Naoko: “Yup, do that.”
Subaru forces his cheeks into a smile, leaving his mom with that before turning his back on her, and
starts walking.
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They've already gotten through most of the path to school. All that's left is to get to the end of this
street, then up the hill, to where the school's waiting—
Naoko: “Ah, right. Subaru, Subaru, I forgot.”
Hearing this makes Subaru lose some of his mettle. He glances back, unable to conceal how he's
been dispirited.
Naoko raises her arm.
Naoko: “—Come home safe.”
She gives a small wave, and smiles.
—The night before he'd been summoned to the parallel world. When Subaru was going out to the
convenience store, Naoko surely said the exact same thing to him. But back then, Subaru had
simply wordlessly pushed the door open, and,
Which made this his last chance to wipe away his regret from that day.
High class mom-talk stuff—no matter how many sideroads it takes, in the end it always ends up
reaching the correct answer.
The second the thought rises in Subaru's mind, a real, non-forced smile spreads over his face.
Subaru: “—See you later!”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
An unpopulated school building. Subaru heads for the shoeboxes at the entrance, opening the
shittily-installed doors, swaps out his outside shoes for his inside ones, and takes a breath as he
heads for the hallway.
The third-year's rooms are on the first floor. Subaru shoots the stairs a glance as he continues down
the hall, his footsteps resounding off the linoleum floor and down the silent, empty corridor. He
soon arrives before his classroom. Deep breaths.
He slides the door open.

And then, a mob of reproachful gazes aimed towards the extremely-latecoming Subaru—
???: “That was a lot faster than I thought.”
—are nowhere to be found.

Most all the seats inside the classroom are empty, the only occupied chair being the one in the very
middle. The person sitting there turns around, with the chair, to look back at Subaru.
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???: “Welcome. —Did you maybe get something from facing your past?”
Says the WITCH OF GREED, her white hair swaying, her eyes brimming and brimming with
curiosity.
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CHAPTER 20: TEST RESULTS

—Seated in the middle of the classroom, the white-haired girl tilts her head.
Subaru quickly checks that there's nobody else in the classroom, then leans out of the doorway to
check there's no one down the halls either. There isn't, and he sighs, scratching his head.
Subaru: “First, got something I just wanna say.”
Echidna: “Yup, let's hear it. You're thinking something, considering something, going to talk about
something. I'm incredibly interested in every part of that.”
Subaru: “That uniform looks great on you.”
Echidna blinks, puzzled, and then cracks up.
Echidna: “Ahaha, thanks. You thinking that means there was worth in me reconstructing this from
your memories. This is the clearest, most often-seen outfit inside your memory. Did you maybe
fancy it?”
Echidna stands up from her seat, grips the hem of her grey skirt, and does a little, quick turn on the
spot. Her hair sways following the movement, making her look like nothing more than a girl of an
age fitting her appearance.
Grey skirt, navy blazer. The red ribbon on her chest demarcates her as a fellow third-year, and gives
dazzling contrast to the white shirt underneath. But if there was anything to be unsatisfied about,
Subaru: “I like long skirts better than short ones. When it takes longer to strip them off you can
work your imagination more.”
Echidna: “Aha. Then, to meet to your expectations for stripping, I see I'll put on a long skirt next
time.”
Subaru: “Won't be a chance for that! And, it's not like everyone's wearing the uniform because I
love it. That outfit's just what you wear here. Like the Imperial Knights and stuff probably.”
Echidna puts her hand to her mouth as she laughs. Subaru shrugs and goes to the back of the
classroom—to the window seat, second from the back, pulls out his chair and plomps himself down.
Hard, wooden seat. Desk with the alphabet etched into it by some previous owner. Legs that
squeaked whenever you leaned on said desk. Rusted drawer. A fragment of Subaru's extremely
distanced daily life.
Echidna: “I sorta thought you'd be more surprised.”
Subaru: “If you wanted to hide it, you should've put more effort into the background. Not common
that there's nobody around on the way to school, or the entire time until I got to here.”
Even considering that it was a weekday afternoon, there were way too few other people around.
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Almost as if the world'd been cropped of any information unnecessary for Subaru.
Subaru: “This world was way too convenient for my interests. I really have nothing to say except
'serves you right' about you not getting the reaction you wanted.”
Echidna: “Nonono, that's part of the fun too. Testing, receiving results in itself is happiness to me.
How those results came about doesn't really matter by this point. Though of course, if you start
considering whether or not they connect to what comes after, then that kinda changes the story a
little.”
Looks like she's really not bothered at her plans supposedly going awry. Subaru endures through the
feeling of wanting to click his tongue.
Subaru: “So, what's this world? If I'm remembering right, I went into your tomb while it was
midway through the TRIAL or whatever, and...”
Echidna: “You went in, qualified. So I'd say the TRIAL started up for you too, wouldn't it? Didn't
you hear it? First, face your past.”
Echidna folds her arms behind her back and slowly walks over to Subaru, beautiful in the refreshing
wind breezing through the classroom, no need for any unease about her. Subaru gets the feeling that
he's getting pulled into a trap and averts his gaze from her.
Echidna: “Everyone has regrets about their past. There's surely no existence out there who has never
had a regret, assuming they live through their days. Today they regret yesterday, yesterday they
regretted the past, and tomorrow they'll definitely regret today. —All because people have the
function for regret.”
Subaru: “Stop being so pessimistic. Humans've also got the function for, instead of reflecting on
regret, using their reflections on yesterday to do something today, and using their reflections on
today to make a breakthrough tomorrow.”
Echidna: “—Precisely!”
Echidna gives a sharp clap and lunges her face in toward Subaru, who leans back unconsciously.
Heedless, Echidna just brings her face in closer, close enough for them to feel each other's breath.
Echidna: “It's just simple wordplay, just a slight difference in thinking. But whether you view the
past optimistically or pessimistically greatly changes how you get your answer. Most view the past
pessimistically, looking back entirely on bad memories, and end up rejecting the path they've
walked. And they loathe to lay their eyes on what they rejected, and end up not placing a lid on it.”
Subaru: “Um, your face... close...”
Echidna: “But it's inevitable. The you of yesterday, absolutely, knows less than the you of today.
The you of today, absolutely, knows less than the you of tomorrow. The breadth of what you knew
in the past, even if just by one single memory, will be inferior than what you know in the present
and future. That is reality!”
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Echidna suddenly leans back and forcefully slaps her hands on the desk.
Echidna: “Supposing they face their past, or perhaps even meet the past they should face, people are
lost, confused, lamenting, suffering, anguishing, pessimistic, and from there they find their answer.
So long as they do find an answer, no matter what it is, I will approve of it. Even if it's an answer
they reached with their back turned, or answer they reached with their arm reached forward, either
is indisputably proof that they overcame their past.”
Subaru: “And that's, the point of this TRIAL?”
Echidna: “Exactly. For you to face your past, and reach some answer regarding that past. If you
merely just fear, loathe, ruminate over reaching an answer, then you will eternally be unable to
overcome it. But if you can fully affirm, or otherwise reject that past, then I will see you off with
my praise. That's what the first TRIAL is.”
Echidna nods at Subaru, and then suddenly seeming to come to her senses, blushes slightly and
coughs.
Echidna: “I-it looks like I got just a tiny bit excited. I'm sorry for showing you something
unpleasant.”
Subaru: “Whatever don't worry 'bout it. If your breath'd been bad well there's that, but fortunately
it's more tachibana citrus. Anyway...”
Getting to see Echidna embarrassed for once gives Subaru some intense emotions as he pulls out his
chair and shifts his posture to lean forward.
Subaru: “Is it really safe for me to think, taking what you're saying as the conditions for clearing the
TRIAL, that I actually did overcome the TRIAL?”
Echidna: “I got to see every bit of it, and... I'm thinking the results are more than satisfactory.”
Echidna puts a hand to her chest, takes a deep breath, and with a horribly satisfied expression,
Echidna: “You reached an answer for both the symbol of your past trauma, and the representation of
your past guilt. I want to see you off with my praise for that.”
Subaru: “Every bit of it.. then, you saw me crying with snot trailing out my nose, too!?”
Echidna: “I'm so sohrhee... was about where my eyes almost started tearing up too.”
Subaru: “Shut up!! Don't tell anyone, it's too embarrassing!”
Knowing there was a peeping tom going on to his goodbye with his dad was an insult to both his
and Kenichi's emotions then. Echidna, either aware or unaware of this, gives a cheerful laugh.
Echidna: “Though, if there's anything to regret, it guess it's that the agony of facing your past
224
couldn't have been anything deeper.”
Subaru: “Huh?”
Echidna: “I like people reaching answers, but I imagine my praise being for the deliberating they do
to reach that answer or otherwise said their knowledge. I was looking forward to you deliberating,
struggling, and from there finding an answer, but...”
Echidna glances at Subaru, narrowing her eyes, seeming to peer into his dark irises.
Echidna: “Unfortunately, this TRIAL to enjoy that exact thing, seems to have been just a little too
late. Looks like you already found an answer to your negative feelings toward your past
beforehand.”
Subaru: “Ah... so that's it. If that's it, then yeah my condolences.”
Seems like Echidna wanted Subaru to realise how weak he was during his time spent living with his
parents, agonize over it, and either run away or find an answer. But Subaru'd already,
Subaru: “There was someone who told my hopeless, useless self that I was a hero. I didn't have to
face my past for it, I'd already accepted how useless I was.”
Echidna: “Resignation in a different form, or so. So much that it went astray from my expectations
and it wasn't amusing. When you meet that someone outside, please tell them that a witch had some
complaints to say about them.”
Subaru's about to joke back at Echidna, when he realises that Echidna had said something he
couldn't let slide.
Subaru: “You said that you relied on my memories for this reconstruction, but... If you can look
inside my head, shouldn't you know who that someone was?”
Or perhaps rather than 'noticing', it's 'clinging'. If she can peer into Subaru's brain, perhaps she could
also find out about Rem's existence. But,
Echidna: “Sorry, when you've just got your hopes up. My greedy self does know the boundary
between doing wrong and right. I did suck up the information needed for this TRIAL, but I didn't
touch anything else. Is there anything really so interesting about sneakily robbing a glance over
knowledge? I've got no urge go and to throw away the fun of getting to talk and listen.”
Some kind of incomprehensible witchly sense of self-respect.
Subaru: “If you only took out information needed for this TRIAL.. then why take out the uniform...”
Echidna: “Naturally, it's something I retrieved since it was necessary information for reconstructing
this so-called high school building. You can be damn sure it definitely wasn't some case of 'now I
know of this mysterious 'parallel world' environment, and what the girls living there wear, and won't
it just look great on me,' or whatever kind of anticipation that I withdrew this.”
225
Subaru: “Are you one of those idiot geniuses?”
Looks like Echidna let it slip. Subaru shakes his head. But hearing that's giving him more
confidence that—
Subaru: “Really doesn't need asking though. This world really is...”
Echidna: “Yup, it is. This is a fabricated world reconstructed off your memories, modelled faithfully
after reality. Which naturally means—your real parents still don't know where you are or what
you're doing, and are probably worrying over where their missing son is.”
Subaru goes silent.
Echidna: “There might've been some information you didn't know... but did you really, truly not
know it? Can you firmly say you've never read a single letter sent by this acquaintance your mom
and dad both knew? Have you never met face to face with the old man your dad knew when he was
young? Have you really, truly never imagined an image of your father different from the one you
thought?”
Echidna: “Or otherwise,”
Echidna: “Maybe you were actually just capable of persistently hiding the insides of your heart you
believed you didn't know about? Are you maybe confident you could seal away your true desire for
knowing to be easy, without it spilling into daily life at all? Could you even then state that you didn't
desire the selfish emotion known as love from your fabricated mom and dad?”
Echidna brings her face close to a silent Subaru, speaking that last part in a bewitching whisper.
Echidna: “Did you never think it was too ideal, too convenient for your interests?”
While tenderly gouging Subaru's heart with her soft fingers, Echidna smiles beautifully. This one
belonged to no schoolgirl, but was the ominous smile of a WITCH. Subaru closes his eyes hard. The
visages of his mom and dad arise beneath his eyelids.
Subaru: “Don't look down on my parents out of petty revenge, witch.”
Echidna: “...What?”
Subaru: “I communicated all of my answer. My mom and dad both received it. I said everything I
hadn't said, and they told me to do my best. They told me to take care.”
Subaru stands from his chair, puts his hand to the desk, and butts his forehead against Echidna's.
Echidna's black eyes open wide in surprise.
Subaru: “Their voices, smiles, everything, way exceeded my imagination. —My parents aren't in
some dimension my imagination could hold. Don't underestimate them.”
226
Echidna goes quiet.
Subaru: “My mom and dad communicated me everything. I came back settling it all with that. —
Nothing you say is going to trick me.”
Subaru sits back down in his chair, crosses his legs as aggressively as he can, and looks up at
Echidna. Echidna had looked dumbstruck, but,
Echidna: “Seriously... you didn't even let me see you worry over the answer you found, aren't you
just a human who can make a witch cry. Seriously, excellent.”
Subaru: “Praise me and I'll blush.” Untranslatable joke about being an indigo child equivalent
except not or some shit.
Echidna: wow you never miss a beat. “Ahh, but it's enough. Much more than enough. It's a
delightful thing, finding an answer so firm you won't tolerate any wavering.”
Echidna shakes her head and smiles in give-uppyness and sits down in the chair in front of Subaru,
turning back toward him.
Echidna: “The TRIAL's done in the true meaning. You escaped narrowly from the wicked hands of a
witch. As my praise for that... maybe I could answer any questions you have before you go?”
Subaru: “Right then, do have one.”
Echidna: “Yup, let's hear it.”
Echidna nods. Subaru jabs his finger straight at her.
Subaru: “You said you had no connection to this Trial. ...Like hell! You're not just even involved,
aren't you just the straight-up the mastermind of it. What about this is 'haven't participated in it',
how the heck can you spout all those complete lies!”
Echidna: “To accept a witch's words at face value—I'd say even lack of guard and subsequent lack
of caution have limits. I did say it when we parted, too. Right here's a damn wicked witch.”
Subaru: “Yeah, that right? Then I got nothing I wanna ask the mighty Wicked Witch whose words
have not even one speck of credibility. ...Does this mean SANCTUARY's unsealed now?”
Echidna: “It's truly pleasant how little you care how you look, going back on your statements with
that second half. Unfortunately, the TRIAL isn't something so simple as to end with just this. The
TRIAL's three parts in all. But I think if you can overcome this first TRIAL, it's not really that hard.”
Echidna holds up three fingers. Subaru mutters 'three' to himself.
Subaru: “Either way, we have to unseal SANCTUARY. It'll unseal fine even if I'm the one to clear the
TRIAL right? I can be sure about that one?”
227
Echidna: “That's why I gave you the qualifications. Of course you can. Whether it's you, or another
qualified half-breed who overcomes the TRIAL, I give the liberation of SANCTUARY my blessing. In
exchange, I wonder how you'll overcome the remaining two TRIALs. Since I'll sure be looking
forward to seeing the answers you find.”
Echidna nods. Subaru stands up, having no more questions for Echidna. There's nothing to gain by
staying in this fabricated world anymore. A kind of homesickness tugs at the hair at the back of his
neck, but he's already finished with his more regretful duty of saying his goodbyes.
Even if they were, just as Echidna said, only transient and empty ones.
Subaru: “Say, Echidna.”
Echidna: “What is it? Could it be, you're going to punch me? Ah, well I'm aware I've done things
enough to warrant that. If that's what you want, then don't think that I haven't resigned to accept it.
But that said, I am still a young girl. I'd kinda want you to avoid the face if you could, but...”
Subaru: “Thank you.”
Echidna's stunned silent, unable to comprehend what she just heard. Subaru feels some satisfied
delight at his rendering her speechless.
Subaru: “Even saying they weren't the real thing, and I didn't really tell my true parents anything, that
I managed to tell them what I wanted to convey was thanks to you. It was a result of your shitty
gossip-column curiosity, but I got to see people I thought I'd never see again, and say my farewells.”
And show them a slightly less pathetic, slightly prouder version of himself.
Subaru: “And I'm grateful for that. So, thank you.”
Echidna: “...This human you are is beyond comprehension, and profoundly interesting. To the
extent it's frightening.”
She's not joking or spouting bullshit, she actually does seem perhaps even threatened. Subaru smiles
at her.
Subaru: “The Mighty Witch sure is weak-kneed, getting caught in the grips of a tiny little man like
me. Well whatever. So, where's the exit.”
Echidna: “That's simple enough. This world's already begun disappearing. Nothing except this
building is constructed sincerely. —Leave the building, and you should return to being inside the
cemetery.”
Subaru: “Isn't that convenient. —Well, see you next TRIAL then.”
Waving his hand, Subaru stands from his seat and heads for the classroom's exit. He feels Echidna's
gaze on his back as he starts walking away. The scenery of the blue sky outside the windows has
already started fading, the world disappearing into somewhere.
228
Both his mother who saw him off, and his father who pushed him forward, are disappearing.
Subaru: “...I've already been told everything that's important.”
Emotions well up in his chest. He feels his eyes get hot. He wipes his eyelids with his sleeve once,
and raises his head, no room for tears in his eyes anymore. Subaru simply continues onward, to the
exit of this ending world. And,
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Echidna: “—And he's gone. Gosh. He's an unexpectedly tough one, he is.”
Meanwhile back in the classroom. Echidna fiddles with her bangs as she leans against a desk.
The world starts crumbling. Being a place that relies on memories for its reconstruction, without
said giver of memories being present anymore it all starts returning to scrap. But Echidna's attention
isn't focused on the world which could at any moment disappear from beneath her feet—instead, it's
fixed on the teacher's lectern standing before the blackboard. Where,
Echidna: “Perhaps that's just what I should expect, from someone you're entrusting your feelings
toward.”
???: “—
tomyonlytomyonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonl
ytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohim
onlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytoh
imonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlyt
ohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonlytohimonly”
Echidna: “Sealed up in your castle, and even with the occasional meeting, fears and winds up being
made to forget. With that predicament, well yeah I suppose you can be so insistent. Not that I can
comprehend it.”13
???:
“unneededthingsunneededthingsunneededthingsunneededthingsunneededthingsblowinginblowingin
blowinginblowinginblowinginblowingindon'ttalktodon'ttalktodon'ttalktodon'ttalktodon'ttouchdon'tto
uchdon'ttouchdon'ttouchmymymymymymymymymybelovedbelovedbelovedbelovedbelovedbelove
dbelovedbelovedbelovedbelovedbelovedbelovedbelovedbelovedbelovedbeloved”
Echidna's brows furrow in displeasure. Before Echidna's eyes, the figure of a woman appears before
the lectern. A silhouette clad in pure-black dress, with long, dancing silver hair. An ominous, black
shadow covers everything from her chest upwards, her face not visible.
Echidna accepts the presence of this thing, which suddenly appeared after Subaru's departure from
the classroom, as if it were natural. As if she knew it was going to appear.
13 Echidna switches from her usual pronoun of Boku to Watashi. Not specified who the castle belongs to.
229
Echidna: “Call it natural and it's a natural result. You get to stomp around recklessly through the
heart of your dearly devoted. I tried not to touch any of your domain but... I suppose you two can't
keep from the encroachments?”
???:
“Evenafingerevenaflapofskinevenanail'scuticleevenasingleahairevenonebeadofsweatevenonedropof
spitevenonesinglewordevenonegaspofbreathevenonefragmentofemotionallofitallofitallofitallofitallof
itallofitallofitallofitallofitallofitallofitallofitallofitallofitallofitallofitallofitallofit...”
Echidna: “Belongs to me, is what you mean. My goodness, when I'm with you even I want to forfeit
my name of GREED. I can't conceive of going so far for just one single person.”
???:
“IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIl
oveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIlov
eyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou”
And so, ENVY surely would not forgive Echidna for touching the taboo.
The figure takes a step forward. By that action alone, the whole of the classroom is swallowed in
shadow, the blackboard, walls, first three rows of seats being dragged in and guzzled up.
Echidna barely manages to avoid damage by jumping backwards, but the shadow takes the form of
an arm as it peruses her, aiming for her neck. Echidna lets a single sigh slip.
Echidna: “Being erased here would leave behind more than a few regrets. You've forced me to take
a rather cowardly out—”
Right after Echidna ducks, the arm aiming for her abruptly rebounds and the shadows' forward
encroachment ceases. Where Echidna's supposed to be standing now—
Sekhmet: “So incessant with the summonings, haa. Can't get any peaceful sleep, huu.”
—sits Sekhmet, flomped on the floor. This change doesn't alter what the shadow's going to do, and
its advance forward now goes to begin again. But,
Sekhmet: “haa, It's no good.”
The upper half of the shadow warps around as if rebounding off a tremendous attack. Half of the
darkness subsides. The silhouette raises its head loosely, lifts its right arm and points at Sekhmet.
Accordingly, a huge swarm of arms spring out of the shadow covering half the room, a black
curtain of death. BUT
Sekhmet: “Didn't I just tell you, it's no good, huu.”
The whirlpool of black witchhands dissipate in an instant, and the aftereffect of it slams into the
silhouette, sewing its flesh into the wall. Sekhmet hasn't moved at all during all of this and is still
just sitting there with her knees in her hands. The silhouette's body starts breaking down, still
getting assaulted by Sekhmet's attack.
230
Sekhmet: “With most of your power sealed, haa. And while inside a castle made by that mean-
spirited Echidna, huu. In a condition inferior to your true strength, haa, you've no chance of beating
me, huu.”
Sekhmet stifles a yawn. The attacks stop and the figure falls to its knees—when a merciless blow
from above crushes it. Sinking into the pool of shadow, ENVY looks up at Sekhmet.
Envy:
“Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhyinterferewithinterferewithinterferewithinterferewithinterfer
ewithinterferewithmeandmeandmeandmeandmeandmeandhimhimhimhimhimhimhim?”
Sekhmet: “Haa. —Even answering'd be a pain.”
Sekhmet gives a small flick of the hand. Half the school building collapses, ENVY 's shadow being
swallowed down into the pit of the earth. Considering the world's already disappearing, falling that
far down would guarantee no return.
Sekhmet: “Even when dead, huu. Why is it I have to meet with that thing again, haa.”
Sekhmet ass-slides over to a relatively nicer corner of this half-destroyed-and-yet-disappearing

room. She leans back against the wall and looks up at the sun through the broken window.
Sekhmet: “It won't go how you'd like, huu. Neither for the Witch—or the one entranced by the
Witch, haa.”
231
CHAPTER 21: WITH RESOLVE RENEWED

Subaru opens his eyes. The first thing he feels is the sensation of something dusty inside his mouth.
The second Subaru registers the spit and gravel built up in his mouth, he forcefully spits it out and
gets his body upright.
Subaru: “Ghheugck! Ptooptoo! Weird, rock in my mouth... oueehgghh”
He pats his body of dust as he pukes up the shit, straining his eyes and looking around the darkness.
Lights are off. Subaru remembers that he's inside the tomb, and simultaneously that,
Subaru: “Right, I took the TRIAL...”
Subaru thinks back on the trial and being able to convey his apologies, thanks, and farewells to his
parents. Rather than homesickness and sadness, remembering it gives Subaru bravery and resolve.
Subaru: “It's okay. I didn't forget. I remember everything I told them.”
Worst case, he wouldn't have gotten to remember that, but fortunately he remembers all of the
TRIAL fine. So next his attention turns to—
Subaru: “Right! I came in here because, Emilia!”
Scolding himself for his slowness, he finds Emilia collapsed in the back of the room. He runs over,
her silver hair and pale skin standing out in the darkness, and Subaru feels some relief—until he
notices her expression.
Emilia: “...hk. ...n, no... sto...”
Her face is twisted in agony, and sweat has risen on her forehead. But her arms and legs are rigid,
perhaps to stop her from moving about in distress, so only her face clearly shows her suffering. If
Emilia's TRIAL is the same as Subaru's,
Subaru: “A past you don't want to see... no, or is it facing something you have to make a final
conclusion about?”
Subaru doesn't know how much time's passed, but Emilia entered the tomb over 30 minutes before
he did. Being that Subaru still finished first, Emilia's must be the peak of awful difficulty. In
complete honestly, what he should probably do is keep waiting and believing in her until the
TRIAL's done, but,
Subaru: “Wouldn't have any troubles, if I was the kinda guy who could say something that cool
while looking at that face.”
Emilia looks about to start crying. Subaru's fingers reach for her face, hoping to ease at least some
fragment of her suffering with the gesture. But the instant his fingertips touch her cheek,
232
Emilia: “——hk”
Emilia's once-rigid limbs go into huge convulsions. Her expression stiffens, and Subaru quickly
props up her head with his hand. He holds Emilia in an embrace, pressed to his chest, as she shakes.
Subaru: “Emilia!? Hey, get a hold of... Emilia!”
While patting her back, he frantically calls her name. Subaru feels his heart freeze in terror at the
violent convulsions, but they slowly subside and her body settles.
Emilia: “—u, baru?”
Subaru: “—! Ah, uh-huh, that's right. Are you okay? Do you know who I am? I'm the one you
vowed to spent your future with together, Natsuki Subaru.”
Emilia: “We didn't, discuss that far...”
Looks like her memories and consciousness are fine. Emilia gets out of the hold, her attention
slowly coming to fix on Subaru.
Emilia: “Uhhh... wha? Why am I...?”
Subaru: “Take it slow, Emilia-tan. Put the tricky stuff off for later and for now, take a deep breath.
Then move your arms and legs to check they're not numb, and if it feels like you can stand, try
standing.”
Emilia: “ah, uh, mm.”
Emilia goes along with what Subaru says and takes a deep breath. She moves her arms and takes
Subaru, who's standing,'s hand and stands up. She looks around the darkness, mystified.
Emilia: “In a dark place... alone with Subaru...”
Subaru: “If you crop out just that bit this starts turning into a pretty racy situation, but this place
being this place alone makes it way too damnable.”
It's a witch's tomb after all. Kinda kills the mood for any lovers sneaking about. But hearing
Subaru's words, Emilia suddenly hugs her shoulders. Subaru shivers like 'oh crap did I go too far
with that one' but,
Emilia: “Ri, ght... I, took the TRIAL, and...”
Subaru: “Mm, yeah, that's right. This is inside the witch's tomb. Man, I was bested. When you went
inside, Emilia-tan, the cemetery lights suddenly went out. So I panicked and kinda followed you in,
but...”
Emilia: “a, nn, no, that, I, I didn't... mean to... tha....”
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Subaru: “Emilia?”
Subaru finally notices there's something off about Emilia, her voice still shaking. She keeps holding
her shoulders, and with her teeth chattering as if it's cold, she shakes her head, saying,
Emilia: “I, it wasn't, me... no. I, I didn't, do it... but, I told you, I, no...”
Subaru: “Emilia. Hold on, Emilia? Calm down, what's...”
Emilia: “...No. Don't look at... me like... stop, nono, stop, no... don't leave, don't, leave me...
alone...”
Emilia covers her face with her hands and breaks down to the ground. Her voice is stained with
tears, and hearing that silver bell shake with sobs fills the heart with pain and pity. Subaru's too
shocked to speak.
Subaru: “It's okay. You're okay. I'm with you. I'm here. You're not alone. It's okay.”
He simply takes her whole body in an embrace, soothingly, protectively, lovingly, and gently pats
her back as she shakes and cries. During that time, her face hidden in her hands, as if she can't hear
Subaru's voice,
Emilia: “...lp, dad. He, lp... Puck, Puck... pahkk...”
She calls not the name of the worried boy at her side, but the name of the spirit who won't show
himself before her.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Ram: “—She's been calmed down and put to bed.”
Says Ram, her gaze as she looks at Subaru suggesting that she's looking at an undisciplined dog.
Subaru can't reply to that and just gives a quiet “I see”. Ram gives a small sigh.
Ram: “That expression's unlike you, Barusu. Your face is usually so sloppy, but once you add a
shadow to it, it becomes even more unbearable to witness.”
Subaru: “Sloppy or whatever's none of your business... I'm sorry, for worrying you.”
Ram: “...How could your judgement have become good enough to notice when people are worried,
Barusu?”
Says Ram as if she's honestly shocked. Subaru pokes his tongue out at her, putting his previous
emotions and attitude on hold. He takes his gaze off Ram and looks behind her, at the door to the
room she only just exited. Beyond that door, Emilia should be sleeping.
234
Subaru: “Either way, I apologize for this happening two days in a row. It must be causing trouble
for you too, Lewes-san.”
Lewes: “If yer worrying about caursing troubles, then don't yer mind. She's someone who faced the
TRIAL bercause of our selfish wish.”
Says Lewes in an even voice from behind Subaru. This room they're in, which connects to the
bedroom, is the living room if you're going to call it that. Lewes' house is made up of two rooms,
and a third room dedicated as a library. Subaru finds this an incredibly plain setup for someone
who's essentially the village head of SANCTUARY. But guess you could also say that this size is
enough for her, as she sits there with her tea in the corner of the room. Anyway.
Garfiel: “Ha, now ain't yer all worried, granny. Though speakin' honest, my amazin' self's feelin'
pretty ASSUMING GOUNZUN GOT NO HOME.”
Subaru: “That doesn't really tell me what you're feeling, but.. it's tells me enough to get it doesn't
mean anything good.”
Says Garfiel, who also has some tea, as he sits across from Lewes. Subaru doesn't really get the
meaning of that idiom, but judges it as being something close to 'being let down'. Garfiel opens his
mouth to speak but Subaru,
Subaru: “Just saying, if you've got insults or whatever else to say about Emilia-tan I'll be the one to
take them. You have to get through me, the manager, first.”
Garfiel: “Ain't feelin' like talkin' bad behind her back in the slightest. I ain't actin' like that kinda
dick. If I got complaints I'm tellin' them right to her face. And with a free punch thrown in too if she
wants.”
Garfiel waves his non-tea-holding hand, giving a nasty smile, letting Subaru's challenge just wash
off him. Subaru feels some tension at this. Meanwhile, the only person who hasn't said anything
here puts up his hand and,
Otto: “Um, excuse me,”
Otto: “Then, could I ask just what exactly happened in the end? I sincerely don't intend to become
too deeply involved, but since I'm beginning to have some doubts about this perilous atmosphere,
I'd like to volunteer for the post of moving things forward and then be making my way out.”
Subaru: “Mn, sorry. Yeah, you're fit for that. You have the shallowest connection of anyone here and
have nothing to do with anything important, so you're a cheerful bit-piece side character who
doesn't need to shoulder a single piece of responsibility. Leaving it all to you.”
Otto yells about how fucking brutally whittled down that sentiment of 'leaving it all up to you' is.
Subaru shushes him what with sleeping Emilia in the other room and Otto hurriedly closes his
mouth.
235
Otto starts off by asking whether anything happened while Subaru was inside the tomb.
Subaru puts his hand to his chin and looks up at the ceiling in thought, reflecting on the trial and
what happened in the tomb after.
Subaru: “The TRIAL was definitely going on inside the tomb. I ended up facing the same thing when
I went in after Emilia-tan. I safely conquered the TRIAL, but it looked like Emilia-tan was having a
hard time. It seemed pretty painful for her so I wound up calling out to her... and so she woke up,
and once her consciousness came back clearly, she was like that.”
Otto: “Nononononono, wait a moment here.”
Subaru raises his head like 'what' and Otto's like 'nononono' again.
Otto: “I just nodded as you casually passed by something that should truly be delved into deeper,
but... what? Natsuki-san, you took the TRIAL as well?”
Subaru: “Uh, yeah, yes, I have taken it. A friend signed me up for it so had no choice.”
Otto: “It's clearly impossible that you would have friends, please be more serious, Natsuki-san.”
Subaru: “You know, there's things that're okay and not okay to say to people!”
Subaru glares at Otto, but Ram podonks her arm out between the two of them before they can start a
war, and looks up at Subaru.
Ram: “Then, you have taken the TRIAL, Barusu. Correct?”
Subaru: “Uh, uh-huh. Correct. Forcibly dragged into it when I went inside. Wasn't something on a
level where you could say no.”
Ram: “How it started is irrelevant. The more important issue... is that you wound up conquering the
TRIAL, Barusu.”
Ram puts a finger to her lips and closes her eyes, in thought. She then looks over at Lewes.
Ram: “That is what our household's idle choresman has said, but do you sense any change? If the
TRIAL has truly ended, then the restriction on SANCTUARY should be uplifted.”
Lewes: “...Nerr, my body ersn't feeling anything in perticuler. Could be a different story if we
actually try going outside Sanctuary, though.”
Ram: “I see. Then that makes the story simple. Will you come along with me? We'll test to see if
SANCTUARY has been released, and if it does appear so, then...”
Subaru: “Waitwaitwait, you're going too fast. And you're jumping to conclusions. My explanation
wasn't perfect, but you're way overdoing it with that split-second decision.”
236
Subaru grabs Ram's shoulder before she can drag Lewes away, Ram's brows crinkle in discomfort at
what Subaru's saying. But she immediately pulls herself together with a 'what do you mean?'
Ram: “If the TRIAL has safely ended, then it's surely necessary to check whether the citizens have
been freed as according to the covenant. If what you say is true, Barusu, the people of Arlam village
may return to the village as soon as tomorrow, and for Roswaal-sama's recovery, the mansion may
be...”
Subaru: “Your true intentions slipped out at the end there and the critical point for you's obvious.
...I'm sorry to get your hopes up, but SANCTUARY isn't released. The TRIAL still isn't over yet.”
Ram's eyes open somewhat wider. She looks away, thinking over the meaning of what Subaru's
saying, and gives a nod after seeming to have reached some conclusion.
Ram: “You deceived us, now die.”
Subaru: “Conclusion and punishment're too fast!!”
Ram immediately draws her wand and takes a stance for administering PUNISHMENT. Subaru
puts his hands up in surrender and frantically shakes his head.
Subaru: “And I didn't deceive you! I really did overcome the first TRIAL! But there's still two more
TRIALs left! The cemetery's TRIAL is three parts in total. So unfortunately, Lewes-san and the others
aren't freed yet.”
Ram: “Put a hold on that blather pouring from your mouth... How do you know this?”
Subaru: “Because the Trial's concocter the—”
Witch, is what Subaru's going to continue with, when a chill suddenly runs through his whole body.
His arms and legs feel weighted down with lead, his thoughts feel dull as if drowned in mud, and his
veins feel cold as if being injected with icewater.
What arises in Subaru's mind is a dumb, white void.
Subaru remembered someone told him the TRIAL's content, and that there were two more TRIALS
waiting. The witch. But,
Subaru: “I can't get it out what that person was like at all...”
Subaru's surprised at the flaw in his own memory. He remembers everything from his conversations
with his parents. And he remembers the witch, but not anything about the witch's character. Seeing
Subaru's stupefaction, Ram gets out of BATTLE POSTURE and puts her wand back on her hip,
sighing.
Garfiel: “Ehh? Things're lookin' like they were gettin' interestin', then you didn't do nothin'. Was
wonderin' if I was gonna get to see you get violent again after all this time.”
Ram: “My elegant and tender self would surely never conduct such savage behaviour. And I
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generally understand the situation from Barusu's current status, so it's unnecessary.”
Subaru: “Understand what?”
Ram tilts her head.
Ram: “That you're not lying, Barusu. If we take that alone as credible, then it is acceptable for now.
Barusu, continue now to answer Otto's questions.”
Subaru: “Uh, uh-huh... right.”
Otto clears his throat.
Otto: “Well then,”
Otto: “We took some digressions, but let's return to the topic. Leaving your stepping into the
contents of the Trial for later... Would you have any ideas regarding Emilia-sama's being
distressed?”
Subaru: “...Yeah. I think it's probably an issue with the Trial's content. The particulars of the TRIALS
me and Emilia-tan took are more than likely different, but I think the main gist's the same.”
Otto: “The contents... Would it be alright for me to ask you about them?”
Says Otto with concern but Subarus lol no it's cool man. Garfiel and Ram stare at Subaru, pressing
him for an answer.
Subaru: “The first Trial's to face your past. Straight up, its content is facing regrets or remorses or
stuff in that vein, and sorting it out.”
Otto: “I, I see... and that's why the particulars would differ.”
Because duh of course different people would have different pasts to face. So Subaru wandered into
a nasty blow, while Emilia got a critical hit, and—
Subaru: “Actually no, considering the qualifications, feels like the TRIAL's content oozes
dickishness.”
Fundamentally, the only people who are supposed to have these qualifications are half-bloods. That
would be people isolated through stigmatization from either same or different races, or otherwise
through fear. It's extremely likely for half-bloods to have painful pasts they'd get faced with if they
tried challenging this TRIAL.
Subaru: “So inevitably everyone who could beat the TRIAL'd be distressed. That's black-hearted.”
Otto: “Commenting on the examiner’s unkind personality isn't going to move current events
forward. More importantly... although this is difficult to mention, but if we consider what would
put Emilia-sama out of sorts...”
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Otto shuts his mouth and glances at Emilia's sleeping room, which gets across what he's trying to
say. Emilia's appearance. She resembles the WITCH OF ENVY on many factors, and is also a half-elf.
You can infer that she's someone subject to baseless scorn and persecution because of this. That
Subaru and the others, who aren't in her position, are able of sensing it just shows how much of a
high-tier outlier her case is.
It's not a topic to discuss lightly. Otto's decision to go quiet is incredibly humane, or otherwise
phrased, fatally not suited to the personality of a merchant.
Subaru: “You're never gonna succeed as a merchant, but I'm thankful man.”
Otto: “Why are you abruptly crushing people's dreams!?”
Subaru: “I'm too shy to give an honest thanks without throwing a joke in, try feeling a little.”
Otto: “How about you try feeling a little just how deeply you wounded my heart!!”
Everyone puts their fingers to their lips, shushing the yelling Otto. Otto hurriedly closes his mouth,
but it's too late. A quiet sound echoes out from the bedroom, and before anyone can speak, the door
opens.
Emilia: “Um... I'm sorry, for causing trouble.”
Going by that statement, she doesn't seem all whack anymore, which is a relief. Subaru quickly
half-runs over to her.
Subaru: “Thank goodness, good morning. Does your body and stuff feel okay now, Emilia-tan?”
Emilia: “ah. Yeah, I'm fine. My body has nothing off at all. Sorry for making you worry.”
Subaru: “Right, that's good then. See, since I wasn't with you when you first collapsed I was
worried not knowing if you'd been banged somewhere and all. Yup, I'd say us never ever being
apart'd keep us both good and at ease.”
Emilia: “—yeah, you're right.”
Subaru: “Hm?”
Being that he'd prepared for a comeback to his joking, Subaru's brows furrow at Emilia's
unexpected reply. She lowers her eyes, staring at Subaru's hand. Subaru tilts his head in confusion
and presents his hand to her.
Subaru: “What's wrong? You've gotten yearnings for the feeling of my palms now? But I mean I'll
hold your hand all through the night if you want.”
Emilia: “ah, uh... I-I'm fine. That's not it. I'm just kinda um, still half-asleep.”
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Right before she can touch Subaru's hand, Emilia shakes her head, like she's changing her mind
about something. Ram steps forward.
Ram: “Emilia-sama. It is greater than anything that you have awoken safely. If possible, I would
appreciate if you could speak with me regarding your physical condition without putting on a bold
front.”
Subaru: “Hey. You're making it sound like Emilia-tan's hesitating to speak with me sincerely.”
Ram: “When speaking before someone who is not a fellow woman, or otherwise seeks to put on
affectations, even sincerity can be impermissible. Show enough consideration to gather as much and
leave the room.”
Subaru: “Well I'd really like to show that consideration, but...”
Subaru looks down, Ram follows his gaze to where Emilia's fingers are timidly grasping Subaru's
lowered hand.
Emilia: “Ah, uh!”
Late to notice their gazes, Emilia hurriedly releases the hand. Her face goes red, and panicking as if
what she just did was an entirely unconscious act,
Emilia: “N-no. Ah, that was weird. I, didn't mean to do that at... I mean, and I'd even just decided
against touching it.”
Subaru: “You did draw back, but in the end you know you immediately reached back out? I mean I
got some bonus benefits so I didn't say anything but, are you actually okay, Emilia-tan?”
Emilia gives a firm nod. But her cheeks are still red, and even Subaru can figure that it's not due to
shyness. Emilia doesn't notice anything off about herself as she goes on.
Emilia: “I'm sorry for interrupting your talk. But there really is nothing wrong with my body
anywhere. I'm not half-asleep anymore, so I'm dandy now.”
Subaru: “Who says dandy anymore?”
Emilia: “Hmp, you're doing that again, Subaru.”
Emilia puffs out her cheeks. It feels the same as usual, so Subaru decides that he was being
needlessly anxious and puts the breaks on making too much of things. But,
Ram: “Emilia-sama. I am aware that you have only just awoken, but regarding the TRIAL...”
Emilia: “—hk”
Subaru catches Emilia's expression freeze for an instant, but Emilia immediately covers it up
beneath a smile.
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Emilia: “Right... umm, does everyone know about the TRIAL's content?”
Ram: “We heard it from Barusu. Of course, we did not intrude so far as to hear the details. I'm
certain there are things you would rather not be asked either, Emilia-sama.”
Emilia: “R-right. Subaru... wha? Why Subaru? I mean, Subaru isn't a half-blood so him taking the
trial isn't...”
Everyone's also wondering what's up with the Subaru-taking-trial-thing and again their gazes all fix
on him.
Subaru: “I told you before I went in. I got the qualifications. Saying who from's a little tricky, but if
it's a 'where from' then... probably, last evening at the cemetery.”
Garfiel: “If yer sayin' 'evening' you know it means when ya fainted and got carried here, yeah?”
Subaru: “Yeah, that's right. I'm not totally certain if this's why I got qualified, but... 'say it's one of
those things. Like even unqualified guys who step in there get baptised or something and then they
can go inside afterwards. So surprise, maybe Roswaal can go inside too?”
Garfiel: “'D be funny t'see Roswaal burst tryin' t'test that.” Something something PLINPA DRIPPINGS
TOO SHARE BLOOD'S HUE.
Garfiel opens his mouth, laughing. But Ram aims her cold gaze at him and he instantly closes his
mouth and his expression changes to nonchalance.
Ram: “Either way, that Barusu went inside and retrieved Emilia-sama is fact. Further, Barusu then
received the same breed of trial as you, Emilia-sama, and provided that it isn't babble, overcame it.”
Subaru: “Babble. That's sure cruel.”
Emilia: “Overcame it... Subaru did? He, the TRIAL?”
Emilia: “Did you truly pass it, Subaru? That... past?”
Subaru: “The one I saw would've been different from yours though, Emilia-tan. Mine was... well,
wasn't like I got all the way through just on my own strength.”
His mom and dad, which were supposed to be the big obstacles here, ended up giving him
maximum support and let him clear the Trial. And most importantly, Subaru'd already been given
the answer before he took the challenge.
Subaru: somethingsomethingsomething accidentally good test results “Anyway the problem's

Emilia-tan. Going by how things are I'd kinda say it didn't work out, but...”
Emilia: “N-no. It, didn't... I tried my best, but it suddenly got interrupted half way though.”
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Subaru: “Think that's cause I woke you up, sorry. ...Actually, is re-challenging the TRIAL even
possible? I didn't take the second TRIAL either, kinda just came back here.”
Subaru asks Lewes, who touches her cheek.
Lewes: “There errn't many precedents ter work off, but... yer can probably make a 'challenge' itself
multiple times. I've never been able ter pass the first TRIAL either, but I've challenged it twice. What
bothers me more here though is Su-bo getting these qualifications.”
Subaru: “Me?”
Lewes: “People suddernly developing the qualifications just ain't something that happens. Least
never to my knowledge, me being erround since the cemetery was ferst made... nherr. Do have a
rough idear, though.”
Lewes falls quiet after that. Subaru feels some discomfort from her statements and behaviour, but he
decides to put that on hold for now and turns back to Emilia.
Subaru: “Either way, we have it certified that re-challenging's possible. Next problem is you
yourself, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “M-me?”
Subaru: “Yeah, that's right. Asking's pretty something, but—Emilia-tan, do you think it's possible
for you to resolve yourself to challenge the TRIAL again?”
Emilia's breath catches and her eyes open wide. Subaru's prepared to be yelled at and take blame if
this question pisses her off or disgraces her, but what flickers through her eyes is unease and fear.
Negative emotions are eating at her heart to the extent she can't give an immediate reply.
Subaru: “If for assumption you're unable to take the TRIAL, I'll take it instead.”
Emilia: “—!? But Subaru, that's...”
Subaru: “I've cleared the first TRIAL, at least. That should ideally indicate that clearing the
remaining two TRIALs isn't impossible. So if you're thinking twice about taking the TRIAL, I'll step
in and do it. That's why I'm here.”
Emilia: “Why you're... y-you mean, for me?”
Subaru: “Exactly.”
Emilia looks to be seeking Subaru's denial on that question, but Subaru's response is clear. Emilia's
eyes open wide, emotion intensifying, as Subaru looks her dead in the eye.
Subaru: “If you're scared, I'll do it for you. Roswaal or whatever might say you be the one to free
SANCTUARY, that the achievement has to go to you personally, but... If the results of my actions are
commendable, then I give all those commendations to you. I don't mind if there's nothing left for
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me.”
Emilia: “Why are you doing... so much for me?”
Subaru: “Didn't I tell you? Because I love you, super love you.”
Emilia's breath catches, everyone else in the room has their respective reactions, but Subaru doesn't
register them and just shrugs, his gaze still fixed on Emilia.
Subaru: “And so, I'm thinking of challenging the TRIAL. What about you, Emilia-tan? If it's really
hard, I'd say it's better to just sleep in the house?”
Emilia: “Subaru you, idiot.”
Emilia raises her downcast head and rubs her eyes with her sleeve, her lips breaking into a smile.
Emilia: “When you tell me that, I can't just stay closed up in a room waiting. You're just... sooo
mean. Sooo dumb. ...Thank you sooo much.”
Subaru: “Huh? What? I didn't hear that last one. I love you sooo much?”
Emilia: “No! It was thank you sooo much...”
Subaru: “Got it. I heard it but let's have it one more time!”
Emilia: “Subaru you idiot!!”
Subaru gets his ear close to her, and Emilia yells at volume high enough to be a sonic weapon on his
eardrums. Although almost feeling about to faint, Subaru shoots her a smile, her shoulders heaving
up and down.
Subaru: “That's me exactly. Well, time to do our best again. Me from stage 2, Emilia-tan from stage
1.”
Emilia: “Hrrmpf. I'll catch up so fast, pass you, and leave you all the way behind. You're not gonna
have a single achievement left.”
Subaru: “I don't have one left, and that gives me a chance to nag a reward out of you.”
Emilia pouts and pokes out her tongue at Subaru. During this back and forth, Subaru figures that
he's helped Emilia a little to get back on her feet. Either way, this is where the real attempts at the
Trial begin.
Subaru: “With me and Emilia-tan's loveydovey power, this TRIAL'll be a breeze.”
Subaru clicks his fingers and gives a thumbs up. Emilia just sticks her tongue out Subaru's
statement and—
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Emilia: “I'm more than enough for it. Subaru, I'll prove tomorrow that I'm fine even without you
looking after me.”
—is how Emilia puts on a tough façade.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
While watching Subaru and Emilia piss about with each other and pump each other up, Lewes puts
her already-cold tea to her lip. Drinking, she watches fondly over the silver-haired half-elf and the
black-haired boy's talk.
Lewes: “Where're things going next, what with this. ...Wonder if it'll all go erkxactly as the Mighty
Witch expects.”
Garfiel: “Dun'care. Either way 'sdone things'll turn goddamn nothin' nice fer me.”
Mutters Lewes, and Garfiel responds without hiding his displeasure.
Lewes: “Forcing burdens on kind children. Inflicting these ails on the young, I'm... we're far beyond
saving.” something something too foreshadowy for me.
And some artsy line about a ripple rising and disappearing in her tepid tea.
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CHAPTER 22: WEAKNESS

Subaru wakes up in the middle of the night. He removes his thin blanket and gives a light stretch,
taking care not to make any noise while doing, and stifles a yawn as he looks around. Lots of others
are there, the sound of their deep breathing audible. Seems Subaru's the only one of the group
awake. Which is natural, since the sky outside the window of the cathedral is pitch dark, with not a
glimpse of sunlight.
No clocks so it's not clear what the time is exactly, but it's obviously not time for anyone to be up.
Normally you'd just go back to sleep here until morning, but Subaru went to bed early and won't be
able to get back to sleep so that's not gonna happen.
Subaru folds up his blanket and gets up. The sleepers around him are the evacuees from Arlam
Village. Subaru declined the private dwelling allocated to him and decided to come here to the
cathedral to sleep with the villagers.
The sleeping spot the villagers've given to Subaru is one near the front wall of the cathedral, which
is a niceish spot, but he's also surrounded by children. Ultimately, the children like Subaru and
really bitched about wanting to be with him, and the adults are all under restrictions too, so Subaru's
coming to the cathedral was an attempt to lessen the burden on the children.
Anyway he exits the cathedral while being careful not to step on anyone. The air outside is damp,
and thick clouds cover the sky, blocking the stars from view. It's not clear if the weather's going to
get worse, but it's unlikely it's going to be a sunny day.
Subaru notes that actually he's never had a rainy day yet in this world, even though from what
people've told him it seems like the place has seasons.
He's heard that the seasons are divided into 'Red, Blue, Yellow, Green' similar to how people's
magic attributes are. Subaru figures that this world has a rainy season too, since with it being
neither hot or cold out the wind definitely gives an impression of being just after the rainy season.
This segways into Subaru's habits of airing out his futon which are predictably shit and default to
Naoko stealing the futon out from under Subaru and putting out to air until it's all nice and smells
sunny.
Subaru unwinds his body with some callisthenics. The cathedral grounds are spacious, and there's
enough room for all the villagers to stretch out their legs while sleeping, and enough blankets for
everyone. The only real downside is sleeping on the floor really makes your body feel stiff.
Subaru expresses yearning for his old futon or otherwise the mansion's fluffy beds. Subaru's been
sleeping like this for four, five days. He figures all the villagers who've been here longer are more
sick of it than him.
While the villagers try to act all hale when around Subaru, it's undeniable that their expressions are
getting more and more worn by the burden each day. They smile and shit when Subaru subarus
around at mealtimes or whatever, but that they don't speak much outside those times is probably due
to stress.
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An undesired evacuation, right into a captive lifestyle. Their Lord got injured trying to do his job
and make circumstances better for them, and situation is that people are more worried about the
future than the present conditions.
Being that Subaru is technically part of said Lord's faction, it wouldn't be weird for the villagers to
be having more fault with him, but,
Subaru: “They're not the type of people to throw sparks around like that. As part of the governor's
group, leaning on the people's good judgment's honestly a failure.”
Actually the reason why the Arlam villagers aren't lashing out or anything similar at Subaru is
because they feel strong, honest gratitude and debts toward him. Since Subaru doesn't value his own
achievements very highly, he's presupposing that the evacuees just have very genuine hearts.
However,
Subaru: “Imposing on everyone's feelings like that isn't gonna hold out for long.”
—Subaru and the others had already entered their SIXTH DAY in SANCTUARY.
You can add an extra week onto that for the villagers, who got here before Subaru, and have spent
nearly 2 weeks getting the wonderful experience of living in captivity. They've told the villagers that
those who evacuated for the Royal Capital are safe so there's no huge anxiety over being away from
family members, but that they've spent 2 weeks with nothing to do is definitely taking a strain on
them mentally.
It was only a matter of time before the effects of Roswaal's self-injury to garner sympathy would
wear out.
When that time ran out, what'd probably come is a clash between Sanctuary and the villagers, an
undesirable result for Subaru, who wanted support from both sides.
Subaru: “Honestly, I got nothing. Just what to do about this...”
???: “—Yer not goin' any further than here.”
Tilting his head in deliberation, the threat stops Subaru's foot before he can venture onward any
further. Subaru looks around, but only sees a dark forest of trees, having just taken a stroll to an area
somewhat separated from the cathedral.
???: “Goin' walkin' round this early'n the morning, 's that a nice hobby or leisurely mood ya got.
Feels right like MUJIGAEMUJIGAE PICKIN' BETWEEN RED AND BLUE BERRIES.”
Saying his familiar unfamiliar sayings, a blond young man jumps down from the branches of the
trees overhead. Garfiel lands with all four limbs contacting the ground, not making a sound in
doing, and he closes one eye as he looks up at Subaru, keeping that posture.
Garfiel: “Yer ain't lookin' much surprised. That threat really do nothin'?”
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Subaru: “If I hadn't been thinking this'd happen and ran into you I'd be shocked as anything, but I
had a feeling if I wandered around here I'd see you. Didn't think you'd be coming from up in the
trees though.”
Garfiel: “You were lookin' for my amazin' self?”
Sceptical, Garfiel gets up and goes to stand opposite Subaru, being half a head shorter than him.
Subaru: “Yeah,”
Subaru: “I thought it'd be too early out so I wasn't hoping too hard, but I'm glad we got to meet.
...Also, mind if I ask what that threat was about?”
Garfiel: “Ain't anythin' big. Further forward, on this side'a th' forest's my amazin' self's huntin'
ground. Ya get lost 'n wander'n inside, and you'll have my teeth snap yer neck bones apart 'sall.”
Subaru: “That's not an 'is all'! That's something crazy serious!”
Yells Subaru, shocked at how smooth and fucking outrageous that statement was, shattering the
silence of the night and sending a good deal of formerly-sleeping birds and beasts into retreat.
Garfiel: “...Ugh. Oi, yer just made most all'a 'em get away, whatt'm I gonna do now?”
Subaru: “The cowards. The meat of such weaklings as those would transmit their feebleness to you
just by eating. —esque train of thought is one idea, how does magnanimously letting this slide
sound?”
Garfiel: “Wouldn't't be nice 'f that dinner meat sittin' on toppa yer blood dis'ppear'd t' nothin' from
t'day on.”
Subaru: “I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to do it! It was my fault! I'll go fishing at the river with Otto
today, so say it's all paid off and even!”
With nothing merchantly to do, it seems Otto's been spending his days going fishing. Unfortunately,
he's terrible. That he gets casts where all that happens is the bait gets eaten is truly Otto-esque.
Garfiel: “Ha, that guy's luck's so abysmal it don't even make damn sense. Ain't like he's smart 'er
dumb. And he's still like that. 'S HEAVENS SIGH AT THE DENZEN SO LAME TO THE RAIN.”
Subaru: “He's to spice things up or I guess he's a named character or, well he's helpful, in a position
where when you have a guy like him around the conversations get lively. He's saved me in lots of
ways... mainly as a change of pace.”
Garfiel: “Change of pace...”
Mutters Garfiel.
Garfiel: “So, that change 'a pace 'er whatever really workin' out fer you?”
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Subaru: “Meaning?”
Garfiel: “Don't play dumb. 'S plain obvious that bunch'n th' cathedr'l're almost at their limit. You n'
that guy can't keep things d'stracted forever.”
Subaru: “Being that you just stabbed into a painful spot, you've really been paying unexpectedly
good attention to things.”
Garfiel scrunches his nose at Subaru's somewhat surprised praise.
Garfiel: “'F'r whatever reason my amazin' self's met with th' cathedr'l guys most outta anyone.
Almost no one else're showin' their faces, 'cludin' the granny. 'S a natural result.”
Subaru: “You don't ration it out, but you are preparing meals for us. When I first saw you doing that
“ something something thought I couldn't look away is probably the gist of this one
Garfiel: “You wanna eat somethin' good, gettin' able 't make it yerself's gonna make it taste best 't
yer palate. And, we ain't on topic.”
Garfiel takes a step forward and jabs his finger toward Subaru's neck.
Garfiel: “Th' hostages're 'bouta hit their limit. —Are you gonna keep up this pointless struggle
forever?”
Subaru: “I don't know what you'd mean by 'pointless struggle'...”
Garfiel: “Ha. 'N that's what ya goddamn tell me. Y'sayin that that ain't a pointless struggle? —When
things've been stuck at the same place f'r three fuckin' days?”
Subaru's tone is weak, which Garfiel clearly recognizes as he sneers and clicks his teeth. Subaru
opens his mouth to refute him, but he can't choose the right words quickly enough and ends up
shutting his mouth. Garfiel's narrowed, emerald-green eyes host discouragement.
Garfiel: “Look. Bein' honest, whatddya think? Let's cut th' belly open on this n' talk.”
Subaru: “When you say 'cut the belly open' it brings back some bad memories so I don't really want
to hear that but... or, this mood really isn't one where jokes'll go through.”
Garfiel's slouching is even worse than usual. He's not hostile, but he can't completely conceal the
anger spilling out from his entire body. Subaru probably doesn't need to worry about Garfiel doing
anything violent to him but,
Subaru: “First, let me clearly put this out there. I'm on Emilia's side. I believe that she can do it, and
I don't doubt her. So, I believe without any doubt that even if it takes time, she'll conquer the
TRIAL.”
Garfiel: “'S a doubtwr'thy story fer my amazin' self's side by that point, though. Gotta wonder 'f that
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sheltered Princess—'f that crybaby who's been pulled outta there in tears three days 'n a row—c'n
really do it.”
Garfiel's sharp gaze hides none of his contempt, which Subaru meets by turning his sanpaku sharp
as he can get. This was the morning of the sixth day since Subaru any the others entered
SANCTUARY. And now three days had already passed since the day Subaru conquered the first
TRIAL. If you're gonna ask if something happened over that period, then—
Garfiel: “Sure didn't come t' mind that 'f ya had a buddy that couldn't pass the first one, ya wouldn't
start th' second TRIAL. And thanks 't that, th' TRIAL ain't made any progress f'r these three days.”
Subaru goes silent.
Garfiel: “'F it's gonna be like this, 'dve been less crap'f you'd done it yerself, yeh? 'Least then there
wouldn'tve been any damn need t' get held back by the burden 'n trip over a stone we shouldda got
over.”
Garfiel's words conceal none of their stern bite. And they are also correct. There hasn't been any
progress since Subaru cleared the cemetery's first TRIAL three days ago. Reason's simple. It's
because Emilia still hasn't passed the first TRIAL. That is, she hasn't conquered her PAST.
Subaru: “The past that has to be sorted out's different by the person. Unlike me who just lived
carefree, it's obvious she'd be dealing with lots of things. I don't think she's a burden at all.”
Garfiel: “Don't you. 'S bein' kind t' someone yer into. But ain't like anyone n' everyone can just sit'n
watch over it like you. Speakin' honest, all this time my 'pinion 'f the Princess's done nothin' but go
down down down down down.”
Subaru: “That's...”
Garfiel: “Accept that this's damn enough. 'F the Princess weren't here, 'least you'd get t' challenge
the second TRIAL. Bet everyone's got it figured out that doin' that'd be more realistic f'r getting'
through th' conditions t' free this place.”
It's a nice plan, but it also means stomping all over Emilia's resolve. It'd mean shirking a huge part
of Roswaal's plans, and sullying Emilia's purity which Subaru believed in. He absolutely cannot
approve this plan. But what makes Subaru hesitate at firmly shaking his head at it is,
Subaru: “If she takes time, it's definite that she'll finish it. There's no point in rushing or hurrying
her. There isn't, but...”
Garfiel: “Surely y'can tell as well 's me you ain't got that time? Th' short-tempered folks 'n this
SANCTUARY my amazin' self's spearheadin' 're startin' t' lose patience, 'nd the hostages're at limit f'r
bearin' how long their bein' locked in's gettin' drawn out. —This growin' discontent cuttin' loose's
only a matter 'f time too, yeah?”
Ultimately, it's all a problem of limited time.
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No matter what Emilia's past is, Subaru doesn't doubt that ultimately, she'll pass it. But she needs
time. And if there was a way he could help, Subaru had the spirit to challenge any hardship. But the
past is already inside only Emilia, and Subaru has no chance to offer her his outstretched hand.
Despite Subaru feeling compelled to think that, if he could just give Emilia the resolve to face her
past, as Rem had for him.
She could conquer the trial if she took time. Presently there was no time for it.
Subaru: “—I have a proposal.”
Says Subaru as he touches his chin, squeezing the words out. Seeing Subaru's expression change,
Garfiel shuts one eye and his mouth twists into a smile.
Garfiel: “'M I gonna get to hear it?”
Subaru: “I'm sure the part that we're both seeing as the problem is time. I believe Emilia will beat
the TRIAL, and think what's necessary for her is time. Your side is barely hanging in there with the
time limit until equilibrium collapses. This much not a problem?”
Garfiel: “'D say y'ain't got nothin' wrong. 'F I'm gonna add something, 'm gonna put on that my
amazin' self's ser'sly doubtin' that Princess's capable'f completin' the TRIAL.”
Subaru: “...I think we'll just have to agree to disagree there. Either way, if we agree that the coming
bottleneck is time, then my proposal should interest you.”
Garfiel listens to Subaru silently, touching the scar on his forehead. Subaru figures that that's Garfiel
urging him to continue, and nods.
Subaru: “The evacuees in captivity are at their limit. The dam will burst not long from now, and
worst case is that it'll turn into a divide inside SANCTUARY.”
Garfiel: “Y'know my amazin' self doesn't really care'f that does happen? Th' point those village
humans gettin a mob'f 100, 200, all that's gonna happen 's my amazin' self beats'em back.”
Subaru: “There's 40. ...What you're gonna do isn't the problem. We're talking about unwanted
conflict springing up and the damage it'll cause. I'd bet you don't really wanna get violent with the
people you're always preparing food for, either?”
Garfiel: “Well, 's that.”
Garfiel averts his gaze and clicks his tongue in discomfort. Subaru internally nods at Garfiel's
niceness.
Subaru: “So, to avoid that conflict, I want to request the people in confinement be let go. I don't
think they have any value as hostages anymore but, what do you think?”
Garfiel: “Oioi, holdit. This n' that're differn't stories, yeh? First tell me what yer sayin' with this
'they ain't got value as hostages' talk.”
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Subaru: “In the first place, their being confined was to lure us... or rather, to lure Emilia here. We
entered SANCTUARY exactly as planned, and went along with the desired conditions and are taking
the TRIAL. Food and care, and watching the hostages has to come from somewhere, and it's not like
that's infinitely there. That you're out here putting your effort into hunting at an hour where you
can't tell whether it's morning or night likely isn't unrelated to that.”
A far as Subaru's seen, the populated proportion of the spacious, if you include the forest,
SANCTUARY is relatively small. Subaru predicts that the half-bloods living in SANCTUARY are about
the same in number as the evacuees from Arlam. Put simply, the food expenses here have doubled.
Considering the characteristics of this land, it's unlikely that traders are going to come by who could
supply those things, and it's possible that the people's food relies mostly on hunting or home
gardening. Thus,
Subaru: “There shouldn't be a need to hold onto a bunch of hostages who're just putting pressure on
your wallet. Even if the hostages're gone, it's not like we can bow out of the TRIAL halfway through
anymore.”
Garfiel: “Really. Either way, when they enter SANCTUARY, half-bl... th' Princess got bound by the
curse of this land. 'F the Princess's gonna try ta leave, she'll haveta beat the TRIAL anyhow... ahh, so
that's it.”
Perhaps now understanding Subaru's proposal, Garfiel's cheeks twist into a cruel smile as he nods.
Seeing this, Subaru understands that Garfiel definitely isn't someone slow of thought.
Garfiel: “Yer thinkin' that 'f we release the hostages, it'll avoid a trickly-'voided burnout 'f makin'
'em into food or causin' internal breakup. The hostages ain't got the problem've not leavin'
SANCTUARY that we got.”
Subaru: “If things so far've gone along with your goals, then don't you think we should carry it out
to the end? Since your objective's to be released from SANCTUARY, you really shouldn't want us to
topple down together.”
Garfiel: “'F ya completely respect the granny's opinion that is what'd be, but... well, th' details don't
matter.”
Waving his hand, Garfiel lends and ear to Subaru's thoughts at least for now. He rubs his chin for a
moment in thought.
Garfiel: “Why'd ya come t' my amazin' self for this talk in the first place? Y'know th' head of this
place ain't me, 's the granny, yeah? 'F yer gonna make someone agree with you n' go 'long with yer
idea, 'd be proper t' go to the granny. Ain't sure what this'll sound like comin' from me, but y'know
talking t' my amazin' self 'bout this mighta only made things complicat'd?”
Subaru: “It's to keep things from getting complicat'd that I spoke about it with you. If I'm gonna
explain the pros and cons clearly, I did think I could persuade Lewes-san. But if I did that, it'd be
hard to tell how you'd move.”
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Being someone with good judgement and a working sense of profit, Lewes likely wouldn't be able
to unrestrictedly deny Subaru's proposal. And Subaru was confident he could get her agreement.
But, if he had to face Garfiel after getting everything sorted out with the top,
Subaru: “Whatever it is, persuading you's the trick. Unfortunately, my self-assessment is that if you
went for brute force I wouldn't get out an arm or a leg. Figured sorting out the unresolved points
beforehand'd mean I could deal with what's coming later without worrying.”
Garfiel: “Ain't that thinkin' just fuckin' clever, oi. So it's that, then? 'F ya went to the granny with
yer idea, my bein' around's a damn problem so you ain't got no choice. 'F ya got complaints come n'
duke it, auuh?”
Subaru: “We were just talking so rationally so why do you have to go tumbling in that direction
now...”
Garfiel: “My amazin' self's time fer talkin' usin' my head's three minutes best. Yer already gone over
th' time limit, anythin' yer say's already useless.”
Subaru: “What the heck are you saying, looking so satisfied.”
Garfiel puts up his dukes, Subaru raises his arms in surrender. Of course Garfiel's not actually
serious either. He gives a bored-sounding sigh.
Garfiel: “Ha, bein' stupid right'n early mornin'. 'S fine, do whatever y'want. 'F y'can convince th'
granny, I ain't got any urge t' butt in. Either way th're a damn nuisance. 'F yer gonna take'em away
th'n go goddamn enjoy yerself.”
Subaru: “Right, then let me oblige..”
Garfiel: “—But, I gotta condition.”
Subaru furrows his brows, Garfiel jabs out his raised finger.
Garfiel: “'M acceptin' yer damn proposal're whatever. So, 'd be pretty fuckin' somethin' 'f you didn't
accept what I got'ta say.”
Subaru: “...It's got pros for you too. The food, and avoids infighting.”
Garfiel: “Yknow my amazin' self doesn't really care 'bout that? 'F we really start not havin' enough
food w'can just start prunin' out th' hostages. Even 'f some guys start getting' violent, my amazin'
self's more'n enough t' deal with it alone. We ain't on equal footin'.”
Subaru: “...What's the condition?”
Subaru squeezes out the words, almost grinding his teeth. Garfiel clicks his fangs and looks Subaru
up to down.
Garfiel: “Makes things quick,”
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Garfiel: “The condition my amazin's self's got... no, th' condition SANCTUARY's got's simple. You
take the TRIAL. That makes everythin' faster.”
Subaru: “—! Wait, that can't be right. If I do that, then everything from the start's...”
Subaru's definitely has thought pass through his head more than a few times. But it was an absolute
last resort, and something he wanted to avoid as much as he could. And most importantly if he did
do it, then all Emilia's effort until now would be—
Garfiel: “Looks like yer misunderstandin', so I'll tell ya... My amazin' self 'n the granny 'n the others
don't really care who's th' one to free SANCTUARY.”
Subaru goes silent.
Garfiel: “Gettin' the Princess t' overcome it 't get good opinions from th' hostages n' the granny's
side 's something that's yer lot's situation. Don't givva crap 'bout this past'er whatever, but wantin' 'er
to sort out this thing she's stuckin' n' worryin' over's yer lot's situation. Every bitta everythin's yer
lot's problem.”
Subaru can't refute it. Just like he says, making Emilia take the TRIAL and wanting Emilia to
overcome the TRIAL is entirely due to circumstances and intentions on Subaru's side.
Garfiel: “—'Sides, is it really necessary t' overcome the past in the first place?”
Subaru: “Wha?”
Garfiel: “'S been three days, three days. You n' my amazin' self've got t' see the Princess takin' the
TRIAL n' getting' covered n' tears 't the cemetery. Honestly, I can't watch 'nymore.”
Subaru: “Can't watch, what...?”
Garfiel: “Her gettin' hyped up n' gettin' hurt. Sh' gets overager thinkin' she's gotta do it, thn' comes
back fuckin' snivelin' 'pologizin' she couldn't do it right. So then why're you lot still makin' the
Princess keep goin' with the TRIAL?”
What Garfiel's saying is an accurate assessment of the present Emilia. She failed the second time
she tried challenging, and more importantly Subaru didn't even get to challenge. The reason for this,
Emilia explained after returning halfway though her TRIAL, was told to her by someone during her
TRIAL.
The first TRIAL was already in place.
Inside the tomb, the first TRIAL was in place in that single square chamber. Subaru thought that if he
passed all the TRIALS he'd get to go through the sealed door in the back of the chamber, but—in
actuality the second TRIAL was still waiting, and the requirement to take it was that the first TRIAL
be cleared.
Meaning, if Subaru did it all alone he would be able to challenge the second TRIAL. Being that he
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understood that, that he hadn't progressed forward by himself was—
Subaru: “Emilia absolutely will overcome the TRIAL for us. So we...”
Garfiel: “Ya don't think th' Priness's sufferin' like that's cause'f yer expectations bein' too heavy?
Forcin' her t' face memories that're hurtin' her that much's what you lot wish, but 's it what the
Princess wants 't do? My stupid amazin' self don't get it.”
Subaru: “Emilia's... will...”
Garfiel scratches his head—but what he's saying is a shock to Subaru like being woken up with
icewater to the face. Up until now, Subaru had been respecting Emilia's guts to challenge the TRIAL,
and intended to devotedly support her more than anyone. He thought that no matter how hard the
road was, so long as she hadn't folded, he would keep offering his hand out to her.
And she stood back up, all without him confirming just where her will was directed.
Thinking about it, Subaru didn't know why Emilia wanted to be Ruler. What Emilia stated in the
Hall for the Royal Selection about equality definitely was not a reason to become Ruler. What did
Emilia think, what did she feel, what did she believe in—and aiming for Ruler?
Subaru's been at her side praying fervently to become her support, but he'd slacked on asking a
question he should've asked right at the start.
How did Emilia and Roswaal even meet in the first place? Why was Roswaal trying to make half-
elf Emilia the ruler? The insignia's jewel proved Emilia was qualified to be Ruler—to be the
Dragon's Priestess. But why did Roswaal give her a chance to let that insignia touch her hands?
What interests did Emilia and Roswaal have in common that made them cooperate with each other?
Subaru didn't know a single one of the answers.
He'd managed to wind up this far, knowing nothing.
Garfiel: “Dunno what shock yer just got but, 'f you got nothin' t' say then my amazin' self's leavin'.
'N the middle 'a huntin'... 'bout that proposal, 'f acceptin' my condition's botherin' you then go ahead
n' damn pass it through the granny. My amazin' self doesn't care what happens after.”
Garfiel shrugs at Subaru, and disappears into the dawnlit forest. Morning sunlight's already driving
the cloak of night away, giving open to a quiet morning, dewdrops on leaves.
Left behind, Subaru looks up at the sky.

Peeking through the gaps in the trees overhead are thick clouds, and the very slight glimpses of the
sun—breaking through cloud-cover for only an instant, before disappearing.
Squinting at that moment of light, Subaru starts walking.
Subaru: “What I saw was. I faced my PAST, sorted it out, and was glad I did. But, Emilia..”
Subaru had presupposed that it was something anyone could sort out and walk away from. But that
Subaru's trial had been so healing was because all the people around him were so kind as to almost
be excessive. So, to what extent did Subaru's ideas—
Emilia: “—Su, bahru?”
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weigh down on the silver-haired girl, hugging her knees in the corner of the room?
She'd come down off the bed of the house she'd been given, onto the cold floor, silently, silently,
letting time pass. Emilia's not supposed to be a morning person, but Subaru's not surprised she's up
so early. Her eyes as she looks at him are bloodshot, exhaustion and teartracks remaining thick on
her beautiful, dignified face. —That she hadn't slept for a second was plain as day.
Emilia notices Subaru's arrival, and averts her head so he won't see her teary face.
Emilia: “Ah, so... sorry. I-it's time already? It's time now? Th-that was fast... but, I have to. Have to
try... I-it's, time for the TRIAL, right?”
Subaru: “Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “I-I'm okay. Today definitely, this time definitely, for sure... yes, I'll do it well for sure. I-I'm
already, starting to know what happens in, the TRIAL. Right, the pahtern, I think. You say that, yeah,
um, that's, right, I know... yeah, so, I'm, fi, fine...”
Subaru: “Emilia-tan, it's okay. It's not night yet, last night hasn't even ended. Morning's coming up
from now on. The time's much later.”
Emilia: “E-even if you lie I'll know it. I mean, see... outside's, still dark. If it's morning, it's gotta be
bright... ah, but, I, my talk with the minor spirits today...”
Looking up at Subaru, Emilia's eyes shudder. In there was shock and anger that she hadn't abided by
her contract, and seeing her look just about close to dissolving her ties with them our of reprimand
for herself,
Subaru: “Emilia.”
Emilia: “Ah...”
Subaru grasps her raised hand and entwines his fingers with hers. Emilia is dumbstruck seeing it,
and with her own image reflected in Subaru's dark eyes,
Emilia: “I-I...”
Subaru: “I'm the only one here right now. So no matter how weak you want to be, it's okay. There's
no need to rush, and don't try to fire yourself up. I'm on your side. Always.”
Emilia: “Suhbarhu...”
She clings to his outstretched hand, calling his name, her voice thin. He draws closer toward her,
arm and all, to sit beside her. He slowly pats her silver hair with this free hand, her body
consequently losing its strength, and after a little while arrives at deep, relieving sleep.
She's fully exhausted. She can't complete the nights alone, to the extent she has wound up
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depending on Subaru.
Glancing at the sleeping Emilia, Subaru briefly traces his finger over her cheek, confirming the
traces of her tears.
—She's hit her limit, he decides.
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CHAPTER 23: STEP OF THE WAY

Subaru: “Alright, so I'll just be heading out for a bit. Our coming back'll kinda wind up being
tomorrow... I don't know how many times I've said this but, you don't need to force yourself to take
the TRIAL. It's better you have some rest.”
Emilia: “Silly, I got it already. Subaru, augh, stop looking so worried. I'll be following your
instructions and resting quietly for today.”
Says Emilia, pouting, as she looks up at Subaru atop the carriage. Feeling a wry smile rising up on
his face, Subaru consciously conceals the pain he feels in his heart seeing her adorable attitude.
It's just before noon, same day he talked with Garfiel and went to Emilia's side, several hours
afterward.
Otto: “Natsuki-san, preparations on my end are complete. All that's left is to depart.”
Subaru: “Oh, that really was fast. You're so good at clearing places out and pulling a runner it's
worth a medal. Can I start calling you NIGHTFLIGHT OTTO?”
Otto: “I don't know what this term 'night flight' means, but it certainly sounds like something
disreputable so I'll firmly have to decline.”
This time Subaru gives a wry smile without any UNDERBELLY. Looking behind them, there's a
bunch of dragon carriages all lined up in a row behind Subaru and Otto's carriage. In total, there's
six carriages, 42 people. That being the evacuees from Arlam, and the traders who went along with
them.
Subaru: “Either way, they accepted it so easily it was almost anticlimactic. ...Honestly, I was
prepared to get pushed back pretty hard.”
Ram: “I'd say it's because you cleverly spoke with Garf beforehand, Barusu. Lewes-sama is one
who when spoken with will understand, and should Garf not intervene the conversation would be no
tribulation.”
Ram's there too, not on the carriage, looking up at Subaru.
Ram: “I would however like to make complaint that negotiations were not made to return Roswaal-
sama to the mansion.”
Subaru: “He's seriously way too much of a great hostage among hostages. Even when I went to try
to negotiate for him I couldn't come with up anything good to say. Please just accept the outcome of
this one as all the villagers going back.”
Ram's like you did well, considering it's you Barusu, is how I'll regard this. Show me your
gratitude.
Subaru's like if I say thank you I'm the loser here.
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Shivering at Ram's attitude of turning everything into her own achievement, Subaru again looks at
Emilia, who's standing next to Ram. Her eyes host unease and gloom, which she casts away once
she notices Subaru's gaze on her.
Emilia: “Thank you. If you hadn't told me, Subaru, I, mightn't have even noticed this.”
Subaru's like you're in a tough position emilia-tan, it's all good to leave things to us, for now this's
the big thing, I'll make the other stuff work out, so it's fine to relax.
Subaru taps his hand to his chest, Emilia puts hers to her mouth and smiles slightly, wiping away
the tears welling up in her eyes with a finger.
Emilia: “Yeah,”
She nods.
Emilia: “I know. I'm depending on you, Subaru. So...”
Subaru: “I got it. The instant I've seen everyone off I'll be coming right back here. Though if you
forgot your favourite plushie back at the mansion, I could bring it back for you while I'm there?”
Emilia: “I grew out of those ages ago. And besides I'm not asking for you to come back quickly. I
mean, of course if you did come back quickly it'd make me happy, but...”
Subaru: “So then, what're you saying?”
Emilia: “...Be careful. Quickly would make me happy, but even if nothing happens it's best that you
take care.”
Subaru: “Crap, heartflutter.”
Feeling his chest throb with love, Subaru draws back while holding down his shot-through heart.
Unaware of what she said, Emilia tilts her head, Subaru taking deep breaths and pointing his palm
at her.
Subaru: “ＯＫＯＫ, got it. I'll come back to your side quickly and moreover, safely. Pinky promise?”
Emilia: “The 'if I lie' one, you did with Petra? ...okay, got it. Let's.”
Subaru: “Ohoho, so honest.”
Subaru bends down and the two of them link their fingers, Subaru on the carriage, Emilia on the
ground. They go through the 'swallow thousand neeeedles' line, finalizing the pinky promise. Emilia
stares at her pinky, and with Subaru reflected in her amethyst eyes,
Emilia: “Subaru. For practitioners of the spiritual arts, promises are...”
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Subaru: “Super important. I learned, and I know it keenly. I won't break my promises with you
again, Emilia-tan. Best I can, I'll work to keep my promises with others.” I fucking hate translating
nattoku.
Emilia: I also hate translating shouganai.
Emilia's face breaks into a smile. Seeing that, Subaru straightens his legs and gives a big turn,
pointing both his arms and face to the heavens,
Subaru: “Nywell, this time we're really going. Destination Arlam Village, total persons 44! It's a
pretty big migration, but here we go, everyone!”
Yells Subaru, which gets an energetic reply, the negotiated migration to bring the freed hostages
back to Arlam now starting.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
After that episode in the morning with Emilia, Subaru decided to accept Garfiel's proposal and went
to Lewes' house. He waited for everyone to everyone to wake up and gather there, and proposed the
aforementioned plan. Though Subaru had expected some pretty strong resistance, Lewes did
nothing but agree with Subaru's idea, being so compliant it almost seemed possible to request for
conciliations. In the end Subaru's plan was carried out, although that didn't clear away the feeling of
it being a complete fucking surprise.
Afterwards they told an awake Emilia about the plan, and likewise explained it to the evacuees
gathered in the cathedral. At first they were stunned stiff, but their later joy at knowing they could
safely return to the village was enough to even make Subaru feel honestly happy. Even though
technically it was because of Subaru's ideas they wound up in this situation, the villagers focused
their gratitude on him, and albeit a rather embarrassing scene, they got past that and were now here
on the road.
Otto: “But even so, I'm surprised.”
Says Otto who's sitting beside Subaru on the driver's platform, holding the reins. Patrasche and
Frufoo are pulling the carriage.
Subaru: “Nnha?”
Otto: “Were you just asleep?”
Subaru: “Merely lost in reverie, stop being so doubtful. Anyway I was half-unconscious and kinda
didn't hear you, what?”
Otto: “If you're going to cover things up could you please cover them up to the end? ...I mean look,
I'm saying I'm surprised. About this situation.”
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Otto: “I didn't think they would free the hostages so easily. From a merchant's standpoint, keeping
hold of the weak points you can hold onto would be best when considering the future.”
Subaru: “Is that really coming from a merchant's standpoint? Not an evil dictator's? Can you do
something about how the you inside me keeps changing jobs to something way way way way
shadier?”
Thinking back on it, Subaru didn't have many memories of Otto doing anything properly
merchantish. He professed he had that huge load of oil for sale, but perhaps he wasn't actually a
pyromaniac? Although pretty late for it, Subaru looks at Otto with a gaze doubting his origin story.
Otto: “What are those, those eyes that look like they're seeing someone suspicious?”
Subaru: “They're exactly eyes that're seeing someone suspicious. Are you really a merchant? Have
you ever done anything a merchant would do while I was around?”
Otto: “When you're around I'm forced to sort hideously confidential documents and manage account
books! Is your memory so poor!?”
Subaru: “No, if you consider those as cleverly-guided spy activities then it's more accurate to think
of them as being secret agent rather than merchant...”
Otto: “If you're going to demand people be guided by your unpredictable ideas, Natsuki-san, it'd be
easier if you just became a god.”
Subaru: “Hey, hear that, Patrasche? This guy sitting next to me's saying I'll be a god.” chotto yabai
yo.
Otto: “Ah, damn it! Why did it turn into... ahh! Even Patrasche-chan's pitying me now!? Could you
please stop!”
Patrasche gives a whinny or whatever the fuck noise dragons make in response to Subaru's
addressing her, to which Otto's expression turns to despair. Seems like Patrasche's comment had
some opinions in there about Otto. Blessing of XENOGLOSSY truly is a nuisance.
Garfiel: “N'matter where y'two go yer never damn change, oi.”
Says a floored Garfiel as he runs alongside the carriage. Right now, the carriages are still riding
along animal tracks in the forest, and aren't going especially fast. But that said it's still considerably
faster than a full-power sprint. Garfiel's easily been accompanying the evacuee carriages like this
the entire time. He isn't out of breath, and seems to bound forward with each light step.
Garfiel says one of his fun phrases, Subaru complains about not understanding it, Garfiel gets pissy
and scrunches his nose up in displeasure. Still seated on the carriage, Subaru addresses Garfiel as he
runs alongside.
Subaru: “That reminds me,”
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Subaru: “For volunteering to be the guide, you're not doing very much leading. Quit your post?”
Garfiel: “Ain't like that. Yer ground dragon's just too smart. Sh's only ran the road once but sh's got
it remembered almost down perfect.”
Subaru: “Well, she is our pride and joy. Something this much's easy, easy. If you want we could
have her jump through a ring of fire, or balance on a ball, or pull a wheelie, or... wai—would you
like to stop sidewinding please, Patrasche-san!?”
Patrasche alters her running pattern, rejecting the ridiculous stunts Subaru's proposing and getting
him in a panic.
Garfiel: “Hell're y'two doin',”
Garfiel gives a snort, and looks at Otto.
Garfiel: “So, sounds like this guy 'ere said somethin' int'restin'. Better't hold on tight t' weak points,
was it?”
Otto: “Yes, I truly do think so. I don't believe it's a particularly nice thought, but... the more
hostages are present, I would say the wider your options would be. Then, if you would like to utilize
them to encourage a sense of urgency, having a greater number of hostages would give you more
methods to...”
Garfiel: “Oioioi, 's this guy ser'sly act'lly a merchant!? H's definitely some guy who was workin' 'n
some nasty business 'n couldn't stick 'round 'n his country anymore.”
Otto: “Why are opinions of me so set in going in that direction!?”
Subaru tilts his head, figuring that Otto pretty obviously brought this one on himself.
Subaru explains to Otto that he's accepted Garfiel's condition, so the matter's going to be settled
without getting complicated. Otto asks what the condition is. Garfiel speaks up, fangs showing, to
explain that it's to have Subaru do all the trials instead of crybaby Princess, and get SANCTUARY
freed on the double.
Otto: “That's...”
Otto's eyes go wide and he looks at Subaru. After opening and closing his mouth several times,
Otto: “Are you all right with this, Natsuki-san?”
Subaru: “'All right with this' in what meaning, exactly?”
Otto: “The burden on you for taking the TRIALS is one part, but... I'm mostly asking whether you're
all right with the role being taken away from Emilia-sama.”
Subaru furrows his brow.
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Otto: “Of course, I don't entirely understand the contents of the TRIAL, and I try to be very aware
that conditions are unfavourable for Emilia-sama. But, if you consider in terms of Emilia-sama
winning the Royal Election, she would likely need the backing of those living in the fief and in
SANCTUARY for it. To let the opportunity to acquire that support get away would be...”
Subaru: “Time's... not something we know how much of we need. If her supporter base tumbles
over that period then it's cart before horse. And most importantly, Emilia herself's...”
Otto: “At her limit, you'd say? I don't believe so. I have been watching her up to now, and I would
say Emilia-sama's firm at her core. She does get out of sorts when the TRIAL ends and she exits the
tomb, but her composure is steady everywhere expect then.”
Subaru bites his lip. Yes, from Otto's perspective, Emilia surely wasn't as cornered or close to limit
as Subaru claimed.
—Because Otto hadn't realised that was a mask she maintained when around anyone other than
Subaru.
When in a situation where third-parties other than Subaru were around, Emilia could act to keep the
same composure she always had. She would lose that composure the instant she was alone with
Subaru, and devolve into instability as she had this morning.
Otto looks about to speak further, but rather than Subaru dampening the mood, it's—
Garfiel: “'S enough with that talk. We're gonna hit th' border of SANCTUARY soon. My amazin' self
ain't gonna be able t' go past that point.”
Subaru: “...Just asking for reference, but what would happen to you if you tried forcing yourself
through the border anyway?”
Garfiel: “Never tried so dunno, but 'f ya think'a what happened with th' Princess 'd say you'd lose
consciousness. Eh, ain't like it matters anyway.”
Subaru's glad for the change of topic as Garfiel tilts his head and jumps up, landing silently on the
bed of Subaru and Otto's carriage. He points at the two of them as they glance back.
Garfiel: “Just 's the conditions say, once yer get the others t' the village you two come right back...
Nehh, act'lly, dunneed this guy comin' back though.”
Otto: “Don't be ridiculous, I'll be coming back. Since either way, I still haven't made proper
audience with Margrave Mathers!”
Subaru: “Huh? Really? You haven't met him yet?”
Otto: “I haven't! It's been almost a week, but the timing's always been inconvenient or otherwise he
would be resting... and Ram-san would quite thoroughly send me away!”
You could think of this as Otto's extraordinarily bad sense of timing, or put some of it down as his
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incredible lack of luck, but—
Subaru: “It's probably intentional. Ever since the day of the TRIAL, she'd always have some reason
for not letting me see him.”
Subaru mutters to himself. Subaru hasn't been able to have a proper meeting with Roswaal since the
day he first challenged the TRIAL. Like with Otto, the outward face of it would be due to his
recuperating, but obviously this wasn't the entirety of it. Because after all, the moment that Subaru
mentioned he had challenged the TRIAL was he started getting sent away.
Seeing how Roswaal's face changed after hearing Subaru had challenged the TRIAL, and Emilia
failed to beat the TRIAL, was striking. A new expression for him.
His usual clown mask peeled away, and for a single second out peeked intense emotion—something
complex, with anger and sorrow, and also with nothing at all.
Subaru hadn't been able to properly meet with Roswaal even once since then.
Garfiel interrupts, telling Subaru and co to use the same road on their way back. He'll be taking care
not to attack them, but in worst case make sure not to forget the password.
Subaru: “Password?”
Garfiel: “'F ya say th' password when y'cross th' boundary, yer not gonna be treated like attackers.
Password's BAIRABAIRA BELOW GULLIMOOR.”
Subaru: “Uh? What? Byebye gullymorry?”
And behold it's a saying.

Subaru frowns, instantly guessing just who came up with this. Garfiel crosses his arms looking like
this is a completely reasonable password, Otto hurriedly writes it down in a notebook. Subaru sighs
at Garfiel, deciding to leave memorizing this shit up to Otto.
Subaru: “Anyway, if we say this we'll be let through, yeah?”
Garfiel: “Ain't like my amazin' self's the only one doin' lookout. Yknow there's guys more hot-
blood'd th'n me around, yeh? F'r them, yer good pawns f'r messin' with th' TRIAL.”
Subaru: “...Right, you did mention this before.”
There's one group, led by Lewes, which wishes for SANCTUARY to be freed. Then there's another
faction which wants SANCTUARY to stay closed. Garfiel's warning is probably saying, 'if you run
into that faction, don't let carelessness give them any openings.'
Subaru: “Got it, understood. You've helped us out with so many things and... or actually we'll be
seeing you again in half a day but, thank you.”
Garfiel: “'S the granny's requestin' me, don't worry 'bout it. M're importantly, well,”
Garfiel gives a shake of his hand, ending his sentence with a rather vague statement. It's not like
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him. Subaru furrows his brow.
Garfiel: “Ehh,”
Garfiel: “When yer back't th' damn mansion, 's Frederica gonna be there?”
Subaru: “Yeah, she should be there. Right, it did sound like you knew her. What's with that?”
Garfiel: “'S a relationship that ain't wanted n' ain't goin' away, 'er so. There ain't really anythin' I
wanna say t' her, but...”
Subaru: “I'll tell her you were worried. She'll probably have something to say back.”
Garfiel: “...I ain't askin' yer to.”
Averting his gaze, Garfiel jumps back to the ground to shake off Subaru's big fat grin. He backs off
from the evacuees, just before the boundary between SANCTUARY and the forest, a hand to his hip
as he sees everyone off.
Garfiel: “Don't you run away, Subaru! Keep yer promise even if you die! That's the only condition
my amazin' self has for lettin' you all escape afterward!”
Subaru: “Yeah, you relax! My power for keeping promises's been amazing lately!”
Subaru answers with a smile, raising his fist as he watches Garfiel grow further and further away.
Garfiel jabs his fist to the sky as well, matching.
Until Subaru's group disappears into the shadows of the forest, Garfiel keeps his fist raised.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
No problems in particular occur on the trip through the boundary and out of the forest.
If there's no impediments, the travel time between the mansion and Sanctuary is about 8 hours. The
group stopped twice for breaks, but since the villagers are eager to go home said breaks were cut
short, so in all the time to get the villagers back to Arlam is exactly 8 hours. They had departed in
the afternoon, so now the cloak of night has been fully in place for several hours.
Subaru: “Ass hurts from sitting so much... but, I'm glad.”
Subaru gives a sigh of relief as he gets off the carriage and does some twists. Yells of delight from
villagers having their reunions peal through the village, some even crying in joy. Thinking about the
threat that attacked the village, Subaru knows this isn't an overreaction. The place is rife with activity
despite the nighttime, and even the villagers from SANCTUARY who had looked so glum
now unanimously sport smiles.
Otto: “Are we returning immediately to SANCTUARY, Natsuki-san?”
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Says Otto who jogs over to Subaru, who's looking over the everyone from a position somewhat
separated from the fuss. Subaru shakes his head.
Subaru: “Nah,”
Subaru: “That's way too quick, it'll be fine to go after taking a little break. And I have to stop by the
mansion to explain the situation to Frederica and Petra.”
Otto: “Ah, that's right. Yes, I also have things I need to discuss with my fellow merchants.”
Subaru: “Discuss with your fellow merchants, being?”
Otto points to the respective owners of the six carriages. They had been hired to evacuate the
villagers, and in following that through got trapped in Sanctuary. Now relieved to be free of the
place, their gazes toward Subaru are—
Subaru: “Has to just be me. It's an alternate world but it feels like their eyes're floating with dollar
signs.”
Otto: when we were hired we discussed what the terms were on sale of our cargoes etc.“I'm
considering we come to consensus on just how much compensation we'll demand. I won't propose
anything exorbitant, of course. But, with how these people were burdened with the hostage
situation... Prepare for this to get a little rough.”
Subaru: “Well, not like it'll be my wallet taking the damage. It wouldn't hurt to make Roz-chi's face
go pale every once in a while, if you'd like to append the appropriate allowances.”
Otto: “Just what I expected of you, Natsuki-san. You understand!”
Otto claps and goes over to his fellow merchants. The merchant's cheers at Otto's triumphant return
and propitious news echo through the night village. Subaru gets the feeling that their yells are
actually somewhat louder than those of the villagers having their reunions, but decides to
consciously ignore it and gets to work.
There shouldn't be any problems with the village for now. Otto's taking care of the merchant's
demands, and Roswaal will be the one to deal with it. With some anticipation for just what
expression Roswaal will make when that time hits him, Subaru heads to the mansion.
Fifteen minutes away from the village by foot is Roswaal's Mansion. The mansion's lights stand out
in the middle of the night darkness, asserting the building's existence, giving the place a bewitching
aura in the wake of sunset.
Feeling that thought, Subaru stands before the front gates as he absently gazes at the mansion.
Naturally, the majority of the estate's lights are out, the lit ones being the entry hall and the servant's
rooms—and a room on the highest floor, Roswaal's office.
Subaru: “Otto sorted the papers, but it's probably multiplied again over this week.”
Mega-maid Frederica has displayed and does possess document managing skills not even slightly
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inferior to Otto's, but paperwork is not the only task she should be doing. Even with Petra's
assistance, maintaining the whole of the mansion requires some considerable effort.
That she be working away in the office into the dead of night like this suggested such effort.
Subaru: “No matter what, I gotta pull that Otto in deeper and work him like a draughthorse as an
Emilia faction paperwork machine. I'll make him an officework automaton.”
While planning just how to trap Otto, Subaru pushes opens the gates and enters the mansion
grounds. He heads for the entryway, and knocks the door with its falcon-shaped knocker.
Subaru: “Apologies for the late-night visit. I'm here from the fire statiooon—huh.”
The sharp knocks echo through the night, Subaru giving a random announcement as usual. What
did the people in this world do in the event of fires or emergencies? Subaru tilts his head as he falls
into thought, mulling over the pointless question. But,
Subaru: “No reply.”
Frederica being Frederica, Subaru had expected her to respond swift as the wind. He shrugs, and
after waiting for a short while, decides that no one is coming and abandons waiting. He grandly
pushes open the door,
Subaru: “Heeeey, I'm hoooome. Food! Bath! Sleep!”
and makes those three orders, taking a pose. But the response to this is indeed nothing. Enjoying the
nostalgic sensation of absolutely bombing a joke while alone, Subaru heads for the upper floor—for
the servants’s rooms, deciding to search for Petra.
Subaru: “Frederica's probably in the office. Make that after seeing Petra... then, have to find Beako
too.”
Nevermind precocious Petra and wily Frederica for now, Subaru had to make sure he was prepared
to meet again with that drill-haired girl.
He had not received an answer to his central question when he last parted with her, she had driven
him out of the library while in tears, and that was how things ended.
Subaru: “I'll apologize... is also pretty weird idea. I don't feel there's something I did wrong...”
Even so, Subaru believed that something would change if he met her and talked. Subaru liked to
think he had advanced a little by parting with his past. With his current mental state, he feels
perhaps he could face Beatrice again in a somewhat different context.
Subaru: “First's the prelims... is what I was thinking, but...”
Subaru knocks, the door flings open with surprising vigour, and here Subaru is stunned.
Walked in on delightful-and-embarassing clothes changing time—was not what he had been hoping
for with a little girl, but regardless nobody is here and the room is vacant.
Although decorated with cute ornaments which reflected Petra's interests, the room is kept tidy and
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organized. However, not a sign of its owner is to be found.

Inside the room, bathed in the shine of the crystalights, Subaru tilts his head.
Subaru: “Leaving while keeping the lights on doesn't sound like a disciplined girl like Petra... if
she's not here, then maybe she's having a lesson in the office?”
Considering how spartan Frederica is, it is possible.

Frederica might intend to transform Petra into an all-purpose maid, to the extent of her working
office jobs alongside waiting upon others. It would be a tremendous help if Petra did become
capable of paperwork, but for a Subaru who was already lagging behind Petra in skill for household
chores, it would also be a great loss of face.
Subaru: “Nonono, she still can't do all her arithmetic yet so I should be superior! Don't anyone
underestimate 21st-century Japan's compulsory education!”
Subaru dashes up the stairs to the building's highest floor—continuing onward to arrive before a
double-door in the very middle of the hallway. He clears his throat, and knocks hard.
The heavy sound echoes out, surely reaching inside the room. But there is no response.
It's strange, thinks Subaru as his already-raised guard compounds one level higher. Covering the
feeling with jokes, Subaru darts his gaze down each end of the hallway, and then toward the office
doors. He could place his ear to the door to listen to the situation inside, but with the doors being so
thick, he would not hear anything. For him to glean anything while outside was unlikely.
—Petra's room was not disturbed. It was organized, as if readied for Petra to go to sleep.
All throughout the mansion, nothing was peculiar as far as his glancing around had told him. Work
had already been conducted with orderly and Frederica-esque thoroughness, with not a single speck
of dust on the windowsills.
Subaru's wariness consequently only resulted from the fact he had not seen either of the girls.
He puts pressure on the doors. They open soundlessly.

Light floods out from the room and into the corridor, and Subaru's eyes use that brightness to scan
over the interior of the room. Ebony desk, leather seat. Bookshelves across the walls, a breeze—the
window was closed. He felt a breeze of cold wind. Intuitively, he knew that was strange.
Sneaking low into the room, Subaru follows the direction of the breeze—and spots it.
The shelf in the back of the room had shifted sideways, revealing a usually-concealed door installed
on the wall. Beyond that door stretched a spiral staircase, the end of which rested far, far, far below.
Subaru: “Right. There's a hidden passage here. I remember, I remember that.”
It had been in the previous series of loops.

The villagers of Arlam had been slaughtered at the Witch Cult's hands, he had despaired at
discovering Rem and Ram's corpses at the mansion, and with his ego just on the verge of shattering,
here was where Subaru had arrived.
He traversed the hidden passage and entered into the underground, where—
Subaru: “Puck froze me solid, I think.”
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He lacked definite proof. However, his memories did contain knowledge of the frozen corpses of
cultists who had apparently pursed Emilia down this same passageway, Subaru's own end there, and
his RETURNING BY DEATH.
He had forgotten about this underground passage so thoroughly he had neglected to check whether
it was anything important.
Subaru: “But why is it...”
Presently being used? At the very least, it meant that evacuation had been necessary.
If one were to think who would have used it, it would have obviously been someone who knew of
this passage's existence inside the mansion—likely, Frederica. That she took Petra and escaped
somewhere through the passage was an easily-reached idea. The problem was,
Subaru: “What were they running from?”
Considering how wise Frederica was, the decision would surely have an appropriate reason.
That the mansion interior sported no signs of attack indicated Frederica had sensed beforehand the
coming danger. Knowing this, the words 'Witch Cult' flit through Subaru's mind, but he shakes his
head.
Subaru: “If that were it, it's way too unnatural that Frederica hasn't left a single note. And the
villagers in Arlam haven't noticed anything... if it's people as dangerous as the Witch Cult, she
would've done something to keep the villagers from being caught up in it.”
Subaru at least harboured no doubts that Frederica supported Roswaal-backed Emilia. Thus, she
would have taken the optimum measures within her ability to deal with the situation. That the
villagers were not aware meant that it was not the Witch Cult.
Subaru: “Frederica and Petra probably left the mansion. ...then, I'll,”
What stops Subaru's foot as he steps forward, intending to traverse the passage to meet up with
Frederica and Petra, is Beatrice.
If Frederica had hypothetically decided to escape the mansion, would Beatrice ultimately have
joined them in their flight?
Subaru: “The Beatrice I know's not the kind of brat who can read that mood.”
That impertinent drill-haired girl would have definitely pushed aside Frederica's proposal.
She unmistakably would have shut herself in the Forbidden Archive, brayed she would be fine no
matter what happened, kicked aside the worries and concerns of others, and be sitting there, lonely.
Unmistakably. And so,
Subaru: “I'll pull her out!”
If nobody had brought her out, Subaru alone concluded he would do it.
This had nothing to do with beliefs in how protected she would be inside her castle.
It was merely impossible he could leave a little girl behind, while knowing that danger was closing
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in.
Subaru: “And if that much is given—!”
Turning his back to the hidden passage, Subaru gives a sharp exhale and bounds out of the office.
The most reliable method of finding Beatrice is to open every single door in the mansion. For
Subaru, halfway through doing that he would JUST SOMEHOW know which door connected to
Beatrice's Forbidden Archive. If he found her while relying on that, good.
First was to start with the doors in the mansion's top floor—
Subaru: “Ddweh?”
The foot he goes to run on catches on something, and Subaru tumbles.

It is embarrassment rather than piteousness that Subaru feels at this graceless start. Pulling this just
after showing off was not especially fashionable.
He lands his hand on the hallway carpet, glancing back, wondering what he tripped on. He looks, to
find that something has fallen on the floor just outside the office doors.
That pink something was certainly long, and stretched from that point up to Subaru's feet, several
steps separated. Trying to determine just how long it continued and tracing it back made for no great
effort.
—It had spilled out from Subaru's sliced belly.
Subaru: “—Wha?”
The left side of his belly had been cleanly slashed open, pink intestine spilling from the cut.
Its trail began from just outside the office doors. It had entangled and tripped Subaru's left leg,
meaning that at some unknown juncture his belly had been cut open.
Subaru: “...uubbg”
The second Subaru realises such, his throat clogs with rising blood, his vision becomes seeped with
red.
Subaru's trembling fingers reach to cram his overflowing intestines back inside his body, but
lacking the strength, he falls to his knees. Unable to keep his body supported, Subaru collapses.
He did not know what had happened. He, surely, had just started running when—
???: “—Didn't I tell you? Didn't we promise?”
He hears a voice.
The voice comes down from before him, above him.
He lacks the strength to raise his head. His consciousness focuses on attempts to reel in his
overflowing intestines, his gushing blood, the fading world.
His body heat plummets. Every cough dirties his face with blood displaced from his throat. He
endeavours to keep ahold of the world, vision hazing.
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You are ending, announces his intuition.

Although he understands this, Subaru scolds himself that he cannot let it end like this.
If he does not gain something, he cannot let it end. If he does not trawl in even one single thing, he
could not end. There was something, somethingsomethingsomethingsomethingsomethinghe,
Footsteps birth ripples. A black silhouette stands above the blood-seeped hallway floor.
Black clothes. Slender. Black hair. Looking down at him affectionately, gaze salacious.
Sensing these things, and recalling the sensation of his BELLY BEING SLICED, Subaru comprehends.
Not the Witch Cult, but certainly a threat. It was—
???: “That until we next met, you would take good care of your bowels?”
An aberrant announcement of affection.

Knowing that he had indeed grasped something, Subaru's consciousness fades.
Fades, fades and fades. Darkens, and darkens. And.

Everything disappears, ends—and again, begins.
—The curtain on Subaru's fourth loop, raises.
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CHAPTER 24: HE WAITED
The first things that plunges into Subaru's consciousness is discomfort.
Subaru: “Ueuegh! Oeue! Ubggelgh!”
He feels something like gravel and grit dancing atop his tongue, which he coughs out as he opens
his eyes wide. The world around him is black, and he vaguely feels a cold touch across his whole
body. Focusing his attention on that sensation, he realises that he's toppled sideways, and with
further casual inspection of the surroundings, understands that he is inside an old, familiar ruin.
Subaru: “Inside the, tomb?”
This sensation of puking gravelly shit out of his mouth is a pretty recently-had one, too. Meaning,
Subaru: “Right after the first TRIAL? Came back this far... no, more importantly,”
If this really is right after Subaru's first TRIAL, then that means,
Subaru: “Emilia!”
And he finds the silver-haired girl at his side, collapsed in the darkness. Subaru nears her and sees
the anguish in her expression, but hesitates one moment to reach out his arm and touch her. He
knows that if he touches her, regardless of what's going on in her TRIAL, the thing will be
interrupted and she'll return. It's highly likely it will result in her failing from a third party's hands.
Subaru needs to pay extreme caution regarding touching Emilia inside the tomb. But,
Subaru: “I already know this attempt won't work...”
Subaru shakes his head to kill his hesitation. He gently lifts her body up, burning the image of her
sleeping face into his memories, settling her in his arms. Emilia's anguished expression instantly
recedes, herself being guided back to wakefulness.
Emilia: “Suh, bahru?”
Subaru: “Yeah, that's right. It's me, Emilia-tan. Are you okay?”
Subaru answers Emilia with a reassuring smile while waiting for her to get a hold on the situation.
Waiting for her to remember what she was doing, to catch up with the results of her TRIAL, and to
start bawling like a child.
Waiting for his weakness, knowing she will break down crying, but being unable to do anything.
Waiting for her purity, her acting firm regardless, and standing back up.
Holding her tenderly so she won't break, Subaru keeps Emilia in a strong embrace until she calms,
never letting go.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
It's after a bawling Emilia gets brought to Lewes' house and put to bed by Ram that Subaru calmly
begins sorting the situation and his RETURNING BY DEATH.
The others wanted to hear about what happened inside the tomb, but Subaru declined them by
asking to wait until Emilia woke up first, so he was now alone. He stares up at the night sky outside
Lewes' house, bathed in wind, his feelings complex.
Subaru: “But either way... again, huh?”
Touching the left side of his stomach, Subaru's fingers confirm the non-existent wound. A deep,
gouging cut, from which his intestines had spilled. He thought that getting chances to see one's own
internal organs was not a particularly common thing, but Subaru's personal experiences of exactly
that had already placed him easily superior to most in the world.
Subaru: “Whether I'm happy about that's another story. I don't have twisted sympathies that make
me feel hungry or ecstatic or whatever at seeing my own stuff... someone who would'd be...”
The words float up in Subaru's mind.
???: <—Didn't I tell you? Didn't we promise?>
A sensual, female voice. Subaru remembered that voice, that promise, and that deviancy to the point
he was sick of it. This wasn't the first time Subaru had had his stomach slashed open like this.
Subaru: “This's seriously where the GUTHUNTER makes her reappearance... gimme a break...”
Putting his hand to his forehead, Subaru laments as he looks up to the sky. Arising in his mind is the
image of a beautiful woman, her long hair the same black as Subaru's. She was a killer who wielded
wicked blades, and had robbed Subaru of his life twice. Elsa Granhiert.
Subaru: “I didn't see them, but it was almost definitely Elsa. Actually I don't wanna think there's
others like that around. We'll say it's Elsa.”
In Subaru-time it's been over two months since he last ran into her, but in real time it's barely been
one month. The wound she gave him back then supposedly hadn't been shallow, but it had already
completely healed.
Subaru: “Safe to think the wound's gone, I guess. Considering healing magic, it's like this world's
one where you can do something about anything so long as it isn't death. And getting on that topic,
I'dve already died heaps of times... I mean, I actually did die, but.”
Hard to get a grasp on this when he's had so many cases of being on the brink of death and reviving,
and being on the brink of death and just dying. Either way, Subaru concludes that the threat which
attacked the mansion was Elsa. The problem now is—
Subaru: “Why Elsa was in the mansion, and what happened to Frederica and Petra.”
When Subaru arrived in the mansion, the place still had slight feelings of being lived-in. Petra's
room had its lights on, and the entry hall was bright. The office had been used to access the escape
passage, so that one could excluded. But considering those two lights,
Subaru: “At least, nothing had happened until that night... maybe?”
It's difficult to make a conclusion about. Subaru takes considerations not to rush it. If the lights in
Petra's room, the entry hall, and the office had been left on for a whole day, Subaru's thoughts that
they'd been safe until that night might be mistaken. But if you were going to raise a point to reject
that hypothesis, it would be the lights' sustained operation time.
Subaru: “Different from lagumite crystals, crystalights need to charge on the mana in the
atmosphere throughout the day. I know from experience that if they're left on, they won't stay
continuously operational for half a day.”
Subaru's had an experience of forgetting to turn off the crystalights and being suddenly plunged into
darkness while studying his writing in the mansion.
Subaru: “If they were left on since afternoon, it's strange they'd still be alight at night. It should be
safe to discard the idea that the mansion's been empty since prior the day before. Which makes the
limit... night of the sixth day. Now is night of the second day, so four days left. No, three and a half
days.”
Subaru's remaining time limit is about 84 hours. His role for this time is,
Subaru: “Defending the mansion getting attacked by the GUTHUNTER, or otherwise securing the
people in the mansion's safety.”
Subaru doesn't have definite proof that Frederica and Petra managed to safely escape from that
snakelike, spiderlike killer. He didn't know where the escape path led, but if Frederica and Petra had
evacuated the mansion, they should've been looking to meet up with their Master, Roswaal, in
SANCTUARY. But despite that, Subaru's group hadn't run into Frederica's group on the way back to
the mansion.
Subaru: “One idea is that stupid-long evacuation tunnel connected somewhere unknown and they
escaped there. Otherwise...”
He didn't want to consider it, but another idea was they hadn't managed to escape.
Subaru's had some notable experience with meeting powerful people in this parallel world, Elsa
being one of them. Taking her pure combat power into account,
Subaru: “Above Julius, below Wilhelm-san... or about.” Subaru complains about her being just a
little too tough of an opponent.
Subaru's fundamentally weak at the best of times. The power difference between him and her is that
of a cat and a tiger. The chance of him winning is flat zero. And even considering the fight with her
last time, ultimately it was the influence of a random element he'd run into and relied on that was
huge.
Subaru: “If invincible Reinhardt-san could just happen to stop to by this time too, that'd be great,
but... Even if he's the proper protagonist hot guy character, having him show up here'd be seriously
asking too much.”
It'd be shameless opportunism, but gladly-welcomed shameless opportunism. Subaru sighs his futile
escapism away.
Subaru: “Elsa's reason for going to the mansion... probably to same as last time, to interfere with the
Royal Selection. Whoever's fucking hiring her's getting in Emilia's way.”
The case in the Capital of Emilia's insignia, stolen by Felt. Elsa was the one to hire Felt, and Elsa
herself had been working for some secret mastermind. If you consider the particulars of who would
steal the insignia, which qualified one to participate in the Royal Selection, from Emilia, then
Subaru figures it was more than likely one of the rival factions. But,
Subaru: “After seeing the other candidates... doesn't feel you can fully assert that.”
Start with the perspective of hiring an assassin to rob the insignia.

From that very juncture, Crusch is out. Subaru, who had seen Crusch's laudable character with his
own eyes, could state that with his chest held high. Crusch was assuredly not the kind of person to
do such a thing.
Then, just by the circumstances, Felt is out. The only candidates left are Priscilla and Anastasia, but
—
Subaru: “Priscilla... would that haughty young madame really favour a backstage fight like this? If
I'm not misreading her, she's a person who seriously believes she's the centre of the world. Doubt
she'd actively take these pre-measures. Which leaves Anastasia-san, but...”
The purple-haired merchant woman comes to Subaru's mind.

Amid her her soft features was the spark of a sharp-nosed hunter, conscious of her own conduct and
able to perfectly balance to anything—to the point that even Subaru had utilized this disposition of
hers.
Perhaps she would rationally choose to have another person eliminated. Her imaginations also
likely could harbour the plan of hiring an outsider, and gleefully going through with a somewhat
forbidden tactic. If there was any element to refute this theory, then,
Subaru: “Doubtful that Julius'd let that happen. Er no not like I've made any assessments about that
guy or anything. Nope, but just, got that kinda feeling is all.”
Otherwise she may have concealed it from the COURTLIEST KNIGHT, but would she really go so far
as to irreparably fracture their harmonious master-servant relationship? Subaru couldn't erase that
doubt.
Ultimately, Anastasia's faction could also be more or less discounted.
Subaru: “No candidates out of the candidates. But... even so, there's lots of leftover room for
thought. Considering how, Emilia's treated.”
If the commissioner wasn't one of the Royal Selection candidates, it could simply be someone
belonging to a faction who wanted Emilia out of the running. If this was someone who detested
half-elf Emilia electing for a simplistic plan, it would further make sense. Speculating on whether
anyone would go so far in itself meant Subaru's thinking was naïve. The hatred toward her half-elf
lineage was just that ingrained.
Subaru: “But if that's true, then it's impossible to find out who the commissioner is. So long as Elsa
herself doesn't spit it up.”
And Subaru lacked the power to make her spit it up. Going in circles.
Ultimately, thinking over who could possibly deal with Elsa's attack,
Subaru: “It's disconcerting how weak our faction is. I'm completely useless. Otto's just number-
filler. Emilia can put up a fight, if Puck's around. If you consider it turning into a drawn-out battle
then Ram's stamina gives unease. Roswaal's injured so he's useless as ever. I don't know how much
Frederica can do, and Petra possibly being a cheat character with hidden power... isn't happening.
Which means...”
Subaru reaches two ideas for breaking out of the deadlock.

The first is to return to the mansion, and take Frederica, Petra, Rem, and Beatrice along in a retreat
to SANCTUARY, avoiding Elsa's attack.
The second was,
???: “—Hell're you doin' with yer dawdlin' out here?”
Says Garfiel who comes out of the building and looks down at Subaru, seated on the ground and
leaning his back against the wall. Subaru experiences the fresh and uncommon feeling of being
looked down upon by the short Garfiel. He shakes his head.
Subaru: “Nothing,”
Subaru: “Just had some things I wanted to sort out, did some thinking. Emilia?”
Garfiel: “Princess's still sleepin' like a damn log. Better hope it don't turn inta DAWN TO DAWN
MOROROK DOZES.”
Subaru: “Dunno who he is, but this Mororok dozes too much.”
Subaru stands up and faces Garfiel properly. He's half a head shorter than Subaru, with short blond
hair. A sharp gaze and a white scar on his forehead. His oversharp canines and somewhat bestial
body emit the willies. Self-confidence, possessed only by the strong.
Subaru's second plan that came to mind for dealing with Elsa was this young man.
If the TRIAL was conquered and SANCTUARY was freed, Garfiel could leave this place. And if
Garfiel was as strong as he boasted, Subaru anticipated he could fight Elsa.
Subaru: “Hey, Garfiel.”
Garfiel: “Nnwhet?”
Subaru: “You're the strongest, aren't you. You're confident you wouldn't lose to anyone, right?”
Garfiel: “Ohh? Well 's obvious. My amazin' self'll right smash anyone, right bash anyone, right kill
anyone 'n boast 'f the winnin'.”
Garfiel's self confidence doesn't waver a bit. Subaru nods.
Subaru: “There's a time coming very soon where your power'll be needed outside of SANCTUARY, I
think. When that time comes, I'll probably be relying on your being the strongest.”
Garfiel: “Wha?”
Subaru: “Prove those words to me. This, is the thing which feels most reliable.”
Subaru taps a confused Garfiel's shoulders, and heads inside Lewes' house. Ram, Lewes, and Otto's
gazes fix on Subaru as he enters, Subaru heading toward Emilia's sleeping room.
Ram: “Barusu, Emilia-sama is still...”
Subaru: “Nwell, she should be waking up soon. —Emilia-tan, I know it's hard to show your face,
but let's talk. Everyone's waiting for it.”
Calls Subaru through the door, and the faint sound of breathing comes from the other side. A slight
hesitation. And after a few seconds, the doorknob turns and there appears Emilia. She looks up at
Subaru.
Emilia: “Um... I'm so sorry, for causing so many problems. Inside the tomb, and now...”
Subaru: “The problems you cause aren't problems they're the things I wanna do everything's fine.
More importantly, does anywhere feel heavy or hurt? If anywhere feels weird, I'll tenderly pat and
stroke and heal it for you.”
Emilia: “Mm. It feels like I hit my hip when I fell down, it's kind of tingly...”
Subaru: “Right got it. Now, quickly and carefully I'll... Ram-san? Ram-san? Your wand is stabbing
something in proximity of my liver!?”
Ram has approached Subaru from behind and indeed has poked him with her wand. She wordlessly
drives the point in deeper, punishing him until he yelps like a puppy and jumps away.
Ram: “Would you be feeling well, Emilia-sama? Please disregard Barusu's impolite statements and
clearly inform me as to your body's condition.”
Subaru: “It's amazing you haven't commented on what you just did! Look, I'm seriously bleeding a
little here. Just how much force did you put in, piercing these thick-ish clothes?”
Subaru rubs at his still-painful waist. Ram shoots him a glance as if looking at a bug and snorts a
breathy laugh, turning back to Emilia.
Ram: “So, would you be well? If there are no issues, then...”
Emilia: “Ri-right. I'm okay. We have to... talk about the TRIAL, right.”
Emilia nods and continues into the middle of the room, Garfiel enters shortly after, and now we
have the usual cast circled around Emilia. Emilia gives a stuttering explanation of what went on in
the TRIAL, just like last time. If there's anything in this conversation that went different than before,
then it's—
Otto: “Then, just why is Natsuki-san alright after entering the tomb?”
Asks Otto who raises his hand. Subaru had entered the conversation so little, that this question
actually came up.
Subaru: “Didn't I say? I went inside while having the QUALIFICATIONS. If you're gonna ask where I
got them, it was probably afternoon in the cemetery. So, if you're wondering what happened when I
went in... I took the same TRIAL Emilia-tan did. And it kinda looks like I passed.”
A shake goes through the room at Subaru's statement, Emilia being the most surprised. She looks at
Subaru with confusion rising in her amethyst eyes. Subaru nods at her.
Subaru: “Just saying in advance, it's not like I got through the TRIAL because I was better. The
TRIAL was facing your past. I had more or less worked that out, so it was just a bonus stage kinda
thing for me.”
Lewes: “Don't know what this bohnas er whatsit is, but if yerve passed the TRIAL, Su-bo... Hrmpm.
That's sermthing werth serprise.”
Ram: “However, according to what Emilia-sama has said, the TRIAL doesn't end with simply one,
correct? We can expect a continuation from the word 'first.'”
Subaru nods at Lewes and Ram, then examines Emilia. She's still silent, a wave of complex emotion
in her eyes. Though Subaru can imagine what she's feeling, he shakes away his sweetness.
Balancing the time limit against the difficulty of Emilia's TRIAL, there aren't many options for him
to take. Thus,
Subaru: “When I beat the TRIAL, I heard... that if two challengers try the TRIAL at once, the next
TRIAL won't start. The day has to change before you can enter.”
Ram: “...Mhm, meaning?”
Subaru: “If me and Emilia-tan enter the tomb together, Emilia-tan's TRIAL starting means my
TRIAL... it means I can't take the second one.”
Otto: “Whawh, please wait, Natsuki-san.”
Otto plunges his hands into his grey hair, heedless of Subaru's suspicious gaze upon him.
Otto: “From where this conversation is going, you wouldn't also be intending to challenge the
TRIAL, Natsuki-san? But, wasn't this something done for Emilia-sama's securing achievements in
the...”
Subaru: “Idiot, Otto.”
Subaru's slow to hold Otto back as he blabbers on. Otto looks back on what he said, realising he
mentioned something he shouldnt've, and hurriedly shuts his mouth. But everyone—including
Emilia—had already heard it.
Emilia: “What did you just say?”
Subaru: “Let's calm down, Emilia-tan. That was, um...”
Emilia: “Don't cover it up, tell me. —Please, Subaru.”
Anyone who could deny a beautiful girl's tearfully-voiced entreaties was no man, and anyone who
could deny such when it was Emilia was not Natsuki Subaru. His shoulders droop.
Subaru: “If you clear the TRIAL, Emilia-tan, the villagers from Arlam'll be released from being
hostages, and the people of SANCTUARY can say goodbye to living bound to this land. If you can
conquer the TRIAL, both camps'll give you support... was the real plan behind all this.”
Emilia: “...That was, it. You knew, Subaru?”
Subaru: “No, I had completely not at all noticed it until someone told me.”
Lies Subaru gallantly, chest high, before Emilia who can't hide her shaking. Ram and Otto look at
him with gazes suggesting they're chewing something bitter, but Subaru shuts both of them up with
a glance. He turns back to Emilia.
Subaru: “All of it was Roswaal's plot. I've honestly been suspecting his wounds were part of a
bigger performance for this purpose.”
Emilia: “Even Roswaal wouldn't go that... as if, I can't finish saying that. Thinking about the
situation, he would do something like that.”
Subaru something somethings about hating going along with the plot just joking haha not but demo
soreyori
Emilia is confused, her head lowered slightly. Subaru bends down and looks up at her face from
beneath. Her eyes tremble in surprise.
Subaru: “I want to be your strength. I don't know what you saw when you faced your PAST. But if
it's something that makes you feel so much pain, that's so agonizing, that brings you that many
tears, that makes it seem your heart will break... I want to offer you my hand.”
Subaru: “If it's just taking the TRIAL and freeing SANCTUARY, then there should be no problems with
me doing it. If the achievement is necessary, then I give all I have to you. My achievements are your
achievements. Everyone out there harbours a PAST... but deciding that all of those have to be sorted
out doesn't make for anything good.”
They were the words Garfiel had told him, the previous loop. Emilia's eyes open in surprise. She
bites her lip, expression thoughtful.
Subaru knows what's conflicting her. In absolutely honesty, she should feel some desire to shrink
back from this PAST she didn't want to face. Emilia is also a very pure person, who wouldn't even
think of pressing painful roles on people. Exactly because of that, the conflict is huge.
Subaru couldn't clearly state that the remaining TRIALS would not wound his heart, as her PAST had
wounded her.
Subaru: “It's all right if you're deliberating. I know it's not something you can immediately decide.
—And because it's all right, I'd like you to try giving me at least tomorrow.”
Emilia: “Tomorrow?”
Subaru: “Either way, I'm not gonna be some evil instructor who drags an exhausted you to the tomb
tomorrow and demands you take the TRIAL, Emilia-tan. While it also means we'll have some
foresight into the second TRIAL, with me still having reserves left, I should be the one to challenge.
And if it seems like I can beat the TRIAL, then that makes it a profit.”
And if he could get that profit in one day, then manage something over yet another day, then he
could hope to free SANCTUARY by the day after tomorrow. This was the most ideal plan—no burden
placed on Emilia, goal achieved, time left to rescue the mansion.
Subaru knew Emilia was wavering at his proposal.

It did bother him that he was wheedling her when she was weak, but putting out a big condition
upfront, and then following with a smaller, preferred condition was one technique of negotiation.
Her presently being mentally unstable, she wouldn't have the capacity to reject the second,
consolation plan after already denying the first.
Tomorrow and the day after, Subaru would take and conquer the TRIALS. They could surely prepare
another chance for Emilia to stand, taking the time she needed.
But the timing here was bad. No time. This unreasonable fate had once again—
Garfiel: “Yer think yer gonna just move things ahead how yer like, with us shuttin' up n' followin'
along?”
There comes the voice from behind Subaru, which had waited for this moment, just before Subaru's
underhanded aims were realised. The obstacle has blond hair, his emerald-green eyes narrowed
fiercely, his sharp canines clicking as he steps forth.
Garfiel: “'F it's not the Princess... not Emilia-sama takin' the TRIAL, then my amazin' self rejects it.
'T very least, 's you alone who I absolutely, absolutely, absolutely don't wanna get freed by.”
Unexpected words.
Subaru swallows down their meaning, but unable to connect the content and the speaker, all Subaru
does is voice his confusion. Garfiel bends forward.
Garfiel: “Listenin'? Want me t' repeat? My amazin' self ain't gonna accept anyone but Emilia-sama
takin' the TRIAL. Thinka this's a condition comin' from me, that not even th' granny's gonna get'ta
bend.”
Spits Garfiel, his nose scrunched up, displeasure in full display.

CHAPTER 25: FOREST OF ICE
Garfiel: “Lookin' like yer gonna cry ain't gonna change anythin'. My amazin' self's already decided.
Decided n' not budgin'. 'S PUSHIN' DONMORAKIN'S SHIT STAYS STUCK.”
Says Garfiel as he looks at Subaru, whose eyes are wide open in shock. Hearing Garfiel's condition
threw Subaru's heart into confusion and chaos, and nothing else. Because,
Subaru: “Of all people, how the hell are you the one saying this?”
Garfiel: “Ohh? 'S my amazin' self objectin' really so surprisin'? Jus' how goddamn stupid optimistic
are ya? 'F you think you can understand my amazin' self after just some tiny little conversations,
we're gonna havva problem.”
Garfiel frowns at Subaru, but Subaru'd very much to pull a bitter face and bitch as much as Garfiel.
Because this idea that Garfiel is rejecting, was a proposal composed by that very same Garfiel in the
first place.
The narration has a moment to reflect on the shit that happened in chapter 22 and Subaru comments
on having complex emotions about it but forget about that for now.
Subaru: “Why the hell are you objecting? Raising the chances of SANCTUARY being freed shouldn't
be a bad deal for you.”
Garfiel: “Eh, I do know that 'f yer wholeways agree with th' granny's plans, acceptin' yer idea'd be
efficient. —But, I dunwanna.”
Subaru: “Why are you talking like a kid!”
Garfiel crosses his arms and looks away. What he's saying has no logic to it. No logic to it, so he
might be speaking entirely off emotion, which would make things complicated.
Garfiel has a bit of a moody streak—or more accurately, his views are heavily under the control of
fluctuations in his mood. If a generally-accepted idea isn't sticking with him, Subaru's not sure what
to do that'll work.
Subaru: “Lewes-san...”
So Subaru turns to Lewes. But she just waves her hand, her overlong sleeve flapping.
Lewes: “When Gar-bo's like this, even I cern't budge him. And unferternartly, there ain't any kinda
thing in SANCTUARY to brute force others into listening to yer. Wanner try challenging him and see
how it goes, Su-bo?”
Subaru: “I'm not suicidal enough to challenge a guy who tosses around dragon carriages. ...Shit, just
what is this?”
What Lewes is saying doesn't exactly approve of Garfiel's words, but since she's not proactively
denying him either, she probably agrees with him. Lewes is still thinking that Emilia should be the
one to conquer the TRIAL. Subaru doesn't know just how much she respects Roswaal, but it's safe to
think that she and Roswaal agree on the fundamental points.
Says Emilia, sounding concerned, as she looks up at a Subaru who harbours too many emotions to
express.
Emilia: “I-I'll do my best, so it's okay, you don't have to force yourself. It was a little... yes, a little
sudden so I was surprised, but if I know what's going to happen...”
Subaru: “No, you're the one who shouldn't be pushing themselves, Emilia-tan. I'll persuade that
stubborn bastard. And once I have, this TRIAL thing'll...”
Emilia: “Subaru, you...”
Subaru gets starting kneading out some logical arguments to convince Garfiel, prepping for the
coming debate. But,
Emilia: “Subaru, you... you also... can't leave this to me?”
Subaru: “...Wha?”
Emilia: “I-I showed you me doing badly, so you're thinking you can't leave the TRIAL to me... so, in
my place...”
Subaru: “No. That's not it.”
Emilia: “No, I can tell when your thinking is anxious, Subaru. You were able to overcome it
properly, but far from overcoming it, I... I hadn't even resolved myself to face it... that PAST, with
this name of TRIAL...”
Emilia shakes her head, not accepting Subaru's denial. Her lips tremble slightly, and her pale cheeks
turn further pallid. Subaru knows this is happening due to her reflecting on her PAST.
Subaru: “You don't have to remember it!”
Emilia: “But If I don't face it, I won't overcome the TRIAL! Right, that's right... If I don't overcome
the TRIAL, don't overcome the PAST... I'll never be Ruler. If I don't let the villagers, and people from
Sanctuary, outside...”
Subaru puts his hands to her shoulders, but Emilia's not listening. Actually it's gotten to the point
that the more he objects, the firmer her will gets.
Emilia: “I can't just impose on you all the time, Subaru. I musn't do that. Just a little while ago, you
got so hurt, but you still worked so hard for me... and I, I'm making you shoulder absolutely
everything again...”
Subaru: “It's fine, let me. This phrasing might not be great, but it's give and take. Putting the right
person in the right place is best, right? When it comes to this TRIAL, my affinity is good. If that's all
we're considering, then going any further than that is pointless. It seems like I can do it, so it'll be
certainly faster if I do it. It's not often there's things it seems like I could do. There's still lots of
chances out there for you to do you best, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “But isn't now an important one of those chances? If I look away from unpleasant things,
and keep running away... what will happen to me?”
—What's so wrong about running away!? Would be something he'd very much like to scream.
If running from unpleasant things, averting your gaze from painful things, and turning your back on
agonizing things meant you could live in peace, then that was not a bad option as one way of life.
Subaru himself had lived taking as much distance he could from tribulations. So, he believed that
there was no reason to criticise that way of life—albeit it being a weak way of life—and had also
stated as much.
But even so. Right now, with him understanding Emilia's stubborn heart and her weakness, Subaru
should affirm it. But—
For some reason, he can't get the words out.

Emilia closes her eyes and looks down. Hands still on her shoulders, feeling her body heat, Subaru
had no idea what to do.
Garfiel: “Ha. Yer free 't have yer talk n' have yer bout, but listenin' from aside sounds like Emilia-
sama's winnin'. N' actually, the TRIAL was somethin' prepared for Emilia-sama t' challenge. Buttin'
in from sideways's...”
Subaru: “Shut up! You... you don't know anything yet, so you...”
Garfiel: “Ohh?”
Subaru explodes in anger at Garfiel, Garfiel starting to get dangerous. But Subaru glares at Garfiel
unafraid.
Subaru: “Do you know what'll happen if you push this on her? Can you really be fine watching her
get injured, worn down, suffering? ...What was wrong with me?”
Garfiel: “...I got no idea what yer sayin' all a sudden.”
Subaru: “I'm saying that you're thinking entirely based off conditions and benefits, you haven't
considered Emilia herself once. I'm sure the gains that'll come from overcoming the TRIAL will be
huge. But, you're not entering the wounds, the tears, into your calculations. ...Not her will, either.”
Despite being the one who was closest to Emilia as she degraded last loop, Subaru never once told
her to stop.
Emilia: “What, do... you know, Subaru?”
Emilia tugs on Subaru's sleeve, her eyes open wide as she looks at him. Her eyes host a whirlpool of
emotion, drowned beneath her rising tears. She shakes her head.
Emilia: “No... No,”
Emilia: “You know? Subaru, you, do you, know... my, PAST?”
Subaru: “Wait, let's calm down. Take deep breaths. The conversation's going somewhere bad. So,”
Emilia: “N-no... I, didn't mean to... I, just... just...”

Emilia returns to the state she was in inside the tomb, just after the TRIAL ended. Confused,
disordered, her words becoming incoherent. Her wet eyes reflect Subaru without seeing him.
She reaches her fingers out, gripping on Subaru's sleeve.
Emilia: “Everyone is, at me... because, at Mother and me... but, no. That's not true. The truth is
different. Back then, I... what really...”
Subaru: “Emilia, what're...”
Subaru can't do anything, when a figure suddenly moves before him. It's,
Subaru: “—Ram.”
Ram doesn't answer to the address, slipping behind Emilia and swiftly plugging Emilia's mouth
with her hand. Emilia's eyes open slightly in shock.
Ram: “Please excuse me.”
Emilia: “...ah”
And Emilia crumples. Subaru quickly reaches out for her and manages to hold her close before she
hits the ground, breathing a sigh of relief. He looks up at Ram.
Subaru: “What was that?”
Ram: “A swift method for calming her down. Would you be mad, Barusu?”
Subaru: “I wanna complain about it being forced, but... I think that was optimal. Sorry, caused a
pain.”
Ram: “That you be the one apologizing for Emilia-sama's circumstances is certainly odd, Barusu.
When did you inherit the Great Spirit's position as Emilia-sama's guardian?”
Subaru: “I'm not trying to...”
Do that, is what Subaru's about to continue with, when he notices that there is absolutely nothing
persuasive in what he's saying. It's true that he's been keeping more intense watch on Emilia than
usual, with Puck absent. And now that he knows challenging the TRIAL wears her down, that feeling
has multiplied.
And it certainly feels true that, without her relied-upon spirit at her side, Emilia's been leaning on
Subaru.
Garfiel: “'F she's gonna need babysittin', the talk ends here.”
Snorts Garfiel as he looks at Subaru, tenderly holding a sleeping Emilia. Subaru goes to object, but
feeling Emilia fidgeting slightly in his arms makes him unconsciously shut his mouth and he loses
the chance. All he can do is watch as Garfiel turn his back on him and starts leaving.
Garfiel: “We'll put today's TRIAL 's an exception. From tomorrow on, th' one takin' the TRIAL'll be
Emilia-sama. My amazin' self won't accept you takin' it.”
Says Garfiel, bearing his teeth, as he leaves Lewes' house.
Lewes: “Sorry about him, Su-bo. But, I agree. Faster SANCTUARY gets freed the better, but...
followin' Roz-bo's plans's convenient for us too.”
Subaru: “Convenient, which means...”
Lewes: “Even if SANCTUARY is freed, nothing changes abert us being part of Roz-bo's fief, and
under his patronage. So, we'd like to avoid making displeasing exceptions much as posserble. ...Our
intentierns aren't so self-centred that we want him to think bad of us.”
Lewes' statements do reflect a serious issue for the residents of SANCTUARY. Subaru loses even
more room for debate. Team SANCTUARY Garfiel and Lewes exit the house, leaving the remaining
people inside being the members of Roswaal's mansion +- a.
Subaru: “So element a Otto, how do you see this situation?”
Otto: “Could you please not drag me, who feels extreme discomfort and poor future prospects here
and had been intending to keep quiet and let this pass, into this? ...But, if I were to sincerely state
my impression after hearing that conversation, I think Garfiel's argument is more sound.”
Otto raises his finger and nods several times as he looks at Subaru.
Otto: “It aligns with the Margrave's aims, and Emilia-sama's position is that of a Royal Selection
candidate. I do believe that should you undergo the TRIAL, Natsuki-san, that achievement would
become Emilia-sama's own, but... putting aside third parties who hear of this in the future, do you
believe those currently present in SANCTUARY would agree? Put otherwise, would this bring their
support?”
Subaru: “...It is that I understand the reasoning here. No mater how you consider it, it's infinitely
more beneficial that Emilia be the one to free SANCTUARY. But...”
Ram: “Emilia-sama is incapable of overcoming the TRIAL?”
Says Ram so bluntly it's refreshing. Subaru's expression actually calms down at it.
Subaru: “From what I've seen, I think getting any results in a short time'll be harsh. It's kind of a
hopeless story talking about this without actually knowing what Emilia's past was, but... I'm sure
you two understand this situation isn't one where we have that kind of time.”
Ram: “I would at least appreciate this be ended within the three years settlement of the Royal
Selection.”
Subaru: “That's being way too patient.”
Ram's probably joking but since she said it with a serious expression, Subaru crushes the chance of
her being serious about this in advance. Otto notices what Subaru's saying and nods.
Otto: “There's the burden on the evacuees, and the circumstances surrounding SANCTUARY's food.
From a long-term perspective, it's unrealistic to keep sustaining this number of people.”
Subaru: “Yeah, that's about it. Just living as evacuees'll build stress, but then if you add food
insufficiencies onto it, people'll immediately explode with dissatisfaction. There's no point in the
SANCTUARY guys keeping hold of hostages when it's worsening their standard of eating. —At least,
not in holding everyone.”
Ram: “Do you believe Garf may cull from the villagers?”
Says Ram, her voice somewhat raised. Subaru's eyebrows raise at her rather unexpected reaction,
Ram herself perhaps feeling discomfort at her own behaviour as she pats a finger through her bangs.
Ram: “I would prefer not to think of it, but with Garf's personality, it is possible. Should it come to
the eleventh hour, he would unhesitatingly act according to his own set of precedences.”
Subaru: “He's like you on that. I agree with it too. ...So I wanna suggest we get the hostages out of
SANCTUARY before that happens.”
The condition of 'SUBARU TAKES THE TRIAL' isn't going to work this time, so the negotiations will
likely be tougher. But ultimately Subaru still expects they'll prevail.
Subaru: “Either way, if the guys from SANCTUARY are going to push Emilia into taking the TRIAL,
then I want them to let us do something to curtail some of her unhappiness for it.”
Ram: “...Surprising. I had expected something more akin to a disobedient child's dissent from you,
Barusu.”
Says Ram at Subaru's putting aside his worries about Emilia taking the TRIAL. Subaru nods.
Subaru: “It's annoying, and it annoys me, but... going along with Roswaal's plans is what makes the
most sense. Yeah. If you can just ignore that Emilia'll be hurt, then it's obvious that doing things this
way is best.”
Ram: “You know she'll be wounded, but force her to walk on. Quite an oni you are.”
Subaru: “Having an oni tell me that makes me an unusual one, too. Just... no, nevermind.”
Ram furrows her brows at Subaru's shutting up, but Subaru doesn't intend to continue. He lifts up the
Emilia in his arms carefully, so she won't wake up. She's light. Unconscious people are meant to be
heavier than usual, but she's light as a feather.
Subaru: “Ram. After Emilia's settled in the bedroom, I wanna talk to Roswaal. Can I?”
Ram: “Roswaal-sama is in the midst of recuperation. Nobody may enter his room for a time.”
Subaru: “I want to talk about the TRIAL. This alone's something that if I talk with lower-rank people
like you, it won't go anywhere. I need the brain's opinion.”
Ram closes her eyes for a while, scrutinising Subaru's words. She eventually gives a tired sigh.
Ram: “Come seek advice from Roswaal-sama. Barusu, you take Emilia-sama to the bed... without
engaging in anything suspicious.”
Subaru: “What a thing to say to serious-mode me. I wasn't even thinking anything, but now thanks
to you saying that I'm aware of this direct feeling of Emilia-tan's softness my knees're shaking, take
responsibility for this.”
Ram: “Stand watch, Otto.”
Otto: “Most certainly!”
Ram exits the house, leaving behind Otto, Subaru, and Emilia, Otto still keeping a saluting pose as
he looks toward Subaru.
Otto: “Now, you're welcome to take Emilia-sama to the bed. If you'd like any help...”
Subaru: “Before that, what's with this submissive attitude you've got toward Ram?”
Otto: “Well I mean, Ram-san is directly subordinate to the Margrave, yes? Considering that, I
would say cajoling and buying Ram-san's favour rather than yours, which is firmly stuck to Emilia-
sama, will give more hope for making relations with the Margrave, hehheh.”
Subaru: “Can you do something about how you're making my first impression of you being a
capable merchant progressively shift into a sly little villain? Soon you're gonna get purposefully left
out and butchered in the shadows.”
Subaru sighs and carries Emilia to the bedroom. He lightly fixes the disorderly sheets and carefully
puts Emilia to bed. When,
Subaru: “Ah...”
Just after he pulls the sheets up to her shoulders and is about to leave, Subaru notices Emilia's
fingers clutching the hem of his outfit. Feeling the sensation of her reliant fingers, and her
sweetness, he unhooks them. He cradles her separated fingers in his hands.
Subaru: “Wait for me, Emilia.”
Subaru: “I'll do something soon. I'll settle things, without you crying or suffering any further. I
will.”
Pledges Subaru, and he releases Emilia's hand.

He stands up, turns around, and heads for the house's exit. —Heads for Roswaal.
There were just a few too many things he needed to hear from that warlock.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Roswaal: “—Iiiiiii see, I do coooooomprehend the situation.”
Touching his chin, Roswaal nods after hearing Subaru's long story. Location is a room of Roswaal's
private recuperation hut, people present are only Subaru and Roswaal. Roswaal's lying on the bed,
body upright, his gaze on Subaru sharp.
Subaru's like, and so I think that kinda thing would be best as a common ground, incorporating
SANCTUARY people's side as much as possible.
Roswaal: “Weeeeeell, the moment that Emilia-sama entered within SANCTUARY’s barrier, Garfiel's
group's intentions essentially became reeeeeeealised. Overcoming the TRIAL is necessary for
Emilia-sama heeeeerself to exit SANCTUARY. If the hostages they took for insurance turn simply into
food-expending burdens, releasing them is reasonable... is the concept.”
Subaru: “I think it's a sensible idea. It's not that we'll be abandoning or putting off SANCTUARY's
problems. Just, it's the idea that everything except the purely necessary should be whittled off.”
Roswaal: “Whaaaaat pleasant words. This is the doubt inside you, correct? That if prospects for
releasing SANCTUARY disappear, or otherwise Emilia-sama's heart cannot withstand the TRIAL, the
hostages will become materials for coercing Emilia-sama. And you're dispelling that concern
beeeeeforehand... is what it looks like.”
Says Roswaal, one eye closed, looking at Subaru with his yellow eye. Subaru crosses his arms and
while nodding,
Subaru: “Uh no sorry, didn't think that far. Or actually that you immediately came up with that
terrifying train of thought kinda makes me recoil.”
Roswaal: “Ooooooh myyyyy? I overthought, or rather misthought? My apologies. Hooooowever,

that is another manner in which you could cooooooonsider matters.”
Seeing Roswaal smile, Subaru thinks that Garfiel wouldn't go so far. While Garfiel is stubborn and
inflexible, and has a slight trait where talking doesn't always work with him, he wouldn't do
anything illogical or immoral. Subaru's only known Garfiel a few days, but that's how he appraises
him.
Roswaal: “So? What is it you waaaaant to do with me, Subaru-kun?”
Subaru: “I want, if it's possible, for you rather than me to be the one taking charge of what we just
talked about. This time it's... it looks like my relations've gotten bad.”
Roswaal: “And whaaaaat would that mean?”
Subaru: “Seems that bastard Garfiel isn't too fond of me. Not like I've given up on persuading him,
but I can tell it'll be rough trying to talk to him today or tomorrow.”
Subaru remembers the sharpness of Garfiel's gaze when they parted, filled with hostility and malice,
a glare as if looking at the enemy of one's parents. Subaru has no idea why he got hit with it. Either
did something Garfiel considered impermissable, or made some gaffe that completely overturned
his faith. Either way,
Subaru: “When he's emotional, it's likely he'll just completely reject my ideas. And on top of that's
Lewes-san, seems like she'll passively accept what he says if Garfiel does object. Since I can see
that possibility happening, I'd like for that possibility to be cut short.”
Roswaal: “Which is my turn, iiiiiiis what this is. Well, that's fine. I'll speak with Lewes-sama and
Garfiel. Although Garfiel dislikes me as well, so I don't know if heeeeeee'll agree immediately.”
Either way Roswaal's in. Subaru gives a sigh of relief.

Roswaal: “Noooow then. Is that all the business you haaaaave with me?”
Subaru: “No, there's more. —We haven't had the vital, vital conversation yet.”
Roswaal tilts his head, brushing his long hair behind his back and closing one eye. Maybe it's
become a habit, but again he stares at Subaru with his yellow eye. Subaru fixes his posture.
Subaru: “The TRIAL in the tomb showed Emilia her PAST. Do you have an idea what PAST would
make her suffer seeing it?”
Roswaal closes his yellow eye and nods, in thought. The room falls into silence, the waiting getting
to Subaru.
Roswaal: “Don't you think that questioning me, without asking Emila-sama directly, iiiiiis quite
cowardly?”
Subaru: “If you want to insult me as underhanded, as cowardly, go right ahead. I'd certainly like to
hear everything from Emilia's mouth if I could. But,”
There was surely no way Subaru could make Emilia talk about something that made her cry and
hurt her that much.
Subaru: “I want to know about her, and there's things I have to know, as well. If there's anything I
can use for that purpose, I'll even grasp at straws.”
Roswaal: “I've had people call me many things, but being treating like straw iiiiiiis indeed a new
experience. ...Weeeeelll then.”
Roswaal gives a small laugh, his expression then suddenly vanishing, gazing at Subaru. He touches
his hand to his chin.
Roswaal: “Emilia-sama is a half-elf. Aaaaand, due to the WITCH OF ENVY's influence, half-elves are
horribly regarded with discrimination. Thiiiiiiis much would be something even yooooooou would
already know, yeeeees?”
Subaru: “...Yeah. You can tell that Emilia gets treated unjustly because of that, if you've seen how
she acted at the palace, and so on. She ran into that unpleasant bunch, too.”
The malicious witch cultists arise in Subaru's mind. He dispels the image with a shake of his head.
Roswaal: “Hooooowever,”
Roswaal: “While it is true that half-elves receive particularly bad oppressioooooon... the matter
does not end there. Incidentally, Subaru-kun, haaaaaave you ever seen an elf while in the Capital?”
Subaru: “Elf? Not a half-elf? ...no, I don't think I have.”
Roswaal: “Right?”
Roswaal: “Half-elves aren't the oooooonly ones to receive harsh oppression all across the world.
Elves, one portion of what begets a half-elf, are also targets.”
Subaru: “...! No, that's way too indiscriminate no matter how you say. And if you're speaking
logically...”
Roswaal: “Humans would also have to be exterminated? Uuuuuunfortuately, humanity is faaaaaar

more populous in this world than demi-human races, and their nations are also large. The result of
the divide between demi-humans and humans growing too wide was the Demi-human War,
buuuuuut that has nothing to do with this conversation.”
Subaru: “So, either way elves have a past of being oppressed.”
Roswaal: “Iiiiiiin suuuuuum,”
Roswaal: “It's obvious that half-elves wouldn't show their faces in places like the Capital, and their
parent race of elves also have difficulty making appearances. That you saw noooooo elves in the
Capital, was likely laaaaaaargely coming from that.”
Subaru: “That's... agreed. But, how does this tie into it?”
Roswaal leans his back against his pillow, looking up faintly.
Roswaal: “As an extension of half-elf discrimination, elves are also oppressed and meet bitter
experiences. Then, juuuuust where should the elves liiiiiiive?”
Subaru: “Elves'd be... it feels a given they'd have villages in the forest or something. In the middle
of a forest where humans don't tread, while hunting or whatever just quietly.”
Roswaal: “I don't know how much you know, buuuuut it's fine to generally go off that impression.
The elves constructed towns, and quiiiiiietly went to live deep in the forests. —Elior Forest, used to
be one of those elf territories.”
Roswaal's tone changes. Subaru's shoulders shake. It feels as though the room's temperature is
dropping, as if Roswaal's words hold some indescribable power. Subaru remembers hearing the
name of this forest before.
—Elior Forest was a name that had come up several times while negotiating in Crusch's mansion. It
was a location rich with magic ores, in a territory under Roswaal's management. And,
Subaru: “It's frozen solid, and nobody can get near it...”
Roswaal: “The first freezing of Elior Forest, and its subsequent spreading is now recorded as an
event from over 90 years ago. It is a world of absolute zero which freezes all, which freezes every
living creature. —She lived in that world, all by herself.”
Roswaal: “—Deep in Elior Forest, both the elves and their village even now remain frozen solid,
stopped in time.”
Subaru falls silent.
Roswaal: “All except the single half-elf girl, who committed the slip.”
CHAPTER 26: PACKING OF SHIT
—He shouldn't have asked.
Sweat trailing down his forehead to drip off his chin, Subaru is once again made to realise his
idiocy. The ringing in his skull sounds from far off, his heartbeat hammering with pain.
Roswaal: “You regret asking... doooo you?”
Roswaal tilts his head as he looks at the silent Subaru. Subaru can't reply immediately, taking quiet
breaths to calm himself down,
Subaru: “Just, a bit surprised. How to say... Emilia's a little older than me than I thought.”
Roswaal: “Ahya, you didn't know? Half-elf Emilia-sama, albeit not as long as elves, does belong to
a long-lived race. With elves, they even go so far as to say that they don't die unleeeeeeeess they are
killed.”
Roswaal goes along with Subaru's distracting himself. It seems these elves aren't so distant from
your usual fantasy elf. Not clear how much the 'half' part plays in, but at least if you believe what
Roswaal's saying then Emilia's true age—
Subaru: “A 60-year difference at minimum... I like older sister characters, but even I'm not that
experienced with the patten of having an age gap on such a target.”
Roswaal: “Although not particularly relevant... from how you're speaking, have you perhaps
encountered members of long-lived races apart from Emilia-sama beeeeeeefore?”
Subaru: “Well, immortals and vampires and whatever're staple patterns in galge. You've even got a
category for loligrannies like Lewes-san, truly scandalous.”
Subaru's not too into loligrannies or nonhumans. Subaru's targets are more older sisters and high
school upperclassmen. So of course he has some 'what's about a sixty-year age gap, but,
Subaru: “Everything's permissible when they're that cute. No problemo. Changes nothing about
Emilia-tan being my #1 star.”
But now exists the possibility that long-lived races are slow to mature to adulthood, and need a
different amount of time before they mature than humans. Like how animals and humans have
differing age rates, perhaps a 20-year old human is equivalent to a 100-year old elf—
Subaru: “Thinking like that, 90-year-old Emilia-tan's still a young'un. Merely a lass... no, maybe
from an elf's perspective she's still a little girl. Oioi, there's this cutesexy hot lady and she's still a
little girl... there's probably already a genre for this somewhere.”
Roswaal: sorry for this while your delusions are chugging along but, “Reality is faaaaaaaaar harsher
than you think. They mature at the same rate as humans. It surely wouldn't be common for there to
be mentally immature elves, yeeeeees?”
Subaru: “And just when I was frantically setting up rebuttals to counter how Emilia-tan's kept
treating me like a child...”
It was just some wishful thinking, but still having it so smoothly cut down sucks. Roswaal speaks
up.
Roswaal: “I'm nooooot particularly fond of you attempting to end matters by aaaaaaaaverting your
eyes to your aaaaaaaactual emotions. Noooooooow, Subaru-kun.”
Subaru goes quiet.
Roswaal: “Do you reeeeeeegret that you asked me, and think you shouldn't have?”
Subaru: “...You really are unpleasant.”
It seemed Subaru had almost managed to swallow down his emotions with bullshitting, when
Roswaal just digs them back up. Subaru again curses himself. For his duplicity, in hearing about the
cross Emilia's dainty shoulders bore not from her mouth, but another's.
Subaru: “...The TRIAL showed me my past. I'm sure it showed Emilia the same. Which means the
past she saw was...”
Roswaal: “If it faces you with the past you least wish to see... then what Emilia-sama saw was
almost unmistakably, the daaaaaaay of Elior Forest's freezing.”
Roswaal affirms Subaru's concerns, informing Subaru of just what exactly he had been forcing on
Emilia.
Subaru: “Then, could I really face a past where I froze a bunch of people solid...”
The scale of the errs left in Subaru and Emilia's pasts were different.
Though of course, the thing with his parents was a huge problem for him that had ought to get
settled. He had no intention to look down on that, and likely would permit no looking down on it.
But then, what about Emilia's problem?

Would Emilia be forgiven for her error and given approval, as Subaru's parents given him? And
could she accept that, and part with her past?
Subaru: “Is it certain that Emilia froze the forest... that she the froze the elf village?” something
something something there isn't some mistake?
Roswaal: “It is certainly true that the facts are uuuuuuunknown. Hooooowever, Emilia-sama has
told me of these details from her very own mouth. Emilia-sama herself has confessed that she was
the one to freeze the forest. What room is there for interceding statements?”
Subaru: “Then if we don't know what's really true, it could be a misunderstanding... and anyway,
Emilia's not the kind of girl who could...”
Roswaal: “Wroooooong, you don't understaaaaaaaand, you muuuuuuuustn't, Subaru-kun.”
Subaru's gaze is sharp and dangerous, but Roswaal waves his hand, feigning ignorance.
Roswaal: “By this point, the actual truth iiiiiiiiisn't the problem. The problem is that Emilia-sama is
certain that SHE WAS THE ONE WHO FROZE THE FOREST.”
Subaru goes quiet.
Roswaal: “Inside Emilia-sama, that is the truth. And inside the tomb, she tumbles into a past
originating from that truth. —Noooooow, what do you think should be done?”
Subaru: “You... what the hell are you thinking?”
Roswaal questions Subaru happily, Subaru unconsciously lets slip with that one. Why, how, could
Roswaal smile in this situation?
Subaru: “This isn't about demanding you be compassionate toward Emilia's past, or that you try
empathizing with her... Knowing the weight of her burden, knowing that it's painful, and while
making her face a TRIAL we don't know if she can overcome, how can you be so cheerful?”
Roswaal: “Hmmmmmmhm.”
Subaru: “It's strange, right!? You... don't you want Emilia to be Ruler? Isn't your position one of
helping her be the Ruler? I understand what you're aiming for. If Emilia overcomes the TRIAL and
frees SANCTUARY, the people of SANCTUARY and the villagers from Arlam might back her. ...I
understand that.”
But,
Subaru: “In making that happen, you're not taking the vital point of Emilia into consideration. When
it's a gamble that needs SANCTUARY's release to pay off... when things are coming to a standstill,
how can you be so damn relaxed!”
Roswaal says nothing.
Subaru: “Emilia says she has to be the Ruler. I want to make that happen for her. ...Do you actually,
have any urge to make her Ruler?”
Roswaal: “—Of course I do.”
Subaru raises his voice, shoulders quaking. His face runs hot with furious emotion, which Roswaal's
response feels to douse in icewater. Roswaal glares Subaru straight in the eye.
Roswaal: “Do I have urge to make her the Ruler? Absolutely. Decidedly. —There is surely no
existence which yearns more for Emilia-sama to be Ruler than I. Emilia-sama of course does, there
is no need even considering it with your breed, and I do have a reason.”
Subaru: “Rohz, wahl?”
Roswaal: “And then asking me whether I'm determined. It makes me laugh. Makes me laugh,
incredible. —You haven't even gotten that far yet?”
It's the first time Subaru's heard quiet rage in Roswaal's tone. But the heat of it fades halfway
through, the final whisper being nothing but a smoulder.
Roswaal: “Subaru-kun. Uuuuuuunfortunately, this will be all for tonight. I'm stiiiiiiiil recovering
from iiiiiiinjury, after all. I'd like to have some time in peace and quieeeeeeeeet.”
Subaru: “Ser... no, nevermind.”
Subaru reaches out to stop Roswaal, senses that it's pointless, and withdraws his arm. Roswaal's
obviously going to deny any further meaningful talk. And if Roswaal's serious about rejecting
everything, Subaru has no methods to make him speak.
Subaru turns his back to the bed, although feeling some reluctance. He communicated what he
ought to communicate. It wasn't clear how the Arlam villagers would be dealt with, but at least
Lewes would probably accept Roswaal's proposition. If they could overcome that, it would
definitely be moving forward. Though, this was merely one of the many goals Subaru had to
achieve.
Roswaal: “—Subaru-kun.”
Subaru's feet stop and he looks back, to find Roswaal, head rested on the pillow, still looking at
him.
Roswaal: “You did get the qualifications?”
Subaru: “Ah. Right, I didn't tell you. Yeah. I can take the TRIAL too. If getting that baptism is the
condition for it, then perhaps you could...”
Roswaal: “—No, liiiiiiiiiiiikely not. It's doubtful that tomb will accept me. You can clearly tell, with
how I've been wounded in rejection.”
Subaru's brows raise faintly in surprise. In the last loop when Roswaal learned Subaru was
qualified, it had put him in incredibly low spirits. But right now, it's something like loneliness that
surrounds him.
Roswaal: “...Choose the optimum, Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “What?”
Roswaal: “You are the one most free to move in this place. You aren't bound to SANCTUARY. Neither
are you tied to obligations toward the Royal Selection.”
Subaru goes silent.
Roswaal: “Act, struggle for your desire, and acquire it. If by deliberating and agonizing, perplexing
and faltering, you procure that... even if you're not satisfied with it, even if you can't agree with it,
I'm sure you'll be able to see the conclusion.”
Says Roswaal, his face not visible. It's not like him. All Subaru can do is stand there, dumbly and
dumbstruck. A short time passes before Subaru realises he just got encouraged out of the blue.
Subaru: “Wha... this's nothing like you. What's with this, Roz-chi.”
Roswaal: “I felt like doing something not like me, iiiiiiiiiis all this would be. —Since it appears I
won't be making it in time, mmmmhm?”
Subaru doesn't get it. But before he can question Roswaal back, Roswaal waves his hand, urging
Subaru to leave the room. Subaru sees it, and Roswaal rolls over in the bed, shifting his attention
away from Subaru. Subaru gives a long sigh through his nose.
Subaru: “Good night.”
And leaves the room.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Ram: “...You wouldn't have burdened Roswaal-sama, correct?”
Asks Ram the second Subaru exits the room. Ram's supposed to be half a head shorter than Subaru,
but when it comes to Roswaal-related stuff, the pressure she exerts makes her seem twice as big.
Subaru: “It was just an extremely calm conversation. Didn't grab him by the lapels and wrestle him,
so don't you worry.”
Ram: How optimistic. “After stepping inside and being rejected by the tomb, Roswaal-sama was in
terrible condition... it is because you are ignorant to that, that you can speak this way.”
Ram doesn't conceal her discomfort. Subaru smiles wryly at her blatant priorities.
Subaru: “He's sleeping or I guess I just got driven out. ...Though, I said the things I needed to say,
so I don't think that's a problem.”
Ram: “I see. ...At very least, I believe that should the demand come from Roswaal-sama's mouth,
Lewes-sama will accept it. Garf would... I'm not certain yet how he would respond.”
Subaru: “If he starts complaining anyway, you try a round of seducing him. If you come up with
just a bit of flirtiness and cutely coax him... is it possible for you?”
Ram: “Do you mean to say I am not cute?”
Subaru: “Nope, if we just take your looks I'd say you're super crazy cute.”
She looks exactly like Rem except for the hair colour, after all. It's not that she isn't cute. The
problem's her refreshing personality which more than sufficiently counterbalances that cuteness.
Subaru: “He's interacted with you, but man does Garfiel go for some nasty food. Or no, just going
by looks you can't tell... a lady like a blowfish, you ar—owowow!”
Ram: “I can tell that was not a compliment, so this is how I'll react, Barusu.”
Ram drives her heel into Subaru's foot with as much force as she can, snorting as Subaru tears up.
Ram then goes to stand before Roswaal's sleeping room.
Ram: “I will change Roswaal-sama's bandages, and afterwards rest. You will be sleeping in the
same cathedral as yesterday. Even you would be able to remember the location, yes, Barusu?”
Subaru: “My sense of direction's surprisingly solid. And it's the biggest building. I'm not gonna miss
it. Kinda a pain there's no lights though.”
SANCTUARY relies on starlight. But tonight the sky is cloudy. Subaru glances outside the building to
see faint spots of light from the houses, and pitch darkness everywhere else. There is some unease
to be had about getting back.
Subaru: “Me getting lost and wandering into the forest, bumping into an encounter with a wild
animal and getting a bad end—probably won't be happening. All good all good.”
Ram: “I feel that your statement just increased the likelihood of an unlikely possibility but, fine.
Barusu, after leaving the building the cathedral is to your right and straight ahead.”
Subaru: “I goooot it. The side you hold your chopsticks in. That custom, doesn't exist in this world
though.”
This place's food customs are knife-fork-spoon, so Ram doesn't seem to understand what Subaru
just said. Subaru considers, one day, if there's a chance, whittling down some wood and mass
producing chopsticks.
Subaru: “Anyway going back to the cathedral... It's not certain whether they'll be able to return to
the village, and giving them false hopes'd be something so better not talk about the releasing thing,
yeah?”
Ram: “I would say there is no concern there. The conversation will be tomorrow... and although fast
it may turn out being the day after tomorrow. Echidna's tomb and how to face it is what I
recommend you consider over that time.”
Subaru stops in his exit of the building. Ram's expression is dubious, and becomes even more
confused when Subaru turns back to look at her.
Subaru: “...What did you just say?”
His voice is hoarse. Ram's confusion eases not as she trawls through her memories.
Ram: “Tomb and how to face it is what I recommend you consider.”
Subaru: “No. A little before that.”
Ram: “Do you mean to say I am not cute?”
Subaru: “Wow that went back! ...you said, Echidna's tomb, right?”
Ram nods reluctantly, Subaru puts his hand to his forehead—a torrent of revived memories rush
through Subaru's thoughts.
Echidna.
The name of the Witch of Greed. A white-haired girl in what looked like a mourning dress. Self-
proclaimed thirst for knowledge incarnate. Precious parallel world bokukko.1 And,
Subaru: “What was she doing... goddamn putting blocks on people's memories...”
1 A girl who uses the pronoun 'boku'. Echidna is one except when she isn't.
Perhaps to ensure Subaru wouldn't tell others about herself, she was the being who had messed
around with Subaru's memories. When the tea party ended, and when they parted at the end of the
TRIAL, she forced a pledge onto Subaru. Though, with the compensation for that being
qualifications to challenge the TRIAL, Subaru had intended to just be content accepting that.
Subaru: “Call it imperfect or half-assed... either way, the ban's lifted!”
The restrictions Echidna was supposed to have placed on Subaru had lifted, and his memories were
unbound. He remembers meeting the witches at the tea party, facing schoolgirl uniform Echidna, all
in a hodgepodge. And remembering it, Subaru hits upon one possibility of breaking the deadlock in
SANCTUARY. It was essentially a forbidden technique, but,
Subaru: “If the cathedral's toward where you hold your chopsticks, the cemetery's toward where you
hold your bowl!”
Ram: “Barusu?”
Subaru: “Gonna be staying up a little late tonight! Don't you make that convalescing guy do
anything that'd wear him out too much!”
Subaru raises his arm at Ram's call and bounds out of the building, running into the night. His path
heads not to the cathedral, but toward the tomb he had only just exited two hours ago.
Speaking temporally, it was unlikely that Subaru'd get to confirm his idea right now. Unlikely, but
he couldn't just sit still. If nighttime was no good then he at least wanted the result of knowing it
was no good.
Subaru: “After I took the first TRIAL, a goddamn ton of things that're bugging me came up. Invite
me to you tea party again, witch... no, Echidna!”
Relying on the meagre natural lighting, Subaru runs off the path and through SANCTUARY. Cold
wind, wet earth, sweaty brow, ragged breath—feeling everything, Subaru pushes his yet-tired body
onward, onward. And, finally reaching his destination,
???: “Hey. ...Thought yer'd be comin.”
Blocking Subaru's path is a blond young man—Garfiel, watching over the cemetery.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Garfiel: “Good on yer, goin' runnin' this late 'n the night. Men're born with th' duty t'work t'get
strong. 'S W INBROOK QUALIFIES THE WARRIOR.”
Standing in the road with his arms spread wide, Garfiel bears his bestial fangs as checks Subaru.
Goosebumps rise across Subaru's skin.
Subaru: “Ah, sorry but I'm not doing anything so passionate as running. I got no intention to chat
with you right here right now. It's not like there's a time limit, but gotta strike while the iron's hot
and so...”
Garfiel: “Y'dun gettit, oi.”

A sharp crack—the noise of Garfiel stomping the ground once, faster than the eye can see, rupturing
the earth. Dirt scatters through the air as Subaru watches a gash gouge through the firm ground
beneath his feet, his eyes wide. Garfiel clicks his fangs.
Garfiel: “'M sayin' that 'f yer pull back right here right now, I'll put this'n down as you doin' just
some late-night runnin'.”
Subaru: “Now that's two people in this short timespan that've been treating me like I'm some
stranger... just what topics am I getting left out of?”
Garfiel: who knows. “But, 'S least no doubt yer ain't been payin' 'ttention t' yerserlf or th' people
'round you.”
Subaru tries to loosen the mood, but Garfiel's eyes keep their hostile blaze. Garfiel traces his finger
over the white scar on his forehead.
Garfiel: “All th's forward 'f here's the tomb. Sure ya don't wanna come out this far t' take'a piss,
yeh?”
Subaru: “Wanna come along and piss together? Man, pissing on a witch's grave. I can tell just
thinking of it's something that'd get you some crazy revenge.”
Though, Subaru has a feeling that the Echidna he knows would find that amusing rather than
enraging. Either way, still keeping his guard up toward Subaru, Garfiel seems to want to keep
talking.
Garfiel: “Yer ain't tryin' t' challenge another TRIAL the same night ya already passed one, are ya? 'S
bein' straight greedy, that.”
Subaru: “I'm not thinking of anything that wild. Just kinda planning out a different approach.”
Garfiel: “Yer plottin'.”
Subaru: “I'm plotting.”
Call it backhanded, a forbidden method, a mysterious data disc or whatever you want. He'll swallow
anything down to the bone, clinging to whatever chance of light in this darkness.
Subaru: “So get outta the way, Garfiel. I'm going in the tomb. I might just come up with an amazing
masterplan to do something about everyth...”
Garfiel: “Real sorry, abs'lutely not. Yer are, absolutely, not gettin' in this tomb.”
Garfiel isn't bending. Subaru goes past confusion and starts feeling anger. Why, for what reason,
was it this guy of all people who was blocking Subaru's path?
Subaru: “You were supposed to have thought that. And so that's what you were like to me. And then
still.”
Garfiel: “Yer sayin' things that ain't makin' sense. My amazin' self don't ever bend on my decisions.
You ain't getting' through. Even unrelated t' SANCTUARY.”
Subaru: “You're even fucking saying that... just what the hell about me is pissing you off?!”
Garfiel's attitude is clearly different from the first day and the previous loop. Subaru raises his
voice, seeking the reason behind this over-absurd difference in Garfiel's reaction.
Garfiel scrunches up his nose, his face resembling that of a beast.
Garfiel: “—Yer stink.”
Subaru: “—auh?”
Subaru replies, unconsciously, with a groan.

Garfiel's hand goes to his nose.
Garfiel: “Ever since yer came outta the tomb, yer body's been fuckin' stinkin' with witch's miasma.
—Yer sayin' I trust yer witch-smellin' ass n' a half-witch? Who fucking could!”
Garfiel raises his arms, bares his fangs, his rage in full display.
Garfiel: “This is SANCTUARY! The Witch of Greed's test site! Where mishmashes and half-dones
gather, their destinations gone, a packing of futureless shit!!”
CHAPTER 27: WHISPERS
—The sound of that rage is very familiar to Subaru.
Subaru: “The witch's, stink...”
This makes it the second time that Subaru has been faced with hostility for this reason. Picking up
the scent that Subaru himself can't smell, Garfiel glares with a hatred as if Subaru were his parents'
enemy.
Subaru already knew the sharpness of that gaze, and that torrent of hostility.
The witch's stench. The criminal's lingering scent. A man bewitched.
That was how she had sworn at him, it worsening his relation to the point she even once stole his
life.
Garfiel: “What're yer lookin' so damn spaced out fer. Hittin' the bullseye make yer mouth stop
workin'?”
The shock and shivering blocks Subaru's throat. Garfiel speaks with unending anger, his arms
hanging loosely at his sides, but guard raised. He's keeping watch on Subaru's every move, the faint
familiarity supposedly existing between the two of them thoroughly driven away.
Subaru: “That, witch's stink thing...”
Garfiel: “Ah?”
Subaru: “The stench drifting around my body, after I left the tomb—ever since after the TRIAL, is it
safe to say it's been there?”
Garfiel: “...Yeah. 'Till then it wasn't anythin' t'worry 'bout, but second y'came back yer fuckin' stank.
Dun givva crap what ya did inside, but my amazin' self ain't so soft 's to trust some bastard who
makes that kinda fuckin' stink.”
Garfiel nods. Subaru gives a small sigh and closes his eyes.
The witch's stench. The timing when its thickness increased was almost undoubtedly directly
following his RETURN BY DEATH.
It was an enigma that he'd been having suspicions about for some time, but unconsciously avoided
giving and answer to. Now, although belated, Subaru accepts one piece of that answer.
—The thing that made Natsuki Subaru RETURN BY DEATH, was the Witch.
He didn't know the reason. They should have no relation. But there was a mysterious kind of
comprehension and acceptance to be had in it. The sensation was as if being stuck on a puzzle one
piece away from being solved, last piece in hand, and finally completing the image, stating the
answer he had already known.
Subaru: “Just what on earth connection does this have to me? ...My life was completely unrelated to
supernatural phenomena until I came to this world. And even since coming here, I've never had a
direct meeting with the great and topical Witch... Far from it, I was dead like six hours within being
summoned.”
Subaru had been granted the trait of RETURN BY DEATH when he was summoned to this world. If
that had a relationship to the witch, then the summoning itself would also be connected to the witch.
He hadn't even once desired a clear answer to this question, but—
Subaru: “In the end, can't avert my eyes to this, either...”
Garfiel: “Hell're you mutterin' about. 'F yer got time t'fuss over nonsense n' crap, get yerself to the
cathedral and sleep. 'Causin' trouble fer my amazin' self.”
Subaru: “...You're really overlooking this? If I'm gonna say it like you would, I'm some suspicious
bastard making witch stink drift around his whole body. We're alone in the middle of the night with
nobody around. This's the perfect situation for a tryst or an assassination.”
Garfiel: “Ha. Ain't like my amazin' self's too impatient t' think that far. ...It'd be easy t'chew yer
throat t' shreds right now. But what happens if I do? I at least know that if the half-witch's buddy—
you—dies, it'll cause problems even more annoyin'.”
Subaru tilts his head, unable to catch what Garfiel's intention is.
Garfiel: “But,”
Garfiel: “You gettin' closer t' the tomb 'n havin' that stench multiply's a no thanks. Right now the
only one who's notice'd be my sharp-nosed amazin' self, but... wouldn't be weird for the granny 'n
others 'n this packin' of shit t' notice. Not for more annoyin' ones to, either.”
Subaru: “More annoying...”
Garfiel: “You gotta have one 'er two ideas, yeah? Yer stinkin' cant've been somethin' that only
started now. I'm sayin' the fucks who'll smell yer stink, and come.”
Garfiel clicks his fangs, Subaru's breath catching at the excess of possibilities. Garfiel snorts at
Subaru's reaction and waves at him as if swatting away a bug.
Garfiel: “So I'm sayin' get outta here. Go now 'n my amazin' self won't do anythin'. 'F you behave
tomorrow on too, I ain't gonna chew yer up. But if yer get near the tomb, yer gonna get my amazin'
self n' the granny involved. Gonna be a bad experience fer both you n' us.”
Subaru: “Mutual non-interference, you mean. And if that happens, you won't do anything. That sure
is tolerant.”
Garfiel: “SURVIVE STEPPIN' ON A GRINGAM'S TAIL. Get gone 'fore I change my mind. 'F it's possible,
my amazin' self don't wanna have Ram hate me.”
By putting the name of his crush out there, Garfiel announces his resolve. That his self-restraint is
barely keeping the hostility emanating from him in check is clearly communicated. There's still
room for Subaru to keep debating, but,
—Retreating from this place would be a good plan.
Coming to that decision, Subaru sighs, shoulders slumping, and takes a step back. Garfiel's posture
relaxes. He closes an eye, gives a long sigh out his nose and plops himself down on the road to the
tomb, looking up at Subaru who still has his arms crossed.
Garfiel: “Good. Don't you do anythin' unnecessary. —From t'day 'till the TRIAL's over, my amazin'
self's gonna spend his time right here. Tomorrow, day after, day after that, mornin' day'n night, I
ain't gonna let you get through. Get that remembered.”
Subaru: “...At least take baths, so Ram won't hate you.”
Garfiel: “Go spend yerself so Emilia-sama's capable 'f bustin' through the TRIAL 'fore my stinkin'
gets worse than yours. —Get outta here.”
Garfiel closes his eyes, apparently completely serious about spending the night here. He looks
covered in openings. Subaru might be able to leave, make a huge detour and reach the tomb by
passing through the forest, but,
Subaru: “Let's not.”
Garfiel's probably paying some caution to that possibility too. Garfiel's stopped Subaru here now,
while he's been visible, with words. But if Subaru does something that tramples over Garfiel's
consideration, Garfiel will put away that restraint. Subaru can come up with no plans of beating an
opponent who can throw around Patrasche alongside the carriage, or of escaping beastlike Garfiel's
nose.
Subaru: “Here's my payback for ignoring the damn tea party...”
Subaru puts his hand to his forehead, regretting not making good use of his fortune in having had
that chat with the witch waiting there for him. Though, it was true that he had nothing to ask her
back then, so it wasn't something he could criticize himself about.
Subaru: “But tonight's useless, at least. Have to, take some measures...”
Without getting through Garfiel, Subaru can't get to the tomb. And if Subaru doesn't get to the tomb,
he loses a route other than having Emilia take the TRIAL. As far as Subaru's experienced, it's
impossible for Emilia to overcome the TRIAL in three days. And if he's unable to take some action
within those three days,
Subaru: “Elsa attacks the mansion. I lose the chance to repel Elsa right from under me.”
Although it being dependency on others, Subaru had wanted to speak with Echidna seeking some
sideroad. Garfiel has obstructed that. And even should Subaru attempt to conquer the TRIAL devoid
of Echidna's opinion, Garfiel will likely obstruct that too. Thinking that far, Subaru realises that the
situation is stuck.
Subaru: “Wait, wait, wait... Isn't this situation just plain bad?”
Being that Subaru can't bust through Garfiel, Subaru has to flex his linguistic muscles or otherwise
prepare some other plan for getting Garfiel aside if he's going to face the TRIAL. But that's
impossible for Subaru to do independently.
Subaru: “But even if I recruit helpers... with these conditions, neither Ram or Otto're on my side.”
Regarding the Royal Selection and the TRIAL tangenting together, Ram and Otto have judged that
Emilia being the one to complete the TRIAL is best. That said of course they'd be likely to change
their opinion in two days if they see Emilia getting worn out, but
Subaru: “Then we won't make it in time for the attack. There something... anything I can do?”
There's a time difference between the danger Subaru's anticipating and when those around start
noticing how distressing the TRIAL is for Emilia. Subaru being rather adamant that he take the
TRIAL would also possibly inspire doubts in his belief in Emilia. Just considering what Emilia
would think of that gouges Subaru's chest with pain. It was not as though he didn't believe in her.
On the contrary, Subaru's firmly believed that if Emilia had the time, she would assuredly fulfil the
roles given to her.
—Knowing the task she is to shoulder is an excessively heavy one, can you still think that?
A low, dark whisper from inside Subaru's heart stops his feet in their advance.
Subaru occasionally heard whispers like this. Coming from some near-lightless place inside him,
aimed at his foolishness in intending to reach out pursuing the ideal, spoken in a voice mocking him
from behind his back.
Subaru: “The TRIAL will eat away at her. But, for others' expectations and her for own wish, she'll
try to proceed even if it hurts her. That's right.”
—She'll be able to overcome it if she proceeds without contemplating her wounds. Is this idea one
you can truly believe?
Do you think that if she keeps walking, bearing the pain, bearing the tears, bearing the wails, the
road will someday assuredly open, and her wish will be granted?
—There are wounds unnecessary to shoulder, pasts unnecessary to face, and pasts unnecessary to
atone for.
Subaru: “Because she thinks she's obliged, because she thinks she has to do something, she faced
her past, and is suffering...”
—But is that truly now? Isn't this just a case of bad timing?
Is the past something you truly should face, or is it not?

Must committed sins be atoned for? Should redemption be forced?
Emilia rejected this past, not wishing to know of it. And if it weren't for this TRIAL, Subaru would
have never thought to have this past exposed against her will.
One day, as time passes and she swallows it down, there might come a chance for her to overcome
it.
But was that truly now? Was this an appropriate time for it?
Would an answer reached when stirred by obsessive need to do something truly be one with a
significance she could be proud in?
Subaru: “I'd say I'm glad I got to face my past, at least. I managed to overcome it, and even
knowing it's nothing more than self-satisfaction, my standing here as I am now is my answer.”
—But wasn't that because the preparations for me to face my past were already in place?
There was a girl who was in love with and approved his own self who he had hated.
It was because that girl was there, it was thanks to that girl, that Subaru could expose his
unsightliness to his parents, lay bare his ugly insides, and regardless raise his head and announce his
farewells.
—Right now, are those preparations in place for Emilia?
Having touched one one fragment of the weight of the past she harboured, just how much strength
had Subaru's words and actions until now granted her?
Just how much had his thin views on life, minuscule efforts, and unsubstantiated voicings of love
supported her back?
Subaru: “...Just what should I do with you?”
He loved Emilia. Was in love with her. Wanted to live being in love with her, were his thoughts.
He wanted her to think of him with love. Wanted to be loved. Wished to stay in love, was another of
his thoughts.
He wanted to do things that would make her happy. He wanted to be her aid. When her thoughts
were bitter, painful, sorrowful, he wanted to bear them in her place.
And even if he could not, even if he would not be permitted so, he at least wanted to be her support.
—Subaru wanted to do what the girl who had made him stand, do what Rem had done for him.
Like Rem who loved him with all her soul, Subaru wanted to support Emilia.
If he did, he believed he would for the first time gain the qualifications to make what he pledged to
Rem true. So, right now, the thing that Subaru should do was,
Subaru: “The time you need to stand, the resolution to carry through with something, everything
possibly like that... it's me making that for you, huh.”
Balling his hand into a fist, Subaru amends his views on what he should do, letting slip a sigh mixed
with a smile.
The hell. What he was going to do hadn't changed at all.
Subaru: “Do my best for her. —Put it in words, and that's all this ruminating's about. Well, gotta be
aware of what it is you have to do.”
For now it was the unavoidable problems and the obstacles attached. Clear those, and then it was
breakthrough plans overflowing with novelty and surprise. He'd start drafting them.
He wouldn't be getting time. It was limited. And he couldn't run off of hastily-made, incorrect
conclusions. The amount of things he had overlooked until now, doing that, were excessive.
Subaru: “Things're bad and headed worse with no upturn. That things're getting worse the more
time that passes feels so real it's mortifying.”
The pattern of 'just leave it to time and things'll sort out' definitely wasn't coming. That said, it was
exactly because the world was—as far as Subaru was concerned—so strict, that his struggling,
floundering, and opposing had worth.
Subaru: “Conditions are their worst. Time is none. Drowning in things I don't understand as usual,
but...”
Completely mundane, same case for anyone, but just by having been given the chance for do-overs,
he was so, so much better off.
Subaru: “You believe that Natsuki Subaru's courage, will save Emilia!”
So let's try struggling through one with his best, and see how it goes.
CHAPTER 28: TALK OVER TEA
Feeling the morning daylight burning his eyelids, Subaru uprights himself in the darkness. Looks
like he wound up falling asleep while he was thinking. But since he was submerged in the sea of
thought late into the night, it means he only slept one, two hours.
Subaru: “Would never think of this back in the old world. Sun being up in itself'd be my sleeping
hours.”
Subaru glances around at those awake inside the cathedral. They notice Subaru's gaze on them and
wave, Subaru giving replies to the Arlam villagers greeting him as he stands up and heads for the
cathedral's entrance. The refreshing morning air welcomes him outside, where it seems the people
of SANCTUARY and the evacuees are cooperating to start with food rationing.
???: “Oh, you're awake, Subaru-sama.”
Subaru: “Hey, good morning. 'Nother fresh morning today.”
???: “It is. The wind's chilly... it seemed you managed to get some good sleep as well, Subaru-
sama.”
The woman acquaintance who addresses Subaru smiles as she touches her finger to her cheek.
Subaru also tries touching his cheek, to find a something mushy—a sticky track of drool.
Subaru: “Augh no embarrassing”
Why was it that sleeping for short hours made it easier for this sloppiness to show up? Seemed even
little catnaps could have regular sleeping habits attached. Smiling at Subaru as he thinks about this
pointless crap is the woman, and another woman who has dog ears. Subaru accepts the wet cloth
she presents him, thanks her, and wipes his mouth.
He asks for confirmation that the shit is off his face, the women affirm it is. Subaru tells them he's
gonna use the cloth for washing himself/his face too and heads off for the waterin' spot, waving the
women goodbye.
Subaru glances back at the two, seeing no signs of discomfort or disagreement between them as
they chat. These different races definitely have some natural-feeling communication going on
between them.
Over these few days—include the days overwritten by RbD and it's a week—there hasn't been any
discord between the evacuees and the people of SANCTUARY.
The evacuees have high morale, and loathe to say it but the presence of their Lord Roswaal brings
them some relief. In reality you can add that they have faith in Subaru who's eating meals alongside
them, but Subaru views his own influence scantly and doesn't think far enough to notice that.
Betraying the leeriness of this place, there're a good number of SANCTUARY dwellers like the dog-
eared chick who've come to be open for conversation. It's so pervasive that Subaru can believe that
the divide between the humans and the half-bloods is entirely something that exists only in their
minds.
Subaru: “Though what's definitely dividing is the existence of the damn barrier... Dunno what the
person who put it there was thinking, but it wasn't nice of them.”
If we're believing Garfiel's words, this place is apparently the WITCH OF GREED'S TEST SITE. Which
would mean that this barrier being here to stop half-bloods from leaving was probably the witch's
work.
Subaru: “Echidna... huh. Just getting less and less apparent what that witch's goal is.”
White skin to white hair, a monochrome girl garbed in black dress. Lost her life 400 years ago, but
still bound to the present day as a ghost. Contrary to her blustering that she wasn't interfering with
the present day, she'd been meeting with Subaru at the TRIAL's location and butting in on his
activities. Subaru figures she has some deep and mysterious reason for it, but,
Subaru: “If she's just a meddler who likes watching the aftermath, she's seriously hopeless. Or
actually what're you supposed to think about a lady who makes people she's meeting for the first
time drink bodily fluids for no reason...”
The unpleasant memory of drinking the Chidna Tea is resurrected. Although, that was supposed to
be something that happened in a mental world, so Subaru wanted to believe that his body did not
actually absorb any Chidna bits.
Either way, regardless of Echidna's plans, the fact of SANCTUARY being surrounded by a barrier and
the residents stuck inside remains true.
Subaru: “For that to change, the biggest obstacle is... yeah, it's probably Garfiel.”
Even if Subaru gets to talk with Echidna, even if Subaru gets to challenge the TRIAL, the coming
bottleneck is how to deal with Garfiel, whose hostility towards Subaru has shot up. If Garfiel's
change in stance toward Subaru is coming from the Witch's stench—from a negative side effect of
RETURN BY DEATH—then to change that stance is gonna be a monumental effort.
Subaru had utilised the stench against the Ulgarm and during the White Whale fight, where it acted
as a key to break the deadlock, but,
Subaru: “I can get stinkier, but I don't know if there's a way to remove the stink... doubt it's
something that'll go away with deodorants. Or what the hell am I saying. Stinky, not stinky, what
am I, garbage?”
Either way, Subaru can consciously make the stench intensify by attempting to tell someone of his
RETURN BY DEATH. And taking that thought into consideration, it doesn't seem like the stench
remains elevated indefinitely at that thickness. It seems alight to say that just like usual odour, it
weakens with the passage of time. Though taking that the other way, it means there's no way to
weaken the smell outside of that.
Subaru: “So there's no chance of hoping Garfiel'll ease up. And, this isn't something I really want to
consider, but... if I fail, and RETURN BY DEATH again...”
If he loses his life again, and restarts inside the tomb, the lingering scent on Subaru will overlap
with the Witch's stench. Just thinking of how Garfiel will react to that is terrifying.
Faced with the worst of conditions and losing his life, Subaru could alter the result through do-
overs.
Salvage absolutely everything—was Subaru's greed, but presently it was not the case that he had
fulfilled everything. There were yet still things he could not bring back.
But regardless, Subaru intended through his do-overs to select a future better than the ones from
before said do-overs. It was hard being grateful for RETURN BY DEATH, but he could think of
several one-way paths toward abysmal futures that would have proceeded without it. However,
Subaru: “By repeating, I can do something... but with every re-do, my relations worsen. Having the
difficulty rise with every re-do is definitely a first.”
Subaru could still establish rational discussions with Garfiel presently, but whether the chance
would come again to converse with him following the multiplication of the stench was unclear.
Unable to trust a Subaru wafting in stink, Rem at the very least had stolen his life with her flail.
Remembering the people left in the mansion—remembering the sleeping Rem—next leads Subaru
to the thought of the assassin. Here again appeared that gleeful killer, blade-wielder who had
jumped right to the top of the Subaru Kill Counter. Incidentally that grey cat spirit shares first place,
and in equal second place with one kill are many of his buddies, is the state of things.
Subaru: “Looking back on it, it's a depressing kill count. Or in this case a killed count? ...Anyway,
counterplans for Elsa. We get in a fight and I can't beat her, and the choices for actual fighters wind
up as Roswaal or Garfiel.”
But even Roswaal would be affected by those wounds of his. So in the end the best solution to the
problem is, after all, to make Garfiel an ally. And for Garfiel and Elsa to fight, it was essential to
break the barrier around SANCTUARY. In the end, the important things are,
Subaru: “Conquering the TRIAL before the mansion attack and freeing SANCTUARY, appeasing
Garfiel and getting him to come along to the mansion, repelling Elsa, happy end... or so.”
Stating that much, Subaru scrunches his brows at the conflicting problems.
To appease Garfiel, SANCTUARY had to be freed.
To free SANCTUARY, Subaru had to break through Garfiel and challenge the TRIAL.
These two points conflicted. He couldn't do it.

Otherwise it may be possible to appease Garfiel through conversation, but thinking back on his
experiences with him so far and the talk they had last night, Subaru wanted to clutch his head with
how low the probability of that succeeding was.
For better or for worse, interacting with the straightforward Garfiel is simple, thus changing his
opinions on matters he's already decided on from the start is difficult.
Meaning that if there's any chance for Subaru, it's,
Subaru: “Aim for a chance to sneak into the tomb, contact Echidna and maybe get some other
opportunities. Otherwise sneak in when it's time to challenge the TRIAL and conquer it.”
Washing his face at the waterin' spot, Subaru reaches this conclusion and heads for a direction
separate from the food rationing grounds. He wipes his face with the wrung-out cloth, his
destination being the lesser-populated edge of SANCTUARY. He continues down that road, crossing
over a hillock AND
Subaru: “...And of course, I was expecting way too much with that opportunism.”
Sitting in the middle of the clearly-visible and direct road to the tomb, in the exact same posture as
yesterday night, is Garfiel.
—Go to the tomb first thing in the morning, and sneak in behind Garfiel's back.
This potentially profitable plan for the morning is for now stuck at a standstill.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Subaru: “You're sure putting in work early in the morning.”
Garfiel: “Speak fer yerself, don't goddamn show up right first thing 'n the day. 'S there any damn
point 'n you goin' outta the way t' work my amazin' self up?”
Subaru raises his arm in greeting at Garfiel, who opens one eye, his displeasure on full display.
Subaru draws his arm back down at the expected reaction, turning his attention to the petite figure
standing beside the seated, cross-legged Garfiel.
Subaru: “I figured Garfiel'd be here, but I didn't expect to see you here, Lewes-san. Good morning.”
Lewes: “Nnr, is a nice morning. Are yer going on a stroll too, Su-bo?”
Subaru: “Call it a stroll and you could say it's a stroll, but it's nothing so pleasant. I came here
packed with some 'just maybe' expectations, and also to annoy Garfiel.”
Garfiel: “You...”
Ignoring Garfiel's getting pissed off, Subaru tilts his head at Lewes.
Subaru: “'Too', then you're out on a stroll, Lewes-san?”
Lewes: “My havin' a stroll cerms ertached, 's where it is. I heard Gar-bo hadn't come home and
wers sitting out here on the ground... well, I'm seein' how things'll go, alongside.”
Lewes fiddles with her long, wavy pink hair with her finger. Her other hand holds a small package,
which from its size and shape is evidently a simple foodstuff. It's probably stubborn not-moving-
from-this-spot Garfiel's breakfast. Subaru rubs his chin as he looks at the two.
Subaru: “Have you known eachother long, Garfiel and Lewes?”
Lewes: “Least since Gar-bo wers small.. he's still small now, though.”
Garfiel: “Oi, look'ere granny. 'V far overshot yer height, yeah?”
Lewes: “But yer haven't grown any bigger than erkspected. Either way, I've known him since he
wers much smaller than now. I'm even used to these erkschanges.”
Subaru's eyebrows rise as he notices something.
Subaru: “Going from your phrasing... Garfiel hasn't been in SANCTUARY since he was born?”
Garfiel: “...Don't probe inta anythin' unnecessary. You wanna case'a S TRIKE SUDDEN BLACK
BAUTAUK TABLES TURN?”
Subaru: “Right, that did not communicate and so it cannot not stop me. Which means, if you'd like
to answer, Lewes-san...”
Garfiel's about grinding his teeth at Subaru's attitude as he completely ignores last night's warning,
but Subaru doesn't give a shit and keeps right on going. Lewes gives a tired sigh.
Lewes: “Gar-bo enterin' SANCTUARY wers ten-and-something years ago. He wers still a toddling
little baby. Roz-bo brought him along with...”
Garfiel: “—Granny, don't say anythin' unneeded more than that.”
Garfiel narrows his eyes, voice low. Subaru internally panics that he might've just carelessly
trampled too far, but,
Lewes: “Who're yer speakin' ter with that kinda lip, yer moron.”
Garfiel: “Aaauow!”
Lewes gives Garfiel's head a good whack. Lewes has little girl arms. They're probably not that
strong, but Garfiel clutches his head as he looks up at Lewes, his expression as if he's been struck
by lightning.
Garfiel: “Gr-granny the hell're you doin' all sudden...”
Lewes: “Ers that any way fer yer ter speak ter me, who's most all raised yer and ers like your
parent? I swear, ert's so pathetic and embarrassing and sad I'm about ter cry. Take this'nthisn'this”
Garfiel: “Sto—ow, au, we're, we're bein' watch, aug,”
Garfiel manages holds back Lewes' blows, his expression one as if his secret shame were being
observed. Subaru manages to keep himself from accidentally, unconsciously smiling at their
exchange.
Subaru: “I've just managed to surmise objectively the depth and length of your relationship.
...Garfiel, are you seriously planning to sit here forever?”
Garfiel: “Gonna be here fer everythin' 'cept doin' my business. 'S a good chance there's guys 'round
who'll take advantage 'f the gaps when my amazin' self ain't lookin.'”
Garfiel's got his guard up against anyone sneaking in, and is maintaining it even through this
conversation. For Subaru, with his 'just maybe' tier expectations, it's not something to be dejected
about. If Garfiel's attitude and statements for the past half day have been a sudden change, it's
probably necessary for Subaru to re-evalute his assessment of him. But either way, that getting
stubborn Garfiel to move is difficult hasn't changed.
Subaru: “Actually, isn't the TRIAL at night? I'm not gonna get anything from it even if I sneak in at
day. Isn't your sitting here like this pointless?”
Garfiel: “Yer ain't gonna get my amazin' self t'move like that. You sneak in th' tomb at daytime n'
wait for night, and with my not goin' inside yer conditions get all fufilled. My amazin' self ain't the
only one ready f'r a long fight. Don't underes'mate me too much.”
Subaru: “Tch, got leaked.”
Subaru raises his hands, shrugging, indicating he's given up. Garfiel snorts and glances at Lewes.
Garfiel: “So I ain't movin' from this spot fer a while. Granny, food.”
Lewes: “What attertude is that when someone goes outta their way to bring it to yer, deplorable.
Here.”
Despite the complaints, Lewes hands him the parcel. Garfiel accepts and opens the package to find
some dumpling-esque food inside which he steadily settles into his stomach. With Lewes assisting
him like this, the battle's going to be one of endurance.
Subaru: “It'll be hard to do something about these conditions... Nothing for it, I'll come back again.”
Garfiel: “I said yer don't hafta. You ain't getting' through, I ain't lettin' yer through, I ain't permittin'
ya through. All you gotta do's shut up n' make yerself small.”
Done eating, Garfiel licks his fingers as Subaru goes to turn his back. Subaru gives him a wave with
his back turned and leaves, Lewes coming up beside him.
Lewes: “Gar-bo's dern with his food, so. I wanna talk with yer a bit, Su-bo.”
Subaru: “What a coincidence. I have things I'd like to ask you too, Lewes. Though I really wanted
to do it after seeing Emilia's face, but...”
Subaru glances up the sky. Sun's only just risen.

Subaru's memory has it that the morning after the first TRIAL, Emilia woke up around midday.
Subaru wanted to go along with his desires and look at her sleeping face, but he should probably
proceed along with this other event.
Subaru glances down at Lewes, observing her. Her expression looks sleepy and she's powering her
little legs to match Subaru's pace. The loligranny was a creature which tickled the heart, even
should you know its true form.
Subaru: “Want me to give you a piggyback?”
Lewes: “...And jerst when I was wonderin' why yer were looking at me with eyes all tender. Su-bo,
are yer one of them attracted to little girls? Yer even less salvageable than Roz-bo.”
Subaru: “That suspicions of a loli complex toward me are false accusations's a good point of mine.
The thing which determines which galge games I buy is whether there's an upperclassmate or older
sister character in the romancable heroines. Even now the one I'm desperately trying to get to glance
back at me's in the older sister class... or actually recently, I found out she's seriously kinda older than
me but, my mind's never gonna change. That's just what I'm like.”
Lewes: “And just what is that like, ers something I wanna ask but, I'm sure it's fine. No piggyback.
Yer hips and legs get weak if yer don't walk around proper.”
Subaru: “And there's another amazing statement showing the appearance gap!”
And just how true does the state of her only looking young and truly being elderly feel! There's also
the possibility that only her skin or whatever is young and her insides are geriatric. The loligranny,
in surprisingly dire states.
Lewes: “Yer look like yer thinking of something erhverwhelmingly stupid.”
Subaru: “Wha, no, seriously? But I was paying attention not to let it slip out on my face and
keeping my expression posed, supposedly.”
Lewes: “Yer face looks the same ers when Gar-bo pinches hidden pastries. Children do always the
same things, no matter the child.”
Subaru: “This granny, keeps showing off her granny appeal one-after-another...”
Lewes' granny appeal aside, Subaru tilts his head.
Subaru: “Huh?”
Subaru: “This talking's... fine but, where are we going? Or actually this is seriously late to be asking
but with Emilia-tan borrowing your bed, where are you staying, Lewes-san? Outside?”
Lewes: “Yer instantly treating me like I'm homeless after I lend my house's... a statement which
means I can only think yer fergot about my more-er-less standing as this place's head. I do have
friends I can make lodge me fer a few days.”
Subaru: “Well, that'd be right. Might be a few days, but all the people here are unexpectedly nice
people.”
It's not just the citizens at the food rationing. As Subaru thinks back on the frequent chances he's
had to interact with the residents of SANCTUARY, his eyebrows furrow, wondering if the friction
Garfiel talked about wasn't just a huge exaggeration. Subaru elects for silence, Lewes shooting him
a glance and nodding.
Lewes: “Hm,”
Lewes: “Something not sitting right with yer?”
Subaru: “No, I mean saying it like this's something, but... it's just, it's different from what I
envisioned. Half-elf Emilia got some incredible treatment at the palace, so I was thinking maybe
half-bloods get treated like that everywhere. And so then I was thinking the half-bloods' feelings
towards pure-bloods might be pretty complex.”
At very least, for being trapped here in the test site aka SANCTUARY, the residents aren't particularly
displaying any grim emotions. Of course they internally probably did think this wasn't amusing, but
Subaru hadn't caught sight of any displays of such negative emotions.
You have indiscriminate-with-his-words-and-feelings Garfiel acting as proxy, but his emotions
seem closer to righteous indignation than his own personal anger. That is, anger for the sake of
others, rather than himself.
For being such a nasty environment, the people of SANCTUARY have absurdly high morale. Rather
than unconventional, you could even call it incomprehensible.
Lewes opens her eyes in surprise.
Lewes: “What, Su-bo, yer mullin' over more than yer looks would say.”
Subaru: “Than your looks would say, really wasn't needed. I'm at least confident that my appearance
is closer to an intellectual type than Garfiel's, okay? Well, we're talking about my thinking-deficient,
etc-deficient self here, though.”
Lewes: “Ern't it good to be aware of yer deficiencies? Yer get people who steady their grit and get
serious knowing that they're deficient. ...Ah, this way.”
They come to a split in the path, Lewes guides a lost-on-where-to-go Subaru along. They path goes
down a direction different from the cathedral and Roswaal's housing, to the outskirts of the village
opposite the cemetery—where Lewes' temporary lodgings sit, isolated.
It's different from the sporadically-placed houses of the residents, this one just mysteriously sitting
there entirely separated from the others, monopolizing this spot.
Subaru: “This's super lonely. Why are you staying out here?”
Lewes: “No herlping it. This's most the only building in SANCTUARY with no one living in it. It ers a
tidge far from the village proper, but it's big and I value it.”
Subaru: “What happened to you having friends who'd lodge you? Why did you choose a bed where
you'd still be alone? I know many loligrannies but a loligranny dying alone's too heartrending I've
never seen it before.”
Lewes: “I ain't gonna be findin' out whether yer worried fer me er makin' fun of me. Here, in yer go.
I'll at least make tea for yer. Can't do it as nice as Ram, though.”
Subaru: “No matter what leaf tea I drink all I sense is the taste of leaves so proceed without any
concern.”
Lewes: “Yer speak for yerself, should pay mer concern to what exactly yer saying.”
Sighing, Lewes invites Subaru in. Subaru pushes the door open and enters. The building's about half
as spacious as Roswaal's temporary housing. That said, Roswaal's lodging is excessively big for just
one person, so this three-roomed house has room aplenty.
Subaru sits at a nearby chair and looks the room over—it's compact and plain, but has clearly had
attentive maintenance done. Lewes was supposed to have said no one was living here, but,
Subaru: “For an unresided house, it sure feels like someone's been here frequently. Even me,
labourer of high-class sheets that I am, would give the airiness of this bed a passing mark... No
Lewes-san it couldn't be you”
Lewes: “What're yer doing with that 'Lewes spends her time coming here ever and whenever she
wants to 'be one', then lies there idly waiting for the heat to cool off' face yer got.”
Subaru: “That sure was a specific and complicated expression I just made, huh!”
With that fast-spoken excuse perhaps being something she's thought about before, Lewes becomes a
sadder person. That thing about her dying alone was a joke, but the part where she's elderly and
dying alone without relatives is hard to refute. Lewes turns away from Subaru as she wordlessly
enters teamaking mode, Subaru casting his gaze around, looking for some chance to change the
topic.
A nice and orderly room. Slightly dulled dresser and clothes-shelves. Vases without flowers and
metal shields hanging on the wall. —Shields?
Subaru: “Why're there shields here? And two of them?”
Lewes: “Gar-bo's things. Using the place as a derned storehouse.”
Subaru: “So he's been hanging around here too. It does feel like a spot for naughty kids to hang out,
but... no way he'd be doing the cleaning so it's this thorough, right?”
Way too out of character, mutters Subaru too himself as he observes Garfiel's shields. It's pretty
common in manga and things for noble's mansions or whatever to have crossed swords hanging on
the wall. The shields are getting similar treatment, tilted diagonally in their display. But the repairs
on them aren't fitting for an ornamental piece, with nicks and dings over them. Doesn't seem like
these are battle-ignorant antiques.
Subaru: “But what kind of battle can you have with just shields?”
Lewes: “Used ter have batterin' matches with the shields in the field outside the house all the time.
Each'd hold a shield, going round round round round as they bumped each other.”
Subaru: “That sounds super dangerous for just playing around. ...Do you mind if I ask, Garfiel and
who?”
Through all his time in SANCTUARY, Subaru's never seen anyone Garfiel's been especially friendly
towards. Though of course, being that he's an important person here, it's apparent that he has good
relations with the residents who show up at the food rationing. But if you remove that, and then
question who exactly Garfiel has a close relationship with, Subaru can't come up with any specific
names.
If forced to say, Subaru would name Lewes, but the image of her holding a shield getting in a
battering match with Garfiel sounds perilous.
Lewes goes silent for a period. She sets two steaming teacups on a tray, comes over to Subaru and
offers him a cup, then seats herself on the bed. Subaru accepts the hot cup, places it to his lips, wets
his throat.
Subaru: “Yeah, just tastes like leaves.”
Lewes: “No use'n brewing tea fer yer. Well, I did figure that much so I used cheap leaves. ...Even
tealeaves are precious things, here.”
Seems like said precious things and luxury items get brought here once a month thanks to Roswaal.
For a while, the two silently sip their tea. And, after several passages of these cozy silences,
Subaru: “—Frederica.”
Mutters Subaru. Lewes' brows quiver as she shifts her gaze up from her teacup and looks at Subaru.
Subaru: “The name of the person Garfiel butted shields with was Frederica, right?”
Lewes: “...Did Gar-bo tell yer?”
Subaru: “Nyah. I just strung it together from some fragmentary talks, thinking 'kinda could be this.'
And I sorta understood that Garfiel and Frederica have a complicated relationship.”
Frederica, who at Roswaal's mansion named Garfiel as someone to pay special caution towards in
SANCTUARY.
Garfiel, whose expression changed upon hearing Frederica's name. There was also that time where
he indirectly seemed to be trying to find out her present status. It's impossible not to suspect some
relation between them. And the clincher was,
Subaru: “Their fangs're way too similar. Not even the Buddha would permit this be unrelated.”
Lewes: “...ahh, I swear. I can't think of anything to say ter refute that.”
Lewes gives a resigned sigh at this decisive factor, and slips some laughter. It was the biggest point
of commonality between Garfiel and Frederica. The oversharp canines, the overmenacing smiles,
and that was enough. You could tell their relationship wasn't one of lovers or anything salacious.
What seemed like the best guess for their relationship was —
Subaru: “Older brother, little sister... no, feels sorta older sister, little brother. If we're wondering
which, Frederica's more the older sister type.”
Lewes: “Goodness... if yer figuring out all that just off yer interition, I'd call it almost too
incredible.”
Says Lewes, more and more astonished. She gives an accepting nod, places her remaining tea back
on the tray, and fixes her posture.
Lewes: “Just as yer thought, Su-bo, the owners of these shields are the siblings Frederica and
Garfiel. Frederica Baumann, presently distant from SANCTUARY, and Garfiel Tinzel, are family tied
by blood.”
Affirming Subaru's guess, Lewes lets slip a gloomy sigh,
Lewes: “—But they've had their disagreements, and've wound up on differing paths.”
CHAPTER 29: OMNIVORE MALE
Getting to the point of what he wanted to hear, Subaru puts his cup to his lip. The hot tea passes
down his throat, alongside several suspicions he had had, settling in his stomach. Subaru ponders
seriously over what to say, and,
Subaru: “To what extent are you willing to answer my questions?”
Lewes: “...It seems yer already sensing it'll be indirect but, please dern't expect much. With the ties
ter the contract in place, there's little information I can give you, Su-bo. I'm subject ter strict
command ter avoid things that'd influence the TRIAL from outside the tomb.”
Subaru: “I can tell from your phrasing you're already giving me hints, but... strict command, huh.”
Lewes goes silent. Going off her behaviour and statements so far, the contenders for people who
could influence her like this are limited. More than likely it's Roswaal's work, but,
Subaru: “Then it just makes his goals even less apparent. Does he want me... want us to clear the
TRIAL? Doesn't he? I can't tell if he's trying to cooperate with us or not.”
Lewes: “He'd be hoping yer'll reach the answer ter that question yerself, is about how I'd say. Roz-
bo's always been a roundabout rascal with lotser oblique things about him. All that's grown about
him's his height, wouldn't say his root aspects've changed at all.”
Seems Lewes has known Roswaal since he was young. Subaru, who only knows him as a pervert,
can't hide his shiver at the idea that he has been a pervert since before he was even fully grown.
Subaru: “Well, but I'm sure he must've definitely had some charm left to him still mmhm probably
maybe.”
Lewes: “When Roz-bo was young... hrm. This relates to conferdential Mathers family infermation,
so I can't dervulge any ferther.”
Subaru: “Wuaaah, I'm interested... no, wait, am I interested? I don't really mind not knowing much
about that guy's personality.”
Subaru crosses his arms and tilts his head.
Subaru: “Alright, let's throw that one away. What's necessary for me is to know his plans not
understand him.”
Lewes: “That went by mighty easy, again.”
Subaru: “I don't worry about things there's no use worrying about. Humans aren't made in a way
where you can comprehend them from 0 to 100%. But the want to understand them regardless is
just that thing you call love. And I can love Emilia-tan but not Roswaal!”
Lewes gives an impressed nod at that fucking RUTHLESSNESSS, and puts her hand to her chin.
Lewes: “Well then,”
Lewes: “I don't feel there's too many topics left I could talk ter yer about...”
Subaru: “Oop, but my question time simultaneous with me figuring out the range of your contract's
prohibitions's still going and going. As of now we're leaving aside Roswaal's personality, but my
personality of looking to question knower-of-SANCTUARY-and-granny Lewes-san has more things to
ask.”
Lewes: “Hr, mm. Well, jerst asking is free, so go and ask. But if I violate the contract it ain't gonna
be a problem just fer me. Yer do take care not to ferget that, yeh?”
Lewes bends forward, glaring up threateningly at Subaru. However Lewes is an adorable little girl
so there is absolutely no force behind this. Subaru hugs his shoulders and makes a show of shaking
and shuddering, making his eyes go wet.
Subaru: “Aug scary”
Subaru: “Alright, now that we have the scary assailant and weak victim all graphed out, time for
questions.”
Lewes: “I can't agree with me terning into the villain from that.”
Subaru: “A man once said: that is that and this is this. So, question—you said Frederica and Garfiel
are siblings, so Frederica's been in SANCTUARY?”
Lewes scrunches up her face, Subaru intervenes with an insincere smile and enters into the main
topic. Lewes' expression changes, Subaru wags his raised finger.
Subaru: “And Frederica who's supposedly been in SANCTUARY, is presently dressed in a maid outfit
servicing Roswaal's mansion. But tying together what I know, this situation's strange.”
Lewes: “Hrm, how so?”
Subaru: “Her being Garfiel's sister means she's a half-blood, too. And being that she's a half-blood,
with the barrier around SANCTUARY currently in place, she shouldn't be able to leave.”
The barrier around SANCTUARY reacts to half-bloods, keeping them inside once they've crossed
over. It made Emilia faint, is what's kept Lewes and Garfiel stuck here indefinitely, and is presently
one of the huge walls blocking Subaru's path. Subaru had been deliberating over what to do about
that wall, but now there's an exception of someone leaving anyway. Meaning,
Subaru: “There's some kind of side-road around the barrier. Otherwise the barrier's been just a
complete hoax all along.”
Lewes: “Hoax... ers a little saddening. It is true that ever since I've been around, I've never once had
a prayer of exiting the barrier. This and that and everything, erll's the fault of the barrier erksisting.”
Subaru: “You're bound by a contract that's deceiving you... is another mean viewpoint that's
possible, yeah? It's also possible you'd just never think of the thought of confirming it, if the risks is
too high that you'll test whether or not it's true. But...”
It's possible that every single resident of SANCTUARY is being tricked about the barrier existing.
Though with the TRIAL in the tomb unmistakably existing, this idea isn't especially realistic.
Although Subaru can't completely deny the possibility that it's all been some over-meticulous plan
to trap the Arlam evacuees and give Emilia more fame.
Subaru: “Thinking of the revolt that'd happen when the truth got found out makes it too
disadvantageous, and chips away at its feasibility. The latter possibility autonomously erases itself...
So, that just leaves the former, and...”
Lewes: “A side-road... yer sayin'. So, if yer find out about it, what'll you do?”
Subaru: “If the side-road applies to everyone, well it might take time but if all the residents can
leave SANCTUARY through that, then there's no need to take the TRIAL.”
Says Subaru casually. Lewes' jaw drops.
Subaru: “Right?”
Subaru raises all his fingers, waving his hands around.
Subaru: “I'm sure there's things to gain by taking the TRIAL. And honestly, being that I kinda got a
bit of a blessing, I can't completely refute that. But, maybe it's fine to slip past the TRIAL—or PAST,
in this case. I'm sure there's timings and people where facing the past shouldn't be forced.”
Lewes: “Yer mean Emilia-sama? But, it isn't that yer can choose when hardship will visit yer.
Running away in the face erv a coming calamity is...”
Subaru: “I'm not saying to run away entirely. It's a retreat to make the preparations for a proper
intercept. A strategic withdrawal. I'm sure there's cases where you have to fight on disadvantageous
ground, but rushing about to prepare the most advantageous ground possible, is both to the person
themselves and those around them's credit, right?”
Subaru buts in through Lewes' talking to pile up statements to justify running around. To conclude
that turning your back is not a shameful act.
Subaru: “Even if she doesn't face it now, Emilia will someday assuredly face her past. It's ironic, but
the TRIAL's made her remember it. She can't choose to forget it or swallow it down. So, as best I
can, my role's to build the conditions where she can settle it without suffering.”
Lewes: “...Yer planning to distance yerselves from suffering, but merely not running away from the
single most painful part.”
Subaru: “Running from that's surely also an option. But I believe she... that Emilia won't do that,
yup.”
Lewes: “How can yer believe in her that much? It's impossible fer me, at least. After seeing how
outer sorts she was leavin' the tomb, to hold that kinder expectation is...”
Subaru: “Well, I'm crazy in love with her.”
Lewes goes to pile up more denials, when Subaru casually drops that one on her. While Lewes' been
shocked several times through the conversation, this is the one that has her fucking gobsmacked. An
embarrassed smile rises on Subaru's face as he scratches his cheek.
Subaru: “I love Emilia, and I think she's mega cute. So, I believe that this loved mega-cute girl of
mine is a strong girl, who'll ultimately overcome anything, no matter how hard or painful. I expect
of her, expect of her, expect of her, and believe she'll meet that.”
Lewes: “Th... that ersn't an answer at all. No matter how much you love them, there're things in
their heart which'll stay futile. I'm sure you understand that too, Su-bo...”
Subaru: “Sure I understand. Emilia's a girl. She's not all strong parts, she's got frail parts too and
though they're super super small I'm sure she doesn't not have some ugly parts too.”
Lewes: “Are yer accepting it er not...”
Subaru: “Believing, that even with that weak part there the strong part will shine its light, would be
what devotion is, right?”
Devotion. The strongest expression of love, is the belief engraved in Subaru's heart. When he truly,
with body and soul got to offer his devotion, he felt felicity. So,
Subaru: “I'm giving all I can, to Emilia. I believe she'll conquer her weak parts and raise her head
strong, and I'll be working to trawl in the scene where I gloat that believing in her was correct.”
Lewes: “...Even so, the only one who gets to face their most painful heart is the person themself.”
Subaru: “Well of course, right? I can't be at Emilia's side when she faces her PAST. If I were in her
PAST, I could take her hand when she's crouched down crying and pull her back up, stand her up,
give her the best cheerleading I can from beside her, but I'm not there. What happened in the PAST
has no relation to me. Reach my hand out and it's just clinging, the people watching a drama can't
interfere with what's on the TV.”
It's the truth. PAST was the PAST, and Subaru couldn't touch it. The PAST Subaru overcame was
nothing more than forgery, he didn't communicate a single word to his real parents, and all he
gained from it was a sense of self-satisfaction. But,
Subaru: “It's definite that being rewarded with something is better than being rewarded with
nothing. I can't lend her my hand when she's facing her PAST. But it doesn't contradict the rules for
your present self to lend your old, insufficient self a hand, does it?”
Lewes goes silent.
Subaru: “I can't lend her my hand, but my words and actions and love and... well, I'd be happy if she
put me first, but Emilia's received other things from lots of people as well. She at least has more
things now than she did in the PAST. If you have lots of weapons to use, those also get sent to the
insufficient PAST. The difficulty rating of this TRIAL's based on the premise that you'll overcome it
doing that, yeah?”
Subaru: “I will help Emilia. I'll completely devote myself so that she can overcome her past. And
for that purpose, I'll use side-roads or obstinance or cheat donation items or damn anything. That's
how I devote myself.”
Lewes: “Gracious... ain't that beyond the peak of loving someone egocentrically.”
Subaru: “Neither herbivore nor carnivore, call me the omnivore male!”

Subaru clicks his fingers and flashes a grin, entering a thumbs-up winking pose. Lewes gives a
long, long, resigned sign.
Lewes: “Those were sure some pretty words yer lined up, in that excuse of yers to be wily.”
Subaru: “Heheh!”
Lewes: “Twaddle. ...Sorry, I can't tell yer the details of that side-road. But I can say that if yer
relying on that, it ain't going to werk. Frederica's leaving SANCTUARY was an erksception. Yer can't
bring everybody out of SANCTUARY.”
And thus Lewes crushes Subaru's prospects with a shake of her head. Subaru's dejection, slumped
shoulders, collapsing to the floor on his knees—etc, doesn't happen.
Subaru: “Oh well. It was just a thought that'd be a profit if it went well but we'll put that as fine.
Then, the next question'd be...”
Lewes: “It's weird with me sayin' it but, that sure didn't discourage yer, Su-bo.”
Subaru: “If this much was enough to break me, I have no idea how many times I would've wound
up inside a whale's stomach. Me saying this's something too but, I've got no weapons except how
bad I am at giving up and the depth of my love.”
Lewes is again fucking amazed. Subaru claps his hands.
Subaru: “Snap outta that,”
Subaru: “Though, I know that Emilia revealing her true power at full strength and overcoming the
TRIAL just like that'd be the most hero-epic-ish way for it to go. As a 老練な TRIAL 挑戦者, would
you have anything to comment on that, Lewes-san?”2
Lewes: “Feels I jerst got called sermething incredibly stupid. And all I can answer to that question's
that I don't know. I've never taken the TRIAL before, so there should be no way that I would know,
yer?”
Subaru: “Whu?”
Subaru: “Would you have perhaps just proclaimed that you have never taken the TRIAL?”
Lewes: “Why're yer speaking polite all the sudden. Ain't it obvious? Me taking the TRIAL, with its
practice of having outsiders take it, wouldn't be allowed. Same fer the others. Least as far as the 70
years I know, it's never happened. Yer the ferst, Su-bo.”
Subaru: “Nnononononoweirdweirdweirdweird. Hold on pause, stay, wait, things're weird

information's off. I'm checking my heart's notepad so just a moment please.”
Lewes: “Yer got five minutes.”
Subaru nods gratefully at Lewes' unexpected patience, puts his fingers to his temples, and
frantically files through his memory. He goes back to the day before the start of the last loop, and to
2 This is me being tongue-in-cheek because of Lewes' line but holy shit imagine what a fucking catastrophe Subaru's
dialogue would be if you did this for all the English shit he says.
the point just after he'd overcome the TRIAL, putting together the minute inconsistencies.
Subaru realises that, there in his memories, is already an inconsistency which shouldn't be there. His
face stiffens at this truth, and he somehow manages to keep himself from muttering 'What is this?'.
But he can't stop the pip of suspicion from budding, its stem from growing, its flower from
blooming.
Inside Subaru's memories, the night before the TRIAL, Lewes said this:
—Nobody has challenged the TRIAL until now. There has never been a challenger since I've been
around.
Inside Subaru's memories, right before and right after the TRIAL, Lewes said this:
—I've taken the TRIAL before, I didn't beat it but I'm here and safe. Proof that even if you challenge,
there's no damage.
In the span of just one day, her statements completely flipped. If these were just some statements
based on emotion it'd be one thing, but these are about lived experiences based on reality. Such a
huge change in the information has to mean there was, intentionally, a lie.
Subaru directs his gaze to Lewes. Lewes waits there, fiddling with her pink hair. Her legs don't
reach the floor, dangling as she sits on the bed, her visage as she distracts herself from boredom
completely contrary to her granny insides and the very picture of a little girl.
Subaru didn't want to think that she'd been toying with him maliciously all until now, but,
Subaru: “If one of them is true, which one should I believe?”
Subaru's stance until now when faced with differing information was to believe in the one he
wanted to believe, but with Emilia's fate resting on the decision, he can't make it so lightly. This was
literally a life-threatening problem. He had to be careful.
This was now the third time the topic of challenging the TRIAL had been brought up with Lewes.
The first time she said she'd taken it, the second time she didn't know about the TRIAL. Frequency
alone didn't indicate truth, but taking that stance here, then perhaps the side to believe is that Lewes
doesn't know about the TRIAL.
Thinking like that, then her fooling him that she had taken the TRIAL could be interpreted as her
being considerate to ease an uneasy Subaru. But if that was the case, Subaru figures she would've
mentioned even in passing afterwards that it was a lie.
Subaru: “There's some reason she couldn't do that... maybe she's started going senile...”
Lewes: “Did yer just try finalising a rather rude theory towards me?”
Subaru: “Just tried my hardest to interpret things positively, is the effort I put in and I'd be glad if
you could respect that and let that counterbalance things, Subaru tried asserting with a posed look.”
Lewes sighs and shakes her head, exhausted.
Lewes: “So did yer get an answer outter that conversation with yer heart or whatsit?”
Subaru: “An answer, or more like a conclusion of 'well maybe it was this'. Um, so hey Lewes-san
were you maybe just kinda worried about me? Like outside the tomb.”
Lewes: “Worried?”
Subaru: “Yeah,”
Subaru nods and brings his hands together, interlacing his fingers, entering otome mode
Subaru: “You said during that one conversation you hadn't taken the TRIAL, but outside the tomb
you said you had taken it but you said like it wasn't such a big deal? So, that might've been you
being thoughtful towards me when I had my propensities for getting spooked going or I guess
proneness to worrying going or I guess, well I only just realised that might've been it and...”
Lewes: “—Ah, so that's it.”
Says Lewes in a comprehending tone, cutting into Subaru's fast-paced awkward-headed dialogue.
Subaru furrows his brows in confusion, Lewes smiles.
Lewes: “Su-bo, I'll tell yer some advice. As something special.”
Subaru: “Advice?”
Lewes: “With the ties ter the contract in place, I cannert tell LIES. So when I'm asked an
inconvenient question, the only option ter avoid answering is ter choose silence. There's no
exceptions, and it has nothern ter do with being fer anybody's sake. LIES are banned. Not just fer
me, fer all the people of SANCTUARY.”
Subaru: “You can't tell, lies?”
All Subaru has at this sudden confession is confusion. If what Lewes is saying is true, it messes up
the central basis of Subaru's idea. Or no, if the things Lewes was saying before were truths, then the
very fact he'd come up with this question of his towards her contradicted it.
—How did Lewes, who supposedly can't tell lies, create a situation that couldn't happen without
telling lies?
Subaru: “Um...”
Lewes: “Fer as I'm concerned now, this's the limit of what infermation I can voice. Asking anything
more ain't going ter werk. Bad things'll happen fer both of us if the contract isn't abided. If yer want
to know more, don't question my stopped-up self, ask it ter one who's gone forward.”
Subaru can only close his opened mouth and fall into silence. If Lewes rejects him like this, being
that Subaru has no methods here except coasting off her goodwill, he really has nothing he can do.
But taking this as truth, Subaru firmly grasps that Lewes's desire to be freed from SANCTUARY was
not a falsehood.
Subaru: “Okay, I won't ask more. Let's change the topic. To something else.”
Lewes: “Yer've got strange tastes. Yer know you won't learn anything about the core point, but are
yer still gonna chat over tea with this old lady?”
Subaru: “I missed breakfast, and I've got free time until Emilia-tan wakes up. Looking at Roswaal
pisses me off, Garfiel's bearing his fangs at me, it's tiring having Otto make me make comebacks,
I'm gonna deepen my precious friendship with the loligranny.”
Standing up, Subaru collects the two cups of thoroughly cold tea and heads for the kitchen, Lewes
watching him go.
Subaru: “You don't have to worry, it's only been a sorta-kinda short-period thing but I am living as a
servant in Roswaal's mansion. I've at least been taught how to brew tea.”
Lewes: “Hrm. Then, allow me ter wait with expectations.”
Subaru: “Wuou, pressure,”
Subaru gets new tea in the teacups, hands one off to Lewes, and returns to his original spot. They
face each other, again taking their first sip.
Lewes: “Yer not too bad.”
Subaru: “Made it myself but leaves're still leaves. Also, so about changing the topic...”
Lewes: “If yer gonna continue that conversation I ain't listening. Instead... well, on any other topic
I'd like ter answer yer as earnestly as posserble.”
Subaru: “Alright, so I'll be obliging.”
A nasty smile rises on Subaru's face.
Subaru: “Is there anything that Garfiel's weak to or hates, or things he'd faint at just by seeing?”
Lewes: “Su-bo, are yer aware that yer way of devoting yerself is a tidge crooked?”
And with that, Subaru prompts Lewes to make the most incredible expression she's made over this
whole hour.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
After their chat ends and they clean up the teacups, Lewes states she wants to be alone and Subaru
leaves her behind as he exits the house. Subaru thinks that they spent a little longer than an hour, but
the sun which had supposed to have only just risen now sits high in the sky, the temperature risen.
Feels like just past 10 am.
Subaru: “This's perfect sunlight to be airing out a futon, what a waste... wow that thought feels like
I've completely shed being a shut-in.”
Subaru: “Time's time, Emilia'll be waking up soon. After yesterday, she'll probably be downcast so
I'll imprint my existence on her by taking advantage while she's weak.”
With that rather underhanded line, while sincerely wanting to see the worried Emilia, Subaru gets
moving. He goes fast as he can, wanting to be with her to ease her for a long time. Because,
Subaru: “Tomorrow, I'll wind up having to not be there.”
Afternoon of this day, Roswaal will likely formally propose the liberation of the Arlam village
evacuees. Then immediately get everything arranged, and the departure from SANCTUARY will be
tomorrow.
Subaru would be going along. He had to return to the mansion.
Subaru: “If you wanna know anything deeper, don't ask someone stopped-up, go ask one who's
gone forward... that's sure some goddamn roundabout speech.”
But not being roundabout meant she couldn't communicate what she wanted to communicate.
Feeling pity for what a goddamn pain that is, Subaru sighs.
Subaru: “I'm expecting some answers about your dumb little brother and annoying hometown,
Frederica.”
CHAPTER 30: UNEASE ON THE ROAD HOME
Roswaal's proposal—the release of the evacuees from Arlam village.
Just like last time, the proposal goes through without much trouble. That keeping the evacuees in
SANCTUARY is almost completely unbeneficial hasn't changed, but what has is the pruning of the
conditions attached. Last time there was the condition that Subaru take the TRIAL, but,
Subaru: “This time, the guy who raised that condition absolutely hates me...”
Emilia: “What's wrong, Subaru?”
Subaru: “Nnnyope, nothing. More importantly, are you okay, Emilia-tan? All calm? If my being
here's a bother I'll concede as far as going outside the room.”
The scene: Subaru and Emilia, inside Lewes' Emilia-lodging house, sitting beside each other on the
bed in the bedroom, passing time together without the topic ever being anything particularly lively.
It's already evening, and night will come very soon. Subaru had a late breakfast with Emilia after
she woke up, then had those proceedings with Roswaal and Lewes and so on about the Evacuee
Problem sorted. The matter proceeded without problems, the evacuees' release would wind up as
tomorrow, and—
Garfiel: “So, 's obvious t' say, but... yer know Emilia-sama is challengin' the TRIAL tonight too,
yeh?”
If Garfiel hadn't thrown in this reminder, they could've dodged the issue. Suppressing the urge to
click his tongue, Subaru glanced at Emilia. Seeing the instant of fear and piteousness that ran
through her expression, he judged that no, Emilia would not be able to overcome the TRIAL this
time.
Unlike Subaru who has his memories carry over, the conditions here for Emilia ultimately haven't
changed. So if Emilia's going to be able to overcome the TRIAL, it has to be through Subaru's
activities causing a dramatic shift in the environment around her. And this loop, the prospects to
greatly change her environment in this short time frame weren't looking bright. —She challenges
tonight, and probably all that happens is she'll be worn down.
Subaru: “But how she said she'd do it without any complaining was really Emilia-tan.”
Emilia had immediately concealed that instant of emotion, and firmly stated “But of course I'll do
it.” Even Garfiel narrowed his eyes impressed with that one, though hearing Roswaal's quiet whistle
made Subaru seem about to snap with anger. Either way, unable to avoid putting it off, the start of
tonight's TRIAL was now only a few hours away.
It had already been three hours since the conversation ended, they had their lunch, and returned to
the house. Subaru had been with Emilia the entire time and they'd been talking without any breaks,
but—with the time for the TRIAL closing in, Emilia's contribution to the talks have noticeably
decreased. Presently, she's just giving the barest minimum of conversation-filler replies to whatever
Subaru's saying. But even so,
Emilia: “Umm... that's no, don't.”
Subaru: “Ah, roger. All good. Until you're calmed down, Emilia-tan, I'll be focusing on breathing in
the air you breath out, you relax.”
Emilia: “That's sooo creepy. ...But, stay here.”
Shrugging at the complex emotions of a young maiden's heart, Subaru does exactly as told and stays
there. While sitting next to her, albeit pathetically lacking the courage to place his hand on hers, he's
earnestly happy about being wanted. And by Emilia.
Even if it's only because he's a substitute, arising from absence of the one she relied on most.
Ever since coming to SANCTUARY—No, more accurately—even since their return to the mansion
where Puck had stopped answering Emilia's calls, Emilia's attitude toward Subaru had been
softening.
Part of Subaru was simply overjoyed that she was relaxing her guard around him, while another part
harboured a quiet doubt.
That part stated: Emilia's lost her supports and may be in a dangerous situation.
Emilia: “...Hm?”
Subaru: “Nothing. Just thinking 'Emilia-tan's eyelashes're so long and cute, wanna eat 'em.'”
Emilia: “Subaru, you keep saying you want to eat my hair or eyelashes or lick my cheeks, but... um,
are you into that?”
Subaru: “It's sorta the biggest expression of love you can give where I come from.”
Subaru considers licking the greatest statement of courting you can give, but if he ever tried
attempting it the receiving party'd probably back the fuck away. And especially so when in a world
where the underlying intention wouldn't be understood. Had to be careful with his words. Super
belated on that though.
Distracting Emilia by saying this pointless bullshit is the best that Subaru can presently do. Subaru
knew a fragment of the past Emilia would face. And if he mentioned that, there'd surely be a
dramatic shift from what happened last time.
—But it wouldn't be a change for the better.
No matter what the circumstances, the essential factor is time.

That went for Emilia facing her past, but also for her heart to steady its resolve. For Subaru to
present that fragment of past out to her, and hear what actually happened from her mouth, would
also need time. Time, time, time. There wasn't enough.
Subaru: “I gotta be running around like crazy with this cramped schedule. Have I ever had a chance
to pass the time quietly since I came to this world?”
Searching his memories, the only time that could be called peaceful for Subaru was the couple of
weeks after the Ulgarm incident. Before and after that event things had been over-tumultuous, and
if he did say so himself, it was a mystery how he hadn't died from overwork.
Emilia: “—Subaru.”
Subaru's slow to react as he looks towards the voice—towards Emilia, who looks at him, her eyes
wet. Enamoured, Subaru's heart gives a thump so loud as to think it might be stopping. Subaru's
breath catches. Determination and indecision waver in Emilia's eyes. Like she's going to reveal
something to Subaru, but is lost on whether to do it.
Subaru: “What is it?”
So with all the tenderness he can muster, Subaru pays caution not to rush Emilia as he picks his
words. If her determination is the one to manifest, he absolutely won't be hindering that. But Emilia
averts her gaze.
Emilia: “ah... m, sorry. No. Just, calling.”
Subaru: “—. Ri, ght. Just calling! Sounds like something a newly-dating couple'd be doing all the
time!”
Emilia: “I, have to go soon, so...”
Her determination folds. Lamenting that it got away, Subaru puts on false bravado so she won't
sense it. Emilia stands up, and looks outside the window at the beginning of night.
Emilia: “—I have to go to the tomb. Subaru, you'll be there until partway.”
Subaru: “I'd like to bow to Garfiel and have him let me see you off to the entrance, but I don't know
whether I can persuade him. ...Emilia, saying this might be pointless, but...”
Emilia: “—It's pointless. That's nooo good, Subaru.”
Don't force yourself, is how Subaru was going to stop her, but Emilia reads ahead and cuts him off.
She gives a hardy smile, putting her finger to her lips.
Emilia: “It's okay—is something maybe you can't think after seeing how messed up I was yesterday,
but I'll do my best. I want to do my best. I have to do my best, is what I think.”
Emilia balls the hand before her face into a fist.
Emilia: “So,”
Emilia: “If you're going to tell me anything, don't make it a 'YOU CAN STOP', cheer me on with a 'DO
YOUR BEST'. Then if I can think that there's even one person out there expecting things from me, I'll
definitely be able to use that as strength.”
Subaru: “I am expecting things from you, Emilia-tan. There's no man out there except maybe your
cat dad who's expecting things from you as much as me. —Do your best.”
Emilia: “Mm, I will.”
Emilia gives her first genuine smile of the day. Feeling relief at seeing that smile, Subaru stands up
and follows Emilia as she exits the building. A cold, chilly wind blows through the night in
SANCTUARY.
Emilia's silver hair dances on the breeze. Watching the light catch on that river of silver, Subaru
stares at her back, his every step strong.
—Tonight's still not going to work, is what he feels.

※ † † † † † † † † † †
Subaru's returning to Roswaal's mansion with the evacuees happens two days earlier than in the
previous loop.
But if you remove the time difference, it's basically otherwise the same. The evacuees file into their
respective carriages that they'd arrived in SANCTUARY on, they and the merchants freed to exit
SANCTUARY. Subaru and Otto are accompanying them too.
The biggest point of difference from last time is,
Subaru: “Someone volunteered to guide the way, but I'm surprised that it's you, Lewes-san. Usually
this'd be for an underling... or, a post for someone in that kind of position, right?”
Lewes: “What, er yer not satisfied with me? Su-bo, fer being their tea-drinking friends, yer sure
cold ter yer elders, my poor heart.”
Says Lewes as she pretends to cry. She's squished up next to Subaru and Otto on the driver's
platform, making the space here pretty tight.
Otto: “Yes, I empathise. Natsuki-san truly has no mercy or constraint, and so I'm sure he's forgotten
to consider such subtleties while speaking with you, Ma'am.”
Lewes: “Oi, Su-bo. There's some guy I don't know 'ere, who's that, this guy.”
Otto: “That's what my position is to you!?”
Otto's attempt to raise a conference for those wounded by Subaru fails nicely. He's holding the
reins, carries the lifeblood of the carriage, and he's still getting made fun of. A shadow falls over his
face.
Otto: “Ah... The impression I gave was one of somebody who'd been constantly yelling like this
ever since arriving, but it certainly stuck well on Margrave Mathers.”
Subaru: “You got to show him your usual not-worked-up self, and he laughed so hard the wounds
on his stomach opened so I'd say that impression you left was pretty strong?”
Otto: “There are good and bad impressions in this world, but thinking normally, which side do you
think the impression you get when your stomach tears open belongs on?”
Subaru: “This's what he says after leaving people's stomachs ripped open... guy's beyond help.”
Otto: “If I'm beyond help then by your accompanying you're well beyond help, too!”
So this time Otto managed to get his meeting with Roswaal without any fuss. Roswaal, who
laughed his ass off at Otto's normal demeanour, likely does not hold a low opinion of Otto.
Although it doesn't seem Roswaal particularly regarded Otto in terms of being a merchant.
Subaru: “Well, that's fine so long as I keep cornering you further through our relationship. Besides,
knowing top secret information of the Mathers domain, escape is already beyond you.”
Otto: “Meeting you was when my luck ran out, Natsuki-san... or no, I've now reached a sort of
enlightenment and that part is fine.”
Plummeting down a road of misfortune without being disheartened, Otto indeed possesses the
strong will of a merchant. His destiny would almost certainly never be one that brought him great
success, but he still wouldn't regret the choices he made. Internally, Subaru indeed feels friendship
toward this dude.
Subaru: “I'll be working you from now on too, so good to have you, Otto!”
Otto: “What the heck is he saying with such a sunny expression, this man!”
Subaru taps Otto on the shoulders and shoots him a thumbs up. Lewes gestures plugging her ears,
squished between the noisy two as Subaru looks down from the carriage.
Subaru: “—So, see you soon, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “Mm, take care.”
So Emilia's there too and she gives a little wave.
—Last night, accompanied by Subaru, Emilia challenged the TRIAL. She failed. Since Subaru
couldn't accompany her inside the tomb, her TRIAL wasn't interrupted partway through and she
crawled stupefied out of the tomb herself, collapsed into Subaru's arms, and lost consciousness.
Having spent the entire night at her side as she slept, Subaru couldn't remember just how many
times he wiped the tears from her sleeping face. Saying that Subaru felt no unease about leaving her
behind, harbouring this mental wear, would be a complete lie. He wanted to be at her side as much
as possible, supporting her trembling body.
Subaru: “I'll be back in a day or two, so don't force yourself. There's no need to rush if the villagers
are gone. Let's slowly, take our time in conquering this.”
Emilia: “Right... right. Mm, if that's what you say, Subaru...”
Different from the smile last night where she'd gotten some slight strength back, this smile is weak
and feels only fleeting. That she was nevertheless standing here seeing Subaru and the others off
itself meant she was forcing herself. Otherwise it might be that there's something else tugging at her
attention, and she's doing this to forget it.
Subaru: “Ram, I don't mean that as a reminder but...”
Ram: “I have my suspicions what that may have been other than a reminder. ...Do relax. Loathe as I
am to say, I share your opinion, Barusu. This problem is fundamentally one that should be viewed
as an extended battle. So long as Roswaal-sama does not order otherwise, I'll keep Garf controlled.”
Subaru: “I'm in your debt... is terrifying actually. I'll thank you some other way.”
Ram: “Tch. Unexpectedly good intuition from Barusu.”
Subaru: “I just casually avoided a death flag there—hk”

Clicking her tongue, Ram gives a graceful and polite bow, that being the only polite thing she's
giving him. She takes a step back, and Subaru rights his seating on the driver's platform for
departure—when he spots Garfiel, far behind the row of see-offers, glaring with his arms crossed.
Garfiel notices that Subaru's noticed him. Their gazes meet. Neither can tell what exactly the other
is feeling, but with the thing with Emilia last night, the riskiness hasn't softened a bit.
Subaru mutters about finding a way to start the Befriend Garfiel route.
Otto: “Natsuki-san? Now is about time for departure, shall we go?”
Subaru: “We shall. Lewes-san, escort pleaaase!”
Lewes: “Leave it all ter me.”
Lewes nods, Otto gives Patrasche and Frufoo the signal. The carriages slowly start moving, and the
migration of evacuees begins. The carriages move at a pretty sluggish pace, which is inevitable out
of consideration for all the kids, elderly and women aboard.
Subaru: “But still, everyone looks good, knowing they can go back.”
Lewes: “Home, ers something with that power. No matter how little there is ter see, no matter how
boring it is, yer always wind up leaving yer heart there in the end.”
Mutters Subaru, and Lewes follows up. Subaru crosses his arms and tilts his head.
Subaru: “Really, huh?”
Subaru: “Do you love SANCTUARY too, Lewes-san?”
Lewes: “...Who cerld say. I'm in a special case where I don't know anywhere outside it. Thinking of
other places is frightening, is a thought I do have.”
Subaru: “Frightening?”
Lewes: “It's frightening to tread into somewhere unknown, Su-bo. Specially fer old biddies like
me.”
An aged smile rises on Lewes' face, her eyes looking somewhere distant. But since her appearance
is a little girl, no matter how serious she gets, she just looks like a little girl overcompensating and it
falls apart.
Sharing conversations here and there along the road as they go, the line of carriages proceeds
slowly though the forest. The trip's about 8-hours one way. The Windbreaker Blessing guarantees
that the travel's smooth, which ironically makes it all feel like it's taking longer.
Lewes: “Yer've got a pretty clever dragon. Even if I weren't escortin', would barely get the road
wrong at all.”
Subaru: “She's my adorable pride and joy. It's kinda wrong for me to be bragging about it, but the
people around me are pretty high level, yknow?”
Starting with the cast of Roswaal's mansion, everyone Subaru's met since the start of the Royal
Selection has been a somebody. His own banality and averageness is incredibly pathetic, but Subaru
rationalises that for now just looking up is acceptable. His start might've been late and he may be a
lap behind, but he has begun running. All he has to do to catch up is continue—and the strength to do
that, has already been given to him.
Subaru: “That reminds me, it's all good that you're escorting us halfway, but what are you going to
do for getting back, Lewes-san? All the carriages are returning to Arlam Village, there won't be any
transportation for you.”
Lewes: “Yer don't hafter worry, I'm of course going back on my own two feet. I'll let yer know that
these legs still gotter long way ter go before they lose ter any youngster.”
Lewes slaps her short, skinny little legs. There is not a single speck of persuasiveness in what she's
saying, but Subaru has no inclination to break the heart of a confident little girl.
Subaru: “Got it got it... hey, Otto. You have the willpower to run back to SANCTUARY carrying a
little girl?”
Otto: “I'm afraid I have no idea what that question would be implying, so would you mind if I said
no?”
Subaru: “You hear that, Lewes-san? Seems like this guy doesn't even have the integrity to carry a
little girl who has to walk through a big, dark forest alone. One, two little girls, he couldn't care
less.”
Lewes: “It's terrerrble. How barren people's hearts have become.”
Otto: “Did you two prepare this beforehand!?”
Otto's yelling rips through the forest's silence. Subaru and Lewes look at each other, smiling, when
Lewes suddenly looks up.
Lewes: “About here.”
Subaru furrows his brows, when Lewes abruptly slumps toward him. He catches her.
Subaru: “Otto, stop. There's something weird about Lewes-san.”
Otto: “Are we returning to the village?”
Otto brings the carriage to a stop and conveys instructions to the other carriages through hand-
signal flags, the other vehicles stopping and the dragons growling. Lewes raises her hand.
Lewes: “...Sorry. Yer don't hafter go back. It's just the effect of coming so close ter the barrier. I'll
probably go unconsciousness if we go far as exiting the forest.”
Subaru: “The barrier... then it's the same as when Emilia entered SANCTUARY.”
Subaru: “But man there's really no making it out, this barrier. Not sensitive-skinned me or dull-
skinned Otto are really feeling anything.”
Otto: “What is 'dull skinned'. There isn't any such thing as skin being sensitive or dull.”
Subaru: “Young people who neglect their skincare like that will come to regret their past ignorance
when they steadily and steadily get troubled with freckles and blemishes from their late twenties
on.”
Otto: “I sincerely haven't a clue what you're saying any more, but returning to topic, this would be
where we part with Lewes-sama... correct?”
Lewes: “Yer, would be. This's far as I go. Those of SANCTUARY have terrerrble compatibility with
the barrier. Came fer the first time in a while ter see what'd happen... but no, there's nothing going.”
Subaru: “Was part of you coming along perhaps to test that?”
Lewes: “I thought this was a serprisingly convenient thing fer me, too. But the barrier's just as yer
see. …If I'm no good, then SANCTUARY won't be freed unless the TRIAL's over. I'm sure yer knew
that, Su-bo.”
Subaru senses that Lewes is showing him what conditions are like for those trapped in SANCTUARY,
that Lewes yearns to leave the place, and that such a thing is an extremely natural want.
Subaru: “And Emilia'd feel the same thing if she came this far.”
Lewes: “Since she entered inside, yer. There's more people living in SANCTUARY than just ones who
were born ernd raised here. Roz-bo's sometimes brought along ones in similar circumstances from
outside. Those kids became the witch's property the instant they entered SANCTUARY. Emilia-sama's
nert an exception.”
Subaru: “...Kinda feel there's some information in there I can't let slide, again.”
If these people Roswaal's bringing in are effected by the barrier, that'd mean they're half-bloods.
Subaru: “Then he's bringing them here and trapping them? What the hell's he thinking?”
Lewes: “His intentions fer that... hearing that from my mouth'd be a breach. Yer should ask Roz-bo
directly when yer come back, Su-bo.”
Lewes gets out of Subaru's arms and hops down off the driver's platform, going to stroke Patrasche's
neck.
Lewes: “Good dragon. Yer go help yer master good, now.”
Patrasche nuzzles her back, seeming to agree with Lewes. And not being conceited but this was the
first time Subaru'd seen Patrasche be so friendly with anyone except him. For being able to talk
with her, Otto eats quite the number of headbutts.
Subaru: “I've got lotsa things to do in SANCTUARY, so I'm coming back right after I've asked
Frederica what I wanna ask.”
Lewes: “That'd be best. ...This ers just my intuition, but I don't think things in SANCTUARY'll move
without yer.”
Subaru: “And there's another serious overestimation... it's just intuition though.”
Lewes: “It's the intuition of a woman who's lived over 100 years.”
Subaru something something somethings and gives Lewes a polite bow from atop the driver's
platform. She backs off from the carriage, Otto quietly announces they're going.
Subaru: “Well, see you again, Lewes-san. Take care and get back safely.”
Lewes: “Mhm. Yer'll leave the forest if yer go straight ahead from here. Keep going till yer hit the
road, and yer dragon'll handle the rest. Take care.”
Lewes waves at them, Otto again signalling with the flags to get the group of carriages moving.
While watching them leave, Lewes turns her back and heads deeper into the forest. Subaru watches
her gradually disappear into the gaps between the trees, praying for her safe return—even though
inside Subaru's chest, he had felt an inexpressible disquiet.
Subaru: “...Kinda, felt uneasy there.”
The unease arrived during that last conversation. Still unable to specifically express what it was,
Subaru entrusts his weight to the rocking of the carriage.
They exit the forest, the sunrays beam down, the road expands—they cross the barrier, and exit
Sanctuary.
There's still a long, long road ahead.
With things he had to do, and conversations he had to have.

CHAPTER 31: MAID MAID MAID
—This makes it the second time Subaru's returned to Roswaal's mansion from SANCTUARY.
Subaru: “Which's because I had a terrible experience the first time...”
Mutters Subaru as he dismounts from Patrasche before the mansion gates, scratching his cheek. The
evacuees, Otto and Subaru safely returned to Arlam Village after parting with Lewes. Though, that
was something he already accomplished last loop, and he didn't have any worries there considering
his trusty Patrasche.
Subaru: “The villagers being delighted and Otto staying behind a bit's same as last time. If I'm being
honest I'd want to bring Otto along as a human shield, but...”
Subaru had hesitated to insist Otto come along to the mansion. Considering the potential that there's
danger here, bringing along Otto, who doesn't seem capable of responding to split-second
conditions, wasn't something he should do. Subaru can't beat Otto in a straight fistfight, but that
doesn't make Otto some amazing strong-guy. Subaru would prefer not to be stuck with seeing Otto's
entrails if faced with the Guthunter.
Subaru: “Please let nothing have happened...”
The last time Subaru came here, it was six days after the start of the TRIAL. This time it's the third
day—three days of space left, compared to last time. The concept of the night Subaru got killed
being the same time the mansion got attacked lines up with various speculations. The problem is,
Subaru: “Three days left... So the schedule to get Frederica talking, get straight back to SANCTUARY,
promptly solve SANCTUARY's problem, and return to the mansion is tight. Looking purely at time
alone, it's not impossible, but...”
The route between SANCTUARY and the mansion takes about 8 hours travel one-way. A two-way trip
by itself eats up practically a whole day. And if you considered the time loss between those moments,
Subaru's freely usable time would likely get even more severe.
Subaru: “There's several methods for solving the problem, but... the optimum one, or I suppose
most expedient one is expectedly strict.”
Being that he knows of Elsa's attack beforehand, the optimum path as far as Subaru's concerned is
to repel her. He'd like this settled, if possible, with a victory that meant they he wouldn't have to be
afraid of that assassin any longer.
Necessary for that was a combat force superior to Elsa, and that could only be achieved with either
Roswaal or Garfiel. Presently, the chances of returning to the mansion again with them wasn't
looking good.
Subaru: “Ultimately, have to go ahead on the second-best track...”
Laments Subaru as he scratches his head, Patrasche bringing her snout over. Subaru smiles wryly as
Patrache nuzzles his shoulder, patting her rough neck.
Subaru: “There's reward corresponding to the risk, but in exchange it doesn't look like we can
prepare chances of winning to balance the risk. Haveta go with the plan of turning tail and
scattering like a bunch of baby spiders.”
This was one of the ideas that had passed through his mind during the fight with the Witch Cult.
He could see possibility with the amount of pieces he had last time, but this time his hand is paltry.
Even just sensing the attack beforehand and managing to escape could be called highly satisfactory.
But there was a problem there, too.
Subaru: “The people in the mansion. Rem, Petra, Frederica, and... dunno if Beako'll be cooperative
about evacuating. Honestly if I carry Rem on my shoulders and hold Petra's hand, seems like we
could go, but it's gonna take a lot convincing the other two.”
Subaru of course had the intention to force them into the carriage and abduct them if he had to. He
didn't think he could beat either of them in a fight, but he wanted to believe he could manage
something if he twisted some arms and insisted he wouldn't give up.
Subaru: “—Huu.”
Subaru sighs, aware of the building weight of responsibility on his shoulders. Just how many people
would his statements, actions, and resolve dictate the fates of? He'd been conscious of this same
feeling the night before the White Whale fight, too.
Subaru: “Can't just stand here at the gates freaking out forever. Still dunno if anything's happened
inside. I'll go see everyone's uninjured faces, start there...”
???: “Start there?”
Subaru: “And then think of ways to persuade them. Yup. They don't know so if I make up some lie
about it being on Roswaal's instructions or whatever...”
???: “S-Subaru, that's naughty!”
Subaru: “I'm just the age for aspiring towards being one of those naughty wild badboys... er,”
Subaru hears a giggling behind him and turns around. On the other side of the gates, in the mansion
garden, stands a little maid—a familiar young girl, Petra. Subaru's brows rise in surprise as she tilts
her head cutely, her chestnut hair swaying.
Petra: “I am graced to welcome you back, Subaru-sama. Your return has come earlier than I
thought.”
Subaru: “Right, I'm home... and thank you for that reception, can see Frederica's advanced-learners
lessons peeking through.”
With his cheeks unconsciously going loose with relief at Petra's grabbing the hem of her skirt and
bowing, Subaru opens the gate and enters the property. Subaru tilts his head toward the ground
dragon stables to indicate Patrasche go hang out there, and looks down at Petra beside him.
She makes a bewildered expression at Subaru's staring at her, then hurriedly turns around and rights
her hair and clothes with her hand.
Petra: “Good,”
She says satisfied, nodding, and turns back to Subaru.

Petra: “What is the matter, Subaru-sama?”
And she gives a lovable smile even sweeter than the last. Her cuteness paired with her pretty,
bright-future-having face gives that smile a devilishness to entrap those of the opposite sex. It was a
smile calculated and perfect, with complete understanding of how others would perceive it. Faced
with that, Subaru swallows his breath.
Subaru: “Ahh, augghh! Seriously, just too cute, you!”
Petra: “Wa-waah!?”
Without noticing even a fragment of her underlying intentions, Subaru embraces her body in a hug
and pats her head vigorously-yet-lovingly. Petra makes a confused noise at the sudden action, but,
Subaru: “Dunno what people're feeling and you're damn going all boing ding zoom. This girl, this
girl! Augh, man goddamnit!”
Petra: “What, what is ti!? Ah, wait, Subaru... it's still so early...”
Subaru: “Seriously, god damn it.”
Petra: “—Subaru?”
Petra's expression changes. Still settled in his arms, Petra looks up at Subaru, his voice low, the
bashfulness and joy in her expression disappeared.
Petra: “Does somewhere hurt?”
Petra reaches her hand out to touch a trembling Subaru's cheek. Subaru presses his palm over those
fingers of hers, shaking his head.
Subaru: “Nope,”
He breathes in through his nose, stops. Opens his closed eyes.
Subaru: “I'm just truly, from the bottom of my heart, relieved. —I'm home, Petra.”
※ † † † † † † † † † †
—Subaru returns Patrasche to the stables, holding the hand of a handhold-desiring Petra as he
returns to the mansion. According to Petra, there's been no conspicuous changes in the mansion
since Subaru and the others left.
Petra: “Big Sis Frederica's out checking the barrier in the mountains, so we'll maybe kinda have to
wait 'till she gets back... until her return.”
Subaru thinks back on the barrier—the algorithm which had sealed the ulgarm. The ulgarm in the
mountains are supposed to have been exterminated, but seems like the barrier's still around and in
use. The barrier apparently has some property that keeps nasty witchybeasty things out even if
they're not ulgarm, and it's Arlam village's and landlord Rowaal's faction's job to keep it maintained.
Petra: “I think the job to patrol the barrier for cracks'll come back after all the villagers are back, but
since not everyone's come home right now, Big Sis Frederica...”
Subaru: “Your calling her Big Sis's getting across that your relationship deepened while I wasn't
looking, feels kinda tickly but nice. And also, all the villagers're back.”
Petra: “Really?!”
Subaru points toward the village, Petra's voice bounces up and her eyes sparkle. Her parents
would've gone with the group to the Royal Capital, and should've been safely back in the village,
but that didn't change that all her close friends the villagers were all split up. Petra happily claps her
hands.
Subaru: “You go visit them afterwards. You show them your maid outfit and they'll be overjoyed.”
Petra: “Mmhm. After I get permission from Big Sis Frederica, I'll get changed and go back!”
Subaru: “No, don't get changed... you're so cute, so if you show everyone...”
Petra: “Ehehee, I'm cute? I'm cute?”
Subaru: “You're cute, you're cute. So make sure everyone...”
Petra: “Right! I'll get changed and go back!”
It's as if every time Subaru picks 'No' it gets drowned out by a peal of thunder. Perhaps having
something she's not going surrender, stubborn Petra isn't flinching so Subaru decides to give up.
Subaru clicks his neck, gives a deep breath, and stops.
Setting is the second floor of the mansion—shoesoles sliding over the carpet, Subaru raises his head
and stares at the door. Petra somewhat sadly unhooks her fingers from the handhold. Smart girl.
Subaru: “Sorry, Petra. Let us be alone for a while.”
Petra: “Mm, understood. I shall be resuming my cleaning in the west building, so please call me if
there is anything.”
Petra puts back on her discarded maidliness, gives a small bow, and leaves. Riding off her
thoughtfulness, Subaru pokes himself in the head, knowing he has things to do closing in on him.
Pokes himself, but still—
Subaru: “When it's to talk, wondering what I should prioritise... this is where I wind up.”
Pushing the door open, Subaru slowly treads into the room.
A room where time remains still. Inside that plain place is a bed—and upon it, a sleeping girl.
Stripped of her familiar maid outfit, wrapped in a pale blue nightgown.
Her eyes closed, not even her breathing is audible. Only the quiet thumping of her heartbeat
provided the meagre proof that she was yet tied to existence.
Subaru: “...Rem.”
Surely the whirlpool of emotion packed into that word would be apparent to anyone. A torrent of
endless emotion he could direct at only one in the entire world.
Subaru had steeled himself to face any hardship without wavering, turning his heart to iron. Had
steeled to raise his head and proceed without leaning on anyone.
—That determination and resolve vanishes the instant he's with her.
Subaru had told Emilia to leave it to him, pulled her hand forward to do something, strongly
exhibited that he would do it. That outer layer of determination peeled away the moment he was
with her.
Subaru: “So pathetic... I'm seriously, so weak.”
The second he's with Rem, back to being the once-weak Natsuki Subaru does Subaru revert.
Back to the time when Rem's devotion affirmed him, and he first stood, does Subaru revert.
He slowly reaches for her sleeping face, his fingers brushing away her bangs. Her expression hasn't
changed at all, the prospects of the EATEN girl returning still as yet unrealised.
But if he regardless left her sleeping here without doing anything, even this vessel would be lost.
Subaru: “You might not feel this way, but it's thanks to you that my resolve hardens.”
Subaru can tell that the surface of his weak and brittle heart has been peeled, and is steadily being
replaced with a covering of steel.
Rem's sleeping visage, her assuredly present heartbeat, just the very fact that she was there, sent
Natsuki Subaru back to that time. To that moment, to that feeling of being born again.
Subaru: “It's because you told me that my weak self was fine, because you proposed me that I get
stronger... that I've been able to stand up so many times, saying that I'll do something.”
No matter what pain, suffering, hardship, or other unpleasantness awaited, her full-souled love
healed Subaru. Spurring him forward, his heart wishing to match up.
Subaru: “You, and Petra, and everyone else... I'll get you all out of here safely.”
Tenderly stroking her forehead, Subaru holds back his desire to touch her further. The breeze blows
into the room as he simply sits there, silent, seated, at her bedside.
Pouring all of a section of precious time into her was the best Subaru could currently do to present
his heart to her.
Who could say how much time passed calmly like that.
A knock on the door pulls Subaru's consciousness away from vacantly staring at Rem and back into
reality. He raises his head, looks towards the door.
Subaru: “Yes?”
???: “I apologize for my intrusion. —It delights me to find that you have returned without incident,
Subaru-sama.”
A tall maid silently pushes the door open and enters the room. Her blonde hair sways, her body
accustomed to her graceful movements—Frederica. She looks at Subaru beside the sleeping Rem,
and bows her head.
Frederica: “There would be several inquiries I would like to make... but I am certain you are in the
same mind, Subaru-sama. Let us change the setting. Sleeping as she may be, I suspect you would
not especially desire for her to hear.”
Subaru: “Makes things quick. ...Do you have an idea what I want to talk about?”
Frederica: “Most probably.”
Subaru gives a small sigh as he stands up. He gives Rem's face one last touch, and balls his hand
into a fist to dispel the regret.
Subaru: “Your rowdy foul-mouthed little brother, and the gap moe who looks like a loli but has
granny insides. Then the test site in SANCTUARY, and Roswaal's plans. Let me look forward to just
how quickly and how many answers I'm gonna be getting.”
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Frederica: “That the Master neglected to return would suggest the TRIAL is yet to be finished.”
The two have left Rem's bedroom and relocated to the parlour. Setting a steaming cup of black tea
before Subaru, Frederica seats herself opposite him with that statement as her first line. Subaru stirs
his tea with his spoon, nodding.
Subaru: “Yeah,”
Subaru: “Seriously makes things quick. —You know, I kinda wanna object to how little you told us
seeing us off when you knew so much about the place.”
Frederica: “I shall present you no excuses. That I neglected to exhaustively speak regarding
SANCTUARY, the TRIAL, and my doltish little brother is truth.”
Frederica's matter-of-fact tone carries no guilt in it. But to say there was no meekness in it would be
wrong. It was also hard to pin it as her suppressing her emotions, and was ultimately a presented
apathy which kept Subaru from supposing her true feelings.
The same kind of type as Ram—but considering the length of Frederica and Subaru's relationship,
Frederica is harder.
Subaru: “Like I said in the room before, I've got some things I wanna ask... but is it safe for me to
anticipate I'll get an answer for all of them?”
Frederica: “...I certainly doubt I will be able to answer to your expectations. Being that SANCTUARY
has not been released, the contract between myself and the Master remains as tied. So long as I am
following the contract, the information I am capable of conveying to you shall be limited.”
Subaru: “Contracts again... goddamn everybody.”
Just interpret the damn contract according to the environment! Is what he wanted to yell, but being
that he'd pledged to Emilia to keep his promises, his heart had some reproaches about forcing that
upon others.
Subaru: “Is it okay if I ask you about the details of that contract?”
Frederica: “It is not. A contract is shared between myself and Roswaal-sama, and so being that it
exists, the information I may disclose is limited. —That is the only thing I am capable of speaking
on this topic.”
Subaru: “That didn't increase the information load at all. Shit, that bastard pulled some fucking
nonsense preparations on this. I'm serious the only thing I can think here's he's turning hostile.”
Subaru clicks his tongue and pulls himself together with a sip of tea. Just tastes like leaves as
always, but with all this tea he's had passing through his throat, he has indeed become able to
discern which leaves are expensive and which are not. —Tongue says: these are expensive.
Subaru: “Not the place to mention it. ...That you're from SANCTUARY, and are Garfiel's big sister,
does line up with the facts, right? Or would this also be beyond your capabilities of answering?”
Frederica: “No, it would be no issue. The details... more accurately, I am not from SANCTUARY, but
rather I was raised there. Although being that I was already living there when I first achieved self-
awareness, it would most practically be truth to simply say you were correct.”
Subaru: “It's not your birthplace... right actually Lewes-san said that too. Something like how
Roswaal brings half-bloods along from elsewhere and makes them live there.”
Subaru: “Half-bloods can't pass through the barrier, which means bringing half-bloods inside from
elsewhere is the same as trapping them in. Why the hell is he... and, for being trapped, the people
there are pretty...”
They all looked to live peacefully, without any especially great dissatisfaction.
Their lives appeared unrelated to the sense of entrapment resulting from being forcibly shut in, or
the corresponding anger.
Meaning even the people who were brought there from elsewhere had apparently accepted their
lives in SANCTUARY. —Was there some significance to it?
Frederica: “Would you be aware of the Demihuman War, Subaru-sama?”
Subaru: “...Demihuman War. Just going by the sound of it, feels like I've heard it somewhere
before.”
If he seriously digs through his memory, he figures he's probably heard the term once or twice.
Frederica passes her fingers through her long, blonde hair, and quietly covers the fangs peeking out
between her lips.
Frederica: “The meaning behind that SANCTUARY's existence, and Roswaal-sama's ideas. If you
would like to investigate either, we would first have to discuss for a moment the DEMIHUMAN
WAR.”
Standing up, Frederica heads deeper into the parlour. Subaru's gaze follows her as she picks up a
box on a table at the back of the room—
Frederica: “There is no need to be so wary. They are merely confectioneries for the tea.”
Breaking into a slight smile, she returns and presents the box to Subaru. Inside are sweets
characteristic of this world, which he can only eat here at Roswaal's mansion. Subaru looks between
the sweets and Frederica's face, comparing them.
Frederica: “It seems liable to become a long, tedious story. Please do take your time in
accommodating me.”
CHAPTER 32: ¼
Sipping the steaming tea, Subaru listens to Frederica's words.
Frederica: “The Demihuman War—Firstly, would you know of the general content of this dispute?”
Subaru: “It's like I said before, I haven't stepped into it far enough to hear the details. But... It's not
like I can't imagine something, going off the name and historical background.”
Frederica: “My, intriguing. May I ask in what manner you conceive it?”
Frederica hides her mouth, smiling. Seems like hiding her rows of fangs when she laughs is a
deeply-ingrained habit of hers. Subaru keeps noticing her do it.
He also thinks: She smiles so much, but doesn't want others to see it.
Subaru closes his eyes and scratches his cheek.
Subaru: “Right,”
Subaru: “Dunno how long ago the war was, but I can at least imagine its start wasn't unrelated to
the WITCH OF ENVY. There's how Emilia was treated in the palace like a tumour, and I know that
lots of people hate half-elves.”
The WITCH OF ENVY, appearing in picture books, an unparalleled symbol of absolute evil. A silver-
haired half-elf, from which point of resemblance alone Emilia received such unjust treatment.
Subaru imagined off the wake of that, disputes arose from excessively trivial starting points.
Subaru: “A half-elf'd be a child born between a human and an elf, right? If half-elves are born into
that loathing... then it wouldn't be weird for prejudice to arise towards half-bloods born between
humans and other races.”
Frederica: “...Please do proceed.”
Subaru: “I'm just going off imagination, but the thought of rejecting half-elves ties into the thought
of rejecting half-bloods. And if I'm gonna speak in extremes, the likely starting point for half-bloods
—demihumans—are terrifying... is the junk I'm sure some guys started thinking.”
Far as Subaru's aware, the most numerous race in this world is indeed humans. He knew of the
existence of elves and beastmen like the triplets, but going off time spent in the Capital, the various
races of demihumans appeared to absolutely number fewer than humans.
Subaru: “I don't think everyone of everyone adopted that thinking, but I'm sure the loud and visible
types're the same anywhere. And from that came hatred of demihumans... in honesty, maybe fear of
demihumans. While that dissatisfaction was spilling out everywhere and all whatever else's when...”
Frederica: “Antagonism erupted between humans and the demihuman races. The smouldering coals
at last caught aflame, spread vigorously, and ultimately had reached across the whole of Lugnica.”
Says Frederica, her tone gloomy.
Frederica: “Your conjecture gives so little purchase for objection that supplementations would be
practically unnecessary. ...You sincerely have not heard a detailed account of the event before?”
Subaru: “Nope. If it really does practically all match up, then it's a victory for my imagination. Or
for my reading experience... really common for there to be antagonism between races in light novels
and stuff.”
Of course Subaru hadn't been truly conscious of this being a problem in reality. Discrimination
existed between races of humans in the original world, but that was a matter for a world distant
from Subaru, which was why he conceived it as not being greatly different from parallel world
problems.
You are yourself, others are others—was the cold kind of thinking he had possessed, and although
correct, in reality it should perhaps also be called 'averting his eyes.'
Subaru: “But even if my imagination caught up with the problem's outbreak, no way I can work my
brain all the way to the conclusion. But since it's in past-perfect tense, the Demihuman War's at least
been sorted out now, right?”
Frederica: “Yes, more or less. But the scars from the war run deep, and the sprouts of prejudice
towards children born between demihumans and humans remain thickly ingrained.”
Perhaps due to being of a pedigree potentially subject to that prejudice, Frederica's words come
paired with a weight unattainable for anyone who had merely heard the story from outside.
Can I ask what happened next? Are the words Subaru feels hesitation about flinging at her, but
Frederica seems to grasp his intention and sighs.
Frederica: “My apologies for having caused your concern. The story's continuation, would come
next.”
Subaru: “You don't have to force yourself—is what I'd like to say, but this talk's directly connected
to what I wanna ask so I can't say that. Please force yourself.”
Frederica: “My, my. You are certainly adept at bestowing others motivation.”
Giving Subaru's selfish words a positive interpretation, Frederica takes a sip from her teacup.
Frederica: “The Demihuman War began approximately 50 years ago. It consequently proceeded for
approaching 10 years... its end is recording as having had been 40 years ago.”
Subaru: “10 years... man that's long. Though I think my hometown's history had a Hundred Years'
War and a Thirty Years' War or something.”
Since Subaru didn't particularly have a deep relationship with history novels, his knowledge comes
from glancing over names in textbooks. But being that those wars had those names, they had
probably been ongoing for at least that much of a timespan.
Just thinking of hating someone and continuing a war for 30, 100 years was scary.
Subaru something somethings making a reference to what I think is some war simulator video game
Frederica: “Regardless, the war began between humanity and a settlement of demihumans. The
conflict fundamentally should have been settled while confined only to that place... but because of
the incident that followed, the blaze of war intensified. A horrific conflict began, washing the blood
of every land with blood.”
Subaru: “The incident that followed?”

Frederica: “Following the start of the dispute, the then-King of Lugnica viewed the situation
seriously and immediately sent his aide as an envoy to stage a peace conference. The chiefs of
various demihuman races gathered to welcome the envoy and resolve the matter through diplomacy,
is what was supposed to have happened, but...”
Subaru tilts his head, urging Frederica to continue. She closes her eyes.
Frederica: “Those who attended the conference—the envoy from the palace and the chiefs alike—
were unanimously slaughtered.”
Subaru: “Slaughtered? By who, and for what purpose?”
Frederica: “The perpetrators are yet unknown.3 However, it appears that both humanity and
demihumans of the time judged that IT WAS THE OTHER SIDE'S PLOT. Embers resultingly became an
inferno, and incapable of halting the blaze, ten years.... would be what it became.”
Subaru: “The hell were they doing. Have a more proper discussion about it... would really be too
idealistic?”
Considering the feelings of the people at the time, that would perhaps be a viewpoint coming quite
from a god.
Dispatched from the palace was the King's aide. Taking his prestige into consideration, withdrawing
from the matter while leaving the culprit unknown would be a slight on his name. The demihumans,
too, had their chiefs slaughtered en-masse. Degrading it to a question of numbers was pretty
terrible, but by pure comparison, the demihumans were more severely injured.
And adding to that, the relationship between the two races had the groundwork of being the origin
of the WITCH OF ENVY.
To begin mending relations would be difficult, and while stepping into that issue, they would be
slow to deal with the next arising problem—It wasn't hard to imagine that forstallments and
forstallments invited tragedy.
Frederica: “Ultimately, the demihumans capitulated—would be how the Demihuman War was
concluded. That having been said, the demihumans refused to acknowledge any compliance in the
incident with the conference, and rather acknowledged the pointlessness in continuing the war any
further.”
Subaru: “I personally think the first party to fold in a stalled argument's the smarter one, though.
And on top of that this was a civil war kinda thing, right? The country's not getting anything out of
this.”
Frederica: “You are precisely correct, Lugnica's national power declined heavily over the period of
embroilment with the Demihuman War. It was fortunate that conditions in the neighbouring
countries were not calm, otherwise Lugnica may have been overtaken by another nation.”
Call it fortune amid misfortune, the other three countries had their hands full as well at the time, and
Lugnica managed to avoid being stabbed from behind.
Subaru: “But man, it's amazing that they decided to end a war that'd gone on so long. It must've
taken some courage, and thinking of how the diehards'd resist it'd be pretty impossible.”
3 Unclear if perpetrators is singular or plural.

Frederica: “...It was because humanity had a presence among them overwhelming enough to shatter
the diehards' hearts. Every demihuman race out there bowed their head before the adroit
swordsmanship of the generation's Sword Saint, Theresia Van Astrea-sama... would something be
the matter?”
Subaru: “No, just surprised at hearing a name I know. Small world.”
The name of Wilhelm's wife should be that Theresia. She was the Sword Saint of that generation,
meaning that'd probably place her as two generations before Reinhardt. Hearing that this woman
alone engaged in enough activity to drop the curtain on a ten-years war indeed made it possible to
comprehend the bullshit that was the Sword Saint.
Subaru: “Well, I've figured out how the Demihuman War went. And I can also generally imagine
some problems that derived from it.”
Frederica: “Your prior conjectures were almost entirely accurate, Subaru-sama. You appear a
considerably quicker thinker than expected. It startles me how I have misjudged you.”
Subaru: “Going along positively interpreting that as praise, the Demihuman War ended, but
prejudice against demihumans wouldn't disappear so easily. Though 'course that kinda animosity
wouldn't appear so blatantly in places with public gaze around.”
Humans and demihumans lived lives passing right next to each other along lines of fruit stalls in the
Capital. Subaru didn't know how much effort it had taken for such an ordinary scene to become
ordinary, but contrary to places that had become like that, there would definitely be places where no
matter how much time passed, that lifestyle couldn't be erected.
Subaru: “Like small-population, closed-off villages, beyond outsider's access... say there's guys
living in that kinda place who sorta had a problem, and I feel it'd be a bath of concentrated fire.”
Frederica: “It would be acceptable to say that my brother and I had been exactly in that
environment.”
Furrowing her brows with pain at recalling the past, Frederica refers to her brother—to Garfiel—
earnestly as such for the first time, her gaze distant.
Frederica: “My brother and I are siblings born of different fathers. That is why our surnames are
different... mine is my father's. My brother uses the surname of our mother.”
Subaru: “Surname, yours was Frederica... Baumann?”
Frederica: “Indeed. And my brother should be using the name of Tinzel. Our mother had been, ah...
a woman rather lacking savvy and very lacking luck.”
Frederica's choosing her words but not choosing them fully. Not understanding what she's trying to
say, Subaru's expression shows his lack of comprehension.
Frederica: “Although it is rather embarrassing to say...”
Frederica: “Just when it seemed our mother would be converted into a collateral payment, the
brigade of demihuman thieves targeting the slave traders bound her... and that would be where she
met my father.”
Subaru: “What!? Hold on wait! I can't hear this without preparing my heart first!”
Frederica: “But she promptly parted with my father by death, and while bringing along my infant
self and bewildered on where to proceed, a different band of demihumans captured her. This time
was where she would meet Garfiel's father...”
Subaru: “Waitwaitwait, I'm sorry! I didn't think it was gonna get this heavy!”
Frederica: “Which is why I am keeping it relatively weightless and brief. Now, Garfiel was born,
but indeed we could not stay with my brother's father and the three of us again proceeded lost, and
just when the situation had turned hopeless, we were righted by the Mathers household.”
Exposing her heavy past, nostalgia rises in Frederica's eyes as she gives a sigh. She strokes the arm
of her chair.
Frederica: “Back then, the head of the Mathers household had already been the Master... been
Roswaal-sama in his early teenage years, so in the truest of meanings he is the benefactor to my
brother and I. I consider my providing this service a privilege and an honour.”
Subaru: “And you were brought to SANCTUARY, and lived there... by the way, and this is kinda hard
to ask but, what happened to your mother?”
Going off what Frederica has said, it seems like their mother was a pureblooded human. Meaning
she could go in and out of SANCTUARY whenever she wanted. And further, Subaru hadn't spotted
her once in either SANCTUARY or the mansion. Subaru's expectations are bad, but Frederica shakes
her head.
Frederica: “I would surmise that I have worried you, but I do request for your calm. Our mother
entrusted my brother and I to Roswaal-sama, after which she left the mansion by her own feet for
places unknown. Her trail following that remains unseen. I do at least wish her health, though.”
Subaru goes silent. Subaru's bad expectations were that she'd died, but the reality is that she cruelly
betrayed them. But that presents another question.
Subaru: “Then why's that Garfiel using the surname of a mother who left you like that? I mean
you're using your father's.”
Frederica: “She left no records or anything else, and so to spread and hear more of our mother's
memory... or such flakiness would not be it. My brother's usage of our mother's surname... is
because he does not know our mother, and because although he acts worse than he is, he has some
stubbornness to him.”
Subaru: “Stubbornness...”
Subaru goes over his impression of Garfiel.

He's quicker to put up dukes than think, speaks sharply and rudely, but does appreciate sense and
practice. He judges himself as being dumb, but he is still thinking and he doesn't freeze up or act
without thought. The impression's one of a punk taking inspiration from old-style, good-natured
delinquents.
Appreciates sense and practice—would be the point where if you judged him, you couldn't deny
him as a nice, moral, humane dude.
Frederica: “Subaru-sama. —Would you be aware of the manner in which SANCTUARY's barrier
discriminates its targets?”
Says Frederica, suddenly flinging that one at a thoughtful Subaru. His reaction is slow. He looks
back at Frederica dumbly.
Subaru: “Uhhh,”
Subaru: “Honestly, no. Since even saying the barrier's definitely right there, I can't feel it anyway. I
kinda think it magically checks the people passing through, but...”
Frederica: “The barrier investigates the blood inside the bodies of creatures passing through it. For
human blood and demihuman blood. It repels those upon whom it can distinctly register those two.
That is the essence of the barrier.”
Subaru: “...What are you trying to say?”
Frederica: “Would you have come to understand why I have exited the barrier, and am outside of
SANCTUARY?”
Subaru: “...No, honestly I don't. Hearing the conditions's probably made me not understand. I saw
Lewes-san's physical condition break down when we neared the barrier on the road back, and those
effects being genuine's something I saw when entering SANCTUARY too.”
Right before Garfiel's smashing introduction, Emilia broke down as she passed through the barrier.
Thinking of that strength, doubting its existence was ridiculous—
Subaru: “—Wha, why.”
A flash goes through Subaru's mind.

He had felt unease when he parted with Lewes on the road here. Now he had the answer to that
unease.
Subaru: “If the conditions're the same... how the hell was Garfiel so damn lively when he was that
close to the barrier?”
Garfiel had attacked Subaru and the others on their arrival, tossing around both Patrasche and the
carriage. He definitely wasn't putting his all into it, but Emilia had lost consciousness just by
passing over the barrier, and Lewes' physical condition had collapsed just by getting near it.
Garfiel's behaviour there differed from them way too much.
—It was almost as if the barrier was having no effect on his body.
Frederica: “He has the characteristic of Ancestral Return, so by a glance my brother's demihuman
blood may seem thick, but in reality that is not the case. —Identical, to me.”
Subaru: “If the blood's thickness is the condition for how the barrier discriminates between half-
bloods and non-half-bloods... a side of the blood can be thin enough to get around it?”
Frederica: “My and my brother's father had their various differences, but neither were pure-blooded
demihumans. Both were half-bloods, and when mixed with our human mother, the births would be
halfway beings which would only inherit one fourth of demihuman blood.”
Subaru: “Quarter-bloods... and that's why you the barrier didn't catch you.”
The barrier rebounds half-bloods, so it doesn't rebound quarter-bloods. This explains why Lewes
named Frederica as an exception, but gives rise to another question.
Subaru: “Wait. Then, that means Garfiel can leave SANCTUARY too? That if he feels like it, he can
just do it regardless of the TRIAL's state?”
If true, that's surprising, but welcome.

If you lose the preamble of dealing with the barrier for pulling Garfiel out of SANCTUARY, then it's
possible to bring him to the scene of Elsa's attack, where his strength is needed. Subaru had already
basically given up on repelling Elsa this time, and had been thinking entirely of methods to get the
people in the mansion outside, but—
Subaru: “If he can come outside, then...”
Frederica: “Indeed, my brother is equally as capable as I of leaving SANCTUARY. When I left

SANCTUARY, I proposed we go together, him coming as far as the barrier's edge. However...”
Cutting off there, Frederica stares at Subaru, who feels he's found some bright prospects. The
emotion in Frederica's eyes is deep, instantly cooling Subaru's zeal.
Frederica: “My brother remained in SANCTUARY. And I believe that so long as SANCTUARY remains
unfreed, Garfiel will never go outside. He is a stubborn, kind boy.”
Subaru: “Stubborn... no way,”
Subaru's brows rise in surprise as he hits on an idea. Frederica nods as she hides her mouth with her
sleeve.
Frederica: “He is not a boy who is capable of going outside, leaving the people of SANCTUARY who
cannot go outside behind. For better or for worse, honest... and thus troublesome, is my brother.”
CHAPTER 33: A PATHWAY ESCAPED OF WIND
Eyes lowered, Frederica speaks of her brother.
The emotion packed in her gaze is complex, containing both something troubled and something
loving. That might just be common thing to feel in response to a blood relative.
Subaru: “Even if he can physically break through the barrier, his mental problems mean he won't
cross it... that's how you're thinking?”
Frederica: “He did not respond when I, his elder sister, called him to it. He came along to the verge
of leaving the barrier, but ultimately elected to to stay inside and pass his time with grandmother
rather than go with me.”
Subaru: “Grandmother... you mean Lewes-san?”
Frederica: “He may not speak kindly, but he truly does adore grandmother. It's unthinkable he
would come outside if grandmother's utmost wish is not fulfilled.”
Though Garfiel's disrespectful attitude of going 'the granny the granny the granny' stood out, it was
obvious Garfiel harboured familiar love which surpassed casual friendliness towards Lewes. Subaru
had called him a tsundere before, and that might've been spot on in some respect.
Subaru: “In the end, this doesn't change anything about conquering the TRIAL and freeing
SANCTUARY being essential conditions. Say it's disappointing and it's sorta disappointing.”
Frederica: “I apologize for my failure to answer to your expectations. ...If there is anything further
you would like to ask...”
Subaru: “Within answerable range, yeah?”
Frederica: “I do apologize for that.”
Subaru: “Is asking about Roswaal's real intentions an okay topic?”
Frederica: “The Master supports Emilia-sama, and would intend to see her as Ruler of Lugnica. I
will declare that no purchase exists for doubt on this matter.”
Subaru: “That you're prefacing your answer to 'his real intentions' with this means that you don't
think Roswaal's actions right now're really following with that either, yeah?”
Frederica: “He has chosen oblique and roundabout methods, would be a notion neither Ram or I
would deny.”
Frederica's expression as she answers is pained, as if she's accepting Subaru's doubt as being
natural, but is prohibited to provide the key that will unravel said doubt. Meaning,
Subaru: “Can't say anything more about it without said Roswaal's permission.”
Frederica: “My apologies. But that much alone... the Master is your and Emilia-sama's ally, Subaru-
sama. As long as you would possess a will to prevail in the Royal Selection, that much is assured.”
Subaru: “That wording is crazy bothering me, but... well, fine. Nevermind Roswaal, I've gotten this
feeling figuring it's probably okay to trust you, Frederica.” Something something hard making
judgements if you're as nutso into Roswaal as Ram
Subaru likes Ram as an individual, that that didn't equate to absolute trust in her. It's a complicated
relationship. Either way, so long as Roswaal's staying put as the absolute in her order of priorities,
being that Subaru can't completely trust Roswaal right now, he has to put his judgement of Ram on
hold.
Subaru: “If you can't talk about Roswaal's real intentions... what does SANCTUARY being a test site
mean? Garfiel called it that.”
Frederica: “A test site—you say.”
Subaru: “Also called it a packing of shit for guys with no destinations. After that talk on
demihumans we just had honestly I can imagine what 'no destination' means. And that Roswaal's
demihuman fancy or whatever he calls it is making half-bloods without any destination live in
SANCTUARY. But,”
Subaru: “Even if it's not the WITCH OF ENVY, if people knew his family's had custody of a witch-
related facility for generations, I'd say it'd be a pretty big thing. I heard there's no documents left or
blah blah whatever, but actually there's still a whole cemetery around.”
Frederica: “The meaning of the word 'witch' in itself has shifted to a negative one. I would
doubtless say that people would not regard the Master's contract relation, the WITCH OF GREED, as
something appropriate, either. I believe that concerns would be exactly in line with your thoughts,
Subaru-sama.”
Subaru: “Glad there's consensus on SANCTUARY's existence being an issue. So, would it being a test
site further overwrite that consensus for me?”
Frederica: “...This location by nature was a hidden village of half-bloods, that the WITCH OF GREED
may conduct a certain experiment. It is unclear what negotiations passed between the witch and the
plot's landlord, the Mathers household, but that contact would reason why the Mathers household
has come to be managing and maintaining SANCTUARY for generations, or some such.”
Nodding to Frederica's faltering speech, Subaru sorts his information. Subaru'd basically put
together this much from the indirect statements he'd been getting from the people in SANCTUARY.
So the problem is,
Subaru: “What was the witch testing using half-bloods, and why is Roswaal still obeying the
contract even after the witch's death... or so.”
Frederica: “The reason for the latter would be simple. The content of the contract is 'OVER THE
PERIOD UNTIL SANCTUARY IS FREED, MAINTAIN SANCTUARY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PLEDGE
SHARED WITH THE WITCH .' Should people not enter the place at regular intervals, the environment
known as SANCTUARY would fail to stand.”
Subaru: “And so half-bloods with circumstances are getting the hidden village treatment. Just
hearing that, it's possible to think what Roswaal's doing is part of some philanthropy.”
Being that discrimination exists, places where half-bloods could be guaranteed safety were
necessary. If Roswaal's the one fulfilling that role, then Subaru would have to re-evaluate his
judgement of him. However,
Subaru: “Doesn't seem like it's entirely people who wanna stay there, though. The guys following
with Lewes-san and wishing for SANCTUARY's freedom are the majority, right?”
Frederica: “...The prejudiced view against demihumans has considerably thinned. That my brother
and I entered SANCTUARY was more heavily due to simply lacking anywhere to go, rather than our
blood. SANCTUARY will be freed one day. —Which is precisely why I...”
Shutting her eyes, Frederica cuts off her sentence. Subaru falls silent, and after leaving some time,
hesitatingly broaches the topic.
Subaru: “This might just be me getting myself stuck on some idea, but... was it maybe because you
were thinking about what would happen after SANCTUARY was freed, that you left?”
Frederica: “...Why would you believe such?”
Subaru: “You're saying why well, you're expression's so sad when you're talking about SANCTUARY.
That you left your home despite that means it has to be either for your own sake, or for others' sake.
And so...”
Scratching his cheek, the image of a blond, short-haired young man rises in Subaru's mind. He was
exactly like this kindhearted woman before him, entirely words and not at all upfront.
Subaru: “If you share your little brother Garfiel's trait of hiding his true feelings, then it wouldn't be
weird for your actions to have an underside so thoughtful it's embarrassing. Y'know you... left
SANCTUARY to create a place for the people leaving a freed SANCTUARY to go, so things wouldn't
turn problematic for them, right? You're working here because of course you have a debt to
Roswaal, but that's not all of it. ...I mean is just kinda the sorta way I'm thinking.”
Aware halfway through that he's making some incredible leaps in logic, Subaru bears the
embarrassment as he glances at Frederica. If she laughs him off for a wrong guess, then all this was
was Subaru getting too into it and embarrassing himself. But,
Frederica: “I desired that, when the new world one day opened... I would be to guide them into it.”
Says Frederica, a smile rising on her face. It was not an expression of ill will towards a misaimed
Subaru, but of reinspecting her own heart, and the following liberation of speaking sincerely with
another.
Frederica: “I, raised there, want to craft an environment which'll foster the desire to leave there. If
I'm even the slightest of help in crafting that environment, my... my perhaps-undesired birth would
surely have meaning.”
Subaru: “Undesired, that's...”
Frederica: “Consolations would be unnecessary. Particulars being particulars, it is unthinkable that

my mother grew heavy with me while desiring so. She abandoned myself and my brother in
SANCTUARY and left. With that answer... but, with merely that answer was not how I wished to
allow the story to end, and so I am now here.”
It's a problem Frederica's already reached the answer for.

Knowing only the surface circumstances, Subaru's sympathy effects her heart not. She had already
embraced the answer she had come to herself, and chose not to end it on that answer alone.
—Strong, Subaru thought sincerely. Conviction so strong, as to be admirable.
Subaru: “...Does Garfiel know about your true feelings? If he knows, but still didn't come out...”
Frederica: “My brother is the only one to whom I have told everything I harbour. That he regardless
did not accompany me... would have been his choice. Rather than leave to procure something
difficult to obtain, he chose to be present to protect something simple to lose. That us siblings have
split paths, would entirely be merely that.”
Subaru: “Protect... protect, yeah. Didn't think he was the kinda character to pick that option, going
off his looks. Well, not like people's hearts are something understandable from the outside.”
Rubbing his chin, Subaru drinks the rest of his tea in a single sip, and holds back a burp. He wipes
his mouth the back of his hand.
Subaru: “So,”
Subaru: “Feels like this's gonna get dodged so back to topic, what's going on with the term TEST
SITE. Is the content of what those tests were doing something you can talk about? ...Or, do you
know the content?”
Frederica: “Unfortunately, I would not know of the content nor purpose of this affair. The
continuation of the testing became impossible once the WITCH OF GREED had passed away. Merely
the facility remains, and the Mathers household maintains it, would be all the matter is.”
Subaru: “Thinking like that this didn't go anywhere. I've got it sunk into me that keeping promises's
important, but what the heck's the point of keeping a promise 400 years after the partner's died?”
Frederica: “Were it not for the Master's family preserving that promise, I doubt my brother and I's
childhood would have been especially peaceful.”
Subaru: “Ueg... Um, that's... I wasn't thinking. Sorry.”
Frederica snickers at Subaru's sincere apology and empties her cup as well. She collects the two
teacups, standing up.
Frederica: “We have gone speaking for some time. Allow us to take a pause. What shall you do
now, Subaru-sama?”
Subaru: “I just came here alongside getting the Arlam villagers back to the village. After I get to ask
what I wanna ask, I'll go straight back... but saying that, seems tight today so it'll probably be
tomorrow morning.”
Frederica: “I see. Petra will be in high spirits tonight and tomorrow morning. Although considering
her concentration will be apt to faltering, it is difficult to say whether that is a good thing.”
Subaru: “So long as her studies're vaguely going forward. Where's she now?”
Frederica: “I believe she will have returned to village, and be meeting with those who have
returned. I had advised her beforehand to do so.”
Sasuga Frederica for having had already considered Subaru's intentions before he even voiced them.
Subaru stands from his chair too as Frederica carries off the cups, counting off on his fingers the
things he has left to do.
What he's heard from Frederica is half of everything he wanted to hear about. But it gave him
enough information to do some speculating. All that's left is to find the final person who seems to
know the details of things.
Subaru: “Gonna take time, but for now let's try going one-by-one through the mansion...”
Subaru's shoulders droop at the imminent HEAVY LABOUR of OPENING DOORS. Glancing at
his back as she leaves the room, Frederica says quietly,
Frederica: “I don't know the content or purpose... but, I do know the outcome alone of the test site.
When they know, when it becomes known... now, just how will they think?”4
Her muttering doesn't reach Subaru.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Everyone in the mansion knows what a fucking pain Beatrice's GATE CROSSING is, but Subaru's true
realization of it came after returning from the Capital.
His instinct for multiple-choice situations was one of the few things Subaru could have self-pride in.
His trait of picking the correct answer for no real reason had at least helped him by contributing to
his probabilities in encountering Beatrice. But ever since returning from the Capital, that instinct
hasn't been working too well.
Subaru: “'Sweird. This should've been the last door in the mansion...”
Closing the door to the bathroom, Subaru gives a disappointed sigh and tilts his head. This makes
his score on the Beako Guessing Quiz since getting back from the Capital Wins: 1 Losses:
inestimable. Considering that his accuracy had been almost 100%, this wasn't something to call a
slump. Subaru has to accept it.
Subaru: “It's like she's seriously goddamn avoiding me.”
Ram had once said that there was no being which could beat Beatrice's GATE CROSSING when she's
serious, but Subaru defied that magnificently. He developed a kind of superiority complex toward
Beatrice, not so much because he beat her GATE CROSSING, but because he had an advantage
against her that no one else in the mansion did.
Subaru: “Even with how that last parting went, there's no one who holes up with this much
vigour. ...If she doesn't show herself, I can't argue, or apologize.”
Subaru has no idea what he said that made her reject him that hard. Had no idea, but if he remained
separated by physical distance like this, then he would continue to have no idea about the things he
4 No subject specified for this sentence. She probably means Subaru but since it's foreshadowy I'll play it safe.
had no idea about. He hated that.
He had things he wanted to ask her, and even ignoring that last-ditch reasoning, Subaru wanted to
see Beatrice and just talk with her.
He was fine with getting insulted. He didn't care if she mocked him. He had an everyday life he had
lost. He couldn't bear losing another one. He knew that even that was a selfish idea.
Subaru: “Are Puck and Beatrice seriously not gonna talk at all at vital moments?”
Neither Puck or Beatrice are showing themselves when Emilia and Subaru are seeking them most.
Blah blah Elsa's coming can't repel her so best choice is to evacuate those in the mansion.
Getting Rem and Petra out of the mansion won't be difficult. Frederica will probably come if
Subaru appeals to her professional sense. The problem's just Beatrice.
In a loop cut from the anime, Subaru attempted to bring her out of the mansion and failed. That
Subaru left her behind then was because he knew the attacking cultists weren't aiming for the
mansion.
But now is different. Elsa will invade the mansion, and won't hesitate to brandish her blades.
Regardless of Emilia's absence, her knives'll only be thinking of slicing open the guts of everything
inside the mansion.
Subaru doesn't actually know Beatrice's combat strength. He doesn't know, but he does know that
Elsa's a monster strong enough to go tit-for-tat with Emilia plus Puck, and by Subaru's imagination
might even be able to match Wilhelm.
Subaru can't envision Beatrice winning against her.
Subaru: “Maybe I'm just way too overconscious of Elsa being a problem. ...Kinda natural when
she's killed you three times. —Oop.”
Rubbing at the phantom pain in his stomach, Subaru stops in his advance down the hallway. His
gaze fixes on a conspicuously gold-plated door, the gateway to the central room on the uppermost
floor—Roswaal's office. Subaru knows that just going on in while the master's away is more than
bad manners, but,
Subaru: “Right, there was something I wanted to check here.”
Says Subaru as he pushes the door open without any particular enthusiasm and enters the room.
There's been no changes here since he came round checking all the mansion's doors, so it's still
exactly the same as when Subaru had Otto sorting the paperwork. Subaru glances around the room,
heading for two bookshelves in the back of the room beside the ebony desk.
Subaru: “Hidden passage'll be behind these bookshelves.”
Subaru's confirmed the existence of the hidden passage twice—it's probably some kind of escape
route or something, but Subaru doesn't know how to activate its mechanism or where it leads.
Subaru: “It was open last time when Elsa attacked, and I think it's certain you can escape
somewhere through this, but... when I went in before I froze to death partway through.”
A memory where he had ended as an ice sculpture, alongside witch cultists who apparently pissed
off Puck. It was a terrible memory, of his fingers snapping off and limbs shattering, but since it
ended without pain and a lot of it was blurry, it wasn't enough to send him trembling. However,
death was death. Subaru didn't have intention in the slightest to look down on that.
Subaru: “If I know where the escape route leads, I can make hypotheses for the worst-case scenario.
Or, you follow the escape route and enter back into the mansion or something. ...Don't think that'll be
it, though.”
Being that ensuring safety is the highest priority, Subaru has to check the escape route. It probably
leads somewhere in the mountains behind the mansion. If there's some kind of evacuation
provisions prepared halfway through for emergencies and so on, then great.
Subaru: “And so to check, zip into the escape route... is what I was thinking, but...”
The escape route's gimmick is 'do something and it'll move' right?
Subaru tries out pushing on the bookshelf as hard as he can, but the jam-packed bookshelf does not
yield an inch before Subaru's maximum arm power. Though there might be a chance of moving it if
he takes the insides out and tries moving just the shelves, but,
Subaru: “You can't take it that leisurely in a fast evacuation situation, so there should be some kinda
switch or something or whatever to make it move.”
Subaru checks under the desk and through the bookshelves, but he doesn't find anything switchlike.
Though he does discover a second bottom to the drawer and a bunch of gemstones packed inside,
but he decides to file that little event away as a 'that didn't happen' among others.
Subaru: “Have to call it quits, huh... Might not even be inside this room...”
???: “What isn't inside this room?”
Subaru: “Well of course the hidden switch-ish something. I wanna take a peek in the hidden passage
behind the bookshelves, but if I can't find that something then the story's stuck.”
???: “Oh, the escape path. That's this statue.”
Petra tugs Subaru's sleeve as he tilts his head. Subaru looks over to where she's tugging him, his
gaze following her pointing finger.
Subaru: “Ohh,”
Subaru: “In the corner of the room was a sculpture... is this where the trick is?”
The sculpture is of a person seated in a chair, of size small enough to put on a desk. It possessed a
weirdness about it, being in the sparsely-decorated office, but Petra approaches it without fear.
Petra: “Tyah,”
And with that little noise, the sculpture's neck twists. Twists so far it goes 180 degrees backwards. It
looks like the thing's broken its neck, which makes Subaru's brows furrow, but
Subaru: “Oh, oh, ohhh...”
The noise of something heavy sliding sideways echoes through the room, the usual bookshelves
breaking away from each other to the right and left before Subaru as he turns back. There appearing
was a space large enough for a single person, an entrance into darkness. Seeing the appearance of
the evacuation passage, Subaru balls his hand into a fist and strikes a pose.
Subaru: “Hereherehere it is. I'd been looking for it, thanks.”
Petra: “Huhuu, right? Big Sis Frederica taught me all about it. That this's an escape path for
emergencies, so let's remember it.”
Subaru: “Yup, thankyouthankyou. Now let's just dash... Petra, since when've you!?”
Petra: “You're asking now!?”
Petra had gotten involved in everything so smoothly that Subaru, in deep thought, was belated to
notice her existence. Petra pouts.
Petra: “And when I rushed back, and even helped you... Subaru-sama, I do believe you rather
mean.”
Subaru: “No, I felt like I was alone but I still thought halfway through that I was talking with
somebody. The delight of having my goal achieved overwrote that so I noticed late. Sorry-dorry.”
The little girl averts her face in displeasure. Subaru gives her head a light pat as he apologizes, and
again looks toward the passage.
Subaru: “By the way Petra, did Frederica tell you where this leads?”
Petra: “Yes. Big Sis Frederica said it leads to a small cabin in the mountains in the back. It has a
different barrier than the barrier for the witchbeasts, which means from outside you cannot tell it is
there.”
Subaru: “Got it. Indeed it is a hidden passage. But I'm gonna check it with my own eyes too.”
With it confirmed as exiting into the mountains, it could serve as an escape route or an invasion
route. Subaru rolls up his sleeves, expression overflowing with motivation as he heads for the
entrance. Petra's quiet footsteps follow behind him.
Subaru: “You're coming too, Petra?”
Petra: “I can't?”
Subaru: “It's not that you can't, but it's probably not gonna be anything interesting. I'm just going
outta pure curiosity to see where it leads, then I'm coming back.”
Petra: “Now would be my break hours, so I am also free. So it is okay if I come too, right?”
Petra grabs the hem of her clothes, looking up at Subaru with puppy-eyes. Distancing her when
she's so attached would make it hard to breathe. Subaru gives a sigh and a wry smile.
Subaru: “It really is just going and coming back. You're a curious one, Petra.”
Petra: “If I wasn't curious I wouldn't be here... I'm glad I'm a curious one.”
Not really getting what she's trying to say, Subaru smooths it over with a smile, takes her offered
hand, and heads for the passage.
The dark, hidden passage becomes a spiralling staircase, while the walls themselves become
sources of dim pale-blue light. They're probably not going to lose the sight of the stair below, but
knowing this passes through the underground, Subaru glances back.
Subaru: “The staircase's a little long and dark, so be careful not to slip.”
Petra: “If I slip will you save me?”
Subaru: “I'll hug you and we'll tumble down to the bottom's all that'll happen so please let me off on
that... and if I can't stand back up afterwards it's gonna be too miserable to watch.”
Petra: “If that happens, I will care for you your whole life, Subaru-sama.”
Subaru: “I'm glad but getting there's terrifying!”
Having this exchange, Subaru takes the lead as they begin descending the staircase. A cool wind
drifts up from below, prompting thoughts of a surely-not-there-Puck and sending shivers down
Subaru's spine.
It's not that he's scared of an impending non-existent death from freezing, but,
Subaru: “Going down while saying nothing's boring, and you might be scared Petra so let's talk.”
Petra: “Subaru-sama, do you realise that your palm is slightly sweaty?”
Subaru: “And you might be scared Petra so let's talk! How was everyone at the village?”
Petra looks at him with affectionate pity and goes along with the talk. Continuing the conversation
to an extent that no silence falls, they proceed down the stairway for several minutes—when the
staircase ends, and they reach a narrow passage.
A little further down the passage will be a door, and what is behind that door will be an
unexperienced zone for Subaru.
Subaru: “Going off how it feels, we're still just in the mansion's underground. If this passage goes
all the way to the back mountains, this's a pretty long tunnel.”
Petra: “Escape route, escape path, tunnel, we can't decide what to call it.”
Subaru: “Yeah. In a wind blows from Mexico meaning, let's call it Santana.”
Petra: “Ah, don't trip, there's a bump there.”
Petra beautifully ignores Subaru's bullshit. Subaru feels delight at her rise in Subaru Proficiency and
also loneliness.
Continuing down the passage, they finally arrive at a somewhat wider space. A door rises dimly out
of the darkness ahead, verifying that there is a room here. This spot had been cramped with frozen
cultists last time, but naturally this time there are no traces of that. Subaru gives a relieved sigh.
Subaru: “Obvious but looks like this's settled without tripping my trauma switch. So anyway getting
here would be about a third of the way to the cabin on the mountain?”
Petra: “The air's cold... maybe on the other side of the door.”
Subaru: “Yeah,”
Subaru: “Last time I got a game over just after touching the door. What's ahead is somewhere
completely unknown... well, we'll check it out as we follow the road.”
Subaru puts his hand to the door.

Pushes it open, and with his face bathed in the rush of cold wind pouring into the room—
Subaru: “—ah?”
—Subaru realises that something has struck his stomach.

He lowers his gaze to see his chest, stricken on the left side. Something like a skewer protrudes
from his belly, the rear end quivering as if to prove it had only just struck him.
—Seeing the blood seeping into his clothes, Subaru's throat freezes.
Petra: “Aah—!?”
His throat blocked with shock, Petra shrieks in Subaru's place as she notices the wound. Her scream
echoes far through the narrow passage, hammering on Subaru's eardrums.
In the instant before the pain hits, still not understanding what happened, Subaru forces himself to
think with all his strength.
Petra's shriek leaves a wake. It echoes through through the passage, driving out noise, her voice the
only thing audible. Subaru nevertheless hears something he supposedly should not.
Footsteps, the sound of a blade leaving its sheath, and—
???: “Now, let's fulfil our promise—”
—wetting their lips and trembling for the oncoming slaughter, the voice of a murderer.
CHAPTER 34: WORLD ENDING
Portents tell of the coming pain.
Although an unpleasant sort of intuition, Subaru's life since coming to this world has been one
fraught with life-threatening injury. That intuition was speaking: These next few seconds win or
lose this.
With Petra's shriek echoing through the cramped passage, Subaru reaches his hand for the two
flechettes jutting from his left side, to extract them. He knows the instant he touches them will be
the beginning. Thus before it can reach him, he forces himself to think at dizzying speed.
Two flechettes, wounds not fatal. A handful of seconds until the pain arrives. Petra is frozen
unmoving. Where did the attack come from? Hand still touching the door. The echoing is shrill.
Amidst it a voice dripping murder, creeping into his ears.
—Elsa.
He recognizes a silhouette squirming in the darkness before him. Her posture low, bent down to a
crawl and poised to dash forth, he also recognizes Elsa.
The piercing strike to his abdomen came from beyond the passage. Had been thrown with almost
detestably precise control, targeting the gut. He rather wanted to applaud.
Stupid thought, dumb idea. Why was Elsa here now? What happened to his leeway? Why was she
lurking in a hidden passage, supposedly unknown to anyone? Why did she know? Put all of it off
for later. Answering questions was secondary, now this instant focus solely on survival force all
brain cells fire—
Subaru: “—SHAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC!”
No weapons, no means to counter, hideously unreadied and unprepared.

Faced with split-second conditions, Subaru had only one move—or otherwise had his heart set,
uncaring of how it looked, on merely one single action for when he encountered Elsa.
Answering to Subaru's yell, his incomplete gate recomposes his internal mana to conform to the
concord's needs. From the fingertips of his outstretched right hand billows a black smoke—cloaking
the passage in darkness.
An umbra darker than light-given shadow consumes the cramped space, instantly dividing Subaru
and the threat approached to before him. The expelled smoke possesses no effects to hinder
movement. Plunge forward, and one would pierce through the haze without stopping. But,
Subaru: “Wall of confusion, if you're something scalable I'll scale y—gggaaaaaaaugh!!”
The postponed torrent of pain assaults Subaru. A blaze originating from his right hip courses
through his entirety, shrieking at the effective thrusts of heated metal flaring through his brain and
stomach. The recompense for the imperfect concord further wrings Subaru's body of more mana
than necessary. He falls to his knees with the exhaustion and fatigue of his body being parched dry.
What stops him from succumbing to collapse is—
Petra: “Subaru!”
—The small and soft sensation of a hand gripping his. He looks to find Petra fretting over him,
about to cry, her long eyelashes trembling.
Her eyes host terror at circumstances beyond her comprehension, and rejection of there being a
ludicrous threat closing in before her. But stronger than either is the consideration for Subaru's
safety.
The instant Subaru recognizes it, the pain from his shredded nerves and bereavement from his
peeling soul promptly exit his mind. Before the effect can fade, he squeezes back on Petra's hand.
Subaru: “Anyway, upstairs!”
Unable to proceed further ahead, the pathway's only road is to return back the way they came. Not
even Subaru knows how long Shamac would hold. That he did not consume enough mana to faint,
perhaps a result of his body acclimatizing to it over multiple uses, was his only present
achievement.
Regardless, without allowing the opportunity granted by the obfuscating black mist to escape—
Subaru: “Guigh... augahh!?”
The moment he steps forth to run, something sharp again gouges pain into his flesh.
He looks toward the source of the pain, to find four flechettes jutting out from his right shoulder to
the rear of his neck. The depth of the wounds is fortunately shallow, but the burrowing pain of those
pinky-thick darts only intensifies in the looking.
Subaru: “She saw!?”
She can see though Shamac's smoke, was Subaru's split-second judgement, but he immediately
realises that it is incorrect. He intuitively understands what Elsa did from beyond the smoke.
Having judged the haze as a threat and diving into it as dangerous, Elsa flung her throwing weapons
through the mist without any regard to aim.
The passage was narrow, enough so that three Subarus side-by-side would fill it. Should one
possess the control to aim for the centre of the passage, the high probability of striking a fleeing
opponent's back would result in a hit.
The instant he realises this, Subaru yanks Petra's arm forward and takes her against his chest in an
embrace.
She shrieks. Just as she finishes getting out of the way, there comes the noise of those metal
flechettes slicing past through the air.
Had Subaru not interfered, the line of flechettes would have reached to skewer Petra's head.
Subaru: “This's... bad!”
Spitting saliva and blood, Subaru looks back as he sprints down the passage for the mansion. He
pulls along the arm of a lagging Petra, forcing her onward.
His vision strobes with pain. The world flickers in black and red. Dull blue lights arise in the dim
passageway. They mingle with the red and black, the world indistinct.
One instant of action had entirely sapped Subaru of his energy and stamina.
Even should he reach the mansion in this condition, no plan for breaking through this predicament
would come to him promptly. He was simply clinging onto the hope before him, biting down on his
molars and continuing his dash.
The terror that courses up his neck in that instant, perceived exactly because he was Subaru and had
scraped with demise on several occasions, may have been the sensation of impending death.
Bitter terror guides him to tilt his neck backwards. His dark eyes witness the tracks of death.
Slicing the air—was far too light of a phrasing—butchering the air was the incoming blade. The
most greatly owned and most wicked of Elsa's weapons—a kukri knife—rides its own weight as it
rotates on the vertical, closing in on Subaru and Petra's backs at terrifying speed.
The speed makes reaction impossible. To parry or match this threat was unthinkable.
That Subaru, faced with this, nevertheless managed to reach out his arm was what you would surely
call a split-second miracle.
His fingers reach to catch the knife's edge, and indeed between his pointer and middle finger does
the kukri slice—then continuing without any waning of its speed or ferocity, and away fly Subaru's
middle, ring, and little fingers.
The knife proceeds its cut through Subaru's arm, bisecting it straight from the wrist to the elbow.
Momentum forces the now-lowered arm to strike the wall—the resulting haze of blood painting the
passageway, painting Subaru, with red. He screams. He shrieks. His voice invites speculation that
his throat will break, burn, shred.
His vision turns to red and the force of his bite fractures his molars. He lifts his mangled arm. Red.
Just red. He sees something white. Instantly turns red. Unthinkable this thing belongs to him
anymore. Simply a pain-spawning profusion.
Cut it off. Get rid of it. What is the need for an organ of only pain. There is none. Get rid of it, send
it flying, chop it off. Fuck this thing. Just die, die, die—a touch.
The touch of a hand gripping his. Opposite the limb of only pain there remains a warmth. The
instant Subaru feels it, his shrieking stops. Throat busted. His pain-frazzled nerves transcend their
permissible limit, bursting. He forgets the pain. But not the warmth.
He brings in his arm, steps out his foot. His voiceless throat trembles. Painting the passage with
blood, Subaru runs. Heavy—his legs. Heavy—his arms. Is he pulling them, or are they pulling him?
He did not even know. He did not know. Did not know. Did not want to know.
The passage ends. He made it to the staircase. Run up the spiral stairway and he will enter the
mansion. Enter the mansion and then what. Someone who, someone there, someone to, save,
Emilia, Rem?
Subaru: “aeeheuiiiI, Iii!”
It will not be ended. It is not ended. It surely would not be ended.

He still had not seen anything. Not found anything. Had not grabbed, grasped anything. Like hell he
could throw away everything here.
He looks up. The top of the staircase is far. His legs are unsteady. Tongue is numb. His life spills
with the blood dripping from his arm. He picks up the exhausted, eroded warmth in his left hand.
And—
???: “—baru-sama!!”
The yell of a beast. The sound of heavy impacts descending from above. Subaru climbs the stairs to
see someone's large, broad back. An apron dress embellished in the lingering black smoke. Long,
blonde hair swaying in the cold air, a figure squatting on the landing now standing up.
A terrifying face looks back at him—its expression letting slip worry, its visage familiar.
Subaru: “Fuhreder...”
Frederica: “Don't speak! That wound... it's terrible.”
Frederica sees Subaru's wounds the instant he voices her name, her face paling. Her gaze as she
looks at Subaru's disfigured arm is pained, and after following the blood slathering half his body—
Frederica: “a,...”
—She swallows her breath, her voice so quiet as to disappear. The ghastliness of Subaru's condition
was probably that shocking. The Subaru in question had already lost feeling of the pain thanks to
his brain's overflowing endogenous opiods. He could not stop the raggedness of his breathing, nor
the dripping of drool from his lips. Spitting out the bath of bloody foam inside his mouth, Subaru
attempts to speak to Frederica—
Subaru: “aauAhh—!”
Frederica: “—Shh!!”
From beyond the darkness again comes the assault of a kukri.

The revolving deathblade aims for Frederica's head. Subaru speaks at sighting the shimmer of steel,
to which Frederica draws something from her waist in a flash—sparks scatter the dark of the
passage, a shrill tone sounds, and the crooked blade deflects. What achieved this was—
Frederica: “Appears we have an intruder.”
Furnishing Frederica's crossed arms are clawed cestus. Her mastery in readying them shows: these
are well familiar game for her.
In a sense, they were a weapon so excessively and suitingly boorish as to excess her suiting. She
shreds the air as she readies her arms before her, glancing back at Subaru behind her.
Frederica: “To the mansion. Signal when at the top. I will follow.”
Subaru: “Bhu...”
Frederica: “With those wounds you'll be a burden regardless. —Take care of Petra.”
What pushed a stubborn Subaru forward were Frederica's final pleading words. Swallowing what he
was about to say, Subaru pulls Petra's small body close. Cradling her now will be faster than pulling
her along. Petra enters into his arms without resistance as Subaru takes one step away.
Subaru: “Dhon't die.”
Frederica: “Of course not. —I haven't finished yet.”
Although limping and reluctant, Subaru dashes up the stairway with his sights on the top floor. The
noise of blade striking blade echoes up Subaru's ascent of the helix. The constrained space robs Elsa
of her mobility, leaving this battle as a match of direct prowess. Frederica may even have chance of
winning—or at least, such was the hope Subaru wished to cling to.
Spitting out his fractured molars, Subaru curses his furiously-revolving legs. Faster, sharper, every
second spent conquering the stairs was a second closer to Frederica's fate. Hurry—hurry, to the top,
to the top, to the top—.
Subaru: “Ih'm... mahde it!”
Reaching the top, Subaru spits ragged breaths as he collapses to his knees on the carpet. He jabs his
head back into the escape passage, calling his voice down the stairs.
Subaru: “Fuhre, dherhaa! Ihsssaohkae!”
Sealing off the passage after Frederica's completed her ascent would sequester them from Elsa.
Realising this as he speaks, Subaru tumbles himself toward the open-close gimmick sculpture. He
takes its neck in his hand, waiting for Frederica's flight. However—,
Subaru: “—weh”
What slams on Subaru's ears is the cacophony of tremendous ballistics and collapse. The building's
foundations break against each other in a quake, kicking up billows of smoke and assaulting the
mansion with tremors.
What happened, thinks Subaru as he leaves the sculpture and returns to the path. He peers inside—
and sees the spiral staircase now absent, leaving only rubble.
Subaru: “This... a,”
This was payback for shoddy architecture—was not the breed of this destruction. It was excessively
clean and undamaging to the actual passage for an unanticipated collapse. Though some artifice, it
operated by separating the stairway itself.
Perhaps it was intended to cover the tracks of a successful escape, or to counter against invader
encroachments like the present. Subaru knew not which. What he did know was—
—Frederica could not be coming back up.
The instant he thinks so far, his forgotten wounds twinge and he pukes up blood. The flechettes
bored into his neck and shoulders nibble away at his flesh. His fingers slip over to remove them—
contact—they tremble in fear of the haemorrhage—stop.
Subaru: “'Sisnt, timeto be doing this... I'm, idiot...”
He has no time for his legs, his mind to freeze. The hopelessness of Frederica's survival is surely yet
dependant on Subaru's actions.
Bearing the pain, Subaru forces his knees to stand as he prepares for action. When he remembers
about Petra. She had surely been in his arms until he reached the office, so where had she—
Subaru: “Pe, tra?”
Subaru discovers Petra on the opposite end of the room—nearby the sculpture. She lies on her side
face-down and collapsed. Apparently, he had dropped her in the commotion.
Yet worrying about Frederica, Subaru must follow her words and ensure Petra remains protected.
He taxes his trembling legs to stand. His feet lead him to the fallen Petra's side. And, he goes to pick
her up—
—When there, buried from her head's rear to her nape, he spots the crooked knife.
Blood trickles from her mouth, brain lies spilt from her fractured skull. Fresh bloodshed seeps
heavy into her soft chestnut hair. Her gentle, warm hands will no longer move.
Subaru lifts his right arm. He sees a pathetic bundle of flesh missing three fingers and half a forearm.
The kukri he had attempted to halt had torn straight through to strike Petra. Now presented with this,
Subaru thus had protected not a single thing.
Subaru: “—aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”
Bloody does his ruined throat shriek.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Subaru limps across the mansion carpet, his expression haunted, headed for the eastern bloc. Settled
in Subaru's arms is Petra's corpse. He has covered her in a white sheet, hidden, so no one will see
her death.
Her frozen-still expression of surprise proves that her death was instantaneous, the only saving
grace in this. Experiencing the same agonizing deaths Subaru had experienced would be excessively
horrible. He couldn't save her. 'Saving'—like that was anywhere here.
Subaru: “ourrReeau...”
Had he not come here wishing to save everyone in the mansion? Had he not resolved to devote
himself to become capable of saving?
Again he caught Petra inside this spiral of death. This is the third time he's seen Petra's dead body
—all of them ends that shouldn't have happened if Subaru had done something.
The witch cult had instigated the last series of loops, but this time had a decisively different
component. Trying to settle it without getting Petra caught, Subaru could have objected to the
decision to welcome her in as Frederica's undermaid. He was supposed to have known that being at
Emilia's side, being at his own side, might invite danger.
Subaru: “Could've... should've... endless.”
If he's going to go on about coulds and shoulds after the game's already over, it'd go on forever.
Subaru knew this. And being that he knew this, that he reflexively thinks he can't stay here is
Subaru's weakness.
According with his fractured feelings, his limping gait is heavy. A trail of his yet-spilling blood
marks the carpet with red, a rasping pain grinding at his nerves with every step.
One step, another, the sound of his flesh and mind shaving away, pain. Even being able to receive
this punishment was a grace. If Subaru had sinned, then he should also be the only one eligible to
receive the punishment. If it would uphold this rule, then any amount of pain he received was fine.
This girl in his arms, the woman who had stayed so he could escape, and—
Subaru: “Rehm...”
Please let no disaster reach her.

Subaru reaches the servant's quarters in the eastern bloc. He had chosen the shortest path from the
office to get here, but he senses it took ages getting here pushing his wounded body. His destined
room was opposite the stairs, room closest to the edge.
He even now doesn't think of what'll happen after he gets there. With getting there alone as his
objective, with touching the girl present there his only objective, he already lacks the will to live.
He's lost too much blood, and his preparation and resolve have flowed out of his body with it. And
most importantly, this time had far too many losses. He doesn't even seem capable of raising his
head as he walks.
If it's ending, then at least let it be at her side.
At the side of the single girl in the world to whom Subaru could expose his weakness.
Leaving a trail of blood and half-leaning on the wall, his minuscule willpower turns to tenacity as
Subaru arrives just before his destined room—Rem's bedroom.
He leans Petra against the wall and removes the sheet. Closes her eyes. Touches her cheek, traces
his finger across her lips, hanging his head before the cooled girl's empty vessel.
Subaru: “Sorry... Ih'm sorry... I'm, stupid ahnd usehelss and so...”
There had to have been some method, but since Subaru was an idiot he hadn't known it. Petra was a
resulting sacrifice. His apologies reach her absent self not.
His tears fall onto Petra, he falls onto his knees. He pulls up the sheet and again covers her, stands
up, turns around.
???: “—I think it's rather mean to be left behind.”
At the end of the hallway, a foot stood on the stairway Subaru just descended, is a beautiful black-
haired woman. She fiddles with the end of her long, braided hair, her other hand holding a
bloodsoaked kukri.
Black bodysuit and black overcoat. Same outfit as when he saw her in the Capital. She was supposed
to have fought with Frederica, but there's not a sign of that battle anywhere. That meaning both in
wounds, and in fatigue.
Her appearing here now explains just what happened to Frederica. All Subaru can do about having
more people his apologies won't reach is look up at the ceiling and curse his own incompetence.
Elsa: “I'm impressed you walked this far with those wounds. Very well done.”
Subaru: “You ghonna give me a payment for it? Your life'd work fhine.”
Elsa: “Can I read that as 'your lifetime is my desire', courting?”
Subaru: “Ehf you're ghood to get crushed immediately, hand eht ohver.”
Subaru glares at Elsa, using the wall to somehow get himself up. Elsa looks his wounded body up to
down.
Elsa: “The aroma of blood, the scent of anger, the fragrance of DEATH... ahh, you excel in every one.
If your guts are to my liking too, I'll be too joyed to comment.”
Subaru: “Freak... I got nho ideah what you're saying.”

Hugging herself with an expression of ecstasy, Elsa looks at Subaru with a gaze not hiding its
arousal. Even though she's beautiful she has the eyes of a debauchee, which gives Subaru only fear
and disgust.
Subaru makes his expression one purely of rejection. Elsa's cheeks retain their sensual tone.
Elsa: “It's nice to talk with you, but... I'd rather not be told off for losing sight of my goal. Would the
spirit and young half-witch lady I met in the Capital happen to be home?”
Subaru: “Woulda saved effort if you'd just gave us a phonecall before coming. Whe've given
mercenharies ghreat treatmenht before.”
Elsa: “You aren't going to answer. Then, it'd be best to ask your guts.”
Her pink tongue sensually wets her red lips. She traces her tongue alone the flat of her knife,
smiling in ecstasy at the drips of blood she licks up. Brandishing her kukri, she dashes low at
Subaru, posture spiderlike. She's fast. Can't think of any counter to it. But,
Subaru: “As goddahmn if I'm ghonna die at yhour hands!”
Says Subaru as he pushes open the door of Rem's bedroom.

Elsa's brows furrow at the action, unable to comprehend it. Subaru feels some satisfaction at that
reaction.
Subaru's already half-resigned this one as being a failure. His wounds are deep, he can't stop his
lifeblood from spilling everywhere, and the destiny for this loop is precarious. So at least he'll get
one fuck over on Elsa, and stop things from going how she wants.
He'd rather not fall victim before those blades. If he's going to fall into her hands, he'd rather just
throw his life away first. But before that, he wanted her to avoid being violated.
That meaning, a considerably selfish double-suicide.
But if it meant falling into Elsa's hands, like Petra, like Frederica...
That girl in this world that had already ended, would at least, by Subaru's hands—
Subaru: “And ihmmediately, me too...”
And instantaneously from there, he would join her. Subaru enters into Rem's bedroom with this
resolve—
—The bookshelves of the Forbidden Archive welcome a Subaru prepared to end.

CHAPTER 35: THE GIRL'S GOSPEL
The room teems with the choking scent of old books.
Stepping through the doorway with jaw dropped speechless, Subaru puts together his sight and
smell to realise a second too slow that he has tread upon the floor of a different room than he
desired.
Subaru: “Forbidden Archive!?”
He's reached the place he couldn't find while searching around the mansion. The undesired timing
and unforeseen opportunity creates a vacuum in Subaru's heart, robbing him of the time until the
door slams shut behind him.
Subaru: “—!”
A sucking force drags Subaru's body into the archive. The door thunders shut, the resulting breeze
tickling Subaru's nape. He glances back at the violent sound, realises that the hallway and room are
now separated, and comprehends.
Comprehends what it means that the Forbidden Archive opened here, and then shut its door.
Subaru: “Ou-ohpen!!”
He reaches for the doorknob, notices that his right arm is already mangled past being an arm, but
nevertheless somehow reaches out. His fingers slip with blood as he wrenches on the doorknob, but
the rotated knob does not convey to the door his desire to open it. All that happens is Subaru turns it
fruitlessly, vigorously, welling up with panic.
???: “—It's useless no matter how much you struggle to leave, in fact.”
A voice comes flying at Subaru from behind him as he scuffles frantically with the gateway. He
jolts around, leaning his back against the door—to discover a girl in the back of the archive, her
indifferent expression aimed at him.
Cream hair with long curls, an extravagant dress. Small body, her face adorable but peevish.
Exactly the same girl Subaru knows.
Subaru: “Beatrice...”
Beatrice: “You're in quite the awful state, I suppose. You'll dirty the floor of the archive, so don't
move around too much...”
Subaru: “Right nhow! Open the dhoor! Lhet me outsihde!!”
Yelling, Subaru ignores everything Beatrice is saying as she calmly gazes over his wounds. Not
hearing the command to not splatter blood everywhere, he swings his yet-bleeding arm miserably.
Subaru: “Why, why do you show up nhow!? Why! Why is iht nhow!? Lhet me back! Huhrry!
Nhow! Ihmmedhiately!!”
Beatrice: “...What will happen if you do return, I suppose. Betty has not an idea what you could
possibly do, returning with those unseemly wounds, in fact.”
Subaru: “I khnow best, thaht I cahn't do ahnythinhg! Buht, buht!!”

It's not that he wants to go back and face Elsa. He would enter the room he was supposed to be
standing in, be at the sleeping girl's side, and—.
Subaru: “If I ehnterhed the ahrchivhe, and GATE CROSSING ahctivhated... that murderer's, the
room...”
If that happened, the madwoman would probably be tilting her head at Subaru's absconded self. But
before searching around the mansion for a disappeared Subaru, she should have discovered the girl
sleeping inside the room. How would that indiscriminate killer react to her, defenceless in sleep? It
didn't even necessitate consideration.
Subaru: “Soh!”
Beatrice: “You're too late, in fact.”
Mutters Beatrice with pained clarity. She looks down and shakes her head, Subaru going rigid. His
brain ruminates over her words, his thoughts freezing.
—What did this girl just say?
Subaru: “Late... what do yhou... mhean?”
Beatrice: “The reason you believe you want to return to that room, as of now, is gone, I suppose.”
Subaru's throat catches, his eyes open to their limit, and before he can realise it he collapses to his
knees. His shoulders slump, his head lowers, a terrible ringing echoes through his skull.
Pain, pain, the forgotten pain is resummoned, noise invading Subaru's consciousness. It would be
fine for that cacophony to drown, drive away everything, and just disappear, Subaru thinks. He
didn't want to comprehend anything. He didn't want to realise anything. But,
Beatrice: “Show me your wounds, I suppose. They're atrocious and I can't bear to look at them, in
fact.”
Having approached him, Beatrice bends down and looks at the injuries across a squatting Subaru's
right arm, left flank and right shoulder with her faced twisted in reproach. A dim light covers her
hand, which first contacts the most serious damage, his right arm. —Something like an itch runs
through his until-then entirely blazing arm, his muscles beginning to mend.
The bleeding stops, the open wound answers corresponding to the light as a membrane pulls over its
surface, his cells spurred to encourage recovery. But,
Beatrice: “It'll take time for it to return to its original width, and your missing fingers aren't coming
back, I suppose. ...Now your hip, and shoulder, too.”
Subaru: “...What're, yhou doinhg.”
An emotionless voice slips from Subaru's mouth. Focused on healing his wounds, Beatrice furrows
her brows as she presents her palms to him.
Beatrice: “It's reluctantly, but there's no choice so I'm healing your wounds, in fact. Betty is the only
one in this mansion who can heal wounds of this calibre, I suppose. You best be grateful, in fact.”
Subaru: “Healhing... the wouhnds? What, for?”
Beatrice: “These wounds would be life-threatening if left alone, I suppose. I don't particularly care
whether you're to live or die, but I'd rather you not die here, in fact.”
One eye closed, perhaps judging Subaru's words as delirium coming from his injury, Beatrice gives
that curt reply and readies to go back to healing. But,
Beatrice: “Ah,”
Feeling the waves of healing burying his wounds, Subaru swings his injured arm, prompting a
surprised little noise from Beatrice. He overexerts his trembling knees and tumbles onto his side,
dirtying the floor of the Forbidden Archive as he takes distance from her. He shoots the girl a
gruesome glare.
His actions dislodge the flechette in his hip, which clatters to the ground. There comes the sound of
unplugged fluid. Blood pours out from the wound, down his thigh, washing the floor in a river.
Beatrice's breath catches as she watches. Subaru bares his teeth.
Subaru: “I don't neehd healing! If my living or dying's uhnrelahted to you... then why are you
tryinhg to help me!?”
Beatrice: “Because... you're unseemly and, I can't bear to look...”
Subaru: “Why... why me!? If you're goihng to act intenhding to help someohne, why didhn't you
help Petra, help Frederica!? If we had your powher, we woulhdn't need to fight just run awhay...
there's heaps of ways we could've takhen!”
With GATE CROSSING, they should've been able to evade even the persistent Elsa. There was no
power so specialised for escape if utilized. The faltering Petra, blockading Frederica, and sleeping
Rem all—!
Subaru: “They should've been saved! The places my weahkness and stupihdity... meant I wasn't
vighilant are the places you wouhld've had been... so then, why...”
Beatrice: “Why does Betty... There is no reason for Betty to help these three you speak of, I
suppose. It's not my business. That was not any of my business, in fact.”
Subaru: “Then! There shoulhdn't be any fuckihng reasohn for you to help me!”
Subaru strikes the floor with his healing right arm.
Subaru: “Why dhid you help me!? Why dhid you save me!? Just whimsy? Then why am onhly I
diffherent from the other three! Rem's such a good girl, Frederica has somhething she wanhts to
do... Petra was still so small... all of them, morhe than me! Had reasons to live... with far morhe
merit!”
Beatrice: “Merit? Reasons? Why must Betty respect such appended self-satisfaction, I suppose.
Your conceit is exorbitant in fact, human!”
Subaru: “Well then hell's goinhg on with your inhconhsistency!? I wenht ahround searching that
much and you don't show yourselhf, and then you fuckinhg show up so eahsily only when things're
dhangerous! If you can't see mehrit in me or in them...you should've just stahyed holed up alone in
this room!!”
Why did she reveal herself after everything was already too late?
She could've hidden herself so absolutely that Elsa wouldn't even realise she was there, but if Elsa
guesses on what happened to Subaru, Beatrice's existence might be revealed. If that happens, even
Beatrice's future might be one of butchery before those blades. Why did she invite a half-dead
Subaru in, even to the point of risking notable danger?
Why did she think to save a Subaru who had given up on living, and desired death?
Subaru: “Whimsy or whatever ehlse is fine... if there's an uhrge to save me in you... if you have
evhen a shred of inhtenhtion left to help me... please, rhight now, kill me.”
Beatrice: “What... are you saying, I suppose...”
Subaru: “Kill! Me! Now! Before ehverything gets overwrhitten, before this miscarrhied present
becomes defihnite! Kill me! Kill! Khihhll!”
Spitting, horking blood, Subaru claws at the floor as he shrieks his appeal.
Before his reason to live was entirely lost, before his prolonged inactivity invited an unrecoverable
future.
I want this hopeless useless powerless brainless mass be made ended, he shrieks.
But Beatrice doesn't accept this shriek, this appeal from his soul. She shakes her head, displeasure
and confusion rising on her expression.
Beatrice: “I don't understand. I don't understand, in fact. I don't understand this human you are, I
suppose. How are... how do you say this now, when you have life, in fact?”
Subaru: “Savhing just life isn't acthually saving! Having lifhe right now is agony to me! It
shoulhdn't be there, I shoulhdn't be here... If you're sayihng you're not going to save me...”
Without any relying on others, here by his own hands would this wretched hour—
Seeing Subaru's breath catch with resolve, Beatrice voices a thin 'auh,'. Subaru sticks his tongue out
of his mouth without hesitation.
He chomps down best he can, going to bite it off, enacting a deed of suicide.
Pain. Pain in a completely different dimension from that of his arm, hip and shoulder. No matter
how many times he savours it, developing resistance to pain would surely be impossible. All
wounds borne from any place, all pain birthing from anywhere, were things different, things new,
things agonising, things bitter, not things to come used to.
His mouth overflowing with blood, Subaru's eyes peel wide as he collapses on the spot.
His vision revolves in circles, his limbs shudder as they begin to convulse. Pain, and halted
breathing. His throat clogs with his shredded tongue as he descends into suffocation.
Beatrice: “—you doing!”
Not the type of injury to bring an instant death. Sharp and dull pains spear intermittently through
Subaru's brain, his limbs tremble ceaseless, tears of blood reach his cheeks. His half-severed tongue
dangles caught on his lip, testament to the insufficiency of his 'best he can'.
This is the third time Subaru has chosen suicide in this parallel world.
The first time was during the loops in the mansion, a suicide made with resolve to repair something
irreparable.
The second time was at the end of the loops in the Capital when he learned Rem's existence was
gone, a suicide done in a stupor. Stabbed a knife through his throat, but nothing changed.
And now his third suicide—he had no guarantee to return, but to continue living spending time here
was impossible for Subaru. Too heavy. Not happening. So, even if staking a handful of potentials, to
retrieve what he had lost he would—
???: “...no. Don't, leave me behind...”
A trembling voice calls to Subaru from a world growing distant.

The voice grows further, further away, disappearing—
※ † † † † † † † † † †
—The first thing to assault Subaru's nostrils when he wakes is the smell of dust.
Subaru: “Uu?”
Waiting for his consciousness to sober, Subaru shakes his head with his eyes still closed,
understanding that he is awake. He's lying on his side on a floor. With his body savouring the cool
touch of the ground, Subaru dimly considers the fact that his restart point was inside the tomb.
Uprighting himself, he opens his eyes and looks about the dimly-lit space. His vision's still
unfocused and blurry with some tears after just waking up, unable to make out what he's seeking.
But, he feels relief that it appears he managed to again RETURN BY DEATH. If the place he came
back to is inside the tomb, then his restart point hasn't changed.
Chronologically speaking, this is just after Subaru returned from overcoming the first TRIAL. Emilia
should be collapsed at his side, and should be starting from just before waking her up.
Subaru: “Head, hurts...”
Rubbing between his brows, Subaru gives a light shake of his head as he forces his brain to organise
the situation. He already had countless things he had to think about, and the events of that previous
loop had only increased that number. He can't come up with even a single proper means for a
solution of what to do. Feels like the light he was supposed have seen was a bugzapper, inviting him
into a new trap.
Like right after taking a detour around a pitfall of despair, he fell into a different pitfall.
Subaru makes a reference to some japanese crane game and its bonus rounds about how malicious
this is.
In the sense of lethality, his metaphor isn't incorrect.

TRIAL in SANCTUARY. Relationship with Garfiel. Mansion attack. The mystery of his missing
leeway time, and desire for revenge against Elsa—that establishing a method to save Rem and the
others.
His head could boil over with the incessantly-piling problems, but being giving a chance to
deliberate over what to do about them in itself was already a grace.
Otherwise this just might be where it ends, was a resignedness present in his mind in these
conditions.
Subaru: “Hurts to have to feign ignorance with Emilia again, but...”
Subaru recognizes that his hazy vision is clearing. Snorting at the lingering smell of the place, he
first figures to look for Emilia.
Thinking that far, he puts his right hand to his brow like a visor, when he finally notices it.
—His right hand is missing three fingers.
Subaru: “Wha—!? Aa!?”
Seeing wounds that shouldn't be there, scars which shouldn't have carried over, Subaru's throat
whines in shock. The reality that he had been witnessing a world rather too convenient for him slaps
him as his trembling pupils bring the world into focus.
Cold floor, stone walls. Lingering smell of mould. The tomb that Subaru had desired. But before
Subaru in reality are rows of packed bookshelves, inside a room suffused in the characteristic smell
borne of leather and paper.
Subaru: “The Forbidden Archive... wh, y...”
Subaru cannot comprehend that his flesh is still in a location he was supposed to have bid farewell.
Thinking of the worst, Subaru first checks over his own body.
The worst possibility—that the world may have been fixed to repeat from the point he stepped into
the Forbidden Archive.
Unable to hide his shivering, Subaru stares at his right arm contacting his face. Three fingers gone,
arm missing about a third of its width compared to his left. But the wound is healed, strange
swellings of flesh and discolouration telling him that his body is midway through regeneration.
His flechetted hip and shoulder don't show any conspicuous external injury either, and the sensation
of flesh being pulled taught and the occasional unpleasant twinging remain only residually.
He's at least not in the instant directly after stepping into the Archive. That leaves only one
possibility.
???: “—Finally awake, I suppose.”
It's the voice Subaru least wants to hear.

Spoken in a nonchalant tone, intonation as if bored of the world, but nevertheless unable to erase its
concern, a soprano desiring connection.
Still seated on the floor, Subaru turns his head. Filled with a wish he can't discard, he desires to see
an illusion of a silver-haired girl behind him. What he sees instead is a girl in a dress sitting on a
wooden stepladder. Right there is Beatrice, holding a book in her hands as she looks down at
Subaru.
A sigh uncorks itself from his mouth. Beatrice slams the book shut and slowly descends the
stepladder.
Beatrice: “Your stupid actions have truly caused me trouble, in fact. I healed your arm wounds,
shoulder, hip, tongue, all of them together, I suppose. Should be no malcontent, in fact.”
Subaru goes silent.
Beatrice: “Nothing to say about having your life salvaged, I suppose. Well, if this taught you your
lesson, then don't you do stupid things anymore...”
Subaru: “You... do you understand, what you've done?”
Beatrice: “Ha?”
Beatrice approaches a silenced Subaru as she speaks. Subaru answers back, his tone suppressed of
emotion, and the moment her face scrunches up—
—Subaru stands and grips Beatrice's dress in his left hand. Her mouth opens in surprise as he yanks
her close, bringing her face to his.
Subaru: “Who the hell asked for you to save them!!”
Beatrice: “—a,”
Subaru: “Do you understand what you've done!? Because of you, everything's ruined! Everything,
everything, everything I was meant to be able to do something about is on a fresh slate because of
you! Why didn't you just let me die!? I survived, and then what... and then fucking what! Then
what!?”
By being lenient with his life, Subaru should have procured the right for a do-over. But because of
this girl's interference, that wish was not granted. All that remained in Subaru's hands was an
indescribable sense of loss, and unending anger toward Beatrice.
Subaru: “Save me on whim, heal my wounds... are you all satisfied now? You want my gratitude!?
Well, thank you! Your brilliance has saved my life! Even if it means everything except life, that
every single thing is lost, you have saved only my life!”
Beatrice: “B-Betty was only... only...”
Subaru: “Too late, I've got endless gratitude to voice! Now, like always, you just sit there with that
nice nonchalant expression of yours and come look down on me as if that's all normal. You're good
at that, right? You enjoy that, right? Looking down sneering at these lowly humans, that is——au,”
Packed to the limit with hate, cheeks twisted in an ugly grin, Subaru pours insults upon Beatrice.
The ghastly behaviour is to bury the objection, disappointment, and loss filling his heart. But he
abruptly aborts it.
Beatrice: “—hk,”
Subaru: “Ah...”
Aborts it, because he sees the fat tears spilling from the eyes of the girl directly before him.
The blood rushed to his head retreats the instant he sights them. The repulsive spite thick in what he
just said is terrifying and becomes unbearable.
His slack fingers release Beatrice's body from the hatred. She backs off as if pushed, her back
smacks against a bookshelf, she falls to her knees.
A furious nausea wells up in him. Becoming conscious of his words, he himself cannot bear the
ugliness of what he just said.
Repulsive. Crooked. What to call it except lashing out? From the perspective of a Beatrice ignorant
of RETURN BY DEATH, all she did was heal a dying Subaru's wounds. Of course a lifesaver deserved
gratitude—there should not be any reason she be insulted.
Subaru understood this logically. But his emotions were not accepting it. Tossed around by those
extremes of mentality squabbling inside him, he raises his head, needing to say something to the
collapsed Beatrice.
Subaru: “No, I... S-sorry. I didn't mean to say... It isn't your fault at...”
If there is anyone at fault here, it is undoubtedly Subaru.

He knew what would happen, yet he still tread unwary into a tiger's den and stepped on the tail.
Those around him are who received the payback, and with him boasting that he alone lacked reason
for reproach, he had been crossing the line for pride.
Emotionally, he did possess a feeling to verbally condemn this uninformed girl. He did possess
emotions he couldn't swallow down about how she had hidden from him, only to appear in that
instant.
But that was no aquittal for him to yell criticisms at her.
Subaru: “I'm sorry. Thank you, for healing my wounds. But, now I...”
He would at least have to disappear from before her, and choose elsewhere to commit suicide.
Subaru had no reason for this world to continue. Too many losses. Subaru was not strong enough to
live in a world where he had lost things he must not lose.
Thus Subaru reports to Beatrice succinct words of gratitude, and averts his gaze in preparation to
leave the Forbidden Archive—
—When he notices the black tome at the fallen Beatrice's side.
Plain binding. Thick structure. Large as a dictionary, blatantly heavy enough to be awkward to carry
around. Subaru can't tear his eyes away from the familiar thing.
Why, now, was that here?
Subaru: “The GOSPEL's in the carriage... it being in the archive shouldn't...”
The Witch Cult gospel that Betelgeuse owned had been collected by Subaru as gains of war and was
now in his possession. But that didn't mean treating it like a book of the Archive, and rather simply
meant some extremely cautious safekeeping of the thing, so it should not be in this place.
Shaking his head at the incomprehensible situation, Subaru reaches for the fallen gospel. To check
its insides, and negate this unease he felt. But,
Beatrice: “—No!”
The gospel is snatched away before Subaru can touch it.

Subaru looks to find Beatrice, breathing ragged, holding the gospel to her chest with both hands as
she distances herself from Subaru. Her throat still stiff from her sobbing, she looks down at the
gospel, and gives a relieved exhale as she strokes the cover.
That loving gesture stirs up a bad premonition in Subaru like no other.
Subaru: “Why're you treating that thing like it's so important?”
Beatrice says nothing.
Subaru: “That's the book the Witch Cult have... isn't it? It isn't it? It looks crazy similar, but it's
different, right? Since the appearance's so close and it could cause misunderstandings, you only
took that distance on purpose, so I wouldn't think it was—right? Right, I mean it's my nature to
jump to conclusions, my presumptions're intense, I'm mean and rude my eyes're nasty my
personality’s crooked too...”
Subaru: “Hey—please, deny it.”
Beatrice slips a small sigh, and presents the book forward so Subaru can see it.
Beatrice: “It is exactly what you imagine, in fact. ...It's a gospel. The same as the witch cultists you
speak of own, the guide to happiness. The foundations for living. The only single truth, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Wh-why... do you have that? Somewhere sells them? T-telling the future or whatever is
super way too cheat item. A walkthrough for real life crazy breaks the game balance. ...So, come
on.”
Beatrice: “...Betty is not instructed to answer your question, I suppose.”
Subaru asks with his voice trembling, Beatrice gives her cruel report as she flips smoothly through
the pages. Subaru feels his tongue going numb, her gaze aimed down at the book's contents.
Subaru: “You don't do anything if it's not what the book says?”
Beatrice: “That question is not written in the book, in fact.”
Subaru: “What about you healing my wounds? And sheltering me in the Forbidden Archive when I
was going to be killed?”
Beatrice: “Those questions are not written in the book, I suppose.”
Subaru: “What about right now, how you're talking with me? And, saving me when I tried to die?”
Beatrice: “—Not my business.”
Still gazing down at the book, Beatrice's replies are emotionless. A terror so strong as to most send
his lungs into convulsions, and a vertigo so intense as to most make him forget how to breathe
assault him as he raises his voice.
Subaru: “So you can't do goddamn anything if it's not what the book says!?”
Beatrice: “...I can't, I suppose. I can't, in fact. Any and all is in accordance with the gospel's guide.
The meaning of Betty's life is to do so, and for that purpose alone does Betty exist, in fact.”
Subaru: “Then.. you saved me like this because the book told you to!? And when you saved me
when I was near-death in the forest of witchbeasts! And when you tried to save me when my heart
was worn! And the time we spent pissing around, yelling at each other, enjoying ourselves like
idiots... for all of it, your own will was nowhere in it... that's what you're going to say!?”
Beatrice: “I told you... that's exactly what I am saying, I suppose!!”
Yells Beatrice, her face red with anger. She steps forward, glares at Subaru.
Beatrice: “Everything Betty has done, has seen, has said, all of it had been written, I suppose. You...
you, would never move Betty's heart, in fact. Put your conceit down and to rest, I suppose, human.”
Subaru goes silent.
Beatrice: “Betty will accomplish what was desired of her and fulfil the meaning of her being alive,
in fact. I spend my life, my time, anything for that purpose—which for alone am I here, I
suppose. ...And will I stand having that denied, by you, in fact!!”
Subaru: “Bea...”
Subaru tries to call out to her, but a pressure emitted from before him interrupts. Pushed back by as
if by wind, Subaru notices that his body can't resist it and he's being pushed towards the door. —
This continues, and he'll be flung outside.
Subaru: “Sto—Beatrice!”
Beatrice: “Betty's everything is for Mother! The bond between Betty and Mother alone is Betty's
everything! I couldn't care about you less... couldn't care less...”
Subaru goes silent.
Beatrice: “Couldn't care less. Hate you. I hate you. —I hate you!”
Shaking her head, hiding her face overflowing with tears, her scream sends Subaru's body flying.
Door's open. The room is trying to drive Subaru out of the Archive. Subaru's right hand catches on
the doorframe. But he's three fingers short. He can just barely support his body on his index finger
alone, but it only gives him a few seconds of time.
Raising his head, Subaru goes to call to the crying girl—
Subaru: “Beatri—!”
Beatrice: “...ather,”5
Drowned out by her quiet voice, Subaru's words do not reach Beatrice.
Wind blows. He is drowned out. Space twists, and Subaru's body is flung from a place that should
be to a place that should not.
5 Line is '・・・ぅさま’(...u-sama). Riding entirely off 2ch speculation on this one. She could technically be saying
anyone whose name ends in a 'u' and Beatrice would respect enough to put a -sama on. As an aside トルー
ゥル/Flugel also ends in a u and Beatrice is confirmed to know Shaula as of A4-C3. Yeak you can just ignore this
comment.
The door slams shut. The wind stops as silence falls upon the Forbidden Archive.
What remains there is a single girl. Her face still one of having held back sobs, she walks with a
slow gait deeper into the room—tottering to sit upon the stepladder. Hugging her knees, her
trembling fingers open the gospel. And,
Beatrice: “Why... for Betty, is nothing...”
Met with a wordless stark-blank page, her sobbing alone echoes through the silent room.
CHAPTER 36: AT THE END OF CONFUSION
—The moment he is forced out the door, Subaru feels a disorientation as if the earth and sky are
flipped.
Subaru: “—Aguuah!?”
His back hits the hard ground, his throat struggling beneath the pain of air being wrung out of lungs.
Momentum leads him to tumble across the floor, smack into a wall and finally stop. He shakes and
raises his head, opening his eyes, disoriented in pain.
He puts to sound the name of the girl whose name he had not even managed to call, but it is too late
for the girl in question to hear it. GATE CROSSING activated, leaving a blockade preventing them
from seeing each other. Her rejection was great and deep, not something Subaru's voice would
reach.
Subaru: “Why... can I never...”
Never realise his own mistakes until after he has failed, until after he has chosen the worst and most
unfavourable options? All he wished for was to reel in the optimum method, the greatest future, yet
why was he never enough? Weakness? Foolishness?
Subaru: “How come, you and a gospel... Just, what is with you!?”
The existence of the black tomb in her hand—the gospel, had decisively opened distance between
Subaru and Beatrice.
Subaru had firmly believed that over this small period of time together, he had established a definite
SOMETHING with Beatrice. Even if it was a relationship of reciprocal sniping, and mutually
expressing displeasure upon seeing each other, there was something endless about it—was what
only Subaru had believed.
Presumption. Conceit. The peak of misconception and misapprehension.

Subaru's obstinate beliefs had been the product of his self-satisfaction, while Beatrice had only
harboured emotion for Subaru equivalent to what her words said. She had only associated with
Subaru following the orders of the gospel, while in truth snubbing and hating him.
Subaru: “...Is that really true?”
Subaru: “Those times you smiled, scolded, tried to protect me... All of it was just a lie following the
plot? ...Really?”
That's impossible, was how Subaru's weak heart yet wished to deny it. Beatrice's tearful voice in the
last moment of their farewell invited obscurity to the veracity of her statements.
It was far too early for him to make conclusions about anything.
Subaru: “Who cares about the book, I remember that you saved me... that unchanging truth is a debt
only I know about.”
Subaru had been rescued by Beatrice multiple times during the loops in the mansion.
He would linger in the Forbidden Archive to gather his thoughts after Returning by Death, and she
more literally rescued him by removing the witchbeasts' curses. Him having let Rem die, she had
gone to protect a Subaru pursued by Ram and Roswaal to the point of overinterpreting their humbug
contract.
Although, that great debt no longer existed in this world, outside of Subaru's chest.
Subaru: “Back then... I was happy.”
She had saved a Subaru who was under the belief he had lost all allies.
He considered Ram and Rem enemies, could not fully read Roswaal's intentions, and could not even
fully trust Emilia with how worn he was. It was only Beatrice who saved him.
Just to what extent had that temporary, transient contract saved Subaru? It was a debt of inarticulate
calibre toward her he could not fully repay.
Subaru: “I'll repay that debt. I don't even know if you gave it to me of your own volition, or if it was
you respecting the book's 'will' or whatever... so, I'll confirm that.”
It is impossible for Subaru to question Beatrice now that she has so firmly rejected him. Subaru's
resolve has no meaning in this world, and will be a carryover for the next.
Subaru lifts his right hand. Missing three fingers. Shoulder and hip twinging. Banged head. Tongue
just a tiny bit shorter. All of it, pain he would not forget.
Beneath his closed eyelids is Rem. Petra, Frederica then arise, Beatrice turns her back to him, and
finally comes Emilia.
—Everything that Subaru had miscarried, and not grasped in this world.
He had enacted what he could to take that back. That which Beatrice interrupted he would again do,
once more leaping into the helix.
Sticking out his shortened tongue, Subaru again resolves to bite it off.
Thinking back on his failed suicide rebirths the anguish and prompts fear. Weakness comes, his legs
tremble. Wordplay about “resolve” held not a scrap of worth when faced with the end.
Forcing down his unproductive, negative emotions, Subaru suppresses the worst of the lot, the
sensation of gazing into death. As if praying to return to a time to re-do everything, Subaru goes to
close his eyes for his final moment—
Subaru: “...Where am I?”
—When he finally notices the place he has reached through GATE CROSSING is nowhere that he
knows.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
This room is not one Subaru figures would be inside Roswaal's mansion.
Damp stone-paved floor, thick ivy creeping across the grimy walls. Desks stand arranged in
disarray, with rusted metal tools scattered about—the visual information alone is enough to summon
unease. But more than any of that,
Subaru: “Ueh!?”
So pungent a stench, that should one notice it even once, they would not get it out of their
awareness.
Differing from the rot of organic waste, but indescribable as anything but rot, the stench fosters
nausea. Subaru puts his hand to his mouth as his empty stomach wrings up its fluid.
Yellowish vomit spills onto the floor, Subaru taking ragged breaths as he glares around the
surroundings. The more he looks, the more irregularities he finds.
The dim room is paved with stone and about twice as big as the Roswaal mansion parlour. Not large
enough to be spacious, but still not a cramped space.
In the corner of the room are the disorderly desks and mystery tools, and opposite the desks—in a
space occupying the majority of the room, is—
Subaru: “Destroyed desks and, crystals? Something crystallised, or pieces of magequartz? And this
hole...”
Scattered about before his gaze are the debris of broken desks, and magequartz devoid of power.
Beyond them is a gaping hole perhaps four meters in diameter. Even disregarding how meagre the
room's lighting is, the hole is deep enough for the bottom to be invisible.
Subaru raises his head, to find that what is emitting this pale blue light from the walls is moss. This
moss grows thickly in forests and glows, apparently absorbing mana from the atmosphere. Between
the starlight and the glowmoss, the surroundings of Roswaal's mansion avoid the phenomenon
known as 'pitch darkness'.
Keeping his attention on the mosslight as he crawls across the floor, still feeling an unpleasant
wetness on his pants and film dirtying his palm, Subaru stares into the bottom of the hole.
A cool wind quietly rises from the bottom, carrying the nose-turning—no, nose-demolishing—
stench with it.
Subaru: “Uegh... eubg. Not having courage to peek inside's probably the correct choice... what is
this stink?”
Were the stench one characteristic of something harbouring life, Subaru's imagination might have
assumed the worst of possibilities. However, the flowing stench is not of meat or fluid or rot—if
forced to choose something, it was closest to the smell of chemicals.
The pain common to some strong chemical scents stings Subaru's nostrils. This smell transmitted
from the bottom of the hole was that sort of non-biological scent.
Subaru: “—What else,”
Physically and mentally giving up on inspecting the bottom of the hole, Subaru wipes his nose,
focuses on breathing, and looks around the room.
What stands out are the tumbled ruins of a desk and expended magequartz at his feet. The metal
desk has eaten a ferocious blow, crushed, and the magequartz seems to have once been piled atop
said desk. Flipping the warped desk over, Subaru notices a pattern engraved on the desk's top.
Subaru: “A magic circle... is what it looks like, but...”
Magic circles were a kind of guarantee in parallel world fantasies, but Subaru had no recollection of
seeing any since arriving here. The magic of this world fundamentally passed through the bodies of
living creatures to interfere with the outside world, and excepting cases like magic-lights and metia
Subaru had yet to find any exceptions.
The discovery of a magic circle was surprising, but,
Subaru: “Does it actually do anything? If it does, why's it in a place like this... There's no reason to
just leave a magic circle...”
Perhaps its magic could not be activated at this place directly, but rather functioned as a means to
preform long-range magic. Otherwise it may function as a system to conduct algorithms
continuously, without the presence of a practitioner, but,
Subaru: “Then I get why there's empty magequartz tumbled all around it, too.”
Emptying the magequartz which functioned as its fuel tanks, the magic circle consequently lost its
power—was probably the most logical view. What Subaru did not understand reaching that
conclusion was the true nature of the hole, and the destroyed desk. The possibility that a system had
activated to blow up the room if the algorithm was interrupted could not be discarded.
Subaru: “In the end, still no answer to where I am.”
A hole with seemingly no end, a magic circle and magequartz seemingly used to enact some
algorithm. Looking over the stinking room, Subaru sees a different desk tipped over in the corner of
the room, and tools. He picks up one of rust-smothered implements.
It resembles pliers or nippers, the kind of utensil used when crafting plastic models. The same film
dirtying the floor is smeared over this thing too, and most critically it appears enough time has
passed to render it unusable, as it breaks down to scrap as soon as Subaru's hand touches it.
The desk is in the same condition, legs folded from deterioration over time, on the verge of turning
to garbage from wind erosion. Its shape warps instant Subaru lightly sets his foot on it and it
transforms to scrap metal.
This thing would not give him any information either. But if there were anything to be curious
about,
Subaru: “The time and way this one was broken's seriously different from the desk by the hole...”
Different from this desk which had been brittled and broken over time, the desk by the hole had
blatantly been distorted with a destructive force. Further, judging by the state of the ground beneath
it, that desk's destruction had been extremely recent—estimable as being within the past few days.
Subaru: “A destroyed room... who and for what purpose...”
Voicing his question, Subaru abruptly realises his thoughts are stupid.
What was he going to do with this question? He doubted this was the type where thinking would
give him an answer, and more importantly Subaru's arms were already full with more problems than
he could hold.
He had to avoid things that, as if jamming accessories between the gaps in his burden, would
accelerate his collapse. Further, directing his attention in another direction like this was simply
stretching out the time of his pressing suicide, and intolerable.
But even recognizing this hard-opposed feeling of SHAME, the irregularity of this room grabs
Subaru and does not let go. Right now, he was witnessing something outrageously important—
Subaru: “—”
Guided by his conviction that he would get no answer, Subaru turns his head about, looking for the
exit. Being that GATE CROSSING was what flung Subaru here, it was impossible that he had been
thrown into a room without any opening or closing gateways.
Ultimately, Subaru discovers the gate which spat him out in the middle of this room—installed in
the upper portion of one of the walls, the opening-and-closing gateway of a tiny ventilation shaft.
Other than that, he finds no doors or gates which appear to be an entrance or exit to the room. The
proper door may have been installed beyond the hole—on the opposite end of the room, which he
could not reach.
The moment he swallows down this truth, Subaru abandons the notion of leaving this room using
the most appropriate method. He wipes the sweat off his palms and mystery film off his pants,
holding his breath for a moment before reaching up for the topical gate.
Placed at a height he finally reaches by stretching up, the gate's size is perhaps closest comparable
to a garbage chute. Although not constrained enough to prevent a human passage, Subaru was not
so dainty he could breezily pass on through it.
After much struggling due to crippled right hand, the rusted gate shrieks open, Subaru winches
himself into the passage, and he begins manoeuvring operations. The place is as narrow as a
ventilation shaft. Subaru considers the worst-case possibility of bugs and rats making it their nest,
however the shaft is surprisingly clean—not, but that the dust-laden passage lacks any signs of
living creatures is a grace.
Exiting the passage takes about three minutes. Becoming used to the crawling motions halfway
though, it is just when his movements turn smooth that he arrives at his goal. Subaru hops down
into the room connected here by the shaft, and glances over the surroundings. He pays utmost
caution that there is not another hole here, but,
Subaru: “Different vibe from the other room. Comparing to what looked like a laboratory, this one's
more of a waiting room.”
This room is a quarter as large as the previous. Perhaps prepared merely as a room to pass through,
there are no particularly object-looking objects here except for two doors of the just-walk-through-
them variety. More accurately, a waiting room-esque room.
With some chairs and magazines it'd be perfect, probably.
Subaru: “Directionally speaking from where I came, on the other side of this door'll be... yeah.”
He turns the squeaky doorknob and pushes the door open, to find a gaping hole directly before him.
A slight sigh slipping from his lips at the deathtrap conditions, Subaru closes the practically-useless
door out of consideration for his mental health. —Since the stench is now seeping into this room,
and he mourns over his slowness of judgement.
He gives a light shake of his head and heads for the opposite door. Beyond this door would surely
be a space unknown to Subaru—
The sweat he supposedly wiped off his palms, and cold perspiration running down his back become
unbearable.
He did not know what would be beyond the door, but he needed to consider beforehand the worst of
conditions—that someone or thing living would be there.
Subaru: “If this is... inside the mansion, then...”
It was not a room he knew, but it would not be strange if the second he exited the door, he would
find Elsa before him. Subaru lacked the confidence to say, should he hypothetically be faced with
the murderer, he could maintain his calm.
You must die immediately, was the reprimand insisting his suicide, but having recollected the
experience of shattering his molars, that reprimand transforms into hatred.
The very thought that the deviant whose blades killed Petra, Frederica—Rem—might be there,
torments Subaru with a wrath so hot as to boil his brain.
He possesses a malediction desiring she be there, and a wretched craving for life that she is not.
Wavering in the space between both extremes, Subaru's mouth twists into a wicked grin.
Whether she be there, or not be there, neither would betray this crazed emotion.
With that thought diverged from sanity having reached its conclusion, and before the world he faced
with such—
—He witnesses a scenery which should not be, and in that moment, Subaru forgets himself.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
—Subaru's brain had actually already reached the solution of where this unfamiliar room connected
to.
There was already hardly any place in Roswaal's mansion that Subaru had not tread, and he even in
a sense had free access to the Forbidden Archive. The potentials for places he did not know
remained only as the door his hand had twice touched, but whose exit he had not seen—the door in
the ESCAPE PASSAGE.
Although he had harboured distrust for wherever that purpose-unknown room connected, he had not
doubted that place would be part of Roswaal's mansion.
Subaru: “Where—is... this?”
What expands before Subaru beyond the opened door is a dark underground passageway—or not,
but rather the verdant green of trees and nature, and further peculiar was,
Subaru: “M-morning?”
Looking up at the sky peeking through gaps in the trees, Subaru sees the ascending sun. Judging by
the height of the sunrays, and with his skin sensing that this wind belongs to morning, confusion
further ransacks his mind.
Subaru had reached the mansion at evening, then had spoken with Petra and Frederica, and then
considering the time passage with Elsa's attack, Subaru's wounding would have happened just
before late night—meaning that now, almost half a day had passed.
Subaru: “Then, while I was unconscious!?”
After biting his tongue to commit suicide, Subaru had fallen unconscious, to later wake with his
wounds healed. For just how long had he been unconscious inside the Forbidden Archive?
Subaru remembers Beatrice's bragging that the Archive was a PLACE DETACHED FROM THE PASSAGE
OF TIME. Subaru does not know just how credible that statement is, but,
Subaru: “If the save point gets overwritten like this...!”
It's going to be something disastrous.

Before reality can be painted over with conditions realising multiple anxieties, Subaru immediately
had to end his life. Had to, but another feeling was asserting its existence in a heatbutting match
with that panic. And that feeling screamed.
—You have to confirm where this place is!
Subaru did not understand the purpose of doing so. Thinking back on all the particulars so far, and
considering the maliciousness of RETURN BY DEATH, what he should do is kill himself immediately.
But a horrifically calm part inside of Subaru was proposing that he do so, after gaining
understanding of the circumstances he had been placed in.
Subaru: “—Fucking, fuck!”
Running, spit flying, Subaru heads into the forest before him. Dashing through the gaps between the
trees, what arises in his mind is his conversation with Petra.
Beyond the escape passage was the mountains behind the mansion, where there was a cabin, with
emergencies supplies to escape with.
If he could trust these words, he was presently at that mountain cabin, and place he was running
through would be the backmountains he traversed well. However,
Subaru: “That was the cabin? Where was the supply bag? And... in a place that's been left there so
long, just what rescue measures'd be installed!?”
What Subaru had seen in that place was an arcane room, and scattered evidence to support his bad
premonitions about it. The points of convergence with Petra's description were excessively sparse.
Most importantly, if Frederica or Rem were regularly touching it up, there was no explanation for
the degraded tools. Subaru knew their workstyle as maids well enough to state such a thing with
confidence.
Exiting the forest, a question arises wondering about the lack of a slope. The cabin is meant to be in
the mountains, but was it built in a section without any sloping for 100 meters? Subaru loses sight
of where he is, and up boils irritation that he had not perceived correctly in the first place.
The gaps between the trees opens and the environment becomes clear, Subaru sliding his momentum
to a stop. Pavement, or what could be called such if a result of a hackdash job of it, proved the
comings and goings of people, and most importantly the rows of houses visible from this distance
displayed the fact that people lived here.
Sighting this, Subaru's thoughts in the truest of meanings are bound immobile by shock.
Because this scenery was—
Subaru: “S-SANCTUARY!?”
—The place he had bid farewell to half a day prior, and calculated would take an entire day to
return to.
He raises his right hand in accordance with his terror. Not enough fingers. Wounded. RETURN BY
DEATH had not activated. So then why, was he standing in a place he should not be?
Subaru: “Why... here? Because, GATE CROSSING?”

It was the only answer.
Beatrice had ejected Subaru from the mansion's Archive, sending him to a section of SANCTUARY
through GATE CROSSING. But then, how did that happen?
Subaru: “Range doesn't matter... does it? No, I mean I've been transported far as from the mansion
to a barn in the village before, but...”
Thinking about that in terms of distance, that was a level of transportation regardable as inside
allowable range. But considering the distance between SANCTUARY and the mansion, such a long-
distance transportation was, plainly said, out of the range of imagination and common sense.
Subaru: “Anyway! If I'm in SANCTUARY, then... Roswaal!!”
Subaru would dash back to that clown's side, and make him spit up everything he's planning.
Roswaal treated Beatrice cordially. That warlock would surely know her background, and why she
possessed a gospel.
If he, knowing everything, tried to play around with an ignorant Subaru then that was fine. Subaru
would bash in his face, burn him, shred him, bite out his throat and make him spit out everything.
Subaru in that instant, needing to kill himself, forgets his restrictions and runs. His thoughts colour
with a pure red rage as he dashes to the village's edge. Sprints to the building where Roswaal sleeps.
Transformed into an incarnation of wrath, Subaru runs fast and furious through SANCTUARY, his
body forgetting any fatigue or pain, inviting himself as far as his destination.
He kicks open the door, storms inside the house, bares his teeth,
Subaru: “Roswaal! Show yourself! Gotta whole lotta questions for you!”
He plunges forth with a threatening attitude liable to get him a scolding from the maid, speaking
wildly and with venom. No reply comes from the room. Subaru approaches the bedroom, footsteps
loud, and yanks open the final door,
Subaru: “No playing innocent and no lies. You'll spill everything you're hiding...”
for me now, was how Subaru was going to continue, when he stops.
Because the person he is aiming his condensed dissatisfaction towards is not in the room.
He's left, is the truth which only sends Subaru's brain seething with more rage. He slams the bed
with a kick, the pain in his toenails further heightening his anger as he bounds out of the building.
If he is here he will be at Lewes' house—maybe meeting with Emilia, otherwise with Lewes and
Garfiel. Either way, getting active the second Subaru was out of the picture was some damn nerve.
The timing was so good to provoke the suspicion of, perhaps his wounds weren't that serious and
he was faking.
Start doubting and the spiral of negativity never ends. His mind propped on these emotions, Subaru
glares over SANCTUARY with his gaze sharp—and again, too late, comprehension comes to him.
Subaru: “...huh?”
Early morning, as far as Subaru knows, is when the residents of SANCTUARY normally prepare their
breakfasts and start their washing. The evacuees being gone means there is no need for the food
rationing, but every household would still need to do their cooking.
Should, but Subaru sees not a trace of this everyday activity. Or no, even before that,
Subaru: “It's not just Roswaal and Ram... where did everyone go?”
Look left, look right, but not a single person to be found.

Thinking back on it, ever since exiting the forest and returning to SANCTUARY, Subaru could not
recollect running into anyone along his path, and had no memory of sighting anyone.
Even considering the fact that the populace of SANCTUARY is few in number, to dash straight
through the middle of the village without seeing anyone was so improbable as to stand out.
Subaru: “Can't be...”
Shaking his head to shake away his bad premonition, Subaru knocks on the door of a nearby house.
Knocks, but after confirming the lack of response opens the door, and peers inside. —Empty.
Two beast-eared women, sisters, are supposed to live here.
Going as far as those he can remember, Subaru peers from house to house for the village's
noticeable residents. Each time betrays his expectations and piles the growing despair further.
Nobody is anywhere. All signs of people are gone from SANCTUARY.
Subaru: “Someone! Anyone here!? Where'd you go!?”
The bad premonitions compound.

He remembers this panic, this arcane bereavement.
In his memories is his standoff with the Witch Cult, where he returned entirely late and unprepared
to Arlam Village, meeting a scene of slaughter—piled corpses, expressions twisted in agony and
despair. Familiar people with their faces devoid of colour, and a broken Petra never to move again.
Subaru: “—Aaaah!”
Terror runs up Subaru's back, the endless unease pushing him forth to run. A sound like a shriek
slips from his mouth as he dashes for one single location.
At the edge of the village, a notably good building. It demonstrated one of the few esteems owned
by the head of SANCTUARY, presently being lent as one single girl's bed.
Subaru: “—Emilia!!”
Diving inside, screaming the dear girl's name, Subaru looks about the room.
The silver-haired girl looks back at Subaru, her gaze sleepy, and after several blinks and an
expression of surprise, “Good morning, Subaru,” she says, a smile lovely enough to pain the heart
arising on her face—
—is what should happen, but the room is empty.
Subaru dashes to the beside, reaches out, touches the disorderly sheets. No warmth—whoever was
sleeping here had already left some time ago.
Confirming this alone, Subaru bounds out of the house, rushing for his final support. For the place
where this situation, this absurdity, may possibly be explained to him.
Subaru: “Hauh... hauhh...”
Out of breath. He tastes blood in the back of his throat as he sprints again into SANCTUARY's depths,
to the tomb where the WITCH OF GREED Echidna sleeps.
He reaches the tomb without encountering en-route the obstacle of Garfiel. Was that a grace, or
would having seen a familiar face—even if the one of an obstacle—been a blessing?
Subaru: “No... How could I dare...”
How could the person who failed to save his sister dare show his face?
The relief Subaru feels at his absence, despite his unbearable panic that he cannot find anyone, and
his failure to reflect on this weakness is horrifically disgusting, sickening.
Discarding his sentimentality with a shake of his head, Subaru heads for the tomb before anything
can interfere.
The TRIAL would not be active presently, but perhaps some action would come from the witch's
side. Anticipating such, clinging to such, Subaru seeks the visage of the witch who might give
answers to his questions—
Subaru: “—kka, hu,”
—The moment he steps inside, Subaru feels the sensation of something having passed through his
body.
He slowly looks down. Beneath his breast, above his stomach, in the exact centre of his torso—
gapes a wide, fist-sized hole.
Subaru: “Hhu... ee?”
Hand reaches out, contacts the hole. A rush of blood spills over. His palm immediately plugs it, but
his pierced back also gapes open. Unable to stop both, his already anaemic body fails to maintain its
posture, collapsing.
—No pain. No understanding. What happened.
Death. Dying. He was dying. Death, what he knew was here before him.
Why, how come, here? Elsa? Chased him this far? The distance between mansion and SANCTUARY.
Beatrice, not possibly? Gospel. She—why? Rem. Who would. Dying. Scared. Something.
Someone. Emilia. Witch. Witch. Wi—
Subaru: “——a,”
His vision hazes. The end approaches.

His anticipated death visits in an unanticipated form. Subaru feels no relief at finally dying. For now
all it was, was he was scared of death.
Even saying he resolved to die, when death visits from a different path than prepared, this was the
result. Heart in disarray, shrieking with wretched craving for life, rejecting the flaying of his soul
from the world—DEATH regardless consumes Subaru slowly.
Subaru: “—so, weak,”
The powerlessness of his useless self washes down his cheeks, Subaru's heartbeat stopping.
His face twists in anguish and terror at acquiring his desired death in undesired format, and with the
piteousness of this death unanimously unquestionable,
Crunch, and chew.
CHAPTER 37: FIRST URGE TO MURDER
He hears the torrent of a rushing stream.
A furious sound of water. Coursing up to down, following gravity and following current, jetting up
spray was a cascade.
Reverberating at his ears, or perhaps inside his skull, the thunder rattles Subaru's brain as his
consciousness is led from forfeit into sobriety.
He sees a light, and—
Subaru: “—a, hhu”
Feeling a jarring in his throat, Subaru's breathing loses its rhythm as the nausea hits.
In, out, the supposedly-regular intervals of his breathing turn fuzzy. His body lost of oxygen
twitches and trembles, spit building in his mouth as Subaru opens his eyes.
Subaru: “Gheuh, agghhk!”
Toppled on the floor, in face-down posture. Pressing his arms against the ground in prostrate
position, Subaru puts his hand to his chest while he takes repeated breaths to calm his lungs.
The pain alleviates, he spits out the congested saliva, his body settles down as oxygen spreads
through his brain. He takes a breath. —And, recollects.
Subaru: “uaahhhh, ahhh!?”
Recollects a cavern opening in his chest, and the bereavement of his insides flowing out.
He rubs his torso, confirming the absence of cavern, the stiffness of his whole body for now
disappearing. Experiencing the sensation of shock numbing his limbs, Subaru chafes his forehead
against the ground to generate friction, the abrasive pain granting the existence of his flesh
confirmatory legitimacy.
Subaru: “What, at... the end...”
Face-down on the ground with blood escaping his body, that end, and the feeling of his soul being
sucked out of that same hole, was definitely there. But that was not the cause of the bereavement
gnawing Subaru's flesh. The true terror was afterwards, having arrived at death, until guided into
death, the dull ember of life present.
Even though his consciousness had been vague, his memories fuzzy, he still remembered this alone
clearly.
—Something, some arcane something, had DEVOURED him.
Subaru: “S-slashed, bludgeoned, frozen, fallen, I've died in lots of ways... b-but, being ea... eaten at
the end, is a new... one.”
Conscious of what happened to his flesh at the end, terror rises.

His direct cause of death was blood loss from the hole, and he had no intention to make light of
DEATH itself. But it was true he had experienced the fragment of possibility of DEATH not being the
end.
So, the sensation of your flesh being devoured came accompanied with that strong a sense of loss?
Subaru had lost his fingers and legs before, but—
Subaru: “Fingers!?”
Thinking that far, Subaru feels anger for the dullness of his own head.
There was no doubt that RETURN BY DEATH had activated. That was fact, given the unsalvagable
wounds he sustained and the DEATH he felt. There was no existence in this would as deeply learned
in death as Natsuki Subaru. Died, returned, that much was assured.
What was not assured was where on the timeline Subaru returned to.
Subaru: “Ah...”
Turning his bloodshot gaze to the surroundings, Subaru desperately attempts to confirm his time
and location. But what holds Subaru back from desperation is the feeling of his fingertips from
when he wiped his brow of sweat. —The three missing fingers of his right hand, were definitely
present.
Subaru: “Fingers... are there, so...”
Subaru follows his gaze from his fingers down to the elbow of his raised right arm. No signs of
wound or scarring. The white scars from the commotion with the witchbeasts yet remain, but those
are a different story.
Confirming that his arm is unwounded, Subaru moves on to his shoulder and hip—each having been
speared by Elsa's throwing weapons. There's no sensation of his skin being taut. Convinced of the
truth that he has returned to before facing Elsa, he could about collapse with relief.
Subaru: “Any... anyway so, now...”
Fortune amid misfortune, matters have settled without any extra despairs varnishing his death.
Relieved and drained, Subaru lowers his eyes, thanking his bad luck. Which is when he shifts his
gaze aside and notices it.
—In a corner of the dark room, he notices a writhing Emilia.
Subaru: “Emili... a...”
Getting up to run over to her, Subaru notices that they are inside a mouldy stone room alone, and he
has only one guess as to when he could be. Meaning,
Subaru: “The restart point hasn't changed!”
The tomb directly after conquering the TRIAL—that was where Subaru returned, and in exchange
for not having procured anything yet, here was where nothing was lost for the re-do.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
—There still had to be some method left to do something about everything.
The thought that passes through Subaru's brain is so positive it's most unthinkable it came from the
same person who had just been trembling at their final moment.
It's presently two nights after their arrival in SANCTUARY. Thinking over the information from last
loop and the first loop, Subaru organizes the condition and event content while scrambling for an
answer.
The content's gruesome enough to be called the usual, with the initial thought of being unable to
start anywhere, and the agonizing over being so stuck it's hopeless both being entirely same as
always.
Subaru: “But, usual method hasn't been working this time.”
Subaru is incapable of grasping the full story this loop. Conditions are such that even against an
easily-understood threat, he still can't find the begging to any effective countermeasures.
Presently there's Elsa, a clear threat with combat power so strong it's unopposable. Being that the
stairway gimmick didn't work on her, she might actually be more of a nuisance than Betelgeuse.
Dealing with her being the most important condition still hasn't changed. However, it seems the
problems don't end there.
Subaru: “The end of last time... Why was SANCTUARY empty?”
Having Beatrice dump him all the way in SANCTUARY was still incomprehensible, but the
incomprehensibility of the absence of people in SANCTUARY overpowered that. All that running
around and calling out, for zero reaction.
Then was the final disaster, which attacked a Subaru seeking answers in the tomb.
Subaru has absolutely no idea what gave him the wound that killed him. Remembering the still-
vivid injury resurrects only pain and terror, and it seems unlikely he'll be figuring out the cause
from that.
Just what on earth happened in SANCTUARY? What happened to Subaru himself? What were
Beatrice's intentions? And Emilia—
Subaru: “...No way.”
Thinking that far, Subaru's face stiffens in astonishment at the contradiction between his thoughts
and behaviour.
This organizing of the situation was important. Figuring out his goals, and drafting plans to realise
them, was also important. Gathering up and putting form to this scattered information, making it an
aid for reaching the desired future, was the action that he should prioritize.
But did that mean he should be ignoring Emilia, fighting a nightmare right here before him?
Subaru: “I,”
Emilia is presently taking the TRIAL, and suffering. The weight of the cross she bears torments her
body, her soul. That pain will continue long, ending without any reprieve.
Subaru knows. Knows how much taking this saddens her, wears her down, weakens her heart. He
had even resolved to complete the TRIAL in her place because he couldn't bear watching. He had
done everything he could to mow away all obstacles, and organize a road for her to pass.
So then why, while seeing her in pain, had he been relieved?

Thank goodness the point where I returned is this present where she is suffering. His knowing the
conclusion being the cruelness of it, Subaru had prioritised his own thinking over her.
The instant he understands this, Subaru comprehends that he has degraded into something
horrendously disgusting.
With his cherished before him, knowing that she was gasping in unbearable agony, he averted his
gaze from her distress, persisting well in foolish egocentricity.
As far as Subaru was concerned, this was exactly what abhorrent, repulsive weakness was.
Subaru: “Anyway...”
He didn't have time to be tormented with guilt and his heart's contradictions. He had to wake up
Emilia immediately, and leave this place. He could take time to gather his thoughts outside. There
was no reason to elongate her suffering. And—
Subaru: “Things're this stuck, 'cause there's a guy around who's gotta start talking.”
Subaru's own leniency irritated him. There's this character related to the crux of the matter, and he's
gotten away with it with excessive ambiguousness. Resulting was the tragedy at the mansion, and
the incomprehensible death at SANCTUARY.
If the future to visit him should he remain small be that one, then—
Subaru: “I'll change what I did completely.”
Says Subaru as he reaches out to wake Emilia.

Not even Subaru himself realises that his expression is twisted with unrestrainable fury.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Subaru: “—How much do you know, Roswaal?”
Are Subaru's first words after opening the door. Lying in bed, Roswaal narrows his eyes. Seeing
himself reflected in his heterochromatic eyes, Subaru stomps into the room, slamming the door shut
behind him, broadcasting his emotions.
—After looking after Emilia returned from the TRIAL, Subaru left the tomb and headed to Lewes'
house to put Emilia to bed. He left Emilia's care to Ram, declined to kill time until she woke up, and
went to Roswaal's recovery hut.
Garfiel's silent glaring at Subaru all through his time at the house was a factor for concern, but
fortunately he didn't pick any fights along the way and Subaru uneventfully reached Roswaal's.
Roswaal: “Hmmmmmmmm.”
Looking up at an uncalm Subaru, Roswaal raises a finger, points it at Subaru, and waggles it.
Roswaal: “Yooooou've certainly become muuuuuuch angrier than you were a moment ago.
Thaaaaaaaaat's a good sign.”
Subaru: “Don't mess around. I don't have any room for pranks or jokes right now. I'm ready to use
force, that's how I've prepared myself.”
Snarls Subaru at a cheery Roswaal. Subaru goes to stand right at the bedside, placing his hand on
the bed, looking down at the clown from extreme close range.
Subaru: “Just got back from taking the TRIAL. —Gotta load of questions.”
Roswaal: “...Really, now. You and the TRIAL. I see. I see, Iiiiiiiiiii do seeeeeee.”
In Subaru-time, his parting with this parents has already been several days ago. In actual time it
happened less than an hour ago. This is now the third time Roswaal's given an incomprehensible
reaction to discussing that TRIAL.
The first time was a flash of violent emotion so brief it almost seemed it hadn't happened. The
second time he seemed to accept it rather calmly. But even so, some uncharacteristic melancholy
did slip though.
This third time, what reaction would he give? Subaru personally wanted the indignation from the
first attempt. He believed that even Roswaal would be prone to letting his mouth slip if enraged.
But contrary to scheming Subaru's desires, Roswaal's mouth relaxes into a slight smile.
Roswaal: “Noooooow then, let's have me ask a question.”
Subaru: “Huh? What're you saying? You? A question? ...Bastard, piss around too much and I'll
seriously flip.”
Roswaal: “I dooooooooo well understand that your anger is justified. I am asking from that
understanding. If you align with my thoughts... there wouldn't be aaaaaaaaany reason to be sparing
with my cooperation, you seeeeeeee.”
Subaru: “If I answer that question... no, actually wait.”
Roswaal perhaps has something to propose to a Subaru stifling back his anger. For an instant
Subaru goes to consider it, but immediately aborts. Because he notices that if this goes the same as
the conversations with Roswaal thus far, he'll get washed away in the atmosphere Roswaal creates.
By not resisting and going along with it, he's had all these awful experiences. If Subaru wishes to
change developments somehow, first he would have to start changing from this juncture.
Subaru: “I'm not answering your questions. I'm the one who wants to talk. I talk first.”
Roswaal: “...My, weeeeeeell isn't that raaaaaaaaaather arrogant.”
Subaru: “Not saying I won't answer questions, but I've got this crazy feeling that giving you first
dibs'll make things go in a crap direction. Nipping that one in the bud.”
Roswaal closes an eye and gives a small sigh. He presents his palms to Subaru, surrendering first
dibs.
Roswaal: “Goooooo ahead.”
Roswaal: “Question toooooooo your liking. Indeed, that I must be the one driving the conversation
—iiiiiiiiiiis not the case, after all.”
Subaru: “Actually feels weird you're being reasonable, but... well, probing into it won't go anywhere
so I'll take it. Question. —What kind of contract ties you and Beatrice?”
Roswaal falls into silence, proving this question was not one he expected.
Although extremely faint, seeing the stiffness in Roswaal's cheeks convinces Subaru the question
was a critical hit.
Subaru can't get his conversation with Beatrice upon parting out of his head, or the GOSPEL she
owns. The question also relates to how he'll approach her from now on. This wasn't something he
could let sit, and he had to decide from this knowledge.
—Decide, unavoidable in this series of loops, how to approach Beatrice.
Subaru: “Answer, Roswaal. No tedious 'you didn't answer my question so I won't answer yours'
reply. Let's hear it.”
Getting impatient with the still-silent Roswaal, Subaru piles up demands for a reply.
Subaru recognizes irritation asserting itself in his chest. It was the flipside of his wish that his bad
premonition, bad expectations be overturned. Every second of silence feels a minute, ten minutes
long. Roswaal finally, slowly opens his mouth.
Roswaal: “—You raising that question here, perhaps means you've remembered?”
Not only is it not the answer Subaru desired, Roswaal responds with his own question. The attitude
annoys Subaru, who clicks his tongue, and waves his hand at Roswaal.
Subaru: “Shut up.”
Subaru: “Why're you replying with a question? Even if I concede and have to ask, you're answering
my questions first. I'm not handing over my turn.”
Roswaal: “I see. Then let's proceed by taking alternating turns. Your question was about the
CONTRACT BETWEEN MYSELF AND BEATRICE, cooooooorrect? Beatrice and I are not tied by
contract. Over.”
Subaru goes speechless. Roswaal reaches his hand out.
Roswaal: “Nooooooow,”
Roswaal: “This time it's your turn to answer myyyyyyyy question. —Have you remembered?”
Subaru: “...Remembered what. Just saying, our relationship isn't deep enough to be finishing each
other's sentences. You better not think I can put together what you're saying off sentences missing
their subjects.”
Roswaal: “That reply told me your answer to my question. ...Unfortunate.”
Subaru had gone to outwit him as reprisal, but even his attempt at that was careless and Roswaal
comes out on top. Roswaal's eyes lower with gloom.
Roswaal: “It seems I won't be reaching it.”
Subaru: “...What're?”
Roswaal: “Your turn to question. Ask a beeeeeetter, uuuuuuundodgable query this time.”
Roswaal interrupts Subaru, who cannot erase his irritation at Roswaal who is aware he is being
evasive. Subaru takes a deep breath to calm his emotions, puts a finger to his temple, and forces
himself to think.
Subaru: “You said there's no contract between you and Beatrice? Then, why's Beatrice in your
mansion? I don't get the relationship between you two.”
Roswaal: “That turned into two questions, and you've been eeeeeeeeeentirely focused on Beatrice.
Will Emilia-sama be aaaaaaaaalright? Or do you have a taste for that juvenile-looking girl?”
Subaru: “Not into younger girls, and no plans to start her route in the romantic meaning in the
slightest. Do think I have to do her route in a crushing-the-status-quo meaning though.”
Something does twinge in Subaru's heart when he thinks about Beatrice. But its origin is different
from the twinge when he thinks of Emilia or Rem, and Subaru doesn't really understand what the
emotion means.
But even after seeing Beatrice with a GOSPEL, Subaru thinks like this:
—He didn't want to accept that his relationship with Beatrice had been a forgery in accordance to
the writings of an incomprehensible book.
Subaru: “And for that, I need to know her. And, the only one who seems deeply connected to her
circumstances is you. So I have to ask you.”
Roswaal: “Try so energetically to pick up eeeeeeeeeverything that catches your eye, and it'll hinder
you when choosing what's precious toooooooo you. I believe that naivety is nothing more than an
impediment, when focusing on the true, genuine thing most important to yooooooou.”
Subaru: “I know both my hands're occupied. So I'm gonna grab her in my mouth while I'm at it.
Complaints?”
Roswaal: “Nooooooot a one. I do think you wound up merely saying something smooth, but I'd
saaaaaay that's fine. —The answer will be what happens when that time comes in reality.”
Mutters Roswaal at the end. Subaru's gaze sharpens.
Roswaal: “Noooooow,”
Roswaal: “The reason Beatrice is staying in the mansion, waaaaaas it. Her being in my mansion is
from her acquaintance with the Mathers family. If I were to say, the family head from several
generations ago instituted her by his goodwill to lord the mansion's Forbidden Archive. That
arrangement has caaaaaaarried down to my generation.”
Subaru: “Hiring a lord. ...Then, this's something different from a contract?”
Roswaal: “That wasn't conforming to the question format... but, noooooo concern. My questions
carry haaaaaaardly any meaning any more. You would already know that Beatrice is a spirit,
cooooooorrect?”
Subaru nods. Roswaal raises a finger.

Roswaal: “For spirits, contracts with individuals possess incredible importance. The relationship
between Emilia-sama and the Great Spirit would be eeeeeeeexactly such a case.”
Subaru: “...Yeah, Emilia's toiled with the having lots of annoying conditions thing, too. Though
can't say that Great Sprit's been showing his face lately.”
Subaru still carries unease toward Puck due to being killed three times by him, and for his off-kilter
assessment towards sleeping Rem. Since he's now disappeared before they could sort this out,
Subaru's feelings toward the cat spirit are yet fixed as being complex.
Roswaal: “Leaving aside the Great Spirit's moodiness, Beatrice applies as no exception. She and I do
have a cooperative relationship, hoooooowever that is incredibly a non-interference arrangement
based on overlap of our mutual benefit. She is not aiding me iiiiiiiiin my goal, and vice versa.”
Subaru: “I get you and Beako getting along by being indifferent, but this's got nothing to do with
the stuff about contract relationships.”
Roswaal: “Oop, excuse me. Contract relationships are yet again separate. Beatrice is a spirit and
consequently she regards contracts seriously. If you were to speak of contracts with regard to her,
that would yet another separate, raaaaaaather large problem. Beeeeeeeeecause that girl has already
been bound in a contract foooooooor 400 years.”
Subaru leans closer to Roswaal at that vital information.
Subaru: “There!”
Subaru: “That contract from 400 years ago, its details are what I wanna know.”
Roswaal: “Not a spirit out there would let a contract's contents slip so eeeeeeeeasily. The contractor
of the time would surely not remain, and unless Beatrice should divulge it herself yoooooooou'll
probably never know.”
Subaru: “Fuck, useless! If I just knew about this 400-years contract...”
Then he would he not know why that girl stayed holed in that room, alone and small?
Roswaal: “However, I can tell you this.”
Roswaal: “Beatrice has been bound in a contract for 400 years. That another, new contract be
overlaid atop that one iiiiiiiiis inconceivable. If you wish to pull her out of that place, you would
need to start with making thaaaaaaat contract break.”
Subaru: “Make... the contract break?”
Roswaal: “Or fulfil it to completion, wooooould also work. Considering the high possibility the
target of the contract has been lost, I woooooould think it much wiser toooooooo break it?”
The miracle of Roswaal saying something constructive. Subaru's face is sceptical, but gradually
turns to one of scales dropped from the eyes.
Subaru: “—Did I say a single word about wanting to take Beatrice outside?”
Subaru's voice is low, his gaze sharp and piercing through Roswaal. His hand still on the bed,
Subaru raps his fingers on the sheets as if counting off time. Lowering his gaze to witness this,
Roswaal closes one eye, and with Subaru reflected in his yellow pupil,
Roswaal: “You truly are—a man who ooooooonly notices what I'd rather you not.”
Subaru: “What do you...”
Roswaal: “Either way, thiiiiiiiis time is hollow to me. Should we be fiiiiiiiiine to partition the
conversation here?”
Subaru: “Don't—don't you fucking piss around!”
In a complete change from before, a shade of despair rises in Roswaal's eyes.
Roswaal: something something too late to move my heart but... “Shouldn't it be fine to just doooooo
what you want?”
Subaru: “What the fuck is with your bullshit attitude!? It's an important... we're having an important
conversation, and this's how you're gonna fucking be!? I still have questions I...”
Roswaal: “As I said, if you have questions wouldn't it be fine toooooo ask them? Although, whether
I answer properly or not is already completely dependant ooooooon my mood.”
In contrast to a pissed Subaru, Roswaal steadily loses trace of emotion. Subaru's face reddening,
Roswaal strokes his navy hair as he tilts his head.
Roswaal: “You haaaaaaave no questions?”
Subaru: “—. I understand that she's, that Beatrice's in the mansion bound by contract. Enough on
those circumstances. What I want to ask is different. That black book she has... Tell me what that is,
now.”
Roswaal: “Ohhhhh, so you saw it. Your impressions? Just what did you thiiiiiiink of it?”
Subaru: “Don't answer with a question. —The books the witch cultists have, resemble it, I, think.”
Subaru's starty-stoppy speech displays his desire for it to be refuted. But Roswaal, with an
expression as if holding back a yawn,
Roswaal: “The gospels possessed by witch cultists. Mediators for the Witch's will, grimoires
describing the path to the owner's desired future. Weeeeell, should you ignore their specificity,
they're what you'd call raaaaaaather time-intensive prophecies.”
Subaru: “—! You know them?”
Roswaal: “Just curiosity, would not be the calibre ooooooof circumstances here. Cultists are
everywhere, and this is a facility related to a witch differing from the one they worship. Myself,
being landlord of SANCTUARY, has had skirmishes with them aaaaaaat least once.”
Subaru: “Th-they seriously tell the future... do they?”

Knowing the future without dying would be something like the forward-compatible version of
Subaru's RETURN BY DEATH. Although not envy, assuming possibly that every single witch cultist
came equipped with these things, then that would be something. Roswaal shakes his head at the
shivering Subaru.
Roswaal: “They are certainly not that convenient. The amount of directions differ by the cultist and
are infrequent. Much of the content is vague, with multiple ways for interpretation. Most critically,
only the gospel's owner can read it, and others will only see mystery writings which won't enter
their heads. All it tells in an imperfect graph of the future.”
Subaru: “Imperfect...”
Subaru can't hide his relief. Besides, if the GOSPELS truly possessed the power to prophecise the
future, Subaru's defeat of Betelgeuse should have been impossible. Thinking like that, then even the
Cardinals' GOSPELS aren't at such a stage.
Subaru: “This and that are different stories. Um, that book Beatrice had...”
Roswaal: “If you are asking whether it's the same as the GOSPELS possessed by the Witch Cult, the
answer is that it is, and that it isn't.”
Subaru: “Don't dodge! This is important!”
Roswaal: “I am certainly nooooooot dodging. What Beatrice possesses is a GOSPEL, but its roots
differ from those of the cultists'. The Witch Cult's versions are imperfect, and the one Beatrice owns
is a perfected GOSPEL.”
Subaru: “Perfect....?”
Roswaal: “Yes, it is something perfected. It differs from the defective works, dictated by their
indefinite futures and unstable contents.”
Subaru's confused. But Roswaal's expression is rather sunny.

It's almost like he's proud and bragging about something. Subaru loses his words at this weird
transformation, but what truly makes him lose his speech is what comes directly after.
Subaru: “—!?”
Roswaal brings his right hand out from behind his back, to reveal a black tome. Seen at too close a
range to mistake it for anything else, this is clearly a GOSPEL.
Roswaal: “The exclusive, only two perfected GOSPELS. Their owners are Beatrice and I alone....
iiiiiiis what it would be.”
Roswaal waves the book around back and forth a little. No room exists in Subaru to pay attention to
that.
Roswaal had the same book the witch cultists owed. This was indeed surprising to Subaru. And the
affirming of what Beatrice was saying at their parting is yet another cause for Subaru's shock.
—However, what fills Subaru's heart is not any of those things, but,
Subaru: “That's... a GOSPEL telling the future?”

Roswaal: “Preeeeeeeecisely. This is a legitimate GOSPEL.”
Subaru: “You... know the future? That things would be like this, now, in that book...?”
Roswaal: “Is iiiiiiiindeed written. You wouldn't be able to read it though.”
Like that fucking mattered.

Whether or not Subaru could read it, in this moment, meant nothing. Only one single thing
possessed meaning. One thing. He had to ask.
Subaru: “It writes... what will happen, next?”
Roswaal: “It doesn't write the entirety of the world, buuuuuuuut it does make the future oooooooof
the owner clear.”
Subaru: “That, things would be how they are now... was something you knew?”
Roswaal: “Crafting conditions according to its writ took quiiiiiiiite the bit of labour. I would rather
like some praise foooooooor my backstage effort.”
Subaru's voice will not stop shaking.

The root of the shaking is the budding of a vehement emotion. What this emotion was, and where it
was directed, were immediately obvious to Subaru.
Subaru: “If you knew that things would be like this, then...”
Roswaal: “—Mhm.”
Subaru: “—You knowingly left Rem to die?”
Roswaal: “Nooooooow just whooooooo is Rem?”
Subaru: “—I'll kill you! ROSWAAAAAAAAAAALL!!”
An unbearable rage alone thrusts Subaru into motion.

He leaps onto the bed, grabs Roswaal's neck, squeezes. Previously unexhibited until now, Subaru's
above-average arm strength wrests the thin neck, shades of agony carving onto the clown's pale
face.
Subaru: “You knew everything, and you—!!”
If he knew, if he understood, if he could have averted the tragedy—if he could have ended it
without Rem meeting that fate...
Subaru: “The reason I left Rem to die—was you!!”
Rage and regret morph into urge to murder the man before him. His actions forsake rationality, his
emotions—his love—transforms into strength.
Yet unable to make a sound, Roswaal keeps silent, practically waiting for Subaru to just snap his
neck—
???: “—SHAPESHIFT OR DISGUISE, AN ULGARM'S SMELL NEVER LIES!!”
—Impact.
Eating a hard, piercing blow from the side, Subaru goes flying as he savours the sensation of the
right half of his face collapsing.
He slams against the wall, drops to the floor head-first. The blow turns his thinking dull, his body
twitches not an inch.
Blood leaks from his ears, blackness cloaks the right of his vision. His eye, may have been crushed.
???: “—Ever since ya came outta th' tomb th' fuckin' stink on yer's been worse. Didn't believe it n'
start pullin' watch duty on yer, and fuck if it ain't just what I thought!”
Footsteps. Subaru senses the sloppy gait closing it right to his side. His body will not permit him to
crawl. Immobile front and back, something grips Subaru's head, lifting him up.
???: “Want me t'ask yer body what yer fuckin' witch-stinkin' self was thinkin' of doin'? This place
needs that bastard. Don't you fuckin' pull shit.”
A blond young man. Garfiel. Stricken with a voice of rage and murder, Subaru's consciousness
grows distant.
He cannot confirm it, but half his head seems to be crushed. Dying, potentially. This is where he
dies, and it would truly be the lowest of ways to end.
But if he RETURNED BY DEATH while yet harbouring this squalid thing, would he truly maintain his
capacity to hold this hope, desiring to save this place?
Subaru: “I don't, know... Rem.”
With those final words, Subaru's consciousness descends into darkness.

CHAPTER 38: CATERPILLAR
—What first pulls on Subaru's consciousness is the sound of dripping water.
The droplets fall into steady rhythm, every beat cast into the quiet room guiding Subaru's
consciousness bit by bit into sobriety.
His slumbering brain restarts its function. His nerves complete their instant bootup, giving feeling to
the blood circulating his body. He goes to twist, groan, upright himself—but can't.
His limbs listen not to his commands to push himself up. The only action available to him is to
chafe his face against the cold ground. He attempts to rely on his returned senses to inspect the
surroundings, to find his vision completely swallowed in darkness.
—Both eyes crushed!?
The answer comes quick, but before he can shiver at his conclusion, he notices the tight pressure
binding his eyes and discards the theory. Immediately judging himself as apparently being
blindfolded, he belatedly notices the oddness of these conditions.
Rather than both his eyes be crushed, both his eyes are covered. His inability to move is due to the
same reason—his hands and feet are bound firm.
Feeling some kind of thin rope at his wrists and ankles, hands tied behind his back, even struggling
to attempt to escape the constraints would be a considerable effort.
Subaru: “Wh-what ha...!?”
Fortunately he has not been gagged and his voice comes out normally. But with his hands and feet
tied literally, all he can use is his mouth. Subaru doubted that whoever put him in this condition
would be amicable enough for chatting alone to satisfy them.
Terror directs towards the incomprehensibility of this state, and the complete lack of information
about the surroundings. Yet harbouring this jumble of feelings, Subaru quiets his breathing and
forces himself to think.
Organise his current status. Eyes—covered. Limbs—bound, unlikely to escape. Can speak. Should
he yell for help? Would only draw his captor. Anything nearby to escape the restraints? Crawling to
search would be arduous. An ache in the right of his head, which pounds the second he focuses on
it, bringing pain.
Subaru: “My head, hurts...”
By recognising the pain in his head, Subaru remembers what fate he met just before losing
consciousness.
He RETURNED BY DEATH, left the tomb and went to Roswaal to press him with new facts and
guesses, flew into a rage at the clown's unforgivable statement, and Garfiel who had been watching
him bashed his lights out.
No, not even 'bashed his lights out' was phrasing sufficient enough to express the overwhelming
power that had forced him down. One single restraining strike from Garfiel had crushed his head,
Subaru thinking he would proceed to sink into death. However,
Subaru: “If I died, I'd be post-RETURN BY DEATH now, but...”
Were that true, that his restart point be in tomb after finishing the TRIAL would be correct. RETURN
BY DEATH should have retraced the route back to the room he had left barely an hour ago, before he
had headed to Roswaal's bedroom.
Him being tumbled into abduction-and-confinement conditions like this, as far as Subaru's memory
knew, was limited only to that time he flipped the coffee table while imitating an anime, seriously
pissed off his father, and was flung into the storehouse as punishment.
That was a memory potentially from before he entered primary school, and Subaru quite doubted he
had RETURNED BY DEATH that far. So, if the restart point had not changed, the theory becomes that
Subaru had been bound directly after he RETURNED BY DEATH. But that should be impossible, so
the only conclusion was—
Subaru: “I didn't die...”
Worked with his head pain, worked with his present circumstances.
He committed an act of unsurpassable violence toward Roswaal. Considering that point, that he be
treated like this was morally correct. Although emotionally he did not agree with it.
???: “—'S long as yer quick gettin' grips'a the situation yer in.”
Subaru hears a voice from above. He raises his head, and although blinded turns toward the
probable direction of the voice. Aware from the tone and vocals who it is,
Subaru: “Garfiel.”
Garfiel: “'Nother one correct. Looks like yer noggin's workin' proper so there's a relief. Whacked ya
just a smidge too hard you see, 'pologies 'pologies.”
His tone is not apologetic.
Garfiel: “Who'da thought,”
Garfiel: “Was just tryin' t'give ya'a little tap, didn't imagine yer'd get t'death's door that easy. Heard
yer Emilia-sama's knight, so wound up overestimatin' thinkin' you'd be somethin' more.”
Subaru: “Sorry for not matching your expectations. My character type's more brains than brawn,
see. ...Where are we?”
Joking back at Garfiel's somewhat scornful line, Subaru enters the main topic. Garfiel gives a short
exhale out his nose.
Garfiel: “Relax, yer still 'n SANCTUARY. But this ain't any a' th'cathedral, or th'tomb, or th'house
we're lendin' t'visitors.”
Subaru: “You've got a prison room prepared? They do say best to be prepared, but if you've gotta
facility like this set up... honestly, ew.”
Garfiel: “Got complaints 'bout the bad taste then tell'em t'who made it. Since in actual you can do
yer bitchin' directly, yeh?”
Says Garfiel, dissatisfied are rather sincerely uncomfortable. Subaru scrunches his face, feeling
something in Garfiel's words tugging at him.
Subaru: “Directly, meaning what exactly?”

Garfiel: “Don't play dumb when yer fuckin' reekin'a witchstink. Yer met inside th' tomb. 'F you
didn't, how'd the stink on you suddenly go up?”
Subaru: “Met in the tomb?”
Something Garfiel's saying is tugging at him.

Tomb. TRIAL. Someone he met there. A vacuum. He parted with his parents at the TRIAL, and at the
end he went to the empty school building, where—
Subaru: “The witch!”
—He had a rendezvous with Echidna, WITCH OF GREED.
Following along his unease and restoring this deficit, the Echidna's existence again returns to
Subaru's brain. Since he had experienced this sensation last loop too, the point of peculiarity
becomes why had he forgotten again.
Likely it was a result of one of the CONDITIONS or whatever she had conferred on him at their first
meeting, but it shocks Subaru that not even RETURN BY DEATH can overcome it.
Although RETURN BY DEATH allowed him to carry over memories, it possessed no counter-
measures toward direct interference with his memory. Meaning that every time Subaru RETURNED
BY DEATH, he would forget about Echidna, and would have to start from prior to remembering her.
Subaru: “Then, could this be what Roswaal was saying I forgot...?”
It's a bit of a hasty conclusion. Although remembering Echidna, Subaru can't think of anything
during his conversations with her that would help break the present deadlock.
This SOMETHING that Roswaal apparently wanted Subaru to remember, going by how he spoke, in
itself could make Roswaal reveal his unreadable true feelings.
Although, this again only mattered if the perfect gospel he owns is correct.
Garfiel: “Yer shuttin' up means yer feelin' guilty or that ya got an idea.”
Subaru: “I'm not a highschool girl who dies if she's not talking so I do quietly mull over say, one or
two things. 'One or two things''d kinda be too little thinking right now though.”
There are so many things to sort out, Subaru alone would not have enough brain cells for it. There
was Emilia. There was Rem. There was Beatrice. —Listing out women's names like this makes
Subaru want to make a jab at these circumstances he's in but, there was SANCTUARY, there was
Elsa, Roswaal's true intentions, the GOSPELS. And,
Subaru: “There's Garfiel.”
Garfiel's persuading and assistance is an indispensable, necessary piece in Subaru's mental

blueprints for saving the mansion. Subaru likely cannot prepare any combat power greater than
Garfiel for repelling Elsa. That Subaru is relying on Garfiel for the Elsa fight is because, both with
his eyes and with his head, Subaru has gotten to appreciate Garfiel's strength.
Subaru: “...If I'm remembering right, I think I got punched and kicked and my head destroyed by
you but, what happened there?”
Garfiel: “Ha. Took a bit a' talkin' for that topic t'finally fuckin' come up. Didn't go far as destroyin',
jus' caved in 'sall. Yer'd die if we left you like that and that'd be a problem, so yer gotta bit'a
goddamn healin'.”
Subaru: “Healing... from who?”
Garfiel: “Think there's anyone'n this place 'cept my amazin' self who couldda done it?”
Garfiel's tone carries some pride, and Subaru is stunned silent. He hadn't thought that rough and
tumble Garfiel would have studied healing magic. Still tied up, Subaru twists about.
Subaru: “My head's still got its normal shape and isn't a cube or a pyramid, right?”
Garfiel: “Next time it's busted, I'll make a shape where you'll be proppin' it up with yer hands.”
Garfiel gives a floored sigh. Subaru at least confirms that he is out of near-death conditions.
Subaru: “Since you're the one who busted it it feels wrong to thank you for the healing, but... what
exactly is your aim, doing this?”
Garfiel: “Well, what do yer think's my aim?”
Subaru: “Looking at conditions and from your perspective, knocking me out there was the proper
decision so I won't complain about that. I completely flipped out and I'm glad you stopped me is not
what I don't think is not what I'll not say is the kind of thing I have mountains of things of.”
Garfiel: “Ain't that mentality damn complicated. I get wantin' t'bash that asshole's smug face in, but
doin' that's gonna be trouble for the granny 'n them.”
Seems Garfiel shares Subaru's feelings toward the clown. But both Garfiel and Subaru depend too
much on him to be capable of cutting loose and riding off that emotion. For Subaru he is his patron,
and for Garfiel he is a needed landlord.
But that Garfiel first mentioned Lewes and the other inhabitants of SANCTUARY feels incredibly
unlike him. This seems to support Frederica's valuation of her little brother Garfiel. And after all, the
reason he stayed inside SANCTUARY, rather than leave with her, was out of consideration for the
residents' feelings.
Subaru: “Lewes-san and the others are important, and Roswaal's presence is indispensable to
protect their livelihood. If this guy and his DEMIHUMAN FANCY aren't around, this SANCTUARY and
its residents, unable to even go outside, can't maintain their lifestyle.”
Garfiel: “Stop linin' up embarassin' ideas with that smartass look. Who the hell'd be here 'cuzza that
sentimental reason. My amazin' self's just here since I can't leave th' place, so...”
Subaru: “You can't leave, when your blood relative Frederica could, Garf?”
New information fresh from last loop. Punctuating his sentence with that 'Garf', Subaru means to
peek into Garfiel's attitude. But Garfiel's reaction comes with a sternness that transcends Subaru's
imagination.
The wind whistles, and the next instant an incredible boom thunders from beside Subaru's head. The
air-rending noise reverberates, and before Subaru's brain can realise that this was Garfiel stomping
at blinding speed, the ground fractures and the room's shape shifts.
The ground warps upward, Subaru shrieking as the shockwave sends him flying. He tumbles across
the hard floor, slamming into the wall and coming to a forced stop.
His brain jolts, the shock to his back wrings his lungs of air, his banged head issues with intense
pain. Subaru coughs, drool trailing out the corners of his mouth.
Garfiel: “Who fuckin' told you that, piece of shit. Fuckin' Frederica spillin' things she... no, she
wouldn't say this. We thoroughly severed the sibling link 'tween us at our goodbye.”
Subaru: “You can't sever the blood in your body with a figure of spee...”
Garfiel: “'M sayin' it feels wrong that yer sayin' it now, this late. 'F you were gonna use that, there's
lots of better places you could've.”
Garfiel gets his disgustingly sharp intuition going. As if he's been stocking up on facts Subaru didn't
know, while Subaru wasn't looking.
Garfiel's ideas are not wrong—in fact, they are exactly perfect, but the road of thought he used to
get to them was excessively direct.
It was as if he possessed abnormally great perceptiveness, or otherwise some kind of LEAD FOR
THOUGHT.
Subaru: “No way... you, too?”
—The instant Subaru thinks upon the possibility, he is unable to conceal his voice's shaking.
The reply is an eerie silence.

It was in truth probably only several seconds, but for Subaru it was equivalent to an eternity.
No reply. Why wasn't he talking. Subaru's question was considerably nonspecific. It would be better
for him to say 'don't get it, don't get it' and send Subaru flying with a kick. Were there that kind of
hasty reaction, Subaru could still cling. But,
Garfiel: “Me too... say.”
Footsteps. The falls of Garfiel's shoes against the stone floor approach directly to Subaru's side, and
Subaru can tell that Garfiel is squatted down beside him. Subaru raises his head, and most likely
with his face drawn right next to Subaru's, baring his fangs,
Garfiel: “Why're you thinkin' that, huh?”
Subaru: “Stop speaking in a way that's driving up this bad hunch. I just said something that made no
sense, right? You can nice and easily, please deny it... right?”
Garfiel: “You sound like yer gonna cry.”
Says Garfiel, dumbstruck. The reply only panics Subaru further, his deepest thoughts already a
jumbled mess.
He wanted Garfiel, with his excessively good guess, to deny it. But the replies Subaru is getting are
meaningful, backing up the premonition in Subaru's heart.
He had found that Beatrice and Roswaal, people allied in his faction, possessed GOSPELS. As far as
Subaru was concerned, a third character appearing with one would not be strange.
Subaru: “Then! So you know too!”
Garfiel: “—Ah, so that's what this's about. Wonder where you noticed.”
Subaru: “—!?”
Garfiel gives a listless sigh.
Garfiel: “Y'seem surprised, but it can't be that strange. My amazin' self's been a resident of
SANCTUARY forever, so we've known each other for ages 'n ages. The chance'd come one or two
times.”
Subaru: “B-but... you—you're supposed to hate the WITCH. So much you'd overreact like that...
but...”
Garfiel: “Yeah, I do. I hate the WITCH, I don't trust yer witch-stinkin' self, half-witch Emilia-sama
ain't a pleasure for the eyes either. But y'see, I don't think what that thing says's wrong. At least, 's
true that it knew what my amazin' self wanted t'know.”
Subaru: “What you, wanted to know...”
Garfiel: “—I got no fuckin' reason t'tell you that. How 'bout you try askin' from yer end. Though,
y'might not be gettin' another chance at it.”
Spits Garfiel, who stands up, takes range from Subaru, and places his hand on the exit to the prison
room. The wooden door squeaks.
Subaru: “Hey!”
Subaru: “Wait! ...Wh-what'll happen with me. Or actually, what is happening with me?”
Garfiel: “Fer tryin' t'kill Roswaal, yer sure gettin' off soft. Well f'r now you're getting' the bound n'
confined treatment 'till the results come out.”
Confinement—was a word he had just heard several days ago. And from Roswaal's mouth. That
Subaru's violence toward him, who was supposed be in that confinement, had dropped him into the
same circumstances was excessively ironic.
Garfiel snorts.
Garfiel: “You'll be gettin' meals at mornin' n' evenin'. Just don't pull anythin' funny. My amazin'
self'll be chaperonin' the caretaker role perfect, see.”
Subaru: “That kinda worry... isn't what I have right now! Anyway, results? You said results? What're
the results? What're you waiting...?”
Garfiel: “Ain't the results obvious?”
Garfiel: “—The results of Emilia-sama's TRIAL. When sh'hears what you pulled, and 'f atonement
for that's her motive, she'll sure get enthusiastic for it.”
※ † † † † † † † † † †
—Garfiel leaves the room, leaving Subaru to sink into his thoughts.
The words Garfiel left him with aren't leaving his head.
It seems like Emilia is stirring herself up, challenging the TRIAL to clear Subaru's name. The
thought appears to be one of, 'if SANCTUARY is freed, the achievement will be capable of washing
over the scandal Subaru committed.'
It's a very Emilia-esque way to think, and completely undoubting of Subaru.
Subaru: “But, back at that moment...”
Albeit enraged, Subaru was sincerely wringing Roswaal's neck.

His hands grasped tight on a human being's neck, his considerable grip obstructed their throat, all
while using strength to snap their bones or sever their breathing.
Although his arms are bound behind his back, Subaru can tell his fingers are trembling.
If he were to forget his rage in that moment, all that remained in his hands was the wake of a dark
heat, which had gone to threaten the life of another person. Nausea wells up from his empty
stomach.
And considering the target of that murderous will was a familiar character, that only compounded it.
Subaru: “I just, don't know anymore...”
Who to trust, what to think, how to act, nothing.
What was Beatrice's position? The GOSPEL she owned? The days they spent?
What was Roswaal thinking? His perfected GOSPEL was? What was he wishing for Subaru to
remember? The true meaning behind his overinexplicable position?
What to do to make Emilia conquer the TRIAL? No, was making her face the TRIAL correct in the
first place? He did not even know the beginning any more.
Garfiel's intentions, and did he possess a GOSPEL? Without his cooperation beating Elsa was
impossible. Their relationship worsening with every R ETURN BY DEATH, what action would manage
to bring him to the mansion?
What to do about Elsa's attack, repel or evacuate? Why had the timing of the attack changed
between the first and second loops? Why did that murderer know about an escape route that she
should not? Elsa's employer was? What was necessary to repel her? He could never forgive her.
Then was the purpose and origin of SANCTUARY. The gist of the remaining TRIALS, and why did the
TRIALS exist? Echidna's goals, and what to do to meet her again? What happened last loop in the
depopulated Sanctuary?
In that final instant, what was it that had killed and devoured Subaru?
Subaru: “I don't have... a single, answer.”
Round and round and round in his head they go, endless problems without solutions.
His eyelids painfully bound and vision sealed, any person unable to register the world around them
would find nowhere to ask their questions except for inside themselves.
Being that Subaru's insides were packed only with mysteries and doubts, he was in deadlock.
What tormented Subaru was not his unanswered doubts, but impatience at the slowly-moving hours
that he spent submerged with his thoughts.
His covered eyes meant this was not definite, but Subaru senses that it would be highly likely if a
day had already passed since the night he strangled Roswaal.
Subaru supposes that he has been jailed in a hidden building in the forest. Even taking consideration
the lack of light source, the chilliness of the place stands out.
He inevitably had to think that, compared to the midday temperatures he had experienced until now,
this place was especially cold. Although, more than useful of thinking like that, was the thought that
it was night and after sunset. If he thus presumed it was presently night, then it meant at least an
entire day had passed.
Natsuki Subaru had sustained multiple wounds cuts and bruises ever since being summoned to this
parallel world. His body yet remembered from experience the healing accordant to the severity of
the wounds.
By Subaru's judging, having half of his head crushed, or otherwise said halved, was plainly a lethal
wound. That his life was saved without Felis could honestly only be called a miracle. Garfiel was
extremely skilled, most likely.
This world was fundamentally one that, if the patient was not dead, most wounds could be healed
depending on the proficiency of the healing practitioner. Naturally, the heavier the wounds were, the
more burden it would take to mend them.
The stamina needed to cure wounds and fatigue. Taking these points into consideration, Subaru's
wounds on this occasion were not ones feeling realistically to have been healed within several
hours, or rather said within the same night.
More than likely, evening had passed. But what supported this speculation more than anything was,
Subaru: “I'm hungry...”
The grumbling of his stomach, gone the entire time without receiving anything, asserting its
existence.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
The passing of time, hours indistinct, wears at Subaru's mind.
Restrained without any change, as yet left endlessly in the prison room, time passes.
Subaru had tested charting time by counting the seconds of the frequent vacuums, but his count
begins to err over even the span of an hour, and he finally succumbs to resignation.
What would happen this late even if he knew the time? Besides,
Subaru: “It's probably too late...”
Meals had already been brought to Subaru six times. With the regular morning-evening twice-a-day
schedule, that meant three days had already passed. Three days since Subaru woke up—meaning a
time later than the fifth day since his arrival in SANCTUARY.
Departing SANCTUARY this morning to arrive at the mansion would be pushing it on the presuming
timing of Elsa's attack. The moment that he passed this juncture, he will have missed the deadline.
Subaru had bungled from the very first point of this loop.
No matter how much he regrets his leaping at Roswaal, the regret does not end. If he had not ridden
off his emotions that far, he would have gained more confidence in matters from Roswaal, and most
importantly would not have worsened relations with Garfiel and been imprisoned.
The result of leaving himself to the seething heat of emotion was this caterpillar state.
Unable to accomplish a single one of the things he should do, never seeing the faces of those he
thought to protect, exposing his unsightliness and terrified of the approaching time.
Subaru had already given up on this TRY.
Subaru: “—I sure, fucked this up.”
Due to Subaru's error, he had lost means to prevent the tragedy at the mansion. That meaning, the
survival of the four inside the mansion was looking hopeless.
Rem, Petra, Frederica, Beatrice—Subaru would knowingly leave them to die. After screaming,
denouncing Roswaal for the exact same thing.
Subaru: “...I'm shit. Just fucking die.”
He wanted to just fucking die. If there was no change to the restart point and he could re-do, Subaru
could return to that night, and challenge again. That would not change that he was stumbling blind
without any clue of where to start, but it was infinitely preferable to this abysmal disgrace. Infinitely
preferable, was how he should have been able to do things. He had to do it.
Subaru: “If I don't, then for what purpose...”
Had he, biting open his lip and accepting giving up, resolved to see the end through?
Saving the mansion was impossible. Judging this time's DEATH as unavoidable, Subaru immediately
commits suicide and RETURNS BY DEATH—is not what happens.
Indeed the situation is the worst, and continuing to live was for Subaru equivalent to waiting for an
empty, meaningless future. He should bet on RETURN BY DEATH, rewind the world, and endeavour
to gain the victory of the optimum future. But,
Subaru: “I return without knowing anything, and I'm just back where I started again.”
At the very least, what happened in SANCTUARY while Subaru was gone?
What would happen in Sanctuary past the sixth day? That alone he needed to confirm. It was for
that purpose Subaru had shouted his throat hoarse, bitten his molars to crack, swallowed down his
regrets toward the mansion, and given up on this try.
If now was the fifth day, something should happen tomorrow.
Over this three-day period, only Garfiel and a caretaker had visited the prison room. Subaru did not
comprehend the caretaker's disposition, completely silent as they entirely followed Garfiel's
instructions. But from how they wiped an immobile Subaru's body and fed him, he supposed it may
be a woman.
In an environment with his every move watched, Subaru received no further time for investigation.
Thus, Subaru did not know the background of the person aiding Garfiel.
However, this was a place that Emilia, roused to help Subaru, could not find.
It was probably a secret location for Garfiel and his helper, a place difficult to discover, and difficult
for Subaru to send an SOS from.
Regardless, being that Garfiel and Roswaal had decided between them that Subaru be confined,
sneaking out would be pointless anyway.
Subaru: “If Emilia can conquer the TRIAL for the sake of helping me, that's more than excellent,
but...”
If the situation were reversed, Subaru could likely say with confidence that he would overcome the
TRIAL for Emilia's sake. But no vision arises of Emilia surpassing the TRIAL for Subaru's sake. He
doubted his existence granted her that much motivation—was the thinking of an excessively self-
undervaluing Subaru.
Though in reality, that no fortuitous news had come in likely meant that, identical to the loops so
far, Emilia was unable to overcome her PAST no matter how much she challenged it.
Meaning, the situation at the mansion, with SANCTUARY, with Subaru and with Emilia, were all
stuck in a deadlocked clotting of shit. The same report Garfiel had once roared at Subaru—that very
thing.
Subaru: “Yeah, I...”
—Have to do something.
Emilia, the mansion, SANCTUARY, every single problem that came up. With this method, with the
only single weapon this body had been granted, he would overcome it all.
A quiet determination. His poorness at giving up, was the only thing that kept Subaru going.
Conclusions he had reached repeatedly over this long, long period of thought. Giving a nod to this
heart of his which he had already discovered more times than his fingers could count, Subaru waits.
—It was after he felt the sensation of his sleeping body being shaken, that the situation moves.
Subaru: “—nnnm”
His shoulder grasped by someone and his body uprighted, Subaru returns from shallow sleep into
reality.
Signs of drool on his mouth. He cannot use his hands, so he wipes with his shoulder—is a rather
strenuous action, but he has started becoming used to it. Wiping his wetted mouth,
Subaru: “Who... is this?”
His hoarse voice is the result of waking up and of having screamed his throat raw.
Yelling any more is guaranteed to break his throat. That he has become capable of half-ignoring the
blood-spitting pain is not something he is happy for.
The person who awoke Subaru gives a short sigh. And,
???: “Sorry for this in the middle of your nap, but can you move, Natsuki-san?”
Subaru: “Auh?”
The voice that answers is not one Subaru had anticipated. He cannot help making a stupid sound in
response.
Perhaps mistaking Subaru's surprise for drowsiness, the other quietly says, “Ah, dear,” lightly
tapping Subaru's cheek with his palm.
???: “I also crossed a dangerous bridge coming here to help you, please liven up. I'm sure neither of
us would like to end here.”
They say, cutting through Subaru's hand and feet restraints with a blade. Confirming the feeling of
his freed hands and feet, Subaru violently pulls off the blindfold,
???: “Wauhh, your hands, feet, even your eyes look sore.”
In the centre of Subaru's somewhat crooked vision, his expression disquieted, is the hazy visage of a
man.
A character here for no discernible reason, this is the unforeseen on-stage of Otto Swein.
CHAPTER 39: FHREND
Otto: “What is that, that witnessing-something-inconceivable, the-workings-of-my-brain-are-
unbelievable, the-utmost-of-apparition-is-before-me expression of pure delirium you've got.”
Subaru: “...That ridiculous statement of yours needs no corrections with how close it is to my
mental state.”
Hands on his hips, Otto sighs. Subaru rotates his hands about to check his freed wrists, sitting on the
floor as he looks up at Otto.
Bound for over three days, just moving his body is enough to bring creaking and pain. Since even
rolling over in his sleep was tough with that posture, he'd been regularly flipped over at meal times,
but it's not just a problem of his blood circulation. He's discovering lots of new defects. Especially,
Subaru: “Otto, this might only be because I just took off the blindfold, but... the vision in my right
eye's bad. Or actually I can't see. What happened?”
Otto: “What happened, is what I hear and I'm rather hesitant to reply, but... would you like a refined
glossing over, or a direct telling of the facts?”
Subaru: “Refined so I don't get any shock, with frank content so I accept reality.”
Otto: “Certainly greedy. ...Um, Natsuki-san, upon the physiognomical starboard of your perception
there is mantled a cloaking of umbra, beyond which no illumination may transcend.”
Subaru: “Ah, I didn't ask for it in chuuni but yes that is enough.”
Subaru holds out his hand, vetoing Otto's explanation halfway through. He then puts his hand to his
right eye, timidly feeling around to confirm.
—The vision from his right eye feels as if it's been severed. Feeling around, Subaru figures out why
this organ is slacking on its job. Or rather than slacking, seems like its packed up its bags and gone
home. All that exists in his right eye's position is an empty socket.
Subaru: “I was healed... is what was supposed to have happened.”
Otto: “The bleeding stopped, and your broken bones are mended. However, even healing magic
chooses the practitioner, and it's not an infallible power. ...Deceased segments, would indeed be...”
Otto gives Subaru a pained look. Subaru's lips loosen without strength.
Subaru: “No helping it,”
Subaru: “My head got crushed and I almost died. Should accept my right eye dying off. ...though if
both my eyes died off, I'd probably lose will to live.”
Otto: “Would you like to be more positive, or rather not fall into desperation? Please. Without you,
Natsuki-san, things aren't going stand.”
Although having lost an important organ known as 'an eyeball', Subaru's emotions are calm enough
to surprise himself. Perhaps because the truth hasn't hit him yet, and because this isn't a gory wound
with blood spilling everywhere like what happened to his right arm after Elsa.
Garfiel spoke both lie and truth. His bleeding's stopped, his wounds have closed, he doesn't hurt.
Subaru just had far too high hopes for perfect, omnipotent healing magics, and Garfiel healed only
what he said he had—restoration from life threatening injury.
Subaru: “Call that honest, or something. He's another guy I just don't get.”
He had struck down a Subaru attacking Roswaal, but then healed him. Or so he thought but then he
also confines Subaru until the TRIAL is over, and uses him as a bargaining chip to pressure Emilia's
cooperation.
Heals Subaru so he won't die, and follows through with it even to being his caretaker. He loathes the
WITCH'S STENCH wafting from Subaru's body, but doesn't stop coming back to him. And though he
doesn't stop coming, he never asks the crux point Subaru anything.
It's almost as if he knows Subaru won't say anything, and doesn't have the information he should
discuss, and so has no interest in what Subaru has to say.
Subaru: “If he does know, then that's also because of a GOSPEL? Just damn everybody's... or since
this's a witch's test site, is that actually meant to be natural?”
If all the important figures own books which told the future, and they acted in accordance with
them, could the world not progress in a manner simpler for Subaru?
Everybody focused together toward one goal, working in union for a happy end. Couldn't he get a
single straight simple easy route for once?
Shouldn't it be more of a grace for Subaru, who possessed means to know the future, but had to
repeatedly start over, fumbling from square one with every re-do?
Subaru: “...Complaining's not gonna move things forward, but no one's gonna help me. Fuck.”
Otto: “Well you're certainly having a sulk. That's unavoidable considering what conditions you've
been in. ...But, hearing 'no one's gonna help me' does sting. What is it you think I came here doing?”
Otto hears Subaru's muttering, gives empathetic comments, and denies Subaru's words at the end.
Seeing Otto's close-range smug, Subaru's expression goes puzzledly blank.
Subaru: “Ah, right actually about that, why you? No I mean seriously, over these last three or four
days I've had what felt like infinite things to think about and infinite time to do it, but I can say
without any exaggeration you're the only thing that didn't cross my mind once.”
Otto: “He's incredible, this man! That you're capable of saying this, even I find refreshing!”
Subaru: “Actually though, what's refreshing's how much your existence vanished from my head. I
could look at your face, and it'd still take a sec before I'd figure out whether you're Otto or the old
appa salesman.”
Otto: “Who is this, this old appa salesman!”
Subaru: “A starting spot for me. Could also call him Mr. Save Point.”
Subaru: “Anyway, putting aside jokes etcetera there... I've got lots of things I wanna ask.”
Otto: “Well, I'm sure you would. I'm interested too, in what you did to get yourself captured out
here.”
Subaru: something something ??? its not on Roswaal's instructions this happened to me?
From what Garfiel said, Subaru's confinement should have been from Roswaal. And from there, he
would make Emilia face the TRIAL. But,
Otto: “I wouldn't know how deeply the Margrave is involved, but I do at least know that presently,
SANCTUARY is in the middle of an awful divide.”
Subaru: “A divide? What do you mean?”
Otto: “Only what I said. Lewes-sama's faction, which believes yourself and the evacuated villagers
should be released, have been endeavouring against an arising opposing faction. Although, being
that you were under Garfiel's charge, Natsuki-san, you would've been separated from the debate.”
Reports Otto, his expression exhausted. Just as Subaru feared, friction between the evacuees and the
residents of SANCTUARY had deepened, dissatisfaction had boiled over and skirmishes popped up. It
appears that with those minuscule cracks as the origin of it, the SANCTUARY side had split into
factions, and SANCTUARY was presently in a divide. Subaru swallows his breath.
Subaru: “But,”
Subaru: “Why'd this suddenly happen again? From what I've seen... I mean, anticipated.”
The first loop went five days without any of this divide happening. Just as Subaru proposed, the
promise to release the evacuees went fine and was realised on the sixth morning. The worsening of
conditions here was overly fast, Subaru judges. Otto shakes his head and raises a finger.
Otto: “Well, now see,”
Otto: “There shouldn't be any 'why suddenly' in it. You're one of the causes for it, Natsuki-san. If
this is what you're thinking, it sincerely is a worry.”
Subaru: “One of the causes?”
Otto: “I don't know what relationship you've had with the people of Arlam Village, Natsuki-san...
but it is certainly a favourable one. The moment that Garfiel assaulted you and you disappeared, the
atmosphere in SANCTUARY plummeted.”
Subaru goes silent.
Otto: “Ram and the Margrave are in a position where the people of the village would hesitate to
address them, and your friendliness would be ideal as a contact to the superiors. Although, I doubt
that explains it exclusively, seeing how furious everyone is.”
Subaru's jaw drops.

Yes, when considering the points of change between last loop and this loop, Subaru's wellness would
be one of them. Would be, but Subaru hadn't imagined in the least that his presence would effect the
Arlam villagers' feelings to this extent, much less act as a trigger for SANCTUARY's divide. Trying to
discern whether he's joking or exaggerating, Subaru's left-eyed gaze looks doubtingly at Otto. But
Otto just furrows his brows, showing no particular or notable reaction. Meaning, he was being
serious. The remaining point of contention is if Otto has the faculties to interpret matters
properly, but,
Subaru: “Wanna pile up arguments getting an answer to that one.”
Otto: “I feel like I'm being treated improperly again but, it's probably fine. Anyway, Natsuki-san,
the reason I came here is related to that divide.”
Subaru: “Related to the divide... right, things getting noisy 'cause I'm gone means things might
manage to settle down if I come back? No I mean, that's kinda sorta expecting way too much of me
or I guess putting way too much pressure on me or I guess or...”
With his nature to pile underestimations upon underestimations, Subaru is unable to accept Otto's
words sincerely. Even should Subaru have a strong influence on the calm of the villagers' hearts,
now that everything's already exploded, he doubts he can do anything.
Actually, him showing up with a missing right eye will probably just be pouring oil onto the fire.
Subaru shakes his head, expression complex, but Otto refutes his refutation with a “no no”
Otto: “I surely wouldn't think you have that much power, Natsuki-san. That would be far too
conceited, that would.”
Subaru: “We agree so I can't make a jab at you but, you really do say too much. ...Then, why'd you
get me out?”
Otto: “A large-scale clash is what the evacuees and the people of SANCTUARY would both like to
avoid. So, I've been wondering if you'd be willing to play a part in escaping from SANCTUARY.”
Subaru: “A part in escaping?”
Narrowing his eye at the dangerousness of that word, Subaru thinks it over. He abruptly gets an idea
of what Otto is thinking.
Subaru: “No way,”
Subaru: “While SANCTUARY's side is chaotic and uncontrolled, you want to have the villagers
escape in the confusion. And you're having me help out in the escape, is seriously what you're
doing?”
Otto: “Excellent, I'm glad the conversation's moving quickly. Time is pressing in, and I'd appreciate
if you could possibly assist without any conditions attached...”
Subaru: “...Let me confirm where this's going first. Not even I'm gonna just agree if you're trying
without any plan. If it feels there's a chance then sure, but if the opposition questions it there won't
be any excuse.”
If, at worst, they stir up the faction opposing SANCTUARY's freedom, it will hinder Emilia and
Roswaal's safety. Roswaal's really a who gives a shit but Subaru wants to avoid Emilia, Ram, and
Patrasche getting hurt.
Otto: “I would like it if my name could be added to that list of persons you wouldn't want injured.”
Subaru: “Men meeting painful experiences in the gambling hall's natural. That's the type of antiqued
thinking I have. A man making money stays out of the house.”
Otto: “That's the first time I'm hearing that, but probably, that's not how you're meant to use it.”
Subaru makes a face at Otto's correct jab. He clears his throat, putting the conversation back on
topic.
Subaru: “Saying it's not some haphazard mess thrown together in desperation, tell me your plan.
From there I'll decide whether to assist or betray you.”
Otto: “It's terrifying that the option of betrayal exists, but... the plan is simple. I've already spoken
with the moderate faction of SANCTUARY, and thus while the extremists are being held back, we ride
in dragon carriages to break through the barrier. And that's goodbye.”
Subaru: “Don't think that's super reckless? And this collaborator...”
Otto: “Is something to discuss should you say that you'll assist. What I'd like to leave to you,
Natsuki-san, would be persuading the villagers and dealing with unreadable Garfiel. Since I'm sure
he'll bite onto you if you and the villagers are together.”
Subaru: “You're saying my body makes good bait, well I can't deny that.”
Just as Otto predicts, Garfiel will definitely come flying in if Subaru and the evacuees are together.
But,
Subaru: “I've got no idea what Garfiel's standing is anymore. He's like an insider to Lewes-san so he
should be moderate, but...”
Otto: “It seems like he originally desired to be part of that count, but considering how he's
approached yourself and Emilia-sama, it's become difficult to make judgements. Although while not
perceiving him as a proactive enemy, treat him as a passive enemy, would be where our opinions
overlap.”
Subaru: “They've sure been paying some damn attention, this collaborator. ...Count me in. Also
what would happen if I didn't agree to help?”
Otto: “Then we would announce that we freed you, thinking to remove even just Garfiel and his
powerful latent enemy potential from the list of obstacles.”
Subaru: “Just perfect, god damn it. Yeah, the moment my hands and feet were freed I definitely
went against Garfiel's will. Have to go along, fuck.”
Subaru has to accept the reality that he's in the palm of Otto and the collaborator's hands. The
moment this became the situation, Subaru's only remaining option became to dance to their plans.
Although, Subaru didn't feel as much animosity to these conditions as he was saying.
Because if Subaru joins in with Otto's plan of escaping of the evacuees from SANCTUARY, he might
find the answer behind the unpopulated SANCTUARY he had seen.
If this plan succeeds, the evacuees will disappear from SANCTUARY without Subaru's interference.
However, the unsolved mystery remained problematic.
Subaru: “That doesn't explain why I couldn't find the residents of SANCTUARY, who can't leave...”
Subaru could manage to agree with the theory that the people who could leave did leave. But that
doesn't answer why people who supposedly can't leave went unseen. Either way, he had to leave
here to observe the change of conditions.
Seeing this loop off to the end, following along with Otto's plan, was not impossible.
Subaru: “Oh yeah and this's super late but, impressed you found me. This place feels like it's
probably a hidden room inside SANCTUARY.”
Having managed between Garfiel's statements and excessive free time to put together the internal
design of the room, Subaru looks around the place, clicking his neck.
The only lighting of the dim room are its dim crystalights, lacking even a window to let sunlight
inside. The structure is wooden, with shabby construction and signs of rain damage here and there.
The source of the dripping that grated on blindfolded Subaru's nerves was probably from those
leaks.
Otto: “Well, I'm sure it would be difficult to find this place using an honest method. Although I'd
say it feels more like a secret base than a hidden room.”
Subaru: “Looking round this room again, I'm getting that impression too. Don't think with this
kinda DIY that this's a pro's work. There's hints around that some rookie with too much brawn
forced the building together off intuition and feeling.”
This scruffy little nook is far diverged from Subaru's original impressions of the place. It's just your
everyday tiny, cramped little shed.
Otto: “Leaving that as that,”
Otto: “The achievement of finding you does belong to me. I believe this would be an appropriate
scene for receiving honest praise, and Natsuki-san your reaction is?”
Subaru: “I'm honestly impressed, and you really helped me. How'd you find me?”
Otto: “Hmhmhm! You want to know? You'd like to know, he wants to know.”
Subaru: “Yeah, I wanna know. Probably used your BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY and came here
gathering info from forest bugs and lizards and plants or something though.”
Otto: “Yes but could you please give me back my feelings of superiority!?”
Otto laments being destroyed. Having what he intended to be a joke affirmed, Subaru can't conceal
his internal astonishment.
Astonishment, at the power of Otto's excessively practical BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY.
Subaru had previously acted off that blessing to direct Patrasche and save Emilia from danger. Otto
had listened to the bugs and foliage then, rapidly taking shortcuts one after another to successfully
close the distance between them.
Subaru: “Really is handy, your blessing.”
Otto: “...It truly isn't that great of a thing.”
Subaru sighs, but Otto's response is abruptly low-spirited. Subaru furrows his brows at this reaction.
Otto clenches his fist, not following up on it.
Otto: “Anyway,”
Otto: “Emilia-sama's TRIAL will begin soon. Garfiel will be at the tomb over that time, so he'll have
to distance himself from here. That meaning, the chance is now.”
Subaru: “Prep time 'till enacting the plan's way too short.” something something didn't find me
asses catching fire schedule going crazy shikatanee
Whining about Otto pushing him along, Subaru turns his body about, checking his physical
condition. Although not exactly satisfactory, he had been presented meals, and his excretions had
been dealt with without fail. Thinking on it now, that he did not know who had been doing it was a
situation to provoke extreme embarrassment, but he thinks back on the time he was hospitalised for
breaking his leg.
Either way, outside of some creakiness there are no apparent issues with his body. Otto, watching
Subaru, gives a nod and goes to step forward, announcing they get moving—
Subaru: “Oh, can I ask one last thing?”
Otto: “...What is it now, gosh. Please truly make this one the last thing, yes? If too much time
passes, the plan will move to its next stage and we'll just look like idiots.”
Subaru: “Sorry, sorry. ...Why did you take such a risk to help me?”
Otto's expression vanishes.

Subaru figured that this was the question he should have asked at the start. Preventing the evacuees
and those of SANCTUARY from clashing was beneficial for both parties. It was desirable for Subaru
too, and would also support Emilia and Roswaal. However,
Subaru: “I don't see any benefits for you in this anywhere. Might be my stupidity stopping me from
getting it, but... not knowing just makes me feel sick.”
He was not doubting Otto, but there was a part of this that would not click. For Otto, his
involvement with the problems in SANCTUARY were due to circumstance. Neither the complications
here nor the link to the Royal Selection had anything to do with him.
The moment he thought entanglement in these conditions a bother, Otto could discard his
involvement and leave by himself. He did desire a tie to the Margrave, but even considering goal-
consciousness, the present conditions would likely be TOO POOR TO EVEN BET ON.
Although not as intensely as Subaru, Otto surely saw no light to break the deadlock of this situation.
Subaru did not understand why Otto had braved danger and allied with him to this extent. Subaru
had, just as stated, truly forgotten about his existence during his three days spent in rumination. He
had found no factors in Otto that gave doubt or presented issue. In a certain sense, that could be
called trusting him.
With the situation stacked this poor, there would surely be no SOMETHING in even Otto to
necessitate suspicion—was the escapist breed of that trust.
Subaru thus wanted to know, liable to overturn that trust, Otto's his true feelings.
If for assumption even Otto possessed an underside Subaru could not trust in, then that would—
Subaru: “Please answer, Otto. Why are you risking yourself like this?”
He asks quietly. This was small, but certain watershed.
Breathing stopped, Subaru waits for Otto's answer. Taking in Subaru's question, Otto returns
Subaru's stare, choosing his words.
Otto: “I wonder just what kind of person you think I am, Natsuki-san.”
Subaru: “A guy who goes to pick up the pennies right in front of him, holding his bag in his other
hand with the insides spilling out everywhere... that kinda dopey character's how I imagine you.”
Otto: “Well wasn't that thought terrible! And it's irritating me that you could almost tell that I've
done that before!!”
That was Subaru's idea of Otto exactly—or, the idea of Otto that Subaru wished to be correct.
Otto: “I swear,”
Otto gives a tired shake of his head.
Otto: “You know, Natsuki-san,”
Subaru: “...Yeah?”
Otto: “—Is it truly so strange to help a friend?”
—For an instant, not comprehending what he heard, time inside Subaru stops.
Several seconds pass before time starts again. But even so, Subaru does not really understand the
meaning of those words. What did Otto just say?
Fhrend? What was this fhrend, again? There was a person like that around here?
Otto: “Wh-why is his face frozen in surprise, this man.”
Subaru: “No, the name of some guy I don't know suddenly came up and I can't follow the
conversation. So, this Mr. Fhrend, he was, uhh?”
Otto: “I don't know what conclusion you just reached, but it is completely wrong! Not fhrend,
friend! A pal!”
Subaru: “Pals!? Who and who are!?”
Otto: “Me! And you are!”
Subaru's eyes open in disbelief as Otto screams, out of breath. He steps forward, gives a wave of his
hand.
Otto: “Are you listening?”

Otto: “When the Witch Cult captured me and my life was in danger, your group saved me, Natsuki-
san. And afterwards, well there were various transactions and words said that helped. I came here to
make acquaintance with the Margrave, and by that meaning perhaps the relationship between me and
you could have been a matter of standing.”
Subaru: “—”
Otto: “But if you cast aside that troublesome issue, I do think of you as a friend, Natsuki-san. There
are some things I'd like to say about my usual treatment, but conversations of 'moron' and 'no way'
have that kind of closeness too, so—er,”
Perhaps becoming embarrassed halfway through, Otto scratches his nose as he averts his gaze.
Subaru remains silent. Having reached the end of his piece, Otto stares quizzically at Subaru's lack
of reaction.
His expression carries some unease, likely because Subaru had said nothing to affirm what he just
said. Pressuring a sale of friendship, perhaps could be a way to conceive it.
Imagining that as Otto's present thoughts, an emotion swells up in Subaru's heart. The reaction
brought about by that emotion was—
Subaru: “—Pfff”
Otto: “Pardon?”
Subaru: “Hahahahaahaha! F-friends? Friends! Ahh, right right. Otto, you wanted to be my friend!?”
Otto: “Wha!?”
Unable to hold back his laughter, Subaru gives a red-faced Otto's shoulders a rowdy slap. Yet
laughing, Subaru keeps clutching his stomach, stomps the floor.
Subaru: “Pffhahaah, friends. Ahh, shit. Otto, you bastard, you.”
Otto: “Ow! What are you doing! Fine, I was stupid for saying it! I at least knew that you wouldn't
think that way. But even so I'm sure it wasn't something to laugh so much about!”
Subaru: “Nononono, I have to laugh. You're not the weird one here. ...My own idiocy is so horrific,
all I can do is laugh.”
Wiping away the tears accompanying his peals of laughter, Subaru manages to right his posture. He
looks at Otto before him.
He looks to be regretting saying the word 'friend'. But what visits Subaru's heart is inexpressible
gratitude.
—What were Otto's plans? There might be some underside. I don't know what to believe in.
Otto called Subaru his friend, and came to help him out of concern. First doubting him rather than
trusting him was Subaru's foolishness.
That he decided there had to be something there, and that SOMETHING was filled with malice, was
Subaru's vulgarity.
Being played by the situation, losing sight of the feelings of those around him, believing only in
malice and forgetting unconditional goodwill, was all ungrateful.
—Did Natsuki Subaru know so much about the world that he could give up and throw it away?
Had he been intending to achieve some enlightenment, merely by spanning these several deaths and
do-overs of the world? Without even noticing the dutifulness of this friend nearby?
Unaware of Subaru's self-deprecation and self-admonishment, further confusion rises on Otto's face.
Subaru crafts a smile, taking in a somehow cheery breath.
Subaru: “Sorry. You are my friend, Otto. —Thank you, for saving me.”
※ † † † † † † † † † †
The confinement building is in the middle of the forest, separated from the village where the
residents of SANCTUARY live. It sits in the middle of a path so complex that, were Otto not here to
guide, Subaru would get lost and be incapable of escaping.
Subaru: “Thinking like that, if we didn't have your blessing yeah this'd be hopeless.”
Otto: “Keep from speaking too much. I don't remember the path either, I'm relying on the flowers
and the frogs and the lizards. If we displease them, they'll trick us and guide us off a cliff.”
Subaru: “Nature's scary!”
Otto strains his ears as he carefully chooses the path. Subaru follows behind, missing half his
vision, running rather perilously between the gaps in the trees. Losing his depth perception and half
his visual field hurts. The genuine feeling of loss will likely hit afterwards, but for now it's fulfilling
well its task of hindering his activities.
Mysteriously, he lacks any grudge against Garfiel, who gave him these injuries.
Something something Subaru's aware getting bashed up for what he did is natural, and there's
Garfiel's incomprehensible inconsistencies. If he just had some more room for his imagination to
spread its wings, he could probably come up with an actual notion of Garfiel.
Subaru: “I need more information, including about the unconfirmed GOSPEL.”
He has to bench the matter for now.

Annoyed, Subaru makes a small noise at the pain of a branch grazing his right ear, labouring to step
over the roots. And,
Otto: “I see it. We'll be exiting near the village soon.”
Hearing this, Subaru forces his poor sight to focus ahead. Between the gaps in the trees, he sees the
lights of the village.
They exit the forest, the light of the stars and moon shines down, Subaru's dark vision clears
somewhat.
Taking a breath, Subaru looks around the surroundings, confirming that he and Otto have returned
to the village in Sanctuary. Being that the moon is out and it is night, Emilia has probably started
with the TRIAL in the tomb.
A feeling rushes up to run there and be at her side. Subaru pushing the emotion down and turns back
to Otto.
Subaru: “If now's in the middle of the TRIAL, this's the timing to escape. What's the arrangement,
where are we meeting with the collaborator?”
Otto: “Well, the collaborator—”
Otto goes to point toward the village, the motion is interrupted partway through. By a voice.
???: “—There is no need to worry, I'm already here.”
Cutting into their conversation, somebody walks forth.

A black maid outfit. The white apron shines under the starlight, adorning the youthful girl with a
wondrous aura.
???: “First, for your safe return I will... yes, for the present I will give you my congratulations,
Barusu.”
Her pink hair swaying, spitting venom, Ram—Otto's collaborator—welcomes Subaru with her face
composed.
CHAPTER 40: COLLABORATOR
Various words skim through Subaru's mind at this sudden abrupt unforeseen meeting, but—
Subaru: “'Safe' while looking at this eye's sure something, huh!”
Pointing at his right eye—at the destroyed organ—Subaru enters tsukkomi mode on Ram.
Presently, the area of Subaru's right eye is bandaged with cloth torn from his sleeve, achieving an
outfit that tickles his chuuni heart. If this Date Masamune look were just for fashion it'd be a story
to laugh about later, but being that Ram should know what awful state Subaru's in, she should not
regard it as such.
Ram gives a light tilt of her head, brushing down her pink hair as it sways with the motion.
Ram: “Sorry, I don't usually pay you very proper attention and can't tell the difference.”
Subaru: “Thank you for that pretty devastating statement, but say did you know? Humanoid
lifeforms fundamentally come with two eyes, ears, and nostrils, yeah?”
Ram: “Meaning, Barusu, you are currently not a humanoid lifeform, but a lifeform of unknown
bearing?”
Subaru: “By syllogism!?”
Having his back-and-forth with Ram, Subaru glances over the surroundings with his left-handed
gaze. He checks that no one is lurking here except Ram, seeking a path that could work as an escape
route. Needed to buy time and determine where to run.
Subaru: “Otto, on onetwothree we scatter and run for it. You're on yelling-drawing-the-chaser duty.
I'm on silently-getting-away duty. Objections?”
Otto: “Yes many, but firstly why have you gotten so wary, Natsuki-san?”
Subaru: “Idiot. Look at that Ram's eyes. She wants to kill us. No mistake. I see those eyes daily at
the mansion, trust me.”
Otto: “What is there to trust about a man who is watched daily with bloodlust!?”
Subaru whispers his plans to get away, but apparently Otto is incapable of grasping this and the
conversation falls apart. Subaru considers leaving Otto to get killed and escaping alone, but
remembering their talk about friendship, hesitates.
Subaru: “Fuck, the second I think I'm outta my handcuffs, the hobbles of friendship get me in their
bondage. Whatcha wanna do to me!”
Otto: “You're who should be speaking, if you don't express more clearly what you want to do, the
conversation won't come to be! Also the potential for misunderstandings here is incredible, I'd like
to do something like that, I really would.”
Ram: “If you would like to finish this sketch here, may we proceed with matters? Or rather, matters
are proceeding. There is no time for your date. This is a waste of hours, otherwise put a waste of
life.”
Ram steps forth, cutting into the main topic. That said, Subaru's statements weren't entirely jokes.
He had seriously been attempting to draw out the conversation with jokes while looking for
opportunities to escape. Because,
Subaru: “Honestly, I thought the moment you saw my face you'd try to kill me no questions asked.”
Ram: “If we had met directly after you practised your violence upon Roswaal-sama, I may have.
The passing of time has tempered my anger somewhat. ...Be grateful for Garf.”
Subaru: “It's thanks to Garfiel that I'm not dead here, but I can't change my opinion of someone who
did this to my face so easily.”
Wariness still present, Subaru scratches his neck as he responds to Ram. But Ram's gait is relaxed,
with not any sign of hostility. Seems that at very least she's not going to literally attack him no
questions asked. But with that, what next pulls on Subaru's mind is,
Subaru: “Otto said we're meant to rendezvous with someone here, but...”
Ram: “Yes, I am aware.”
Otto: “Natsuki-san. I know it's difficult to believe, but what you see is the truth.”
Having Ram nod affirmation to his indirect question, Subaru glances to Otto who gives an identical
answer. Subaru crosses his arms, frowning.
Subaru: “Hrmmm”
Subaru: “If I accept things as I see them, then you who appeared here are Otto's collaborator...
meaning that makes you the collaborator on helping the Arlam villagers escape SANCTUARY?”
Ram: “No mistake there. Garf, Lewes-sama, and Emilia-sama are all in the middle of Emilia-sama's
TRIAL. The important figures have gathered at the tomb. Now is the only chance.”
Says Ram, pressuring the point of the lack of time. Subaru's unease doesn't alleviate. He holds his
palm at her to stop her, she silently glares back. Steeling himself so as not to crumble beneath the
sharpness of her gaze,
Subaru: “Tell me,”
Subaru: “Why're you helping with the villagers' escape? Even if you folded to your goodwill and're
dashing off that, getting me involved makes no sense. Or, are you really the type of person where
cooling off from anger is enough to stop you from getting recompense out of me? The doubts don't
end.”
Ram: “You certainly ask piling questions. Verbosity does not make men popular, Barusu.”
Subaru: “That's not persuasive at all when you've gotta crush on a man chattier than me. ...Answer,
Ram. I can only think this reality where you're unfazedly doing collab work with me is impossible.
If you're still participating regardless then that's...”
His breath catching, Subaru gives himself fear of continuing his sentence. If matters are exactly as
Subaru imagines, then his actions here—
Closing his eyes firm, his biting down on his teeth keeps him from uttering any pathetic noise.
Don't fear. Don't terror. Don't show weakness. Turn heart to iron, never to waver.
—For now, if he became emotion-impervious, unshakable iron, then good.
Subaru: “...off Roswaal's instruction, is the reason easiest to agree with. And then why, after I pulled
that violence him, would he help me? ...You might know more about that one than me.”
Ram goes silent.

What arises in Subaru's mind is Roswaal and his GOSPEL. If those prophecies had been his
possession the whole time, then confidant, purveyor of absolute adoration, pledger of loyalty Ram
would almost surely know about it.
Though she would almost certainly not know the details. If for assumption she did know the
detailed content of the GOSPEL, that would mean she permitted the future where Rem was left to die.
Subaru: “—”
It is entirely an impossible assumption. Subaru knows assumption is all it amounts to. When Ram
lost Rem, when Ram was not in special circumstances of having forgotten Rem's existence, Subaru
knew what reaction the elder oni sibling displayed bereft of her little sister.
On this alone, Subaru had faith that Ram had not known about any prophecies wherein Rem would
have been to be left to die.
But then, how involved was she in Roswaal's plans? Roswaal still had yet to reveal the whole of his
plots. Then his confidant Ram, how much did she—
Subaru: “Answer, Ram. Why are you helping us? If you're following Roswaal's plot, then sorry but
from now on me and Otto'll do it ourselves. We don't need you.”
Otto: “Wh—Natsuki-san!?”
Subaru: “Shut up, Otto. There's no time to explain the details, and I can't guarantee your safety if
you knew so I'm not telling, but because of this time I am pissed furious. Or at least enough that I
can't approach things with Roswaal's name on them peacefully!”
Touching the bandage over his throbbing right eye, Subaru yells at interrupting Otto as he stomps
the ground.
The feeling of flying at Roswaal, strangling his slender throat remains in Subaru's palms. The
sensation of harbouring urge to murder another, and acting upon that urge, remains present and
tactile.
It came accompanied by a vividness, depraved and graphic. Now that he had regained composure,
recalling the event filled him with nausea, sending stinging through his skull and ringing through
his ears, a memory of a nightmare.
Subaru possessed no desire at all to repeat that scene again. But,
Subaru: “I do think I was wrong, but whether I regret it's another story. He wounded an
unforgivable part of mine. So he met pain.”
Ram: “...By that logic, I doubt you could protest should I conduct acts of revenge upon you,
Barusu?”
Subaru: “That's why I'm saying I was ready to turn ass and run the second I saw you. Ended in
failure though cause Otto's a dunce.”
Otto: “That is needless defamation, but I will say that if I sincerely turned ass, the speed I'd
disappear at would guarantee you no hope to have an ass, Natsuki-san.”
Subaru: “Ass ass ass shut up, are dirty jokes the only humour you have, wordbound.”
Otto: “I don't know what that means but it feels like incredible defamation! Does feel it!”
Ram interrupts their usual dialogue by clearing her throat. Subaru again narrows her eyes and glares
at her, Ram giving a sigh.
Ram: “...Do relax. This action, at the least, is unconcerned with Roswaal-sama's noble will.”
Subaru: “Unconcerned... with Roswaal? No wait, but that means...”
Subaru cannot hide his shock. This means that Ram is independently choosing to help with the
evacuation. And that is not the only problem.
Subaru: “If Roswaal's unrelated, then this isn't written in the GOSPEL, either... is it? Wait a second. If
we start considering this stuff, then just how much does the GOSPEL write in the first place?”
Because Subaru flew into an instantaneous rage when Roswaal revealed his GOSPEL in that
conversation, Subaru had not gotten to broach the topic of the book itself. However, if this so-called
perfected GOSPEL truly was an omnipotent, prophetic text capable of writing the entirety of the
future—
Subaru: “With how detailed the text'd be, the thing'd be enormous...”
If it was the entirety of the world, and the entirety of what would next happen that was written, then
the information load surely would not fit inside one book. The human mind was far too small to
comprehend every single event to occur in the world.
Thus, Subaru had judged that the information inside the GOSPEL would pick-and-choose its content
about the future. This would also be within an information range understandable for the owner.
Subaru: “The incomplete GOSPEL Betes owned had contents that'd be appended on one after
another... it seems. Haven't seen it increase so I don't really know.”6
It appears that the GOSPEL the fanatic owned, which had half its pages blank, would have text
appended onto the blank pages every time a new prophecy came.
At least, it was definite that its number of pages was different between the time Subaru first acquired
it, and the time of Betelgeuse's defeat. He had later attempted to investigate it further but been
incapable of reading the words, and although intending to start inquiring it after speaking with
Roswaal, doing so does not seem very possible in the present situation.
With too little information to sample from, Subaru's theory remains just a theory. But that Subaru
harboured doubts for trustability and precision of the completed works was truth.
Ram puts her hand to her mouth, in thought.
6 Subaru calls Betelgeuse ぺス公 which is essentially 'Betel-etc' because Betelgeuse is ungainly as shit to pronounce
in Japanese. The tone is meant to be somewhat derisory. This is the best I could come up with.
Ram: “...I have not been authorised to speak on this matter. Although my presence here may be
unrelated to Roswaal-sama's will, that I have devoted my heart to him remains the same.”
Subaru: “That's more than head over heels get a room, fuck.”
Ram: “However...”
Curses Subaru, lamenting his route of gathering information being shut off. But Ram cuts in. She
watches Subaru raise his face in surprise, and in a quiet voice,
Ram: “It is assured that these conditions were not writ. Although, it is exactly because they were not
writ that I am able to be here.”
Subaru: “...I don't get it. In the end, how're you gonna conciliate? By helping? If you're going to
help, is that on your volition?”
Ram: “I'm helping the evacuation. That is by my will. I doubt Roswaal-sama will attempt to stop it,
now that the situation is like this.”
Subaru: “Now that it's like this?”
Her statement tugs at Subaru, but she shows no signs of answering. Meaning the answer would be
filed as one of those things that couldn't be spoken from her mouth.
Ultimately, Subaru fails to get onto the topic of the accuracy of Roswaal's GOSPEL and its precise
content. All that remains is the doubt, that perhaps not even that perfected GOSPEL could divine the
whole of the future.
Subaru: “Well, even just knowing that might give me some advantage next time I interrogate
Roswaal.”
Shelving the question for now, Subaru crafts words to force himself to agree with this. He does not
even think what his statement actually implies.
Subaru: “There's still room for debate on whether or not I believe Ram from the bottom of my heart,
but I'm putting that off for now and want to check our arrangements. What's actually happened?”
Ram: “Since the day following your machinations of idiocy, Barusu, we have been getting today
secured as the timing and prepared for the evacuation. The citizens whinged refusing to move
without first confirming your safety, so I wound up having to waste time searching for you and your
ambiguous survival.”
Subaru: “Sorry for not dying in obvious black-and-white, or actually 'idiocy'? Anyway, from the day
after I got violent...”
Something about the date tugs at Subaru. Unable to put that tug into proper words, Ram and Otto
give Subaru a rough explanation of the escape plan. Put simply,
Subaru: “Ram's gotten the moderates to open up an escape route, we blend into the night and
disappear fast as we can on carriages. Otto leads, my job's as mascot to get the villagers to leave
SANCTUARY without gloom—is about it?”
Otto: “I wouldn't know what this 'mahskott' is, but we can't evacuate until everyone has confirmed
that you're safe, Natsuki-san. Well, putting in simply Ram and I couldn't acquire their trust to act as
leaders for the evacuation, would be what it is.”
Subaru: “Achievements from the commotion with the witchbeasts's coming round to help here, huh.
Never know where or how people'll repay you, gotta make sure to set up places ahead of time where
you risked your life.”
Otto: “As far as I know, you have had lots of rigamaroles such as with the White Whale and the
Witch Cult where you've risked your life, Natsuki-san, but wouldn't those all have been exceedingly
close calls?”
Mutters Otto in utter bafflement. Subaru shakes his head back and forth.
Subaru: “Nowaitwait,”
Subaru: “I've got no idea either why I get so many chances for the world to show off its malice. By
the way I've also skirted death from a killer merc lady who loves cutting people's stomachs open
throwing entrail parties.”
Otto: “There are people who boast about their painful experiences, but when someone who has
passed through so many painful and terrifying scenes speaks, the valorous tales from the former
group just become laughable.”
Subaru shoots Otto a thumbs up. A powerless smile rises on Otto's face as he gives a thumbs up
back.
Subaru: “Well, time to do the plan. How much leeway time do you think we have?”
Ram: “Should it not change from ordinary, it will be approximately two hours before Emilia-sama
gives up and leaves the tomb. She's likely only just entered the TRIAL, so conservatively an hour
and a half. Even if we take thirty minutes until departure, we'll have one hour free.”
Subaru: “So one hour. We have that, and we can get out of SANCTUARY's barrier at least.”
If they can just get through the barrier, they will escape obstacles coming from SANCTUARY's side.
It will also get them out of reach of the extremists. But there was one problem about the barrier that
couldn't be overlooked.
Subaru raises his head, hand on his chin.
Subaru: “Ram,”
Subaru: “So about the barrier, there's kinda a problem. We pass through and the extremists or
whoever won't follow us, but...”
Ram: “Garf, yes?”
Subaru: “...you knew?”
Ram: “He's Frederica's little brother, and the length we've known him is different. Although
reluctantly, he's been an old friend of mine since Roswaal-sama took me into his charge, seven
years ago.”
A piece of the information Subaru acquired at the mansion last loop, just put out there right like
that. Although completely thrown, Subaru feels internal relief at the verification from a second
opinion.
Subaru: “What do we do?”
Subaru: “When he finds out I escaped confinement, Garfiel is absolutely going to chase us. It's a
rowdy escape coming right after he figures my actions're suspicious. I don't think we'll have time to
say if he'll be pulling his punches. Whether or not he crosses the barrier's also up to his feelings.”
Ram: “On what basis do you say Garf will follow us? He should respect Lewes-sama's will, so he
would be part of the moderates. ...Although since he imprisoned you, by circumstance that would
make his support one where he is unaffiliated to either.”
Subaru: “The reason he'll aim for me... um...”
The reason Garfiel harboured a hostility near to loathing for Subaru.

Unquestionably, it was because of the WITCH's lingering scent emitted from Subaru's body.
Since Garfiel can perceive that stench which compounds with every RETURN BY DEATH, he regards
Subaru with incredible caution and hostility. The result of that hostility bearing its fangs and being
put into action was this loop. That Garfiel nevertheless healed and kept a dying Subaru alive
displayed both his simpleness and his rationality.
Having reached this deduction, Subaru hesitates on whether to tell it.

The first person to broach the topic of the Witch's stench on Subaru was Rem. From that fragment
of Rem's speech, Subaru more or less figured she harboured strong hatred for the Witch Cult, and
that Ram would be relevant to that.
Meaning, the Witch Cult was not something unrelated to Ram. It was to the point that just hearing
the words 'Witch Cult' made Rem lose her composure. What meaning would this truth hold for
Ram?
Ram: “—Barusu?”
Subaru: “Uh, uh-huh.”
Ram: “You went quiet, what happened? Your face is torpid and unlookable at best of times, but after
adding oafishness and incompetence to it there truly is not a single part left worth witnessing.”
Subaru: “That ruthlessness and lack of forgiveness just makes you refreshing. Right, so the reason
Garfiel'll aim for me... well, it's because I was violent with Roswaal.”
Subaru averts his gaze, avoiding the topic of the witch's scent.
Subaru: “If something happens to Roswaal, it puts burden on SANCTUARY’s functioning. It's
unthinkable he'd let me, who tried to do something that dangerous, get away.”
Ram: “...Plainly said that is an overwhelmingly tedious evasion, but I'll regard it as fine. Being that
I'm not speaking about the matters I can't voice, albeit impertinent of you it would be unfair should I
force you to speak your thoughts.”
Subaru: “You just can't talk to me without putting that bullying in, huh? Right, Otto?”
Otto: “Er, I incredibly feel that I can't agree with you asking me for validation.”
Says Subaru seeing agreement, but Otto returns with his gaze reproachful. Not getting it, Subaru
responds with a shrug. With the couple's exchange at her back, Ram looks up at the sky, her eyes
narrowed in the moonlight.
Ram: “—A moon pale, a moon crazed. That night, too, was moonlit like this.”
She murmurs, quiet as to be inaudible.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
—Things proceed swiftly once the action starts.
Plans had already been made for the evacuation without Subaru, and the final stage of the plan is
merely needing Subaru to be there as the start trigger.
The villagers speedily board their carriages. The drivers have smooth coordination with who is
boarding where, and the thirty minute estimated pre-departure time gets settled in fifteen minutes.
Subaru had to give an astonished sigh at that.
Subaru: “It was fifteen minutes, but it could've been even shorter. Five minutes-ish...”
Indeed it probably could have. What rained on the parade of course wound up being Subaru.
Subaru had met up with the Arlam villagers and gone to get the evacuation preparations started
immediately, but everyone had instantly discovered the loss of his right eye.
The villagers looked about to yell seeking revenge for Subaru's stolen eye, but Subaru managed to
soothe them with a lie that the eye wasn't gone only healing—which they somehow accepted, and
the evacuation was ready.
Subaru: “Doesn't feel bad to be worried about, though.”
Even though having seen it for himself Subaru couldn't believe there were many people who would
be shocked if he was wounded.
And when he'd previously convinced himself that the human called Natsuki Subaru was isolated,
complete in himself, a worthless existence for anyone, incapable of having any impact on other's
emotions. Just when did he gain so many people who would be angry for him?
It was from the achievement during the witchbeast commotion, was how he had bragged before, but
in reality Subaru hadn't done anything that big.
Rem was the one who saved the children in the forest, and Rem was also the one who hunted down
most of the witchbeasts afterwards. Roswaal was the one who exterminated them. There shouldn't
be a single instant where Subaru's achievements stood out.
Subaru: “...Ah, so that's what it is.”
Thinking that far, Subaru perceives the truth he had bottled thus far.
Rem, whose existence and memories were eaten from the world by GLUTTONY's power. The only
place she remained anymore was inside Subaru, only her empty vessel remaining in the world.
The vestiges of her, the evidence of her, the memories of her were vanished and vanishing.
So what happened to events that occurred because of her actions?
—Most likely, everything she had done would be credited to other people, revising peoples'
consciousness to make each scene into its most reasonable form.
Subaru: “The people saved by Rem's actions are aiming their gratitude for her at me.”
Thinking about it, that Petra was so unconditionally attached to Subaru was likely because the
existence who had risked their life pulling her out of a forest of witchbeasts, had been retroactively
made to be him.
If not, then how could she have so much faith in a stranger of suspicious appearance and origin,
who she had only interacted with a short while?
Meaning that although unconsciously, Subaru again had been resting on Rem's laurels as if it were
natural.
Subaru: “...Makes me wanna puke. At the absurdity and sleaze.”
Spitting, Subaru becomes aware that all these blessings he has been given are the sleeping girl's
achievements.
Even still leaving something warm in his chest was the lovely blue-haired girl. Forgotten by the
world, yet perhaps even now her devotion to Subaru persisted.
Although, that might just be a sentimental, convenient delusion of his.
Patrasche: “—”
Subaru: “Mn, ah, don't worry. I'm okay. ...You're another good girl who's wasted on me.”
Patrasche glances back, concerned. The movement is unlikely to disturb her mounted master's
thoughts, and incredibly smooth even regardless of it following her speed. That she's running with
that high sense of awareness is apparent, even ignoring the presence of her WINDBREAKER Blessing.
She isn't pulling a carriage, making this the first time in a week—after the White Whale and Witch
Cult affairs—Subaru's ridden solo straddled over Patrasche.
Perhaps having some dissatisfaction at pulling heaving things, Patrasche's gait is rather light while
carrying only Subaru. She had, worried upon first seeing a one-eyed Subaru, licked his face
consolingly with her solid, rough tongue.
Thinking back on his tryst with Patrasche, Subaru glances behind him.
A secret evacuation on six carriages. Although being that the carriages' squeaking and the noise of
their flight is unconcealable, the situation is far from secret. Regardless they're going slow as they
can, readied to ward off discovery.
Most of the drivers are people who were hired to evacuate the villagers from the Witch Cult, and
had done so on the incentive of payment. They're people who fundamentally had no need getting
mixed up in this mess. Subaru worries that there might be considerable dissatisfaction among them,
but after seeing them as they tensely grip the reins, Subaru figures that fear was needless.
At the very least, they're not people to cause problems during a monumental game due to emotion.
???: “Natsuki-san, Natsuki-san.”
After thinking that far, Subaru suddenly hears a voice calling him from the leading carriage. He
glances back to see Otto leading the line of carriages, directed his beloved dragon Frufoo while
gesturing Subaru over.
Subaru: “What. The evacuation’s going good, I think.”
Otto: “Yes, currently it's going so good it's nearly too good. But a problem's arisen.”
Lowering his voice, Otto leans toward Subaru, who has come into step beside the carriage. Hand to
his mouth, so the other carriages won't see,
Otto: “Natsuki-san, please listen carefully.”
Subaru: “Hm?”
Otto: “—The forest is chattering, astir. Something OUTRAGEOUS is coming.”
Subaru can only furrow his brows at the overly vague phrasing. But Otto's expression is awfully
serious, and no atmosphere exists that this can just be laughed away.
Subaru swallows his breath, joining Otto in looking behind them.
Subaru: “Is that something OUTRAGEOUS, coming right now?”
Otto: “A lot of what the trees are saying is inexact, so it isn't certain, but... it's possible we'll collide
at our current speed. At least, accelerating a little would be...”
Suggests Otto, cold sweat rising on his brow. Sensing his ghastly expression as something definite,
Subaru judges to have the group accelerate. If they sprinted at full speed until the barrier, then
afterwards would—
???: “—Hey. Pretty cold, gettin' left outta this group late-night stroll yer got.”
A voice shreds through the quiet of the forest, reverberating on Subaru's eardrums.
Patrasche gouges the ground as she skids to a stop, lowering her head and baring her fangs,
directing identical hostility at her previous foe before her, growling.
Seeing the dragon readied for battle, the blond young man's mouth twists into an amused smile.
Man: “Ha. Yer had that mucha 'a painful experience and yer still ain't afraid, really are a good girl,
you are. FINGERS CLUTCH TIGHTER THE MORE THE STONE SPARKLES .”
His white canines shining, the watchman of SANCTUARY obstructs the path.
While simultaneously hinting the threat of that something OUTRAGEOUS.
CHAPTER 41: TIGER
Undefended posture. Garfiel stands with his arms dangling loosely at his sides, relaxed.
Seeing him blocking the path ahead, Subaru immediately glances cautiously around the
surroundings. Something other than Garfiel may also be lying in wait.
Although, Subaru had essentially judged the moment he saw it was Garfiel that this caution was
pointless. —If it is Garfiel coming, he is almost assuredly coming alone.
As expected, Subaru finds no one else around inside his perceptible range. Confirming his fear was
indeed needless, Subaru gives a sigh, stroking the neck of a yet-battle ready Patrasche.
Subaru: “Thought we'd left without foreshadowing it, but really rather you didn't immediately flirt
with people's partners.”
Garfiel: “Ain't the type to flatter or lie. What I'm thinkin' comes straight honest outta my mouth. Got
a lotta scoldin's from the granny and Ram 'cuzza it.”
Garfiel clicks his fangs, all traces of a smile disappearing as he looks up at Subaru. Meeting that
glint of Garfiel's with his one-eyed gaze, Subaru raises a finger.
Subaru: “Your being here's unnatural that so this's inevitable but, would you like to explain this?”
Garfiel: “Ain't nothin' big. My amazin' self's the fangs a' SANCTUARY, and you couldn't escape from
the eyes a' SANCTUARY. Thass all's to it. Eh, callit a' booby prize.”
Garfiel gives a light wave of his hand. Subaru's brows furrow.

If, as Subaru imagined, these things Garfiel called EYES were a meaningful code term similar to
KEK, then EYES likely connotated a sentinel. However,
Subaru: “Ram hasn't told me anything about there being someone like that in SANCTUARY...”
Garfiel: “Ya really think a lot from outside SANCTUARY know everythin' 'bout the place? There's
mountains a' things that asshole Roswaal don't know. This's just one'a those, yeh? ...Dunno 'f you'd
all know, though.”
Garfiel snorts at a silenced Subaru, turning his gaze to the line of carriages behind him.
Garfiel: “...That all'a the evacuees?”
Subaru: “Uh, uh-huh. Yeah. You know, Garfiel. It was bad of us to go and silently leave, but could
you please just overlook this one? It's not a bad deal for you either, right?”
Garfiel: “Hmm?”
Garfiel's glare is sharp as a blade, but Subaru unconcernedly gestures to the carriages behind him.
Subaru: “We're having the ex-hostages leave SANCTUARY to avert the possibility of further fighting
arising inside. I heard some scuffles've already been happening. The point of this's as a measure
before that escalates to full.”
Garfiel goes silent.

Subaru: “You're standing's on the same side as Lewes-san, wanting SANCTUARY's freedom, yeah?
Leaving embers to smoulder inside shouldn't be ideal for you. There's merit in overlooking us.”
Speaking quietly, Subaru attempts persuading Garfiel. His words are not simply a stopgap. Going
from Garfiel's stance, there truly are many benefits in the evacuation.
So long as you exclude the part where it was done behind-the-scenes.
Subaru: “Leaving aside whether by personality you're capable of permitting that, if you could just
accept for this scene alone...”
Garfiel: “Oi, y'know you, 's looks yer misunderstandin'.”
Subaru: “Misunderstanding?”
Garfiel: “Yer stuck on the idea I came here entirely ter get in yer way. 'S like you say, my amazin'
self's got no reason t' interfere with this evacuation. I'm tellin' you none a' those 'xcuses er wheedlin'
got any point.”
Garfiel gives a mocking snort at Subaru's presumption. Subaru shuts his mouth. He had run ahead
in the conversation off his bad premonitions, but thinking rationally Garfiel was correct.
Subaru: “Then what the heck are you doing here...”
Garfiel: “'S just seein' yer off. If yer wanna leave that's on you, but'f nobody from SANCTUARY sees
it though then 's still just you skippin' town. I can say my amazin' self saw all yer disappear, and I
can shut the others up.”
Subaru: “...You've really been thinking more than I imagined.”
Half surprised that Garfiel possesses the thinking and brainpower to logically convince him, Subaru
agrees with Garfiel's argument. Garfiel crosses his arms and nods at Subaru's rather rude statement.
Garfiel: “Well s' obvious. My amazin' self ain't just strong n' muscle, got lotsa things I consider...
my amazin' self, really is amazin'.”
Subaru: “Well, that reply's settled me down a little. And while I'm relieved let's have that. I'll let you
off without making any special mention about the thing with my right eye.”
Garfiel: “Eh? Eh, right. Yer wound up takin' he blindfold of n' noticin', huh. 'S guys 'round here
doin' things that ain't goddamn needed.“
Subaru points at his eye, Garfiel mentioning its loss and taking a stab at Otto. Otto draws his head
in, attempting to conceal himself from Garfiel's sharp gaze. Garfiel clicks his neck at the timidness.
Garfiel: “Now anyway,”
Garfiel: “Aren't you just pretty fuckin' calm fer missin' an eye. Y'know, my amazin' self was
prepared to get some complainin' or revenge done t' me.”
Subaru: “I start complaining and I've got enough things to say to last the whole night, but there's no
time. And even if I wanted revenge the punchline is you punch me and I lose my left eye too. Let's
go without that stale joke.”
Garfiel: “Hell's that. —Don't like it a bit.”
Garfiel is unsatisfied with Subaru's reply. Subaru judges going further on this exchange
unnecessary, lightly patting his right eye.
Subaru: “You won't mind if we keep ignoring you and return everyone to the village, yeah?”
Garfiel: “'S just gettin' ridda the poor form of gettin' escaped on. Do what yer want.”
Subaru: “Well then, we'll be obliging...”
Garfiel: “—However,”
Before Subaru can raise his voice to order the line of carriages to depart, Garfiel slouches forward.
He glares up at Subaru, mounted on Patrasche.
Garfiel: “Not you, yer stayin'. Hostages go through. Noisy guy goes through. Ram... well, I'll let her
go through. But not you.”
Subaru: “...Your motive?”
Garfiel: “There's you bein' a motivator for Emilia-sama doin' the TRIAL, but biggest problem's yer
existence. A bastard stinkin' this much'a witch surely ain't gonna be gettin' outside so damn easily.”
Subaru: “Again with this thing...”
Pinching his nose, the blond young man threatens Subaru. About fed up with this irk of Garfiel's,
Subaru gives a nod to this condition.
Subaru: “Condition is I stay behind in SANCTUARY. No objections there?”
Garfiel: “Good yer get it upfront. Make th' story go too long with me, and with my amazin' self's
brains I won't remember er understand all'a it.”
Subaru: “You really are a frank guy. ...Got it. I'll go tell everyone behind me, just wait here a
minute.”
The bargaining ends the second they enter the main topic. Although the conversation could hardly
be called bargaining. Subaru simply accepts Garfiel's words, going back to relay the deal with Otto
and Ram.
Subaru: “And so the plan's if I stay behind, everyone gets to pass through safely. Whinging about it
wouldn't get anywhere, so I'm sorta thinking to just nicely go along with it.”
Otto: “That's an excellent condition if it lets us though, is what I would like to say, but will those
behind us agree with it? These were the people stubborn enough that they resisted escaping if you
weren't there, Natsuki-san.”
Subaru: “Ah, right persuading them's gonna be an effort. ...No, but we've got the migration going this
far already, and everyone's anticipating they'll get to back to the village. If the accident's just me
dropping out partway through, I think their anticipation'll win and they'll accept it.”
Ponders Subaru, hand on chin. The evacuees' desire to return home should beat out anything.
Subaru was glad they put his safety on the same scale as that desire, but being that matters had
proceeded this far, saying whether they remained balanced was a difficult call.
Otto: “Natsuki-san...”
Subaru: “Well, thinking like that, doubt persuading them'll be too hard. But yeah this'll definitely be
bad if I'm not doing the talking. I'll be right back, so get everyone prepared for the carriages to
start...”
Ram: “I don't like this.”
Ram's interruption coupled with Otto's concerned takes the enthusiasm out of Subaru's start. He
looks at Ram, scratching his head.
Subaru: “Y'know,”
Subaru: “Garfiel just told me that too, but if you keep saying things that whittle away people's
willpower like that, that's...”
Ram: “Have you not realised, Barusu? What it is you are saying.”
Subaru: “What?”
Subaru tilts his head, considering it but unable to figure out what Ram is saying. His brow furrows
in confusion. Ram gives a disappointed sigh.
Ram: “If you don't understand, fine.” Being as what Roswaal-sama stated is also clear. “If that is the
case, perhaps all my actions will become worthless.”
Subaru: “Hold on no, what the hell've you been saying. So you goddamn do know something, too.
You've known, and here you're..”
Ram: “It's something pointless to you now. A waste of time.”
Subaru grinds his teeth at Ram, her looking down at him with a know-it-all expression. Otto cuts
into the dangerous atmosphere between the two.
Otto: “Now now now!”
Otto: “Let's have this quarrelling end. It is exactly as Ram-san said, a waste of time. A waste of
time, meaning a waste of a chance to make money. Let's defer to my position here and settle
everything down. Alright here we go, yes concluded!”
Subaru: “Tch. Anyway, explain it.”
Ram: “Tch. There is no longer anything I wish to say.”
Otto: “Could you two please not click your tongues at me while you speak!?”
Otto drips dissatisfaction at his usual treatment, but since this is his role it is inevitable. Their group
somehow remaining unfractured thanks to Otto, Subaru goes over to each of the carriages,
explaining the situation.
All the villagers' face turn sour at hearing the condition is for Subaru to stay behind, but between
the fact that he himself accepts it and his noting that turning back would prolong the evacuee
lifestyle, they reluctantly accept it.
Grateful for their feelings, Subaru finishes with persuading everyone. He returns to Ram and Otto to
report, mounts Patrasche, and now faces Garfiel.
Subaru: “Our talks're all done. We're going on your condition. Let everyone through.”
Garfiel: “Everyone 'cept you, 's. Get them goin' now. 'S that dragon stayin'?”
Subaru: “Walking back'd be tight on my stamina. This'll sorta be dragging out an uncomfortable
time for Patrasche, though.”
Subaru puts his hand on the back of his partner forced to associate with Garfiel. Trembling
Patrasche averts her head practically saying “it's nothing to worry abouttt, geeeez.”
Interpreting her movements as that, Subaru falls in line beside Garfiel as he sees the carriages ride
off, down the road out of SANCTUARY. He gives a wry smile and waves at the villagers, talking and
looking down at Subaru through their carriage windows.
Subaru: “Otto, when you're back at village don't go to the mansion. If you can just come back
immediately.”
Otto: “...? I don't quite understand that instruction, what? I personally think reporting this to
Frederica-san would be essential...”
Subaru: “It's nothing. You'll probably arrive back at the village tomorrow morning... just for
caution's sake, worst case do not go there until afternoon.”
Unable to give a confused Otto a clear answer, Subaru gestures with his chin for him to leave.
Tonight is the fated fifth night—the final deadline for Elsa's attack on the mansion. If events are the
same as the first loop, temporally speaking something has already happened.
Even considering how indiscriminate Elsa is, it is unlikely she will go all the way to the village to
massacre everyone. So long as he does not enter the mansion, Otto should avoid danger.
Though naturally this means abandoning those in the mansion—Frederica and Petra. Beatrice, Rem.
Subaru: “...This time, I'll allocate all my points into figuring out what happens at SANCTUARY. That
should be definite.” If being greedy won't get me anything, I don't know what the purpose is in
overlooking it.
Guilt for overlooking the worst of conditions rises in Subaru's chest. He forces it down with his
feelings of duty and obligation, urging the cruelty of his own heart.
Iron. Heart to iron. To grasp the optimum future, he would use every plan he could get. He would
weather his heart, permitting and accepting the sacrifices along the way.
Subaru: “If there can be smiling at the end, it's my... it's our win.”
So if he suppressed his wavering heart before there were sacrifices, good.
He could not hesitate to lay the groundwork for everything he could eventually take back. There
should not be a single thing for him to regret here.
Subaru: “—”
Subaru sighs, watching all the carriages disappear into the forest. Now, the only ones remaining in
SANCTUARY were its residents and people related to Roswaal's mansion. It was probably safe to
think that if he waited for tomorrow morning and figured out what would happen in SANCTUARY,
this loop would have completed its purpose.
Subaru: “Standing here forever's just gonna make the bugbites terrible, let's go back. Getting
monitored by you's not a great feeling, either.”
Garfiel: “Stop givin' me instructions. ...Thinkin' bout it, you ain't goddamn asked how Emilia-
sama's TRIAL was tonight.”
Subaru: “That you're here's the answer to that, is how I interpreted it. Also if I said I didn't think this
time'd be pretty rough, it'd be a lie.”
Like the hostages, using Subaru's wellfare as motivation was not going to work. For Emilia to beat
the TRIAL required a more fundamental change. Otherwise was the possibility that, in these rushed
conditions, solving the problem of SANCTUARY was hopeless.
Subaru: “And it's to figure that one out, too. Can't consider whether we can wait for Emilia to
conquer the TRIAL without confirming what happens next.”
The maximum number of times Subaru has died in a loop series is four. If he is aiming to break
through the situation on the fifth loop, he can only die one more time.
Subaru: “There's a mountain of things I wanna confirm, though...”
—He was already considering his own DEATH only as a foothold to get that breakthrough.
Subaru doesn't notice how warped his own statement is. Mounted, Subaru begins instructing
Patrasche to return to Sanctuary, Garfiel looking up at him.
Garfiel: “...Fuckin' talkin' like you understand goddamn everythin'. Just how much of anythin' could
you fuckin' know.”
Subaru: “Garfiel?”
Not hearing the muttering clearly, Subaru turns back while atop Patrasche. Events come abruptly.
Garfiel has already jumped aiming for the mounted Subaru, his hand readied to swing down a chop
at his neck.
Fingers shredding through air and closing in before him, Subaru's voice dies in astonishment at the
sudden, unreal, imminent death.
He had not misplaced the possibility of Garfiel attacking him, but he had not thought in the least
that direct injury would come to him here.
Air whistling, the pain of flesh tearing and its accordant bloodshed assaults Subaru. Putting his hand
to his shrieking throat tells him that fingertips have gouged a light cut beneath his adam's apple.
Feeling blood dripping through his fingers, Subaru swiftly grips the reins, sending Patrasche orders,
Subaru: “Garfiel! What're...”
Garfiel: “Yer really fuckin' gonna get n' the way? The fuck's yer motive, huh?”
Landing back on the ground, Garfiel yells swinging his bloodstained fingers not at Subaru, but a
different direction.
Grimacing in pain, Subaru looks to discover standing there a girl holding a small wand—with her
pink hair swaying, her stern glare fixed on Garfiel, is Ram.
Subaru: “Ram!?”
Ram: “I stayed behind due to a bad premonition, and if it isn't just what I expected. Barusu, you
best thank me that your neck and torso are presently connected.”
Garfiel: “'F the wind hadn't screwed th' aim, his head woulda been popped off.”
Speechless at their exchange, the pain of his wound fevers his thoughts.
Subaru: “What're you, doing, Garfiel! You wanted to kill me!?”
Garfiel: “Messed it up, though. 'F yer gonna go n' ask what I wanted t' do, then sayin' it was that
kinda thing's th' only answer I got.”
Garfiel casually affirms his own desire to murder. Subaru's eye opens wide, lips trembling at
Garfiel's incomprehensible actions.
Subaru: “But then, you could've killed me anytime. When I was captive, no even before that, if you
didn't heal me and just left me I would've died then!”
Garfiel: “Hostages'd more'n likely explode. Them bein' gone means fer the first time, my amazin'
self's got the itinerary fer killin' yer ass sorted.”
Subaru: “That's...”
Feeling his thoughts turning red, Garfiel's words pummel Subaru.

If Garfiel had been seeking an opportunity to kill Subaru that would not provoke any problems,
him seeing the carriages off here cohered. However, unnatural things remained.
Subaru: “You kill me here, and what happens to Emilia's TRIAL. Pivot of her motivation I am, I can
say without any narcissism that if I die the TRIAL'll never end.”
For Lewes' faction, which desired SANCTUARY's freedom, there should be no situation worse.
Even if hypothetically Subaru's witch stench spurred a suspicion of him, the reason would have to
be huge enough as to be impossible to overlook.
He lost himself to rage, would be a reason feeling appropriate for Garfiel, but seeing him having a
conversation like this, his composure is plainly in tact.
Meaning Garfiel's attack on Subaru was a composed and calculated action. Just what did it mean—
Garfiel: “I...”
Ram: “Listening is worthless, and attempting persuasion is pointless, Barusu.”
Ram cuts in between the two, interrupting Garfiel with her harsh statement. Garfiel clicks his
tongue as Ram points the tip of her wand at him.
Ram: “Cease hiding your feelings with tenable logic, Garf. It isn't like you.”
Subaru: “H-hey, Ram,”
Ram: “Step down, I will speak. —As regardless, it appears Garf would like to kill you.”
Ram approaches Subaru with her vigilant glare yet fixed on Garfiel, tracing along the underside of
Patrasche's neck with a finger.
Ram: “Good girl. Do what it is that should be. Your Master upon you is incredibly dull both to
himself and to others, you see.”
Patrasche responds wordlessly to Ram's calm, rather gentle words. She licks Ram's presented
fingers, her head held low as she ignores Subaru's orders and slowly heads for the trees.
Subaru: “Wh-wait. You two, what're you...”
Ram: “Do not release the reins. If you abide that alone, I am sure the dragon will protect you with
her all, Barusu. No greater happiness in being born male.”
Subaru: “Listen! No, tell me! What do you know you two doing this!”
Ram: “Time is none and explaining is pointless. Do as said, Barusu. —I will buy you one minute.
Run as most you can in that opening. If I can achieve that alone, it will be my single resistance.”
Ram is vague to the end, but this time Subaru truly has no room to question back.
Before he can finish hearing Ram's statement, Patrasche starts running with a bray. Feeling the
WINDBREAKER BLESSING activate while jostled atop her back, she dashes into the clusters of trees,
foliage scraping onto Subaru's back.
Subaru: “Ram!”
He yells. But there is no answer.

The forest of trees obstructing his vision, biting his lip at this unnegotiated migration, all he can do
is be taken along.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Subaru and Patrasche gone into the forest, two people remain.
Her wand readied still and not flinching an inch, Garfiel stares at Ram as he points to the forest
where Subaru disappeared.
Garfiel: “Y'said things not fuckin' needed. Gonna be a damn pain chasin' 'em now.”
Ram: “You think I will let you leave?”
Garfiel: “You think y'can stop me? 'F you think th'power balance 'tween us ain't changed since then,
yer dead wrong. Bein' in love n' bein' beaten down ain't the same thing.”
Garfiel clicks his knuckles, threatening. But he knows this girl is no coward. Ram stands without
any change in her complexion. Garfiel rigorously scratches at his short, blond hair.
Garfiel: “Th'hell're yer thinkin', Ram? What'll happen 'f you do this? My amazin' self ain't heard
anythin' bout it. You doin' this means it's on Roswaal's orders?”
Ram: “...Inaccurate, Garf. My presence here is by my will, unrelated to Roswaal-sama's noble

orders. For presently at least, there is no need respect his directions.”
Ram speaks resolutely. Garfiel's doubt is the same as Subaru's was, and his reaction of confusedly
furrowing his brows is also identical to Subaru's. His expression turns ever more bitter.
Garfiel: “I don't get it, Ram. Even moreso 'f this ain't you followin' Roswaal's orders, can't think'a
single reason why yer did that.”
Ram: “Truly?”
Garfiel: “Eh?”
Ram: “Truly, do you... not understand why I am doing this, Garf?”
Ram asks quietly, her expression and tone no different from usual. But Garfiel, recipient of her gaze
and words, has a great change.
Confusion. Doubt. Shock. And wrath.
Taken a step forward, Garfiel drives his heel into the ground. Clicking his fangs in unbearable rage,
his eyes narrow as he glares at Ram.
Garfiel: “I don't goddamn believe it. You doin' this kinda fuckin' thing is...”
Ram: “—For Frederica, and for you.”
Garfiel: “Don't your mouth say the name of that traitor!!”
Roaring, the ground caves in beneath the swing of Garfiel's foot, earth shattering.
Smoke rises in billows, the force enough to bend the nearby trees. The forest fears, the air silencing
itself in terror of his rage.
Faced with that pure wrath, Ram's expression remains nonchalant.
Ram: “Do you believe everyone will follow you if you give these obstinate and childish displays of
strength? Garf, how long in this constrained forest will you be running circles?”
Garfiel: “Don't talk like you know! You.. You, and Frederica, all you who threw away SANCTUARY,
just how much could you know!?”
Ram's chiding words do not reach an enraged Garfiel. He stomps the ground, this time without the
accompanying force.
Garfiel: “Fer my amazin' self? It's fer my amazin' self? You... I got no room t'believe that at all.
How fuckin' dare you say that to me, after so long...”
Ram: “Garf...”
Garfiel: “My amazin' self never asked for compassion or pity. How fuckin' high n' mighty're you
gonna be. Not me, n'not granny n' the others, ever wished t' be pitied!”
Covering his face with his hands, breathing ragged, Garfiel squeezes the statement out.
His sad figure gives the illusion of him being even smaller than he is.
Taking deep breath after deep breath, Garfiel removes his hands from his face.
Garfiel: “This's enough. I dun wanna hear anythin'. You go straight back to SANCTUARY, now. Do
that n' I'll overlook this one. My amazin' self, 's still gonna chase after that asshole.”
Ram: “I refuse, Garf. If anyone will concede, it is not me but you. After I return the approaching
ruin is unavoidable. I'm sure you would understand this?”
Garfiel: “Just go back. Won't say it again. Go back, and wait 'till the TRIAL's cleaned up.”
Ram: “No, I will not return or wait. There is no gain in standing still. What remains in your hands as
you stagnate in this place are only the vestiges of what you believed you obtained. For such a weak,
vague thing, why...”
Garfiel: “But still! It's so much better than havin' nothing left!”
Interrupting Ram's words with his scream, Garfiel raises his head. Etched onto his expression are
anger, jealousy, and sorrow.
Garfiel: “Ruin? How's that gonna happen. My amazin' self, 's gonna do somethin' fer everythin'.
This time fer sure, everything, and everything...”
Ram: “Garf, haven't I always been telling you? —That is merely compensatory behaviour.”
Ram replies calmly as Garfiel's emotions detonate.

Their stances run at parallel lines, both in direct opposition of opinion and neither willing to
concede. No compromise is coming.
Perhaps sensing this, Garfiel lowers his gaze, closes his eyes.
Garfiel: “Go back, Ram. This's, my final request. With all the feelings I've ever said for you, my
request. So...”
Ram: “Then, Garf. —Would you abandon all except me?”

The question is brief, but carries overwhelming pressure.
Garfiel's expression stiffens. His lips tremble.

Ram lightly lowers her gaze.
Ram: “Out of every single thing in this world choose me, look only at me, love only me, devote
only to me, be loved only by me, pardoned only by me, sacrifice your everything only to me—are
you capable?”
Garfiel: “I-I...”
Ram: “I am.”
Hand to her chest, Ram speaks firm.

A quiet, but unwavering will. It alone fills her words as she raises her head.
Ram: “—I am.”
This was Ram's ultimatum to Garfiel.
And he must have known it. The ambition vanishes from Garfiel's expression for an instant. Just
what expression arose in that moment, only Ram would ever know.
He immediately shakes his head, stifling the slip of weakness and bearing his fangs.
Garfiel: “Known it fer ages, but yer a stubborn one.”
Ram: “As are you. —If you will not make me a truly important thing to you, I will not bend to you,
Garf. I will not belong to anyone.”
Garfiel: “Really.”
Their gazes meet.

Stances argued, neither surrendering. Both speak quietly,
Ram: “Farewell, Garf.”
Garfiel: “Goodbye, Ram.”
These final words platonically were their expression of love.
—The forest shakes.

The roar echoes.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Subaru: “Patrasche! Stop! I told you stop!!”
Yanking back on the reins, Subaru yells desperately at Patrasche as they dart through the forest.
But the dragon pays his words no heed, whole-heartedly dashing along the rugged road, putting
distance between them and the high-stakes scene.
Stories exist of steeds driven into panic and fear, no longer obeying the commands of their rider, but
that would not describe Patrasche.
In an identical state as always, rationality present as always, she was consciously ignoring Subaru's
directions.
This evidenced that she had not recognized Subaru as an existence worthy for her to respect his
commands.
Subaru: “Was you listening to everything I've said until now just favours!?”
Paying no mind to his words, Patrasche throws off her displeased master not. Every inch of her
behaviour overflows with consideration for Subaru, him jostled on her back and perhaps about to
cry tears of gratitude and shame.
He did not know how to ride his dragon—or such cute stories were not the circumstances here. It
was him feeling disgusted at his stupidity, for not noticing that even the dragon was worried about
him.
This included in the present-continuous tense despairs Subaru was experiencing, another was—
Subaru: “Ram's in trouble! I don't wanna think Garfiel'd do anything violent to her... but now's!”
Garfiel's thoughts were turned in a direction where he had attempted to kill Subaru. That Ram
blocked his path was his miscalculation, and with what plan would he rectify that miscalculation?
Merely thinking it was terrifying.
Subaru had more-or-less accepted that those in the mansion would be sacrifices this loop. But not
Ram. Infringe on territory he had not decided to permit, and Subaru's insufficient resolve sliced his
heart to bits, repulsive.
Subaru: “I... hate getting hurt, but I'll recover. So...!”
He pleads, voice teary. No leeway gives Patrasche.

The dragon-become-wind loosens not her speed, giving no attention to Subaru's cry. Ram and
Garfiel grow distant. A tragedy unfolding where he cannot reach.
Thinking such again batters Subaru's heart. Why was his heart so weak, and could it never be
strong?
—And although constantly making blunders by focusing only on his internal issues, yet again
Subaru commits the same error.
The wild expansion of his vision comes as a result of Patrasche breaking through the last rows of
trees. Subaru, having clung to Patrache through the field of obstacles, has his jaw drop at the scene
before him.
Otto: “Wh-what's the matter, Natsuki-san? So quickly...”
Says Otto, his expression just as surprised as Subaru's.

Supposedly having advanced is the evacuation group. Subaru and Patrasche had caught up to the
row of carriages from the side. For a Subaru who had assumed her running in the forest lacked any
fixed objective, Patrasche's actions far exceeded expectations.
Otto: “But you're not meant to pass though? What happened to Garfiel?”
Subaru: “I-I don't really get it either... Ram and Patrasche...”
Getting his ragged breath in order as he speaks to Otto, Subaru wipes his sweaty brow with the back
of his hand.
—The horrific bellow shaking the forest, came the next second.
Otto: “Huiih!?”
Eyes opening wide at the surprise blocking his throat, Subaru turns back toward the sound at the
same time as Otto.
The thunderous roar shook the atmosphere and men's hearts, exerting pressure enough to provoke
signs of terror even in the dragons.
Were there any person or thing in this place not wavering, it would likely only be Subaru-mounted
Patrasche.
Thus, she was the fastest of anyone present to make her judgement.
Otto: “Ah, Natsuki-san!?”
Subaru: “Aguh, Patrasche!”
Immediately directing her head toward the end of the line of carriages, Patrasche breaks into a run.
She heads for the frontmost carriage—and in fact further, toward the end of the road, sprinting for
SANCTUARY's exit with no hesitation.
Leaving Otto's call behind, Subaru atop Patrasche's back again receives her Blessing. He
understands her actions not. Just when he attempts to raise his voice to stop her,
???: “——Ϡ!!”
A shock shakes the ground. Subaru hears the screams behind him.
Unconsciously swallowing his breath as he tilts his head back, he looks in Otto and the others'
direction.
In his left-handed vision, the sight of the dark forest arising faintly, Subaru sees it.
Carriages gone flying. The dragons and boarded evacuees concurrently caught in the furious impact
scatter through the air, shrieks and blood painting the forest sky red.
Subaru: “—au,”
Witnessing the tragedy unfold, there beneath the floating ruins of carriages, Subaru sees a beast.
—Its body cloaked in golden-blond fur, Subaru sees an enormous tiger.
CHAPTER 42: VALUE OF A LIFE
—Its posture stooped low, the great, gold tiger glowers over the surroundings.
A giant tiger perhaps four meters in length. Viewing it as a four-legged beast, it boasted a body over
twice the mass of the lions and tigers Subaru knew.
Its forelegs and hindlegs are thick, its closed mouth unable to contain all its lengthy fangs, swinging
its head to and fro in a display of those bloodslicked daggers.
Subaru: “Wh, at...”
is that—but before he finishes the question, the flying carriages crash to the ground. The clatter
echoes, the wood chips scatter, the shrieks resound.
The riders of the stricken carriages hurtle to the ground, those conscious wailing in pain. Those
unconscious settle in their puddling blood, unmoving.
—The immediate thought in Subaru's mind was, I need to help the wounded.
But before he can act so, a furious manoeuvre carries Subaru along.
Pivoting, ignoring Subaru as he yelps in shock, Patrasche dashes away from the beast in an effort to
escape the forest.
Subaru: “Wai—! Hey, Patrasche!?”
Subaru calls out at her ignoring of her rider, but identical to her actions along the route arriving
here, Patrasche shows no sign of abiding his will.
Leaving behind Otto and those in the carriages—all stunned motionless, Patrasche accelerates. But,
???: “——Ϡ!!”
A bellow slices through the forest, pressing in on Subaru's back.

The torrent of bestial rage and hostility spears down the road, enough for even Patrasche's instincts
to freeze her still.
Something mighty and wielding life-threatening power, directing at them its enmity.
Comprehending this sensation savoured more than several times prior, terror and dread run up
Subaru's spine. Exactly because he was Subaru, and knew this sensation well, no desire boils up to
berate Patrasche for stopping at this eleventh hour. None boils up, but the result remains clear.
Subaru: “—a,”
Glancing back, origin of terror entering his vision, Subaru sees carnage.
Battered by a swing of a forepaw, carriages tumble like toyboxes as their contents scatter and strike
the forest trees. Amplify the sound of snapping chopsticks by a hundred, and apparently the
resulting noise is that of wood and human bone fracturing to bits.
Before a literal behemoth, even knowing that inaction meant merely waiting for death, nobody
moves.
Motion potentially stimulating the monster, they fear becoming target of its claws, its fangs.
Even though they instinctively knew that all their stillness changed was the order.
Subaru: “Is that thing... why SANCTUARY was empty?”

Upon the paralysed dragon, his teeth chattering, a Subaru prepared for death burns the beast into his
eyes.
Coated in beautiful golden fur, its face simultaneously possessed a tyrannical bent and a fearless
dignity. Its piercing eyes blazed with rage and enmity, its rattling fangs too sharp for blades to be a
suitable metaphor. —This assumedly could be the something that attacked SANCTUARY.
Having strained his eyes so as not to miss a single gesture, move, action, Subaru notices something
out of place about the approaching tiger. Eye narrowed seeking what was awry, Subaru notices the
cause.
—Something was jutting out of the great tiger's back.
Considering its immense frame and inexhaustible stamina, this injury must have been trifling for it.
Its displays no consciousness of the wound as it prowls, leaving it only estimable as perhaps a
graze.
But for Subaru it possessed great meaning. Not the wound itself. Rather, the object that inflicted it.
—Ram's wand.
Ram utilized that small stave when casting magic concords. Subaru had never observed her use any
other intermediary for her magic, at least. He had seen her with it just before when facing Garfiel,
and most surely should not mistake it.
Surely should not mistake it, but then why was it jutting out of the tiger's flesh? The answer—
Subaru: “Ancestral, return...”
An old scene plays though Subaru's mind.

Garfiel discussing with Subaru a fragment of his lineage, on the day he demonstrated the peculiarity
of his body. Back then Garfiel transformed only his arm into that of animal's, displaying his origin
as a mix between man and beastman. But,
Subaru: “If he's a war tiger, then...”
That would make this wicked beast a fully-transformed Garfiel.

This hypothetically explained why Ram, who had remained behind to stop him, had her wand
driven into the tiger's body. But this also possessed converse significance.
—Her wand lost, Ram had failed to stop tiger-morphed Garfiel.
Subaru: “Garfiel, you... what did you do to Ram?”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru: “Answer! What did you do to Ram! Garfiel!!”
The beast scrunches its jowls in lieu of any answer.

But it swings it head in irritation at Subaru's call, rocking its forelimbs up to down, displaying its
claws. Upon their tip is caught a scrap of far too familiar black fabric, this alone informing Subaru
of the pink-haired girl's fate.
Subaru: “GARFIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEL!!”
Screaming leaving himself to rage, Subaru releases the reins and springs off Patrasche. His botched
landing leads him to tumble across the ground, rolling into quadrupedal posture and glaring ahead.
Mutually quadrupedal, the man and beast open distance as they face each other. Their strength gap
is obvious, his chances of winning null, possibility of holding conversation most likely non-
existent.
Subaru: “You, despised me that much?”
Garfiel: “——”
Subaru: “You... hated me that much?”
Garfiel: “——”
Subaru: “If you wanted! To kill me! That much! All you had to fucking target was me!!”
Garfiel: “——Ϡ!!”
In answer to Subaru's furious scream, the beast raises a roar to the sky.
The atmosphere rings, the forest leaves shake in terror, shivers and dread spread though all creatures
present. But Subaru pushes it aside, baring his fangs.
Subaru: “You even laid hands on the girl you loved, what about you is the fangs of SANCTUARY,
don't make me fucking laugh!!”
Garfiel: “——Ϡ!”
Subaru jeers. The tiger charges.

Wreckage of carriages between it and Subaru pitch into the air, blood and splinters scattering the air
around the oncoming, golden beast.
Speed furious, mass huge. A direct hit equates to collision with a semi-truck, an instant death
leaving no time for even swallowing breath.
DEATH presses in before him. Sensing near that inescapable fact, Subaru's brain thinks faster than
ever before. His neurons burn, connect directly to rage, emotions detonating.
Something dingy squirms about his heart, riding his bloodflow to rush through the whole of him.
That hot, black, dark, dim, vacuous, polluted, immaterial, repugnant something—grasped.
Eye snapping open, the sensation of something pulled and grabbed in Subaru's own interior comes
tactile.
He looks ahead. Distance little enough to feel its breath, in press the jaws of the beast. Before the
red gullet of the open maw, the entryway to death, Subaru reacts transcending the limits of flesh.
That is, he raises his arm, and thrusts it between the fangs and the chest.
Garfiel: “——!?”
Instantaneously, a wind whorls the giant tiger away and vanishes it from before Subaru.
No, vanished was incorrect. Spinning through the air with its head as the pivot is the enormous
tiger. It slams to the ground back-first, howling in pain and confusion as its incredible mass
ricochets off the earth, generating impact and hurtling away.
Subaru: “Wha!?”
Glancing back, Subaru stares at the form of the giant tiger as it tumbles somersaults. He was half-
convicted that his life was just about to be forfeit there, but?
Identical surprise visits the beast, its face expressing inability to comprehend what happened to it as
it lands sideways upon the ground. It shakes its head and attempts to stand, but its will does not
reach its otoliths and again it falters.
Neither understanding what happened, both flap their mouths in utter confusion. But, a sudden
fatigue brings Subaru to collapse, while the tiger shakes its head annoyed and stands up.
Who had the advantage after that bout was plainer than flame. Although, Subaru still did not
understand what just happened, but—
Subaru: “Following along after taunts... is almost definitely Garfiel.”
Ordering his trembling arms to right himself, Subaru bites open his lip tying him to consciousness.
The great tiger stands opposite him, rocking left and right in loose but guarded posture. Probably
trying to figure out what happened in that instant.
The sensation was incomprehensible, and even if commanded to do it again, surely there should be
no way he could.
Got one over on him—was a sense he keenly felt, but even this did not understand.
The opponent's caution was also laughable, but unsure of what the basis for snickering at it was,
again left Subaru only a clown.
The slowly approaching beast had appeared dubious of Subaru's inaction, but it abruptly stops, and
—
Subaru: “a,”
Booming.
Covering his face at the seeming gale, Subaru startles into shrinking himself up. Cutting through
that opening borne of petrification is the noise of feet boring earth.
The ground ruptures, the beast's form dancing through the air, leaping for Subaru.
Mass, claws, neither avoidable. This time definitely, the sensation from before has slipped from his
fingertips and will not be rising up. Ending. The end was approaching. And—
Darting in from aside, Patrasche rams her head into the great beast's torso. Wailing, the tiger bends,
blacking out in pain. Patrasche whips her tail, striking off the toppled tiger's face and robbing its
vision.
She immediately zips away, riding the wind to again collect Subaru and escape—
Subaru: “Pahtra...”
The sound of tearing meat interrupts him.

Patrasche had grabbed Subaru by the hip with her mouth, but she instantly swings and flings him
away to the ground. Subaru looks to find the beast's jaws snapped down on Patrasche's tail, and a
creature with a body weight easily surpassing 400 kilograms throttled about like paper.
Patrasche shrieks. Flesh tears, blood scatters, and the instant her tail severs from the root, blood
spouts down to dye Subaru's body half in red.
Patrasche goes flying, tumbling. The atrocity sticking in his eyes, Subaru glares at the approaching,
heavy-breathing tiger.
Loathing in his eye, directed at one he perhaps could have called a friend,
Subaru: “Ghhar... fhiiieeEEEELLLLLL!”
He screams, the enmity endless.

No reply. Perhaps persons transformed into beasts lacked speech organs, for the tiger with its
looming forepaw produces no hostility or murder or words from its throat.
It only displays behaviour by instinct.
—Will it be neck broken? Or head devoured?
Regardless which pain, whatever end it is, he will swallow down DEATH.
Swallow everything dry, make it his feed, make it reason to prevail for the correct future.
Subaru: “And do you really think you can be in that future?”
Watching the claws close in before him, Subaru announces his final intentions in hateful meter.
He closes his eye. Darkness blocks his vision.
With his only regret being Patrasche's devotion, and how he couldn't save her, he—
Subaru: “—?”
Although readied for the coming end, that arriving thing does not come at all. Furrowing his brows
in puzzlement, irritation rises in Subaru's chest at the timing of his DEATH going astray. And, slowly
opening his eye,
Subaru: “Au?”
The claws to shred Subaru apart now distanced from him, the master of the claws the beast has its
face before him. That Subaru made a dumbfounded noise was because this beast, who should be
glaring at Subaru with eyes overflowing murder, is looking in a completely different direction. The
beast takes its gaze off Subaru and points it in Subaru's left. Going to follow its line of sight,
Subaru sees something fly from that direction, strike the beast's body, and tumble onto the ground.
—A rock.
Completely ordinary, size enough to fit in the hand, a rock. Subaru follows back the parabola of its
throw to find the silhouette a person standing at the forest's edge.
Short hair, puckery cheeks with lanky limbs. Not anyone with any eyecatching traits or
peculiarities, but Subaru knew him.
He was a villager from Arlam, a member of the village's young men's brigade, an evacuee who had
evacuated to SANCTUARY, a person who would have been riding in the tumbled carriages, and an
individual staggering with blood flowing down his forehead.
He sluggishly stoops down, picks up a nearby rock, weakly raises it overhead, and throws it at the
beast. A hit. The force is equal to nothing. But,
Man: “Ge-get away, from Subaru-sama. You, monster...”

Wringing out his voice, moaning in pain, he yet displays his will.
The second his words strike him, a tremble runs through Subaru's whole body. The quivering
transmits to his fingertips as he loses his voice, lost of what to say, merely watching.
Subaru: “—”
One after another come rocks, boards, branches, shoes, thrown at the monster from all around.
Subaru looks to find that this is, kept down until now by the immense pressure radiating from the
beast, the far-too flickering, shoddy, weak resistance of the people.
Subaru: “he, y...”
What are they doing? thinks Subaru dumbly.

Was there any purpose in doing that. Did they could do something about the beast, doing this.
Pierce its skin and threaten the flesh below. That would be surely impossible. It was merely a futile
resistance, leaving not a single graze.
Subaru: “Sto...”
Everyone covering their heads and running would be the most correct, the wisest action.
They should all board an undestroyed carriage and immediately escape.
It didn't matter whether they ran to SANCTUARY or cut through the forest. They should take an
action with even a slight chance of survival. But even yet, why were they—
Subaru: “What are you all doing!? Hurry, run away—”
Villager: “Subaru-sama! There is nothing persuasive in that!”
The one who interrupts Subaru is an old man with arms like twigs, one raised above his head with
all his might, tossing a branch which strikes the breast in the snout. His breathing ragged, he looks
at Subaru.
Villager: “We flee for life abandoning our benefactor, then how could we ever show our faces to our
sons and daughters? And that is without mentioning you came to this for the sake of saving us.”
Subaru: “That, 's...”
Villager: “If you should die, we too shall die here. This was the minimum condition we placed for
leaving here, and everyone has agreed upon it.”
Stunned, Subaru's face stiffens.

Seeing Subaru's shock, a gentle smile rises on the man's face. Incredibly out of place, the sunny
thing gives entirely the impression he had forgotten the threat before him.
The attack resumes. Everyone throws stones at the vile beast—at Garfiel. The threat of those, as
always, does not cause him flinching or even itching.
Sluggishly raising his massive body, Garfiel moves. Ignoring Subaru ready for laceration before
him, he heads for the forest—for the wounded young man who had initiated the throwing.
Man: “—”
Beast and man face-to-face. The man looses his speech at the pressure and threat before him, but
nevertheless slacks not in his actions, drawing a knife from his hip.
Man: “Then, eat this—”
He thrusts out the dagger, driving it between Garfiel's brows—immediately following, the blade
snaps in two.
Perhaps the golden fur possessed considerable stiffness, for the crudely-made knife passes not
through.
In response to the man's final resistance, a raised forepaw hurtles down—
Subaru: “Stop!!”
Subaru shrieks. Even this is nothing more than pointless noise.
The sound comes of crushed meat, the slender man's frame flattened from head to toe, transformed
into gore. Fountains of blood spout from between Garfiel's digits, the only thing remaining beneath
the position of his withdrawn paw a smudge of dark offal.
Subaru: “—”
This time for sure, his throat rises a scream of wrath.

Subaru claws the ground to upright himself, leaping at the beast's back. A flick of its left leg smacks
Subaru across the torso, him blacking out. His body follows the momentum only for the tail to
strike him, and Subaru goes flying through the air like a ball of rubber. His back slams against a
treetrunk—his entire body creaks, bones cracking.
Subaru: “Gha, aaah!?”
Writhing on the ground, pain and blood spill from his mouth. His body does not listen to him. His
right arm bends from his shoulder at a strange angle. His spine, too, retains not a proper shape.
Weak, frail, impossible to change.
Garfiel: “—!!”
???: “ᾀᾀᾀᾀ—!!”
The beast howls. Bounds, bears its fangs, its claws at the surrounding evacuees. Blood dances,
shrieks resound, Subaru knows the lives are snuffing out where he cannot see.
Someone screams. A bestial scream. Bestial, but the scream of a man. Confusion runs through the
beast. Whose scream was that? What was that roar? Subaru, managing his own internal errors, did
not know.
???: “—Natsuki-san! Please live!”
Calling his name. The voice of someone he knew, but pain blocks the mental path to determine
who. His thoughts strobe, the world hazes, his emotions muddy, dream and reality blur, then hatred
and pain diffuse all of these.
This was no time to be sleeping. He had to stand. Stand, stand—if there's deaths, then before anyone
else—you die.
Subaru: “Don't any, one die... only me having, to die is... plenty enough!”
Wringing blood and wails out his throat, Subaru frantically uprights himself. Right arm useless, use
left only. A red curtain coats his only left eye, a cut down his forehead leaking blood. Wiping his
eyelid with his shoulder, he grits his teeth hard enough to crack his molars as he raises his head.
Subaru: “—”
The massacre expanded.
Every swing of the beast's arm brought people flying, blood scattering, flames of life burning out.
Anyone and everyone possesses bravery, all prepared to die, stabbing the beast with resistance
unthinkable to work. The only blood coating its pelt is that of the villagers, their deaths entirely
meaningless.
They merely defied, to be blown out little by little. Entirely meaningless.
Since, if there was any here whose likewise DEATH would have meaning, it was Subaru alone.
Subaru: “Stop, stop, stopstopstop... please, stop!”
If you're going to kill, before anyone else kill me.

He was supposed to be aiming for Subaru in the first place. His reason for wounding, stealing the
lives of these brave and kind people, existed nowhere.
Or otherwise this result of them losing their lives was an outcome invited from Subaru's idiocy. If
so then that was—
Subaru: “—ueh, ah!”
His teeth clenched and face lowered, something picks Subaru up.
What pulls this clumsily-uprighted Subaru from behind is, a stream of blood running from her
whole body, Patrasche. Although Garfiel's blow brought her halfway to death, she frantically
crawled back to arrive here.
Subaru fails to hold back that welling up in the back of his eye, it spilling.
Subaru: “That's, enough. ...That's enough. You've done enough now, Patrasche...”
Subaru reaches out for Patrasche's bloodsoaked jaw. But she shakes her head, conclusively stating
“This certainly is not enough now.” She slips her head beneath Subaru's stomach, sliding him onto
her back without any resistance.
Subaru yelps in surprise. Him upon her back, Patrasche breaks into a run. Her gait provokes
question where she had that energy left, with how strong it is.
Perhaps it was the result of working herself to the bone literally.
Subaru: “—”
But even spending her remaining vitality, working herself to the bone, her speed landed a far cry
from her optimum. Escape from the beast's fangs, too, was thus distant.
Fangs snap onto Patrasche's hindleg. Shrieking, again she flings Subaru away. He floats through
space, and just when he thinks himself again destined to slam the ground, Patrasche reaches out her
neck to catch him in her jaw.
She bends down her head with all her strength, using everything she has to toss Subaru deep into
the forest.
Subaru: “—!”
Subaru understands that this was Patrasche's attempt to distance him from a fatal threat.
He simultaneously realises. Why after parting with Ram, Patrasche had sprinted to reunite with the
evacuees.
—Patrasche had noticed the existence of the beast.
Noticed, and to raise Subaru's chances of survival by even a little, dashed to a location with more
prey. Everything, to protect Subaru.
Hitting the ground, Subaru's body bounces once, twice. After wailing on the third bounce—a
sensation of floating dominates Subaru's body.
Sharp slanting ground opens a gorge, Subaru's body tumbling, falling down. Lacking room to even
cry out, gravel and branches scrape his skin as he bounces and bounces and bounces down and
down and down,
Subaru: “—”
Orientation faltering, vision gyrating, Subaru manages to grasp what is above him.
He witnesses a sight he wished not to see.
Subaru: “—pihtrassch,”
Caught between the tiger's jaws, an incredible force crushes down on her body. Fangs shred her
apart, blood splashing in pools as she splits into two.
Unable to even wail her death agony, the loyal dragon devoted to Subaru her all until the end.
Subaru: “—”
His throat burns. His throat tears. Rage boils his brain, his blood feeling to catch fire.
Bouncing, tumbling, sliding, falling, scraping, Subaru falls.
—A strong ricochet, and again floating.
He slams down, his consciousness swallowed.

His body rolls unstopping. His consciousness regardless separates from his flesh.
—Only an unvanishing voice of umbrage had continued to churn in his heart.

CHAPTER 43: AND THEN EVERYONE WAS—
—What wakes him is the dripping of water upon his face.
The steady rhythm of the cool water on his cheek pulls his consciousness along and up. Alongside
his awakening, the keen sense of being alive slowly permeates through Subaru's body. Put more
plainly, what permeates through Subaru's body is pain.
Subaru: “...dghaugg”
Agonizing pain comes to welcome Subaru's waking with its hug. Receiving the first shock leaves
no method to evade the successive others. His ripped forehead, broken right arm, and jarred spine
all shriek. But what eclipses all of them is,
Subaru: “Thhihs's, crap...”
Directing his gaze to the source of the oversharp pain, Subaru discovers a branch thick as two
fingers stabbed into the region by his right clavicle, point dripping with blood. Although Subaru
prepares for the pain and attempts to dislodge it, it doesn't give an inch.
That said though since it is fortunately broken, so long as Subaru ignores it visually, it won't impede
his activities.
Subaru: “Way too... avant-garde, this...”
Somehow managing to wrangle his body into uprighting itself, Subaru leans against the nearby
rock-face to take a breather. He looks around the surroundings to find himself in the entrance of a
small cave. Morning dewdrops drip from the top of the cave mouth, apparently being what wet his
cheek. —Morning dewdrops.
Subaru: “Morning!?”
Recognizing the apathetic passing of time, Subaru stirrs only for a shock of pain to run through his
body. The back of his eye feels to stain red, and needles feel to pierce his whole body. A tear rises to
his eye as his thoughts slowly catch up with what happened to him before he fell unconscious.
Recalling it,
Recalling it, Subaru remembers just what a pointless slaughter his own existence had bought.
He timidly looks upwards to see daylight spilling through the gaps in the forest canopy. Under the
light, just what spectacle awaited beyond the slope Subaru fell?
Subaru: “—nn,”
Swallowing his breath and tormented by remorseful desire to die immediately, Subaru crawls at a
caterpillar's pace, aiming for the opposite of the slope.
His movements restricted by the jutting stick, time slowly, but steadily looms down.
Were he past-Subaru, just envisioning the scene waiting ahead would terrify him entirely, and he
would likely run away refusing to look. But present-Subaru would not permit that.
He had to see it through, swallow it down, make it his feed.

Because this was the duty of Natsuki Subaru, who had failed to died at the timing he should.
Subaru: “Haa... haaa...”
He inches bit by bit up the slope with only his upper body righted. Sweat wettens the dried cut on
his forehead, blood again seeping out. He rigorously wipes it with his sleeve, his face dirtied with
blood and mud as he crawls.
Passing by a segment of a ruined carriage, detouring around a great toppled tree, Subaru's fingers
grasp onto his destined elevation—returning back to the spot Patrasche's devotion had thrown him
from.
Subaru: “—”
There's a second of hesitation.

If he raises his head and stretches his neck to peek over, he will face an inescapable reality. He
won't be able to escape into his imagination that some miracle occurred after he was driven away,
and the majority of the evacuees managed to flee.
Subaru: “Am I stupid? ...No, I am stupid.”
This one-eyed vision of Subaru's had certainly witnessed the instant of Patrasche's demise. Having
abandoning everything for Subaru's sake, he even now had the scene of the loyal dragon's end burnt
into his eyelids. To call that a dream or to escape into convenient fantasy was to insult her.
The flame of tenacity alit in his heart, Subaru musters what will he has left and opens his eyes. He
pulls himself up, crossing over the thick branches blocking his vision, and beyond the forest in the
scene of the disaster is—
Subaru: “—wuh?”
Nothing.
There was nothing.
Subaru: “Uh... au, er?”
Face warped from envisioning the massacre site, Subaru's eye darts around, unable to accept the
scene before him.
There are scattered remains of carriages and several upturned trees. Clawmarks remained gouged
into the ground, destruction and the vestiges of rebellion jumbled about.
But the outcome likely to further break Subaru's heart is not there.
The outcome of slaughter. The corpses of the villagers who had in the truest of meanings given their
lives to Subaru's escape. The corpse of the dragon, ripped in two.
He saw not a sign of either.
The littered remains of carriages and those other signs proved the confict with the beast had been no
dream or illusion. Only the outcome of atrocity was missing.
Subaru uses a nearby tree as a support to unsteadily stand himself up. Fortunately the wounds to his
legs are limited only to scrapes and bruises. He stands, holding his right arm steady in his left to
stop it from hurting with every motion, and looks about the surroundings.
Subaru: “Wh, y? Patrasche... everyo... Otto?”
Of course he did not want to see their corpses.

Honestly, if everyone survived then there would be nothing more joyous. But Subaru's body knows
better than any other than these conditions were not going to have any fairytale dreams-come-true.
Besides, he'd already seen lives lost to the beast's claws before he lost consciousness.
He saw the lanky man put in his all, and regardless be crushed without inflicting a single wound. He
saw the woman who lost her life when the carriages went flying, plummeted out. He saw the old man
snapped like a twig with one swing of a paw, leaving a dreadful cadaver.
With every recollection of the deaths, pain and regret shave away at Subaru's heart. But nonetheless,
those deaths supposedly witnessed at this scene have been stolen from here.
Subaru: “Patrasche... Patrasche...?”
Thinking of the lost lives, Subaru frantically and feebly calls the name of his partner.
Subaru had assuredly heard, seen the instant of her bifurcation and the accompanying death wail.
Thus, he harboured no flickering hopes that her life remained.
But the only one who could find her soul-parted remains, convey words of guilt, and mourn for her
was Subaru.
He walks slowly, his stamina most entirely expended. His searching is laboured, weak, and he
spends over two hours just on exploring this nearby area.
But even spending this much time, what Subaru finds in this region is,
Subaru: “Luggage mixed in the wreckage, scraps of clothes, and...”
Innumerable bloodstains.
Backing up the near-conviction breed of imaginationed events he has, scattered around this site
carved by beast's claws is a tremendous amount of blood. The choking stench of bloodshed likely
wafts about the scene, but the blood clotting his nose renders Subaru's olfactory senses inoperable,
and he cannot smell it.
He has already lined up irrefutable evidence. The only thing he can't find is the conclusive piece,
and the question as to how it went missing leaves many mysteries.
Most importantly, while searching around the surroundings, a questions burns extremely belatedly
into Subaru's mind. That is—
Subaru: “Why wasn't I killed?”
Subaru had not been finished off—while it was not especially believable that such a wounded
Subaru would have survived, not checking for corpses regardless was far too weak of a finish. And
Garfiel was supposed to have been aiming for Subaru in the first place.
Why he turned his claws even upon the villagers was unclear, but perhaps it was meant as a lesson
for Subaru.
But if he were to run with this assumption, then Subaru understood even less why the corpses
disappeared.
Subaru: “Even saying hypothetically, he carried them away...”
There were forty evacuees in total. Even were they all corpses, carrying them all away felt
unrealistic. Patrasche and the other dragons could also be added to that.
Subaru: “But on the other hand...”
He didn't want to imagine it, but were they settled in the beast's belly—again ran into the same
problem of numbers and felt unrealistic. Subaru could understand carrying the bodies away, but not
a single idea arose why Garfiel would expend that much effort hiding the corpses from Subaru.
And besides before suspecting the tiger of something so roundabout, there was the problem of why
did he disappear without finishing off a wounded Subaru?
Subaru abruptly notices that these conditions are rather similar to the depopulated SANCTUARY.
The conditions leading up were different from last time, but the results have many points in
common. The destruction littered around the place resulted from the raging tiger, unrelated to the
evacuees' and the tiger's disappearance. Ignoring this eyecatching aspect, the part where there was
not a single person in sight was horrifically similar.
Meaning,
Subaru: “S-SANCTUARY's also, in the same condition as last time... maybe?”
Reaching that conclusion with his breath ragged, Subaru again utilises all his strength to stand up.
Looking at his own position and the flow of the road, Subaru makes an estimation as to
SANCTUARY's direction.
—This is morning of the sixth day.
Last night was likely the deadline for the mansion. He had no definitive proof, but assuming Elsa's
attack occurred, there would already be a massacre unfolded.
Simultaneously in SANCTUARY, something happened that stopped tiger-morphed Garfiel from
finishing off Subaru. That something most probably explained what caused all signs of existence to
disappear from this place. Why it didn't apply to Subaru was a complete unknown, though.
He spends only a second hesitating on which path to proceed down.

A twinge of warmth runs through his heart. That was his unseverable feelings of guilt and
attachment towards those left inside the likely-attacked mansion, and the sleeping girl there.
Gritting his teeth, Subaru shakes off the feelings, and heads for SANCTUARY.
Slowly, steps sluggish and confirmatory, Subaru proceeds toward Sanctuary.

Subaru did intend to spend his life in seeing what laid ahead—burning that of corresponding value
to the lives lost into his memories, to redeem. But what he sought was even the slightest of chance
of obtaining a cue from which to prevail.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
—Along the road to SANCTUARY, Subaru passes through what was likely the site of Ram and
Garfiel's fight.
Slashes from blades of wind remain gouged into tree trunks, familiar and ferocious clawmarks
gorged into the earth and crags. Subaru spends a slight time looking around the area, but expectedly
Ram's visage—otherwise her corpse, is nowhere to be found.
Assuming the speculation that Garfiel was the tiger was correct, Ram was a long-term crush for
Garfiel. If that love ran deep, then Subaru believed it possible.
Subaru: “Things proceeded to a mutual deathmatch, and there it was love yous or some other
thing... I've read too many light novels.”
Neither would surrender to the other, and it escalated to a deathmatch.

Just how much of a deterrent would the love or affections between them be to counter that? If that
truly was going to stop any violence, they should have stopped before anything started. The instant
that it didn't and events began, it became no reason for them to end.
Subaru: “...I'm sorry.”
Out of sight, but nevertheless Subaru reports his apology to the one who spent herself for him.
Her fight also purposeless, Subaru renders her sentiments wasted as he continues returning to
SANCTUARY. Ahead on this path, there was something necessary to a Subaru intending to die.
The regrets compounding, Subaru doggedly walks on for Sanctuary. This road, which he began
walking before afternoon, was of a length that only took a few tens-of-minutes to travel when
mounted on Patrasche. For a Subaru defying his wounds and continuing along at a caterpillar's pace,
it takes until what is perhaps already evening before he reaches the region immediately near
SANCTUARY.
Subaru: “Half a day... fin, ally...”
He managed to return this far.

About ready to collapse on the spot in relief, Subaru feels not a scrap of accomplishment. Rather,
what bubbles up hot in Subaru's interior is a feeling of powerlessness and anger toward himself.
What eclipses his self-hatred is a dingy, glimmering,
Subaru: “You fucking come back, Garfiel?”
Instructing his heart don't think this, don't think this, violent hatred and wrath toward that blond
piece of shit.
There were three big reasons he returned to SANCTUARY.

The first was because he wanted to ascertain the true nature of the empty SANCTUARY phenomenon.
This was an essential factor for the future wherein he wished to grasp some piece of the cause.
The second was to confirm that Emilia, who had remained in SANCTUARY, was safe. Should the
depopulation of occur, she would be no exception.
The third was—incomparable two the first two combined—because of the furious fire burning in
the depths of Subaru's heart.
He wanted to rip that fucking tiger apart.
Subaru takes the step into SANCTUARY. Two pillars overgrown with moss substitute as the entrance.
Passing them through and entering Sanctuary, Subaru breathes low and quiet as he looks about the
surroundings.
The silent SANCTUARY feels, as Subaru expected, devoid of people. Even before this, Subaru hadn't
heard a single insect during his whole walk through the forest to get here.
It didn't just stop with the residents of SANCTUARY disappearing, it's as if the whole of living
creatures in region have had their activities suspended, in this silence.
Feeling even his own breathing as cacophonous in the quiet, Subaru pushes his throat painfully to
the limit as he seeks stealth. Taking breath after short breath, Subaru limps to the depths of
SANCTUARY—aiming for the building Emilia should be in.
—In these hours before evening, Emilia would spend her time balled up hugging her knees until the
TRIAL. It became especially striking after about the third day, and in this loop she lacked Subaru's
support entirely. More than likely, isolation and panic had weathered her heart worse than in any
loop previous.
Subaru: “Not here, huh...”
Pushing the door open and peeking inside, Subaru looks about the empty room.
Emilia is absent, but the sheets of her unpopulated bed are disorderly, and a chair remains collapsed
there on the floor. Subaru couldn't tell whether this was the result of resisting whatever caused the
depopulation, or an act done by a cornered Emilia.
But, indeed on the path here, Subaru encountered nobody.
Subaru: “Should I try going to Roswaal's place?”
Accepting Emilia's absence here, and considering what to do next, Subaru's heart is horrifically
calm.
Going along with what he stated was a necessary action in the sense of nipping buds, but a part of
Subaru had already resigned that going there would likely be a wasted effort.
Just as feared, SANCTUARY lacked anyone. The instant he lost Emilia, Subaru's attachment was no
longer for this place. The Emilia he was supposedly attached to had disappeared. Even this, Subaru
noticed, had made his heart barely tremble at all.
Had he acquired an unshakable, tenacious, dazzling heart of iron?
Nah, he thinks, immediately shaking his head.

The heart of iron Subaru strived for was rather different from this current emotion-bereft mental
state. After excessive rage, at the end of confusion, coming off his complete erosion, his heart had
simply punctured.
It wasn't unshakeable. Just emptied.
—He was losing will to live.
Well of course he was.

Subaru wasn't presently living while consciously attempting to. He had merely failed to die at the
timing he should have, and had to remunerate his reason for surviving, before he could die.
Actually, his attention was focusing not on will to live, but will to die.
How could he live in a world like this.

Emilia wasn't here. Rem was also gone. Patrasche was lost, Ram and Petra were probably dead too.
Otto's potentials of survival didn't even bear thinking.
No one was here. Now, now one was here. Subaru's brains were lacking, Subaru's power was
lacking, Subaru's effort was lacking, Subaru's wishes were lacking, and so he wasn't capable of
saving anybody. Even though this was something, only he could do.
Subaru: “So... to...”
Take everything back. Make everything complete. Set everything on the correct path—was his
responsibility.
Only Subaru could do it. And Subaru needed to do it.
The sacrifices thereupon made—must inside him persist.

The everything thereupon lost—must in his mind dwell.
The compensation thereupon spent—must he expend.
Pay the compensation. Pile the sacrifices. And, regain everything.
Subaru: “—”
His upper body swaying loosely, Subaru leaves the building.

His course heads not for Roswaal's treatment house, but to the deepest of SANCTUARY—to the
tomb. Last time in this place, Subaru had been wounded and killed there by SOMETHING. Again, his
feet head for this spot.
Why? To be killed, of course.
If conditions are identical to last time, Subaru should die there in the same manner. He judges that
he could at least dodge one fatal blow, if he knew it was coming. Thus, even should the second
blow kill him, if he could just grasp the opponent's identity then he didn't care.
Prepared into DEATH, Subaru approaches his destination steadily, step by step.
The place his abdomen was speared from behind—he didn't remember the exact placement, but it
was definitely just outside the tomb's entrance.
Sighting the crown of the tomb from a distance, Subaru's pulse turns frantic, blood running through
him hot and cool. Was he heating or cooling? Even that he didn't know.
His body is hot, his limbs are numb. But his fingers feel stiff and jammed with lead, his head cool
enough to objectively view the situation.
It was heading to his death, knowing it would die. A foolish being.

Wager his life to gain results—was supposed to be his heart's ironclad pledge—but his expression
speaks a far cry from resolute strength. His eyes are weak, he bites his lip, his limbs tremble
unsuppressably.
His pretences peel off at the eleventh hour, and Subaru loathes himself for displaying the weakness
beneath. Pushing the feeling aside, Subaru nevertheless continues without slowing.
Even if he couldn't change that he was weak, frail, and foolish—he wanted to be having the courage
to proceed forward from that self, to be being the self he constantly desired.
Running off a crooked equation of weakness to weakness, minus to minus, Subaru treads along the
path toward the tomb otherwise the path toward death.
The tomb is near. His pulse throbs hard, the noise of blood rushing inside his skull vividly audible.
Acid from his empty stomach burns his throat. His trembling legs could fall at any moment, his left-
handed vision losing clarity from his sweat.
He raises his arm, wipes his eye, again heads forth. And, notices.
Subaru: “—a?”
Just after lifting his foot to proceed for the tomb, Subaru witnesses the change before him.
Gone without hearing even the chirping of insects, the only noise to reach Subaru's ears is the
rustling of leaves on leaves in the wind. What cuts into that soundscape is a quiet, chittery cry.
Subaru initially thinks it, blown in by the wind, a tiny, white, fluffball.
But the fluffball stops several paces forward of Subaru, where it begins trembling. Subaru's brows
furrow in puzzlement as its two long ears arise.
Subaru: “A, rabbit?”
Possessing two long ears and fluffy white fur is this little creature. It sports two round, characteristic
red eyes, its mouth jittering as it fretfully looks about the surrounds. It tilts its little head upon
sighting Subaru, and cries.
A small—small—rabbit. About as large as Subaru's clenched fist, by a glance about as big as a
hamster. But being that its ears are of identical size to the entire rest of it, the term 'size to fit in the
hand' would perhaps be inaccurate.
Not hide nor hair of insects, people, dragons, or anything else—then suddenly a rabbit.
Although perhaps one of the creatures living in the forest, for a Subaru who had not encountered a
single other living being the entire way here, its appearance was exceedingly strange.
Subaru: “Why is there a rabbit... it, is a rabbit, right?”
Questions endless, Subaru glances bewildered around the surroundings, searching for any other
creatures that perhaps might have flowed into SANCTUARY. With no particular intention he reaches
for the rabbit, going to stroke its fur—
When his left hand is lopped off.
Blood spouts from the ragged, sloppy wound, veins dangling from his wrist. Were those thin white
things tendons or nerves? Regardless the sight of a destroyed human body was something
grotesque, so—and those were his few seconds of escape from reality.
Pain of another dimension thrashes Subaru about the brain as he collapses to the ground in agony.
The branch piercing his clavicle snaps at the impact—pain. Pain, pain, pain.
Subaru: “Gaha!? Aauh, aughhgaaaa! Ouuu, aaughghhhggaaaaaa!!!”
His mind solders white.

It hurts, is the emotion that suffuses his whole it hurts body already lacking any means to register it
hurts reality why was it he had it hurts to suffer like this it hurts where did it come it hurts from
what happened it hurts where was it hurts he how come this it hurts happened to him what it hurts
happened what on earth it hurts happened why it hurts it hurts ithurts it hurtsithurtsithurts—
His left wrist gushes blood as he paws the ground, unconsciously biting into the earth, chewing the
dirt in an act of unclear meaning. The bitter and asphyxiating soil brings his mind back minutely,
and searching about his vision in seek of comprehending what happened, he discovers at his feet the
white fluffball—its snowy fur speckled unclean with blood, its mouth diligently working away.
Beneath its black nose are its bulging, quivering cheeks. Subaru sights, sticking out of its mouth, the
fingers of his own hand.
Understood. Got it. He knew what happened. Eaten. Eaten. He was eaten.
Subaru: “Ghohu, agfhuffuuaAAaa!”
Screaming almost insane in pain and understanding, Subaru tumbles himself toward the rabbit. His
broken right arm is immobile and his left arm from the wrist down exists in the rabbit's stomach.
There's nothing he can do, but if he at least confirms its true nature—
His calf burns. A sharp rasping shaves into his meat and bone, stinging to shoot his eye fully open,
foam gushing from the back of his throat. To lay his head and faint would be great, but the ferocious
throes of agony seem unwilling to release him.
Spilling bloody froth out his lips, Subaru convulses like a fish on land. That his ears still function is
both the miracle and joke of a cruel god.
The pitter-patter of countless footsteps reaches Subaru's eardrums.

Hopping motions. Tiny light bodies. The vast number of overlapping cries gives him absolutely no
urge to, presuming his sight could sight them, even attempt to count their total.
In that instant he was sincerely glad the only thing working were his ears.
Savouring the sensation of teeth biting all across his body at once, Subaru was now keenly
experiencing the pain of over one hundred creatures ingesting him simultaneously.
He shrieks. Rolled onto his back and looking to the sky, his throat trembles. A fuzzy little creature
instantly encroaches inside his opened mouth. It shreds apart his tongue, sharp teeth piercing the
back of his throat, gnashing down his oesophagus to his stomach.
It internally collides with another which invaded from his rectum, their competition displacing his
slivered organs to and fro, turning Natsuki Subaru to mince.
The keen feeling of being alive, with living creatures inside him mangling him to pieces.
Fear was already gone away. No pain felt any more. No clue how his consciousness was still here.
Eaten. Eaten to bits. Eye eaten. No more ears. Organs devoured completely, presently his face being
skinned. A hole opens in his skull, brain unveiled for the spelunking fangs to swill—
—.
——.
———.
————.
————————————————————————————————a—.
CHAPTER 44: VERBOTEN
—His body reconstructs on him.
His devoured flesh, peeled skin, gnawed bones, ingested nerves, slurped blood, soul ravaged by the
peak of cravings—returns to its original form.
Sensation transmits to his fingertips, they being the starting point for the shuddery convulsions that
rock his whole body.
Groaning and writhing on the hard, cold, dusty ground, white froth bubbles from Subaru's lips.
No pain. No loss. Four limbs connected to his torso. Neither his head nor its insides bear any
physical damage. His thoughts are still fuzzy in the midst of waking, but that's assured to clear in
merely a few seconds.
Nevertheless, Subaru's flesh and mind approved not of resuscitating into this reality he returned.
The happenings prior that return were just that horrific.
Could anyone say they had experienced encroachment into their body through their mouth, and all
their guts being shredded from inside? A competition to strip off their skin, bloody muscle exposed
beneath, rough tongues shaving away at their pinkish fats?
His brain had rejected the pain of feeling, disengaging to the point he could objectively recognize
his BEING EATEN as if it were happening to someone else, a waking nightmare.
Subaru: “Bbh, bhbb, bbbbb...”
The nausea rushes up, but all that spews from his dry stomach is yellowy acid. Sourness mixes with
the overflowing froth, Subaru still on his side and convulsing yet.
Like a man having a seizure or a fish caught on land, Subaru's rejection of reality comes not from a
selection by his will, but by his soul.
Who could accede to their being eaten apart? Who could fault Subaru, comprehending the truth of
his eating and returning as such, for his abnormality here?
By what karma, by whose plot, did he have to had met that fate?
Subaru: “—”
His consciousness strobes.

Where his eyes open or not? No control of his body was returning to him.
His soul was rejecting living in reality. Far from his soul allowing him to pick consciousness, it
wasn't even presenting him the choice.
—Why.
Were there any definite words in Subaru's mind, it would be merely that one.
—Why?
What happened? What occurred? Why did that happen? Why did that have to happen? What was
happening to him now? Why did something have to be happening to him now? What should he do
now?
—Why, why, why, why, why?

Presented with a problem lacking answer, the question itself unsteady, his soul merely shrieks.
—Why! Why! Why!
Continuously throwing out a question lacking answer, a form unsightly in how poor it was at
surrender.
Drowning in reality, tormented by nightmare, the way to living lost, a form inquiring WHY.
That was precisely—
???: <You've again acquired the qualifications.>
A voice whispers at the ear of the trembling Subaru. A voice high, and upbeat. A voice that even if
Subaru hear presently, he will not decode the meaning. But regardless the voice reverberates even to
Subaru's interior, as—
???: <You are invited—to the witch's tea party.>
Subaru's just-returned consciousness again forfeits from reality.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
A fresh wind reminiscent of summer blows across a hillock of verdant green grass.
The breeze tousles Subaru's bangs, sways the tall green grass, passes over the hill, through the field,
and into the blue sky where white clouds dance.
Touching his fingers to his tickled bangs, Subaru squints at the dazzling sunlight, slowly lowering
his gaze to look ahead of him.
Before he knows it, he's seated in something similar to an easy chair. Sitting across the little white
table from him, legs crossed with hair white and dress sable, is a girl—or no, that phrase might not
quite be proper.
Subaru: “Since she's a Mighty Witch gone four-fucking-hundred years static.”
Witch: “Well isn't that just something to be saying to a girl. Though with my case, I died when I was
nineteen, so my looks should be of a young girl matching to you.”
Subaru: “Died when I was nineteen's seriously sobering. Also don't come to sit next to me off some
weird ideas. Matching to me. I'm gonna snort laughing how stupid that is.”
Witch: “Oop, well my gosh... Have I been dumped?”
Subaru: “No, I'm saying you're not that cheap. I know I'm the lowest class of bastard you can get.
Terms like 'matching' or 'balanced' aren't the other person coming down, they're pulling me up. I
haven't acquired anything suitable for that yet.”
Clenching and unclenching his fists on his knees, Subaru looks up at the sky, expression
malcontent. The witch—Echidna—rests her elbow on the table and her cheek in her hand,
surveying Subaru up to down with her gaze.
Echidna: “You sure don't think very highly of yourself.”

Subaru: “When the people around you are big you get a habit of bending your head back while
talking. Thought the ungainliness of not even noticing I was looking up was something I'd gotten
past, but.”
Subaru clenches his fist, knuckles clicking. He takes a long, deep breath.
Subaru: “So... what's the occasion for the tea party invite?”
Echidna: “Nothing complicated. I'm WITCH OF GREED and thirst for knowledge incarnate. Desiring,
wanting hearts are things of pleasure to me, and should there be wants to know or lamenting
inquiries of 'why,' then perfect.”
Echidna brings one of the white cups on the table to her mouth. She drinks down the contents,
smiling.
Echidna: “If made to say, your actions of wishing such while somewhere easily communicable with
my castle'd be the cause, is how I'd like you to see it.”
Subaru: “Stop being convoluted.” ...something seomthing well anyway for now at least I won't
complain about being called here. “More importantly, there's something I want to ask.”
Subaru leans forward.
Subaru: “What happened to me?”
Echidna: “You don't understand that yourself?”
Subaru: “Understanding and comprehending are different. I think I get objectively what the
situation was, but that understanding isn't connecting to my current condition.”
Echidna: “Meaning?”
Subaru: “I was insane drowning on land spouting bubbles, and now here I'm presentable and my
head's working enough to at least hold a conversation. It's natural to think you had some hand in
this.”
Subaru thinks like nuts to understand the present situation. It's fact that being invited to Echidna's
tea party-aka-dream world has birthed enough reserves in his heart to let him think. And exactly
because he can think now, Subaru knows his body before he got summoned here was in dangerous
condition. He's left behind his body which experienced some symptoms of shock, feeling some
unease about only his mind being here.
Subaru: “Last time when I woke up from participating in your tea party I was in bed, so I don't
really know, but what's happening with the passage of time? Or, in the first place is the world
outside...”
Thinking that far, Subaru realises this isn't the time to be calmed down drinking some tea.
—Convulsing-from-shock Subaru hadn't confirmed when his RETURN BY DEATH had returned him
to.
Heck he hadn't even confirmed where he'd returned to. The chair clatters as he stand up.
Subaru: “Echidna! Let me out of here right now!”
Echidna: “Leaving a witch's tea party without taking a single sip really is something incredible. You
know, you best stop and consider just what exactly it is that's sitting here in front of—”
Subaru: “I don't have time to talk with you! Let me outside now! While we're doing this the
outside's...”
Echidna: “You failed before by taking nothing, and now you're going to leave here empty-handed
again... do you maybe want to repeat the same loss and pain?”
Subaru raises his voice at Echidna. Almost as if cooling him with water, Echidna asks her question
in a voice with emotions frozen.
Subaru: “...au,”
Echidna: “Making challenges to procure results, is an action I commend. I believe that there's
beauty in the method of producing results, be they desired or undesired, through trial and error. And
I feel that doing that challenging without losing heart is something of great value and esteem.
However,”
Echidna raises a finger at the silenced Subaru, her eyes narrowing.
Echidna: “Following the same path without reflecting on the previous results, to arrive at those
same results... that sort of blasphemy on the accumulation of knowledge, and that sort of
blasphemer, would be someone I'd scorn and want to divorce.”
Echidna: “Incidentally, to answer your question... the present time outside is just after you overcame
the tomb's first TRIAL. Fortunately, the flow of time outside differs from in here. I'm sure you won't
be losing so much time just in having a cup of tea with me.”
Echidna checks off the things Subaru wanted to know and could cause him concern one by one. The
respawn point hasn't changed, which means currently he should be beside Emilia midway through
her TRIAL. It's not that he's gulping down Echidna's saying wholesale, but having a third party tell
him this does relieve his panic.
Subaru: “Echidna... How much do you know?”
Echidna: “If you mean knowing, then only as much as I know. If you mean want to know, then well
I'd say I want to know everything in this world.”
Subaru: “Stop pissing around, this is important. Like... right, you just said this is right after the first
TRIAL, but...”
The first TRIAL—certainly feels distant. He parted with his parents, found Echidna in the empty
school building, had a short QA session, and returned to reality. Too much stuff to even describe
happened between then and now, but,
Subaru: “Ignoring that, that means this reunion's happening immediately after we parted...”
Echidna: “Yup. It's a given in real time, but even in unbalanced personal time, the length since our
parting was short. It only took us a couple minutes before seeing each other again.”
Just how much are you yearning for me? Is the kind of joke in Echidna's statement as she laughs.
The joke washes off Subaru, expressionless. Echidna gives a disappointed shrug.
Echidna: “Seems you won't give me the reactions I want. Not getting what I expect has some
frustration, some happiness too, a complex feeling to it.”
Subaru: “I'll give your complicated feminine heart a good lazy date when I have the time for it.
Anyway...”
Echidna: “I do want to congratulate our quick reunion, and I think my mouth's gotten better at
slipping. Well, maybe it was inevitable my feelings went off somewhere unexpected. After all,”
Echidna cuts off. Taking a quick spell, her black eyes glance sidelong at Subaru. For one instant,
Subaru fails to grasp just what emotion was in that glimpse. But, Echidna welcomes Subaru's
confusion with a beautiful, lovely smile.
Echidna: “Unlike me who parted a couple minutes ago with you, from your perspective this reunion
comes with hours—no, days—inbetween.”
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Repeating Echidna's words in his head, Subaru can come to only one conclusion.
Between her speaking, her meaningful look and smile, there is no way he could be wrong. She—the
witch knew. She knew the leftovers of futures, supposedly left over nowhere in the world, that
Subaru's soul had accumulated.
Subaru: “How!?”
Echidna: “Here's how I'll answer that question. Because this is my castle, and I'm the WITCH OF
GREED. I suppose I haven't shown you it yet.”
Echidna tilts her head and sticks out her right hand. Light gathers above her palm, eventually taking
form—producing a single, pure-white tome. It has no title or anything else written on it, and is
about as big as a dictionary. Ignoring that it's white enough to pain the eyes, the thing brings back
nothing but bad memories for Subaru.
Subaru: “That couldn't... isn't a GOSPEL, right?”
Echidna: “Oop, I wouldn't have to rely on this book, with how much your expression's telling me
what you're thinking. It's an expression of 'YOU TOO, HUH?'. You could probably make several
guesses on what experiences you've had outside on that alone, but...”
Echidna opens the book and gives it a read, nodding along as she follows the text.
Echidna: “Mmhmmhm,”
Echidna: “I see, I understand the gist. There's some parts I can't follow completely, but it'll be fine
compensating those by reading you. ...Mm, incredibly fine. There's this sensation of filling in the
missing pieces, and indescribable anticipation of approaching the answer. Exactly because this
exists, is there indeed meaning in living!”
Subaru: “...you're dead though.”
Says Subaru, making a jab at a fired-up Echidna. Echidna fiddles with her hair, sulking.
Echidna: “Even when it's true, raining on parades like that does kill motivation. Anyway, let's ease
your worries. ...This book is different from the GOSPELS or whatsits in your memory. What it writes
isn't the future or the optimum solution. Only truth.”
Subaru: “Truth?”
Echidna: “If you could consider the GOSPELS an assembling of prophecies, then maybe you should
call this one I have a history text. Not limited to the shape of a book, vast in its vagueness and
ambiguity, not any book at all, indeed in all a book, of any book potential to be, of any book
potentially being... this whose white pages write merely the truth was 400 years ago called the
BOOK OF WISDOM. But, here's what I call it.”
Subaru goes silent.
Echidna: “—the Memories of the World.”
If this incredible appellation is accurate, any reader of this book could figure out any thing about
any topic, so long as the event described occurred in the past. For purposes of gathering information
indeed this is a stupid fucking crazy cheat.
Echidna: “Though, I don't really like relying on it. After all, the information burns directly into the
reader's memory. This grimorie flies past the process of WILL KNOW, overwriting it as HAVE KNOWN.
—As far as my inquisitive self is concerned, judging the value of a book which flies past the
process of knowing is certainly difficult.”
Subaru: “You can always give it to me if you don't need it. There's plenty of ways I could use it.
Actually, if I had that then finding starts to solving problems'd...”
Echidna: “You better stop there unless you want to be a cripple.”
Echidna sticks the MEMORIES OF THE WORLD in Subaru's face.
Echidna: “Even if it looks harmless, it's still a witch's tool. The load of information it burns into the
reader's brain is too much for an ordinary person to compute. Not reading it is safe.”
Subaru: “Then don't shove it in people's faces, that's horrifying!”
Subaru shoves the grimorie away, Echidna gives another wave of her hand and it transforms into
particles of light. Knowing about this thing, Subaru comprehends Echidna's information load. With
this grimorie, you can indeed decrease the number of THINGS YOU DON'T KNOW down to the
absolute minimum. That Echidna doesn't choose to do this might just be due to thinking particular
to witches.
Subaru: “But, knowing about that does make things quick. Echidna. My circumstances... where I
Re...”
RETURN BY DEATH, is what he's about to say, when his throat freezes.
But this isn't due to the penalty that occurs when he attempts to say the forbidden words. Echidna
waits quietly, hair swaying in the wind, for Subaru to continue.
The more he feels that behaviour isn't very witchly, and is rather considerate, the quicker his pulse
pounds and more leaden his tongue gets.
What's freezing Subaru's voice is one of the primal emotions—terror.
Subaru: “Haaa... haa...”
Subaru has had several opportunities to speak the verboten words before.
Dwelling in Subaru was the authority RETURN BY DEATH.
Although difficult to judge whether calling that an authority was acceptable, Subaru's attempts to
tell others about its circumstances would be forcibly hindered. By way of unwithstandable pain
directly to the heart. And its fangs had once struck not upon Subaru, but Emilia.
Subaru would never forget the bereavement and grief from back then.
There were very few occasions he had wanted to die and disappear as much as then.
It's not that he's scared of the pain to his heart. Though of course pain is scary. But if that was a
necessary damage for the sake of reeling in the desired future, he would talk his throat hoarse and
bear it.
What's Subaru's scared of is that those black fingers will aim not at him, but perhaps at someone
else.
It won't, thinks Subaru, shaking his head.

During the fight with the White Whale, and during the fight with Betelgeuse, Subaru had voiced the
forbidden words while other people were around. He had been dragged into absurdity, his attempt to
reveal the truth interrupted, and then been tossed out of the time-stopped world. So he had never
been asked about it.
The black witch's hands had never made a sacrifice of anyone who sought the continuation of those
words.
—Except Emilia.
The memory comes back of the silver-haired girl in his arms, considerably lighter.
If he was going to experience that feeling of loss again, it would this time for sure be unbearable.
He was impressed he hadn't gone insane. Not going insane after killing Emilia and walking around
holding her corpse was quite the impressive thing.
That's how sinful it was. That's how terrifying it was.
Thus terror grips Subaru, and makes him hesitate to speak.

Before him is the witch, Echidna. Compared to Emilia, his relationship with her is ludicrously
shallow. Were Echidna's heart crushed, Subaru would likely not experience as much despair or
bereavement as he had back then—was his horrifically mercenary prediction.
That Subaru regardless doesn't move is due to the conditions this time being excessively different,
and his unease for the unpredictable result is strong.
When speaking to people ignorant of RETURN BY DEATH, the forbidden words inflicted pain on
Subaru's heart.
When he attempted to reveal the truth of RETURN BY DEATH to someone important to him, the
forbidden words crushed the heart of said precious someone.
So what would happen if Subaru attempted to reveal the truth to somebody who had figured out
RETURN BY DEATH by different means?
Would the suffering end only with Subaru, or would the witch's hand aim for the being before him
as well?
Echidna: “You should try it.”
Subaru: “—!?”
Echidna: “Action is priceless for procuring the desired result. I'm not going to change from that
stance. It's exactly in those actions and proceeds that I believe there's value in living.”
The result of Subaru's indecision. Otherwise she isn't aware the damage could target her. —No, she
definitely did.
The witch had most likely seen through what Subaru was worrying about. And she also knew that
the outcome of trying was unclear. That she nevertheless voiced those words was because she
believed what she said entirely.
Subaru: “You might not get time to regret it.”
Echidna: “I'll expect you to break down crying beside my corpse for me.”
Says Echidna cheerily. Probably, her attitude is her consideration to stop any superfluous
circumstances from getting in the way of Subaru's decision.
Subaru figures her sincerity's more for gaining results through the decision, than for compassion
toward Subaru himself.
She wasn't expecting of him and wasn't asking of him. She pushes Subaru's back along while only
desiring simple possibility—the possibility of an answer.
She lives in a way that possesses not a scrap a doubt for her raison d'etre. He knows it's not possible
to live on that, but he regardless feels saved by that strength.
Subaru: “Echidna. I've RETURNED BY DEATH—”
He voices the forbidden words—

And that instant, the world—
CHAPTER 45: CONDITION FOR THE TEA PARTY
Subaru: “—before.”
Eyes closed firm, Subaru grits his teeth in anticipation of the coming fingers of pain. But,
Nothing happens.
Subaru: “...hrm.”
Subaru raises his head, stroking his chest to confirm there's nothing strange going on there. Echidna
sits opposite him with her legs crossed as she has been, her brows knitting slightly. Subaru hurriedly
peers over at her, but there's no obvious changes in her, either. Her breathing, mannerisms, are all
normal. Predicting the worst of possibilities, Subaru focuses on her chest region.
Echidna: “I don't know if I can answer to your expectations, but personally I'm not that confident in
my chest size. If I were more like Sekhmet or Minerva, I could surely experience the bodily fault so
known as back pain. ...Speaking inquisitively, on that factor it's a disappointment.”
Subaru: “...That's not why I'm ogling. No, I mean nevermind that.”
Subaru replies to Echidna's natural flow with his thinking still stopped. He puts his palm to his
mouth, frantically getting the emotion out of his near-trembling voice.
Subaru: “I... When I die, I go back in time, and re-do the world. I've RETURNED BY DEATH.”
Echidna: “I heard. And before that I read. I see, they're definitely rare circumstances.”
Says Echidna casually, nodding. But her demeanour in itself is shockingly irregular to Subaru. The
pain of the hands, inflicted upon either Subaru himself or upon another, had bound him with
unshakable trauma. Thus, attempting to 'TEST' with it was something impossible for him. If Echidna
hadn't pushed him along, he probably would've hesitated and not gone through with it.
That's how huge this was. But then it so easily just—
Subaru: “Why won't the hand come?”
Echidna: “It almost sounds as if you're disappointed it won't. If so, then it's like you're frustrated
you missed the opportunity to kill me, ouch.”
Subaru: “You should at least know that's not what I...!”
Echidna: “Yes, I know. Your heart has so little leeway that you're this cornered?”
Echidna's casual attitude doesn't falter as she ignores the emotions of a Subaru wavering in shock.
Unable to suppress his irritation for her, Subaru clicks his tongue and sharpens his gaze further.
Subaru: “Answer clearly. You—no matter how many times I say 'I've RETURNED BY DEATH', that
hand... the Witch's hand won't come? I can think that?”
Echidna: “Then you understand it's the Witch's hand. ...Yes, you can. This is my dream, my castle.
My fantasy during my death. Nobody can trespass without my permission.”
Subaru: “Can you assure that?”
Echidna: “Certainly cautious. —I do assure it. The witches capable of existing here are GREED,
GLUTTONY, LUST, PRIDE, WRATH, and SLOTH only. There's no room for ENVY to cut in.”
Subaru holds his breath, and after a short period, strength leaves him. His shoulders fall, he lowers
his face, and gives a long, long sigh.
Subaru: “Right... right, ri... right...”
Covering his face with his hands, Subaru repeats the word over and over. In confirmation, grasping,
clinging. After all, this was the first time he had ever been freed from the witch's fingers, and able to
speak about the taboo.
Echidna: “You sure make some pretty emotional expressions.”
Says Echidna as she watches endless waves of emotion toss Subaru about. She passes her finger
through her hair.
Echidna: “That's just how much it's been tormenting you, would be the situation. With a love that
intractable pointed at you, that's also kinda inevitable.”
Subaru: “Sorry, I'm just a little overwhelmed. I'll calm down. ...Okay. Calmed down. Calmed down,
and now there's some things I want to talk about. Piles of things I want to talk about.”
The restraints on talking about RETURN BY DEATH aren't in operation. It comes with a feeling of
liberation—of a ray of hope cutting into this constrained stalemate. HOWEVER
Echidna: “There's something you're misunderstanding.”
Subaru: “—?”
Echidna: “Indeed the witch-hand binding you can't intervene in this castle of mine. So I do
understand your heart's jubilation at getting to disclose secrets you couldn't reveal to others. But you
know... whether I lend you an ear, or say conveniently assist you, or offer you advice on these
circumstances of yours, would be a completely separate problem?”
Subaru: “wh...”
Subaru shuts his mouth, Echidna looking as if what she said was completely normal. Subaru can't
hide his confusion and discouragement at her unexpected reaction. His gaze putters about as
unintelligible little mutters slips from his mouth. The light he saw, the liberation he anticipated, had
escaped from his side. What should he do? He didn't know.
Echidna: “Seeing you looking like an abandoned child does trouble me. I didn't mean to make that
tricky of a demand.”
Expression troubled, Echidna tilts her head as she taps her finger on the table thrice. Subaru's gaze
follows the path of her settled finger—to the untouched cup set before him.
Echidna: “You were invited to a witch's tea party. If you're planning to have a lively conversation
over tea, shouldn't you first prove you accepted the invitation?”
Subaru: “...underst—anding is hard with you, you know.”
Echidna: “I thought I pointed this out extraordinarily clearly right at the beginning, though.”
Thinking back on it Echidna did voice some dissatisfaction at Subaru getting all excited and not
reading the tea party mood. Although you could call her revenge for that just a little bit too mean.
Subaru: “Understood, fuck!”
Subaru snatches the cup off the table and downs the amber bodily fluids in one go. Although time
was supposed to have passed since the cup was laid out, the insides are still a good temperature—
truly, befitting of a witch's tea party.
He gulps it down faster than he can taste it. He wipes away the droplets at his lips.
Subaru: “There, drank it all. Now're you interested in accepting me as a member of the tea party?”
Echidna: “Drink my body fluids so vigorously, and... yup, I'm flushed.”
Subaru: “EeuGHhh I forgot—!”
Subaru again trips the Chidna Tea Trap which caught him before. He puts his hand to his mouth
trying to bear the nausea as Echidna looks at him cheerily. She smiles.
Echidna: “You're accepted.”
Echidna: “With your inquiry of 'why' as the qualifier, you have opened the door to the tea party. And
in drinking tea presented by a witch, you are an outstanding participant. As head of the tea party, it
is my obligation to welcome you. —Now, please do ask.”
Echidna gives a small clap, curiosity blazing in her eyes.
Echidna: “Since addling brains to produce an answer, as far as I'm concerned, is rapture.”
※ † † † † † † † † † †
—The tea party, or perhaps better said the QA session, begins.
Subaru: “The agent for my RETURN BY DEATH... would be the Witch of ENVY, right?”
Echidna: “That understanding's more or less correct. Though, since I haven't observed you die, I
wouldn't know the mechanism behind RETURN BY DEATH. And since you can't lose your life in this
castle of mine, that condition's not being fulfilled.”
Subaru: “There's no dying here?”
Echidna: “This is a fleeting dream, a temporary perch for the mind alone. Do you think that when
you die in nightmares you also die in reality?”
Subaru: “Do sorta feel if the dream's really horrific you could die of shock...”
Lots of fictional works have premises where you if you die in a dream you die in real life. Taking
them as precedents, Subaru figures it wouldn't be too weird for deaths in a witch's mental realm to
connect back to the flesh, but.
Subaru: “Well, it's weird to insist that you should die after being told you won't. Anyway, I can be
an idiot here without worrying about dying.”
Echidna: “If your mind is shredded apart before returning to your body, you still might end up as an
invalid.”
Subaru: “Being a living corpse's the same as being dead... but the part where there's no RETURNING
BY DEATH makes that condition the worse!”
Subaru had once come to the verge of mental breakdown during the loops in the Capital. Was he
running on self-preservation instinct, or just pretending his ego had broken? Even now he wasn't
entirely sure which, but either way, he regained himself out of rage.
That said Subaru senses that if his mind breaks here, it won't be something shock therapy can cure.
Subaru: “Really have to decline a condition where you can't willingly choose the timing of your
death. ...Though of course what's really best is not to die.”
Echidna: “The ability to consider DEATH as a tool for procuring your conditions to victory is
something even I'm uncertain of my stance towards. Not even I have observed my own DEATH, and
I can't amass it in my store of knowledge.”
Subaru: “...? But you're dead and a ghost, wouldn't you remember your death?”
Echidna: “Not quite. My body, the vessel for my soul, is indeed dead and gone. But, my soul was
sealed by Volcanica before it could meet death.”
Subaru: “...Basically, your body died but your soul didn't. Since your substance has never died, it's a
little different from actually experiencing DEATH?”
Echidna: “That'd be it. And while this is probably an inconsiderate thought, I'm jealous of your
situation. The ability to observe my own death—and not even just once, given multiple times to
savour it—surely wouldn't be permitted to me.”
Subaru: “...depending how you hear it that line was some crazy masochism. You know, I have never
been able to feel good while welcoming death even once.”
Subaru's actions have ended in DEATH before, and far as he's concerned all those ends amounted to
was proof he had failed to achieve his goal. His aversive feelings toward DEATH weren't weakening,
and hadn't changed since even before he'd experienced it. Although he wouldn't deny that he'd
gotten somewhat accustomed to, and was capable of, facing it.
Echidna: “Your DEATH allows you to re-do. Well, this power forbidding you the peace of DEATH is
almost unmistakably a thing of ENVY. When did you notice?”
Subaru: “I've had lots of people thoroughly tell me things implying there was a connection. I
sincerely have no memory of meeting face-to-face with the Mighty Green-Eyed Witch before... But
when the name's coming up just everywhere, I can at least imagine that maybe that's the HAND
MODEL who keeps showing up.”
Two arms, and the faint outline of a body Subaru had come to see in the form of a black shadow.
Although inflicting pain on Subaru when he spoke the forbidden words, it also acted lovingly
toward him. Pain, love, it was sadistic spuriousness that Subaru was not grateful for in the slightest.
Subaru: “I've got no clue why she's so bothered like that about someone she's never met. ...Do you
know?”
Echidna: “Now, just who could say. It wouldn't just be me, I doubt there's anyone out there who
could comprehend her mindset. Even if I hypothetically could, I'd decline.”
Subaru: “For someone who wants to know everything in this world, you're pretty unsparing toward
the Witch of ENVY. Er, or if you consider the damage she did maybe that's normal.”
Even the knowledgeable and transcended Witch of GREED can't escape from her feelings. Subaru
can't help feeling sort of hopeless about that.
Echidna: “Looks like you're overestimating me. I might be a witch, but I started as a human. I can't
escape from my emotions, or my likes and dislikes, or from the strengths and weaknesses of who I
interact with. Though, I'll brag that my permissible range is pretty big compared to the other
witches.”
Subaru: “Well you say you have endless interest in others, and if you're fussy about people's
preferences you won't get to peacefully satisfy your curiosity.”
Echidna: “That's right. So I'm capable of pardoning most beings. No matter how unsightly and
vulgar the being is, there's reason for me to endeavour to understand its mindset. That is, to satisfy
my want to know everything. But.”
Echidna cuts herself off, her expression changing as she lowers her head slightly. For the first time
her mouth twists in clear displeasure—and anger.
Echidna: “That Witch of ENVY's the exception. I'm not pardoning her, or endeavouring for her. I
have never, between the time I was alive, time I've been dead, and my glimpses of the MEMORIES
OF THE WORLD, seen a being so unforgivable.”
Subaru: “...That's not just coming from being killed. With that anger.”
Echidna: “Death doesn't hold that much significance to me. When you consider that I'm here like
this. Just, she did something I consider more unbearable than that. I believe every action out there is
an effort taken to procure results, but... even so, I will absolutely never accept it.”
She says gloomily, closing her eyes and shaking her head. Just by that, all omens of rage vanish
from her face, and up bubbles her usual observing smile.
Echidna: “Let's not talk about the witch. I have conjectures regarding the principles of your RETURN
BY DEATH, but nothing definite.” something something and that's a problem that won't influence
your death at all. “Do you maybe have questions on anything except its origins?”
Subaru: “Except its origins...”
Having the root of RETURN BY DEATH so easily affirmed actually makes Subaru wind up
deliberating. Putting the machinations of its originator aside, Subaru was aware he was helpfully
using the power of this authority housed in him, or otherwise being used. Loathe to say it, but
without this power, there were multiple outcomes Subaru wouldn't have procured. And he'd most
lively have to rely on it again in the future. Thus,
Subaru: “—Do you think my power RETURN BY DEATH has limited uses?”
Echidna: “Hrm... I see. That's a natural question to reach, knowing you can re-do by DEATH.”
As far as Subaru can remember off-hand, he's already died 16 times in this world.
All of them were agonizing and filled with loss, but in having them, Subaru returned and redid the
world. That said, even after having acquired desired results, DEATH always came with the terror that
this one might really be the last time.
Exactly because it was a world he couldn't get through without this power, losing it would give him
a feeling of powerlessness. Until the instant that RETURN BY DEATH hit, Subaru wouldn't know
whether he would end or not.
Echidna: “This is incredibly nothing more than my speculation, is how I'll preface this. I have some
broad predictions on the principles of your RETURN BY DEATH. I'd first like your permission to talk
going off those estimations.”
Subaru: “...Sure, please tell me.”
Echidna: “Your RETURN BY DEATH. We'll assume that it's under a fixed limitation, but the limit on
tries is—”
Subaru swallows his breath.

The few seconds between that last word and the next feel like an eternity.
Echidna: “—most likely, none.”
Subaru goes silent.
Echidna: “There is no end for you in DEATH. You're permitted to die how many times you want,
decay as many times you want, your soul going back in time to re-do events until you defeat the fate
that brought about the DEATH. No matter how brutally killed, or how broken your mind and body
are, too.”
Hearing Echidna's theory, Subaru's head fills with complete blankness. If that blankness was a
baptism, then the next thing to begin filling his emptied head was—
Subaru: “—I, see.”
A quiet acceptance of reality, and a frantic attempt to control his body's trembling.
He puts his hand to his mouth, lowers his head, and closes his eyes. He's not out of sorts, but there's
no visible relief at finding out RETURN BY DEATH is unlimited, either. Echidna's brows furrow.
Echidna: “You don't look nearly as surprised as I thought.”
Echidna: “As far as I'm concerned... no, as anyone is concerned, the ability to overturn the finality
of DEATH should be something exceedingly huge. And that's without touching on your
powerlessness, while the obstacles in your way are overly severe. I kinda thought you'd react
more.”
Subaru: “Sorry for the bad reaction, and not answering your expectations... but...”
Infinite retries OK—was one of the optimistic theories Subaru had already made about RETURN BY
DEATH. Thus having someone else affirm it doesn't absolutely surprise him. Doesn't, but,
Subaru: “I'm not going to be a complete moron immediately swallowing that down going I CAN DIE
AS MUCH AS I WANT!? THIS LIFE IN A PARALLEL WORLD IS EASYMODE! ”
Echidna: “You already figured my speculation and saw ahead. Surprisingly, seems you're a quicker
thinker than I thought. We'll leave aside whether that's a good or bad thing.”
Subaru: “Every time I RETURN BY DEATH... or saying more, every time I try to reveal the truth and
feel the Witch's presence near me, I can tell that black shadow is coming closer.”
The first shadow Subaru saw when he voiced the forbidden words was a single arm touching his
heart. But every time he repeated that action, the visible parts of the shadow steadily became more
and more distinct, and now he could faintly see its entire body.
What would happen from now on, if the shadow's form became even clearer?
Subaru: “My limit on RETURN BY DEATH is hit once it takes definite form. Once that shadow
becomes real, I don't think I'll be able to reject it.”
Echidna: “Hrm, and your basis for this?”
Subaru: “Gut.”
Echidna's eyes snap open wide.

Subaru rests his elbow on the table, hand on chin, looking up at Echidna.
Subaru: “It's really a feeling only people who've met the shadow can understand. If there was
anyone except me who understood it...”
It'd probably just be Betelgeuse.
Subaru's chest gives an emotional twinge. Echidna narrows her eyes as if peering into Subaru, but
immediately gives a shrug.
Echidna: “That I can't understand this feeling of yours is bothering me, but that does generally
accord with my speculation. Your RETURN BY DEATH has no limit. However, that is set under fixed
conditions.”
Subaru: “Fixed, conditions?”

Echidna: “What causes you to RETURN BY DEATH is a witch's spurious delusions. So long as the
root of those delusions remains unsundered, meeting the end is forbidden to you.”
Subaru: “Root of delusions... meaning?”
Echidna: “Killing the witch who's so attached to you, or the witch's love for you running dry...
Though from what I've seen, you could call either one the ultimate in difficulty.”
Slaying the Witch of ENVY—the 400-year wish of the world that not even the Dragon, Sage, and
Sword Saint's cooperation had managed to grant.
This Witch of ENVY, who coated half the world in shadow, was not completely killed and instead
sealed. What Echidna's saying means surpassing this laudable achievement.
Subaru: “Feels like going for love running out'd be so much easier...”
Echidna: “Can't you just kinda tell that that is absolutely not going to happen?”
Subaru goes silent.
Echidna: “There's that feeling that only you understand, having met the witch's shadow. But me,
knowing what that thing used to be like, inevitably has to think so.”
Echidna's expression is disgusted. Seems this antagonism toward the Witch of ENVY is so deep-
rooted that it intensified over these 400 years, rather than lessened.
Unable to completely deny what Echidna's saying, Subaru gives a sigh out his nose and leans back
on the chair. Just like Echidna said, Subaru sees no hope of the Witch of ENVY letting him go.
He had also never thought he'd be loved this blindly by a person whose face he didn't know and
who he had never really met. And by someone who literally destroyed half the world.
Echidna: “You sure accept things easily.”
Echidna: “Saying this's something, but all we've been talking about is a bundle of my speculation. I
can't show basis for it, and I figured this'd be far too little material for you to just believe it.”
Echidna closes an eye, apparently perplexed that Subaru swallowed down her opinions so easily.
Well, yes, agrees Subaru.
Subaru's only known her a short while, and more importantly she's a WITCH. Considering that point
alone, it would be no exaggeration to say there is not a single thing about her to inspire trust. But,
Subaru: “That's also my gut.”
Echidna: “...Gut.”
Subaru is aware that there is a part of him vaguely thinking that if Echidna says something, it's
probably believable. Maybe because she was someone who inspired belief that she paid respect to
knowledge. Although Subaru'd also noticed many times the defect where her thirst for knowledge
went too far and got into tastelessness or gossip.
Subaru: “Ignoring that, you're probably not lying—is how I'm thinking.”
Echidna: “...Is that also your gut?”
Subaru: “Yeah. Gut. Though, it's the gut of a guy who's died sixteen times, so the argument'd end by
just calling it unreliable.”
Scratching his head, Subaru eases the atmosphere with a self-deprecating joke. Echidna holds her
breath, then reaches for a cup on the table, brings it to her lip, wets her tongue.
Echidna: “You might just have a talent for flirting with witches.”
For the first time, the smile she gives looks something earnest.
CHAPTER 46: LOCUSTS
Faced with that smile, for the first time, Subaru sincerely thinks: Man, Echidna is cute.
There's no cynicism or calculating nature to it, it's purely a thing born from goodwill towards
Subaru.
Having an individual as undeniably attractive as Echidna interact so warmly toward any man would
be enough to open their heart. Though of course, for a Subaru whose heart was already harbouring
two girls, it's not enough to push aside his feelings.
Subaru: “But still, there really was some heartflutter there...”
Echidna: “What was that you said?”
Subaru: “That it's gonna be problematic for me even if I do have witch-flirting talents. And having
someone I don't remember flirting with getting attached to me... Ah, but I mean I'd be glad if you're
saying you six witches'll help me outside without making any mischief.”
Averting his face and piling up bullshit, Subaru spouts that overly convenient idea. He's seen a
fragment of Typhon and Minerva's power, but that's enough to gather that they're more than likely
strong as fuck in the domains of offence and healing.
Echidna: “Unfortunately, while during my lifetime would be one thing, my posthumous self can't
interfere with reality. Inviting you to a dream world like this truly is an exception.”
Subaru: “Igottit. Just saying it for the sake of trying. Honestly, just having you listen to me is way
more than enough of a lifesaver.”
Or at least by cutting loose on what he'd been holding, he'd distanced himself from mental
breakdown. He also managed to clear away some suspicions he had about the Witch of ENVY. He'd
just not think about the part where they didn't solve the mystery for now.
Subaru: “Can I ask another question about RETURN BY DEATH?”
Echidna: “These are incredibly questions that my knowledge can only give speculation about. If
you're fine with that, sure.”
Says Echidna as a preface, putting on some big-shot airs. But perhaps fundamentally excited to be
answering questions, or unable to wait for Subaru to speak, her feet tap the ground in a quick
rhythm as she fiddles with her hair.
Subaru: “When I RETURN BY DEATH, it happens that the point where I revive from DEATH shifts. It's
been... six places, now? I've revived in different places at their respective different times. I want to
know the conditions for that save point changing.”
Echidna: “Sayhv poiynt... alteration in site of revival, then?”
Subaru: “Fundamentally, once I've gone past one, I can't go back to the previous point. If two days
ago was the save point, and I go past it on yesterday, I can't return to the save point from two days
ago any more. Do you know what the mechanism is here?”
Subaru faces this problem with the same, or even more, seriousness that he had about RETURN BY
DEATH's limitation on tries. Save point modifications—a complete unknown with no visible
conditions or consistencies.
Subaru: “I can return after dying. I don't intend to impose on that and think I can die as much as I
want. I don't intend to, but... when it's all I can rely on, I'll rely on it without hesitation. But.”
What should Subaru do after getting into a situation he can't recover by dying?
Skirting through his mind is the image, unconscious and sleeping in the mansion, of Rem. Subaru's
RETURN BY DEATH couldn't bring her back. He would never forget the time that he stabbed himself
through the throat at her bedside.
Even now Subaru couldn't believe he had the will to commit suicide that hastily. Or no, it was
exactly because he had lost will that he had committed suicide.
Blood pouring from his throat, in a state of pain and suffocation, Subaru had lost his life.
And then he had opened his eyes to find himself returned only a handful of minutes prior to his
stabbing himself. He had never loathed a save point change as much as then.
If it would mean settling things without losing Rem, Subaru would challenge the White Whale and
the madman as many times it took.
Echidna: “Can you tell me in detail the circumstances of those sayhv poiynt changes?”
Subaru: “Uh, uh-huh... right. Well, so the first save point...”
Subaru gets into recollecting and explaining the place and timing of the save points, and the
chronology of the RETURNS BY DEATH between them. That is to say, he explains the majority of his
experiences during his life in a parallel world thus far. Even though abridging it, getting through this
overly-dense two months eats up what feels like an hour.
Subaru: “And now's inside the tomb... just after overcoming the first TRIAL is where's the save
point's fixed. Going off what you said before, this time should be there too.”
Echidna says nothing.
Subaru: “You got anything? I had a silly theory going for a while about old guys being the save
point, but...”
For some reason the fruit salesman in the Capital has been chosen as Subaru's save point twice.
Though Subaru revival point's also been in front of Rem twice, so maybe that could count too.
Subaru: “It doesn't feel to me like it changes on people, or things, or time, or that kind of condition.
If it's on time then the spans of days're inconsistent, and even if it is on people or events I can't see
any points in common. The conditions aren't clear in the slightest.”
Echidna: “Indeed, even from my perspective I can't see any consistency off what you've said.
Meaning, perhaps what's necessary is for us to change our thinking.”
Subaru: “Change our thinking?”
Echidna: “There's some reason why you return to a place... is a sort of thinking that isn't giving us
an answer. Then, let's try with first reaching a reason we can overcome, and surmounting that.”
Subaru: “Reaching a reason we can overcome?”
Echidna: “Depending how you consider it, this sayhv poiynt is less of a SITE OF RETURN and more a
BLOCKADE RETURNED TO. A blockade that, until overcome, pulls you back to it through DEATH. You
could also call it a pit.”
Subaru knits his brows, thinking over the meaning of what she's saying.
A blockade, otherwise a pit. By returning to save points through RETURN BY DEATH, Subaru had
changed several situations he otherwise couldn't defeat. Or rather, situations that would have ended
unsurmounted were it not for RETURN BY DEATH.
With each change in situation, the save point for RETURN BY DEATH had changed.
Subaru: “Every time the situation I can't change changes, RETURN BY DEATH shifts?”
Echidna: “In this situation, RETURN BY DEATH is nothing more than a means. If we question what
motives that mean carries, the answer would be in the thinking of the being causing it.”
Subaru: “The being causing it, is...”
Echidna nods at a Subaru lost for words, giving a peeved frown.
Echidna: “The Witch of ENVY. The witch causing you to RETURN BY DEATH desires that situations
you can't surmount without meeting DEATH change. And every time you overcome those situations,
the sayhv poiynt alters.”
Subaru: “B-but... then, there's something I can't... agree. I mean, that's... what about Rem. I can't
save her. If RETURN BY DEATH is a power to change situations, then why to a time where I can't
rescue...”
It was RETURN BY DEATH that overwrote his save point and made Subaru lose the chance to save
Rem.
Exactly because that happened has Subaru been so finicky about save point changes.
Echidna: “Unfortunately,”
Echidna: “Maybe the Witch of ENVY just hasn't considered this Rem you speak of.”
Subaru goes silent.
Echidna: “What the Witch of ENVY desires is incredibly your escape from cornered, dead-end fates.
RETURN BY DEATH is a means for that, and the damages done to those except you don't factor in.
Using the power to save people is entirely your desire. It's got nothing to do with the witch.”
Subaru: “au...”
Echidna: “I'll state it clearly.”
Subaru looks up at Echidna, a weak light in her pupils. She closes her eyes once, as if bearing pain,
then pierces through Subaru with her gaze.
Echidna: “Until you conquer the problem in your way and change your future of death, your soul
will assuredly return to my tomb. But hypothetically, if you permit many sacrifices, and from that
grounding the future changes...”
Subaru: “—The chance to take back those sacrifices won't be coming.”
Echidna: “...That's what it'd be.”
The only one the Witch of ENVY is really taking into consideration is Subaru. Everything is trifling
to her outside of Subaru overcoming a fate of DEATH. No matter how stalemated he is, she believes
that infinite retries will eventually uncover a path for him alone to survive. Or no, even if it's
hopeless Subaru wouldn't be allowed to give up.
Because all the conditions for RETURN BY DEATH are in the Witch of ENVY's hands.
Subaru: “Right then... if your favouritism's only for me, my mind's made up.”
Echidna goes silent.
Subaru: “I'm gonna abuse the crap out of this gift you gave me, RETURN BY DEATH. And on the tail
of that, I'll get to where you are without losing a single thing. I've decided. It's decided. That's what
I'll do. I'm the best there is at making other's plans go wrong.”
If RETURN BY DEATH is by the will of the Witch, its usage is determined by the will of Subaru.
So he'll pile it up, overcome, grab everything and get out the other side.
If the Witch's love would only save Subaru, then Subaru would save everything else.
He achieves this, and for the first time, Natsuki Subaru will have one over on the Witch.
Subaru: “Changes in situation... meaning, breaking through the problem in SANCTUARY and the
problem in the mansion. If those are cleared, then the point for RETURN BY DEATH will change no
matter how many casualties there were. So if there's going to be a situation clear, overcoming the
problems while preserving everything is an absolute condition.”
Echidna: “Me saying this is pretty something, but don't you think that's rather tough? Though, you
certainly did accept it easily.”
Subaru: “Just putting in writing something I thought was pretty vague. Doesn't break my spirit, in
fact here's firing up my motivation. This rebellious heart of mine is flaring.”
Echidna is speechless.
Taking some satisfaction in her stupefaction, Subaru clicks his neck.
Subaru: “This's all I'm gonna get on RETURN BY DEATH. Either way, that did help, thanks.”
Echidna: “...Since I also had a valuable conversation and sated my curiosity. There really isn't any
give and take to be had on that. Because this was more me just stating speculation than flaunting my
knowledge.”
Subaru: “Then, this time I'll be relying right on that knowledge of yours.”
Subaru: “I just RETURNED BY DEATH... do you know how I died this time?”
Echidna: “I haven't looked over that part, so I haven't seen it. I'm incredibly interested in your
tellings of these multiple deaths you've had... but doesn't look like you're in the mood for that right
now.”
Subaru: “Talking tales 'bout wounds and deaths's impossible without being boozed. And the only
thing around here's Chinda Tea so that hope's not happening.”
Echidna: “Shame. ...Looking at the condition of your body outside, it seems considerable mental
and physical anguish came along with this death... with this end.”
Her laying off on the term 'death' might be her form of being considerate. Subaru's cheeks loosen
slightly at the consideration, but he immediately stiffens his expression and nods.
Subaru: “Yeah,”
Subaru: “Just remembering it gives me shakes, but... this time, I was eaten.”
Subaru: “And by these stupid, tiny little hand-size rabbits. Apparently omnivores, and apparently
hungry. They gnawed my whole body with not a part to spare.”
His phrasing softens it, but there really is no describing that atrocity.
The memories of teeth biting him, his flesh and bones and blood being violated, still now asserts its
existence in a deep part of Subaru's mind. He forces it back down, managing to keep his calm.
Echidna puts the back of her hand to her lips.
Echidna: “...Encountered the Sizeable Hare, is what happened.”
Subaru: “Sizeable hares?”
Echidna: “Not in size, in quantity. A sizeable number of hares also said the Sizeable Hare. A part of
the Witch of GLUTTONY Daphne's unpropitious legacy—one of the three.”
Subaru: “The Sizeable Hare is...”
The name of one of the three witchbeasts Echidna, and also Julius, had mentioned before.
White Whale, Blacksnake, and the Sizeable Hare. All of them being witchbeasts terrorizing the
world for 400 years, and all subordinate to the Witch of GLUTTONY Daphne.
Subaru: “Just when I think the White Whale's down, instantly here's the Sizeable Hare please
don't...”
Echidna: “If the Sizeable Hare's your enemy, your enemy is beyond terrible.”
Echidna's expression is dark, giving Subaru a bad feeling.
Subaru: “There was this anxiety with the White Whale, too, but... which one's worse?”
Echidna: “Comparing purely by combat strength, almost definitely the White Whale. But if we're
talking about which is harder to destroy, undoubtedly it's the Sizeable Hare.”
Subaru: “Hard to destroy...”
Echidna: “Listening?”
Echidna raises a finger.
Echidna: “You may be thinking that it's the same as a normal witchbeast, an opponent that's just a
little more troublesome than usual.”
Subaru: “No, I've at least figured out they don't match up with their loveable appearance...”
Echidna: “The Sizeable Hare, more accurately, would be a natural disaster. Always moving in a
drove, a bundle of instincts operating only off insatiable hunger. Every creature there out there is its
food, and there is not a single thing it does but consume. Once the Sizeable Hare has passed, all that
remains is an unpopulated field. The crops and fruits suffer not a speck of damage. All it will eat is
the living.”
Subaru swallows his breath. Echidna's expression is hard, and Subaru already knows what she's
saying isn't exaggeration.
The depopulated SANCTUARY, and his body being eaten by a drove of tiny rabbits.
If that was the Sizeable Hare, then the empty SANCTUARY was undoubtedly because everyone had
been devoured by the witchbeast.
Emilia, Ram, Lewes, Roswaal, even tiger-form Garfiel—none would be exceptions.
Locusts—is the word that skims though Subaru's mind.

The result of grasshoppers undergone transformation, groups in huge numbers ravaging fields,
considered crop-destroying famine-bringing natural disasters.
The Sizeable Hare behaved in a similar way.

Although, the hares consumed living creatures, and their inexhaustible hunger brought a far more
directly life-threatening danger than a plague of locusts.
Subaru: “Do you know if it's possible to defeat them?”
Echidna: “Individually their strength isn't anything serious, but you best pay mind that that thing
moves in a drove. There's no purpose in it no matter how many of them you repel, and if they spot
prey even once, they won't stop until it's eaten or they're dead. They're HUNGER itself.”
Subaru: “Waitwaitwait. I mean, is there anything... like, if the Sizeable Hare moves in a drove, there
should be some kind of boss leading the drove. Can you defeat the boss and the whole drove
collapses?”
The rules of the human world state that if you eliminate the head, the group will fracture to nothing.
Though considering the rules of the animal kingdom, maybe it just means the second-in-command
would become the head.
That said, Subaru doesn't know the lifestyle of witchbeasts too well. All he can do is cling onto
Echidna's knowledge. But she shakes her head.
Echidna: “You seem a little mistaken. The Sizeable Hare is a drove, but it knows no concept of
boss. All that thing is is truly the instinct of HUNGER. It eats other creatures to sate its starvation,
lacking any other mechanism to it. It multiplies by dividing, staving off hunger though cannibalism
when no prey is around. They don't even have a sense of fellowship.”
Subaru: “Cannibalism... wh-just why the fuck were these monsters made!?”
Echidna: “Now, that's something only the person who made them would know. Though at least
Daphne herself doesn't have quite as much of an appetite as the Sizeable Hare.”
Subaru shivers at the hares' horrifying lifestyle.

Following instinct to eat other living beings and remain alive was a true principle for all creatures.
Humans, animals, and even witchbeasts all seemed identical on that front.
But the Sizeable Hare, multiplying by its bodies dividing and propagating no young, wasn't even
that. Far from it—leaving its numbers high after multiplying, the individuals would eat each other
to stave off hunger, diverging far from the ordinary course. A monster.
Subaru: “Hypothetically... yeah, hypothetically if I were to destroy the Sizeable Hare, what do you
think I should do?”
Echidna: “Honestly, I think that's a 'what should I do to evaporate all the droplets in a rainstorm?'
kind of question.”
Subaru puts his hand to his forehead, dizzied at the height of this hurdle for defeating the Sizeable
Hare.
Subaru: “The Sizeable Hare's still defeatable, if you kill all of them.”
Echidna: “That'd be pretty reckless. As far as I know, the only ones who could probably do it would
be Reid Astrea and Sekhmet. Reid's overwhelming swordplay would kill them all with none
remaining. Sekhmet... there's an affinity problem, but she'd destroy them in one second.”
Subaru: “Heard about these two before, but they really are monsters...”
Sekhmet arises in Subaru's mind. Subaru's impression of her being someone who considers every
single action a fucking bother isn't going away, leaving her an entirely suitable witch for the title of
SLOTH.
Subaru: “Hold on.”
Recalling his interaction with Sekhmet, a light appears inside Subaru.

A dim, flickering light, but it's more than enough to illuminate this dark dead-end, and it's
something he absolutely needs Echidna's help for.
Subaru: “Echidna.”
Echidna: “What's that serious expression for? ...No, we can't. You're living and I'm dead. This fated
intercourse of ours is merely temporary illusion, a transient dream. No matter how heated a gaze
you pour upon me, I...”
Subaru: “Uh no, sorry for this while you're getting worked up but that's completely wrong.
Seriously, completely wrong.”
Dumbfounded at a somewhat dejected Echidna, Subaru again enters the main topic.
Subaru: “Echidna, I want to meet the Witch of GLUTTONY—to meet Daphne.”
Subaru: “You let me meet the witches of PRIDE, WRATH, and SLOTH at this tea party before. You
said back then that you were managing the other five witches or something like that.”
Echidna: “...Gathered, it was. Traces of who they were before death indeed are within me. If I were
to disembark them from the vessel I am, yes it would be possible for them to manifest. Possible,
but...”
Echidna's brows furrow, troubled. Her gaze putters about, eventually coming to look at Subaru,
having trouble speaking.
Echidna: “I really think you better not meet Daphne.”
Subaru: “Why. I think I've already experienced over this period that witches are finicky, but I'm
prepared. No matter what comes out, I won't regret it.”
Echidna: “Before we get to regretting, by my opinion, you and Daphne would have terrible affinity.
Or you could even call it horrid. Even if you met her, a useful conversation wouldn't...”
Subaru: “Don't know until you try. It's trial and error—words you're apparently fond of.”
Taking action to procure results is something I approve, Echidna said.

Echidna gives a 'guh,' her expression looking as if jabbed in a sore spot.
Subaru: “And also,”
Subaru: “You're the one certifying I don't have to worry about my life in this place. Not saying I'm
being optimistic, but if I at least don't have to worry about losing my life, there's no loss in trying.”
Echidna: “You realise I can't deny the possibly that your spirit will break and you'll be a cripple?”
Subaru: “I'm trusting you to pull me out before that happens. Come on, Echidna. When it comes to
depending on others, I'm the best in the damn world.”
Subaru gives a thumbs up. Seeing his incredibly frivolous attitude, Echidna's eyes progressively
lose their will to resist.
Echidna: “...All right. I'll let you meet Daphne.”
Subaru: “Yess, thanks.”
Echidna: “But let me just say this. Absolutely do not unfasten her restraints. And you're banned
from touching her. Also I'd like you to try to avoid eye contact.”
Subaru: something seomthing following all those makes me mega creepo but okay!!!
Besides, Echidna's statement had some incredible words mixed in there.

Subaru goes to inquire about them—but Echidna finishes preparations before he can.
Same as last time, there is absolutely nothing foreshadowing it when Echidna prepares to present a
witch. Subaru blinks, and in the space where Echidna was, is now a completely different person.
That's also the same as last time.

But,
Subaru: “Hold up... this, is...”
What appears before Subaru's eyes makes his cheeks stiffen.
There, in front of Subaru, is the Witch of GLUTTONY—Daphne.
—Inside a coffin, her entire body bound immobile in restraints, her eyes sealed behind a thick,
black blindfold, is the witch-girl.
CHAPTER 47: PARTNER OF POOR AFFINITY
Subaru: “Poor affinity with me, but does anyone with good affinity here even exist!?”
Tsukommis Subaru at the completely restrained girl.
The Witch of GLUTTONY—or so purported—has appeared here before him.

The girl settled inside the slantways-standing coffin looks about 150 centimetres in height. Her
shoulder-length grey hair is tied in pigtails. Pale and dainty, with a small chest—or really she still
looks like a 13, 14 year old child.
Subaru: “Held stuck in restraints, and both eyes covered... agewise is a surprise, too...”
Anyone in her age group would yearn to have SUPERNATURAL ABILITIES BEYOND REACH OF THE
ORDINARY MAN or DANGEROUS LATENT POWERS ORIGINATING FROM AN OUTSIDER, MY OWN
WILL SEALED AWAY.
Thinking back on it, Subaru had also admired concealed-weapons users he'd read about in manga
and put sewing needles in his school uniform, back in his middle-school years.
Subaru: “Well, after that time I fell over and got stabbed by needles everywhere I cried and
stopped.”
Looking back on that episode of his dark history, wherein he had lacked anyone to even show his
chuuni off to, Subaru has trouble deciding how to approach this witch. All the witches Subaru's met
so far got their nutso first attacks off before Subaru could do anything, anyway.
But the witch in the coffin just sits there silent, not showing any reaction.
The start is critical, is the weight of the silence pressing down on a Subaru hesitating on how to cut
the ice. If he at least knew whether she was friendly or unfriendly, he could choose whether to go
for being buddy-buddy or go for being a trolly bitch.
Both waiting for the other to move, the quiet dominates the hilltop tea party.
Further eating away at Subaru is the overwhelming pressure radiating from the witch before him.
Despite being immobilized and blinded, that this petite girl nonetheless exerts threat is perhaps truly
fitting of a witch.
Echidna happily got him involved with the witches of PRIDE, WRATH, and SLOTH, but hesitated on
this one.
Just how definitively different from the others was the Witch of GLUTTONY, Daphne?
Daphne: “...mn,”
Subaru: “—!?”
Brow sweaty from the stress, Subaru wipes his forehead to keep it out of his eyes—when Daphne
moves, and Subaru shudders.
The neck of the coffin-bound girl stirs, her respiration reaching Subaru. Wondering what she'll do
next, Subaru goes on full caution. And,
Daphne: “...zzzmnuh, mmn”
Subaru: “—You were sleeping!?!”

Daphne: “—hnawhuh!?”
Subaru enters tsukkomi mode the instant hears what sounds like sleeper's breathing. The grass gives
a good crunch as he jumps up, the witch in the coffin startling awake at the sound and his voice.
She shakes her head left and right, eyes yet sealed.
Daphne: “Wh-wha-at is it? There are peo-ple-who-are, slee-ping here...”
It's unclear if her floaty-toaty speech is due to her waking up, or if it's just a thing she does—but
either way, the overwhelming pressure disappears.
Just me getting the wrong impression? Wonders Subaru, unable to hide his fatigue.
Subaru: “Y-yeah, my bad. I got kinda heated up. I didn't mean to yell.”
Daphne: “Umm, but getting startled like that, is ki-n-da a problem for me...”
Subaru: “Ghuh... I apologize. So please feel better. No getting mad.”
Daphne: “Uhm, but I'm not mad? Being mad means I'm go-ing-to-be, hung-ri-er. But an-y-way, just
who are you?”
Daphne rejects his apology and immediately gets to casually asking her questions. The
conversation's barely been two, three lines long, but the rhythm's already getting chaotic. Subaru
gets the meaning of what Echidna said.
—This witch's pace for conversation doesn't match with Subaru's at all.
Sighing, Subaru gives a light shake of his head and expels his displeased expression, giving her the
utmost in friendly smiles.
Subaru: “My name is Natsuki Subaru. Invited to the witch's tea party by Echidna for reasons, a...
well, a tea-drinking friend. Yeah, something like that.”
Daphne: “Wow, so Idna-Idna has friends. Subaruun too, don't you think it's bet-ter-to choose your
friends? If they hear-you're-friends, with-a-witch, your real friends and family, might, hate youu...”
Daphne starts running out of breath at the end, her shoulders heaving up and down inside the coffin,
blatantly exhausted.
Subaru: “Hey,”
Subaru: “Why're you so tired out? Does that coffin drain the life out of whoever's inside, or
something?”
Daphne: “Not really, no? I just get ti-red, ea-si-ly, or when my stomach's rumbling I have no
strength, or... is there, some food, around, any, where... haa, haa...”
Subaru: “Panting just from having a conversation's like the peak of sickly children here... The table
only has 'Chidna Tea and some cookies on it for food.”
They're more like cookie-ish mystery sweets. Considering the tea is Echidna's bodily fluids, the
possibility exists that these cookies are also made of 'Chidna. Subaru had purposefully not gone for
them, but Daphne's reaction is extremely clear,
Daphne: “Cookies!?”
Daphne: “Y-ye, ye, yes, that's good. Good so, into my, stick-it in-my mouth, please. Hurry, now,
hurryy...”
Subaru: “If you ignore where we are, that has incredible potential for misunderstandings so could
you please be a little more careful!? Well, but I'm not enough of a sadist to make someone who
wants it so much wait.”
Subaru picks up the plate of sweets, approaches Daphne's coffin, about to bring the cookies to her
mouth. But, before he can—
Daphne: “Ah, but but but, Subaruun can you, wait for a mo-ment?”
Subaru: “Hrn? What. Just saying, the flavour's probably one of a kind. Doesn't look like there's
chocolate in it so it's plain. If you're gonna say that's no good, all I can tell you is” nintama rantarou
reference you must eat all the eggs.
Daphne: “That's not it... I know it's weird, to-say-this, when you're fee-ding me, but please don't get
too close to me, Subaruun.”
Subaru: “That is a pretty damn tricky request when I'm feeding you, that!”
Daphne rights her posture inside the coffin somewhat.
Daphne: “Please don't mis-un-der-stand though, Subaruun, I don't think you're gross or hate you or
find you just unbearable.”
Subaru: “Those assurances just made you less credible! The reason! Please tell me the reason!”
Daphne: “If you get too close to me, with your smell, that's kinda poison.”
Subaru: “My BO's poison now!?”
Subaru frantically raises his arms and gives himself a sniff. He doesn't smell anything nose-turning,
but then again humans are just bad at smelling their own scent. He looks himself up to down.
Subaru: “Smell? I smell? You do know I have been bathing while in SANCTUARY? While yes for
some proper soap I'd have to go back to the mansion, but considering I'm with Emilia at least the
minimum presentability's... no, this is a mental world anyway, do unpleasant surface things like that
even carry over?”
Daphne: “Nooo, that's not what I mean. Come onn, ummm, you-just-don't, un-der-stand, you
Subaruun.”
Subaru: “No I don't understand! Stop talking like you're bullying me! Now in a way I can
understand it: say!”
Daphne: “If I smell you, Subaruun, and start thinking I want to eat you more than the cookie, it'll be
a problem I think.”
Subaru: “...Huh? I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understood what you said?”
Daphne: “I like meats more, than vege-ta-bles, or I like soft things more, than hard things, that
kinda thing...”
A chill runs up Subaru's spine.

He holds his breath and stares at Daphne. Her situation is still exactly the same as it was at the start
—still in the coffin, restrained so that she can't move, her eyes blindfolded.
Daphne: “From what I can smell, your meat is muscled, and-sin-ew-y, your bones, are-thick-too,
and I really, reeeaallly... think you're to my taste. Your smell's so nice that if you come close, I'll
want to eat you...”
Subaru: “E-eat me... like, eat out raw?”
Daphne: “Like, eat raw...”
Subaru swallows his breath, quickly getting the hell away from her, and grabbing one of the cookies
from the plate.
Subaru: “I-I'll be throwing aiming at you, but sorry if I miss your mouth, okay?”
Daphne: “It's okay, Subaruun. Just kind of lazily hurl it, to hit-the-co-ffin. I'll grab it myself.”
Subaru: “That sounds amazingly disconcerting, but... okay, here goes!”
Subaru lobs the cookie with a light overhand throw. It flies through the air in a parabola, landing
neatly in Daphne's mouth with unexpected accuracy. The result of absolute concentration and never-
before-seen control. She catches the cookie on her tongue, swallowing it up.
Daphne: “Mnmnnmm... mmm, yummy. Idna-Idna's flavour.”
Subaru: “I can't tell if that means she hand-baked it, or that it really was some kind of black-magic
cookie with her body parts in it, but... next one's coming.”
Daphne: “Yess, I can't wait. More... come on, gimme more...”
Subaru: “You're throwing off my aim so could you please be quiet?!”
Ignoring Daphne's sexually-scented pestering, Subaru throws the next cookie. Playing around with
food would probably earn a scolding, but with Subaru's seriousness in this, he would not be
applicable for reprimand.
Daphne has to move her head around a bit, but the cookie lands well in her mouth. Subaru relaxes
in relief that they can probably clear the whole plate like this, when—
Subaru: “—Ah,”
A strong wind blows over the hilltop, throwing off the light cookie's trajectory. Its aim shifts, now
headed over the table and for the side of the hill. At this rate it'll fall and be food for the ants—is
what Subaru thinks, when,
Daphne: “Nooo... that's a waste.”
Daphne's abnormal sense of smell detects that the cookie went off-aim. She follows the cookie's
demise with her sightless vision, and the next instant, Subaru sees it.
Subaru: “—!?”
Sharp claws gouge into the earth, bringing destruction, making a terrible noise.
Up rises a cloud of dust, the horrid noises sounding out in succession to arrive at the spot of the
falling cookie.
Daphne: “Ah, mmn.”
Daphne stretches out her neck, catching the cookie between her red lips and happily slipping it into
her mouth. She chews with inaudible quiet. Once the snack's settled in her stomach, her pink tongue
wets her lips and she gives a sensual 'hohh'.
Subaru is speechless.
Noticing his silence, Daphne gives a small sniff.
Daphne: “Subaruun... you know there's-still, two-left? Don't be mean...”
Her cheeks red and lips trembling like a songbird, Daphne definitely looks a loveable girl.
Were the irregularity of the blindfolded eyes, full-body restraints, black coffin—
Subaru: “...No, being unfazed here's impossible.”
—And crab-legs sprouted from the coffin to cart her around absent, that is.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Subaru: “What... is that, am I okay to ask?”
Not recovered from the shock, Subaru continues with the cookie-throwing. His trembling fingers
throw off the aim, but thanks to the coffin's speedy footwork, they all land safely in Daphne's mouth.
Enjoying the sweetness to her heart's content, Daphne gets all 'mmmnnmmm,' but somehow
manages to notices Subaru's strangled question.
Daphne: “What is 'that'? I can't see, so I don't know.”
Subaru: “That... incredible, exquisitely glimmering mobile coffin there. By my narrow, shallow
knowledge, coffins don't have legs, and they don't really zip around in insectoid motions...”
The coffin, with Daphne still settled inside, clatters back to reach her original position. The base of
the coffin flomps to the ground and the crab-legs retract like a turtle withdrawing its arms.
Apparently comprehending what Subaru's getting at, Daphne smiles.
Daphne: “Ahh,”
Daphne: “You mean the cen, ti-pede co-ffin? It was inconvenient not being able to move, so I made
him. He's always so quiet. He's a really good boy.”
Subaru: “Made... that's, a living creature... is it?”
Even if it makes organic movements and has organs, Subaru isn't convinced this thing applies as a
living thing. Though that said it's clearly not a machine.
Daphne: “He doesn't eat or, drink a-ny-thing, but the centipede coffin does suck up mana to live. He
has no empty stomach, makes me so jealous.”
Subaru: “It eats mana... Or no, probably don't need to probe into that. Anyway, you said that you
made it? You can make living things?”
Daphne: “Li-ving things, or really, witchbeasts... It's kinda like, when my will, or my mood, or stuff
like that, is all woozy, I just make them.”
Daphne squirms in the coffin, spouting words that give no concrete image of what this entails. But
Subaru can sense off the vague feeling of them that what she does is outrageous.
—Creating living creatures is surely the work of gods.
Humans in the original world had been getting into forbidden sciences of eugenics and cloning, but
creating something from nothing was absolutely the work of gods.
Though, whether that should be considered a blasphemy on life or attainment of arcane secrets
depended on the person.
Subaru: “No, way... Daphne's unpropitious legacy... and creating witchbeasts, meant exactly what it
implied?”
Daphne: “Hnnn?”
Subaru: “The White Whale, Blacksnake, Sizeable Hare... are they all like that crab-coffin, things
you created?”
Daphne: “Mmmhuu... Those are all, nos-tal-gic names. Yes, they are. The wha-le, and the snake,
and the hare, are all children I made.”
Subaru: “Why!?!”
Subaru closes the distance between them, baring his teeth, spit flying. His face goes red with anger
as he jabs his finger at Daphne.
Subaru: “Why the fuck did you make those monsters!? In the outside world, four hundred years
after you died! Do you know just how much damage they've done!? How many people, tens of
people, hundreds of people've met terrible fates...”
Subaru thinks back on the fight with the White Whale.

Wilhelm's screams and tenacity, and the cries of rage from the knights in the battle—all originating
from the White Whale, a disaster borne from the witch who birthed the whale.
Then was the Sizeable Hare attacking SANCTUARY, too. If Subaru's efforts fail to bear fruit, Emilia
and all the people in SANCTUARY will be devoured.
Subaru: “What for!? Say it! Why did you create the cause so many people've suffered, create those
horrible monsters!?!”
Daphne: “...? But is-n't-it, more fill-ing, to eat something big?”
Subaru: “—au, uh, wha?”
Daphne answers confused. Subaru comes to a halt at her unexpected answer, making dumb noises
quicker than his tongue can catch up to speak. Daphne looks mystified.
Daphne: “The White Whale, was rea-lly-big, wasn't he? Don't you think if he was eaten, lots of
people would fill their stomachs?”
Subaru: “What, are you...”
Daphne: “And the Size-a-ble Hare, can keep mul-ti-ply-ing. He'll multiply even if you just leave
him alone, and so with him, you'll never have to worry, a-bout food a-gain.”
Subaru: “Multi... hwa?”
Subaru's hearing what she's saying, but the meaning isn't getting into his brain. And supposing
hypothetically that these words she's lining up mean exactly what they imply, Subaru doesn't
understand what this witch here is saying. Truly, from the bottom of his heart, what is she saying?
The meaning—
Subaru: “Th, en... what? You mean you created the witchbeasts to solve food supply problems? You
made the White Whale and the Sizeable Hare to save people suffering from starvation? Even though
how thanks to your thoughtfulness, so many people have died to those things!?”
Daphne: “...? Don't you think it's kinda su-per sel-fish, to eat something, without considering you
could be eaten yourself?”
Subaru goes silent.
Daphne: “And, if you add up humans and demihumans, I kind of won-der, if there aren't just, way
too many people in the world. I think if they can lower that count a little and order things, that'd
probably be good.”
Subaru: “Th-then the White Whale spitting existence-erasing fog, and the Sizeable Hare ravaging
villages as much as it wants, are...?”
Daphne: “I don't care so far, as their hun-ting me-thods. How they grew up, and how much they eat,
and where they eat... even if I cared, it wouldn't fill my stomach.”
Seeing Daphne smile as she speaks, Subaru finally understands what Echidna meant.
Subaru and Daphne have poor affinity, said Echidna.

Subaru had judged that meant Daphne's exceptionally slow and casual nature clashing with his own
impatient one, but that thought was probably overly optimistic and misdirected.
—Subaru and Daphne's sense of values didn't align.
Or no, this wasn't just limited to Subaru. Nobody would fit with Daphne's value system.
She considered things from a viewpoint in a different dimension from humans and demihumans.
She wouldn't even support the witchbeasts she herself had created.
Survival of the fittest—this was the only point of consideration for her. She treated all thoughts as
trifling except for acknowledging, propagating, and eating food.
Subaru has no words. His mental makeup fundamentally differs from hers.
Meeting the witches he had so far, Subaru had mis-thought that they all had their problems, but
were capable of conversion. But she was a witch. They were witches. The only seven in the world,
real-deal witches.
Daphne: “You do this too, Subaruun, but... don't you think, ev-er-y-one, looks far too lightly at
GLUTTONY?”
Subaru goes silent.
Daphne: “The desire to eat, since you're living, is the most important desire there is. I mean, if you
don't sate it, you just can't live.”
Daphne: “Even if they know no peace, even if they are unloved—even if they can't main-tain their
ego, even if they can't vent their emo-tions—even if they can't get what they want, even if they
aspire for nothing, a person won't die. But...”
Daphne: “People will die, if they can't eat.”
Of the seven deadly sins, only GLUTTONY held a direct relation to life.
The correct meaning of GLUTTONY is desire for food more than what is needed. But in this situation,
Daphne's pointing out the necessity of desiring to eat to stay alive.
Subaru can't deny it. Yes, what's she's saying has truth to it as a principle of living. But believing
that this comprises everything is mistaken.
Subaru: “What you're saying's partly correct... but, that kind of thinking's...”
Daphne: “Maybe you should try being starved your limit too, Subaruun? If you do... then I'm sure
you'll understand the mea-n-ing, of what I'm sa-y-ing.”
It's an exceedingly witchly proposition.

Daphne leans herself up from the coffin. Alongside the sound of ripping paper, the belts restraining
her easily unfasten. Pushing the restraints aside with her arm, Daphne lands barefoot to stand upon
the field.
She shakes her arms and legs, checking the condition of her stiffened body.
Daphne: “I hate walking with my own feet, it makes me, just hun-gry, it really, does...”
Those little warm-up exercises are enough to get her out of breath.
But Subaru doesn't move a single step. Even his breathing is sealed off.
The immense pressure radiating from this little witch grabs Subaru and doesn't let go. It's as if he's
gripped in the palm of a giant.
Daphne: “It'd be nice to go on and eat you, Subaruun, but I think Idna-Idna, and Met-Met would get
mad... hnnnm, just the left eye, should be okay.”
Standing before Subaru, Daphne's hand goes to blinder covering her eye.
Don't unfasten her restraints, don't touch her body, don't look in her eyes—these were the warnings
Echidna had given Subaru before unloading Daphne.
However, she freely unfastened her restraints herself, and though it doesn't seem she's going to
touch him the pressure keeps him in place. And for the final warning,
Subaru: “—”
Her left eye was golden.

And completely mundane, just the round eye of a little girl.
Flipping up the cover on her left eye, Daphne stares at Subaru. The piercing gaze keeps him stuck in
place. And eventually,
Daphne: “That's e-nough.”
She says, returning for the coffin with her movements as beleaguered as always. The coffin moves
to tenderly catch her as she practically collapses into it.
Daphne stirs inside the coffin, trying to find the most comfortable position. Subaru, still motionless,
watches on as he silently chews the thing in his mouth.
Yawning, Daphne flips the cover on her left eye back down, blocking off both her eyes. The internal
skin of the coffin peels away, writhes to wrap around her small body, binding her.
Completely trivial, the restrains upon Daphne operate upon her own will.
Subaru: “What, on earth just... or, you, how come,”
Daphne: “You still have-n't, no-ticed yet?”
How come you restrain yourself? Subaru attempts to ask. But Daphne interrupts him, rocking her
body about to check her restraints.
Subaru's brows furrow. And he notices it.
Subaru: “Au, ue...?”
Pain. He notices pain.

Erupting from his belly is a pain so intense a hole feels to have opened there, making him pitch
forward. His stomach constricts in thirst, hunger—starvation. He groans at the unbearable pain,
squirming, falling to his knees.
Drool spilling from his lips, he frantically attempts to bear the pain. And hunger, hunger, hunger
hunger hunger hunger hunger hunger hunger hunger hunger hunger hunger hunger hunger hunger
hunger hunger.
Subaru: “A, au, aauah... hur, ts...”
Famished, with his thoughts in such disarray to almost dispel his consciousness, Subaru loses
cognizance of reality.
He pants and writhes in agony as he rolls on the ground to and fro. The action merely fosters the
hunger. Before long, he settles atop the plain, trembling like an insect.
Starvation to drive a man crazed. He hungers. Life-threatening. An open hole, in his stomach. Dying
and apt to die, no food right now and he will die. He will die. He was dying.
Daphne: “You still have-n't, no-ticed yet?”
Daphne looks down at a suffering, anguishing Subaru—although in reality her eyes reflect him not,
between his voice and her sense of smell she appears to have grasped his condition.
Subaru didn't understand what she meant. Who gave a crap about noticing, he was starving enough
to near drive him insane. Although he comprehended that this was a result of her doings, the
starvation beats out resentment. He needed to satisfy this hunger. That he was barely holding onto
consciousness was thanks to this thing he'd been chewing for a—
Subaru: “—”
What, was Subaru, eating, right now?
Daphne: “You noticed? That's what GLUTTONY is.”
Hearing her words, Subaru notices his right hand—missing the little and ring finger.
Where'd the missing fingers go? No point searching. Right now, in his mouth, his teeth just crushed
his pinky to bits.
Blood flows from his severed nubs, painting the green field with crimson.
Watching the droplets fall, Subaru's mind goes blank.

With the passing of seconds, something comes to fill the blankness. A feeling. Of,
—Ahh, what a waste of blood.
Spurred from simple starvation and thirsting to wet his throat, only disappointment.
78
7 Author's Note from Tappei

<<Danger Level of The Witches From the Perspective of an Ordinary Joe>>
Envy > Gluttony >> Lust > Pride >>> Greed > Sloth >>>>>>>> Wrath
8 Shout out and thank you to all anons who gave me suggestions, second opinions, and advice for dealing with
Daphne's speaking quirk.
CHAPTER 48: COMPENSATION FOR THE TEA PARTY
He hears a roar.
His tongue outstretched to catch the droplets of blood falling from his right hand, Subaru hears the
roar in the distance. Rage. It was enraged. Furious. Someone was angry. Someone was fuming.
Someone was mad beyond reason about something.
—That didn't matter. For now all he wanted, was to sate this hunger.
Chew, chew, chew, but it isn't enough.

What the fuck are two fingers going to sate? Just how could this spilling blood quench this thirst?
Not enough. Not enough. Not enough in the slightest.
He could devour his right hand, devour his left hand, devour his whole body, and it wouldn't be
enough. The hunger had no limit. He simply craved the things he craved. And for that—
???: “—Ghhraaah!!”
Subaru: “——Donald!?”
Stricken with a devastating blow to the crown of his head, shockwaves rise from Subaru's body as
he is squashed into the ground. The excessive force warps the earth, leaving a crater on the hill with
Subaru in the centre.
The perpetrator of the attack, fist still contacting the rear of Subaru's head, takes a ragged breath.
???: “Just no more, why does everyone fight? Violence is the worst... the worst... hk,”
A voice half-sobbing calls down from above as Subaru verifies the taste of the dirt, his
consciousness returning to reality. A droplet of water lands on the back of his head, guiding him to
look up.
The silhouette of the blonde girl is indistinct, in tears, and in the middle of disappearing.
—What just happened to me? Wonders Subaru as he goes to push himself up, when he notices that
his right hand is all healthy.
He immediately says to the disappearing girl,
Subaru: “Th-thank you for healing me!”
Girl: “...Hmpf.”
The witch looks away, her expression sulky as she disappears. All while failing to conceal the
redness of her face, and cheerfulness in her cheeks.
The blonde girl—The Witch of WRATH—vanishes, there again appearing in her place an unsightly
coffin.
Daphne: “Ner-Ner is really such a me-dd-ler. So did this teach you anything, did it, Subaruun?”
Says Daphne from inside the coffin as if nothing big just happened. Subaru jumps to his feet,
instantly hopping out and back from the crater, his expression toward Daphne blatantly cautious.
Daphne gives a sniff.
Daphne: “Good good, being that wary's a must. I mean after all, the only re-lat-ion-ships, in this
world are, ones of eat or be eaten.”
Subaru: “I don't wanna think it's such a bloodthirsty place! What was that!? It was only for a
while... but I was actually insane.”
Daphne: “Starvation to drive someone mad. Ultimate star-va-tion turns people into less than a-ni-
mals. But if you saw my right eye too, you know, it would've been even more interesting?”
Subaru: “...Stop fucking around.”
Subaru determines that she has wicked magical eyes of some form or another. Ram's clairvoyance
also falls under 'eye powers' but is completely devoid of offensive power, while Daphne's is
excessively fiendish.
The moment Subaru made eye-contact with her left eye, he unconsciously ate the fingers of his
right hand out of starvation. So famished that he forsook pain, he perceived everything in his sight
as food to sate the insatiable hunger. Otherwise said—
Subaru: “That's how the Sizeable Hare sees the world...?”
Daphne: “Those little ones were born, ta-king a-fter my stomach being e-spe-cia-lly starving. So
they really un-der-stand the urge to eat each other up.”
Subaru: “Fuck are you saying sounding so nonchalant. ...It doesn't pain your heart to make these
creatures? And when that pompous lecture you gave me was about you saying you know that
hunger. Making your children... yeah, children, experience...”
Daphne: “—? The Sizeable Hare might be hun-gry, but that does-n't rea-lly mean that I am.”
Subaru: “...I was an idiot for asking.”
Parallel lines. Subaru just can't come to an understanding with this witch.
Even her own children the witchbeasts amount to nothing more than a means to alleviate some of
her hunger. Birthing them from her own body for herself to eat, the peak in self-sufficiency.
Subaru: “If you could've just plunged into another dimension where you weren't bothering anybody
and been self-sufficient there, it wouldn'tve been a damn problem for anybody.”
Daphne: “What did you a-ct-ua-lly want to ask me, Subaruun? If you just want to snub me, then all
being awake will do, is make me hun-gr-i-er, so I'd kinda like to have my rest...”
Daphne looks away from Subaru, her body losing its tension and entering sleeping posture.
Subaru finally understands why she's in a mobile coffin with her entire body restrained. Rather than
being caged in to keep the outside world safe, it's to prevent her from losing calories from moving
her limbs.
The coverings on her eyes might not be the same thing, but it's still highly likely that using her
magical eyes does drain her stamina, and the blindfold is to avoid that.
This girl's existence is completed entirely in herself.

A jumble comprised only of the desire to eat—call her the Witch of GLUTTONY and yes, what a
good fit.
Subaru: “Honestly, I think asking this'll be useless, but... what should I do to destroy the Sizeable
Hare?”
Daphne: “Hrnn, you want to destroy the Sizeable Hare? But he's so weak, and easily eaten, and he
mul-ti-plies, a mas-ter-piece among my best works.”
Subaru: “If you can okay the thought of eat or be eaten, then consider the idea of killing an
opponent to live. Kinda want you to approve a survival instinct that isn't just coming from appetite.”
Honestly, Subaru's half given up on getting information from Daphne. It doesn't look like he's going
to get a useful conversation out of her, and in the first place there's no signs of her reciprocating for
a proper talk anyway.
At a glance it might appear they could play conversation catch, but really Daphne just eats up the
balls Subaru's throwing, and then pleads for him to throw another without ever throwing one
herself. But,
Daphne: “Eating is to live, so you also have to a-ccept kill-ing, in order to live... hrrrrn, that's, well,
yes, that is, yes.”
Subaru: “—wha, it got through?”
Daphne: “If I think it's co-rrect, then of course I'll accept it. You Subaruun, just what is it, you think
of me?”
The supreme in witches so far as I've seen, was his sincere opinion, but mentioning that track would
probably end up going on forever so he stays quiet.
Pouting, Daphne lets the silence roll off with an arbitrary “hhrnnn,”
Daphne: “For de-stroy-ing the Hare, Met-Met or Idna-Idna, or Milla-Milla, could do it easy.”
Subaru: “Hold on, it's hard to tell who's who with these nicknames. Idna-Idna... is Echidna, yeah?
Met-Met... Sekhmet-san? And Milla-Milla...”
Daphne: “Camilla... she's LUST. But it does-n't seem, she wants to meet you, Subaruun.”
Subaru: “It's kinda depressing the head of something sexy like LUST dislikes me but, your idea's not
gonna work. You witches can't leave the tomb. You can't help me there.”
Daphne: “...Hrmm, it wouldn't?”
For a Subaru who gets by on strategies utilizing helpers, Daphne's proposal is heaven-sent. That is,
so long as the witches came outside and pulled their shenanigans on the Sizeable Hare and Elsa
only.
Subaru: “Saying you could come outside... Would you be satisfied with destroying, or I guess
eating, only the Sizeable Hare and then going home?”
Daphne: “My stomach's never been sa-tis-fied once in my en-ti-re life...”
Subaru: “Which's why even if you could come outside I wouldn't bring you out, what with you
guys.”
Sticking out his tongue at Daphne's entirely expected reply, he declines her offer.
Daphne: “Mnnn,”
Daphne: “If that won't work, then I think all that's left is to have lots of people wor-king hard, and eat
them all up, with-out leav-ing any. Even those little ones can't mul-ti-ply from zero... haa, haa...”
Subaru: “Nevermind eating, so it's a complete purge, then... But, they'll recover if even one's left
remaining. They move in a drove, but are they always all together?”
Daphne: “They are. They have numbers, but their con-scious-ness is single. The whole group shares
the-same sin-gle consciousness. They don't have the wits to split up.”
Subaru: “I... see. Then they'll multiply again from whatever's left after the extermination... sort of
panic horror punchline isn't happening here.”
It's a guarantee in monster panics that even after repelling the monsters, their numbers will
compound again underground or somewhere from the outliers, ending on a punchline of THE
PREDICAMENT IS NOT OVER!
The Sizeable Hare at least seems to lack the intelligence for pulling a stunt like this off.
Subaru: “Also and by the way, what's the average number of hares in the Sizeable Hare? I mean I
think their cannibalism turns into kind of population control system for them, but.”
Daphne: “...Who really knows? Subaruun, are you some-one, who can count the num-ber of drop-
lets in a screen of fog?”
Subaru: “Seriously that level? ...No, I know you're not reliable. I'll check it with my own eyes.”
Thinking of the number that swarmed Subaru, that scene alone had over 100 hares. Considering that
the whole of SANCTUARY was devoured, it's highly likely the numbers there were near 10,000.
While Subaru mulls over how to eliminate all the hares, Daphne gives a big yawn and looks
absolutely bored, making little chewing motions at Subaru.
Daphne: “Subaruun, if you're busy puzzling, can I be dis-a-ppear-ing soon? I get hungrier when I
exist.”
Subaru: “It makes me hungry so I don't wanna exist is an amazing comment. Yeah, nevermind how
we got here but this did help. Thank you. —And,”
Daphne looks mystified. Subaru says, in a voice as displeased as he can muster,
Subaru: “I am destroying the Sizeable Hare. I've already killed the White Whale. Better not have
any complaints, Mom.”
Daphne goes silent.
Subaru: “Four hundred years—is how long these guys you made outta your good intentions or
whatever the hell reason've run wild. Enough is enough. —I'm erasing them, leaving nothing.”
Daphne: “Grandiose, you humans.”
Daphne's reaction to Subaru's announcement of war is different to all she's shown thus far.
Her mouth splits into a great, wide grin, an expression other than hunger for the first time arising on
her face,
Daphne: “If you-can do-it, do-try it.”
Her red tongue extended and teeth far too sharp, the Witch of GLUTTONY smiles.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
A strong wind blows over the hill, Subaru unwittingly raising his arm and blocking off his own
vision. Blah blah leaves scatter past and shit, Subaru's gazes follow them, he looks back ahead and
Subaru: “Sorry for the big ask, Echidna.”
Echidna: “I kinda knew it would end up like that, which is why I stopped you.”
Subaru: shikatanee “She undid the restraints and took off the blindfold herself. Want some praise on
not touching her.”
Echidna: “Right. Things wouldn't have ended just there if you'd touched her. She isn't so much of a
threat with only her left eye. The real horror of Daphne is her right eye, and after being EATEN.”
Subaru can only lean the fuck away at these terrifying statements. This NOT SO MUCH OF A THREAT
was, as far as Subaru as concerned, already more than enough abnormality to experience.
Subaru: “...You don't have to pull up the status screen for an opponent I'm already done battling.
Though I should probably hear it just in case I get plans to fight a monster like her sometime.”
Echidna: “Monster, is she.”
Mutters Echidna. Subaru realises his mistake.

Daphne is a friend to Echidna. That Echidna can be friends with a thing like Daphne really drives in
the impression of her being a 'witch', but that's that and this's this. Treating a witch like a monster
while in front of another witch was,
Subaru: “Ah, yeah I really wasn't thinking at all. I'm sorry. Got kinda worked up. I have no
comment on that friend of yours. That's all I'll say.”
Echidna: “Huhuhu, you don't need to be so considerate toward witches. Words of ostracism are
familiar for us.”
Subaru: “...I won't use cheaper words on Daphne, but I don't think you're a monster. That much I'll
have correct and in words.”
Echidna's eyes widen, amazed. Subaru averts his gaze, sick of how mercenary his own thinking is.
That statement of his was blatant bootlicking. While of course half of it was sincere, it also came
with the dimension of not wanting to make a bad impression on a helpful witch.
That said, with this calibre, Echidna more than likely saw through it.
Echidna: “No, it won't work. These words of yours won't be throwing me off, no matter how nice it
is to hear them. Do you need new tea and cookies?”
Subaru: “With how damn cheery you are that's not convincing at all! The hell's with your route
being so easy.” this is sad lonely girl tier.
Echidna goes along with the obvious flattery. Worries are to be had for her future.
Although he already knows this isn't what it is—Subaru's chest gives a throb.
Subaru: “I'll be declining your bodily fluids and mystery something-in-there cookies.”
Echidna: “I didn't put my hair or anything in them.”
Subaru: “I can't just trust what you say!”
Subaru resolves never to eat or drink anything here gain. Echidna smiles wryly at his suspicious
gaze, then stares at Subaru, observing. Occasionally, those eyes of hers are just somehow
uncomfortable.
Subaru: “Not fond of that look, where it's like you're seeing through to my insides.”
Echidna: “If looking was enough to see everything of a person, I could gaze at you until you scorch
aflame. ...But anyway, are you aware, or not?”
Subaru: “Of what?”
Echidna: “This is just going off my narrow and feeble imagination, but your condition a moment
ago should have been a pretty devastating predicament for a human. Being defeated by hunger, and
eating your own body, surely isn't anything particularly common.”
Subaru again recognizes how hideous that situation was. That his right hand has all five fingers is
thanks to Minerva's drive-by healing. Subaru thinks to thank her for it, Echidna closing an eye.
Echidna: “Though, the thing with Minerva was just her ignoring my calls and jumping out. If she
catches sight of a wound, she flies out regardless of how she appears. ...Her nature wasn't one to let
her live long. And actually, she was the first of us to die, too.”
Subaru: “The end of the witches... huh. I heard you were all eaten by the Witch of ENVY. But is it
okay for me to ask about that topic?”
Echidna: “Asking the dead how they died, is something difficult to assess whether to doubt as
insensitive or not. There aren't many precedents for it. My personal opinion... yes, right. I don't
really think I'll discuss everything. It ties into the honour of the other five.”
Echidna's not talking about how she died, which Subaru understand and agrees with as inevitable.
Subaru's already died many times, but happily chatting about the cause of those deaths is
impossible. That's just how deep and HEAVY death is.
Subaru: “Thinking like that, it makes you guys some of the few people who can share this feeling
with me.”
Echidna: “...Well, I'm not really so sure. While we have died once, I don't know if it's possible for
us to think in the same way that you do.”
Subaru wants to object to Echidna's curtness, but her grave expression makes the desire dissipate.
She's looking at Subaru, her brows furrowed as if pained.
Echidna: “This relates to that thing about awareness, too, but... have you noticed that your state
right now is awry?”
Subaru: “Awry?”
Echidna: “Your special circumstances of RETURN BY DEATH unmistakably apply as such. So, me
knowing the causes behind that, the only thing I can think is how grievous it is to watch. And even
moreso, if you're not aware of it.”
Subaru: “Sure not getting to the point. I mean, where're you going with...”
Echidna: “Do you think it's normal, to be capable of speaking with someone who made you eat your
own fingers, after being healed, as if it's obvious?”
For an instant, Subaru's breathing freezes.

Echidna carefully observes a stock-still Subaru.
Echidna: “You weren't aware—seems isn't the case.”
Subaru: “...It's a problem of how I observe things. I'm aware that my thinking right now is seriously
abnormal. It feels like for the sake of the most important thing, I'm whittling other things off.”
Echidna: “Other things, being?”
Subaru: “My biggest goal right now is breaking through these standstills. There's the mansion, and
there's SANCTUARY, and there's Emilia as the biggest of those. I've got all doors closed as always
and dunno where to begin, but...”
Breathing in through his nose, Subaru gazes up at the sky.
Subaru: “I've already decided to use the crap out of what I can.”
Echidna: “...Do you affirm RETURN BY DEATH?”
Subaru: “I'm not affirming it. Just, I don't have many tools to use, and this's about my only
merit. ...Don't get the wrong idea, I don't want to be doing it.”
Subaru: “If spending my life'll let me reach the desired future, I'll do it. I've gotten assurance that
the limit on Return by Death is, for now, as long as I can preserve my sanity. All that's left is to
muster up the willpower I lack to its limit.”
Echidna: “Accumulating deaths to ensure your fingertips reach. —Not a resolve an ordinary person
would be capable of.”
Subaru: “It's 'cause I've died too much. ...I've probably started going some kind of crazy.”
Subaru isn't making light of DEATH. Actually, these piled experiences of death have hardened his
conviction that it's something unrecoverable and terrifying. Absolutely. His terror toward DEATH is
only increasing.
That Subaru regardless intends to utilize his own DEATH is simple.
Having seen the ends of worlds wherein he died, Subaru can less bear the DEATH of those he knows
than his own.
If it saved them from inescapable fates of DEATH, he'd spend this recoverable OWN LIFE of his or
whatever indefinitely.
He'll swallow down pain, and suffering, and terror, and everything, die then live then survive.
—This was the basis of Natsuki Subaru's purportedly-awry resolve.
Subaru: “If I can get through with the only sacrifice paid being my exertion, that's how I'll do it.
Look at RETURN BY DEATH and aha, isn't it just the perfect power for my powerless brainless
dependant self.”
Subaru: “Don't degrade yourself like that—esque kind of consolation's what I was expecting?”
Echidna: “It's impossible to say that so lightly, considering the obstacles in your path. If you wish to
do something about this situation, the road to use that is open to you. Though personally I'd be
nothing but displeased about having to rely on ENVY.”
Echidna's not the type to voice easy comforts, understanding the situation. It's not heartening, but
Subaru's grateful to have someone who'll give him a good kick like this.
Subaru: “Guess all that's there's to go over my options while pulling repeats of RETURN BY DEATH.
It's terrifying how many awful experiences I'm gonna have.”
Subaru: “One of the mysteries I gotta solve's what tests you were doing in the test site,
SANCTUARY... but you're not in any mood to tell me, yeah?”
Echidna: “...Nope, I'm not. I did say. I wouldn't want you to scorn me.”
Shaking her head, Echidna denies Subaru's attempt. Subaru clicks his neck.
Subaru: “No choice then,”
Subaru: “If you're not gonna tell me, there's no choice then. I'll run around on my own, uncovering
your preferably-hidden secrets on my own. Not gonna get in the way of that, yeah?”
Echidna: “...There's nothing I can do if they get uncovered. If you're going to entangle with the
secrets of mine you'd hate, force them down prone to the ground, and expose it all in bare daylight,
my only option is to silently accept it.”
Subaru: “This's making it sound like I'm doing something awful so could you please change your
wording!?”
Her cheeks somewhat coloured, Echidna averts her gaze from Subaru.
Subaru can't tell if that was intentional and she's teasing, or if she's just kind of an airhead. From
what he's seen at these tea parties, she's seriously that naive and sort of immature. Subaru goes to
mention it, when,
Subaru: “Nm—”
Still seated in his chair, a dizziness hits him. A feeling reminiscent of standing up too fast rocks
Subaru's consciousness in succession. It's,
Echidna: “Looks like your body's close to waking up.”
Subaru: “The end of this tea party, then... say it's useful and I'd say it was useful.”
Echidna: “Since last time was a surprise case of having nothing to ask. Now, I wonder if I managed
to live up to my reputation as the Witch of GREED?”
All the discussing and teaching and chatting must've made this time's tea party a great satisfaction
for her. Subaru's somewhat reluctant to go, seeing her joy alongside her regret for his leaving
peeking out, but he shakes his head and severs the sentimentality.
It's mysterious how much she pulls the heartstrings, but it's no good getting too much of her
support. She's a witch, and to make it worse, dead. Though that said it's not clear whether the 'witch'
or the 'dead' part is where the 'worse' applies here.
Subaru: “What should I do when I want to come here?”
Echidna: “You mean the requirement for the tea party? Ah goodness no, we can't. You're getting to
depend completely on me. I understand how forlorn you are, having no one to reveal the truth of
RETURN BY DEATH to outside, and having only me to expose your heart to, but I am incredibly
dead, and you're living, and... we just can't, gosh.”
Subaru: “There's nothing persuasive when you're being so weirdly happy and meandering with it!”
How to best judge this incredible upturn in good vibes from Echidna?
Hand on her chin as she glimpses at him, Subaru can't decide on how to approach her attitude. She
hides her mouth, smiling.
Echidna: “Huhhhuhu,”
Echidna: “Don't look so troubled. I am a girl, after all, and sometimes I do want do have some
cheery conversations in this vein. That's all there's to it. I am considering properly the trench
between witches and humans.”
Subaru: “...Echinda.”
Echidna: “So the requirement for the tea party is to scream from your heart of hearts the desire of I
WANT TO KNOW, while in the tomb. The first time was a no-questions-asked invitation, but the
second time onwards won't be so simple. The third time... I think it'll be pretty tricky. A superficial
scream won't reach me.”
This aligns with what happened when Subaru was invited this time. But this means that next time he
wants to come here, he will have to be in straits as or more dire than when he was writhing in rabbit
trauma.
Subaru: “Yeah, I'd really rather not...”
Echidna: “Right? So this might be the last time we see each other. Although, if you challenge the
TRIAL, it won't be limited to this.”
Seems like identical to the first TRIAL, Subaru can meet Echidna at the second and third TRIALS too.
If Subaru challenges the TRIAL in Emilia's place, his reunion with Echidna is likely assured.
Meaning,
Subaru: “See you again at the TRIAL, then. Guess there won't be any tea there.”
Echidna: “If you're so craving to drink, I'd have no reluctance to make some for you at the scene...”
Subaru: “Um seeing the manufacture process's only gonna make me have less urge to drink it so no
that is fine thank you.”
Echidna gives her most dejected expression yet.

Subaru has no clue why she's so insistent on pushing her bodily fluids on him. Maybe she gets off
on having pieces of her become pieces of another person. Sinful.
Subaru: “I guess I'll be disappearing soon... then, thanks for the talk, Echidna. When we see
eachother again...”
Echidna: “Before that, would you mind?”
Feeling his body getting indistinct, Subaru goes to give his goodbye. But Echidna stops him. She
stands from her seat, dress swaying as she walks over to Subaru.
Echidna: “You participated in the tea party, and I've given you a piece of my knowledge... but are
you maybe forgetting something?”
Subaru: “I forgot my stuff?”
Echidna: “My compensation.”
Narrowing her eyes, Echidna pokes out her tongue at Subaru as he tilts his head. Subaru's eyes open
wide.
Subaru: “Compensation...”
He mutters.
Echidna: “Yes, compensation.”
She nods.
Echidna: “I'm sure I charged last time, too, but compensation comes attached with dealings with
witches. Leaving last time's compensation as last time's, what will I be getting as compensation for
this time?”
Subaru: “Well'll paying my respects not work out? I don't really have much cash on-hand, and these
levies or payments've kinda gotten tough for me.”
Echidna: “Your conversation skills for negotiating with witches might be a little lacking.”
Subaru backs away still in the chair, Echidna presses in on him, a sadistic glint rising on her cute
face. She gazes Subaru up to down, wondering just what to take.
Echidna: “Alright, I've got it.”
Bracing himself for what'll happen, Echidna bends down, bringing her face close. Subaru trembles
at the closeness of her lips—when Echidna bends down further, proceeding to Subaru's chest.
Her white hair splayed out and floaty, fiddling around right next to him and lightly scented of
flowers, Subaru's lack of immunization to hot girls gets him flustered.
Ignoring Subaru's mental problems, Echidna touches his breast.
Echidna: “I'll take this.”
Subaru: “...oe, eu?”
What Echidna retrieves from Subaru's chest—grasped in her fingers, fluttering in the wind, is a
handkerchief.
White fabric with a gold border, and the great grey spirit embroidered in the lining.
Subaru: “The handkerchief Petra gave me before coming to SANCTUARY...?”
Echidna: “You really better thank whoever gave this to you. It's packed in with pure feelings of
concern for your wellbeing. In each stroke of the thread and needle is magic which used that as an
intermediary. The power housed in an object like this is overwhelmingly fascinating.”
Subaru: “...Petra did.”
Echidna: “She has feelings for you. Sorry to the girl who sent you those feelings, but I'll be taking
this.”
Her cheeks relaxing at the embroidered Puck, Echidna stows the handkerchief in her pocket. She
backs off from Subaru.
Echidna: “The compensation for the tea party has been collected. From my heart I shall be awaiting
your repeated participation.”
Joking around, she grips her dress and gives a refined curtsey. The consideration for the jokey send-
off isn't like her. Subaru stands from his chair,
Subaru: “Just, thanks for your time. And everything. —Bid you farewell.”
Subaru grasps his clothes in the same manner, giving a bow and making Echidna smile wryly.
A white light envelops the scenery—and Subaru exits the tea party.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
—What Subaru feels once returned from the tea party is the abrupt coolness and hardness of the
ground, and the taste of dusty shit in his mouth.
Subaru: “Uuhgge! Gehhphph! Is this, the default every time...!?”
Spitting out the shit, Subaru uprights himself and shakes his head, urging his consciousness into
sobriety. Checking over his body's condition, he reflects on the happening prior his awakening. He
returned from being eaten dead by the Sizeable Hare, then was immediately invited to Echidna's tea
party. He had a horrible experience thanks to Daphne, firmed his resolve, and returned saved by
Petra's young love.
None are gone from his memories. Relieved, Subaru,
Subaru: “Echidna kept her promise. The tea party's not gone from my memory this time.”
The memory of Echidna is also fresh and in there.

She's a bit flawed in a witchy way, but being that she keeps these promises, and interacts in a
familiar way, it's probably okay to consider her one of his few allies. Though, it was a shame it
didn't seem there'd be many chances for him to possibly rely on her.
Subaru: “And the most important crop from this time... 's saying that really okay, but it was there.”
Touching his chest, Subaru recollects on confessing about RETURN BY DEATH, biting down tight on
the feeling of salvation.
Although it's restricted to Echidna and the other witches, being able to reveal the truth to someone
without worrying was the greatest crop of all.
Hearing the ideas on RETURN BY DEATH from someone more knowledgeable about this parallel
world also counted under this.
Even if that ultimately meat he wound up coming back with the post of the Witch of ENVY being
the cause of it all, and that he'd eventually have to face it.
Subaru: “With that feeling now refreshed, this's the rebirth of Natsuki Subaru. I'm gonna be helping
myself to relying on that witch's power. I'll use up my life any number of times.”
Subaru: “My sense of time's off thanks to the tea party, but this's just after the TRIAL, right.”
Echidna said that he RETURNED BY DEATH to the tomb, and turning his head about to check the
surrounding confirms that this is indeed the tomb. Recognizing Echidna as correct, Subaru goes to
start lugging Emilia out of this place, and proceeds searching for her.
Subaru: “Considering this's right after RETURN BY DEATH, and the third time, gotta think of how to
interact with Garfiel. ...Don't think he'll suddenly try to kill me, but...”
Garfiel's a hasty person. He can't read ahead.

Recollecting on Garfiel leads Subaru to think of his own DEATH to the Sizeable Hare, and prior to
that the massacre of the villagers. A dark feeling boils up in Subaru without his intention.
Repelling the Hare, repelling Elsa, the puzzle of Sanctuary, and getting payback on Garfiel.
Be it a happening in a nonexistent world, Subaru regardless can't forgive it. He had to get Garfiel to
pay up somehow.
Subaru's negative feelings toward Garfiel peak as he mulls this over, but his thoughts abruptly come
to a stop. Because,
Subaru: “...Where's Emilia?”
—Emilia isn't anywhere.
Subaru furrows his brows in unease, straining his eyes in the poorly-lit tomb. But no matter how he
gazes over the relatively narrow space, he can't find Emilia.
This is not regular.
Subaru: “If I'm right after the TRIAL, Emilia should still be doing hers...”
Unable to conquer her first TRIAL, Emilia should be suffering with her past, at Subaru's side.
However she's nowhere inside the tomb. But, Subaru unmistakably did return to just after his
TRIAL.
Subaru: “...”
His premonition was bad.

Emilia being absent was different from conditions so far.
A change which shouldn't have happened occurred because Subaru's actions changed the future. But
what could an unconscious Subaru's actions do to have such an influence?
Stirred by unease, Subaru dashes out of the Trial room, toward the hallway. His footsteps peal out as
he exits the corridor, leaves the tomb for the outside.
Beneath the moonlight, outside the tomb, what Subaru sees is—
CHAPTER 49: LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVEYOUUUUUU
—The peal of footsteps pounds on his eardrums. A sense of unease settles on his skin.
A stickiness accompanies the refreshing air of the tomb. The ground feels to cling to Subaru's feet
as he dashes, sapping his energy with every step.
The sharp sensation stimulating his exposed skin strikes his whole body, as if protuberances have
sprouted from the air itself. In all, feelings to provoke hesitation for continuing forward.
—Subaru already knew a feeling very reminiscent of this.
His bad premonition yet urging him on, Subaru consciously shakes away the discomfort coiling
about his body as he heads for the tomb entrance.
Moonlight spills faintly into the hallway as he runs. He rushes out of the ivy-grown entrance,
feeling to break through a membrane of air as he exits the tomb.
And, he sees it.
Subaru's feet gouge the earth as he skids himself to a stop.

Awkward and most about to topple forward with momentum, the sight which arises in Subaru's
view belongs to some breed of the enigmatic.
That is how completely diverged from reality the scene before him is.
Subaru: “A... shadow.”
That single mutter expresses it all.

A shadow—indeed, only that could describe the scene before him.
The sights of SANCTUARY, supposedly visible from the tomb entrance, are not anywhere in view.
Although the tomb is separated from the residents' dwellings, spotting not a single building from
this position, to Subaru's knowledge, was exceedingly improbable.
The circular moon drifts high overhead, pouring down its glow—but the world before Subaru
abounds in shade. Almost as if fallen into darkness.
Subaru: “—”
Swallowing his breath and hardening his will, Subaru steps out from the tomb's entryway and
toward the duskened SANCTUARY. He leaves stonework floor for earth and grass—supposedly.
His feet do feel the sensation of treading on foliage, but visually discerning it from the darkness
underfoot is impossible. The stickiness on his skin, too, remains unchanged.
Subaru: “E-Emilia—!”
Unable to bear the world's inconceivable lack of landmarks, Subaru calls the name to rise in his
thoughts. His thinking consequently gets in motion, names and faces passing through his mind.
Subaru: “Ram! Lewes-san! Also Otto! You're here, right!? Please come out!”
If this is directly after Subaru took the TRIAL, Ram and the others should have been waiting here for
Emilia's results. The flow of events there proceeded with Subaru shrugging off their attempts to stop
him, diving in, and also challenging the TRIAL.
When Subaru brought Emilia out afterwards, the usual lineup would be there to welcome the two
back. There should have been no great discrepancy this time.
Subaru: “Not here... is way understating it. What's with this dingy atmosphere? Darkness of a paddy
road out in the country doesn't compare.”
An unlit road at night in the countryside, with starlight as its an unreliable sun, was a genuine state
of darkness.
But the situation in SANCTUARY differed from that instantaneous darkness. Here, the glow of the
moon overhead reaches down at least to hit Subaru's body.
However, the light disperses before reaching the ground, creating a night which is vague and
unstable. —The sensation of monopolizing a spotlight, was perhaps a fitting descriptor.
The only visible thing in this darkness is himself. Glancing back, Subaru discovers that even tomb
entrance he just exited is swallowed in darkness and invisible.
The memory of walking through the White Whale's fog comes back.
Lost sight of people to orient from, thrown from the carriage, unsure whether the whale's jaws were
closing in, both his course and reason to live vague as he walked on.
He ultimately exited the fog, where Otto's favourite dragon Frufoo found and aided him.
Perhaps walking through the darkness here would lead to his rescue again.
Subaru: “Am I an idiot? ...No, I am an idiot. What's this dejected, poor loser thinking. Not knowing
what happened means not knowing what will happen. I don't even know what happened to everyone
and I'm worrying about myself, idiot.”
Had he not just steeled his resolve at Echidna's tea party?

No matter what occurs, no matter what hardship assaults him, if Subaru can pay it settled using only
his own life, then that was actually a bargain.
Compared to a future where someone important was wounded and suffered irreparable injury, just
how blessed was a situation that spending his life could re-do?
Trembling in fear at the incomprehensible situation, and losing his life without any proper grasp of
the conditions, was not what Subaru needed to do.
It was to face the incomprehensible situation boldly, and even should he fail to reach the solution,
grasp some foothold and welcoming a meaningful death.
Subaru: “Anyway, what I have to confirm now is...”
Where Emilia, Ram, and everyone else went.
For one instant, upon seeing Emilia missing from the tomb, Subaru wondered whether she had
conquered the TRIAL, awoken, and left by herself. But he immediately rejected the thought. Even if
Emilia hypothetically could conquer the TRIAL and wake safely, she would have no reason to leave
Subaru sleeping.
Subaru knew from his experiences with Emilia that being touched while undergoing the TRIAL
would interrupt it.
Although since Subaru's consciousness was in Echidna's tea party rather than the TRIAL, perhaps
that precedent wouldn't apply.
Subaru: “But still, just leaving me there and exiting doesn't sound anything like Emilia.”
A more Emilia-esque reaction would be to bring the unconscious Subaru outside, or at least rest him
against the wall. That she left without doing either was almost inconceivable.
And call it a somewhat unneeded view, but—Subaru didn't think Emilia could conquer the first
TRIAL on her first attempt.
Knowing how Emilia had struggled with the TRIAL, the theory of her clearing it on her own and
leaving was fishy from the start.
Subaru thus thought it likely that Emilia's disappearance was not due to her own will. Either
someone pulled her out, or—
Subaru: “She returned from the TRIAL completely out of it, had too few mental reserves left to
notice me and left the tomb... isn't an entirely impossible idea.”
But that didn't explain why the world outside was submerged in darkness.
As for the absence of those waiting outside, Subaru's heart shudders with the thought of the
ferocious white hares. But Subaru rejects the hasty idea with a shake of his head.
The Sizeable Hare's attack would come on the night of the sixth day—meaning, five days from now.
He preferred to think that no matter how much the attack was accelerated, it wouldn't come on the
night of the first TRIAL.
—He intentionally averts his eyes from the mystery of the timing of Elsa's attack on the mansion
changing.
That puzzle was another of these unsolved enigmas for Subaru. But if the Sizeable Hare's attack
was identical to Elsa's, and the date could change off random chance, that means Subaru couldn't
influence it.
All Subaru could do was trust that conditions unavoidable even with rampant use of RETURN BY
DEATH did not exist.
Subaru: “What I can probably do now... is call while searching for Emilia and the others, and head
to the cathedral to check the Arlam villagers are safe, I guess?”
Straining his eyes, Subaru worries over the lack of feasibility in his plan. While more or less had an
internal map of SANCTUARY figured, his recollections weren't so polished that he could navigate the
place with his eyes closed.
That was the level of memory power was necessary to venture about in these conditions.
Safely reaching his destination in this situation would be near impossible for Subaru. However,
even the plan of calling out while searching for the others was difficult to accept unconditionally.
Subaru: “If this pitch darkness's someone's doing... it's seriously likely they're not gonna be
friendly.”
With impatience scorching at him, Subaru puzzles over what action would be optimal.
If he wants to reunite quickly, calling out is advisable. That is the optimum for investigating into the
safety of Emilia and the others. But Subaru already knew multiple times over that acting blindly
was foolish. How many times had recklessness cost him his life?
Subaru: “...Fuck. If I don't at least figure out what went on, even if something terrible happens to
me my work won't be done.”
Subaru opts for a cautious strategy at the end of his deliberating.
He quiets his voice and breathing, straining his eyes in the darkness, following his mental map as
best he can to where the residents should be gathered.
The only guides in this world are the certainty of the ground beneath his feet, and the existence of
tomb he exited. Darkness had fallen, but the land before him should be the same SANCTUARY as
ever—
Subaru: “—ue?”
Subaru takes each step slowly, carefully. But he stops within several paces of starting.
Because of the wind.
Subaru: “—?”
He looks up and, although knowing the action is basically fruitless, casts his gaze about. His
attention directs on the destination of the awry breeze.
He felt it. There, on that wind, he had felt that characteristic sensation.
Not the fresh air of the hillock, or the dusty air of the tomb, or an air scented with blood and atrocity
—rather, an air carrying the characteristic scent of having touched something living.
Subaru: “Wha—”
Unsure of where the wind blew in from, Subaru glances back in search of an answer.
The tomb should be directly behind him, but even these few steps forward had rendered its
silhouette invisible.
—Or no, the tomb being imperceptible was not due the darkness.
Subaru: “——a?”
???: “—”
There, standing before him, close enough to feel their breath, in this pitch-black world, is someone.
That he could not sight the tomb was because this someone was obstructing his view.
They were so close, but how had he not noticed them? They had approached him, but why had they
not called? A storm of questions flurries through his brain in the space of an instant.
But even that tempest of doubts dissipates with the immediate presentation of an exact answer.
Nothing could be more easily comprehended.
???: “—I love you.”
Says the shadow to Subaru, affection most enough to bewitch.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
Its voice was muffled.

It spoke with such indistinct intonation that it wasn't clear whether the speaker was a woman or a
man.
The sound differed from a voice passed through a voicechanger, or speech transmitted through thick
fabric. It was more opaque, unclear, patched over by some invisible power operating on his
perception.
But still, the instant Subaru heard those words—those whisperings of love—he immediately and
intuitively understood the shadow's identity. And shuddered.
Thinking on it, Subaru had vaguely noticed the signs ever since just before exiting the tomb.
The stinging, thick miasma. SANCTUARY submerged in shadow. The suffocating pressure engulfing
the surroundings. A world lost entirely of its life.
A sure re-enactment of the time-stopped setting for his trysts with the WITCH.
Meaning, the thing standing before him was,
Subaru: “Wh, y...!?”
Shadow: “—”
No answer. But there it was definitely right there in front of him.

Subaru moves his fingers, checks his breathing, confirms that time is not stopped. The seconds are
ticking by as they should. And despite that, the WITCH is standing before him.
Faced with a threat he hadn't imagined, pure whiteness seeps over Subaru's thoughts.
The shock is enough to make him take everything he had just pledged, to waste not a second for
ascertaining the details of the situation, and dump it.
That was how unexpected meeting the WITCH here, at this juncture, was to Subaru.
Subaru's mouth flashes dry. He forgets even to swallow his breath as his body stiffens. The
overwhelming pressure binds him entirely, going as rigid as a frog glared down by snake.
Going immobile would unmistakably worsen matters. Despite understanding this, Subaru's limbs
show not a sign of obeying the danger signal.
The scale of the problem here was one far outside matters of Subaru's heart or mind.
Subaru's heart wouldn't falter, and his mind blazed with need to do something. But his body and the
entrenched faculties governing it observed the situation coolly and objectively.
That being—Regardless of whether he moved or not, the result would be exactly the same.
Shadow: “—”
The shadow emits no hostility. Subaru senses no malice.

But that doesn't mean it considers him with apathy.
Actually the opposite.
Shadow: “—”
This presence pays him a spine-chilling level of interest.

Its blind, devoted, overwhelming passion—binding Subaru so tight as to never let him escape.
—This shadow had interest in not a single thing except Subaru.
Inside the Shadow was only Subaru. Only Subaru. Only Subaru only Subaru only Subaru only
Subaru only Subaru only Subaru only Subaru only Subaru only Subaru only Subaru only Subaru
only Subaru only Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru
Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru Subaru—.
Shadow: “—IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou,”
The voice echoes in spirals through his head.

His thoughts turn dumb, unable to recognize what this thing before him is. Was he standing?
Sitting? Breathing? Conscious? Living? Dying? He didn't know. Didn't know. Getting not to know.
Its fingers reach for him.

The surrounding shadows rise, spreading with intention to envelop the whole of Subaru's body.
He has no will to oppose. He has no reason to oppose. Oppose, unoppose, swallowed, and what will
come next? But what a nuisance thinking was, and—
Shadow: “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou—”
???: “No fuckin' none'a yer fuckin' around, hraaAAH—!!”
—The next instant, destruction from overhead tears through the space between Subaru and the
shadow.
The shock tears up the imperceptible ground, crashes into the shadow, envelops it—while Subaru
receives the shockwave from point-blank range and goes plummeting backwards.
Subaru: “Uaoeuu—!?”
Tumbling, battered over and over by hard things, most his whole body soaked in shadow, Subaru
somehow manages to halt the momentum. He shakes his head, his stiff body and thoughts both
loosening free.
The flood of white noise clears from his mind to an extent, and although his head still feels stuffed
with sand, the dullness is now somewhat less awful.
Spitting the dirt from his mouth, Subaru looks up and toward the direction he tumbled from—and
his eyes shoot open in surprise.
???: “Situation ain't got no way'a bein' worse, oi. C'n yer move?”
There stands a someone, facing the shadow, his back to Subaru.

Rather small for a man. Short blond hair, with a coarse and blunt intonation in his speech. His
combat-ready posture is low, his leg drawn back and fangs bared with full caution.
Subaru: “Why, did you... me, Garfiel...”
Garfiel: “Eh? Don't fuckin' joke 'round, you fuckin' seen what things are?”
Subaru speaks with his voice trembling in shock, Garfiel answers somewhat annoyed. Still paying
utmost caution, Garfiel edges bit by bit closer to Subaru.
Garfiel: “'M grabbin' yer collar'n jumpin'. Might break yer neck but, grin'n bear it.”
Subaru: “I don't have some mystery constitution where grinning makes my neck any stronge—!?”
Garfiel darts backwards halfway through Subaru's protesting, literally snatching him away. Exactly
as stated, Garfiel grabs the back of Subaru's collar, yanking him up, and prompting Subaru to give a
strangled “gghuek!”. But before Subaru can make any complaints about it—
Shadow: “—!”
—The ground swells, and the shadow explodes.

A wave rolls out of the detonated shadow, surging to crush Subaru and Garfiel. Immediately, the
surrounding darkness too transforms into the same shadow. Garfiel clicks his tongue, his feet
sinking into the dark bog.
Garfiel: “Arrh, fuckin' bullshit! EARTHSOUL BLESSING ain't workin' when the ground's like this—!”
Subaru: “Say Garfiel, my ground's sinking in too!”
Garfiel: “Th' whole area's th' same! W ICKED DEEDS BRING THE WITCH 's, fuck, ain't it just that
fuckin' exactly!!”
Yet being dragged along, shadow starts swallowing what parts of Subaru's limbs have contact with
the earth. The sensations differs from sinking into water, or sinking into swamp or marsh,
considerably irregular.
The shadow was attempting to entwine with him, bind with him, as if to envelop him in smooth
dough, warm and soft. During a state of peace, perhaps it might be nice for that touch to embrace
him wholly.
But being that the situation was horrendous, that idea would have to go declined.
Garfiel: “—Hr, don't yer bite yer tounge!!”
Yells Garfiel, giving a snort and glancing over the surroundings.

He bends his knees, and although sinking successfully leaps. His distance only manages a few
meters with the shadow tripping him up—but the instant he contacts the ground, he again leaps,
leaps, leaps and repeats,
Garfiel: “Hup, hah, hhraah—!”
Although an impermeable night conceals the world, Garfiel beautifully arrives at a spot with
buildings. He gouges his toenails into one of their walls, using it as footing to again leap. He soars
to the building's roof, throwing dragged-along Subaru down to platform and giving a sigh.
Subaru grabs onto a handhold so as not to slip off the roof, glaring up at a panting Garfiel, his face
dimly present in the darkness.
Subaru: “Th-thank you for saving me...!”
Garfiel: “Nnwhat? That ain't the face of a guy givin' a thanks, oi, yer got a problem?”
Subaru: “Have some grievances. ...Since I seriously didn't think for even a moment that you'd be
saving me.”
Garfiel: “Well ain't that just damn treatin' me like'm heartless. 'F yer hate that my amazin' self saved
yer that much, yer fine t'jump int'th'shadow soon 's yer want.”
Subaru: “No thank you.”
Subaru sighs.
Garfiel sets his sights away from Subaru, who peers at him from behind, his heart in the ultimate of
complex feelings.
There was the incomprehensibility of the present situation, but the biggest reason for the
complication was that Garfiel had saved him. Until this instant right here, Garfiel had been the
biggest obstacle for Subaru in SANCTUARY, and a character competing with Roswaal as a target for
his wrath.
Although aware that the change in behaviour is due to the change in the situation, having Garfiel act
so completely different makes Subaru wind up hesitating on how to respond.
Ignoring Subaru's internal confusion, Garfiel glares down from the roof with his expression bitter.
He clicks his canines, muttering,
Garfiel: “S's real bad,”
Garfiel: “'S goes without sayin', but don't look 's n' any mood ter let us go.”
Sliding over to Garfiel's side, Subaru timidly peeks down off the roof. The sight he sees makes him
groan. SANCTUARY exists as little more than a sea of shadow, the majority of the place swallowed in
a deep murk, giving no proper sense of height or perspective.
But even so in the middle of the black there writhes an even darker sable, the shadows churning
around it, inching closer and closer at a sluggish pace.
It had just attempted to swallow Subaru and Garfiel in shadow, the one who filled SANCTUARY in a
sea of shade. And their identity was—
Subaru: “Garfiel. Do you know what that thing is?”
Garfiel: “Gott'n idea sayin' 's some bad shit how it looks, gott'n theory f'r a possibility th's fuckin'
unbelievable, n' gott'n optimistic belief sayin' that ain't possible. Which one ya wanna go with?”
Subaru: “Like 'which one' even damn matters, I'd say they're all hardly incorrect. You're being way
more calm in front of this thing than I th...”
Subaru stops.
While he was dealing with some strong and complex feelings about being rescued by Garfiel, he
was also calming starting on mentally organizing the situation.
One point for sorting was that Garfiel—the guy who expressed so much displeasure with the
Witch's lingering scent, who flipped that incredibly hostile just by sensing the scent on Subaru's
body, that Garfiel—was mysteriously not losing his cool at the thing which acted as the smell's
foundation.
Which was why Subaru had spoken—but seeing Garfiel's expression stops him.
Garfiel: “What'd y'jus' say?”
Says Garfiel, his bloodshot eyes gazing downward, his fangs starting to elongate.
Anger. Rage. Wrath. Fury. His pupils turned to slits, whirling with pure-red emotion. See that, and
who could possibly call him calm?
Simultaneously, Subaru remembers a question he needs to ask.
Subaru: “—Garfiel. They... Ram and the others, what happened to them?”

Subaru: “SANCTUARY was already submerged in shadow when I left the tomb. You're here and
lively, but the others...?”
Garfiel: “...In the shadow.”
Subaru seeks a denial, but what he gets is a cruel answer. Subaru swallows his breath, Garfiel giving
a rueful hum.
Garfiel: “We only noticed somethin' was off th'second after the ground turned int'er shadow. 'F Ram
hadn't blown me away with 'er wind, my amazin' self woulda been swallowed too.”
Subaru: “...And, Ram was swallowed? And Lewes-san, Otto?”
Garfiel: “Yeh, th'were. Granny n' th' noisy guy, all'n one go.”
Looking down at the waves of writhing shadow, Subaru's thoughts run in the pessimistic direction
of wondering just how good the chances of survival are in a word like 'swallowed'.
If being eaten meant being trapped in some alternate dimension, there was still hope. But
considering the sensation from when he touched it himself, that possibility was being far too
optimistic.
Subaru: “Wh-just what is this, seriously, it... why is this, suddenly...!”
Elsa, The Sizeable Hare, Garfiel.

Subaru had just steeled his resolve to challenge all these threats boldly. This incomprehensible thing
washed that resolve away.
Just why on earth had this suddenly welled up now?
Subaru: “Garfiel... what happened to Emilia?”
Garfiel says nothing.
Subaru: “Emilia wasn't in the tomb. ...Was she, swallowed, too?”
Emilia woke up noticing the irregularity, and bounded out of the tomb.
It was Emilia. She wouldn't just stand back and watch as SANCTUARY got submerged in shadow.
She would leap in to save people, without any concern for herself, and—
Subaru: “By the shadow... then, that...!”
Garfiel: “After eatin' Ram 'n the others, th' shadow went into Sanctuary's middle 'n fuckin' drank up
everything. My amazin' self chased after it'n beat it attackin' it, but fuckin' thing wouldn't give. Then
it fuckin' all sudden pulls back so I hurry followin' it n' there's there.”
And that's when the scene from before happened, is apparently what he's saying.
Leaving SANCTUARY behind as hostage, the shadow sensed that Subaru had left the tomb and
immediately retreated. Meaning the shadow's goal yes is in fact Subaru.
A shadow consuming all. Whisperings of love. And overwhelming power.

No need even mentioning its identity. But,
Subaru: “Why the fuck is the Witch of ENVY here!!”
Garfiel: “Ain't th' time t'be askin' that.”
A battle-hungry smile rises on Garfiel's face as he stands up on the roof. Subaru takes care not to
lose balance as he stands too, looking down at the same thing as Garfiel, teeth gritted.
The vast mass of whirling shadow has surrounded the building Subaru and Garfiel are using as their
foothold.
The whirlpool catches the building in its girth, stripping away the ground and structure both, pulling
the building into its swirling orbit.
Subaru: “Uau, aaoauu!”
Feels like a tidal wave, or a grand-scale flood, washing away the whole house.
Experiencing the oddness of a supposedly massless shadow managing this feat, Subaru endures so
as not to be flung off of the rocking roof.
Endures, but enduring isn't going to be any solution.
Garfiel: “'M jumpin' again, grab on!”
Subaru: “—!”
Hurriedly clinging onto a crouching Garfiel, Subaru retreats from the drifting roof alongside
Garfiel's leap. The two shoot off like a bullet, plunging into a forest of trees, slamming into thick
tree-trunk while snapping many branches on the way.
Garfiel: “Hhauhh—!”
Garfiel spears his arm into the trunk, successfully stopping himself and avoiding dropping into the
shadow. Subaru, clinging to Garfiel's clothes, also manages to reach out for a branch and shift
himself over, keeping his posture steady.
Meanwhile resounds the thunderous noise of wood snapping, breaking to bits.
Subaru hurriedly glances back to find the building they were on now sucked into the heart of the
vortex, being smashed into tiny, tiny little pieces.
Destroying the structure of the building, the swirling shadows wash the thing to the true body of the
shade—the centre of the writhing shadow—increasing its mass.
Subaru and Garfiel, watching the destruction, have no words.

The contour of the shadow dims in the slight period of silence. —And the next instant, Subaru gains
conviction that he, and this shadow blurry even from a panoramic view, meet gazes.
Shadow: “—I love you.”
Subaru: “ou, au...”
Shadow: “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou”
Subaru: “—”
Shadow:
eyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIlovey
ouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou
IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIl
ouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou
IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIl
ouIloveyou”
This vast love, blackness visible to the eye, love in the shape of a shadow, loomed to drown him.
The Witch of ENVY, to drown him in love, was closing in—
CHAPTER 50: DISTANT ROAR
The ocean of shadow, pitch-black love, surges onward with Subaru and Garfiel as the targets.
Subaru, upon a great tree's trunk and somehow grasping a branch, has no means to escape. He
glances over at Garfiel beside him, to find—
Subaru: “Garfiel!?”
—him having let go of the branches, and hurtling in freefall to contact the ground. The shadow-
encroached earth moves to pull in his feet. But Garfiel heedless swings his arms down, thrusting
them into the ground, both hands and feet touching the floor,
Garfiel: “'F th' shadow ain't swallowed it yet, how 'bout this hrraaaAHHH!!”
Roaring, Garfiel swings his arms up.

The shadowed ground—mere moments before consumption—consequently overturns in a tableflip
of incredible proportions.
Clods of dirt whorl into the air alongside the massive noise of upturned earth, charging at the
shadow. The supposedly massless shade struggles with the impact for only a moment—before
swallowing the earth-storm just as it did the house, and resultantly escalating.
The wave of shadow compounds in height, length, saturation. The more it consumes, the more
wicked the shade becomes—however, the manoeuvre does birth the slightest delay.
Garfiel: “Yer gonna get left behind 'f yer don't get down quick!”
Subaru: “Uoawuagh—”
Subaru stares dumbstruck at the spectacle, when a sudden impact knocks him from his perch in the
treetops and sends him plummeting to the ground. The instant before the crash, Garfiel's
outstretched hand nabs him at the waist, lurching him to a stop. Flustered, and aware of what
happened, Subaru,
Subaru: “Y-you didn't need to kick me down!”
Garfiel: “Yer judgement's slow. Seems th' thing's attached t' you. Nevermind my amazin' self, you
get caught n' yer swallowed n' over in a second.”
Still gripping Subaru, Garfiel jerks his chin at the intensifying shadow as he gives a ferocious laugh.
Subaru follows Garfiel's gaze to beyond the wave, to the root of the shadow—to the vague outline
of a person with their arms stretched, reaching for him wholeheartedly.
Envy:
oveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou—”
The voice is muffled and distance separates them, yet Subaru still hears it as if whispered into his
ear.
The abnormality of it, practically insinuating the range between them means nothing while ignoring
the laws of physics, sickens Subaru.
Watching this shadow, and having this strong, black passion aimed at him, what wells up in
Subaru's heart is entirely repulsion and discomfort, both unbearable.
That thing was what let him RETURN BY DEATH, and in some sense his benefactor.
But no. He wouldn't accept it. His soul rejected it viscerally.
If it was between the shadow's embrace and jumping into the White Whale's mouth, he'd prefer the
whale.
Subaru: “Garfiel, what do we do!”
Garfiel: “Backing off's all we got! Even Roswaal ain't dependable here. And Ram and granny... and
everyone else, there's no thinkin' they could've resisted that shadow.”
Garfiel clicks his fangs, speaking ruefully.

Unlike Subaru, Garfiel had directly witnessed the shadow swallow up Ram, Lewes, and his other
close relations. Subaru couldn't possibly imagine how deeply the killings impacted Garfiel.
Although, being that he harboured loathsome memories of Garfiel, seeing him in grief was a far too
complex situation for Subaru.
Subaru: “—!”
Presuming the writhing shadow a giant hand, its fingers abruptly reach out for Subaru and Garfiel.
Garfiel evades at the last second, still holding Subaru, with a backstep. He treads onto ground
barely invaded by shadow—if they open distance between themselves and the silhouette standing in
the eye, they'll apparently avoid immediate submersion in the bottomless bog.
Subaru: “We can back off but things'll still be getting worse... what happened to your attacks?”
Garfiel: “Can't break through the shadow dress. Different story 'f I get a full-power hit in, but I ain't
able t'make a chance for doin' it.”
One leap backwards sends them shooting between the gaps among the trees as they have this
exchange. Their speed is enough to leave the shadow behind on the other side of the forest, but they
can't shake off this shadow which is supposed to be pursuing them slowly.
Perhaps this unsuppressable closeness was the shadow's authority or something. And the
abnormalities were not over yet.
Garfiel: “...Shit.”
Garfiel spits, growling in irritation.

His shoulders sway with ragged breathing. Great loads of sweat rise on his brow, his state
uncomfortably different from normal.
Fatigue from carrying Subaru's weight—was not the issue.

Subaru furrows his brows at Garfiel's situation. Seeing Subaru's reaction, Garfiel clicks his tongue.
Garfiel: “Body's heavy. —Shadow's fuckin' stealin' life from what's around.”
Subaru: “The shadow under us is!?”
Panicked at Garfiel's response, his feet not touching the floor as he sways in Garfiel's grip, Subaru
looks down—and shivers at the endless range the shaded ground encompasses.
And excessively belated, Subaru truly realises the threat the shadow presents.
Subaru: “No way—”
—The forest was shrinking.
The trees of the forest surrounding Sanctuary were tall, boasting a canopy thick enough to conceal
the moon and stars. That forest sky, right now, was plainly visible.
It wasn't that the trees were felled, or the leaves burned away. The foliage stands properly and as
usual, the leaves rustling in the wind.
—The forest was low enough that, if Subaru jumped, his head would likely emerge from the
treetops.
Subaru: “The forest's sinking!?”
Garfiel: “'S what'll happen 'f yer ain't keepin' moving. 'Said, 's gettin' stronger more it eats, too!”
The threat of a shadow engulfing all of SANCTUARY compounds, the blackness beginning on
swallowing the entire forest.
Front back left right, no matter where Subaru looks there isn't anywhere untouched by shadow.
They could cross the barrier, leave the forest, and it still seemed there'd be no end to it.
The unforeseen development, and the sudden appearance of the Witch of ENVY. With those two
matters robbing his attention, Subaru had misread the threat this opponent presented.
This was the Witch of ENVY—the one who swallowed half the world, whose aftermarks of terror
still gouged thick, the utmost of calamities.
Subaru: “There's no way this could actually escalate into covering half the world tier, right...?”
Garfiel: “Story's around that it swallowed a whole country. 'F yer gonna laugh the thing off, ya
haveta not know that first.”
Garfiel laughs in agreement with Subaru's imaginings.

The deep weariness in Garfiel's expression results from the negative influence the witch's shadow
fostered, the acceleration of the shade's consumption, and the intensifying feeling of sinking into the
ground.
His feet submerge on every step of the sprint, each footfall rapidly requiring more energy than the
last. Although, speaking plainly, if he was alone, Garfiel could probably escape.
Subaru: “Garfiel, I'm who it's aiming for. So...”
Garfiel: “If yer gonna fuckin' say 'drop me', my fangs're gonna be bitin' off yer fingers digit by
digit.”
Subaru's speechless. But he immediately shakes off the feeling and glares at Garfiel's sweat-soaked
face.
Subaru: “This isn't the time to be saying that! We're both going to be eaten like this! If I face it, I
should manage to buy even just a little time. In that opening...”
Garfiel: “I run? Or call goddamn Roswaal over? Y'know the first thing th' shadow went for was the
village centre. ...Th'villagers and the evacuees, and Roswaal... they're all eaten.”
Subaru: “—. Y-you're positive on that?”
Garfiel: “More th'n what you seen, th' shadow's eaten all of SANCTUARY. 'Less everyone just
happened 't be out n' the woods fer some stargazin', it's positive.”
Garfiel speaks with no emotion, the divergence from his usually-overemotional attitude supporting
his words as truth.
If it wasn't just the evacuees and citizens, but even Roswaal who got eaten, the situation is nothing
but dire.
Being that Garfiel's primary means of attack is close-range brawling, his combat affinity against the
long-range attacker Witch of ENVY is horrid.
Although if Roswaal or Ram, the long-distance attackers on their side, had been around, they
probably could've utilized both near and far attacks to get hits in.
Subaru: “Which means without you there's even less ways to oppose it...”
Garfiel: “And granny! And Ram! And everyone else, all of them eaten!”
Subaru: “—!”
Garfiel: “And you're gonna tell me to abandon even you to it too and shame myself? …Never, ever,
ever. PURARAGURARA SCARS STAY UNFADING 's sayin', 'm never going to be satisfied 'less I bash that
thing up!!”
Howls Garfiel, baring his fangs. His expression hosts unending rage aimed at the shadow—and that
there perhaps seemed something more there, was probably just a mistaken impression of Subaru's.
His precious ones stolen from him, yet his heart howling in more than just fury—if Garfiel was such
a person, then—
Subaru: “Then why's it that with everyone, you...”
Why was it that with everyone, you killed them?

Garfiel as well knew the pain of pillaging and the anguish of loss. Entirely emotions of empathy.
But so why had he committed to such a cruel deed?
Garfiel couldn't have understood what Subaru's strangled question meant. He wordlessly tightens
his grip on Subaru, signalling his lack of intent to leave him behind. The shadow's pace of
consumption having accelerated, Garfiel puts more force in his steps to escape, leaping forward,
forward, flying out of the forest.
Subaru, unsure of how to behave toward the encroaching threat and toward Garfiel, raises his head
in surprise at the sudden opening of his visual field. They've shot out of the sinking forest, into a
clearing. The density of shadows here remains low—with naked earth and short grass, though the
biggest shock for Subaru is—
Subaru: “—Wha!?”
Garfiel tosses Subaru onto the turf the same moment Subaru spots it.
Tumbling across the ground, Subaru scrapples his fingers into the earth to kill momentum, coming
to a stop and shaking his head. His urge to mention the thing he saw beats out his urge to state his
displeasure about being thrown. The seen thing in question being,
Subaru: “Why is Lewes-san...?”
Standing in front of Subaru is a pink-haired girl—or so she appears, but her insides are that of the
aged. Indeed, it is Lewes.
Seeing her standing there with her blank gaze in the back of the clearing makes Subaru tremble.
After all, Garfiel had just told him Lewes had been swallowed.
This is not coinciding.

If considering which information to believe, it would have to be the reality what exists before him.
Meaning, all of the conversation they just had was perhaps a lie.
Subaru: “Garfiel, what is the...”
Garfiel: “...Don't jump't conclusions. I know yer got things you wanna say 'n ask, but there ain't any
time.” something something this is how deep in we're getting
Cutting off Subaru's questioning with a swing of his arm, Garfiel directs his gaze about the
surroundings. He lifts back his chin, faces the sky, takes in a deep breath,
Garfiel: “—σσσσσȠ!”
and he howls, not at a volume to spear through the forest, yet mysteriously quiet in a way that does
spear absolutely through the forest.
Hearing it prompts Subaru to have the situation-inappropriate thought of 'guy can do some animal
mannerisms', but the thing that really stupefies him is seeing the howl's outcome.
Subaru: “—!?”
Silhouettes come shuffling through the foliage, arriving one after another at the clearing.
All of them are short, with hair long enough to nearly drag along the ground. Pink hair, pale skin,
emotionless, round eyes. They wear robes unfitting to their sizes, the sleeves overlong and dangling.
Apparently wearing little beneath the robe, for their legs are bare as they peek through the unclosing
slits.
The silhouettes total something close to 20 in number.

Taking up half the space in the clearing as they stand there, all the girls wear the same face. Not the
same expression. —The same face.
Subaru: “What kind of, joke is...”
Garfiel: “Didn't want t' show yer if I could help it.”
Garfiel's pained mutter doesn't reach a jolted Subaru's ears. Or no, it does reach them, but the
meaning doesn't settle in his brain.
The scene of these same-faced girls—these people exactly identical to Lewes—standing there
together makes Subaru feel as if he's dreaming.
And actually Subaru had had nightmares like this many times. The urge strikes him to file this one
away as another one of those. But,
Subaru: “The scratches from the branches hurt, and my heart too... It's reality.”
Checking the blood oozing from his arms, and the sharp, rapid pulsations in his chest, Subaru takes
a deep breath. Steadying the resolve to accept the scene before him, he again observes the girls.
The Lewes-faced girls not only shared exactly the same facial features, but perfectly identical
expressions. That is, an emotionless, unmoved, doll-like expression.
The Lewes that Subaru knew wasn't exactly someone overflowing with activity, but she was
abundant in emotion, and her actions breathed with the feeling of a living human being.
Subaru: “—”
Subaru can't sense the characteristic feeling of a living person in these girls.
Doll-like, was an expression more than appropriate. Could even just call them dolls.
They breathed, and carried the rhythms of life, but were merely moving dolls—that was the
abnormality of these twenty same-faces, all lined up.
Subaru: “Clones... or, this world isn't gonna have that technology. Offshoots, or magic to create
multiple bodies...? But then why are they all Lewes...”
With the words 'somatic cell cloning' drifting through his mind, Subaru realises something.
That is, why Echidna had been vague with her words about SANCTUARY being a test site, and why
Garfiel had repeatedly and repeatedly cursed the place as deadlocked.
Subaru: “Is this the result from SANCTUARY's tests...? Doubles of Lewes-san. No but, what's even
the point of...”
Garfiel: “Sorry f'r this while yer in th' middle of ponderin', but looks like now's 'bout time.”
Having approached to the side of a Subaru engaging in high-speed thinking, Garfiel's arms swell up.
The bulging of his golden-furred arms rips through the sleeves of his clothes, arms now three times
their usual size in thickness.
Ancestral Return—assuming Garfiel's true form was a tiger, this partial transformation would be the
first step in asserting his trump card.
Garfiel: “Surround n' conquer. 'S simple, but with everythin' else eaten that's all's left.”
Subaru: “...I more or less get what your ace move is, but, erm, the girls...”
Garfiel: “Dunworry 'bout 'em. They ain't like granny, their insides're empty. But they c'n still
manage movin' accordin' to my instructions. 'F they can make an openin', 's a profit.”
Subaru has an overwhelming number of things to ask about this fight strategy and about these
Lewes double. But no time remains for brining it up, or for peaceful conversation.
Garfiel uses his great arms to push Subaru further back into the clearing. Pitching forward as he
follows the rough instruction, the Leweses come to stand in front before him protectively.
Garfiel now stands in the middle of the clearing. Behind him are the Leweses, and at the very back
is Subaru. And swallowing up the forest of trees Garfiel is glaring at is,
Envy:
eyouIloveyou”
Sliding in slowly, the shade's words of love drown out and flow over the forest.
The unceasing revulsion and the ringing of a danger alarm fire incessantly through Subaru's skull.
The witch-shadow raises what is probably where its head is, catching sight of Subaru in its vision.
Envy: “—”
Subaru witnesses it when the shadow's movements adopt a blatant and delighted kind of pulsating.
Helix of shade churning with forest trees, broken treetrunks snapping to bits, the love-whispering
shadow steps closer.
The spreading murk violates the meadow-clearing, turning the ground jet-black in the space of an
instant. Everything here would more than likely, just as the forest had, now soon sink into the
shadow.
Meaning that if Garfiel had any chance of winning, it would have to be taken in the moment before
the shadow began swallowing the clearing, aka now, in this very instant.
Garfiel: “—GGHRRRAAAAAAAAAA!!”
Facing to the heavens, Garfiel's throat gives rise to a thundering roar.

The violent vibrations splitting through the air petrify Subaru to his guts with instinctive terror.
Subaru petrified, Garfiel transforms not only his arms but his legs into those of a beast, slamming
his foot to the ground with all the power he can muster.
The earth bursts in an onward surge, the land under Garfiel's foot as the fulcrum, flipping up the
witch-invaded ground like a seesaw and sending the shadow flying.
A reenactment of when Garfiel and Subaru first met, and he overturned Patrasche, and the carriage,
and the ground all in one shot.
With the shadow launched into the air and lost on where is up and down, Garfiel lowers his posture,
gets on all fours, howling as he spurs his transformation further ahead.
His clothing bursts apart as it fails to bear his growing mass, turning to scraps caught on his golden
fur. His body excels four meters in size, his limbs grow to astounding girth, his mouth fills with
rows of sharp, blade-like fangs.
It was the materialization of the tiger which had conferred Subaru despair and wrath for the nigh-
unpardonable.
Roaring, the wicked beast tears through the air as it plunges for the shadow.
The ground caves in where the beast had stood, tiger plummeting through space at a speed
sickening considering its massive size.
He opens his jaws, fangs capable of shredding metal closing in on the slender shadow's waist—
Envy: “—”
—is when a shade stretches up and catches the tiger from below in its hold. Lost of momentum, the
tiger remains stuck in the air, throat trembling as he shrieks.
Blood sprays from the tiger's entangled limbs, shadow practically announcing intent to twist off the
beast's legs as it constricts them. Arms as thick as Subaru's waist begin shredding apart with the
noise of ripping flesh.
Subaru cannot tear his eyes away from the shrieking, immobilized tiger. The shadow proceeds in its
assault, plucking away its limbs, guts and bloods spilling to the ground—
Subaru: “—ah,”
—is not what happens.

Before the dazed onlooker what was Subaru, two of the Lewes doubles bound into the conflict
between the tiger and the Witch.
The little girls dash with their mouths open, pointlessly flapping their gabs. They fly out of the
shadow with surprising speed, land well on the ground, darting for the witch who gazes up at the
restrained tiger.
Subaru: “ue,”
Leweses: “—”
Arms spread, the girls leap at the witch as if to hug her. But the witch notices before the two
complete the approach, piercing and sticking them both in place with shadow.
The shadow strikes with the pointedness of a spear and flexibility of a whip, slicing the two
Leweses' legs, proceeding to skewer them through their torsos, and then dangling them up to the
yet-shrieking Garfiel's side in display.
An abominable scene, but that laxness was the Witch's mistake.
Garfiel: “—σσσσȠ!”
Although his throat trembles in agony, Garfiel sights the two doubles so atrociously wounded, and
roars in an irregular manner which prompts Subaru's brows to furrow.
Confused as to the meaning of the changed tone, Subaru witnesses the hanging Leweses flash with
abounding pale light—
Subaru: “—!?”
Leweses: “—”
The next instant, the two Lewes explode into light.

It came with none of the unsightly blood and guts of an exploded animal. Their flesh turns to
particles of light, dispersing both themselves and the shadow about the surroundings, returning life
to the world for only a second. Detonate and disperse—but in a manner different from a gory
bombing.
Subaru aggressively rubs at his seared eyes. His vision swiftly returns, allowing him to witness the
protective wall of Leweses rushing for the shadow just as the first two had.
The 18 Leweses scatter in all directions, coordinating the variations in their speeds, surrounding the
Witch. As if lacking any other means for attack, as if intending to cling to the shadow as the first two
attempted, they spread their arms as they dart into the circumference of the shade.
But the doubles move with speed classifiable under the header of 'human being', and their opponent
is the utmost of calamities, the Witch of ENVY.
Although the surrounding Leweses had separated, the skyward-surging shadow splits at the tip into
eighteen shades. Them transforming into sable knives, the 18 Leweses take their respective evasive
manoeuvres in counter. But the spears proceed with mocking accuracy to pierce, rend, ravage the
Leweses' craniums, torsos, abdomens.
Despite spacing their assaults, all the Leweses fall—and after a single beat, every Lewes explodes
into light. The shadow is repelled temporarily, the vortex of shade around the witch vanishing.
Garfiel: “—RRRRRRUUUUGHHHAAAAAAAAARRR!”
The torn-ragged tiger would never miss that opening.
Freed from his restraints over the Leweses' sudden rush, the great beast bends its legs, roaring,
leaping for the shadow's head in the instant following the 18 doubles' dispersion.
The witch erects a wall of shadow to counter the oncoming tiger. But, the tiger strikes the barricade
with the silhouette caught in its clawtips—with the concealed Lewes double, blasts the wall apart,
rides over the pale light, and sinks its fangs and claws into the shadow.
—He's done it, was how the perfection of it prompted Subaru's conviction.
It was an inhuman deed unrepentantly costing 21 Lewes doubles.

Being a direct strike from tiger-form Garfiel's claws, for even a witch survival wouldn't possibly—
Envy: “—I love you.”
And Subaru's pleading conviction,
Envy: “—Subaru-kun.”
With an affectionate call and the burst-open corpse of Garfiel, shatters into dust.
CHAPTER 51:
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE
LOVELOVEMEEEE
Subaru watches wordlessly as the golden tiger, Garfiel, bursts apart.
The beast's pending strike was readied with enough force to send the Witch's upper body hurtling
off alongside the head. The power of a direct hit would undoubtedly mangle even a Witch to pieces.
—But the strike never hit.
Using the Lewes double as his opening play, Garfiel had wrested victory into his grasp. But the
instant before his claws could reach the Witch, Subaru witnessed the wounds the shadow had
gouged in him writhe.
Writhing cuts—their cause being the shade beneath the Witch's feet, which had crawled to entwine
Garfiel's limbs. The shadow's points slid into the injured tiger's wounds, maiming with their
supposedly-incorporeal destruction, lacerating his flesh and spilling forth his blood.
And the massive body of a wholly incised Garfiel, unable to endure the pressure of the shadow
swelling inside him, exploded.
Endure—or such resistance must have been impossible, with this intractable manner of destroying a
life.
The offal that used to be Garfiel shoots, strews about the clearing as little mountains of gore. Only
the golden fur stuck to the scattered clumps provides the faint proof of Garfiel having existed in this
world.
Subaru: “—”
Subaru has no words.

Including the Lewes doubles, there had been over twenty lives present in this clearing. Several
seconds later, there were now just two.
Or no, if regarding this line of thought, there had originally been lives present in SANCTUARY
countable to one hundred.
When considering that all of them were presently dragged inside the shadow, the weight of the sin
the shade had committed was overly heavy. Overly unforgivable.
Bloodflow courses through Subaru's faculties, previously numbed by panic at the change in
situation and the mess of his emotions, his body summoning up what is incredibly the most
appropriate reaction.
That being, anger at the witch.
Subaru: “Shut up.”
Envy: “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou”
Subaru: “I told you to shut up...”
The shade's outline is vague, with not even its body height clearly distinguishable. Its voice still
sounds indistinct as if passed through a voicechanger, impossible to peg as a man's or woman's.
Nevertheless, the sticking passion packed in its intonation communicates with irritating clarity.
She had entirely consumed the people of SANCTUARY, slaughtered Garfiel, and yet she still poured
her interest, her concern, her love, wholeheartedly onto Subaru.
The incredible crookedness of it is eerie, sickening to the chest, as it fosters nausea among others in
Subaru.
It felt that just facing the witch was whittling at his sanity. A feeling close to frenzy boils up in his
chest, hatred and loathing jumbling around in his heart.
Envy: “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyoudarlingIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou”
Motionless, standing stock still, the witch continues muttering her curse of love for Subaru.
Spoken with near-enchanting passion. Her inappropriateness to context and inability to read mood
is worse than Subaru's.
Despite the target of the love so blatantly expressing their discomfort facially, the pushy and self-
serving love keeps coming.
This love was entirely repulsive.

And more than anything, what enraged Subaru was—
Envy: “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou”
Subaru: “...”
Envy: “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou—Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “—Don't, call me that!!”
Subaru responds to the saccharine call with his fury provoked.

That doting voice, behaviour, address, all of it infuriated Subaru.
Subaru: “Who the hell permitted you to call me that. Don't fuck around. Don't you fuck around.
Don't you fucking, fuck around!!”
The closeness of being at his side.

The affection in their calls to him.
The sweetness of standing within distance to touch. The
act of using that address for their interactions. Subaru
permitted these of only one person in the world.
—And that was assuredly not the witch standing here.
Subaru: “Don't even fucking joke you grubby fucking witch. There's only one person that belongs
to. I'm not handing it over to anyone else. Or, nope! Like I'm going to permit fucking anything to
you. Do you think I'm going to waste even one strand of hair, one single cell, the grime under my
fingernails in giving them to you—!?”
Envy: “—”
Enraged, leaving himself to anger, Subaru spits out the emotions churning inside him.
His shoulders heaving with his ragged breathing, Subaru glares at the witch standing opposite him.
There was surely no way to beat this opponent.
This was the monster which drank half the world. She had made entirely no problem of Garfiel, her
strength making her stand out as a witch among witches.
Submerging every life in shadow, paying not a scrap of interest, this utmost of calamities continued
murmuring its obstinate whispers of love for only one person alone.
That Subaru was capable of glaring this monster straight-on was a mystery.
All he can figure is that he's gotten desperate and lost all self-control.
If the witch felt like it, she could drag Subaru into the bog of shade in the space of an instant.
Otherwise skewer him through the chest with shadow, turn him into a gory firework like Garfiel,
and transform him into fertilizer for the forest.
Knowing that, how was it he could face her without losing heart? It had to be because Subaru
unconsciously harboured a certain confidence about the witch.
Envy: “—”
Subaru: “...not moving?”
His emotions ranted out and now somewhat calm, Subaru feels a suspiciousness at the witch's lack
of action.
Before Subaru could even notice, the shadow's curselike murmurings of love—the statements of
affection which had persisted with even through Garfiel's shredding—had stopped. Had suspended.
Subaru looks to find the shadows encroaching over the ground to have lagged—no, halted.
Distancing himself from the unpleasant sensation transmitted from the shadow underfoot, Subaru
picks an uncorrupted spot in the clearing and transports himself over.
He keeps his attention fixed on the witch during this migration, but she doesn't react.
The witch stands perfectly upright with her arms dangling loosely, mantled as always in a shadow
thick enough to warp the light, her expression invisible.
She's so covered in openings that punching her right now might even work to defeat her.
Subaru: “Why're you so suddenly... no way, my words did that?”
Impossible, Subaru thinks, while he grimaces at his own inability to deny it.
It was difficult to conceive that Subaru's statements carried that much influence, but considering the
timing where the witch's speech and movements stopped, there was no other decent possibility.
That said, this possibility did provoke in Subaru feelings that were near-unbearable.
Subaru: “If just being rejected by me's enough to throw your actions off this much...”
If he had spoken sooner, then this could've been settled without Garfiel and everyone else dying.
This present where Emilia, Ram, Lewes, Otto, and Garfiel who protected him, had their lives spent
before the shadow, was not a world Subaru had any will to live in.
Echidna had just assured him that RETURN BY DEATH lacked a limit on tries. Although he hadn't
been aware of it himself, perhaps it had inspired him to take concessions with living.
After all, hadn't he immediately withdrawn his proposal to act as bait, just by Garfiel rejecting it?
Even though, with the witch plainly attached to Subaru, taking action from his side could've
achieved something prompting this reaction and something presenting possibility?
Subaru: “Can't tell how she'd act, but... then'd my presence be the Witch of ENVY's weak point...?”
Being that her attachment remained stuck on Subaru, and that the situation was what it was, it was a
highly likely possibility. The problem was, even should he have considered it, whether or not the
opportunity to utilize it would have come.
Besides, the circumstances for the loop series in SANCTUARY had changed here. It was a disaster
Subaru had been pursuing means to cope with, and hadn't found even the first hints for a solution
toward—but the changes on this loop were dreadnought tier.
Just dealing with Elsa, Garfiel, and the Sizeable Hare was nigh unmanageable, but append the
Witch of ENVY to that and it was nigh impossible. Even his will to discern the pattern of her
appearance, as he would with the former three, was wilting.
That was how overwhelming the threat of the witch—the repulsiveness of this being—was.
Formulating plans to resist her was pointlessly stupid. In the sense of crushing will to fight before
the fight had even started, the petite witch was more terrifying than the massive White Whale.
Subaru: “—”
Although his opponent is a motionless witch, Subaru can feel his heart flagging with fatigue.
The witch takes no action either. She gives no heed as Subaru forces himself to think. She simply
immerses herself in her own interior.
Time passes with Subaru still unsure of what he should do.

His breathing, his irritatingly loud pulse, and the lukewarm sweat on his brow inform him of the
time's passing.
No result will come of this no-longer-a glaring match. And, just when Subaru swallows his breath
and goes to take a move, it hits him.
The flash of inspiration arrives that instant.
Subaru: “—It couldnt've been Echidna's tea party?”
Envy: “—”
Subaru: “I disclosed forbidden information while inside her castle. I thought the penalty didn't come
because speaking was allowed there, but...”
—But what if it wasn't?
What if the witch had still granted Subaru no permission to reveal RETURN BY DEATH to others?
What if she had attempted to attempted to stop time and punish him for his loose lips as always?
What if, unable to manifest at Subaru's side at the tea party, the witch had regardless attempted to
punish him?
—What if that was the truth behind this disaster in SANCTUARY?
Subaru: “You... just goddamn egotistic...”
Was this mass slaughter her retaliation for being unable to exercise punishment on Subaru?
Did she believe herself qualified to do this? With this display of her power, what and to whom was
she trying to show?

Subaru's thoughts must've touched on some point of the truth.
The witch restarts with her repulsive activities. She points what is apparently her head toward
Subaru, the curse again spilling from her mouth.
The whispers of love verify the shadow's progression, shade again beginning to spread over the
ground. Feeling a bottomless bog consuming his feet, Subaru runs from the spot.
Subaru: “The heck... you sure get lively the second I say the name of another girl, hell!”
Envy: “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou”
Subaru: “No matter how many loves you whisper, I'm not gonna love you! The #1 and #2 places in
my heart're already long settled and staying there. There's no room for witches!”
Tit for tat—although all the witch voices is a listing off of love, intonation unchanged.
But, discovering a definite display of emotion, Subaru's will to agitate her opens full throttle as his
cheeks twist into a wicked grin. Pissing off others was a mighty forte of his, and now was time to
test whether it worked on witches.
Subaru: “Don't just line up the I love yous, makes them kitsch.”
Envy: “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou”
Subaru: “Y'know, the first I LOVE YOU I seriously got in this world... was something powerful
enough to make a hopeless piece of garbage aspire to be a hero.”
Enough to make that broken, twisted, ready-to-flee garbage believe he could challenge one more
time, endless more times, a future he had almost abandoned.
Such was the strength, nobility, and greatness of real love.
Subaru: “Your loves aren't gonna be reaching my ears. Specially with you pulling atrocities out of
some jealous fit, not a single likeable thing about you.”
Envy: “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou”
Subaru: “If I had to love a witch like you...”
Envy: “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou—”
What should he say, what would he best say, what would piss this witch off the most? Subaru,
frontrunner in annoying others, knew exactly what.
Subaru's smile thus is cruel, and his gaze disdainful.
Subaru: “They're witches too, but Echidna and the others are more loveable—”
Envy: “—”
The witch's curse instantly stops.

And—
Subaru: “—ou,”
Subaru's vision—the world—is consumed in shadow.
※ † † † † † † † † † †
The shadows rush in with astounding force, mass, as Subaru helplessly watches on.
The shade extending from beneath the witch horrifically resembles Betelgeuse's UNSEEN HAND.
The differences would be that only Subaru could see UNSEEN HAND, and compared to UNSEEN
HAND which was avoidable if you could perceive it, this shadow attacks at a velocity rendering
evasion arduous.
Thus the shadow coiling around his body, lifting him high above the treetops, pulling him down
faster than freefall, and bringing him directly before the witch, were all visible events to him.
The entirety of it assaults him faster than his conscious perception can keep up, churning his
burdened guts, prompting vomit to spew from his lips.
His vision rotates round and around, Subaru unable keep a straight hold on his awareness.
His feet don't touch the ground. Something soft, clothlike, tenderly binds his whole body. The
restraints are assuredly not hard, but they perfectly seal his movements, and he can't find where to
apply force to break out.
He struggles and writhes. Only his fingers and toes move. The only area that responds to Subaru's
will is from his neck up, every other part of him cloaked entirely in shadow.
His blurry vision finally clears, throat freezing as he notices the vast cluster of shadows before him.
—Right in front of him, really right in front of him, the witch stands so close as to almost feel her
breath.
She observes the caught Subaru from extremely near distance, her gaze never breaking from him,
staring into his eyes with intensity to most burn open holes.
His neck fixed in place, Subaru can't escape from the gaze. Closing his eyes would allow him to
flee from the mutual staring, but somehow incapable of managing the action as if barred, Subaru
winds up having the unfortunate experience of a close-range face-to-face with the Witch of ENVY.
Envy: “I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Syllable by punctuated syllable, the witch continues to state her love.

The instant Subaru hears those words, his rebellious spirit catches aflame.
Putting strength into his immobilized body, Subaru opens his eyes wide as he glares at the witch. He
opens his mouth to shower stinging insults upon her again and,
Subaru: “Distance isn't the problem. It's not resounding in my heart's what—”
Envy: “I love you. I love you. —Now you love.”
This time, it's the witch who interrupts.

Subaru's brows furrows as he blinks, wondering if he misheard. The witch languidly raises her head.
Envy: “Now you love. Now you love. Now you love. Now you love.
Nowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulove
nowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyouloven
owyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyouloveno
wyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulove—now you love.”9
What Subaru feels, this time, is genuine terror.

Using rebellion, stubbornness, and rage, Subaru had successfully obfuscated his real feelings—
which, faced with the change in the witch's call, come bare.
No matter what she said, no matter what she did, his heart wouldn't falter and he would raise his
head high.
For that alone, for that stubbornness alone, had Subaru intended to find meaning in his
confrontation with the Witch of ENVY.
That minuscule bravery, that rash logic, now splinters into dust.
Aberration. Abnormal. Enthralled. Insane. Malefactor. Malevolent. Witch.
She understood that her continued whisperings could not gain her love. And so this time, she
desired love in a forceful format, her attitude shallow and rapacious.
And he understood.
The witch desired Natsuki Subaru, but did not see Natsuki Subaru.
What the witch saw was not Subaru, but the vessel known as Natsuki Subaru. She desired the
superficial Subaru, and wished to be loved by the superficial Subaru. Whether his feelings were
sincere or not was of no concern to her.
Loving Natsuki Subaru, and being loved by Natsuki Subaru.
That was the Witch of ENVY's entirety, the meaning of destroying the world.
—He didn't get it.
Understanding this, the questions in Subaru's heart wind up returning back to the beginning.
That being: why was the witch so attached to him?
They'd never met, never talked, and this was the first time they'd really seen each other.
Why was someone like this so insanely in love with Subaru?
He didn't understand anything. Not a single thing about it was logical. It's easy to call love
something beyond the scope of normal reason, but the witch's love took that to another dimension.
Envy: “—Nowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulovenowyoulove”
The witch wishes to be able to mistake a superficial love for a true one.
More than likely, if Subaru gave a reply answering to her love, she would release him from the
restraints.
Were this the usual Subaru, considering matters in mercenary terms, conducting himself with
shrewdness, he might have reciprocated to her demand with overdone flattery.
But,
Subaru: “—I hate you.”
9 I would really rather translate this as 'love me', but due to Reasons can't. Pretend it's simultaneously 'love me'.
Envy: “—”
Subaru: “I am never, going to love you.”
His soul still rejecting her, Subaru refuses the Witch of ENVY's demand.
Envy: “—”
Again the witch goes silent.

Surely people who could deject the Witch of ENVY two, three times were not so common. Subaru
feels a pointless pride in this. Which is when his elevation slowly begins to drop.
Still wrapped in the robe of shadow, Subaru is lowered to the ground. But that doesn't mean he is
released. Still restrained, he slips closer and closer to the witch—into the middle of the now-
churning vortex of consuming shade.
Seeing that she couldn't acquire Subaru's heart, it appears the witch decided to claim Subaru. An
entirely hasty and excessively pragmatic idea.
His legs swallowed up to the shins, having been terrified at the progressive loss of sensation, Subaru
abruptly has a doubt.
If consumed by the shadow, Subaru would almost unmistakably die.

Meaning, in a sense, there was worth in giving up. Welcoming DEATH would be resistance against
the witch. And so his shins are swallowed.
However,
—If it was the witch's power allowing him to re-do his DEATHS, would he really be capable of a re-
do when the witch was killing him personally?
Subaru: “—!”
The instant he realises it, Subaru acts in far-too belated opposition. With his lower body already
consumed by shadow, the idea of opposition in itself was excessively infantile. But he couldn't go
without doing it.
Thinking deeper, before getting to the question of whether he could re-do, he didn't even know if
getting swallowed by the shadow would actually kill him. Worst case scenario, he could be drawn
into the shadows and assimilated with the witch, made to pass eternity while forbidden to die.
Over that long, long timespan, where his present resolve and determination would get worn and
whittled down, would he or would he not eventually fold to the witch? He wouldn't—was not a
statement Subaru was confident enough to make. So he could not be consumed here.
At worst, even if biting off his tongue, before he could fall into the witch's hands—
Subaru: “—ue, ou?”
—is a decision prematurely aborted by the heat in his chest.
A blaze near hot enough to burn springs up from the left side of his chest, Subaru lowering his gaze
to look. And he finds that the heat is generating light, bright enough to spill outside of the shadow
enveloping Subaru.
The surprising part is that from the point of the light's origin outwards, the witch's shade binding
Subaru steadily melts away to nothing.
Subaru: “Then...!”
Before he can question the nature of the suddenly overflowing light, Subaru squirms about to sever
the robe of shadows with its power. His range of movement widens as the shade slices apart, and
after confirming his arm is free, he immediately reaches for the source of the light.
What his fingers retrieve from his pocket, fluttering in the wind in his grasp, is a handkerchief—
embroidered with a grey cat, Petra's handkerchief.
Subaru: “Why is... nevermind!”
Putting off thinking about it for later, Subaru strikes with the handkerchief. Although supposedly a
thing of soft fabric, it follows Subaru's will as its solidity compounds and its sharpness grows to that
of a knife, severing the shadows connecting to the witch and the ground.
Envy: “—”
Subaru: “Woah! With this... I can do it!”
Subaru stabs the handkerchief into the shadow which swallowed his lower body.
The glowing handkerchief's point digs into the shadow, the shades displaying a split-second attempt
to gather in counter to the light, but they instantly and silently burst and disperse.
All that remains after the shadows vanish is Subaru, his legs left ejected on the ground.
Subaru immediately tumbles backwards, confirming the healthiness of his legs. He readies the
handkerchief at his hip as he glances over the glowing thing.
The handkerchief Petra sewed. It was unthinkable that her feelings for Subaru could have
summoned this much of a miracle. The thought then arises in Subaru's mind of someone who may
have conducted this work on the handkerchief.
Subaru: “That Echidna... did she goddamn know that this'd happen?”
Subaru had given the handkerchief to Echidna in the dream world, and lacked the free time to
consider how it could interfere with reality—but if the interference was just some little trick like
this, perhaps transferring from dream to reality was possible.
Either way,
Subaru: “If she's readied me with a way to fight the witch, I'll go thank her.”
Envy: “—”
Faced with the reality of her shadows being destroyed, the witch simply stands there stupefied.
Subaru takes a short breath, twisting around to stab the witch during this opening.
Subaru: “Negligence is The Enemy!”
Subaru thrusts the handkerchief up to stick the witch from aside. She doesn't move. But shade
bursts up from beneath her feet in self-defence, the Garfiel-dubbed shadow dress engaging in
protective action.
Subaru: “—Rrruaaaaah!”
But even the dress fails to guard against the handkerchief's light.
The knife-sharp handkerchief tears through the shadow dress as easily as a cobweb, plunging
straight through to stab the face of the witch—and strikes true.
Subaru: “Got her—!”
Crying out in joy, Subaru swiftly uses the momentum to pivot for a backswing. He spins, the blade
moving to again strike the witch—
Subaru: “—wha?”
—When what he sees makes him stop the motion.

The witch stands stock still, looking at Subaru. The light assuredly reached her face in that hit, her
previously vague and indistinct features now separated from the mask of shadow, exposed.
A familiar silver-haired girl, her eyes frozen of emotion, stares at Subaru.
Subaru: “Emilia...?”
She doesn't respond to the call. But everything else takes massive action.
The robe of shadow returns. Although supposedly dead, it again grips Subaru from below, grappling
him. This time it constricts without any leniency, causing him to shriek.
With his right hip as the origin point, the robe of shadow restrains him tight across the left side of
his body. All he can move is his handkerchief-wielding right arm, barely, but even that has its
operable range restricted and can't move properly.
The shade beings to pull the immobilized Subaru to the bottom of the sea of shadow, progressively
and without hesitation, blatantly speedier than last time.
His lower body submerges, sinking up to his left shoulder. Only his right side from his breast
upwards, his neck, and his head remain outside.
He frantically raises his head, half-sunken and resisting,
Subaru: “Emilia! Emilia!? Wh, why are, why!?”
Seeing her missing from the tomb, and the shadow consuming SANCTUARY, Subaru had thought
Emilia had sunken into the sea of shade at the hands of the witch.
And now this, when his efforts resisting the Witch of ENVY thus far had quite considerably been a
battle of revenge.
—Why was she cloaked in shadow, attacking SANCTUARY?
He can't collect his thoughts. She isn't answering or seeing Subaru. The cold gleam in her amethyst
eyes is one Subaru has never seen before, making him doubt whether she is conscious in there.
He doesn't have time to check his doubt's veracity.
Subaru: “Ghu, uw, au...”
His body is being dragged deeper and deeper into the shadow.
He feels no sensation from his swallowed body parts. Or rather 'no sensation' would be one thing,
but losing the sense of the parts even existing, Subaru again realises the risk of being swallowed
here.
Recognizing the handkerchief in his left hand, and his mobility which narrowly remains there,
Subaru hardens his resolve.
The image of the white-haired witch passes through his mind.
He would rather like to amend his previous words, and give her a complaint.
Subaru: “Did fucking Echidna actually seriously think it'd go like this...?”
If so, he could shed tears at her scrupulous consideration.

Tears, but those being tears of blood.
—He closes his eyes, and the instant he snaps them back open, Subaru plunges the handkerchief
into his neck.
The sharp tip tears through his flesh, boring a hole through a fatal region of his throat. Blood
washes into his windpipe, running down into his lungs, his consciousness beginning to drown.
Suicide. The Witch of GREED had prepared Subaru an opportunity for such.
It was not a means to counter the Witch of ENVY. Echidna had most likely perceived that their talk
in the castle had infuriated ENVY. Here, he would pay the compensation.
Envy: “—!”
Seeing Subaru's suicide, for the first time, an emotion other than love detonates in the Witch of
ENVY.
But Subaru, drowning in his own blood and already losing consciousness, can't tell.
Though, seeing the girl's familiar face twisted in sorrow—regardless of what happened to her
insides—and witnessing her anguished expression, the pain to his chest remains the same.
Overflowing blood runs into his throat, and although unable to muster any proper speech, Subaru
regardless to her—and not to the counterfeit filling the vessel, to her—reports.
Subaru: “I, no matter what—“
—Will save you.
Natsuki Subaru lost his life the next instant.

ARC 4: ETERNAL CONTRACT PHASE 3
CHAPTER 52: SLIGHT CHANGES

The first thing Subaru confirms upon waking is: is this reality or not?
He's had lots of passings through the threshold between dream and reality, and during that period
the boundaries between them tend to get fuzzy. Especially when talking about directly after having
his consciousness returned by RETURN BY DEATH, when his brain is often still asleep, and he gets
dropped into a state most identical to awakening.
Subaru: “—uegh, geh”
The first thing Subaru feels as his consciousness returns is the taste of dusty shit in his mouth.
He spits out the shit, uprights himself, and looks around—dark room, cold air, unsettling silence. It's
the tomb.
Subaru: “I was able to come back...”
Mutters Subaru as he balls and unballs his fists before him, confirming the sensation of his body.
Subaru: “Didn't know what'd happen back when the shadow was swallowing me... but, guess
suicide paid off.”
Recollecting on the sensation of a pointy handkerchief boring through his throat, Subaru touches his
now-unwounded Adam's apple, letting slip a sigh of relief. Blood clogging his windpipe, running
into his lungs, the pain of drowning. Despite all the DEATHS he's experienced, the feeling of loss
remains vivid as ever, DEATH always imparting Subaru with some fresh new brand of suffering. But
even so,
Subaru: “It's so much better than some... can't-come-back, unrecoverable state.”
Feeling some satisfaction about being able to return and about unhesitatingly choosing DEATH back
there, Subaru decides to shelve further consideration about RETURN BY DEATH for now.
Subaru: “This isn't the time to get emotional about coming back. Anyway, now to sort out the things
to do, do what I should do, then...”
Then question his own resolve.

Closing his eyes, Subaru takes a deep breath. His eyes host no more hesitation once he opens them
again. He simply gazes ahead at the things he should do.
He stands up, bushing the dust off himself as he looks about the room, and sees the girl collapsed on
her side nearby. It's Emilia. In the middle of her TRIAL, her expression right now will likely be one
of agony as she faces her past.
Subaru walks over, reaching out to wake her up. His thoughts are to take her outside, meet up with
Ram and the others, and then he had a general idea for what'd come afterwards.
Thinking that far, his hand stretched out to touch Emilia, Subaru notices that his fingers are shaking.
Subaru: “...What?”
3
His eyes widen at his trembling fingers, bringing his hand to his face in confusion. Subaru's brain
sends orders commanding the shaking to stop, but his fingers ignore the missive and go right on
trembling. Then, Subaru belatedly notices: His teeth are chattering.
Subaru: “Hands and teeth are shaking... what's with this...”
Although surprised at the irregularities in his physical condition, Subaru does understand the
meaning of it. The cause for the trembling is the sight that passed through his mind the second he
went to touch Emilia.
—Emilia's face, dead of emotion, as she stared down at a dying Subaru.
Subaru believed the Witch of ENVY herself had descended upon SANCTUARY. For some reason she
cloaked Emilia's body in shadow, which Subaru unfortunately witnessed in his final moment.
Most likely, the witch had possessed Emilia's body which was sleeping in the tomb. For a Subaru
who knew of Betelgeux, a being wielding the power to possess the bodies of others, he easily
accepts the possibility.
The reason the witch targeted Emilia's body was simple.
Subaru was a tattle-tale about RETURN BY DEATH during the tea party. The witch manifested to
punish Subaru, but couldn't intrude into the party. What instead caught her eye was Emilia, sleeping
at Subaru's side.
The witch stole Emilia's body, filled SANCTUARY with shadow, killed Garfiel and attempted to
swallow Subaru—would be the series of events.
Subaru: “Knowing that much... but my body's, still shaking...”
Although possessing enough composure to coolheadedly look back on events, his weak heart is
incapable of forgetting the terror of being faced with that aberration.
If Subaru's speculation is correct, the origin for the disaster was him being invited to the tea party.
Meaning, being that he hadn't participated in the tea party this time, he hasn't stepped on that land
mine.
—It's over 90% assured that the witch is not presently dwelling in Emilia.
The terrified rejection that his body is showing is simply cowardice.

That he can't completely discard the worst of possibilities, is all it is.
That being—Would the Witch of ENVY really stop pursuing Subaru with just a RETURN BY DEATH
dividing them?
Subaru: “—”
What allowed Subaru to RETURN BY DEATH was the WITCH OF ENVY.

That was Subaru's view on it, and Echidna had affirmed his opinion. Considering the pattern of the
witch's appearances up until now, and the end of last loop, that view was more than likely correct.
For some reason, the witch didn't desire for Subaru to end with DEATH. He could be grateful for that
4
much. And only that much.
The question is whether that nutso-persistent Witch of ENVY, if that ludicrously powerful witch, if
that witch so completely delusional enough to butt in on reality, would have given up on Subaru.
Subaru: “—”
Saying that the witch hypothetically had the power to go back in time, the concept of her using the
power on Subaru, but being unable to use it on herself, was entirely just optimism.
Why would the witch not go back in time, like how Subaru's DEATH rewound the world, to pursue
him?
His frightened heart, and an unanswered question—with the answer lying right there, in front of
him.
If he touches Emilia and wakes her from the TRIAL, he will know everything.
If she wakes up and her silver-bell voice calls Subaru's name like always, Subaru can be released
from the terror.
But what if that's not what happens?
Subaru: “...It'll be the end, then.”
There's nothing he can do if the witch manifests before him every time he returns. Not a single
vision arises in Subaru's mind of his side's present combat power proving a match against the
absolute strength—the strength to cover SANCTUARY in shadow—that the Witch of ENVY
possessed.
Faced with a nightmare which so easily put even Garfiel to the grave, what countermeasures were
there?
In short, this was a watershed.
Subaru: “If it's not certain I died and was able to come back... then it's uncertain whether the Emilia
here is really Emilia, huh. What... I'm an idiot.”
Grasping the situation, Subaru gives a gentle sigh. Before he knows it, the shaking in his fingers and
chattering of his teeth have disappeared. He gained awareness, and finally realised.
Everything is vague, uncertain and unfixed.
Subaru: “That's just ordinary, happens to everyone.”
Not knowing the future, and having unease for the seconds ahead, was ordinary.
Even if he had the potential to know some of the events ahead, what was there to be afraid of?
This pointless dread equivalent to fearing living—
Emilia: “...h, no...”
—was such a worthless, puny kind of hesitation compared to the taxed and loveable girl before him.
5
Subaru: “—Emilia.”
Calling her name, Subaru's stilled fingers brush against Emilia's cheek.
Pale cheeks. Skin warm and smooth to the touch. Downcast eyes, with her eyelashes trembling, a
weak light in her amethyst pupils peeking out from underneath.
Emilia is returned to reality. She blinks and blinks, noticing Subaru directly before her,
Emilia: “...Subah, rhu?”
That voice, those eyes, that manner, is exactly the Emilia that Subaru knows.
Subaru: “—Yeah, it's me.”
The shadows of unease binding heavy on Subaru's body all simultaneously fade into nothing.
Giving a long sigh and propping Emilia up as she uprights herself, Subaru feels himself draining of
tenseness.
In contrast to Subaru, an uprighted Emilia glances around, fidgety. Her head perhaps a little heavy,
she puts her hand to her forehead.
Emilia: “Umm...”
Emilia: “This is... I, was just...”
Addled by achy pain, Emilia closes her eyes and trawls her memory to events before she slept—and
so remembers what happened during her sleep.
Emilia's eyes shoot open, Subaru witnessing as her pink lips start to tremble.
A wave of emotion rocks her amethyst eyes. Her head is most absolutely jumbled up because of her
past. Subaru knew that an Emilia awoken from the TRIAL would be out of sorts. And so he's able to
silently watch on.
He'll tenderly hold the shaking girl, choosing his words so as not to hurt, calm her and soothe her,
telling her everything's okay—
Emilia: “...Subaru?”
—And Emilia reacts in a manner completely deviating from Subaru's imaginings.

Her upsetted eyes reclaim their cool, her strengthened emotions hold still her once-trembling lips.
She reaches her raised hand out to Subaru,
Emilia: “How come you look like you're about to cry?”
Subaru: “...wh?”
Emilia's fingers stroke against Subaru's cheek, from there gliding toward his shock-wide eyes. Her
pale fingertips skim the corner of his eye, tracing over the welling tears, and Subaru realises that he
is this close to crying.
6
Why? Is not a question he has time to ask of himself.
Subaru: “a, ue, e?”
The shakes come abruptly.

Shakes on a separate dimension from those before, wholly unbearable shuddering.
These are shakes to bring trembling about the whole body, stealing away strength. Standing on his
knees as he faces Emilia, Subaru is unable to resist them, capable only of curling up small and
hugging his trembling body.
Subaru understood.
If, before touching Emilia, he had feared that the witch may have taken her over—
Emilia: “It's okay, Subaru. It's alright, everything's okay. I'm here—”
Says Emilia as she softly takes Subaru's trembling body in a hug.

Her thin clothes allow them to feel each other's warmth. The quiet beating of her pulse, transmitted
through to him, fills his heart with more fullness than does the heat of her body.
—After dreading that the witch may have taken over Emilia, and then learning that she hadn't,
Subaru's relief had rendered him motionless.
He had truly intended to proceed with things seriously, but his body didn't reflect that intention in
the slightest. Both a heart of iron, and a stern flesh suitable to guard that heart, were yet distant from
Subaru.
Feeling Emilia's warmth, her pulse, her tenderness, Subaru grits his teeth at how pathetic he is—but
still inevitably feels relief.
Quietly, and quietly, and quietly, in the middle of the tomb, the two maintain the embrace.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Emilia: “Calmed down?”
Subaru: “Uh, uh-huh... um, I'm sorry. For causing trouble in this, weird way.”
The hold lasts until Subaru's shakes settle.

Red-faced at how pathetic he is, Subaru apologizes in response to Emilia's question. Emilia shakes
her head,
Emilia: “No,”
Emilia: “It's fine. I feel like I've been entirely depending on you lately, Subaru. Having you show
me you being weak once in a while... is kind of a relief.”
7
Subaru: “That line's a killer. ...Not that I really want to show those aspects of me to you if I can help
it, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “Why not?”
Subaru: “Because I want you to always see me acting strong and trying to be cool. I don't want you
to know I'm really some hopeless, weak, pathetic loser.”
Emilia: “I'm not going to think of you like that, just by seeing you being a little weak.”
This problem has nothing to do with whether Emilia's personality is one like that, or whether
showing his weakness will earn him disappointment. It's entirely a simple issue resultant from
Subaru's—from a man's circumstances.
Subaru: “Showing your weakness without hiding any of it, and wanting them to know the real you...
kinda scene's something I'm pretty fond of for tearjerkers, though.”
Emilia: “Tearjerk... what?”
Subaru: “Talking to myself. I wanna show you me being strong, Emilia-tan. It's a man's pride, this
is.”
Washing away the awkwardness with some pointless shit conversation like always, Subaru smiles
wryly at Emilia as she tilts her head. His expression then tightens.
Subaru: “So, now I kinda wanna ask about the TRIAL...”
Emilia: “—Right.”
Emilia answers Subaru's timid question after a beat, giving a nod.

For an instant, a short bolt of surprise visits Subaru. Because her reaction to hearing the word TRIAL
is rather different than it has been.
Emilia wakes up and then is made to face reality while still harbouring the shock from failing the
TRIAL—was the unintended flow of Subaru's pathetic sketch.
The time spent in the embrace had given Emilia space to, although slight, calm down from the
shock of failing the TRIAL. That would be part of why she was keeping her cool now.
Subaru: “Guess even my weakness can be helpful...”
Emilia: “Subaru, why are you here? The only one who can enter here should be...”
Subaru: “Nope, I...”
Subaru cuts himself off just as he goes to answer sincerely.

And he thinks. What is the best answer to give here?
8
Reporting that he gained the qualifications and overcame the TRIAL would be easy. But Subaru
suspected that by choosing that response, Emilia would feel guilt about failing her own TRIAL, and
develop a sense of inferiority compared to Subaru.
The sense of inferiority will lead to panicky impatience, with Emilia suffering in the threshold
between self-loathing and responsibility. If this scenario happens, Emilia preserving her cool right
here as she is now becomes meaningless.
There remains possibility for Emilia to face the TRIAL in a different context than she has been.
Subaru most likely should respect that potentiality.
Leaving aside whether or not that would yield change in the fundamental segment of, 'is Emilia able
to face and overcome her PAST?'
—There's worth in trying it, thinks Subaru.
Subaru: “You weren't coming outside Emilia-tan so I got worried and this just happened. I managed
to keep from falling unconscious for a while... but once I reached here, yup looks like things turned
out like last afternoon.”
Emilia: “Then, right... I'm sorry, I worried you.”
Subaru: “Nah, I wound up prostrate in here too, if there's anyone worried it's the group hanging
around outside in the present-perfect-progressive.”
The people outside should be worrying about the lack of reaction ever since Subaru leapt in.
Realising this, Emilia raises her head.
Emilia: “Ah,”
Emilia: “A-anyway, we need to go back to everyone... And they'll be worried about you too,
Subaru.”
Subaru: “My living and dying's irrelevant at worst, it's only if we don't report you're safe that
things're gonna get bad, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “...Talking like that isn't any good.”
Emilia gives Subaru a criticising gaze.
Subaru: “Sorry.”
Subaru shrugs up his shoulders slightly, and the two get on their way heading for the tomb's exit.
Subaru: “By the way,”
Subaru: “Can I ask? About the TRIAL.”
Emilia: “...I'm sorry. I think I failed it.”
9
Subaru: “That's... yeah, kinda figured that from your reaction.”
Emilia apologetically averts her gaze. Looking away from her, Subaru pretends to have perhaps
only learned that fact now. Although feeling guilty about acting this way, Subaru suppresses his
hesitation with a shake of his head.
Subaru: “So everything's over now... is what it's wound up being?”
Emilia: “It doesn't seem like that. ...I can challenge as many times as I try to challenge. It's really a
mystery but, I do know that. Though,”
Echidna's already told Subaru about this aspect of the TRIAL, but seems like Emilia's been made
unconsciously aware of the information as well. After some hesitation from Emilia,
Emilia: “No, nevermind. Today looks like it was no good, but I'll try again tomorrow.”
Subaru: “Will you be okay? If it's too intense we could leave a gap of a few days... and, you'll be
more likely to win when challenging after planning out your approach and countermeasures.”
Emilia: “Thank you. ...But I can tell it's a problem where those things wouldn't do anything about it.
I can tell.”
Subaru: “...Talking might make it easier, 's the kinda know-it-all line I'll be trying here.”
Says Subaru as he looks at Emilia, Emilia returning the gaze with her lips trembling. The tangled
emotions in her heart look about to well over, but she closes her eyes to stop them before they can.
Emilia: “—Sorry. I don't want to show these feelings to you, Subaru.”
Subaru: “But no matter what I see of you, Emilia-tan, I'm absolutely never going to hate you or
anything.”
Emilia: “It's not that I'm scared of what you'll think of me, Subaru. Well no, that is part of it... but,
it's that there's something even scarier.”
Emilia goes quiet on that note. Seeing the unshaken strength of will in her amethyst eyes, Subaru
confirms that kindling her up has been a success.
If Subaru displays an attitude backing her up like this, Emilia will accede to that and expose her
weakness, perhaps even clinging to him completely—is not what he should be thinking.
That he's jangling Emilia's heart around in the palm of his hand is disgusting and makes Subaru
want to puke. —Even though it'd be fine if he explained it off as something necessary.
???: “—Emilia-sama!”
Gritting his teeth in self-loathing, the dazzling moonlight and call for Emilia snap him back to
reality.
The pale light of the moon illuminates the tomb's entrance, a refreshing wind welcoming the two as
10
they step outside. Subaru looks down to find those assembled outside waiting for Emilia with relief
arising on their faces.
Seems like Ram was the one who called. Having confirmed Emilia's good health, Ram pats her own
chest in a rare display of relief, going on to look at Subaru.
Ram: “You did excellent work, Barusu.”
Subaru: “Woah... Didn't think you'd be praising me, serious shock. What's with that admirable
attitude, not like you at all.”
Ram: “If you happen to achieve a good deed properly, I will give my appreciation. I'll at least
acknowledge well that you brought Emilia-sama back safely. Roswaal-sama will be overjoyed,
too.”
Seems like most of her relief is coming from being able to report it to Roswaal, but getting an
honest thanks is a fresh new joy for Subaru. Giving a stupidass grin, he feigns nonchalance in his
gaze as he spots the blond young man beside Ram.
Garfiel, who had been leaning against a tree, uncrosses his arms as he approaches with a lumbering
kind of gait. There's nothing to suspect in his mannerisms or behaviour, but since he can close this
distance in an instant that's meaningless.
Subaru's left the tomb, having RETURNED BY DEATH immediately after RETURNING BY DEATH. Just
thinking of what his current stench must be like is terrifying, and Subaru pays Garfiel maximum
caution.
And after arriving at a fully-tense Subaru's side the first thing Garfiel says is,
Garfiel: “'S wonderin' what'd happen after ya rushed right inside all damn reckless. I'm relieved yer
back safe. Was thinkin' a' WIND FELLS NOT THE GAFGARON NUT, but 't still got me goin' on edge.”
Subaru: “Ow! Hey, au, that hurts!”
Says Garfiel smiling as he rigorously and repeatedly slaps Subaru's shoulders.

The force is enough to most numb him to the bones, making Subaru suspect for an instant that This
is Garfiel feigning nonchalance as he assassinates me!?, but he senses no ill will from Garfiel and
his giant smile.
It really is as if he's welcoming their safe return. Again hit with a reaction contrary to his
expectations, Subaru is unable to conceal his feelings of being absolutely fucking thrown,
Subaru: “That's... all?”
Garfiel: “Eh? What. Yer sayin' y'want me t'pat yer head 's reward fer puttin' in work?”
Subaru: “If it were Emilia it'd be one thing, but what's the point when it's from you. That's not what
I meant...”
Subaru goes to mention his feelings of being absolutely fucking thrown, but reconsiders after
figuring that there's no need to purposefully bring himself more trouble. Whatever Garfiel's true
11
feelings are, it's fortunate that he's not in the mood to attack immediately.
Regardless, Subaru's making progress on noting down the conditions for Garfiel to bare his fangs. If
he can now discard the worst condition of 'it happens no questions asked', that's something to
welcome.
Subaru: “The problem of how I should interact with you is puzzling my brain.”
Garfiel: “Yer sayin' things that don't make sense, oi.”
Subaru: “Talking to myself again. Anyway, let's all settle things down for the detailed story. First I
wanna let Emilia take a rest. Our schedule for afterwards'll be on that too.”
Nobody opposes Subaru's proposition.

Emilia apologizes to everyone with a 'I'm sorry', after which Ram takes her by the hand and leads
the group back toward SANCTUARY—again choosing Lewes' house as where to settle down.
Emilia wasn't out of sorts. Garfiel's incredibly friendly attitude toward a RETURNED BY DEATH
Subaru didn't collapse.
Faced with these different conditions from before, Subaru scrambles for which actions hereonout
would be optimum, which way to welcome DEATH would be optimum?
There are far too many things he has to know, and has to test.
How many sacrifices would he wind up having to make to grasp the optimum future?
Still neglecting to put his own life into the equation, Subaru fails to notice his own mercenary,
calculating self.
Lewes: “—”
Neither does he notice Lewes, staring fixedly at him from behind.

Couldn't notice, same as he never could.
12
CHAPTER 53: OVERLAPPING INQUIRIES

The scene shifts from outside the tomb to Lewes' house, where the squad has their post-TRIAL chat.
The flow of the conversation is effectively the same as previous loops, with Emilia stating she
failed the TRIAL but has no intention of giving up.
Emilia zipped her lip when it got to discussing the details of the TRIAL, where Ram then intervened
and dissolved the meeting, giving Emilia's physical condition as the reason. Garfiel, Lewes, and
Otto left, leaving only Emilia, Subaru, and Ram in the house.
Ram: “Now, I would like to wait upon Emilia-sama as she goes to rest. Barusu, does your
unrequired self need to be told of it to realise such?”
Subaru: “Thanks for that not-indirect indirect statement. Considering Emilia's state, I definitely
would like to let you do your job, but... I want some time. Could you leave me and Emilia alone for
a bit?”
Ram: “Filthy.”
Subaru: “For immediately coming up with that you're the filthy one!”
Repulsion arises in Ram's eyes, blocking her ears at Subaru's yelling with an expression of feigned
ignorance. She glances at Emilia, who is sitting on the bed.
Ram: “How would you like to proceed, Emilia-sama? If you would prefer not to parley with
Barusu, I would be willing to make him retreat.”
Subaru: “What's your deal? Kindhearted and compassionate Emilia-tan couldn't possibly reject me.
Right?”
Emilia: “I'm sooo exhausted tonight, so if it's one of our usual natters I kinda might want to say
no...”
Subaru: “Who says natters anymore? ...And that's not what I want to do right now. Me flirting with
you's gonna be on a different opportunity, Emilia-tan. Right now I just wanna talk a little about the
tomb.”
Emilia's expression is poor even through their usual little dialogue, but once Subaru alludes to the
TRIAL, Emilia shuts her eyes before urging Ram out of the room with a glance and a 'sorry'.
Ram silently obeys, giving a curtsey and heading for the room's exit. As she passes by Subaru, she
whispers,
Ram: “Refrain from talks that would burden her too much.”
Ram clicks the door shut after that stern order, leaving Subaru and Emilia behind in the room.
Emilia looks earnestly up at Subaru from her seat on the bed, Subaru gives a light shrug.
Subaru: “We could only do a brief check back inside the tomb, but are you really feeling all normal?
13
Considering how weird a place it is, yeah I'm gonna be worried.”
Emilia: “That's, all okay. Mm, thank you. I really don't think there was any strange meddling to my
head or body. And if we're going to be worried about this, shouldn't we be more worried about
you?”
Subaru: “Meening?”
Emilia: “No 'meening's. Subaru, I'm glad you went inside the tomb because I wasn't coming out, but
something must've happened to you while you were in there. It took almost thirty minutes from when
you went in to when you came out with me, Ram said.”
Subaru internally pokes out his tongue at Emilia's criticising gaze. Back in the tomb he had
bullshitted this away off the momentum, but seems like Ram's unneeded declarations have made
Emilia notice the oddness. Her face stiffens as she imagines what could have happened over the
missing time.
Back in the first loop, the thought that Subaru might have known the content of her TRIAL terribly
put her out of sorts. It's easy to imagine that, if she reaches the same conclusion here, she'll lose her
present composure.
Emilia: “Subaru, did you maybe... inside, with the TRIAL too...”
Subaru: “No, didn't. If it just flung you into the TRIAL no matter whatever pow pow pow that'd be
way too indiscriminate. What ate time was me waking you up, Emilia.”
Emilia: “Waking me?”
Subaru: “Yes. It looked like a nightmare so I frantically tried to wake you, but it was almost like
you were tied into the dream with how stubbornly you were sleeping. I thought about just bringing
you out like that, but the bad feeling I got was crazy.”
Emilia has no methods to verify whether Subaru's charade, accompanied by charades, is true or not.
Emilia: “Then... right. I'm sorry, for that weird doubt.”
Subaru: “It's all fine. If I could've taken the TRIAL too, I mighta gotten the whole story together with
you Emilia-tan assisted and given it the one-two until clear.”
Emilia: “...I don't know. We might not necessarily have seen the same thing...”
Her sentence ending is weak, but doesn't look like she's probing into Subaru's lies.
Emilia doesn't want people to know that she saw her past, and was unable to conquer it. If Subaru
stresses that he doesn't know the content of the TRIAL, her mental state may lead her to want to
believe it.
Emilia: “Anyway, what is the talk about? That couldn't have been the main topic, right?”
14
Subaru: “Right. That's not the main topic. So there's something I wanna ask.”
Emilia: “You want to ask?”
Emilia tilts her head.
Subaru: “Yeah, wanna ask.”
Subaru: “Puck hasn't been showing up for a while... is he still not responding?”
Emilia: “Ri, ght... no. Puck still isn't responding. I've kept calling him, but it's like he's sleeping in
the crystal.”
Emilia lowers her eyes, and reaches for the beautiful green crystal at her breast. Its glimmer appears
to be lost.
Subaru: “No ideas on what the cause is?”
Emilia: “There's been some times like this where my voice wouldn't reach him, but he'd always
come back in two or three days. It's already been almost a week this time... I'm a little worried.”
When the Sizeable Hare attacks SANCTUARY, what likely happens is it consumes all the residents
with none to spare. The victims would include Garfiel and Ram, and probably Roswaal too. Emilia
would naturally be part of the count.
The sensation of being shredded, devoured, pieces of yourself transforming into chunks of meat
settled inside another creature's stomach—just imagining that Emilia and the others experienced
this feeling makes Subaru's guts seethe with rage and sorrow.
Putting aside the fury for now, what Subaru considers here is the useless spirit which didn't show up
even when Emilia was being harmed.
Last loop when the witch took over her body was the same case. Once again the Great and Mighty
Spirit offered absolutely zero help.
All words no action, lip service, entirely talk, peaking here.
Subaru: “His only big contributions've been the Elsa fight and the Sapporo Snow Festival ft. me.
Unreliable... 'd be the safe way to think.”
Putting his hand to his chin, Subaru says mean things about Puck while he forces himself to think.
The calamity coming for SANCTUARY was synonymous with Emilia being in imminent danger.
Garfiel and Roswaal can't counter it alone, so Subaru had thought to add some suitable combat
strength, but doesn't seem like Puck's going to be it.
Subaru: “Guess there's no ideas on how to call back Puck. If he could come back lots of things'd
make progress.”
Emilia: “—. I don't, really have any ideas, I guess.”
15
Emilia gives the expected reply, but the second of hesitation tugs at Subaru. Though, before he can
ask about it,
Emilia: “What do you want to talk about with Puck?”
Subaru: “Hm? Ah, right, so that's a witch's tomb, and it's been there for 400 years. I'm wondering if
talking to a guy who knows stuff about that time might give us a bit of a breakthrough.”
Subaru gives his readied-beforehand reply, to which Emilia agrees and nods. She earnestly
considers Subaru's suggestion.
Emilia: “Right, yes. Puck just, might know something... Mm, got it. I'll try calling him lots more
than usual.”
Subaru: “Okey. I've got my expectations for you on that, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia's willing to do the TRIAL, and doesn't think Subaru's taken it. There should be no drops in her
motivation here.
Seems unlikely Puck will be having his time in the limelight this loop. Considering that he hasn't
lent any help to mediate the difficulty level for Subaru, and the bad impression left from their last
conversation, Subaru's feelings about Puck have entirely worsened.
Subaru: “So, no good in staying too long, and Ram's getting weird suspicions which I think'll give
her more reasons to bully me and so I'll be leaving. Though, if you wanna sleep together Emilia-
tan...”
Emilia: “But I don't want to sleep together?”
Subaru: “Hit with such a sincere comeback, and even I... can only say 'wooahh'.”
Giving a wry smile to a mystified Emilia, Subaru heads for the door.
Either way, this conversation was probably the one he ought to lay down in advance. There aren't
many ways Subaru could approach the problem of Emilia herself.
What Subaru can do is craft an environment where Emilia's devoted to the TRIAL, while he breaks
through the bad circumstances surrounding it.
Emilia challenges the tomb, and Subaru challenges SANCTUARY.

Subaru can't let Emilia sense the trouble going on on Subaru's end. It would increase the burden on
her.
Subaru: “Well, goodnight, Emilia-tan. If you have scary dreams, you're always welcome to come
fleeing to my side.”
Emilia: “If I'm intruding all the way to your side, I'm going to shock all the villagers. ...You know,
Subaru,”
Subaru: “Hm?”
16
Just before Subaru leaves, Emilia stops him with a call of his name. He turns back, his hand on the
door, to see Emilia's lips trembling and hesitation in her eyes.
Emilia: “No, nevermind. Have a good night. Take care.”
Subaru: “That last part's really not a joke. 'Night.”
Waving, Subaru burns Emilia's smile into his memory as he leaves the room. He closes the door
behind him and raises his head, to find Ram seated in the lounge adjacent the bedroom, having a
steaming cup of tea.
The landlord Lewes had vacated the house out of consideration, and here was this maid arrogant as
ever. Subaru smiles wryly.
Subaru: “Sorry for making you wait... is what I thought I was gonna say, but seeing you bumming
out makes me not want to say it.”
Ram: “I would like some proper acknowledgement of my modesty in not touching the teacakes. —
You suffered Emilia-sama no impoliteness, correct?”
Subaru: “What an idiotic thing to ask me, who's always thinking of Emilia first. How about you
don't give Emilia any weird things to worry about. ...Though, I do trust you there.”
How Ram acts toward Subaru ≠ how Ram behaves toward Emilia.
Ram might have somewhat vicious ways of doing things, but it's essentially exactly because of how
refreshingly clear-cut her solutions are that Subaru can trust her.
Ram smiles at Subaru's mutter, empties her cup, and stands from her chair. She goes to pass Subaru
by and enter the bedroom when,
Subaru: “Actually, can I have a minute with you too?”
Ram: “Filthy.”
Subaru: “Is the me inside you really such an indiscriminate beast?”
Ram hugs herself as she takes distance from Subaru. Of course she's not being serious, but it still
hurts to have the fairer sex react like that.
Subaru: “Saying this's something, but my perspective in viewing you's basically never been filthy.”
Ram: “Basically, is the opening where your bestiality slips out and damages your credibility. And
I've been feeling something strange in your gaze ever since you arrived in SANCTUARY.”
Subaru: “Hell is that. That is a false accusation outside my recollections, sure you're not just being
overly self-conscious?”
Ram: “Then it's unconscious. You surely have had a strange, distant gaze while looking at me
before. Although I don't know who it is you're looking at through me.”
17
—That was a blow to Subaru's thoughts from a completely unattended angle.
Experiencing the false sensation of getting a good whack, Subaru is aware his thoughts have frozen.
His expression stiffens, his eyes water. Resenting that he reacted this way, he gives a shrug in an
attempt at an immediate recovery.
Subaru: “Wh-what you could perhaps be referring to would not be any such thing I may have any
estimation of in the slightest.”
Ram: “Noticing it after being informed truly makes it abnormal. Although since it wasn't an
unpleasant gaze, I hadn't mentioned it.”
Ram gives a little sigh at Subaru's discomposure.

That she isn't mocking Subaru like always conversely makes it painful.
Their appearances are nearly identical but their insides are completely different. Subaru was
supposed to have recognized that, but wound up being gentle with Ram, coinciding her with the
sleeping girl.
Ram's statement is correct. Subaru has been seeing the visage of a girl nearly her double through
Ram. He couldn't help it.
And Ram is who made him realise it.
Ram: “...So, is there anything you want to ask me?”
Subaru: “Weuh?”
Ram: “It wasn't particularly my intent to depress you, Barusu. Or rather, depressing you is
extraordinarily far down my list of priorities. I am going to wait upon Emilia-sama and return to
Roswaal-sama. I wouldn't mind if you continued ignoring me.”
Subaru: “Can't have that. ...Right, yeah. I sorta wanted to ask about Garfiel.”
Obliging off Ram's rare and prolonged thoughtfulness, Subaru squeezes out his question. Ram's
eyebrows rise in surprise, breaking her apathetic expression.
Ram: “Did something happen with Garf?”
Subaru: “Nothing right now, but might not be that way later. I'm gonna have lots of chances to
interact with him at SANCTUARY, and feels like you've known him a while so figured I'd try asking.”
Ram: “I see. ...I'll choose to leave it merely as that.”
Says Ram as if she's seen through to Subaru's real intentions. She puts her hand to her chin.
Ram: “So, what about Garf do you want to ask?”
Subaru: “I already know he's stupid crazy strong, but, right... what do you think'd be necessary to
get Garfiel to leave SANCTUARY?”
18
Ram: “...That is certainly a strange subject you've chosen.”
Subaru: “Figured there'd be no point being roundabout. I'll leave your finding it strange as
something taken into consideration.”
Unlike Emilia who he wants to hide the underside circumstances from, Subaru doesn't mind if Ram
senses some level of Subaru's secret activities. Actually if you consider that the release and exit of
the Arlam hostages has to happen, having Ram know early on that Subaru's taking action is more
convenient.
Ram: “My interest and care in what you're plotting is thin, but if you're attempting to make Garf
leave SANCTUARY... Yes, it's not entirely impossible if I implored him.”
Subaru: “Love's the weak point, huh. I had that idea too so I can't say anything.”
Having Ram persuade Garfiel instead of Subaru would unmistakably produce effect more easily.
But Subaru remembers how Garfiel went as far as transforming into a tiger to chase Subaru and
keep him from leaving.
Garfiel's claws had stricken even his supposed love Ram, and he still pursued Subaru. Considering
it in ultimates, Garfiel placed protecting SANCTUARY as higher priority than Ram.
Subaru: “But, Ram. That's probably...”
Ram: “Right. Likely useless.”
Subaru agonizes over how to say it without sounding like he knows it, when Ram casually cuts in
and agrees with him. Ram pats her hair before the surprised Subaru.
Ram: “While Garf certainly is enraptured with me, his priorities are already firmly decided. Much
as how Roswaal-sama is to me.”
Subaru: “Garfiel's number one is something else, too...? Do you?”
Ram: “I do know. But I won't tell you.”
Ram averts her gaze. Subaru stares at her to press for an answer, but Ram just sighs.
Ram: “It is certainly conceited to one-sidedly attempt to surmise the heart of another. Garfiel's heart
belongs to Garfiel. If you wish to know, ask him directly.”
Subaru: “Who's the one of us here being a near-synonym for conceited. You know about Roswaal's
book?”
Ram: “...Where did you hear about that?”
Although convinced by Ram's logic, Subaru's rebellious spirit permits him to object. Ram's reaction
is stern as she narrows her eyes, gaze piercing through Subaru.
19
Ram: “Depending on the course and circumstances, I may soon give you a painful experience.”
Subaru: “You do that and it's deviating from Roswaal's plans, yeah? Knock it off, Ram. You
shouldn't be capable of doing that.”
Ram had at least never harmed Subaru in SANCTUARY. Far from it, she'd even once aided Subaru
while stating it as her own will, rather than Roswaal's instruction.
Subaru stirs her up with that experience as the basis, anticipating that she won't react physically. Her
expression sharpens, but,
Ram: “Your eyes have come to be sickening, Barusu.”
Subaru: “Oh?”
Ram: “I don't know what you saw in the tomb, but it was surely nothing good. So much so that I
wouldn't want to continue speaking with your present self.”
Subaru: “...What I saw in the tomb was a kind of hope for me. Don't label it as nothing good.”
Recollecting on his encounter with the white-haired witch Echidna, Subaru feels their meeting
implicitly being rejected and pouts.
The chat with Echidna invited last loop's tragedy, but it also brought Subaru a return comparable to
those overthrown drawbacks. The preciousness of having someone to tell the truth and discuss
RETURN BY DEATH with alone raked in the change.
Ram and Subaru lock eyes.

Her pupils waver slightly, perhaps harbouring something in their depths, which Subaru strains his
attention to divine. But before the image comes clear, she averts her gaze and it disperses.
Ram: “Do leave now. I could not bear to make Emilia-sama wait for any longer.”
Subaru: “...Sorry for holding you up. I do know what you're saying isn't wrong.”
Subaru ends it by apologizing for his mouth-before-brain meanness. Ram doesn't respond, instead
turning her back to him and heading for the bedroom.
Subaru watches her disappear behind the door, gives a deep, deep sigh, and exits Lewes' house.
The outside breeze of SANCTUARY caresses Subaru's bangs, tickling his forehead. Smelling the
scent of grass on the night wind, Subaru walks through the well-darkened SANCTUARY, his
destination being his bed the cathedral.
Grass crunching beneath his feet as he continues down the road off the moonlight, Subaru's heart
scrambles on how to use his time this loop.
Having assurance that RETURN BY DEATH lacks a limit on tries, Subaru is capable of a technique
previously unavailable to him—that is, throwaway loops for the purposes of information-gathering.
If he can determine to throw away his life, then there is simply no other way to so efficiently
capitalise on RETURN BY DEATH's characteristics.
20
Subaru: “If I can take a different approach each time, I'll probably one-by-one get ideas for plans
dealing with the obstacles I have to overcome...”
Then would be tying those plans together, and carrying them all out within one loop.
Topple all the obstacles in his way, and beautifully grasp the future, everyone present, for a perfect
victory.
Although, just who would be in that perfect victory was a question which addled Subaru.
Subaru: “—”
Subaru's feet stop.

Because he smells something on the wind other than the scent of trodden grass.
He looks up. Bathed in starlight, a young man stands imposingly further up the road.
His arms crossed, spiky blond hair tousled in the wind, clicking his fangs. Garfiel.
Subaru: “Man you're a pretty timely bastard.”
Garfiel: “Yer sure don't look surprised.” something something well strange flustered attempts to run
away make the conversation progress easily.
Subaru scratches his cheek at the appearance of the just-mentioned Garfiel, impressed. Garfiel jerks
his chin, giving Subaru some kind of signal.
Garfiel turns and starts walking ahead, stomping off the path and toward the forest.
Watching his small back leap over the knee-high grass and enter the forest, Subaru lightly stretches
up on tiptoe, then heads for the cathedral—
Garfiel: “That frickin' obviously meant 'follow me', oi!”
Having rushed back, Garfiel yells curses at a Subaru about to leave. Subaru raises his hands,
shrugging,
Subaru: “Just a cheeky joke. Not like I didn't see it, relax.”
Garfiel: “'M sayin' that pisses me off. Just come on, gonna eat yer.”
Subaru: “Wouldn't you usually say 'I won't eat you' to make me relax here?”
Garfiel starts stomping off again, not responding to Subaru. Getting a bad feeling about not being
denied where he wants to be denied, Subaru this time properly follows along.
They leave the path, enter the forest, and after proceeding a ways in Garfiel gives a snort. They've
come to a tiny little clearing between the trees. The space is about enough for four or five people to
completely encircle it. Garfiel glances back at Subaru.
Garfiel: “Now... The fuck'd you see in the tomb?”
21
Subaru: “...You too with that.”
Continuing off from Emilia and Ram, here is the third questioner.
Although it's an essential requirement that he be careful with his responses to Garfiel, this continued
questioning is making Subaru get sick and tired of it.
Garfiel: “Me too, huh?”
Garfiel spits, clicking his fangs, his golden pupils narrowing.
Garfiel: “Ain't givin' a crap who n' what you were speakin' with, but my amazin' self ain't just gonna
let that one slip. 'S a THE SUSPECT VELVE REFLECTS THEIR SIRES.”
Subaru: “Sorry, but all the happened in the tomb was that waking Emilia up took a while. Saying I
saw something's complete speculation.”
Garfiel: “False n' blatantly so. You think yer can completely fool people, when yer whole body's
reekin' 'a witch?”
Subaru goes silent.
Garfiel scrunches up his nose, clearly displaying hostility. Subaru gets stuck for words as he senses
something awry.
The reason Garfiel viewed Subaru with hostility—the Witch's lingering scent.
That had been the case up until now, and from Garfiel's statement here it's again identical. But the
problem is that on this loop, his timing for stating such is strange.
After leaving the tomb, Subaru's entire body had tensed up, knowing it wouldn't be odd for Garfiel
to immediately attack.
It was just after he'd Returned by Death, and his cause of death was the cause. A lingering witch
scent as thick as it must be now surely wouldn't be anything common.
But Garfiel didn't attack. Far from it, he appeared rather sincerely relieved at his and Emilia's safe
return.
This was the befuddling attitude Subaru had seen of Garfiel all through the chat at Lewes' house, up
until Subaru watched him leave.
Garfiel had been completely normal until their parting, and now had suddenly made an about face
several minutes later. Subaru didn't understand why.
It couldn't have been the stench was so bad it fucked his nose, and it's taken a passage of time for it
to get to a thickness where he could smell it? Probably not.
Subaru lifts his arm and gives himself a sniff, but all he gets is the smell of a day's work. Deciding
to wash himself off afterwards, Subaru cuts into Garfiel.
Subaru: “I sure get plenty of people pointing out that witch's lingering scent thing.”
22
Garfiel: “...Do yer now. Everyone up 'till now's been pretty fuckin' lenient, oi. Crap's twistin' my
nose this bad, why the hell'd they do it?”
Subaru: “Because they nevermind my odour and judge me by my actions. It'd be a big help if you
could do the same. I mean, you overlooked it for me after I left the tomb.”
Subaru: “I don't have any intentions to harm Emilia of course, or you, or SANCTUARY. That much
alone I want you to believe. And if you could, it'd help if you could keep watching over me as you
have been.”
Although finding them excessively convenient words, Subaru judges that since a fist isn't coming
for his face, Garfiel's still being rational. There may be a way to settle things peacefully through
conversation.
Hesitation runs through Garfiel's eyes as he watches Subaru. Everything said, thinking to remove
Subaru just because of the Witch's lingering scent is not how hasty Garfiel is. It's when the stench
overlaps with some other condition that Garfiel takes action.
Subaru hasn't hit that trigger yet this loop. He needs to ascertain what the trigger is.
Garfiel: “...Yer didn't answer my first question.”
Subaru: “Hm?”
Garfiel: “You saw somethin' inside the tomb. Whether or not my amazin' self overlooks you, 's
dependant on that answer.”
The energy whittling away from his voice, Garfiel glares at Subaru as he piles up the questions.
There's two ways Subaru can answer—truthfully, or falsely. He needed to confirm which choice
was correct here, but,
Subaru: “Then, first let me ask you a question.”
Garfiel: “Don't get our standin's mixed up. I'm top, yer bottom. Yer want my fangs t' rip yer t'
shreds?”
Subaru: “No getting mad. Let your shoulders untense, and answer completely at ease.”
Garfiel bares his fangs. Subaru gives a light shake of his shoulders and takes a breath.
His question buried in the back of the throat, Subaru gazes at Garfiel who glares back.
—Now, here's a do-or-die moment.
Is how Subaru encourages himself, saying,
Subaru: “—I saw a girl who looks exactly like Lewes-san, would you know anything about that?”
23
CHAPTER 54: HELL I DO KNOW

In asking a question at the crux of the matter, Subaru comprehends his position.
Garfiel's eardrums indeed tremble to the query—and the blond young man's expression shifts.
Witnessing it births a moment of whiteness in Subaru's consciousness.
Garfiel. Always wary of Subaru, with a sharp gaze and virile features. Continually preserves his
robust bearing, never once letting show weakness.
That Garfiel's expression, right now, was warped.
It almost looked the expression of a child, an important secret of theirs revealed, about to cry at any
moment.
Garfiel: “You... Fuck'd you just say?”
But that fleeting, transient expression disappears within an instant.

Garfiel shuts his eyes firm, clicks his teeth to drown out the weakness, and with a near-dreadful
pressure emitting from his whole body, glares at Subaru.
The calm atmosphere flowing through the forest flips to opposite. A tingle of goosebumps creeps up
Subaru's skin. This was undoubtedly Subaru's body taking initiative, expressing the danger it
perceived.
That excessive reaction of Garfiel's—
Subaru: “That sure fucking got you livid.”
—Provided Subaru more than enough means to instil him the conviction: Touching on THAT is
inconvenient for Garfiel.
The ghastliness of Garfiel's gaze compounds in response to Subaru's mutter.

Not a fragment of that momentary weakness shows through. The glare fixed on Subaru exudes the
razorblade sharpness of witnessing something beloathed.
The danger signals shrill all through Subaru's body. But Subaru consciously ignores them, and
without losing his untouchable demeanour,
Subaru: “Don't make me repeat it. I saw a girl who looks exactly like Lewes-san wandering around
SANCTUARY. But I'm at least certain it wasn't Lewes-san.”
Garfiel: “...Don't get th'point of what yer sayin'. So yer saw the granny while she's out havin' a walk.
'S a different kind 'a problem if she's out prowlin' at midnight, but this n' that're—”
Subaru: “—Two of them.”
Garfiel: “Eh?”
Subaru raises two fingers of his outstretched hand.
24
Subaru: “What I saw was two intenticals to Lewes-san walking around at the same time. Even
saying one was Lewes-san, the other... just who could she've been—”
—The moment he finishes his statement, Subaru loses sight of where is down and up.
Subaru: “—Ghhau!”
His back slams into something hard, oxygen and a shriek strangling out from his lungs.
At his back is a rugged, bumpy texture—the trunk of a tree, which he is being pinned against with
rather considerable force. Suspended and unable to run, Subaru's body no longer touches the
ground.
The hand digging into his stomach works as the axle to keep Subaru stopped in space. Garfiel, who
possesses the sense of balance and arm strength to achieve this feat, glares Subaru straight in the
eyes.
Garfiel: “—Where did you see that?”
Subaru: “Where's not a question... I said, in the forest...”
Garfiel: “No, that ain't possible. We've been payin' so much fuckin' care t' make sure that wouldn't
happen. 'F we didn't, wouldn't be able t'give th'verbal run-round t'assholes like you stickin' their
noses where they shouldn't.”
Garfiel's palm presses down harder. Drool dribbles from Subaru's lips at the stomach-churning
force. He struggles and kicks, but Garfiel's hold doesn't give an inch.
It's like he's an insect pinned and pierced for display. He shudders at the mental image.
Garfiel: “This goes on, 'n yer back n' belly 're gonna wind up squelched t'gether flat. How bout yer
start tellin' the truth, 'fore that happens.”
His mouth twisting into a sadistic grin, Garfiel applies further pressure on Subaru's stomach. The
first sense of his creaking in his bones and guts comes, almost suggesting that Garfiel's proposed
ending won't simply be a joke. Subaru gasps, pained breaths slipping from his throat,
Subaru: “Th... at'll, be dependant on your attitude...”
Garfiel: “Ain't that fuckin' funny. You tryin' t'fuckin' be on equal status 's my amazin' self 'n this
situation? Thought I taught yer good n' well that that's entirely yer conceit.”
Subaru: “You can... end me here hearing nothing, but it won't solve anything.”
Subaru notices as Garfiel begins to listen.
—As far as Subaru was concerned, Garfiel's fierce reaction had gone half exactly as anticipated,
half not anticipated at all.
25
The only time Subaru's sighted the Lewes doubles—the LEWES CLONES—in this loop series has
been at the end of the previous loop, in the witch battle.
Outside of that event, there hasn't been anything to suggest that the clones even existed. Although,
trawling back through his memories and approaching with the assumption the clones existed, there
were several scenes where he had let hints toward their existence slip away.
Regardless, that was how well the clones were hidden inside SANCTUARY.
It was hard to think that Garfiel alone had been hiding the at-least-21 individual girls. More than
likely, their existence was common knowledge among SANCTUARY's populace.
If there were anyone on Subaru's side who would know about them, it would probably be Roswaal,
and more tentatively Ram.
Either way, Subaru had figured that mentioning the subject would piss Garfiel off. Confirming it
had so far gone half exactly as anticipated.
The half that he hadn't anticipated was—
Garfiel: “...Yer cracked.”
Spits Garfiel, releasing Subaru from the hold. Subaru gracelessly drops to the ground, crying out in
surprise, enjoying the taste of grass and dirt in his mouth as the tumbles. He spits out the crap as he
stands up, glaring at Garfiel.
Subaru: “D-don't just suddenly let go, startles people.”
Garfiel: “Shut it, headcase. Don't fuckin' joke. Were you fuckin' testin' my amazin' self?”
Subaru: “Testinngg?”
Subaru tilts his head, playing dumb. Garfiel clicks his tongue, annoyed as he glares up at Subaru.
Garfiel: “You were talkin', thinkin' I might kill you.”
Subaru goes silent.
—What Subaru hadn't anticipated was that Garfiel neglected to immediately kill him.
It was that he'd been given a chance for conversation, after pissing him off.
Meaning, Subaru had made his statement while having considered the potentiality of dying, which
Garfiel perceived. Garfiel kicks at the ground.
Garfiel: “Don't fuckin' joke. Fuck'm I gonna call someone who stakes thr'life, doin' it with an
expression like it's fuckin' ordinary, 'cept insane. Fuckin' creepy.”
Subaru: “Say so much and it does hurt. ...And, it's not like I'm doing this unperturbed.”
Subaru smiles weakly to Garfiel's statement as he scratches his head. In doing so, he can feel the
shaking in his fingers.
Garfiel's stopped inflicting pain on Subaru, but his near-animosity toward him hasn't slacked at all.
Subaru's body continues to scream in primal terror, and his guts continue to churn with a
26
constricting kind of pain.
It's natural. He'd purposefully enraged Garfiel, and was now standing directly opposite him.
Meaning he'd more or less accepted confronting the giant, golden tiger that had slaughtered the
villagers.
Envisioning those fangs, claws, that dread all ravaging him causes both his heart and body to freeze.
But, nonetheless,
Subaru: “If my life alone is enough, then that balances to the results.”
If this can be settled with the only sacrifice paid being the abrading of Subaru's heart, it's an
excellent bargain.
To acquire a happy ending at such a cheap price was nothing commonplace.
Although Subaru's resolve could near break at any moment—that firm, hard-set basis provides his
meagre resolution support to an excessively thorough degree.
Garfiel must have known it as well. He scrunches his nose, expression disgusted.
Garfiel: “My amazin' self don't have anythin' good t'think about'n bastard who makes those fuckin'
eyes. Honestly, what I wanna do's crush 'm right this second, but...”
Subaru: “That'd be problematic, and if possible I'd like you to charitably overlook it. That'd go for
our conversation just now, too... so.”
Subaru: “Do you maybe feel like answering my question?”
Asks Subaru as he dusts the dirt off himself. Garfiel's face sours at this topic getting brought back
after its violent and supposed stop. Subaru's gaze doesn't separate from Garfiel, while Garfiel
conversely averts his eyes.
Garfiel: “Dunwanna.”
Subaru: “Really now. Oh well, nothing going then.”
Hearing a reply on par with a stubborn child, Subaru shrugs and easily lets it drop.
Garfiel's expression turns completely fucking stunned in response.
Garfiel: “Yer... you wanted t'know, th...”
Subaru: “You don't wanna talk, right? And I'm not strong or persuasive enough to force the answer
out of you. I guess I could try clinging for it, but I doubt that matches to the risk so time to postpone
it.”
Garfiel: “...What're,”
27
Subaru: “Don't look so mystified, Garfiel. No matter how frantically you try to cover it up, I will
uncover it assuredly. It's necessary, you see.”
Garfiel's head springs back up, Subaru returning his stare head-on.
The locking of gazes this time isn't so overwhelming. Garfiel's eyes are weaker, and Subaru has
firmly made up his mind.
Subaru: “Garfiel. What you... what you're all hiding in SANCTUARY, I am assuredly going to
uncover. I know I have to do this, and so that is an absolute.”
Garfiel: “...Shut up. 'F I plug yer mouth right here, yer not gettin' any damn ASSUREDLY or
ABSOLUTE.”
Subaru: “Sorry, but that's exactly why it's ASSUREDLY and ABSOLUTE. So long as I haven't given up,
the secrets I know of aren't secrets anymore. If you're going to resent anything, resent your own
haste.”
Not understanding Subaru's words, Garfiel's eyes waver with confusion.

There was naturally no way Garfiel could comprehend what HASTE meant. Because it referred to a
mistake that Garfiel hadn't yet made.
Subaru: “...Probably no point talking any further.”
Garfiel's caution is peaked at its maximum and he's gotten stubborn. Subaru probably won't be
opening Garfiel's heart now, or perhaps even for the rest of this loop.
Subaru hadn't anticipated for this loop to be a success in the first place, but it now being perfectly a
dud is hard to bear.
Subaru: “But, well,”
—Nevertheless, he needed to endure it.
So long as he's decided to stake his life in this challenge, he would have to rendezvous with this
feeling of loss times upon times upon times.
He doubted he would ever acclimatize to or forget the pain.
At the juncture where Subaru completely acclimatized to the repeated DEATHS, and could no longer
sincerely desire the future ahead, his heart would surely be swallowed by shadow, never to return.
That was the feeling he had.
Subaru: “Do you still feel like stopping me, Garfiel?”
Subaru: “If you do then all it creates is a detour. It'd help if you didn't.”
Even if Garfiel kills Subaru here, his return point is inside the tomb a handful of hours earlier.
The events following would probably be a snap, but even if Garfiel tried to drag Subaru away as he
28
had this time, Subaru could probably get through it safely.

Although naturally the optimum outcome would be to avoid RETURNING BY DEATH.
Garfiel doesn't respond to Subaru's question.

Subaru turns his back to Garfiel, intending to leave the forest and return to SANCTUARY's centre. He
has to figure out his schedule of activities for tomorrow, and exactly what things he needs to
confirm.
Even saying that opportunities came in proportion to Subaru's willpower, that didn't mean he should
waste them.
Says Garfiel, his voice suppressed of emotion. Subaru stops but doesn't turn back.
Garfiel: “What do you... what th'hell do you wanna do to SANCTUARY, to this place? What th'fuck're
you tryin' to do with us?”
Subaru: “I'm sure I stated my goal. It's to save Emilia. I'm not intending to harm SANCTUARY in any
way. ...I'm not intending to try to do anything with you, either.”
He knew of the disaster coming for SANCTUARY.

He wanted to save Lewes and the residents from the disaster, and did have intention to act for that
purpose. Garfiel would be included in that count too, of course.
But that would be a final result.
Subaru: “I'm sure I'll cause you lots of unpleasant times until I get there. I'll apologize for those in
advance. ...Sorry.”
Garfiel: “...I got no idea what you're goddamn sayin'. Yer fuckin' exactly, entirely like them.”
Says Garfiel, as if interacting with something eerie and incomprehensible. Subaru, somewhat
resigned, figures that inevitable.
Subaru did want to be understood. But he doubted he could be receiving that understanding.
Subaru: “I'm not trying to get in a jealousy match with you. From tomorrow on, just be like
normal... or well it's fine if you can't, but don't get involved with me. Tonight just keep yourself
warm and go to bed early. Forget your daily routine and sleep in through tomorrow morning. The
occasional wake-up-go-back-to-sleep wouldn't—”
Subaru stops halfway through his parting speech. Something about what he just said tugs at him,
and as he connects it to an incredible conclusion—
Subaru: “Might be worth it.”
Subaru: “Anyway, this's the end for tonight, Garfiel. I'll definitely be doing something about your
troubles and anxieties. So be patient now and wait for it.”
29
Garfiel: “—! You...!”
From beginning to end, Subaru's statements consider the FUTURE rather than the PRESENT. Garfiel
raises his head, face red with rage as he spits, fangs bared.
Garfiel: “Cond'scending fuck, linin' up egotistic crap! Who, who asked for you t'do goddamn
anything for them? Don't you do any meddlin' here! Not about this place, or about the grannies...
y,... nothing! And when you know fucking nothing!”
Subaru: “Not knowing it means it's to learn. Think that's why I'm doing this.”
Garfiel: “Knowin' only th'superficial, only th'surface, how could you understand anything! Smilin'
like'n idiot, prattlin' crap outta dreams, fudgin' things with nice-soundin' bullshit, you fucking con!”
Subaru: “—”
Garfiel: “Y'dunn'ven know how pain er suffering feel! End yer know-it-all talk!!”
Shrieks Garfiel.
The jeers disappear into the forest sky, swallowed into nothing.
Condescending, speaking as if he knew anything, meddling despite his complete ignorance.

—Indeed, that was all exactly correct, with not any purchase left for refutation.
However.
Subaru: “...I do know.”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru: “I know HELL. —I've seen it, so many, times.”
Were there a hell in this universe, it would be in the worlds that Subaru had seen.
At the end of these multiple worlds, the sight of hell had burned into Subaru's memory, into his
awareness, so many, many, times.
And so,
Subaru: “I'm the only one who has to know hell. I'm here, for that.”
—Those were his thoughts.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
After having Garfiel's wailing claw at his heart, Subaru heads back to his bed the cathedral—not.
What he really needed to do was go to bed, and take his time in figuring out his plan for the near
30
future. And that was what he'd been intending to do.

But he had a reason to quit that.
Subaru: “...Think it was somewhere around here.”
Mutters Subaru, nudging away the thick ivy as he continues down the unmarked path.
The canopy hides the moonlight, making visibility poor, and the knee-high grass offers no help. The
ground lacks anything resembling a trail or any constancy in elevation, forcing Subaru to slow his
pace to keep himself from tumbling.
Subaru: “I'm pretty confident about my sense of direction, but yeah my memory's hazy. There
wasn't any time to calmly look around the place, so kinda no helping it.”
Is Subaru's lame excuse as he fumbles around for a path.

He's inside the forest separated from SANCTUARY—but not in the same area where he spoke with
Garfiel. He had returned to SANCTUARY and then re-entered the forest.
Because,
Subaru: “I'm pretty sure this is where Garfiel showed up back then.”
Before the beginning of the loop series—that is, all the way back before the first TRIAL.
On the morning of the day of the TRIAL, Subaru had gone with Otto to check that he had acquired
the qualifications. That all went fine. Garfiel then appeared from the forest during Otto and Subaru's
banter, explaining that he'd been doing his daily patrol of SANCTUARY.
Subaru: “His good timing and his showing up from that direction's bothering me.”
The problem was the almost-planned timing of Garfiel's appearance, and the placement of where he
appeared.
Thinking back on how Garfiel emerged from the bush aside the tomb, and trawling through his
memories, Subaru realises something:
—The mystery facility in SANCTUARY that Beatrice had transported him to.
When Subaru had returned from that facility to SANCTUARY, he had a feeling that his emergence
point was close to where Garfiel had appeared back then.
And so Subaru's searching for the facility at night through the forest.
Subaru: “A trodden-down path... means,”
Seeing the thickets open into flatter land, Subaru judges that someone has been walking through
here regularly. He follows the path deeper into the forest, leaving himself to his jumped-up feelings
and running—when his vision eventually brightens.
Subaru: “...Found it.”
A dilapidated stone building. On the verge of collapse and deep in the forest, it's plain that the
facility is constructed with its back against a crag.
31
Subaru approaches the building, giving its exterior a confirmatory glance and tilting his head.
Subaru: “Huh. Last time I was here, I felt it was a little more destroyed...”
The thing's still on its last legs, but Subaru senses the damage to the facility is less than what he
remembers. What Subaru had seen was a ruin, but this thing before him is still barely managing to
be considerable as a building.
Subaru: “Saying my memory's not wrong, sometime between now and six days later, something'll
happen to make this place more broken-down... I think?”
It's all he can figure.

If his speculation is correct, then just as Subaru expected, this place is not unrelated to the vague
somethings happening here in SANCTUARY.
Holding his breath and taking care to keep his presence low, Subaru turns the doorknob.
The door opens with surprising silence. A rotted stench welcomes Subaru as he treads inside the
building.
As always, the barren entryway lacks anything to do with furnishings or repairs. Passing through
the waiting room-slash-reception area, Subaru heads for the main room.
He reaches the door at the end of the hallway—directly beyond which will be the giant hole. Paying
the pit heed, Subaru slowly pushes open the door, poking his head inside to check the room.
Subaru: “...Hey.”
Subaru's voice unconsciously slips out at the scene before him.
The pale, reflective light shines upon his face. His eyes narrow at the brightness as Subaru clearly
witnesses—it.
There at the very back of the facility, was—
Subaru: “Lewes-san?”
—Emitting dim blue light from its gigantic mass, with a small woman sealed inside it, was a crystal.
32
CHAPTER 55: GIRL IN THE CRYSTAL

—Seeing the girl sealed inside the crystal, Subaru is so transfixed he forgets to breathe.
That was the terrifying beauty of this heart-jolting scene.

Inside the transparent, faintly blue crystal, there is sealed a girl with her legs folded in seated
position.
Frozen—would be a close descriptor, but unlike ice for which melting offered freedom, the crystal
would remain eternal unless shattered.
And shattering this crystal would unmistakably mean shattering the sealed girl also.
Subaru: “Why... did this,”
The words slip from Subaru's mouth with faint anger.

He felt a silent, but definite rage.
Nothing could safely free the sealed girl from the crystal. Subaru didn't know what the person who
perpetrated this was planning, or what relation they had to the girl. Didn't know, but it still tore at
his heart horribly.
Subaru: “Lewes-san... or isn't she?”
Subaru enters the room proper. —Unlike last time, the gaping hole in the floor is missing, and the
crystal rests where the pit once was.
The tall crystal sits upon a metal base, which is potentially the only implement in the near-ruined
facility not slacking on repairs, as it glitters with the shine of a tool in brand-new condition.
Several desks stand lined up opposite the crystal. Subaru successfully realises that these, too, are
objects which were destroyed and scattered all about the room last time.
The room lacks light fixtures just as before. The moss growing over the wall still provides a faint
glow, giving the room some level of visibility.
Tools—somewhat resemblant of medical equipment—are spread alongside the wall and in healthy
condition.
Subaru: “In six days from now this place'll be destroyed, and it won't be apparent what the
SOMETHING practised here was.”
This place becoming known was inconvenient for somebody.

Sometime in the days before the Sizeable Hare attack, that somebody would attempt to destroy the
important parts of the facility, and bury the waste in darkness.
This time, Subaru had managed to arrive prior to this.
Subaru: “Most likely candidate... is yeah, Garfiel.”
What spurred Subaru to search for the facility had been the unease he felt toward Garfiel's strange
activities.
Garfiel willed to protect SANCTUARY, and had a familial love for Lewes which he couldn't
completely conceal. It was conceivable that he would destroy the facility for some reason unknown
33
to Subaru.
There was also the factor that if the somebody wasn't at least as strong as Garfiel, destroying the
facility would be an incredible effort.
The only problem left was—
Subaru: “No clue at all what this facility was for.”
Subaru inspects the fortunately-undestroyed room, to no obvious result. Other than learning that the
crystal is secured and fixed in place inside the room, nothing particularly stands out to catch
Subaru's attention.
Subaru looks at the back wall, beyond the desks, to discover the ventilation shaft he had crawled
through before. Passing through it should lead him back to the waiting room.
Subaru: “...Pretty late to point this out, but isn't the houseplan here strange? Saying it's just this big
room and a waiting room is pretty...”
The estimable size of the facility from outside did not align with the room layout inside.
Tracing over his mental map of the facility and its outside facade, Subaru feels a faint awriness. —
Enough space remains to conceal an entire extra room.
Subaru cuts across the room to stand before the wall with the ventilation shaft, and taps at the wall.
The moss covering its face feels less like grass and more like animal fur.
Being that no echo comes from his tapping, it appears the moss serves more purposes than simply
illumination. If there were any mystery room, position-wise, it would be beyond this wall.
Subaru: “Considering the distance I crawled, there should be a room half the size of this one.
Though doesn't feel you could get there from this room, unless there's some mechanism to rotate the
wall...”
Which leaves the waiting room.

Subaru's heart hadn't had leeway to thoroughly inspect the rooms last time. He would have clearly
lacked the energy to search for traces of a hidden room in the narrow waiting room.
Although worried about the girl in the crystal, Subaru nonetheless reasons he must investigate the
waiting room—and turns around.
When he immediately comes eye-to-eye with somebody else who has entered the room.
Subaru: “...au?”
???: “—”
Meeting gazes with the emotionless eyes, Subaru lets slip a noise.
Their round pupils stare up at Subaru—and their pink hair reaches down long, only a baggy white
cloth covering this young girl.
She looks identical to Lewes, but the feeling she gives off is different. Or no, rather she gives off no
feeling at all.
It's almost as if she is air, simply existing. Meaning,
34
Subaru: “Oh, a Lewes-san...”
Clone, is the word which passes through Subaru's mind, but he hesitates to apply to the girl. The
term clone was a moniker used only in Subaru's imaginings. Being that her exact background is
unknown, Subaru's heart has qualms about designating her as such.
Subaru: “But that said...”
Having nothing else to call the girl, Subaru winds up stuck.

The little girl simply stands there quietly, in Subaru's view. Her expression remains motionless. She
is a thing of silence, of whom even breathing is suspect.
Subaru hesitates to address her. The doll waits to be addressed.

—Perceiving the still girl in this fashion, Subaru steels himself and opens his mouth.
Subaru: “Can you understand what I'm saying?”
Girl: “—”
Subaru: “Your name? Can I ask what you're here to do? And actually, what is this place?”
Girl: “—”
Subaru: “...SANCTUARY, Garfiel, Lewes. Are any of these words familiar?”
Girl: “—”
The questions for three silences.

Subaru thought asking questions might prompt her expression to shift, but her face remains
perfectly still to every query. As if her facial muscles simply didn't function.
A wasted effort. Subaru is stuck.

Subaru scratches his head, sighing, when the girl moves.
Subaru: “...?”
Her shift to action was sudden, but her gait as she walks is lax.
The girl treads in from the waiting room door, just as Subaru had, and strolls to the centre of the
room—to the crystal.
The girl sealed inside the jewel looks expectedly identical to the girl approaching it.
Before the girl amid a wakeless sleep, the free girl bends over and reaches for the lower section of
the crystal's supporting base.
A part of the base clicks open. Subaru's eyes widen. Apparently the lower section of the base has a
door, with the insides hollow and acting as a storage chamber.
The girl squats down as she gets to work, blocking Subaru's view of the insides as he stretches his
neck. Shifting his position to see inside, Subaru steps forward—
35
Subaru: “—Uegh!”
When an incredible stench pierces his nostrils, making Subaru recoil.
The stinging odour invades his nose, the sensation closer to pain than stimulation. His eyes water as
the nausea strikes, the intensity enough churn the contents of his stomach as he trembles.
This stench is unmistakably the same rancid odour which pervaded the room last time Subaru was
here. The kind of stink suggesting a slaptrap jumbling of chemicals, and suspect as being pregnant
with substances harmful to the human body.
Subaru had thought it to waft up from the underground of the destroyed room, but,
Subaru: “It's actually from inside that base... or basically, the area around the crystal.”
Hand to his nose and eyes still watery, Subaru changes his placement.
Amid a stench most stinging at his eyes, Subaru internally shudders at the girl who unfazedly
continues her work. He then peeks down from beside her, and his eyes shoot open.
—Inside the base the girl is fiddling around with is an internal segment engraved with
incomprehensible patterns, with magequartz installed all around it.
The quartzes dimly glow as they expel their internally stored mana, but one of them has used up its
stores and lost its light. The girl carefully extracts that quartz, and is replacing it with a new one
from the base's store.
Subaru recalls seeing the complex pattern before.

A magic circle—an art practically guaranteed in parallel world fantasies, but completely absent in
this world as far as Subaru had seen.
Subaru: “Seeing it connected here with the quartzes... it feels like machinery or a circuit, something
like that. You consider the circle as the mechanism part, with the quartzes as batteries giving the
energy, and...”
Hitting on this mental image, he can no longer envision it as anything else.

The art of magic science, or otherwise said magiscience.
Subaru tilts his head as the girl appears to finish her work. She takes the emptied quartz in hand and
closes the shutter.
After a space of a few seconds, Subaru notices a tingling sensation on his skin.
—The atmosphere, minutely and minimally, is vibrating.
Subaru: “This's... when using magic.”
The use of large-scale magic—a sensation resembling what he felt during the White Whale fight,
and when Julius used Nect during the Betelgeux fight.
Most likely, some interference was occurring to the mana in the atmosphere, and his body was
perceiving the corresponding shifts in mana.
36
In this case, it is rather obvious what the mana is reacting to.
Subaru witnesses the dim glow of the crystal steadily intensify.

As the crystal's brightness compounds, the form of the girl sealed inside becomes more distinct.
The magic circle inside the base also activates on the upper segment which supports the crystal,
illuminating the room in a brilliant pale glow.
Subaru: “...A save point.”
Who from the present-day world could possibly blame Subaru for that unconscious mutter?
A crystal installed atop a magic circle. This luminating, shining-blue jewel was exactly the familiar
sight of a video game save point.
Regardless of the vivid display it gave for the eyes, the soundlessness of it further enhanced the
crystal's mystique, leaving Subaru swallowing his breath and incapable of voicing his thoughts.
The girl, done with swapping out the quartzes, easily ignores the struck-still Subaru as she gets
moving to leave the room. The extinguished quartz goes tossed and dumped into a crude disposal
spot.
Noticing her quiet attempt at departure, Subaru hurriedly reaches out for her shoulder.
Subaru: “Hey, hold on a mo... ah, touched her.”
Girl: “—”
With the seeming feebleness of her life and presence, Subaru had expected for his hand to simply
pass through, but his fingers fortunately grasp her shoulder firm and he succeeds in halting her.
Abruptly recalling that the girls who exploded after being touched while facing the Witch of ENVY
were of the same breed as this one, Subaru's wariness rears its head, but—
Girl: “—”
The girl, silently staring back at Subaru, shows no signs of exploding.

Relieved, Subaru returns her gaze straight-on.
Subaru: “Sorry for interrupting your work, but the questions're still going. This time, if you can,
please don't ignore them. I haven't got much room to work with here, either.”
Girl: “—”
Subaru: “What did you just do here? Why are you lighting up the crystal? Do you know about the
girl who's inside?”
Girl: “—”
Wasted effort electric boogaloo.

No matter how many times Subaru asks, the girl responds with her silent gaze only. Not refusing his
questions, as if the option to do so doesn't even exist for her.
37
Subaru: “If she could at least manage yes-no response communication, I could do something
here...”
But that's not happening.

Keeping ahold of the girl, who seems ready to leave him behind if he lets her go, Subaru turns his
head to look at the crystal.
No changes have occurred in the girl inside the dazzling, luminous jewel, but there is something
Subaru can clearly perceive now that the crystal is brighter.
She has no respiration, pulse, or bloodflow.

—The essential functions of life have stopped for the girl trapped in the crystal.
Subaru: “...Thanatosis, would probably be way too optimistic here.”
This wasn't anything so easy as warming up frozen flesh to return the person to life. This girl's body
has crystallised.
Freeing her is a dream upon a dream.
Subaru: “Again, powerless...”
Stricken with an unbearable feeling of powerlessness, Subaru brushes his fingers against the face of
the crystal.
Feeling the coldness at his fingertips, Subaru can't tell whether to be angry or relieved that the girl
cannot feel this chill constantly eating away at her.
And just when that sentiment passes through his chest—
The coolness at his fingers flashes into heat, travelling up Subaru's arm, circulating rapidly through
his whole.
Subaru: “—Oa, au, agha!?”
It starts as a warmth—but instantly combusts into blaze scorching his entirety.

Fingers of flame trace along the insides of his body as Subaru groans in pain, writhing on the spot.
The heat suffocates him. His screams echo through the room.
Lacking the composure to care about the filthiness of the ground, Subaru lets his limbs give way as
he topples to the floor. He convulses, his vision strobes—and,
Subaru: “—heuh, u?”
The announcement ending the endless hell comes abruptly.

The furious heat tempers away, freeing Subaru's body from the storm of agony.
Subaru: “...Wh-what the hell, was...”
38
Mutters Subaru at he uprights himself, checking the condition of his arms and legs.
The sudden agony and its abrupt end. Subaru wouldn't know its processes or outcomes without
knowing its cause, leaving behind only questions and a painful memory.
Subaru: “There's, nothing. But, if there's nothing then why on earth...”
The cause of the pain was most likely the crystal's magiscientific apparatus. Subaru may have run
into a situation similar to receiving an electric shock.
Thinking that far, a Subaru entirely occupied with his own hurt remembers about the Lewes girl
who had completely fallen out of his consciousness.
Subaru: “Ah, cra...”
Girl: “—”
Subaru hurriedly goes to stand up—but seeing the girl standing still standing before him, he
untenses, relieved. When,
Girl: “—”
—The girl reverently kneels before him, bowing her head.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Head lowered and knee to the ground, her posture perplexes Subaru.
If he isn't reading this wrong, then those mannerisms, that stance, could only be display of respect
and submission toward him.
Subaru: “What're you planning, all of a sudden?”
Subaru's wariness beats out his surprise for the previously-unheeding girl's complete change.
The trench between Subaru and the girl runs deep. Neither know anything of the other's identity.
Who could possibly not find this situation suspicious?
Girl: “—”
The girl stands from her kneeling before the wary Subaru.
She looks up, her gaze aimed beyond Subaru's head. It baits him to look over, but he finds nothing
in the area her gaze is pointed.
It seems like she's staring up into space for the purpose of thinking things over. Subaru turns his
head back to her, and,
Subaru: “Uauh!?”
Girl: “—”
39
Discovering the girl standing right in his face, within breathing range, Subaru recoils. But the girl's
outstretched hand takes a flinched-back Subaru's arm,
Subaru: “...? You mean, follow me?”
Girl: “—”
The girl wordlessly tugs as Subaru's sleeve, apparently trying to take him somewhere.
She nods in response to his question. Subaru's expression is fretful.
That she's so stubbornly refused to speak might be because she's unable to. But regardless, it seems
she comprehends Subaru's question. So basically, her attempt to take Subaru somewhere should
probably be considered some kind of response in her discussion with Subaru.
Subaru: “Nothing ventured nothing gained, I guess.”
Girl: “—”
Subaru: “Talking to myself. —Alright, lead me along. I'll follow.”
Subaru nods back. The girl continues pulling his sleeve as she starts walking. Following behind her
footsteps, Subaru glances one last time back at the crystal.
—As always, inside the glimmering glow, the girl remains asleep.
Dragged outside by the sleeve, Subaru leaves the main room, passes through the corridor, and enters
the waiting room. The girl proceeds to attempt to guide Subaru outside of the facility.
Subaru: “So it's not inside. I'm okay with going out, but...”
If they wind up going all the way to SANCTUARY, it's going to spill the beans that Subaru snuck into
the facility. Subaru could of course rationalize it away by explaining he hadn't done anything
reproachable, but considering his relationship status with Garfiel, he would much rather avoid it this
loop.
Subaru worries over what to do if the girl's course starts heading for SANCTUARY, when,
???: “—That ers sure a complercated look yer have on, Su-bo.”
Subaru: “...Are you kidding me with this timing?”
Just after stepping out of the facility and into the open air, a voice addresses Subaru.
He looks toward the voice's source, his mouth slackening at who he discovers there. Though, he
can't tell whether that resulted from relief, or from some other basis.
???: “I'm sure yer've got lotser things yer wanner talk about, but ferst how says we change the
location?”
Subaru: “Yeah, let's. I've seriously, got way too many subjects piled up.”
40
Subaru shrugs in agreement.

And just how did she perceive that Subaru?
—That Subaru standing alongside a girl most identical to herself, her back to the moonlight, just
how on earth did the original Lewes perceive him?
41
CHAPTER 56: THE REASON FOR SANCTUARY'S EXISTENCE

Lewes leads Subaru back to the isolated house where they had chatted over tea before.
Lewes: “Just seat yerself on the bed there. I'll make drinks fer us.”
Subaru: “If it's just tea how about I do it? Ram's trained it into me so I should be a little better.”
Lewes: “I'd be more'en happy if yer could, but doesn't lerk like yer able at the moment.”
Says Lewes mirthfully as she points out the Lewes lookalike girl—who is holding on tight to
Subaru's sleeve as he sits on the bed, showing no signs of letting go.
Still lost on how to refer to this Lewes copy(?), Subaru winds up with,
Subaru: “No matter how much time passes, Pico's kind of not letting me go.”
Lewes: “I'm dubious abert that name Pico yer have going there, but being how things are, I'll resign
ter accept it. This'll be what happens when yer brashly touch strange, unfermilier things.”
Subaru: “Well, you could say that, I suppose...”
Lewes gives her frank opinion, but scolding a groping-for-leads Subaru as brash was being way too
unreasonable. Subaru indicates his disapproval with a dejected expression. Lewes boils up some tea
and returns to Subaru, tray in hand.
Lewes: “Here now, it's hot so let it cool befer drinking.”
Subaru: “I'm not a kid, I'm not gonna drink it in a rush and burn myself.”
Lewes: “I gotter someone 'round me who can never settle down and steruggles with hot food.
Giving these warnings's gotten ter be a habit.”
The most likely contender as to who Lewes means is Garfiel. There's a joke here about how
'struggles with hot food' is expressed as having 'cat tongue' in Japanese and Garfiel transforms into a
tiger with an actual cat tongue. That he's also poor at learning by observation goes along with
Subaru's preconceptions about him too.
Subaru puts the indeed rather hot tea to his mouth, wets his parched tongue, and takes a breath.
Thinking back on it, this is the first time he's drank anything since RETURNING BY DEATH,
otherwise said since waking up in the tomb.
Subaru: “I can really taste the attempt to draw out the leaf flavour in this.”
Lewes: “I gotter feeling I been passed with a judgement that's sure nothing fair.”
Subaru: “Just your feeling, just your feeling.”
Subaru drinks down the tea and returns his cup to the tray with a clink. He fixes his posture to face
42
Lewes, who has dragged a chair over to the bed and sits comfortably as she watches Subaru.
Subaru: “Now that we're calmed down, can we be alright to start the talk?”
Lewes: “Mm. I've got loster things I needer talk about from my side, too.”
Subaru feels keenly his relief at Lewes' upfront responding to have this chat.
He's had multiple opportunities to speak face-to-face with the big players like this before. That
Subaru has nevertheless failed to ascertain the truth of matters is partly because they're intentionally
hiding information, but there's also a preliminary problem. That being—
Subaru: “I still haven't figured out the true issue that I need to ask about.”
—Subaru hadn't figured out the question that would bind all the answers into one thread.
And so he couldn't notice that he was being dodged, and that his questions were misdirected.
Asking the thing he needs to know of someone who knows them. Even that was considerably
distant from Subaru.
Subaru: “That building... that facility from before. Just what on earth is it?”
Lewes: “Hrm. ...That's the question yer starting with.”
The inquiry which pops into Subaru's mind is an inoffensive one, made for the purpose of
determining how upfront Lewes will be in this conversation. Lewes traces her fingers over her chin
in a very geriatric non-loli gesture.
Lewes: “If yer were to ask what that facility is, then I'd answer that in a sense, it's SANCTUARY's
nexus. If I were ter speak further, it's one of the reasons SANCTUARY exists.”
Subaru: “The reason SANCTUARY exists!?”
Lewes: “Originally speaking, Su-bo. So-bu, just who do yer think had necessity ter create
SANCTUARY?”
Subaru: “Roswaal is...”
Starting to speak off a conditioned kind of reflex, Subaru understands what he's saying is incorrect.
While indeed the Roswaals have owned and managed SANCTUARY to the present day, the question
of who created the place presents a different story.
Subaru: “Who made this place is the Witch of GREED... it'd be Echidna.”
Lewes: “Cerrect. It was Echidna, the witch, who made this place. SANCTUARY wers made because it
was a necessary thing for the witch. If I were ter speak in extremes, that's all there's ter the place.”
Subaru: “That's surely going too extreme. And skimping way too much on the inbetween. ...At least,
if you could give a little more detail...”
43
Lewes: “Su-bo, don't yer already have a success of the experiment right in fronter yer?”
Lewes smiles. Subaru's breathing freezes for an instant.

He understands what Lewes means, and what she's trying to say.
Subaru: “The outcome of this place is... you, Lewes-san, and this girl.”
Lewes: “Yer really a kind boy, Su-bo. Ertherwise soft. —Yer can just say experimental results.”
Of course Subaru hesitates to say that term in front of Lewes.
Lewes: “There wers a girl who lerks exactly like me, sealed inside the crystal, yes?”
Subaru: “...Yeah. A lookalike. And then's you, and this girl. Is it safe for me to consider you as
triplets, or something?”
Lewes: “If yer gonner treat beings with highly similar appearances ers a family, then calling ers
triplets might be jerst a smidgen too few in number.”
Subaru: “Just a smidgen.”
Lewes: “Jerst a smidgen.”
Lewes' 'smidgen' probably means there's a tens column.

Being that Subaru's already seen 21 Lewes copies, he inevitably thinks so.
He sighs, erasing his idle thoughts.

Lewes hasn't been attempting to dodge Subaru's questions so far. Now's probably about time to cool
down on feeling her out, and get into it.
Subaru: “—What relation do you have to the girl in the crystal?”
Lewes' expression remains calm. She fiddles with the ends of her pink hair, aiming a meaningful
gaze at Subaru—no, at the silent girl beside him.
Lewes: “It ersn't jerst about me. This girl here's in my persition too.”
Subaru: “And the girl in the crystal, too.”
Lewes: “No, just her is different. Becerrs the girl in the crystal is legitimate.”
Unable for an instant to comprehend what Lewes is saying, Subaru furrows his brows. But, putting
it together, the stands up from the bed.
Subaru: “Legitimate, would mean what...”
Lewes: “Dern't get hurried now. Trawling through memories ers necessary werk fer yer elders when
talking. Yer gotter wait there calm n' ready fer it.”
44
Subaru: “Don't start playing on the non-speech elderly appeal now. I can at least tell from how
bland and flavourless this girl here is that that's nothing but seasoning.”
Lewes: “Hrm, that ers a saddening misernderstanding. By my perspective, everything that

constertutes who I am now, ers important, in what yer'd call acquired individuality.”
Subaru: “Acquired, individuality?”
Lewes nods.
Lewes: “Yes.”
Lewes: “Just as yer serspect, Su-bo, I wers originally identical ter this girl, bern as an unfilled
vessel. The years passed, and so I've been living ter this day while filling up my empty insides.”
Subaru: “Wait, waitwaitwait, the story's moving a bit too fast. Born? Empty? What exactly is this?
This's kinda obvious, but it's related to the crystal's insides being LEGITIMATE, right?”
Lewes: “The inside erv that crystal is the legitimate, first Lewes Meyer. All other Leweses,
including me, er then replicas of Lewes Meyer.”
Lewes easily reveals her own origins. Or no, should he even be calling her Lewes? Subaru is lost.
What Lewes has just said is exactly the vague hypothesis Subaru has had ever since sighting the
multiple Lewes doubles. Although half-suspecting as much, what prevented him from reaching
confidence about it was entirely THE UNPLEASANTNESS OF THERE BEING CLONES OF MY
ACQUAINTANCE.
Even that was a narrow view resulting from his hardened perspectives of normalcy.
Lewes: “Does hearing the word replica change how yer see me?”
Subaru: “...I don't know. It doesn't, is what I want to assert. I want to, I do, but... If you asked
whether I could say so while in front of you yourself...”
—He couldn't.
Being that this is a parallel world, Subaru can't strictly call the Lewes a clone. Her method of being
born likely differs from the vague image in Subaru's head.
Doubtlessly, she is a life born from magical rather than scientific means.
Subaru: “I lack confidence I could say it cooly, without change to my expression. So I won't say it
hasn't changed.”
Lewes: “I'll revise what I said. Su-bo, yer got kind and soft ter yer, but... more'en that, looks like
yer roots're far too completely honest.”
They're definitely not joyous words, but Lewes responds to Subaru's reply with a satisfied nod.
Biting down on his feelings, Subaru looks at the girl sitting beside him—at Pico, who is in the same
position as Lewes.
45
—Pico wordlessly keeps her grasp on Subaru's sleeve, staring blankly across the room. Her eyes
surely witness the same scene as Subaru, but since her irises lack any visible emotion, they're
conceivable as glass balls simply reflecting the scenery.
Her expression remains unchanged, and she hasn't said a single word. But,
Subaru: “She's empty, is what...”
Lewes: “She wers born very recently, a double only jerst given her role. She knows enough ter
follow simple instructions, but ertherwise she's the same ers a baby. That she dersn't cry and dersn't
need food means she's less of a handful, I serppose.”
Subaru: “She doesn't need food?”
Lewes: “Replicating a body ersn't anything achieved so simply. Can yer think of on what principle
me and her are here?”
Subaru, desiring an immediate answer, holds himself back.

He can't be a child, entirely making desires, only ever receiving. That's not what Lewes wants from
Subaru.
Pressured by the seriousness in Lewes' gaze, he scrutinizes her words, and what he hits on is,
Subaru: “Is it mana... maybe?”
What comes to his mind is the impetus for Puck's existence.

Puck's body is constructed using mana as an intermediary when he materializes. By applying that,
you could probably also create human-shaped bodies.
Lewes' brows raise and she gives a little clap.
Lewes: “Beautiful. That yer reached that answer is truly impressive. And it ersn't as though anyone
told yer, either.”
Subaru: “But you guided me along to properly reach the answer. It's just because I happen to know
a nearby spirit that I thought of it. ...So, was it correct?”
Lewes: “Almost cerrect. Making a body solely with mana as an intermediary inevitably means a
poor consumption rate. The Witch of GREED forcibly cercumvented that problem with a specialized
algorithm arrangement.”
Subaru: “Forcible algorithms, means?”
Lewes: “The algorithm constructs an organ to produce mock-od, and so lerng as a set quantity of
mana is stored, yer can materialise a body. Meaning that while the body is made erv mana, yer can
create lifeforms resembling NORMAL, od-existant creatures.”
Od—unlike the mana in the atmosphere, od comes inset in every living creature from the outset, an
energy which preforms the same operations as mana.
However, od cannot be harvested from the outside as mana can, and the complete amount a creature
46
possesses is decided at birth. Using od meant shortening one's life span, and exhaustion of od =
death.
Consider it as casting magic with HP when lacking the required MP. Although that said the HP is
unrecoverable.
Subaru: “You said it so easily, but... isn't that something amazing? Even if it's 'mock', replicating od
basically means creating life.”
Lewes: “Naturally, yer have ter follow some pretty particular conditions befer the phenomenon's
posserble. My noggin ersn't clever enough ter understand the details. —But yer can safely think it
truth that the witch succeeded in creating life.”
Subaru: “Incredible... man, she was actually amazing.”
The image of the white-haired witch smugly looking down at Subaru flashes through his mind. But
then he immediately thinks,
Subaru: “No but, Daphne also said she created witchbeasts, so is the difficulty level for creating life
just surprisingly low for witches? Lower rarity than I thought.”
The image of the white-haired witch saying “W-well but it wasn't as if I did it wanting any praise”
flashes through his mind.
Lewes: “Yer expression's saying yer imagining something very heartwarming.”
Subaru: “Mysteriously, it feels like our exchanges've completely melted my sense of caution toward
her. Anyway, I understand your origins, Lewes-san. Echidna created duplicates here of this girl
Lewes Meyer. I got that.”
Subaru successfully comprehends the principle behind the Lewes' doubles' existence, and that
Lewes herself has accepted this truth.
Subaru: “The next problem is, why was Echidna doing that?”
Lewes: “Hrm...”
Subaru: “For me, a layman in magic and the related algorithms, I only understand from the
appearances just how amazing the thing Echidna did was. But even at that appearances level, I
understand it was something gargantuan.”
Says Subaru to Lewes, who has her arms crossed in listening posture.
Subaru: “Where'd the motivation come from to do something that huge? What's her incentive? Why
was it necessary for Echidna to create doubles of Lewes Meyer?”
The position of this girl Lewes Meyer in SANCTUARY is unclear.

The Lewes Subaru is chatting with right now serves as a representative-slash-body double in
present-day SANCTUARY. So, what standing did the original Lewes Meyer have in the structure of
47
SANCTUARY?
Or otherwise, if she herself was the impetus for creating SANCTUARY,
Subaru: “I've hit on a thought for a possibility.”
Lewes: “Oh?”
Subaru: “This kinda story's a guaranteed winner. It's the possibility of her intentionally creating
substitutes for Lewes Meyer, who for some reason lost her life.”
In media such as manga and novels, it's common to have characters searching for means to bring
back a lost life. Creating clones of the deceased, crafting beings of the same DNA to substitute
them, was a popular theme. Although those often end as failures due to THEIR BODIES ARE THE
SAME, BUT THEIR SOULS WERE DIFFERENT.
Subaru: “Going by what you've said, Lewes-san, and seeing Pico, it looks likely the experiment in
SANCTUARY got set back for the same reason. Even if you can make the appearance identical, you
can't copy the essence, is the feeling.”
If they were regardless continuing to create doubles, not giving up, you could probably call that
insanity. If they persisted, still seeking the possibility that the soul would lodge in the body even
after over twenty failures, that was—
Subaru: “Delusion, isn't how I wanna dismiss it, but...”
You couldn't call it wrong to want to bring back someone's life to that extent. Subaru, at least, was
absolutely incapable of lambasting it.
Subaru right now in the present-perfect-continuous was working for the sake of seeing a future with
everything saved.
Using only different methods and process, just how dissimilar was that from the witch's
experiment?
The question of what the resulting Leweses thought of it could only be answered by asking them
directly.
His theory now concluded, Subaru falters on what to say. Lewes sighs.
Lewes: “Su-bo, yer a quicker thinker than I figured.”
Subaru: something something with the arrangements I've been given it's excessively slow. It's a
result of you being made to say things you didn't want to say, too.
Subaru's thinking is so slow it makes him want to click his tongue. He feels keenly his regret.
But Lewes gives Subaru a slow shake of the head. However, it's not a gesture to comfort him. A
light smile arises on her face, hosting a sense of melancholy,
Lewes: “But, it seems yer overthink. Could also call yer a dreamer.”
Subaru: “A dreamer... I don't think that opinion's too off-base, but...”
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Lewes: “Yer a dreamer. This's what yer thinking, isn't it, Su-bo? —She went through these
strenuous efforts attempting to restart that life. The girl Lewes Meyer was someone the Witch of
GREED cherished, and for her possessed such a merit. Cerrect?”
Hit with a bullseye, Subaru goes silent.

That was exactly what he had been thinking. Inventing new algorithms and going through tiresome
processes to continue someone's existence—if Echidna was going so far to do this, then you would
likely reason that the witch considered this person someone special.
Lewes smiles as she rejects Subaru's reasoning. A dry, pained smile.
Lewes: “Lewes Meyer wers just a village girl. She weresn't anyone especially close ter the Witch of
GREED. They naturally had no blood, er matrimonially resultant ties. The witch and Lewes Meyer
were most entirely strangers, having exchanged only the abserlute scantest of words.”
Subaru: “That's... no, hold on.”
Says Lewes as if she's seen this, Subaru interrupting her talk by holding out his palm. He puts his
free hand to his forehead.
Subaru: “Isn't this weird? Lewes-san, you said this before. That you're like Pico, born with your
insides empty. Why do you know about the Lewes Meyer in the crystal? It doesn't make sense.”
Lewes: “That's the result erv another test undergone in this SANCTUARY.”
Lewes softly receives Subaru's objection, putting her hand to her chest.
If what she's said is true, she most likely feels no heartbeart in doing so. But then where does the
warmth he touched come from, wonders Subaru needlessly. Lewes closes her eyes.
Lewes: “Lewes Meyer and the witch were not close. But, she sacrificed herself ter the test. The
witch utilised Lewes Meyer's body, sealed her in the crystal, and granted her time eternal. From
there she formulated the algorithm, leaving behind a mechanism which generates mock-od every
time a certain quantity erv mana is amassed, creating Lewes Meyer doubles.”
Subaru: “...For what purpose?”
Lewes: “If yer discount knowledge such as language and a bare minimum sense erv common
mores, Lewes Meyer doubles err born in a state identical ter a baby. But that itself is already
perculier. If it's identical ter a baby, it's cerrect fer it to just cry, ignorant and pure. So then why der
they have knowledge allowing them ter follow the most basic instructions?”
Subaru: “That's... no way.”
Hitting on the worst of possibilities, Subaru loses his words.

Lewes seems to understand it simply by seeing his expression. She nods.
Lewes: “Picking and choosing on knowledge, the witch formulated means ter confer that ter the
doubles. From there she granted only the minimum in knowledge, birthing them empty of anything
49
else.”
Subaru: “Then, them being born knowing nothing is exactly as she anticipated? But, then exactly
there is where the purpose doesn't...”
It's turned into a ritual of creating order-following dolls. That said, it's not unthinkable for that to
have been an intentional aspect of it. Isn't, but it's also very diverged from the disposition of Witch
of GREED Echidna.
It's unthinkable that white-haired girl would pull something so roundabout just to create beings she
could operate like her very own limbs.
Subaru: “Dunno if she could do this, but it'd save heaps of time and effort to brainwash or
something people kidnapped from wherever. That's not it, there's some reason that's...”
Empty, new existences, something from nothing, creation—
Subaru: “—ah,”
A possibility flicks through his mind.

But it's preposterous, and Subaru immediately shakes his head to forget about it. However, in
thinking it once, the thought won't let Subaru go.
If for assumption that this idea were true—
Echidna: 
—Then it cohered with her concealing the truth of her deeds from Subaru.
And also cohered with the Lewes before him inheriting considerable memories from Lewes Meyer.
Subaru: “When you can pick and choose knowledge, why would you nonetheless create empty
doubles?”
Lewes says nothing.
Subaru: “You prepare an empty vessel, and then what? Why do you put a vessel empty of content
on the table?”
Lewes says nothing.
Subaru: “—To fill it, of course.”
Assuming that knowledge and memories could be poured into these doubles, with the empty vessels
prepared.
Inside the crystal was the original, never to be lost. Assuming that it could create countless doubles,
and you could append countless memories and knowledge into them.
That was—
Subaru: “You repeatedly burn your own memories and knowledge into the body of Lewes Meyer. If
that is just maybe possible, then it's...”
50
Lewes: “—A kind of immortality.”
—That was the true nature of the experiment preformed in SANCTUARY.
51
CHAPTER 57: THE IMMORTALITY EXPERIMENT

—Immortality.
A concept arisen in every tale out there, past and present east and west, an ideal that all those with
life would consider.
Never ageing, never deteriorating, never reincarnating, eternally persisting in being as YOURSELF.
This concept enraptured many, despite them knowing it a contradiction to the principles of life,
consisting the pinnacle of existence for an individual.
Subaru: “Immortality...”
Repeating back the word, Subaru winds up almost laughing at the unreality of it. But his cheeks
stiffen, and he fails to craft any proper smile.
While desiring to laugh it off as ridiculous, his heart simultaneously, knowing that the witch's
experiment was certainly no fabrication, can't conceal its shivering.
Subaru: “Then surprisingly even witches make goals of worldly things. Immortality's image's more
like... the goal of some nobody fixated on their own teensy life.”
Lewes: “I'd say it's up ter personal opinion whether valuing yer life's the thought erv a nobody, but
the Witch of GREED ert least viewed her life from no philosophical perrspective. She naturally
feared death and devised means ter overcome that. ...Most'er the time lack a erv ability 'n lack erv
power'd make it end ers a simple fantersy.”
Subaru: “But inconveniently, Echidna had plenty of power. She might've even thought of several
methods for it. This's what her clever brains came up with, then.”
Looking down at Pico sitting beside him, Subaru bites his lip.
Pico displays no reaction to Subaru's gaze. She proceeds in standby mode, quiet, as if waiting for
someone to address her. Subaru gives a kind of breathy exhale.
Subaru: “Right. Having no insides... 'd mean there's no personality.”
Lewes: “Her state's like that erv a marionette. Erkzactly the state erv a newly-prepared vessel. All
that's left ter grant the wish is ter pile in what yer desire.”
Subaru: “But is this something that really goes so smoothly? I don't know the theory of it, but I've
got a rough image of what doing it'd be.”
Downloading your own memories and knowledge into an empty vessel.

Were the process one involving data, Subaru likely would not show so much exception with it.
But the topic being discussed here is personality of an individual person. A person whose
appearance and substance Subaru knew.
Subaru: “Extract your memories, and insert them in the empty body. Say it succeeds and you can
repeat the process every time the body starts degrading, then that's definitely a kind of immortality.
But...”
52
Passing down personalities and memories was indeed close to conquering death.
If you preserved your personality in a similar way to data, then even if by some mistake the body
was destroyed, it could still be installed into a new vessel, making recovery possible.
Duplicable personalities, and duplicable bodies. —That was the theoretical groundings of Echidna's
immortality.
—But, then,
Subaru: “It's the idea where people panic when they run into parallel universe versions of
themselves, and get struck with a sense of obligation that they absolutely must remove the other.”
Lewes says nothing.
Subaru: “That's how unbearable it must feel to have yous who aren't you existing. The future I see
just in imagining it makes me feel sick. Hey, Lewes-san.”
Lewes: “What?”
Subaru: “So being able to make multiple... Lewes Meyer bodies like this means, you can fling your
personality into every one of the bodies. Basically, you're not just limited to perpetuating yourself
temporally, you can also make multiples of yourself.”
This should be possible by the theory previously discussed.

Considering the THEORY in play, the more backups and spares you have to preserve YOURSELF, the
better.
It's unthinkable that Echidna hadn't thought of something that Subaru had.
Subaru: “Wonder what it feels like. Being able to prepare others of yourself. Where even if you fail,
there's a sort of ASSURANCE. Can you understand it, Lewes-san?”
Lewes: “...I doubt I'll ever be able ter understand that. The technique erv extracting personalities
ersn't anything I'm fussed about. When this individual body is lost, the individual I am will vanish.
By that meaning, there's no difference between me 'n you, Su-bo, in us lacking bodies capable erv a
do-over.”
Subaru: “Really. Yeah. ...Yeah, well of course.”
Subaru can't keep from giving a chagrined smile. Lewes furrows her brows, but will likely never
understand what Subaru's reaction meant.
Subaru: “So that's what it is. Yeah, got it. Now I understand why you were being so forward, too.”
Says Subaru to the white-haired witch passing through his mind.

She planned to prepare herself duplicates, transferring her personality there, living long, achieving
immortality. Such a thing was assuredly having an ASSURANCE of life.
53
Subaru: “And just how different is that from me?”
Subaru couldn't possibly harbour disgust for it.

In fact, feelings of closeness instead boil up. This excessively questionable emotion being called
closeness might've been the dark joy of having found someone of the same breed.
Although it was using her own kind of methods, Echidna achieved a piece of immortality.
Still being tossed around by the Witch, Subaru was repeating DEATH to achieve his goal.
Both in positions which mutinied against the supposedly singular thing known as LIFE.
What if, thinks Subaru.
—What if, Echidna is the only one who can understand me.
Or at least, understand that mentality.
Lewes: “Su-bo?”
Subaru: “...I understand your position, Lewes-san. And what Echidna was trying to do. So then
there's something I sorta wanna ask... did Echidna's aims succeed?”
Lewes: “Aims...”
Subaru: “Even I can see she finished in preparing empty vessels. All that's left is to overwrite her
personality into them. Did she succeed in that overwriting? Or no, putting it more simply...”
—Is Echidna alive somewhere in this world right now?
Subaru's question goes unvoiced.

Understanding the implication, Lewes closes her eyes, shaking her head in response to Subaru's
pleading gaze.
Lewes: “No, unferternately... the witch couldn't succeed in her plans. There is no Lewes Meyer
body which inherited the witch's personality, tying her to life.”
Subaru: “Wh-why not? The personality download, sucking out the mental stuff, didn't succeed?”
Lewes: “Dunno what this dhownlerd is, but the technique fer extracting personalities itself wers
errlmost definitely completed. The failure came from a different cause.”
Subaru: “A different, cause being?”
Lewes: “It's simple. If yer pour too much water inter a vessel, it'll fail ter all settle inside n'
overflow. If some part flows over, yer can't call that the original being, it's something different.”
At the word 'vessel', Subaru looks at Lewes, and Pico.
Subaru: “Vessel... wouldn't be a problem of bodily size, yeah?”
54
Lewes: “Yer maybe oughter call it a problem in soul size. There exists in people a receptacle ter fit
their soul. With the girl Lewes Meyer as vessel, it wersen't big enough ter receive the witch
Echidna's soul.”
Subaru: “That... how did she confirm that?”
Lewes: “Pouring her knowledge inter the ferst double failed, and she ferst encountered the problem
erv soul and vessel sizes. But in saying, Lewes Meyer's body wers already inside the crystal by
then, and the mechernism ter create doubles was complete... so erlthrough unable ter fufill their
intended purpose, vessels continued ter be born one after another.”
Done with surprisingly little foresight, thinks Subaru.

This kind of mistake was incredibly improbable coming from Echidna. That there were no means to
deal with the multiplying Leweses afterwards also feels much unlike her.
Subaru: “What happened to that first double? Even though not all of it got in, it still would've
inherited some of the witch's memories, yeah? It might be fragmentary, but you could still call that a
copy of the witch.”
Lewes: “When water flows outter a vessel, noberdy can choose which portion ers spilled. Ert's one
thing if yer spill quibbling memories, bits which won't impede daily life, but if yer spill a part which
brings about big problems, the personality's changed.”
Subaru thinks upon the dud first Lewes = Echidna. Basically, Echidna wound up creating
SOMETHING incredibly different from what she expected.
Lewes: “Story goes that the ferst double born wers completely bonkers, and since it inherited a
fragment erv the Witch of GREED's power, a real nuisance. Terk her quite'er bit'er trouble disposing
it, apparently.”
Subaru: “Disposed... I, see.”
Lewes: “But er course the witch wersen't a good ernough quitter er without enough responsibiliy ter
throw everything away after one failure. After disposing erv the ferst double, she apparently toiled
wondering if she had ter alter the mass erv her soul, so she could transfer it into the next double.”
Subaru: somethingsoemthing That her soul came up with this is amazing.
Echidna's idea was unmistakably to compress the size of the data so it could be transferred to
different medium. Otherwise to cut off unneeded parts so it would fit inside the receiver.
Subaru had some familiarity with computers and understood the general concept of data, so he had
reached this idea. But Echidna's thoughts, conceiving this while ignorant of computers and data, and
especially when talking about compressing SOULS of all things, were incredible.
Hearing that the first double was lost dejected Subaru. But knowing that Echidna immediately
attempted another approach gave him hope.
However,
55
Lewes: “But,”
Lewes: “Though she searched fer a new method, the witch wers unable ter test it.”
Subaru: “Wh-well why not? It's sure something saying this, but the preparations were all there for
testing it. And multiple copies of Lewes Meyer...”
Lewes: “Befer the experiment in SANCTUARY could proceed, the Witch of ENVY started acting.”
Subaru goes silent.
Lewes: “The Witch of ENVY consumed half the werld, and in doing devoured aller six witches
outside herself. The Witch of GREED wers no exception. The witch's plans ter persist in life
immortal wers assuredly aborted by the witch's hands.”
That Echidna, although not achieving immortality, still exists mentally in the world could perhaps
be called her final bout of stubbornness.
Subaru: “...What happened to SANCTUARY after the witch was gone?”
Lewes: “Roz-bo's family the Mathers have been in charg'er managing this land from the beginning. I
don't know just what contract the Mathers family and the witch shared, though. That charge
continued uninterrupted, and now Roz-bo is maintaining and managing SANCTUARY. That said, all
he's really doing is circulating goods through here so the place doesn't go ter ruin, and occasionally
bringing along kids in circumstances appropriate fer SANCTUARY as new residents.”
Subaru: “And he's left everything else to you, Lewes-san. Earlier you said the individual things you
acquired are your individuality, but...”
Lewes: “If I'm speaking limiting myself as an individual double, I'm the third double from the
beginning. I wers born with a sorter personality implanted beforehand, to inherit the role erv
managing the multiplying vessels and erv Lewes Meyer. Even now I'm following that duty.”
Subaru: “Implanted personality... you can seriously do that?”
Implanting a mock-personality into an empty vessel so that it can fulfil a role.

Installing robots with mock-AI so they could preform human behaviours—was still a far cry from
being reality in the world Subaru's from.
Lewes nods.
Lewes: “Though erv course it wersn't anything easy. Ert was possible exactly because I wers a
soulless, empty vessel. And even then, I cerld only do truly simple things at the experimental stage.”
The beginning was certainly tough, says Lewes' smile, peeking through.
Lewes: “Being givern a role but having no memories is sure a mysterious feeling. The days passed
slowly, but with increrdible momentum. It took a very long time befer I began thinking that wers
mysterious, too.”
56
Subaru: “...What happened with the multiplying doubles? I sorta haven't seen any in SANCTUARY
except for you and Pico, Lewes-san.”
Lewes: “The Leweses except fer the four filling the role of Lewes are scattered around SANCTUARY.
They're made ter act ers eyes against invaders, er as relays. Interestingly, doubles can relay thoughts
between each other.”
Garfiel has mentioned the term 'eyes of SANCTUARY' before. If he was referring to the doubles, and
they're scattered around SANCTUARY's outskirts keeping watch, then yes it makes sense Garfiel
found out about the villagers' evacuation so easily. And, thinking that far,
Subaru: “Wa—wait hold on, you said something I can't overlook. The four filling the role of Lewes,
what.”
Lewes: “Hrm, that. It's simple. Continually reproducing the entire structure erv a person's body with
mana puts on an incredible load. If the mana runs out, my body disappears. But ernlike spirits, if I
disperse I probably won't be able ter reform. Er maybe there is a way ter do it, but I don't know it.”
Disappearing and reforming, with memories persisting, makes Subaru recollect on spirits. Although
since spirits have places to RETURN to after vanishing like Puck's jewel thingamajig, strictly
speaking they don't actually disappear. But this isn't the case with the Leweses. A death from
complete mana depletion means the death of that individual for them.
Lewes: “We can't keep active alone fer very long. It takes abert three days fer us ter replenish our
mana after hitting the point where our bodies operate so little that we're overtaxing them. We need
ter avoid the inconvenient things that'd happen with Lewes Meyer being absent from SANCTUARY
over that time.”
Subaru: “And so, four Lewes-sans.”
Lewes: “The role erv Lewes Meyer cycles ter be once a day, every four days. Outside those times,
I'm the same ers the other vessels. ...Wearing just the facade erv Lewes Meyer, an empty vessel.
That might be how ter say it.”
Says Lewes somewhat cynically. Subaru doesn't know what to say on the spot.
Anything he says will be conceivable as vapid, know-it-all cajolery. Although he knows that
shutting up here in itself just affirms Lewes' cynicism, Subaru's mouth fails to say anything.
Lewes: “Don't feel down, Su-bo. Me and the other doubles are consentingly conferming ter our
role. Same as the ferst Lewes Meyer.”
Subaru: “First... Right, I wanted to ask this too.”
Lewes: “Mm?”
Subaru: “I understand why you Lewes-sans, why you duplicates of Lewes Meyer Lewes-sans, are
following the witch's words and protecting SANCTUARY. But why did the girl Lewes Meyer help the
57
witch?”
From the conversation so far, it doesn't seem there was any testing to fill an empty vessel with
Lewes Meyer herself. Meaning that Lewes Meyer sacrificed her body to the experiment, her soul
having nowhere to go, choosing an end forever sealed in crystal.
In exchange for creating bodies eternally, she ended her own soul there in a decision akin to suicide.
Why was that young girl able to make that decision?

Otherwise, perhaps Echidna selected her as a lab rat at random without her consent.
While wishing for it not to be the latter, Subaru asks,
Subaru: “What was Lewes Meyer thinking in participating in the experiment?”
Lewes: “...I herrd Lewes Meyer presented the witch with a proposition. The witch accepted the
terms, and that's why she participated in the experiment. No need ter worry, she wasn't forced.”
Subaru: “Proposition... can I ask what it was about?”
Lewes: “I doubt yer could understand it even if yer did ask, Su-bo.”
Subaru wordlessly stares at Lewes. Faced with a gaze similar to that of a stubborn child, Lewes
frowns, sighing.
Lewes: “The cerndition Lewes Meyer presented the witch with was SANCTUARY's continued
existence.”
Subaru: “Sanctuary's... continued existence?”
Lewes: “Lewes Meyer wished fer the place that the witch prepared as a laboratory bench, fer the test
site SANCTUARY, fer this environment ter continue being maintained. The witch, having necessity fer
SANCTUARY ter remain fer continuing her experiments, of course consented. And even now after the
witch's passing, her promise ter Lewes Meyer remains kept, with us preserving the contract between
the two by our own hands.”
Subaru: “No but that... the arrangement's backwards.”
Echidna was the one who needed SANCTUARY's experiment, and Lewes Meyer would've been
someone assembled in SANCTUARY for the sake of that experiment. The lab rat girl wished the witch
for SANCTUARY's continued existence. Their proposer-reciever arrangement makes no sense.
Lewes: “Hyperthetically, even saying it wers a laboratory bench... SANCTUARY wers a much more
comfortable place than the areas where she wers persecuted. How ders that thought sound ter yer?”
Subaru: “...That is overwhelmingly beyond help.”
Lewes: “Here ers where help is. And so Lewes Meyer sacrificed herself ter the experiment. Whether
er not that achieved anything is something I can only have yer judge by seeing myself and this girl.”
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Lewes takes a sip of her thoroughly cold tea. Subaru has nothing he can say.
A conversation about herself essentially just ended, but Pico's shown no reaction. Merely sat there
quietly gripping Subaru's sleeve.
Subaru: “Why is she so attached to me? She's empty, and at first she was treating me like I didn't
even exist.”
Lewes: “It's 'causer that. Yer touched Lewes Meyer's crystal, Su-bo. The command right got
converted and overwritten to yer.”
Subaru: “Command right?”
Subaru furrows his brows, puzzled. Lewes nods and raises a finger.
Lewes: “As er test, try giving her an order. Oop, but nothing indecent now. She looks erkzactly like
me, after all.”
Subaru: “No need to say that, I'm not into lolis, okay? I, healthily, like girls around my own age.
...Pico, rub my shoulders a little.”
Hearing Subaru's order, Pico raises her head and gives a faint nod, affirming the command. She
climbs up onto the bed, circling around to Subaru's back.
Subaru: “o, ohh, it's good it's good... huh? Um, Pico-san? This is pretty forceful? Scale it back scale
it back... au, crap, Pico-san, scaleitbaaaaaack!!”
Lewes: “Rubbing shoulders, ers something she knows of, but the strength ter put into it ers an
unknown. Slack on teaching her those things, and she'll make these blunders.”
Subaru: “Y-you were knowingly testing me!?”
Shaking himself free from a Pico even now attempting to give him shoulder rubs, Subaru orders her
back to her spot and rotates his creaky shoulders. Shivering at Pico's near bone-shattering grip
strength, he tilts his head.
Subaru: “Having the command right transfer just by touching it is kinda crazy low security, yeah?
What'd you do if it'd been some malicious lolicon?”
Lewes: “It's unlikely yer'd enter that place by coincerdence, and more impertently the command
right dersen't transfer easily. Yer'd have ter be accepted as an apostle erv GREED.”
Subaru: “...Hn?”
Lewes sips her tea. Subaru crosses his arms, and timidly,
Subaru: “Ummm,”
Subaru: “Excuse me. I'm afraid I have no idea what this apostle of GREED thing is.”
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Lewes: “Something recognized by Echidna, with that being a qualifier befitting an apostle. Did yer
accept anything like that inside the tomb? Be given anything, conferred anything, put anything in
yer body.”
Subaru: “Inside the tomb...”
Subaru thinks back on his meetings with Echidna inside her dream-castle, figuring there must have
been some impressive conferment somewhere like what Lewes is talking about. But he can't come
up with anything.
If there was anything Echidna had given Subaru in that place, is was some knowledge, relief, and a
rather terrifying experience. And also,
Subaru: “...It couldn'tve been the Chidna tea?”
Lewes: “Hrm, Chidna tea?”
Subaru: “Echidna said it was her bodily fluids, and she cleverly presented me this stuff resembling
tea, and I've kinda drunken it twice...”
Lewes: “Nert even jesting, it wers probably that.”
Subaru: “Asshole, seriously what did she fucking make me drink!!”
Subaru unwittingly stands up out of anger. Lewes chides him with a 'now now', but Subaru shows
no signs of not being cranky.
Lewes: “Yer can say that, but it's erkzactly because of it that we have this situation. It surely
wasern't anything entirely bad?”
Subaru: “It pisses me off that she put this in me without me knowing! The fuck is she doing to
people's bodies. Apostle of GREED, relations with witches make things damn complicated as it is,
don't you pile more on that. Witches are just all so fucking...”
You've got the Witch of ENVY settling some RETURN BY DEATH agreement without his knowledge,
you've got the Witch of GREED just going off making him her apostle, are witches all just fucking
like that?
Lewes: “Anyway, cause'er that you've gotten command right of the Lewes Meyer doubles in
SANCTUARY, Su-bo. Yer can make even me obey yer.”
Subaru: “This thing even works on you, Lewes-san?”
Lewes: “She hasn't gotter will and I can resist more'en her, but ultimately I can't defy it. Must be a
happy thing fer a healthy young man?”
Subaru: “I said I'm not a lolicon...”
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She can give him a seductive gaze, but he doesn't react an inch.
Glancing aside at Lewes as she laughs delightedly, Subaru thinks back on the mystery of
SANCTUARY.
A facility hidden deep in the place's depths. Lewes Meyer sealed there, and the double-producing
system. Destruction coming in six days, and the problem associated with that.
Having discussed the facility's existence, what was indispensable was— Subaru:
“Lewes-san, I'm sorry for this being sudden, but... please help me out.” Lewes:
“What, if it's something dirty go fer the purer lot, not me.”
Subaru: “Enough on that already.”
Subaru stands up, stretching as he looks up at the ceiling.
Subaru: “There has to be at least one other person than me with the command right.”
Lewes goes silent.
Subaru: “I do wanna talk to him, but there's another thing that's been bothering me.”
Two people arise in Subaru's mind.

The first gave orders to over 20 Lewes doubles, tiger and protector of SANCTUARY, Garfiel Tinzel.
And the other—
Subaru: “Why did Gate Crossing throw me into that facility? I'd say now's about time to find out...”
—A cream-haired girl, who Subaru determines to now question thoroughly.
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CHAPTER 58: NANNA

Alongside Lewes and Pico, Subaru exits the house to see light creeping over the eastern sky, and
first notices his own sleepiness.
Subaru: “Wuah, daybreak... was a pretty content-heavy night.”
This doesn't tie in with Subaru's personal sense of time, but the night started with Emilia's TRIAL,
then Subaru's TRIAL, RETURNING BY DEATH back to reality, and his spat with Garfiel. Then he
uncovered the facility's location, and learned its secrets from Lewes.
Since it was all so dense he hadn't recognized the speed of it, but in contrast to his consciousness,
his body can't conceal its fatigue. Although pretty late to be mentioning it, this imbalance between
mind and body could also be called a fault of RETURN BY DEATH.
Subaru: “What I really wanna do's go back to the cathedral and sleep till noon, but...”
Lewes: “Yer could and it werldn't bother me. Since I'm about ter swap out with the next Lewes and
have myself a good rest.”
Subaru: “Leaving aside your enviable work schedule, there's no time. I can't do it.”
Six days left—or no, since a day has already past, there are now five days remaining. Considering
that getting to the mansion and back costs a day in itself, Subaru has a three-day limit for where he
can actually act.
He can't waste a precious half-day here, and although having seen and knowing a future where the
witch attacks, he hesitates to reveal the situation to Lewes.
Subaru: “Can't rashly pull anything that'd probably make the Witch of ENVY show up...”
Sweat arises on Subaru's forehead.

Subaru's faintly realised that his loose fucking lips during his chat with Echidna was the cause for
the disaster that loop. Witch's restraints weren't doing their job, pissed her off good, blah blah blah.
Which meant that it was probably safe to think that, if Subaru had been in the real world where the
witch's hand could reach him directly, it would've attacked Subaru only. But,
Subaru: “Seriously rather not risk others' lives to confirm that.”
Mutters Subaru weakly as he looks down at Pico, holding his hand. She receives Subaru's gaze, her
eyes widening even further in anticipation of his orders.
It appears she's firmly recognized that the command right shifted, now that Subaru's commanded
her once. She's obedient as a duckling tottering after its mother.
Lewes: “So, whatter yer planning ter do now, Su-bo?”
Subaru: “For the moment, return to the mansion. There's someone there I need to talk to, and... I
wanna see Frederica too. Lots of things I want supplemented.”
Lewes: “Frederica, hrm...”
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Lewes furrows her brows as she meaningfully says the maid's name. Not a reaction very like
Lewes.
Subaru: “What, you happen to have some thoughts? About Frederica.”
Lewes: “...It's nerthing so important.”
Subaru: “Lewes-san. I don't wanna use the command right if I can help it. Forcing you to follow
orders's honestly a rather not.”
Shrugging, Subaru wafts about some signs of this being a supplication. But contrary to his
statement, his sharpened sanpaku gaze loudly asserts, I'll use it if I have to. Lewes sighs.
Lewes: “Thinking on it, feels like after Frederica left, bit by bit SANCTUARY's cogs started slipping
outter place.”
Subaru: “Cogs started slipping?”
Lewes: “The place's foundations being what they are, there'd be some dubiousness in calling things
back then sound. But still... Mhrm, none'er the residents, er Lewes Meyer doubles, er Gar-bo were
as unsteady then as they are now.”
Subaru goes quiet.
Lewes: “I got expectations fer yer, Su-bo.”
Expectations, is a word Subaru knows graunches horribly in his heart. The feelings shouldered on
him from the word 'expectations' were, for Subaru—
Lewes: “Clumsy ties ter mislaid duties, continually preserved, have narrowly kept SANCTUARY
alive fer a long time. That irrationality, now, creates fraying and tears. I got expectations fer yer, Su-
bo.”
Subaru: “What're you, of me...”
Lewes: “That yer'll bring end ter the witch's delusional convictions, bring end ter the reason fer
SANCTUARY's continuance, bring end ter Lewes Meyer's wish, in a way desirable ter everyone.”
It's an incredibly heavy expectation.

Subaru immediately goes to respond with a 'Not happening'. But faced with the seriousness of
Lewes' gaze—
Subaru: “—”
—his mouth doesn't move for him.
Lewes: “That's fine fer now. Fer now, that's still fine.”
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Lewes nods, as if she understands all of Subaru's hesitation and indecision.

In this instant alone, Subaru understands that regardless of her appearance being juvenile, her sense
of values aligns properly to the age that she has lived.
Lewes: “It's about the end erv my time, now.”
With that somewhat rue-inspiring line, a dull light begins to emanate from Lewes' body.
It reminds Subaru of spirits on the verge of disappearing, and he unwittingly reaches out for her.
But,
Lewes: “Relax. I'm not relapsing ter mana. Just entering hibernation fer a tidge'er a while, to restock
my spent mana. Another Lewes will come right erway.”
Subaru: “T-their looks and speech'll be the same, but they'll be a different person, right?”
Lewes: “That's right. Appearance en speech en even personality, 'er all consciously resemblant,
but... it's someone else. Which means that I'm the only me whos's been speaking ter yer, Su-bo.
Lonely?”
Subaru: “Lonely isn't the problem here. Lewes-san, you... Lewes-san, don't you find it hard? Don't
you ever think, that you dislike you four pretending to be one Lewes Meyer? Or ever wondered,
where your own life comes into...”
Subaru understands that what he's asking is cruel.

Even supposing that Lewes did think something about this, that sincerely she felt pain or sorrow
about her situation, what could Subaru do knowing that?
What was the purpose of someone unlearned in principles of magic, details of mana, or even the
basics of algorithms, continually reaching out for regrets they would never grasp?
Lewes must have understood Subaru's troubles. She gives a light smile, her pink hair cloaked in
morning hues, swaying in the wind.
Lewes: “Su-bo, what're yer thoughts?”
Lewes: “I'm leaving the answer ter that question, as one of the things I'm expecting of yer.”
Lewes' body fades like mist, melting slowly into the dawn.
Even knowing it's different from vanishing, Subaru nevertheless can't believe it as he watches the
fantastical sight. Someone had melded into the sunlight, and disappeared.
That they hadn't been extinguished was unbelievable.
But the next instant, a new silhouette appears in the spot where Lewes vanished. From their stature
to their everything, they are exactly identical to the disappeared Lewes.
She gives a shake of her head, and looks up at Subaru.
Lewes: “Doubt I need ter introduce myself, Su-bo. I'm all done matching up what yer and the
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previous ME were talking abert.”
The new Lewes promptly fixes the gap between her and Subaru's perspectives, erasing his points of
doubt. That done, Lewes tilts her head.
Lewes: “Now then, Su-bo... how der we move?”
Subaru: “Right, yeah...”
Subaru looks up at the sky.

Watching the dawn slowly spill across the night, he lets his attention slip into the break between his
time spent and time remaining.
Lowering his gaze, he looks to Lewes and Pico.
Subaru: “First, I wanna escape SANCTUARY. I'll be getting your help for that, Lewes-sans.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The dawn passed, Subaru stands outside a dragon carriage shed.

He opens the squeaky door as quietly as he can, searching for his partner. A jet-black figure melds
into the darkness as she waits in the back for her master's summons.
Subaru: “Sorry for just leaving you here, Patrasche.”
Patrasche responds by stretching her neck out, rubbing her snout against Subaru. The gesture
contains both affection, and sulkiness at being left aside, inspiring a tickly kind of feeling in Subaru.
Subaru: “Sorry for this suddenly when you're still waking up, but have a job. Can you ferry me back
to the mansion again?”
Subaru pats her snout. Patrasche makes a noise in a 'You're just hopeless, Subaru-kun...' kind of 'no
choice but to do it' way. Subaru sighs in relief at getting her agreement and unlatches her gate,
readying to lead her outside.
When she's not dragging any burdens along, Patrasche should be able to clear the half-a-day trip in
a shorter timespan. If they depart right now at early morning, they'll probably reach the mansion
before evening.
Subaru: “But man, it's a sloppy plan presupposing a re-do...”
This loop, Subaru has no intentions of bringing along the Arlam village evacuees in his trip to the
mansion. Speaking frankly, he has the idea of re-doing it on his mind, and he's sweeping away all
unneeded, indefinite elements for his hardcore information gathering.
In this present where he's heard the story of Lewes Meyer and formed a rather friendly bond with
Lewes, that is a regret. But,
Subaru: “Relations with Garfiel're terrible, and I've bitten into something that's gonna make them
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even worse.”
Transference of the command right—If Garfiel was the one who originally had it, and Subaru is
who it switched over to, it's easy to imagine him searching with eyes bloodshot for the new
rightholder.
He would likely reach Subaru soon. Lewes wasn't sworn to secrecy. Subaru had informed her
beforehand to answer nicely if Garfiel asked.
All of that was done with an idea in mind.
Subaru: “—That I still left Emilia a goodbye note's just weak of me.”
If you consider this as a world that's going to re-done and disappeared, then there's no logical reason
for Subaru to toil re: Emilia this loop.
Because whatever her suffering, sorrow, or perhaps even resultant joy is, it's getting left behind in
this disappearing world. But even though Subaru's brain understands this,
Subaru: “'Cause it's not logical, so.”
Even knowing that it's a world being left behind, Subaru doesn't want Emilia's expression to be sad.
Subaru's inability to shut up would definitely confer Emilia some acute feeling. Without something
to cling to, she may lose sight of her own footing. While happy that she was leaning on him that
much, Subaru simultaneously finds it pitifully painful.
Praying for that not to happen, and for it not to persist if it does, Subaru left Emilia a note.
That said, the content was inoffensive stuff, listings of common phrases to inspire relief. Being that
he can't convey the truth, all Subaru can do is smooth it over with superficial comforts.
Subaru: “Better than nothing... Or, guess it's an 'if Emilia weren't so dependant on me' thing.”
With Puck absent, Emilia's dependency on Subaru has been pretty intense.
He knew this idea of his was just a temporary relief, and not even likely to go well.
Nevertheless, Subaru was leaving Emilia behind and exiting SANCTUARY. He reasoned it a
necessary sacrifice to overwrite a hopeless present with a hopeful future, his heart devilish as an
oni.
Subaru: “Now, to get outta here quick before anyone finds m... hm?”
As part of getting Patrasche out of the shed, Subaru goes to retrieve her saddle from the carriage.
Just after giving it a light dust-down with his hand and readying to mantle it on Patrasche's back,
something skirts through the corner of Subaru's vision. It's,
Subaru: “Betelgeux's gospel, huh...”
A thick, black-bound tome near-hidden in the corner of the carriage.

It's Betelgeux's thing, and honestly Subaru would rather dispose of it immediately, but it'd be
trouble if negligent treatment meant it got into somebody's hands. Most importantly, Subaru'd been
holding onto it hoping it may give some clues as to the goals and secrets of the Witch Cult.
Subaru: “Actually, that chat with Roswaal's changed my perspective on this thing a lot.”
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Subaru puts the saddle on the seat, picking up the gospel with no particular intention.
Feeling its considerable weight, the image of the bloodstained madman rises in Subaru's mind.
Betelgeux had harboured excessive attachment to the gospel, fully believing it proof of allegiance to
the Witch.
That its contents were imprecise instructions of what actions its owner Betelgeux should take was
rather something cynical.
Subaru: “Roswaal, Beatrice, even Betelgeux... does goddamn everyone just happen to have books
only they ca—?”
Subaru smoothly flips through the pages as he grumbles.

That his fingers stop, and a strange noise escapes from his throat, is because of surprise.
Subaru: “I, can read it?”
The letters written on the gospel's white pages are properly perceptible to Subaru.
It's in messy writing akin to a child's scrawl, but right there are lines of meaningful vocabulary. And
written in I-GLYPHS, which even Subaru can read.
Subaru: “What... no way, the book accepted me as its owner? But I didn't do...”
anything special, thinks Subaru, when he realises he does have an idea.

Last time, when Subaru couldn't read the gospel, had been before he came to SANCTUARY. At the
Capital, and in Roswaal's mansion after returning from the Capital. He hadn't any chances to open
the gospel since then so he couldn't be sure, but it was unthinkable that this was unrelated to the
happenings in SANCTUARY.
Or more precisely, not the happenings in SANCTUARY, but a more direct cause.
Subaru: “Did that fucking Echidna do something to me?”
It was likely that Echidna enacted some kind of meddling on Subaru's body so that he could take the
tomb's TRIAL. Subaru inevitably suspected it had something to do with the tea.
Echidna joked around calling it bodily fluids, but perhaps it'd been something else?
Something to drastically change Subaru's body from before.
Subaru: “Dunno if that was the reason, but last loop's changes were bigger than ever too.”
Perhaps the cause for the WITCH OF ENVY's rampage was more than just revealing RETURN BY
DEATH to Echidna.
That Subaru lacks the time to immediately question her is a thing of regret for him.
Subaru: “...But, maybe I'm not necessarily the owner.”
Being accepted by a Witch Cult gospel was a fucking grossout of a predicament, but as Subaru
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glances over the pages, he judges that the messages are not directed at him, but rather just
information conveyed to Betelgeux that he can now read.
There aren't any dates, so Subaru can't tell when the events written on the first page happened. But
the writings do span a good number of pages, the image arising in Subaru's mind of Betelgeux
blasting through the contents one by one.
They fundamentally boil down to where to go and what to do, giving no information as to how it all
connects to any single, specific result. Betelgeux most likely had assumed, regardless of the result's
presence or absence, that all the deeds were ones headed somewhere favourable for the Witch Cult.
Subaru continues skimming through the gospel, coming to reach the end of the writ.
All the pages beyond this point are blank. On the last page of text sits the rusty-red word END,
written by Subaru in blood and big letters.
Before that, the last proper writ of the gospel states:
Subaru: “In Mathers' domain, Trial on silver-haired half-witch... huh. Don't understand it.”
Being that Subaru doesn't know the details of the TRIAL, the only information this writ presents is
that Betelgeux attempted to attack Emilia.
All it does is give Subaru conviction that the wicked deeds Betelgeux committed were spurred by
the writ of the gospel.
Subaru: “...Right, my bad my bad. We'll get going right away.”
An impatient Patrasche bumps Subaru with her snout as he leans against the carriage. He smiles
wryly at the gesture, returning the gospel to its original spot.
With what he just saw still lodging in his memories, Subaru shifts his attention to another problem.
That being, escaping SANCTUARY and returning to mansion.
Subaru: “Let's get outta SANCTUARY making as little racket as possible. Quietly, silent secret
manoeuvring please”
Patrasche: “——Ϡ!!”
Subaru mounts himself on a saddled Patrasche as he pleads, Patrasche responding with a bold and
wondrous roar, stating: Leave it to me!
While nonetheless sensing the reliability of his completely not-understanding partner, Subaru calms
an excited Patrasche and sets their course toward SANCTUARY's exit.
The rising sun glitters distant in the eastern sky, its first light spilling over the forest treetops. The
earlybird residents will wake up and make this nightflight harder if Subaru and Patrasche don't
hurry.
Rushing Patrasche along, Subaru savours the initial jolt of momentum as Patrasche accelerates into
a run. Her body instantly enters the effects of her WINDBREAKER BLESSING, the effects of wind and
jolting no long reaching Subaru's body.
They speed out of SANCTUARY and enter the forest. Patrasche sprints along the shoddy trails,
unhesitatingly darting in the mansion's direction. From previous events, Subaru knows his grip on
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the reigns has no bearing on it, Patrasche will by her own volition select the path optimum for him.
There's a sadness to it, but leaving it to Patrasche is the best he can do. He holds the reins in
appearance only, gripping down firm on her tough hide, Subaru and Patrasche becoming a single
body as they rush through the forest. They'll exit the woods and succeed in escaping SANCTUARY in
under an hour, provided there's no interruptions.
???: “Hw... yer wait right there, hrrraaAAH!!”
The heel swinging down from the sky overhead bores into the road, the earth exploding.
Billowing dustclouds and splinters of trees urge Patrasche brake immediately, her feet gouging the
dirt as she skids to a stop. Her divinely-touched consideration keeps Subaru's balance steady to
prevent him from falling as she glares ahead.
Subaru, sustaining and enduring the shock, looks at the same thing Patrasche has set her glare on.
???: “You... What fuckin' plottin' fuckin' ideas fuckin' intentions're ya got, huh, oi!”
Absolutely pissed, Garfiel kicks the ground.

His nose scrunched up, irritation and displeasure on full display, Garfiel bares his fangs at a Subaru
looking down from atop Patrasche.
Garfiel: “Don't yer look down, dismount. This's a talk happenin' on even eye level. We're startin'
from there. I'll beat yer in, y'fuck...”
Subaru: “Somehow I figured you'd be getting in the way, Garfiel.”
Garfiel: “Well my amazin' self sure fuckin' didn't figure an inch yer'd be pullin' this fucked bullshit!
Yer curlin' in yer tail n' tryin' ter run now? Don't yer fuckin' piss th's shit around! You! 'N
SANCTUARY! N' the half-witch n' Roswaal! Everyone! We're all 'n th'same fuckin' boat! Until the
TRIAL's over, we ain't ever leavin'...”
Subaru: “That's your facade, right?”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru's short question prompts Garfiel's enraged expression to shift.

The blazing needlepoint fury in his eyes tempers, the only noise being the sound of his breathing
and quiet clicks of his teeth.
Subaru: “Garfiel, you're keeping us trapped in SANCTUARY like this, acting as if you want us to
clear the TRIAL... but that's not what you're really looking for, is it?”
Garfiel: “What're yer mean with that, oi.”
Subaru: “There's no damn 'what do I mean'. If you truly wish for SANCTUARY's freedom, you ought
to overlook my actions. The instant you're not doing that, that you can't do that, it means there's
some annoying ulterior motive involved. Correct?”
Garfiel: “Ha, don't talk idiocy. My amazin' self simply ain't fuckin' pleased with pricks like you
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who're shittin' out their diarrhoea witch stink, fuckin' sneakin' 'round the place...”
Subaru: “Do you actually sense the witch's smell from me?”
Subaru's question again leads Garfiel to lose his words.

His eyes water, his lips quiver. Just seeing that reaction is enough for a bitter smile to near well up
inside Subaru.
Subaru: “What tipped me off was last night after leaving the tomb. Honestly, there was nowhere I
was more on guard thinking you might kill me than that instant.”
Garfiel: “...Eh? Fuck're you saying?”
Subaru: “You don't understand what I mean, and so I'm thinking your proclamations of having a
functioning nose are a lie.”
Directly after RETURNING BY DEATH, with the reason for death being interaction with the Witch.
Garfiel interacted with a Subaru supposedly emanating a correspondingly pungent scent of witch in
a demeanour identical to always. After parting, he summoned Subaru as if he'd just remembered it,
and then was last night's exchange. —Crossing the line for unnatural.
Subaru: “I did think you might've been pretending not to notice there, to keep from aggravating the
conversation... but considering your impulsiveness, I decided that wasn't it.”
Garfiel: “Yer sure fuckin' sayin' whatever the shit yer like. My amazin' self's lyin' that I can smell
witch on yer? Ha, stupid n' useless! What point is there in lyin' 'bout that, eh? What goddamn
point...”
Subaru: “But there is a point. If you're telling me this, drawing my wariness towards you... it
distracts my caution from the fundamental PERSON WHO DOES HAVE A WORKING NOSE.”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru's statement, more than likely, hits to the heart of Garfiel's intentions.
The instant Garfiel hears it, his expression shifts in the truest of senses.
From an attitude of settling matters through conversation, to something simplistic and permitting of
settlement through violence.
Garfiel's arms bloat in mass. Golden fur starts covering his exposed skin, his slouch worsening, his
posture edging closer to quadrupedal than hunched over.
Garfiel: “I ain't listenin' ter anythin' yer have ter say anymore. Looks like yer found outter bout
somethin' you shouldn't. Yer can't be left alive.”
Subaru: “Don't say that, Garfiel. You best listen to me for a little longer. Don't, and you won't know
where your secrets slipped from, right?”
Garfiel: “My secrets...?”
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Asks Garfiel, glowering.

Mounted atop Patrasche, Subaru aims his arm to the heavens to dispel Garfiel's distrust, and clicks
his fingers.
Garfiel: “Au, ah?”
Garfiel's gaze freezes on the sight before him.

Appearing in sequence to surround Patrasche, assembled according to Subaru's instruction, are
doubles of Lewes Meyer—numbering to 21.
Having this time recreated the familiar scene by his own hands, Subaru jabs his finger at Garfiel.
Subaru: “Seeing this, you do understand my position now, yeah?”
Garfiel: “Why... how'd you, that place!”
Subaru: “Regret and agony as sacrifices, summoned has been the truth. And my turn's not over yet.”
Facing his palm above, Subaru looks down at a panicked Garfiel from atop his mount.
Garfiel's throat chokes in receiving that gaze. Drunk on exhibiting uncovered truths, Subaru,
Subaru: “The command right's transferred to me. I ordered them to obey and preform your
commands as usual over the night, so that you wouldn't notice.”
Garfiel: “—a,”
Subaru: “That ruse ends now. Hear this, Garfiel? I am leaving SANCTUARY and returning to the
mansion. I've got things I ought to do. So, I can't have you getting in my way.”
Sensing what Subaru is going to order, Garfiel's expression collapses.

The hardened determination melts away from his face, confusion showing through, his frail
expression that of a young and lost child.
His transformation halts, his enlarged stature returning to its usual petite state.
Subaru: “Don't follow me, Garfiel. There's piles of things I wanna ask you, but for this try those're
being postponed. I've got way too many things I gotta ask about, including the command right.”
Garfiel: “Do... don't fuck with me. Do yer think this's gonna make my amazin' self give...”
Subaru: “Oh you'll stop. Fundamentally, you're a softy.”
Garfiel leaps, howling at Subaru's rather provocatory statement. He bears his fangs, closing in to
crush Subaru and Patrasche both. But, a small silhouette cuts in before him.
A double. Garfiel swings his arm up, going to swat it away. But as he plunges his arm down, right
before landing the strike—
???: “—Gar-bo.”
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Garfiel: “—!?”
Addressed by his nickname, Garfiel's expression instantly shifts. His readied arm instead slices
through the air. And, suspended in space, the hands of the doubles grab him from behind, forcing
and holding him to the ground.
The doubles' arms span all across Garfiel's body, restraining him. Spearheading them, and looking
down at Garfiel with their expression sorrowful is,
???: “This should be enough fer the job erv keeping him put, Su-bo.”
Subaru: “Yeah, this helped. Figured Garfiel would never think of this idea.”
During the fight with the Witch of ENVY, Garfiel unsparingly used the doubles like pawns. But the
one Lewes Meyer possessing a will was absent from that event. There was the fact that she'd
probably been consumed by the shadow already, but Subaru suspected there was another reason.
With a calculation deemable as cruelty beyond cruel,
Subaru: “You can't treat the Lewes-san you consider as family the same as the other doubles. If
there's any difference between us in how we use the command right, that's why.”
Garfiel: “You, fucker!”
Subaru: “But even neverminding that, you're not capable of destroying the Lewes Meyer doubles
with your own hands, right? Just behave, and overlook me. It won't turn anything bad.”
Garfiel: “How could things get fucking worse'n this. Don't fuck with me. Don't fuckin' fuck with
me!”
Subaru hears his howling, but consciously ignores it as he taps Patrasche's back. She senses
Subaru's intentions, giving a small growl as she turns her back to the restrained Garfiel and faces
toward the forest exit.
Before taking off, Subaru glances back at Lewes.
Subaru: “I'm sorry for making you do this.”
Lewes: “I'm sure yer've judged it necessary. I couldn't resist even if I wanted ter. There's no need ter
aim yer concern at me.”
Subaru: “But still, I'm sorry.”
Lewes looks down at Garfiel with her gaze sympathetic. Subaru leaves his apology as his goodbye,
urging Patrasche to run.
Again, WINDBREAKER BLESSING abandons sounds, abandons wind.
Garfiel: “Wait! Wait up! You, don't fuckin' joke 'round, oi!!”
A voice pursues Subaru, growing distant.

Leaving it behind, accelerating, Subaru exits the forest—exits SANCTUARY.
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Garfiel: “Let me go! He can't be let outside... why, why why why!? Are you really on his side
more'n mine, y'granny? Wh-why, why...”
Lewes: “—”
Garfiel: “Nanna—!!”
The forest echoes with a cry of grief, betraying his love.

Choosing to leave it all behind, Subaru runs straight through the woods.
Necessary sacrifices, necessary sorrows, all cornerstones for the future.

Biting open his lip, feeling the blood pool, Subaru judges Garfiel's sorrow in this instant as a
sacrifice made for the finale.
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CHAPTER 59: SWEET PASTRY, SWEETLESS STORY

Frederica: “...Your return certainly came quickly.”
Mutters Frederica, her sharp eyes open wide, as she welcomes Subaru at the mansion's gates.
Subaru: “Got into a situation where I kinda have to pull a here-and-back. It's been two... no, three
days? I know it's an early reunion without any notice, but please accept me.”
Replies Subaru, fatigued from a half-day of travel and mounted on a panting Patrasche's back.
Frederica looks up at him, and seeing his rather poor condition, puts her hand to her mouth to
conceal her fangs.
Frederica: “Regardless the time or the guest, a failure to provide impeccable hospitality would
dishonour me as my Master's servant. I shall be returning your dragon to the stables, Subaru-sama,
so please see yourself to the mansion. Petra will tend to you.”
Subaru: “That much care's really not nee... oh, actually, please do that.”
Says Subaru as he dismounts Patrasche, his knees almost buckling as he touches down on the
ground. His grip on the reins keeps him from suffering any damages, but apparently his body's more
tried out than he thought.
It's natural—He dashed from SANCTUARY to the Mansion without any rest or pit-stops, and his body
had just pulled an all-nighter.
Even with Patrasche's WINDBREAKER BLESSING and quiet considerations not to burden her rider,
the over-six-hours spent on the road has placed a large toll on Subaru's body.
Noticing his own exhaustion, Subaru nicely accepts Frederica's proposition. He hands Frederica the
reins, stroking a concerned Patrasche's back.
Subaru: “It's okay, it's all okay. Gotta thank you for going along with my inclinations. When I visit
the stables afterwards, I'll reward you with a brushing-down.”
Ground dragons lack the rich hair of horses and so on, but they do like their rough hide getting a
rub-down. Patrasche is no exception. Excited by his promise, she butts Subaru with her snout, him
sustaining a nose donk and flinching back with a 'guh'.
Frederica: “My, how energetic she is. Now then, let's be off, Patrasche-chan. I would offer to re-lay
her straw and prepare her bedding.”
Subaru: “Yeah, please do that. —Right, Frederica.”
Frederica: “Yes?”
Reins in hand, Frederica starts leading Patrasche to the stables. But Subaru stops her with his call,
and she glances back. Subaru clicks his neck.
Subaru: “—Are you planning to go to the mountain cabin today?”
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Frederica: “...? I am not. Would there be something the matter?”
Subaru asks with his voice low. Frederica replies mystified. Paying mind to her style of answer,
expression, and gaze, Subaru shakes his head.
Subaru: “Nevermind,”
Subaru: “It's fine if you're not. And when you're done with Patrasche, I'm sorry but could you
immediately come back to the mansion? There's some things I wanna talk about, including
SANCTUARY.”
Frederica: “Understood. I will return at once.”
Frederica gives a polite curtsey, this time definitively leaving the scene with Patrasche.
Subaru watches them exit the mansion's front garden until they're out of sight, then stretching and
peering up at the mansion. —Extravagant as always, here was the Roswaal mansion on the night of
the second day.
His most belated visit had been night of the sixth day, with an earlier return on the night of the
fourth.
Both times, demise came bearing the guise of a knife.
Before that—
Subaru: “Before the end can come, I have to find a way to put an end to the end.”
The sacrifices he had made for that purpose this loop were too many.
His acquisition of recompense for even these sadnessess abandoned to a disappearing world is a
necessity.
For Garfiel's grief. For Emilia's unseen sorrow.

Because Natsuki Subaru had been given the resolve to, while averting his eyes to pain, keep
fighting.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Petra: “Woah! You certainly returned quick!”
Is Petra's first statement as she welcomes Subaru, her expression sparkling and loaded with
sweetness.
Although her welcome shares the same content and word choice as Frederica's, Petra's comes with
love and connection, making it a good and clearly understood example case.
Petra: “You seem weary, are you okay? I mean, are you well? I can prepare the bath at once, and if
you'd like to soak before... what's wrong?”
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Subaru: “Nah, was just seriously thinking that looking at you's healing. Thinking back, you're the
only one I can interact with this time without considering outsides or undersides or that tricky stuff
or anything.”
Jumbling her polite and casual speech, Petra bounds and bustles circles around Subaru. Subaru
sticks his hand in her chestnut hair, patting her head. The way she hums and happily draws closer is
truly adorable. Indeed, healing.
What simultaneously passes through Subaru's mind is the events at the mansion prior, and Petra's
gruesome demise.
Subaru: “Petra, this's sudden, but... can I ask you for a favour?”
Petra: “...? Sure. I mean, yes. When it's your request, Subaru-sama, I'll answer to anything.”
Subaru: “Tahaha, that anything's reassuring. Right. We're gonna have a bit of an important talk.
Frederica'll be coming back real soon, so I wanna have the talk in the lounge. Can you make some
tea for us?”
Petra: “Big Sis Frederica will be there as well?”
Subaru: “Yeah. This talk could determine how things go afterwards, and you're not uninvolved in it
Petra, in fact you're very involved. I want you to be there.”
Petra: “Not, uninvolved...”
Putting her hand to her mouth, Petra enters a thinking posture. Her head springs up as if
remembering something, and with a slight blush across her cheeks,
Petra: “Then, this is an important talk for me and you, Subaru-sama?”
Subaru: “Hrnn, you could say that? It's definitely an important talk for you, and for me. Either way
we can't finish it all up just between ourselves.”
Petra: “But, for that, the feelings of those involved are very important.”
Subaru: “Feelings? Their feelings? Feelings're... well, I guess important? It's true if it doesn't line
up with their will they won't want to do it, that's definitely not mista... ken, am I?”
Subaru tilts his head at Petra and answers in a general positive. Her face beams as she does a spin
on the spot, practically dancing as she runs to the mansion's centre.
Petra: “At once! I will return at once! Don't you run away!”
Subaru: “I'm not running anywhere, but Petra if you go too fast you'll trip.”
Petra soars off, headed for the maid's rooms on the second floor, when Subaru remembers
something and calls,
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Subaru: “Petra!”
Subaru: “Petra, thanks for the handkerchief. It probably wasn't in a way you intended, but it really
helped.”
Petra: “Really? Subaru, I helped you?”
Subaru: “Yup, saved my life... or well no, but something like that.”
The handkerchief becoming a weapon was irrefutably due to Echidna's designs, but the beginning
of it all was Petra's feelings for him.
Thinking about it, it might be that so long as Echidna's will is in play, the handkerchief could still
act as a weapon even now. If the trigger's identical to last time, it'd be Subaru's life being
endangered, or perhaps filling it with mana by using magic. That said the latter possibility is far too
difficult and impossible for Subaru.
Subaru: “Either way, it's thanks to you, Petra. Gotta show my gratitude for it somehow.”
Petra: “Then, a dayt! One dayt!”
Subaru: “Er, did you hear about those from Emilia?”
Subaru's reward for the witchbeast kerfluffle was his first date with Emilia, in Arlam village.
The tactful villagers and village children left Subaru and Emilia to themselves, and it looks like
Petra remembers the whole affair.
Subaru: “Got it. Allow me to escort you. Though that said me being your partner for your first date's
a pretty big luxury and privilege, too.”
Petra: “It's a promise!”
Subaru: “Oui oui.”
Raising her hand cheerfully, Petra smiles like a flower in bloom as she heads for the hallway. Seeing
her off, Subaru directs his thoughts to Petra's future. Even now her future is something to look
forward to, with her lovable appearance. In five years—No in just three, when she grows taller, she
will unmistakably mature into a beautiful young woman.
Subaru suspected that her yearnings for him would disappear by then, but that she chose Subaru as
her partner for her first date would surely impart him a sinful sense of satisfaction. And so,
Subaru: “We'll definitely make that promise again, Petra.”
A promise shared in a vanishing world would not remain inside Petra.

But Subaru would remember the promise's passing.
Once he had chosen the correct future, he would make that same promise again.
Recollecting Petra's smile, and thinking such, Subaru enters the lounge.
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※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Seated on the living room sofa with Petra sitting on another opposite him, Subaru smiles wryly as
she puffs out her red face in dissatisfaction.
Kicking her feet as they hang down from the sofa, Petra hides not a scrap of her displeasure
following their conversation. Subaru finds her childishness charming, but the attitude apparently
does not appeal to the elder maid sitting beside her.
Frederica: “What would that face be, Petra. Do you not find that discourteous when in Subaru-
sama's presence?”
Petra: “But, Big Sis Frederica...”
Frederica: “No buts. Your behaviour must be proper, even with those with which you have a close
relationship. If you neglect to pay this mind in the everyday moments, how will you manage it during
the essential junctures? You may be quick to learn, but in this respect you are as yet lacking.”
Petra: “Uuw...”
Petra bites her lip, looking down, and a little frustrated.

This girl, hit with some considerably sound logic, becomes quite the pitiful thing. Subaru goes to
calm her down with a “Well but it's not so...”, which earns him a glare, him shutting up.
Frederica has returned from the stables and reunited with Petra, who readied some tea, and the three
of them are having their drinks in the lounge, engaging in a vital conversation.
That conversation had started recently, with a subject that displeased Petra. The contents being,
Petra: “Why must I leave the mansion? And I've only been working here for a week and a bit...”
Entreats Petra, near crying. Guilt ravages Subaru. But considering the events that will occur in this
mansion, succumbing to the guilt and spoiling Petra would be no good at all.
His heart an oni, Subaru shakes his head.
Subaru: “I'm not saying for you to get outta here forever. It isn't your dismissal, it's that I want you
to go to Arlam village... or actually, go back to your house for a week or so.”
Frederica: “And you cannot discuss why, can you now?”
Subaru: “...Not the details. But it's true that there's danger pressing in on the mansion. Frederica, I
told you about how the Witch Cult targeted this place recently, yeah?”
At the words Witch Cult, Frederica's expression shifts.

She hadn't been around for it, but the Betelgeux-led cultists' attack on the mansion was about two
weeks ago now.
A Frederica raised in SANCTUARY would surely understand what rigamaroles heresies, including
Emilia's lineage, would invite.
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Just as Subaru planned, Frederica nods, her expression complicated.
Frederica: “Should this be true, then I believe even Subaru-sama's judgement as proper. You do not
yet possess means to protect yourself, Petra.”
Petra: “I'll be fine! Subaru'll protect me!”
Subaru: “What I wanna do's be manly and say 'leave it to me!', but when it comes to my inadequacies
or I guess lack of ability, or stuff in that vein, I'm too self-aware to just be saying that.”
Petra stands up as she refutes Frederica, but her efforts are interrupted by Subaru himself. Petra's
shoulders slump in dejection as Frederica consolingly pats her head.
Frederica: “You mustn't be downcast, Petra. You are surely not so foolish as to fail to understand
how it frustrates Subaru-sama to voice the insufficiency of his own abilities, yes?”
Petra: “...Yes, Big Sis Frederica.”
Frederica: “All are the same in lamenting their inadequacy. That remains true of Subaru-sama, and
of yourself. Subaru-sama has recognized such, and has proceeded to search for what he may ably
do. What is it that you will do, Petra?”
Petra: “Uuw...”
Petra forces down her frustrations, almost crying. Her teary eyes snap onto Subaru.
Petra: “Wh-what I may ably do... would not be, at the mansion?”
Subaru: “...Mn, I'm sorry. This time, Petra, there's nothing you can do at the mansion. My
deficiency means I don't have the room to be vigilant for you as well. I'm sorry for that.”
Subaru bows his head. Petra closes her eyes firm, rubbing at her eyelids with her sleeve.
No tears remain when she raises her head again. Only the redness around her eyes, as she politely
grips the hem of her skirt and curtsies.
Petra: “I humbly comply, Subaru-sama. From this night onwards, I will partake in a period of
retirement. I request I be called back instantly once the problem is safely resolved.”
Subaru: “Right, I will be doing that. When the problem's all resolved...”
If the people of the mansion, and if possible the SANCTUARY bigwigs, can all be smiling then—
perfect.
Petra accepts Subaru's proposition, getting this talk through the first stage.
—Petra, tasked with cleaning up the emptied teacups and organizing everyone's stuff, leaves the
living room. Frederica and Subaru are thus left behind to occupy the room.
Watching her go as the door clicks shut, hearing her footfalls down the hall grow distant, Subaru
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reaches for a tea-accompaniment pastry, savouring the sweetness on his tongue.
Subaru: “Am I fine to ask, Frederica?”
Frederica: “That would depend upon the subject in question, Subaru-sama.”
Subaru smiles wryly at the rather deserved reply. Frederica waits, her expression composed, for
Subaru to get things started.
He takes a deep breath as he puzzles over what to say first. But, if there were anything Subaru
wanted to ask Frederica face-to-face, it would be,
Subaru: “What do you think Garfiel wants to do with SANCTUARY?”
Frederica: “—Has something occurred between yourself and my foolish younger brother?”
Subaru: “We've had lots of chances to bash into each other. What I wanna figure out's whether those
bashings'll result in something we absolutely can't come to mutual understanding about, or if they're
something where you'll understand it if you talk about it.”
Subaru's actions from hereon would shift direction depending on which it was.
Was Garfiel an enemy to defeat, or a friend whose allegiance would be valuable?
Frederica: “Your lack of surprise would mean that my brother has told you of the relationship
between he and I.”
Subaru: “Lewes-san didn't deny it either. You know Lewes-san, yeah?”
Frederica: “Of course I would. She is the parent who raised myself and my brother, us lacking
relatives, in SANCTUARY... although with consideration to her years, she should more likely be
called a grandmother than a mother.”
Subaru: “You got Garfiel fucking calling her granny the granny the granny, too.”
Subaru can't get that grieving scream of NANNA out of his head.
That might have been what Garfiel used to call Lewes. Presently he acted bad and used a rude form
of address, but were that Nanna sincere, then,
Subaru: “Is Garfiel just maybe a bit of a nan's boy?”
Frederica: “If you would mean in his stance towards grandmother... then indeed, he is. Being that
my brother in fact possesses a deeply emotional disposition, I believe his affection for grandmother
to be quite intense. He may be attempting to hide it, however.”
Again, from his sister's perspective, Garfiel's familial love for Lewes seems to stick out.
Subaru can't tell how some messup somewhere in that connects to him protecting SANCTUARY, and
then results in his acts of barbarity.
Subaru: “His behaviour pattern is a different story from the question of whether or not I forgive
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that.”
Frederica: “Subaru-sama?”
Subaru: “It's nothing. Just some remembered hostility boiling up. Though the mindset I need to
have is one of making my decisions on everything without having any preconceptions.”
Subaru still didn't understand the fundamental question of what Garfiel was thinking in dragging the
villagers into the slaughter.
That said, it's certain that he possessed the command right for Lewes Meyer, and was the one taking
care of the facility.
Why would he destroy the facility? Or, why did he even have the command right? There were so
many things Subaru didn't understand, but—
Subaru: “Frederica. I know that you used to live in SANCTUARY. And I know that, you being a
quarter-blood, you can leave the place without triggering the barrier.”
Frederica: “To already know this much...”
Subaru: “And that Garfiel shares your position, and can actually go outside, but stayed in. Y'know,
Frederica. You... do you know for what goal SANCTUARY was made?”
Only four days have passed on this timeline since Subaru set off for SANCTUARY. His rather
impossible information load surprises Frederica, but it's his last question that makes her eyes widen
further.
Frederica: “No, I would not be aware of the particulars. Although, I do comprehend that
SANCTUARY was created for the purposes of the former Witch of GREED's experiments...”
Subaru: “You don't know? Really? Not changing that answer?”
Frederica: “I would not know what it is you are finding dubious, but I shall not be altering my
answer. SANCTUARY is the testing site of a witch, of which now only the witch-placed barrier
remains, which will not come undone absent the surmounting of the TRIAL. That is the entirety of
what I know.”
Frederica ends her piece with a slow shake of the head. There's no way to divine her statement's
veracity, but Subaru at least doesn't perceive her as having lied.
Meaning, Frederica doesn't know about the truth of the immortality experiment. That also implied a
scant understanding of the creations produced from the experiment.
Subaru: “Hold on. Then, Frederica... you don't know anything about the command right for the
duplicates?”
Frederica: “Dyuplicates... is it? No, I have never heard of such a thing.”
Her denial carries the same nuance that everything has.

Subaru is speechless at her reply. Devoid of strength, he leans his weight back against the sofa.
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Frederica: “I offer my deepest apologies. It appears I have provided an answer contrary to what was
expected.”
Subaru: “No, it's fine. You're not in the wrong on anything here. ...How long ago was it you left
SANCTUARY? Have I asked that before?”
Frederica: “My departure from SANCTUARY and gracious entrance into the mansion would have
now been seven years prior. Ram's arrival soon followed, which would make me the longest
serving.”
Subaru sighs at Frederica's lack of mentioning Rem, and at the lack of change in Frederica's
information load re: SANCTUARY since last loop.
This makes Frederica's probabilities of meaningfully hiding information from Subaru practically
zero. Stepping into the same subject from a different perspective, and receiving an identical answer
as before, indicated that truth.
Frederica didn't know about the immortality experiment, and most likely not about the Lewes
doubles. Either the Leweses played their daily swap-outs considerably well, or young Frederica had
some deficiencies to her.
Subaru: “But then with that, what I don't get's Garfiel. For just how fucking long's he known the
truth of SANCTUARY?”
Possessing the duplicates' command right meant Garfiel knew about the facility. Even without that,
the one to destroy the facility was most likely him.
Garfiel knew the experiment which used Lewes Meyer. Him knowing a truth that his sister didn't
then meant it something after Frederica left SANCTUARY. Otherwise it was precisely because Garfiel
knew it that he stayed behind in SANCTUARY.
Subaru: “—Ah,”
Mulling this over, Subaru notices that he's overlooked something very important. So much so that
the moment he notices it, his idiocy truly astonishes him.
Subaru: “Him having the duplicates' command right mean he's cleared the same condition as me.
Meaning basically he's got the something or other status of being an apostle of greed, and so...”
That surely made proof that Garfiel had met the WITCH OF GREED Echidna before.
Why didn't I notice it, stresses Subaru. If Garfiel's met Echidna before, then that explained his
ownership of the command right. As well as his somewhat narrow views toward the TRIAL, and his
sympathy for an Emilia broken from challenging the TRIAL.
Subaru: “Frederica. —Garfiel's challenged the TRIAL before, yeah?”
Frederica: “—! Why do you—”
Subaru: “After putting together some conditions and thinking about it, that's what it all connected
to. Of course, I think he failed, but... how'd it all go, in detail?”
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Subaru pumps his fist, having grasped a piece of the truth. Frederica sighs as she closes her eyes,
trawling back through the past.
Frederica: “...I would not be the only one who desired for SANCTUARY's release. My brother, too, had
a time wherein he was eager to show grandmother and the others the outside world. My yet- young
brother crept into the tomb, and challenged the TRIAL. I do remember envying that rashness.”
Subaru: “You've never gone in?”
Frederica: “I lacked the courage to. I knew that I could free SANCTUARY if I overcame the TRIAL
conducted inside, but I lacked. I had always been told not to enter the place. I envied my brother,
capable of leaping straight in.”
Subaru can definitely imagine it.

Make his current reckless personality even more intense, and young Garfiel likely challenged the
tomb's TRIAL with full enthusiasm. Wholehearted and entirely honest with his desire to show his
beloved family the outside.
However,
Frederica: “He was not coming out of the tomb, and I regretted my neglect to stop him, then calling
for grandmother... grandmother also did hesitate, but she firmed her resolve at once and entered.
Some time passed, and she returned to me as I prayed, my brother in her company. However,”
—Never enter the tomb again. Forget about today, and never speak of it to anyone.
Was what Lewes apparently told Frederica.

Following this conversation, Subaru recollects on the contradictions in Lewes' former statements.
Lewes stating she had entered the tomb before, and Lewes asserting she had never entered.
Subaru knew there were several Leweses, and that they were bound not to lie, which he can now
comprehend. The presence of a Lewes who had experienced it and a Lewes who had not now
cleared up the contradiction.
So what Subaru's learned from this talk is,
Subaru: “Garfiel's taken the TRIAL once. And there he should've met the Witch of GREED. And then
finally, things're lining up.”
The emotions Garfiel harboured toward the TRIAL. Why he possessed the command right. The
questions are, what did he see in past? Why did he reject a Subaru attempting to free SANCTUARY?
And why had Echidna never mentioned anything about Garfiel to Subaru? All of the answers laid
inside the tomb.
Subaru: “I absolutely need to see Echidna at least one more time.”
To excavate everything hidden, from the witch who knew everything.

Frederica silently looks up at Subaru, firm in his quiet resolve. Noticing her gaze, Subaru scratches
his cheek.
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Subaru: “Sorry,”
Subaru: “For everything. I think I asked things you didn't want asking.”
Frederica: “No, it was essential that you did so. I have further been ordered by the Master. If our
talk will aid in Emilia-sama's... and additionally SANCTUARY's freedom, I would find not any issue
in it.”
Subaru: “I am freeing SANCTUARY. There's a reason I have to, so I'll use any means I can, and free
it. But, how much I can let Garfiel's wishes manifest there's, honestly, secondary.”
Frederica goes quiet.
Subaru: “I don't have the slightest clue what Garfiel's thinking. If worst case, no matter what he
thinks he aligns against my intended actions, I'll force my ideas though even if it means crushing
him. I'm choosing the highest number of happinesses. Sorry though.”
The Mansion and SANCTUARY, both facing oncoming calamity. If Garfiel's going to hinder a Subaru
acting to avoid those disasters, he best prepare to be sent flying.
Subaru's reply prompts Frederica to blink, firm, once.
Frederica: “I bid you may care well for my foolish younger brother.”
—She says, head bowed.
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CHAPTER 60: TALE OF THE END OF THE END

His talk with Frederica now over, Subaru stands in a hallway of the mansion's main wing on the
floor where Roswaal's office is.
The heaviness in his head perhaps results from his compounded fatigue, otherwise perhaps from his
cluelessness as to how to deal with the oncoming tribulation.
Subaru: “And it's gonna be me going improv again...”
Scratching his neck, Subaru's face sours as he considers the sparseness of his playable cards.
He possesses far more information than he did last loop. But a quick glance over that information
doesn't tell him whether it directly connects to the oncoming problem.
He has to put together the pieces, fumbling with the assembled image as his guide, without ever
seeing the puzzle. The blind unease swathes Subaru's heart.
Frederica: “Subaru-sama, what shall you now do?”
Asks Frederica quietly from beside a standing-still Subaru. Frederica came to accompany Subaru
after their conversation in the lounge ended. He gives a vague nod.
Subaru: “Frederica, you haven't seen Beatrice even once since you came back... yeah?”
Frederica: “Indeed not. I have made her presence on only a very few instances, originally
considered, however on this occasion it is not even a single time I have found her. I am truly
shamed.”
Subaru: “Well, this time she's probably going over the top with some full-throttle hide-and-seek.
Nothing doing that you can't find her.”
If you're going to find a Beatrice who has truly, earnestly disappeared beyond GATE CROSSING, the
only option is brute force every door which could connect to the Archive. It would be one thing if a
sweep through just the mansions doors would finish the chore, but considering that Subaru has been
kicked out to Arlam Village and SANCTUARY once before,
Subaru: “Range's too big and it's slightly extremely impossible. Pretty mean, but this's the kind of
puzzle where you'll absolutely never find the right answer.”
Frederica: “And so, what shall you do now? You would have something to discuss with Beatrice-
sama.”
Subaru: “If she's seriously hiding, nobody'll find the right door. That's fact.”
Frederica furrows her brows at Subaru's repetition. Subaru clicks his neck, raising a finger,
Subaru: “Here's the important part. If she's seriously hiding, no one's gonna find her. But if she's not
seriously hiding, it's another story.”
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Frederica: “Not hiding seriously?”
Subaru: “Nobody playing hide-and-seek doesn't wanna be found. Everyone plays hide-and-seek
hiding, while wanting someone to eventually find them.” And so the thought that their wanted
finder the It might be there's really the tricky something something people's hearts.
Says Subaru, taking a few steps and a sharp pivot to the left. His 90-degree turn halts him beside
Roswaal's office—at his document room. The room is small and cramped with paperwork, this
being the one Otto edged on crazy sorting.
Subaru puts his hand to the door. Through the doorknob, he feels the reaction of CORRECT.
Subaru: “Mysteriously, the moment I open... no, the instant I think to open a door, I can tell whether
it's the correct one. Right now, I'm thinking I mighta just got it.”
Frederica: “Subaru-sama...”
Subaru: “And so, the unveiling.”
Frederica's concerned voice at his back, Subaru swings the door open. He feels space warping
beyond the record-room door—and the scent particular only to old, well-aged books wafts out from
the room.
This was the thick aroma of ink and paper that no droll, to-be-disposed paperwork could ever
achieve.
Subaru: “I'll be trying to be back before long, but if it looks it's getting too dark then please don't
forget to sent Petra off to the village.”
His hand still on the doorknob, Subaru addresses a surprised Frederica. She blinks several times,
grips the hem of her skirt, curtsies,
Frederica: “For your return shall I await. Graciously I wish you well.”
Subaru: “Nice. Might even mistake myself for someone with rank.”
With Frederica's maidly sendoff, Subaru passes through the doorway to enter the room. Clicking the
door shut with his back, he senses the sound of an impossible breeze alongside the twisting of
space. The connection to the outside vanishes, the Archive again isolated.
???: “You finally came, I suppose.”
Says a voice, welcoming Subaru in a completely unwelcoming tone. Subaru doesn't resist as his
facial muscles naturally pull into a wry smile. He raises his hand.
Subaru: “Hey, Beako. Haven't seen you in ages, but you're still tiny as ever.”
Beatrice: “Your blither is annoying enough that a lifetime without it would still be plenty of it, in
fact. It's hopeless... truly.”
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Beatrice sits on the wooden stepladder, holding a black-bound book to her chest.
She's always sitting there, thinks Subaru. The Forbidden Archive does have desks and chairs. And
yet she's still always in that spot. An acid stings strangely at his heart, him gritting his teeth.
Beatrice: “That torpid face of yours is becoming even more unpresentable, I suppose. Your hurts
and confusions are your liberty, but your expressing them around Betty is unpleasant so stop it this
instant, in fact.”
Subaru: “Bossy. Sorry, but I've got no reason to follow through with your request. Have to confirm
whether the relationship between us is really sound enough for me doing that to be sound.”
Subaru implicitly communicates that he knows of Beatrice’s circumstances, which he learned last
loop. A sharpness rises on Beatrice's nonplussed expression.
Beatrice: “So that's what it is, I suppose,”
She mutters to herself.
Beatrice: “Fine, in fact. It seems safe to believe we both have our cards to play in-hand now, I
suppose.”
Subaru: “Pretty questionable whether my hand's gonna be anything effective, though. You better bet
I'll be filling things in with my imagination while we have our talk.”
Beatrice: “Do what you will, in fact. Since either way...”
Beatrice's stiff expression suddenly unravels.

Her stubborn look peels away, and peeking out from underneath is a calm smile and a fleeting
flicker in her eyes—unwittingly, Subaru's throat jams silent.
Beatrice: “The term of this long, long, long contract is ending. —In making end the end of the end,
Betty will for certain this time be freed from stagnation, I suppose.”
She says, a touch lonesome.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “Make end the end of the end... right. That's sure pretty poetic.”
Faced with a Beatrice already fully prepared, Subaru shrugs as he pulls the conversation onto a
more favourable track. He glances at the black book she holds—should Roswaal's words be correct,
that would be one of the only two PERFECTED GOSPELS in the world.
Disseminating information about the future and possessing a prophetical bent, Subaru also sensed
they held an instructive kind of 'THIS IS HOW THE FUTURE SHOULD BE' nuance.
Witch Cultist Betelgeux acted in line with the writ of his imperfect gospel, with an eagerness
87
suggesting that exact conduct carried a significance.1 That said, since the incomplete gospel lacked
any writ of the future's conclusion, the madman was slain at Subaru's hands.
Subaru: “Is you having that know-it-all expression also thanks to that book?”
Beatrice: “...It's you who should be speaking. How much do you know about this book, I suppose?”
Subaru: “Roswaal blabbered some stuff for me. I'm pretty sure I get the synopsis. It's got similar
properties to the Witch Cult gospels, an improved version. There're only two left in the world,
which're split between you and Roswaal.”
Beatrice: “Roswaal is a loose-lipped man, in fact. With that goal, I can imagine him prattling
merrily on about it, I suppose.”
Spits Beatrice. Subaru furrows his brows.

Beatrice's opinion of Roswaal has always been pretty ruthless. But until now, there's been a very
familiar kind of relaxedness to it. Subaru senses not a speck of it in that statement.
Beatrice, just now, spoke while absolutely harbouring disgust for Roswaal.
Subaru: “I don't really get your relationship with Roswaal. Even though you've got the only damn
two of these books split between you, and blood and contractual ties binding you to where he's
letting you live in his house.”
Beatrice: “State what you're trying to say clearly, in fact.”
Subaru: “Here I go stating it clearly then, your position here is ridiculously unclear.”
Beatrice narrows her eyes. The pressure she exerts, imbalanced with her lovable looks, feels almost
to Subaru like a tangible wind.
By cutting into the main topic, the atmosphere Beatrice dons changes radically.
Subaru: “I pretty much understand Roswaal's position now. His family's contracted to the Witch of
GREED, and they've always been inheriting that. Him managing SANCTUARY also comes from that,
1 Taking a moment for a prolonged TL note.

I'm pulling a retcon right here on Betelgeuse's name, so any Betelgeuses you've seen throughout these summaries were
in fact Betelgeux. This is happening because I have goldfish memory and lapsed completely about an Arc 5 Thing,
then kept stubborn about it until I finally reread the Thing, or otherwise for Reasons.
The Witch Cult Arch/Bishop/Cardinal of Sloth Mr. Romanee-Conti has his name written as ペഁルギウス
(Peterugiusu, more pronouncably Petelgeuse) in Japanese, which I very vaguely understand as a present but
irregular (or perhaps old? Behold my in-depth and trustworthy research parts 1 and 2) alternate (mis-)spelling for
Betelgeuse as in the name of that star in Orion. This bit me in the ass since that irregularity wound up mattering (In
retrospect well duh?). So more accurately, the Betelgeux should be Petelgeuse.
HOWEVER.
I cannot describe how little I can stand the sound produced by the arrangement of the letters 'Petelgeuse'. And then I
was five seconds away from cementing an unwanted Tim Burton reference in this pass, when I happened upon some
guy named Sir Patrick Moore. He wrote a shitton of books on astronomy, apparently had some prestige for it, and
happily repeatedly used the term Betelgeux in an irregularbutapparentlypresent alternate English
(mis-)spelling of the name of that star in Orion. Thank you Sir Patrick Moore for saving me from Tim Burton.
Anyway so Betelgeux. This decision is entirely my caprice in character name mangling. Please let me get away
with it.
88
though it's still unclear why he's trying to make Emilia win the Royal Selection.”
Beatrice goes silent.
Subaru: “But I can't see how you come into it at all. Roswaal's contracted to the Witch of GREED.
Call him an apostle of GREED.”
From how Roswaal's insistently been calling her Echidna rather than the Witch of GREED, Subaru
can more or less sense that he harbours an inordinate attachment to Echidna.
Albeit an unaccomplished one, he might share with Subaru the same standing as an apostle of
GREED. Although being that Echidna just went off and made Subaru an apostle, it's conceivable that
Roswaal inherited the status in a similar way in a hereditary fashion.
Subaru: “The gospels... the Witch Cult ones. I can't tell if they have the same roots as the perfected
editions you and Roswaal have. My imagination says their makers were probably different. So, I've
got no clue who made the cult gospels, but I can imagine someone for the perfected two.”
Beatrice: “...Who, I suppose?”
Subaru: “—It's Echidna.”
Subaru sees Beatrice's breath catch the instant he says that name.
He also sees that for Beatrice, that name is assuredly not a small thing.
Inside Echidna's dream castle, Subaru had witnessed the effectively omniscient BOOK OF WISDOM,
an artefact in Echidna's possession.
The Book of Wisdom's properties differed from the gospels', but its bindings and status as a
grimorie transcending human comprehension did cohere. Then tie together the possessor of that
artefact and all the people related to her in SANCTUARY, and the answer practically presents itself.
Subaru: “The gospels you and Roswaal own were made by Echidna. Roswaal's was probably
inherited down the Mathers family line. So, how did you get ahold of your gospel?”
Subaru: “Now, I have a question. About your Gate Crossing.”
Raising his finger, Subaru kills off his previous momentum as he switches to a different topic.
Beatrice blinks at Subaru's conversational technique, bracing herself for what he's going to say.
And Subaru asks.
Subaru: “—The area of effect on your Gate Crossing. What's the range like for choosing applicable
targets?”
Beatrice: “...I don't know what would happen should you hear the response, in fact.”
Subaru: “I hear the response and say it's in line with my imaginings, then it'll be affirming my
guess.”
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Beatrice crosses her arms. Subaru puffs out his chest.

Her lips quirk as she hesitates, closing her eyes in resignation.
Beatrice: “Betty's Gate Crossing connects its space to the interior of a single building. Otherwise to
the place most recently known to me. It can't connect over especially large distances, I suppose.”
Subaru: “There aren't any other conditions to it?”
Beatrice: “Do you think Betty has any reason to so nicely tell you, I suppose?”
Subaru: “Well then I'll guess. —Even if it's long range, if you have a deep tie to the place, Gate
Crossing can connect to it. How'd I do?”
Swallowing her breath, eyes wide open, Beatrice falls silent.

The reaction supports Subaru's conceptions.
Subaru: “If your concentration's thrown off, but you still activate Gate Crossing, what method
dictates where it connects to?”
Beatrice: “...op,”
Subaru: “Done on the instant, everyone pulls out the actions, the words most familiar to them.
When it's something like Gate Crossing, wouldn't be strange for it to be somewhere you'd have a
strong emotional attachment to.”
Beatrice: “...on't I suppose.”
Subaru: “You, who received a gospel made by Echidna, through Gate Crossing connect the Archive
to this place in SANCTUARY. —Meaning,”
Beatrice: “—I want you to stop already, in fact!”
The stepladder sways as Beatrice stands up, looking at Subaru with her expression pleading. She
bites her lip, eyes watering.
Subaru believes firmly that, just then, he jammed his dirty hands into a subject she didn't want
touched.
A wretched pang running through his heart, Subaru shakes his head.
Subaru: “No,”
Subaru: “I won't stop. I know Gate Crossing connects this place to a somewhere in SANCTUARY.
And as to why that is, your frantic denials have just answered.”
Subaru: “Beatrice. You're related to SANCTUARY as well, right? What's your relationship with
Echidna?”
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Knowing that he's intruding on her heart, Subaru stifles his hesitation, and crushes Beatrice with his
questions.
Gate Crossing had flung Subaru into the facility for SANCTUARY's immortality experiment.
That a space opened in split-second conditions connected there suggested that the place held strong
emotional significance to Beatrice.
The spirit girl remembered vividly the facility for producing Lewes Meyer doubles. And then
considering the fact that Echidna had given her a gospel—
Subaru: “Beatrice... You are a spirit in contract with who?”
Beatrice: “—!”
Subaru: “I've heard about it from Puck before. About the principles of spirit contracts. Abridging the
details here, but the point is equal conditions are made between the spirit and contractor. You've said
that you're bound by contract to protect the Forbidden Archive. Who are you contracted to?”
Beatrice: “...a,”
Subaru: “I've just been thinking this whole time that it was a contract with Roswaal. You're in this
mansion and managing the archive inside, so it's a pretty reasonable thought, but... right now, I'm
really wondering.”
A weak sigh spills from Beatrice's trembling lips.

Her small form grows ever smaller as she embraces harder the gospel, arms seeking something to
rely on. Like she's bearing something unbearable, her attitude rather quite fickle.
Even with his eyes on this, despite having his eyes on this, Subaru says it.
Subaru: “—Are you a spirit in contract with Echidna?”
—That was the beginning of the end of the end.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The instant he asks the question, Beatrice collapses like a puppet with strings cut.
Subaru: “Bea—!?”
She falls to her knees on the floor. Thunk. Paper flitting, and the insides of Beatrice's dropped
gospel scatter loose.
Seems that the constant walking with it, opening and closing it, stroking it, and repeating this whole
process has long pushed the book past its endurable limit. The impact of the fall separates the
binding from the pages, a white paper carpet spread across the floor.
Subaru: “The gospel's... huh?”
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Subaru sees several pages fly to his feet, him unwittingly squatting down and picking them up. What
flits through his mind is Betelgeux's gospel. Minute writings crammed its pages full, and Subaru
almost felt that the owner's madness had infected the text with how the letters squirmed. Subaru had
expected the same of the page he retrieved, but—seeing the paper before him blasts that image away.
After all,
Subaru: “Wha... huh? Blank...?”
On neither the front nor back of the page is there anything written.
Subaru hurriedly picks up another paper sheet and looks, but again is nothing written. He wonders if
perhaps, by coincidence, they were pages from the yet-blank latter half of the book, but,
Subaru: “No, that ridiculous...”
Still squatting, Subaru looks over to those scattered around Beatrice, and he notices.
That absolutely every single page around her is devoid of even a single word.
What really were the possibilities that over one hundred pages had all had flipped over to their
blank undersides?
Subaru: “It's a gospel... but, nothing's written?”
Rather than believing a miracle that all pages were showing their blank side, it was more logical to
conclude that pure stark whiteness consumed every writing-deficient page.
According with that logical thought hits upon an illogical truth.
Subaru: “Why aren't the two perfects telling the future? Is it a gimmick where only the owner can
read them? Betelgeux's wasn't a reliable reference?”
Talking about perfects and imperfects, the gospel Subaru's referencing off is imperfect. Its writings
were visible to others than its owner, with Subaru currently keeping the thing. Fortunately,
following Betelgeux's death its text has had so far no additions.
So Subaru had fully been thinking that regardless who the owner was, anyone could see the
contents of a gospel.
Beatrice: “It's been... so long, in fact.”
Beatrice: “Since that gospel stopped indicating Betty any future, already, years...”
Still on the floor, head lowered, Beatrice's speech falters.

What do you mean, is the question Subaru manages to keep himself from asking as he instead waits
for Beatrice to speak.
Beatrice's hands press down on the scattered pagers, scrunches them, ruins them. Her fingers shake,
her voice in tears.
Beatrice: “The role given to Betty was to maintain the archive of knowledge. To keep guarding this
92
place until the eventual reunion... I suppose.”
Subaru: “Archive of knowledge... you mean, this place?”
Standing up, Subaru passes his gaze over the hordes of bookshelves filling the room. These books
of the archive, of which even Subaru had reached for several presented to him, had by Subaru's
assumption always been belongings of the Mathers family. But,
Subaru: “Are all of these books Echidna's?”
Beatrice: “She was someone... who liked gathering knowledge, in fact.”
Subaru: “When it's escalated and she's introducing herself as a witch, I'm sure you're right.”
She's introducing herself as thirst for knowledge incarnate. With her extravagant attitude of wanting
to know everything in the world, yes indeed Subaru thought her greedy. This great mass of books
nested in their bookshelves ought to be called the fruits of Echidna's knowledge gathering.
Beatrice was the librarian entrusted with Echidna's stockhold of knowledge.
Beatrice: “By your wording... it seems you've entered the tomb, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Yeah, I have. Had terrible experiences, and painful times, but... I'm glad I entered.
Echidna's kinda a double-edged sword as a counsellor though.”
She's precious as someone to be upfront with RETURN BY DEATH about, but capitalizing on that
would prompt the summoning of the Witch of ENVY. That's a pattern where his death becomes
essential, and he sincerely would like to avoid it. But if necessary, he'll repeat it.
Subaru: “...So you kinda said the gospel hasn't been telling you the future for years.”
Beatrice: “It's the truth, in fact.”
Subaru: “I'm not doubting you. Or no, yeah I am. I mean, right? If I don't, then you... and when
there's nothing in the gospel.”
—Then, it meant on multiple occasions, she had saved Subaru.
Separation came between Subaru and Beatrice in the loop before last. That was where Subaru first
learned about the gospel Beatrice owned, giving Subaru definitely more than a little shock.
Subaru had been made to think that Beatrice's actions, thoughts, everything, had been resultant from
the gospel's writ, without any purchase for Beatrice's own ideas or feelings to be in it.
Consequently, even when faced with this distressed girl, Subaru clearly perceives his sincere relief.
Subaru feels comfort in knowing that Beatrice's actions had reflected her own mind. He doesn't
know why it relieves him so.
Even without knowing the fundamental reason, this is what Subaru thinks:
I want Beatrice to be friendly to me, even without reason for it. He doesn't know what is that makes
93
think like this about Beatrice.
Subaru: “You... why did you help me? It wasn't written in the gospel, yeah? You said you washed
your hands of me.”
Subaru knows it's an indirect, disgusting way to say it.

He understand what it is he wants as he leaves the answer to Beatrice. Understands, but his
cowardice in choosing this phrasing is loathsome.
What Subaru truly wanted to ask Beatrice was simply,
—Are you on my side?
Beatrice: “That Betty... with you... gave you... assistance, was...”
Subaru: “Yeah. You've helped me lots of times. There was that time with the ulgarm's curses, and
healing me when I was dying. And then telling me, who should've died from the curse, the truth.”
Beatrice has further saved Subaru on more occasions than that.

Through the loops at the mansion and killed by Rem, the only saving graces for a Subaru incapable
of trusting anyone there were Beatrice and Emilia.
Subaru doesn't forget Beatrice's protecting him then. No longer remaining in this world, present
only inside Subaru, was this certain and unforgettable bond.
So,
Subaru: “With no relation to the gospel, you...”
Beatrice: “—at the end I was told, in fact.”
Would Beatrice not cast away every single question, and ally with Subaru?
Someone he could entrust all his faith in—Having lost Rem, and unable to show his weakness to
Emilia, perhaps that someone for Subaru would be Beatrice.
In a sense, his wish is excessively selfish.

And,
Beatrice: “That one day, THEY would visit Betty's archive. For me to guard the archive until then.”
Subaru: “...They?”
Beatrice: “I was told, I suppose. That until THEY come, Betty's role is to guard this Forbidden
Archive assigned to her. Betty can't tell whether you are THEY or not, in fact.”
A zeal in his eyes as he first looks at Beatrice, her gloomy speech prompts Subaru to lose that fire.
He furrows his brows at the turbulent portents.
Subaru did not know what Beatrice was trying to talk about. Didn't know. He did not know—but he
felt he must not let her say what came next.
Beatrice: “Betty can't tell. Whether you are THEY or not. …But.”
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Subaru: “Wait, Beatrice. You're getting a little way too hasty. Now just calm down...”
Beatrice: “Whether you are THEY, or are not THEY... it doesn't matter, I suppose.”
Beatrice raises her head.

Her hair sways with the motion—puttering, lost, reflecting her heart, reflecting Subaru's heart.
A bad premonition clenches him tight in the chest. Unable to clear the feeling away,
Beatrice: “You might not be THEY, but I already don't care any more, in fact. And so.”
Subaru: “Bea—”
Beatrice: “I want you to kill Betty, and make end this contract, I suppose. I want you to make end
the end of the end, and give Betty relief, in fact.”
Her eyes watering, a weak smile arises on Beatrice's face.
Beatrice: “You, be THEY.”
95
CHAPTER 61: SCREAM FROM FOUR HUNDRED YEARS PAST

Her melancholy eyes grab Subaru, not letting go.
A desire to laugh away Beatrice's statements surges up in Subaru's chest.
—Um, what did you just say?
He just had to take those inexplicable words he heard, and throw them back at Beatrice.
He just had to twist his mouth into a smile, and joke around with her like usual.
All it was was things were going just a little—yes, just a little undesirable.
After all, if it weren't that,
Subaru: “—”
Then he wouldn't be able to counter the desperate girl's JOKE.
Subaru: “What, did... you just say?”
A moment of hesitation, a brief gap of time, and Subaru gives his prepared line.
He just had to smile and give a shrug, and it'd be perfect.
However,
Subaru: “...a,”
Subaru's cheeks stiffen, not even his merely shoulders, but his fingertips also too rigid to move.
It was almost as if the Natsuki Subaru reflected in Beatrice's eyes were fixed in place, stuck in
exactly the position she saw him.
Beatrice: “As you wish, I'll say it again, I suppose.”
Subaru: “W-wait...”
Beatrice: “—Betty wants, by your hands, to be made ended, in fact.”
Subaru: “Stop!!”
Raising his voice, Subaru yells over Beatrice's speech.

It's a complete reversal of their previous positions and by some metric, a funny exchange.
Ploughing forward with his theory, Subaru had made a Beatrice who rejected what she not wished
to hear shriek.
And so, if Beatrice does the same then Subaru has no right to criticise her. No right, and he knows
it, but,
Subaru: “What the fuck do you think you're saying right now...”
Beatrice: “Do you comprehend what you're being told right now, I suppose?”
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Subaru: “What?”
Beatrice: “I am attempting to make you the finish of I, the Spirit Beatrice, in fact. I'm letting you be
THEY, end of this over four-hundred-years gone contract, I suppose.”
You best think it a privilege, in fact, says Beatrice's unfitting and cynical smile.
The smile of a chagrined girl—seeing it, gnarled fingers gouge their claws into Subaru's chest.
Unbearable, Subaru puts his hand to his heart.
Subaru: “I don't understand... You really saying you wanna die?”
Beatrice: “Want to die, is strictly speaking incorrect, I suppose. Betty wants to have the contract be
made ended. I just want to be freed, forever my binding, from this eternal contract, in fact.”
Subaru: “If that's done by taking your life, then how the fuck is that any different from wanting to
die!!”
Roars Subaru, throat trembling, stomping his foot.

His heel grinds down on the scattered gospel pages underfoot, but that isn't something to care about.
Jabbing his finger out at her, Subaru glares at Beatrice.
Subaru: “Don't say this fucked, stupid shit about wanting to die! Wanting to die's... no matter who
else you're saying it to, when it's around... saying that around me, to me isn't something I'll forgive!”
Someone dies, and their life isn't coming back.

Only Natsuki Subaru can do-over after dying. So only Subaru, noting the benefit in forsaking his
life to challenge again, can present an agreeable reasoning for suicide.
But not Beatrice. Not anybody else.
They lose their lives, and they won't get them back.
Knowing that, and still saying it in Subaru's presence, was,
Subaru: “The hell do you want ended! Don't just say this crap! Acting for an end... acting entirely to
just goddamn die—no matter who else allows it, do you really think I will?!”
Beatrice: “Certainly a selfish complaint, I suppose. —What would you know about Betty, in fact?”
Beatrice's response is cold, hard, as she brushes at her skirt and stands. Her fingers fiddle with the
tip of her pigtail.
Beatrice: “It's been four hundred years since Betty became caretaker of the Forbidden Archive,
guard of knowledge. Four hundred years... that is how long Betty has simply obeyed the contract,
and waited, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Four, hundred years...”
That phrase again, thinks Subaru as he scrunches his face, wanting to click his tongue.
Four hundred years. The age most plagued by the witch menace, of which every long-lived relation
97
of Subaru's had some connection to, an inauspicious age

Beatrice too had been born in this age, and lived on to this day.
Beatrice: “I contracted with the witch, came into the similarly-posited Mathers family's care, and in
the beginning followed the gospel's writ—simply, silently waiting through the days for the time to
come, in fact.”
Subaru goes silent.
Beatrice: “But, while I was waiting, time in the outside world ticked on, I suppose. He who had
been in the same position as Betty, the Mathers family head, passed away of old age as the
generations proceeded down, in fact. Though aware of the shifting of the heads, Betty's time still
remained unchanged and passing, I suppose.”
And how painful a time was this for Beatrice?

Her dispassionate tone almost reflects the abrasion that the uncaring flow of time has been inflicting
on her heart, giving even the listener, Subaru, chills.
Beatrice: “That promised day and its eventual coming—Betty knew not at all when it would arrive
or who the visiting THEY would be, all through those days, in fact.”
But still, says the shake of Beatrice's head,
Beatrice: “I wasn't worried, I suppose. After all, in Betty's hands was a gospel. I just had to believe
in the prophetic book, waiting ably for its white pages to report about that coming day. If I could
wait, then that time would assuredly come... is what I had persistently believed, in fact.”
Subaru: “But...”
Looking down at the pages twisted beneath his heel, Subaru comprehends the cruelty of their
endless whiteness. Sensing the meaning of Subaru's gaze, Beatrice nods.
The gospel, the supposed hope for her, had—
Beatrice: “Every day, times upon times, I wondered whether the writ had changed... and it was
suffering to check.”
Beatrice: “I've dreamed so many times of new letters appearing on the page after the last writ, I
suppose. I've imagined so many, many times the day the unknown THEY comes to visit Betty, and I
can fulfil the role given to me, in fact.”
Subaru: “...Beatrice.”
Beatrice: “The Mathers family isn't so devoid of visitors, I suppose. There have been many humans
who visited Betty's Forbidden Archive. Many whose hands touched the Archive's door... and Betty's
heart was betrayed every time, in fact.”
98
By those who pushed open the door not being THEY.

So many times the disappointment surely repeated. So many times the discouragement surely
reiterated. The continuing betrayal of her expectations progressively abraded her heart, and her eyes
steadily permeated with resignation.
Beatrice's expectations were betrayed again and again, and she progressively ceased to even have
expectations. Once kept elevated by the hope that she might perhaps get through it, Beatrice's heart
was battered, unable to endure the splitting pain.
Of course a heart which had endured so much would have begun to fracture.
Beatrice: “During the period I did that, I realised, in fact. ...No, I had already realised, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Realised what?”
Beatrice: “That Betty would never see the gospel's next writ, in fact.”
Beatrice bends over, picking up the gospel's binding fallen at her feet. With its pages shed and only
the cover remaining, the thing drifts with a morose air.
She traces her finger over the binding.
Beatrice: “Did you know, I suppose?”
Beatrice: “Gospels write the future of their owner.” The detail of their writ is so clear that their
possessor has barely any deviation from the world's memories, in fact.2
Subaru: “World's memories?”
Beatrice: “The Memories of The World, I suppose. —The world doesn't just know the present and
past, it also knows what will happen in the future, in fact. The Book of Wisdom is a forbidden text
which draws its needed information from there. You'd say the gospel has inherited only a piece of
that functionality, I suppose.”
Echidna was the one who termed the Book of Wisdom as The Memories of The World.
It's indeed definite that Echidna and Beatrice had a close relationship. Beatrice presents the black
binding so Subaru can see it.
Beatrice: “The principles of the imitation Witch Cult gospels are practically the same, I suppose.
Their algorithms reference off this, with their accuracy the only departure, in fact.”
Subaru: “...How did that technique get out after Echidna's death? Only you and Roswaal're
supposed to have inherited these two gospels.”
Beatrice: “Now that I don't know or care about, I suppose. Whoever is producing these fakes, and
who they intend to distribute them to, has not any single thing to do with Betty, in fact.”
Subaru: “So why'd you bring up the Witch Cult then?”
2 Shaky about this line and unfortunately it's an important one.
99
Beatrice: Because I had to talk about cult gospels, I suppose. You were just jumping to conclusions,
in fact.
Beatrice doesn't follow along with Subaru's challenging words, preserving her calm.
Beatrice: “You have a cult gospel, I suppose?”
Subaru nods.
Subaru: “Not on hand. I brought it into SANCTUARY, and right now it's in safekeeping there. We
wound up giving all the ones we collected from the other cultists over to someone more capable.”
The only gospel Subaru presently owns is the one Betelgeux had possessed.
The gospels that the other cultists—Betelgeux's fingers—had owned were destroyed by the still-
conscious cultists before their deaths. The several tomes they managed to recover were entrusted to
Crusch's faction for them to deal with.
What Subaru had wanted to do in the first place was speedily bring Roswaal back from
SANCTUARY, and go discuss the successes of the White Whale and Betelgeux subjugations with
Crusch and Anastasia's factions.
Beatrice: “Have you looked over that book's text, I suppose?”
Subaru: “Suddenly I can read it now, so yeah sorta. It's written in this curly-worm handwriting and
barely legible, but basically it's itemized information. Though, my personal impression... I see it less
as prophecies of the future, and more as instructions from the future.”
Subaru recollects on the gospel that Echidna's influence had most likely rendered readable.
Lots of the text in Betelgeux's gospel followed a pattern saying where Betelgeux would go, and
what happenings he would cause. Considering that the gospel omitted a lot on how that written
result was reached, you could say the gospel left the actions to realise those outcomes up to its
owner's judgement.
So rather than being an omnipotent prophetic text, it was a guide of the future—is how Subaru felt
it ought to be considered.
Subaru: “If it perfectly predicted the future, then that sounds like I shouldn'tve had any way to stop
it. Do agree an imperfect edition'd probably be just that kinda thing, though.”
Beatrice: “I'm not so interested in the contents, in fact. The essential thing is whether or not the
owner's final passing was writ, I suppose.”
Subaru: “—Final passing, isn't what I'd call it.”
The final page of Betelgeux's gospel.

Different from the END written in Subaru's blood, the final sentence writ in accord with gospel's true
purpose. It was, shortly—
<In Mathers domain, Trial on silver-haired half-witch>
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—that rather sloppy sentence, which gave no indication even to Betelgeux of what would happen
before or after.
Indeed, if this is the entire par of information the gospel brought, the inspecificity would make
beating out Subaru in terms of future intelligence surely impossible.
Beatrice: “—That's what I thought, in fact.”
Beatrice nods, as if she's agreeing with something. She warps, bends the binding in her hands.
Beatrice: “Has the gospel appended with any more writing after that, I suppose?”
Subaru: “...No, I don't think so. Far as I've checked at least, its last writ is the final activity of its
owner. And appending anything after just wouldn't happen. I mean.”
Going to proceed with his speech, Subaru realises what it is he's saying, and his throat freezes. This
clarifies the intention of Beatrice's question.
He raises his head. Beatrice is smiling faintly.
Shown multiple times in this brief meeting was this hollow smile, which inspired only emptiness in
those who saw it.
Beatrice: “—The gospel writing nothing further, means that is where owner's future ends, in fact.”
Subaru: “Y-you and him aren't anything alike...”
Beatrice: “It's the same, I suppose. In the sense of the gospels not writing the future, the only
difference is whether we still exist or do not, in fact. —Can you say I am wrong, I suppose?”
Subaru: “You're wro—!”
The unimpressed look in Beatrice's interrupts Subaru's knee-jerk denial. Superficial consolations
aren't what she's looking for. This question was one Beatrice had already answered herself.
Gritting his teeth so hard they might crack, with blood oozing from the tip of his tongue, Subaru,
Subaru: “Why, 're you... doing that!”
Subaru: “Coming up with the conclusions by yourself!! Everyone! When they deliberate over things
anxious and alone, their thoughts're gonna plummet straight in a bad direction! When you're stuck
thinking this's all that's left for you now... you'll wind up thinking this awfulness you see's the
reality!”
Subaru has often collided with hardship, each time lamenting his impotence, and so he understands.
Repeated malice, unfading obstacles, the world's barricade and its assault—which practically
asserted that surmounting it was impossible.
They all demanded that the challenger keep fighting alone, but shackled that person's heart petrified
with their dark fingers.
So,
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Subaru: “If you think it's painful, that you want something done about it! Then a sentence is
enough. What you should've done was called out to someone so they'd know. If you'd just said you
wanted help, that you're unhappy... I would've!”
When cornered in the hopeless dead-end of fate, when submerged in a despair inescapable alone,
they best merely try looking to those around the self they believe isolated.
There would one first notice the hands reaching out for them.
When they take that hand, when a strong pull comes to the body they thought immobile, they'll
finally notice.
—There is no need to give up yet.
Subaru: “So many times, on you, I... and so this time, I'll...!”
Beatrice: “...I want, something done about it.”
Subaru: “Yes... just like that, call out.”
Beatrice: “I want help...”
Subaru: “Yes! Yes, yesyesyes! Now if you just reach out...”
Beatrice: “I'm sad, I'm suffering... Betty, wants to be saved from this darkness.”
Subaru: “Right, leave it all to me—”
Small, trembling fingers reach out toward Subaru.

Spurred on by an incomprehensible strength flooding out from inside him, Subaru reaches for
Beatrice's hand.
Subaru had completely forgotten why he had come here.

He had actually come to Beatrice seeking her strength, to break through his dead-end situation. He
expected that of anyone, she would help him.
But now that he knew Beatrice's suffering, the darkness of her heart, such a thing was unthinkable.
All that prompted Subaru's actions was a sense of duty, wanting to save a small girl agonized by her
isolation.
If he takes that hand, Subaru will be adding yet another unabandonable load on his shoulders.
Despite already carrying more baggage than he conceivably could, Natsuki Subaru was again
intending to hold more.
But he didn't mind. After all,
Beatrice: “—”
—How could he abandon a little girl, looking at him with such wavering eyes?
Beatrice was trying to depend on him.

Which summons for Subaru an unbearable, unassailable feeling. He doesn't know what. The
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meaning doesn't even matter. Simply, his soul is screaming.

Help her! Save her! To you, that girl is—and so.
Subaru: “I, no matter what—”
Beatrice: “And so...”
Subaru's fingers reach the fingers reaching for him.

Gripping the faltering fingertips firm, he pulls her in, entwining together their digits and meeting
her palm to his.
He looks Beatrice straight on. Her watery eyes reflect Subaru. With fat tears falling from those eyes,
Beatrice,
Beatrice: “—Betty wants you to kill her, in fact.”
—I'm not seeking any simple aid, is how she shakes Subaru's hand away.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru sucks in the breath to voice the question of Why?

Looking at his rejected hand, looking at his empty unoccupied fingers, looking at the perpetrator
Beatrice, Subaru means to ask why.
Subaru: “—”
That he nonetheless fails to do so is because Beatrice's eyes, as they watch Subaru, are too far, much
too far, far too much too far—irreparably too late for saving.
Beatrice: “I've been alone... constantly, for four hundred years, I suppose.”
Subaru: “B-beahthri....”
Beatrice: “This surely-coming THEY surely didn't come, and I spent four hundred years constantly
alone, in fact.”
He can't pull his gaze from Beatrice's eyes.

Call her name. But even in that, Subaru now hesitates.
Beatrice: “I don't know how many times I've thought to abandon it all. I don't know how many
times I've wished to simply forget everything. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, a hundred
million and more, but it still isn't enough...”
Beatrice spent a very long time in this cramped, dark room alone.
Hugging her knees, waiting on that stepladder for that someone of unknown face and name to come.
A sea of books as far as the eye can see—even finishing complete perusal of that whole ocean, she
went on with that person she awaited never coming, and even her future-announcing book
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announced nothing.
Just how many times had that solitude killed this girl's heart?
Beatrice: “I want help? I want something done about it?”
Subaru: “—a,”
Beatrice: “How many times, tens of times, hundreds of times... do you think Betty has thought that?
Did you think I had never considered it, and simply given up, I suppose?”
Her speech starts breaking up, steadily coming cloaked with zeal.
Subaru winds up overwhelmed instead. His throat cramps. The passion welling from his body's
core, scorching his soul, wholly flips to utter freezing, his limbs heavy as if crammed with lead.
So much so that he cannot act for the sake of this girl, or act to run away.
Beatrice: “If I reach out, you will pull Betty out of this impenetrable darkness? You will teach me
the solution for this unending dead end, I suppose?”
Beatrice: “If you... are doing that for me, then... why is it... why, is it...”
Head hung, her sobs lace her statements.

Her face now obstructed, an arcane darkness dominates Subaru's heart. With the ground beneath
him shaky and unstable, he might almost lose sight of the road to reach the Beatrice standing within
arm's reach of him.
He dreaded, and hesitated. In that period, Beatrice raises her head.
She glares. Mouth open, baring her teeth,
Beatrice: “—You left Betty alone for four hundred years!?”
Subaru: “—hk”
Beatrice: “I was alone! Always! Always always always, Betty was alone, passing time aimlessly in
this room! I was lonely! I was scared! I was thrown away, couldn't fulfil my given role, couldn't get
chance to keep my promise, couldn't waste away alongside the passage of time... I had to think I
would spend eternity alone, in fact!”
Tears spill from the girl's big eyes.

They strike her cheeks, droplets falling from her chin to the ground. With each drip that hits the
floor, a ferocious shock smacks Subaru about the heart.
Beatrice: “You'll help me!? You'll save me!? Why couldn't you have come sooner, I suppose!? Why
did you just leave me here!? If you're going to speak kindness to me this late, why didn't you hold
onto me from the start!? Why did you pull your hand away!? How come!? Why!? You will leave
Betty alone!?”
Her words are blades, are fire, are steel, each tearing into Subaru's heart. In every shape and every
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meaning they are every agony, torturing Subaru.

Beatrice's complaints are very absurd, from Subaru's perspective.
Four hundred years—the majority of the time she spent in isolation is nothing Subaru could have
had involvement in. Beatrice and Subaru have only known each other for two months, and
according to her, the only question is of early or late within this timeframe. There was surely no
way he could have saved her. If he's going to respond with logic, he could respond with that.
But who exactly would that utterly pointless rebuttal help?

Not Beatrice, not Subaru, and not anyone.
Subaru realises now that he has been considerably disdainful toward the time this girl Beatrice has
spent.
Four hundred years. —Four hundred years.
Looking just at those words, perhaps the number would not feel like anything big.
In niche works, four hundred years is no big number. Stories out there give more ridiculous ranges
of time, some even spanning the world's chronology. Compared to the impact of those, four hundred
years is nothing.
Stupid. Was he stupid? Just how hopelessly foolish was he?

By those simple three words, how could he perceive this girl who truly spent four hundred years in
isolation, given only an impenetrable riddle as her reason for living? Understand her? Feel her?
Just to what extent could Subaru's shallow words heal her four hundred years of solitude?
Beatrice: “The very word help... and the grace of wanting something be done... are both wishes long
withered dead by these four hundred years, I suppose...”
Beatrice: “Do you think there was not any human like you who tried to bring Betty out? Betty is a
superior spirit, I suppose. The humans who sought that power and laboured to bring Betty out were
more than a few, in fact.”
News to him. There were people in the past who tried to bring Beatrice out of the Forbidden
Archive like Subaru. Her presence here clearly announced the results.
Beatrice’s gaze even weaker as she looks at him, Subaru shakes his head.
Subaru: “D-don't—don't lump me in with those people! All I want to do is...”
Beatrice: “Those like you who disregarded Betty's power, and simply wished to save the person
before them... those softies may have been among them, I suppose.”
Subaru goes silent.
Beatrice: “But they were incapable of bringing Betty out, in fact. Of course they'd be, I suppose.”
After all, she sighs, her smile again fleeting,
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Beatrice: “The contract binding Betty to this place is nothing that half-hearted resolve can
overcome, I suppose. A contract having bound Betty to this role for four hundred years... no lowly
human will so easily destroy it.”
Subaru: “What, should I...”
Beatrice: “—Make Betty your number one.”
Her words are quiet, but sharp.

The shock feels to Subaru like needles piercing his eardrums.
Subaru: “Wha, t?”
Beatrice: “Make Betty, your number one. Think of me first. Choose me first. Overwrite the contract.
Override the contract. Overwhelm the contact. Take me out. Pull me close. Hold me tight.”
Subaru: “—”
Beatrice: “This is impossible for you, in fact.”
Pleads Beatrice, fervently, eagerly, heart-crushingly.

This was the absolute in heavy requests, to which any light nod of the head was unforgivable.
Beatrice: “You've already had your number one long decided, I suppose. That silver girl, or the
blue-haired maid... either which way, it's impossible for you to push them aside and make Betty
your number one. You can not do it, in fact.”
Subaru: “Emilia... Rem...”
Beatrice: “Contracts, are absolute. Absolute, I suppose. If you are to rewrite a contract by methods
other than its fulfilment, it will require fitting recompense, in fact. Betty no longer believes the
promise can be fulfilled, is unable to believe it, I suppose. Which means there is only one possibility
other than its fulfilment for my freedom, in fact...!”
Those two girls spurred Subaru's heart to thump strong.

When he thought of them his heart pulsed, throbbed, heated. That was the unconditionally
unchangeable answer chiselled into his soul.
Beatrice: “And so, I want you to break Betty's contract... to, destroy this ultimately useless body,
having passed its time in pointlessness...”
Subaru: “The contract... is really that serious? If you don't like it, can't your will do anything about
it...?”
He can't find a response. He does not know how to respond to Beatrice.

Thus Subaru's response is a cowardly one, asking elsewhere of the topic.
That instant, disappointment flashes through Beatrice's eyes. Subaru apparently made a fatal
mistake.
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Beatrice: “That's... Betty's reason for living, in fact.”
Subaru: “The contract, is?”
Beatrice: “Betty was born for this contract, and lives for this contact. The role I was first ordered at
birth, which since birth I have not fulfilled once, this contract... you mean to say I... selfishly, break
it, I suppose?”
Subaru: “There's nothing selfish in it! You've worked so hard for four hundred years! You've kept
your promise for that long, and how could anyone torment you for it! You are being tormented!
Plenty enough, already...!”
Beatrice: “I can't even fulfil this single role! I throw away my meaning for birth, reason for living,
and how can I live then!? No one will torment me!? I will torment me! Betty will never forgive it, I
suppose! That underhanded life is nothing the Spirit Beatrice will forgive!!”
Stomping with his trembling legs, Subaru grabs the small girl's shoulders. But the girl thrusts back at
him with a voice even louder than his, pushing hard at his torso and again taking distance. It's the
strength of a frail girl, and Subaru is still pushed back.
Strength won't enter his body Not even his mind can recall what he had seen.
Beatrice: “Contracts are absolute for spirits! Nothing is weightier than the contract with the
contractor! It's the same for Bubby! That is why Bubby prioritises that silver girl more than anyone,
I suppose! She is his most important! She is his most loved! If it were between the girl and Betty, he
would absolutely take the girl's side! Not even Bubby will put Betty in first!”
Being a spirit just like her, Beatrice is more attached to Puck than anyone.
That may have been a manifestation of a clinging sort of bond towards a being which she could
share the human-unassailable timespan of four hundred years with.
What did Beatrice feel toward Puck? What did Puck think of Beatrice? Subaru didn't know.
But what Subaru didn't know, Beatrice had already come to her conclusion about.
Toiled, and took plenty of time to get it, but Beatrice had her answer.
Her breathing ragged, shoulders heaving, even her prim pigtails have come frayed. Fat tears float up
in her big, round eyes, her shaking lips still yet hinting her weakness and entreaty.
She is an incredibly small, little girl, could Subaru think of it.
How had everyone just left such a small little girl alone here?
Beatrice: “I know... that you're not the contract's THEY, I suppose...”
Subaru: “—”
Beatrice: “But, can you please be THEY? Or otherwise not THEY, but something different, and save
Betty, I suppose?”
Subaru: “—”
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The words aren't coming.

By surely no way could he either simply nod, or impulsively deny her.
In just this short time, Subaru managed to learn a fragment of the insecurity Beatrice harboured that
he had not even attempted to learn.
But if he's to truly understand her isolation, Subaru would have to actually spend four hundred years
in solitude.
To do so was was absolutely impossible for a human. Her worries, solitude, and sorrow, were
nothing Subaru's hands would grasp.
Beatrice: “Betty is the one who knows best that it's hopeless, in fact.”
Beatrice: “So, kill Betty. By your hands. Suicide defies the contract, so spirits are absolutely
incapable of it. I can't even die alone, in fact.”
Subaru: “Why, me...?”
Pleads Beatrice, both arms reaching out.

Scared of accepting those hesitation-apt outstretched arms with frailty, Subaru buries his face in his
hands.
Subaru: “Why are you trying, to entrust your last moment, the end of four hundred years, to me...”
Beatrice: “Why... I suppose.”
Sobbing, whining, evading, Subaru's words are eligible for any such insult—But Beatrice chooses
none of them.
She tilts her head, as if even she herself does not know the reason why.
After a short moment, she slowly nods.
Beatrice: “—Yes, I've got it, in fact.”
Beatrice: “Betty entrusting her end to you, is surely... surely...”
He hears that answer, and he can't escape any more.

That was the conviction he had. He raises his head. Without covering his ears so that he can finish
this without hearing her answer. Without making her close her mouth.
He is slow to decide. He is slow to notice. Now, he is too late to do anything.
Beatrice is announcing her answer.

It's coming. And that instant—
???: “I'm sorry for this in the middle of your chat.”
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A voice he should not be hearing calls out. Still urged into haste by his chills, Subaru glances
behind him.
He sees it.
???: “—Would it be alright if I became your THEY?”
Their kukri soaked in blood, a murderer stands in the doorway.
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CHAPTER 62: SLAUGHTER AT ROSWAAL MANSION

Seeing that woman in the doorway, a shiver dashes down Subaru's whole body.
Even for Subaru, who had undergone many predicaments since being summoned into this parallel
world, and had occasionally even lost his life, she encourages in him a very irregular kind of dread.
Donning her black cloak, her ebony outfit clings snug over her voluptuous body. Her rare black
hair, same as Subaru's, stretches down in a long braid, with a rather salacious smile arisen on her
gentle face.
Were it not for the knife dripping blood casually held in her hand, she would be the very picture of a
beauty—this murderer, and as far Subaru cared, this worst of calamities. His first killer. The
GUTHUNTER, Elsa Granhiert.
Subaru: “W-hy... 're you here!?”
Elsa: “—My, I thought I had smelled this scent somewhere before, and it was you? I wonder how
your body is faring. Have you been caring after your guts for me?”
Elsa's brows rise as she tilts her head, as if only just noticing Subaru's presence.
She replies to his question, but it is already too late for any conversation to emerge here. To care
after your internal organs is an incomprehensible deed, which no ordinary person could possibly
accomplish. Meaning, this lady who sought such as thing as if it were a normal desire, was
unmistakably a madman.
One distinctly different from Betelgeux Romanée-Conti, a madman on another vector.
His entire body stiff and tense, Subaru pays ultimate attention to Elsa's every move.
This madwoman's combat prowess was enough that the Sword Saint Reinhardt had failed to kill her
—extradimensional. Subaru could sharpen his attention, but he would not be catching even the first
signs of her motions.
Beatrice: “—Who gave you permission to be here, I suppose?”
Asks Beatrice, unimpressed, from behind Subaru. She stands as she had been during her
confrontation with Subaru, her expression vanished of tears.
Elsa lightly sweeps her long hair aside.
Elsa: “It didn't look as though it were locked, so all I did was open it and come inside? The next
time you're having an important conversation, you would best not forget to lock the door.”
Beatrice: “That wasn't what I meant, in fact. Entering Betty's Forbidden Archive without permission
is... for other than this man, not so commonly possible, I suppose. How did you?”
Elsa: “Oh, then that's easy.”
Beatrice glances at Gate Crossing Exception Case Subaru. Elsa nods as if finally understanding
what Beatrice is asking. She gestures at the yet-open door.
Elsa: “Your magic to isolate spaces... uses doors an intermediary, yes? The magic connects a closed
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room to a closed room, through doors.”
Beatrice: “That's right, in fact. Without Betty's permission, it shouldn't be possible to reach this
Forbidden Archive connected to some door of the mansion. So how could...”
Elsa: “I did say it's easy. It uses closed doors as an intermediary... so if you leave all the doors open,
wouldn't that start eliminating the alternative options?”
Elsa points out an extremely easy way to overcome Beatrice's Gate Crossing.
Her statement is indeed correct. Gate Crossing is magic which switches the rooms between
identically closed doors. Meaning, it can't connect to opened rooms. If the magic is restricted to
doors in the mansion, and you left every door in the mansion open, the last remaining door would
obviously be the one connecting to the Archive. But, to do that,
Subaru: “You'd need to open every door in the mansion... someone would've, had to have had
disrupted you with th...”
As he speaks, Subaru truly realises the extent of his own idiocy.

Possibly this was the outcome of him averting his gaze from a reality he did not want to see.
Subaru: “Your, knife... is wet, with whose blood?”
Blood sticks, clinging down the blade of Elsa's kukri. The drips falling from its point, as if it had
only just slashed open its prey, make Subaru far more than capable of imaging the worst.
Subaru's lips pallid and trembling, Elsa traces her finger down the side of her blade. She licks up the
blood dirtying her pale finger.
Elsa: “Whose do you think?”
Subaru: “You goddamn...”
Elsa: “A hint. They were wearing a maid outfit.”
Three persons remain in the mansion. They were all wearing maid outfits. Or no, the sleeping Rem
was in negligee. Discount her. Two left.
Elsa: “A second hint. Their hair was not long.”
Petra with hers shoulder-length, Frederica with hers grown long.

—Subaru's throat sucks in the air needed to scream.
Elsa: “A third hint. As they died crying, they sobbed Subaru, Subaru!”
Subaru: “ELSAAAAAAAAAA!!”
Baring his fangs, ducking down low, Subaru dashes directly for Elsa.
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Elsa loosely stretches out her slender limbs in counter, readying to meet the tip of her steadied knife
with the oncoming Subaru's hea—
Elsa: “—Huh?”
Subaru: “Who the hell would rush straight-on into a monster like you!”
Posture low, Subaru sweeps his arms from the floor to the air. Following that trajectory, up fly the
scattered gospel pages.
For an instant, some tens of pages block the line of vision between Subaru and Elsa.
Instantaneously, taking in a breath, Subaru centres power into the core of his gut, straining his
mana, and,
Subaru: “—Shamac!!”
Spouting out black fog, the distance between Subaru and Else drowns in tumult.
Shamac did not work so well on Julius, but from a previous loop it is confirmed that it does work
somewhat on Elsa. Unlike last time where he wound up fully expelling his internal mana, the
experience this time ends only with a strange feeling of fatigue, indicating increased proficiency in
handling mana.
Subaru: “Beatrice!”
Twisting back, Subaru grabs the arm of an onlooking Beatrice. For an instant her tense arm moves
to reject Subaru's hand, but there is no escaping from Subaru's firm grip.
He yanks her light frame close, embraces the small girl in his arms, and hesitates not a second
before launching himself into the Shamac.
—Confusion. He sees nothing, hears nothing, feelings nothing, there being darkness only.
The sensation beneath Subaru's footfalls alone comprise his everything, the world's everything. In
the space between his right foot leaving the ground and his left foot making contact, he is
completely sequestered from the world. Right foot hits ground. Contact with the world. Left foot
rises. Isolated. Right foot hits. Contact. Isolation. Contact. Isolation. In his arms, something
struggles. Not letting go. Not permitting isolation. Contact. Contact. Contact.
Subaru: “—Phaa!”
With the suddenness akin to breaking his face up through a surface of water, the darkness clears.
His vision opened, where Subaru now stands is in a mansion hallway. Him being in this red-carpet
corridor was unmistakably because he had just bounded out the Forbidden Archive door.
He had avoided Elsa standing in the doorway, and successfully dashed out the room.
Subaru: “Knew, that'd do it—!”
If Shamac appeared right in front of her, Subaru figured with this being a combat-learned Elsa that
she would skirt around the curtain of dark, her aim set on Subaru and Beatrice who would be on the
opposite side. Taking an unexpected move, Subaru purposefully dashed straight into the darkness
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and passed right through the doorway Elsa had graciously opened for them.
Subaru: “Wanna say I goddamn nailed it, but...”
He would be given no time to brag.

Shamac's upkeep time is an unknown—but should Elsa discover that Subaru and Beatrice are not on
the opposite side, she would immediately snap back around to pursue them.
Subaru slams the door shut with a kick, cutting off Gate Crossing. It depended on Beatrice, but now
he should no longer know if his immediate surroundings connected to the Archive.
Subaru: “Beatrice! Connect that door to some different door—”
Beatrice: “No need telling me, that is what I'm doing, I suppose. Anyway you, going around closing
the open doors will buy us time, in fact.”
Subaru: “Fuck, right!”
Answering the complaints of the girl in his arms, Subaru slams shut the door neighbouring and the
door neighbouring that. He glances inside before shutting the doors, but finds no obvious remains.
That being said, he did not know how trustworthy Elsa's statement is, but—
Subaru: “What do I do, what do I do what do I do whatdoIdowhatdoIdowhaddaIdo—”
The questions go unending.

Why was Elsa right now right here? This was the soonest Subaru had returned to the mansion in this
loop series. On the sixth day, the fourth day, and now on the second day—every time, Elsa's attack
on the mansion comes on the day of Subaru's return.
Subaru for a while now had harboured a suspicion as to why this was. Between this attack and
Elsa's statements in the archive, that suspicion is shifting into conviction.
But, if that was it then even moreso why—,
Subaru: “Why couldn't one more day... no, she didn't even give us a handful of hours!”
Petra was promised to return to the village, were it night.

Elsa's surprise attack was a more or less pre-supposed disaster. The image of Petra, her life lost in
the vortex of a loop prior, has seared and sticks unvanishing in Subaru's mind. And so this time he
had acted to distance her from the disaster. But still did insidiousness sprint to overtake his
management plans, preventing the little girl from escaping fate.
Subaru: “Nothing's over. There's no need to give up. Of course there's a chance she was bullshitting.
Course there is. Like I could stand abandoning hope...!”
Beatrice: “That isn't hope, it's not letting go, I suppose...”
Subaru: “Be quiet! Now you just shut up and have me carry you! She's full and ready to kill you
too, y'know. Since she's a weirdo who gets off on knifing people's stomachs open and looking at the
insides!”
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Beatrice: “Wanting to see a spirit's guts is crossing the line for poor taste, in fact.”
Agreed, mutters Subaru to himself. He slips Beatrice smoothly out of his arms as she disembarks
down to the hallway. She pats at the skirt portion of her dress.
Beatrice: “What are you planning to do now, I suppose?”
Subaru: “That's not a damn question. Petra's safety and checking Rem are top priority. Afterwards....
well anyway, I'm taking you along too and escaping the mansion. Or, do you really think you can
fight her?”
Beatrice: “...If that thing came here to kill Betty, should I not resist then my wish will likely be
granted, in fact.”
Subaru: “Thought you'd say that which's why I dragged you along. If you're still gonna be thinking
like that, then I'm gonna be hauling you out slung over my shoulder. And you?”
Looking down at the shorter Beatrice, Subaru presses her for a decision. Or actually, he is not
giving her any options here at all. If she's thinking to be stubborn and stay here, then he's planning
to drag her out with brute force.
Subaru's thoughts must have communicated. Beatrice sighs.
Beatrice: “Though I might not be able to choose where I die, I would say I'd at least like to choose
who I die to, I suppose.”
Subaru: “We'll have that conversation after we properly have a change of setting and get ourselves
calmed down. Let's go!”
Holding hands with Beatrice, Subaru pulls her along as he breaks into a run. Subaru dashing,
Beatrice follows behind with her tiny tottering gait and cumbersome dress. It takes only ten meters
of this before Subaru,
Subaru: “Fuck it! Just come here!”
He pulls her arm, and again settles Beatrice snug in his arms.
Beatrice is lighter than she looks. That said Subaru can't tell whether that is because she is a spirit,
or because her growth is stunted.
Beatrice: “...Let me go, I suppose.”
Subaru: “If I match to your pace she's immediately gonna catch up to us! It'd be even faster if I ran
with you slung over my shoulders! And—”
Beatrice, held to his chest, voices her rejection. But her fingers cling reliant to the chest region of
Subaru's jacket. Subaru's eyes freeze on the sight, his words aborted as he makes neither reference
nor denial nor affirmation of it.
This is okay, is what Subaru presently thinks.
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Subaru: “Anyway, before Elsa shows up... we have to find Petra and Rem!”
Beatrice: “My belief was this mansion had another maid in it, in fact.”
Subaru: “Frederica's... it's best we don't meet her right now. I think.”
Subaru thinks of the blonde maid as he shakes his head. Beatrice scrunches her brows at this, but
says nothing.
Right now, he wanted to avoid meeting Frederica. If it were after confirming the other two's safety,
then fine. Meeting her, having a talk, would tentatively be fine after that.
Were Subaru's imaginings correct, he surely knew what it would be.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Petra was atop the dining table, set alongside the tableware.
The white tablecloth seeps with a red stain, the body of a collapsed Petra at its centre. Time has
already passed, with the shade of shed blood shifting soon to dark rust, the scene intensifying in its
morose air.
Subaru: “Peh, trra...”
Faltering, unsteady steps lead Subaru to the table.

Petra lies face-up in the middle. Frozen firm on her loveable face is an expression of agony, tears
and dread, her eyes wide open in despair of what she last saw. Blood leaks from the corners of her
open mouth, the lethal blow of course being the slash of the deep knife wound splitting her belly.
That maid outfit she had sweetly, fairylike with skirt billowing, shown to Subaru—from beneath its
breast to its gut there rips a straight slice, the spilled blood and guts further lightening the body of
the little girl.
Subaru: “—ue,”
Something wells up from the back of his throat. Not vomit, but a sob.
A heat burns in the back of his eyes, Subaru promptly reaching out to Petra's face before that can
flow over. Her face yet remains in terror twisted. Subaru at least closes her eyes, sheds his jacket as
he had before and lays it over her body.
How many times now had he given this superficial compensation to an unsaved Petra?
How many times, knowing this would happen, but still not averting it, had Subaru let this girl die?
How many times, purely because of her involvement with Subaru, would this girl have to suffer?
Subaru: “I'm so sorry... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... Petra...”
The apologies from his mouth reverberate only hollow.

Unable to rely on anyone, Petra had encountered here a terrifying murderer, and called for Subaru
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as she was cruelly killed.

The sorrow could crush his heart. The loathing blazes hot enough to burn him whole.
If hatred enabled him to murder, Subaru could kill Elsa a thousand times over and it still would not
be enough.
That was the depth of the sin she had committed. Someday and no matter what, he would make her
realise it.
Subaru: “And for that as well, I can't let this try just end like this...”
Beatrice: “This try?”
Subaru: “Talking to myself. I don't wanna just leave Petra like this, but... I can't do anything now.
Rem's place is up ahead. I'll take Rem, and we'll leave the mansion. Can we use Gate Crossing?”
Beatrice: “We would need to go through the Forbidden Archive, in fact. And probably, the door's
been left open, I suppose.”
Subaru: “—So that's how it is.”
Although simple, that alone was enough to seal off Gate Crossing.
For every mansion door left open, the applicable targets for Gate Crossing dropped. And if the door
to the Archive itself was left open, the only access point available anymore would be through that
open doorway.
If even one stick was left to hold the door open, not even Beatrice could summon the Forbidden
Archive.
Subaru: “Do you know where the Forbidden Archive is connected to right now?”
Beatrice: “Naturally, in fact. —It's currently in the western wing, on a guest room on the third floor,
I suppose.”
A guest room in the western wing meant it was distant from the dining room in the central block.
Though, that door being open meant that Elsa had at least left the Archive.
With that murderer's sense of smell, it would not be long before she found Subaru and Beatrice.
Their time was none.
Subaru: “Don't have the spare time to be panic. Anyway, we're hurrying to Rem—.”
Wiping the tears seeping from his eyes with the back of his hand, Subaru jerks his head in the
direction of his destination. Rem is sleeping in one of the servant's rooms in the eastern wing. If
Elsa's start was in the western wing, Subaru could judge that she had not reached Rem yet.
However, this was all limited just to Elsa.
Subaru: “Frederica, likely'll be there...”
Being that Frederica knows how Subaru cares about Rem's well being, it would probably occur to
her that following his evasion of Elsa's attack Subaru would be aiming for that room. So, there was
more than enough possibility that she had gotten there before them.
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Hand to his chin in thought, Beatrice narrows her eyes at Subaru.
Beatrice: “This has been bothering me, in fact. ...Are you doubting that big maid, I suppose?”
Subaru: “...Not that I wanted to, though.”
Subaru affirms Beatrice's question with a powerless nod.

Elsa's attack on Roswaal Mansion—Subaru was mostly convinced that it was likely due to
Frederica's betrayal.
This was the third time Subaru had faced Elsa at Roswaal's mansion.
His previous encounters were on the sixth and fourth day, both of them occurring after the passage of
comparatively more time. However, this loop was a return two days after arriving at SANCTUARY.
Every time, Elsa appears as if she is almost lying in wait for Subaru's homecoming. Were there any
trick to pulling this off, it would lie in the suspected existence of a betrayer.
Subaru: “The day I return to the mansion, Elsa gets guided inside. I was sure that going to the
mountain cabin'd be part of all that, but...”
Subaru's first suspicion was that Frederica had beckoned in an Elsa who was lying in wait in the
mountain cabin. This was why Subaru had asked Frederica whether she was going there this loop,
prepared for her to go on guard about him.
He had found not a speck of strangeness or pretence in her reply and attitude then. So he had
attempted to temporarily agree that it had only been a needless fear.
Subaru: “Not like that's the only method to take... and not like I could see all the way through her.
Don't know if I got tricked.”
Subaru couldn't tell whether she had proficiently kept a poker face. Conversely, she perceived that
Subaru was on guard about her, and he may had wound up prompting her to act more carefully. It
was Subaru's mistake, resulting in him once again knowingly let a little girl lose her life. Subaru,
who had knowingly failed to secure her escape, was responsible for Petra's harm. Subaru was
who killed Petra.
Subaru: “And when Petra was so goddamn attached to you!”
Subaru is forced to envision Petra, idolizing her elder maid Big Sis Frederica.
Did allowing that adoring Petra to fall into the hands of a murder not pain Frederica's heart?
What the hell was she thinking, assisting in this?
Subaru: “The clincher is her method for breaking Beatrice's Gate Crossing. Honestly, I'm surprised
it's something breakable with this child-jape kind of method.”
Beatrice: “...Betty hadn't conceived that this method would break it either, in fact. It's not a method
you'd think of so easily, I suppose.”
Subaru: “I think I wouldda thought of it if I had the time to... but, that time's the problem. It's a
method that wouldn't come to mind unless they knew about your existence and Gate Crossing's
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gimmick beforehand. It's nothing so nice and convenient as Elsa just coming up with the idea on the
spot. It's another thing that most likely got passed to her in secret.”
Beatrice: “It seems that that crazy woman is an acquaintance of yours. Where did you meet her, I
suppose?”
Subaru: “She kinda sliced the belly open on things with me in the Capital. ...Right, she's the
assailant whose wounds you healed on the very first time you treated me.”
Thinking back on it, Subaru getting brought to Roswaal's mansion did also involve Elsa. Beatrice
gives a comprehending nod.
Subaru: “Anyway, now is getting to Rem. If Frederica's there... am I okay to count on you?”
Beatrice: “Are you lacking in the backbone to at least protect the girls you love on your own, I
suppose? Just imagining being thought of in first by a man like that is horrifying, in fact.”
Subaru: “If feelings could topple whales I'd go ahead and topple them, but the world just isn't that
mild.”
Even this banter was likely a Beatrice-esque form of consideration for Subaru. She was attempting
to even slightly distance his thoughts from Petra's death.
Unlike Subaru, who had never noticed Beatrice's sorrow and even now could not present any
method for resolving it, Beatrice was far too excessively smart. And so he wound up relying on her.
Subaru: “Let's go.”
Beatrice: “Mm, right, I suppose.”
Subaru reaches out to her with a natural motion, Beatrice taking his presented hand and slipping
into his arms without any objection. He lifts the light girl up, breaking into a run with the same
arrangement they had previously been using.
Although knowing that doing this is pointless, Subaru endeavours to mute his footsteps as they head
to the eastern wing. They see no signs of Elsa having beaten them there as they dart up the staircase,
reaching the second, reaching the third floor. He timidly pokes out his head to peek down the
hallway, trying to verify the absence of anyone else being around—
Subaru: “—”
Spotting somebody in front of his destined room, Subaru withdraws his head.
Beatrice in his arms wordlessly look up at him, him responding with a nod. He jerks his chin and
again carefully checks—and outside the room is someone tall, leaning against the door.
He is witnessing this from a distance, but with that long blonde hair and that maid outfit, mistaking
her would be impossible.
It's Frederica. Just as Subaru had predicted she was standing outside Rem's sleeping room, waiting
vigilantly for Subaru.
Subaru: “What do we do? Pretend we haven't noticed, and nonchalantly call out to her? If she hasn't
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met up with Elsa, if she hasn't noticed that we're suspecting her yet...”
Beatrice: “If your earlier predictions are correct, then that maid stopped having any reason to mind
our attitudes the second she invited in the enemy, in fact. And the last time you parted with that
maid was when you entered the Forbidden Archive, I suppose. You had no excuses left the moment
that you exited, in fact.”
Subaru: “And so all there is now is busting straight though.”
Frederica's favoured weapon—as far as Subaru had seen and remember, they were clawed cestus to
be worn over the back of her hands. You had her agility, you had her position as Garfiel's elder
sister, and although he had not clearly verified her combat strength, she was unmistakably much
stronger than Subaru. Would facing her head on really leave him any chance of winning?
Subaru: “It's not totally impossible if I start by casting Shamac, and if the surprise attack works then
Beatrice goes for ranged magic, maybe...? We don't have to incapacitate her, we just need her to
retreat...”
Beatrice: “A soft reception for a traitor, I suppose. It's ridiculous to face an enemy coming with
intent to kill you without yourself possessing that same resolve, in fact.”
Although knowing that Beatrice's cool statement is very sound, Subaru hesitates to act as she says.
He knows his opponent is a betrayer, but she was someone he had familiar interactions with. So
long as Subaru could still remember those times, he was incapable of so easily delineating the issue.
Even if, hypothetically, Frederica was deeply involved in Petra's death.
Subaru: “Beatrice. I'm blocking things off with Shamac, counting on you to throw a light shot of
something.”
Beatrice: “—That softness will give you a terrible experience soon, I suppose.”
Subaru: “It's cause I have things I wanna ask her. Please don't think it anything more or less than
that.”
This late? Is the look on Beatrice's face, but giving a small sigh out her nose at a Subaru bowing his
head, she says nothing.
Warning himself not to impose on her, Subaru takes a deep breath, clenching and unclenching his
hands. A mild fatigue still remains, but with only one more Shamac—
Subaru: “Endure it, body of mine. —Shamac!”
He bounds out into the hallway. The black fog from Subaru's outstretched hand interrupts before
Frederica can turn to face him.
Subaru's aim does not falter as the mist drowns out the space between Subaru and Frederica,
crafting the same situation as in the Archive. His head grows heavy with his expulsion of
unnecessary mana, Subaru falling to his knees and stance crumbling greatly.
Walking up from beside him, Beatrice advances with her arms readied in front of her. She mutters.
The atmosphere before Beatrice warps, opening a hole in space, from which appear spears bathed in
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dim purple flame.

The amethyst stakes float in the air, their fiery points causing the atmosphere to tremble. —Subaru
cries out at the blatantly life-threatening magic, but Beatrice pays him not a glance as she readies to
shoot the spears through the darkness—
Beatrice: “...Something's strange, in fact.”
Beatrice tilts her head.

Her reaction confuses Subaru. With her spears still floating Beatrice reaches out her right hand,
raising a finger and promptly flicking it right to left.
Just by that, the darkness of Subaru's Shamac is dispelled from the corridor. This was the result of
interference from Beatrice, one far more advanced in yin magic than Subaru.
So easily robbed of his efforts which fatigued his body, Subaru is dumbfounded. But his
emotionality for that immediately vanishes.
Because even Subaru understands why Beatrice cancelled the attack.
Subaru: “—”
He advances straight down the cleared corridor, headed for Frederica.

Dragging along his mana-starved, burdensome body, Subaru proceeds to her at the pace of a turtle.
There is no need for caution. She gives no reaction. None.
—And never would she give any reaction again.
Subaru: “...Why?”
Frederica had been standing outside Rem's bedroom.

The kukri stabbed through her abdomen skewers her to the door. Her arms hang limp and with
cestus. Having apparently fought, her clothing is spotted with disorder, informing that the fight was
a vicious one.
Frederica's body is already cold, her soul long absent from her expression. Her stiffened face carries
the repentance of tiding back regrets, forcing even Subaru to sense that she had likely died here
risking her life to protect this door.
Meaning, Frederica had frantically brawled, so that the attacker would not enter this room.
There was no reason for the one who had invited the attacker inside to do this.
Subaru: “Doubted her utterly... and for this.”
Face buried in his hands, Subaru accepts the difficultly-accepted reality.

Body fraught with slashes and dead was Frederica. Faced with this, how could he possibly think she
was a double-crosser, a betrayer?
At the end of broken relationships came this? Subaru's need to so fervently set up Frederica as a
villain was his own complacent desires to lessen his guilt.
He has to accept it.
Subaru: “—I was wrong.”
Frederica was no traitor.
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She risked her life fighting to protect Rem, to conclusion. Going from the coldness of her body, she
had even possibly died earlier than Petra.
She had no time in the least to guide Elsa to the Forbidden Archive.
Subaru: “...Rem.”
His thoughts stay in disarray, a blank vacuum in his skull.

When he manages to order his scrambled thoughts, the first thing Subaru thinks of is that inside the
room Frederica had protected, that lovely and sleeping girl.
Frederica's stiffening body is heavy, and with the knife pierced through to the door, unloading her
comprises an incredible effort. Careful attention is required so as not to damage her body further.
But nevertheless his fingers, his heart, get hasty.
However, in betrayal of Subaru's focus,
???: “—Finally found you.”
A dark figure slips into view at the end of the hallway.

Elsa stoops low, her hand to the floor, eyes overflowing with rapaciousness and murder as she
watches Subaru and Beatrice. The gazes catches Subaru's body, freezing him still. Not letting that
opening escape, Elsa's form darts instantly down the hallway.
A soundless advance. This was unmistakably the approach of DEATH.
Beatrice: “If you think you'll get us so easily, you best think again, in fact.”
But there was someone there to block Elsa's advance.

Beatrice flicks up her arm, the waiting purple spears fixing their sights onto Elsa.
These spears once aborted of their firing, finding a new target for their power, ring in exultation.
Elsa: “So small, but you certainly play with dangerous toys.”
Beatrice: “We'll test on you whether these are any children's toy, in fact.”
Faced with the wicked magic, Elsa smiles. Scorn overwrites that smile as the purple spears launch
from Beatrice's hands.
The speed of the fired spears transcends that of Emilia's shots with ice projectiles. They shoot one-
by-one, looming in on the zooming Elsa on a trajectory to spear her straight-on—but, ducking down
so far that her chest touches the floor, Elsa's low posture permits her to dodge every shot.
Elsa: “Very unfortunate. Their speed and aim are too lax to hit the target.”
Mutters Elsa as the weapons graze past the back of her head, her utterly fearless, kukri grasped in
underhand grip and aim fixed on Beatrice.
The blade's dull gleam presses in on Beatrice's body, and to cleave that small figure in two she—
Beatrice: “The one who has failed to think is you in fact, human.”
—Beatrice clenches her open palm closed. Immediately, the amethyst spears swell. Having missed
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their target and shot on towards disappearance at the end of the hallway, the spears bulge, bursting
behind a stopped Elsa like ruptured balloons.
Beatrice: “—This!”
The burst spears fracture into splinters, surrounding Elsa from every direction.
Although splinters, their size rivals that of Subaru's index finger. They flood the air in innumerable
number, all of their points aimed at Elsa.
Beatrice: “Is your punishment for disturbing Betty's Forbidden Archive, I suppose. —You are to be
mutilated, and to end, in fact.”
Her cruel announcement as the trigger, Beatrice fires the amethyst spears.
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CHAPTER 63: EMPATHIC DEATH

Amethyst stakes squelch into flesh, squelch into flesh, the scintillations of shattered purple crystals
drowning the hallway in light.
Countless spears aim for Elsa's slender body from every angle, now surely perforated full.
Victory seems absolute. Subaru swallows his breath in response to Beatrice's overwhelming magical
prowess. But even while witnessing the power of this girl before him dismissing the murderer,
Subaru cannot completely suppress the foreboding feeling expanding explosively through his chest.
—There was something, something he felt he was forgetting. Which he must not lapse on,
something.
Many feelings obstruct his thoughts before he can draw what that something was from his memory.
What was Elsa's goal in coming to the mansion? Having seen the death of the Frederica he doubted,
his heart roils both with shame and at the circumstances of said death. Petra still remains in his
thoughts. His deepest emotions scream commands to confirm Rem's safety. What to do about
Beatrice, and what must he talk with her about?
Subaru reaches not a single answer for any of the questions confounding his heart.
Subaru: “—”
And so Subaru misses an opportunity which should not have come, and regrets.
Subaru: “—Dghuh, au?”
Shooting through the scintillations, something spears deep into Subaru's right shoulder.
Looking down at the source of the pain, seeing the seeping blood, Subaru's thoughts blaze red. A
serrated scream rushes up his throat. He presses down on the wound, flinching back as he falls on
his behind to the hallway floor.
Beatrice: “Why!? But I got a direct hit, I suppose!?”
Yells Beatrice, seeing a wounded Subaru.

His thoughts scorched with pain, it is in hearing Beatrice's yell that Subaru realises it. He realises.
She was wrong. Or no. She did get a direct hit. That was definite. But,
Subaru: “ELSAAAAA!!”
???: “I can hear you, no need to yell for me with such fire.”
The seething pain stimulating his hatred, shrieks and fury spill from Subaru's mouth. The response
comes from across the hallway of dancing lights—spoken in calm voice, and not suggesting any
life-or-death situation with its lusciousness.
Beatrice: “Uninjured is inconceivable, in fact.”
Elsa: “If I had been naked, I probably would've died to that.”
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Beatrice shakes her head. Elsa answers with her long braid swaying. Not a trace of Beatrice's magic
assault besmirches Elsa's form. Her appearance is exactly the same as before.
Or no, there was one point of difference. She had shed her black cloak, and now donned only her
dark outfit beneath.
Subaru: “Her magic nullifying coat!”
Elsa: “This would be the second time you've seen it. Considering that, you were certainly slow to
tell that girl about it.”
Subaru: “Fuck!”
With a blunder by the term 'I forgot' unforgivable, Subaru pushes back his pain as his rage boils up.
Elsa's cloak rendered magic impotent only once. —Subaru was supposed to have witnessed that
back during the confrontation with her in the Capital.
This unforeseen attack, even considering his failure to coordinate with Beatrice, was the kind of
blunder which should not have happened.
Beatrice: “Once you know the trick, it isn't anything shocking, in fact.”
Elsa: “—Good. Very, very good. You're strong, you're sweet. I'll be enjoying a warmth unlike that of
any simple simpering girl.”
Beatrice again readies her magic. Elsa smiles, flipping her kukri about in her hands. Her smile of
blood and those words out her mouth—realising who that SIMPLE SIMPERING GIRL refers to, Subaru
seethes.
Subaru: “You don't have any fucking right to mock Petra!!”
A small throwing knife jutting from his right shoulder—with a hooked point, which hinders its
removal. Gritting his teeth at this thing biting into his flesh, Subaru unhesitatingly yanks it out.
Violent pain dyes his vision stark red. He senses fatal damage to the whole of his right arm's
functioning. But he ignores all the injury, pitching the removed throwing knife with Elsa as the
target.
He throws with his full power, but he lacks any training and the toss is sloppy.
That it still soars straight fixed on Elsa is essentially a miracle. As is its speed. But when faced with
a murderer possessing skill transcending human reason, Subaru's throw will come to not any effect.
Elsa: “Good spirit, but this won't—”
Subaru: “I'll wring out everything I've got! SHAMAC!!”
Elsa: “—!?”
In counter to an Elsa readied to defend, Subaru stresses his throat for his third Shamac.
Scraping together his internal mana, already exhausted from the first and second casts, Subaru
expels both his life force and his magic out his untrained gates.
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Blood shoots through his eyes, trails from his nose. The scream of his soul succeeds.
Darkness spreads across the centre of the corridor, covering the space between Subaru and Elsa.
The knife Subaru threw plummets into the dark. Flown into the dusk of confusion, piercing through
its middle, the knife rushes for Elsa—its trajectory invisible to her.
Subaru: “Now hit her—!”
Elsa: “I'm rather surprised. But, you only have to stay low to avoid it.”
Says Elsa as she ducks down, sliding aside.

This evasive action could occur because Subaru's Shamac had not reached far enough to encompass
Elsa.
The knife flies out of the curtain of black, stabbing into its owner's flesh not at all and proceeding to
vanish down the hallway. Subaru's attack so ends uselessly—or so it seems, when—
Subaru: “Beako!!”
Beatrice: “Don't spontaneously call me that, I suppose—!”
Were Subaru the only one present, the attack likely would have ended in failure.
But here Elsa faces two opponents—one being a girl who, in the short period of time Subaru had
bought, had prepared her next canto.
Beatrice: “Here I will show you, in fact. —What true yin magic is.”
???: “What're—”
You about to do? Was the statement then voiced maybe by Subaru, maybe by Elsa.
Beatrice's next action would make determining even that impossible.
Meeting her small hands before her chest and with her glare fixed on Elsa, Beatrice quirks her lips.
She says only two words—and they paint the world over.
Beatrice: “—Ul Shamac.”
—In a magnitude unlike Subaru's knock-off yin magic, the mansion shrouds with genuine DARK.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
When Subaru comes to, he finds himself in darkness.
Subaru: “—?”
Or rather no, in this dark he could not even judge whether or not he was conscious.
Where was he? Was he standing? Sitting? He could not determine anything.
Left down, up right, front back, all vague. Was he breathing in? Breathing out? His blood flowing?
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Pulse thumping? Alive? Dead?

He could not determine a single thing. He had not a single answer for any question. With Subaru's
Shamac, he could at least feel the sensation of his feet on the ground, and the fluctuations inside his
own body. He could not comprehend any external factors, but conversely his attention sharpened in
on his interior.
But in this darkness he could not even manage that.

Like melting into the shadows, he could not even tell where he was.
He could not tell whether he still retained human shape. He could not judge how to move his arms,
and so he could not feel his own body for confirmation. For attempts to confirm his location,
equally he could not judge how to move his feet, and so he could not walk. And what exactly was
walking? What exactly was confirming?
—And in the first place, just who on earth was he?
The boundary between himself and others was fading.

The boundary between himself and the world was fading.
His ability to think was melting. Dissipating. Disappearing.

And just like this, just like this, just like this—
Ending was he.

Ending was.
Ending.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: “...Enough, now wake up, I suppose.”
A slap peals out against Subaru's stiffened cheek, dragging his consciousness back.
He blinks. A sound close to a groan slips from his mouth as his vision suddenly fills with brilliant
light. Hearing it, the pain which woke Subaru up now pummels his cheek again. Twice, from left
and right.
Subaru: “S-stop punching me!”
Beatrice: “I was only thinking to get you definitely conscious, in fact. And the second one just
somehow happened reflexively, I suppose.”
Glaring at Beatrice's cool face, Subaru belatedly notices that he is collapsed on the hallway floor.
He uprights himself and checks that his body is lacking in serious deficiency. A pain stings on his
right shoulder. He unwittingly looks over to find a fresh wound oozing blood, asserting itself.
Subaru: “Aauh, ow... Um, can you do like a targeted Shamac?”
Beatrice: “It isn't that I can't, but doing it would only make you forget about the wound, not remove
it, in fact. You putter around without any healing, and you'll just die of blood loss, I suppose.”
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Is Beatrice's horrifying diagram of the future. Plugging the wound shut with his hand, Subaru
narrows his eyes in recollection.
Subaru: “Anyway...”
Subaru: “What happened to Elsa? You're leisurely, so that means she retreated?”
Beatrice: “What on earth are you saying, I suppose?”
Subaru: “Like there's any damn what. If she's still around then this isn't the time to be doing this. I
mean yeah my Shamac doesn't compare to your one, but with just that...”
Beatrice: “That your powers of perception are this poor is pretty pitiful, in fact.”
Subaru furrows his brows in irritation at a stunned Beatrice.

Beatrice looks to be very optimistic about things, but that's because she doesn't know how persistent
or frightening Elsa is. If she knew how abnormal that murderer was, she would likely make to
understand Subaru's caution.
Subaru's internal thoughts present uninterrupted on his face. Beatrice this time gives a completely
stunned sigh.
He doesn't understand her reaction. Beatrice, from her place in front of Subaru, slowly steps aside.
Beatrice: “If you don't understand it, then look clearly with your own eyes, I suppose.”
Subaru: “—ue, oe,”
Beatrice gets out of the way, and the scene she had been blocking now enters Subaru's vision. A
groan escapes his mouth in seeing it.
Beatrice: “You ask what happened to the terrifying opponent, in fact?”
Subaru has no response to Beatrice's bragging.
Behind Beatrice—with purple spears skewering her limbs to the hallway wall, staked through the
heart like a slain vampire, dangles Elsa's corpse.
Corpse—yes, no mistake, that had to be a corpse.
Subaru: “She's dead... right?”
Beatrice: “If it's still alive after having its chest bored open and being this riddled in wounds... then
that isn't a human anymore, it's something else, in fact.”
Subaru stands up, fatigued and shaking his head.

A terrible dizziness assaults him the moment he stands, his upper body swaying. A hand promptly
comes from aside to support him.
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Subaru: “S-sorry...”
Beatrice: “It's fine...”
Beatrice averts her gaze and avoids looking at him. Subaru leans some of his weight on her palm as
he drags his feet over to Elsa.
Her head hangs limp and a spear has half-severed her long braid. Skewers to her knees and elbows
pin her firm to the wall. The painful severity of it makes Subaru want to look away—but he
nevertheless approaches close enough to be in breathing range, checking that the murderer is truly
devoid of breath.
No respiration here. He reaches out, touches her motionless body. Still warm—but she gives no
reaction particular to the living. He touches her neck. No pulse.
And most importantly even with Subaru's utterly undefended behaviour, no surprise attack comes.
Subaru: “S-she's really dead...?”
Beatrice: “That's what I've been telling you, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Being someone who knows her strength, couldn't just agree so easy. ...Can hardly believe,
seriously, this is possible...”
Subaru winds up dumbfounded at the unreal victory.

He had thought her an enemy he needed to defeat, but hadn't anticipated that Beatrice would solo
her this easily. That said none of the outcomes he had anticipated allowed for any victory without
Garfiel.
Subaru: “Puck and Emilia took her on together and still couldn't finish her off, this chick.”
Beatrice: “...If Bubby were serious, then this shouldn't have been any match for him, in fact. And
Betty too, perfect as I am now, wouldn't lose so easily as humans do, I suppose.”
Puck being serious—most likely, that meant his form as an enormous lion-beast. Indeed considering
that he freezes the world simply by existing in that form, Subaru doubted that even Elsa could stand
any chance. Beatrice would also be a spirit possessing corresponding power, then.
Four hundred years—an overly huge discrepancy in time lived in apprentice.
Subaru: “Ri, ght. Rem!”
After a period following his confirmation of Elsa's death, Subaru jerks around to face the room.
Frederica's grisly cadaver remains leaned against the door.
Somehow managing to get her stiffened body out of the way, Subaru puts his hand to the blood-
slaked door. He takes a breath, readies himself, peers in. And,
Subaru: “—Rem.”
He calls. She doesn't answer.

But, Rem lies there on the bed in her sleep with her breathing even, and Subaru finds not single hint
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of the massacre outside having reached this room.
Elsa had not entered here.

This proved that Frederica's earnestness as she died protecting this door had excelled the abhorrence
of the murderer.
Subaru: “...I am so sorry for doubting you, Frederica.”
As he strokes the forehead of the lovely, sleeping girl, Subaru again apologizes to the woman put to
rest in the corridor.
No longer did her soul exist anywhere in this world. Subaru's words would never reach her.
Beatrice: “What will you do now, I suppose?”
Subaru: “We can't leave Rem here. Frederica, and Petra... I'm thinking of leaving her to the villagers
in Arlam, and having them look after her.”
Beatrice: “You're fine to do that, in fact. She would be delighted too, I suppose.”
Subaru: “If I were in a situation were I could care for Rem then that's all I'd want to be doing. But I
can't. I... need to be taking you to SANCTUARY.”
He glances back, still touching Rem, his gaze meeting with Beatrice's as she watches him from the
doorway. She snorts.
Beatrice: “How nice of you to decide that, in fact. Our talk was simply interrupted before and is yet
proceeding, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Well I know. This's my answer to that. —I am never going to kill you, I'm dragging you
out of this mansion, and I'm taking you to SANCTUARY. Itinerary planned.”
Beatrice: “Selfishness in the extreme, in fact. You ignore Betty's objection, and try to force your
opinion through. —How do you dare, and who do you believe yourself, that you can speak this
garbage, I suppose?”
Subaru: “If your objections were what you really felt then I would give them some thought.”
Beatrice: “—What do you mean, in fact?”
Says Beatrice, her voice low, exerting a pressure near to threatening. Feeling something close to
goosebumps run across his skin, Subaru nevertheless gives his head a small shake.
Subaru: “It's not like I clearly understand the minute details, either. Just, I'm thinking there's still
more needed to dig out the true fundamental part of you.”
Beatrice: “—Don't, I suppose.”
Subaru: “The relationship between you and SANCTUARY's still hanging out in the air there. Your
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relationship with the test site Echidna made. ...Honestly, I don't have a very good hunch.”
Beatrice: “Stop, probing in fact.”
Subaru: “Declined. ...If it's not me, who's going to bust in and figure you out? All you ever do is
hole up in that damn room.”
Beatrice falls speechless.

Seeing that, Subaru turns back to the bed and picks up Rem. He would take her to Arlam village,
entrust her to the villagers, and head to SANCTUARY with Beatrice.
If they had Gate Crossing's assistance things would move quick, but he wouldn't ask the impossible.
Returning to SANCTUARY while riding Patrasche would likely end up taking half a day.
Subaru: “You can be unwilling to go to SANCTUARY, but I'll still be asking Roswaal and the Lewes-
sans about you. And if I can, ask someone more fundamentally involved, too.”
When Subaru truly craved with the WANT TO KNOW, the Witch of GREED would answer.
It was Now. He had more information in-hand than previously, and the accordant hypotheses. If he
went Now with all these new mysteries, he felt he could likely be invited again to the castle in a
dream.
He also felt that then, he could likely unveil the secrets of SANCTUARY, and truths behind its notable
cast that everyone had held their tongues about.
Subaru: “Whether it happens before long or after long is the only difference. Though I get your
feelings of not wanting to purposefully speed things up of your own accord.”
Beatrice: “How far do you intend to go in making idiots of people, I suppose...!”
Subaru: “Idiots? That wasn't what I was tr...”
Beatrice: “You merrily intrude into places where people want no intrusion, dishevel and disturb
them, put them in disarray, and then you spew this drivel, in fact? Put an end to your ridicule, I
suppose. And so easily, you abandon the dead two.”
Subaru: “—”
The last of Beatrice's words strikes Subaru with a scathing pain. He grimaces.
An instant of hesitation appears in Beatrice's expression, perhaps wondering whether she went too
far. But, she immediately conceals it beneath a cool facade.
Subaru: “Petra and Frederica're... after I hand Rem to the village, I'll lay them to rest. With Petra
there, I mean I can't just say nothing.”
Noticing that what he's saying smells of excuses, Subaru starts walking, his face hopefully out of
Beatrice's view.
Her statement had skewered Subaru through the chest.
While he had received a shock from Petra and Frederica's DEATHS, Subaru had already determined
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to reset this world. Repelling Elsa was one of his benchmarks and he had succeeded in it, but the
sacrifices paid to achieve it had been too large. Too many painful things were present in this world
for it to continue.
Being the person who had barked “Don't die!” at Beatrice, he certainly feels a shamelessness. I can,
you can't—the pinnacle in selfish logic.
Subaru: “Well whatever's happening with our going to SANCTUARY, anyway it'll have to be after we
sort out the mansion. Our talk'll be after that.”
Subaru passes by the Beatrice standing in the doorway, continuing to walk to the corridor. Beatrice
says nothing, but seems willing to silently join Subaru.
Being that she was not permitted to suicide, Beatrice had to rely on another's help if she was to meet
the END. She couldn't independently act to encourage it. Whatever her thoughts may be, she had to
stay within Subaru's reach.
The guilt is enough for Subaru's self deprecation to boil up—Knowing her situation and still acting
like this? A cruel man indeed.
Subaru: “—oe?”
Subaru, sick of how grungy his thoughts are, abruptly cries out.
Because of a light impact. The touch of a hand pushes at his back, and with Rem still in his arms he
unwittingly pitches forward.
He sloppily catches himself, and glances back to discover the perpetrator Beatrice behind him.
Subaru's brows furrow, wondering whether this was revenge for his previous statements, and he
opens his mouth to complain—
Beatrice: “—a,”
—When he notices the dull gleam stabbing out from the girl's chest.
Subaru: “—Wh,”
The blade piercing through Beatrice's back and out her chest slowly drags from up to down—from
her breast, on descent to her belly.
Beatrice's small body shudders with the movement of the blade.
All Subaru does is watch on, dumbstruck.
Beatrice: “...Now,”
She mutters.
Subaru stands still and stupid at the sight. Beatrice raises her head to look at him.
Her expression, her eyes, tell of the great breadth of her emotion.
Beatrice: “Finally...”
Subaru: “Wai...”
Beatrice: “—u,”
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Not even Subaru knows what he was going to say.

But, before that unknown feeling can take form, Beatrice slips a ragged breath.
With that sound as the end, Beatrice's body morphs into a concentration of dim light, within a single
blink turning to yellow light particles and dispersing to nothing.
Her little frame, curly cream pigtails, charming peevish face, extravagant and cumbersome and
well-suiting dress, all of everything, fading away—
???: “—My, a shame. I try cutting open the belly of my first spirit, and it disappears.”
There, at the spot where the vanished Beatrice had been. Half a step back there stands a woman
holding the weapon which had stabbed her.
Subaru had immediately deduced her identity the moment he heard her voice and saw her blade.
Immediately deduced it, however the reason he had not immediately deducted it was because his
brain rejected this as possible. But even his stunned consciousness recovers after a handful of
seconds, and Subaru grits his teeth.
His molars crack. Tasting blood, he glares ahead, screams.
Subaru: “—ELSAAAAAAA!!”
Elsa: “There's nothing you can do now, is there?”
The pommel of the kukri bashes the side of his face.

His head cracks at the hard impact, his body unable to counter the force as he is slammed against
the wall. The only resistance Subaru manages is to keep ahold of the Rem in his arms.
Blood spills from his split head, his vision dimming to black with the intensity of the blow, his will
to fight failing to reach his limbs. Nevertheless, Subaru catches Elsa in his strobing vision, her
nimbly juggling the kukri in her hands, him spitting hatred.
Subaru: “Wh-y... the fuck're you alive. I was pretty damn sure I confirmed you dead...!”
Elsa: “Why, you're right. I did die. If you'd gone on to burn me to ashes, then I probably wouldn't be
here now.”
Subaru shivers.
The speared Elsa assuredly had ceased of biological function. She had died. Unmistakably. So, what
was this Elsa before him? Was he having a nightmare where shockingly Elsa had duplicates like
Lewes?
But blood yet drips from this Elsa's limbs, her cloak shredded and re-purposed into a covering for
her destroyed chest.
The vestiges of battle thick upon her designated this as undoubtedly the same person. The only
issue here was her being alive.
Subaru: “No way... you don't mean, your body's immortal...”
Elsa: “That is definitely a no way. My life is just a little more devious than that of a person. Now
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nevermind that, that girl certainly did quite a number on me. I can count on my fingers how many
times my body has been this ravaged.”
Subaru: “...What a coincidence. I can count on my fingers how many times I've been tortured to
death on your par, too.”
Subaru's statement is sardonic, but not a joke. But Elsa seems to take it as a jape, her smile
deepening as she pivots around. Her finger holds down her half-severed braid as she silently looks
down at Subaru.
Elsa: “I hadn't heard about her.”
Subaru: “...Then would you like to pretend you hadn't seen her and overlook this?”
Subaru doesn't think Elsa will accept his proposal, but he still needs more time before his limbs will
start listening to him. He must buy time with this ridiculous conversation.
Elsa: “This was a surprise for me as well, so I wouldn't particularly mind, but... The spirit girl, and
the big maid. The little maid was added later.”
Three targets. Beatrice, Frederica, and additionally Petra.

Even with his consciousness soldering white, Subaru strains his ears to focus on the essential part.
Rem's absence on the target list was probably because Elsa's employer had forgotten about Rem's
existence. He had entirely thought that that had been Frederica, but her death debunked that
speculation.
Subaru: “Yeah, you fucking liar.”
Elsa: “Liar?”
Subaru: “I mean Frederica. —In the Forbidden Archive you talked like you'd only killed Petra, but
look at that.”
Subaru brings attention to Frederica, laying aside the hall. Elsa looks over at her, gives a
comprehending nod, and looks back to Subaru.
Elsa: “It wasn't a beautiful end.”
Is all she says.

There is no way Subaru could understanding the aesthetic sense of a murderer. It's a stolen life, and
this is the crap she comes up with? Fury wells up inside him, but faced with Elsa and her readied
kukri, even that vanishes.
He wants to get one over on her, but his body had not recovered enough to be capable of possibly
attacking Elsa.
Falling before Elsa's knives, just like this, was pretty much standard practice.
—So here was where this try would end.
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As he recognizes the impending DEATH, what skirts through Subaru's mind is the information he
acquired this loop, those new incomprehensible mysteries. His exchange with Beatrice, and that
final look he saw on her face.
Why had the girl going I WANT TO DIE PLEASE KILL ME I WANT TO DIE PLEASE KILL ME ultimately
shoved Subaru out of the way? Her promptly noticing Elsa's survival and pushing Subaru out of
danger meant what, exactly? Subaru didn't want to be enough of an imbecile to not understand it.
Elsa: “Those aren't eyes I'm fond of.”
Subaru: “Huh? —Ghbha!?”
The kukri's pommel again smacks his face.

His left cheekbone shatters, several cracked teeth falling to the floor. He crumples—when another
strike hits him across the opposite side. Seething pain races through his right eye, and with a flash
of her knife his left ear cleaves away.
The blade and pommel proceed to switch turns in shredding, breaking, tormenting Subaru's body.
She fails to grant the imminent DEATH he had anticipated, gifting him only pain and pain and pain
and pain as he writhes, spitting blood and wails.
Elsa: “Struggle to the last moment that you still retain life. Don't, and what is the meaning in
living?”
Subaru: “...I don't wanna hear any lectures on life and death from you.”
Smack. His forehead splits open, the insides of his skull almost feeling to spill out as he collapses.
His consciousness grows distant with the hard impact. Subaru can tell his body is being dragged
into a steadily cooling world.
This is probably where he dies.

Even if it's just a loss of consciousness, what happens when you fall unconscious around the
GUTHUNTER? Subaru can figure the answer.
This was the end. This loop stops here.
Next time, no blunders. Next time, definitely.

That expression, he saw last, he could not forget, so he, no matter what.
Subaru: “—Beatrice.”
In the final moment of the girl who had asked for her death were her eyes, wet with tears.
With that sight still seared in his mind, Subaru's consciousness—slowly—swallowed into darkness
—vanished.
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CHAPTER 64: WORLD CRUMBLING

The first thing Subaru registers when he wakes is the horrendous pain racking his body.
From his neck upwards sports a particularly awful ache. Left cheek, around his right eye, molars
incisors, left ear—bring up the topic and the enumerations would never end, strewn with all these
injuries.
Using his tongue to probe about his mouth, Subaru discovers his two missing molars, one missing
incisor, and one missing canine. With this done he opens his eyes to survey his surroundings, where
he now also comprehends that his right eye is swollen and blocked.
Subaru: “Thh, hies...”
Some sloppy noise spills from Subaru's bleeding, tooth-deficient mouth.

A coldness scrapes over his oral nerves with every breath, and though he'd prefer to breathe through
his nose, his dried nosebleed clots that route shut. Gasping, spitting the blood from his mouth,
Subaru: “No way... I, didn't die?”
Dragging along his over-damaged body, Subaru's abhorrent physical condition informs him that he
has inadvertently survived.
He gazes about with his halved vision to find himself collapsed in a dim hallway. No signs of
people around. He recollects on the exchange he had before losing consciousness.
Subaru: “Elsa, 's...”
Gone.
Or at least, she is nowhere that Subaru can see her.
She is a woman who operates in the shadows. She may possess a skill to make herself imperceptible
to others even when they are looking straight at her—but she would have no reason to use it.
Elsa is gone. She disappeared. Without killing Subaru.
Subaru: “Why, would... no, more importantly...”
His mouth bleeds with every motion. Annoyed Subaru spits the blood out as he shakes his head. He
moves all points of his body about, attempting to discern which areas hurt and which areas are non-
functional, when he notices.
—Notices that in his arms, there is something warm and taking faint, repeated breaths.
The lovely blue-haired girl. The sleeping girl, who inspired him.
Rem's pulse quietly thumps in Subaru's arms to its beat. Her shallow breaths, definite bloodflow,
red-touched skin—the rhythms of life remain present in her.
Subaru: “—”
Emotional, Subaru unwittingly puts more strength into his hold.
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Taking advantage of her lack of reaction, he hugs her small body close as he relishes in her warmth.
As if meaning to perceive through his skin the proof of her being alive.
Subaru: “Why, did she leave... without killing me or Rem...?”
Killed Petra, killed Frederica, extinguished Beatrice, and regardless the murderer left without taking
the lives of the present Subaru and Rem.
Were his memory correct, before Subaru lost consciousness he had been begging for Rem's life.
Elsa had given a reply which could be interpretable as acceptance, but could she shockingly have
kept her word?
Subaru did not think himself capable of understanding the mind of the lunatic GUTHUNTER, but
perhaps Rem's saving had ultimately resulted from that.
Subaru: “But then... why me...?”
He'd be killed—was what he thought.

Elsa had at least flourished her knife while harbouring clear malevolence toward Subaru. His
fractured bones and cut flesh clearly communicated him that truth by way of pain.
So then even moreso, why on earth had Elsa allowed Subaru to live?
Subaru: “Anyway, for now...”
There's no way he could know. With a shake of his head, Subaru strains his aching body as he lifts
Rem up.
Taking Rem's light body in his arms, the side of the hallway—where Frederica's corpse yet remains
—is where he looks. He determines what it is he needed to do.
—First, he must put Frederica and Petra to rest.
Subaru: “But rationalize it as an ending world, and there's no point...”
That action is sentimental, irrational, and wretched, is the self-deprecation in his mutter.
Subaru had already determined to reset this world by his DEATH.

Far too many things had been lost. There were things he had gained, but those gains protected not a
single one of the things he had wished to protect. In the same degree as he had been, or perhaps
greater, Subaru had lost. And Subaru lacked the courage to live in a world with too many losses.
If paying with his life would bring them back, then he would hesitate not at all.
This world was a world ending.

Petra's death, Frederica's death, Beatrice's death, everything was within his ability to redo.
His promise to Petra, his apologies for doubting Frederica, his definite answer to Beatrice's grief,
would all carry to the next world.
Should he rationalize matters like that, then mourning their deaths truly carried no meaning.
Because if Subaru alone could endure, then the sentimentality left to a disappearing world would
not be anything to remain in anyone's memory.
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—Were he able to rationalize this far, Natsuki Subaru would surely be capable of more swiftly
surmounting this loop series—but, well.
Subaru: “Resolve, ability, determination... it's always that I'm lacking in everything. Why am I just
so weak? Huh, Rem?”
The girl in his arms gives no answer.

For Subaru as now, the only place he could voice his weakness, display his weakness, was with her.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Subaru discovered it not many quarter-hours after determining to lay Petra and Frederica to rest.
Subaru: “Hell, what?”
Says Subaru stupidly as he witnesses the object occupying the space before him.
But, surely no one could fault him. The object before Subaru was just that strange, arcane, with no
hint as to its bearing.
It was a pink-toned wad of meat—would perhaps be a close description.

Its shape was that of a globe of dirt packed together by a child, distorted, this spherical wad of meat.
That explanation alone likely conveyed the oddity of it, but there was more reason than that for
Subaru's bewilderment.
Subaru: “Huge—”
The meat wad was gigantic.

It was big enough that Subaru was looking upwards at it, its fillings packed together tight enough to
communicate a heavy sense of mass. Its shade and texture resembled the fresh pork or poultry sold
in a processed meats aisle. That said, Subaru lacked the courage to touch it and verify.
As far as Subaru could see, the meat wads numbered to about twelve. All shared the same size,
scattered about the place and visible.
Subaru: “Hell is this...?”
Still confused and without any answers, Subaru repeats the same question yet again.
His head slowly turns to look over the area.
Subaru: “Where did all the villagers go?”
Standing in the middle of the depopulated Arlam Village and surrounded by meat, Subaru mutters in
stupefaction.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
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—Subaru's venture to Arlam Village was undertaken first to find helpers in preforming funeral rites
for Petra and Frederica, but mostly to inform Petra's family of her death.
He was ready to be punched, and to be sworn at.

It was the same sentimentality he had in the mansion. But nevertheless Subaru could avoid this
pain. He could hide the truth of Petra's death, and reset the world without the villagers ever
knowing.
If he hid away in his heart his responsibility for having let Petra die, and could proceed with
dreading only his guilt, it would probably be a grace.
But then he considered whether he would forgive himself for doing that, and couldn't.
Subaru: “Ultimately though it's probably just my self-satisfaction.”
He had devised to inform Petra's family, then bury the two.

Subaru did not know what he should do to preform funerary rites for Beatrice. Spirits left no
corpses. Their nigh refreshing manner of disappearing conversely robbed Subaru of feeling any
truthiness to Beatrice's death.
—Then just maybe, was the breed of stubborn thought he wound up thinking.
It was in that neither proactive nor pessimistic mindstate that Subaru came to Arlam Village.
He brought Rem with him, intending to request someone look after her while the burials were
happening.
Subaru reached the village where he searched for sight of the villagers, walking around the place,
and there were the wads of meat.
Subaru: “—Everyone's, gone.”
Subaru temporarily deposits the Rem in his arms against one of the village houses, proceeding to
run all through the village.
The congealed blood on his sweaty brow moistens, painting his face in red, his state atrocious.
Should the villagers witness Subaru now, the proper reaction would be to greet him with a horrified
shriek.
But not finding anybody who will shriek at his appearance, Subaru returns to sit beside the sleeping
Rem, utterly lost.
—When he saw Elsa had disappeared from the mansion, Subaru had had a thought of, it couldn't
be.
This was Elsa, who during the rigamarole in the Royal Capital, had instantly decided to murder
everyone involved. Perhaps unsatisfied with only the mansion residents, she had proceeded to
brandish her knives in Arlam Village.
He mulled over various reasons for her disappearance as he ventured to Arlam Village, with this
thought comprising a segment of his unease. But what welcomed Subaru was a situation far beyond
his expectations.
Wads of meat, and missing villagers.
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—A bad vision rises up in his heart, but Subaru unconsciously ignores it.
Subaru: “No one's here so, nothing to do here. ...Have to, bury them quick.”
Subaru picks up Rem and leaves the village.

The enormous, motionless wads of meat remain as they are. Subaru feels not any castigation in
leaving them undisturbed. He would prefer they not remain in even a crevice of his memory.
God, his head could burst.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Petra and Frederica's burials ended with unanticipated simplicity.
He arranged their appearances for their interment, wiping their bloodied skin and faces clean with a
cloth. He changed them into new sets of clothes with shame. And of course, no indecent feelings
welled up.
When he took their cold, stiff bodies to pass their arms through the sleeves of their clothes, he
wanted to cry. But his eyes would only grow drier, his heart imprisoned by an incomprehensible
emotion.
Subaru: “...At least, have peace.”
Above their graves he prays for their repose.

While of course Subaru does not know the etiquette for prayers in this world, neither does he know
the methods for seeing off the dead in the old world. All of his relatives were in good health, he had
never attended anyone's funeral, and the protocols of Japanese secular practices had never been in
his interest.
He regretted that now.
—That he does not know either the words or the etiquette for interring them frustrates him greatly.
Subaru: “And I caused you problems, too. Thank you, for helping me.”
Subaru reaches out, and the black ground dragon draws its snout to his fingers.
Her legs dirtied with upturned mud as she concernedly approaches Subaru is Patrasche.
Subaru had found Patrasche in the stables, where she so escaped the massacre, and acquired her
help for burying Petra and Frederica. The clever girl had immediately understood Subaru's urging
for her to dig, and beside him as he shovelled the dirt with a spade-resemblant tool, with her feet
she dug a grave for the larger Frederica.
With powerful kicks and her legs slaked in mud, the black dragon yet remained a thing of dignity
and beauty. Subaru again feels intense gratitude for her presence.
Subaru dug Petra's grave. She was small, but without desire for her to be cramped, the unfamiliar
tool ultimately tore the skin of his palms numerous times.
Blanketing with dirt, watching Petra's form disappear from view, abruptly tears fall to his cheeks.
He does not wipe them dry.
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He gives Frederica an identical farewell, crafts simple grave-markers for them, and deems the burial
over.
That was the finishing of one task, but rather than lightening, the weight on his shoulders only
compounds.
Subaru: “...There's no point being here anymore.”
The irreparable slaughter at the mansion has already ended.

He carves the events into his memory. His regret in having bid the two farewell, too, carves it deep
and strong and unforgettable.
This remorse engraved in his soul would he assuredly, at his next chance, sweep clean.
Once he achieves that, Subaru will for the first time be able to take responsibility for these DEATHS.
Subaru: “Once we've checked what we should, let's return to SANCTUARY. —Rem, can't be left
behind she's coming too.”
The sun slowly begins its descent.

This duskening world was, if Subaru's knowledge was correct, now welcoming the night of the third
day. They check what they should and leave the mansion tomorrow morning, and they should reach
SANCTUARY before the fourth night.
He had a day and a half of free time until the fated sixth day.
What changes would have occurred in SANCTUARY during Subaru's time absent?
Matters could conceivably follow a similar route as when Garfiel attacked and imprisoned Subaru.
In that case, Otto and Ram should start acting on the fifth night to evacuate the villagers.
Subaru: “Before that happens... yeah.”
Garfiel was another concern.

Subaru had utilized a forceful method to block his pursuit by using Lewes as a shield. His
imagination surely couldn't conceive just how much he had infuriated him.
He also had to inform Garfiel of his sister Frederica's death. Doubting her as a betrayer, and taking
no advance measures to save her was Subaru's failure.
Likely he would have to resign to Garfiel's rage, taking every hit.
Subaru: “Let's go back to SANCTUARY. —I miss Emilia.”
Thinking of these incidents which beleaguered his mind, Subaru's sincere desires idly slip out.
It could have been some breed of whimpering.
But now, what he honestly wanted was to see her again.
He wanted to see Emilia's face. To touch her.

He wanted to keenly feel her presence, and for his heart near moments from breaking to be healed.
These thoughts were the magnitude of Subaru's exhaustion.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
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—It is when he enters into the region of the forest nearby SANCTUARY that Subaru notices the
abnormality.
He rides mounted on Patrasche with sleeping Rem hugged to his chest. Patrasche had looked ready
to collapse with this arrangement, but fortunately being that Rem twitches not an inch, Patrasche
perfectly compensates for her master's incompetence and they proceed along the road without
problems.
She fails to achieve the full sprint she done had while travelling to the mansion, and with the time to
traverse the path back amounting to seventeen hours, their arrival date winds up as the fourth night.
His planned allotment of time inside SANCTUARY thus shrinks from a day and a half to a day.
It's a necessary use of his time. He naturally has no urge to blame Patrasche.
But what Subaru had miscalculated on was,
Subaru: “Seriously don't do this... what the fuck is going on!?”
The road to SANCTUARY, in the forest with the barrier—partway along the route, a stinging chill
starts to encase the world.
Trees of green have their leaves coated with frost and their trunks frozen with thin sheets of white.
Puddles freeze to ice, wintry patches dotted and perfect along the road.
An abnormal drop in temperature—with the cold being even worse than in midwinder, Subaru holds
Rem tighter, letting out a white puff of breath and looking around the surroundings.
As always the woods are relatively devoid of critters, but even the trees are losing their vitality in
this cold. That the forest lacked any preparations for this extreme chill itself provided best proof
that this cold was absolutely not a natural phenomenon.
Subaru: “So cold that everything in front of you's white... only, bad premonitions here. Patrasche.”
Subaru: “Hey, Patrasche?”
Spurred on by the foreboding rising in his heart, Subaru attempts to hasten Patrasche—but said
Patrasche gives no response.
Subaru's brows furrow as he looks down at his black dragon—to find her feet stopped, and her
breathing terribly ragged.
Subaru: “Patrasche!”
Subaru panickedly tugs the reins as he calls Patrasche to a stop, dismounting and reaching his
fingers out for her neck. The scaly texture of her skin feels the same as usual, but is horrifically
cold. Subaru figures it out.
Subaru: “You don't mean, ground dragons have trouble with the cold? They look reptilian, and
winter” toka ha doushiteru mon nanda.
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Many reptiles like lizards and snakes hibernate to get through the winter. Patrasche, who shares lots
of visual resemblances, might have the same constitution as reptiles.
If so, then having Patrasche march into this cold was suicide.
Should Subaru's imaginings be correct, the cold will only grow harsher the closer they travel to
SANCTUARY's centre.
Subaru: “It'll be tough for you to come along... right. Got a feeling that the dragons left in
SANCTUARY're gonna be in danger at this rate.”
He strokes a shivering Patrasche. It's likely nothing more than an empty comfort for her, but she
does draw closer as if clinging to the touch.
Proceeding on toward SANCTUARY without Patrasche is going to take even more time—but even if
he did continue travel alongside her, she would just collapse partway through the journey.
Subaru: “Patrasche. I'm sorry but could you leave the for... no, return all the way to the mansion?”
Patrasche gives a sad snort.

But the smart girl comprehends Subaru's thinking, her physical condition, and the state of the forest
ahead. Subaru piles her with some soothing words, and eventually she gives up on resisting as she
bows her head to Subaru.
He gives that head a good pat, retrieves some clothes and foodstuffs from her luggage, and puts the
extra clothes on to counter the cold. He identically dresses Rem in a jacket, ties the luggage to her
and picks her up.
Subaru: “The road to SANCTUARY's dead ahead... yeah?”
Subaru: “Now don't you look so worried. I'm the one here worried about you. It must've been
painful, and I'm sorry for not noticing sooner. Wasn't thoughtful at all, I am seriously sorry.”
Subaru bows his head. You don't need to do that, says Patrasche's little growl. She starts walking to
exit the forest, Subaru watching her go until she disappears from view.
She doesn't look back once. Simultaneously she possesses a dignity which thinks not highly of
displaying rue, and a kindness to prevent Subaru from feeling responsibility.
She is entirely too good for him, thinks Subaru.
Subaru: “Patrasche'll safely get out. ...She was worrying about me infinitely more than herself, just,
fuck.”
He fixes his hold on Rem, the frost crunching underfoot as he walks onward.
Breath white and amidst a cold threatening to send his teeth chattering, he walks further on, further
on, his destination SANCTUARY.
Subaru: “What happened here, Emilia...”
—And calls the name of the girl who is surely in the heart of this cold.
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※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Forcing his numb feet forward he inhales, exhales, inhales, exhales shallow through his shiver-gone
lips. He strongarms his eyes somewhat open despite his sticking eyelashes, managing to preserve
his hazy, white vision as he proceeds through the forest.
—The frigidity enveloping SANCTUARY far exceeded Subaru's slipshod imaginings.
He feels that his body temperature may be dropping with every step taken in deeper.
His skin has long lost any feeling, his body now supported by a ghostly sense of duty, the will to
move forward, and—
???: “—”
In his arms, her vital signs pumping away so steadily as to give no hint whether this environment is
affecting her, Rem's presence.
He walks straight ahead, aiming entirely for SANCTUARY—supposedly.

He cannot tell by his sight whether he is travelling in the right direction. All he can do is trust on
this intensifying glacial cool that he is proceeding correctly.
The snow amasses up to his shins, the atmosphere of the forest having completely switched to
winter.
A power influential enough to transmogrify the world. Subaru did know of such.
Subaru: “—”
He forces his mouth open, panting, seeking air. His skin peels from his sticking lips, pain prickling,
blood oozing. The tip of his tongue catches the faint warmth of it, and he recognizes that his core
still has yet to be wholly frozen.
He can keep going. He can do more.

There is nothing he has verified yet. Here, he stops here, and what were all the sacrifices for?
Noticing something cut across his stark white field of vision, Subaru stops still.
He rubs his near-closed eyes open, straining to see the irregularity. Its contour gradually focuses to
take the form of a person, and in fact one Subaru knows.
Subaru: “Lewes, -san?”
Lewes: “—”
The girl wordlessly responds with only a gaze.
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Seeing that, Subaru instantly deduces that this is not LEWES, but a LEWES MEYER double.
Simultaneously, he deduces that if she is a Lewes double, then Subaru would possess the command
right for her.
Subaru: “Perf, ect timin... Please guide, me to SANCTUARY.”
???: “She ain't gonna be obeyin' 'yer request.”
Breathing out faltering puffs of white air, Subaru addresses the Lewes double. But, their exchange is
interrupted.
Subaru raises his head. Instantaneously, somebody drops down into the snow beside her, lands.
Submerging into the snow with a crunch is this young man.
His hair is blond and his eyes are sharp, and he exerts a hostility liable to slaughter Subaru at any
moment.
Subaru: “Garfiel.”
Garfiel: “'Sup, how dare you come back. Pretty fuckin' impressed yer did. Well thy'do say THE BOW
OF A LYIN' BETOON IS SPLENDID .”
His incomprehensible sayings in healthy condition, the person clicking their fangs at Subaru is
Garfiel.
He looks down, pissed, at the panting Subaru—when he spots Rem in his arms, and his eyes snap
open with shock.
Garfiel: “Eh? Hell's Ram doin' with... no, that ain't Ram. Eh? What's goin' on here? Who's she?”
Subaru: “I'll explain, dubious whether it'll communicate. ...She's Rem. Ram's, legitimate younger
sister.”
Garfiel: “I ain't ever heard anythin' 'bout Ram havin' a sister... but 's slightly impossible t'be
dismissin' this as a lie, oi.”
Since Garfiel hasn't immediately attempted to kill him, Subaru judges that he is still being rational
and puts off his deciding on whether to turn tail and flee for later. He looks at the Lewes double
standing quietly beside Garfiel.
Subaru: “What do you mean she isn't going to listen to me?”
Garfiel: “...'S pretty fuckin' simple. After yer left SANCTUARY, my amazin' self immediately went
t'th'test site. N'so, all I did's overwrite th'command right n' get it back. Had another unpleasant time
'cuzza it.”
Subaru: “The command right transfers that easily?”
Garfiel: “Th'point 's ya just touch it. S'the same damn thing 's what you musta did.”
'It' would be the crystal sealing the original Lewes Meyer. If touching the crystal is the requirement
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for transferring the command right, then of course Garfiel went and got it back.
Either way.
Subaru: “It was really considerate of you to go out of your way to welcome me.”
Garfiel: “I ain't plannin' t'chat 'round with yer bullshit. Take a look at the place and yer should figure
out that any room fer happy conversation came n' went ages ago, yeh?”
Subaru: “Okay, yeah. ...So, kinda asking point-blank here.”
Subaru nods at Garfiel, gives a small shake of the head, breathes in, and—
Subaru: “—Is Emilia doing this?”
Garfiel: “Ain't got any clue. 'Cause after all, she ain't comin' outta th'tomb.”
Subaru: “She isn't coming out of the tomb?”
Subaru furrows his brows at the unexpected reply. Garfiel clicks his tongue in annoyance, and gives
the snow underfoot a magnificent kick.
Garfiel: “Th' half-witch turned fuckin' weird th'day you disappeared. Think she's calm, and then
sh'shuts herself up 'n th'tomb. And b'fore y'know it, SANCTUARY's covered'n more ice thn' what's
ever gonna be fixed. —Exactly, like Elior Forest.”
Subaru: “You know about Emilia's...!”
Garfiel: “Y'think I ain't ever heard about it? Roswaal's a disgustin' prick, but if th'question's a
needed one he'll answer it. And so my amazin' self ain't trustin' any fuckin' Emilia-sama.”
Spits Garfiel. Subaru's expression sharpens. Garfiel instantly draws near to Subaru, who neither has
any capacity to react or ability to do anything about the Garfiel standing before him.
Garfiel: “That expression 's fucking pathetic.”
Garfiel's hand shoves Subaru's chest, and he gracelessly proceeds to topple to the ground..
He panickedly attempts to protect the Rem in his arms, but his arms only catch air. Because,
Subaru: “Y—Rem!”
Garfiel: “Y'mean, give 'er back? Hey now, there's some pretty heavy attachment y'got. What
happened t'th'girl yer love bein' Emilia-sama?”
Garfiel snorts, hitting Subaru right in a sore spot.

In Garfiel's arms is the stolen body of Rem.
Frantically getting his numbed body into motion, Subaru attempts to cling onto Garfiel—who hops
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backwards to open range, giving Subaru no means of catching up.
Subaru: “What're you, gonna... to Rem!”
Garfiel: “Ain't like I'm gonna have anythin' bad happen t'her. That'd be what yer'd call bein'
unreasonable. And my amazin' self's a reasonable guy. Things that ain't got any proper sense to 'em
make me sick.”
Garfiel's eyes as he looks down at Rem indeed host no hostility.

At very least, Garfiel's character is not so twisted as to injure a girl whose face is identical to his
sweetheart's.
Then why, are the words Subaru almost gets out, when Garfiel speaks first.
Garfiel: “You get in the tomb. —And then, you pull the half-witch out.”
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CHAPTER 65: PASSION IN THE SNOW

Dragged along to the tomb, and in vicinity of its entryway Subaru is hurled to the ground.
Perhaps call it snow, perhaps call it frost, Subaru spits out the sherbety crap having entered his
mouth. Mistaking the pain of his exposed skin for numbness, he looks back behind him.
Subaru: “You've sure got.. some rough treatment going here.”
Garfiel: “I ain't clever enough t'be considerate. Y'sh'd be happy still that yer gettin' th's rough
treatment. 'Less yer sayin yer want this girl t'be gettin' it?”
As he looks down at the collapsed Subaru and breathes with white puffs, Garfiel presents the Rem
in his arms for show.
A hostage—may not be how Garfiel conceives it, but regardless he has unmistakably acquired
resources for coercing Subaru.
Subaru: “Don't you do anything funny... with Rem.”
Garfiel: “So long's yer thinkin' t'follow my demands, I won't.”
Says Subaru quietly as he touches his hand to the ground and its blanketing of falling snow. He
strains his numb arms to somehow push himself up to his feet. Standing right beside and looking
vacantly at him is the Lewes double, who had carried him here.
She looks scruffy as always in her garb of rags. In this cold Subaru feels it far too shabby a cover.
Subaru: “Can we do something about their clothes? ...She looks so cold, I can't keep watching.”
Garfiel: “Y'know what th'y are, yeh? They don't come with any sense'a cold in 'em in th'first place.
If yer gonna be buyin' time, we got no reason t'talk.”
Subaru: “Stop with the skepticism. I don't think any time-buying is going to make this situation turn
better, either.”
With his vision stuck in a near-blizzard and Garfiel's warning at his back, Subaru turns to face the
tomb.
The ancient stone structure dimly rises from the world of white. Even amid with this raging
phenomenon of nature Echidna's tomb remains calm, eerily waiting with its mouth open wide for its
next challenger.
Emilia, supposedly, is inside.
Subaru: “How long has it been since Emilia went in?”
Garfiel: “'Since night 'a day before last, so comin' up t'two days now. Though talkin' honest, so long
as she ain't dead I couldn't give a crap.”
Subaru: “From your position, I'm sure that's right. ...You couldn't go in and pull her out yourself?”
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Garfiel: “I can't go in th'tomb. There's a contract.” 3
That convincing line expressed the entirety of Garfiel's position.

Subaru couldn't tell how much about this the residents of SANCTUARY knew, but Garfiel had indeed
ventured inside the tomb before. There he met Echidna, acquired the right to be Apostle of Greed,
and gained qualification over the Lewes doubles' command right.
That said Subaru didn't know why Garfiel was hiding this, and hindering SANCTUARY's release.
Subaru: “If I go in and ask Echidna... might find out.”
Garfiel: “Stop it with yer mumblin'. I told you t'get in there. Pull the half-witch out, and get her to
end this snow. Don't, and I'll be havin' t'do somethin' my amazin' self ain't wantin' ter.”
Garfiel easily hoists Rem up as his cheeks pitch upwards. The smile doesn't suit him, but Subaru
knows he is fully capable of actualizing his threat. Regardless what his sincere views on it are, if it's
to protect SANCTUARY, he will likely have no difficulty in turning his claws on one, two girls who
look like his crush.
Subaru: “Don't do anything to Rem. —That's my condition.”
Garfiel: “...Just go.”
Subaru begins his course for the tomb, Garfiel staring intently at him from behind.
He doesn't know Garfiel's real motive. Which is when Subaru remembers that he has forgotten to
convey something.
Subaru had lapsed on telling Frederica's younger brother, Garfiel, of her death.
All he could figure was that the cold, the anger, had driven his head funny.
Was he sane right now? If he was sane, then how?

Petra died, the Frederica he doubted was innocent, he returns to SANCTUARY and to find this. His
relations with Garfiel were at their worst, and he had no means of knowing whether the other
players in SANCTUARY were safe.
In circumstances this prolonged and horrid, how could he be sane?

He musn't stop thinking. He musn't give up. He had to look forward, look upward, and to grasp the
future worthy of grasping, pile up more and more of what could be piled up.
If he didn't, then why, did Subaru—
Subaru: “—”
Subaru's footsteps peal in faltering rhythm off the dry floor of the tomb.
Unlike the outside, the tomb's interior suffers barely any effect from the raging cold. Complete
liberation from the chill—would be a mistake of description—but realistically its effect in this place
on Subaru is slim.
By Subaru stepping into the tomb, its functions to welcome the qualified activate, the dim lamps of
the then-dark structure catching alight.
3 Double meaning. Simultaneously, 'I've made an agreement not to.'
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The hazy lights lined along the walls invite Subaru into the depths. In accordance to them, and with
the clunky gait of his blood near freezing, Subaru works his limbs to conquer the tomb.
At the end of this prolonged corridor is a single, open room.
The site of the first trial—the TRIAL which faced one with their past.
Having reached this location,
???: “—Subaru?”
The silver bell he longed for welcomes Subaru tenderly.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
In the darkness, Subaru fixes his gaze on the silhouette before him.
His vision start adapting to the dusky tomb, and once that long silver hair and those enrapturing
amethyst eyes burst into his sight, Subaru cannot prevent himself from calling her name.
Emilia: “Yes. You're right, Subaru. ...It's me.”
Putting those short four syllables to sound, and then getting a reply, Subaru could about collapse.
Exaggerating it, he thinks—but the unassailable emotions are there.
Dolor, languor, fatigue.

Etcetera. The feelings slamming Subaru had been many, but by making Emilia's presence, the
sentiments he had pulled taut and kept from consciousness now lead his knees to falter.
Subaru pitches forward near falling—when the outstretched arms catch him.
Soft, warm. Immediately in his view as he looks up is a beautiful ivory visage, looking back at him.
Subaru forgets the entire situation as his breathing catches in shock.
Emilia, just now, had caught him gently in her hold.
Subaru: “Ss, war, sorr... lost, my strength...”
Emilia: “It's ok. It's not like I'd think you were purposefully trying for it. And even if you were
trying, I would've probably anyway caught you like this.”
Speaking over Subaru's explanation, Emilia blocks his route of escape.

Since she gives not any chastisement but in fact a kind assist, Subaru gives a deep sigh of relief—
and immediately notices that Emilia's condition is off.
Emilia is being no different from usual.

Kind, gentle, a dash of airheadedness, overflowing with compassion, cute, even her somewhat
childish aspects another point of allure—no different from usual, at all.
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The ordinary for this Emilia was the same ordinary as when she leisurely passes her time in
Roswaal's mansion.
This was not the ordinary for an Emilia who had failed to conquer the TRIAL and been cornered by
her feelings of duty.
Subaru: “E-Emilia... when I was away, um...”
—Was there something that happened to change your mood?
Intending to ask that question, Subaru chooses his words.

But before they can come from his mouth,
Emilia: “—I was lonely.”
Subaru: “...Huh?”
Not catching Emilia's murmur clearly, Subaru furrows his brows.

Should he raise his head, he would find that silver countenance directly at his side. Her eyes stare at
him from range close enough to feel her breath, Subaru straining his attention to assuredly catch
every single word this time.
Looking Subaru straight in the eye, Emilia,
Emilia: “I was lonely, Subaru. —I mean, you left me behind.”
Subaru: “Au... no, that... you're wrong. Abandoning you, or whatever wasn't what I...”
Emilia says nothing.
Subaru: “I'm sure I said this in the letter too, but... there's something I had to do. And so for just a
little while, we can't be together. I am so sorry for making you feel lonely, Emilia. I made you feel
like that, but I that thing I had to do, I wasn't even able to do properly, and...”
Emilia: “Heehee.”
Subaru piles up the excuses as Emilia's eyes gaze at him. But before he can conclude his excuse,
Emilia slips a laugh.
All Subaru can do at that reaction is stare.
While he was talking, and during such a strained situation, Emilia laughed?
What was there to laugh about here? And even before that, Emilia isn't supposed to be a girl whose
personality would allow her to choose that reaction.
Emilia: “Nooo need to explain so hard, I won't be angry. Subaru, silly, your face's so pale... hehee.”
Subaru: “E-Emilia...?”
Emilia: “I said it's all ok, Subaru. You left me a letter, and you wrote so much, so much, sooo much
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in it all for me. I was lonely, and I did think about crying... but, with all the times I read that letter...”
Emilia's smile deepens.

In that enchanting, lovable smile is a sweet whisper near clutching Subaru's heart. Learning that
Emilia had valued his letter, and had even used it as a mental support, could almost make Subaru's
heart soar with fiery passion.
But putting the reins on that torrent of passion threatening to drown his consciousness, Subaru
inevitably feels a foreboding about the irregularities bubbling up from Emilia.
Something was off. Something was strange. This awriness had proceeded to here without a single
improvement.
Off, something was. Awry. Even though, Emilia was being this adorable.
Even though Emilia was being this adorable, and answering to Subaru.
Subaru: “Emilia... what happened with the TRIAL?”
Emilia: “Trial...”
Subaru: “That's right, the TRIAL. That's why you're in here, yeah? Making you go in alone must've
been so painful for you and I am sorry. I wanna apologize for that, and I wanna know what
happened. Really, it couldn't bother me in the least whether it was a failure, but being that you're
here now...”
Emilia: “Failure, yes, a failure. I can't overcome the first TRIAL, my past. And all this when you
were expecting from me, and worried about me, I'm sorry.”
Subaru: “Ah...”
Subaru regrets the husky noise which slips from his throat.
Emilia might have perceived that sound as being disappointment. If so, then that would immediately
betray his recent statement of 'Don't worry about it'.
That panic dashes wild through Subaru—when, a smooth touch makes contact with his head.
Emilia. Had just stuck her fingers into Subaru's hair. And was patting his head.
Subaru's eyes flit about in shock, uncomprehending of her intentions. Emilia grins at his surprise,
her cheeks dying with red.
Emilia: “Subaru, don't you sometimes want to touch my hair? Well I was thinking, sometimes I also
want to do things like this to you. Heehee, Subaru, sooo many openings.”
Subaru: “Emi, lia?”
Emilia: “I thought, what if it went on, what if it went on that you abandoned me, and you were
always going to be gone, what would I do... I thought about it so, soo, sooo much. I thought that
would be sooo scary. And so, when you came back to me, I was happy.”
She had only just stated that she had failed the TRIAL, but the only thing Emilia's eyes are seeing is
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Subaru. Those fiery eyes, those watery eyes, gazing at Subaru.

And how Subaru had longed for this day to come.
How he had yearned for her to call his name with that fire, for her to gaze at him passionately with
those teary eyes.
To relish this instant, this passion, was what everything had been for.
Which was why—
Emilia: “Subaru. Why don't we be together forever? Be with me. Darling if I could only have you,
then, there's nothing I would ever need any more—”
—He had never imagined that the day Emilia blindly sang her love for him would terrify him this
much.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru still in her arms, Emilia speaks and speaks with fever.
Emilia: “Subaru when, I first heard that you were gone, it was sooo painful. It scared me. I mean, I,
couldn't do it right at all. ...And so, I wondered if you were fed up with me. When I thought that, it
frightened me and scared me, my body wouldn't stop shaking...”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “But, I saw there was a letter, and of course I knew it was your handwriting, and my fear
settled all down. You're amazing Subaru. I thought it was so scary, and you blasted that feeling
away for me... mm, and then I thought, I really am always being saved by Subaru.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “And what the letter said, made me happy too. You wrote lots and lots for me so I wouldn't
be worried. It took you sooo much time. And that you were using your time for me, and during that,
must have been thinking and thinking and thinking about me, also made me happy.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “And lots of times in the letter, Subaru, you said that you— LIKE—me. Back when you told
me that in the carriage too, I was sooo happy, I cried... but still when I read the letter, I almost cried
again. That's how big the thing you're giving me is... is the thought I had. And then I noticed.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “And so when I saw that you came back to me, I couldn't stop it any more. In my chest, in
the deepest part, there's a little me who's calling your name, Subaru. And so, I wanted to reach out
like this, touch you, so much...”
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Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “Subaru. I'm sorry for up to now. I've always been doing something awful. This is how you
felt about me, and I always made you have to cope. That that was something sooo awful of me,
right now, I sort of understand.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “Feeling like this, but still having to cope, was really painful for you. You were coping, and
I was being so selfish. I was supposed... to want to think about you, to understand you, but I didn't
understand you at all.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “But, not any more. Now I'm always thinking about you, Subaru. Always thinking of you.
And the same way you said you... like me, how you think that about me... now I might, also... want
to think like that, about you, maybe.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “Orr I mean, I'm sorry. That was unfair of me. You might've been scared, and not known
what I'd think, but Subaru, you told me clearly.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “And so, me too, I'll say it clearly. —I will state.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “Subaru. I, like you. And, I love you. I want to be with you, thinking about you, only about
you, always with you.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “If you could think the same, about me... I'd be happy... yeah.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “Eheheh. Mm, mhm... I like you. Subaru... love you.”
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CHAPTER 66: CRIMSON SNOWSCAPE

—Seeing him exit the tomb alone, Garfiel's antagonism escalates to most pierce Subaru's skin.
Inside and outside the tomb suffer an incredible difference in cold.

Compared to the residual warmth still somewhat present inside, the frigidity of the open
SANCTUARY quietly chips away the stamina and body heat of anything standing in it.
Unending blizzard, and blinding curtain of white. The white puffs of Subaru's breath could almost
freeze, the shivers welling up from his core unassailable.
Subaru hugs his shoulders, shivering. Garfiel glares at him.

He clicks his bared fangs, focusing his attention on the scene behind Subaru.
Garfiel: “Ain't lookin' like she's gonna be showin' up from 'hind yer back, oi.”
Subaru: “No, she's not. Emilia's inside, sleeping right now.”
Garfiel: “Sleepin', huh?”
Subaru: “She's exhausted. For two days, she's been waking up then doing TRIAL. Waking up then
doing TRIAL then waking up then doing TRIAL on repeat, it looks. Her body and mind are spent.
And she hasn't been eating. She's pushing herself too far.”
Considering the feelings of an Emilia who unwaveringly made repeated challenges of the TRIAL,
but regardless failed to conquer it, Subaru can imagine her frustration and disappointment in herself.
Since unmistakably, it would feel equivalent to the powerlessness Subaru himself had confronted on
many occasions.
Subaru: “—”
Deep in the tomb, Emilia sleeps in the TRIAL room with her expression blissful.
Recalling her body's heat in her long embrace as she whispered to him her blind amour, Subaru is
stricken with a love strong enough for his blood to flare, and a regret strong enough for him to wish
to die.
Emilia's voice trembling in passion, cheeks red, as she spoke every word Subaru desired to hear—
the entirety of her emotions that she tempted to drown him in—both happenings he now could
remember.
And how had Subaru thought—well say suppose he drown in that tender depravity, and sink there
together with Emilia? Nobody could know.
Subaru denied the temptations of Emilia, who could entice even gods, and exited the tomb.
He had no intentions of telling Emilia about the circumstances outside. He also had no intentions of
allowing her within range of Garfiel's hostility.
In contrast to Subaru's quiet determination, Garfiel's blazing rage shows no sign of snuffing out.
He kicks at the snow underfoot, his white fangs clicking and clicking.
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Garfiel: “Yer ain't pulled out th'half-witch. Snow ain't lookin' t'be stoppin'. Y'come back with no
souvenirs and a face sayin' yer thwarted. Just what're y'plannin' t'give up t'settle this mess?”
Subaru: “—So well Emilia, she said she likes me.”
Garfiel: “...”
Garfiel: “...”
Garfiel: “...”
Garfiel: “...Huh?”
Most likely, Subaru's statement is incredibly out of place here. For an instant Garfiel's expression
changes, as if he doesn't comprehend what he has just heard. But he immediately judges that Subaru
is making a fool of him.
Garfiel: “Seems ain't just th'half-witch who ain't seein' what th'situation is, you ain't seein' it either!
Th'fuck're you fuckin' able t'say th't fucking bullshit n' all this, oi! Oi! OI! AHH!?”
Garfiel's rage seethes hot, the snow contacting his body evaporating to white mist. That his body
appears to swell in size is no illusion, but occurs because he allows himself to start shifting from
human to tiger.
Subaru's expression stays completely unshaken.

It remains identical to when he made his statement, his eyes still dry as he looks at Garfiel.
Subaru repeats it.
Subaru: “Emilia, said that she likes me, that all she would ever need is me.”
Garfiel: “—Y'fuckin'...”
Subaru: “With a cutesy face, needy voice, tingly gestures, close enough I could melt, us touching
each other within breathing range... she said that, to me.”
Garfiel: “So fucking what! That th'half-witch's glued stuck t'yer 's somethin' y'shoulda goddamn
figured out when y'got here! 'F yer sayin' yer want congratulations fer yer two's gettin' on th'same
page, my amazin' self's fang's'll explain it well n' clea—”
Roars start joining Garfiel's curses, his animosity urging along the changes in his flesh and near
ready to pounce, his words piercing Subaru.
—This was the limit.
Subaru: “...As, fucking if.”
Garfiel: “Eh? Can't hear ya, try speakin' cle...”
Subaru: “—As fucking if Emilia would say she likes me!!”
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Garfiel: “—hk”
Subaru screams.
The torrent of emotion is enough to shut even Garfiel's mouth. Subaru glares at the flinching
Garfiel, expression agonised as he allows his heart to erupt.
He takes the words they shared in the tomb, their heat, their definite love, and dumps it all.
It's painful. Of course it's painful. But those things, hard as they were to abandon, truly radiate with
no brilliance for him.
How nice it would've been if he were foolish enough for that fake gleam to possibly deceive him.
That Natsuki Subaru was incapable of being that much of a fool was his misfortune.
Subaru: “Like she would fucking say that. Emilia telling me she likes me... letting me spoil her,
leaving everything to me, if I'm around she needs nothing else... never.”
Garfiel: “F-fuck're you goin' on about, oi.”
Subaru: “She'd never be that kind of dependant on me, never tell me her feelings for me are her
everything, ever. —If Puck were here, she would never be engrossed in me like that.”
Subaru didn't know on just what magnitude he longed to be Emilia's number one.
But Subaru lacked the self-worth, and thought not low enough of Emilia, to conceitedly claim that
he was presently in that position.
The person Emilia put her greatest reliance in, who she clung onto until the very very end, was
Puck.
Puck was not appearing before her now, and so she had chosen Subaru as her secondary target for
her dependence. It was nothing more than that.
Subaru would prefer not to believe that her love confession, fevered fingers, shaky breaths had all
been lies.
Would prefer not to believe it, but—legitimate, they were not.
Raising his head, Subaru glares at Garfiel. This time, it's Subaru who bares teeth.
Subaru: “Who cornered her so hard that she has to cling to a hopeless loser like me? Where her
heart's been broken so many times over and over... but she still thinks she has to keep going, who!?”
Garfiel: “Oh but ain't this something needing doing! Oh but ain't this something chosen 'cuzza you!
Y'saying this's my... n' that this's th'fault of the others in SANCTUARY, huh!?”
Subaru slowly shakes his head.
The person who corned Emilia was who?

No need asking. Subaru knew.
Subaru: “There's no question whose fault it was. ...It's my fault.”
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Garfiel: “—Hha!?”
Subaru: “It's my fault. That Emilia was that driven into a corner is unmistakably my fault. My fault,
your fault, all your faults.”
Garfiel: “...Stop yer bull. If sh'strains under th'load 'n gets crushed, then ain't that just her calibre!
With a heart prepared that weak 's was pretty fuckin' impressive what a high goalpost sh'put up,
'course she's gonna wind up gettin' a joke made of her!”
Subaru: “Yeah. You're exactly right. Emilia's too gentle to deal with heavy pressure straight-on. And
so since she had nobody she could be open about her burden with, it crushed her. —Even though
really, that's what I needed to be doing.”
As if become one with the white snowscape, Subaru can tell his heart is growing cold.
What it is he has to do feels to have been clearly stipulated.
Subaru: “Right. That was something I need to do. I'm here, for that. ...I'm the one who said those
words to you, and what on earth was I doing...”
Garfiel: “Fuck're you just 'greein' t'yerself about, oi. ...No, nevermind. Just never, mind. Sittin' here
chattin' along to yer bullshit ain't gonna lead t'nothin'. UNQUENCHABLE IS THE THIRST OF
MORDOBA. 'F yer can't do it, then...”
Subaru: “You'll go in the tomb and bring Emilia out... will you? Are you actually able to?”
Garfiel: “...What're you gettin' at.”
Threatens Garfiel, voice low. Though he says these words with intention to overwhelm Subaru, they
conversely prompt him to voice his baseless conjecture.
Subaru: “Garfiel, I already know you're an APOSTLE OF GREED. Since that's the only status which
gives privilege to hold the Lewes-san doubles' command right.”
Garfiel falls silent.
Subaru: “So inevitably I know that you, an APOSTLE OF GREED, have entered the tomb before.
...No, maybe saying 'have taken the TRIAL before's more correct.”
Garfiel: “—You, fuck.”
Subaru: “You've challenged it, the TRIAL. Dunno why you're being so stubborn about hiding it
though. Maybe 'cause of the arrangement where SANCTUARY residents can't enter the tomb, but if
not... then for Lewes-san who went inside the tomb to save you.”
Garfiel's complexion shifts.

Yes, family is indeed a sensitive spot for him. Seeing the despair in Garfiel's expression, Subaru
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continues crafting his conjectures simultaneously as he voices them.
Subaru: “Frederica told me you'd entered the tomb before. I know Lewes-san's been inside, too.”
Garfiel: “Th, at... snitch! Just leavin' th'place was't enough for her, she's toadyin' t'outsiders again!”
Subaru: “What, there someone out there where it'd be bad for that to get out? And besides, who're
the people of SANCTUARY contracted with anyway? The one who made SANCTUARY was the Witch
Echidna. So, the people of SANCTUARY're upholding a contract with the deceased?”
Garfiel: “I ain't allowin'—”
You to say anything more, is how Garfiel kicks off the ground, becoming wind as he flies at Subaru.
At short-range those sharp, steel-rending claws aim for Subaru's face and—
Subaru: “—The one causing this snow is Roswaal.”
Garfiel: “—”
Hitting the core of the matter, Garfiel's claws stop narrowly before they can reach Subaru's face.
Stupefaction rises on Garifel's expression. Subaru nods.
Subaru: “It's not Emilia. Puck's not here, Emilia can't do this. Million in one chance, even saying
Emilia was the agent for this, it's impossible she'd talk to me without bringing it up.”
Garfiel: “Th, at's... another're, one're your convenient imagination...”
Subaru: “You're right, all I'm doing is believing. Even if she explodes under despair, she's not a girl
who'd throw a tantrum messing up everything around her... that's what I believe in.”
Process of elimination. But that said, it's certainly not groundless.
Subaru: “The one binding you all to SANCTUARY's also probably Roswaal.”
Garfiel: “Did Frederica tell you that one, too?”
Subaru: “No way. ...It's me putting together information and circumstantial evidence, and then
having enough preconceptions and enough of a bad impression that I don't mind making false
charges. —Looks like I was right, though.”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru sighs.
—This was the exhaustion brought about by person he had thought the mastermind actually being
the mastermind. It's obvious that Roswaal has some plotting going on, but what's the purpose of
preserving the contract which imprisons the residents of SANCTUARY, and then making them suffer
in the snow? Subaru thinks and thinks, but can't find any real answer.
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Subaru: “Gotta go directly have his face eat a good whack.”
Mutters Subaru with determination. Garfiel lowers his arm.

Subaru can tell that, just like him, Garfiel's expression is cacophonous with emotion.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Roswaal: “—Why now, yooooou certainly doooooo look mad.”
Says Roswaal to the visiting Subaru and Garfiel from atop his bed. He smiles cheerfully in his
clown makeup.
Subaru: “Yeah. Right now, I'm pissed. And nevermind me, you can tell that he's ready to go flying
at you any moment now? Be a little careful in what you say.”
Announces Subaru as he stands with arms spread, blocking the doorway. He jerks his chin at
Garfiel, who is emitting a low growl.
The bestial cadence to his breathing proves that he's using the last of rationality to keep human
form. And although indoors, the low temperature still creeps in through the stonework of the
building. Both Subaru and Roswaal are breathing white, Garfiel's alone bathed with enough heat
that each exhale could nearly be red.
Roswaal: “An iiiiiiinteresting assemblage. Although, my belief was that you had blustered to rend
Subaru-kun apart froooooom top to bottom upon his return, Garfiel?”
Garfiel: “Situation might'a changed 'n inch. I don't confirm 'f I really got it wrong, and I don't know
who's okay t'turn t'flesh paste.”
Subaru: “Stop having this horrifying conversation so naturally. And you too Roswaal, don't accept
that kind of ridiculous statement like it's normal.”
Subaru's exchange with Garfiel when he departed SANCTUARY for the mansion left him with some
horrendous self-loathing as well. Garfiel had more than likely not forgotten that shame, and
imagining him slinging curses at Roswaal and Emilia was not exactly difficult.
Roswaal shakes his head.
Roswaal: “Nooo, nooo.”
He closes one eye, gazing at Subaru and Garfiel only with the yellow.
Roswaal: “This is how it is when that is how it is, yooooou see, Subaru-kun?”
Subaru: “Well now aren't I hated. This's making me sad, Roz-chi. Garfiel could gobble me to bits
and you wouldn't think a thing.”
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Roswaal: “Myyyyyy my, now there was some faintheartedness. Were you and Garfiel to combat, it
iiiiiiiisn't a definite that Garfiel wooooould be the victor, yes?”
Subaru: “You think I can win? You hear my battle record, and yes even you'll be trembling in your
boots.”
Subaru's been constantly getting new injuries since being summoned to this parallel world, but his
experience in prevailing solo in a FIGHT is practically none.
Beating the three stooges, barely managing to fell an ulgarm, and getting the killing blow on a
dying Betelgeux would be about it.
Subaru: “Actually that's more successes than I thought, but if I'm up against fit feisty Garfiel I'm a
meat wad in two seconds. I can at least do that much self-analysis.”
Roswaal: “I wonder. My belief is it would be a surprisingly good struggle, shoooooould the

requirements be arranged.”
Says Roswaal, eyes narrowed as he gazes Subaru from top to bottom. Subaru attempts reflecting on
those words, but unfortunately finds nowhere he can agree with them.
He discards Roswaal's statement with shrug, Garfiel near simultaneously stomping the floor broken.
Garfiel: “Nunna that crap matters right now! The shit we need t'be talkin' 'bout is somethin'
goddamn else! Are you two asleep?”
Swears Garfiel at Subaru and Roswaal, teeth bared as his heel forms a crater in the floor.
Doesn't seem impulsive Garfiel is fond of bantering to control the conversation before entering the
main topic. This is however an unfamiliar and moreso unfitting art for Subaru so called finesse.
Subaru nods, following with Garfiel's stance.
Subaru: “You're who's making it snow outside, Roswaal.”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru waits quietly for Roswaal's answer. Silence falls upon the room, the only echoes being the
howl of the freezing wind outside the window, and the steady clockwork rhythm of Garfiel's
clicking fangs.
Roswaal: “Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “Yeah.”
Roswaal: “—Did you hear about this from me?”
Subaru: “—”
And the response is a nonsense question.

Subaru had run multiple simulations of what answer Roswaal might have offered.
A bold laugh and a “Well deduced!”. A pattern showing his unease, “W-what kind of idiotic... proof,
160
show me your proof!”. And what was the most likely contender, “I'm afraid I don't quite understand
what you're taaaaaalking about,” a dodge.
Roswaal's response is none of these.
Subaru: “Like damn whatever, we're talking to you right now about it so how are we having this
conversation. That some slip of the tongue or.”
Roswaal: “Hhr, hrm.... Well then. Well then. Weeeeeelll then. ...Unfortunate.”
Says Roswaal, eyes downcast as he gives a weak sigh.

His face is always pale, but somehow now looks even more devoid of strength. Subaru perceives
this as unrelated to his wounded physical condition, but resultant from the state of his heart.
Roswaal: “—Yoooooou're correct. A slip of the tongue, that was a slip of the tongue. What I said
was ludicrous.”
When Roswaal brings his gaze back up, he immediately retracts his previous statement and gives a
thin smile.
His red-painted lips are grinning, but Subaru views it as being different from usual.
However, paying no heed to whatever trifling changes in Roswaal, Garfiel steps forward.
Garfiel: “Not fuckin' denyin' it, oi?.”
Roswaal: “You don't think that, being subject to suspicion, any words I could string together would
ring unconvincing and false? I'm furthermore cooooooonfident that my usual statements and
behaviour, even in the best of circumstances, have not gained me the trust of either oooooooof you.”
Garfiel: “So yer goddamn know it. Then yer should be able t'tfigure my amazin' self 's gonna move
next... yeah!?”
Spitting a sharp breath, Garfiel's body turns the distance between himself and Roswaal from 'several
steps' to 'zero'.
He reaches out his arm to grab Roswaal's throat—with the split-second movement, Subaru's
reaction time cannot call out to stop him.
When—
Garfiel: “—You.”
???: “I will pardon no discourtesies to Roswaal-sama, Garf.”
—Ram flies in from the room adjacent, catching both Garfiel's arm and body in check.
His right arm gripped firm before his chest, Garfiel glares at the Ram in front of him.
Her sudden appearance surprises Subaru, who had not even realised she'd been in the house, but her
actions have allowed them to avoid any instantaneous bloodshed. He sighs in relief.
Which is why—
Roswaal: “Ram. Truly, an excellent servant you are.”
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Ram: “Yes, Roswaal-sama.”
—Subaru finds nothing strange about their exchange.

Ram had put herself at risk to protect her master, and Roswaal was praising her. There is nothing
strange about it. Ram had indeed done her job.
What's the problem here. Subaru looks up, brow furrowed in thought.
Subaru stands in the bedroom doorway. In front of him is Garfiel's back, with Ram's small frame
opposite. Behind the two is the bed, where Roswaal is to be lying for his recuperation.
—Since when has Roswaal been standing up?
Subaru: “—”
It had happened instantaneously, Subaru figures.

In the space of a blink, Roswaal had gotten up from the bed, and walked over to the live-coals
situation with Ram and Garfiel.
Where he,
Subaru: “—”
What was happening here.

It's almost like there's something, which looks sort of like an arm, sticking out from Garfiel's back.
That thing, piercing through his chest and out his back, with its five squirming fingers, Subaru
considers as being somebody's right arm.
Garfiel: “Ghbn, bg...”
Garfiel's body shudders violently.

Scarlet starts to ooze into his jacket, and his knees verge on failure. Unable to support him, Garfiel
falls to his knees as the arm disappears from his back.
Immediately, having lost its plug, the hole overflows with great volumes of blood.
Garfiel: “—Hh?”
Garfiel hunched on the floor. Looking down at him are Ram and Roswaal.
And sticking out from Ram's chest is—
Ram: “Rauhz...”
Roswaal: “Truly, an excellent servant you were.”
Ram attempts with frail voice to call his name, when Roswaal gently interrupts.
His left hand tenderly strokes Ram's pink hair. Ram, cheeks dyed red and expression intoxicated,
accepts it.
—From the corners of her smile leak belated trails of fresh blood.
Well of course.
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She's been skewered through the chest from behind.
The arm exits her.

Ram's small body fails to withstand the light shock, collapsing forwards.
What catches her, likewise cascading incredible quantities of blood, is Garfiel.
He holds the collapsed Ram in his arms, hoisting her upright.
Garfiel: “Ghh... Ros... Ra, hm... Ram, Ram, Ram, Ramramramramram!”
The instant of hatred dominating his heart is drowned to nothing by the sight of his love.
Garfiel screams again and again the name of the girl in his arms, roaring up blood as his hands start
emitting pale-blue light.
Subaru knows that vivid gleam is what brings the effects of healing magic.
While not his speciality, Garfiel is someone capable of administering it.
Garfiel was presently, with a fatal wound gaping through his torso, pouring his everything into
healing Ram.
Matching in rhythm to the beat of his heart, Garfiel's body starts to morph.
Fur blankets his exposed skin, his fangs begin to grow, his pupils instantly slit. His body mass
compounds massively, tearing through his clothes.
He's transforming into a simpleminded tiger. His bestial instinct to protect his wounded body is
struggling viciously with his rational human desire to keep his beloved alive.
However,
Garfiel: “—”
Roswaal: “Your transforming would truly be a nuisance.”
Says Roswaal with a light tilt of the head, swinging his leg with his target as Garfiel.
That long leg becomes wind, flashing to slam exactly into Garfiel's head—there comes the cracking
noise of an eggshell, and like a joke Garfiel's head bursts off in crimson.
Garfiel's body, absent the neck up. Blood spurts from his severed nub like a fountain, fouling the
room with its stench as his corpse collapses onto Ram.
Ram, now pinned, remains with a thin smile on her face as she lies utterly unmoving.
Garfiel's healing magic resulted to no effect. The instant that Roswaal withdrew his arm, Ram's
demolished heart stopped beating.
Garfiel had simply gone without noticing, and strained his entire self for that.
Roswaal: “Eeeeeeeeven I have difficulty utilising other magics when I am casting on the scale of
interfering with the weather. —For a court magician, truly a disappointing display.”
Rigorously wiping his bloody leg with a nearby bedsheet, this Roswaal who had just killed Ram
and Garfiel both unarmed now looks at the perfectly immobile Subaru.
In a tone and bearing completely unchanged from usual, he speaks.
Roswaal: “Now—let us talk. Natsuki Subaru-kun.”
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CHAPTER 67: WARLOCK

The only answer Subaru has to the scene unfolding before him is 'incomprehensible'.
Ram submerged in a puddle of blood, and a headless dead Garfiel. At the side of their overlaid
corpses stands the one who bare-handedly accomplished this, Roswaal, wiping at his trouser cuff.
Even though having witnessed the incredible martial feat, Subaru cannot believe that it was
Roswaal who achieved it.
Roswaal L. Mathers was the representative court magician of the Kingdom of Lugnica, who freely
manipulated extremely high-level magic, and possessed combat strength equatable to a weapon of
war—is what Subaru had heard.
Repeatedly heard. And because he had heard it, he had never imagined that Roswaal would exhibit
such destructive capability when unable to use magic.
Roswaal: “Magicians are incapable of martial combat, woooooould be entirely a preconceived

notion. Should there have been any who meant to face me as an enemy, naturally all would have
figured the same. ...As to what happened to those inflexible thinkers, your eyes caaaaaaaan see.”
Subaru unwittingly swallows his breath at Roswaal's perfect reading of his thoughts and his answer.
Roswaal traces his finger over the slight bloodspatter on his face, painting over his blue eyeliner
with crimson as he smiles.
Subaru: “Wh, y...”
Roswaal: “Hmmnm?”
Subaru: “Why, did you kill them... kill Ram? Garfiel's, killing Garfiel's... killing him was, necces...”
Roswaal: “It seemed Garfiel being present would be an impediment fooooooor speaking with you.
Regarding Ram, I do believe what I did was inexcusable. But, I'm not so strong as to fight Garfiel in
diiiiiiiirect confrontation. My managing to kill him now was because I struck when he was
unguarded.”
Which meant skewering Ram and Garfiel both.

In hearing Roswaal casually announce his reason for killing the two, Subaru's emotions discard
their fury, conversely returning to coolheadedness.
Ridiculous answer for a ridiculous situation. If Roswaal is attempting to jangle Subaru around in the
palm of his hands, then flying into a rage would be exactly what Roswaal'd want.
Subaru: “...”
Roswaal: “Hrmmmm, uuuuuuunexpected. I had thought that saying that would undoubtedly anger
you?”
Subaru: “It's done a whole loop around and the anger's flipped. ...It isn't that I'm not angry. Of
course I am. Of course.”
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Roswaal: “I wooooonder. While this attitude is one I would call desirable, in these circumstances
the boy I know as Natsuki Subaru would more thoughtlessly burst howling into a furious insane
rage. Wooooouldn't he, Natsuki Subaru-kun?”
Closing his eye, yet again only Roswaal's yellow iris captures Subaru.
Roswaal does this, closing one of his eyes, and looking at the other person always with the yellow.
The thought that Subaru himself is being reflected in that blazing yellow is terribly unnerving, and
prevents him from keeping calm.
Subaru: “I know that I was stupid, but it's not like I'll never mature. I can at least figure out that
flying into a rage here won't accomplish anythi...”
Roswaal: “Noooooo, but that iiiiiiiiisn't it, Subaru-kun. Subaru-kun. Natsuki Subaru-kuuuuuuuun.”
Roswaal smooths down his navy hair with his unbloodied left hand. The grossness of Roswaal's
attitude makes Subaru feel something arcane and unfamiliar, but he doesn't retreat. In fact Subaru
steps forward, glaring at the clown.
Subaru: “What do you want to say.”
Roswaal: “What do I want to say, is what you ask me and so here is what I would like to tell you. —
Congratulations. My welcome. I've been waiting. For you to be standing there, that is.”
A chill like damp fingertips strokes down Subaru's spine.

Roswaal gazes at him, his expression exactly in like with his words, delighted. At that attitude, that
delight, Subaru feels an incomprehensible disgust.
Nothing sarcastic at all, Roswaal is overjoyed with Subaru.
Subaru: “You were waiting... for me to be standing here?”
Roswaal: “'In this room in in that spot', wooooould be the kind of tedious misunderstanding I'd
appreciate you toooooo discard. I am sure you're capable of understanding that is not what I meant.
Since the only one who should be capable of understanding it iiiiiiiiiis you.”
Subaru: “That only I... can under, stand.”
Bit by bit Subaru's brain pieces together the guide-bereft puzzle. Quietly, steadily, and confused, he
links the bits together until he finally starts dimly seeing the completed picture.
Focusing his attention on that picture, the thought of no way pierces through Subaru.
Roswaal: “You doooooo understand, yeeeeees, Subaru-kun? Why is it that after witnessing their
deaths you can remain calm, maintaining your composure absent any outburst of rage? ...In truth
you dooooooo know the reason.”
Subaru: “—”
Roswaal: “You see, their deaths hit you with no great impact. You are surprised that they lost their
lives. You surely must be iiiiiiiiiiindignant. But you feel no woe. Which is why you are incapable of
165
angering, aaaaaaaand directing at me your fists.”
Subaru opens his mouth to object, but winds up repeatedly closing it without saying anything.
<What the hell would you know!> <You think I'm not sad at their deaths!?> <Good fucking on you,
killing Ram and Garfiel, you goddamn fiend!>
Many contenders come to mind for what to shout.

And in truth, those explosive feelings had already risen inside Subaru multiple times, repeatedly
rushing to fly out his throat but instead fading to nothing.
He was mad. He was surprised. He was sad, or should be.

Should be, but the reason Subaru cannot refute Roswaal is—
Roswaal: “—Because they're recoverable, wooooooould be what you're thinking?”
A shiver enough to freeze his throat clutches Subaru about the heart.
That goes without metaphor, as Subaru truly mistakenly feels his heart being grasped. That is how
great of a shock it is.
Raising his head, Subaru reflexively looks about the room, dreading that the black hand may show
itself to convey its punishment. This would be the first penalty since rejecting the WITCH OF ENVY.
Just imagining what terror the shadow will bring with it overwhelms his heart with a twisting,
wrenching pain.
But,
Subaru: “...Won't, come.”
Roswaal: “I don't know what you're so wary about, but... Aaaaaaha, this may be related toooooo
your contract. Iiiiiiiii see. In that case, the oddities in your actions and statements until now do make
sense.”
Subaru: “Make sense... or no, before that!”
Roswaal nods, hand to chin. Subaru's face pales as his lips tremble.
Roswaal's statements are unmistakably hitting on the core of Subaru, which is to say,
Subaru: “You... noticed my—noticed, what's going on with me!?”
Roswaal: “So long as it stays within the writ, then yes. —You have acquired means to redo.
Woooooould be the case, yes?”
Roswaal plainly reveals that he had already known about RETURN BY DEATH.
Subaru swallows his breath, immediately noticing that this situation is dangerous.
Because now the conditions are exactly the same as in Echidna's tea party.
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If Roswaal proceeds to talk casually on about RETURN BY DEATH, the disaster of shadows
consuming SANCTUARY will unfold again.
It wouldn't be strange for the witch to, before it happens, in this very instant even, come and snatch
Subaru away.
His swallowed breath sinks to his stomach. Subaru gives a deep exhale to get it out, confirming that
time has not stopped.
Meaning, the witch's penalty of squeezing his heart isn't occurring. This eliminates the possibility
which although unbearable for Subaru, is the most peaceful.
The remaining possibility is—
Roswaal: “—Silence is proven admission, is a phrase I wonder just whoooooo left to the ages.”
Subaru frantically engages in risk aversion as he forces his jumbled head to think. Roswaal seems to
get tired of waiting for him.
That statement must have held a rather large meaning to Roswaal, as well. Subaru's wordless
ignoring of it makes Roswaal furrow his brows in unusual discomfort.
Roswaal: Weeeeeell, it's all a silly baseless story. Iiiiiiiiiiis the kind of tiresome obfuscation which
in doing you could perhaps say decreases myyyyyyy rectitude.
Subaru: “Y—”
Roswaal: “Oooop, there's fine. My mentioning it is whatever it may be, but should you voice an
assenting reply, it will almost certainly prompt nothing good. Which is why you've been unable to
reveal your circumstances until tooooooday. Although.”
Subaru bites his lip. Roswaal sends him a glance, his mouth relaxing sickeningly.
Roswaal: “You might've been frightened, of how revealing it would make others regard you.”
Subaru: “—hk”
Roswaal: “Well ooooooof course. Aaaaaaaafter all, a power to redo the world is an outrageous,
asinine thing. Interfering with time is the pinnacle of the pinnacle of yin magic, and only barely.
Creating a stoppage is the best even Beatrice can manage. Running counter to it is surely a dream
wiiiiiiithin a dream.”
His unintended true thoughts read into, Subaru remains unable to refute anything. When the sudden
reference to Beatrice prompts his face to stiffen in shock.
Subaru's mind flashbacks vividly to that final expression on her face.
Roswaal: “—Seeing that reaction, iiiiiiiiit would seem that Beatrice fulfilled heeeeeer role.”
Subaru: “Role... you, about her... right.”
Taking advantage of the conversation's shift away from RETURN BY DEATH, Subaru pulls up his
near-overwhelmed consciousness to take a bite out of Roswaal's unruffled face.
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Subaru: “So you knew that she was suffering? Always tied to that mansion, clinging to an old
promise through some damn contract... which utterly wore her down and she shrank herself up, you
knew about her!?”
Roswaal: “Ooooooof course I knew about her. Beatrice and I have known eeeeeeeach other for a
long time. Since birth, in fact. The solitude in her heart is something I have aaaaaaaaaaalways
known about.”
Subaru: “Then...!”
Roswaal: “Why didn't I do something about it, iiiiiiiis something I'd rather not hear. You should
know that her sorrow isn't something others can dooooooo anything about.”
Roswaal's good logic smacks a bordering-on-yelling Subaru about the heart.

Subaru could reproach Roswaal, screaming to tell him of Beatrice's grief. He could, but it would be
utterly pointless.
Beatrice was already dead, and no one could heal her heart's sadness.
Only Subaru, who possessed the sole means to reset, could face Beatrice's final moment indefinite
times. But, how to heal her four hundred years of sorrow?
Four hundred years—Not even Subaru had means to travel back that far.
Roswaal gives a small shake of the head.
Roswaal: “Enviable, iiiiiiiindeed.”
Subaru: “—Enviable?”
Says Subaru, voice low. Roswaal doesn't notice and nods.
Roswaal: “Yes.”
Roswaal: “She's enviable. Beatrice fulfilled her dearest wish and managed to disappear. That you're
here would meeeeeeeean exactly that, yes?”
Subaru: “Dearest wish... what? That... dying like that, was her dearest wish—you! You're seriously
goddamn saying this!?”
Roswaal: “That would be exactly what Beatrice haaaaaaaad desired. Others have no right to grouse
about it, and nobody is able to deny the values of another. Neither you, nor I, have any pardon to
sully Beatrice's death.”
Tenable words. Sensible logic. No right, and that was truth.

Beatrice and Subaru were strangers, he didn't understand her wish, and he had never possibly
thought in the slightest to attempt to grant it.
But, even so, was Beatrice truly happy with this?
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—If she was, then why at the very end did she protect Subaru?
Roswaal: “Beatrice's wish was granted. For me, that is entirely enviable. —As it appears that my
wish is not going to be granted wiiiiiiiith me.”
Subaru: “—”
There's something offputting about that phrasing.

It's not definite where it is. But it is definitely there.
Subaru: “Your... dearest wish, is...?”
Roswaal: “I cannot say. I am in contract where I cannot say, is the only thiiiiiiiing I can say.
Speaking this much already is pressing the maximum limit of what I can compromise with the
contract. Buuuuuuut, this I can say.”
Subaru: “—”
Roswaal: “I am always, always, always devoting my utmost to fulfilling my wish. Not a single one
of my actions is without purpose oooooooor brings me shame.”
Says Roswaal magnificently.

The bold attitude hits Subaru with a shock. And slowly, inside Subaru a dark, grungy anger boils.
Subaru: “Necessary, you're saying... killing Ram and Garfiel, covering SANCTUARY in snow, all of
it... was necessary, you're saying?”
Roswaal: “Hrm, as for the former... no, that would hamper coooooonversation. As for the latter, you
are exactly correct, is hoooooow I'll be answering.”
Subaru: “Why!!”
Baring his teeth, waving his arms about, Subaru shouts.
Subaru: “Why the fuck are you doing this! Making it snow in SANCTUARY, pissing around to make
the citizens suffer... for what purpose! What is the point in doing this! Go ahead and tell me!
Roswaal!!”
Roswaal: “It's entirely obvious. —To isolate Emilia-sama.”
Subaru: “—Wh, haa?”
Roswaal: “I will repeat. Snow falls and the residents suffer. Emilia-sama is isolated, and she
degenerates into an incredibly unstable mental state. That would be the present situation?”
Says Roswaal as if he's seen it all. Emilia's condition in the tomb is exactly as Roswaal intended.
Subaru has no intentions of nicely conveying this truth to Roswaal. Most importantly, Roswaal's
statements here are the biggest 'I don't understand' yet.
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Roswaal: “This is a witch-related locality, and Emilia-sama is in the middle of taking the TRIAL to
liberate SANCTUARY. Shooooould a natural disaster local to SANCTUARY occur during this... just
how will Emilia-sama be perceived?”
Roswaal: “It's at these junctures that guileless Garfiel is useful. He of anyone would immediately
doubt Emilia-sama, and proponent that distrust loudly. With the volume of his voice, anyone would
think it. —Emilia-sama's actions brought about this disaster.”
Roswaal's readings are correct. Garfiel was dancing right in the palm of his hands.
The foundations for aiming all hostility at Emilia regardless of the presence of SOMEONE ELSE WHO
COULD DO IT were present in this locality, in this world.
That was the demon called prejudice which had tormented Emilia for years.
Roswaal: “What happens with the isolated Emilia-sama? Despite everything, Emilia-sama is truly a
weak person. It would be no mystery if she wished to entrust all her faith to somebody who would
give her approval. And supposing there were some person who also wished to put their everything
into supporting Emilia-sama, perfect.”
Subaru: “Wait... wait.. wait, wait waitwaitwait...”
Subaru holds out his arms, attempting to stop Roswaal's talk.

Right now, it felt he was hearing something unbelievable.
Right now, it felt an outrageous truth was being spoken.
Right now, it felt something he mustn't hear was—
Roswaal: “You cannot distance a dependant Emilia-sama. Of course not, you love her. Should your
loved Emilia-sama entrust everything to you, you cannot dismiss it.”
Subaru: “That—”
Isn't possible.
That should not be possible.
Subaru had just this loop withstood drowning in a clingy Emilia. Withstood it, and came here.
That did not mean he entirely rejected her temptations, whispers of love.
But, knowing that she did not truly mean it, that creeping engrossment was—
Roswaal: “Is not the present, would likely be your answer. To me, that is merely something
unfortunate. There are just a few too many superfluous things with your present self, it'd be then.”
Roswaal takes a single, silent step forth.

His foot lands in the pool of blood, pealing with watery noise. Subaru's body unconsciously freezes.
Subaru clicks his throat at Roswaal's approach.
Subaru: “Thinking to, kill me, then?”
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Roswaal: “Killing would be quiiiiiiiiiite the bloodthirsty thought iiiiiiiindeed. Your dying would be
a terrible predicament. As regardless, I need to have you conduct yooooooooour re-dos.”
Subaru: “Whe—?”
For just an instant Roswaal's words dumbfound Subaru.

But he immediately notices the discrepancy.
Roswaal knows that Subaru can REDO, but not that it is a RETURN BY DEATH which uses DEATH as
the trigger.
Thus, his intention is to corner Subaru until he willingly elects to redo. Although that might come
alongside more agony that just being instantaneously killed.
If Roswaal has no will to kill Subaru, there's a chance.
Subaru: “—Everyone, inside!!”
Raising his arms, Subaru yells.

The instant that Roswaal's brows furrow, the room's doors and windows, as well as those in the
room adjacent and the lounge, simultaneously break. Flying in alongside the frigid wind are small
silhouettes—twenty of them swooping down at once, all pink-haired little girls.
Seeing the assembled line of samefaced girls, Roswaal closes an eye as he looks at Subaru.
Roswaal: “I had thought the command right was in Garfiel's possession?”
Subaru: “I was diving into where you the maybe-mastermind'd be. —Bolstered my playable cards.”
—Leaving the tomb, after his exchange with Garfiel.

Subaru persuaded a Garfiel who had intended to immediately proceed to question Roswaal, went to
the Lewes Crystal, and overtook the command right from Garfiel.
From there he readied the doubles in wait around Roswaal's recuperation hut, prepared for them to
burst in at any moment.
Garfiel's hostage Rem was entrusted to the representative Lewes personality, who brought her to the
cathedral where both the evacuees and residents were taking refuge.
Subaru had conceived everything for Roswaal being the perpetrator.
—Although, he naturally hadn't conceived that Roswaal would kill Garfiel and Ram.
Roswaal: “Now what are you planning to do wiiiiiiiiiith me surrounded?”
Subaru: “That you're that strong barehanded's a surprise, but here you're outnumbered. If you say
Garfiel's transformation's crazy, then numbers'll be tight for you too, though...”
Roswaal's simultaneous piercing of Ram and Garfiel happened because he could not secure victory
in a direct fight with Garfiel. That said he is unmistakably much stronger than Subaru, but—
Subaru: “There's twenty so with that strength we'll subdue. Beat you up, pin you down, and have
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you talking wholesale about everything you're still hiding.”
Roswaal: “Being under conditions yourself, you should know how important uuuuuuupholding a
contract is.”
Subaru: “Bad news, but being that my case's the other guy's just gone off and established it on me,
it's the type where attempts to break it get forcibly punished. That it's not coming now means, I'm in
the safe line!”
With twenty people gathered in the cramped room, the place is packed.
The blankfaced Lewes Meyer doubles follow in accord to Subaru's shout, all with vacant
expressions as they leap at Roswaal.
The most that unarmed Roswaal can combat at once is of course two.
His manipulating of the weather outside backfires on him, and all that's left is for a magic-incapable
Roswaal to be overwhelmed by numbers.
It's a narrow victory, but a confident one. However,
Roswaal: “—While indeed I am outnumbered.”
Subaru: “—”
Roswaal: “Confronting a magician opponent with numbers is quiiiiiiiiite an incredibly foolish

decision.”
Flames race sideways across the room, burning the Lewes Meyer double above its path to nothing.
The wall of fire immolates the small, advancing bodies, scorching them head to toe, turning them to
garbage and hailing them back into mana.
To Subaru's sight, it was like a wave of red light and heat had swept through the room for only an
instant.
Subaru: “You, using magic shouldn't be poss...”
Roswaal: “If I'm manipulating the weather, that is. Uuuuuuunfortunately, I no longer have any
reason briiiiiiiing about snowfall. And so, I'd already stopped a while ago. I will say that I'm sorry
about noooooooot mentioning it.”
Subaru: “Wha—ghhu, gaaeh.”
Roswaal flashes to Subaru's side in his instant of confusion, and grabs his throat. Just where do
those skinny arms keep all that strength as they easily lift Subaru off the ground? Roswaal pitches
the struggling Subaru back and—
Subaru: “Hhgg—”
Subaru crashes back-first through the half-shattered windowpane as he plummets outside the
building. The thrown Subaru lands on the snow, tumbles, bashes against a wall to a stop.
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Subaru spits the muddy snow from his mouth, shaking his head as he looks up.
The remaining doubles quietly follow Roswaal out from the house. Being that they were under no
orders, the doubles are lost on what to do.
But Subaru is also lost on what it is he should tell them.
Roswaal: “This much, and you still haven't REDONE. Ooooor perhaps you already have? Thinking
about it, what happens to my consciousness when the REDO occurs is a complete unknown. This has
become a biiiiiiiiiit of a predicament.”
Walking over to Subaru's side, Roswaal tilts his head.

Amid the pain and choking as he looks up the clown, a sudden question arises on Subaru's tongue.
Subaru: “Rhouz, wahl... you're, asking over and over for me to REDO, but...”
Roswaal: “Hm? You have something important to say? Let's hear, let's hear.”
Subaru: “It's you I've got question with. Acting with presupposition of someone else's REDO, is
insane. ...The truth for you, is also?”
Having means to bring your memories over, perhaps?

It was that way for Echidna in her castle. Perhaps Roswaal also was bringing over memories from
previous worlds where Subaru had RETURNED BY DEATH.
If he wasn't, then Subaru couldn't comprehend his untouchable attitude of desiring a REDO.
Subaru: “If that's right then, fine. But, if it is, then we could...”
Collaborate, couldn't they?

Being that Roswaal's objectives are mysterious and unknown, he has done many unforgivable
things.
Subaru would surely had no intention to forgive him for killing Ram and Garfiel, or for cornering
Emilia. However, Subaru is not blessed enough with conditions where he can rationalize Roswaal's
strength as unneeded. Actually, he is very pressured.
As well be hanged for a sheep than a—or however the saying goes, assuming it applies here, then
Subaru is prepared to be hanged for a sheep.
Roswaal: “—It doesn't appear that wiiiiiiiill be happening.”
But Roswaal snaps Subaru's thin strand of hope with a shake of his head.
Roswaal's gaze has separated from Subaru and his downcast eyes, and his pointing finger—
Roswaal: “Goa.”
—gives rise to a small flame, which sets the region of the forest Roswaal is looking at alight.
Subaru blinks at the sudden act of destruction, the trees creaking and crackling as they burn, when
mixed in with the noise he hears something else.
—That was the death wail of a very, very small animal.
Subaru: “—No, way.”
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Roswaal: “Iiiiiii see. ...So this is how the end comes.”
Springing to his feet and pale-faced, Subaru gazes around the surroundings. Equally while changing
his position on the spot, Roswaal gives multiple sharp clicks of his fingers, each one resulting in the
stench of burning flesh and a shrill animal cry running through SANCTUARY.
When the scorched thing smoulders and drops before his eyes, Subaru understands clearly.
Subaru: “Sizeable, hare...!!”
It's one of the Sizeable Hare.

As the hares begin creeping out from the forest, Roswaal burns them one-by-one with his magic.
Groups of them can come out at once, but they are still Roswaal's prey.
Faced with a multitudinous opponent, Roswaal lacks the combat power to win. Watching on, a
terror grips Subaru's heart and doesn't let go.
He closes his eyes, for the memory of those sharp teeth shredding him to arise.
Having his fingers, body, organs, all consumed was a woeful experience beyond description.
Subaru hears his soul shrieking at the arrival of the offending witchbeast.
Subaru: “But, it's still the fifth day... there should've been over half a day left!”
Roswaal: “It's the snow.”
Subaru: “Snow—!?”
Roswaal: “It was magic enough to disrupt the weather. Naturally, the mana filling the atmosphere is
overwhelming. Further, the snow means everyone in SANCTUARY has gathered in the cathedral. For
a nearby witchbeast, it's an iiiiiiiiiiincredibly visible hunting ground.”
Subaru shivers.
Subaru: “Then...”
Following that logic, the most dangerous place in SANCTUARY right now is,
Subaru: “Th-the cathedral! We have to hurry to the cathedral!”
Roswaal: “It's too late. The instant they appeared before us and our small number, it meant the
arrival of those who had failed to already obtain food. —Eeeeeeeeveryone's gone.”
Subaru: “But! That's where...!”
Rem is.
He had entrusted her Lewes, and she took Rem to the cathedral. With the residents of SANCTUARY
and all the Arlam evacuees, there would be over one hundred people there.
He didn't want to think that en-masse they'd been—
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Subaru: “Roswaal! Truce! Okay, to the cathedral! We'll collect the survivors, find them somewhere
safe to...”
Subaru closes in on Roswaal, grabbing his collar and yelling.

But Roswaal gently pushes Subaru's arms away.
Roswaal: “Flee? Where? There's a barrier. The people of SANCTUARY cannot flee.”
Subaru: “Th-that's...”
Roswaal: “There wasn't enough time, Subaru-kun. The residents cannot exit SANCTUARY if the
TRIAL is not conquered. Meaning, your wish will go ungranted.”
Crushed, Subaru falls rear-first to the snow.

The Lewes doubles crowd around the fallen Subaru, on standby waiting for orders in a rather
humorous scene.
Subaru belatedly notices it.
Notices that Roswaal, who had been burning away all the witchbeasts he spotted, had now
completely stopped the activity.
Subaru: “Rho-Roswaal! If you slack... you couldn'tve, run out of mana...”
Roswaal: “Noooooo, I truly haven't? Since in a sense, my mana is iiiiiiiiinexhaustible. It doesn't run
out so easily. ...What has run out is my reason to live.”
White living fluffballs begin slinking out from the forest.

They leave little tracks in the snow, same white as their fur, as they indeed approach.
Subaru: “E-even saying I can redo, in this fashion... it should be after we've talked more properly!
But maybe you're okay leaving that to the next...”
Roswaal: “It seems you're miiiiiiiiiisunderstanding something, Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “Ah?”
Roswaal: “Even should you redo, I cannot. The present me will not be the me existing beyond your
redo. This is my end. —But, thaaaaaat is fine.”
Roswaal's words strike Subaru dumb.

The redo won't apply to me, is what Roswaal himself had said. Meaning that Roswaal is merely
someone who knows the potentiality that Subaru is RETURNING BY DEATH, and him dying here
would mean the end of this Roswaal's awareness.
He accepts that and furthermore is ordering Subaru to redo. Even though he knows that he will not
exist in what comes after Subaru returns.
That style of thinking was incredibly,
Subaru: “That's not... how humans think.”
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Subaru's consciousness continues. Roswaal is unlike him.

Roswaal's consciousness does not continue. If he dies, that's the end.
Recognizing that end, and accepting it like it were ordinary, was abnormal.
Roswaal: “The time will come when you truly outdistance me, Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “Rhos...”
Roswaal: “Liiiiiisten now, Subaru-kun. —It's what's important. The one single thing which is truly,
truly important to you. Scour everything but that away. Let go of everything except it, and think
only of protecting your single important one to the end.”
Subaru: “—”
Roswaal: “You do that, and—”
Roswaal with his fingered raised for lecture.

At Roswaal's wrist is an approached hare, teeth clamped down. Blood scatters, Roswaal's right arm
is gnashed to bits at the wrist—when other jaws sink their fangs into his elbows, shoulders,
swooping all down his body, alongside noise of ripping flesh.
Subaru: “ROSWAAAAAAL!!”
Roswaal: “—Even you can be like me.”
The body of a hare with its mouth open wide obstructs view of the clown's smile.
A swarm of hares cloaks Roswaal's body entirely. He falls to the ground, giving no resistance as
they devour his flesh. As they devour. Devour.
Blood showers, meat strews, the white snow dyes with crimson. The hares pain to part even with
the crimson snow as they rasp it up too, consuming everything.
Subaru watches simply, silently, as Roswaal becomes nothing.

He watches the being known as Roswaal disappear from the world, ingested.
—He watches.
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CHAPTER 68: TASTE OF DEATH

—Through a world where everything appears twisted, Subaru frantically runs.
Subaru: “—”
He wasn't sane.
He wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane
wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane wasn't sane.
In his head, those words repeat and repeat and repeat.

What appears beneath his eyelids as the words replay is the sight of Roswaal's end, felled by the
fangs of the Hare.
No resistance, accepting his death so easily, without crying out in pain even once at his shredding
flesh, Roswaal allowed his own existence to end.
—Aberrant.
How could this not be called aberrant, and insanity?
If his goal could be achieved in an alternate world, then he was unbothered by his death. Were this a
video game, Subaru might have given the player character's death the same significance.
But, it was reality.
How was it remotely possible, in reality, to entrust your life to a different you?
Roswaal had died to the hares. And his consciousness would not return to the world Subaru would
reach by RETURNING BY DEATH.
Him staking his wishes on RETURN BY DEATH may be the same as Subaru, but the weight of the
levy to get there was overwhelmingly disparate between the two.
Because unlike Subaru, Roswaal could not reclaim the cost.
Subaru: “—eu, gkh,”
He recalls Roswaal's horrendous death as he runs, the nausea plaguing him.

Bile churns, his throat burns with acid. He runs so desperately that even time spent vomiting is a
loss, wandering SANCTUARY in hope of survivors.
—Hell was once again unfolding before Subaru.
The snowing has stopped, but nevertheless howling winds whip through Sanctuary.
Subaru grimaces at the skin-shearing cold as he gazes about the surroundings, to hear animal wails
from all around, near drowned under the wind.
Grinding, grinding, grinding go the serrated teeth, the whole of SANCTUARY besieged alongside
their cries of threat to their victims.
The Sizeable Hare ventures around SANCTUARY in search of prey.

Just how incredible was the hunger, the famine that assaulted them?
Should they sight no prey, and as if finding the time their teeth spent inactive unbearable, they
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would stave their starvation by eating their neighbouring compatriots. A genuine, abominable
monster.
Hearing the grating noise of gnawing teeth, and the twin cannibalistic wails of death and ecstasy,
eats bit by bit by bit away at Subaru's sanity.
Subaru: “—Uawauh!”
Subaru shakes his head to dispel the awful noise, when a hare with jaws open passes over his head.
Tooth and tooth click together wickedly. Having failed to catch prey, the hare pivots around with a
threatening cry.
Immediately, a Lewes double running alongside Subaru slams her heel into the hare's torso,
crushing it. Meat tears and bones rupture, the hare puking its small body's innards out its mouth,
dead.
Exhaling, paying the corpse no mind, Subaru resumes his sprint. The Lewes double also gets her
feet moving to run alongside Subaru.
Behind them, a short distance away, other hares arrive at the corpse of the crushed. Hearing the
noise of the dead body consumed, the bells of ruin inside Subaru ring louder.
Six Lewes doubles remain with Subaru.

Those eleven who had been present after Roswaal died to the hare had had their numbers reduced
by half.
Ordered to PROTECT SUBARU, they would counter-attack the incoming hares or otherwise intercept
to shield him, returning to mana.
On the topic of ordering the doubles to risk their lives, Subaru's thoughts presently had nothing.
Right now all that played on his mind was the safety of Rem at the cathedral, and the presence of
Emilia in the tomb, all other topics abandoned somewhere beyond his considerations.
That seemed the only way he could either affirm his current conduct, and protect his mind.
Subaru: “The, cathedral's!”
As the snow submerges his steps, as he skirts the hare-infested roads, Subaru takes a huge detour
around SANCTUARY to reach the village centre and the cathedral.
In a town devoid any light source, Subaru immediately spots the cathedral.
Of course he would.
—Since amid this world of white, only the cathedral is enveloped in pure-red fire.
Subaru: “—Wh, y?”
Falling to his knees in the snow, Subaru mutters in a hoarse daze.

The crackling of the spreading blaze mingles the sound of snapping wood, Subaru even seeing hares
jumping into the flame like moths with intention to eat the prey inside, burning to nothing.
That they are so desperate to enter the cathedral means something to sate their hunger is inside.
And that those remain inside the flames, would mean that.
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Subaru: “—”
Viewing survival as hopeless, and rather than ending eaten by the hare choosing suicide, is a feeling
Subaru isn't incapable of understanding. Isn't incapable, but...
Subaru: “Even so, resisting to the end...”
Fighting, going to the very very end without giving up on living, is what I wanted of you, would be
quite the unfeeling words.
Both Roswaal and the people of SANCTUARY had been treating their lives with excessive neglect.
He himself had received that same criticism, thinking his thoughts reasonable—and forgotten the
fact. Subaru covers his face, spilling tears.
Neither Roswaal nor Subaru were, for the citizens of the despair-entrenched SANCTUARY or the
Arlam evacuees, presences who inspired will to resist until the absolute end while awaiting rescue.
Had Subaru built up the trust, they surely would have fought until the very end without abandoning
life. —Once again was everything on Subaru's responsibility, and Subaru's wrongdoing.
Subaru: “But, has Rem alone...”
been saved? thinks Subaru, putting serial order on the value of life in an act of considerable hubris
and pride.
Mentally, Subaru calls out to the double he had instructed to take Rem to the Cathedral—the main
Lewes. But, he finds no conspicuous reaction suggesting that she heard it.
—Rem was inside that cathedral fire.

Even saying hypothetically that they escaped, the thought that Lewes could singlehandedly evade
the Hare while protecting Rem was not one Subaru's brain was overoptimistic enough to have.
He bites on his molars hard. Tastes blood.

Biting on the taste of blood, biting in the rising bitterness, on his decision does Subaru bite down.
—He should have understood fully that this world was already done for, yet with repeated failures
to forsake it, he had wound up here.
Now should be, truly, about time to give up.
Subaru: “—”
He knows the famished monster is approaching.

The hares, who had abandoned the prospect of devouring any prey in the burnt cathedral, had
noticed the presence of kneeling Subaru and the Lewes doubles surrounding him.
Standing up, brushing off the snow, Subaru gives a deep exhale.
He does not notice the feeling of the tears on his cheeks. So, he does not wipe them away.
Subaru: “Emilia...”
This world was ending.
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Even saying it hadn't ended, Subaru would make it end.
The people he wished to be with, to spend time with, none of which he had saved in this world—for
the end, he would at least like to be at the dear girl's side.
Subaru: “Risk yourselves, protect me. —Once we reach the tomb, do whatever you want.”
Reports Subaru emotionlessly to the remaining six doubles, taking one step to flee from the mob of
enclosing hares, another step—and running.
Sensing their prey's intention to escape, the hares raise a voiceless cry as slobbering they follow
Subaru's snowy footprints.
Lewes: “—”
Two Lewes doubles strike right at the moment of the hurtling hares' launch.
The sound of death wails and crushed flesh echoes, ending with further numbers of hares swarming
the doubles.
An instant has the two cloaked entirely in white fur, and the fallen doubles—sustain fatal wounds,
their small bodies transforming into a torrent of blueish light.
Their final attack with their disappearance—an explosion of mana—catches the consuming hares,
radiance dancing through the night sky of SANCTUARY.
Feeling the doubles' final burst of brilliance on his skin behind him, Subaru shakes his head to
dispel those what he deserted, grits his teeth, and runs for the tomb.
—Continuously, runs.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
By the time Subaru reaches the tomb, his body no longer perceives the cold.
Snow hazes his vision, and his eyelashes could be about frozen, but as he spills the white breaths
from his trembling lips, Subaru pays none of it mind.
The only thing his dull, leaden thoughts envision is a single and solitary girl.
His footsteps ring off the stone corridor, heading for the depths.
In the TRIAL room, a girl will be waiting for him.
He discovers the open space, when a silver bell calls his name.
Yet attracted by its chime he directs his course, entering the room. Seeing him, the person standing
there speaks with full delight.
Emilia: “Then it was you, Subaru! Gosh, just where'd you go? I was worried.”
Says Emilia as she darts over to take Subaru's hand.
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Pouting, Emilia cradles Subaru's hand to her breast, transferring him her tender warmth as she looks
up.
Emilia: “...Are you tired?”
Subaru: “Yeah... might, little bit... tired.”
Emilia: “Heehee, right. Ok then, ok then.”
Emilia laughs, her cheeks dying red.

Still holding Subaru's hand, she sits down on the spot. She folds her legs beneath each other,
splaying her shins out to the side, pulling a half-crouched Subaru in closer.
Emilia: “Now, here you go, Subaru.”
Subaru: “...A, lap pillow.”
Emilia: “Yes. Subaru, you like my lap pillows, don't you? You said so. I remember these things
juuust right. Here, aaall yours.”
Smiling in proud embarrassment, Emilia slaps at her lap. Subaru kneels down, indulging her
invitation as he settles his head on her soft thighs.
His short hair brushing against her supple skin does provoke a provocative “Nnhm,” from Emilia,
but she immediately gets to stroking his head in practised form.
Emilia: “What number are we up to for me giving you a lap pillow?”
Subaru: “Dunno. ...Third, maybe. Somehow always, when I'm drained ragged.”
Emilia: “I have fun fiddling around with like, your hair, or your face, though. Liiike, fiddlefiddle.”
Pulling his bangs, poking his cheeks, having a happy Emilia doing this to him, is Subaru.
That she is expressing her love does communicate, so no urge to push her fingers away boils up in
the least.
A world already ending—for now, he desired to drown in Emilia's love.
—Because he had already lost the majority of his blood and viscera.
The goriness of Subaru's current state would make anyone normal want to look away.
His back bathed in fangs, with bone probably visible beneath his clothes. Incredible loads of blood
spill from his ravaged thighs, and with his efforts in swatting away oncoming hares his defingered
right hand remains only with its thumb.
His arrival here amid his foggy consciousness was perhaps the sardonic result of delusional
tenacity, and the freezing cold's numbing of his metabolism.
Emilia: “Subaru, did you get a little lighter?”
Subaru: “I'm trying the shed-blood diet. It's... ballast style, dump the weight, unload more, kinda,
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like that...”
Emilia: “I don't understand what you're saying, but you did something crazy for someone else again,
didn't you? That's the kind of person you are, Subaru. I understand, but... I'm sooo, worried.”
Emilia: “The truth is, I only want you to do that, for me. But, I know that's being selfish, and a
Subaru who acts like he doesn't see other people for me, isn't something I want to see maybe.
...That's also me being selfish, I'm sorry.”
Emilia's voice is growing distant.

Unlike the chill outside, the tomb interior maintains some normal level of warmth. This ironically
elevates Subaru's metabolism back to normal levels, his sluggish bloodflow now resuming to a
stream.
The stone floor dyes red with fresh blood, which further spews out Subaru's mouth alongside every
cough.
Sanguine spatter mottles Emilia's white cheeks. But—
Emilia: “Are you listening, Subaru? I want to talk and hear about so many, so many, sooo many
things. Please, come on. Be with me. Hear my voice. Say something, please?”
—Emilia pays no mind to the bloodspatter on her cheek.

Or no, she hasn't even noticed it. Her amethyst eyes indeed look upon Subaru, indeed reflect him—
but, they do not accept reality as it is.
When Subaru returned from the mansion, he had been subject to near-torture by Elsa and covered in
injury. Getting dragged to the tomb by Garfiel likely worsened the awfulness of his appearance.
But Emilia hadn't noticed Subaru's wounds, or worried about them.
Faced with a Subaru eaten by hares and missing various pieces, she responds identically.
Emilia was not presently seeing reality.

And perhaps Subaru was the same.
Subaru: “—”
What Subaru truly needed to be doing was warning Emilia of the danger and getting her away from
this place.
The Sizeable Hare has already swarmed the outside of the tomb, and soon will likely surge inside.
In which case Emilia has not a hope of resistance.
Like Roswaal, like the villagers and their suicide in fire, Emilia too would no longer avoid a
gruesome death.
Subaru knows this, but still is incapable of warning Emilia.
From his self-centred wish to—life soon to depart—meet the end of his time at Emilia's side, he is
incapable of escaping.
His regret for allowing Ram and Garfiel to die, Roswaal's words and grisly death, the flux in the
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loss of Petra and Frederica, his sense of powerlessness for failing to save Rem and Beatrice, all
overwhelm Subaru.
Pain, and even the terror of death, don't matter a damn any more.
—All he simply wanted was to vanish from this world.
Subaru's indolent, selfish wish would come true.

The world begins to cloud, his consciousness and soul gradually growing distant from this place.
Strength leaves his limbs, sensation disappears from his near-wholly departed flesh.
What stays there, stays behind there, unaware of Subaru's departure, is only Emilia.
Subaru: “—”
So, he was leaving Emilia behind?

Able only to rely on Subaru, having lost every single other thing and person to depend on, even her
one point of dependability, Subaru, was leaving her behind?
Subaru: “a—”
The regret arrives far too late. Absolutely everything is incorrigibly belated.
Saying nothing, the life vanishes from his eyes.
Emilia goes without noticing it, merely tilting her head cutely at the quietened Subaru.
And she smiles, drawing her face near—
Emilia: “Subaru—”
Subaru: “—”
She has the silent Subaru, and kisses him.
—His first kiss tasted of DEATH, cold.
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CHAPTER 69: LIAR

The hard ground is predictably cold as it drags Subaru's consciousness into sobriety.
Prone, Subaru opens his eyes as he uprights himself and spits the gravelly shit and musty saliva out
of his mouth. He looks about the surroundings, to find himself in a dim kind of darkness.
—It's the TRIAL room of the tomb.
Subaru's world begins in the same spot that it ended.

While relieved that he managed to come back, the entrapping feeling of facing a world which might
again be hell attempts to constrict Subaru.
At these portentous and uninspiring thoughts, Subaru shakes his head in refusal.
He stands up, brushes the dirt off him, and slowly looks around the area—collapsed in a corner of
the room, he finds Emilia.
Subaru: “...”
Subaru calls out and hurries over to her—or intends to, when he hesitates.
What skims through his mind is what happened before his return—Emilia, with a departing Subaru
on her lap, oblivious to his expiration as she shared with him a kiss.
Subaru's fingers touch his lips, dry, as he furrows his brows.

With how he'd been puking blood, Subaru's face should have been pretty filthy at the end. There
was no way he could've attempted to understand Emilia's mental state in that kiss, but it was surely
nothing to leave behind good memories.
It was identical for the Subaru at death's door, for while he could reflect on the happening itself, he
could manage no recollection of the physical sensation or his mentality at the time.
Subaru's very first kiss, and also his first kiss with Emilia, had been obstructed by the transience of
DEATH and left absolutely no notable emotion.
Subaru: “—”
Though, Subaru did not necessarily regret that fact.

His reflections on the kiss were no act of reminiscence, as his thoughts were more greatly
concerned with the danger he felt about that Emilia. —The dependant-on-Subaru, fled-from-reality
Emilia.
Puck wasn't showing himself, she buckled beneath the pressure from the villagers and SANCTUARY
residents, and she even lost her support known as Subaru. Emilia's mind was broken.
If that Emilia was the outcome of all this, then what had happened to Emilia during all the loops
previous?
Subaru: “...”
Subaru has left SANCTUARY to visit the mansion four times now. Only in the last loop did he
manage to return for a reunion with her—for the other three times, what had happened to Emilia?
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In each of those times, the Sizeable Hare would have already attacked SANCTUARY.
Even assuming that Emilia maintained a stable mental state, an inability on her part to combat the
witchbeast was surmisable. But, what happened to her mind?
Subaru: “Like there's any fucking 'what happened'... If that's how she turns out when I'm gone, I
have to stay around...”
There is nothing in this situation to inspire optimism.

He could impose on the future, and distract himself from what was happening, but only pointlessly.
For the sake of grasping the optimum future, he must always proceed while supposing the worst
future.
The world would prepare what was for Subaru the cruellest, most unreasonable fate.
If so, then naturally the problems of Emilia, Beatrice, Elsa and Roswaal, would all arranged in the
most difficult format for Subaru.
Subaru: “What, I have to do is...”
Save Emilia's mind, save SANCTUARY's people from the Sizeable Hare, save his buddies in the
mansion from Elsa. —Rather the precipitous path.
—Could he do it?
The question comes from inside him, as the weak him prepares escape routes, excuses, safeguards.
—There isn't any can or can't do, all there is is to do it.

Subaru bares his teeth at that weak him, stating his resolve so as not to back out of his pledge.
He just had to try as many times he needed to pick out the obstacles, clarify the win conditions,
assemble a chronology, and discern what was the best usage of his time.
Even should Subaru's heart abrade with each failure, if doing it would give him a future to grasp,
then that was gratification. Even saying hypothetically, that it meant he'd experience things he'd
rather not.
And so—
Subaru: “—Emilia. Are you okay?”
He reaches out, jostling the shoulder of the fallen, lovely girl.

Her eyelids tremble at Subaru's touch, and Emilia's consciousness returns from the TRIAL to reality.
Her eyes open, their amethyst gleam reflect Subaru, tears arise within seconds, and rejecting her
past Emilia clings to Subaru.
Returning the support-craving Emilia embrace, pledging in words to become her support, Subaru
further in his heart vows firm pledges.
—He'll protect Emilia entirely, and save absolutely everyone.

And it'd be no other than him. Because this was what Natsuki Subaru needed to do.
185
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru gets to organizing the chaotic information from the lend of last loop.
The most important info was probably the stuff relating to Roswaal L. Mathers.
Roswaal knew about Subaru's RETURN BY DEATH.

While his knowledge wasn't extensive enough to know that DEATH was the trigger, he was aware
that Subaru was REDOING.
Subaru can't tell whether he found out after coming to SANCTUARY, or whether he's known since
some time earlier, but most likely the information had been writ in Roswaal's gospel.
Subaru had not managed to collect Roswaal's gospel last loop.

Assuming it had been on Roswaal's person, it would've wound up alongside Roswaal inside the
Sizeable Hare's stomach. And even had it been inside the recuperation hut, Subaru had not been left
with the mental reserves to go blasting in to check.
Thus, he could not get his nosy nose in deep enough to read the text of the gospel.
—What was Roswaal's goal here, ultimately?
If it was to act in accordance with the gospel's writ, then what reason was there for him to abandon
his life at the end? —The answer to that, too, was probably in the gospel's text.
Most likely, Roswaal was putting his life on the line to adhere to the gospel's writ.
While Subaru doesn't know just what form the writ of Roswaal's gospel takes, most likely it is
identical to Betelgeux's in being a signpost to reach the desired future.
Should circumstances deviate from the cult gospels' writ, Betelgeux could to a certain extent use his
own judgement to interpret the text, and strive to ultimately reach a coherence.
This differs from Roswaal's case.
Capable of acting with REDOS in mind, should a future deviating from the writ visit Roswaal, he
would expend his own life to make that incorrect timespan a non-occurence.
Betelgeux, who played by ear to deal with deviations to the writ.

Roswaal, who permitted no deviation to the writ, and strived to protect its writings as definite.
Both shared the status of being troublesome opponents who owned gospels, and their motivations to
actualize their gospels' texts were identical, but their stances in approach were entirely different.
Between Betelgeux's manner of reliance, and Roswaal's manner of reliance, Subaru inevitably finds
Roswaal's as being the worse.
—The issue here is the text of Roswaal's gospel.
If it's written so far as the conclusions to the issues confronting SANCTUARY and the mansion, then
disaster is going to unfold countless times before reaching Roswaal's desired outcome.
The snow in SANCTUARY last loop was probably an action Roswaal took to actualize the gospel's
writ. Meaning, that snow was an event that should be coming every loop.
That Subaru hadn't encountered it before was because he had never managed to return to
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SANCTUARY after leaving to visit the mansion.
Roswaal's snowfall in SANCTUARY was a means to isolate Emilia.
What on earth was the meaning of doing this?

The unbearable pressure on Emilia should've been more than enough to torment her, even without
this roundabout tomfoolery. With her strong sense of responsibility, Emilia would well perceive the
expectations of those around her. While bracing herself against her feelings of anxiety and
powerlessness, she would repeatedly challenge the TRIAL.
And it all goes on, to the point that should Subaru not be around to be her prop, she loses her
foundational supports and goes bonkers.
Making Emilia go bonkers is probably Roswaal's intention.

But if Emilia should stop acting FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S SAKE, SANCTUARY will not be freed.
SANCTUARY not being freed means there is no option of escape in response to the coming Hare.
There are many contradictions between Roswaal's actions and his attitude toward Emilia.
And most important were the words Roswaal spoke at the end, before being eaten.
—Scour away everything except what is truly most important to you.
Do that, and you will be like me.
Leaving aside whether Subaru wanted to be like Roswaal, probing into the underlying implications
of that statement would mean: Roswaal had scoured away everything except that important to him,
and now stood there.
His resolve was strong enough that he had freely sacrificed his life—there is probably no room for
doubt on this.
If Roswaal forces compliance to the writ, drives Emilia into isolation, and secures his desired state
of affairs, he'll acquire that one and single important thing of his or whatever the fuck.
Otherwise, what was the real motive behind him announcing those words to Subaru?
Regardless—
Subaru: “Letting go's a no fucking thanks.”
Emilia was important.

But of course, those Subaru wished to protect and wished to have at his side were many and many
more in number, too numerous for him to count.
Should there be a single loss in Subaru's constrained world, it would forever turn colourless.
Greedy and self-centered, Subaru could almost certainly not withstand that.
And so, he could not comply with Roswaal's words.
Subaru: “Roswaal, I—am not, going to be like you.”
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※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru comforts a crying Emilia until she falls asleep, takes her along and exits the tomb.
Things go as usual with everyone being surprised at Emilia's situation and failing of the TRIAL, and
first wanting to switch settings to Lewes' house to get Emilia in bed.
Along the way there was a little chapter where Garfiel's atmospheric considerations and put-on
cheeriness conversely felt painfully pathetic, and Subaru noticed Lewes' meaningful gaze on him,
but he didn't mention either topic.
The first one he had purposefully not referenced for the sake of confirming something.
As for the second, Subaru already sort of knew what the meaning behind that gaze was.
Garfiel: “'M gonna be borrowin' yer fer a bit.”
They entrust sleeping Emilia to Ram, and just after everyone leaves for the night, Garfiel calls
Subaru to a stop. Having anticipated this, Subaru responds with obedient affirmation as he follows
behind the shorter guy, heading into the forest outside SANCTUARY.
Subaru can't determine whether the spot Garfiel leads him to is the same one as last time, but he
does deduce that Garfiel's expression as he looks at Subaru is indeed exactly identical.
Eyes blazing, Garfiel glares at Subaru.

Clearly different from his attitude after leaving the tomb, and obviously hostile toward Subaru.
Naturally, the first question out his mouth will be—
Garfiel: “Yer bas...”

Subaru: “You bastard, what did you see in the tomb... yeah?”
His nose scrunches and a vein bulges from his forehead, when the very words he was about to speak
get thrown right back at him. Garfiel's eyes widen.
When his expression shows he's been caught off guard, it does away with his more severe
impression, letting a kind of puerility peek though. Mysterious.
Garfiel immediately shakes his head at Subaru and his one shut eye, clicking his fangs to compose
himself.
Garfiel: “'S creepy, but if yer know what's up 's makes things go quick. No hidin' nothin', n' speak
everythin' honest. If yer don't wanna be havin' a bad time, that is.”
Subaru: “Yeah. I've got lots of things I wanna check too, busy guy I am. —I'm fine with answering
your questions, but can I be getting my questions answered here, too?”
Garfiel: “D'yer ser'sly think yer in any position t'bargain 'bout anythin'? My amazin' self's in
th'position of eatin' yer whole, and yer in th'position of throwin' out meat that ain't you t'keep from
gettin' eaten. 'S a MEE-JEE LOSES BROTHER OLD, PUTS BROTHER YOUNG TO FORE.”
Subaru: “Out of all the sayings you've said, there's the nastiest one, right there.”
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Shrugging, Subaru lowers his gaze and elects for silence.

Garfiel might be impatient, but he's still not rushing Subaru. Subaru takes a deep breath, deciding
how he should answer.
Subaru: “Inside I took the TRIAL. I saw my past.”
Garfiel: “—! So y'did have th'fucking qualifications... Then, yr'results're...”
Subaru: “Failed. Accepting or denying your past isn't something you can just do that easily. ...I
mean with Emilia, it'll be the same thing.”
Half-truth, half-lie, Garfiel's reactions to each peek through.

Garfiel's face pales in hearing that Subaru took the TRIAL, but after learning that it didn't amount to
success he slumps his shoulders, eased.
Subaru: “Well you sure look pretty fucking relieved.”
Garfiel: “Eh?”
Subaru: “I am thinking, he sure accepted Emilia's failure, and accepted that SANCTUARY will not be
freed, while looking pretty fucking happy about it.”
Brows furrowed, Garfiel gives a sniff as if starting to catch on. He stoops his posture slightly,
glaring up at Subaru.
Garfiel: “Y'bastard, what 'n yr'past... no, what n'th'TRIAL did yer fuckin' hear?”
Subaru: “SANCTUARY's background, some of the underlying circumstances. Also, about you and
Lewes-san, I guess.”
Garfiel: “—! No, w... you, my...”
...past is something you know, is what Garfiel's probably going to continue with. Subaru cuts him
off by shaking his head.
Subaru: “I've got no clue what you saw in your past. Do have an idea why you're keeping quiet
about having taken the TRIAL though.”
Garfiel: “...T'already know this much.”
Subaru: “This's coming with my speculations too.” something something you're cool to get mad
because it's meanie speculation.
In this world, Subaru and Garfiel have only known each other for one day.
The majority of the information Subaru would acquire by interacting with Garfiel was really not
anything he should be getting to hear yet.
The same goes for information about the legitimate Lewes Meyer, sleeping in the experiment site.
189
Thus Subaru was attempting to get through this by saying he had opportunity to learn these things
in the tomb, handily utilizing the TRIAL and hinting at Echidna's existence.
Subaru couldn't think of any new information he would acquire or new actions he would take as a
result of this conversation with Garfiel.
Right now all he wanted as for this talk to be over.
But—
Subaru: “—Y'know, why won't you reattempt the TRIAL?”
Garfiel: “—”
Garfiel tilts down his head, with no intention of showing Subaru his expression.
His arms dangle at his sides, his wary posture loose and without strength.
And so Subaru judges that no immediate attack is coming.
Subaru: “I really have to feel there's no consistency with you. You pressure Emilia for her to free
SANCTUARY, and then you're fucking relieved when she fails. But that said, if you're sincerely trying
to blockade SANCTUARY's freedom, your methods are half-measures.”
If he wasn't ultimately considering the consequences, Garfiel could just shapeshift into beast form
and kill Subaru and Emilia.
The sentiments of the evacuees and Roswaal and the others would of course plummet, but if
Garfiel's goal was truly to hinder SANCTUARY's freedom, then this method would be reliable and
quick.
But still, until things hit their absolute last moment of being dicey for Garfiel—until Subaru crosses
the line of having the evacuees escape SANCTUARY or some other similar thing—he doesn't do it.
—There is still some boundary line inside Garfiel that Subaru doesn't know.
Subaru: “I'm thinking to hopefully get your help.”
Garfiel: “—Do, n't say th's stupid crap.”
Garfiel raises his head, his usual vigour completely absent from his face as he shakes his head.
Garfiel: “Just like yer said, me and you ain't got int'rests that align. My amazin' self ain't actively
gettin' in yer way, but I ain't actively helpin' either. 'M neutral. Neutral, 's fine.”
Subaru: “You do realise that how that position crazy doesn't suit you?”
Garfiel: “It ain't a thing of suit'n er not suitin'. 'S necessary so it's what I do.”
Garfiel annoyedly kicks at the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust as he turns his back to Subaru.
Garfiel: “'F th'half-witch beats th'TRIAL th'n that's that. My amazin' self does understand what with
yer bein' caught inside, you have to beat th'TRIAL if yer gonna get out. —But, th'question of whether
I'm leavin' th'opened SANCTUARY's entirely somethin' else.”
190
Garfiel: “If yer gonna leave, go ahead'n get out. But don't yer try doin' anything here. Don't
tresspass into our shit any more th'n yer already fuckin' have. Y'stay by that, and my amazin' self
ain't doin' anything.”
Subaru: “Even if I told you that outside, your help is necessary?”
Garfiel: “...Yer lot couldn't possibly give what my amazin' self's after. N'here's where th'talk with
me ends. Make sure t'pull no goddamn meddling.”
Ultimately not listening to Subaru's objections, but still rather rational in his conversation, Garfiel
leaves the scene.
Garfiel's shown strong rejection in his talks with Subaru up until now, but this time alone he didn't
flip out.
Just where did the difference, and his motives lie?
Subaru: “I've got mountains of things to think over... but,”
Sticking his finger in his black hair, the complicated load of information in his head leads Subaru to
stop mulling over it.
Although he'd love to sort it, organize it, arrange it, and have it lead to an answer.
Subaru: “This included, thinking over everything alone's gonna get me nowhere.”
Should Natsuki Subaru stray inside the labyrinth of thought, he would again be caught in a spiral of
negativity. To prevent that from happening, what Subaru needed now was—
Subaru: “Guess it's time to rely on you again...”
The single person in the world to whom Subaru could reveal his worries, and their thoughts.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
As if spurred by some unassailable emotion, Subaru's feet hasten.
After parting with Garfiel, Subaru's walk immediately shifts into a dash.
Breath ragged, brow sweaty, pupils wavering, Subaru runs.
His destination is only, visible under the moonlight, the tomb's inside.
It's after that last conversation.

Having stated he would not interfere with Subaru's actions, Garfiel presents no obstruction.
There is no one to rebuke Subaru as he speeds again for the inside of the tomb.
Having reached the entryway, Subaru stops still as his sleeve rigorously wipes away the sweat.
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He takes deep breath after deep breath to settle his winded panting, facing forward as he peers into
the darkness of the tomb.
What he has business with is inside—the abyssal castle in a dream, Echidna's realm.
Subaru: “If you wish... that you want to know...”
You'll be invited in, the white-haired witch had explained to Subaru.

With his attitude clinging and reliant, Subaru came here trusting in that statement.
The things he wanted to ask, wanted to talk about, wanted to deliberate about together, wanted help
to reach an answer for, were numerous enough to be a mountain.
Those things he could only reveal to the Witch of Greed, he wished to reveal to be given a way.
What he needed to do, and what he wanted to do coincided.

Now all he wanted was a method to actualise it, acquired by process other than deliberating over it
alone.
Subaru: “—”
Going to Echidna's castle, spewing all his doubts and worries to her, clinging to her kindness, did
make Subaru feel somewhat pathetic.
The possibility that revealing everything to Echidna would break the prohibition, and again drown
SANCTUARY in Envy's shadows, did prompt his legs to tremble.
But regardless, Subaru had hope.
That the Witch's guidance would be the clue to breaking through this impenetrable dead-end of fate.
Subaru: “Right now... I should be meeting the requirements.”
He was this lost on what to do.

He was this willing to do anything he could.
If the present Subaru was no desiring, wanting Apostle of Greed, then what was he?
Innumerable times would he freely surrender his life. If sacrificing his pride was all it took to settle
this, then he would relinquish it.
Because the shameful, pathetic, impotent and ignorant Natsuki Subaru, could manage no better than
this.
Subaru: “Counting on you, Echidna!”
Steadying his breathing, Subaru silently motivates himself to finally take the first step into the
tomb.
Having already accepted him as a challenger once tonight, he enters the space for conducting the
TRIAL—and gazing over the room, proceeds towards its centre.
Subaru: “Really winging it on what spot and what formalities it needs, but...”
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The second time Subaru was invited to the dream, other than frantically desiring an answer, he
should have been in the same prone posture he had right after RETURNING BY DEATH.
It doesn't seem there are any notable, dedicatory kinds of requirements.
Either way, Subaru kneels down on the spot with his hands linked and eyes shut.
In his mind he envisions the white witch, calling out to her with enumerations of his emotions.
Subaru: “—”
It continues, the time passing as Subaru waits in silence.

He can feel the tomb's cold air caressing his skin, yet regardless also feels the sticky, cold sweat on
his brow.
He desired. Desperately.
He wanted. Earnestly.
If he wanted this much, desired this much, yet still wasn't achieving it, then.
—Greed perhaps meant an avarice far too immense for human capacities.
Subaru: “—u?”
Just before the faintheartedness can sink in is when the darkness beneath Subaru's eyelids abruptly
seems to glow with encroaching white. —Actually no, that isn't a 'seems'.
Subaru: “—”
The white light assaults his vision, steadily and steadily consuming the pitch-dark world.
Before he knows it his kneeling body now lies on its side, and he feels his consciousness estranging
from reality as it is pulled into another world.
—The invitation to the castle in a dream has begun.
To the castle where Echidna awaits, where this time truly, he wishes to hold a conversation for the
purpose of grasping the future.
Amid a hazing consciousness, on only that one single thing does Subaru brood.
<—Witness the uncomeatable present.>
The moment he falls unconscious, he could feel that he heard this.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
A grogginess jolts Subaru's nerves.
He doesn't know what happened.
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The sobering of his consciousness hits suddenly. Almost as if switching a television channel.
Dragged along by the tumult of changing from one channel to one completely different, Subaru's
awareness switches.
Subaru feels a sensation reminiscent of this right after RETURNING BY DEATH.
The discrepancy between the grisliness of the world where he dies, and the conditions he reaches
after RETURNING BY DEATH, is something which carves a sense of awriness into his consciousness,
his body, and of course even his soul.
Subaru: <—>
In attempting to speak, Subaru realises that he cannot.

He tries to put his hands his his throat, to belatedly notice that he lacks the sensation of having
either a throat or hands.
Subaru: <—?>
Neither arms nor legs, eyes nor mouth, nor even a body exist for the present Subaru.
His consciousness alone floats in space, looking panoramic down at the world, as if he had become
only a single point of vision.
It was an unnatural feeling, like being in a dream without any physical flesh.
That he regardless feels this is not the first time he's been in this state is perhaps exactly because the
sensation is much like that of dreaming.
That manner of thought leads Natsuki Subaru to try disconnecting his perceptions from the scene
before him.
However, this is impossible.
Disembodied Subaru is not permitted to turn his head, nor close his eyes.
All he can do is watch—watch this scene before him, forcibly burned into his awareness.
???: “—ar.”
The voice is hoarse, and quiet.

So frail, that it's difficult to make out what it's saying.
However,
Subaru: <—>
He intuitively perceives.
This is Bad, senses Subaru's instinct.
That was a voice he must not hear.

This was a thing he must not notice.
In there was a matter which he must not know.
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But no matter how hard he thinks this, the scenery before him remains unchanging. It won't even
disappear for him. It merely forces that CONSEQUENCE on Subaru, engraving it in him.
???: “Liar... liar, liar liar liar liar liar liar...”
The word takes definite form as it repeats, teariness joining the unending murmur.
It's a painful scene. Packed with too much grief to deafen out. Watching this, hearing this, was the
absolute in suffering.
Subaru: <—>
Why was he here?

Why did he have to notice this?
He erred. He messed up. He blundered in judgement. He ought not have noticed. He ought not have
known. He ought not have been informed.
—Should he not think otherwise, then, he.
???: “Liar, you liar! Subaru, you... liaaAARR! LIARRRRRR!!”
A torrent of tears streaming from her amethyst eyes, Emilia screams.

As if accusing a betrayer, as if rejecting the nightmare before her, dishevelling her hair as if a child,
Emilia screams as if in frenzy.
—In front of Rem lying on the bed, with a dagger jutting from its throat in suicide, before a hysteric
Emilia there lies Subaru's corpse.
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CHAPTER 70: WHAT COMES AFTER HELL

—What on earth was he watching here?
Subaru: <—>
Screaming shrill as she cries Subaru's name is Emilia.

And leaned face-down on the bed is Subaru's body, devoid of strength, its snap-open eyes barren of
life.
Naturally. With its throat wrecked by a dagger, and with that much bloodshed, it couldn't possibly
be alive.
This was the rare experience of looking down at your own corpse and death.
It was as if he had exited his dead body as a ghost and been made to watch the following spectacle,
this twisted sensation.
While the majority of that sensation was inaccurate, the fundamental part was not.
—What Subaru was being shown was unmistakably the scene after his death.
Subaru: <—>
The room's furnishings, the people present here, and the atrocious form of his dead self.
Putting these together, Subaru realises just what scene he is being shown here.
This was after subjugating Cardinal of Sin Betelgeux Romanée-Conti and saving Emilia, when he
first learned of Rem's forfeiture, and the results of his impulsive deed.
Subaru had been overjoyed, felling the White Whale, repelling Sloth, saving Emilia and the Arlam
Villagers. But learning immediately after that Rem was gone had sent him plummeting into the pit
of the Abyss.
He sped in the carriage to reach the Royal Capital—where at Crusch Karsten's manor, after seeing
the sleeping Rem, then confirming that her consciousness was absent and nobody remembered her,
Subaru instantly committed suicide by stabbing himself through the throat.
It was a knee-jerk reaction, with not a single moment of deep consideration put into it.
He had merely done it to reject the scene before him. Done it to take back what had been lost,
clinging to RETURN BY DEATH in an attempted to redo the past.
—However, his rash deed came to no success. The place he returned to after suicide was
immediately before he stabbed his neck, already after reuniting with the sleeping Rem.
RETURN BY DEATH's save point had updated.

Heartlessly it stole Subaru's means of recovering Rem, again sending Subaru plummeting into the
depths of despondency and despair.
He afterwards firmed his resolve to recover Rem, pledging for her reawakening and now somehow
managing to keep standing, but—
Subaru: <This isn't, about me. ...This doesn't have anything to do with me. I don't know this... I
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couldn't know anything about this!>
He has never seen this scene before.

Well of course. Subaru had already died in this universe.
Even Subaru, who possessed means to return to the world after losing his life, did not comprehend
what happened to worlds after he died. Or no, could not comprehend.
It was not until this moment that he had ever recognized it.
For a Subaru who had died and then returned to walk along different path, successfully evading a
dead-end world, said world could bring him no information except WHY DID HE DIE. Nothing more
than a crossing point.
Determining these world as checkpoints for reaching his ultimately desired future, and having
decided to utilize RETURN BY DEATH, he had regarded even the present world as no more than a
waypoint.
Now—that was crumbling.
Subaru: <Stop. Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it please stop!>
Rejecting the scene before him, Subaru shrieks in silent voice.

But without a throat he produces no sound, he has no hope of averting his eyeless gaze, and he
cannot cover his non-existent ears. Into Subaru the world proceeds to engrave these consequences.
—Punishment, for the careless deed he committed.
???: “Emilia-sama, what—!”
Hearing Emilia's wails, a new character steps into the horrendous scene.
A fresh butler outfit garbs his toned body, his stride giving no indication of the injuries on this old
man—Wilhelm.
He swoops into the room, unwittingly falling silent at the sight before him.
—So even the Sword Demon Wilhelm makes faces that utterly dumbfounded.
Seeing Wilhelm from straight-on, Subaru gets hit with that out-of-place thought.
That was how much Wilhelm's expression in seeing Subaru's cadaver deviated from usual, unable to
conceal his shock.
Wilhelm: “What in the world has... no, presently... Subaru-dono!”
But Wilhelm's disarray only lasts an instant.

He shakes his head to promptly suppress his bafflement as he dashes to the crumpled Subaru's side.
Emilia remains clinging to the limp body, oblivious to Wilhelm.
Emilia: “Subaru... Subaru... you, liar... you said we'd, be toge, ther...”
Wilhelm: “Emilia-sama, I beg your forgiveness—!”
Emilia condemns Subaru's betrayal like a curse, when Wilhelm pushes her aside and away from the
corpse. Without anything supporting her body she hits the floor, but Wilhelm redirects his instant of
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attention toward Emilia back to Subaru, wet with fresh and incredible bloodstains as Wilhelm
begins resuscitating him.
Wilhelm: “—”
Expression grave, Wilhelm sheds his jacket, using it to cover Subaru's throat as he unhesitatingly
yanks out the dagger. Blood spouts to muddy Wilhelm's wicked visage, but he goes without even
blinking as he immediately plugs the wound.
The bleeding stopped, Wilhelm presses down on Subaru's stilled chest, stimulating his heart.
Wilhelm: “Felis! Felix! Come quickly!! Emergency! Hurry!!”
Aiming his roars outside the room, Wilhelm applies pressure to Subaru's wound as he continues the
resuscitation effort. However, the volume of shed blood is incredibly great. His limbs and face
absent of colour, that Natsuki Subaru's soul no longer remains here was a fact apparent to anyone.
Regardless, Wilhelm makes no motion to stop.
Felis: “Old Will, what're you yelling ab—hk”
Wilhelm: “Hasten, Felix! A knife's stabbed his throat! Every second is critical!”
Felis: “—!”
Felis dashes into the room at the summons. He nods instantly to Wilhelm's instructions, cloaking his
hands in a blue aura as he sends healing magic into the fallen Subaru's body.
On the face of the always-unflappable Felix there dwells a seriousness Subaru has never seen
before, which he witnesses as he looks down at his own soulless husk.
Subaru: <Just, stop. ...You can't. It won't work. You can't save him any more...>
Anything they could do would be pointless.

Subaru had no memory of being rescued after attempting suicide.
Natsuki Subaru impulsively stabbed a dagger through his throat in rejection of reality, irreparably
wounded the hearts of many people, and while feeling no chastisement in the least for that,
disappeared.
Those were the facts. The dedicated efforts of these two would come to no conclusion.
Wilhelm: “You shan't pass on! I shan't allow you pass on! If I am to lose a benefactor in this
fashion, I could not live with the shame!”
Felis: “Why'd he have to go pulling this stupidity now...”
Putting pressure on the wound, Wilhelm shouts with tenacity. Even while spitting his agitated
remark, Felis casts the kindest magic in the world.
This sight, their ripples of emotion, slam Subaru about the heart.
But, no matter how hard they try—
Felis: “—”
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Wilhelm: “Felix! Why!? Why have you stopped healing!? Should this go on...”
Felis: “It's over, Old Will. —His soul isn't anywhere any more.”
Wilhelm closes in on Felis. Pushing him away, Felis removes Wilhelm's jacket and uses a
handkerchief from his pocket to wipe Subaru's wound. The cut closes cleanly, this body no longer
conceivable as having sustained fatal injury, returned back to the several-minutes-prior healthy
Subaru.
But neither did its loads of spilt blood nor departed soul remain inside.
Looking down at the pale, dead Subaru, Wilhelm shakes his head.
Wilhelm: “Why... why is this! Why, so easily... Subaru-dono, you were...!”
Slammed with a fist, the floor cracks open.

The blood mixed with the bits of broken floor happens because Wilhelm's punch split his fist open
as well. Blood dripping from his knuckles, Wilhelm's incredible regret leads him to bite his lip
open.
Opposite the clearly emotional Wilhelm, Felis too looks down at Subaru with a pained expression.
His ears droop as he gazes at the not-exactly-peaceful dead Subaru.
Felis: “...Weakling, coward. You just abyandoned eeeeveryone dear to you. ...Pushing all the pain,
and all the suffering onto everybody... are you satisfied nyow?”
Too severe to be sarcasm, too compassionate to be condemnation.

The complexity of the emotion hidden in Felis' voice is beyond the comprehension of the current
Subaru consciousness, thoughts frozen.
But, Wilhelm and Felis' attitudes lead him to clearly understand.
—Subaru had stricken the two of them with something irreversible.
Subaru: <—>
His mind stalls absolutely.

What was he being shown here?
He knew. He knew far and long ago what he was being shown.
He was being shown sin.
Wilhelm: “—Emilia-sama?”
The puzzlement in Wilhelm's tone as he suddenly calls her name is likely because Emilia's sobbing
cuts off, and her body stops its trembling.
Pain runs through Wilhelm's expression. He had only just experienced the bereavement himself, so
how much of a shock would this be to Emilia, who was even closer to Subaru? That breed of
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expression.
The old man closes his eyes once, firm. He stands up.
Then he walks over to the side of the collapsed Emilia, reaching out to upright her.
Wilhelm: “I sincerely apologize for what I have done, Emilia-sama. However, your body shall
suffer harm, should you remain like this. Please, with care.”
Emilia: “—told me.”
Wilhelm: “Emilia-sama?”
Emilia: “And he told me he loved me!”
Still on her side as she hugs her knees, Emilia curls into a ball as she screams, crying.
That is behaving like a child, was not a reprimand anyone present could voice. Wilhelm's brows
knit as if enduring pain, and even Felis averts his gaze, unable to bear watching Emilia's
heartbroken grief.
When—
Felis: “Whh?”
Baffled, Felis' eyes and mouth open wide as a dumb noise slips from his throat.
Guided by his voice, Wilhelm follows Felis' gaze, and is stunned.
—Before the two of them, Subaru's supposedly-perished body has uprighted itself.
Subaru: <—!?>
This spectacle transcending comprehension shocks even Subaru's consciousness.

His uprighted flesh stretches out its limbs with the choppy movement of a mechanical doll, standing
up with its head still bent ninety-degrees sideways, eyes slowly opening.
Its unfocused gaze, its light-bereft pupils, leer over the room.
Wilhelm: “Fehl...”
Felis: “Impossible! His body was unmistakably dead! The resuscitation failed!”
Wilhelm clings to hope as he calls on Felis, when Felis interrupts by guessing Wilhelm's intentions
and shouting his thoughts.
Hearing this, Wilhelm immediately determines what to do.
That is—
Wilhelm: “Subaru-dono, forgive me—!”
Even without a blade, the Sword Demon suffers no detriment to his skill.
Wilhelm crouches down to retrieve his jacket discarded on the floor, twists up this thing wet with
Subaru's blood, and uses his whole body to spear it forward like a lance.
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Riding the speed and heavy with blood, this thing drilling through the air was a cloth spear. Using
this impromptu craft, Wilhelm strikes a preemtive blow against the standing Subaru.
His aim is true, as the jacket's point jabs straight to pierce Subaru's face and—
Wilhelm: “—Won't.”
—The cascade of shadows bursting up from underfoot consumes the jacket, vanishing Wilhelm's
attack.
Witnessing this and its complete lack of forewarning, Wilhelm promptly pulls back his arm—but he
cannot avoid damages. Three fingers on his right hand have, alongside the jacket, been plucked off
at the first knuckle.
Jumping back, clicking his tongue, blood dripping, Wilhelm takes distance from the stock-still
Subaru.
Wilhelm: “Felix! Take Emilia-sama and leave immediately! I shall keep him stalled!”
Felis: “Don't have a swor... all I've got's a dyagger!”
Tumbling back to a corner of the room, Felis tosses the dagger at his hip to Wilhelm. He catches it
with his left hand, twisting his wrist to draw it from its scabbard.
Wilhelm: “Feels irregular with short weapons,”
He mutters.
Wilhelm: “Flee the manor, and on Crusch-sama's instructions—no, that won't work now. Felix, go
by your judgement. Bring the Knights here.”
Felis: “This'll be dicey on your own, Old Will?”
Wilhelm: “Something equal to the White Whale, potentially... had been cradled inside Subaru-
dono.”
Estimating the combat strength of his opponent, Wilhelm swallows his breath as a cold sweat rises
on his skin.
Faced with a plainly wary Sword Demon, Subaru's arms remain dangling limp, his gaze puttering
about as he looks at nothing, his upper body swaying unsteadily from side to side.
This thing has no rational thought. Most likely its awareness is patchy too.
The problem here is that regardless of being in this state, it's aware enough for self-defence.
Wilhelm continues the fierce glaring match with the eldritch-turned Subaru.
Meanwhile, watching all of this, what's caught up in a storm of question marks is Subaru's
consciousness.
The situation was clearly changing from what it had been.

Shown this sin, his heart destroyed, and now Subaru was subject to watching something even more
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incomprehensible in this universe after his death.
What in the world was this scene.

Did this actually happen? If not, what was the point of it? Why exactly was his consciousness here,
now?
He didn't understand anything. Understood not a thing at all, but—
Wilhelm: “Felix! To Emilia-sama!”
Felis: “I said I got it! Emilia-sama, come he—!?”
Wilhelm urges Felis to hurry, and answering that insistence Felis cuts across the room to hurriedly
help the fallen Emilia up. However, a quake instantly rocks Felis' expression.
Because,
???: “—How dare you make Lia cry.”
Birthing white haze, a small silhouette dives down to the centre of the room.
Grey-furred, tail as long as its body, small enough to fit in the hand, but the pressure it exerts is
intense enough for the thing to be mistaken for a great and ferocious beast.
His first appearance in a long time, the little spirit floats in the room's centre, looking down at
Subaru. His expression carries a thorniness beyond simple comprehension, his muttered words
laced with hatred.
Puck: “Factoring the barbarism of that body's owner alongside, you're deserving of myriad deaths—
you damned witch.”
Frigid bloodlust floods the cramped room. Wilhelm exhales in white. Seeing Puck morph his
bloodlust into spearpoints of ice, his expression stiffens.
Wilhelm: “Spirit... Emilia-sama has, not possibly...”
Puck: “Right now, Lia's unconscious. As stated by contract, I'll act on my own judgement. I'm not
forgiving the witch. I'm protecting Lia. —That man who made Lia cry, I'm not forgiving either.”
Wilhelm: “But! If we fight here and now, the casualties—”
Puck: “Violated your pledge, and froze my Lia's heart. —It's time enough I end you.”
Ignoring Wilhelm's complaints, Puck's frigid murder more takes more definite form.
The room fills with white mist, freezing the surroundings, absolutely everything here beginning to
die. In a world where even breath could turn to ice, entirely bathed in Puck's enmity, is Subaru.
Subaru raises his head, for the first time seeing Puck.
Those eyes blind to everything gaze at the floating Puck. When his eyelids twitch.
And,
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Subaru: “—”
He snickers.
Subaru's dead body crooks its cheeks, and snickers at seeing Puck.
With its face virulent, contorted, and derisive.
Subaru: <—Sto,>
Seeing this much, Subaru's consciousness cries out prior the definitive calamity.
But, his cry achieves nothing.
Sweeping his little arm from up to down, Puck births a small-scale glacier inside the room, its
absolute zero threatening to consume Subaru's corpse. Shadows burst up from below to beat the ice
back—and a torrent of mana throws the small room into disarray, catching Wilhelm and even Felis in
the whorling nexus—to explode. Shrieks and wails, freezing ice, cracking and crumbling, all peal
out as white demise and black despair intermingle to shroud out everything.
Subaru: <—!!>
Like electricity cut, the world vanishes of all colour.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “—buh”
The pain of his face smacking against the ground leads Subaru's consciousness into awakening.
His jaw strikes the damp floor, Subaru tearing up at the stinging pain as he shakes his head.
And, promptly looking up, he speedily looks about the surroundings. —Nothing is off.
Subaru: “I-inside the, tomb...”
Cold air and dark space, damp floor with the stench of mould. Definitely the tomb.
Confirming this much, Subaru next clenches and unclenches his hands, checking there is nothing
out of place with his limbs. His ragged breathing steadily begins to settle down, pushing deep
breaths out his lungs to forcibly regain his calm.
The trembling sensation in the core of the gut alone does he fail to dispel.
Subaru: “A daydream... 'd be, way too convenient. But, that was...”
just what, exactly?

Unwillingly made to witness the scene, Subaru thinks back on just what situation he's been put in.
First of all and unmistakably, that had been A SCENE FROM AFTER SUBARU DIED.
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Emilia's shrieks at seeing a dead Subaru, Wilhelm and Felis' futile devotion—and the nightmarish
clashing of powers at the end.
The scars the first half butchered into his mind, and the apprehensions the second half spawned in
his heart, quake his soul with their incomprehensibility and uncontrollability.
Subaru: “Ugh, bhh—”
The second he remembers it, a hideous, wrenching pain in his gut leads him to bend over, the
contents of his stomach splattering to the floor.
That said, he had not even really eaten dinner. All that comes out is the small amount of tea he had
drunken about an hour ago, and yellowy stomach acid.
He forces his stomach to constrict as he repeats and repeats this vomiting, pretending that he's
answered to his body's demands.
Puking and puking and puking and more, Subaru realises that he has a guess as to what the variation
in his situation is, and what the cause may be.
If he had not been summoned to Echidna's dream castle, then the number of places he would be
called while forfeiting consciousness would amount to one.
Subaru: “No way, the TRIAL? Not the past, the second one!?”
Realising this possibility, Subaru is stupefied.
Subaru had overcome the first TRIAL several days ago now. But that statement only applied to his
soul, and for his body the TRIAL had occurred only a few hours prior. Meaning, he should not be
meeting the requirements to proceed to the next stage.
If the TRIAL had begun regardless, then the only thing to call it was 'irregular'. And most
importantly, according to Echidna—
Subaru: “This TRIAL's not as painful as the one to face your past, is what she said, but...”
—Hypothetically, presuming the scene Subaru saw was part of the TRIAL, then even discounting its
superficiality, he felt it an unfolding of the worst.
That scene was, for Subaru, what came after Hell.

Subaru had witnessed Hell numerous times. He was aware of that.
And if it were for the sake of obtaining the optimum future, Subaru had prepared himself to see Hell
many times again.
—But, preparation to go even deeper than Hell, to learn of an even worse realm?
<Witness the uncomeatable present.>
Faced with a terrifying experience and lost on whether to stay or retreat, a whisper abruptly skims
across Subaru's ear.
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Startled and body made to tense—exactly in that instant, the loss of consciousness comes to visit
him.
Falling to his knees and unable to support himself, Subaru again collapses shoulder-first to the floor.
He frantically raises his head in an attempt to keep conscious, but neither his eyelids nor neck
manage to counter the invisible force as he is promptly dragged into the Abyssal depths.
—The TRIAL, the deepest pit of Hell, was again welcoming Subaru.
Subaru: <—>
When he opens his eyes, Subaru finds himself in a grassland, at the scene where Julius' sword had
sliced open his throat—and again he is forced to witness his sins.
4 These next few chapters are heavy in events which refer to an as-yet unrevealed greater context, or at least seem to.
Because of this sometimes I have no idea what the characters are actually referring to, and some parts of the
translation will likely get jank(ier). A good rule of thumb is if it's Puck talking, I have no idea what the fuck he's
really going on about, but I will try my best.
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CHAPTER 71: ENDING LIST

From the shallow, sharp sword-cut on his skin, Subaru's life slowly spills.
The fresh, gushing blood muddies the green grassland, while in front of the violet-haired man,
Subaru's body goes into reflexive convulsions.
Eyes peeled open wide, foam froths from his lips as he retches incredible loads of blood. The
intensity of the bleeding gradually softens, and with a noise of escaping air—
Subaru: <—>
—Subaru clearly understands that his past self has died.

It wasn't that his conscious self and past self shared the same senses. But regardless, the vivid
sensation of his rended neck echoes without end, even for the consciousness-only Subaru—for the
soul-only Subaru.
Julius: “Emilia-sama, I ask you wipe his... wipe Subaru's face clean.”
Emilia: “—”
Julius: “He would desire it not be I, but you. At very least, by your hands.”
Wiping clean his bloodied knightblade and settling it into its scabbard, Julius addresses the
stupefied Emilia.
At the feet of the fallen, face-up Subaru, the silver-haired girl falls hard to her knees. Her amethyst
eyes lack emotion as they refuse to accept reality, and she goes without wiping away the teartracks
wetting her cheeks as they glisten under the light.
Seeing this Emilia, a sharp pain gouges yet once again into Subaru's non-existent chest. Emilia's
grieving expression takes the punishment he had avoided witnessing, makes it bare its fangs, and
scours away at the thoughtless methods he had been using thus far.
Emilia: “Suhba... rhu.”
Her hand slowly creeps to reach for Subaru's bloody face and its spew, her palm softly wiping his
dirtied visage. Barehanded, but heedless of the filth, Emilia determines to make Subaru's agony-
bent face into something visible. Once she finishes wiping off the blood,
Emilia: “Why? How come Subaru, how come you, this...”
Emilia asks an empty question to someone who will never respond.

Neither his ears to listen, nor his mouth to answer, nor his anything at all are functioning.
The dead Subaru would not entertain a single word of Emilia's ever again.
Subaru: <—>
As he looks down at the scene, Subaru recalls what the context for this was.
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—This was after his second fight with Betelgeux where, unable to break through his possession,
Subaru's body was destroyed alongside the madman.
Felis' magic had disrupted the circulation of his internal mana, and with the strain it put on his
organs and capillaries, his death could certainly not be called pretty. Blistery rashes blemish his
visible skin, and the destruction of the blood vessels in his dimly-open eyes have dyed his whites
red.
The nosebleed had been enough to coat the lower portion of his face. If Julius hadn't executed him,
his death would have been even grislier.
But cleaning his dead face does nothing to save the hearts of those remaining. Especially those who
had made it through the fight with the White Whale, and pledged a triumphant return to the Capital
following the Sloth battle's end—the dejection and regret on their all faces wrenches the heart.
Wilhelm: “Subaru-dono... I sincerely beg, for your forgiveness...”
Fallen to his knees, Wilhelm bows his head to the dead Subaru.
Slayer of all the cultists subordinate to Betelgeux, Wilhlem hangs his head at the battle's outcome,
his expression one of tasting something keenly acrid. Equally are the elderly knights of the
subjugation squad, some grieving like Wilhelm, others striking out at the ground. Some are even so
incredibly emotional that tears spill from their eyes.
Seeing his own death be so mourned silences Subaru.

Compared to being shown the post-death events he had attempted not to realise, this impacted
Subaru's heart with a pressure potentially even more overwhelming.
Emilia: “How come... even though this happened to you, for me, Subaru, you... why did you?”
Setting her hand on the mute Subaru's cheek, Emilia continues in her fruitless calls.
Seeing her grief, Subaru belatedly realises.
In this universe, Subaru hasn't answered Emilia's question.

Subaru had not given his sincere answer to the query she posited at the Capital: WHY ARE YOU
HELPING ME?
And so Emilia does not understand the reason for Subaru's utter devotion.
—While definitively different from the scene he had been shown before, this was nevertheless still
the consequence of the irreparable sin Subaru had committed.
Julius: “Perennial tormentors of the world, the Witch Cult—whose vanguard of one, Sloth, has been
slain. This constitutes for the world an incredible boon. —However.”
Looking down at Subaru's corpse, Julius raps his fingers against the hilt of his sheathed sword. Over
and over, gaps gradually coming to the repeating rhythm.
Julius: “That does not mean I can accept every sacrifice made to achieve this. —I had wished to
speak more with you, Natsuki Subaru.”
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With that pained mutter, Julius averts his gaze from Subaru's dead face.
The Knight looks to the sky, his eyes harbouring gloom.
Julius: “I had wished to call you a friend.”
Julius' weak and murmuring voice is the end to the grassland.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Again the scene blacks out, and Subaru reawakens with a jolt.
Subaru: “—Dggh, hwa! ...ah, aaaha, aaa!?”
He writhes about, to find himself atop a cold, hard floor.

With the mossy stench assaulting his nostrils, the tumbling Subaru focuses entirely on engaging in
these pointless actions, attempting to flee from the emotions threatening to whip up a storm in his
interior.
What's happening? Is not a thought he reaches.

He tumbles, tumbles, his otoliths in pain, torturing his lungs as he wheezes shallow breaths, his
consciousness wishing to reduce its allotment spent thinking by even a little, even a hair, to
hopefully sink into unconsciousness.
Subaru: “—ugh, guh!”
But even though he attempts to distract himself with these humanity-degrading practices, the
moment he crashes into a wall and bounces away, he finds his strategy at a standstill.
Pain from his stricken back, and blood oozing from his grazed forehead. He takes ragged breath
after ragged breath with his face still pressed to the floor, tears having mysteriously welled up at the
corners of his eyes.
—Pathetic. Stupid. Hopeless.
Just how many times, to what extent, would weakness continue to overwhelm Natsuki Subaru?
No matter what the circumstances, no matter what the suffering, an unshakeable and unbreakable
heart of iron—just what did he need to do to acquire it?
So weak, so brittle, and so even until now, Subaru had—
Subaru: “Pretended not to notice, averted my eyes, and the payback... is this..?”
It wasn't that he had never thought of it it.

In a corner of Subaru's awareness, not only once, but many times had the possibility come to mind.
That the thought never exceeded just a corner was because unconsciously, he had been refusing to
investigate the truth, and refusing to consider it.
The existence of universes after Subaru dies—should Subaru think their presence potentially be
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fact, his way of fighting crumbles beneath his feet.

Everything he had thought to save had deserted Natsuki Subaru.
Or no, the one doing the deserting was Natsuki Subaru. By abhorrently and selfishly welcoming
DEATH, Subaru had deserted multiple universes to escape into new ones.
The worlds left behind by Natsuki Subaru's thoughtless decisions, should they perhaps still exist,
would be exactly the scenes Subaru was being shown now.
Subaru: “—You're, kidding me.”
His consciousness once again begins growing distant.

Unlike sleepiness, this was a sudden whitening of his consciousness to sequester it from reality.
At his ear, again an unidentifiable voice whispers.

Whose voice was that, desperately wonders his fading consciousness—and he notices.
—That was, without any doubt, his very own voice.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Before the corpse and its pulverised skull, a girl has fallen to her knees.
Fallen from high up, hit with an impact beyond what a fleshy human body could endure, insides of
its black-haired head splayed about the ground, a flower of death bloomed in crimson.
Subaru: <—>
This sensation of his consciousness switching states no longer surprises Subaru.

After the forced conversion in his consciousness, he had figured this phenomenon would happen.
What he hadn't figured was what scene exactly would be presented to his sobered mind, but—
???: “Speaking nonsense to the very end of the end... now, nothing's...”
Fallen to his death, Subaru lies sprawled against the earth. Standing beside him as she spits her
statement is a pink-haired girl—Ram.
Her usual impeccable grooming is in disarray, the snagged rips and tears in her outfit particularly
outstanding. While she consciously attempts to keep her expression blank, some complex emotion
and rage still slip though.
An expression lamenting Subaru's death—or actually rather, fury at this outcome.

Ram rigorously scratches at her head, then turning back.
Ram: “And was this all conforming to your designs, Beatrice-sama? That you blocked my advance
was your...”
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Beatrice: “—”
Ram's expression stiffens as she goes to reproach Beatrice, her words cutting off.
There before Subaru's corpse, Ram's cerise eyes see Beatrice fallen to her knees. Heedless of the
dirtiness to her dress, she sits bare on the ground—witnessing Beatrice's state, unrest jolts Ram's
eyes.
Ram: “Beatrice-sama...”
Beatrice: “—Why?”
She murmurs.
Paying no mind even to Ram's existence, Beatrice wholeheartedly gazes at the dead Subaru.
That from her blue eyes tears are drawing their tracks, even Subaru can see.
—Beatrice was crying.

At Subaru's DEATH.
That truth plunged a blade called guilt deep into Subaru's heart.
Feeling his non-existent eyes grow hot at the heart-gouging pain, Subaru wishes to immediately
dash over to that small, little girl, speak something, anything to her.
The legs, the arms, the mouth, the anything to achieve this, do not exist for him.
Beatrice: “I, at least knew that... you aren't, they... but...”
Her expression vanished, Beatrice mutters almost incoherently as the teardrops continue to fall.
Ram seems to have abandoned making any further remarks to Beatrice about her heartbreaking
visage. She sighs. At Subaru's corpse and the incredible angle of his bent neck, she directs her
scornful gaze.
Ram: “Love, wonderful. —Truly, there's nothing to salvage.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
A misty white chill—cold enough to almost freeze the very air—dominates the world.
The frozen forest trees break apart with every gust of the wind, unable to maintain their existence in
this mana-wrung environment as they return to dust.
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The trees, the towns, the creatures, the world, all turn to thousands of crystalline white particles in
the gale, white demise slowly encroaching on the realm.
Subaru: <—>
This time, what Subaru's witnessing is the end of the world.

Just like how his consciousness had turned to white, the world attempts to meet a frigid and
merciful end.
However,
???: “—So, you did come.”
A low voice quakes the air as it bellows, its tone one of agreement.
An incredible tremor rocks the earth as the behemoth's downward fall entirely transforms the
landscape. Trees snap and topple, the felled things crumbling into snowflakes, the successive shocks
morphing the forest into a flatland.
What brought about the destruction of this flattened, frozen woodland was a colossal four-legged
beast, coated in grey fur and apparently feline.
Half of the beast's overflowing fangs break, white puffs of air escaping the gaps between the
swordlike teeth. With its golden eyes blazing and still collapsed on its side, it turns itself to face
frontward.
And, trembling nearly convulsively,
Beast: “Frustrating... I knew this would happen, but still there's nothing I can change about it.”
???: “—I've more or less grasped the situation. And so, I find this truly a regret.”
The beast speaks not to winge about its loss, but in intelligent acceptance of the truth. It is a
shockingly clear, beautiful voice which responds.
Even amid the end of the world, this voice suggests not a single detriment to its owner's vitality or
health. Standing tall and standing straight, red hair tousled in the white wind, is a blue-eyed young
man.
Man: “Neither Emilia-sama nor Subaru would be anywhere anymore?”
Beast: “Lia is sleeping, eternally. Existing in a world without her carries no value at all. I who failed
to protect her, and that man, share the same sin.”
Man: “You are attempting to destroy the world because of this?”
Beast: “I knew I'd be obstructed. But, doing this is what I pledge.”
Unsheathed from its engraved dragon-talon scabbard, the glinting steel points at the snout of the
beast—at Puck in his true form—as the sword-wielding SWORD SAINT Reinhardt silently shakes his
head.
His blue eyes house deep sorrow, and sympathy.
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Reinhardt: “I understand your rue. I feel the same thing. But, that does not mean you may use those
feelings to lash out at those around you. Your actions, and the outcome of your pledge, will bring
chaos to the world. —I am unable to ever allow that.”
Puck: “Because it's unjust?”
Reinhardt: “Yes, because it is unjust. —I am a model of what is just. Sword to rectify error.
Consequently, here I shall need to slay you. Great Spirit.”
Nevermind the overwhelming disparity in mass, anyone could tell who had the greater combat
strength here.
True-form Puck, without managing to discompose Reinhardt's unruffled expression at all, was at
death's door. Should the point of the entrenched sword draw a single arc of silver, then by that alone
would Reinhardt's blade slice even a spirit in twain.
The ferocity of his surging swordcery communicated that fact clearly to the surroundings.
Puck: “—Kh.”
And so, that sound leads Reinhardt to furrow his brows.

Even Subaru's consciousness has something arise in his scant emotions coloured with the hue of a
question mark.
It's hard to judge just what that short, choppy sound was—as he could not believe that it was what
he plainly heard.
Puck: “Kh, kuku... Haha, huhahaha!”
Reinhardt: “—Is there something funny?”
Throat shaking, and on the border of death, Puck's face twists as he bursts into laughter.
Not comprehending Puck's motives here, Reinhardt asks his question. But, as if finding Reinhardt's
query even more humorous,
Puck: “Is something funny? Incredibly funny, of course it's funny. Reinhardt, you... nah, I mean you
don't know anything.”5
Reinhardt says nothing.
Puck: “I just remembered. How things're supposed to be. It's super late understanding. And that I
know this, and you still don't, is so amazingly funny I can't stop.”
That statement, including the fact the volume of his voice is different from when in his usual form,
is incredibly unlike Puck.
This was for Subaru, who had quite a few memories of interacting with the cat-shaped spirit, the
first time he had ever seen him speaking to someone with such spite.
5 Puck's form of addressing Reinhardt changes from 'kimi' to 'omae' (assume all Puck's 'you's from this point on are
'omae').
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This was different to when Emilia had been killed, and he aimed his loathing at Subaru and
Betelgeux. Back then, Puck should've still been Puck.
But right now, as he ridicules Reinhardt, he differs from anything Subaru's ever seen from Puck
before, as if he were something entirely different—.
Reinhardt: “...I will be safeguarding against any further casualties now. If you're to resent, resent
me.”
Puck: “No resenting here, Reinhardt. You're a hero. Heroes have their roles, their deeds, that only
heroes can do. With you conforming to that, I'm resenting and faulting nothing.”
Reinhardt: “—”
Puck: “You're a hero, Reinhardt. —A hero is all you can ever be.”
At the end of the end, and accordingly so, this statement is the one spoken with the most spite.
Hearing it through, Reinhardt swings up his sword, and with one flash of swordcery—following the
edge of the glinting sword out bursts an incredible wave of energy.
It cleaves through the sky, drills through the air, shatters the ground, roils the ambient mana,
rending everything which was in the blade's path in two—the light settles, and the sight before
Subaru's consciousness slips.
Subaru: <—>
That world, covered in its frigid chill—after the torrential sword-slash settles, it rebirths.
The slippage in the world is rectified, the once-roiled mana forms a ring as it recirculates through
the world, the once-shattered earth blooms with flowers, the once-pierced air abounds with gaiety,
and down from the once-cleaved sky there shines sunlight.
Simultaneously bringing the end and rebirth of the world, the Sword Saint's strike.
The colossal beast stricken with the attack remains as not even a trace, completely extinguished
from the universe.
Assuredly present until just a few seconds ago, the behemoth is gone, and no hint of the destruction
it caused remains.
Subaru: <—>
Reinhardt sheaths his knightblade in its scabbard.

Wind caressing his red hair as he squints up at the sunlight, Reinhardt slips a sigh so faint as to be
inaudible.
Reinhardt: “—Felt-sama will be surely be sad.”
He murmurs, eyes closed.
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※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
<Witness the uncomeatable—
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INTERMISSION: TEA PARTY

“Parallel universes, is one school of thought. That, separate from the universe you're living in now,
different universes which had followed along a similar track exist.”
The voice speaks, its intonation uninflected as utterly possible.

Alongside the lecture-scented statement, fingertips rap against the table in pleasant, even rhythm.
“This sounds—huu—as though it's—haa—going to get complicated.”
“The idea's not that complex. You can consider these parallel universes as things being infinitely
generated by just one difference in choice. For example, say there's a crossroads on the way to your
home. At this crossroads, where either path ultimately leads to your house, there's a you who went
right and a you who went left—these two approaches can already be called extremely small-scale
parallel universes.”
“What. Then you're saying there's so many universes out there you can't even count them. This's
just stupid.”
At the reply to the exhausted voice, a stubborn voice joins in with its hasty response.
The lecturer smiles wryly, pointing their finger at the rash speaker.
“It isn't anything so ridiculous. While yes, the breadth of that last example may've been too narrow
and not communicated the scope of the difference very well... you can assuredly apply this concept
to larger situations, too.”
“Bigger situations... like?”
“Such as, right. —If you'd been capable of abandoning the isolated elves on that suicide mission in
the Borloid Plains, I wonder just what would've happened?”
“—”
“...Hrm. My predictions had it that you'd be infuriated here.”
“It's simple why I'm not angry. No matter if that scene repeats tens, hundreds, thousands of times, I
would always absolutely dive my fists right in. —These parallel universes you're talking about
wouldn't happen!”
With that intense assertion, the stubborn voice's owner swings up their legs as they throw their feet
down on the table, taking a reclining posture. The lecturer suppresses a laugh. Seeing their smile,
the stubborn one's pretty eyebrows pitch sharply down.
“What's so funny!?”
“No, I mean that was very manly of you, but your pants are showing, Minerva.”
Minerva: “Auh, nnuh! What, stupid! I can't even believe this! Stupid! Stuupid! Stuuupid! You're so
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stupid! Just stupid! Stupid! You are so stupid! You're stupid and, um, stupid!”
While yelling curses which reveal the poverty of her vocabulary, the blonde girl—the WITCH OF
WRATH Minerva—brings her feet off the table in tears, shoving her hands down to the crotch region
of her short skirt as she closes her legs.
She looks directly up and ahead with rage in her eyes—glaring at the white-haired witch. But,
Sekhmet: “Haa—Leaving aside who's correct in this spat and—huu—getting to the pants—haa—
that was just sordid Minerva backfiring on herself—huu—Your resenting others for it is
disgraceful.”
Minerva: “Sordid, now you're who I don't wanna be hearing that from, Sekhmet. Like you ever
wear anything else... how long have you gone without changing out of that robe?”
Minerva's harsh gaze turns to the side of the table—aimed at the WITCH OF SLOTH Sekhmet, her
face buried in her long, magenta hair.
Sekhmet shifts her neck, looking at Minvera from a gap in the ocean of hair.
Sekhmet: “You just put it on over your head—huu—so this outfit is the easiest and—haa—Typhon
wipes down my body—huu—so it's not as though I'm really dirty—haa.”
Minerva: “You go nitpicking about how others look after their appearance, and then about yourself
you're just so... augh, aughhh, aughhhh, what do you want!? I'm to blame here? It's all my fault?
You want me to punch you all better!?”
Sekhmet goes without answering the riled Minerva, instead looking away.
A vein bulges on Minvera's forehead in response to Sekhmet's lack of energy to speak, but being
fully accustomed to Minerva's rages, Sekhmet entirely abandons any intention to care.
Taking over for the spent Witch of Sloth, the first witch to speak with Minerva—the WITCH OF
GREED Echidna—claps their hands.
Echidna: “I do understand your anger, and that said I also find it nice. Now, I'm sorta thinking to
continue what we were talking about before.”6
Minerva: “Hnmpf. You were the one bringing up this stuff about parallel universes so you'd have a
reason to get me mad, Echidna. I am so angry. I'm enraged. I'm furious.”
Echidna: “Yes yes. Now, about the parallel universes. If that last example didn't work... right. What
do you think would've happened if Flügel hadn't been able to form a covenant with Volcanica?”
Finger to her lip as she smiles mischievously, Echidna asks this question of Minerva. Minerva
swallows her breath, her blue eyes narrowing.
Minerva: “If Volcanica and Flügel had no covenant, with only Reid to stop her it wouldn't be
enough... the world would've been swallowed.”
Echidna: “Swallowed, and then who knows what. I suppose only a single person, the WITCH OF
6 Throughout this entire chapter, Echidna uses the pronoun 'watashi' instead of her usual 'boku'.
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ENVY, would remain then. Potentially, even a world where that did happen exists out there as a
parallel universe. And if it does, don't you just find that incredibly interesting?”
Minerva: “Your eyes get so gross when you're talking about her, Echidna. —I'm really not that mad
at her. You're not gonna be getting me sharing that wrath with you.”
Echidna: “That is just another possible answer. —Your wrath is truly pleasant. That's why you were
the witch most worthy of being loved.”
Says Echidna in past tense. Minerva gives a small snort as she averts her gaze and crosses her arms,
emphasizing her abundant chest.
Minerva: “I'm not looking to be loved. What I want is for war to disappear from this world, for my
fists to exterminate the wails of suffering and sadness and crying and pain. I don't need any path set
for me except that. My rage, my wrath, my healing fists—are my everything.”
States Minerva clearly, with not a speck of doubt.

Conviction with no indecision, hesitation, worry, trouble, and not any trace of anything to lead her
astray.
Indeed this is WRATH—directed at the world, an inexhaustible fury which formed this girl from the
roots up.
???: “Well, you could say that, if you want I guess. That you get so ha-ppy, when peo-ple praise
you, that you just start grinning so big, is your cute point, Ner-Ner.”
A voice cuts in from opposite Sekhmet, that is to say from Minerva's left.
Daphne: “Ner-Ner, your scale of not, be-ing hon-est, is in itself witch-tier. That's something about
you I like so much, I just want to eat it.”
Minerva: “Shut up, Daphne. You were sleeping until now, why'd you have to suddenly wake up.”
Daphne: “But I've been a-wake, e-ver since, you got noisy and flashed your undies. You go around,
wearing a t-i-n-y skirt, which shows them off if you par-ade a-bout a li-ttle, and you still have kuh-
yoo-tee undies, oh you Ner-Ner.”
Minerva: “Y-you're one to talk! You're younger, and yours are nearly obscene! The hell are those,
they aren't underwear, it's a string! Stupid! You stupid! You're so stupid! You really are, just, so
hopeless and stupid! Stupid! Stupidstupid!”
Face pure red and eyes full of tears, Minerva wails. Happily paying no mind to this is the WITCH OF
GLUTTONY Daphne.
She rests immobile in her full-body restraints, her eyes covered by crisscrossing blindfolds, her
body settled inside a black coffin. With this thing casually hanging out at the table, to an outsider
this tea party would certainly look surreal.
Run out of insults to sling (or really, she just said 'stupid' over and over, but), Minerva plomps back
down in her seat, burying her face in her hands as she slumps forward over the table.
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Minerva: “Just what, just what, just what!? It's like, am I to blame here? It's not that I'm doing it to
get compliments, but of course you're going to be happy if people compliment you. What's so bad
about thinking 'glad I did that' when someone tells you 'thank you'? Am I in the wrong? Is this my
fault? I'm healing everybody but I want healing too...”
Echidna: “That you can't explode into a violent fit of self-neglect from that, I really think to be part
of your charm. —Now.”
Leaving aside Minerva, who descends into a sea of soliloquy as she checks out of the conversation,
Echidna directs her gaze to Daphne. Blindfolded Daphne shouldn't able to perceive this, but she
nonetheless gives a few cute little sniffs.
Daphne: “Idna-Idna, what do you want, from looking at me? I'm not like Ner-Ner and Met-Met, I
can't en-dure through, a con-ver-sa-tion for you. A-ct-u-a-lly... haa, haa... my calories are nearly
burned out already.”
Echidna: “I already learned well enough before death that there is nothing more foolish than
seeking cooperativeness from a witch, but... when the conversation is proceeding this poorly, it just
makes me want to brag about you all.”
Says Echidna, as she raps the fingers of her right hand off the table.
Instantly, a steaming teacup and a plate of cookies appears before Daphne, who abruptly gets very
excited.
Echidna: “Naturally, I have no intention to make you wait, so if you would like to e...”
Daphne: “Snarfblarfomnomnomchewchewchewblahargle.”
Echidna: “Didn't bear mentioning. If you could, I would kind of appreciate you practice your table
manners here, but.”
Echidna shrugs, the sight before her being Daphne—with her entire upper-body riding the table as
she eats. —For Daphne, meals are quite literally full-bodied.
Her mouth makes eating noises, but in actuality the tea and cookies aren't disappearing down her
gullet, rather getting sucked inside directly through her skin. The offered tea, cookies, and teacup all
disappear inside Daphne, immediately becoming nourishment for GLUTTONY.
Daphne: “Ahh, so yu-mmy, so ta-sty. ...Ah, I'm sorry. I got a little too en-thu-si-as-tic and gobbled
the table.”
Echidna: “It's nothing to worry about. ...Isn't what I could go so far as to say, but from the instant I
invited you I was more or less resigned this would happen. There's nothing I'd desire more from you
than to be a little more prudent with yourself.”
Daphne: “Idna-Idna, do you go around, or-der-ing, birds not to fly, or fish not to swim?”
Echidna sighs. Daphne rocks her body back upright.
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Daphne: “Alrighty,”
Daphne: “My stomach's got, food in it, so I'll have a conversation with you now Idna-Idna. —You
were talking about parallel universes, or so-m-e-thi-n-g?”
Echidna: “That's right. Daphne, what do you think about it?”
Daphne: “I don't really think anything? Things went like this be-cause of this, or what would things
be, if things ha-ppened here, thinking about that stuff, does-n't fill my sto-mach. Ah, but if I think of
a split like, should I have red meat for dinner, or have fish, then maybe it's not re-a-lly a dumb
idea.”
Echidna: “I've got no complaints on comprehension level when it's you, Daphne, but... genuinely,
it's not pulling your interest enough for a discussion. That's another thing I had expected, though.”
Daphne possesses a very chill personality out of the witches, and she's easy to interact with.
The problem is that her existence in itself is a detriment to all living creatures, and that her
ferocious constitution is hopelessly not suited for coexistence with others.
Sekhmet: “So ultimately, then. Haa. No matter what you speculate about parallel universes—huu—
it's a thing where thinking about it is—haa—entirely pointless.”
Cutting in to this sad struggling conversation is the Witch of Sloth, her body still slumped on the
damaged table. Balled up in her own long hair, she says to the onlooking Echidna and onsmelling
Daphne,
Sekhmet: “Even supposing you accept this school—haa—of thought and those split worlds as
existing, you can't know or experience them in actuality—huu—Then, that untouchable bubble so
called their potentiality of existing—haa—bursts and dissipates the moment that you touch it.”
Echidna: “Indeed, if you consider from the realistic perspective that's likely the case. Even if you
can consciously recognize the existence of parallel universes, you cannot actually observe them.
Parallel, is an apt term for it. Never intermingling, running on two divided lines—that would be an
alternate universe deemable as a parallel universe.”
Minerva: “—But that's not what the second TRIAL is, then.”
Says Minerva, cutting in with her lovable face dyed crimson in rage.
Minerva: “If Echidna's going out of the way to talk about it, then this had to be going somewhere
mean. Had to. I'm spot-on right. You're thinking I just prodded you somewhere where it hurts. But if
you didn't want people probing around at you, then you could've just not done something so stupid as
hiding your hurt!”
Echidna: “I didn't say anything, and having you get indignant on me is kind of a problem... but well,
not that I can refute you. After all, the second TRIAL indeed uses that kind of mechanism.”
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Minerva punches an indentation into the table as Echidna lightly raises her hand, a black-bound
book appearing in her fingers.
This was Echidna's forbidden text which chronicled the knowledge of every PAST, FUTURE, and
PRESENT in the world—that is, the MEMORIES OF THE WORLD.
Should the Thirst For Knowledge Incarnate Echidna ever feel to, she could learn any and every
tidbit of information, knowledge, and history in this world. That said, due to issues of Echidna's
personality, she harboured disgust for utilizing the tome's power.
Echidna: “The second TRIAL reads the deepest thoughts of the challenger, seeking juncture points in
the path they have walked—or otherwise, moments classifiable as REGRETS—and the Memories of
the World reconstructs an IMPOSSIBLE PRESENT resultant from a difference in choice at those
crossroads. Compared to the first TRIAL which makes the challenger face symbols of their past
mistakes, and the third TRIAL waiting ahead, this one is consequently rather easy to defeat.”
Minerva: “Easy to defeat, which means?”
Echidna: “Essentially it's the same case as for Daphne, a problem of clear rationalization. Sekhmet
mentioned this already—but ultimately, parallel universes are untouchable, divided lines. There
may be regret, there may be rue for it, but the lines remain beyond our reach.”
Minerva: “What's putting people so close to these unreachable lines is your TRIAL!”
Says an annoyed Minerva. Echidna shrugs, stroking her white hair as she speaks to calm the now-
standing Minerva.
Echidna: “Defeating the second TRIAL is relatively easy for the ordinary person. Unlike the first
TRIAL where you must overcome a past event which actually happened, the second TRIAL just
means touching a something WHICH COULD HAVE HAPPENED. You're at liberty to interact with it
while either rejecting or accepting the parallel world, but... all you really need to do is capably
affirm your present, actual world.”
Minerva: “Actual, world...”
Echidna: “And so we return to the topic of problems of rationalization. And this rationalization is a
simple one where Sekhmet or Daphne, or maybe even you could do it. —If you're capable of that,
you can overcome the TRIAL.”
Minerva gives a reluctant, begrudging nod.

Indeed, going off Echidna's statements alone, the content of this TRIAL would not seem anything so
harsh.
Should it be any of the witches here—or for argument not even one of the witches, but somebody
with an unshakable grasp of themselves—defeating the TRIAL would be easy.
Daphne: “But then why, is Su-ba-ruun, having such a hard time with it? Subaruun didn't re-a-ll-y
seem with-out self i-den-ti-ty.”
Echidna: “—So, his case.”
220
Daphne for some reason makes little chewy motions as she reminisces on Subaru. Ignoring this,
Echidna closes her eyes as she considers only Daphne's words.
Echidna: “The second TRIAL is observation of parallel worlds. In a sense, it's the deed of observing
what would come after your past regrets. And like we discussed before, you can easily preform a
rejection or an affirmation of it. —Because you can explain it away by noting that events did not
actually travel along that path.”
Echidna: “However,”
Echidna: “In his case alone, this doesn't apply. Even I hadn't predicted that the second TRIAL would
sting him this much. —Truly, beyond my prediction.”
Daphne: “Sniff sniff... Idna-Idna, you smell like you're smi-l-ing, so happ-i-ly.”
Minerva: “I bet she's just happy 'cause she didn't predict it. She's nasty, weird... there's no helping
her.”
Echidna: “Birds of a feather. Being that you are my friends, you're not exempt from that either.”
Daphne snickers, Minerva is in an angry huff. When they start hearing sleeper's breathing from
Sekhmet's direction, and while watching the other witches' respective reactions, Echidna leans back
in her chair. And,
???: “'Chidna~—Typhon's hungry too.”
Running down from the meadow up to the table on the hill is a girl, bursting in as she calls to
Echidna.
Short green hair and tan skin, her white teeth dazzling as she smiles. It's the WITCH OF PRIDE
Typhon. She had gone without getting involved in the tricky conversation, killing her time out in the
meadow. Echidna smiles at her.
Echidna: “Sorry for boring you. Typhon, do you want some tea... or perhaps something sweet'd be
better. You can eat sweets normally, right?”
Typhon: “Alls good. Running a lot spent my strength—so—drink then eat then rest.”
Says Typhon with incredible energy as she pulls out an empty chair to sit beside Sekhmet. With one
hand playing around with Sekhmet's hair, Typhon messily gobbles up the tea and sweets Echidna
finger-snaps into existence.
For anyone ignorant of Typhon's nature, it would be charming scene.
Echidna: “You must be tired too, from looking after Typhon?”
???: “Th... that's, n-not true... though? T-Typhon's a, good girl... and, her power... d-doesn't... no,
um, it doesn't, get through... so, y-yeah? I-It's all, okay. I'm, just dandy.”
Standing beside Echidna, arriving at the tea party after Typhon, this character gives a faltering reply
221
as a weak smile rises on their face.

With her pink hair reaching down to her hips, this girl gives a shockingly ephemeral vibe. While her
face lacks any outstanding or special features, for some reason it naturally attracts the eye.
More than anything, the way that her actions and expressions are somehow reminiscent of a small
animal's tugs at the heartstrings horrifically.
Echidna: “Have a seat, Camilla. —My calling you was intentional, after all.”
Camilla: “I-is, is something... s-star, starting... now? It wo... won't be, s-sc-scary?”
Echidna: “There will be nothing scary or painful. —I'd merely like your help to get the pieces
moving.”
Seating herself beside Echidna as offered, Camilla—the WITCH OF LUST—timidly looks at the other
witch. Echidna gives Camilla a smile as she easily flicks out her arms.
Echidna: “—Using your love, how about you try saving a lost little lamb?”
Says Echidna to the trembling witch, offering to her her outstretched arms—
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CHAPTER 72: BAD END 1, 5, 11

—Say his heart breaks countless times, would he be forgiven?
???: “And it's already over... this job certainly lacked in anything worthwhile.”
Inside a dark warehouse, gazing down at the three corpses submerged in an ocean of blood, a black-
robed beauty tilts her head.
With her bizarre skill she existed in this blood-suffused place without a single drop of the stuff on
her, and with her abnormal mentality she observes the slaughter without a single change to her
complexion.
Unmistakably, this woman was a monster garbed in human skin.
Her footsteps crossing this floor soaked with blood, the monster looks interestedly at the corpses.
A giant old man with his arm sliced off at the shoulder, and incredible bloodflow spilling from his
neck. A black-haired boy with a perfect line shredded across his stomach, having died writhing
about the floor with his innards spilling out.
—And, sliced in two from her left shoulder to her right hip, a silver girl.
—How many times had he rebelled, voicing his desire not to witness this scene?
Monster: “It's the worst of outcomes for a commission... although, I wonder what all this was.”
Putting a finger to her red lips, the monster mutters in a horrifically out-of-place and casual tone. In
the hand other than the one at her lips there wavers a sinister, bloody, crooked blade—a kukri.
Leisurely letting sway the weapon that stole three—no, four—lives in this loot house, the monster
called Elsa smiles resplendently.
Elsa: “—Oh my.”
Tilting her head, Elsa lightly takes a leap backwards.

Immediately, a blade of ice stabs up from the ground where Elsa had been standing. Frozen
stalagmites spear out in sequence as they pursue Elsa's path, these gnashing fangs, pressing in to
bite.
Elsa: “Goodness...”
???: “How dare you.”
In the space before Elsa as he evades the iceblades, there concentrates a gathering of dim light, a
small spirit forming itself a shape.
The floating cat spirit—Puck—bears an acerbic expression, his rather androgynous voice shaking in
rage.
Puck: “You're going to regret taking Lia's life.”
Elsa: “Right, that girl... she was a spiritualist. Truly excellent. I've never opened up a spirit's
stomach before. —Though.”
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Faced with a battle-ready Puck and his floating ice lances, Elsa smiles indulgently at the portents of
battle. But, before she takes fighting posture, she closes one eye.
Elsa: “Why didn't you show up before she died? Spiritualists come with the practitioner and the
spirit in one grouping—if I can't enjoy the full experience, it's a detriment.”
Puck: “Shut your prattle, you damned murderer. —If I just weren't bound by the contract, I...”
Shaking his head, Puck's expression twists in vexation.

He bares his fangs, pointing his little arm at Elsa.
Puck: “I have no intention to talk. I'm turning you to ice, giving Lia's soul its peace. After you're
gone will be the country, the world, Dragon and Witch, everything.”
Elsa: “Ahh, so excellent—I'll be enjoying myself, now!”
Springing, Elsa crawls over the ceiling and walls like a spider. With her slender frame as the target,
consecutive firings of ice spears bore into the loot house's walls, the atmosphere beginning to
freeze, the air raising a shrill shriek.
Pure white covers the view, rendering everything invisible.
Toppled on the floor with fingers coincidentally intertwined, Subaru and Emilia's cadavers included
—everything invisible.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Say the world betrays him countless times, would he be rewarded?
Rem: “My actions were nothing more than a preventive defence against degeneration of the
situation. By the time I had found him, Subaru-kun was already beyond any chance of rescue. —He
would have desired to be put down immediately.”
Emilia: “And, so... that's what that, terrible end was, is what you're saying, Rem? Subaru is my
benefactor, and there were going to be so many things for us to talk about... and you...”
He hears the quarrelling voices of two beloved girls.

One voice beckons to Subaru adoration and grief.
One voice belongs to who, every time she is made to stand through adversary, Subaru wished for
her to touch him sweetly, needily, imploringly.
The blue-haired girl and the silver-haired girl face each other, a turbulent atmosphere flowing
through the room.
Setting is the mansion's living room, the two seated on either side of a table in a livewire situation.
Roswaal: “Nooooooow now, let's go without you getting carried away also, Emilia-sama. Why
224
doooooooon't we start by prooooooperly listening to Rem's side aaaaaaas well?”
Emilia: “Roswaal... do you understand what's happened? Rem has... your servant has, led my
benefactor, and also your guest Subaru, to... to his death.”
Roswaal: “I do quiiiiiiiiiite understand. Which iiiiiiiiis why... we must have a clear discussion on the
topic. —For the sake of preventing any misunderstandings in your mutual sentiments, aaaaas well.”
Roswaal narrows his yellow eye as he replies. The clown shoots a gaze to the Rem seated beside
him, and perceiving the glance, Rem nods.
Rem: “There late last night in the eastern wing... on the floor housing Emilia-sama's room, was an
intruder. The warning gems alerted me to this as I promptly headed for the scene, which is where I
had discovered Subaru-kun loitering about.”
Ram: “Barusu was already under the curse's effects by then.”
Rem: “Yes, My Sister is exactly correct. Weakened, Subaru-kun was on the border of death. The
curse's effects had sapped his vitality to the absolute limit, and having determined that to save him
would be impossible...”
Emilia: “You beat him to death with your flail. —And brutally.”
Ram: “Emilia-sama.”
Sitting beside her younger sister Rem, having held her hand, Ram's eyes as she looks at Emilia are
harsh. But Emilia faces Ram's sharp gaze with strength.
Emilia: “The facts are the facts. ...Subaru's body, his torso and head were in awful condition. If you
were just meaning to give him an execution, there had to have been a gentler way. So then, why?”
Rem: “That, would be...”
Rem is stuck for words.

That she does not say anything further is because Rem's personality is not one for telling lies, and
because Emilia's statement hit accurately on her motives.
Rem harboured intense distrust for Subaru back then.

After the second loop in the mansion loop series—where Rem had bludgeoned Subaru to death,
failed to conceal the fact, and was resultingly having this conversation.
You could also say that Rem's hostility for a Subaru interacting familiarly with Ram had intensified,
and she could not keep from actualizing her desire to murder.
—On that upper floor of the mansion, when she swung her flail at Subaru, just what had Rem been
thinking?
Perhaps the whole affair was uncertain even to Rem.
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Emilia: “—Your aim was off, or it was because you hesitated... those were the answers I wanted to
hear.”
Rem: “—hk”
Emilia mutters sadly, her eyes closed. Rem's face jerks up.
It's unclear how well Emilia's words had perceived what the truth of matters were for Rem. And it
would always, forever remain unclear.
Roswaal: “Emilia-sama, to where are you going?”
Emilia stands up, brushing at her skirt's hem. Roswaal's expression vanishes as he asks her his
question.
Hearing it, Emilia pats her long, silver hair.
Emilia: “—I'm leaving. It was only for a short while, but thank you for having me. I know I'm
incapable of participating in the Royal Selection without the backing of you all. But... I can't trust
you any more.”
Roswaal: “Even should you not trust us, do you not believe a relationship of mutual utilization yet
beneficial? Abdicating due to a tantrum cannot be called a wise decision.”
Emilia: “Tantrum...?”
Emilia's face stiffens in shock. Then she promptly walks over to Roswaal—
—No one could have stopped that peal of flesh on flesh.

Those white fingers of hers slapped Roswaal across his pallid cheek, hard.
Emilia falls out of breath with that one single strike against that reddened, swelling cheek. The
slapped Roswaal doesn't do anything, but instead Ram's face pales as she moves to stand up and—
Roswaal: “Ram.”
Ram: “But, Roswaal-sama.”
Roswaal: “It's fine. You can stay seated. Emilia-sama, my apologies for Ram.”
Emilia: “This is what you're always like to me... but you're still saying nothing about Subaru...”
Biting her lip, Emilia glares at the calm Roswaal. A furious rage churns in her amethyst eyes, but
Roswaal's composure remains completely unrattled.
Roswaal: “Leaving the mansion, and returning to the forest—would he have left you with some
feeling?”
Emilia: “I was wrong for going along with your wheedling. Atonement... my penance can be done
in lots of other ways. I was mistaken about it. And because I was, Subaru died.”
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Emilia closes her eyes in response to Roswaal's question, announcing her reply in quiet voice.
She gives a slight shake of the head.
Emilia: “I'm bringing his soul with me and placing it peacefully to rest in the forest. —For Subaru
and for the rest, no matter how long it takes, I'm devoting my time to their repose. And now, the
conversation is over.”
Having no intention to speak with them any further, Emilia takes distance from Roswaal. Her hair
sways with her departure, Roswaal watching on with his heterochromatic eyes. Still seated in his
chair, his arm reaches out for the retreating back—and falls.
Roswaal: “Should this veer from the writ, then here... wooooooould be where my track ends.”
Ram: “Roswaal-sama...”
Whispers Roswaal powerlessly, Ram speaking with concern as she takes his hand. The clown
glances at the girl gazing worriedly at him, a weak smile rising on his face.
Roswaal: “Ram, you would appear the winner of ooooooour bet. Here is where my purposes have
likely hit an impasse... in short, the contract can be fulfilled.”
Ram: “...Yes. Yes, Roswaal-sama.”
With these two having their quiet exchange at the corner of her eye, Emilia proceeds toward Rem,
who has stood up to open the door. Before passing her by, Emilia looks at Rem and her solemnly
bowed head.
Emilia: “Lead me to where Subaru is.”
Rem: “Emilia-sama, that would be...”
Emilia: “I know he's in awful condition. I'll put him back to normal so much as I can... and, take
him with me to the forest.”
Her expression stiffening at seeing Emilia's horrifically sorrowful face, Rem looks down. In her
expression is something like regret, as well something like anger.
She's surely conflicted on, why did it have to turn out like this?, he thought.
—Why did it have to turn out like that? Nobody could answer.
Emilia: “I'm sorry, Subaru. —I couldn't even do anything.”
Murmurs Emilia, at the close.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
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—Say his foolishness strikes him countless times, would he be capable of understanding?
???: ംス、ംス！ ംスംスംスംス、ംス！！
Out echoes the high, shrill cackle.

Chest swelled, mouth agape, drool dribbling from their lips as they hoot, the young redhead girl
violently musses her hair.
With this woman's repellent behaviour, and more importantly with the mad gawking of her
bloodshot eyes, she is clearly lacking in decent humanity.
Girl: “To love! Of love! By love! In love! To repay love! Is to what EVERYTHING AMOUNTS! Aaah!
Oh Witch! Oh Witch And Well Beloved! Oh Site Of My Love's Harbour!”
Fallen to her knees with arms stretched to the sky, tears torrent from her eyes the girl extols love.
In the environs of this crazed girl are many cadavers scattered in a sea of blood. Limbs plucked,
necks gouged, corpses violated of their human dignity.
Among them is the corpse of a black-haired boy, who stuck himself through the throat with a sword.
Pools of blood drown the ground of Arlam Village, every member of the armed subjugation squad
too lying prone, their lives extinguished in entirety.
The moment the surprise attack felled the squad's primary powerhouse, the Sword Demon, the trend
was set.
What remains is a massacre brought by UNSEEN HANDS, death wails ringing out in turn as the last of
the numbers meet their end.
Girl: “What ought my diligence! What ought my downing of the slothful be called, if not a deed OF
LOVE! Aaah! The Fidelity Of My Love, The Fidelity Of My Creed, My Love Never To Waver!
Receive it! Accept it! I beg it be YOUR ENSCONCER!!”
This woman screaming loves, trailing tears, howling in a sea of blood—her flesh stolen and mind
invaded by the fiend, Betelgeux Romanée-Conti.
The madman had caught Subaru's group in one fell swoop, and despite having lost his cultists, he
continues stridently shrieking love.
When—
???: “—Something's happened?”
Says a winded girl, running down from the path continuing out from the village.
She annoyedly gets the silver hair sticking to her forehead out of the way, her amethyst eyes looking
over the slaughter. —Emilia's eyes shoot open at the villagers drowned in an ocean of blood, and
she notices—
Emilia: “Suhba, rhu?”
—That collapsed in the middle of the carnage is a boy she knows of well.
Just what was the emotion which flicked through Emilia's mind in that instant? The feelings
churning in her wide-open eyes are too complex, that not anybody, and not even herself would
know.
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Emilia's lips simply tremble as she,
Emilia: “Why, is... Subaru, sleeping th... huh?”
???: “Lia! Huge trouble, it's the Witch Cult! The sins're... why at this timing!?”
Her expression stunned, Emilia fails to accept reality. In contrast to her, Puck flies out in a terribly
panicked state.
He flies around Emilia's surroundings as he fixes his glare on Betelgeux, the only one left standing
in the carnage. Puck's black eyes host intense wariness and hostility.
Puck: “Lia! Right now, really right now! Get away from here right now! Meeting that thing...
meeting a Cardinal of Sin is an absolute don't! The Trial'll start! If you're saddled with that, it's
gonna be something terrifying!”
Emilia: “Puck?”
Puck: “I remembered, just now, finally! Meeting that... meeting him finally made me remember!
Why did I forget about this... and there's so many things I still can't recall... so long as it's not like
this, make it so I can't remember... but if that's true!”
Facing the sky, stretching his little body out as far as it will go, Puck screams.
Puck: “You said different—ECHIDNAAA!!”
His voice echoes loud with panic, loud with loathing. He shakes his head with his breathing ragged.
The complete change in this person so familiar to her strikes Emilia speechless.
Having heard the scream, the madman, slowly, stands upright.
Beet: “What have we here... Why, I am pleased to MEET YOU!”
Betelgeux's upper body slants aside as he violently yanks at his hair, bustles pulled at out the
unmoderated force, droplets of blood welling from his scalp.
Witnessing this self-injury, terror and disgust flash through Emilia's eyes.
Beet: “I am Witch Cult Cardinal of Sin, Bishop of Sloth—Betelgeux ROMANÉE-CONTI!”
Cackling, the madman retains his slanted posture as he stares, observing Emilia's neck, upper body,
practically licking her over.
Beet: “...In, credible.”
He lets slip a sigh of wonder.

Peal—the sound of applause. Betelgeux claps his hands, directing his applause at Emilia.
Beet: “IINCREDIBLE! How such a form so suited for the vessel! How such a visage so reminiscent of
the Witch in life! Should a vessel of such vivacity have been prepared then there is not a single
moment TO DEBATE! The Trial! To determine whether the witch factor shall take root, the Trial!”
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Puck: “Shut it, madman! You just try taking a single step closer to her! I'll make you regret being
born! Entirely!”
Beet: “In face of love, ache and fear and all sum become offerings of sacrifice... you propose no
rationale FOR STOPPING!”
With laggard steps the madman approaches—but Puck merely trembles, unable to do anything.
Puck: “Wh, y. Why, does this moment have to be where I... no, that's wrong. I'm remembering.
Wrong. Right, that's wrong, wrong! Wrong! I'm... I-I...”7
Emilia: “Puck! Wh-what should I... what should I do!? I-I'm... I mean Subaru, over there he's...!”
Beet: “The Trial! I choose the terminus for this diligent soul AS HERE! An occupied vessel will
influence the SOUL INJECTED! These innards—ARE UNNEEDED!”
Emilia frantically calls for the distressed Puck. Betelgeux walks on without any hesitation,
approaching the confused pair.
Twiddling all his fingers in very strange motions, licking his lips, Betelgeux triggers all of Emilia's
internal danger signals to full throttle.
Seeing his crazed eyes, Emilia swallows her breath, and with her voice weak—
Emilia: “No... dad, I'm scared...”
She murmurs, clinging for someone to rely on.

Seeking help in a voice so quiet, no one would hear it.
Betelgeux completely ignores the whisper, reaching his arms out for Emilia. Next would be him
outstretching the invisible UNSEEN HANDS of his Authority of Sloth.
He goes to catch Emilia's rigid body, ready to actualize his evil plot—
Puck: “—Get your filthy hands away from my daughter!!”
—And a wall of ice, possessing incredible thickness and height, appears before Emilia.
The wall divides the space between Emilia and Betelgeux, with more of them bursting from the
earth to expand the divide.
Instantly, Betelgeux with his once-outstretched UNSEEN HANDS jumps backwards in retreat.
Beet: “What—!”
Puck: “Finally, I remembered the most important thing... If it's to protect this, then contracts and
bindings and goddamn whatever don't matter for crap. Got bound to this worthless thing, and now, I
remember it.”
7 Puck's pronoun changes from his usual 'boku' to 'ore'. Bold I's from Puck are 'ore', italics are 'boku'. I's that are
neither bold nor italic mean the line had no pronoun in the japanese and I added it to make more readable.
Puck's speaking style changes drastically on some lines from this point. If pressed to describe it, I would call it 'a lot like
Subaru'. For other lines it sounds more like normal Puck.
230
Betelgeux's voice trembles, shaken as the cat quietly announces his piece.
All signs of his previous disarray are gone as the spirit glares at the madman, expression liberated.
Puck: “I remember why it's that I'm like this. It's to protect my daughter, finally—if the confine for
doing that was this, that damn asshole.”
Emilia: “Puck—a,”
Emilia reaches her fingers out for an irritated Puck, when her throat freezes.
At her breast is a crystal emitting green light. That is the homespace for the spirit Puck, a precious
stone tying him and Emilia together.
That crystal, even though she had not touched it, crumbles to dust.
Emilia: “Th... wh-why!”
Puck: “I... I broke the confine, so the dues've started. So from the beginning it was taken into
consideration even that it'd turn out like this... but that said.”
Turning around, Puck floats down to meet eye level with Emilia.
Emilia's eyes waver in confusion at Puck's actions. As he gazes at her, Puck's expression takes the
hue of looking at something beloved.
Puck: “Lia, this's goodbye.”
Emilia: “Wh...”
Puck: The confine's broken, I can't stay tied to this body any more. The compensation for staying at
your side is stolen too, it's impossible. —I'm sorry.
Emilia: “N-No, Puck, don't... I mean, everyone, everyone's gone away... Subaru's, he's... everyone's
gone. They're gone! If you go away too, Puck, I... I, alone forever, I... don't wanna...”
Whining like a child, horrendous tears trail from Emilia's eyes.

Puck's long tail wipes away her tears, putting his lips to the point of his crying daughter's nose.
Puck: “Be a good girl and listen now. Ram's still at the mansion. Betty's around. If you absolutely
need to, rely on Betty. She'll definitely have to accept this request. Though that said I think it's
pretty unfair, knowing that and still requesting her.”
Emilia: “I! On someone other than you, I...”
Puck: “—Goodbye. My most cherished in the world, cutest, lovely Emilia.”
Emilia: “Wai—”
Before Emilia can say anything, Puck's little body presses hard against her forehead.
Unable to withstand the unexpected force, Emilia's body goes swimming through the air behind her
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—when instantly, a tear in space swallows up her slender frame.
Emilia: “Wh—”
Within a blink, Emilia's form disappears from the village.
—Watching all this to the end, Puck gives a long sigh.
Puck: “Sorry for pushing you to this, Beatrice.”
He says, offering his apologies to the culprit behind her sudden disappearance.
Puck turns around, looking at the Betelgeux staring at him.
Puck: “Just sitting there quietly watching... pretty good manners for a religious crazy, huh.”
Beet: “It appeared that the instant I lifted a hand, you would be struck with urge to DESTROY ME.
Should I proceed to the mansion events will be entirely the SAME REGARDLESS. Purposeful
aggravations were ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY.”
Puck: “Got it. You go around like a crackpot, but your head's in surprisingly decent working order.
—You damned scum.”
Spits Puck, scaling the wall of ice to reach Betelgeux's end.

Not even Betelgeux pulls anything so reckless as attacking with UNSEEN HAND halfway through
Puck's migration.
They face each other, keeping a fixed distance between them.
Puck: “There's no time. —Get it started quick and get it ended quick. Everything afterwards I'll be
dumping to my trusty little sister.”
Beet: “Your tempo feels to HAVE CHANGED. For a spirit, you stink of human.”
Puck: “—Yeah probably would.”
Puck rubs his little hand against his pink nose, smiling cynically.
Puck: “This's what I'm like now, but before my arms and legs were just a little longer, and if you
can believe it my face wouldda been handsome. When my daughter's that cute, don't you think that's
only natural?”
Beet: “...Your statements ADDLE ME.”
Puck: “Well, nevermind it. You don't need to understand it... since anyway, you're dying here.”
Puck points his arms towards Betelgeux as his body begins turning white.
He is running out of mana, and losing ability to keep ahold of his body. This would be influenced
from his breaking of ties with Emilia, and probably also have to do with the breaking of the confine
he mentioned.
232
Either way, the contours of his form begin to fade—
Puck: “Before I'm gone, you're gone. My partner in death's a religious nut, gross.”
Beet: “I REGRET TO TELL that for bringing about my cessation, abolishing this body accomplishes
—”
Puck: “I'm freezing your soul alongside. —I do that, and then what happens?”
Up until now having kept an unshakable, fearless smile, Betelgeux's expression freezes.
The madman's eyes shoot open wide. Puck smiles as if in utter enjoyment.
Puck: “Ahha—now there's the face I wanted to see, moron.”
Simultaneous with the outline of the spirit unlacing, a white radiance blasts forth, and—
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Forced to witness ended worlds in sequence, Subaru lies toppled on the ground.
He couldn't exactly tell where he was anymore.

Was this reality, or was it a dream? Was he having one of the repeating nightmares? Supposing he
determined them as nightmares, would he be permitted to sort everything up and away?
Were they purely just potentials? Or did they actually happen? Or weren't they just Subaru's brain
coming up with very convenient worlds? If so then what was with them, flowing with all this
information Subaru obviously didn't know?
Worlds born from delusion? Were the differing realities encroaching on each other? Whichever
possibility it was, the torment to Subaru's heart was colossal.
So colossal that he could not stand, not straight, not raise his head, not at all.
And so—
???: “Are you no longer able to stand? Subaru-kun?”
He hears someone at his side, speaking words to tenderly uplift his heart.
That was the voice of someone precious, he feels.
Subaru: “—”
The hot track of a tear which should not be spilling draws its trail down Subaru's cheek.
233
CHAPTER 73: WEAKNESS'S HIDEAWAY

—How long had it been since he had last heard that voice?
In reality, she had not been sleeping for that long a time.
At best a week—a conceivable timespan for going without seeing friends or family. —But Subaru
could not think that way.
For a Subaru who abandoned his life continuously and continuously to redo time, actual timespans
held no meaning. By his soul's internal clock, a much more gargantuan span had passed since that
voice had last made tremble his ears, his heart.
???: “—Please wake up, Subaru-kun. I would be happy to see your face.”
Words rain down from above as he lies face-down on the ground.

The affection brimming in that voice, that passionate fondness, swiftly fill Subaru's heart with
something warm. The parched, empty vessel what was his heart, permeates with heat.
By just two sentences spoken by that gentle voice.
—Just how much strength was it that she gave him?
Subaru: “...You're joking.”
Her: “No, it is not a joke.”
Subaru: “You can't be here.”
Her: “Should you desire it, Subaru-kun, I will be at your side at any moment.”
Subaru: “When I most want something done, and only then... you'll always, come to me... as if,
something that... convenient could...”
Her: “Well, I am constantly seeking to be your most convenient girl, Subaru-kun.”
His voice laced with sobs, Subaru lets spill his pathetic whining.
But this voice was assuredly not looking down on him, or failing to perceive him.
She knew. Her.
Knew that Subaru was weak, hopeless, so brittle that he could not live without something to cling
to, always without confidence, always in doubt.
Because this was the girl who, regardless of Subaru's incapacity to be strong, told him she loved
him.
Rem: “Yes. This is Subaru-kun's Rem.”
He raises his head.
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Blue arises in his teary vision.
He roughly wipes his eyes with his dirtied sleeve, abolishing the tears. He looks.
At the sight of the girl, standing before him.
At the sight of darling Rem.
Subaru: “Rehm...”
Rem: “Yes, this is Rem. A maid who will unfailingly be within arm's reach whenever Subaru-kun
wants her there.”
Subaru: “Y, ou...”
Tilting her head, playing with Subaru in a rather joking manner, is Rem.
Before he can say anything about her attitude, Subaru feels the air peacefully escape from his lungs.
The heaviness in his heart drops away with a thunk.
His breathing eases, the tiny wailing him inside his skull vanishing to somewhere.
So easily, so so easily saved, Subaru is stunned.

He had believed himself so absolutely without hope and deadlocked, and simply by having this one
single girl before him, everything comes unravelled this easily.
Subaru: “God you're amazing, Rem...”
Rem: “I appreciate that very much. You're incredible too, Subaru-kun.”
The words she speaks as she smiles fit together with how they, as usual, don't really fit together.
Inadvertently feeling happiness even at this back-and-forth, Subaru fails to keep enduring it, coming
close to crying.
Still seated slovenly on the ground with his eyes downcast, Rem kneels down before him.
Rem: “Do you feel all right? Are you, worn out?”
Subaru: “Who knows... am I worn out? ...But I haven't done anything yet.”
This loop has seen Subaru battered around entirely, without him reaching even a single correct
answer. He was in no position to be saying that he was worn out.
Everyone would anguish more. Everyone would hurt more. Why did everyone have to suffer? The
answer there was obvious.
Subaru: “Because I'm weak.”
Rem: “—”
Subaru: “Because my ability is lacking.”
Rem: “—”
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Subaru: “If I were stronger, smarter, a man who could do more... things'd be over without everyone
suffering, sorrowing, hurting...”
If Subaru were strong enough to do everything, absolutely everything on his own, then working
with Emilia to face her past, soothing of Beatrice's heart abraded over four hundred years of
isolation, rescuing of Petra and Frederica otherwise murdered, protecting SANCTUARY's people
assaulted by the Sizeable Hare, coming to understanding with Garfiel as he attempts to distance the
outsiders, would all be within his ability.
Everything, all of it, from start to finish, was Subaru's fault.

And so with that final balance sheet of weakness, Subaru needed to scour away his own soul.
—Is what he had thought, and still.
Subaru: “Is there anybody... that I saved?”
Rem: “Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “If worlds continue after I die, then how many times, places, people... did I leave everyone
to die?”
Rem: “Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “How many times did I let you die? How many times do I... need to kill you?”
Rem: “—Subaru-kun.”
With dread trembling up from the core of his body, Subaru rapidly confesses his sins.
Spit them all out, and immediately, hopefully get his pronouncement. Before he could wrack his
own mind to nothing, he desired that someone, nearby, sentence him.
He desired that someone smack this colossal idiot—who while pledging to no longer make
mistakes, had tread down the wrong path on their very first step—and let them know what a
hopeless moron they were.
Rem: “—”
—But what the punishment-seeking Subaru receives, is a kind, enveloping embrace.
Subaru: “Re, hm.”
Rem: “Everything is okay. You're okay, Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “But, noth... nothing is, okay...”
Subaru had accomplished absolutely nothing.

There were many people who would go unsaved if Subaru didn't rescue them. There were many
people who would meet horrific ends. And Rem too, was someone Subaru needed to save.
She was entirely qualified to lambaste the eternally inadequate, insufficient, weak Natsuki Subaru.
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Subaru: “You should... at me...!”
Rem: “—I love you.”
She meets her forehead to his, and simply, whispers her love.
Subaru: “—”
No words will exit him.

There is nothing he can say now.
So near, as those blue eyes gaze entirely straight at Subaru.

He could drown in the depths of the mercy in those eyes.
Rem: “I love you, Subaru-kun. —And so everything is all okay.”
Subaru: “Th-at... isn't, an answer...”
Rem: “Yes, it is. Why is it I am here? Why is it I forgive you? Why is it that I hold you? —All of it,
is entirely that.”
At range close enough to feel her breath, Rem's smile grasps Subaru's heart with an invisible hand.
He can't move. He can't even twitch. Reaching around his back, the small hands grip hard onto his
clothes, strong and even stronger, so strong the two could be one, as she hugs him.
Rem: “It must have been rough, Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “—”
Rem: “All alone, being this hurt... it must have been hard, Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “—hk”
Rem: “You don't need to experience this sadness any more.”
Rem's sweet enunciation continues.

Gently unravelling Subaru's heart, melting away his obstinacy.
Rem: “All of your hurt, your pain, your weakness, I will shoulder as substitute.”
Subaru: “...”
Rem: “Everything you willed to protect, to fight, to complete... I ask you will entrust to me.”
Subaru: “...”
Rem: “There is no necessity at all for you to carry every single burden. —Task everything to me,
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for now you may rest peacefully, and sleep.”
Subaru: “...I,”
Rem: “Please show me once again the Subaru-kun that I love.”
With her hand set against his cheek, Rem raises Subaru's head to look at him straight on.
Her lips pause maybe in hesitation, and slowly, her face approaches his.
Even his laggard consciousness can comprehend what she is doing, and what will be done to him.
Immediately near, within breathing range, the lips of a darling girl loom in.
Would it not be fine to overlay, to intertwine, luxuriate, acquiesce and drown?
—She was already pardoning him whether he was right or wrong.
Just to what extent had Rem's words gently permeated Subaru's heart?
His frayed emotions, his soul shrieking for someone to reach out, were by this girl who understood
everything of Subaru, right now, saved again.
To powerless Subaru, Rem offered her hand.

To brittle Subaru's back, Rem offered her support.
To foolish Subaru's path, Rem offered her escort.
Imposing on those, clinging, depending completely—if that would guide to the correct answer,
then...
Where was the point in struggling alone?
He was abraded wholly, he didn't know where his footing lie, he no longer knew which was the
direction to walk, and so, on absolutely everything, just give up, yield—
???: <It is easy to give up.>
Subaru: “—”
???: <But.>
Subaru: “—”
???: <—It does not suit you.>
A voice.
Rem: “—Subaru-kun?”
Rem's voice, puzzled, from in front of him.

But of course it would, as her face so close, once mere moments from touching him now has its
path blocked by a hand.
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Distanced from the touch of their sweet, supposedly to-entwine tongues, a somewhat wounded glint
lights up in Rem's wavering eyes.
Gazing at that shaking light from between the cracks in his fingers, Subaru speaks.
Subaru: “—Who are you?”
Rem: “Huh?”
Subaru: “I just asked, who are you?”
Rem: “Subaru-kun, what are you... asking who, is...”
Rem's throat seems to cramp as Subaru's low-voiced question leads her to falter.
The dim anguish in her eyes grows thicker, traces of misery etching themselves into her expression.
Incredibly, that felt to be clawing at onlooking Subaru's chest from inside and out.
To distract from the sensation Subaru presses down on his heart, baring his teeth.
Subaru: “When... I'm hopeless at the end of my rope, seriously wishing that someone'll do
something, thinking maybe it's impossible and about to give up... you would come to me. I seriously
believed that.”
Rem: “—”
Subaru: “When it's you then surely, when I'm so stuck, here hugging my knees, ruminating and
irresolute, then you'd hold yourself against me, you'd be kind to me. I believed that.”
Rem: “—”
Subaru: “You'd listen to my whinging, let me spew out my whining, let me wring myself out on
tears and everything until the tap's all dry...”
Rem: “—”
Subaru: “—And say, stand up.”
Natsuki Subaru remembered with all his soul the daintiness of her fingers, the warmth of her skin,
the scale of her love.
And so crystal clear, to this Rem—to this imposter, he'd well damn say it.
Subaru: “She would not say 'rest now.'”
Rem?: “—”
Subaru: “She would not say 'give up, task everything to me.'”
Rem?: “—”
Subaru: “Loving me, loving her, kind to me, in love with me—and more than anyone in the world
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strict on me, unsparing to me, that girl is Rem!”
Springing to his feet, Subaru howls as he takes distance from this Rem before him, keeping her in
his sights.
Still on her knees, Rem looks up at Subaru from her low position wordlessly. Even now he could
about drown from the sadness in her expression at being rejected.
Rem: “No, no no. Please listen, Subaru-kun! I, I was wrong. Just, I couldn't bear watching you in
suffering... and so, I merely, I wanted you to forget the pain and rest for now, that was all!”
Subaru: “I'll let you see my weakness. I'll let you see my frailty. I'll let you see that I'm a pathetic,
worthless bastard. —But I'll never let you see me giving up.”
Subaru is a hero, Rem had said.

I will act being as Rem's hero, Natsuki Subaru had decided.
Ever since they shared their promise, Subaru had resolved.

—That in this world, this universe, the only time he could show his weakness, was when with Rem.
When with the Rem who knew Subaru was weak, but even so believed in his efforts to act with
strength, was the only time Subaru could go without hiding the fact he was weak.
Not to Emilia, not to Beatrice, not to anyone else could he show it.
The only person could a Subaru who needed to be strong show his weakness to was Rem.
Subaru: “My weakness belongs to Rem. She hides all of my weakness, and in exchange even if I
have to grapple it in tight, I'm not letting my surrender happen.”
Rem?: “—”
Subaru: “Fuck off, you fake. —Don't goddamn coddle me wearing my Rem's face and voice!”
That firmly declared, Subaru jabs his fist out at Rem—at the imposter.
The listener is lost for words. They cast their gaze down, standing silently on the spot.
Rem: “Th-this, was, wasn't... what sh... she, t-told... me.”
Subaru: “Ah?”
Tilting their head with blue hair swaying, the imposter stutters out her words.
Hearing it rises questions for Subaru, when—
Rem: “—”
Right before him, her form seeming to blur, Rem's visage turns unclear.
A storm of television-haze static drowns out his vision, and in a blink at that spot there appears
someone completely different.
—Someone he's never seen before.
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Her pink hair stretches halfway down her back, her mien gentle—or more rather, timid. Her facial
features are attractive, but that did not mean her face as a whole was outstandingly beautiful.
Something more of an ordinary, normal-person kind of cuteness.
She wears a long-sleeved white outfit, her hands not peeking out the ends as she puts her palms to
her cheeks, looking at Subaru nervously.
Subaru: “Who're you?”
Rem: “I-I'm the WITCH OF LUST.... Camilla. Ni... nice to, meet you... mm.”
Subaru inadvertently swallows his breath.

She's introducing herself as the WITCH OF LUST. Meaning,
Subaru: “This weird unexplained room... is in Echidna's dream, then.”
Camilla: “Yes, but also, no... maybe. Echidna-chan's, watching the... TRIAL, and TRIAL's always...
kind of, like a dream... mhm... yeah.”
Subaru: “That's not really getting to the point or actually no before that...”
Camilla's manner of speech irks Subaru. Seeing his gaze spontaneously turn harsh, a huge shudder
runs through Camilla's body as she winds up hugging her head.
Camilla: “Sto... d-don't, hit me...”
Subaru: “I'm not gonna do that. Not gonna do it, but... what were you plotting with that?”
Camilla: “With... that?”
Subaru: “Putting on Rem's shape, and standing in front of me! Is that what your power is!?”
All of these witches crowned with deadly sins inevitably will have some kind of ridiculous
authority.
If the WITCH OF LUST is no exception, yes indeed she should have an authority. If her
transformation from before was it, then—
Subaru: “Man transformation's a really orthodox power compared to the other witches.”
Camilla: “I-I was, wasn't... transforming... though? I-If I look... looked like, someone else then...
that's b-beca... because, you wanted to see... that... yeah?”
Subaru: “What?”
Camilla: “I, mean... I didn't even... w-want to, meet you. E-Echidna-chan, told me to... come, so...
and she, lied... too...”
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Mumbles Camilla, her words exacerbating Subaru's annoyance.

The way she talks, the way she glances around, the way she lowers her eyes when she senses his
gaze on her, absolutely all of it grinds his gears. And that sissyish way she speaks, and her sulky
complaints.
Being that what she's trying to say isn't communicating clearly, she could not know how important a
thing for Subaru she had just stomped all over.
Irritating. Aggravating. He'd like to start raving, make her know it.
Subaru: “Do you... do you understand what the fuck it is you just did?”
Camilla: “Echidna-chan, said... I-I, just had to... spoil him, but... and that, doing that... it'd all
work... out fine, but it was... like that... a-and I, I even told her I... didn't wanna.”
Subaru: “Listen to me!!”
Camilla: “E-everyone's... ganging up, to... pick on me, is what... they're doing. Echidna-chan's d-
doing it. She's, is, she's awful... aw... awful.”
Subaru: “Can you not hear that I'm telling you to listen!!”
Subaru attempts to shout, when he notices that his lungs are squeezed of air and his voice is frail.
Notices it, but his lovebent rage is far more important and instantly dispels that fact from his
considerations.
Suffocation was a trivial matter when faced with something so annoying it makes him want to claw
at his own chest.
He'd shut that whiner's mouth, slap her with all the anger and suffering he had, make her
comprehend just what she had d—
???: “Any more than that'll be life-threatening.”
Subaru: “—!?”
That instant, Subaru hears a voice whispering at his ear as he regains his sanity.
The moment he does, what assaults him is the agony of being on the border of total asphyxiation for
having been kept in a state of oxygen deprivation, and the pain of his dry eyes for having kept them
continuously open.
Subaru: “Aau—ah, hahhh?”
???: “They were drastic measures, but just as long you're back. —When faced with Camilla, with
Lust's FACELESS GODDESS, people forget to breathe. Ultimately, forget even for their heart to beat.”
Subaru: “Eghu, ghbah... ha, haa.”
The choking prompts Subaru to spit as he falls with all limbs to the ground, his thoughts strobing.
But the voice does pass into his ear, and the meaning of its words does communicate to his brain.
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Thus Subaru wipes his mouth with his sleeve, looks at up the one who supposedly set up everything
about this station, and scowls.
Subaru: “What th—what the fuck were you plotting, Echidna?”
Faced with Subaru's hateful gaze, the white-haired witch strokes at her hair as in the now
meadowlands she puts her elbow to the table and her cheek to her palm.
Echidna: “Isn't it a given? —I'm a witch. The plot's something nefarious.”
She says, smiling.
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CHAPTER 74: WITCH'S PLOT AND PROPOSAL

Panting in asphyxiation, Subaru belatedly realises that his hands are on a meadow's green.
The thick scent of grass skims up from the ground his limbs are touching and into his nose. Like a
grassland bathed in sunlight after rain, the chokey and natural air wraps fleetingly around Subaru.
Turning his neck, Subaru sees Echidna before him.

Like usual, she is arranging preparations for a tea party on the meadow's hillock with its table and
chairs as she waits for her guest—for Subaru.
Like usual. —Just like usual.
Echidna: “I'm sure you have things you want to say and questions you want to ask, but... first how
do you feel about sitting down and having a cup of tea?”
Subaru: “...Do you think, having considered what you just did to me, that I'm going to cordially sit
in that chair? Or comply with your tea party at all?”
Echidna: “You'll comply. You're someone capable of giving mercenary, faux-calm rational thought
precedence over your instinct to fly into self-abandoning rage. Right now, a profitable conversation
with me has more benefits to you than shirking a conversation with me... would be what you've
concluded, right?”
Subaru: “—”
Subaru speaks low with suppressed anger. Echidna's carefree attitude stays healthy as ever.
Her words come spoken from above, as if mocking Subaru and his attempts to engage in an obvious
ploy. They strike a perfect bullseye, Subaru unable to choose either affirmation or denial.
The thing she had trampled over was not so cheap that Subaru would so easily acquiesce.
Subaru: “Echidna... tell me you didn't mean it.”
Echidna: “Hm?”
Subaru: “That... thing with the Witch of Lust, tell me that you didn't mean for that. Please say it was
your bad.”
Echidna: “...”
Subaru: “Say that it was unavoidable. That you didn't anticipate it, that it shouldn'tve gone like that.
Please tell me this. If you do... I won't fault you.”
What Echidna's saying is correct.

If he was to proceed ahead, then he needed her knowledge, her cooperation.
But the unforgivable is the unforgivable. Echidna's utilization of the Witch of Lust to trespass into
Subaru's inviolable and precious domain—his SANCTUARY—was reality.
And so as far as Subaru was concerned, this was an essential requirement for forgiving Echidna,
and complying to a profitable conversation with her.
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Echidna: “...Just when I was wondering what you'd say.”
In this instant, Echidna must have come to comprehend Subaru's inner weakness and obstinacy.
Echidna's mutter was an inadvertent one. Subaru bites his lip as he waits for her reply, Echidna
looking at him as she leisurely fiddles with the ends of her white hair.
Echidna: “Exactly as your wish states, that was the Witch of Lust Camilla running amok. I tried to
stop her, but she didn't listen me. She took advantage of the TRIAL with intent to beguile you,
unveiled the places you least want touched, and attempted to submerse you.”
Subaru: “—”
Echidna: “You narrowly managed to escape just as she was about to trick you. Having failed her in
beguilement, Camilla let down her guard, which is when I stole back predominance and summoned
you to my castle. You could call it a godsend that we're able to face each other right now.”
Subaru: “—”
Echidna: “...supposing I told you all that, would you be satisfied?”
Lining up everything Subaru wants to hear, Echidna undermines all of it at the end.
Subaru wordlessly looks upward, separating his gaze from Echidna.
Subaru: “...What were you trying to do, goading that witch on like that.”
Echidna: “Camilla didn't say? That with how the TRIAL had near entirely abraded your heart, she
wanted to save you?”
Subaru: “That wasn't what the Witch of Lust was really thinking. If what she said's right then that
was what I wanted Rem to tell me, the definition of self-issued weakness. The Witch of Lust's got
no reason be fond with me. ...You instructed her.”
Echidna: “It's impressive you got this much off so little information. ...In that case, doubt excuses
will work here.”
Echidna easily stops with the glossings over and gives a shrug. Ferrying her teacup to her mouth
and taking a sip,
Echidna: “Just as you suspect, sending out Camilla, and her presentation as a girl in your heart,
were both on my instruction. It being penetrated and failing to carry to the end is more of a problem
on Camilla's end than mine, though.”
Subaru: “...Why did you pull that?”
Echidna: “Hearing it said straight-out is probably going to make you mad. —Because it was the
most efficient method, and more importantly the method with the highest probability.”
Subaru's expression vanishes. Echidna continues without hesitation.
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Echidna: “It was outside even my predictions that the second TRIAL would catch you at this timing.
But most importantly, that its contents would stab into you so deeply was, speaking with entire
honestly, something I hadn't envisioned at all until I actually witnessed it.”
Subaru: “—”
Echidna: “Oop, I'd appreciate you overlooking that I was peeping on the TRIAL. I'm pretty sure I told
you about this back at the first TRIAL too, but you do get that these are TRIALS set up by a witch? The
mean-spirited punchline comes included. ...and such and such fault-finding I don't really enjoy.”
Subaru: “...Get back to explaining.”
Echidna: “Anyway, while I was watching you brave the TRIAL, I had a thought. —If he's made to
keep challenging the TRIAL alone like this, it won't be long before he's entirely eroded. ...There's the
thought.”
Her stance on this is likely no exaggeration, but really what would've happened.
Subaru had been paying enough attention to his situation that he could not refute her.
The second TRIAL—the uncomeatable present—and the scenes, events, tragedies he was forced to
witness. This thing was more than enough to utterly destroy Subaru's bravado, stubbornness, and
misconstrusion.
Echidna: “And so I intervened. Your complete erosion is yet another possible result. I execute trial
and error on everything there is, experiment everything possible. Because my curiosity is constantly
wailing its desire for theoretical conclusions without ever getting bored of it. To sate my insatiable
greed, I seek every single result out there. —The result of you challenging the TRIAL, and breaking,
is no exception.”
Subaru: “Then why'd you intervene? If my breaking is one of these results you're looking for, you
shouldn'tve minded just leaving me there. If you get the result that actually that was all I amounted
to after all, that should've satisfied you, yeah?”
Echidna: “Of course I have a perspective of accepting things as yet another possible result. ...I do,
but that doesn't mean I'll do nothing to get the results I desire.”
Subaru: “What?”
Echidna's tone drops as she speaks.

Hearing it, Subaru for the first time here knits his brows in something other than anger.
Scrutinizing the meaning of her words, and putting them together into definite shape, that means—
Subaru: “To reject the result of me eroding and disappearing to nothing... you set up that situation,
is what you're saying?”
Echidna: “...And as a result, I trespassed on territory precious to you, and I have no excuse for that.
If you're going to shower me with insults, I will resignedly accept it. Your anger is correct, and my
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selfishness is incorrect. That's all that's happened here.”
Setting her cup on the table, Echidna gazes straight-on at Subaru at the foot of the hill.
The silliness and caprice she had shown until now is entirely gone, as the Witch of Greed faces
Subaru with all of her sincerity.
Her attitude, her stance, her words, overwhelm him.
His heart had been entirely occupied with inexpressable fury and distrust toward Echidna, but now
those emotions seemed horrifically egotistic and self-serving.
While a strong reluctance to call the previous situation as Echidna's help still remains, just what
state would Subaru's mind be in if Echidna had not acted?
On the tomb's cold floor, mind broken, pulverised, in an impenetrable darkness without even the
faintest of light, disappeared entirely. Not a difficult scene to imagine.
He can't convey her any words of gratitude. But, he could not think her someone who deserved a
showering of anger and curses. —That was his emotional compromise.
Subaru: “—”
Wordlessly standing up, Subaru brushes the grass off him as he heads for the hilltop.
Sitting in her chair, a pained look flashes through Echidna's expression as she watches Subaru
approach. It seems that not even the centuries-old witch can determine just what words Subaru's
about to pummel her with.
Thirst for knowledge incarnate. WITCH OF GREED. The fact he could make twist the expression of
even someone like this gives Subaru's mind a slight relief.
Echidna: “—au,”
Echidna cries out slightly in surprise as Subaru pulls out the chair opposite, and sits.
He certainly isn't bringing his cup to his lips, but he is expressing intention to talk. Echidna looks at
Subaru with unease as he puts his elbow to the table and his cheek in his hand, averting his gaze
from Echidna.
Subaru: “No appetite for 'Chidna tea. ...But I will be getting a profitable conversation out of you.”
Swallowing down his unbearable emotions, Subaru displays tolerance enough to comply.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “So what was the second TRIAL, actually?”
Still with cheek in hand, Subaru asks without looking at Echidna.

Echidna shifts the position of her seat as she responds, slanting forward to get into Subaru's view.
Echidna: “What do you think it was?”
Subaru: “Dodging the subject... or actually you're not. This you saying I'm asking too much in
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suddenly trying to get an answer, really?”
Echidna: “I'm not considering anything so mean-spirited. It's since I wound up doing something
which would make you angry. I'm just thinking to check that we can have friendly conversation, but
also that I want to hear your voice some more.”
Those were incredibly embarrassing words for someone to hear.

If Subaru had been braving this conversation in his baseline mental state, with no hustle at all, then
he would likely have been discomposed and wound up getting stuck on his words.
But Subaru's present mentality is one that surely wouldn't be giving Echidna the reactions she
wants. He gives a small sigh as his reply.
Subaru: “The TRIAL's opener is WITNESS THE UNCOMEATABLE PRESENT. That's the preface, and
that's the scenes it shows. ...Uncomeatable present probably means a PRESENT which, sometime
during the period it took for me to wind up where I am now, went down a different path than what
leads to the current situation.”
It's the same kind of idea as a visual novel.

The player chooses down which path to proceed at important moments, opening different storylines
and possibilities. Think about it somewhat extravagantly, and visual novels are magnificent games
wherein whole lives themselves unfold.
Echidna: “They're universes you fundamentally shouldn't be able to witness. They may be infinitely
happier than the real PRESENT, and you'll regret that things aren't like that universe. Or perhaps they
may be infinitely sadder than the real PRESENT, and you'll feel grateful that you are where you are
now. —The reality of the second TRIAL is to witness these differing PRESENTS, and see if you can
affirm the PRESENT which correctly should be, is about what it is.”
Following off from Subaru, Echidna succinctly explains the second Trial.
It's practically identical to what Subaru had envisioned. If you exclude the part where it wound up
being a deeply, violently penetrating ordeal for Subaru and only for Subaru.
Subaru: “—Do the alternate PRESENTS I saw actually exist?”
Echidna: “...”
Subaru: “When I die, I RETURN BY DEATH right there. So I've never seen what happens after my
death. ...and even before that, I've never considered that the world continues on after my death.
...No, I've been trying not to consider it.”
Well, of course.
Subaru's RETURNING BY DEATH occurs when the world has fallen into an unsalvagable checkmate.
By affirming RETURNS BY DEATH made for the sake of breaking through the deadlock, saving those
dear to him, and reaching the optimum future, he had put up with the sensation of spending his life.
If worlds exist after his death, that pulls the fundamental portion of his premise out from under him.
While also to keep himself mentally stable, believing that NO WORLDS THAT I HAVE LEFT BEHIND
EXIST allowed Subaru to save the people of the maybe-present WORLDS LEFT BEHIND.
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And so,
Subaru: “Even after I die, the world goes on... maybe? My choices make worlds diverge, and there
in the world where I blundered and miscarried everything, everyone I didn't protect is there...?”
Subaru: “What is it, Echidna. ...Please tell me.”
Having lost the option to keep abstaining from looking at her, Subaru pleads as he directs his gaze
to the forward-slanted Echidna.
Wordless, and bathed in Subaru's attention, Echidna thoughtfully rubs her chin. She closes her eyes.
Echidna: “There's one thing I have to put out there about the TRIAL.”
Subaru: “...”
Echidna: “The presents in the second TRIAL are entirely a phenomena which show scenes from
fabricated worlds. The challenger taking the TRIAL... that'd be you this time. Taking influence from
all the way into the details in your memory, the MEMORIES OF THE WORLD withdraws the people
who make up your surroundings, the world, the atmosphere, even the mana, and aligns the
necessary past, present, and future information to create a PRESENT.”
Subaru: “...”
Echidna: “Meaning that is entirely a well-made UNREALITY. The degree of their reconstruction is on
an entirely different dimension from your self-produced imaginings and delusions, and as a fake
reality those things would potentially occur. But, they're start-to-finish ARTIFICIAL UNREALITIES. If
questioning whether they really happened, the answer is not affirmative.”
Subaru: “Th-then...”
Echidna: “However.”
Hearing Echidna's explanation, Subaru raises his head in hope. But Echidna faces out her palm,
interrupting him.
Echidna: “The details behind the principles of your RETURN BY DEATH are unclear. It's almost
certain that the agent for your RETURN BY DEATH is the Witch of Envy, but as to how the WITCH OF
ENVY is making you RETURN BY DEATH leaves questions unending. It may be a power which uses
your death as a trigger to rewind the world. Potentially, it may be that it overwrites the you in a
maybe-there-maybe-not alternate universe so called a parallel universe, with the present YOU.”
Subaru: “Au...”
Echidna: “Hypothetically assuming that the latter principle is truth, then worlds in parallel universes
exist, and even after your death, the worlds without YOU would continue.”
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Subaru: “W-ways to confirm that would be...”
Echidna: “—None.”
Echidna shakes her head.

His eyes open wide, Subaru's jaw drops as he is struck dumb. Echidna gives Subaru a sympathizing
kind of gaze, rapping her fingers on the edge of the table.
Echidna: “If we're to assume there is a way to confirm, it would be to get the answer out of the
WITCH OF ENVY herself. But I'm sure you're already well aware that that would be difficult?”
Echidna must be talking about Subaru's memories from when he first truly met the WITCH OF ENVY.
After leaving the tea party and exiting the tomb, there the WITCH OF ENVY welcomed him.
Stole Emilia's body, tore Garfiel to bits, consumed SANCTUARY itself in shadow, a genuine monster.
—Subaru suddenly remembers some doubts he had about the circumstances of the thing's
appearance.
Subaru: “Ri, ght... Echidna. Before, after the tea party ended... outside, I saw the Witch in
SANCTUARY. What was that? Just what was that?”
Echidna: “You already know this, but that was the WITCH OF ENVY. Although, that was a knock-off
far removed from the real thing. The flesh-vessel it chose was immature, and most importantly the
seal hasn't moved an inch. With its witch factor impaired, it's inconceivable it could act with the
power it had in its heyday.”
Subaru: “That was far removed from its heyday...?”
Although having been a monster that made short work of transformed Garfiel and killed absolutely
everything without sustaining even a scratch, that had been nothing comparable to the real WITCH
OF ENVY.
Just how much of a hell had it been 400 years ago, when the Witch was actually parading about the
place?
Echidna: “Just as you have imagined, the trigger for its exiting outside was the tea party. Not even
that thing can bind you by the taboo here. Thus it went crazed with jealousy, left to vent its
resentment outside, had a tantrum and went ballistic.”
Subaru: “Did you know that'd fucking happen?”
Echidna: “I certainly did not. I'm speaking about the outset. Seeing how things had turned out, the
outset probably came from that. ...is the hypothesis that I reached. That I can make no conclusions
without truly witnessing the outcomes is a point where even I, the Witch of Greed, am no different
from you all.”
Subaru: “—”
Subaru is lost for words at Echidna and her objective stance, which shows no signs of collapsing.
He could reproach her, but nothing would come of it. Despite being aware of this fact, there is a
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vexation to be had.
If she just felt like it, if she just felt like collaborating with Subaru, then potentially—
Echidna: “I doubt there's any great reason behind why your loved was chosen as the vessel. Her
body's also a half-elf, so maybe there might've been some ease of adaptation there, but I'd say the
biggest reason would be nothing other than ENVY.”
Subaru: “Envy...?”
Echidna: “When you're a witch trying to monopolize your affection, how is it strange to hate
someone who's so enthusiastically getting your attention, and want to destroy them?”
Loving someone insanely meant desiring to be loved by them in equal turn. If that someone directed
their love at another, then the hazard known as LOVE could prompt acts of insanity done to redirect
the someone's focus onto oneself.
So that was why the Witch of Envy keeps materializing, then?
Echidna: “Everything you're puzzling over is likely something only the WITCH OF ENVY would
know.”
Echidna: “You can mull over it endlessly, but in honest opinion, it's unlikely you'll reach an answer.
Not about that spectacle which cornered you in, and most importantly not about those MAYBE-
THERE-MAYBE-NOT PRESENTS, will you get a true conclusion.”
Subaru: “Th, at is...”
There's really nothing to call it except Subaru's cruel reality.

He wanted to be clearly refuted. “These post-death worlds you saw don't exist.”
If that was no good then he wanted a definite affirmation. “Your conceit has sacrificed many.”
Whichever answer it was, Subaru would have surely kept the response as a precept, as a lynchpin,
as something not to forget—then grit his teeth, spill tears of blood, and even with his soul wailing
its misery, step onward.
—Getting an answer saying that no answer existed was remarkably cruel.
Still without any affirmations or denials, with matters of the world still inconclusive, live!
Without knowing whether he had trampled over what he had trampled over. Without being able to
acknowledge that he has abandoned what he has abandoned. Was being unable to acknowledge his
sins as sins his punishment?
Had Natsuki Subaru committed a sin so accordingly great, that no one could forgive it?
Nobody was capable of casting judgement on Subaru. Couldn't denounce him either. He understood
that.
—But would nobody let even Subaru himself do it?
Echidna: “I think it's harsh. But, I also think all there's possibly to do is rationalize.”
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Overwhelmed and without words is Subaru, when Echidna addresses him.

He lifts his head sluggishly, looking at Echidna with his eyes empty.
Echidna swallows her breath, and with a serious expression,
Echidna: “Speaking in extremes, the second TRIAL is to accept WHAT THERE ONLY IS NOW, and
rationalizing that the PRESENTS other than the PRESENT are entirely unreachable alternate worlds.”
Echidna: “For you, who has reason more than other challengers to recognize that perhaps these
alternate worlds may truly exist, I'm sure it's difficult. But still, it's time to switch.”
Subaru: “Switch?”
Echidna: “Your choices indeed may have left numerous sacrifices in their wake. I'm sure that
among those you've left behind, there are many which are beyond reclamation. But spending your
life entirely counting those you've left behind, those who are gone, is miserable. It's empty. It's
painful, wouldn't you think?”
Subaru: “If we're just going to be talking off emotion logic, how about we don't. ...It's really
something saying this but do you actually think run-of-the-mill counselling's enough to do
something about this experience?”
Echidna's words are pleasant, comforting ones.

Were they in response to a shallower wound, a less serious crime, to a lower-scale event, perhaps
they may have had some effects.
Potentially he would have felt saved, and been capable of that SWITCH.
But,
Subaru: “That doesn't change that the payback for what I've done is unworkable. It doesn't change
that I thought everything I left behind disappeared, didn't exist, and from that I've been piling
sacrifices is possible.”
Echidna: “...You're correct.”
Subaru: “What do I have to do so I can approve of myself in this situation? Is there something I can
do so that I can forgive me? I pushed aside the deliverance you offered me. I don't want to be saved
by a counterfeit Rem. I'm bringing the real Rem back, eventually. —But.”
Taking a breath, Subaru's face twists into a mess.
Subaru: “—Is the Rem I eventually bring back, truly going to be the same Rem I want to save?”
Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “So long as that question goes unanswered, this mental deadlock's not changing. ...Are you
seriously telling me I can do something about that, ordering me to rationalize it?”
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Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “Rather than counting who I haven't saved, live while counting those I have... that, is
seriously what you're telling me?”
What followed in the statements Echidna wished to tell Subaru was a kind of hope.
Those words would even for Subaru, perhaps bestow hope.
—However, the darkness into which Subaru had declined was not shallow enough for him to
consider them as hope.
Subaru: “With this run-of-the-mill emotional logic, you're seriously... telling me to, fight...”
Echidna: “—I am.”
Subaru: “—”
Echidna: “I, am, telling you, that.”
Dispelling the words of comfort, Subaru cries out from the depths of despair.
Echidna speaks—slowly, piece by piece, looking Subaru straight in the eye.
Echidna: “Rather than counting the many you may not have saved, you should count the many you
have saved. The path you've travelled in getting here, I have been watching.”
Subaru: “You, what're... what could you, about me...”
Echidna: “I have been watching you live doing your utmost, your very best, and arriving to this
moment. And so I can say it. Indeed I can.”
Subaru: “—”
Echidna: “On the path you have walked thus far, not a single thing you have done has been
worthless. Nobody has the right to call your utmost INSUFFICIENT. You've gone throwing out
everything you can do, and ventured here to this point. —That is something to be proud of.”
Echidna's sincere words strike Subaru's empty heart. Something inside his hollow chest resounds.
—But, it isn't enough. Those words would not spur him to stand.
She could say it was something to be proud of, but in reality Subaru had miscarried on many things.
Things he should have been able to do something about. If it were someone other than Subaru
working with the same conditions, they would've done it fine. But since the person in those places
had been Subaru, many had gone without rescue.
That was Subaru's crime. Subaru's wrongdoing. The sin for Subaru to accept, and indemnify.
Subaru: “There is no one who can forgive me.”
Echidna: “I will forgive you. Who knows of this, I will.”
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Subaru: “There is no one who can judge me.”
Echidna: “I will judge you. Me, who knows your sin, I will.”
Subaru: “—There is no one who can validate me.”
Echidna: “If you cannot validate yourself, then allow me to invalidate the you you cannot forgive.”
Subaru: “—”
Echidna: “If you will validate your sin, I will invalidate your sin.”
Every one of Subaru's words, Echidna persistently attempts to dispel.

Why was the witch so insistently denying Subaru's sin?
Why was the witch so repeatedly trying to cast this darkness from Subaru's heart?
Subaru: “Why, are you... trying so hard to do something for me?”
Echidna: “...Making a girl say this kind of thing is just slightly overly mean.”
Echidna, who had not faltered even once until now, for the first time gets vague with her statements.
With her face still tinted slightly red, Echidna coughs.
Echidna: “—Will you form a contract with me, Natsuki Subaru?”
Quiet, but suggestive of strong volition.

Subaru blinks, letting the words sink into his brain, taking all the time necessary to comprehend.
Subaru: “Con, tract...?”
Echidna: “Yes, a contract. A formal contract with the WITCH OF GREED. —Are you interested in
tying one?”
Subaru: “We form this... say we formed this, what happens?”
Echidna: “It's simple. —From now on, whenever you run into an obstacle you can't surmount, I will
ponder on the barricade together with you. Whenever you wish to hear someone's words, I will
endeavour to give you the words you desire. Whenever your sins are close to crushing you, I will
eliminate those crushing sins together with you.”
Spoken all at once, a bashful smile rises on Echidna's face.
Echidna: “Do you want to form this contract?”
Subaru: “...You're dead, and so, aren't you incapable of interfering with reality?”
Echidna: “I've probably transcended the capabilities of the dead. Call it belated and yes it's belated,
but I don't think such a wrong. ...If you'll forgive it, that is.”
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Hand to her chest with her head hung, Echidna's words vibrate Subaru's eardrums. The vibration
follows to his body, a heat steadily warming his blood as it transmits through his whole.
To his numbed fingers, sensation returns.
His arid tongue regains some moisture and mobility, his unblinking eyes filling with something hot
to cast out the dryness.
This offered hand, proposition, proposal, assistance, has him lost on how to answer.
Echidna: “Not meaning to brag, but I'm confident about my information load. I can prepare counter-
approaches for most all problems you'll encounter, and no matter how absurd a situation threatens to
befall you, unlike your peers there is absolutely no necessity to toil in persuading me. And most of
all, I can comprehend your RETURN BY DEATH.”
Subaru: “Are you hitting me with a surprise fast-lipped sales pitch?”
Echidna: “As the one seeking it, I do kinda think it natural to note out the benefits of tying a
contract with me. If this has helped bring some ease into your heart at all, then perhaps you could
call that another benefit.”
Taking advantage of Subaru's words, Echidna turns even them into part of her pitch. Seeing her
acting in a way she never has before, Subaru's cheeks unwittingly loosen into a smile.
Feeling the air in his lungs peacefully exit, Subaru sighs.
With the meadow wind bathing the back of his neck, Subaru leans against the chairback as he looks
up at the sky.
In the artificial sky, he sees the white clouds floating.
Whenever he's stuck, whenever he's lost for answers, whenever he encounters hardship.
—If under this azure sky, he could once again trade words, seeking a solution...
Subaru: “Maybe, it wouldn't be so bad...”
Echidna: “—Which would mean?”
The chair squeaking as she stands up, her hands unwittingly balled into fists, Echidna looks down at
Subaru. With Subaru gazing at her while still leaned against his chairback, Echidna's face changes
colour in embarrassment at what she just did.
Echidna: “Ah, um... right, if you mean you're desperate for it, then I guess that contract's something
we could...”
Subaru: “Way too late for patching this up. Or actually, I'm not the one looking for this, it's you...
no, in this situation, saying that is incredibly crude.”
Echidna is the one proposing it, but the entire thing is to save Subaru's heart.
Said plainly, it's a witch's kindness. That the whole affair won't take shape as Subaru simply
clinging to that kindness is definitely because the witch is acting with consideration for Subaru.
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No matter what he does, no matter who it is, is he always going to wind up getting saved?
With the rocking of the chair-back pitching him forward as he uprights himself, Subaru stands up.
Echidna stands within range to touch, looking up at the now-elevated Subaru, her expression
uneasy.
This witch's minutest actions are cunning, he thinks.
Being that he is she is delivering him, he is unmistakably in no position to say anything.
Subaru: “How do you tie a contract?”
Echidna: “—For tying a formal contract, you and I will be connected with a pass. I'll deal with
attaching in the detailed itinerary... but for now, your palm.”
Echidna raises her right hand, facing her pale palm to Subaru.
Like this, place your palm to mine, is probably what it means.
Seeing the witch standing opposite Subaru and her grin, unable to hide her happiness, Subaru feels a
sort of dumbfoundment as he sighs.
Subaru: “Now, let's hope things're gonna start changing...”
Filled with more than a few expectations for the future, to Echidna's hand does Subaru place his—
BAM.
A shattering noise rips through the air as the white, cup-bearing table beside Subaru explodes.
The impact which broke the table transmits on to the ground, the earth collapsing as it births a
crater, the quakes and rumbling jolting Subaru violently as he squawks in surprise.
???: “—I'm putting a stop to this contract.”
Fist to the ground as she magnificently speaks is the blonde, blue-eyed girl.
—The WITCH OF WRATH glares at the two, in rage.
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CHAPTER 75: THEY

Unwittingly stumbling back at the shock, Subaru's eyes open wide as he sees the blonde girl glaring at him.
Her azure eyes brimming with incredible fury, a witch with crimson colouring her beautiful face—it's
Minerva.
Bringing her sharp gaze off the paralysed Subaru, Minerva redirects to look at Echidna, standing opposite
Subaru and entirely composed.
Minerva: “Repeating myself, but I'm putting a stop to this. I'm not acknowledging this contract.”
Echidna: “...Hrm. This'd best be called a development outside what I anticipated.”
Too intimate for enmity, too bloodthirsty for anger. That emotional gaze concentrates wholeheartedly onto
Echidna as Minerva crosses her arms inside the crater she made, hoisting up her abundant chest, biting her
lip.
Echidna: “A witch's contract—you should be capable of understanding what significance these hold. That
you've regardless interrupted us means... not possibly, you also want to tie a contract with him? Then here I
suppose we'd be having a case of jealousy.”
Minerva: “Can't you at least tell that my anger is not for such a peaceful reason? I'm furious. I'm incensed.
I'm vehement with boiling rage.”
The redness to Minerva's face intensifies as she replies to Echidna. Her peaking emotions turn into a teardrop
at the corner of her eye, giving an innocent, childlike kind of obstinacy to her features.
Her young face is terribly mismatched to her voluptuous body—and her very presence is something Subaru
inevitably must accept, although with a great jumble of surprise.
Subaru: “Why're you here?”
Minerva: “What. Are you saying I'm not allowed to be?”
Subaru: “Well no. I'm not, but... I mean, Echidna's right there.”
Says Subaru as he points at Echidna, Minerva puffing out her cheeks in displeasure. She tilts her head as if
not understanding the problem here at all, but Echidna seems to catch on, giving a light clap of her hands as
she nods.
Echidna: “Ah, I see what you're having a problem with. —You must be mystified as to how another witch
has manifested, even though I'm present and standing right here.”
Subaru: “Th-that's it. I mean, every time I've met a witch up to now it's been one-on-one... like it was
guaranteed they were appearing swapping out in your place. Didn't you...”
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Minerva: “She never said we can't be out together, I bet. That kind of mean pointless trick is just how this
nasty witch does things.”
Minerva angrily squares her shoulders as she easily destroys Subaru's objections. Subaru mutters a 'no way'
to himself as he looks at Echidna. But Echidna gives no particular signs of refuting it.
Echidna: “I'd like you to not misunderstand, though. That I didn't call any other witches here is because it's a
big responsibility and a big risk for me. Depending on the circumstances, it's possible another witch will
steal predominance over this place, and even if they don't it takes some considerable effort to recreate
powerful beings such as them.”
Subaru: “And so then... but, no, you...”
Echidna: “I have never told a single lie. That alone, I will assert.” 8
Echidna's sharp statement slices through Subaru's stuttering words.

She's right. Looking back through his memories, Echidna has never made any statement about this present
phenomenon which could be deemable as a lie.
Subaru had just assumed that had been it. So speaking in extremes, Echidna technically had not deceived
Subaru at all, but.
Echidna: “I didn't really want you to know that the other witches could manifest all over the place, and have
them take you from me.”
Subaru: “Wh, aeh?”
Echidna: “You are truly the first guest in a long time for me. I haven't had conversations that thrilled me as
much as ours so commonly whether before or after my death. Are you going to curse me, say that my desire
to hog you is miserable?”
Subaru: “—”
Echidna: “I know I'm repeating this again and again, but I think of you fondly. And so I wanted to avoid it
that, by the others having more allure, or by being a more cooperative witch, your interest would shift away
from me and toward them. —I don't mind if you laugh.”
It's a horrific, hideous desire to monopolize—is how Echidna is explaining the details behind her secrecy.
Listening to Echinda's somewhat-excuse, with her fixation aimed right at him, he wonders: what about me
that warrants this fixation?
The WITCH OF ENVY is the same case. Why was Echidna, too, with Subaru so—
8 With this line in mind, if Echidna has ever told anything construable as an outright lie in these summaries, assume
it's because I bungled the nuance of what she was saying or otherwise didn't catch a double meaning. The same
applies to Lewes and Garfiel.
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Minerva: “You are just getting wheedled in so easily.”
Subaru: “—Dhah!?”
A soft fist bumps the back of Subaru's head just as he goes to consider it.
He puts his hand to his head and turns around, to find Minerva behind him. She takes the hand he's pressing
down on his head with, and with a flowing motion twists his arm to wrest him down to the ground.
Subaru: “A, auh! Wai, this hurts this hurts this hurts... or not?”
Minerva: “When I directly touch something living, no matter what action I take it turns into something
restorative. I could punch with all my strength and it'll close wounds, I could wrestle someone while trying to
wrench their limbs off and it'll cure their chronic diseases, and if I keep someone held in a lock their shoulder
aches will disappear!”
Subaru: “A-and so that's why the aching over my body's... not.”
While his body savours the incredible merit of the Witch of Wrath, Subaru frantically twists his neck to look
at Minerva as she locks him in a hold.
Regardless of the fact that she's twisted him around in a way which should invite pain and jarring to his
bones, he feels no ache but in fact a pleasant warmth spreading through his body, and consequently an
incredible awriness. A mysterious authority which turns all acts preformed on a human body into something
positive, and the witch exercising it. Certainly Subaru's had no negative impression of Minerva up to now,
but...
Subaru: “What the hell're you trying to do here...”
Minerva: “I don't do this, and it looks like you're gonna get happily cajoled into contracting with Echidna.
Your quick decisions and airhead attitude're really making me mad!”
Echidna: “Cajole, makes it sound bad. I'm sure I did explain the benefits of what a contract with me would
be, and devise to put us on even grounds of mutual understanding...”
Minerva: “It's that attitude where you act like you totally followed through with your responsibility to
explain here that's getting me. You did explain all about the benefits. You did... but, when it comes to the
inconvenient stuff the contract'd cause, you didn't say a thing!”
Leaving herself to her rage, Minerva swings her leg down. Where her heel lands is Subaru's behind, and he
gets to experience the incomprehensible phenomenon of feeling a heel driving into his rear, as the force
transmitted through his bottom bores an indentation into the ground.
Feeling some sense that the strike to his ass has improved his bowel functioning, Subaru realises the
significance of what Minerva is saying, and is stunned.
—His conversation with Echidna had not touched on the detriments of the contract at all. And now he
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understands the carelessness of his own self who had not even noticed the fact.
Subaru: “No, but... saying detriments... something, that kind of serious...”
Minerva: “Wouldn't come up, is what you think? You're sure taking contracts lightly. Even though the
contractor is a witch—and the one who of the seven sin witches tied the most contracts, had contact with the
most people, who meddled the most in history, the WITCH OF GREED.”
Echidna: “All those laurels are laurels of my life... though it's true that not every one of them was what you'd
call honourable. It's true that forming a contract with me did not necessarily save absolutely all of them.”
Minerva comes through with that fact Subaru was ignorant to. Echidna follows on from her, entirely
stressing her absence of ill intentions toward Subaru.
Stuck between these two as they assert their stances, the turmoil in Subaru's head peaks.
He didn't know which one to trust.
Ever since Subaru got involved with the Trial in this tomb, his multiple meetings and times spent
deliberating over his worries together with Echidna have led him to consider her a kind of comrade in arms.
And so when Echidna proposed to tie an organized collaboration in the form of this contract, Subaru had
even felt a sense of security.
On the other hand, his time spent interacting and speaking with Minerva, compared to Echidna, is sparse. But
whenever Subaru was in danger she would swoop in with her mighty arms to heal him, and without even
demanding a 'thank you' zoom past like a typhoon, a merciful character.
Minerva had no reason to be deceiving Subaru, and if the matter was actually great enough that she would
purposefully manifest to interject, there is probably more time to be spent mulling the whole thing over.
Or no, actually, rather than deliberating like this, what he should do was ask this question:
Subaru: “Echidna. If we form the contract, you'll need compensation.”
Echidna: “...Yup, you're right. Contracts do need those. Like how I am offering my knowledge in response to
your demand, you need to present compensation in response to my demand.”
Subaru: “Course. Yeah. —So, what're you demanding from me? If I contract you, what is it I need to offer
you?”
For getting Echidna's help when stuck in a hopeless situation, what was it he needed to pay?
Echidna's cheeks loosen into a smile.
Echidna: “It's nothing worth being wary over. What I'm demanding from you isn't anything so complex.
Actually, for how I'm not trying to take anything precious physical or non-physical as compensation, you
could even call this evenhanded.”
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Subaru: “—Say, your, demand.”
Echidna: “It's very simple. —What you feel, what you create, what you know, what you do, what you think,
what you retrospect, what fruits called UNKNOWNS your presence incurs, I want to savour always.”
Says Echidna, her cheeks red and expression that of a young maiden with a crush.
Fruits called UNKNOWNS—Subaru furrows his brows at the poetic phrasing.
Subaru: “Hell's that. You mean, pull out my emotions and memories and recollections, and hand them over?
If so then...”
Echidna: “Didn't I say? It's nothing so risky. I just want to witness the sights you see, the melodies you hear,
the story you weave, all from a special box seat. All I want is to perceive this. I want to be in a position to
know the UNKNOWNS you create. By that and just merely that alone, I can be fulfilled.”
To dispel Subaru's concerns, Echidna plainly defines her demand.

She just wants to watch Subaru walk his path. See the same thing he sees. To know what he feels, what he
knows, the results of his actions.
Thirst for knowledge incarnate, the Witch titled GREED, wanted merely that.
Subaru: “You're, not lying right?”
Echidna: “Lying about contracts'd be absurd. While also for the sake of being myself, I pledge that I will
never do anything to betray those words. I'd stake my life on it.”
Concludes Echidna with her hand to her chest, the joke being 'Though, I'm already dead.'
Subaru senses no lies from her words or behaviour. Or perhaps he just wanted to believe that.
Subaru: “Minerva. This's what Echidna's telling me. And so what I'm doing is...”
???: “I-it's, all... true, but th... that doesn't, mean sh-she's... she's told you, everything.”
Subaru attempts to demand Minerva release him from the hold, when somebody new on the scene addresses
him. This voice was one he had heard just a few quarter-hours ago—and spoken in a diction Subaru felt
absolutely nothing positive for.
Subaru: “Camilla... the WITCH OF LUST!”
Camilla: “Do... d-don't, look at me with... with those scary, eyes. I, I'm not... not even, doing any... thing...
you're, a-awful...”
Subaru: “The nasty eyes're inborn. I'm not making any specially harsh expression or anything.”
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Subaru held grappled to the ground, with Echidna standing opposite him. Minerva behind him means the
three form a straight line, with a pink-haired girl sitting in the meadow a short distance away—Camilla.
She timidly hides her face away from Subaru's gaze, sporadically glancing over. The attitude's annoying as
always, but by consciously averting his attention from her, Subaru manages to avoid CAPTIVATION TO THE
POINT IT'S LIFE THREATENING.
Subaru: “But anyway, what were you talking bout? I'm not gonna complain this late about witches showing
up, but if something's...”
Camilla: “E-Echidna-chan is... hiding, lots and lots... of, things. S-she isn't, lying but... she's hiding, lots... of
things...”
Subaru: “Hiding things?”
Thinking over Camilla's words, Subaru imploringly looks to Echidna. Echidna closes an eye as she looks
over at the suddenly-present Camilla.
Echidna: “Suddenly show up, and here you immediately come with the aspersions. Or more actually, how is
it that he's stirred up your attentions? You're not like Minerva, you shouldn't have any reason to back him.
You're supposed to have disliked him.”
Camilla: “A, r-rea... reason, like... Minerva-chan? No I, do... don't have any... proper, one. But, Echidna-
chan, you... you, tricked... me, didn't you?”
Camilla looks down as she responds to Echidna's accurate statements, speaking in frail and stuttering voice.
However, contrary to her diction, the actual words she is saying carry no weakness or compromise at all.
Camilla putters her fidgety gaze around, setting her glance multiple times on Echidna.
Camilla: “I-I, don't... like him, but, I... I'm not on your... side when you, tricked.... m-me Echidna-chan, ei...
either. People who, t-trick me, hate... me, d-do mean, things to me... I WILL NEVER FORGIVE.”
—That last statement alone is spoken with incredible clarity.

So much that Subaru needs some time before he can recognize that it came from the mouth of this girl beside
him. That was the extent that that single phrase diverted from Camilla's atmosphere up until now.
Camilla: “—”
Wordlessly, but assuredly without ever looking away, Camilla stares at Echidna.
In her eyes there churns a near indescribable whirlpool of emotions—something dark and grudgelike,
entirely unforgiving of any bastard who would aim at her something resembling hostility.
Apex of narcissism—are the words that skim through Subaru's brain.
Echidna: “While it may've been a necessary measure, it seems acting in a way contrary to Camilla's desires
was a mistake. Make an enemy of you, and there's no bigger nuisance out there.”
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Camilla: “E-everyone is, on my... side so, ha-having me... hate you, is, really... awful. Y-you can apol...
apologize, but, I won't.... forgive you.”
Camilla's personality is introverted and timid enough that she cannot even communicate with others
sufficiently—but that has nothing to do with the intensity of her rebellion toward hostility.
Subaru: “What've you all... what have you all been talking about!?”
And, butting in to the witches and their tense situation, Subaru finally speaks up.
Feeling the attention of the three witches focusing on him, Subaru frantically turns his neck as he,
Subaru: “This's enough of you all talking while leaving me out! I'm the one who's choosing here! Say it in a
way I can understand! Echidna, what're you hiding!? You two, what is it you know that's making you try to
stop me!?”
Minerva: “Even saying that you're in a mentally frail position, stopping all thinking and immediately going
to grasp an offered hand is totally naive... and what guided him into doing that was all of your so careful
planning!”
Echidna: “A wound to my respectability. That sounds liable to make him misunderstand things. If we tie the
contract, with my assistance I will lead him to, no matter what, reach the optimum destination that he desires.
To know of the things he sees, sounds he hears, information he learns over this process is my demand. Not a
single one of the things I am saying is fallacious.”
Minerva launches her words at the roaring Subaru with her voice shaking in rage. Echidna's composure
remains entirely in place.
Feeling the coolness laced through Echidna's voice, Subaru also begins feeling something awry. Having
transcended his up-until-now state of near delirium, he very deliberately scrutinizes over Echidna's words.
Over her attitude, and over why the two witches are stopping him.
Was there something off? She wasn't saying anything off. The other two witches had acknowledged she
wasn't lying. Then, where was the problem?
Echidna: “I will repeat it, Natsuki Subaru. Should you choose me, contract with me—I will, without fail,
lead you to the place you desire.”
???: “—'Ultimately', is the disclaimer word guaranteed to come attached to this promise—haa.”
Echidna makes her statement with her hand outstretched to Subaru, when a listless voice speaks.
He looks, to find a monster of magenta hair seated opposite Camilla—on the ground, buried in her long, long
hair, the WITCH OF SLOTH has appeared.
The multiplying in witches doesn't surprise Subaru any more. What Subaru does pick up is,
Subaru: “Ultimately?”
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Sekhmet: “I'm sure Echidna—huu—is guaranteed to fulfil the contract—haa—But, so long as she upholds
entirely the reality that—huu—she did fulfil the contract—haa—she'll likely do whatever during the process
to get there.”
Subaru: “Do, whatev...”
Linking together Sekhmet's words to the previous awriness he felt, one single hypothesis comes to Subaru's
mind. But that hypothesis is one overwhelmingly hard to accept, and as Subaru's face stiffens in shock, he
looks at Echidna and her closed eyes—and speaks.
Subaru: “Echidna, if I contract you... without fail, you will take me to the optimum future, you said.”
Echidna: “Yes, I did say that. And it's true. Without any doubt, I will carry out that contract to the end. With
my knowledge and your attribute, we will assuredly be able to achieve it.”
Right, exactly, that was entirely the way of a completable contract.

Echidna's words present no lie. Should Subaru collaborate with her, they will be capable of unfailingly
saving everything, and arriving to the future. However,
Subaru: “Will your cooperating in getting me to the optimum future—use the optimum path?”
Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “For me to reach my desired destination, will you truly, help me the best you can?”
Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “Why're you saying nothing. Answer me, Echidna—no—WITCH OF GREED!”
Raising his head, Subaru screams his throat hoarse.

While still held against the ground, and still stuck in a lock. But Subaru pays that fact no care as he
wholeheartedly, undividedly, glares at Echidna. Faced with that sharp gaze, Echidna slips a small sigh.
Echidna: “—If it is to reach the optimum future, sacrifices along the way are permissible. Would this not
have been what you resolved, Natsuki Subaru?”
Subaru: “—hk”
Echidna gives neither a directly positive nor negative response to Subaru's question.
But, Subaru senses.
That Echidna's words were assuredly not any that would dispel his doubts.
Far from it, and as if to help him understand her thoughts, she spreads her arms wide.
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Echidna:
“This attribute you have, RETURN BY DEATH, is an incredible authority. In the truest of meanings you
cannot comprehend its utility. Not permitting the ends contrary to your desires, conducting countless
redos, reaching for the future countless times—for a researcher, this is near the ultimate ideal. I
mean, wouldn't it be? The result of any event will fundamentally, once a single result has been
reached, remain put. If you are still midway through the process of reaching a result, you can make
varied hypotheses as to what the result will be. If using this approach, or otherwise if using these
conditions, varied hypotheses and varied investigations are possible. But, if you are to experiment
with the purpose of producing a result, then the results, testable hypotheses, and investigations will
inevitably subsume into a single aggregate. Recreating completely, and I mean completely identical
conditions is impossible. No matter what conditions you arrange, you cannot recreate the exact same
conditions as you previously did. If you tried different methods back then, what result would you
now procure? That question is one us researchers will never attain the answer for, nothing more than
a dream existing in the forward path of what is ideal. For me and my MEMORIES OF THE WORLD, I
indeed have means to KNOW the answer, I certainly do. Do, but I don't consider using that method,
utilizing that method, as anything good. It's that I want TO KNOW, not TO HAVE KNOWN. The thing
creates this terrible contradiction, for me you could call it abominable. But I'm getting off topic here
so returning back to the point... right, we researches have to accept results as being entirely singular,
and for us who possess only one means of observation, your existence, your authority, is something
we desperately crave. You can run DIFFERING INVESTIGATIONS under IDENTICAL CONDITIONS, you
can see SEPARATE RESULTS differing from the FUNDAMENTAL RESULT. That is the ultimate
authority—how could you not want it? With this power right in front of you, how could you not test
everything? Though of course, I have no intention to force you to do that. It is entirely that, for you
achieving your own purposes, you will utilise
RETURN BY DEATH a lot. And I will also devote my best so that we reach the future you desire.
During that process, I would like to get your extensive contribution to sating my curiosity. When
that is all I'm asking I'm sure there's no punishment to be invoked. You will get to witness answers. I
will get to sate my curiosity. Our mutual interests coincide. Since I don't know the answers either,
there of course could be no instance where I purposefully lead you down an incorrect path, and you
consequently meet a gruesome demise. I don't initially know the correct answer when faced with a
problem, and in that sense I am entirely the same as you. In the sense of us puzzling over the same
problems, struggling on, attempting to reach an answer together, I am sure you should call us
unmistakably comrades. I can state that firmly and not with the slightest of embarrassment. I think
very fondly of you, in the sense that you give me more methods for preforming investigation, and
so I pledge that I would never do anything that would be improper consideration of you. But of
course, I'm sure we will naturally encounter problems where even with my assistance, easy
surmountation of the problem will be impossible. While I may be able to assist you as a font of
knowledge, that doesn't mean I can at all interfere with reality. Should we face a physical obstacle
blocking your path, that sort of problem where force is necessary, I will not be able to help you.
Times upon times, potentially even hundreds or thousands of times, your mind and body may be
broken. But even should that hypothetically happen, I would sincerely wish to preform your mental
care. That that desire is without any intermingling from my researcher's interest to not part with
something useful is not something I can assert. But that said, it is entirely truth that I think of you
and your existence fondly, and that I want to aid you. I don't want you to think badly of me. And I
know I'm repeating myself, but I can say with pride that I am a presence useful for achieving your
goals. Yes, just as I am considering in a sense to utilize you for the purpose of sating my greed
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called curiosity, you can likewise utilize me for your goal of REACHING THE OPTIMUM FUTURE. To
be that kind of overly convenient girl you can take advantage of, for me, is entire satisfaction. If
doing so will motivate you, then I will gladly submit my being to you. Although the question of
whether you're interested in this deceased and impoverished body would have to be be another
topic. Oop, saying that might've been a foul against your loves. Your loves—the silver half-elf, and
the blue-haired oni girl. The girls you will save no matter what, who you will stringently protect,
having from your heart pledged to do so and through your actions exhibited that volition. Putting
my thoughts on the state of your heart and the way it harbours such strong emotion for two girls
aside as something I will not state here, I will assert that the height of the walls you must scale will
be beyond imagination. How many unmanagable obstacles do you have lined up before you in
present reality just that you know of? Your resolve to try and surmount these problems by yourself
is honourable, and incredibly tragic. I want to be your aid on this path, with my hopes to be that aid
not being anything fabricated in the least. You should definitely utilize these desires of mine. You
need to take everything you can possibly have, use everything that you can possibly utilize, and by
doing entirely that save the people with which you have bonds. That is the firm conviction you
yourself had pledged, which you have fully understood as being a necessary and painful path. And
so I will question you, I will repeat with you, I will have feelings for you. The path you walk by
throwing away your life is something that ironically only just got certified in the form of the second
TRIAL. With how you could almost mistake that TRIAL as having been there to make you
comprehend what it is this path you have walked, you could perhaps even think the thing necessary.
Of course the reality is it wasn't necessary, and it was the kind of experience which damaged your
mind. But if it's between a state of not knowing and a state of yes knowing, no matter how grievous
a truth it is, I'd consider the latter more valuable. Up until now, and also from now own, you will
need you present your life as compensation for RETURN BY DEATH, and in doing so wrest in the
future. That there are perhaps people who've been sacrificed for this purpose, and that these worlds
in this fashion PERHAPS MIGHT EXIST was something necessary for you to have put in mind.
Someday, you'll cease to feel any emotion when it comes to paying with your life, your human
emotions will wane, you'll cease to be rattled by the DEATHS of those precious to you, you'll
submerge into a life of impassive, indifferent inertia, and even should you reach the optimum
future, you will be reaching it as an impaired version of yourself—for the sake of avoiding this kind
of future, where the only thing that remains is a feeling of vain, it was necessary. No, there is not a
single worthless thing in the world, everything is a necessary route taken, a needed piece to the
puzzle. The TRIAL was necessary for you to comprehend that. If you require a tenable
rationalization and pretext as to why you have hit a standstill, then adopt this stance. And I will
validate that stance of yours. If my words can give you the strength you need to continue forward,
then my words will I give to you. Whether they be comforts, tough motivators, whispers of love,
provokers of loathing, if they will give you assistance then without any hesitation will I exercise
them for you. And although you might detest it, you unconditionally need the assistance of someone
like me on your path forward. If you're to proceed along a road of unavoidable pain and solitude,
you absolutely need someone to walk alongside you without ever taking their eyes from the path.
And if the person we're talking about to fill that role is me, not anyone else, but me, then I can walk
that road alongside you without any problem at all. I will repeat it, I will restate it, I will convey it
countless times until it reaches you. —You must need me. And I absolutely need you. Your presence
is essential. My curiosity simply cannot be fulfilled without you. You are the only being which can
sate me. You, you will surely grant me the quenching of my unquenchable GREED. Your presence is
already indispensable for me as I dwell in this closed world. If you should wish to be somebody's
hope, to execute your power to clear the world open, could my piteous self perhaps not partake in
your leftovers? If you could concentrate any of that great kindness unto me, then I'd hesitate not a
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second to devote to you my being, my knowledge, my soul. I'm begging you. I want you to trust me.
That I hadn't attempted to communicate you my true motives was assuredly no attempt to deceive
you, nor any attempt to hide it from you. It was just a matter of choosing the right time. If here, at
this instant I appealed with a fragment of my true intention, you surely would've left me. That would
be an unbearable loss for me. And of course for you also, in the sense of distancing yourself from the
future you seek, it undoubtedly should be regarded as a definite loss as well. Someday, being that
you have your attribute of RETURN BY DEATH, you will surely reach the future you seek. But, it's
obviously best that the compensation you pay in reaching that future be little. If it's me, when it's me,
a greater sparsity is possible in that compensation. Everything goes so long as ultimately you reach
the desired future—and such kind of inhuman thinking, ignoring the small goals for the large ones, is
what I'd prefer you not mistake this for. Being caught by a temptation, and so desiring to view the
outcome of some certain situation, I may notice something necessary for reaching the optimum track
but not mention it—is the kind of action I absolutely would not do, is not how great a check I have
on my cravings to be able to plainly assert. I will acknowledge that. But, I will not deceive you. If
hypothetically we assume that I do dip my hands into some trust- betraying deed like that, I would
under no circumstances do anything to keep it hidden from you. I would absolutely reveal it to you.
And I would devote everything I have to you to make up for that damaged trust. No matter what
happens, I will assuredly send you off to your desired optimum future. Absolutely, unconditionally.
And so having rationalized this clearly as a necessary measure, won't you choose me? Once the
contract is made, I will follow along exactly exactly as your desires and demands there state. After
that comes the conversation of just how much you can devote yourself to your wish, your wanted
wish, your desired wish. My resolve is just as I stated. Now is to
hear what is your resolve. I want you to prove to me that you, having formed a contract with me and
acquired my collaboration, have the mettle to without fail reach the future. Once you accomplish so
then for the first time, you may boast that you bested the second TRIAL. And from there proceed to
the third TRIAL, overcome it, and complete the liberation of SANCTUARY. When you consider the
calamity to befall your loves and those precious to you, this is indeed exactly a TRIAL you must
surmount. I want you to show me that you have the strength, the resolve to overcome it. And from
there you will plunder me, utilize my knowledge, and procure what lies ahead. What I desire of you,
demand of you, and can offer you in return is there at a full stop. I sincerely, honestly, willed here to
reveal you everything. And so now with everything stated what is it you will decide? —That answer
is what I'd like you to tell me. For the sake of sating a fragment of my curiosity too, of course.”
—Says Echidna, smiling sweetly.
Her snow-white hair sways and her cheeks redden slightly in fervour as she peers up at Subaru,
waiting for his answer.
Her eyelashes tremble with trepidation for his reaction, the fingers anxiously held to her chest
fidgeting about. Her lips make many attempts to say something, but she hesitates, and the action
ends merely with a wettening by her tongue.
Subaru looks up. He meets eyes with Minerva, restraining him.

Having locked gazes with Subaru, Minerva gives a small sigh as she finally releases Subaru's arm.
His shoulder escapes from the restraints, freed, as Subaru rolls his arms and stands up.
Just as Minerva said, the aching in his shoulders is gone. In fact, he even senses keenly that his
somewhat taut hips and other places have been purged of their fatigue. The authority of the WITCH
OF WRATH truly was healing to be feared.
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Subaru: “—”
Rotating all of his body about, Subaru confirms his bodily sensation as he puts his thoughts in order.
About what he had only just heard, no hiding anything at all, Echidna's truest of true intentions.
Echidna: “Yes?”
Subaru: “You're... going to use me?”
He is going to be used. That was the term Echidna had repeated, again and again, throughout what
she just said. Hearing that, Echidna nods without hesitation.
Echidna: “I am. And you can use me too. The contract would be something of a precaution, to
ensure neither of us stray from that principle. If you're going to criticise me for attempting to use
anything I could to keep you, I will resignedly accept it.”
Subaru: “I didn't consider anything, 's actually not the case. I at least understand that, said in
extremes, this's just what you get with pro-con interest-sake relationships. That you'd help me 100%
off your goodwill... though I hoped for it, I was at least prepared to the accept the reality that you
wouldn't. But.”
Standing before Echidna, Subaru buries his face in his hands, facing upwards.
Subaru: “It just, wasn't there...”
Echidna: “It, being?”
Subaru: “Every single one of your actions up to now, looks faded to me. Everything of your friendly
interactions with me, which started me trusting that maybe you weren't a bad guy after all... all of it,
is faded.”
Everything from their first meeting to this very moment thuds to a collapse, crumbling.
Their first tea party, the scene during the Trial, interrupted by reality, when he countless times he
clung to her wisdom, her words. When he thought he could not regret forming a contract with her.
—Everything from that time heartlessly laughs its ridicule at the foolishness of Natsuki Subaru.
Subaru: “Was this your intention all along?”
Echidna: “I don't really understand what you have a problem with. If it means that ultimately you'll
reach the optimum, you'll rationalize the path you used to get there—didn't you decide this? You
yourself validated that thought, and I'm sure I pushed you along saying that was okay...”
Subaru: “And for me to rationalize like that... not that I have but, you're saying that inducing me to
go along that trend... was entirely according to your plan, then?”
Echidna: “I'd prefer you not misunderstand. That conclusion is entirely one that you had produced
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yourself. All I did was give your conclusion just a tiny, slight prodding. That you're desiring for the
responsibility behind your own words and conclusion to lie in someone else is indeed not
impressive. Not impressive, and I'm not so simple as to bear it for you.”
Protests Echidna, her expression pouting and sulky. The childishness she's expressing here, or more
rather how out-of-place it is, makes the awriness Subaru has been feeling compound further.
What to call it—a misfit in degree of emotion.
The way Echidna expresses emotion is not incorrect. She's indignant when she is doubted, she
smiles when there's something to be happy about, grief slips through in her face in response to sad
things. That is all correct, and not mistaken.
But still, this awriness, and the distrust it produces. The solution—
Subaru: “All your behaviour feels synthetic, it is superficial.”
Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “When you're joyed, even when you're angry, the way you express emotion is childish and
shallow. I mean right now, far from being enraged all you did was pout. Broad-minded, or whatever
isn't the problem here. That behaviour... all your behaviour's been weird. I just thought you were
brash and easily accepted, easy to get along with, but...”
Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “You're actually not. You—You are someone who can't understand others' emotions.”
Recollect back on all of Echidna's behaviour thus far, and everything tones in sepia.
Every attitude of hers that he had found appealing was a boon of her shallow emotional expression
—wind up perceiving it as such, and all of their interactions fade of colour.
And although showered in these unsparing words, Echidna's expression remains unchanged from
that previous pout. As if she knew no way to express any greater discomfort.
Subaru: “You're allowed to be angry here.”
Echidna: “...I see. So here I should raise my voice, and shower you with curses. Understood, that
was useful. Supposing another chance comes, let's see I do that.”
Echidna's expression vanishes.

Expressionless—something Subaru had never seen of the Echidna he knew, the first-time-seen
visage of the WITCH OF GREED.
Echidna: “Want to sit? I'd like us to iron out the details about the contract.”
Subaru: “...In this situation, do you think I'll still readily consider a contract with you?”
Echidna: “No way, you're rejecting me over a little disagreement in opinion? What on earth is the
meaning in doing that? Having your emotions temporarily overwhelm you, and so failing to take the
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correct choice can't be called wise. I recommend looking at reality, and electing for rational
thought.”9
At Echidna's words dead of emotion, Subaru closes his eyes and holds his breath.
What Echidna's saying is correct. Subaru is the one losing his temper—would be irrefutable if said.
It made logical sense. She was not lying.
All Echidna did was hide her true intentions from Subaru. All she did was keep silent on mentioning
the benefits she acquired from the course of Subaru's ventures.
Should they tie the contract, most likely, Subaru would reach the correct path. Echidna's lack of
frugality in providing this cooperation would also be unmistakable truth.
Subaru: “There's one thing I wanted you ask you when I next saw you.”
Echidna: “—Hrm, now what could it be?”
Subaru: “Once I hear this question's answer, I'll know if I can choose.”
Echidna waits to hear Subaru's question.

This was a question Subaru was bringing up as a touchstone. A question to which Subaru yet saw
not a single scrap of the answer for, which Echidna certainly had some relation to.
Subaru: “—You know about Beatrice, Echidna.”
Echidna: “...Yes, I do. Since I was deeply involved over the process of her creation. Did something
happen with her?”
Echidna replies without ill will. Her answer lacks any hidden implication, and comes loaded with
questions.
Subaru closes his eyes, envisions the young pigtailed girl.
The last Subaru had seen of her, she had been stabbed from behind, disappearing.
Her long, long time spent in isolation and the darkness it had spawned—his collision with this just
prior her disappearance had remained constant and heavy in his heart.
Pushing Subaru aside, protecting him from the blades, the expression on her face in that final instant
—that was still burned inescapably into his memory. And so,
Subaru: “Beatrice has, because of the contract, always been waiting for THEY. Are you who tied that
contract? Are you who bound her to the mansion?”
Echidna: “I don't remember specifying a location, but... the one who arranged for her to guard the
Forbidden Archive and wait until their coming was indeed me.”
Subaru: “Then, who is THEY? What can I do to free her?”
Through her 400 years of solitude, Beatrice had constantly been waiting for SOMEONE.
Not even Beatrice herself knew who that SOMEONE was. Neither did Subaru have any clue.
But if he asked for the answer from Echidna herself, who had arranged this appointment with that
9 Echidna's pronoun reverts from 'boku' to her usual 'watashi'.
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SOMEONE—
Echidna: “Now, I really wonder who?”
Subaru: “—Wh, ah?”
Echidna: “No, I'm not even joking or anything, I truly, sincerely wonder. Who do you think the
THEY Beatrice is waiting for is?”
Asks Echidna, as if she has been presented with a question she does not know the answer to.
Stunned, Subaru shakes his head.
Subaru: “Even you don't know who it is Beatrice is waiting for?”
Echidna: “Nope, I don't. I do not know who the THEY Beatrice is waiting for is.”
Subaru: “Wh, y? But, you're the one who told Beatrice to wait in the Forbidden Archive, aren't you?
If you don't know... no way.”
Echidna, who instructed Beatrice to wait in the Forbidden Archive, was someone separate from who
imposed the time limit that she wait until THEY's visit.
If so, the one who would know the solution would again be somewhere else—
Echidna: “Wrong, you're mistaken.”
Subaru: “—”
Echidna: “The one who instructed Beatrice to wait for THEY was me. There's no mistake in that.
Where you are mistaken is in a more fundamental area.”
Subaru: “Fundamental?”
Echidna: “Now just why in the world did I tie that contract with Beatrice? That is where you're
misunderstanding. I had Beatrice guard over the Forbidden Archive so that she could give its
contents over to THEY, would be what you're thinking, right?”
Subaru doesn't see what she's getting at.

It's just a natural thought. Giving instructions to hand something over to someone.
But, at Subaru and his entirely ordinary thoughts, Echidna shakes her head.
Echidna: “That wasn't my instruction to Beatrice. I tied her to contract, making her wait for THEY...
while waiting for the result of just who she would choose as THEY.”
Subaru: “—”
—.
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——.
——————.
————————————what?
Echidna: “You see, she was created for a specific purpose. But necessity came up for her to stay
alive in a fashion differing from her original objective... and for that sake she was distanced from
here, where she then needed to be given a goal. It's in the sense of giving that hollow, empty girl a
purpose for living, but yes it's necessary. And so I tied a contract with her.”
Subaru: “—Th, at.”
Echidna: “Preservation of the Forbidden Archive, and its complete transference to the eventually-
coming THEY. There's no limitations. Although, that's because they're conditions with no correct
solution. She stays alive just as planned, and I can look into the solutions for other research. Don't
you find it very logical?”
Subaru: “—”
Echidna: “Naturally, going four hundred years without choosing anyone is yet another result. As is
her not easily choosing THEY from any of those she met through her days. Potentially even her
deliberating over whether to violate the contract, and desiring her own DEATH, is yet another result.”
Subaru: “What, do you think of that?”
Echidna: “—? I think it's wonderful.”
Says Echidna, tilting her head, as if she had just been asked a question with an incredibly obvious
answer.
Echidna's answer, her attitude, and the expression of the girl arisen in Subaru's mind, lead him to the
solution.
Got it. Decided. Clearly understood.

—His miscomprehension about just who, here, he was dealing with, is rectified.
Subaru: “Echidna... you are a witch.”
Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “An indecipherable, unfathomable aberration.”
Echidna: “—”
He communicates it. The answer, he had in his heart.

He pulls back his arm, and as to who he would reach out to, this time he truly decided.
Subaru: “I... I can't take your hand. I've already decided whose hand it is I'm taking.”
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Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “Done without malice, done without ill will, there is a girl whose four hundred years your
binding words pilfered. —Decided. I am taking that girl's hand. I can't go with you.”
He announces their farewell.

He shakes away the hand of the one he had once thought to walk alongside him.
Subaru raises his head. Looks forward.

Beneath his eyelids, the final expression from that girl arises.
—Face twisted in fear of disappearing and dying, near crying, but nevertheless with relief in her
eyes that Subaru had been protected.
To take the hand of the girl who mourned for his DEATH is what Subaru decides.
Echidna: “—”
Echidna's eyes narrow.

A look of cogitation flashes through her eyes, her intent being to fling some sort of words at
Subaru's decision.
But, before she can, the change occurs.
Minerva: “—She's here.”
Camilla: “Oh, no, I... I've... got noth... nothing to do, with this... any more.”
Sekhmet: “At a troublesome spot, a troublesome person, is here to cause some trouble—haa.”
The three witches all give their respective reactions.

And, overwhelming pressure from behind him.
Echidna's eyes, seeing what is behind Subaru, lightly snap open. Following her surprise, Subaru
turns around, and sees it.
???: “—”
With pitch-black darkness cloaking everything from the neck up, there stood the WITCH OF ENVY.
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CHAPTER 76: ≠SATELLA

—This was the first time Subaru had ever met face-to-face with the WITCH herself.
Witch of Envy—it was a name he had heard countless times, and the threat she presented was
something he had confronted himself during the dusky loop in SANCTUARY.
His defiance of the rules she had imposed on him had earned him more than one or two experiences
of heart-crushing pain. To harbour a positive impression of this witch, who had overtaken Emilia's
body and destroyed SANCTUARY, was indeed difficult.
And especially so after his last conversation with Echidna, which had unwittingly spawned in him an
aversion to the very word WITCH. But,
Subaru: “Yeah... the other witches don't compare.”
Faced with the pressure exerted by the witch standing before him, Subaru mutters in hoarse voice.
She's a thin woman.

Her arms dangle loosely as she stands without vigour, apparently looking at Subaru. An ebon dress
—sewn from shadows arising underfoot—garbs her, its flesh pulsating almost as if in rhythm with
her heartbeat.
From wrists forward of the long sleeves of her dress Subaru sees her strangely pale fingers, and
manages to estimate that the WITCH OF ENVY, like the other witches, possesses a countenance of
more than according beauty.
But, to confirm that, the most vital piece of information is missing.
Subaru: “Seen it a bunch of times now, but... what's the deal with this?”
A sable shadow cloaks everything from the witch's neck up, making visual confirmation impossible.
Unlike the ebon dress robing her body, this shadow wavers like mist, concealing the WITCH OF
ENVY's visage from Subaru.
Subaru's question is somewhat taken aback. But the witch gives no reaction.
A sense of peaking, impatient panic burns at Subaru's chest as sweat arises on his brow—when he
glances over the area, spying the other four witches in silence.
Subaru: “—”
Seeing the changes in their expressions, Subaru feels a surprise.

Going by Subaru's knowledge, the relationship between them and the WITCH OF ENVY is the one of
murder victim and assailant. Meeting their own killer. Subaru did have an idea of what mental
burden that would bring.
But, all of the witches' expression differ from Subaru's predictions.
One is a gentle smile, one is gaze of commiserating pity, one is an indifference suggesting absolute
lack of concern, and the last one is—
Echidna: “So you cut through my boundary and managed to get in. Brazenly trespassing even into
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my dream castle... always the egotist, aren't you.”
Only one person, the Witch of Greed Echidna, glares with hostility in their eyes.
Seeing loathing, or something close to it, coming from no other but Echidna surprises Subaru. He
had only just voice their final parting, thinking that she lacked such emotions. Seeing her blatantly
exhibiting emotion, Subaru begins doubting and wondering if perhaps he was wrong.
But time to realistically flag that as a problem has passed.

Right now, the problem is how to deal with this motionless witch in front of him.
Subaru: “Why is she even here in the fir...”
Minerva: “I'm sure she's mad 'cause you went gossiping on and on saying stuff you shouldn't.
Blabbermouth men like that are ones I don't think very highly of. I kinda get her indignation.”
Subaru: “Tell me that but I don't get it. Or actually, you're taking her side? From you and the other
witches' perspective she's meant to be your foe.”
Minerva: “My foe, is such a stupid-sounding thing to hear. ...I'm going to be checking now if what
you're saying's valid.”
Narrowing her eyes, Minerva's blonde hair sways as she moves to action.
She cuts into the Witch of Envy's line of sight, interrupting her wholehearted staring at Subaru.
Minerva pushes out her voluptuous chest as she boldly faces the witch. And,
Minerva: “Can you hear this? It's me, Minerva. The WITCH OF WRATH Minerva. If you remember
me, and can hear my voice, say something.”
Subaru: “—! No, wait! Far as my knowledge goes conversation doesn't work on her! If you do
anything else which'd provoke her...”
Sekhmet: “Try to keep quiet—haa.”
Subaru can only perceive Minerva's speech as reckless. But it is words from Sekhmet, still existing
as a hairball on the ground, which stop him.
Subaru glances back at her. She stirs, the magenta hairball shifting in size.
Sekhmet: “The time we've spent together with that is—huu—multitudes greater than what your short
interactions have been—haa. Your trepidation is natural, but—huu—try leaving this one to Minerva
—haa. Thoughtless actions are... indeed what she does sometimes—huu—but this time I suppose
she's probably not acting without thinking—haa.”
Minerva: “I can hear you, Sekhmet! If you don't want me to mess up the talk and for all of us to get
swallowed, don't say things that'll make me mad! I am teeming with furious ire!”
Sekhmet: “When talking about you—huu—who'll use someone breathing in your vicinity as a
reason to anger—haa—that's quite a pickle—huu.”
Even while getting hit with this ruthless opinion, Minerva averts her attention from the threat before
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her not at all.

That little back-and-forth should have spurred some kind of action from the WITCH OF ENVY. But
she stands there doing nothing as she merely stares through the WITCH OF WRATH, and at Subaru.
Indeed, you could perhaps say there is a definitive departure from the split-second practical reactions
the Witch has given up until now.
But all that meant was that she hadn't immediatel y taken hostile action. Whether or not a
conversation would come to be still seemed another matter.
Sekhmet was leaving the entirety of the dialogue up to Minerva. Then, the other two—
Camilla: “We... well, I think... t-think, it's fine if... Minerva-chan's going to, to try... her best to, do it.
But if s-she... umm... mm, she gets Minerva-chan... I-I'll kill, her.”
Echidna: “That's a dependable-sounding statement, but I'm sure I've told you countless times that
your affinity with that thing is abhorrent. If there's anyone here who can resist it, it's only Sekhmet.
—You do understand? ”
Echidna endeavours to keep her voice calm as she chides the stuttering-but-belligerent Camilla. The
white-haired witch glances at Sekhmet, who trembles as if replying at all is a nuisance.
Sekhmet: “It won't be possible for me to continuously seal its movements.” You should know that
power-wise it's not suited to that.
Echidna: “Indeed I know. And so you just have to pulverise its limbs and throttle its neck. If you
physically seal its movements and choke it, I can have it expunged from this space.”
Echidna projects enough fierce hostility to make Camilla's statements look cute. And although she
says it with an aloofness, the utter disgust seeping into her words makes what what she's saying
sound like nothing joking.
With this livewire conversation going on in the background, Minerva continues to face the WITCH OF
ENVY. In fact, as if trying to keep the WITCH OF ENVY from hearing the other witches' back-and-
forth, she takes a step closer.
Minerva: “—”
Subaru swallows his breath as he watches Minerva's advance.

All Subaru can consider Minerva's actions is reckless—but he can't even tell for what purpose the
WITCH OF ENVY materialized here in the first place.
If this accords with the previous cases, then the reason for her showing up would be because Subaru
violated the taboo. But the abuses the witch has done so far in response to the violated taboo have
entirely been materializing arms to squeeze Subaru's heart, and materializing in physical reality to
swallow everything in shadow.
Friendly interactions were an of course not, but the WITCH OF ENVY hasn't even really expressed
what her intentions are. Her goals yet remain completely unapparent.
The question of how the Witch will respond to Minerva is thus an absolute unknown to Subaru.
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—If Minerva is swallowed by shadows, the other three will move instantly.
If the hopes Echidna's put on Sehkmet are sound, then the WITCH OF SLOTH will use her authority to
pulverise the WITCH OF ENVY, and Echidna can expel the weakened WITCH OF ENVY.
But, if that's the case—
Why weren't they immediately doing it now?
Subaru: “—”
Call things strange, and this situation where Minerva's been tasked with first contact with the WITCH
OF ENVY in itself is alread y strange.
Camilla's ready to attack if anything happens, Sehkmet doesn't want proactive hostility, and even
enmity-laden Echidna is taking no preparations for pre-emptive attack that would run counter to
Minerva's desires.
Just what on earth were they all—
Echidna: “You look like you can't comprehend us witches' intentions and are being tossed around
and toyed with.”
Subaru: “...”
Echidna: “Although, believing that you could easily see through to our... oop, I mean our thoughts
would be a discredit to the name of witch. On that you can't take us so cheaply.” 10
Subaru: “Stop it with the fake bokukko. —All I'm thinking is if you seriously want to distance the
WITCH OF ENVY, here where she's defenseless's your best chance.”
Echidna: “I see. So that's how you perceive this situation. Goodness... well, right. Personally, I'm all
for full agreement with your stance. What I'd really like to do about now is bash that thing with
every authority I could have, annihilating it without leaving a speck of dust behind, but...”
Cutting off there, Echidna narrows her eyes.

This attitude isn't like her—that said, as if he really knew her at all—but, sensing a kind of shame
which is rather not like her, Subaru waits for her to speak.
After a short silence, Echidna does.
Echidna: “Doing everything I can to eradicate that thing, and then having the other witches turn on
me is cart before horse. Nevermind Minerva, if we're talking a bet which'll make enemies of
Sekhmet and Typhon, there's little worth gambling.”
Subaru: “I'm not getting it. Why would trying to eradicate the WITCH OF ENVY make you enemies?
She's your foe, that's something everyone's agreeing...”
Camilla: “You're, wr... wrong.”
Camilla, who had kept silent up until now, is the one to butt in on Subaru's question. She goes
10 Echidna switches her pronoun from watashi (first our) to boku (second our) for the rest of the chapter.
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without looking at Subaru as he startles, instead watching Minerva's confrontation with the WITCH
OF ENVY.
Camilla: “That ENVY is... is, e-everyone's foe, is... is right, but, t-that... thing and her, are... d-
different, cases... mm?”
Subaru: “...I don't understand what you're saying. What're all of you...”
Sekhmet: “So long as we don't know which one that thing standing there is—huu—more than us
being unwilling to act, to do so'd be unreasonable—haa.”
Subaru: “Which one?”
Sekhmet gives a reply. But even that only throws Subaru into further disarray. What on earth were
they all talking about? —When, the solution arrives from a different angle.
Taking another step, Minerva further closes distance on the WITCH OF ENVY.
She spreads her arms wide, showing a posture of non-resistance, and says to the WITCH OF ENVY:
Minerva: “—Are you the WITCH OF ENVY? Or are you Satella? Which?”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru senses he has just heard something that flips everything he has known on its head.
What Minerva just said hugely differs from the truth Subaru knows. But that Minerva's statement is
no random bluster or empty joke is validated by the wordlessness of the other witches, who had
lived in their same generation.
For the first time, the WITCH OF ENVY's shoulders tremble. The black mist concealing her head
squirms. It seems she has turned her body to face Minerva.
—This is the very first moment that the Witch becomes conscious of Minerva.
Subaru: “—”
What did that statement mean? Is not a question Subaru is given any opening to ask. And more
importantly, the taut and overwhelming tension swiftly parches his throat dry.
And with the witches affirming it, that only makes the utter contradiction of his beliefs worse.
—WITCH OF ENVY Satella. The character so called this—may in fact be someone else.
No. That was thinking way too far off too little data.
How many times had he had terrible experiences because he made decisions based off of only
superficial information, and kept stubborn with them? Even if he is constantly considering the
possibility, he must not get irrevocably attached to the idea.
And more importantly, he best not divert his attention from the scene in front of him for even a
second.
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Minerva: “If you're not suddenly attacking at the first question... then it means there's still a chance.”
Says Minerva, as she closes further distance.

The distance remaining between the WITCH OF WRATH and the Witch is five steps.
Minerva: “Though if you were the WITCH OF ENVY, it wouldn't be weird for you to instantly strike
with BEGRUDGE the moment I stood in his path, so I wasn't really worried about that.”
Four steps.
Minerva: “But then it would've been fine for you to say something right at the start. I know it's hard
to have this face-to-face with our relationship. There's no way anyone could forget what my last
expression when you swallowed me was.”
Three steps.
Minerva: “Though, I think it's way better that it's me than the other five. Nevermind Typhon, outside
of her, I was... your closest friend, is what I thought.”
Two steps. Head bowed.
Minerva: “Is, what I thought... and because I did, it's...!”
Crouches down. Two steps away, Minerva leans forward, puts her strength in her back leg.
And,
Minerva: “Do you understand how being ignored feels, when it's been so long—!?”
The ground explodes as the single rush obliterates the two steps of distance.
Minerva charges forward with dust clouds in her wake, twisting her body for a full-force punch
pistoned back from the shoulder. Her fist drills through the air, breaking the sound barrier, booming
toward the Witch's head. The attack zooms for her shadow-cloaked visage and—
Minerva: “—See, knew it.”
Minerva's fist miraculousl y stops just before contacting the Witch's face.
That's not to say that the Witch's shadows stretched out, and entangled her arm. Minerva, of her own
volition, stopped her arm before it would reach.
Still with her fist brandished in the Witch's face, Minerva leans back upright with her blonde hair
swaying.
Minerva: “See, look. She knew there wasn't any need to dodge my punch, that's Satella, not the
WITCH OF ENVY. Echidna, your caution's pointless.”
Echidna: “...I wonder. I will honestly praise your pluck in staking your own body in an attempt to
confirm this, but these stories are disparate. If it's simply discerned that your presence is no great
threat, obviously it wouldn't act. And so, Sekhmet.”
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Sekhmet: “Trying any reason possible to get me to act—huu. You're the same way in being terrible
at determining when to quit, Echidna—haa. Accept it, that's Satella—huu.”
Sekhmet sighs at the stumped Echidna.

Continuing unchanged as a ball of hair, the witches' ultimate weapon shows no signs of acting.
Close enough for their hands to touch and facing the Witch—facing Satella, Minerva turns back to
Subaru.
With her azure eyes staring at him, and still unable to really accept the reality that she was standing
directly beside a huge threat, all Subaru can do is dumbly stand there.
Minerva snorts at him, her expression dissatisfied.
Minerva: “What're you spacing out about. Come on, get over here.”
Subaru: “Get over here... you can say that, but...”
Minerva: “What, you're not a man at all. I've proven that it's all okay, so shouldn’t you come
striding over as well? No? Then all this table-setting I've done still isn't enough? If you're saying
you won't cross the stone bridge even if someone taps it for you, how're you ever gonna lose your
caution enough to cross it!”
Subaru: “Stop getting yourself heated up! It's not that I'm not going there 'cause I'm freaking out!
I'm not going there because I don't know why I should!”
Yelling back at an indignant Minerva in the same tone of voice, Subaru objects to this situation of
being left in the lurch.
Pointing at Satella, who is no longer an immediate threat, Subaru looks over the witches as they
relax from combat posture.
Subaru: “And actually, what does the WITCH OF ENVY and Satella being separate even mean! You're
talking about it like it's obvious, but this's already diverged well from what my understanding was!”
Echidna: “Wholly. If you forcibly introduce a witch factor into a being with no affinity, you do get
these afflictions. The witch personality that spawns from the factor's influence, and the original self
conflict... is perhaps what to call it. Though, my view is they're the same being, so I can't really see
the point in differentiating them like the others do.”
Subaru: “Split, personalities!? Then, what? The one who swallowed all you and did the wrongs to
get her lasting in history was one personality, and the other personality's harmless, is what you're...”
Echidna: “Now that's wrong.”
Subaru attempts to deal with it alongside his surprise at this information, but Echidna stops him.
She shakes her head, and amending Subaru's theory,
Echidna: “The consuming of half the world, and the consuming of us six witches of sin, was
entirely by SATELLA's actions, not the WITCH OF ENVY.”
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Subaru: “Wh—!? No, but that doesn't make any sense! If the one who swallowed you was Satella,
and that's Satella standing over there... this...”
Sekhmet: “It does fit. And so—haa—we won't forgive the WITCH OF ENVY—huu—but we have no
grudge against Satella—haa. That's all it is—huu.
Camilla: “I-I, do... don't like, S-Satella-chan... ei... either, but I... guess she's, bet... better than, the
Witch... so...”
Sekhmet and Camilla give their agreement in a way which only makes Subaru's questions multiply.
The witches appear to have general consensus, but Subaru can't understand it. The person who
destroyed them has two personalities, and they forgive the personality which destroyed them, but
not the one who didn't—what did it mean?
Echidna: “I've always been advocating that the distinction's pointless, but... agree to disagree. I can't
ignore that opinion and eradicate the thing. My frail mental-bodied self wouldn't stand any chance if
the others hoist the petard on me after I eradicated it. Even I, when in a state of being only a soul,
won't return if blast to pieces.”
Subaru: “B... ut, wouldn't that be seriously risky for the other five too? You're the one entrusted with
the other five's souls. If you disappear, the other witches'll...”
Echidna: “They comprehend and affirm their own DEATHS. And so they have no especial attachment
to prolonged existence as only a soul. —If it's between yielding and surviving, and being destroyed
sacrificing themselves for their ideals, they'd infinitely favour the latter. It's because they think this
way that they're witches.”
Sekhmet and Camilla speak up for no denials of that.

Resolute—is not quite a word that fits with how resigned an opinion it is, but regardless the
harshness of the witches' lifestyles leaves Subaru without words.
If I could be like this, I wish that I were like this, and such kind of aspiration was something
everyone did.
But to die and nonetheless stick through with one's principles after death was not a stance
everybody could confidently claim.
Subaru: “And Minerva...”
Probably the same.

She was the one who, by the hands of the WITCH OF ENVY, had likely been destroyed before anyone
else. But nevertheless Minerva trusted the Witch, who had done absolutely nothing all along her
getting to within arm's reach, which consequently proved that trust.
Subaru didn't know the relationships between these witches.

If they had bonds enough to trust enough other, then why did the WITCH OF ENVY destroy the other
six witches? And why did the witches forgive it?
Echidna's thoughts on it were the ones Subaru could still understand.
But, even so—
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Subaru: “I get that this's what you're like. And fully comprehend... ing it's hard but, I can understand
it. But, I still haven't heard what it is she's come here for.”
Witches: “—”
Subaru: “I get that she isn't going to unconditionally indiscriminately attack. That one I'll fully
comprehend. ...But that doesn't mean she's safe. If the one I've been seeing all up until now was the
WITCH OF ENVY, then what is it Satella wants to do with me? The WITCH OF ENVY to me is
someone who is entirely a pest. You can tell me abruptly that my view's wrong, but understanding
it's beyond me.”
And if you put the witches' statements all together, the person here is unquestionably Satella, who
consumed the others. Then even assuming that the one who swallowed SANCTUARY was the WITCH
OF ENVY, it would suggest that Satella is entirely capable of comparable things.
Who could blame him for feeling danger, being wary, and keeping away?
Subaru: “What she wants to do, and why she came here. So long as I don't know that...!”
Minerva: “If that's what you want to know, then just come over here.”
Just as Subaru goes to raise his voice, Minerva interrupts.

She puts her hand on her hip, and makes no attempt to hide her irritation as she scowls at Subaru.
Minerva: “You've had enough with the wordy excuses and drawing defences. I'm here standing
right next to her, and nothing's happened. And also, the reason she came here's to see you. If you're
saying you're such a loser you can't even get close to her, then we can do that's left is file this away
as us making an entire misestimation.”
Subaru: “Like you have fucking anything to misestimate! Don't just make your speculation about
me! Stop pushing your crap on me! What the hell would you all know about me!?”
Having someone push their image of him onto him, and then acting exactly in line with that image
was a no thank you.
Once, when Subaru yelled this exactly same thing, there came a voice who answered him. He
remembers what they said. And back then, those words had been his support.
—If he wasn't going to betray his past self, saved by those words, then...
Subaru: “Just, fuck... you're thinking stupid here, me...”
Nothing rational, making decisions entirely off his emotional momentum.

He'd done no reflection on the terrible experiences that doing that exact thing had given him. He
would pay greater vigilance to the slightest of changes, suppress his emotions, and cooly act not off
his mental impulses but according to definite truth—he would preserve an unshakable heart of iron.
Was meant to be his precept.
Minerva: “You're being slow.”
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Subaru: “How scary it is to approach someone you've wrangled almost to your death with is... shit,
actually you do know that. It's hard.”
Minerva: “It's not that we don't have our thoughts on this either. Sekhmet and Camilla are just way
more mature, unlike me. I've got a reason to back her.”
Subaru clicks his tongue as he walks over, Minerva giving a shrug. She presents him no time to ask
about her reason or whatever, instead handing the scene over to Subaru.
The WITCH OF WRATH moves aside, and what results is Subaru facing the Witch—facing Satella—
at extreme close range.
Subaru: “—”
Subaru unwittingly gulps, the strangeness of the creature before him catching him lost for words. He
was supposed to have recognized this as he viewed her from afar, and as he saw her in his approach
here, but regardless he cannot dispel her emitted pressure and the visual sense of awriness. The dress
of shadows clinging to her form traces out her curves and body with horrific sensuality, and the
invisibility of everything from the neck up conversely creates an inverse kind of lusciousness.
Those impressions drown utterly away thanks to the dissonance of her entirely uncognizable head.
Subaru: “—”
Looking at her from up close, Subaru realises that the thing obstructing his cognizance is nothing
physical.
What looks like a shadow covering her face is not actually because a shadow falling over that area
is blocking it from view.
That he can't see her face originates from a more mental, more primordial reason.
No physical obstacle is keeping her face from view. It is something instinctive, NOT ALLOWING HIM
TO SEE IT.
Echidna: “Everyone wishes to avert their eyes from their most repulsive, spurious delusions.”
Subaru: “...”
Echidna: “If you can't see that face, it's due to a problem of your own heart.”
Useful advice comes flying in from behind to back up Subaru's deduction.

Managing to withstand his urge to click his tongue, Subaru ignores Echidna—or more rather, he
remains without any leeway to devote her any attention as he continues facing Satella.
Satella still has yet to make any kind of action.

The only thing Satella has done is appear here. The people around her kicked up a fuss by
themselves, getting frantic in an attempt to protect against escalation in damages resultant from her
actions.
That by simply being present she fostered so much fear in itself displayed the vivid truth of her
hazardousness. That would probably be no exaggeration.
And, the instant Subaru grows impatient with the lack of motion, it happens.
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Subaru: “—hk”
Satella: “—”
Seeing the two arms presented out to him, Subaru's throat freezes.
For not a single second, not even a single blink had Subaru shifted his attention away from Satella.
He wouldn't know what could happen after any instant—was the tension, which the movement of
these nigh out-of-nowhere arms easily toys with.
His surprise is not for a failure to see the movement. Subaru had very clearly seen Satella's arms
move. What surprises him is his own consciousness, which had regardless watched silently over the
motion until it reached its end.
Subaru: “What, really... are you? What do you want with me?”
He had not been able to take any useful action in response to her presented hands. More or less
unconsciously understanding what meaning that held, Subaru promptly comes up with words.
To end this without accepting the truth, to end this without facing her, strangled out his mouth.
Subaru: “If you're the one giving me the power to redo... why, is that...”
He doesn't understand what Satella's intentions are.

And he doesn't understand his body, which although facing Satella, standing within range to touch
her, unconsciously screaming again and again that she is dangerous, won't listen to him.
—The reaction of his body, which is unconsciously attempting to feel RELIEVED when faced with
Satella.
Satella: “——u,”
Subaru: “—Ah?”
Unable to accept his body as it goes defying his will, Subaru is slow to react to the sound hitting his
eardrums. This time was unmistakably a correct reaction which had come with no intentions
attached.
Swallowing his breath, Subaru waits for her to continue.

With her yet-invisible face still faced toward Subaru as he holds his breath, waiting for her, the time
slowly, slowly passes on—and Satella speaks.
Satella: “—ou.”
Subaru: “—”
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Satella:
“Always you. Always only you, am I in love with.”
CHAPTER 77: A LONELY...

What to call the shock that slammed Subaru's entirety the second he heard that confession of love?
A lightningbolt jolt courses down from his crown to his toenails.

His open-pored flesh tingles with goosebumps, the blood running through his veins seething to an
eager boil. His thumping heartbeat flushes him from the neck up in crimson. Slipping a ragged
breath, Subaru retreats a step.
He cannot keep standing here.

He keeps standing here, and his breathing will reach her. His fingertips will reach her.
If he fails to open distance between her in this juncture where his reason is still holding back his
instinct, all breaks are off.
And should that happen, Subaru will drown to LOVE.
Subaru: “Stop...”
Satella: “I am in love with you.”
Subaru: “Please stop...”
Satella: “You—only you—will I always, always be in love with.”
Subaru: “I told you to fucking stop!”
Shaking his head, swinging his arm, Subaru pulls his attention away from her hot, entangling gaze.
Of course, Satella's expression is invisible to Subaru. Just what kind of fire her gaze held as she
stares at Subaru is nothing he can figure.
But nevertheless, the feverish pounding in his chest shows absolutely no signs of stopping.
By consciously holding everything restrained, frantically speaking out, thrusting her with a rejection
ragged enough to near make him spit blood, Subaru manages to preserve his fundamental self.
Literally, if he does not endeavour in an effort to maintain his consciousness like this, he is convinced
that the fundamental core of his being will distort. And that was an overwhelmingly terrifying image.
Blatantly rejecting her, displaying such open disgust, and stricken with this truth is Subaru, who
Satella faces by standing exactly stock-still as before.
Her invisible face, a veil of darkness enveloping her expression. He can't discern it. Shouldn't be
able to comprehend it, but he inadvertently understands that his words have just hurt Satella, and
probably she cast her gaze down. His heart thinks its desire to gently stroke her hair, speak words to
ease her pained face, whisper loves to her and make her smile.
And although he denies it this much, his heart continues to urge that he LOVE Satella.
Subaru: “Y... what are you!? What did you put in me!? Something like with RETURN BY DEATH, you
put something in me to manipulate my heart!?”
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Subaru flings his distrust for his heart, failing to abide his will, at Satella.
His heart, which was abruptly now showing reactions wholly beyond his understanding. If this
witch and her supernatural powers were interfering with his powerful emotions, that was
overwhelmingly horrifying.
Twisting people's hearts to suit her will—that was a deed abhorrent, less than human.
The first resplendent hope vested on Natsuki Subaru in this world was his LOVE'S AWAKENING for
Emilia.
Subaru had been lost and blind without any guideline or landmark. His indebtedness to Emilia as
she offered him her hand out of his predicament, and the memory of the grace to his near-wholly
abraded heart, had even now lost none of their lustre as they yet proceeded to illume her.
During his time sucked into repeating loops of death, struggling solo as he surmounted various
adversities, the ones he held dear and desired to protect had multiplied. With the accumulation of
words he had shared with these people, these bonds, these feelings, the multitude of what Subaru
harboured compounded.
He could no longer say that his feelings for Emilia were his only motivator, even as a lie.
But nevertheless, Natsuki Subaru's first light had been Emilia. And Satella was coercing on Subaru
a LOVE'S AWAKENING on equal par to what he felt for Emilia.
Neverminding the lack of words shared between them, no warmth of mutual touch, no time spent
passed together, no bond built, the utter lack of anything between them in their relationship, Satella
was attempting to extort only FEELINGS OF LOVE.
What to call this if not horrendous?
Subaru: “You, and Echidna... you're both nuts! This... this place's just full of incomprehensible
bastards! I'm sick of it!”
Yells Subaru without hiding his repulsion for the faceless witch before him, and the white-haired
witch behind him.
Satella who compelled feelings of love contrary to his inner will, and Echidna who would entangle
strangers with her unempathizable curiosity. Both were aberrations beyond Subaru's
comprehension.
Echidna: “It does sting to be equated to that thing. Even should you treat us under the single
category of 'witch', my view has that thing as a vulgar creature a witch's inferior. Incomprehensible,
is a judgement where you're not wrong, though.”
Subaru: “Just be quiet. I haven't forgotten your insidiousness in pretending to be friendly. ...Enough.
There's no point being here. Let me out. I don't wanna be involved with you people any more!”
Responding unkindly to Echidna's words, Subaru grabs his head as he pleads to be released from
the castle in a dream.
He didn't want to be around Satella and Echidna for even another second. He already had
innumerable things he needed to do, and now was not the time to be compounding that count.
Being not omniscient, Subaru had a limit on what he could deal with. He already had obstacles
surpassing his limit obstructing his way, so why was it that even more problems had to come one-
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after-another adding themselves on, too?
Subaru: “I'm not taking your help. I'll do something about all the problems outside by myself. —
And what was ever wrong with that idea! That's what I should've been doing from the start...”
Minerva: “And? So it's back to dying over and over, making heaps of people cry while spouting
excuses how THIS IS INFORMATION GATHERING, NOTHING TO DO ABOUT IT. Wow. Amazing.”
Says Minerva, snorting at Subaru as he speaks his definite farewell. Subaru shoots her a glare.
Minerva's nonplussed expression begins reddening.
Minerva: “What. Trying to make me repeat?”
Subaru: “Like it has anything to do with you. The pain, the anguish, the hurt, the wear from
RETURN BY DEATH is all my problem. You've got nowhere to complain about it.”
Minerva: “Saying you're ready for hurt and pain and anguish sure lets you be at ease. No matter
what the people watching you spitting blood with your flesh shredded and bones broken think, you
can always use the excuse that you're the one suffering most.”
Subaru: “What!?”
Minerva: “If you bear the most obvious, showy and visible wounds, you can end everything without
those wounded by the aftermath of your behaviour being able to say anything. After all, you're the
one suffering most. You're the one hurting most. You're the one in the most pain. ...That the others
around you would shut up their snivelling's just natural.”
Perhaps with rage building up over her speech, Minerva's intonation gets stronger as she proceeds.
Subaru bares his teeth. Spoken to with such spite, Subaru being Subaru cannot possibly go without
objecting.
Subaru: “You! You're saying that I'm drunk on overblown tragedies so that I can shut everyone else
up, huh!? That this stalemate I'm in is just part of the act!?”
Minerva: “No, that's not where I'm going. But the logic of I JUST NEED TO BE HURT MORE THAN
ANYONE ELSE is coward's logic. I don't think a lot of Echidna's maliciousness, and I couldn't even
hope to understand how roundabout Satella is, but... to me, compared to a witch the way you're
twisted is heaps more sickening.”
Subaru: “—”
Minerva: “Above all else, with my lifestyle of beating everything wounded into health, your
lifestyle isn't so much an antithesis as a nemesis. —She isn't exactly being repaid.”
Jabbing her fist out at Subaru, Minerva finishes her statement with even her nose's breathing
ragged. Following that she appends her last statement in a whisper, her azure eyes aimed at Satella.
Ever since Subaru showered curses on her, Satella has simply remained there standing still in
silence. She gives no affirmations or denials, showing no stance at all about this little exchange.
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Subaru sees Minerva's eyes narrow, somewhat sadly.
Subaru couldn't give a crap about their emotionalities right now.
Subaru: “Sickening... unrepaid...?”
Catching the last words of Minerva's statements, Subaru faces down as his shoulders start to
tremble. The tremble escalates, and when he raises his head, he is smiling.
It was all entirely too fucking asinine, he couldn't go without laughing.
Subaru: “The fuck is that. Say sickening or anything, I've gotten to be choosing the methods I am
because why? I've gotten to be thinking in this so-dubbed twisted mentality because why? My
methods and mindset—when you consider what I have this's just the innate consequence—that's
what it goddamn is.”
Satella: “—”
Subaru: “You! Are! Who did this to me!”
Screams Subaru, throwing his rage at Satella, as she attempts with silence to escape from her
responsibility.
Having received RETURN BY DEATH, used this attribute to overcome obstacles, then confronted
many and varied troubles, Subaru had managed to run as far as here.
Every time the oft-experienced despair known as DEATH etched itself into his soul, he transformed
that misery into the power to step forward, and with that he had dashed to here.
—It was Natsuki Subaru's injury-fraught experiences that had allowed Subaru to reach these
thoughts.
Subaru: “The pain and the suffering! All of it, all only on me! Finish it all with me, and how is that
not grand! I grit my teeth, stifle my ire and my woe and my all and my every, and no matter how
terribly I die, the despair doesn't get to touch anybody else! Beginning to end all the hurts only on
me, and what is wrong with that! How is anything to fault with that!”
By repeating RETURN BY DEATH, following the end of much trial and error, Subaru is capable of
finding the truly optimum path. It is exactly as Echidna said. He wouldn't follow along with
Echidna's curiosity-driven temptations, but he was okay to continually attempt to same thing solo.
Unlike Echidna who was attempting to take a roundabout course, Subaru was devoting his absolute
all to directly uncovering the optimum route. His retry attempts would be overwhelmingly fewer
than if he were cooperating with Echidna. Naturally he did expect for the retry count to be
outrageous. But even so there was merit in trying.
Provided where injury-laden Subaru's outstretched arm reached was a future where no one was hurt.
Subaru: “Mentioned 'incomprehensible, sick of it' before, didn't I. Well sorry, that was my bad there.
Those feelings aren't a lie even for an instant, but there's still something I am thankful to you for.
Totally forgot. Forgot it, and isn't ingratitude just another thing I'm great at.”
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Satella: “—”
Subaru: “There's exactly one thing I am thankful to you for. Huge appreciation for letting me
RETURN BY DEATH. That's all I'm thanking you for. I wouldn'ta protected even a single important
thing without it. And from now on I'm gonna be depending on it too. And so for this one single
thing alone you are getting my thanks.”
He was already prepared for the continuous trial and error.

The option to flee from this fate was long ago abolished.
Has been ever since he took her hand and proposed to run, to be rejected.
There is no option to flee. He can only keep fighting. That is what he pledged. That was what she
expected of him. Believed in him. That Subaru would keep fighting, without running.
Subaru is a man who always gets back up. And if he was not, he could not continue being Rem's
hero.
Subaru: “So here's my thanks for this power you gave me. By your esteem, even an utterly meritless
prick like me can in these hopeless situations...”
Satella: “—Don't.”
Subaru: “Hopeless, situations...”
Subaru showers her with the fire stored up in his heart, spewing it all out—when Satella breaks her
silence with a murmur.
Hearing that one fragment, Subaru's words dull of their momentum. His face stiffens, and that
murmur he just heard, he desires to hear again.
What did she just say? It almost sounds like there was something she didn't want to hear.
Subaru swallows his breath as Satella lets the time pass, and again, speaks.
Satella: “—Please don't cry. Please don't hurt. Please don't suffer. Please don't, look sad.”
Whispers Satella to Subaru.

Her statement rocks his heart violently. With rage, with surprise, with a jumbling of every single
unidentifiable emotion he had.
Subaru: “Y, ou... that...”
The maelstrom of emotion is much too big, and he has not a clue what to say.
His intense feelings block his throat as he flaps his mouth open and closed, looking at Satella in
shock.
Satella proceeds in her jolting of the shaken Subaru.
Satella: “So, now you love.”
Subaru: “Ul, timately comes back to that, then. ...You're just all about twisting my emotions to get
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me to eventually love you. What your saying's...”
Satella: “—No.”
Satella interrupts Subaru's unsteady words with a shake of her head.

Her expression remains invisible. But by his skin Subaru can perceive just how Satella is looking at
him from behind the curtain of dark.
—Satella, right now, she was
Satella: “—Now you love yourself, more.”
Surely, gazing at Subaru with mercy.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
It requires Subaru quite a bit a time for the meaning of those words to sink into his brain.
What dominates Subaru's heart the instant the meaning does permeate is a formless, shake-
provoking wave of emotion.
Subaru: “Fuck... are you, saying.”
Satella: “...Please don't hurt. Be more dear to yourself.”
Subaru: “And when you're the one who gave me RETURN BY DEATH. And when the power you gave
me's what's given me this method of advancing.”
Satella: “—I love you. So please, love yourself as well, protect yourself.”
Subaru: “If my piteousness leads you to steal this method from me! What the fuck will be left for
me!!”
In rejection of Satella's unending whispers of love, Subaru shouts at he puts his hand to his chest.
Subaru: “You have to know too, don't you!? I am completely powerless! No wits, no skill, I have no
special powers at all! The only thing my inconsequential self has is the RETURN BY DEATH which
you gave me! My life is the only possible payment I have to offer!”
Satella: “Please don't sorrow.”
Subaru: “I've already sussed that it'll be painful, that I'll meet fates like death. And I'm fine with
that, I am fine with that! If the only one who has to hurt in this is me, then I am fine with that!”
Satella: “Please don't suffer.”
Subaru: “If I get damaged more than anybody else, I experience more than anybody else, go around
to protect everyone, then it's all settled with nobody except me going through anything painful!
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There's nothing more I want!”
Satella: “Please don't cry.”
Subaru: “It sure doesn't fucking matter what happens to me! Like it would bother anybody what
happens to some ass like me! However torn up I get, so long as everybody can reach the future
safely, then...hk”
After all, if Subaru failed to continue being wounded at the front lines—
Subaru: “If we can welcome the future, without losing anyone, then...hk”
—He might irreparably lose somebody again.
Subaru: “...Rem is, gone.”
Satella: “—”
Subaru: “If I were smarter, had more ability, spent myself more liberally, placed myself at risk in the
lead... we would've avoided it.”
The dolour and despair from back then remained binding Subaru always.
And so Subaru had elected, without relying on anyone, to continue being wounded fighting solo.
Doing so was the most correct course, is what he had believed.
Subaru: “I have to believe... I have to believe there's some way I can do something...”
Believe that RETURN BY DEATH is a means that will solve everything.

Believe that if he could just use it well, he could end this without losing anything.
Believing this ethic, instructing himself of that, and so being wounded were all necessary. If he did
not convince himself this was true, how could he possibly confront that despair again?
Subaru: “I! Don't want to lose anyone like how I lost Rem any more—!”
Grabbing his head, Subaru shrieks in rejection of every audible sound.

Before he knows it, he's squatted to the ground. Forgetting even to distance himself from Satella as
he retreats into his shell, Subaru curls up as he denies her sweet whisperings.
Poison. She was poison. Everything of Satella's existence was a will-melting poison for Subaru.
Subaru's heart, supposedly having pledged to stay strong, fractures.

Inside the cracks there slips a cold despair, bringing back the memories of that day's dolour to
pulverise Subaru's heart.
Sekhmet: “What a child.”
Mutters a voice.
Seeing Subaru screaming and crying, obstinately sticking to his self-made beliefs, shaking his head
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like 'I don't wanna, I don't wanna', one of the silent witches mutters.
Sekhmet: “Crying, bawling, throwing a tantrum, taking everything upon himself... it's exactly like
what...”
Subaru: “—”
Sekhmet: “—A lonely child would do.”
Is how Sekhmet appraises Subaru, in sympathetic and pitying voice.

The silent witches make no action to refute Sekhmet's mutters.
The WITCH OF SLOTH had made an incredibly apt judgement.

For Subaru's visage presently was that of a small, weak, pitiable child.
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CHAPTER 78: THESE SOUNDS TO SHED TEARS

Sekhmet: “Curling up, being stubborn... like a child. It's painful to see, and I can't bear to watch it—
haa.”
Hearing Sekhmet's words as she appraises him as a child, withdrawn small inside his shell, Subaru
thinks: You might be exactly correct.
Getting obstinate, believing he was right, paying no mind to what others said in his stubbornness—
but even said, his methods were indeed the ones with least causalities, and reliable.
Imposing on repeats of the world to attain countless opportunities, Subaru could infinitely fight so
long as he kept paying his life in exchange. Over the process Subaru's heart would assuredly
weather again and again, come to the border of completely abrading.
But—for those times where he was brittle, near broken to pieces, Subaru already had been given the
words to right and inspire him.
???: <—You're my hero, Subaru-kun.>
There. That was all Subaru needed.

If following his soul's erosion he had those words and everybody's presence, then he could desire
nothing more.
Just what was so wrong with that?
???: “—Baru's crying?”
A young voice rings through the silence of the scene. The witches swallow their breath.
A small little hand pats the head of the curled-up Subaru. Glancing up, Subaru sees through his tear-
blurred vision the dimly-reflected sight of a tan-skinned girl.
Subaru's frail gaze has landed on the WITCH OF PRIDE.
Typhon: “He's crying lots—poor sad boy. ...Who made him cry?”
Typhon gets up from bending over as she glowers at the other witches as they wordlessly stand
there.
Her eyes host a fierce gleam as she looks over the other witches in sequence, her eyebrows raising
as she lastly notices Satella's presence.
Typhon: “Tella? Tella's here? Why? Been lots of time.”
Typhon gives a wave as she calls to Satella, but the belligerent light in her eyes remains vivid. The
first one to address this Typhon is Sekhmet, who gives a languid sigh as she uprights herself.
Sekhmet: “Typhon... Haa—He's having a retreat right now, so—huu—don't prod the boy—haa.
Come over here—huu.”
Typhon: “Mom—did you do bad to Baru? Mom—are you a baddie?”
Sekhmet: “Your mom—haa—doesn't have the energy to be a bad person—huu. I've got no impulse
to make either you or me do any work, you see—haa.”
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Typhon gives a small nod, but shows no signs of distancing from Subaru as she was told. This time
it's Minerva she looks at.
Typhon: “Nerva? Did you bully Ba... nah.”
Minerva: “How come you're not asking me. It's totally not right. It's not like I'm always all about
healing people, every so often I leave myself to the seething emotions of violence in my heart and...
maybe, I... sometimes could hurt... hurt people, or something too.”
Echidna: “It's pretty hard to imagine that someone who pales just by envisioning it could commit an
act of violence.”
Echidna shrugs as she teases Minerva and her rather implausible reply. Minerva glares sharply at
Echinda, Typhon's gaze following the same path to likewise land on her. Typhon's young face twists
into a frown.
Typhon: “Chidna. Chidna—did you do something bad again? Chidna—you're the baddie?”
Echidna: “Now what could it mean that it sounds more like a conclusion when it's asked to me. I'm
thinking I'd like to ask her foster parent about that one in rigorous detail but, your thoughts?”
Sekhmet: “It's what you always do—haa.”
Sekhmet exhaustedly puts her hand to her forehead. Typhon remains unseparated from Subaru's
side, vigilantly looking to find 'the baddie who made Subaru cry'.
Narrowing her eyes at the young witch's pep, Echidna mutters.
Echidna: “That aside.”
Echidna: “With Typhon also showing up here, we've almost got a full assemblage. If Daphne
showed up as well, it'd be a memory of four hundred years ago...”
???: “Did some-bod-y, just call for me?”
As if in response to Echidna's wonder, a black coffin abruptly appears in the meadow.

Fully bound by restraints inside the coffin with blindfolds over her eyes, this is the WITCH OF
GLUTTONY Daphne.
She gives a small sniff, and having figured out everyone present by her sense of smell,
Daphne: “Ne-ver-mind Su-ba-ruun, Tella-Tella's here too? How amazing is this. Seven witches of
deadly sin all together, and then even a sage candidate...”11
Echidna: “Daphne. —He's not there yet.”
Daphne: “...Ahh, well, that's, apologies. But a-ny-way... sniff, sniff. I smell some-thing sal-ty, is
someone crying? Is it Ner-Ner?”
11 Unclear if sage candidate should be 'a' or 'the'.
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Daphne's failure to consider what's going on and floaty-toaty speech casually whack the tension of
the scene.
This scene of the seven witches all together, including Satella, was not a sight that occurred so often
even four hundred years ago.
The seven witches who once thrust the world into chaos—now in this livewire situation, powers
liable to reshape the world itself were assembled together here.
The WITCH OF PRIDE—looking to cast judgement on the one who had made a small boy cry.
The WITCH OF WRATH—clenching her fists, looking for her close friend's feelings to bear fruit.
The WITCH OF SLOTH—paying heed to everyone's movements, languidly prepared to instantly
attack if anything should happen.
The WITCH OF LUST—preserving her uninvolved demeanour, ready to protect only herself should
matters escalate into a split-second situation.
The WITCH OF GLUTTONY—already unconcerned about any changes in the situation, puzzling over
whose fingers would be best to munch.
The WITCH OF GREED—although displeased with the presence of one witch, her eyes sparkle with
curiosity for whatever could possibly happen next.
And not the WITCH OF ENVY, but Satella—
Satella: “I am in love with you. —Because you gave me light. Because you took me by the hand, and
taught me the world outside. Because through nights where in solitude I shivered, you kept by my
side with your hands around mine. Because, then being alone, by your kiss you told me I wasn't.
There are so many things you've given to me. ...And so, I love you. Because you—you gave me
everything.”
Subaru: “—”
Subaru has not a single memory of any involvement in any part of Satella's whisperings.
He isn't part of it, doesn’t know any of it. He has never met Satella, never spoken with her, never
overlaid his warmth with hers. Everything she is talking about is the fruits of her delusion. This
woman insane with sentiment had lined up empty daydreams where she simply watched a fantasy
of Subaru.
Is what this should be, but NATSUKI SUBARU does know this.
Subaru: “Why're this... inside me, what is this? I don't want to feel this. Don't tether me with, non-
existent memories... I... I damn... I goddamn...”
Hate you, is all he has to say.

All he has to do is stab the one giving him their feelings with the announcement that he held not a
single speck of fondness for her. Then would be spectating just what expression the one
egotistically trying to distort his emotions would make. Bet the pain to her heart would have her
face twisting magnificently.
—How are you capable of doing that to her?
Typhon: “Baru?”
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Sekhmet: “Oh, kid...”
Camilla: “H-He's...”
Minerva: “You...”
Daphne: “Subaruun?”
Echidna: “—Ah, that is yet another possible choice. Natsuki Subaru.”
The witches call to Subaru in their various ways, Echidna giving a small nod at this outcome.
Subaru: “—ghh, bhg”
—Still squatted curled up on the ground, Subaru bites to sever his tongue.
The witches had cornered him in, and he had no idea of what was anything anymore.
In these conditions where his heart feels near to twisting, what remains for Subaru if even his
volition is no longer free to act at will?
If his stubbornness had simply been negated, then even that would still be okay.
If interacting with Satella makes him accepting even of being negated...

The thought terrified Subaru.
—When happens, when you lose your life in a dream?
Subaru's body should still be inside SANCTUARY’s tomb.

What had been called here was Subaru's mental body, or perhaps said soul. If his mental body dies
here, would that cause feedback on his physical body? Would his soul die?
He didn't care. If it was a death to reset, he was ready for it.
He would not take the witches' help, he would scour himself down greater than he ever had before,
cut away everything superfluous, and if he remained simply and wholeheartedly enthusiastic, the
path would surely open. —He did this, and he'd...
Minerva: “That, idiot!”
The instant she notices Subaru's attempt at suicide, Minerva rolls up her sleeves and dashes, running
to slam her healing fists into him. But, cutting in to stand between she and him is Typhon.
The young witch stretches her little limbs out wide, blocking Minerva.
Typhon: “Baru chose it himself! Nerva—no interrupting!”
Minerva: “Wounding or suicide or murder or injury are nothing I'll allow before me! Mental
anguish is goddamn nothing I care about! I couldn't give less of a crap about invisible wounds! And
instead! Visible wounds alone I absolutely won't overlook!”
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The ground caves in beneath her single step, Minerva's fist drilling through the wind as it closes in
on Typhon's face.
The plummeting fist carries enough force to rupture a mountain, but the moment before it strikes a
living creature that destructive energy converts to healing energy. However, the impact of the
shockwave and blow itself do normally affect the target of the punch.
The boom resounds, the strike from Minerva's outstretched arm sending Typhon soaring.
The undeveloped girl shunts away easily as a leaf, dancing high through the meadow's false sky. It's
a scene devoid of mercy—but Typhon is not the only one suffering damage.
Minerva: “—!”
From the shoulder down, Minerva's right arm shatters like ice crystals.
This was the result of having touched the judgement of the WITCH OF PRIDE, and her deed having
been determined as evil.
Minerva looks to the sky, pained at the lost of her aim, opening her mouth wide to shriek—
Minerva: “A scratch!!”
—or not.
The WITCH OF WRATH, highly attuned to the pain of others, infinitely disregarded her own pain.
This was exactly playing ignorant to Natsuki Subaru's lifestyle, and disregarding herself for later.
Minerva: “Anyway, now I—!”
The obstacle gone, Minerva wrenches back her left arm as she bounds for Subaru. From above him
her mighty arm aims to smash Subaru and—
Sekhmet: “I'll be getting in your way next—haa.”
Her blonde hair swaying to the motion, it takes a single instant for Minerva to slam into the ground.
Her body pressed down to the earth as she creates a human-shaped crater in the meadow, Minerva
raises her furious-red face as she screams at the seated Sekhmet.
Minerva: “Stop getting in the way! Sekhmet!”
Sekhmet: “That I won't be doing—huu. Sentimentally speaking, I'm on the kid's side—haa. And to
add to that, I'm also on Typhon's side—huu. I have no reason not to get in the way—haa.”
Minerva frustratedly bites her lip at Sekhmet's battle declaration as she looks to the other witches.
But, Daphne and Camilla are neutral to this fight unfolding, while Echidna is an onlooker surveying
what results the spat will each. And Satella—
Satella: “Ahh... auhh...”
Crumbled to her knees as she sees Subaru spewing great loads of sanguine out his mouth, her voice
trembles.
With the overflowing blood and his severed tongue blocking his throat, Subaru undergoes the
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feeling of drowning as he catches Satella in a corner of his consciousness.
Crying, wasn't she.

She looked immeasurably shaken, witnessing Subaru's DEATH.
Satella: “Why haven't you realised...? That of everything you wish to protect, of course you should
be included.”
Why was it she thought this way about Subaru?

In her delusions, just how much of a support was Subaru for her heart?
Satella: “As it does to those struggling in the dead-end of fate, of course it would visit you too. But
just because you alone have possibility of overturning it... you're someone who should be saved too,
so why?”
She's entirely wrong.

Subaru was a hopeless fuck, unable to succeed even in the things he thought himself capable,
unable to save those he wished to save, entirely a half-measures never-there prick, and he would
never escape from that.
Had he not pledged? To escape from that, and to stop doing things halfway?
Had he not decided? To pretend to he was any better?
—His weak self, and his self desiring not to be weak, fight inside him.
Nobody may witness Natsuki Subaru's weakness now.

The strong, dignified, resolute lifestyle of a hero was what Subaru needed to live.
There was a girl who desired such of him. Subaru had placed a curse on that girl, and responsibility
was on him to repay that girl his curse had bound. —No. Responsibility was nothing in the picture.
Just, if she was believing in him, then he wanted to be as someone who would gain that belief.
Because that girl told Subaru she loved him, Subaru wished to be someone who would continually
gain her 'love you's.
Yes. That was it.

That was it.
If hypothetically saying for assumption that there were somebody who would mourn Subaru's
DEATH, it'd be her.
Choosing DEATH was a betrayal of the girl who had believed in him. Of course, Subaru had no
intentions to end merely with DEATH. He was prepared to use even DEATH as a stepping stone to
abolish the reason behind the DEATH, and regain everything.
But, what happened to the people the DEATH-electing Subaru had left behind?
He mustn't think of it.

He mustn't know of it. Those thoughts were dangerous thoughts.
It was fine. Natsuki Subaru, as he was, was fine.
He mustn't think that somebody out there was mourning him.
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He wasn't anybody worth such a thing. Subaru's life was a consumable item. Use it, use it, use it up,
and ultimately reach the end—that was the single-merit consumable it ought to be.
Utilize dying practically and with effect. Absolutely do not face his own DEATH.
Rationalize. He is fine to think nothing. For salvaging what he wished to salvage, determine to
throw away what must be thrown away. Everyone does it. Subaru, too, ought to.
He saves those precious to him, those who ought to be saved, then this was all fine.
If he could only do that, then Subaru—
Satella: “What on earth was it you saw, in the second TRIAL...?”
Trial. —Trial. Trial, TRIAL. TrialTrialTrial, TRIALTrialTrialTrial, Trial—?
Shock and insufficient oxygen dull his thinking incredibly.

His vision blurs and blurs in a world flickering red, a storm like television noise running through his
head, as he dimly thinks that the end ought to get on with it.
The end was coming slowly.

What number was he on for times meeting DEATH? Counting was a nuisance, but that was okay.
Eventually, he would have to repeat and repeat his deaths until counting it was sickening.
He doubted he could keep living maintaining a mentality which would bother tallying his deaths.
Heart of iron.
Entirely unshakable, a heart of iron, in hand—
Slowly and slowly, Subaru's consciousness departs.

And, fades,
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: <I'm expecting things from you, son.>
A sound.
From beyond the noise, amongst the din, a horrifically clear sound.
???: <—Come home safe.>
Again.
A different sound, but again. Bringing about the same thing to his chest, a sound.
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???: 
Different sound. A changed feeling to it, too.

This one terribly agitated him. But, it also had a pleasantness to it.
???: <Subaru-dono... I sincerely beg, for your forgiveness...>
Different sound again.

Between the sombreness and near-aspiration crossing in his chest, a sound to guilt at.
???: <I, at least knew that... you aren't, they... but...>
A sound to constrict his chest.

He hears this sound, and he cannot restrain himself. A sound near to tears. A sound which must not
come to tears. A sound he must protect. Sound. Sound. Sound.
???: <Show me how awesome you can be, Subaru-kun.>
The sound of something inside him thumping to a high beat is his reaction to this sound.
His body heats. A sense of duty spurs him to motion. This sound, had always been supporting him.
And,
???: <Thank you, Subaru.>
This sound.
???: <—For saving me.>
—This sound, which announced the beginning of everything.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
He was probably crying.
If the people Subaru thought dearly of knew of his death, would they grieve for him?
Those irreplaceable people he had left behind in the worlds where he had selfishly experienced
DEATH, had they lamented Subaru's death, and grieved for him?
Those who had lost Subaru as he mourned his insufficient strength, repeating RETURNS BY DEATH
in search of the optimum, failing at the final step—had they mourned for him?
There were people who he thought of as precious.

There were people who he believed he must protect.
There were people who he implored he must save from the dead-end of fate.
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—Did he possess enough worth that those precious people would mourn him?
It was him, but he was enough for his precious ones to think him someone precious.
So was his conceit, but was it okay?
It was him, but he was needed enough for those he wished to protect to wish to protect him.
So was his inadvertent belief, but was it okay?
It was him, but he had enough worth for there to be people who would cry at his passing, that he
could reach out to for rescue.
So was his inadvertent wish, but would he be pardoned it?
—Was it okay for him to think it?
I don't want to die.

I don't want to give up, thinking this method is the only one.
I don't want to disappear as I be the cornerstone for protecting the future of those precious to me.
In the future where they're protected, there alongside those precious to me, I want to be too.
He could think like this, but was it okay?
Did he have these qualifications?

If he did, then—
Subaru: “I don't, wanna die...”
Alongside the sound of splurting blood and escaping air, he speaks.

His supposedly tongue-clogged throats opens, his mouth flapping as he gasps for air. His lungs
expand, oxygen cycles through his brain, his faded vision starts returning.
And,
Minerva: “There's his real thoughts...”
—Her face fully red as she heals Subaru with a headbutt, the WITCH OF WRATH reaches him absent
her legs, but on willpower.
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CHAPTER 79: END OF THE DREAM

The moment he realises that air is passing through his windpipe, Subaru gives an incredible cough
to expel the remaining blood in his throat.
Still collapsed face-up on the ground as he pants, taking ragged breath after ragged breath, Subaru
seeks oxygen, seeks the nourishment of life.
His heart has no timeslot to ponder on how wretched he looks right now.
But he does think that his weakness, unhesitatingly clinging to the path of rescue presented before
him after severing his tongue in a bid for DEATH, is miserable.
Subaru: “My...”
Minerva: “—Hm?”
Subaru: “My life has value...? Without dying... value other than in dying over and over... exists, for
me?”
RETURN BY DEATH, and in doing so save everyone from the grips of despair.
This outcome was one he could attain by paying his life, and he had believed it the only value to
Natsuki Subaru.
But, maybe, could it be okay to think otherwise?
Subaru: “This person, me, has value other than in RETURN BY DEATH... is that okay for me to think?
That the people I like... like me back too, can I... can I think, like that?”
Minerva: “...All that's nothing I could care about.”
Says Minerva bluntly as she averts her gaze.

She nimbly drags herself away from Subaru using only her left arm, having lost her right and her
legs, as she turns to face her right shoulder—and bites. Immediately, droplets of light regenerate
Minerva's missing arm.
Clenching and unclenching the fist of her now-sleeveless right arm, Minerva next goes for her legs
—each missing from the thighs down. She punches at the root of the severance, and just like her
arms, both her legs regenerate.
Her already-short skirt has grown even shorter, and with her bare right arm her appearance is very
risky, but regardless the WITCH OF WRATH Minerva has returned to fighting fit condition.
She stands well on her regained legs, crossing her arms in a pose which emphasizes her voluptuous
breasts, and looks down at Subaru.
Minerva: “Your value or whatever has nothing to do with me. But, she's wishing for you to stay
alive, so... and, didn't you see it too, in the second TRIAL?”
Subaru: “...But, the second TRIAL was my mistakes, the sins I committed.”
Minerva: “Are you stupid? That wasn't something to make you take responsibility for the worlds
where you messed up. That was something showing you how sad everyone was as a result of your
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mistakes. —And wasn't that the answer you wanted?”
Subaru: “—hw”
He remembers.
A voice, crying. A voice, rue stifled. A voice giving strong farewell. A voice giving the usual, kind
goodbye.
Whispers of love from who believed in him. The words of beginning, what were Subaru's
motivation to fight.
None of which he was supposed to have had in his life.

Still possessing nothing, still having lost what should have been in his possession, was how Subaru
believed he had been summoned to this world.
To prove his own worth, he needed to keep fighting. To protect those precious people he had
acquired over that period of fighting, he needed keep walking further in solitude.
Only ever receiving from others—had been his supposition, but was he safe to think otherwise?
Would they cry for him?
Would they lament their powerlessness for him?
Would they desire to see the future, and see it with him alongside?
Would they allow him the qualifications to stand, smiling, at the side of those precious to him?
These qualifications, of questionable possession.

But surely if he walked to the end of the road that he had been, obstinate and alone, he would not be
permitted to have them.
At the end of his fight, conducted with a heart of iron and entirely unshakable mental fortitude, he
would surely forfeit the tenderness required for any smile to rise on his face.
And so, was he allowed to believe?
The option to procure a future for those precious to him, at cost of losing his own heart.
The option to frantically guard his own heart, at the cost of losing the road to proceed.
Was he allowed to believe in neither, and instead in some greedier option?

The option to see the future of those precious ones, while simultaneously remaining Natsuki
Subaru, was an option that existed—was he allowed to desire this, to believe this?
Satella: “—You're allowed.”
Subaru: “—”
These are the feelings of Subaru, not left voiced as he sheds only tears.
But the timing fits perfectly, as if they had been communicated in sound.
Still collapsed on the ground, Subaru moves his head to look beyond Minerva—where he sees her,
still fallen to her knees on the grass, the tears left unwiped on her face as she smiles.
Subaru still cannot see her face.

A veil of darkness blocks it, and Subaru remains unable to determine her expression. But, the fact
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that she is smiling does communicate.

Echidna had said it. That the reason Subaru could not see her face was because he was not accepting
her. That her smile communicates is because his unconsciousness is determining something he truly
is seeing as something he is not seeing.
Satella: “You saved me. And so, I will pardon that you be saved. I am wishing for you to be saved.”
Knowing that Satella's words, her voice, are permeating his fractured heart leads Subaru to bury his
face in his arms. The tears had already made it a mess, and unmistakably there would be no way for
his face to get more unpresentable this late in the game, but regardless he wishes for nobody to see
it.
After his incredible badmouthing of her, how was it that Satella's words still brought him relief?
And how could he possibly show how his expression softened?
But that said, it was true that Satella's arcane words of LOVE or what call them had allowed Subaru
to truly understand the TRIAL.
Echidna: “...It's surprising that Minerva broke through Typhon and Sekhmet's obstructions, but
personally what surprises me more is you two.”
Mutters Echidna quietly as she places Subaru aside as another matter.

Looking first at Minerva and her restored limbs, Echidna shifts her gaze elsewhere—to Typhon
pinned beneath the claws extending from the black coffin, and the coffin's owner Daphne as she
faces down Sekhmet.
Daphne: “It's un-mis-ta-ka-ble that I'm, the one with best a-ffin-i-ty, against Ty-Ty. The cen-ti-pede
coffin has, no brain to think with, and it's my arms and legs. Ty-Ty's authority has ter-ri-ble
compatibility.”
Typhon: “Aug—stop it—Phinnie! Hnn! Auug!”
Sekhmet: “And so—haa—you're using your real body for holding me in check, then—huu? I'm not
Echidna—haa—but just why are you pulling this stunt—huu? Unlike with Minerva, I don't
understand your reasoning for this—haa.”
Sekhmet scratches rigorously at her overwhelming, overflowing head of hair. With Typhon
practically taken hostage, not even Sekhmet can be careless here.
Daphne smiles, her pigtails swaying.
Daphne: “We-ell,”
Daphne: “So silly Subaruun, he talked some p-re-tt-y big lip to me. A-ppa-ren-t-ly he, killed the
White Whale, and next is the Sizeable Hare? Then, so I was thinking, I want him to at least make, it
to challenging them.”
Echidna: “An interesting stance. If he ever feels the urge, he can indeed achieve that. You should be
aware of that, too... do you mean you want the Sizeable Hare to be destroyed?”
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Daphne: “Whatever? The mo-ment it split, a-way from me, its hunger stopped having a-ny-thi-ng to
do with mine. It can be de-stroyed and it won't really bother me, but... maybe I am a little in-ter-es-
ted in how the Sizeable Hare, my very in-ex-tin-guish-a-ble starvation itself, will end.”
After all, says Daphne.
Daphne: “If ending means being fulfilled, that's a happiness com-plete-ly un-known to me.”
For a Daphne constantly tormented by endless hunger, fulfilment was an eternally unreachable
dream.
The Sizeable Hare reflected her unending starvation, and was deemable as another version of
herself. —Although, Daphne had absolutely no such sense of closeness to it.
Should the Sizeable Hare meet an end differing from the one Daphne did, would that end be a
satiating one? Would there have existed chance for her to be fulfilled? Was the rare non-hunger kind
of interest in her smile.
Echidna nods to Daphne's reply with full satisfaction, then turning her attention not to Subaru, nor
Satella, nor Minerva. Not to Daphne and Sekhmet, not to Typhon, but to a somebody standing in a
spot isolated from the commotion, as Echidna was.
Seeing the WITCH OF LUST Camilla, Echidna lightly strokes at her white hair. Echidna:
“What about you, Camilla? Do you maybe have a reason, like Daphne did?” Camilla:
“I-Is, there... some... something you're, t-trying to... say? E-Echidna-chan?”
Echidna: “It's simple. —You called to his consciousness as it was in the grips of death, moments
before its extinguishment. You would have known what would come of it, when it was you with
your authority FACELESS GODDESS doing it.”
Camilla: “—”
Echidna: “Your call would have held every significance for him. And you would have understood
that. And so I ask. You didn't think fondly of him. Why did you?”
Camilla puts her hand to her mouth, her gaze puttering about. That she directs her eyes to Daphne
and Minerva is an action hoping for others to come in and back her up.
But there is no WITCH in this place that will be seduced by the all-beloved Camilla.
Camilla bites her finger in a 'nothing going' kind of way, her eyes watering as she looks at Echidna.
Camilla: “Th-there... wasn't, really... a reason? H-he, turned down... down, your t-temptations, so,
I'm... all satisfied... a-and, even though every... everyone is, mad and... fighting, it's not... affecting
me, so... but,”
Echidna: “But?”
Camilla: “L-LOVE is, so... important? I-It's bad t-to, ignore that... mm, you mustn't, do that. He
might... be thinking he, d-doesn't want to... see it, but, there is... LOVE there... and when something's,
there... I won't let, it... be denied. A-and, also, t-to me... null reciprocity is a hell no.”
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Camilla speaks the final point alone with frightening clarity. Echidna shrugs.
The WITCH OF GREED, smiling wryly, looks over the witches one by one.
Echidna: “Sekhmet and Typhon acted to respect his will, Minerva respected life and healed him.
Daphne assisted in his prolonged survival for the sake of seeing his fighting spirit or what-to-call-it
through, while Camilla utilized her authority to inform him of the love he'd constantly ignored. —
Everyone and everybody has their various platforms, from which they attempted to aid Natsuki
Subaru.”
Is how Echidna appraises the witches' actions, prompting the witches' expressions to shift.
Pride tilts her head, Sloth gives a listless sigh, Wrath snorts as she crosses her arms, Gluttony eats a
leg from the coffin as she smiles, Lust's face twists in disgust.
And, having seen these reactions, Greed puts her hand to her chin.
Echidna: “It truly is interesting. —Don't you agree?”
Echidna's mouth relaxes, a blissful smile rising on her face.

Her statement is aimed at the one directly before her—his body wavering as he stands up, Subaru.
Wiping his still-wet teartracks with his sleeve and having managed to stand, Subaru gives Echidna's
question no reply.
His eyes look passionlessly over the witches.
Subaru: “Seriously... just what are you all.”
Witches: “—”
Subaru: “Curiosity. Sympathy. Pity. Duty. Disgust. Expectation. ...Basically none of your reasons
for supporting me make any real sense. I get what the title of 'witch' means, here.”
Echidna: “If you're back to speaking insults, then have you perhaps regained your spirit?”
Subaru: “...I don't know.”
Mutters Subaru as he puts his hand to his chest.

Those words very succinctly expressed all of Subaru's present feelings.
Subaru: “What I have to do is supposed to have been decided. Those things I have to do haven't
changed at all. That's definite. Definite.”
But, he says, speaking to himself rather to anyone else,
Subaru: “I'd decided that this was the only method for doing it. That's what I chose... what I had
resolved to choose. But even despite that, here the TRIAL broke me.”
The second TRIAL, the uncomeatable present—which speared Subaru with the consequences of his
actions, while the reality he had used the word 'resolve' to distract from ripped his heart to shreds.
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Having been shown that, Subaru further sought a clear rationalization, and had attempted to stick
through with his resolve. And realistically, that was supposed to have happened.
Subaru: “But, learning your true motives after having once thought you someone whose help I
could accept, and then right afterwards having Satella appear... my head is frazzled. All of you, stop
going off just doing all these things. What I ought to do is something I am saddled with. Is what it's
meant to be, but...”
This late, now made to cling to the life he had rationalized expendable, what was he meant to do?
This late, now made to feel attachment to the life he had determined to use, what was he meant to
do?
This late, now made aware that he was loved, what was he meant to do?
Subaru: “I have just, no idea what to do any more.”
If you don't die, you can't protect everyone! screams Subaru's rationality.
There are people who will grieve over your scouring yourself away, Subaru's memories tell him.
He doesn't die, and people will sorrow. He does die, and people will sorrow.
Echidna: “—I will present you this question once again, Natsuki Subaru.”
Says Echidna, her tone low.

Subaru looks up, to find Echidna standing directly before him, her finger raised.
Seeing herself reflected in Subaru's eyes, Echidna nods slowly.
Echidna: “Should I collaborate with you, you will without fail arrive at a future where those you
want to save are saved. You'll surely lose the need for deliberation. Speaking in extremes, I will be
reliable for solving the problems you will face. All you need to do is concentrate fully on
implementing those solutions, and only on overcoming the barricades. If continuous deliberation is
painful for you, the option is available for you to entrust all of that to me. I will not fault you for it,
and in a sense I will welcome it. And so, I will present you with this question once again.”
Echidna: “Having no clue what to do any more, would you let me guide your hand? My promise is
that, without fail, I will bring you to the future.”
Says Echidna gently as she presents her hand to Subaru.

Looking down at her pale fingers, looking up at her awaiting face, Subaru's breath freezes.
This is the same proposal as what he has just rejected.

Subaru had learned of Echidna's true nature then, and been terrified of her mentality which operated
only off of nigh-frightening curiosity.
But, how about now? Having had a short break, and then thinking calmly over what she is saying,
how about it?
Treating his life as a consumable, going through every pattern of trial-and-error, forcibly
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surmounting the obstacles in his path via a rather heavy-handed method. Subaru's state after
accepting Echidna's aid would be one of continuous fighting while his heart erodes—but that said,
even should he decline her help, how would his state during his solo efforts differ at all?
Subaru had been stubborn, and unable to stomach his repulsion for her attitude, he had rejected
Echidna.
But if he had the resolve to truly abandon everything and make himself a sacrifice, if he could just
ignore Echidna's nature, what he should do is utilize her just as she proposed.
But even that his integrity had rejected. If he was headed along the exact same path regardless—
then what exactly was the point of Subaru's relentless refusals?
He ought to take that hand.

Should he have the resolve to keep fighting without any fear of being hurt, swallowing down his
pain and suffering, he ought to take that hand.
And so,
Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “I'm afraid of being hurt.”
Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “I hate pain, and suffering, and sadness. I don't want to go through awful experiences, I
don't want to see others meet terrible fates. —I don't, want to die.”
Echidna: “—”
Subaru: “And so, your hand which presupposes sacrifices—I can't take anymore.”
Not even Subaru exactly knew what it was he could do here.

But he no longer seemed capable of choosing a path with the same premise as Echidna's.
He had wound up being aware that he did not want to die.

He had wound up learning that there were people who would accept him even without his death,
when he had thought himself useless outside of dying.
Natsuki Subaru was a man whose worth was not only in dying.
Because the people who mourned Subaru's DEATH where not people mourning him while seeing
worth in his DEATH.
So then, there was SOMETHING about him which made them mourn?
Subaru: “I still don't know what that something is. —But, I'm thinking to find out. Once I know
what it is, I think I'll be able to repay everyone in a way other than DEATH.”
Echidna: “...However, there lies a path of thorns, Natsuki Subaru. While it is truth that rationalizing
death as a tool to cut open the way, proceeding along the route while scouring yourself down, is a
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rugged path—it unmistakably remains as the shortest road for reaching the future. The only thing
you need to offer is your heart. To deny this, and intend to keep your own heart as well as the future
of those precious to you, is an act of extraordinary difficulty, and above all—
Cutting off there, Echidna takes a breath.

And, with the most resplendent smile she has ever shown rising on her face,
Echidna: “—Greed.”
Affirming his desires, the WITCH OF GREED accepts Subaru's decision with her expression pleased.
This witch, having had her proposal denied but still smiling happily, is indeed beyond Subaru's
understanding. But,
Subaru: “That you saved me countless times alone is truth. ...Even if it was entirely all you thinking
of me like some lab rat or whatever, that is truth.”
Echidna's presence had been a mental support, by which he had overcome troubles.
For being given those spaces of time to protect his mind, he was indeed grateful.
Echidna: “—Foolish, pitiful Garfiel is scared of the outside world.”
Echidna: “What he saw in the first TRIAL has always been binding him. If you're to break through
this situation by yourself, I'd say you'd need to undo that curse on him.”
Subaru: “Echidna?”
Echidna: “The other witches have been very friendly with you, and if I then present you nothing,
what an outrage it'll be. Having you think THE WITCHES WERE ALL FUNDAMENTALLY GREAT GUYS,
EXPECT THAT ECHIDNA SHE WAS JUST THE WORST is truly nothing I want. I may be me but I am still
a girl, and that I'm fond of you is truth.”
Speaking quickly, Echidna lightly pokes Subaru in the chest.

Pushed a step back by the momentum, Subaru looks up to find Echidna averting her gaze. Her white
hair swaying, the WITCH OF GREED steps away from Subaru.
The other witches, too, watch Subaru silently.
Subaru: “...You guys are all a bunch beyond anything I can understand.”
Witches: “—”
Subaru: “You throw my head into so much disarray I could go crazy, and even now I'm still fuming
pissed about what you said. This whole time I've been thinking 'stop talking over my head about
things I don't know', and I will never come to like you guys.”
Sincere thoughts.
The witches all had their respective and ironclad values, which Subaru—no, which any ordinary
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person—would unmistakably conflict with.

And so Subaru could not comprehend them, or accept their actions with understanding.
But just like what he thought with Echidna, an inability to comprehend, and gratitude, were
separate.
Subaru: “Thank you for trying to let me die. Thank you for trying to not let me die. Thank you for
letting me hear these important voices. —For these, thank you.”
As he bows his head to the witches one by one, the way they swallow their breath is rather
satisfying.
Subaru then turns, walks.
Ahead of him, a girl remains on her knees on the grass—it is Satella.
She looks up at Subaru and his approach, her breath holding to a stop.
Seeing her frightened, seeing her in exactly the state of a small young girl, Subaru loses his speech.
Why was it that when faced with someone he had thought abhorrent, his heart fills with warmth?
What were these emotions he harboured for someone he had never even touched before?
This place had given Subaru far too many questions lacking answers.
Still without a single answer and choosing the option of CONTINUE DELIBERATING, Subaru offers his
hand to the seated Witch.
She looks at his offered hand, lost and uncertain.
Subaru: “I... have no idea what you are. I don't understand why you're telling me you love me, or
what you're... or what you mean when you say that I saved you.”
Satella: “Ah...”
Subaru: “But that the RETURN BY DEATH you've given me has saved me is fact. That I've fully relied
on it, and doing so managed to get here is also truth.”
Satella: “—”
Subaru: “RETURN BY DEATH is an option available to me... is what this all is?”
Satella: “—”
Subaru: “I won't make any simple rationalizations of it. —But, that you who gave me RETURN BY
DEATH, are what's made me feel I don't want to die, is unmistakable.”
And so,
Subaru: “Like you said, I'll try... just a little bit, try liking myself more. Try treating myself dearly. I
have no idea what'll happen once I'm doing that but, that's okay.”
Satella: “...Will you be all right?”
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Subaru: “Yeah. Compared to dying, it's nothing.”
Subaru answers to Satella's worried voice as he crafts a weak smile.

Seeing his expression, Satella worriedly takes hold of his hand.
Instantly, the noise of the world breaking comes to Subaru's eardrums.

The sky's blue and meadow's green fade in colour, signalling Natsuki Subaru's release from the
castle in a dream.
Subaru: “—Back outside, then.”
What he's doing, and why he's here, are vague.

He will exit, and then what should he do first? The issues of his heart had made even this question
into something unclear.
Satella: “Don't deliberate alone. Please, with those who think you dear alongside...”
Subaru: “—”
Satella: “With the people who don't desire your death, the people who desire not to let you die, fight
alongside. ...And when even that isn't enough, die without forgetting what it is to fear death.”
Subaru: “—”
Satella: “Please don't forget―that there are people, who will grieve your death.”
The world is cracking to pieces.

Satella's voice grows distant. That fact rips at Subaru's heart terribly.
This palm in his hand is frightfully hot.

He must not let this hand go, is the feeling he has.
Subaru: “—I,”
He cannot get the words out to call her.

His call to her, his call of her name, is not coming. You must not voice that name, says his desire to
reject her, as it fights with his desire to accept her.
The sky is falling. The ground is breaking. Light abounds, the surroundings no longer the shape of
the castle in a dream.
The other witches have vanished from here, leaving this world to only Subaru and Satella.
He was fading. And beginning.

—Directly before him is Satella, Subaru unable to say anything as he keeps her in his gaze.
Subaru: “—”
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The veil of darkness falls.

The ebony he had supposedly been unconsciously rejecting is dispelled.
Revealed from beneath is her face, which in seeing, Subaru swallows his breath.
Satella's silver hair sways, her amethyst eyes narrow, and with tears falling from their edges—
Satella: “And one day—no matter what, come to kill me.”
Departing.
Disappearing.
The world vanishing, even the sight of the girl before him falling invisible.
Subaru: “I, no matter what—”
But gripping down firm on the warmth of her palm, Subaru—
Subaru: “—Will save you.”
Facing the unseen, darling girl, that alone does he assert.
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INTERMISSION: THE GUEST OF HONOUR HAS LEFT

Sekhmet: “Have to wonder whether you're—haa—okay letting them leave like that—huu.”
Echidna: “It was his decision, his choice. And I would prefer to respect that ...Though that he left
while taking the hand of that thing is something I do have some unkind thoughts about.”
Echidna shrugs in reply to Sekhmet's listless voice.

As always the two are inside the castle in a dream, the blue sky above suffering not a single
alteration. The fresh breeze blows past, caressing the hair of the witches again without change.
—After the fracturing world swallowed Subaru and Satella, freeing them from the dream, the world
immediately reconstructed.
Well of course. This indestructible space tied to Echidna's soul would remain in this state so long as
Echidna existed. The whole thing amounted to nothing more than an extravagant production, with
the two being cast offstage.
Echidna: “That said, when you fire off shots so helter-skelter I do have to feel some fatigue. It'd be a
great help if you could practise a little more moderation when you're going berserk with the
healing.”
Minerva: “I was just following my credo, healing wounds where I could see them. There's no
discrimination between humans or witches or creatures or birds or fish or bugs or witchbeasts, the
wounds of anything living are my enemy!”
Echidna: “Yes, but unlike when in life, the burden for your actions gets placed on me. When you
were alive the world was made to shoulder the burden, so then I'm sure even your imagination can
figure how tough it is for me alone to bear it?”
Minerva: “Fatigue, or whatever kind of invisible blah I really couldn't be bothered about. I heal
wounds. So it shortens the life span of the world or whatever, not like that's my problem.”
As she crosses her arms, emphasizing her abundant chest, the other witches smile wryly at Minerva.
From a glance, the WITCH OF WRATH Minerva would be the witch of sin who was easiest to like—
you could even call her a harmless witch.
The entirety of her actions are only healing, and to enumerate number of lives she saved during her
lifetime would require more than a 5-digit number.
—However, the one that brought about casualties of equal measure was also Minerva.
All the destructive energy from punching, kicking, biting and so on would be converted to healing
energy once expelled from her. This algorithm was the authority of WRATH, and thus only Minerva
was capable of preforming this. Even Echidna, who understood its construction, could not
reproduce it.
Minerva's healing attacks distanced every living creature from threatening threats. —In a sense her
authority seems supreme, but such thinking would be mistaken.
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The healing power triggered by Minerva's fists was the result of a coercive algorithm which twisted
karma, and required an immense mana cost for each strike. That mana requirement was not any
volume a single human could shoulder, and even for the witch Minerva and her magical groundings,
the load was impossible.
So where does she get the mana for her attacks? The answer is simple: she steals it from the nexus
of the world.
Ordinarily when people use magic, they inhale the mana in the atmosphere through their gates,
convert it into magical energy, and again release it through their gates to cast magic.
In Minerva's case the gate isn't the atmosphere, but a direct linkage to the core of the world. Said in
more complicated terms, the core of the world is a supernaturally great concentration of mana—call
it the place where mana is created.
Minerva's attacks withdraw mana from that, converting it into strikes of healing.
Through continued repetitions of this act, mana which should be provisioning someplace in the
world becomes unable to reach it. With a starvation of the mana which is important in constructing
the world, an extremely dangerous possibility spawns for these unsupplied regions to suffer natural
disaster and calamity.
The number of people Minerva had directly punched into health exceeded five digits.
—But the number of lives she had indirectly snuffed by bringing about natural disaster was on
equal par.
And so the WITCH OF WRATH Minerva was the witch most regarded as dangerous, and considered
an enemy by every nation.
Minerva: “When we're here, the only mana I can draw is the amount that Echidna has. I'm only able
to cure and heal up until you're basically run dry, which is so lame.”
Echidna: “There shouldn't be any reason for injured people to be happening here in the first place.
But with all the ruckus that's gone on here lately you could almost forget that.”
Minerva: “Right... yeah. There was a ruckus, for a little while.”
Minerva's energy fades, her loveable face sinking into obvious gloom as she looks up at the sky.
Minerva: “Do you think he'll do okay? I am soo worried.”
Echidna: “What would unmistakably go okay was my hand which he rejected. Regardless, he'll be
struggling frantically for everything to go well. Doesn't seem he can get the answer yet, though.”
Minerva: “What is that, that phrasing. You guided him so that he'd reject you, and then you're trying
to hide your feelings from us, when we know what you're really thinking? That's just pointless.”
Echidna: “It wasn't really that I was trying to be rejected. —Since whether he declined or accepted,
I would've been glad with either.”
Echidna seats herself at the regenerated table, clicking her fingers to produce a teacup, ferrying the
steaming thing to her mouth.
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Echidna: “I affirm choices, and the outcomes of those choices. I don't much think the particulars of
how that choice came about as a problem. The reality of having chosen, the reality of having not
chosen, those are what is important. Whether the outcome be bad or good, I can brag of my
dispositional ability to enjoy either.”
Daphne: “But that doesn't, mean you don't, have your pre-fer-en-ces.”
A black coffin leisurely comes to stand beside the tea-toting Echidna. Daphne has at some juncture
nested herself back inside the coffin, devouring the sweets on the table like a dog.
Daphne: “You say that you'll re-spect out-comes, but Idna-Idna wouldn't hes-i-tate to guide toward
an outcome that Idna-Idna wants to see. That you're glad with either is pro-ba-bly truth, but that
you're glad it was this I bet wouldn't be truth.”
Echidna: “You have so very little interest in others, and yet you still manage to hit to the point, don't
you, Daphne.”
Daphne: “Compared to the hunger con-stant-ly tormenting me, this just doesn't bear thinking. Haa,
haa, munchmunch.”
Daphne surpasses the just sweets as she winds up eating the plate too. Echidna sighs at her, then
turning her attention to the other witches as they start seating themselves at the remaining chairs.
Listlessly, plainly indignant, timidly—and one with an extraordinarily stern look in their eyes.
Echidna: “You do look angry, Typhon.”
Typhon: “'Cause you're not honest—Chidna. Not being honest—means you're a liar? And liars are
baddies? Chidna—you're a baddie?”
Echidna: “I act sincerely in accordance to what it is I want. Telling lies is something I have no
present recollection of doing.”
Echidna's roundabout phraseologies do not work on the young Typhon. Should Echidna get Typhon
in a bad mood, she knew that everyone present would consequently be in danger.
Condemning criminals and judging sinners amounted to nothing more than a fragment of Typhon's
authority of PRIDE.
But, seeing Typhon puff out her cheeks in assent with Echidna's mental tightrope walking, the next
one to speak is a witch buried in a ball of hair.
Sekhmet: “Hiding your real intentions while speaking—haa—makes what you're saying not a lie—
huu. Very convenient for you—haa.”
Camilla: “E-Echidna-chan... is, is really such... a huge, pain... i-isn't she...”
Echidna: “You two...”
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Echidna scrunches her face beneath the concentrated attack. In seeing it, the other witches smile.
The only one whose brows are still peaked low as they watch on is Minerva.
Sekhmet: Are you planning to be crotchety forever, Minerva? Of course we'd all be talking together.
You knew this'd happen if a sage candidate came...
Minerva: “Yeah I know, shut it. I'm saying I agree with having a real talk. Just, unlike you guys I'm
not in a position where I can rationalise about it. I'd like you to understand that.”
Daphne: For Met-Met who hangs out all the time with Ty-Ty, she wouldn't understand. Everyone
just spends way too much of their life on things that aren't eating.
Minerva and Sekhmet snort displeasedly at Daphne.

While the tea party between witches does preserves its kind of equilibrium, the attendants here are
still all people with egotistic dispositions. More often than not they fail to see eye-to-eye with each
other, and that the conversation turns into spats like this is nothing rare.
Notably Minerva, prone to jabbing out at anyone, and Sekhmet, who dislikes conflict, had more
than a few verbal skirmishes. Every time, Daphne would interrupt with her disregard to
conversational mores, hitting right to the heart of the mater. That the conversations would end like
this, without any real conclusion, was ordinary.
Minerva gets mad, Sekhmet entertains her conversation, Daphne comes in with teasing, Camilla
soothes Typhon so that she doesn't explode, Echidna watches on happily from aside—and Satella
watches over them, smiling at the safety of the six others.
Those were the days from four hundred years ago, never to come again.
Satella went mad from the witch factor, Minerva died insane in a trap, Camilla burned to nothing in
a great fire, Daphne wasted to death in a sea of sand, Typhon drowned in a flood, Sekhmet fell
down the Great Cascade as she decimated the Dragon, Echidna gathered their souls and yet remains
bound to the present world in soul only.
This was an imperfect reproduction of those forever-gone days.
Camilla: “Y-you look, sad... Echidna-chan. You look, very... sad.”
Echidna: “Hm? There's no reason at all for me to be sad. You're here, and I get my chances to
interact with the outside. —No necessity, at all.”
Camilla: “A-are, you... okay, with that? We're... w-we're just, souls, so... we're not, really us. We're...
mm, al-already... dead. There i-isn't, anyone... really with, you... Echidna-chan.”
Camilla's stuttering words strike Echidna momentarily silent.
319
—Echidna's power was what gave the witches, lost of their flesh and existing only as souls, their
temporary forms in the form of mental bodies.
Echidna prepares vessels, and houses the souls in there.

But the souls are frozen in the state they were when they died, with not a single change afterwards.
Was the Camilla Echidna was gazing at a visage that truly belonged to Camilla?
Drawing from their souls their pre-death reactions, manipulating their bodies to put on a show—
could this not some form of playing dolls, instigated by Echidna's desires?
The witches did share Echidna's knowledge.

And how to explain that if not with the statement that their existences were produced from inside
Echidna? —That said, this quandary was one Echidna had already thought to death countless times
over.
Echidna: “Bundle of narcissism that you are, regardless of you being my friend it's unusual for you
to be worried for me. ...Could his boisterousness and simpleness have influenced you, too?”
Camilla: “Au, gh... I don't, care, any more... Echida-chan you, idiot.”
Says Camilla, her expression disappointed, in response to Echidna distracting herself from her
feelings.
Echidna involuntarily clicks her throat as she laughs at Camilla's reply.
Echidna's attitude attracts the gazes of those witches who had not been paying her focus.
Showered in their attention, Echidna spreads her arms.
Echidna: “Now, I'm sure the tea party will go back to belonging only to witches for a while. His—
Natsuki Subaru's—trespass in this place likely won't be happening again.”
Minerva: “And you're okay with that? Not like I'm really worried about you being lonely, but you
did say that something at the end there. You're supposed to be really annoying about getting
compensation or whatever for that.”
Echidna: “Compensation... right, there was that. That was my parting gift for him and his
foreseeable tribulation. —If I told you such a thing, would you maybe laugh at me?”
Echidna puts her hand to her chin as she ponders. The other witches share a glance.
And the witches nod, all simultaneously opening their mouths to speak—
Witches: “—Nope.”
Echidna: “Goodness, more people have recognized goodness in me than I thought...”
Minerva: “After all, you getting no compensation and just helping for helping's sake would never
happen.”
Says Minerva with her arms crossed, to which the other witches nod.
320
Echidna closes her eyes at their consensus. She gives a cough.
Echidna: “My thought was I had incredibly many cases requiring of careful discussion with you all.
Truly, what is that you think of me?”
Witches: “—”
Echidna: “But, well.”
Before the silent witches, Echidna drinks dry her cup, her red tongue licking salaciously over her
lips.
Echidna: “—You're not wrong in the least.”
321
CHAPTER 80: ROUGH TONGUE

—Wakefulness comes with the touch of something rough stroking his cheek.
What Subaru feels as his consciousness bobs to the surface is an encompassing sense of lethargy.
His body is so sluggish he could suspect that his veins and arteries no longer run with blood, but
lead.
Subaru opens his mouth to inhale, when his dry and sticking lips tear with a sharp pain and the taste
of blood seeping into his oral cavity. Inside an utterly arid mouth, Subaru's tongue skulks about as it
seeks the liquid so known as blood.
The movements of his limbs are slow, his head feverish and working poorly.
He lacks even the strength to force open his eyelids, instead managing to get his eyes open by
rolling his heavy eyeballs.
Subaru: “...You.”
The moment colour enters his vision, Subaru sees as ebony of a different hue than the undersides of
his eyelids.
That moving thing exhales breaths scented with the smell characteristic to beasts, and had been
consolingly licking the sleeping Subaru.
A lustrous black body, with a slender, refined form. Although sharp, its reptilian eyes have a kind of
charm, and its knifelike fangs could send one to eternal rest with merely a single bite. From the
mouth hosting these fangs there extends the red tongue which had licked Subaru's cheek—which
belongs to Subaru's beloved steed, Patrasche.
Patrasche notices that the awakened Subaru has recognized her presence and sits down, stopping
with her licking as she waits for his words. This surprisingly dexterous dragon apparently can fold
her legs to seat herself.
Seeing Patrasche before him, and having something hard at his back supporting him, Subaru
realises that his posture is one with his legs splayed out straight over the ground. He tilts his head
back, to find that this object behind him is an overgrown, mossy stone wall, and that probably he
has just woken up in the vicinity of the tomb's entryway.
Subaru: “But I was inside... why'm, outside?”
The established precedent is that he wakes up from the dream castle to find himself inside the tomb.
If someone went in and pulled the unconscious Subaru outside then that's another story, but right
now the only two people who can enter the tomb in SANCTUARY are Emilia and Garfiel.
The concept that either one of them had dragged Subaru out lacks any real feeling of credibility.
Subaru: “That said, really doubt I crawled out myself, so who the...”
heck, is the word he goes to continue with, when the echo of a new voice interrupts him.
The cry comes from a silhouette running over from beyond Patrasche, trundling as it approaches,
out of breath.
3
???: “Hey! P-Patrasche-chan, hold... wait! Ahh, hwaah... I-if you perhaps run away, it'd would be a
disaster for m... huh?”
The grey-haired young man, Otto, comes to a stop with an expression of utmost relief as he sights
Patrasche. He gives a relieved sigh at Patrasche, then tilting his head as he notices Subaru beside.
Otto: “Well hello Natsuki-san. What is it you're doing out here?”
Subaru: “Can't you see, I'm moonbathing. More like what're you doing out here this late?
Depending how you answer, I'm shunting you over to Garfiel.”
Otto: “I don't know why you're presupposing that I've committed something improper, but my being
out here at this hour with my brow dripping in sweat isn't unrelated to you, Natsuki-san.”
Subaru jokes around in usual form to gloss matters over. Otto shrugs, shaking his head.
Subaru: “Not unrelated to me?”
Otto: “There seemed quite a ruckus, and so I go to the dragon stables to see what's happening,
where I find Patrasche-chan kicking up a great fuss. I wonder whether being kept pent in for several
days may have built up stress in her, and unlatch the gates thinking to take her out for a little stroll,
and... POW.”
Giving a great clap of his hands, Otto glares at the dignified Patrasche. Patrasche completely
ignores him as she continues staring at Subaru.
Otto: “She's disregarding me entirely, well though I mean that's fine. So, she thrusts me aside as she
bursts out of the stables. I was disoriented for some little while, but then I truly panicked as I
realised that if she escaped outside it would be catastrophic considering my standing, and now here
is where we are.”
Subaru: “And since she came to me, you're relaxed on that front.”
Otto: “Yes, that's correct. Natsuki-san, did you leave Patrasche-chan with some kind of
instructions?”
Subaru: “No leisure time for that. I didn't even hang out with her 'cept to give her her food...”
Otto: “If you hadn't then you may have worried her. Considering how she left in such an incredible
hurry.”
Subaru: “—”
Worry, is the word in Otto's mutter which plugs Subaru's throat and prevents him from voicing the
rebuttal on his tongue.
No way, is the thought which boils up as Subaru looks over his own body's condition in search of
the evidence. He immediately finds the aftermath.
4
At the right shoulder of his jacket, he discovers the faint depressions of teeth-marks and traces of
saliva. Subaru's back, too, is massively dirty with dust, as if he had been dragged.
Subaru: “Patrasche...”
Her round irises direct themselves toward Subaru.

Subaru unwittingly swallows his breath at the dragon, who waits in silence for her master's words.
Subaru: “Did you drag me out of the tomb?”
Of course there is no way Patrasche can answer back with words. But after recognizing the dirtiness
of his own body and looking at the dragon, Subaru notices that her black skin is flecked with
lacerations.
You can prepare tools to damage the hard, scaled hide of a ground dragon, but it would still be a
difficult task to achieve. To Subaru it seemed that those wounds had spawned from inside her.
—The tomb has powers to repel creatures who are unqualified to take the TRIAL.
Roswaal's wounds as he chillaxes in the recuperation hut had originated from this. Should
something unqualified tread inside, the tomb would bear its fangs at the snoop. Meaning,
Subaru: “Did, you seriously get yourself injured to pull me out?”
Subaru: “Why'd you, something so stupid... for me it's, I just wake up and walk outside like
whatever and then... well that's all. You didn't have to get so flustered about pulling me out that you
got wounded...”
The slices cut into Patrasche's hide are sharp enough that the red flesh beneath her black scales
shows through, and painful-looking enough that just seeing the blood oozing through makes Subaru
want to grimace.
Patrasche had brought Subaru outside to the point that she sustained these wounds—and plainly
said, the deed was pointless.
Failing to understand the motives behind Patrasche's actions, Subaru casts his gaze down as the
dragon brings her snout near. Subaru remains with his legs still sloppily splayed out as a hard, rough
texture nuzzles and nuzzles against the back of his neck.
The wordless mutual understanding Subaru believed they had occasionally achieved was in fact a
one-way road, and this relationship was entirely one of him being cared for in multiple contexts.
Subaru: “Otto.”
Otto: “Ah, what is it? You two look to be having a nice moment so I was thinking to leave so as not
to intrude, but...”
5
Subaru: “Can you, please ask Patrasche why she helped me?”
Otto has his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY, which means he should be able to converse with animals,
insects, and such other various lifeforms.
What was Patrasche thinking as she tried so hard to bring Subaru out that she got wounded? The
question behind the roots of her actions inevitably gives Subaru unease.
But Otto frowns at Subaru's request, his expression reluctant.
Otto: “Honestly speaking, I'm not especially inclined, Natsuki-san.”
Subaru: “Don't say that, just please.”
Otto: “Going from what I can conject from your mutterings to Patrasche-chan, Natsuki-san, you had
just been inside the tomb with its TRIAL? I had vaguely suspected from this noon that you're
qualified to take the TRIAL, but judging from the state you're in I'd suspect that you failed?”
Subaru: “...Yeah, you got it.”
The impact from his conversation with the witches had been too intense and his memory for this
had near faded, but in this loop Subaru had neglected to inform everyone that he had beaten the first
TRIAL. He had revealed the fact to Garfiel alone as an exception, from there entered the tomb and
underwent the second TRIAL, and then came the witches' tea party.
The TRIAL was not the entire reason for his being overwhelmed, but Subaru finds no reason to
correct Otto's misunderstanding and instead proceeds to simply nod.
Otto's shoulders slump as he gives an astonished sigh.
Otto: “I can imagine several reason why you did that, but... what you did was stupid, Natsuki-san.
Your time inside was severe, and as the finisher you worried your dragon, leading to this present
situation. Since Patrasche-chan possesses great intuition, she must have noticed that something had
happened to you. And so she blasted me out of the way and dashed to here... I'm sure her wounds
aren't unrelated, either.”
Subaru: “—”
Otto follows down the same path that Subaru's imaginings had to reach this conclusion.
Subaru's figured out this much. The problem at hand is why did Patrasche go so far for him. Which
is what he'd like to get Otto to ask her.
Otto: “What is that, that look. You mean, you were actually serious about what you were saying
before?”
Subaru: “How about we flip this, you seriously think I look like I'm in a state to be joking?”
Otto: “My feeling is that you have the pluck to tell terrible jokes even when you're worn ragged,
Natsuki-san, and in this situation I would be more driven to mirth were I told it was in jest. —You
6
truly don't understand?”
Before Subaru can counter Otto's low-voiced question, he finds himself overwhelmed beneath
Otto's gaze.
Otto is looking down at Subaru in disbelief, or more bluntly said Otto is looking at Subaru as if he
were an idiot. So, Subaru had made some preposterous oversight somewhere here, or something?
But Subaru hits on no ideas as he fidgets, coming up with only confusion as he furrows his brows.
Sweat rises on his forehead from his being flustered, but not a single idea rises in his thoughts.
Otto gives his second sigh.
Otto: “My blessing isn't as faultless as you believe it is, Natsuki-san. While mutual communication
is possible, that does not mean that it does translations. What they're saying does convey to me
clearly, but if I'm to act as an intermediary to convey it to someone else, there's a tricky problem of
nuance.”
Subaru: “—”
Otto: “That look is saying 'whatever do it anyway'. Well I'll do it, but... I really wonder if there's any
point, in this.”
Mutters Otto in dissatisfaction as he nevertheless heeds Subaru's request.

Otto approaches Patrasche who remains with her snout nuzzling Subaru, Otto gently stroking her
black back.
Otto: <—>
The sound that launches out of Otto's open mouth is a noise rasping and shrill.
This cry, inconceivable of being any human speech, was the consequence of his BLESSING OF
XENOGLOSSY operating to convert his voice into a more appropriate form for communication with
ground dragons.
Patrasche raises her head and answers Otto in an identical type of keen. Hearing this, Otto opens his
mouth again and so goes the conversation of dinosaur noises.
Otto: “That would be the end, but... hrm, it really is difficult to find the proper wording to
communicate this. Her manner of emotional expression differs from a human's too, so how am I
best to explain information only I can understand...”
Subaru: “Stop teasing. I'm begging, please tell me.”
Otto: “It isn't that I'm trying to tease, but.... augh, this really is problematic! Or actually,
communicating this honestly requires an incredibly weird fastidiousness.”
Scratching his head, Otto looks up countless times as he deliberates, otherwise hanging his head as
he mulls it over, and about at the time where Subaru starts to get restless and fidgety, Otto sighs.
Otto: “Right, here it is. I've chosen the words that, probably, are the closet I can figure.”
7
Subaru: “Right... and Patrasche was?”
Otto: “Ermm, SURELY YOU WOULDN'T MAKE ME SAY IT, is about what I have.”
Otto scratches at his cheek embarrassedly as he speaks. Subaru's eyes widen.

He proceeds to wait to see if Otto will say anything else, but it doesn't seem any more words are
coming. Seeing the stunned Subaru,
Otto: “Patrasche-chan said SURELY YOU WOULDN'T MAKE ME SAY IT. My opinion on it would be
'well yeah sounds about right'.”
Subaru: “DON'T MAKE ME SAY IT... what's that...”
Otto: “Call it what or how, I'd say it means what it means. If I'm to supplement with my personal
opinion, it would be: you truly need to be told before you can understand this?”
Seeing Subaru's confusion intensify, Otto raises his finger.
Otto: “Listening?”
Otto: “Regardless your awareness of whether they're in a predicament, when you cannot bear to sit
still and go soaring out, paying no reluctance to the fact you may be wounded as you offer your
help, then stay constantly by their side until their awakening, and once they do wake you give them
a relieved, relaxed smile—my thoughts are that someone who does such a thing would be thinking
identically whether they're a dragon or human.”
Subaru: “Auh—”
Otto: “Which means that you wouldn't have to be Patrasche-chan for this to be a DON'T MAKE ME
SAY IT. Not noticing it when her attitude expresses it so notably is incredibly daft. You're truly in
bliss.”
Hearing Otto's rather astonished question, Subaru recognizes the degree of his own stupidity.
Subaru looks at the yet-near Patrasche, to find her staring at Subaru with her consistently calm gaze.
Perhaps noticing the change in Subaru's mental state, she rocks her long tail as she stands up.
Patrasche again draws her snout near. Subaru's hand naturally moves to pat it.
As his palm strokes her hard, craggy hide, Subaru's voice shakes.
Subaru: “Ri, ght.. you, like me.”
Subaru: “You love me, and that's why you're, here for me.”
8
Something jammed in his heart drops with a thunk.

Patrasche growls in reply, violently rasping her snout against Subaru's palm in an attempt to conceal
her embarrassment. Scrunching his brows at the feeling of his scraped skin, Subaru goes to open his
mouth—
Subaru: “Oeu, awuh...”
Otto: “Natsuki-san?”
A droplet of heat falls to Subaru's cheek.

A teardrop. At some point the stuff which abruptly welled up had overflowed. He hurriedly puts his
hand to his cheek to wipe it away, but it's too late to hide. Otto saw it.
Otto: “Crying because you recognized your dragon is attached to you, Natsuki-san this...”
Subaru: “Nnuh, I... that's not, what this is... just, the timing lined up too godadmn well, and...
fucking, just when it didn't really feel that real, suddenly the answer just comes fucking flying in my
mental preparations weren't...”
The nigh-unfair timeliness of this development leads more of the stuff to well up, which Subaru
frantically restrains.
Back at the tea party, Subaru had awakened to his true feelings of not wanting to die. As well as to
his greed of, on the same par that he desired to protect those precious to him, he desired to exist
alongside those precious ones.
Did he have the merit in him for his precious ones to value him? This particular thought was more
difficult to acknowledge, and so Subaru had just pledged to verify whether it was true.
And now, Patrasche's uncompensated loyalty.

Having his stunt pulled on him before he could do anything. What the heck is he meant to do?
The answer to what Subaru had agonized over, wondering what he should do, Patrasche had ferried
in alongside his awakening.
For Patrasche at the very least, Subaru was a presence which conferred great enough influence that
she, if having realised that he was having a nightmare, would desire to drag him outside even if it
meant herself being wounded.
Subaru: “Didn't think I'd be getting the lesson from you. —Thank you, Patrasche.”
Answering to the loyalty directed at him, Subaru too fills his strokes with emotion as he pats
Patrasche. Patrasche resolutely stretches out her neck as she stands still, savouring the sensation of
his palm. That said, the swaying of her tail casually expresses her good spirits.
Otto: “Now that you've again recognized your bond with Patrasche-chan, Natsuki-san are you all
right?”
Subaru: “Yeah, that helped a ton, thank you. ...am I alright?”
9
Otto: “I mean as in physically or mentally. The TRIAL must've been quite the tuckerer, yes? You're at
the point where you're crying from lonesomeness, and Emilia-sama had been in an identical state.”
While Subaru would like to refute Otto's bantering, that he's grasped his weakness is unmistakable
and so he refrains from alluding to it. Subaru instead considers Emilia's condition.
Subaru: “Easy, is what it isn't. But I think it's better for me to do it than Emilia. But nevermind all
that, so even you're worried about me... could it be that you love me too?”
Otto: “Could you please keep from saying anything repulsive!? What is this, lonesomeness surely
must have some line to leave uncrossed. Patrasche alone wasn't enough to satisfy you, and now
you're in the mood to ask that question of everyone you meet?”
Subaru: “Can't I? Honestly right now I'm on the periphery of being able or not able to give myself
validation, so I'd like to get even one more encouraging missive.”
Otto: “Right right, excellent that your usual gab is back. ...My worries for you were entirely
resultant from my forethought to our ongoing relations. I would ask that you please don't
misunderstand.”
His expression displeased as he hears Subaru's forcastual announcing of his incoming eccentricity,
Otto holds his arms out at Subaru as he makes his assertion.
Forethought to our relations, was some incredibly showy talk, but for an Otto who wished to clearly
maintain the standing of a merchant it was probably a necessary statement.
Otto: “My acquaintance with you, Natsuki-san, is because I would like to preserve cordial relations
with Margrave Mathers. Should some problem arise on that front, and more essentially should it
appear that I myself will be faced with peril, I will be taking a zippy and ramshackle escape. I
would appreciate for you to remember that.”
Call it unfeeling and it's a pretty unfeeling statement, but what Otto's talking about should less be
called severe and more be called a tacit agreement. That Otto goes out of the way to voice it is a
demonstration of Otto's being a good person, late as it is to mention that.
Subaru: “Right, yeah. You... or, no.”
Accepting Otto' realist remark, Subaru moves to nod—and stops.

An awriness skims through Subaru's mind. He reaches the solution instantly, giving a breathy sigh.
Otto: “...What is it?”
Subaru: “Just remembered. Yeah, remembered. Remembered.”
Nodding several times to a sceptical Otto, Subaru puts his hand to his head as he looks to the sky.
Subaru and Otto had operated together multiple times during these loops in SANCTUARY. And every
time, Subaru saw it.
And so,
10
Subaru: “You get in danger, and you're zipping off ramshackle... huh.”
Otto: “Yes, indeed. That I'd do so is natural. There's no reason for me to extend such service for
you, Natsuki-san, or whoever else. As they say, always life for a living man...”
Subaru: “You wouldn't run.”
Otto: “—Weh?”
Otto attempts in frivolous tone to take a realist's air, when Subaru mutters.
Otto's eyes widen. Subaru looks him straight-on.
Subaru: “—You wouldn't leave me and run, Otto.”
Otto had snuck into the hidden building of a violence-ready Garfiel, to rescue Subaru.
Otto had fought alongside the villagers, halting transformed Garfiel, to protect Subaru.
Though he speaks lines and lines of heartless words, acting like a bad person, Subaru knows that he
isn't.
Subaru: “Because, Otto. —You're my friend.”
11
CHAPTER 81: GLIMMER OF HOPE

Having gotten that pep talk from Otto and Patrasche, Subaru is for the moment saved from his
mental turmoil.
There's still lots of things about the events in the dream castle that he hasn't swallowed down yet,
but he nevertheless needs to work them out one-by-one and use them as his encouragement.
Subaru: “Not gonna be getting any more help from Echidna now...”
The WITCH OF GREED Echidna had worn a friendly veneer as she observed Subaru's struggling.
Considering their final exchange, Subaru would prefer to doubt that comprised the absolute entirety
of it, but a witch is a witch and they don't stray from their principles.
Subaru had keenly realised such by seeing the other five witches—Sekhmet, Daphne, Camilla,
Typhon, and Minerva. From Subaru's perspective they were assuredly not beings entirely suffused
in evil. However, under no circumstance would he call them virtuous creatures.
And that went even for Minerva, whose creed was to heal people. Her attitude as she threw
everything into healing another, despite having lost her legs and arm, was really less 'dignified' and
more 'horrific'.
And the final witch, Satella—Really, Subaru would prefer to put thinking about her off for later.
The incomprehensible emotions which boiled up from inside Subaru in response to Satella. Finding
the answer behind these, what with his present crunch-time situation, Subaru instinctively
understands as dangerous.
The final words they shared at their parting. And the Satella he saw then—just by remembering her
figure in that moment, crazed emotion rips at his chest from inside, near to destroying it.
Thus while consciously avoiding thinking about Satella, Subaru directs his thoughts to other issues.
Those being, the advice Echidna had given him at the end, and whether or not he should accept what
Satella said wholesale.
Subaru: “Treat yourself dearly, I mean it's fine saying it, but...”
By meeting with Satella and encountering the first and second TRIALS in the tomb, Subaru learned
that the people he desired not to die equally would grieve over Subaru's DEATH. —He wound up
acknowledging his true feelings that he did not want to die.
But that said, now what to do? Nothing has changed about his weapons on-hand being paltry.
Nothing has changed about the over-abundant problems which remain unsolved. Or hell, the
number of people he has to rely on for solving these problems has actually decreased.
While his heart has been somewhat renewed, everything else has degraded rather than advanced.
Subaru: “Rely on those who think dearly of you... but how am I supposed to do that....”
Just be frank with the truth and ask them for help, is probably what it meant.
But the one banning him from doing this is none other than Satella—or actually, going from the
flow of the conversation in the dream, the one prohibiting Subaru from talking about RETURN BY
DEATH may be the Witch of Envy personality. Satella had different ideas than the split personality,
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maybe. And the meaning of her final call to him was—
Subaru: “—I goddamn said this isn't the time to be thinking about this.”
Noticing that his thoughts are flowing down into thinking about Satella, Subaru hoists the breaks.
What he needs to do is divine and consider concrete plans for resolving the various problems.
Subaru: “Garfiel's scared of the outside world... huh.”
This was Echidna's final piece of advice, and likely necessary information for breaking through this
entire situation.
Garfiel had already practically confessed that he had taken the first TRIAL, and Echidna's statement
backed that up.
The problem is, what did he see in his past that made him scared of the outside world?
That he refrained to leave SANCTUARY alongside Frederica was probably not unrelated to this
trauma. Subaru doubts this problem is one Garfiel will openly divulge if asked upfront.
Subaru: “Which means all that's left's to get it out of someone who'd know... Frederica and Lewes-
san both felt tight-lipped about it before...”
If he's to trust Frederica's telling, then she was unable to follow Garfiel into the tomb, and
consequently she would not know the details of the TRIAL. On the flipside, being that Lewes had
rushed inside to drag Garfiel out, it's probably safe to think that at least one of the doubles has taken
the TRIAL. Likely, she would also know the details of Garfiel's TRIAL.
Subaru: “And so... don't really wanna do it, but, reliable plan'd be to get the command right from the
Lewes Meyer crystal, and ask her to tell me.”
Not even the main Lewes personalities can defy someone with the command right. There is
coercive potential here.
To take this action has more value than just information gathering, as he would procure over 20
collaborators. Is the logic Subaru uses to try and persuade himself.
Subaru: “—”
What arises in Subaru's mind is SANCTUARY, burning, and a horde of white rabbits. A wretched
memory, of urging the Lewes doubles one after another to protect him so that he could escape.
I must run to Emilia. Subaru used this statement as his justifiable duty as mindlessly gave the Lewes
orders, and albeit covered in wounds, he managed to sprint into the tomb.
While he hadn't reflected on or regretted his actions, now that he looks back at it with a cool head,
the rashness of the deed horrifies even him.
And especially now that he has realised his own piteousness of not wanting to die.
Could he not with more arrogance, with more candour, have made the girls sacrifice themselves?
He could not fully trust himself, even though he would prefer not to do such a thing.
Subaru: “My head's a mess... I'm going way too far in a negative way, shit. I'm thinking all about
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this and that and this and my brain's gonna exceed capacity. Let's start by one-by-one eliminating
the things I can eliminate.”
Subaru starts by searching for a problem which seems liable to go in a positive direction.
Subaru: “Having finished the first TRIAL, I should be the one to free SANCTUARY. There's no need
for Emilia to shoulder any greater load. Or actually, since putting Emilia under too much pressure
means her mental state goes something awful it's a no go.”
Subaru thinks back on Emilia, drawing near to him sweetly in the snowed-over SANCTUARY.
It's obvious that Emilia turning out like that resulted from her mind snapping as she continuously
challenged the TRIAL. Making her continually face the TRIAL would lead to no good result.
Subaru: “We'll make clearing the TRIAL my problem, and... next point of bother's the second TRIAL.
Held in there a while, but... with all that, does that mean I've already cleared it?”
For anyone other that Subaru, the uncomeatable present might just be simple observation of parallel
worlds. But for Subaru alone did the TRIAL truly bear its fangs.
With varied regrets, resulting from various tragedies, variable laments had mourned Subaru's death.
Experiencing it all with these eyes, this skin, had shattered Subaru's heart and mind to pieces.
Remembering it sends chills running through his body, and besets his limbs with unavoidable
numbness.
It was just when he squatted down, swallowed by the shrieking of his heart, that he was dragged
into the dream castle—but what wound up happening with the actual TRIAL?
He's cleared it—is not the situation he is in.

But then what should he do to clear the second TRIAL? Unlike with the first TRIAL, he can't figure it
out at all.
Subaru: “Mulling over it won't get me anywhere. ...I just have to do the things I can do.”
Shaking his head, Subaru forces his indecisive heart back up straight. As he puts his hand to the
tomb wall at his back, his glare lands on the entrance to darkness.
Subaru had been alone as he thought matters over, with neither Patrasche nor Otto at his side.
That last exchange had stupid-embarrassed him and he had gotten Otto to take Patrasche back to the
stables. Although Patrasche's maintained and concerned gaze was a grace, he wanted some time
alone to sort out his thoughts.
Subaru: “The issues that need sorting out are SANCTUARY and the mansion. In SANCTUARY is the
TRIAL, Garfiel, and the Sizeable Hare. In the mansion is Beatrice and Elsa... going over the limit for
multitasking, here.”
Subaru has not a single plan for resolving any one of these ordeals as he falls into dejection. But, he
has no time to be depressed. Now is to steadily eliminate these problems one by one.
Without thinking about throwaway lives, or other such things.
14
Subaru: “First is to confirm the status of the TRIAL. If the second TRIAL starts then that's okay, if it's
ended and the third TRIAL starts then that's okayer.”
If he can speed up the removal of the barrier then that will greatly spur everything to action. Garfiel
will have to start thinking about how he'll act as well, and worst case even supposing the Sizeable
Hare attacks, they should be capable of escaping outside. It's pretty inconceivable that even Garfiel
would persist in stubbornness when faced with the Sizeable Hare.
Removing the barrier would make SANCTUARY's problems start heading toward resolution.
Thinking that far, Subaru sees a faint glimmer of hope arising before him, and so comes relief.
He had mused over the many problems roiling his brain, and now he saw something which seemed
a route for reaching the answer.
Subaru: “—”
Standing at the entrance to the tomb, Subaru swallows his breath as he looks through the dim, at the
stonework corridor.
If he goes inside and the TRIAL starts, he may be faced with the uncomeatable present again. Subaru
would never get used to those scenes, no matter how many times he saw them.
But he knew he was not permitted to either ignore or forget them.
And so if he cannot avoid them, then he must challenge.
Subaru takes a deep inhale, holds his breath, and steps forth.
Treading into the tomb, he wills to challenge the TRIAL for the sake of freeing SANC—
Subaru: “—!?”
The moment he steps inside, a jolt rocks Subaru like a punch to the skull.
The pain is like needles stabbing directly into his brain, his footing falling unsteady, lights
scattering about his vision. His upper body sways languorously as he is unable to stand, and he
collapses on the spot.
A tremendous nausea seethes up, a churning pain assaults his stomach as he chokes on acid. He
coughs, but no matter how he repeats so his body fails to get any more eased.
The alarm bells, the bells, the sirens are ringing.
With his body caught in ongoing discord and disharmony, Subaru pants as he tumbles toward the
tomb's exit. And he instinctively senses. Should he step inside, proceed in further, the wickedness
tormenting his body would increase in ferocity.
Subaru: “Ghb, ghkk, haah, bahgh, uehgh”
Tumbled out of the tomb, Subaru puts his hand to the grass as he pukes, pukes, and pukes.
The moment that his body completely exits the tomb, the agony tormenting Subaru fades distant.
The headache, the nausea, the numbness in his limbs all thin out. Subaru raises his head with his
15
eyes teary.
Subaru: “Aeu, uhg, what was, that?”
Subaru looks at the tomb entrance. Just as he reaches out to crawl toward it, a primordial rejection
festers up from inside him.
This was no great problem such as trauma due to fearing the TRIAL's content. —It was that he
plainly understood that the tomb was rejecting him.
Subaru: “What, is...”
Rejecting him. In realising this, Subaru immediately figures what has happened to him.
Patrasche had been wounded as she went inside to pull Subaru out. Roswaal had been wounded as
he entered the tomb in an attempt to challenge the TRIAL. The tomb rejects creatures which lack the
qualifications to challenge the TRIAL. Supposing that that effect had just activated on Subaru...
Subaru: “That shouldn't be... I mean, then that...”
Standing up, Subaru challenges the tomb with tottering gait and determination.
But the instant he steps inside the headache and nausea return. Overwhelming ailment keeps Subaru
from even standing, crushing him.
Subaru: “Haah... haahh... hahh...”
Stepping back, Subaru takes ragged breaths as he distances himself from the tomb entrance. This
last attempt has forced Subaru to accept the truth that he had already comprehended.
Subaru: “That, asshole...”
What skims through Subaru's mind is a white-haired witch in a mourning dress.

At their parting, she had indeed asked this of Subaru:
Will you choose to take my hand, or to take Satella's?

Subaru had gone without taking Echidna's hand, instead taking Satella's.
If this was her revenge for Subaru's actions, then that was incredibly—
Subaru: “And that glimmer of hope is..!”
And it came at the end of the end, just when he had believed she had given him a hint wholly out of
goodwill, and accordingly thought kinder of her.
Echidna: <—You're not wrong in the least.>
Hearing the mischievous voice of a witch he should not be hearing, Subaru looks up to the night
sky.
Subaru: “Revoking my qualifications... you said nothing about this, ECHIDNAAA!!”
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—Natsuki Subaru had lost the qualifications to challenge the TRIAL to free SANCTUARY.
17
CHAPTER 82: A CON-VERSATION

Subaru: “So no, it wasn't my imagination or any kind of mistake...”
Touching his hand to the crystal before him, sensing no signs of anything happening, Subaru
presses his forehead to the cold, hard jewel as he gives a lamenting sigh.
The girl sleeping inside the crystal—the original Lewes Meyer—gives no reaction to Subaru's
laments. While the girl in her eternal sleep ideally would give no reply to Subaru's call, a reaction
which should be coming plainly isn't.
That being,
Subaru: “My qualifications've been disqualified, so even if I touch the crystal, the command right
for the Lewes-san doubles isn't transferring to me...”
The command right for the Lewes Meyer doubles was a privilege that only APOSTLES OF GREED
could acquire.
Subaru, who had been rejected by Echidna and had his qualifications revoked, apparently did not
deserve to be in that role.
Standing inside the test facility with its dingy air, Subaru finds himself lost on what to do as the
glimmer of hope he saw now fades.
Worst case, and truly worst case, the trauma Subaru experienced from witnessing the second TRIAL
had made him hesitate to tread inside the tomb. Should this be the case, then the problem here is
entirely Subaru's mental state. But should he take drastic measures to challenge the tomb over and
over, eventually he would manage to strongarm his weak heart into it.
But if the problem lies outside of Subaru's workable reach, it's nothing going.
That he cannot enter the tomb whenever he wants also means that he cannot speak directly with
Echidna for regaining his qualifications.
And before getting to that, would the witches appear before Subaru again, considering their last
parting? Probably not, was his instinctive understanding.
That he understands this means that the plan of Subaru conquering the TRIAL has disappeared, and
freeing SANCTUARY must be entrusted to someone other than Subaru.
Meaning,
Subaru: “Saying to put Emilia through it... I think?”
Voicing the predicament he was most afraid of, a desire to shower Echidna's insidiousness with
curses wells up inside Subaru.
Echidna could read Subaru's memories. Only Echidna could observe these repeating worlds the
same way that Subaru did. And so Echidna should know of Emilia, her mind broken from repeated
solo challenges of the TRIAL, crushed.
Echidna should have known how he was frantic himself, desperately trying to avoid that outcome.
Regardless, then, the WITCH OF GREED was forcing hardship on Subaru and Emilia.
Subaru: “What do I do, what do I do, whatdoidowhatdoIdowhaddaIdowhat...”
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Thoughts blazing, Subaru forces his mind to solder as he searches for a plan. But even though he
overtaxes his braincells to the point that his synapses scorch, following the loss of his glimmer of
hope he finds no plan B.
The situation is on a one-way road to worsening, and the people he has to rely on have only reduced
in number.
A character, who knows the situation and thus understands enough to listen pleasantly to Subaru's
words.
A somebody, who would accept the information Subaru could not be upfront about, and still
participate in conversation.
Mulling over things alone wouldn't result in anything. Echidna could not be relied on anymore.
Meaning that now, there was only one person who Subaru could share his problems with.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Roswaal: “Iiiiiiii certainly didn't expect for you to be visiting so late aaaaaaat night.”
Subaru: “...Really, this all-preparations-set vibe feels more like you were waiting. Not like you
snuffed the lights to sleep, feels more you just lit the flame.”
Roswaal: “Ahaaaa, how haaaaaarsh. But, well, yooooooou're not wrong in the slightest.”
Leaned against his pillow as he uprights himself in the bed, Roswaal's cheeks relax as he welcomes
Subaru. While most of the lights in Roswaal's bedroom have been snuffed, the flame of the candle
of his little bedside table has just been changed, its amber light swaying as it illuminates the room.
The shade of the entrancing, wavering fire casts an eerie shadow over Roswaal's pallid face. Subaru
swallows his breath as he gets to facing the conversation.
Should Subaru's knowledge be correct, then a conversation with Roswaal would—
Roswaal: “Aaaaaaand so? You've purposefully come prowling here in the dead of night. Haaaaaave
you perhaps come with some flirtation tooooo coax my attentions?”
Subaru: “...Coax you, isn't incorrect. Roswaal, is there a way to get through SANCTUARY without
doing the TRIAL?”
Roswaal: “—”
With that one sentence alone, Roswaal's smile wreathes with a disgusting chill.
The clown's grin stretches wide. He strokes his navy hair as he nods several times, gazing at Subaru
with his yellow eye.
Roswaal: “Subaru-kun. —What attempt are you currently on?”
19
That question was a conversation-controller, stating that they were both aware of the superficial
layer of what the other knew.
It would give Roswaal the truth that Subaru was Returning by Death, and give Subaru the truth that
Roswaal was in a position to know this.
Subaru thus must present concessions, while amending Roswaal's information.
With a short sigh, Subaru gives a purposefully emphasized shrug.
Subaru: “Sorry, but it's at a point where counting'd be idiotic. I can't remember how many times
we've probed each other out like this, either.”
Roswaal: “I... see. Uuuuuunderstood, uuuuuunderstod. That you're speaking with these
rationalizations.... wooooould mean I'm free to think it's that, coooooorrect?”
Subaru: “Well, who could say.”
Subaru averts his gaze, toying cat and mouse with Roswaal.
But he does not overlook how his words have led Roswaal's cheeks to stiffen. Or the fact that he has
seized the initiative of the conversation with this opening move.
—While Roswaal may know that Subaru is looping, that does not mean he retains memories of the
loops like Subaru does.
Subaru learned that fact in the loop where Roswaal revealed he knew about RETURN BY DEATH. It
was also where he learned of Roswaal's incomprehensible tenacity, where while understanding that
he himself would end with death, he attempted to use Subaru's RETURN BY DEATH to lead to his
desired outcome.
Even now Subaru inevitably feels Roswaal's thinking disgusting and odious, but—
Subaru: “Right now in the middle of some trial and error. Kinda wanting your cooperation.”
Subaru came up with the idea to put on a performance, so that Roswaal would mistakenly believe
that Subaru was acting as Roswaal intended.
Presently, Roswaal unmistakably knows more of SANCTUARY's affairs than Subaru. It's unclear how
much Roswaal's GOSPEL documents what will happen next, and so it's hard to iron everything out,
but considering Roswaal's mutterings when he sighted the Sizeable Hare, it's surmisable that the
gospel's writ had not been detailed to that extent.
Meaning, so long as he does not screw up with his word choice, Subaru can definitely extract
information from Roswaal while simultaneously deceiving him.
Roswaal: “And part of that trial and error is overcoming SANCTUARY without challenging the
TRIAL... is it? Iiiiiiiif so, that is raaaaaaaather faint-hearted. With your authority, consequent to your
infinite attempts it should be possible for you to overcome hardships without fail. I don't know how
many times you have attempted... but abandoning it aaaaaaand searching for another method would
surely suggest an iiiiiinsufficent resolve?”
20
Subaru: “Getting inflexible and picky about everything resting on beating the TRIAL isn't what I'd
call a sharp way to do things. If there's a smoother method I'll pick that, that's all. Losing sight of
substance 'cause you're fussing over style's idiotic. Point is the necessary stuff's that we escape from
this place and the achievements go to Emilia... am I wrong, Roswaal?”
While maintaining a calm and indifferent face, Subaru scrutinizes his statements word-by-word in
real time to ensure he's making no mistakes. He checks everything the moment before it comes off
his tongue, his tale-spinning operations whittling away at his nerves—but this mental fraying is
necessary for deceiving Roswaal.
The logic he speaks is heartless—most likely, this is exactly the Subaru that Roswaal wants to see.
There's no doubt that Roswaal wants Emilia to be Ruler, and for Subaru to be helping in that.
Subaru reckons that the more callous his methods are, the more Roswaal would deem them
desirable.
And, sure enough,
Roswaal: “Iiiiiiii see... that is indeed an answer tooooo my liking.”
Roswaal smiles in full satisfaction to Subaru's reply.

Subaru bites the inside of his cheek as he sees the foulness of that clown-painted visage intensify,
barely managing to preserve his nonchalant expression.
Roswaal's disturbing gaze suggests that he had deemed Subaru of the same breed as him. Meaning
that Roswaal had judged Subaru as being in the same standing as his own grade-A
incomprehensible self. —The visceral disgust inside Subaru festers.
Roswaal: “Whiiiiiile I certainly find the changes in your thinking wonderful, aaaaaaaaaanswering
your question is rather difficult. There are no precedents. After all, the barrier has never been broken
since its establishment. I've never considered whether there may be tears in it, since considering the
being who placed it, it would be best to abandon aaaaaaaall optimistic hopes for such oversights.”
Subaru: “It's Echidna's barrier...”
Roswaal: “Eeeeeeexactly. SANCTUARY's cemetery is her gravestone, with the barrier being
something to prevent the half-bloods she used pre-death in her experiments from escaping.
...Aaaaaaaalthough I'm sure you would have aaaaaaaalready investigated into this much.”
Subaru: “Well, course. Just saying, I know about the Lewes Meyer facility in the woods, too. And
about the doubles, and that Garfiel has the command right.”
Roswaal: “Aahaaaaaa, that dooooooes speed matters up.”
Subaru responds to Roswaal's showing of information by carefully revealing his own cards.
Roswaal closes his eyes, sighing in thought.
Roswaal: “The liberation of SANCTUARY is an indispensable achievement for Emilia-sama to be

Ruler. Should you stray from proper methods, theeeeeee people of SANCTUARY and the people of
Arlam Village will not be apt to consider it one.”
21
Subaru: “So long as we can at least get them outside, we've got lots of ways we can fudge that part
over. And besides this isn't the only chance we have to reap achievements. Judging this opportunity
as bad and standing by for another one'd be...”
Roswaal: “Another opportunity? Why are you back tooooooo saying this?”
Roswaal's eyes widen in bewilderment as Subaru senses his gaffe.

A Subaru resolved to scour himself away as he completes countless redos—was the Subaru that
Subaru was presently preforming.
With that Subaru's bloodthirsty thinking, he would have no reason to pass up the chance to attain
the achievements sitting right in front of him.
Before Roswaal's doubts can develop further, and without letting his regret show on his expression,
Subaru comes up with words.
Subaru: “Just try thinking about it.”
Subaru: “As you've realised, I can toil in efforts to make Emilia Ruler to any degree I want. Because
I can do rehearsals of the future to come back with information. Dunno how this'll sound but,
freeing SANCTUARY's a tiny event with few people involved. We should be putting our efforts into
things like the White Whale or the Witch Cult, stuff that'll have a greater impact. —This isn't a
place meriting that I put in that much effort.”
Roswaal: “...Noooooo, liberating SANCTUARY is indispensable. Allow me to set that as a point

beyond compromise. You see, I still inevitably have my doubts when it cooooooomes to your
power.”
Subaru: “Doubts?”
Subaru tilts his head as the conversation flows in an unanticipated direction. Roswaal nods.
Roswaal: “Indeed.”
Roswaal: “Iiiiiiiii cannot with my own eyes affirm your authority to redo. Iiiiiiit's also possible that
I'm not coooooonvinced by your wheedling. Though naaaaaaturally, should results come about
alongside I'm afraid I wooooooould be forced to acquiesce.”
Roswaal: “I will plainly assert that for making Emilia-sama the Ruler, my power... the aid of the
Mathers Family is necessary and iiiiiiiiindespensible. Liberating SANCTUARY would be what makes
me believe your power to assist Emilia-sama is legitimate, and from there we would be tied in a
positive relationship.... iiiiiis about how I would preeeeeeefer you to regard this.”
Is Roswaal's sound logic as he narrows his eyes. Subaru is speechless.

Everything Roswaal is saying is valid, and Subaru can think of no real rebuttal.
22
Emilia requires a backer for her stand the theatre of the Royal Selection, and there is no one
influential around except Roswaal who seems liable to do that.
Following commands so as not to displease your patron is correct. With the soundness of Roswaal's
views and the urgency of the situation, it's excessively correct.
But even while jostled by those waves of reason, Subaru feels an unease.
Because Roswaal seems far too fixated on the liberation of SANCTUARY itself.
Subaru: “I kinda think this's changing track of the conversation, but...”
Roswaal: “Hm? Yeeeeees?”
Subaru raises his finger to draw attention. Roswaal tilts his head.
Focusing firm on Roswaal's odd-coloured eyes, Subaru speaks.
Subaru: “Is there a reason for you to unconditionally want SANCTUARY freed?”
Roswaal: “—”
Roswaal responds to the question with simple silence.

Silence, as his grin slowly deepens, and his yellow eye's gaze pierces Subaru.
—Subaru senses on his skin that once again, the situation's mood is changing.
23
CHAPTER 83: MUTUAL CONFESSIONS

Feeling the prickling pressure on his skin, Subaru understands that his statement has touched on the
core of Roswaal's motives.
Roswaal's smile now was the same breed of grin that he had given before being devoured by hares
in the snow, as he revealed a portion of his plans.
Roswaal: “Noooooooow why is it you think that?”
Although late, Roswaal's obfuscations show no desire to move the conversation forward. Subaru
clicks his tongue.
Subaru: “Say why or say whatever,”
Subaru: “It's cause the way you're turning down my proposal doesn't feel sincere. When you throw
on a condition right at the start that freeing SANCTUARY's required, of course I'm gonna suspect
something.”
Roswaal: “Which is why I believe I followed on the subject with a logical eeeeeeeeexplanation.
Further, it is also essential that I receive proof for our henceforth collaborations. Emilia-sama's
persistent foundation and aid—that being, you and your guidance to the most appropriate solutions
standing at her side. It is in this that I want you to make me believe. The requirement for that is
liberating SANCTUARY.”
Subaru: “But my thinking's that it doesn't have to be liberation, whatever methods to escape from
here'd be fine. If you're looking for chances for me to prove myself, we can prepare lots of
opportunities for it later, and...”
Roswaal: “Actually I would like to ask you.”
In rebuttal to Subaru, Roswaal raises a finger. Subaru, interrupted, falls silent as Roswaal gives a
collected nod.
Roswaal: “You dooooooo seem dreadfully timid aaaaaaabout the TRIAL. Almost as if there is some
reason in it for you to not desire to free SANCTUARY?”
Subaru: “Like hell I don't want to! I wanna get this barrier open fast and drag the problems
unsolvable inside to the outside... but.”
Roswaal: “But?”
Words piling up on each other before he can notice it, Subaru realises that he is close to getting
sucked into Roswaal's rhythm. If he starts chatting, yelling without thinking, the con is going to fall
into Roswaal's victory.
As calm as he can, Subaru chooses his words.
Subaru: “I don't wanna see Emilia's heart wounded from challenging that TRIAL.”
24
Roswaal: “Which is exactly what your authority's for? Should Emilia-sama stumble with the TRIAL,
all you need to do is substitute for her. This is without issue. The important thing is the actuality of
the liberation, would be your logic.”
Subaru: “Nh, guh...”
Near-convinced by words he himself had spoken, Subaru bites his lip as he searches for something
to say. But, advocating ridiculousness atop ridiculousness would not not lead to him saying
anything particularly sensible.
Subaru: “Of course I know that it's fine whether it's me or Emilia who beats the TRIAL. That thing
bringing up past wounds is too hard for Emilia. I know I should be substituting... but.”
Roswaal: “Please don't start spouting any naivety about the TRIAL being too painful for yourself as
well, and so yooooooou're searching for a bypath.”
Roswaal's gaze harshens, his words compound in sharpness.
Roswaal: “Your own piteousness, and the pain for yourself... if that is why you mean to find an
alternate method, then that's all your feelings for Emilia-sama aaaaaaaaamount to?”
Subaru: “That's not..!”
Roswaal: “What it is? Truly? How can you possibly assert that? How can you make anyone believe
that? When you think of Emilia-sama, then you should naturally swallow down all hurt and pain
and suffering. Supposing you love Emilia-sama, naturally you should be capable of this. Should you
hold Emilia-sama dearer than anything, prioritise Emilia-sama over everything, regard all other as
miniscule existences present for the sake of bolstering Emilia-sama to greater heights... surely there
would be no issue?”
Roswaal's fluently-spoken words and instructive tempo threaten to engulf Subaru.

While Roswaal's statements are the very image of extreme logic, should one understand Subaru's
RETURN BY DEATH, then this is an obvious conclusion to reach.
Had this been an earlier Subaru, before Satella had revealed his true feelings at the tea party, then he
ultimately might find himself agreeing with this logic.
—Right. That was it.
Subaru had intended to declare to Roswaal that he would never be like him.
But, assuming for hypothesis that he had taken Echidna's hand at the tea party, then surely he would
be living exactly the lifestyle Roswaal desired.
Abandoning all thought, picking through his options, seeking only the results, slighting absolutely
everything.
No matter how much I am injured, so long as Emilia and everyone else is smiling in the desired
future beyond, that is fine—was what he had thought.
But would that Natsuki Subaru, having elected only to withstanding suffering, ultimately be able to
25
smile at their side as they were?
—Would he be capable of anything more than something faint and dry, spurred by the obligation
that he needed to smile?
Subaru: “...What you're saying's, in a sense, probably correct, Roswaal.”
Roswaal: “In a sense?”
Closing his eye, Roswaal tilts his head at Subaru's meaningful reply.
With his yellow gaze staring at him, Subaru spits his words.
Subaru: “As you say, if I throw away everything and try protecting only Emilia... she's almost
guaranteed to be within saving. But that's not enough.”
Roswaal: “Not enough...”
Subaru: “I'll save Emilia. But saving just Emilia isn't enough to satisfy me. Rem, and Beatrice, the
SANCTUARY guys and mansion guys, all the people who helped me in the Capital... I want to save
everyone together.”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru: “Your lifestyle of being satisfied with just one person isn't possible for me. Honestly right
now I can't tell whether it's you or me who's the greedy one.”
The attitude of persistently loving a single person, and abandoning everything for them was in a
way, beautiful.
Describe it as being in LOVE, and that is exactly the noble deed it is.
Roswaal's methods might be the absolute in perfection for a single man's lifestyle.
But to pull this off required horrifying resolve. A soul-whittling life of scouring away everything
except his precious one was likely impossible for Subaru.
Subaru's capabilities remained minuscule as ever—and Subaru remained just as much a selfish child
as ever.
Roswaal: “...It seeeeeeeems your methods for polishing your resolve yet remain iiiiiiiinsufficient.”
Roswaal: “For a slight... yes, for just a slight, I had hopes. That peeeeeeerhaps, I might see my
desired future. But... it doesn't seem like that's poooooossible.”
Unfortunate, says the shake of Roswaal's head.

Their exchange had just revealed to Roswaal that Subaru was undecided on whether he possessed
the resolve that Roswaal intended.
For a Roswaal who desired a Subaru ready to conquer with unfeeling resolve, this present Subaru
was disappointing and defective. It simultaneously meant he was witnessing the endpoint of his life.
26
Roswaal: “I wonder just how many more times... are you going tooooooo discourage me.”
Subaru: “If that's what you think then I'd say it's fine for you to be more cooperative with me. If you
could be more unsparing with helping me out, that solves the majority of the problems.”
Announces Subaru rather ironically to the disappointed Roswaal.

Subaru, devoid of any combat ability, desperately craved Roswaal's assistance. His incredible magic
which rained fire on a forest of witchbeasts, and skills which accurately scorched the attacking
hares—for countering the Sizeable Hare, Roswaal was indispensable.
Said the other way around, if Subaru could secure Roswaal as an ally then that alone would resolve
most of the problems in SANCTUARY.
But Roswaal shakes his head at Subaru's cheap-but-reliable request.
Roswaal: “My apologies for the disappointment, but I cannot. Collaborating with the present you
presents far too few benefits fooooooor me. Hypothetically... yes, let's hypothetically say that I
assist you, and by that you overcome this situation. Your resolve will remain uncertain, and in the
future you and Emilia-sama will assuredly crash into further obstacles... will you then rely on me
again? Postponing the resolve that you truly should have sorted out here, and panicking bewildered
once you fall into an unrecoverable situation?”
Roswaal: “You see, Subaru-kun, I... cannot give my assistance unless it is to someone I can trust for
achieving my goal. A relationship entirely of your dependence is unneeded for my purposes. And so
I want you to do whatever you can to convince me, and show me you have the resolve to go
forward.”
Subaru: “Your, goal...”
Roswaal: “In this attempt it appears it will go unfulfilled, and that is a regret. I am placing my hopes
in the next opportunity. When you are truly, and correctly capable of accepting your power.”
This talk is over, says Roswaal's posture as his body loses its strength, and he lies down on the bed.
Roswaal had just lost any meaning for his PRESENT self to live. Likely his intentions are to
resignedly watch Subaru proceed to fail and redo, to conclusion.
Should the conversation end on him here, Subaru will remain without achieving a single one of the
purposes he came here for.
Watching as Roswaal waves his hand to urge Subaru out of the room, Subaru frantically forces
himself to think.
Subaru: “...What's a way I can demonstrate my resolve that'll convince you?”
Roswaal: “Hrm... sincerely speaking, I would prefer you surmise that by your ongoing interactions
with me, but no matter how many reattempts you make for that purpose it will be a completely
pointless waste of time.”
27
Putting his hand to his chin, Roswaal again uprights himself.
Roswaal: “The framework is that liberating SANCTUARY would achieve that. But your actions are
essential for liberating SANCTUARY, and you must be fit with the resolve to not mind reattempting
regardless the number of tries. SANCTUARY being liberated of itself is proof of your hardened
resolve.”
Subaru: “But why is that? While yeah when it comes to answers that might be the closest you can
get, but if it's only that... if it's just surmounting the TRIAL, then how does that connect to me being
resolved to throw away everything? Potential for Emilia to overcome the TRIAL herself..”
Roswaal: “Is non-existent.”
Sensing that Roswaal's statements are incredibly extreme, Subaru impulsively lines up the rebuttals.
But Roswaal's response is cutting, and entirely cold.
The sharpness of the reply daunts Subaru. Roswaal wags his finger.
Roswaal: “Your flickering hopes will not come to fruition. Emilia-sama will never overcome the
TRIAL. That thing has too weak a nature for it.”
Subaru: “...That thing?”
Roswaal: “Entirely. I'm sure some of it is from circumstances of her upbringing and traditions, but
that thing is useless. She can't even stand by herself, she is a small, weak, brittle child. Watching her
act out of guilt and remorse is so courageous I even feel pity.”
Having never heard Roswaal judge Emilia in this way before, Subaru is speechless.
Courageous, tenacious, soft-hearted and eager Emilia. Right now she was caught in a bad turn of
fate and unable to solve the TRIAL. But, Subaru believed that given her time she would assuredly
conquer her past, and that she had the strength to lead SANCTUARY to its freedom.
That Subaru was thinking to take over the TRIAL in Emilia's place was because the necessary time
wasn't there, and he couldn't bear seeing a wounded Emilia.
Not because he had given up, and judged that Emilia was incapable of beating the TRIAL.
Subaru: “And you still think Emilia can't... then why, so then why did you bring her!?”
Roswaal: “Because you're here. With your presence, even a weak, powerless half-elf can aim for the
throne. No, they will take the throne. Of course. You'll remove all contrary paths, and make her
desires come realised. That is the power vested in you. If Emilia-sama is to have any value, it is in
holding the strongest card, which is you, in hand.”
Subaru: “I'm... the strongest, card?”
Roswaal's piling and dizzying statements, these fantastical words about him being strongest, lead
Subaru into utter confusion.
These are adjectives foreign to his powerless self. And Roswaal's words are quite incredibly
insulting toward Emilia, and unforgivable.
28
Subaru: “Just fuck off! How much do you think Emilia's... that Emilia's pushed herself, thought
things over, suffered in challenging this fucking TRIAL! Forced to look at a past she doesn't want to
see, but still she... she's trying so hard! And you're saying—!”
Roswaal: “All is worthless without results. And that these results aren’t coming, you should know
far, faaaaaaaaar better thaaaaaaaaan I. If Emilia-sama's efforts had produced results, then you
would've had no reason to reeeeeeeturn here.”
Subaru can shout himself ragged in rage, but Roswaal's composure remains unassailed. Far the
opposite—as if his superheated thoughts have been doused in water, Subaru reaches a conclusion of
utter speechlessness.
Roswaal's statement had captured a portion of the truth.
As far as Subaru had seen, there would be no attempt where Emilia would overcome the TRIAL. The
barricade of the past would stand in her way through her continued challenges, and every time she
hit it, her heart would fold and abrade.
Unable to lean on her relied-upon Puck, a fully-abraded Emilia would eventually mistake her
dependency on Subaru for love, and break.
And because Subaru knew that future, he couldn't rebut Roswaal even with an emotional argument.
But there was no way he could stay silent and ignore insults to Emilia.
Roswaal, looking down on Emilia and expecting far too much of Subaru's RETURN BY DEATH. How
best to dispirit him—the instant he thinks it, Subaru shouts.
Subaru: “Fine, yeah, I get what you're saying! But y'know! Your plan's still going nowhere!”
Roswaal: “Hm, and what would you...”
Subaru: “So here you want me to beat the TRIAL instead of Emilia... but Echidna revoked my
qualifications to take the TRIAL! You're not gonna be getting the outcome you're hoping for from
me! Too bad, huh!”
Yells Subaru with his hand to his chest, aiming his words at Roswaal composed face.
It was a painful affair for Subaru himself, but it should be a devastating blow for Roswaal and his
plans. No way even Roswaal could keep calm faced with this, says the crooked smile Subaru intends
to make, when—
Roswaal: “—Revoked, your qualifications?”
The sound is muttered, desolate, and feeble—that Subaru is slow to realise it came from Roswaal.
Roswaal, right there leaned on the bed, has frozen rigid. His eyes stand open still and wide, lips
trembling as he looks at Subaru.
As if his usual composed attitude, all-knowing air, and untouchable queerness—had all peeled
away.
29
Roswaal: “What could it mean...”
Subaru: “What could it? ...It means what it means.”
Called upon in faltering voice, Subaru unwittingly answers with his own tone unstrung.
Overwhelmed by a diction which sounds nothing like the Roswaal he knows, Subaru wets his
thirsting throat with spit.
Subaru: “Echidna disqualified me. Forget the doubles' command right, I'm in a situation where just
trying to enter the tomb is vertigo. ...I'm in the same position as you, of being rejected if I try going
in.”
Roswaal: “How, come... no, why had this... You take the TRIAL in the tomb... otherwise, this
SANCTUARY's liberation, her wish...”
Hand to his mouth, Roswaal mutters in empty voice, his expression one of disbelief.
Seeing this unexpectedly intense reaction, Subaru senses his statement had more effect than just
revenge, himself falling lost for words. Roswaal panicking was something he had never seen in this
loop series, or more rather never seen at all, and he was beginning to lose sight of what part of their
conversation could have such an impact on him.
Subaru: “Does your gospel say that I beat the TRIAL?”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru: “I know that if doesn't go according to the writ, you're ready to abandon everything. If
you've decided that defeating SANCTUARY is my role... now, it won't happen.”
Like how his victory over the first TRIAL carried over, like how the witches could share his
memories happening across RETURN BY DEATHS, the Witch of Greed's castle was separated from
the principles of this world.
Even should he RETURN BY DEATH, that would not weaken the memories or feelings from there.
Which was why Subaru had felt saved there, and had harboured more than a little fondness for
Echidna. —Thus, he knows now.
Even should he hypothetically die and return to the tomb, Subaru would not regain his
qualifications.
He would need Echidna's permission to reattain them, he would need to enter the tomb to gain
Echidna's permission, and he would need the qualifications to enter the tomb.
—In short, Subaru had perfectly lost means to challenge the tomb's TRIAL.
Roswaal: “Ways to regain the qualifications...”
Subaru: “If there are any, you'd know better than me. If you're saying you don't know it, I don't
know it.”
30
Although answering to Roswaal's faint voice, Subaru internally does notice a possibility.
Most likely, Echidna was even now watching Subaru's struggles and hardships from inside her tomb.
She probably revoked the qualifications in something of a bedevilment toward Subaru who had
rejected her hand, and was looking to see what a Subaru who had taken Satella's hand could do. If
along that process the failures piled up on Subaru, and without any cards left to play he came crying
and clinging back to Echidna, the witch would probably offer him her hand.
—But should he take Echidna's hand the next time she presents it, that would mean throwing away
every syllable of Satella's words, and every feeling his heart harboured even now in this moment.
A conclusion entirely of sending Emilia off to the optimum future.

But even that may be preferable to a conclusion of being torn to smithereens halfway.
Roswaal: “Using your redo to return before the qualifications were revoked...?”
Subaru: “Looks like you're misunderstanding, it's not that infallible of a power. It's not something
you can so freely treat as returns without compensation... and besides, the return point's too late. If I
go back, it'll be to after the disqualification. Nothing changes about me being unable to enter the
tomb.”
Roswaal: “I, see...”
Roswaal's voice as he replies is weak, and his visage feels to have aged entirely all in one moment.
Roswaal had always acted in a way which was young, or more rather that gave no sense of his
actual age, but with how his shoulders are now drooped down small, even that atmosphere is gone.
This was the human expression of a man who had held a delusional and obstinate belief for a long,
long time, suffering as his wishes are fully hindered in a manner he can do nothing about.
This was the first time Subaru had managed to feel that Roswaal was something of a fellow human.
But this fact solved nothing, and was likely entirely involuntary on Roswaal's part.
Subaru: “The stalemate's same for both of us, Roswaal. I think we should have a more proper talk,
to search for countermeasures.”
Subaru: “It might be rough to get the results your gospel tells in it, but it's not like the writ can just
be the end of everything. If we just follow the general plot... well you might not agree with that, but
if we can come up with a plan for compromise...”
Roswaal: “...Weren't enough.”
Subaru presents his proposal, using words to prompt Roswaal to concede. But with eyes so hollow
he may as well not be hearing Subaru, he murmurs something. Unwittingly giving out a noise,
Subaru takes one step forth.
Did he just mishear Roswaal?
31
Roswaal's whispers sneak into Subaru's ear.
Roswaal: “—The methods I used for my cornering weren't enough.”
Subaru: “What the?”
Roswaal: “The details aren't clear, but Echidna going back on decisions means you and her had an
exchange befitting that. Fundamentally it's that before those fissures between you and her could
form, you steel your resolve, and then the TRIAL... I didn't succeed.”
Subaru: “—”
Roswaal: “If I had just cornered you further... if I had just shown you that reaching out here and
there for everything would mean losing what's important... then this wouldn't...”
Subaru: “Wait, Roswaal. Wait.”
Although sensing that what Roswaal's about to say will be something absolutely conclusive, and
that he must hear it, for some reason Subaru hesitates.
Should he wind up hearing those next words, Subaru surely would not be able to keep standing
here.
Absolute conviction.
Or really, rather, he'd already been having suspicions in this vein.
That those quizzical suspicions hadn't taken tangible form was because Subaru's thoughts had
frozen on the idea that Roswaal had no reason to do this, and because of the thin but present trust he
had in him.
The words Roswaal are about to say will conclusively sever that.
Subaru needs to say something before that can happen. But no matter how hard he looks for the
words he can't find them, and time flows on.
Roswaal: “Summoning yourself and Emilia-sama to SANCTUARY while aware of Garfiel's

disposition.”
Subaru: “—”
Roswaal: “Forcing Emilia-sama to challenge the TRIAL while myself knowing how terrifying it is,
showing you her wounded, stirring you up...”
Subaru: “Wait, please wait. Wa—”
And,
Roswaal: “Perfecting you by having you lose those precious to you in a place beyond your reach...
everything, all of it, and it still wasn't enough.”
—Roswaal confesses that the trigger-puller on the mansion murders was himself.
32
CHAPTER 84: DENIED X DENIED X DENIED

—Crumbling, crumbling, the earth beneath him crumbling.
Losing sight of his supposedly-present footing, Subaru senses he is falling from someplace high.
In reality Subaru stands still and straight inside the middle of the room, his eyes open wide and
petrified.
That he regardless feels that sensation is because Roswaal's confession was that incredible of an
impact.
Subaru: “Beyond, my reach means...”
Roswaal: “You would've already figured the answer. When one important thing and another
important thing are simultaneously faced with peril, people are forced to make choices. You choose
which of them is more precious to you, living so as to lose the unchosen. In doing this all except the
single, solely precious one is scoured away, and there is perfected the chosen being which you are.”
Subaru: “How stupid are you? Perfected being!? Only way I see it is an incredible moron drowning
in wounds standing by himself in a gale-swept wasteland!”
Roswaal: “However, your precious one can remain held in a place abounding with verdancy, their
purity and beauty preserved. You do prioritize this higher than your own self going uninjured, yes?”
Subaru finds himself stuck silence as Roswaal begins regaining his calm.
It isn't that Roswaal has convinced him, or that he's lost for words to rebut him.
His fuming emotions are simply too incredible in volume, and won't turn into words.
This incomprehensible logic, this gospel and its self-authored enumerations of events, the
consequence of this utter neglect to think, was the slaughter at the mansion?
Frederica, Petra, even Beatrice died for this selfish reason?

For this imbecilic goal of perfecting Subaru did their supposedly-trusting master betray them, and
so they lost their lives?
Subaru: “Roswaal... are you actually, insane?”
Roswaal: “...Exactly yes, I am extensively insane. Ever since those eyes charmed me four hundred
years ago, I have always been insane.”
Subaru: “Four hundred...?”
Unable to swallow down the words flung at him, Subaru parrots Roswaal back with his face
scrunched up in confusion.
Again it's four hundred years ago—but for Roswaal to be voicing this comes accordant with an
incredible unnaturalness. There should be no way for him to know about four hundred years ago.
And doubly so with his current phrasing, almost implying that he had existed continuously for four
hundred years—
33
Roswaal: “Natsuki Subaru-kun.”
A nearby voice calls on Subaru, his pupils wavering in bewilderment.

Subaru looks to find Roswaal, suddenly standing exactly in front of him. Away from this presence
standing tall and within breathing range does Subaru step back—when hands grab his collar, and he
is barred from retreat. He is pulled forward, forehead pressed to forehead.
Roswaal: “You have judged me as insane. I will agree with that. Beyond any doubt, I am insane. I
am without sanity. A very long time ago, my heart was claimed from me.”
Subaru: “Ah, auh...”
Roswaal: “But why is it that you are not insane eeeeeeenough? You should be as insane—no, even
more insane than I. Your situation requires insanity to attempt. Because the place you are seeking is
far higher than the place I am. For traversing a path of solitude beyond any comprehension or
sympathy you have no need for a human heart. Your heart must be strong, solid, as iron—yes?”
Subaru: “Auh, ue.. sh-shut up!”
Every word of Roswaal's as it soaks into Subaru's mind hosts a power to near drag him into the pit
of darkness. Subaru shakes his head to dispel the sensation, shoving Roswaal's chest away.
Jabbing his finger at him as he stumbles back, and unable to hide his voice's shaking as he bluffs,
Subaru: “Whatever comes, whatever is, your plans were crushed the moment I was disqualified!
These intentions of yours in the mansion, everything, all of your actions are pointless, meaningless
sacrifices! If you understand that, stop this second right now with the stupidity you're pulling!”
Roswaal: “Declined. —Seeing your insufficient resolve, I've come to more keenly understand the
necessity. There is absolutely no need for you to be human. I'll corner you, wound you, make you so
dependant on Emilia-sama that you shed and lose your humanity. I'll make Emilia-sama, too, a
being that needs you as she drowns in an entirely dependant love. I'll travel the path where you sink
in a relationship of needing only each other as you mindlessly drown. That is the single and only
pathway to realising my goal.”
Subaru: “Wh, at is the point in any of that! No amount of whittling me down will make those
missing qualifications come back! It's a vain effort, you're not getting anything from it!”
Roswaal: “You should know best whether that is truly what you believe.”
Roswaal's frigid voice strikes the shouting Subaru.

The single, strong thud in his heart is because he understands what Roswaal is saying. It's nothing
incredible, and in fact simple.
Just as Subaru had figured—if Subaru truly and seriously rethought matters and sought help from
Echidna, she would offer him her hand. If he entirely and wholly was caught in a checkmate, and he
was content merely to proceed forward, then that method would be available to him.
Roswaal: “Should the being you are return to her, Echidna would gladly reinstate your
34
qualifications or anything else. When you consider her nature that is a natural outcome, and even I
can at least understand that much.”
Roswaal: “Hold your conceit, Natsuki Subaru. You are not the only one who understands Echidna.”
Spoken in a diction quite unlike Roswaal, flowing to the brim with hatred and malice.
The intensity of the animosity flung directly at him leads Subaru to stiffen. Digesting the meaning
of Roswaal's words, for the first time, Subaru feels he understands Roswaal's goal.
Subaru: “You're putting precedence on SANCTUARY's freedom because... that's Echidna's wish.”
Subaru: “Having the tomb's TRIALS she designed cleared, having SANCTUARY freed... and that ties
into her funerary rites or something, is that how you're thinking?”
Roswaal: “...In life, Echidna worried about how this place would meet its end after her death. With
that worry she left the tomb's mechanisms behind, and had her soul lodged there. But even with four
hundred years gone, the end she sought hasn't come to this place.”
The barrier surrounding SANCTUARY has not been broken since it was placed four hundred years
ago.
The ending that Echidna desired and wished to see still hasn't come. What Roswaal wants is to
show that end to Echidna, and give her soul repose?
The idea itself is not beyond Subaru's understanding. While he had never believed in ghosts back in
the old world, in this world he had interacted with Echidna and the other witches.
Should it be that the witches still had some attachment to this land, then wanting to grant their wish
would evoke a feeling close to gratitude.
But living entirely for that purpose while disregarding everyone else was preposterous.
Subaru: “That story's separate from this one. Roswaal, I'll ready a different chance for Echidna's
repose. I can promise that I'll endeavour my best for that. —So pull back from the mansion.”
Roswaal: “Declined. I am going to fulfil my desire and Echidna's wish. I'll take the measures I
require. I'll ruin all those I need to, wound you, be the villain.”
Subaru: “Stop dragging others into your own self-satisfactions! If there's something you wanna pull
her out and tell her, goddamn do it yourself! Don't make sacrifices of someone trying to create a
future, a child who still has her future, and a girl withdrawn who can't believe in the future!”
There is no need for Frederica, Petra, Beatrice to be sacrificed to this plan.

Neither is there reason to entertain Roswaal's complacency, especially when the reason for it has
nothing to do with the humanity of the girls, and is instead to wound Subaru.
Roswaal: “Declined. The only offer I'll heed is I'LL DO EVERYTHING EXACTLY AS ROSWAAL SAYS
35
TO. Everything but that I will reject. Their sacrifices are inevitable.”
Subaru: “Fuck off. I'm fine with revealing just what you're plotting and what the results of it'll be.”
Roswaal: “Or rather, you stop acting without consideration to consequences. What is the purpose in
doing that? Making public my misdeeds will change not a single thing about the situation around
SANCTUARY. Emilia-sama loses her backer for the Royal Selection, and relations with the evacuees
and the SANCTUARY dwellers unmistakably worsen. Do you believe Emilia-sama can challenge the
TRIAL to produce results with an emnity-laden bomb at her back? How many times now have you
seen Emilia-sama crumble?”
Subaru: “I-if, Garfiel learns Frederica... that his sister was sacrificed for your plan, you won't be
getting off cheap...”
Roswaal: “If you're putting your hopes in that thing, then your discernment truly is lacking. There
will never be any such thing of Garfiel exiting SANCTUARY to rush in aiding Frederica. Prisoner to
non-existent terrors of what may happen to SANCTUARY in his absence, petrified, is the sad and
foolish existence called Garfiel. His perspective is narrow, he is stubborn, and despite it he still
manages to have brute strength and only brute strength. For how wanting his intelligence is, his
thoughts would regardless figure the risk in what would happen to SANCTUARY should I be gone. —
Because he is capable of nothing but protecting his weak and brittle world, and a desperate child.”
A desperate child, is the descriptor which stabs Subaru in the chest.

That was the same opinion the witches had passed on Subaru, as he attempted to make a sacrifice of
himself. Apparently, Roswaal views Garfiel in an identical fashion.
Unaware of this, or perhaps even aware of it, Garfiel must have wholeheartedly persevered in his
goals.
Roswaal: “Garfiel will not ally with you. I have no intention to stop in my plans. All you need to do
is have circumstances beyond your ability degrade your heart, polish it, and perfect it. Anything
more is unnecessary. Accept this rationalization, Natsuki Subaru. —Accept that the death of anyone
but Emilia-sama means nothing.”
Subaru: “Just fucking stop! I! Am never going to be like you! Someone like you, thoughts like
yours... I'm never gonna have them! That isn't how a human being thinks!”
Subaru: “I am human. No matter what weird, incomprehensible power I get given, no matter how
much pain and suffering I experience, that isn't changing. —I am human. And I'm going to keep
being human.”
Subaru backs off to put distance between himself and Roswaal. For a single instant some complex
emotion run across his noble face, but he immediately shrugs.
Roswaal: “Weeeeeell, doesn't bother me. So long as you have infinite opportunities, then it is the
same case for me. For this attempt we'll have me give up oooooooon persuading you. I'll be leaving
it to the next me.”
36
Subaru: “Saying that this attempt didn't work... supposing it's the next time, or the time after that, I
am still never going to agree with your proposals. I won't be like you.”
Roswaal: “—Leave the room. Living in this life no longer has meaning.”
Returning to the bed, Roswaal leaves Subaru with only this as he diverts his attention away. He
closes his eyes in an attempt to sleep, indeed rejecting any parley with Subaru.
Subaru goes to open his mouth to address Roswaal's attitude, but finding no words,
Subaru: “—”
Subaru silently leaves the room, feeling himself the defeated.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Exiting Roswaal's sleeping place, Subaru wanders beneath the moonlight.
Subaru: “—What should I do?”
This question out his mouth is directed at an impenetrable problem, spoken with the exact same
phrasing had repeated and repeated and repeated in his head, but the answer comes back to him like
no echo.
His question reaches nobody, disappearing into nothingness as vacancy alone lies heavy in his
throat.
All there is to call this is deadlocked.
Neither Roswaal nor Echidna seem likely sources of help any more.
Collaborating with Echidna was physically, and collaborating with Roswaal was sentimentally,
impossible.
Subaru had conceived of this possibility.

That perhaps Roswaal was Elsa's employer, and had had her attack the mansion for the sake of
Emilia's—though really aimed at Subaru in this case—TRIAL.
Elsa seemed to appear according to when Subaru arrived at the mansion. Then was the death of
potential-instigator Frederica, and Elsa's knowledge of the hidden passage and Beatrice's Forbidden
Archive. If he aligned everything and considered it, the only likely suspects remaining were Ram or
Roswaal.
Ram with her utter adoration of Roswaal had no need to do anything disadvantageous to him, so by
process of elimination only Roswaal is left. —That said, this possibility was one he avoided
thinking about outside a crevice of his mind, more due to the sense of 'it can't be like this', than not
wanting it to be like this.
Subaru: “If Elsa's employer is Roswaal, then...”
37
The theft of Emilia's insignia in the Capital on the first day of Subaru's summons here may have
also been due to Roswaal.
Should the gospel have written beforehand of the appearance of Subaru—of a presence possessing
the authority to RETURN BY DEATH—and that this presence was needed for Emilia's victory, the
ruckus that day would have then been necessary to drag Subaru in as an ally.
His frantic efforts that day, his three deaths in saving Emilia, his asking of Emilia's name alongside
her smile, had all been playing into Roswaal's hands.
Subaru: “He knew all of everything beforehand... then you're saying Rem's existence getting stolen,
and this deadlock in SANCTUARY, all of it is according to someone's plan?”
If so, then even Subaru's frantic will to do something was simply playing along on the strings that
somebody was controlling.
Was the fundamental answer only to throw away everything except Emilia and proceed forward?
Was this present situation where he was unable to do that really nothing more than a stalemate?
Subaru: “Am I stupid? ...No, I am stupid. It's this stuck-still brainless thinking which's how you
probably get Roswaal... what am I gonna do if even I get sucked in...”
The one who understood best that gospels were not absolute was Subaru, who had overwritten the
events dictated in Betelgeux's gospel.
The writ of the future-instructing gospels is not infallible. In situations where events differing from
the writ occurred, Roswaal would give up on the world, flinging his hopes over for the next atte—
Right now, just then, he hit on something peculiar.

While thinking carefully about Roswaal's gospel and going over events in sequence, Subaru
definitely hit on something awry. But what it was exactly was taking no comprehensible form.
Subaru: “What? What... something's strange. But, what is it!?”
As if sprung with a puzzle with no visible answer, Subaru searches through the mist for the light.
Roswaal's gospel. Acting according to the writ. Beatrice's gospel. The Witch Cult GOSPELS.
Prophecies which told nothing after their owner's deaths. Blank pages. Results according to
prophecy. Results not according to prophecy. —The present, deviating from the writ.
Subaru: “No luck. —It's one step away, but not coming.”
While sensing that he's pieced some portions of the scattered puzzle together, it fails to tie into
concrete form before dispersing. But this tug was one he must not overlook.
In the stalemates he had been thus far, he would always wrest the answer out from smaller clues,
open a pathway and escape.
It was the same now, as these fragments bit-by-bit surely tied to the answer, and—
38
Subaru: “Weh?”
The call of his name drags Subaru's attention out from his sea of thought.
Subaru breaks his face from the water's surface, to find himself amid a dusk lit by a downpour of
moonlight, and Emilia gazing at him with her silver hair glimmering.
Subaru: “Oh, Emilia... -tan. What're you doing here. Pretty late out, y'know?”
Emilia: “But that's the same for you too, Subaru. If you stay up too late, you won't grow any taller.”
Subaru: “I think I've about finished puberty, so not super worried about that...”
Emilia comes in with a topic diverging a little from the point as always. Regaining some of his calm
thanks to her reply, Subaru's feet naturally take him over to Emilia's side.
This was in the middle of SANCTUARY, something of an open plaza. Leaning herself against a stone-
made, moss-grown, dried-out fountain-looking thing, Emilia's silver hair sways in the night wind as
she glances at the Subaru beside her.
Seeing an allure in her gloomy amethyst eyes brings sweet, achy impulse to his downcast heart.
Emilia: “I couldn't get to sleep, so I kinda went out for a walk... what happened with you, Subaru?”
Subaru: “...Nope, same thing for me. I'm the type where I can't really get to sleep if you swap out
my pillow, and also Otto snores surprisingly loud.”
Emilia: “It's sooo surprising that you've got that daintiness.”
Emilia gives a quiet laugh as she puts her hand to her mouth. Gazing at her from aside, Subaru
reflects on this being the night that he RETURNED BY DEATH, and the first time he has reunited with
Emilia.
In the places with no connection to Subaru, fundamentally people's actions follow a generally set
path despite the loops. Meaning that Emilia would without fail come out here for a walk on the
night of her first day challenging the TRIAL, unable to sleep.
Invited to the tea party, had Garfiel threaten him, learned about the Lewes facility deep in the
woods, learned that Roswaal is the mastermind, during all the time that Subaru has been pulling
these stunts, Emilia's been faced with changes too.
Emilia: “...You seem down, Subaru.”
Subaru: “I, guess. Not trying to be though.”
Emilia: “Not really, that's a lie. If you were the usual Subaru, you'd be more... zany?”
Subaru: “Who says zany any more?”
Been a while since we've done those lines, thinks Subaru as his cheeks loosen in relief. Emilia
39
points at Subaru's cheeks, smiling,
Emilia: “There, you smiled. Subaru, you're always trying to show me your smiles, but right now
you couldn't do it.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “Did something... painful happen? If you're worried about something... if you don't mind it
being me, I'll listen.”
Having the relaxing of his once-tense cheeks pointed out and words of concern flung at him, Subaru
frantically withstands the heat building up beneath his eyelids.
Her kind, compassionate words permeate his body. In this deadlocked, unworkable situation where
even the glimmer of hope he saw is lost, he could almost wind up clinging to this darling hand
kindly presented to him.
He can't stick through with the will he had resolved himself to just a little while ago. His wavering
conviction is pathetic, frustrating.
Subaru: “It's... this's my problem. I can't pull anything that'd put a burden on you, Emilia.”
Subaru: “You're having a way harder time than me, yeah? The TRIAL messed you up that much...
erm, are you feeling better now?”
Emilia: “Right, I have caused you very much trouble. I'm sorry for the unsightly fuss. ...I think I ran
into a problem I wasn't mentally ready for at all.”
Subaru looks away as he changes the topic. Emilia gives a powerless, breathy smile.
She leans back against the fountain, looking up at the night sky to avert her gaze.
Emilia: “Really... I have to think I wasn't prepared for it at all. That I've gotten this far by running
away from so many things I have to face.”
Subaru: “I don't really think that's a bad thing though. What's so wrong about running from things
you don't like? Does continually facing things you don't like mean eventually you'll be able to beat
them? Are you obligated to beat them? If there where you run you find a disparate path, and decide
to go down that road... is that something people have to fault you for?”
Emilia: “Subaru?”
Emilia scrunches her pretty eyebrows as Subaru lets his tongue keep slipping, talking quickly and
with no real summation of what he's trying to say. Although Emilia is confused, Subaru continues
without noticing her reaction.
Subaru: “Echidna who put the TRIAL in the tomb, Roswaal who dragged us in here knowing the
TRIAL was there, Garfiel who knows we have to overcome it but's getting in the way, anyone and
everyone they're all just goddamn selfish. You all go doing whatever the hell you like, addressing us
40
however the hell you like, and why do we have to be tossed around by that? And if we try doing
things our own way they bitch that we're not doing it how they wanted... hell are we meant to do
here.”
Emilia: “—”
Subaru: “My head could burst, I feel I could go crazy. It's just more and more and more and more
the problems keep piling up into this mountain... and to top it off, the reason for it's me, just fuck
off. Just fuck off. Just fuck—”
It happens the moment that his emotions seethe, when his incomprehensible indignation starts
making him dizzy.
Soft hands loop around to the back of his head, his body pulled down with a tug. His head thrusts
into the softness directly before him, his breath unwittingly catching.
Subaru's head is buried in a terribly hot, tender touch.

Hearing the thudding of a heartbeat beyond the warmth of their touch, his blank mind slowly is
forced to recognize the reality—that he is being cradled to Emilia's breast.
Subaru: “Ah, auh?”
Emilia: “Take it slow. Quietly now. Take it slowly, listen to the sound of my heart.”
Subaru: “—Mm.”
Emilia: “Leave yourself to my steady heartbeat, quietly take a breath in, out... in, out, repeat. Once
you're calm, tap me on the back. We can stay like this until then.”
His spine tingling with pleasure at the whisper to his ear, Subaru's breathing involuntarily
accelerates. While the shock blasted away his high-strung emotions, now he is tormented by the
sense that all of the blood in his body is boiling hot.
How and why did he plummet into this situation? While he listens to Emilia's quiet pulse, his own
heart strikes against his ribs in an entirely disparate, violent rhythm.
But even his clamorous pulse is undone by Emilia's breathing and her soft palm stroking his head,
the beat naturally slowing down. He takes deeps breaths just as instructed, repeated inhales and
exhales, putting his breath and heart in order.
Quietly, he taps Emilia's back. The hand at his head moves away at the signal, Subaru uprighting
himself as he withstands his reluctance to part.
Emilia: “Calmed down?”
Subaru: “...Somehow.”
Faced with the gleam of amethyst before him, Subaru gives a small sigh.
A relieved smile arises on Emilia's face. Enduring the awkwardness threatening to make him blush,
Subaru gives a small shake of the head.
Subaru: “I'm sorry for flipping out. I didn't even want to cause you problems like that.”
41
Emilia: “I don't think they're problems at all.”
Subaru: “But you have to be having a much harder time than me, Emilia. That's the truth. If I could,
I'd want to save you from suffering this... is what I'd thought.”
Emilia: “Subaru...”
Subaru had a self who wanted to always be a cool Subaru when around Emilia.
While thinking that truthfully he was disgraceful, weak and complacent, never good enough at
anything and constantly straining for his absolute best, wanting to be at her side.
Subaru: “Just nothing ever goes well, I really am... I just had a talk with Roswaal. To see if there's
some way to get through SANCTUARY without the TRIAL.”
Emilia: “Huh?”
Subaru: “The truth is what's best is if I can take the TRIAL as substitute, but... but, I don't think I can
any more. And so I was frantically looking for at least maybe there's some sidepath somewhere but
even that's difficult too. What should I do... I'm sorry I'm useless.”
He hangs his head. His thoughtless self, unable to find even one single prudent method despite his
ability to infinitely do things over, is pathetic.
There were lots of cases where if he had just done better, it would've all ended without creating any
sorrowful worlds like the ones he had to see in the second TRIAL.
There had to have been a way for him to do something about this miserable situation—
Subaru: “But I will do something. I will do something so you'll suffer no pain or badness, Emilia.
Please believe in me.”
Subaru: “Yeah.”
Emilia looks up at Subaru with her eyes teary.

Gazing back at her wetted eyes, his heart jolting, Subaru steels his resolve to ensure the most
important parts alone go without distortion.
He protects Emilia, overcomes SANCTUARY, saves the mansion, recovers everything.
There was not a single glimmer of hope he saw on the road ahead, but surely something would—
Emilia: “I'm happy you feel this way. I'm truly happy. —But, I can't accept your kindness.”
—When the resolve he had supposedly steeled is, from the mouth of the darling girl and the strong
conviction in her eyes, flat-out rejected.
42
CHAPTER 85: USING WORDS, USING FEELINGS, USING FISTS

Unable for a moment to comprehend what he has just been told, Subaru voices a noise of
astonishment.
His eyes widen, his mouth gapes open. Emilia gazes at him as she puts her thoughts to form.
Emilia: “It makes me so happy that you think like that about me, that you're saying this for me,
taking action for me. It's so, so trustworthy, and I rely on you so, so much. ...But this thing where
you're trying to find an escape route is a No.”
Subaru: “N-No... about this, one-way coercion!?”
Emilia: “I'm who decided to challenge. There's somewhere I need to go, a gate I need to go through
to get there, and right now I need to work my hardest to travel that. I don't want to make any
excuses.”
Subaru is stricken, faced with an Emilia whose eyes host determination and lips are pursed firm.
Her resolute face abounds with strong-willed brilliance. This was not the visage of a weak girl, who
could not walk her path without Subaru's hand pull her along.
Why, and how come? With his heart buried in questions, Subaru shakes his head.
Subaru: “I think your resolve's amazing, Emilia. But your compatibility for this TRIAL's awful.
Going into a fight with no plan when chances of winning are... slim, isn't what I'd call noble.”
Emilia: “...Chances of winning really do feel slim.”
Emilia smiles wryly at Subaru as he fails to under-represent the situation at all. That her eyebrows
droop slightly is because she accepts Subaru's opinion with absolute sincerity.
Subaru feels himself a horribly deficient human being, unable to immediately elect for words of
support.
Subaru: “What about at least waiting until I can find some hints? If I could just get the time, I can...
I will make more preferable conditions for you. And that'd get you so much more relaxed, and...”
Emilia: “No, you can't, Subaru. I just somehow know. —There's no sideroads or shortcuts for the
TRIAL in that tomb.”
Subaru falls silent.
Emilia: “It's strange though. I just know it. Even if we take time, unless I'm steadily ready and
prepared to challenge, the results will always be the same. I know that.”
Subaru: “Au...”
No words to refute her are coming.

While he doesn't know the exact details of the TRIAL, Subaru does agree with Emilia about these
43
rules she has perceived.

Repeated challenges of the TRIAL will not soften or intensify its contents or nature. The same
conditions and same subjects will welcome the challengers. The TRIAL would go without any
change to its properties, producing different results only according to the heart of the challenger—
as was likely to Echidna's taste.
Emilia: “Say, Subaru. —Why are you trying to help me?”
Subaru: “—”
This query was one which had also held incredible significance the last time it was asked.
How much time had Subaru spent in desperation to report to her the answer? How much hardship
had he overcome to communicate it to Emilia?
And so he can answer her clearly, without any hesitation.
Subaru: “I want to help you because I like you. —Because I love all of you.”
Emilia: “—Mm. Yeah, I know. You love me, Subaru.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “It makes me sooo happy you feel that way. You're sooo trustworthy. I'm relying on you
sooo much. Just by having you watching me like this, I know I can try sooo hard.”
Hand to her chest, her cheeks reddening slightly, Emilia closes her eyes.
She continues, her words packed with incredible emotion.
Emilia: “And so,”
Emilia: “Don't get stuck thinking that you have to do something. I can do my best just by having
you watching me. If you want to do something, if you'll follow with my conceits, then I want you
by my side. I want you to support me.”
Emilia: “If there's a hand to support my back when I'm faltering, I know I can stand back up. I want
you to be there for me when I'm wavering, Subaru.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “For trying to always walk ahead of me, move away the stones so I don't trip, smooth out
the path, cut back the weeds, and guide me by the hand, thank you. But if it's that you're always
doing things for me, I know I'm going to impose entirely on you. Because my core nature's
slapdash.”
Subaru: “Who says, sl... ap,”
Subaru attempts his usual line, but the words won't come.
44
He cannot restrain the emotions swelling in his chest. This indescribable, nigh-incomprehensible
feeling was what, exactly? To keep from losing it as it strongly asserts its existence, Subaru grits his
teeth as he continues facing Emilia.
Emilia: “I've imposed, imposed, entirely imposed... and so this time I want to try things without
doing that. It does unease me that with every failure, I'm making you and everyone worry, but... I'll
do things so that doesn't happen, so I can finish it even a day earlier.”
A small but hearty smile rises on Emilia's face.
Emilia: “Please be at my side, watching over my efforts, as I work my best. —That is my wish for
you, Subaru.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “—hk!!”
He slices the wind. With his legs still in haste, his heart still in animation.
He soars as he dashes over sloped land with its poor footholds, branches cutting grazes across his
cheeks, tripping countless times yet nevertheless running so long as he breathes.
Subaru: “—!!”
Yelling a mute yell, practically demanding his throat to burst, staring up at the night sky through the
gaps in the thick foliage, gazing at the glittering moon and glimmering stars, Subaru screams.
—He wished this way to spew out his foolish foolishness, turn everything in him to empty.
—Seared into his memories is Emilia's closing smile, and the strong determination in her eyes.
That smile, her resolve, and Subaru's misunderstanding. He finally understood that the impulse
swelling hot from inside him, nigh scorching his heart, was a combination of the three.
Because he realised the identity of the impulse, unable to stay another second, Subaru launched
impulsively into the forest immediately after parting with Emilia to run around the woods like an
animal.
Not permitting he stand still, not even allowing him to escape into sleep, combustive emotion flares
in him every time he remembers Emilia—the emotion being what humans called SHAME.
Shame dominates all of Subaru, permitting him to stop not at all.
Subaru: “I... I...!”
Overwhelming idiot. Truly, entirely, so foolish it's hopeless, unsalvagable.

When Roswaal had disparaged Emilia by calling her a thing, Subaru had flown into a rage. He
bared his teeth, yelling that he would not allow any insults or disdain of her.
Then he immediately met Emilia, revealed all his desires to act for her, was rejected, and first
realised.
45
—The one who put the least faith in Emilia's resolve, determination, and strength, was Subaru.
I have to protect her. I don't want her to feel sadness or pain.

With those thoughts in mind, Subaru had ruminated on distancing Emilia from hardship.
Substituting for her and taking the TRIAL, if he couldn't then searching for a byroad which presented
no necessity to take the TRIAL, and if even that seemed risky—worst case, if he could just do
something about the cause of the time limit on evacuating SANCTUARY which was the Sizeable
Hare...—he had agonized entirely over methods to settle everything without Emilia facing the
TRIAL.
Despite being that, through all the time that Subaru's complacent and protective wants led him to
devise plans to safeguard her, Emilia had during the night in solitude steeled her determination and
resolve, and decided to face the TRIAL without running.
Despite being that she was wishing for Subaru to support her in that resolve.
It was no other than Natsuki Subaru who most disparaged the girl called Emilia.
Subaru: “—!”
The instant he realised it, an unbearable feeling of shame clobbered Subaru about the head.
Giving Emilia a rather unconvincing reply as she sought for his response, Subaru gave the worried
girl a light wave as he left the scene, practically fleeing. His legs ran him into the forest, and here he
was.
Subaru's complacency had wounded Emilia like this before, in the Capital.
Paying no mind to Emilia's considerations or resolve, getting arrogant about the authority he had
just acquired, unable to communicate the truth behind his selfish behaviours to her, all of it spawned
a definitive departure between himself and Emilia.
It was because that happened, because he established his feelings for her, and established how to
convey them to her, that Subaru could be where he was now.
—And still, Subaru was again incorrect.
Being wounded in Emilia's place, substituting for Emilia during hardship, crafting a road for
Emilia's sake.
While his current methods lacked any bragging to Emilia or showing off to others, and may appear
something of an advancement from before—in reality, the nature of it hadn't changed at all.
He'd just gotten better at hiding his wounds.

He'd just muted the arrogance he had in speaking proudly of his injuries.
Nothing had changed about him screaming that he was correct while imposing his egocentricities on
Emilia.
Subaru: “I... I... gha,”
Out of breath and panting, the running Subaru raises his head for a thick branch to strike him in the
forehead. Bending backwards in pain, the footing beneath him crumbles as he grips at open space.
46
Falling to his side, tumbling down the dirty and leaf-covered ground, Subaru comes to lie spread on
the earth.
His back lying on the cold ground, Subaru breathes ragged breaths as he gazes at the sky above.
Between gaps in the trees, the night peeks through.
In this world void of streetlamps and amid the prickling, clear air, the stars gleam with brilliance.
While the full expanse of the glittering night sky looks down at him, with these unfamiliar
constellations surrounding him, Subaru dissolves steadily into a vortex of his own smallness, his
anxiety for the unclear future, his tangible dread, and his dishevelled emotions.
The exhaustion hits him. He cannot stay conscious.

It had been a tumultuous time. Not only is it the fatigue amassed in his body, but the accumulated
mental fatigue that drags Subaru into darkness.
RETURN BY DEATH. Witches' tea party. Roswaal's motives. His arrogant person, and Emilia with the
resolve to stand by herself.
Amidst these thoughts, the answer to what Subaru must do is—
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: “Well ain't you just in enviable straits.”
The first thing Subaru perceives as he wakes up is the coldness on his skin, and this voice directed
at him.
His eyelids tremble under the chilly sunlight, Subaru scrunches his face as his eyes open. He winds
up looking directly at the sun peeking in through the trees, his eyes teary as he attempts to upright
himself.
Subaru: “Ghhe, eu, ow...”
His stiff joints clicking, Subaru groans in pain.

The coldness of the ground and air had accordingly stiffened his body as he lay on the hard earth,
and every action to unwind his joints comes alongside a dull pain.
???: “Got no damn clue what th'point of it was, but sleepin' in a place which ain't gotta roof ain't
somethin' I recommend. 'S a WITH GAURAN IN THE ROOF AND FLOOR, WHAT YOU HAVE IS
LIVEABLE.”
Subaru: “Gauran are... no, nevermind that...”
Shaking his head, Subaru looks up to the owner of the rowdy voice—Garfiel, who clicks his fangs
as he looks down at the squatting Subaru.
His consciousness sobers into wakefulness at that same instant as Subaru remembers just what
situation he's in.
Subaru: “Ri, ght... last night, I fell dead asleep like that...”
47
Garfiel: “So I go cyclin' round th'place fer my daily routine, smell yer stink comin' from th'forest 'n
wonder what's goin' on. And then yer fuckin' spread out on the ground, had me goddamn wonderin'
'f some hasty guy'd gone 'n killed yer overnight.”
Subaru: “If the most likely candidate you didn't do it, no one would've. ...What time is it?”
Putting his hand to his chin, Subaru shakes his heavy head. Garfiel gives a breathy snort.
Garfiel: “Ain't gotta be all hurried, 's still before breakfast. Only ones gonna be 'wake'r th'earlybird
gamps n' grans n' my amazin' self.”
Subaru: “Then there's been no fuss about me not coming back. ...Gonna be a pain if I don't get back
to the cathedral before then... or no, right now actually...”
Should Subaru not have returned overnight, then suspicion could fall on Otto who returned earlier.
And even if that in particular didn't become a problem, Subaru would prefer to avoid any anxiety
spreading among the Arlam evacuees. Causing disharmony due to his own carelessness, despite the
mountain of problems already there, was the worst of verboten acts.
Garfiel: “...Yer expression's changed from last night again.”
Subaru: “Hm?”
Clinging to a nearby tree to get himself standing up, Subaru rotates his neck when Garfiel addresses
him. Subaru glances back to find him scratching rigorously at his blond hair.
Garfiel: “Not like yesterday where y'couldn't tell f' yer got calm t'yer'r not, right now yer like... face
looks like yer fuckin' refreshed.”
Subaru: “—”
Garfiel: “Shit, that ain't quite it. Can't fuckin' say it right... oi, fuck're you laughin' at?”
Subaru: “Khah, hahahh...”
Subaru puts his hands to his cheeks. Feeling that his mouth is slightly slack, a trembling laugh
spews out from the back of the throat.
The low, once-strangled noise grows gradually louder.
Subaru: “Hah hahaha! I'm refreshed! Really, that's what I look like?”
Garfiel: “Well y'do! Hell's so funny...”
Subaru: “It's the opposite, Garfiel. Completely, entirely, the opposite.”
Garfiel: “Eh?”
48
Suppressing the urge to laugh, Subaru jabs his finger toward Garfiel.
Subaru: “I'm not damn refreshed at all. My insides are creaking and cracking and honestly, right
now I could burst apart any second. I was denied everything I wanted to attempt, everything I
strained myself for backfired... I seriously don't know what to do.”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru: “I figured out I'm really in a deadlock, and it actually makes me just laugh. If everything I
tried doing something about was useless... it's from the start again, then.”
As he mutters without strength, Subaru's shoulders droop.

If he was mistaken about everything from the very start, then every single he thought he has had
since is faulty.
It's the sense of having a time limit steadily creeping in, but belatedly realising that his fundamental
equations are entirely wrong. What's another towel-thrower is that he can only consider these
problems as ones he won't be taught the solution for.
Garfiel scrunches his nose in hesitation as he deliberates on what to tell the dejected Subaru. Being
that Subaru understands that questioning Garfiel will earn him no precise answers, all this amounts
to is senseless resentment.
An awkward silence descends upon the two of them—and.
???: “—Should we have me tell you what to do?”
Subaru: “—!”
Subaru hurriedly looks up toward the voice raining down from above. Garfiel's manner as he too
glances in that direction suggests no surprise, probably because he had already sensed this coming.
Weaving through the gaps in the trees as they approach is,
Subaru: “...Otto?”
Otto: “Yes, hello, good morning to you. You're correct, it's me.”
With a twig snapping underfoot, Otto wears a somewhat counterfeit smile as he walks over. While
his sudden appearance flusters Subaru, Garfiel just clicks his tongue.
Garfiel: “'Sayin, my amazin' self only found him a second ago too. Ain't that I forgot 'bout you as
we went on havin' our chat.”
Otto: “I wasn't suspecting you for anything like that. Just so long as Natsuki-san's been found in no
critical condition. —And beside all that, could I request something?”
Garfiel: “...Spit it out.”
Otto: “I was wondering if I could be alone with Natsuki-san for a minute. There's something I'd like
49
to discuss with him.”
Subaru goes without being able to digest this situation as Otto and Garfiel have their talk, their
expressions somewhat pretentious. Garfiel grinds his teeth at Otto's request, glancing over at
Subaru.
Garfiel: “Just don't pull anythin' funny.”
With that, Garfiel leaves the scene.

He treads on the grass, exiting the forest as he returns for SANCTUARY. Watching him off as he
remains left behind, Subaru wets his dry lips with his tongue.
Subaru: “Some, time where I didn't notice it, looks like conversation's started working on Garfiel.”
Otto: “It's because I've been doing more than nothing during the time you were having your
kerfuffle, Natsuki-san. Some deepening of relations between the people from here and the
evacuees... well, none of that really matters right now.”
Answering sincerely to Subaru's question, Otto cuts off the conversation with a flick of his hand, his
stare landing on Subaru. Or no, that was far too intense a gaze to be a stare. That was the intensity
more belonging to a glare.
Subaru: “Well, what...”
Discomforted by the gaze, Subaru muddies his words as he speaks weakly. Otto gives a small sigh.
Otto: “Although vaguely, I did hear the situation. It sounds like you've been very cornered, Natsuki-
san, by many things.”
Subaru: “—”
Otto: “I've been kept out of the loop, though, so naturally I don't know the particulars. But surely
you're at your limit? At least to the point where I'm hearing blubbering about what to do.”
Subaru: “Well, what do I do? ...You said you had an idea.”
Listening to the somewhat unsparing Otto, Subaru alludes to his first statement from when he cut
into the conversation.
Otto had indeed cut into the silence between Subaru and Garfiel with such a remark. What did those
words truly mean?
Subaru: “You're saying you know what to...”
Otto: “Yes, I do know. It's all very simple.”
Subaru: “Simple...”
Otto: “Do you want to know it?”
50
This manner of speech is an annoying one.

He'd agonized over his troubles extensively, and was in hardly any presentable state. Otto's
speaking was nothing other than something to irritate such a listener.
Subaru: “I-it's goddamn obvious that I do! Stop pissing around! If there's something you know, then
just...”
Otto: “Well then, you must prepare.”
Subaru: “P-prepare?”
Otto: “Yes. First take a long, deep breath...”
Presenting his hands out to Subaru, Otto couples his statements with instructive gestures showing
him to breathe deeply. Although not really understanding the significance, Subaru obeys the
instructions as he composes his breathing, closes his eyes, lets his lungs inflate—
Subaru: “—!?”
That instant, a sharp whack strikes across Subaru's face, sending him toppling down to the ground.
He fails to catch himself as he tumbles, face to the dirt as he disorients. He shakes his head, looks
around the area while confused as to what happened, catches the sight of Otto with his fist raised,
and realises that he's been punched.
Subaru swallows his breath. Fist clenched and reddening, Otto speaks.
Otto: “Do not dare wear pretensions when among friends, Natsuki Subaru.”
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CHAPTER 86: WITH DISREGARD TO CHANCES OF SUCCESS

The event astonishes Subaru so much that he forgets the pain of being punched.
Subaru raises his head as he lies toppled on the ground, Otto glaring at him. Upon that normally
pitiable, blank-smile-wearing, assuredly-not-intensely-emotional-in-the-least expression are eyes
harbouring a definite and blazing fury.
Otto Swein's eyes host rage as he looks down on Subaru.
Otto: “You don't know what to do, and your head's jumbled up.”
Subaru: “—”
Otto: “Always whenever you need help, with your own skills and smarts and strengths insufficient,
you fight desperately running and running and running around, accomplishing only the passage of
time.”
Otto step-by-step closes distance on the silent Subaru.

Hands and feet to the ground and unable to move, grimacing as the heat of his left cheek only now
starts asserting itself, all Subaru can do is stare at Otto.
Otto: “Silence means no denials, and so affirmation. In our world it's the lowest of deeds, liable
only for suckering. Are you listening to me?”
Otto reaches out to the wordless Subaru, grabs his collar, hoists him up.
Otto: “If you're listening, then speak to me!”
Subaru: “—!”
A sharp, hard impact strikes Subaru in the forehead. His vision dances with fireworks.
The disoriented Subaru realises that he has just eaten a headbutt from Otto. One more headbutt once
again from Otto sends the dazed Subaru pitching back.
Pain to his brow, pain to his cheek, shoved backwards and stumbling is Subaru. Not even he could
go without saying something when all this has been done to him, and—
Subaru: “Fuck're, you doing...”
Otto: “Oho, so for all the punches and damage you really were still conscious. I was nigh-certain I
had just practised some pathetic violence upon a sleeping man.”
Subaru: “Hell'dy—!?”
In tears from the second headbutt which struck him in the nose, Subaru leaves himself to rage as he
reaches to grab Otto. But Otto slips aside the outstretched arm, evading it, instead violently
sweeping Subaru's legs out from under him—knocking him down.
Subaru: “Ghhah!?”
52
Otto: “Just when your head has some proper activity to it, now it's your footing that's unattended.
Isn't this exactly what your activities are, pathetic.”
Subaru: “Rea... lly, now!”
Springing up to his feet, Subaru throws the fistful of dirt he grasped during the fall at Otto's face.
But having read the movement, Otto guards his face with his arm. Subaru's shock at having his
blinding attempt seen though makes him slow to take action when Otto swiftly approaches. He
grabs the rear of Subaru's collar as he slams his fist into his stomach, hurling him away.
Slamming to the ground back-first, ricocheting off the earth, the shock and the pain halt Subaru's
breathing.
While he had been tossed to a spot with heavy pilings of fallen leaves, that did not mean they
absorbed the entirety of the impact.
With numbness running all the way down to his toes, the gasping Subaru cannot stand up.
Otto: “Well I'd suppose we'd call the attempt at slyness typical of you, Natsuki-san. Although it
didn't work against me, who had been anticipating it.”
Subaru: “...khh, ghhau,”
Otto: “See, Natsuki-san. This is what your strength amounts to. You'll never achieve to the level of
the Knights, or Roswaal-sama, or especially not Garfiel. Even against me, here is what you have.”
Otto shakes his head in astonishment, his words piercing Subaru as he frantically parcels oxygen
into his convulsing lungs.
Otto walks over to the side of Subaru—who is without capacity to voice rebuttal—where he squats
down, and draws his face near.
Otto: “Picking fights with the White Whale and the Witch Cult is ridiculous. You're weak, and the
best you can manage in a straight fight is being snapped dead by a single finger. You surely
understand this.”
Subaru: “—”
Otto: “So, do you mean to compensate for your lack of strength with wits? From what I've seen,
you do look to have a wiliness to you, but... assuredly no decision-making ability or intelligence
notably above average. Even your common knowledge is lacking.”
Irritation comes interspersed with ragged breaths as Subaru fails to understand what Otto is trying
to say.
The convulsing of his lungs, shock of being punched, and pain to his brow and cheek have slightly
faded. Instead what comes alongside his returned calm is a lack of understanding behind the
intention of Otto's piling words.
Otto: “Your strength and wits are lacking, so if we're to assume you have something else to
compensate for this... well, there isn't really anything. You're small, your reach is short, you are the
53
kind of person you could find anywhere. That kind of person, and yet you still desire incredibly for
disproportionately great things.”
Subaru: “Wh-at've... you been, saying, this whole?”
Otto: “You know you're lacking and incapable, and so what do you come up with as your secondary
plan, well it's to corner yourself further, whittling yourself down in an attempt to withdraw
something that isn't there... I finally understand how Patrasche-chan felt.”
Subaru: “Patrasche?”
Subaru's eyes widen in surprise.

Patrasche. That black dragon was a steed wasted on Subaru, who had even gotten herself wounded
to save her master from a terrible dilemma, a benefactor who had taught him an important lesson.
Otto sticks his fingers in his grey hair, his voice annoyed, and barbed.
Otto: “So, here you see,”
Otto: “Wearing pretensions around the girl you love is plenty well enough. I think that a necessary
pretence, and will respect that. That you'd want to speak of words and things which don't match to
your calibre is I suppose inevitable. That much I will overlook.”
Emilia. Subaru's attitude, toward Emilia.
Otto: “And I'll pardon you wearing pretensions for the girl who loves you. Again it's necessary. In a
relationship of liking to loving, I believe the loved too carries a responsibility. Showing off with
pretensions for the sake of who loves you is important. I will pardon it.”
Rem. Once, Subaru had told Otto this exact same thing. That he was showing off around Rem.
Because she loves him.
Otto: “But you see, that's where you stop.”
Otto juts his face closer.

Subaru shrinks up his shoulders in anticipation of another headbutt. Practically snarling, Otto,
Otto: “You know that you're lacking. You know that you're incapable. You want to show off to the
girl you like. You want to be someone that the girl who likes you can boast about.”
Subaru: “—”
Otto: “So then, if it's just to compensate for the things invisible to these girls, to these people, then
how about enlisting some help? —Say, from a friend?”
Pulling his face away, Otto communicates his final statement with his palm placed to his chest.
Subaru gives a tiny sigh.
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Subaru honestly had conceived this.

He assuredly had considered clinging, relying on somebody in that fashion. Of course he had. Otto
was exactly correct—Subaru was aware that he was weak and lacking. He was not conceited
enough, and did not appraise himself kindly enough, to regard himself capable of absolutely
everything on his own.
Had he not made efforts, seeking Echidna and Roswaal's collaboration to compensate for the things
he lacked?
And what happened was that far from gaining their cooperation, he learned truths he didn't want to
know and was wounded further.
He had already attempted this solution of Otto's. Otto's complaints were misdirected. This route had
already been closed off.
Subaru: “—Hah.”
Otto: “Is there something so funny?”
With his heart reaching this dry conclusion, the same dryness take shape in his cheeks. Seeing Otto
scrunch his brows in discomfort, Subaru's red and swelling face catches Otto in its perception.
Subaru: “Your misaimed ideas are wrong. ...It's not that I haven't relied on anyone. I've already tried
everything I could think of that might work. ...I tried relying on those who I trusted I could, and
then...”
His hopes betrayed, but nevertheless unable to surrender, himself left with only clueless frustration.
And to top it off Emilia rejected his ideas of needing to save and protect her, and he realised that he
had been belittling Emilia as A WEAK PERSON WHO NEEDS MY PROTECTION.
Having experienced many things, met many people, said flashy lines, barked that he would do
something, rejected resolve to die and instead resolved to live, presented himself as having moved
on somewhat, ultimately Subaru had not moved even a single step backwards or forwards.
He could not find a single means to alter this deadlock.
Depleted even of dry smiles, Subaru's cheeks cover with a cold, stiff expression.
Otto's lips quiver at Subaru's silent bewailing.
Otto: “...But, Natsuki-san, I don't recollect you ever relying on me yet.”
Subaru: “—”
Otto: “I don't merit relying upon, or it'd be pointless... that's the fashion you've dismissed me. Or
otherwise, from your perspective... I give the impression that you have to protect me, a target.”
That he attempts to suppress the emotion in his shaking voice conversely makes the emotion
cacophonous.
This was a glimpse of Otto's rage, sorrow, of intense emotions lacking any outlet.
Touched by the wake of Otto's overflowing emotion, Subaru realises that his words have
unintentionally hurt him, and he immediately shakes his head.
55
Subaru: “No, wrong.”
Otto: “Well, what am I wrong about? It'd be strange if I was wrong. If I was, then what reason is
there for you to shrink back by yourself without saying anything?”
Subaru: “That I didn't... communicate you anything, wasn't because I didn't trust you. You're wrong
about that.”
Otto: “—”
Shaking his head, Subaru's gaze wanders about as Otto says nothing.
His green eyes simply stare, fixedly at Subaru.
Overwhelmed by the gaze and so lowering his eyes, Subaru muddies his words as he puts his hand
to his forehead.
It wasn't that he didn't have faith in Otto. Otto had staked his life to protect Subaru during these
loops, and Subaru was sincerely grateful for his niceness in associating with him in this money-
unrelated situation. That he considered him a friend was not a lie.
But how to reveal the truth of his situation to Otto?

If only he were like Echidna or Roswaal, people to whom Subaru's situation would communicate.
While he may have to evade any statements that would trigger the taboo, Subaru could at least
manage conversation about it with them.
But not Otto. Otto is not that. Not Emilia, nor Ram, nor the other main players in SANCTUARY knew
a single thing about Subaru's situation.
Subaru cannot explain the predicament he's in without mentioning the witches and RETURN BY
DEATH. Even should he communicate what will happen, and that there were attacks coming from
the Sizeable Hare and on the mansion, he could not in the slightest demonstrate how he attained that
information or on what basis he claimed it.
What should he say in this situation to get someone to believe him? Could he even hope for such a
thing?
He knew he wasn't strong enough, wasn't smart enough, and was weak.
And so ultimately Subaru needed to gain the aid of others to achieve his wishes. His role was to
construct the route to attain those necessary collaborators.
But he failed to fulfil that necessary role, and come to a standstill.
Subaru: “I can't explain any of it well. My head's a mess... you were right, it's a complete jumble
and nothing is... no explanation I give can be logical.”
Otto says nothing.
Subaru: “It's all entirely stuff where you wouldn't believe it even if I told you... just how to talk
about it... and so it's, not to you or anybody, nothing...”
56
Otto: “...Please try saying it.”
Subaru: “—Whuh?”
Subaru reflexively raises his head. Otto looks down at him, arms crossed.
Otto: “I said, please try saying it. Even if it's illogical, stuttering and disorderly, and your head's
such a mess that you can't tell it coherently, I'll listen to the end without any quits.”
Subaru: “No, but, that...”
Otto: “There... that! I told you to stop with that pretension!”
Yells Otto as he kicks at the ground, entirely out of patience.

Subaru's eyes widen at the abrupt shouting. Otto jabs his finger at him.
Otto: “If you've got the time to brood over these annoying points of lacking evidence to prompt
trust, or lacking any basis of believability, or being unable to speak according to logic, then don't
you think spewing and confessing everything in your head to be far more constructive than
shrinking back!”
Subaru: “But even, saying that... I! I don't, for making you believe this mishmash...”
Otto: “—State the mishmash! Then all you have to do is yell BELIEVE ME! at the end! Because we're
friends!”
—The insides of his head, and all of the cluttered and tangled emotions in him, feel to have been
blast away by Otto's scream.
Otto's statements are quite lacking in any real basis, and logically speaking have not a speck of
persuasiveness to them.
Nevertheless, they are more than enough to give a push to the back of a motionless and stuck
Subaru.
Subaru: “You might, not be able to believe all this, but...”
It does not take him that much time to voice the problems he had harboured in solitude.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “And from there, Roswaal's gotten a hit man to attack the mansion... and there he's trying to
corner me and Emilia so we have nowhere to run... basically.”
While terrified of the arm's potential appearance and paying utmost caution to it, Subaru finishes
explaining his situation.
Otto had silently listened to Subaru the entire time without any interjection, his brow crinkled.
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Subaru: “The information I've got right now's... or I mean it's really not that exact, but anyway that's
all of it. Hiding nothing, all of it.”
The stuff about the witches' tea party and RETURN BY DEATH is of course not included.
Since his speech was entirely devoid of that stuff, his story definitely sits on patchy bases. To the
point that even he himself had started feeling sick while talking, with how weak the links between
his information was.
He is on edge for what Otto's reaction will be. How would the Otto who asserted 'you just have to
add a Believe Me! on the end' judge this story?
Otto: “Natsuki-san...”
Following a long silence, Otto unfolds his arms as he looks at Subaru. Seeing himself reflected in
Otto's green eyes, Subaru unwittingly swallows his breath.
What would Otto's first statement be? The beat of his heart thumps with horrific noise.
To the tense Subaru, Otto speaks.
Otto: “There's no way I can pretend I didn't hear this and run away now, is there?”
Subaru: “Wha—ahhuh!?”
Subaru yelps as he gets this extraordinary off-kilter reply. But Otto yells over Subaru's surprise.
Otto: “After all!”
Otto: “We're trapped in a place with the Sizeable Hare approaching, to escape we have to rely on
Emilia and her questionable capabilities of defeating the TRIAL, if we at least try to evacuate the
people who won't trigger the barrier we get impeded by Mr. Clueless, and if we do reach the
mansion we'll find that an assassin is visiting on the Lord of the Manor's orders... just what is this
situation!?”
Subaru: “That's what I wanna know!! Why do I have to be herded into this stupid, ridiculous thing!
I mean I already knew it, but does God just actually hate me! Well I hate him too!!”
Supposing there existed a God of Fate, then unmistakably that god hated Subaru. The idea that they
weren't trying to do anything detestable was absurd.
But cursing the god for it would not bring any advancement or back-pedalling or change or
difficulty drops to this situation. And before getting to all that,
Subaru: “Hold on, Otto. I mean I get wanting to flip out like that, but... you believe this insane, no-
grounds story?”
Otto: “—”
Subaru: “A super-annoying witchbeast's closing in, we need Emilia for escaping, Garfiel'll interrupt
58
everyone's escape, Roswaal's fucking double-crossing us thanks to his whatever-the-hell ideas....

you believe this story?”
Saying it himself, it really sounds like an aggregation of inconvenient situations.

The big problems are the parts about the Hare's attack and Roswaal being the mastermind behind
the assault on the mansion, which lack any explanatory bases. Those two are the ones which are
life-threatening, and Subaru entirely lacks any evidence to persuade others into believing them.
How did you divine potents of the coming Sizeable Hare, a piece of information that anyone in the
world would want?
How could Roswaal be operating in plots that would disadvantage Emilia, his ally in the Royal
Selection?
Subaru could give no explanation for either.
Otto: “Natsuki-san.”
After of period of silence with his eyes closed, Otto answers Subaru's question.
He raises a finger.
Otto: “Up until now, I've ventured around quite a few locales, and although I may be me I have had
interactions with rather many people.”
Subaru: “...Can tell if someone's trustworthy by looking in their eyes, or something?”
Otto: “No, I don't adhere to that superstition. When you're a merchant, you'll come to learn very
well over your experiences that people are beings who can deceive and ruin others without any fog
in their gaze at all. I do have some amount of experience with that.”
Although bragging about it, wouldn't this mean he's been tricked enough times to be able to? Unable
to throw in the teasing when it's partway through an important discussion, Subaru keeps his mouth
shut as Otto continues.
Otto: “So there's how I met various people, and did my breed of business negotiations. It's been
about four years since I left my home to begin merchanting, and although through both good and
bad I've managed to survive.”
While Otto's tone as he speaks about it is rather light, most likely the time was not an easy one for
him.
He must have been in countless life-or-death situations.
This was a world where just crossing a meadow had one liable to encounter the White Whale, and
so Subaru could imagine the various perils a travelling merchant would face. Wild dogs, robbers,
those kinds of threats too.
Otto: “Through those days I lived as a decent merchant... And I'm confident that I have always
opted for the choices I could calculate as more likely being the successful. That didn't mean they
always produced results, but... or really, it was more that the side I had thought the winner would
afterwards be an incredible disaster, and so there were no results...”
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Subaru: “Hey...”
Otto: “Leaving aside whether the outcomes were good or bad, I've intended to pick my choices in a
way where I would not regret the decision itself. Since I believe it necessary to know clearly what it
is I'm staking, and what it is I'm wagering.”
While Subaru can't tell just what Otto's criteria for making choices is based upon, he can at least
figure that he has always elected for the option which his calculations found more probable as being
successful.
That he accompanied Subaru to SANCTUARY, seeking to make connection with Roswaal, was
entirely because he wanted to leave an impression on Roswaal, considering what effects that would
have for his future. On that front Otto behaved very well as a realist.
And so Subaru's thoughts were that Otto heeding his words, baseless and without hope of success,
would—
Otto: “And so this is a first, Natsuki-san.”
Confused at what he's hearing, Subaru's mouth drops open as he looks at Otto.
With a stupidly cheery expression—
Otto: “For acting with disregard to chances of success, and so opting for the choice with no visible
hope of winning, this is a first.”
—Otto asserts.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
His legs speed on. His breath runs out.

Pursuing his heart as it outspeeds him over the meadow, impatient, Subaru's body cases in wind.
Slicing through the cool morning air, giving great swings of his arms, Subaru runs step after giant
step.
He kicks off on the dirt, steps on the stones, dashing perfectly straight along the shoddy path.
What eventually cuts into the sprinting Subaru's vision is his destined building.
His cheeks twist with unwitting exhilaration, unveiling his teeth. His tongue hanging out his mouth
like a dog's, breathing ragged, Subaru bounds forward as he shoves his arm for the building's
entrance.
And,
Subaru: “—Roswaal!”
Belting the door open, Subaru tumbles into the building. He steps over the entryway, dashes through
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the lounge connected to the living room, and shoves the flimsy door open with a force liable to
break it.
Inside is Roswaal, upright on the bed, with Ram caring for him professionally. Subaru sights the
surprise flashing over both of their faces.
Getting such an unguarded reaction from the always-untouchable Roswaal and always-apathetic
and brazen Ram together was rare.
A good omen for the present, where he was attempting something he never had before.
Linking their surprise to thoughts of good fortune, Subaru jabs his finger at the yet-wordless master
and servant.
Subaru: “—Let's make a bet. Between you and me, with a wish as the chip.”
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CHAPTER 87: ONI OUT, CLOWNS IN

Two surprised gazes land on the out-of-breath, just-barged-in Subaru.
Both of these people were ones Subaru considered entirely unrelated to the concept of 'looking
surprised'. Feeling some satisfaction at their reactions, the wicked smile on Subaru's face intensifies.
Roswaal: “—A bet?”
Mutters Roswaal on the bed as he narrows his odd-coloured eyes.

His face with its supposed clown make-up is presently devoid of any paint, and bare. This was the
plain face of Roswaal, which Subaru had only seen once before during any loop series.
The skin beneath his white cosmetics is pallid. Without his eyeliner his looks give a homespun
rather than sharp vibe, the impression incredibly and excessively different from what Roswaal
himself puts out. His face—which when wearing makeup appears that of someone calculating and
shady—transforms swiftly into that of a fine young lad, just by ditching the paint.
Handsome's handsome without needing anything, is how Subaru internally appraises the bare face
as he gives Roswaal's mutter a nod.
Subaru: “Yeah, a bet. You and me, staking a wish... a real one-shot make-or-break.”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru raises his finger as he magnificently states his line. Roswaal's expression is one of careful
scrutiny over the proposal. But before he can say anything, a silhouette cuts into the space between
them—it's the pink-haired maid, Ram.
Roswaal to her back, Ram's gaze as she faces Subaru is severe. While Ram's looks toward Subaru
are usually sharp, and she is always ready to scold him should there be opportunity, that does not
compare at all to her eyes in this moment.
Ram: “Hold, Barusu. You come barging into the room, and just when we wonder what you're going
to say... do you mean to burden Roswaal-sama in his convalescence? Surely disrespect in the
utmost.”
Subaru: “Considering his actual situation, injury or sickness's a pretty weak reason to be easing up
on him. And that's all unrelated to his looseness of tongue or blackness of spirit... I'm gonna be
having him push himself for a sec.”
Ram: “Barusu—”
Subaru: “And I'm gonna be doing it no matter what anyone says!”
Ram's eyes host a blend of irritation and dangerousness. But before she can act, Subaru takes the
initiative by giving the floor a big, loud stomp. He points at Ram, who halts in caution.
Subaru: “I've got no reason to stop or need to hesitate. We had enough of a thing between us for at
least this much, Roswaal.”
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Roswaal: “—Hrm.”
Subaru: “Or is some straying from your diary all it takes for you to sulk and your motivation to
shoot to zero? Where's your backbone to get a little bit crazy for your coming selves?”
Roswaal: “...An intriguing statement. My coming selves, hm.”
Subaru chooses his words so that they will communicate to Roswaal without directly touching on
the topic of RETURN BY DEATH. Ram's brows furrow in confusion, but Roswaal does look to
comprehend.
A slight vigour returns to his lifeless face.
Roswaal: “Ram. Stand down. ...No, raaaaaaather, could you excuse yourself outside for a moment?”
Ram: “...Yes, but, Roswaal-sama.”
Roswaal: “Nothing to worry, nothing to worry. Subaru-kun isn't thoughtless enough to suddenly
start attacking just beeeeeeeecause we're alone. And it would be very easy to defeat him anyway.
Yeeeeeees?”
Subaru: “Yeah, pathetic as it is. If we got into strength-wise combat, I'm not confident I could even
pull him off the bed.”
Ram's cheeks twist in tooth-grinding frustration as Subaru gives his assent, waving his empty hands
about. She again sends Roswaal her gaze, gloomy.
Ram: “—I request you might abstain from anything that may encumber you.”
After a dignified curtsey, she heads for the exit of the room. She sends Subaru a glance just before
passing him by.
Ram: “—There'll be no concessions should anything happen to Roswaal-sama.”
Subaru: “Rather you worry more about him pulling something in his self-destructive fit.”
Seeing Ram off with a shrug, Subaru watches the door shut before turning back to face Roswaal.
Roswaal's expression remains thoughtful as he closes one eye, catching Subaru in the gaze of the
yellow.
Roswaal: “Again your expression looks cooooooonsiderably different from what it was at parting
laaaaaaaaaast night. Has some mental shift occurred in only these few hours?”
Subaru: “Mental shift, 's I guess not wrong. Got a lecture, had a punchout, and then friendship... or
really no it was too one-sided to be a punchout and felt more like having a re-realization.”
Touching the cheek that Otto punched, Subaru thinks back on the still-faintly-red happening from
this morning.
Despite his delicate frame, Otto is surprisingly strong. Probably came from a difference in the
63
number of dilemmas he's been through compared to Subaru. Subaru had gotten in quite a few
confrontations since coming to this world, but apparently he hasn't caught up yet.
Subaru: “Seriously though what a vicious world...”
Roswaal: “Really now, is it. Weeeeeell, we had just confirmed yesterday as well that I hadn't
cornered you enough, buuuuuuut it seems no mistake to judge that your comeback was swift.”
Subaru: “Still at my absolute limit though. ...Just doing everything I can.”
It feels like Otto's words and fists have slapped his warped willpower back straight.
And used a horrifically graceless, simple method to do it. Having a friend punch you back on track
was incredibly babyish, and if it had happened to someone else then Subaru definitely would've
poked fun at them for it.
Subaru: “But I don't think it was bad. Getting a buddy's help when the stalemate looks about
hopeless and figuring things out feels good.”
Roswaal: “Naive. Young, immature. ...Ultimately you can only solve the suffering of this world by
yourself. These nerveless ideas about relying on friends are unneeded for you.”
Subaru: “Relying on friends, relying on ties, relying on feelings... not gonna work out, huh?”
Roswaal: “Wooooon't work at all.”
Subaru: “Really. —Well then, all we can do now is challenge each other.”
Roswaal's expression shifts. Subaru approaches Roswaal on the bed, stepping forth as he clicks his
fingers, and points the clicked finger at Roswaal.
Subaru: “As said, let's make a bet. The chip is a wish, the table is a one-round limit.”
Roswaal: “Let's listen toooooooo what there is to hear.”
Confirming that Roswaal is not outright rejecting the proposal, Subaru aims his outstretched finger
to the ceiling as he proofs the prerequisites.
Subaru: “On this attempt, I won't be acting in accord with your hopes. And that's not limited to just
now, I'm not intending to accord on following attempts either, but... even saying I keep insisting
that, it's just a parallel line between me and you. So let's establish a limit.”
Roswaal: “A limit?”
Subaru nods.
Subaru: “Yeah.”
He wets his lips with his tongue, glaring Roswaal straight in the eye.
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Subaru: “On this attempt I'll bust through things using my way. And if it looks to be a bungle... from
next time onwards I'll act the way you want me to. That's the limit.”
Roswaal: “—You're dismissing the privileges of your ability to redo?”
Subaru: “You said it yourself. Your methods for cornering me weren't enough. I agree. —The
consequences of getting cocky about redoing was that debacle.”
Though of course he has no intention to entirely disown the concept.

What could Natsuki Subaru manage in this cruel world without RETURN BY DEATH? He had no
intention to invalidate the boons he had gained through RETURN BY DEATH, and nor to be shameless
about them.
But his thought process had changed. He'd do whatever he could, and if that ended in a RETURN BY
DEATH then he would begrudgingly accept it. But if that was not the case, and he was dying before
he lived to his full, then—
Subaru: “That's heresy against those who'd cry for me. I'm not doing that any more.”
Roswaal: “And that's what you're limiting yourself for... iiiiiis it. While I hadn't asked for it, it is a
favourable condition fooooooor me, but where is your guarantee that you will abide by this?
Subaru: “So, a guarantee.”
Roswaal: “Yes, a guarantee. Those are veeeeeeery important. Aaaaaaafter all, you with your ability
to redo can make it so that this promise neeeeeeeever happened. You fail, reset to return to last
night, deeeeeeejectedly decide to attempt another method...”
Subaru: “Roswaal.”
Subaru quietly calls the name of the anxiety-speaking Roswaal.

His statements cut off and faced with Subaru's gaze, Roswaal's eyes widen slightly. Subaru
continues, his tone of voice the same.
Subaru: “Do you think I'd do that?”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru: “If you do, then... this talk isn't going to happen. That's all.”
Roswaal narrows his eyes. Then lightly raises his hands, sighing.
Roswaal: “No, nooooo,”
Roswaal: “Let's heeeeeeeear the rest of it. I can decide at the end.”
Subaru: “...Please. But like I said before, we'll set a limit. I'll put everything I have into this attempt.
If it doesn't work out then I'll do things the way you say to. Since either way... if this method doesn't
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work, I doubt there's anything left.”
Roswaal: “You're confident, is not the case here. But you are resolved. ...Weeeeell then, I will have
to answer to that. Now, you're establishing a cutoff, and stating that this attempt is the last. So what
could it be you're demanding frooooooom me, then?”
Roswaal's tone is beginning to return to normal.

With these negotiations, exchanges, mutual agreement to ideas going on, Subaru claps his hands.
Subaru: “My demand's simple. Supposing hypothetically that on this attempt my methods break the
deadlock, the consequent future will differ from your desires. In that case you'll probably lose will to
live in a world differing from your gospel, but... there'll be none of that.”
Roswaal: “None of that, refers to me losing my determination? Hoooooowever, I'm forced to say
that that is a difficult demand. While of course I likely could manage a superficial faaaaaaacade, in
my truest thoughts I would...”
Subaru: “But whatever, Roswaal. It's not like I want us to always be as enemies.”
Roswaal: “—Hn?”
Roswaal tilts his head, confused by Subaru's statement.

Subaru rubs his finger against his nose in response.
Subaru: “I know that you'd hate the future to differ from the gospel, and veer from the route for the
future you decided. But even saying the future varies from the gospel, I'll still be bustling on all I
want to make Emilia Ruler. And I'll definitely be relying on the power to redo. —Who cares about
the route getting there, the ultimate results won't deviate from your goals.”
Roswaal falls silent.
Subaru: “My demand's simple, Roswaal. If I open a path to a continuing future which differs from
the gospel... then you throw the gospel away and come with me. I'm making Emilia Ruler. I need
your help for that.”
No matter what unforgivable deeds Roswaal sullies his hands with, his aid is necessary for Emilia's
goals. Subaru himself still did harbour a lack of understanding, a lack of comprehension, and a
disgust for him. Should things be left as they are on this timeline, then his machinations will
conclude to an irreparable aftermath. —But Subaru himself would snuff that conclusion, and avoid
a definitive divide.
Roswaal sighs a long, deep sigh.

Eyes closed in thought as he strokes his chin, Roswaal's lips part slowly.
Roswaal: “That's the ultimate compromise you're looking for... I see, then.”
Subaru: “It's a pretty convenient thing though. But y'know, me, I love convenient things. Emilia
puts in all her efforts and becomes Ruler, I celebrate that from beside her, and so now you come join
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us as one of the crowd included.”
Roswaal: “This is a difficult proposition for me, when I have kept to one method for a long,
loooooooong time. If you're to get me to act, theeeeeeen... that would necessitate strict conditions,
yes?”
Subaru: “Yeah, does.”
Roswaal shuts one eye. Subaru gives him a nod as he raises two of his fingers.
Sensing that Roswaal's attention has focused on the tips of those two fingers, Subaru gives one of
them a light flick.
Subaru: “There's two conditions. Two conditions you said were impossible, never happening. Once
I clear those conditions, I'm winner of the bet.”
Roswaal: “And should the conditions remain unfulfilled, the victory is mine. I will have you discard
your humanity.”
As he speaks in low, heavy tone, Roswaal watches Subaru with both eyes. Nodding, and in the path
of Roswaal's gaze, Subaru grits his teeth once before slicing right to the topic.
Subaru: “First condition. —I make Garfiel an ally, and bring him outside.”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru: “You said it's never gonna happen that SANCTUARY-obsessed Garfiel is gonna come
outside. I agree. Agree, but... we need his strength, for the future too. And also out of consideration
for the people of SANCTUARY, we can't just leave them with an impossible, tantruming kid. In the
persuasion of Garfiel which you proclaimed isn't gonna happen, I am going to succeed.”
Roswaal: “—The second?”
The instant he hears the first condition, a darkness passes through the depths of Roswaal's eyes.
But Subaru goes without mentioning it as he nods to Roswaal.
Subaru: “—I'm gonna have Emilia beat the TRIAL. The one to overcome the tomb's TRIAL and free
SANCTUARY will be Emilia. Not me.”
Roswaal: “That is impossible!”
Yelling, Roswaal strikes his palm against the bed.

The thud rings out, Roswaal's visage twisted in rage. He squares his shoulders angrily, jabbing his
finger at Subaru.
Roswaal: “I informed you yesterday. That thing is incapable of beating the TRIAL. And it is not
possible that Garfiel would abandon his obsession for SANCTUARY, either!”
Subaru: “Won't know that until I try it.”
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Roswaal: “Exactly, you would not know that until you tried it. And is it not exactly because you
have repeated that numerous times over that you came to me so entirely overwhelmed!? Your visage
then, and your very resolve now, is the proof that those two do not merit any hope!”
Says Roswaal, practically yelling, his shoulders heaving up and down. While he takes ragged breath
after ragged breath, it is Subaru whose expression remains calm.
Subaru: “Well isn't that some fucking spirited anger.”
Roswaal: “What?”
Subaru: “It's to your advantage that the conditions on me are strict. Makes no sense to start getting
pissed about their harshness.”
Roswaal: “This is a discussion on a different dimension, of the potential realization of the bet.
When it is not handicaps but in fact propriety which is questionable, the very outcomes of the bet
are liable to ruin. It's natural that I would be cautious.”
Roswaal is untrustworthy of these conditions which are too disadvantageous to Subaru, and too
advantageous to himself. But Subaru's cheeks twist at Roswaal's reaction. To deepen his wicked,
wicked grin.
Subaru: “Roswaal, looks like you don't get it.”
Subaru: “I'm too disadvantaged? Well yeah, glancing over them they definitely are harsh conditions.
Only with this much can you save face about having to revise your masterplan, is a thought I've
been thinking. Is, but this is still about something else.”
And with the smile still on his face,
Subaru: “You're who said it, Roswaal.”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru: “When I'm cornered, I'm the strongest card. —It isn't in the shape you want, but you're
talking to the strongest card without a doubt. Still unsatisfied?”
States Subaru definitively. Roswaal is silent.

He simply stares fixedly at Subaru, getting his breaths back in order. And once his breathing has
calmed down, Roswaal raises his finger.
Roswaal: “—Contract.”
Subaru: “—”
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Roswaal: “Fair enough. We'll have me aaaaaaaaccept these conditions you've presented. —The
liberation of Garfiel from his curse, and Emilia-sama's liberation of SANCTUARY. Once both of these
have occurred, I will discard my plan, and travel the path you construct. Let us form a contract for
this purpose.”
A dim light flickers atop Roswaal's raised finger.

The rainbow-coloured concentration of mana highly resembles the light Julius used in destroying
Betelgeux, which was a combination of multiple classes of magic.
Roswaal: “Through our gates, we will carve the contract into our souls. No matter who you may
deceive, you cannot deceive your own heart. —The contract engraved in our souls will persist over
distance, over time, even over worlds. It will likely have effect against your resets, too.”
Subaru: “What, has to be something you can do about them. ...But, eh, convenient for me, doing
this. We're both bound by contract, and it saves me time beating the tantrum out of you when you
lose the bet.”
Roswaal: “It doesn't appear that you're regarding this lightly... but, very well.”
Roswaal does not say much about Subaru's willingness to accept the contract.
The gleam on his finger moves to contact the centre of Subaru's chest, and then comes the sensation
of something seeping into his body. Immediately, a wave pulses out from inside him, as if opening
all the pores down his body. He exhales.
Subaru: “Au, hauhh—”
Roswaal: “Identically, I will engrave it on my soul. —Once Natsuki Subaru's contract has been
fulfilled, Roswaal L. Mathers' contract shall also be fulfilled.”
The rainbow light bursts identically on Roswaal's chest.

For an instant the glow permeates down Roswaal's whole body, him returning to normal in the
space of a blink.
Subaru: “Is that the end?”
Roswaal: “That is the end. ...There's no rescinding it now.”
Confirming their mutual inability to flee, Subaru gives a small gulp.

Roswaal puts his hand to his chest.
Roswaal: “Just as you shall invest your greatest efforts into fulfilling your conditions, I will be
acting to actualize the gospel's writ. You won't fault me for that, will you?”
Subaru: “—The snowfall in five days is happening again.”
Roswaal: “...If Emilia-sama does not bring the snowfall, it will likely turn out thaaaaaaat I will be
doing it.”
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Meaning the time limit is set.

The Sizeable Hare will attack in five days' time. Emilia needs to liberate SANCTUARY, and Subaru
needs to liberate Garfiel from his curse, before then.
Subaru: “And with that, time is precious. I'm off getting started now.”
Roswaal: “Subaru-kun.”
Subaru moves away from the bed to immediately start his activities, when Roswaal calls him.
Subaru glances back. Roswaal averts his gaze somewhat.
Roswaal: “The mansion is the same day. —I'll be praying for your good fight.”
Subaru: “Because if I try my very hardest and fail, next time I'll probably act exactly how you want
me to... right?”
Roswaal: “—”
Roswaal answers to Subaru's reply with silence.

After giving him a wry smile, Subaru finishes off by pointing at Roswaal.
Subaru: “Roswaal, it's throwing your vibe off so put the clown makeup back on.”
Roswaal: “Hrm, actually... this would be the first time I've spoken to you without cosmetics.”
Subaru: “In this universe, yeah.”
Subaru can tell that Roswaal's eyes widen at this insinuation.

Feeling Roswaal's reaction at his back, Subaru starts walking.
Subaru: “This's a match between me and you. A couple of clowns tossed around by fate—let's have
us doing it fair and square.”
With those words, he leaves the room.

The conditions of the bet are in place. —And so, here is where it begins.
Natsuki Subaru's final challenge, with SANCTUARY's freedom as the wager.
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CHAPTER 88: GARFIEL'S INTENTIONS

Otto: “So, did you successfully manage to have a contract tied?”
After speaking with Roswaal and leaving the building, Subaru takes a little walk to reunite with
Otto. The two are now in a corner of the cathedral, reporting their respective results to each other.
Subaru gives Otto's question a nod.
Subaru: “Yeah, went good. Was worried about the chance he'd be perfectly moody and not agree to
the bet, but... think the unfavourable conditions on me got us through that.”
Otto: “Probably they did. When you get challenged to a contest that one-sided in favour to you...
and on top of that, even have a blueprint to tell you that you won't lose, it'd be insane to withdraw.”
Something something although of course I had considered the chance that your silver tongue would
be too silver and a contract wouldn't develop.
Subaru: “You say that, but... you entirely believed a contract would happen, yeah?”
Otto: “Indeed, I did.”
Otto crosses his arms as he affirms Subaru's statement, as if this is all very normal. Otto's deeds
were, albeit a temporary one, something of a beguiling of Roswaal. Subaru's eyes widen.
Otto smiles wryly at Subaru.
Otto: “Merchants use written letters when forming agreements which include more conditions than
the standard, but... adept magicians often use contracts. And when the other party is the leading
magic representative of the country... I figured it overwhelmingly probable that it would draw him.”
Subaru: “By the way so contracts, is it possible to sneak unrelated details into them? Like this's
what Roswaal said, but actually he tied me into a different contract.”
If hypothetically saying this is the case, then Subaru has no means to confirm it.
It had been a contract to alter the team's future situation, dictated by the outcome of the bet, but
supposing now it's a contract saying 'keep breathing and you die the next day'—or so on, Subaru
wouldn't know.
Subaru shudders at his own imaginings, but Otto just gives a wave of his hand.
Otto: “They're such a thing where those deceptions would be rendered ineffective. Margrave
Roswaal must have mentioned it when he tied the contract? That they're etched into your soul.
Contracts actualize only once the parties mutually agree to it, and their understandings of the terms
align. Unless there was some considerable glibness involved, he wouldn't have tied you into a
contract diverging from your recognitions.”
Subaru: “I'm hearing something that implies there's an exception if you get tricked with cunning
wordplay.”
Otto: “...This would best be kept between us, but apparently before legislations came in place, and
the world was generally in a more haphazard time, swindlers who utilized contracts were very
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prevalent. Should the fraudster be a minor rogue that would be no problem, but if an unpleasant and
powerful magician focused in on you, I wouldn't want to even imagine the damages.”
Otto shrinks his shoulders up in fear, Subaru too shrinking his shoulders in agreement.
Roswaal was most likely fine as contract partner. While he definitely is unpleasant and powerful,
the only outright pure evil to him is his methods and his obsession with his goal. It was safe to think
he lacked any intention to abuse the contract and definitively cut all friendly ties with Subaru.
Hypothetically assuming that Roswaal did mislead Subaru—Subaru would wholeheartedly utilize
his privilege to repeat events to entirely break, annihilate, and destroy Roswaal's mind.
Subaru wanted to place the bare minimum of trust in him, that that wouldn't happen, for both of
their sakes.
Subaru: “Anyway, so that's how my side went, how'd you go?”
Otto: “How, is really the question. I honestly have to tell you that it's difficult to say whether I got
any response. Since we're near gambling about some parts. ...I doubt there will be especially many
opportunities for it, either.”
Otto, who had been preforming a different duty while Subaru was negotiating with Roswaal, does
not wear a bright expression. Indeed, the things Subaru requested of Otto are much more likely to
fail than succeed, and include very much of a gamble. But if they could pull it off, it would draw
them remarkably closer to their win conditions.
Unclear how many chances they have left for it within this five-day space, though.
Subaru: “We'll keep an eye on how things're going for that, then. So then I guess we're stuck again
with having to do something in this time limit.”
Otto: “What's more urgent is Emilia-sama and Garfiel. Notably for having Emilia-sama defeat the
TRIAL, where I can't offer any help. It's not impossible to assess it as being dependant on you,
Natsuki-san.”
Subaru: “Yeah. ...I do respect her want to do it by herself, and well now that I've lost my
qualifications I can't do it for her.”
But regardless, even saying that Emilia keeps challenging the TRIAL as she has been, her chances of
clearing it by the fifth day are inevitably looking poor. Emilia's mind should remain unbroken so
long as Subaru stays in SANCTUARY, but they won't be able to avoid her abrading as she fails the
TRIAL.
She needs to have some kind of change—and Subaru needs to be the one to initiate it.
Subaru: “—It's an enough's enough, we need to seriously face each other.”
Otto says nothing.
Subaru: “This here's the payback for a lot of things. I think I've run away, because I didn't want to
ask and recognize there's implacable things between me and Emilia. I took advantage of how Emilia
won't say anything, and she's definitely taking advantage of how I haven't been trying to ask her.”
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Otto: “—I believe it important to mutually speak and tell of what is in your hearts. If I had only ever
associated with the jolly you, Natsuki-san, I wouldn't know what would be coming in five days'
time.”
Says Otto consolingly, to which Subaru scratches his cheek in silent gratitude. That he's thoughtful
enough not to scold weak Subaru for continuously avoiding the issue does make Subaru rather
happy.
Otto: “Or actually, what exactly is this all liking and loving when you haven't even addressed each
other to this extent, it's absurd. Would you like to please stop affecting immaculate emotional
purity?”
Subaru: “—Y'know, you're...”
Their mutual embarrassment wins out as Otto quickly starts with the teasing, to which Subaru
frowns. That he doesn't retort is because Otto is correct.
Subaru's fundamentally good-for-nothing character had invited this outcome, where various places
are just one step away from where they need to be.
But that's gone far enough, time to stop running.
Subaru: “It'll be kinda improv but I'll try being open with Emilia. Since I don't think things I've
already done are things I can't do.”
Otto: “...Well, I'll be trusting in your judgement, Natsuki-san. Though of course I would prefer not
to do anything like stay inside SANCTUARY until the fifth day, when the Sizeable Hare will come.”
Although looking like he wants to say something in reply to Subaru's statement, Otto ultimately
clams up and averts his gaze.
Otto: “Now, getting to the other one,”
Says Otto, changing the topic.
Otto: “What would your ideas be for Garfiel?”
Subaru: “The hint's he's afraid of the outside. I think it has to do with the past he saw when he took
the tomb's TRIAL. If we could just know the details of what happened...”
Otto: “This certainly isn't something we can directly ask him about. I doubt his personality is a tame
enough one to quietly overlook it when someone gouges straight into his emotional wounds.”
Subaru: “And if he leaves himself to rage and smacks us, you and me'd both have our neckbones
disappeared in one blow. We really are a just team with worries combat-wise...”
That's obvious for the overly-amateur amateur Subaru, and Otto's ability is that of a travelling
merchant accustomed to fights. They are definitely not brawny battlers, and when enumerating the
combatant hierarchy of SANCTUARY, it'd probably be quicker to start from the bottom for both of
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them.
Subaru: “And thinking in that sense too, man I really want someone in a military-command-type
position. We have Roswaal, Emilia and Ram, and I guess Frederica too and that's all we've got for
fighters, it's a huge problem for our team. We need Garfiel for the faction.”
That he does not include Rem is probably because her condition is the outcome of a battle.
Even though he knows that it's merely his selfishness, he does not want to send this girl he will
recover back to the battle-lines.
Subaru: “We'll coax Garfiel into our circle with eloquence and finesse. And for that purpose too, we
need to get rid of his trauma. The missing pieces for that are...”
Otto: “The missing portions are...?”
Subaru: “If we can't ask him, we gotta drag it in from someplace else. Lewes-san or Ram. Both feel
like they'd be tight-lipped about it.”
Who would these two side with when there was confrontation between Subaru and Roswaal?
There's merit in giving them a shot, if for that purpose as well.
Subaru guzzles down his breakfast, patting at his butt as he stands up and clicks his neck.
Subaru: “Right, time to get started then. I'll be off trying Lewes-san, so...”
Otto: “And I'll be following to the aforementioned schedule... right. I'll pass the story around to
them in advance, but it would be entirely preferable that we could settle all this without using it.”
Subaru: “I don't really wanna think about it either. I don't, but... I just kinda get the feeling that
we're gonna be relying on that, like probability at seventy, eighty percent...”
Otto: “How high. ...Although, not that I can refute it.”
The two glance at each other as they sigh, Subaru then shaking his head to compose himself.
He raises his hand to the yet-frazzled-looking Otto.
Subaru: “Anyway, all we can do's do it. When all this's done and neatly over, we're gonna have an
amazing toast.”
Says Subaru as he stretches his fingers out, presenting Otto his palm. After a moment of confusion
Otto senses Subaru's intentions, raising his hand identically.
Otto: “We will, and while also for the sake of my dazzling future, let's all hope we do it well.”
Subaru: “You said it.”
Sharing a mischievous smile, the two high-five.

The slap bursts through the air of the cathedral. Amid the gazes of the surprised villagers, Subaru
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and Otto turn, each to the other's back—and walk.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “Lewes-san, are you here? I have something I wanna talk about.”
Bounding over the earth and its poor footholds, Subaru cuts through to the pungent, acrid-smelling
room. While thinking exasperatedly about how he's getting used to the stench, Subaru strides over
ruined scraps as he looks at the gleam of the blue crystal ahead.
As ever, inside the jewel is a naked girl in wakeless sleep. Subaru brushes his palm against the
crystal's face, again dejects himself with the confirmation that nothing is happening, and looks over
the room.
The dim, blue glimmer from the crystal is the only light source in this dingy space. For a place
reeking of terrible stench there really are absolutely no rats or bugs, and after thinking coolheadedly
about it and getting the sense that this place is ridiculously unhealthy, Subaru finally begins having
some worries for his bodily condition.
Subaru: “No mice or bugs living here perhaps could maybe mean the air is polluted like crazy?”
???: “Yer don't needter have any'er those queer worries. The witch's vestiges jerst lie too heavily
here... the animals instinctively sense it and wern't come near, that's all.”
A voice calls from behind to invalidate the worries of a shoulder-hugging, shuddering Subaru.
It's a familiar voice, young pitch to elderly diction. Subaru turns around, for his gaze to land on
Lewes.
She walks over to Subaru's side as he stands before the crystal, looking up at Subaru with eyes the
same colour as her hair.
Lewes: “Now, Su-bo. That yer here on purpose means... yer already know about what I am.” Subaru:
“I got an explanation about it directly from the place's manager. Also talked though vaguely
about you inheriting the representative role, pretty sure I got the gist of things.”
Lewes: “I, see. So thert's why Roz-bo's been strange since morning. —Roz-bo muster failed
again.”
Lewes lowers her eyes, a pained expression rising on her face. Subaru raises his brows.
Subaru: “Unintentionally and unexpectedly, feel like I just heard a part of what I was gonna ask.
...Lewes-san, so do you know about Roswaal's plans?”
Lewes: “Only a part erv them. If he dersn't have someone ter communicate serm level erv the
situation with, it weredn't make sense fer people ter agree with why Roz-bo does these baffling
things. ...Although, it's probably because erv this that Gar-bo's angry with him.”
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Subaru: “A part, how much?”
Lewes: “Su-bo?”
Subaru closes the distance between himself and Lewes by one step, his voice dropping in pitch.
Perhaps sensing the change in Subaru's tone, a look of surprise flashes through Lewes's eyes.
Subaru bends down, matching his eye level to Lewes'.
Subaru: “Please tell me, Lewes-san. How much of Roswaal's plan have you heard? Depending on
the answer, I...”
Lewes: “Su-bo...”
Roswaal's plan—to put the world on a track according to the gospel by making Elsa attack the
mansion, encasing SANCTUARY in snow to invite the Hare, ultimately killing everybody involved, in
an attempt to isolate Subaru and make him forfeit his heart.
If Lewes knew everything and had gone without stopping him, was complicit, then—
Subaru: “I don't want to scorn you, Lewes-san. Please tell me. How much did you know? How
much have you been helping Roswaal?”
Lewes: “...What I know ers that Roz-bo has a gospel he gert from the witch, ernd that he's rewriting
histery ter match its text. SANCTUARY's continued existence, too, ers because it's written in the
gospel. Were it not fer that, I'd say we wouldder stopped protecting him a long time ago.”
Subaru: “...Is that all?”
Lewes: “That's all. And I cern say that as pledge. The contract I'm born with means I can abserlutely
never tell lies.”
Gazing firmly back at Subaru, a sincere expression rises on Lewes's young face. With her contract
keeping her from telling lies also considered, Subaru decides to believe her.
His rigid shoulders instantly lose their tenseness as he sighs in relief.
Subaru: “Okay, thank god. If even you were thinking the same brutish fucking ideas as Roswaal, I
wouldda had to slap you around too when this's all over. Slapping Lewes-san who looks like a loli,
just visualizing it's horrid.”
Lewes: “I am honestly sorry fer worrying yer, but fer some reason after like listening ter what yer
saying, that sorriness feels ter be going.”
Lewes goes along with Subaru's intentional joking, done to clear the oppressive atmosphere.
She puts her hand to her chin.
Lewes: “So,”
Lewes: “Goin' from yer tone before, this ersn't anything trifling? Su-bo, just what on earth squabble
did yer have with Roz-bo?”
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Subaru: “Leaving aside whether it was a cute enough to be a squabble... right now, we're having a
contest. I think objectively speaking if I win it's the wonderful finale, so I've kinda been wanting
your help.”
Lewes: “Judging from the conversation, this has sermthing to do with the future of SANCTUARY,
too. What're you and Roz-bo thinking, Su-bo? ...If I don't know that ferst, I can't jerst carelessly
accept.”
Subaru: “Well yeah. Right, how to explain...”
Tilting his head, Subaru deliberates over how much information he should give. He had been open
with Otto, and it doesn't seem like Lewes is entirely biased toward Roswaal. In fact, it feels more
like she's in the place she is because she has to be cordial with Roswaal.
With this in mind, Subaru considers his stance carefully.
Subaru: “Putting it simply... it's about how to deal with SANCTUARY after the barrier's gone.”
Lewes: “How to deal with SANCTUARY, after the barrier's gone.”
Subaru: “I heard a snippet about this from Garfiel too, but there's a split of opinion inside
SANCTUARY, yeah? Support and opposition for going outside.”
The supporters were the majority, and opposition were the minority. But the extremist portion of the
opposition group were liable to obstruct Subaru and Emilia, who is taking the TRIAL to free
SANCTUARY.
Having spent nearly twenty days looping in SANCTUARY already, Subaru figures that the vanguard
of the opposition group is probably Garfiel. Lewes would be the head of the support clique, is the
story, but just what would she think about this difference in opinions?
Lewes: “Split of opinion? No, there shouldn't be anything like that.”
Subaru: “Wh?”
Lewes: “Whether we leave er stay in this land after the liberation is up ter everybody's indervidual,
personal judgement. Most erv us are wishing ter follow Roz-bo and leave. ...The ones who stay
behind will do so because erv their desires ter remain in this land ter their grave. Where in this is a
split erv opinion?”
Subaru: “Ue, eh... no, but...”
The shock of hearing something entirely unexpected discombobulates Subaru.

The battle in SANCTUARY between the supporters and opposition. The antagonism from this, and the
stances toward liberating SANCTUARY. Subaru's plan had been to jolt the conversation by using
these topics, and in doing so secure Garfiel as an ally.
Subaru: “If there was actually never any opposition...”
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Lewes: “—”
Subaru: “Then that was just him coming up with random junk? That was actually him claiming
there's opposition to put us on caution in advance, so that we'd think it was normal when
obstructions happened afterwards?”
If so, that's a level of thought that doesn't sound much like him, thinks Subaru.
To divert suspicions from himself, he had given a warning in advance about the obstructions that
could happen, removing himself from the list of suspects.
Although since Subaru had gone through multiple loops of SANCTUARY, and knew that the biggest
obstruction was Garfiel going on a rampage, the advisory amounted to basically no significance.
Subaru: “He really wants to obstruct SANCTUARY's freedom so much that he'll pull these unfitting
stunts...?”
Lewes: “...Yer talking about Gar-bo.”
Hearing his muttering, Lewes supposes who Subaru is talking about.

She lowers her eyes, a gloom casting over her face.
Lewes: “That he dersen't want to go outside ers probably because erv our weakness...”
Subaru: “Weakness, meaning?”
Lewes: “Meaning what weakness means. We've lived here ever since our births. And so we don't
know anything abert the world outside this place. We don't know, and so we're weak. It must
torment Gar-bo terribly.”
Subaru: “—”
Subaru does understand what Lewes is talking about.

For the residents of SANCTUARY, who have lived in a constrained world, a closed space, the
connection to the outside world after the liberation would be something completely unknown and
new.
The longer that one spent in this land, naturally the more they would feel anxiety rather than hope in
regard to this new something. That was the incredible effect of the breakdown of one's unchanging,
mundane, everyday life.
Subaru: “Garfiel doesn't want SANCTUARY freed because he can't stand to see people hurt by
upheaval in their circumstances... maybe? It doesn't fit his character at all, but...”
If true, and this was why Garfiel had so desperately interfered with SANCTUARY's release, then his
thought pattern was exactly the same thought pattern Subaru had possessed as he tried distancing
Emilia from hardship.
Garfiel was ignoring the opinions of Lewes and the residents, attempting to implement his self-
thought methods for protecting them. Then in that case, perhaps if he could have a proper
conversation with Lewes and the residents like with Subaru, that would solve the problem.
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Subaru: “No, it's not that simple.”
Subaru and Garfiel are identical in how they desire for what they seek, but their positions are
different. Subaru's wishes fail because he lacks in ability.
But not Garfiel. Garfiel has the strength to keep SANCTUARY from being liberated. Should he attack
Subaru and Emilia, exterminate those qualified to challenge the TRIAL, then his wishes would
succeed. The problem here is that even if he does this and holes up in SANCTUARY, that will offer no
escape from the Sizeable Hare's pending attack.
But that was a fact unknown to Garfiel, and something he likely would not believe even if Subaru
informed him. The situation is far too different when compared to explaining it to Otto.
Subaru: “If we're just looking for grounds for compromise, this still isn't it... but, it's weird.”
Lewes: “Su-bo?”
Subaru: “Why isn't he from the outset taking the quickest, most efficient method for stopping
SANCTUARY's release, and killing me and Emilia?”
If he truly did not care at all about his appearance, and was wholeheartedly pursuing one single goal
like how Roswaal was, Garfiel ought to take Subaru and Emilia's lives immediately.
But it has never occurred that he inflicted direct harm on Emilia. Even in situations where he attacks
Subaru, he takes no action until Subaru engages in some kind of incredible activity.
Subaru still cannot clearly define what the trigger for Garfiel killing him is. Unmistakably, killing
Subaru is an attempt to prevent SANCTUARY's release. But the reason for why he does it remains
unclear.
Subaru: “There has to be a trigger. ...But thinking back on all the times Garfiel's attacked me, has
there been a coherent consistency?”
The times Garfiel attacked Subaru were when he flew into a rage and pounced at Roswaal, and
when he took the villagers to escape SANCTUARY. —Ultimately, that's all.
Looking objectively at the scene with Roswaal, to judge Subaru as wrong for pouncing at a
wounded person was completely normal. There's not much to distrust Garfiel for there.
The problem is the second occurrence, where he attempted to kill a Subaru he had already failed to
murder.
Garfiel, transformed into a tiger to kill Subaru, had cast his fangs and claws on Ram, Patrasche, and
the villagers who had willed for Subaru to live. While Subaru had not died, the hatred Subaru felt for
Garfiel after surmounting the slaughter still has yet to disappear.
But how much of a decision did Garfiel need to make before sullying his hands with that? There
had to be something to trigger it.
But looking back on it, it doesn't seem like the trigger came from Subaru's end.
Meaning that the impetus for the massacre was not on Subaru's, but due to something occurring on
Garfiel's end.
Subaru: “Lewes-san. Garfiel may look rough and reckless, but he's not a guy who would frivolously
move to violence... would be a safe assessment?”
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Lewes: “He's fundermentally a kind boy. It's by putting on a tough shell and barking beferr anything
can happen that he protects himself and those around him. ...The strengths he's acquired are
proberbly also for that purpose.”
Subaru: “Right, then... there's only one solution.”
Lewes: “—?”
Subaru rubs at his nose, turning to face Lewes properly as she tilts her head.
Putting his hand to the crystal, feeling the chill on his palm,
Subaru: “Someone's giving Garfiel these fucking suggestions. Their actions are the trigger for
Garfiel suddenly pulling violent bullshit.”
Adopt the idea that Garfiel's rather out-of-character actions were on somebody's instruction, and
things make sense. The most likely candidates for someone collaborating with Garfiel were,
Subaru: “Roswaal, Ram, Lewes-san, potentially a yet-unseen malevolence...”
Someone from this lineup is spurring Garfiel to violence.

Subaru needs to identify them. He will only be able to have a real talk, for the first time, with
Garfiel once he has.
Subaru: “So just for reference Lewes-san, could I ask you something?”
Lewes: “Hn, what is it?”
Subaru: “—Do you know the contents of the TRIAL Garfiel took in the tomb?”
Lewes: “...Nope, I don't. I'm sorry, but that's nert something within my knowledge.”
Lewes shakes her head. Being that she is bound not to tell lies, her words are most likely truth.
Subaru nods.
Subaru: “Let's change the question. —Does another Lewes-san know the contents of the TRIAL
Garfiel took in the tomb?”
Lewes: “—”
Subaru: “Silence in this situation only means 'yes'.”
Of the Lewes Meyer duplicates, multiples existed of those for the representative of SANCTUARY,
Lewes. This system where the Leweses played their role shifting by the day created a problem
where the individual Leweses did not necessarily share absolutely all the same memories and
experiences.
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Four duplicates play the role of the representative Lewes. For argument saying that the four were
demarcated as A, B, C, and D, then of course not all of A's memories for her activities over the day
would transmit over to B, C, and D.
The day in question, where Garfiel challenged the TRIAL, failed, and Lewes dragged him out—the
Lewes who saved Garfiel then was not the Lewes before Subaru now.
Subaru: “...When does the Lewes-san who knows about the TRIAL next show up?”
Lewes: “—”
Subaru: “The Lewes-san who spoke to me yesterday outside the tomb said that she'd taken the
TRIAL. With the rule where you can't lie in effect, that means her claim's true. If the rotation's
daily... she next shows up in three days?”
In this situation where he cannot take his time, Subaru would rather avoid it end up being the latest
date possible.
Lewes's mouth relaxes as she lets slip a sigh.
Lewes: “No, the me who took Gar-bo outter the tomb next shows up in two days. The mes who
have and haven't gone in are on a two-by-two rotation.”
She says, her expression one of exhaustion.
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CHAPTER 89: MEMORIES OF SNOW

—Finished talking in secret with Lewes, Subaru walks through the forest alone.
He told her that he needed to think, and left her behind with the crystal. Faced with a girl of
identical visage—and further, her original. How pensive a thing.
While Subaru's interest in all this is inexhaustible, he does not know how far he's okay to broach
into the topic. But either way, the Lewes who Subaru just spoke with is on his side.
These four Lewes duplicates.

Going from his chat with Lewes, two duplicates have taken the tomb's TRIAL. Meaning there are
two Leweses who have challenged the TRIAL.
Subaru suspects that it's the TRIAL-challenging Leweses who are giving Garfiel these suggestions.
With there being four duplicates, potential exists for their thinking to not be entirely uniform.
Subaru's thought that the four Lewes were the same being, considering that they all play the role of
the same single person, had backfired. They play the role of the same person, while simultaneously
having their own differences in thought processes.
Meaning it wouldn't be strange, supposing that one Lewes had experienced something that the
others hadn't, for her to diverge from the others in her opinions.
For expediency's sake, Subaru labels the four Leweses as Alpha, Beta, Theta, and Sigma.
Leweses Alpha and Beta do not know about the TRIAL. Leweses Theta and Sigma do.
What he really wanted to do was label them in German as Eins, Zwei, Drei, but he couldn't come up
with the fourth one and so the plan failed.
Anyway,
Subaru: “Thing is meeting Theta and Sigma will have to be at least two days from now...”
The timing for the Sizeable Hare to attack SANCTUARY—strictly speaking, the deadline for this is
when large-scale snow magic entices the nearby Hares over, which will be in five days' time.
Being that he will not necessarily come up with a counter-plan immediately after having a talk with
Lewes, this remaining time of three days offers no great leeway.
Garfiel will, at the end of the end, kill the villagers to keep SANCTUARY from being liberated.
With how they're inciting him to do such a thing, it's nigh impossible that Sigma and Theta's ideas
will be easily swayed. With consideration to the prospect of persuading them, the future ahead
indeed looks dark.
Subaru: “But in exchange for the increase in obstacles... there's an opening for dealing with Garfiel,
maybe? When I somehow persuade the two interfering Lewes-sans, that'll clear away the problem.”
If Sigma and Theta are influencing Garfiel's violence, then persuading them is equivalent to
clearing the Garfiel route. Being that Subaru sees no methods for working things out directly with
Garfiel, this does present a glimmer of hope, albeit a feeble and slight one.
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Garfiel's strength presently is not only in standalone power, as he also holds the command right for
20 Lewes duplicates, the will-lacking ones excepted from the representative four.
These plain copies are a machine-like combat force who do not hesitate even in their own deaths,
and Subaru has not very great means to counter it should Garfiel utilize them.
It's all beyond strict.
Leaving the sentimentalities aside, Subaru would still rather avoid conflict with Garfiel.
This was already plainly understood, but to silence Garfiel with combat was impossible.
Should Garfiel, spurred on by Theta and Sigma and possessing the girls' command right, entirely
and perfectly become their enemy, then Subaru's side's chances of winning would drop even further.
Subaru: “And with how dramatic I was in forming a contract with Roswaal, I can't fail. Not
planning to either. Nevermind whether the insurance will work, when standing my ground I gotta do
it by my own strength.”
Subaru pulls his cheeks firm as they start inclining in a snivelly direction, shaking his head,
scolding himself.
Subaru: “Either way, dealing with Leweses Theta and Sigma's gonna have to be improv. Could try
having a shot with Garfiel to feel him out early, but... make that for later.”
Exiting through the forest, Subaru returns to the village in SANCTUARY.

The sun has risen entirely, the residents and Arlam evacuees spurred into their daily activities
around the settlement.
Subaru gives them glances as he passes, answering the occasional hellos with a wave of his hand,
his legs carrying him solely to a spot separated from all the activity.
A spot just a little distant from both the village and the cathedral.
—To where she is staying, the bed of Emilia.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Close her eyes, and the memories of then come back vivid even now.
White. A world of white.

In this land of absolute silver, the young Emilia walks alone.
—You can't remember this!
Cry out in silent voice, but little Emilia as she walks with head downcast does not hear.
She glances around the area forlornly—and with her hopes betrayed, downhearted, she walks
trudging slow through the snow.
—Go back! Please! Don't do anything more!
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Young Emilia exhales a white puff, then peering curiously at the mist expelled from her mouth. She
takes breath out and out and out, over and over. Her only clothing is undergarments crafted from
thin cloth, and a cloak-like garment to robe her body wholly.
It is not really an outfit one would consider for passing time in a frigid world, but there's nothing to
do about it.
After all, this is the first time Emilia has ever been in such a cold land or ever seen snow.
The world she knew was a forest abounding in warm light and verdancy, with not any resemblance
to this realm buried entirely in snow and ice.
This surely-familiar place was showing an unknown face.

And this mystifies young Emilia, making her neglect to react in the way that she fundamentally
should.
—No! Don't go further! Go back! If you don't, it'll...!
Plead enough to shred the throat, to destroy it, to spit blood, but young Emilia's legs do not stop.
The voice still going fruitlessly unheard, heartlessly the girl's feet press forward.
Her gait as she traverses the unknown snowlands barefoot is pitiful.

Long lost any sensation of coldness or pain, her feet cut on the branches and rocks hidden beneath
the snow, tracking out her trail in droplets of blood.
That she nevertheless veils her terror toward the unfamiliar world, forgetting her pain, as she
earnestly presses ahead alone is for what purpose, exactly?
—Stop, please... I don't want to watch any more, please...
The pleading does not reach her. The wishes will go ungranted. These hopes, entirely obstructed.
Though this reality is already known, even in dreams are the cruel facts pushed into spotlight. By
manner of showing her past self, and her greatest mistake.
Emilia: “—hk”
Young Emilia's amethyst eyes, as if sighting hope beyond the murk of blinding snow, sparkle. What
her gaze lands on is, to young Emilia's knowledge, the trunk of the tallest tree in the world. This
great plant called the PRAYER TREE is a divine arbour for devoting prayers to unseen and holy
things, a treasured and irreplaceable presence for everyone in the village.
Young Emilia, too, obstinately believed that just by touching the great tree's trunk, she could feel its
tremendous blessings on her skin.
How reassuring for it must have been for Emilia in that moment, to see the arbour's gallant form
exactly in its usual place.
How much a grace it must have been, that amidst a familiar landscape transmogrified into
someplace unknown, that this tree kept preserving the everyday and usual.
Exhaling many puffs of white along the way, Emilia clumsily bounds for the arbour. The piled
snowfall buries young Emilia to her knees, and so although the distance to the tree is not far, the girl
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trips times upon times, leaving imprints of herself in the pure snow.
Falling face-first multiple times, her nose red from the frost, Emilia finally reaches the root of the
tree.
Her tense face relaxes slightly in relief. But even in this the cold petrifies her muscles rigid, and all
it amounts to is a meagre twitch.
Emilia: “—?”
Young Emilia reaches for one of the roots of the tree, her expression one of having noticed
something. She slides her hand over to arrive at the root, her fingertips freezing as she buries them
into the snow to dig.
—Stop!!
She digs, and digs.

With full focus, and still spurred on by panicky impatience, young Emilia digs up the snow.
—Stop! Stop, stop stop stopstopstop!
Rather not watch. Rather not remember.

Would rather look away, cover her eyes, block her ears, scream to shred the world apart.
But her non-existent face, non-existent eyes, non-existent ears, cannot be deceived.
Young Emilia's fingers touch something in the snow.

She slowly, by her own hands, takes that last portion of snow, and—
—STOP!!
….............
…..............................
???: “—You were beyond any help.”
Emilia: “—”
???: “Proof of sin. Proof of corruption. Be cursed and cursed and cursed, and at the finality of your
suffering...”
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Emilia: “—”
???: “Die. —Witch-spawn.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: “—Emilia? Emilia? Hey, you alright!?”
Emilia: “Au, e.. ah, suhba, rhu?”
Subaru shakes her shoulders, for Emilia to faintly open her eyes with a call of his name. She shakes
her head in an attempt to level out her blurry consciousness. But,
Emilia: “Subaru, why are... you here?”
Subaru: “Do I need a reason to be? When it's your face, Emilia-tan, I could keep staring the whole
night without ever getting bored.”
Emilia: “Not that, I mean... um...”
Perhaps her consciousness has not cleared fully, for Emilia's response is still rather anxious.
In an attempt to dispel her unease, Subaru slaps his knees as he stands up and shoots her a smile.
Subaru: “Can't have you getting too unguarded around me. Happy for the trust, but I'm a guy and
also sheltering a ravenous wolf beneath the shroud called rationality. Would like it for you to be a
little more conscious of this person I am, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “...? I'm not forgetting about you, Subaru. I was waking up so I said something strange,
that's all... but, dozing off without even noticing it...”
Though it seems she didn't exactly understand what he was saying, that Emilia's voice shows signs
that she is properly waking up. After confirming this, Subaru gives the troubled-looking Emilia a
jerk of his chin.
Subaru: “I get having the exhaustion piled up, but if you're gonna sleep do it proper on a bed. You
sleep on the floor like you were then, and the moment I step in the room my heart's gonna be near to
stopping.”
Emilia: “...Ah, I'm sorry. It worried you, didn't it?”
Subaru: “I'd just renewed my resolve, but seeing this and wondering if a new event'd triggered
that'd ruin absolutely everything seriously had me in a panic. You could even say that seeing your
sleeping face today, Emilia-tan, was more emotional than usual.”
The shock that struck Subaru when he entered the bedroom and saw Emilia is a thing beyond any
possible description.
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No reply came when he knocked, so he entered the room while considering that she may be
elsewhere, to find Emilia collapsed in front of the bed with her silver hair splayed across the floor.
Surely nobody could blame Subaru for paling and almost falling to despair.
That said, the warmth of her body when he went to upright her, and the definite presence of her
breathing and pulse immediately informed him that his worries were needless.
However,
Subaru: “If that were all it was I'd rather just let you keep sleeping like that, but... looked like you
were having a crazy nightmare. Was it bad of me to wake you up?”
Sweat had covered sleeping Emilia's brow as Subaru held her in his arms, her expression
horrifically pained, and body writhing. Subaru had experienced this before too, but there exist no
means to flee from an agonizing nightmare. The only method to swiftly escape the pain is to be
called from outside the dream.
Subaru had utilized said method. Emilia shakes her head.
Emilia: “Thank you for waking me up sooo much. I had a sort of... no, a really bad dream, and...
thank you.”
Subaru: “Terrible dream, tormenting Emilia-tan. What was it about? ...is kinda sorta where I wanna
go, but smells like remembering it'd be no fun either.”
Emilia: “—”
Seeing the wry smile following her silence, Subaru considers the nature of Emilia's nightmare.
Most likely it had spawned from the piling of negative circumstances. While he can't tell whether or
not any concrete images accompanied that,
Subaru: “...Right, then I won't push you say it.”
Seeing how Emilia averts her gaze from Subaru and avoids alluding to it at all, Subaru judges that it
probably was a nightmare with clear, definite images.
If it was a vague dream, it'd be easy to talk about. That she can't is the evidence that her nightmare
carried vivid form.
This talk with Emilia's turned to look inauspicious, and carrying the flow of the coming
conversation is also going to be difficult.
His expression complex, touching the tip of his nose, deliberating on how to broach the topic is
Subaru, who Emilia looks up at.
Emilia: “So... what's wrong, Subaru? You couldn't possibly have really come here to look at my face
for no reason, right?”
Subaru: “Couldn't possibly—is not how surprising a thing it'd be, to my thoughts.”
Emilia: “No, you wouldn't. I mean, you're always so busy going everywhere doing things. You can't
use up your time like that just on me.”
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Subaru: “Just how diligent a guy am I in your internal imaginings, Emilia-tan? You do get that I'm a
guy known as such a slacker that I'd wholeheartedly agree to the establishment of Blobout Day?”
No exaggeration and no joke, Subaru knew that his nature was that of a hopeless layabout. An
endless descent into depravity, if gone without some kind of role, was the human being called
Natsuki Subaru.
Which is why he had not slacked on devoting himself to daily workouts and pointless skills/hobbies
back in the old world. He knew he would become an utterly hopeless human being the moment that
he did.
—You cannot call someone who puts in persistent effort—even without any goal—a slacker, but
Subaru had not realised that obvious fact.
Emilia's gaze compounds in its slight warmth, perhaps wanting to say something about Subaru's
underestimation. Her reaction prompts Subaru to furrow his brows, but ultimately Emilia goes on
without saying anything.
Emilia: “It's fine. Anyway, come on tell me why you came here. And huuuuuurrryyyyyy”
Subaru: “No idea what's with the sudden childishness but... ah, okay right. I was thinking if we
could go have a walk outside as a refresher...”
Emilia: “—”
Subaru: “...wouldn't really be a refresher at all actually.”
Subaru scratches his head as he senses his screwup.

Inferrable by how her bed is set up in a spot separated from the village, Emilia's treatment in
SANCTUARY is nothing good.
While the residents of SANCTUARY and Emilia should have a nice relationship, being that they are
fellow peoples who stray from their fundamental racial bloodlines, it seems like yes indeed the
negative image around half-elves is a special case.
It goes for the Arlam evacuees, too. The achievement for their successful escape from the Witch
Cult belongs to Subaru, and does not directly improve opinions of Emilia.
Emilia's treatment in SANCTUARY is identical to her treatment in the Capital, that of a tumour.
She acted stalwart when with Subaru, but that didn't mean she was comfortable. Just how did she
deal with the gazes on her when she was by herself?
Being that the situation still has not improved, bringing Emilia outside would just place an
unnecessary burden on her.
Subaru: “It's because of this stuff that I'm just so...”
Aggravated at his own thoughtlessness, Subaru punches himself in the forehead.

His feelings switch gears with the pain of knuckles to brow. Subaru turns back to face Emilia
properly, her eyes wide from his stunt.
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Emilia: “—Mm.”
Seeing how Subaru's expression changes, Emilia senses that the atmosphere has shifted. She fixes
her posture, gazing back at Subaru with her amethyst eyes full of quiet calm.
Her attitude and expression inform Subaru of the pointlessness of broaching the topic in a
roundabout manner. What exactly to say? He puzzles over his opening line for only an instant.
Subaru: “Do you feel like talking with me about what you saw in the TRIAL?”
—Subaru plainly does see the terror and anguish in those wetting, amethyst eyes.
89
CHAPTER 90: —I'M SORRY

—Though he had supposedly firmed his resolve, the moment that Subaru witnesses the waves of
emotion in her teary eyes, Subaru realises that a horrendous sense of regret is accosting him.
That one sentence had been him tearing at the scab over Emilia's mental scars. He had used concern
as his justifiable reason for clawing at her unhealed wounds.
Subaru, too, feels the keen and phantasmal pain that she does.
Subaru: “The tomb's TRIAL shows you the past... that's what I've heard from everybody.”
Emilia: “—hk”
But nevertheless, in search of what lies beyond that pain, Subaru intrudes deeper.
A tremor flashes through Emilia's expression as she bites her lip, but her trembling pupils regardless
keep Subaru in their gaze.
Subaru was for now abstaining on any report that he himself had taken the TRIAL. He beat it and so
Emilia can beat it too—was the kind of rash remark that he couldn't make, and most importantly his
qualifications had been revoked. It wouldn't be strange for it to seem like a consoling lie.
If that's what things are going to turn into, then what he has to do instead is just communicate his
sincere thoughts about Emilia.
Subaru: “And that's why I think you had to retreat. Agonizing and ruminating, keeping all of it to
yourself... and I know you're going to attempt the TRIAL again tonight, in that state.”
Emilia: “—”
In these four repeated worlds, the details of her TRIAL had Emilia neglecting to rely completely on
Subaru. Part of that was because Subaru had been basically ignoring her challenge right by
determining there no necessity for her to take it, and part of it was because Emilia had no
opportunities to be open about it with Subaru.
The former problem has been resolved by the fact that only Emilia can challenge the TRIAL now,
and the second problem is ideally getting resolved right now here in this instant.
Emilia's cheeks are stiff as she casts her gaze down.

Faced with how her eyes and their long lashes are perfectly avoiding him, Subaru continues.
Subaru: “But, still.”
Emilia: “—”
Subaru: “Could you let me carry some of the heavy baggage on your shoulders? If you have a past
you're afraid to look back on, could you let me stand at your side as you challenge it?”
The downward tilt of her neck stops still as she timidly looks back up at him.
Her eyes must not reflect any vision of a weak or uneasy Subaru. He puffs out his chest, accepting
her gaze with entirely baseless, abounding confidence.
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Bluffing and baseless confidence, Subaru's great specialities.
Subaru: “Thinking back on it, Emilia, I still don't know anything about you. I like you. And that's
partly because your looks're crazy to my taste, and that substance of yours I've touched in our time
together drives me wild.”
Emilia: “—”
Subaru: “And so I can say chest held high that I like the you you are now. But when it's about what
you experienced, what you've thought, what you've considered before you were the present you... I
don't know anything. Because I didn't think I'd need a chance to know. Because the present and
future're more important than the past. ...But.”
Emilia: “...But?”
Subaru: “Now we're in a place where you have to look back on your past, and if you're saying
you're scared to be there alone... would you please qualify me to challenge this inbetween you need
to face, the everything that spurred the present you, alongside you?”
Since his qualifications to suffer the hardships in Emilia's place have been revoked.
In this situation, Subaru wants the qualifications to support Emilia from beside her, to let her lean
on him, when she is exhausted and near to collapse.
It might only amount to temporary peace of mind, but surely there exists an instant where that
temporary relief will give her heart ease.
Emilia: “—”
Subaru waits intently for Emilia's reply.

The wavering of her eyes communicates her intense ambivalence. Hesitation and indecision, guilt
and self-hatred. The varied emotions rage inside Emilia's thin body, in voracious frenzy.
Quietly, Emilia eventually,
Emilia: “Y-your being here is... you're already helping me just by being there for me, and so... just,
causing more trouble for you isn't...”
Subaru: “I don't think the trouble you cause is any trouble at all. Being able to do something for you
is happiness for me. When you're worried, and want someone to offer you their hand, I want to be
the first one reaching out to help you.”
Emilia: “—hk”
Again he reports it to Emilia, who weakly attempts to avoid Subaru's proposal.

So long as Emilia keeps from any serious refusals, Subaru has no intentions of withdrawing. He
knows that he's intruding into topics she doesn't want to talk about. Half-hearted assertions aren't
going to shake him.
It was not with such a low par of resolve that he forced a contract on Roswaal.
Further conflicted, Emilia shuts her eyes firm, drooping her head.
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Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “Subaru, is your belief in me...”
The words that should come next do not leave Emilia's mouth. Before they can happen, her purity
stops her from uttering the unfair statement.
She commits nothing so intrinsically disgraceful as doubt the faith of somebody appealing to her
with sincerity.
The complacency Subaru had once forced on Emilia, instead, was exactly such a deed.
Emilia's mentality, holding her words despite being cornered, is something of dignity.
And so Subaru does not question her back or bring the subject up. Emilia's shoulders slump,
regretting of her statement.
Emilia: “...Tell me what you want to ask, Subaru.”
Subaru: “...”
Emilia: “If I'm the one saying it, the story will just turn into a mess. ...So you be the one to ask it,
Subaru.”
Subaru: “...Are you okay with this?”
Emilia: “—Mm. I think that this is another one of my TRIALS.”
Emilia speaks in surrender, her smile fleeting. For a moment, Subaru is lost for words.
He shakes his head to compose himself, pointing at the bed to indicate a shifting of placement.
Subaru: “Anyway, this might wind up being a long talk, so how about we sit?”
Emilia: “...We should.”
Fixing her posture, Emilia seats herself on the bed. Subaru pulls over a chair, sitting to face Emilia
straight-on.
Emilia smooths out the wrinkles in her clothes as she waits for Subaru to speak.
Having reached the crucial scene, Subaru hesitates for a scant few seconds on what best to ask first,
before coming up with words.
Subaru: “What was the past you saw in the TRIAL like, Emilia? Going by what I've heard from
someone who's taken it, it's... like, something like memories of your regrets.”
Subaru asks his question, picking his words so that she won't notice he's experienced it.
The first TRIAL is facing your past. But that doesn't mean the past that Subaru saw was an event that
had actually happened. It was a fresh theatrical production with his old guilt and his family, symbols
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of his regret, as the stage.

So just what was the TRIAl like for Emilia?
Emilia licks her dry lips, wetting them.
Emilia: “The... the past I saw, was... probably, a memory from before my sleep.”
Subaru: “—? Before your sleep?”
Emilia: “Yes, before my sleep. The memory's vague, and pretty unclear, but... I was still little in it,
so it has to be.”
Emilia closes her eyes as she searches her memory, Subaru confused at her confession.
He could understand the meaning of 'I was little'. Probably the TRIAL was a past from when she was
young.
But, 'before my sleep'—that was one Subaru couldn't understand.
Subaru: “Hold on. What does 'before my sleep' mean? It's not like going to sleep normally at night.”
Emilia: “No, it's not. Before my sleep means... before I went to sleep inside ice, inside a giant tree
in the forest. It's from so, sooo long ago.”
Subaru: “Inside ice... Emilia, what?”
The context is so lacking that he could nigh suspect she's making it hard to understand on purpose.
But regardless, Subaru's imagination brandishes its chilled claws, scratching them down his spine.
Chest thumping in panicky impatience, Subaru maintains his calm the best he can.
Subaru: “Please answer, Emilia. What does 'inside ice, inside a giant tree' mean?”
Emilia: “...Exactly what it sounds like.”
Subaru: “—”
After a beat, Emilia informs Subaru.
Emilia: “I was frozen along with the tree the whole time. Puck finding me and bringing me out
came so, sooo... much later.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: <—I finally found you.>
—Whos there?
???: <Sorry, I'm sorry. I am so sorry for leaving you alone. I've been searching forever. Always,
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always, always searching for you.>
—Where am I? Its so, cold.
???: <I'll get you out right away. By herself, in this lonely place... why'd she have to go through...
why, for such a long time did I...>
—But who are you? Whyre you crying?
???: <—Because you're the most darling thing there is. I'm so happy we could meet again.>
—Youre glad we met?
???: <Yes. I was... I was reborn for the sake of meeting you.>
—Who are you?
???: <I'm... I'm your biggest ally. I'm your number one, strongest ally.>
—So, youre my...
???: <—Yes. Yes. From today on, I'm your family. From this very single second on, you'll never be
alone again. —And that I pledge.>
—Really? Thats...
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Emilia: “—It made me sooo happy.”
Hand to her chest, Emilia reminisces on the joyous time.

Subaru feels his mouth rapidly turning arid as he listens on.
Emilia, who slept inside the ice.

The Prayer Tree, present in her homeland. Emilia spend her time there, frozen alongside its trunk,
until Puck saved her.
But just how long a time was—?
Subaru: “Emilia. Is it safe to think that this place you lived in was Elior Forest? The one which's
been frozen for a long time, the range of it gradually spreading?”
Emilia: “Mn, it is. By the time I woke up, they were calling it the Forest of Ice. —But it was a green
place with bright sunlight before my sleep, when I was living there with everybody, and it never
snowed.”
Subaru: “Green's... no actually, who's everybody?”
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Subaru only knows snippets about the place. The before and after of Elior Forest is unknown to
him. He asks about something else.
Emilia: “Everybody's everybody. Who I lived with in the forest's community... all the elves.”
Subaru: “The elves... then, your family was there too? Your mom and dad... maybe siblings, too.”
Emilia: “—”
Seeing how Emilia's eyes fill with melancholy, Subaru again senses that his momentum has led him
to screw up.
Emilia must have said it at some point before. That Puck was her parent surrogate, and the entirety
of her family.
He was supposed to have known that Emilia had lost her family in some fashion.
Subaru: “I'm sor... I didn't mean...”
Emilia: “It's okay. You're just worried for me. ...But my family wasn't in the forest. Everyone in the
village was nice to me, and they'd smile at me, but... There was nobody in that forest I could call my
blood family.”
Subaru: “...When you say, was nobody. Do you mean your parents were...?”
Emilia quietly shakes her head.

She fiddles with the ends of her braid, distracting herself.
Emilia: “They were both gone by the time I was self-aware. Back then, I didn't really think it was
strange. ...I did have someone who was like my mom. She was sooo kind, and strong, and cool... I
had her.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “But she, and everybody... when I fell asleep, they all fell asleep too. Even now, in the
woods of Elior Forest, there are many people still asleep and unwaking.”
Emilia speaks dispassionately, as if tasking herself to state only the facts. The information prompts
Subaru's throat to spasm, but Emilia pays that no mind as she continues.
Emilia: “After I woke up, me and Puck watched over everybody sleeping. So that someday, when
people woke up like I did, they wouldn't go without knowing anything... always, I was there.”
Subaru: “...Hold up a second.”
The information load in this is dense, and Subaru's brain is struggling to keep up and put it all in
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order.
What on earth happened in Elior Forest, on the day Emilia first saw snow?
Subaru: “From what I know, Elior Forest froze... right, I think a little over 100 years ago. I heard
that at the Royal Selection's court or somewhere before.”
Emilia: “Mm. I was sooo surprised too, when I started studies at the mansion and learned it.”
Subaru: “Meaning you were there when Elior Forest first froze, yeah? Do you know how it
happened?”
Emilia: “—No, I don't.”
Emilia shakes her head.

Subaru's brows furrows. She looks down, her expression pained.
Emilia: “I really don't. My memories on what happened back then aren't clear. I just remember that I
was little, and I was incredibly scared. But because I just kept sleeping forever, those memories are
fuzzy too...”
Subaru: “The word 'little's come up a few times now, but around how old were you exactly?”
Emilia: “...I think probably, I was seven.”
Subaru: “Seven... It's safe to count elf years the same way as humans, right?”
Emilia nods.
You count elf ages normally, increasing by one with the passing of each year. Elves are renowned as
a long-lived race, and half-elf Emilia would be the same. But that said, the long-lived elves too have
a childhood period, and seven-year-old young Emilia was beyond any blame.
Though, with some simple math this means that Emilia's current age is 7 + ≥100.
Subaru: “Age gap's nothing to worry about this late. Being anxious about that turned pointless the
moment she was someone from a parallel world.”
Emilia: “...Subaru, what's wrong? Was there something funny I...”
Subaru: “Nope, nope. Just thinking that man you and me do have an age gap.”
Alongside him organizing his thoughts and shifting the mood, Subaru jokes around to adjust the
atmosphere. Although she most likely has not figured Subaru's intentions, Emilia's tense cheeks do
relax somewhat as she gives a small sigh.
Emilia: “We do,”
Emilia: “But because the time I spent unconscious and asleep was so long, I'm not really confident
I'm matured to my real age...”
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Subaru: “Really? Don't exactly know how fast Elf aging goes, but if you can use humans as a
framework then I'd say you're plenty matured.”
Subaru stares nonchalantly at Emilia on the bed as he snorts at her worries.

Her limbs are fully grown, and her body hosts the curvature of womanhood. Her gloomy, amethyst
eyes and uncertain features prominently give her a mysterious beauty, crossing to and fro over the
threshold between girl and woman.
Emilia was plenty enough femininely matured.
But it seems like Subaru's thoughts diverge just a bit from what Emilia's worried about.
Emilia: “No,”
Emilia: “The ice I slept in didn't stop time, it just put my consciousness to sleep. So, my body kept
maturing even inside the ice. The way I had to move my body was different than from before my
sleep, and for a while after I woke up, I made so many mistakes.”
Subaru: “This ice... right, so it had that drawback.”
Her body had been that of a seven year old, and the change to a fully-grown adult upon awakening
must have been chaotic.
It's common in anime and manga for children to have their bodies mature suddenly into an adult's,
but surely the adaptation couldn't be that easy. A consequence where their brain wasn't meshing to
their body correctly and they suffered terrible distress like Emilia was natural.
Emilia: “Roswaal took me out of the forest, I studied outside... and I learned that I'd slept for nearly
100 years, which shocked me sooo much. I couldn't believe I'd slept that long.”
Subaru: “Saying you just age normally inside it, if it'd been a race that wasn't long-lived like elves
trapped in the ice it'd be all ove...”
r, is what he means to say, when he gets the feeling that he has just heard an incredible truth.
Closing his eyes, Subaru quietly puts the numbers together in his head. He calculates, adds and
subtracts, and after recalculating it several times to confirm, his confusion morphs into definite
suspicion.
Subaru: “So hey, Emilia... you just said you slept for almost 100 years, right?”
Emilia: “I did, yes...?”
Subaru: “And you were about seven before your sleep, right?”
Emilia: “I was. Subaru, what are...”
Subaru: “Emilia. How much time's passed since Puck woke you up?”
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From what Subaru's heard, Roswaal bringing Emilia out of the forest happened about half a year
ago. Which means Emilia lived with Puck in Elior Forest until then. The problem here is the time it
took between her sleep, waking, and meeting Roswaal.
Her expression still complex, Emilia puts her finger to her lip.
Emilia: “...Maybe, six or seven years... I think.”
Subaru: “—”
Hearing this answer, Subaru's suspicion morphs into absolute conviction.

This uncovered truth races tremors down Subaru's body.
Seven years since birth, up to one hundred years asleep, seven years since waking.
Which meant the following:
—Emilia was around 107 years old. She looked 18 years old. And mentally, she was 14 years old.
Subaru: “Real, physical, mental age... none are synced up...”
Possible and happening only because she is an elf, a threeway discrepancy between ages.
This coincided with many questions Subaru had about Emilia's behaviour up to now.
Subaru found her rather ignorant to flattery for an over-century-old elf, he couldn't deny the sense
of inexperience she had with others, which was disproportionate to her appearance, and the cuteness
of her occasionally childlike attitudes and behaviour did stand out.
All of it was a negative side effect from having spent the majority of her life inside the ice.
Subaru: “Fourteen... she's no different from Felt...”
Why did this girl have to shoulder such a great responsibility? His irritation for the Royal Selection,
and for Roswaal, steadily compounds.
Reflecting on how the topic he had brought up to distract the mood had entirely derailed, Subaru
cuts into another—related—subject.
Subaru: “You said before you don't know why the forest was frozen. So what's it you're seeing in
the TRIAL? That fuzzy... memory of before the freezing, that's what you're seeing, yeah?”
Emilia: “...I think so. The scenery is almost definitely from before my sleep... and I think the
memory really did happen.”
Subaru: “And so if the memory's scary as it is, then yeah it's gonna be that some crazy something
came around to freeze you and the other elves, which you're unconsciously rejecting so...”
Emilia: “—Wrong.”
Subaru: “Well I mean, there's not gonna be anything scarier than that, is there. The TRIAL shows
you your biggest regret. Which means what you're seeing's...”
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Emilia: “I told you that you're wrong!”
Emilia shouts, her yell destroying Subaru and his unwittingly zealous theory.
She immediately blinks, regretting that she yelled, but then closes her eyes to dispel her hesitation.
Her eyes water as she faces Subaru.
Emilia: “What I... saw in the TRIAL, wasn't that. I didn't see that. ...What I, saw was...”
Subaru: “E-Ehmil...”
Emilia: “—Witch's Spawn.”
A chill sharp as an icicle spears through Subaru's spine.

Emilia buries her face in her hands, hiding her face. Her voice rings quiet, emotionless.
Emilia: “Seed of Disaster. Silver Wretch. Life Best Unborn. Font of Hatred. Unforgivable Soul.
Devil. —Witch-Child.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “Everyone who was nice to me, who smiled at me, then in that cold snow said these things
about me, and...”
Emilia's limbs—her body—trembles.
Emilia: “I was in the ice for what came after, and I don't remember. But everybody must remember
even now in the ice that they cursed me. Because I've always, always been bearing that curse still.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “I wanted to free everyone from the ice... and apologize.”
Emilia with her face in tears is not here. She looks up, at them, before quietly bowing her head.
Emilia:
“I'm sorry for causing you trouble. —Everybody, I love you.”
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1 The term I'm translating as 'Witch-Child' is 魔女の娘 in Japanese, which can mean either 'Daughter of a Witch' or
'Young Girl Who Is a Witch'. Though my instinct says it's 9:1 odds the former, it's not perfectly clear which. So here
is my compromise.
100
CHAPTER 91: FALSE SLEEP

As he hears the weeping in Emilia's words, a stabbing feeling of regret assails Subaru. Having made
Emilia recollect a sad memory, and even brought her to tears, the guilt spears him in multitudes.
What Subaru feels from Emilia's faltering speech is her love and gratitude for the people of Elior
Forest. Feelings which the day of snow had flipped entirely, transforming these memories into ones
of being subjected to hatred and malice.
It's unclear what they all thought while trapped inside the ice. But Emilia's days of warmth and
happiness have nevertheless been sealed inside the thick, cold frost, with no signs at all of it
melting.
Subaru: “...Why did they say those things about you? Just going off what I've heard here, for the
one who buried the forest in ice... to be you would make sense. But were you powerful enough to
cause something that insane when you were little?”
Emilia: “—I don't know. Back then I knew way less of the world than I do now, and I knew nothing
about what I could or couldn't do, and I was always imposing on everybody's kindness. But...
without Puck and by myself, the current me doesn't have the powers to freeze a forest.”
Subaru: “If you had Puck, could you?”
Emilia: “—”
Emilia wordlessly gives a small nod.

Her half-hearted affirmation was probably because she feared Subaru would mistake her for the
culprit behind freezing the forest. But Subaru doesn't think that way.
Not out of favouritism, but a simple problem of timeline.
Subaru: “Don't need to look so worried, I'm not gonna misunderstand. You met Puck ages after the
Forest'd been frozen... like, after 100 years. You and the ice and Puck are backwards in the
sequence.”
Emilia: “M-mm... yes, but...”
Emilia nods, her face too tense to really be called 'relieved'.

While withstanding the urge to furrow his brow at that reaction, Subaru instructs himself to keep his
expression calm as he links his hands together.
—There's been something faintly off about this the whole time. But it was here in this instant that
Subaru felt more intensely uncomfortable than ever.
Well of course. Natsuki Subaru had never trespassed into Emilia's past or inner thoughts before, and
had been content to love her while coddling her superficial traits like a princess.
And so this was a TRIAL for Subaru, one essential for him to undergo.
A TRIAL to determine whether a Subaru disqualified from the tomb had the right to stand with,
beside, and alongside Emilia.
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Subaru: “I understand the things about what you saw in the tomb's TRIAL. ...And so going
conversely, what do you think you have to do that'll beat it?”
Emilia: “That's... mm, it's...”
Emilia averts her gaze. This was not her hesitating about giving a solution, but her failing to find the
precise form and structure of the thing.
Emilia had no definite visions on how to defeat the TRIAL. Her first attempt had abruptly presented
her again with her long-held quandary, and sought that she present a flawless response.
Echidna said that giving your answer regarding the past that you avoided is enough to defeat the
TRIAL.
Affirmation of it, denial of it, either would work to surmount it.
Emilia had accepted as a sad memory the fact that those once kind to her now rejected her. Then,
getting over it would be the requirement for beating the TRIAL?
Getting over the stuff you have deserted to your past—how to do it, and how to clear it.
Subaru cannot present Emilia with a definite answer. But, having overcome the first TRIAL and
experienced the second, there are things Subaru does know. And although his scrapes with the
character of the one called Echidna were minute, he does know this:
—Most likely, the TRIAL would not present the challenger with an unbeatable problem.
And of course it wouldn't, when considering Echidna's goals.

What Echidna desires is the treasures so called results, to sate her curiosity. Were they acquired by
defeat of the TRIAL, then that only made them shine brighter. So should be what the witch is
thinking.
The results are merely a question of whether the challenger affirms or denies the past.
Meaning that Emilia was meeting the requirements to clear the TRIAL. So long as she can figure out
said requirements, and present her thoughts about her past, then that should be her solution.
So then the problem here is not with the TRIAL, but with—
Subaru: “You can keep challenging without having found any answer for it, but it's gonna always
turn out the same.”
Emilia: “—What do you think, Subaru?”
Emilia: “This talk we've had, about my past and the TRIAL... having heard it, what do you think? Do
you have any ideas for what might work? I'm still wondering what I should do...”
Emilia must have spent last night, even after returning to her lodgings, it eating into her sleeping
hours, repeating these questions to herself.
In a debilitating vortex of thought, which ended in her losing consciousness in something close to
fainting.
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Subaru: “Emilia, you said that you want to melt the ice and thank everyone.”
Emilia: “Mm.”
Subaru: “Why do you think like that?”
Emilia must have sustained terrible treatment from these once-kind people.
Why did she find significance in saving those men and women, drowned in the ice?
Subaru: “The last memories you have are memories of them rejecting you, right? They said awful
things, jeered at you... why do you still want to help them?”
Emilia: “—Subaru, if I said awful things about you right now, would you stop trying to help me?”
Subaru: “—”
Subaru finds himself speechless.

Emilia's amethyst eyes stare back at Subaru with sincerity. The indecisive weakness is gone from
her gaze in that answer.
Emilia: “Yes, the last feelings I felt while with everybody were painful... but what happened at the
end doesn't erase all the time I spent with them before that. I had so many good memories of my
time with them.”
Emilia: “I don't want to forget them, and invalidate everything by only remembering them hurting
me. I want to help everyone, and smile with them again... it's greedy, but that's what I think.”
Emilia puts her hand to her mouth after finishing her unwitting speech, peeping at Subaru to see his
response.
Her expression is one of having unintentionally voiced an ugly part of herself, and fearing being
scorned because of it, is how Subaru perceives it.
Seeing Emilia's perceived worry, Subaru thinks:
—So her way of life is one where she cannot go without finding that wish greedy.
Subaru: “Nothing, just thinking. That you're exactly, entirely right, that is.”
Even saying that he was killed by them in his last interaction, that doesn't make the memories and
ties between them fade.
He had been killed by both Rem and Ram, but he still worked frantically to save them. And he ran
off the same feelings during the loops starting in the Capital.
Emilia thought in the same manner as Subaru. That's all.
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Subaru: “—”
The instant after he feels the relief, Subaru becomes conscious of the greatest sense of awriness yet.
Something so off, that he's shocked at how he hadn't already noticed it.
His face frozen stiff, Emilia's eyes waver in confusion as she looks at Subaru. While he knows this
is unsettling her, he cannot really pull himself back together. Because,
—Emilia has already reached her answer regarding the event in her past.
Subaru: “—”
The elves Emilia spent her days with are sleeping in ice in Elior Forest. She has reminisced on that
day of snow, and although the target of her once-trusted ones's hatred, she fully asserted that she
wanted to save them and convey them her gratitude.
That was a single and definite reply to her aversive past.
If Subaru's recognition of his past self's foolishness and communication of his goodbye to his
parents was enough to meet the conditions to defeat the TRIAL, then Emilia's determination should
be equally respected.
But the TRIAL is not willing to recognize that she has filled the conditions.
While perhaps that could be because Subaru jolted her awake and interrupted her TRIAL, on all days
after that for every loop—even when Subaru does not interrupt her TRIAL, she fails to defeat it.
So Emilia's answer was not apt for the TRIAL?
Subaru: “But, that's...”
If the one making the ruling during the TRIAL is Echidna, then is its liking with the presented
answer dependant on the witch's feelings with it? But, Echidna's emphasis is not on what kind of
answer is given, and instead on the fact that one is given at all.
Invalidating the challenger's answer does not seem anything like Echidna. Nothing like her—but
Subaru does have the thought: if there's a possibility that Echidna disfavours only Emilia's answer...
It guilts him to recognize the thought.

Recognizing it means speculating that ONLY EMILIA is entirely incapable of defeating the TRIAL.
Subaru: “Like I could accept that... begging you, Echidna.”
Emilia: “Subaru, what's wrong? Did I say something strange again?”
Subaru: “No, it's not a problem with you. If there's some problem then it's with the question-
setter. ...You said you want to melt the ice and help everyone, but you weren't able to? You lived in
the forest with Puck until Roswaal brought you out, right? You must've had plenty of time to try.”
104
Although aware that it's a cruel question, Subaru asks it.

Being that he's heard Emilia's past, then attempting such a thing and unsealing them from the ice
would mean the freed people would again shower Emilia in curses.
Emilia must have already worried about this exact thing many times over. Her nails dig into her arm
as she looks down.
Emilia: “I had Puck help me for it so many times... but I couldn't melt the ice.”
Subaru: “When you say couldn't melt the ice, do you mean a mental problem? Or a physical one...”
Assuming that it's a mental problem, then Subaru has no intention to fault her for it.
Doing something while knowing that it will hurt oneself is not an action anyone is so easily capable
of.
But Emilia replies to Subaru's question with a weak,
Emilia: “A physical problem, maybe.”
Emilia: “The ice is special ice... it's not something that will melt, even if you do what you can from
outside. You have to do something about the person who froze them, or try some other great
method... and so I accepted Roswaal's offer, and...”
Subaru: “Offer?”
Emilia: “Auh...”
Emilia covers her mouth, her expression one of having said something that she shouldn't.
But faced with Subaru as he focuses his stare on her in silence, Emilia's shoulders immediately
droop.
Emilia: “Roswaal... promised me.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “He came with the insignia, let me hold it... and once he saw its jewel glow red, he told me
about the Royal Selection, and then... he said this.”
So was Emilia's presence in the forest, qualified to be a Royal Selection candidate as she was,
information written in the gospel?
An exchange which brings to mind the image of Roswaal smiling cryptically—in this imagining,
Roswaal speaks as he presents Emilia his hand:
Emilia: “—If you can secure the throne, then surely your wish to melt the ice of this forest can also
be granted.”
Subaru: “...You believed him?”
Emilia: “I was pretty desperate. He didn't tell me the details of how to melt the ice, but... I accepted
his offer, and left the forest with Roswaal. Puck... doesn't object to what I do, so he came with me
105
without saying anything.”
Subaru: “And that's why you decided to participate in the Selection... when you said before that
your reason for participating's selfish... that's what it was, then.”
Emilia: “...Contempting me, right?”
In his heart Subaru agrees with her, when Emilia murmurs.

He looks up, to find her gazing at him timidly, and her lips quirk.
Emilia: “The others... everybody has amazing goals and resolve for contending in the Selection, and
my reason is so, sooo much of a personal problem...”
Subaru: “I'd say it's plenty important, wanting to save the villagers. The quantity of people you help
doesn't dilute the greatness of what you do. And besides, the stuff you said at the Selection's hall
wouldn'tve been a lie.”
Emilia: “What I said at the hall for the Selection...”
Subaru: “That you wanted to be viewed as equal. I don't think those words were a lie.”
At the start, maybe it was her seeking some solution for her unresolved circumstances. But Emilia
learned of the outside world, learned the largeness of 100 years of time, and was still learning the
ways of the present world, surely giving her chance to rethink.
Subaru did not feel that the words she spoke at the Selection Hall were insincere, superficial
varnish.
If her feelings then were earnest, and her desire to win the Selection remained the same now, then
Subaru thought it no reason to entirely disdain it.
Subaru: “So you don't have to look so worried, it's okay. I'm on your side, and that you can lean on
me hasn't changed from last night. Even if you say you're okay, and deny taking my shoulder.”
Emilia: “Ah... um, about yesterday...”
Subaru: “Don't apologize, it'll ruin me. But well, what I can tell you is that I'm always gonna be
right where you can lean on me, Emilia-tan, for thine anticipated use. I do like it when you stand
strong by your own, Emilia, but it's perfectly fine for you to be a little weak for me too.”
Subaru thumps his hand to his chest, letting his mouth relax, for Emilia to give a relieved sigh.
Instantly, that relief seems to transmit down the rest of her as her upper body sways,
Emilia: “It's, just when I relax suddenly I'm...”
Subaru: “Your dream was so bad you couldn't sleep. Don't push yourself, have a little nap. I won't
do anything just watch over you.”
Emilia: “That 'won't do anything' is sort of bothering me sooo much...”
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Although worried by the unneeded statement, Emilia's silver hair still sways as she fights the
Sandman's temptations. Subaru puts his finger to her forehead, putting in some light force to so
push her down.
Emilia: “Au...”
Subaru: “Don't worry, get to sleep.”
Subaru unconsentingly finger-pushes her to lie face-up on the bed.

He draws the linens over her thin body, drawing his chair even closer to the bed, seating himself
where he can observe Emilia's face as she sleeps.
Subaru: “If you're talked out, your head's ordered, and what I said relaxed you a little... then go have
a nice rest. A time's gonna come again tomorrow night where you'll need to put in your best.”
Emilia: “...Is it okay for me to be spoiled like this?”
Subaru: “It's perfectly okay. Keep getting spoiled. Your teeth're gonna rot with how intense my
sweet pampering'll be.”
Subaru gives a shrug, Emilia laughing quietly as she lies in bed. And she stares intently at Subaru,
reaching her arm out from under the covers.
Emilia: “—Hand.”
Subaru: “Hm?”
Emilia: “If you're going to spoil me, then... could you hold my hand? Just until I fall asleep,
please?”
Subaru: “Oho, now leave that right to me.”
Subaru grips her slender little hand, smiling as he feels its delicate, smooth touch on his palm.
Emilia smiles back, closing her eyes in accordance with Subaru's words.
It does not take that long for her to start giving the quiet breathing of sleep.
Subaru: “...Really, hope you can have a good dream.”
Watching Emilia as she lays quietly in bed, Subaru brushes her silver bangs from her forehead,
dropping his gaze to their yet-linked hands.
If feeling someone else's presence like this could free her from her isolation in the dream, good.
Leaving her to be plagued and plagued by painful nightmares, alone in this room, would certainly
be cruel.
Subaru: “But anyway... learned lots of stuff.”
107
Adjusting his posture on his seat, still grasping her hand, Subaru ruminates over the details of their
conversation.
Emilia's past, and why she's contending in the Royal Selection. Roswaal's proposal as he brought
her out, and an Emilia so cornered that she had to accept said proposal.
And most importantly, the TRIAL facing Emilia, and its motives in not passing her when she has
supposedly reached her answer—with the issues still lying incomplete, and having soothed Emilia
to sleep, Subaru, now, was here.
Subaru: “—”
He glances down at Emilia's face as she sleeps.

Pained at her haggard state, Subaru had postponed on what to do—or not. He had put off acquiring
essential answers and practically forced her to bed for a purpose.
His ideas were ones he likely would not be able to achieve at Emilia's side, with her still awake.
Subaru: “But, thinking of the situation... this is all I can imagine.”
The past loops, information that has tugged at him, and other circumstantial evidence had forced
Subaru to consider this idea. There is only one way to confirm it, and that way is simple.
Should his idea be correct, then unmistakably it would be a glimmer of hope for breaking through
this situation—
He holds his breath.
His heart thumps and his blood rushes loud as he reaches out his hand, seeking to confirm whether
he is right.
His left hand, not the right which clutches Emilia's, reaches down to between her clavicles, down to
the bottom of her slender, pale neck. And,
Subaru: “—You're not really damn sleeping at all.”
A cold, hard touch at his fingertips.

Although feeling his voice strain as he speaks, the words do come out.
Then is a period of silence, and just when Subaru's heart starts blazing with panicked impatience—
???: <I'm impressed you noticed. —It makes me happy, Subaru.>
From inside the green stone at his fingertips, the spirit's androgynous voice echoes directly within
Subaru's skull.
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CHAPTER 92: A LIE

Puck: <It feels like it's been ages since we last talked like this.>
Subaru: <That's 'cause it's been... right, almost two weeks already since you disappeared. Your
owner was going around looking for you, sad, and you were nowhere to be found.>
This sensation of words permeating directly into his skull, rather than through vibrations in the air,
is a strange one. But regardless Subaru indeed perceives Puck's ever-lackadaisical voice, himself
unable to keep from having his resentment seep into his reply.
How to deal with this situation where rather than being elated that he got his expected—or wished-
for—reply, he is irritated? His bullheadedness was too intense for him to give Puck any earnest
response.
Puck: <It looks like over the two weeks we've gone without talking, your anger for me escalated
pretty bad.>
Subaru: <You know why, yeah? Don't make me have to say it.>
Puck: <Right. That thing I said before I stopped coming out... to the blue-haired girl, I've looked
back on it, and it was pretty thoughtless of me. I've really reflected on it.>
Subaru: <...! That isn't what we're talking about!>
What's thoughtless is bringing up events which Subaru had already forgotten his anger about. And
to top it off it completely derails the conversation from what they ought to be discussing.
Puck responds to Subaru's outburst in a pouty tone,
Puck: <Come on, don't be so mad...>
Puck: <I know that. I just wanted to apologize. Had to wonder, if we didn't settle the bad blood
before getting into the main topic, whether we could really get too deep into each other. ...Since
even in good times, I'm in a position where I have to request heaps of things from you.>
Subaru: <Okay, are you? If your self-satisfaction's all sated, then let's get on with the talk. You
know, that one you want to have, about the main topic.>
Answering to Puck's apology with entirely superficial acceptance, Subaru pushes the talk forward
as he glares at the crystal.
Its bright lustre reflects off Subaru's eyes, emitting a deep green glow from its place on Emilia's
chest.
Subaru clicks his tongue.
Subaru: <Anyway, this situation's way too inconvenient for us to be talking in. We're going outside.
It's not clear when Emilia could wake up. We'll change the setting, and...>
Puck: 
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Puck's thoughtspeech destroys Subaru's proposal as he looks down at the sleeping Emilia's face. The
reply prompts Subaru to make an expression as if his nose has been pinched, just for a moment.
Subaru: <That wasn't a 'don't wanna', rejecting it. What do you mean by 'can't'?>
Puck: <Only what it sounds like. Outside the crystal, for me right now... or basically, materialising
in the outside world is impossible for me right now. If it weren't, do you think I'd ever let Lia be this
sad and alone?>
Subaru: <—>
Puck speaks as if he's saying something entirely natural. Subaru responds with mental silence.
Considering everything that's happened between Subaru and the spirit until now, it's truth that,
honestly, Subaru is on the verge of doubting how credible Puck's statements are.
But neverminding Puck's disposition where he's always a step too late when it matters, the
fundamental part of him—that his presence is for Emilia's sake, and that he feels for Emilia, are not
fabrication. Subaru considered those points alone ones which necessitated no doubt.
Subaru: <There's some circumstances, or reason... why you're not able to come outside.>
Puck: <That's right. I haven't even been able to talk in thoughtspeak, like this. So it's a great fortune
that you suspected this and called out to the crystal. I doubt anyone else would've been able to
secure this opportunity, you see.>
Subaru: <Anyone else... meaning?>
Puck: <It's very simple, the only one who'd want to get this close to Lia while she's unconscious'd
have to be you. Then is the problem where even if you do touch the crystal, whether you're
compatible for the thoughts to communicate. But we've done this before in the Capital, and
confirmed that you and me are connected with a pass for mental communication.>
Subaru: <...Thinking back, actually we did do that.>
Second time in the Capital, when having a private talk with Emilia, Puck and Subaru communicated
in thoughtspeak like this.2
It's a replication of back then—and with its being secret from Emilia, even moreso a replication.
Subaru: <So, what am I meant to do?>
Puck: <Hm?>
Subaru: <I purposefully figured the timing where someone'd to talk back to me, and in this crazy,
divinely-touched situation I called out. You should've been prepared to not let this one-in-a-million
chance get away. That being an opportunity with its short, limited time window, and the words and
hints you need to communicate.>
Puck: <—>
2 Cut in the anime, occurs very early in arc 3.
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Puck responds with a meaningful silence. Subaru manages to vividly imagine the unseen cat spirit
grinning a wide and human-ish grin.
Betraying not Subaru's imaginings, Pucks laughs, his voice unable to conceal his delight.
Puck: 
Subaru: <...I can communicate what you're thinking to Emilia, if you want.>
The latter part of Puck's joyful statement comes laced with gloom, Subaru lowering his gaze. His
proposal to Puck is ultimately nothing more than an idea for what might console him. But, having
said it and considered it, it's also kind of genius.
Emilia had lost view of Puck, who supported the core of her heart, and was unsteady. While she was
enduring it for now, with the passage of time and repeated failures of the TRIAL, she would be
abraded and her weakness would reveal itself. If that's going to happen, then maybe it'd be better to
show her some relief here, and—
Puck: <You better not. If she learns that I communicated with someone who wasn't her, in the worst
cast scenario, Lia's mind could break.>
But Puck keeps Subaru from proceeding with the idea, his voice dejected.
Subaru: “Haah...”
Sighs Subaru.
Subaru: <So... what exactly do you mean with that?>
Puck: <Exactly what it sounds like I mean. Using you as an intermediary to convey my words to
Lia means she'll find out that I'm not really sleeping in the crystal. For a Lia who is keeping me
from exiting, and not allowing me to interact with anyone, her realising that I'm not actually
silenced is liable to destroy her yet-precarious mental equilibrium.>
Subaru: <Wha, wait up a sec—!>
Subaru shakes his head as he slams the breaks on Puck's piling sentences.
With Puck presently lacking body, and only the crystal's sheen for Subaru to gaze on, Puck's
expression is imperceptible. But going from Puck's tone, Subaru judges this no attempt at deception.
Subaru: <Do you realise what you said just now? That it's Emilia, that it's no one other than Emilia,
who is stopping you from going outside, that's what you're saying.>
Puck: <...>
Subaru: <Sealing your mouth shut... what do you mean with that? When Emilia's calling for you,
crying for your help, wailing and in tears... how can you! It's not me, not anyone else, but your
name she calls when she's worn out! And how can you...!>
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Puck: <...Ah, right. There's no one more frustrated at the fact that Lia won't rely first on you than
you, Subaru.>
Subaru: <—hk!!>
The statement is one to change the topic on him, but the meaning it carries accurately divines to
Subaru's core, his throat clamming with incomprehensible and violent emotion.
It's truth that Subaru has been acting while persistently wanting to be Emilia's number one. That the
fact he cannot presently be Emilia's number one, is obstructing him, is also truth.
Another truth is that the one who occupied Emilia's #1 slot, this one who possessed far more power
than Subaru, who although asserting that Emilia was in turn his own #1, was failing to take any
action for her sake—was something Subaru loathed to a maddening extent.
And so then being told that the reason for this was not himself, not Puck, but in fact Emilia herself,
of course he cannot simply believe it.
Subaru: <So, what? You're saying that Emilia breaking as she challenges the TRIAL, declining alone
in suffering, smiling in tears as she remembers her sad past, all of it and everything, is a lie and a
goddamn performance? —As if I could believe that!>
If those tears, those cries, those laments, everything had been a production to fool those around her,
then Emilia's acting skills were natural genius. Rather than aiming for the throne, she should aim for
being a universally-acclaimed actress.
If you ignore the obvious fact that Emilia lacks both that talent and any reason to deceive Subaru
and the others, then that's what she should aim for.
Subaru: <That couldn't happen... Nevermind constantly lying to trick everyone around her, she gets
crushed by guilt just over a tiny little lie. That's the type of girl Emilia is...>
Puck: <Subaru, calm down. I'm not speaking bad of Lia like your worst-case imaginations say. Now
just calm down.>
Subaru: <Worst-case imaginations? What worst-case imaginations. Asshole, stop peeping into my
head! That stuff and this stuff have nothing to do with each other. Even saying for instance that
something does happen, I would never think of Emilia...hk>
Puck: <—NATSUKI SUBARU!>
Puck's sharp voice strikes an agitated, roiled Subaru

The intense emotion packed in the short call is enough to, for a moment, make Subaru's body
tremble and freeze still. What Subaru's timid gaze lands on is not the visage of the small cat, but the
inorganic glowstone sitting quietly at Emilia's chest.
Puck: <...Are you calmed down?>
Subaru: <...That voice was seriously you? My thought was you're always spaced out, ignoring the
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seriousness of the situation, being fluffy.>
Puck: <It's not really that often that I raise my voice. But when it's Lia... or for scolding a
disobedient kid, then I can get loud.>
Subaru: <Disobedient kid, thanks.>
Subaru gives a small sigh.

His failure to entirely deny Puck's words is because he recognize that his unsightly attitude had
been problematic.
This was a long-awaited conversation, but Subaru had neglected multiple times to keep his calm
during it. What time was he on now for Puck rebuking him, and getting the conversation back on
track?
It's pathetic how he's unable to restrain himself. What he had yearned for constantly, a heart of
metal. Subaru's interior, then, lacked even a single scrap of the thing?
Puck: <But honestly said, I'm pretty thankful for your presence, with how emotional you get over
Lia. You're surely giving Lia more than a little strength by her perspective, too.>
Subaru: <—wh>
Puck: <No one has stepped this far into Lia's truest thoughts before. Even Roswaal, who brought
Lia out of the forest for her connection to the Selection, has gone without touching her ingrained,
deeper nature. Though considering that that thing's goals are in doing something by putting Lia on
the throne, and so concerned with something unrelated, I suppose it's not that surprising.>
Subaru: <—You know what Roswaal's goals are?>
Puck: <To follow the gospel, right? In that respect, he's perhaps a lot like Betty. Having things
written, and having nothing written. Similar but different, is perhaps how to say it.>
It appears that Puck knew about Beatrice and Roswaal's circumstances in detail. While Subaru
doubts the information has gotten to even Emilia, that doubt only makes him more unsettled about
what Puck's thinking in keeping these factoids to himself.
But Subaru can imagine something for what Puck would say, should Subaru question him about it.
Subaru: <It's unrelated to Emilia, so you took no initiative to act... then.>
Puck: <If there were anything I could do for Betty, then I would. And as for Roswaal... being that
Lia's tied up in it, have to do something about it.>
Subaru: <This's the payback for putting this off and not talking about it when you damn well
knew.>
Puck: 
Unrelated to any question of malevolence, it seems his lack of intention to prioritize anything
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except Emilia had strong influence here. If this passive stance of his is what beckoned Emilia's
present hardship, then this was a blunder far too large to simply laugh off as a trifling mistake.
Subaru: <I'm destroying Roswaal's plans so that one's fine for now. And about Beatrice... got no
intention of leaving her to you. The only thing I'm conspiring about with you is Emilia.>
Puck: <That's fine. My strength isn't great enough right now to allocate it to anyone but Lia.
Expending my best efforts into something other than my main preference, and so overlooking
what's most important, would be cart and horse.>
Subaru: <Tell me. What does it mean that Emilia's keeping you from going outside? I don't think for
even a single second that she's tricking everybody.>
Last time he had been running off emotion, but his ideas remain the same even now. While there's
no conceivable way he could know everything of Emilia's inner heart, she is surely not someone
who would deceive those around her, and disregard their thoughtfulness.
A sensation transmits mentally of Puck practically giving a relieved sigh.
Puck: <You can relax, would be a statement hard to really assert. It's by Lia's will that I'm not going
outside, but... it isn't that Lia's keeping me from going outside, while thinking to block me from
going outside.>
Subaru: <...Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying.>
Puck: <It's tricky to explain. That Lia is seeking my help, and calling to the crystal, and can't hear my
voice, all are entirely true. That she's scared of being alone, and trembling without her support is also
fact. But.>
Subaru: <—>
Puck: <Her unconscious is rejecting my materialization and our mutual communication. Her heart's
front and back ends are in disagreement, is maybe how to say it.>
Heart's front and back ends, is the descriptor at which Subaru gulps.
Surely this wouldn't mean split personalities, but that said, every time crises has borne down on
Subaru in this world, it's come with the multiple experiences of his own heart betraying him.
Then, supposing that Emilia is presently in a similar situation...
Subaru: <You can't influence Emilia from your end?>
Puck: <That's tricky. The back end's imposing force is stronger than the front end. I bet that if I
could get to the front end, it'd be big trouble for Lia mentally.>
Subaru: <Do you have any guesses on what trouble it'd be for her? Like something where if you
came out, it'd cause something inconvenient for Emilia...>
Puck: <But don't you already know?>
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A sort of teasing tone enters Puck's voice. After only a momentary silence, Subaru lowers his eyes.
Subaru: <—It's just speculation.>
Puck: <Yup, that's good. Now let's have us a listen. I did say, yes? That I'm expecting things from
you, Subaru.>
Puck gives Subaru his entirely ungratifying stamp of approval. Feeling his mood lighten somewhat
even from this calibre of assurance, the statement pushes Subaru on.
Subaru: <If you're there, then Emilia...>
Puck: <Mmhm, mmhm.>
Subaru: <...will have to accept some inconvenient part of her past. —That's why Emilia's
unconsciously keeping you from interfering.>
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Puck: <—>
Puck receives Subaru's thoughtwaves not with rejection or a laugh, but with silence.
Supposing that the unseen cat spirit were present in form here, then surely he would have his
carefree demeanour and expression in tact, his long tail swaying to and fro.
Puck: <Incredible, Subaru. That's a better answer than what I expected.>
Says Puck, in admiration, after a period of silence.

Subaru sighs out his nose.
Subaru: <You can compliment me, but seriously it doesn't make me happy at all.>
Puck: <It's honest praise. You surely didn't have that much information to work with, and that just
with speculations you managed to reach this is truly surprising. You understand Lia's heart well.>
The sense of compassion is large. Likely, Puck's consciousness is gazing at the sleeping Emilia.
Lured in by the voice, Subaru looks at her visage in slumber.
Emilia rests in a sleep so deep it's impossible to discern any dreams bad or good. The TRIAL,
whittling at her heart, and her concordant past.
But Subaru had doubts as to how accurate this recreation of the past was to the real past which
accosted her.
Subaru's TRIAL had presented in the form of goodbyes to his parents, symbols of his past regrets. Of
course it had. Subaru's past which merited reflection wasn't any single, big event, but the
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environment he'd been in and the very time he spent in sloth itself.
And so the TRIAL created an illegitimate occasion for Subaru, a pleasant time spent with his parents,
urging Subaru to part with them.
Subaru: <The pasts aren't necessarily faithful to what actually happened. It draws from the guy
challenging's mental scenery, and other requirements, to be reconstructed in a shape fitting for the
TRIAL.>
Echidna had explained to Subaru how the TRIAL generally worked. It would assemble information
that even Subaru himself didn't consciously remember out of his memories, and use that to craft an
ELABORATE, COUNTERFEIT WORLD.
She had said that his goodbye to his parents was not real, and only his own self-satisfaction.
—And why is that? He thought now.
Subaru: <The pasts you see in the tomb is a forgery in trappings of the real. The asshole who set up
the TRIAL arranged the thing so it'd present the problem which'd let the challenger reach the answer
that'd make them fucking feel best.>
She hadn't stated that much, but Subaru is confident that Echidna would do this. Even Subaru had
seen at least this much of the witch's malevolence.
Subaru: <The past Emilia's seeing has correct and incorrect parts. The difference is... you know
something that will definitively differ from her past. And so Emilia's unconsciously rejecting any
attempts at calling you out.>
Puck: <...You have to wonder. If I'm around, Lia will see the correct, legitimate past. Why could
Lia's true heart be rejecting me, while knowing that?>
Subaru: <That one's...>
Simple, is how Subaru goes to continue, before hesitating.

Subaru's hesitation is also for simple reasons. Speaking any further means unveiling the truth of
Emilia's past. The cruel and aversive times Emilia had spoken of were a covering Emilia's heart was
using to conceal the truth.
Puck: <The true events which Lia'd rather forget are even more hopeless than the false events she
spoke about.>
Puck follows on from where Subaru stopped.

Recognizing this thing he had managed to go without recognizing, Subaru's face twists in grief as
he looks at Emilia.
The warm, friendly times she spent with the elves—who then cursed her with spite and hatred,
dousing her in umbrage as she welcomed a long, long goodbye inside the ice.
Just thinking about that past near shredded Subaru's heart and body, but for Emilia that was a tender
cradle to hide the wicked, actual truth.
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Subaru: <You know what Emilia actually saw?>
Puck: <...Sorry, but I don't know that one either. It was after the forest was frozen over that I met
Lia. So I don't know what it is about my presence that she's afraid of. I don't know what it is about
me that influences Lia's past.>
Puck mutters in frustration. Subaru bites his lip.

Emilia's true past. Thanks to this, Subaru's figured out a piece of the answer to why she cannot
overcome the TRIAL.
Emilia is shown her true past, and a different past, every time she takes the TRIAL. And she desires
for the false past to be the real one.
Until she presents an answer for the legitimate past, she will not be able to surmount the TRIAL. So
long as her heart is deceiving her, the past's sweet knives will continue shredding her mind.
Subaru: <What do I do?>
Puck: 
Subaru: 
Puck: <It's the same for me. I exist only for her sake. If I can't help her, then there's no reason for
me to exist.>
Subaru: 
Puck: <—>
Faced with Subaru as he presses further, Puck falls into contemplative silence. Subaru waits intently
for the spirit's reply. And with a voice laced with determination,
Puck: <Subaru. —There is one possibility.>
Subaru: <Possibility?>
Puck: <It's a method I definitely would not have considered on my own, and plainly said even now
I'm strongly adverse to it. This is a proposal I figured I would've never stated, even if I did think of
it.>
Subaru braces himself for what proposal Puck is going to present. At the very least, this is the first
time Subaru has ever heard Puck sound so serious when addressing someone other than Emilia.
Subaru: <What're you gonna make me do?>
Puck: <I'm the one who'll be doing it. But I will be having you do the cleanup afterwards.>
Subaru: <...It seriously feels like you're gonna say something insane, I'm kinda scared.>
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Puck: 
Subaru takes a small breath, Puck's words packed with great emotion.
This what Puck though about Subaru—and there's no room to doubt it. Assuming it were for
Emilia's sake, then Natsuki Subaru could certainly risk his life.
Subaru silently indicates his assent. Puck, inside the crystal, surely nods.
And, with his voice quiet,
Puck:
<Tomorrow morning, I will make Lia break the contract. —Should the relationship between myself
and Lia terminate, then I'm sure that when she cries, you'll comfort her.>
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CHAPTER 93: MUTUAL PROPOSALS

Puck: <If the contract between me and her terminates, can I maybe leave what comes after to you?>
Subaru: <...Depending on why you're doing this, yeah.>
Wetting his lips with his tongue, Subaru ignores the pressing dryness of his throat as he faces Puck.
Being that he is inside the crystal, Puck's expression remains invisible to Subaru. But the vortex of
emotion packed in his words convinces Subaru that these are no frivolous statements.
But, they're talking about contracts.

And even moreso, a contract between a spirit and a spirit practitioner, who put the greatest emphasis
on the things.
Puck's declaration of one-sidedly MAKING THE CONTRACT BREAK—the motives behind this are
nothing Subaru can suppose so easily.
Subaru: <The contracts between you and Emilia... put simply, it's an agreement between a spirit and
a contractor, right? Making that break'd have to come with an appropriate penalty, yeah?>
Puck: <Yes, naturally.>
Subaru: <If my imagination's correct, the contractor is someone who borrows a spirit's power by
upholding the contract. If the contractor can't uphold the contract, well this is obvious but the spirit
loses pretext to lend the contractor their strength. ...So basically, making the contract break
means...>
Puck: <That the tie between myself and Lia will disappear, pretty much.>
Puck offers no denials or amendments to Subaru's speculation, instead accepting it.

But if he was affirming this, then that meant—
Subaru: <Her being unable to borrow your power... means Emilia loses her combat strength. What's
gonna happen's that she gets demoted to just being a sole, single girl.>
Puck: <That doesn't really have anything to do with it for you, does it? Regardless of whether Lia
has power or not, you're the one not wanting to let her fight. Does look like the disagreement
around how Lia herself thinks about it got you down, though.>
Subaru: <Guh... That's, not wrong, no. But my feelings and that stuff doesn't matter to this. All this
blah blah about combat power's unrelated to the core of the problem. What's important here is...
what will happen with Emilia, when you're not with her anymore.>
Puck's absence was, to Emilia, equivalent to losing her mental support.

If what Puck's said so far is truth, then the deep parts of Emilia's heart have noticed that Puck isn't
actually sleeping. The delicate bond between them has not been severed.
But even with this slight link between them in tact, Emilia is haggard and cornered. So much so that
she gets entirely dependant on Subaru, saying she won't leave his side.
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If that was what being truly devoid of her connection with Puck meant, then—
Subaru: <It wouldn't be strange for Emilia to lose mental equilibrium on the spot. That has to be one
of the top three things you don't want to see, either. What're you plotting.>
Puck: <There's no plots in it. I'm only doing what will push things into the best form for Lia. I'm not
going to do and I can't do things that she doesn't wish for.>
Subaru: <Emilia is wishing for her contract with you to be annulled?>
Puck: <That's wrong, Subaru. The loss of our contract is nothing more than a side-product for
granting her wishes. Lia's present wish is, without any doubt, to overcome the tomb's TRIAL. There's
no need to doubt that, and you're safe to believe it.>
Subaru has no suspicions regarding that point, either.

Emilia's been unable to face her past, instead witnessing a false past as the TRIAL repeatedly breaks
her—is Puck's hypothesis, which also does not invite doubts on said point, supposing Subaru
believes it.
Subaru believed, more than anyone else, that Emilia's nature was nothing so diminutive as to only
PRETEND to be attempting to overcome the obstacles before her.
Subaru's agreement should not be transmitting to Puck in words. But nevertheless, Puck's mental
voice lowers slightly, as if communicating straight to Subaru's heart.
Puck: <I'm certain that if she learns I'm gone, Lia will break down. So bad that she'll be crying like
a child, wailing, chaotic.>
Subaru: <—>
Puck: <But, I think that's okay. This situation where her surface heart believes I'm gone, and inner
heart knows I'm here, in itself is what's unnatural. When both her heart's front and back understand
that I'm gone... when the obvious shackles sealing her past come undone, then for the first time, Lia
will be able to face her heart.>
Puck's words are quiet, but packed with multitudinous emotion.

Compassion, sorrow, joy, and abounding devotion, ready to sacrifice everything to his most dear.
Subaru: <Then, losing the bond with you... so that she can face herself, will let her move forward?>
Puck: <Mhm, yeah. I'm sure there'll be many more painful things, but I know Lia's a girl who can
persevere through them.>
Subaru: <You're not gonna be with her any more, y'know. You aren't worried? You want to be with
your daughter, infinitely soft-hearted and always putting herself second to her disadvantage,
protecting her. Isn't that what you think?>
Subaru himself is starting to lose sight of what exactly it is he's saying.

Should Puck's proposal produced the desired results, then absolutely it will beckon in the
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developments that Subaru is hoping for. Puck is exactly right, the existence or nonexistence of
Emilia's combat ability is completely unrelated to this for Subaru, who is anguishing to keep her
from the battleground.
Subaru can happily welcome Puck's proposal, and has no reason to hinder it. And still.
Puck: <Though, my thoughts were that lately, you haven't been very happy about me being at Lia's
side.>
Subaru: <You're not wrong to think that. ...With the stuff that's happened between us, your stocks're
at an ultimate low for me, and they're not gonna be climbing so easily. One decision where it's like
you're sacrificing yourself for Emilia isn't going to clear away this embittered distrust.>
Puck: <That certainly was a statement, that made me kind of sad.>
Subaru: <But.>
This ironing out of mutual opinions is assuredly not inaccurate. Subaru doubted he could simply
swallow down Puck's words, or that his negative impression of him would change so easily.
These words Subaru spoke were not falsehood. But,
Subaru: <I'm envisioning Emilia there without you, in sadness. And I know best, so much it's
painful, that you're the biggest presence there is for Emilia. That's what you are and so, I...>
Puck: <—>
His words not proceeding, Subaru proceeds only with a vortex of indefinite thought. Puck too
preserves the mental silence, quietly waiting for Subaru's vague ideas to take shape.
But the more panicked he gets, his answer loses more of its definition, turning it into something
uncertain.
Subaru: <I'm. So, for me, you're...>
Puck: <Your presence is a big part of why I can make this decision, Subaru.>
Murmurs Puck. The whisper in his skull prompts Subaru to raise his head, looking, stunned, at the
green crystal.
Puck: <As you said, Lia's more important than anything to me. I want to always be watching over
her, and I want to be at her side to lend her my strength. Even now, when I determine it's for her
sake that I be gone, those feelings stay unchanged.>
Subaru: <But then, why?>
Puck: <Because you're here.>
Subaru: <—>
Subaru's breath feels to stop.
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Puck: <In this place... no, in this world, you're the only one who can stake their life for Lia like me.
Through the time we've spent together until now, you've proved that. Lia would... if you exclude
me, then you're probably who she'd rely on most. That's a definite. You can believe that.>
Subaru: <Even, said... I don't have amazing powers like you do, and I'm not incredible enough to
blast the obstacles out of her way with brute force. The best I can do is puzzle things over with her,
let her vent about her troubles... that's all. You really think you can task me with what comes after,
when that's all I can do?>
Puck: <It looks like you're misunderstanding, I'm not saying I want you to replace me. The things
only I can do are things only I can do. And taking the reverse of that, I'm expecting that the things
only you can do will help Lia.>
Puck's words continue, not stopping at all.

He blocks Subaru's routes of escape, so as not to lose the time for the decision on Emilia.
Puck: <Even without me, Lia is much stronger than you. And that is definitely in the sense of the
STRENGTH you're talking about. But, just as you know, she's weak. She definitely has this
WEAKNESS that I'm talking about. And I want you to give her support for that weakness.>
Subaru: <...When the contract severs and your connection breaks, what happens to you?>
Puck: <That I can be material like this is because of my pass with Lia. If that connection is broken,
then I'll have to keep constantly materialized to preserve my existence. ...But, me continually being
materialized means that I'm consuming the inexhaustible mana in the atmosphere dry. If you saw
my true form, I'd suppose it'd definitely shock you, Subaru.>
The TRUE FORM Puck is talking about probably means when he is giant. The apex of quadrupeds,
monster of raging blizzard, beast of the end.
Indeed, if he has to remain in that form constantly, then there is no way he could continue existing.
Subaru: <So, then... you mean you'll be erased?>
Puck: <It's different from being erased. I'll just go back to being the small existence I was, before I
contracted Lia. Somewhere with a deep connection to me... probably, it'll be Elior Forest. I'll go to
sleep inside something there as my anchor, waiting for the time I'm awoken.>
Subaru: <Awoken... meaning?>
Puck: <By Lia, of course. —This is where the contract between me and her ends. But if a time
comes where she needs to make a new contract, and she's going to choose a spirit partner... I know
she'll choose me again. That's what I believe.>
Feeling that Puck spoke this in a cheery tone, Subaru swallows his breath.
This was a decision where he might end up disappearing, but Puck's voice hosts not a fragment of
unease. His personality is fundamentally optimistic—but irrelevant to this, as not even a shade of
anxiety cloaks his voice.
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Puck had not a single doubt that Emilia would choose him again.
Emilia, who would lose her contract with Puck and have to face her past. It does not even occur in
his imaginings that Emilia would fail to fully accept her past, and be crushed.
She would overcome her past, and when she next sought a contract, would choose him.
As far as Puck was concerned, that was definite.

He does not doubt Emilia's strength, does not doubt the time he spent together with her, and so he is
capable of choosing to sever his connection with her.
Subaru: <—>
For an always-wavering Subaru, it is a bond so strong and firm, it's dazzling.

It was his deep love and trust for Emilia that allowed Puck's heart to be iron.
Subaru: <And you're pushing it on me to comfort Emilia when she breaks down.>
And so Subaru speaks in desperation, his tone rather resentful. Puck seems to click his throat, his
tone one of smiling,
Puck: <It really does pain my heart to do it. But... I'm entrusting my precious daughter to you, so I'd
like you to at least overcome that much together.>
Subaru: <...I'll be taking that as you secretly accepting me as Emilia-tan's partner.>
Puck: <If I blow you up right here, then I guess I'll have think over a lot of issues again.>
Subaru: <That is some insanely terrifying revenge, you shitty goddamn cat!!>
Replying to the extreme statement with rudeness, Subaru smiles just a little.
He defers to the depth Puck's feelings for Emilia. Although only slightly, this bantering from before
the trench between them formed relaxes Subaru's mind a little.
There was also something Subaru had figured, hearing that severing Puck's contract with Emilia
would distance him from this place. Temporarily assuming that this goes well—then the equilibrium
of the bet should shift more than a little.
Subaru: 
Puck: 
Subaru: <The guilt's gonna crush me stop it. And besides if Emilia sincerely does understand about
lots of these things, then... after it's over, she'll probably notice that she was spurred into this, too.>
Puck: <If that happens, she might hate you for being complicit with me. Scared?>
Subaru: <Well y'know what. When it's you you just have a teenage girl going, 'Don't put my dirty
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washing in along with my dad's!' level, our vectors of being hated are entirely different.>
Puck being hated was entirely a family problem, while Subaru being hated was a deeper, more life-
threatening thing. Though Emilia would probably understand if Subaru spoke to her will full
sincerity.
Even if he can convince her about the purposes behind it, of course Emilia isn't going to feel good
about being induced into a better frame of mind. —Surely, he would not be forgiven for that.
Subaru: <This late, huh. —You're really saying that this late, when I've done countless unforgivable
things and made her cry countless times, I don't have the resolve to do this?>
Puck: <—>
Subaru: <I'm accepting your terms, Puck. I'll be cleaning up your mess. If Emilia breaks down
crying tomorrow morning... then she'll be doing it in my arms.>
Puck: <—Mhm. Well then, let's see me count on you for that. I think this is going to wind up
pushing lots of troubles down the line onto you as well, though.>
A slight sense of shame enters Puck's voice as Subaru accepts the proposal.
Closing one eye, Subaru begins with a,
Subaru: “Well then,”
Subaru: <Are you open to considering a proposal from me, as well?>
Puck: <...A proposal.>
Subaru: <Yeah, a proposal. Don't worry. I'm same as you, acting while thinking to secure a future
which'll be good for Emilia.>
Subaru thumps his hand to his chest. Puck's silence indicates his acceptance.
Subaru: <There's some things I wanna ask, and things I wanna test once I've asked them. —Emilia
could wake up, so let's keep this short.>
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CHAPTER 94: LEFT BEHIND

—The first thing she feels upon waking up is the loneliness in her empty right hand.
Thus thinks her fuzzy mind, leaden still from waking. Then, realising alongside her sobering what a
selfish sentiment that is, her cheeks redden in anger and shame.
Rather than uprighting herself she chooses to ball up in the bed, curling the blankets around herself,
making herself small. In her own wretchedness, which she awakened to alongside her awakening,
she is quick to misjudge herself despite the start of a new day.
???: “—Awful, awful, just so awful. I'm... really, selfish.”
Mutters the girl curled up in the bed—Emilia—as she gives a long, long sigh at her own repulsive
state.
She fists and unfists her hands multiple times under the covers, remembering the sensation present
there until just before her sleeping.
Uneven, thick fingers, the skin slightly firmer at the tips, entirely unlike her own thin and frail ones
—which was something she thought on every opportunity she had to hold those hands.
It was the touch of the boy who had cared for her, spoke kindness to her, and until she surrendered
her consciousness, sat at her bedside while holding her hand—Subaru, and the feeling of his bony,
delicate palm.
The first thing she unconsciously thought upon waking was her melancholy about the emptiness of
her fingers, and the loss of the touch of that hand. Unconditionally, she's beyond help.
She had leaned on him so much. But was her nature desiring to pile more burdens on the boy? Even
after she had already troubled everyone with her vices and weaknesses to an irreparable degree?
Today was already her fourth day in SANCTUARY—and following from the first day, Emilia had
devoted herself to the TRIAL in the tomb deep in SANCTUARY both yesterday and the day before.
For an Emilia aiming to with the Royal Selection and secure the throne of Lugnica, SANCTUARY's
aid was the very first step on the road of things she had to acquire.
The governor of this land, Roswaal, is Emilia's backer, and these are citizens in circumstances
similar to her half-elf self. If she cannot present herself for their approval, when the conditions are
so heavily in her favour, then how can she intend to possibly do anything from here on out?
Emilia is undeniably in a disadvantageous position compared to the other Selection candidates. For
powerless Emilia to win, the help of others is indispensable. And it is only by Emilia's own actions
that she will earn the trust needed to secure that help.
For an Emilia who correctly understood her own position, the things she has to do and has to
present are clear. She has not any wavering about that.
But, what casts a gloom over her eyes is—
Emilia: “...The TRIAL.”
The single absolute condition for gaining the acceptance of the people of SANCTUARY is to beat the
TRIAL.
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These are residents who cannot exit out the forest encircling SANCTUARY, because of the barrier
wired to the tomb. She needs to traverse the TRIAL and eliminate the barrier if she's going to fight
alongside them in the outside world. While there's an issue of sentiment too, if she cannot at least
manage this much, then the residents will not even attempt to accept her.
Defeating the TRIAL will make the requirements for dealing with both the physical and sentimental
problems simple. Once the issue has shifted into a unipolar form, neither fastidious logic nor
pointless debates are going to happen.
The problem now is that the contents of the TRIAL are deadly poison for Emilia.
—Inside the tomb, an unfeeling voice announced: Face your past.
When she closes her eyes, she can remember vividly that world of white.
Instantly, as if she's been thrown naked into the frost, she shivers at the unstoppable chill.
Was the dread coursing through her body because she remembered the cold of that day, or because
she had not forgotten even now her fear from back then?
What did Subaru think, hearing her talk clumsily about her past?
This past, impossible to forget, which even now bound her with chains of guilt. It was yesterday
afternoon that Emilia revealed it all to Subaru.
She had first challenged the TRIAL the night before, and her heart had been soundly beaten. It was in
Subaru's arms that she cried, bawled, broke down, and when his voice and tender stroking of her
back finally calmed her, Emilia announced to everyone waiting outside the tomb that she had failed.
She did not remember what expressions everyone made, in hearing that.
The composure for her to check everyone's faces one-by-one was absent. They could be gazing at
her with scorn, dejection, anything, it didn't matter. She merely acted firm, parted with everyone,
tumbled into the house lent to her, and immediately after realising that she was now alone, was
swallowed by unbearable terror.
Unable to stay holed up like that, she burst out of the building. She was shivering in the night wind
when she ran into Subaru, who was walking under the moonlight.
Subaru confessed his resolve: he would spend himself for her sake. Emilia lined up purely idealistic
screeds about her determination and ran away.
Emilia, cornered by her own words, did not notice how equally stricken Subaru had been by hearing
them.
Emilia didn't remember how she got back to her lodgings after that.
What next woke her up was Subaru's calls for her, his face pale, her collapsed on the floor.
She talked with the worried Subaru about the impetus for this, the TRIAL—and inevitably, it turned
into a conversation about Emilia's past.
Emilia had reported her past to Subaru without including even a speck of dramatization or any lies
at all.
She had just been forced to witness vividly the crime she committed. She took that unforgettable
thing, peeled off the scab of her memories, exposing the raw wound to the wind as she spoke her
story.
Simultaneously, Emilia confessed that her motives for aspiring for the throne were incredibly
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personal and selfish.
To say she was unafraid would be impossible.

As consequence of her mistake for which her youth did not console her, Emilia made victims of far
too many people. And she went without paying the recompense, even now passing her time by
herself, in leisure.
The finisher to this was that the methods she chose for her atonement could only be achieved by
entangling even more people in the mess.
She thought it natural that she disgust people, receive their scorn, and be distanced from them.
But on the other hand, even she had recognized her conviction that Subaru would surely never
desert her.
No matter how awful her past was, and even knowing that she was attempting to atone for it with a
selfish wish, Natsuki Subaru could surely not forsake her now.
Emilia had witnessed the things he had protected through his wounding and wailing, and witnessed
the outcomes of his actions.
He was a kind, dutiful, compassionate boy. He bore far too many things, and without even
considering the idea of letting them go, kept running despite his incredible injury.
Assuming that she herself was a piece of the baggage he carried, then surely, no matter how
repulsive her nature was, he would not be capable of letting her go.
—This was cruel calculatedness in the truest of meanings, and perhaps even insidious.
She shakes her head to deny the thing, thinking that's not the way I see it at all. But if she said that
the concept had never skimmed through her head before, it would be a lie. And if there were a part
of her that hoped for this outcome, then that was equivalent to the entirety of Emilia affirming the
thought.
She put her trust in somebody who disliked her not in the least, and managed to speak openly about
her past, which may earn her dislike.
And really, that was all it was.
Subaru ultimately showed no shock or dismay after hearing Emilia's past, and did not do anything
to fault her for her sins.
With her mental fatigue peaked from her confession, her sleepiness bore in on her. The touch of his
hand as it held hers, and its abounding thoughtfulness, had not changed even a single bit.
Subaru had acted so precisely in line with what her repulsive parts expected, she could spite it.
Subaru, with his sharp eyes softened in worry, sincerely concerned about Emilia. His kindness was
a horrifically sweet poison for Emilia.
Her heart was liable to melt, her resolve to melt, her sincere and disgusting thoughts to come
unveiled.
If only I could leave everything to somebody else, and have someone else undergo the hardship for
me. Should Emilia voice her whining, that of a child averting their eyes from something they
disliked, then undoubtedly Subaru would expend himself without any pause and devote himself for
Emilia's sake.
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—This should not be forgiveable.
Ever since they met, Emilia has always been being saved by Subaru.
At the loot house in the Capital, at the mansion under witchbeast threat, at the Selection Hall amid
the glares of the candidates, at the mansion targeted alongside the village by an unknown cabal.
Emilia had always been clinging to Subaru's hand. And, unable to bear seeing him wounded, she
had even cast said hand away, reasoning that she lacked the qualifications for this to be happening.
But even despite that, Natsuki Subaru did not attempt in the slightest to let her go.
Far from it. He had instead told this to Emilia, ignorant to why he was saving her:
Subaru: “I like you. So, I want to be your strength.”
Emilia had never experienced that kind of wholly devoted, entirely baseless love confession before.
The only people who had ever expressed fondness to her had been the elves she lived with, and later
her foster parent Puck.
She had left the forest by Roswaal's guidance, and felt keenly again the poorness of the situation for
half-elves. In her two trips gone to the Capital, her understanding of that intensified further.
While she had accepted Roswaal's plan and would fulfil her goals, the trend of disdain for half-elves
remained deeply ingrained in the world—and she had harboured a dim hope that perhaps, that
would change a little. But the one who thought that hope a transient thing, and could not fully
believe in it, had also in fact been Emilia.
And so how gigantic a thing was it for her when, with consideration included to her being a half elf,
and to her being weak, Subaru told her he liked her?
He was not of her race, was not someone determined by birth to spend time with her, had met her
not by anyone's designs but purely by coincidence, had had his amicability toward her deepen, and
from their shared sentiments there budded his warm feelings—and just how this saved Emilia.
And so, this time she could not rely on Subaru.

Every time he undergoes hardship in her place, the permanent wounds on him compound. It doesn't
end just with his body. His mental scars, too.
Emilia did not think Subaru someone extraordinary, who possessed resilient body or mind.
He had a strong heart for accomplishing his intentions, a kind heart considerate to those around him,
but he was not extraordinary.
Sad things hurt him, he cried when in pain, and he would die if he shed too much blood.
Just that kind of normal person.
Emilia had no intentions of forcing this normal boy to bear any further hardship.
She desired nothing further than for him to keep supporting her back, standing at her side, while she
proceeded forward. But even that was an incredibly selfish wish, so much so that it embarrasses
Emilia.
Should he support her frail resolve, then surely Emilia could overcome her obstacles without
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folding.
She ought to fight the obstacles before her by herself.
Emilia: “After all, if I don't...”
If she kept relying on him, leaving absolutely everything to him, clinging and leaning on him, then
someday Subaru would surely come to think her a burden.
Just thinking that that day would come terrified her.
It was something she had avoided believing she wanted. It was something she had given up on,
reasoning that even should she desire it, she would never get it. It was something she had kept out
of her awareness, but something she had always wished for.
And because she had gotten it, because it had been bestowed to her, because she had taken the hand
offered to her—Emilia now could not bear to think of losing it.
Emilia: “—”
Emilia's sins had painted the forest in white, trapping her friends and family beneath the snow and
ice.
Emilia herself had fallen asleep inside the ice as well, and gone almost 100 years until Puck saved
her, without recognizing her crime.
Her grave and aversive sin. What was even more sinful was that Emilia did not remember even a
single thing about the actual heart of her deeds.
The inbetween is gone, and although aware that it was her actions which shunted everybody into
white stagnation, she can't remember what she was thinking, or why she did it.
She thought it natural she be called a witch's spawn.

After Puck woke her from the ice, Emilia spent 7 years in Elior Forest. Unable to make or cultivate
anything to eat in the frozen woods, she would go to the villages near to the forest, relying on them
for most of her food.
She would not forget the terrified gazes on her then, or how they called her THE WITCH OF THE
FROZEN FOREST.
Witch. The insult had suited her.
She spoke of her resolve, necessary to overcome the TRIAL, while thinking her own words sounding
hollow herself. Emilia had not any idea of what she could do to defeat her past. She merely evaded
Subaru's questionings with pleasant-sounding words, choosing to stay holed up inside her shell and
her dreams.
With the touch of Subaru's palm present and definite, she fell asleep not long after.
—She indeed doubted she dreamed anything, then.
When she woke up, Subaru was there in the same posture he had been, having watched over her
sleeping. Unassailable emotion swelled up in her chest at seeing it, and as he led her by the hand,
she stepped out into SANCTUARY—to challenge the TRIAL.
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The results of her attempt are obvious. She was unable to beat the TRIAL.
Subaru and Ram saw her off outside the tomb. She tread inside, the gazes of SANCTUARY residents
Garfiel and Lewes at her back. But the TRIAL would not pay any mind to an Emilia who had gone in
without any definite plans, or neglected to prepare any clear terms for winning.
As always the past tormented Emilia, plagued her, pierced her.
When her consciousness returned to being atop the cold, hard floor of the tomb, Emilia noticed that
her cheeks were wet. This crying was ridiculous, and her wretchedness was loathsome.
Unable to grasp any clues for overcoming the TRIAL, Emilia left the tomb in haggard straits, to be
welcomed by the worried Subaru and others.
Afterwards and just like the night before, she was lulled into peaceful sleep in this building, losing
consciousness right after tumbling into bed—which she only realised now, this morning.
Emilia: “And in the end, nothing progressed at all... I'm useless...”
If there were anything that she understood yesterday, it was that she was a hopeless, spoiled child,
always causing problems for Subaru and everyone else, but still unable to find even a single
glimmer of hope—the unchanging truth of her being weak.
Emilia: “Puck...”
The pendant hanging at her chest—and the green lustre inset at its end, the anchor for her contracted
spirit, Puck.
It had been guaranteed that whenever she called his name in frail voice, he would reply “What's
wrong?” in his usual, carefree tone.
It had been almost two weeks since those replies had ceased.
At first she had thought it his hibernation period, which occurs once every several months. There
had been times before where Puck would stop giving her any reaction, and on every occasion
Emilia would endure the loneliness, waiting for his return and awakening.
But his hibernation periods always ended in three or four days, and this occasion's long timespan
was a first. And most importantly, even if Puck was in a hibernation period, then provided that
Emilia seriously called out to him, it would interrupt his sleep and he would answer.
She cannot even sense that reaction from the current, distant Puck.
Something surely happened to him.

There was surely something—some irreparable something—that happened in his sleep, and he
could not materialize. If this was the case, then what should she do?
She had spent such a long time with Puck, and still Emilia could not find any methods to kickstart
him if he left her alone like this.
Neither the TRIAL, nor the things with Subaru, nor the settlement with her past, nor Puck's absent
presence—offer Emilia even a single good omen.
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Emilia: “...I'm so stupid.”
Just before Emilia voices her discontent that there is nobody at her side to offer her their helping
hand in this deadlocked situation, she stops herself.
It was exactly from doing this that she had degraded irreparably. —Already viewing herself lower
than ever before, Emilia does not wish to think she can descend even further.
Emilia: “No, stop it. Thinking entirely about these bad things... he's not showing up today, but Puck
must have a reason for it. And nothing's solved about the TRIAL yet, either. I have to keep it
together.”
Lightly slapping her pale hands to her cheeks, Emilia keeps her thoughts steady.
She looks up, then taking a comb to even out the knots in her hair. —Part of her is pained about this.
This job was one she had always tasked to Puck. Emilia did not even take her own initiative to sort
out her grooming.
She passes her hand through her hair, confirming the knots are gone. Looking in the mirror is not
something she does. She had speedily hung a cloth over the mirror in this room, and deposited it in
a corner where it would not reflect anything.
As her fingers fiddle with the ends of her hair, Emilia determines that she has succeeded in the bare
minimum of arrangements. She then sweeps her fingers up through her silver tresses, bunching it
together as she begins to plait.
Preparing her braid. It was Puck who determined Emilia's daily hairstyle, and adhering to it was one
of the important avowals of their contract. Emilia had not received any instructions from Puck for
two weeks now on how to do her hair, and she had instead kept persistent with the style he had last
instructed her, for this entire period.
And of course she attended to her other stipulations too, like her bathing, after-bath exercises, her
talks with the minor spirits, her mood not cheerful but nonetheless fastidious. It seemed, should she
not keep to these customs, that her connection with the invisible Puck would disappear completely,
which terrified her.
Emilia: “—Mhm.”
Parting her hair to the left and right from the centre to plait two braids had been her method thus far.
But today she crafted her hair into one long, single braid to flow down her back.
Having properly abided her contract with Puck today, Emilia wishes for the contract's continuance.
Aware of the definite connection inside her, she—
Emilia: “...huh?”
Emilia yelps quietly just as she goes to change her clothes before Ram can arrive with a bucket of
water.
The gaze of her shocked, amethyst eyes lands on the pendant at her breast.
Just as she had confirmed before, hanging from the end of the pendant is a green crystal, the proof
of Puck's presence—with a crack ruptured down its face.
Emilia: “Wh... weh, wha? Wait... what's, what?”
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Putting her hand to the inexplicably cracked jewel, Emilia utters fragments to no sentence.
A violent shock jolts her eyes, her trembling fingers timidly stroking the crystal's face. The fractures
intensify at the touch of her fingertips. She wails a quiet, strangled scream.
Emilia: “N-no... no, don't... wait, please hold on... come on, Puck, hold on...”
She shakes her head, but this does not stop the crystal's collapse.
Emilia puts all her focus into the palm of her hand as she holds the crystal, trying not to stimulate it,
but her unstoppable shivering hastens the collapse, the anchor disintegrating in Emilia's hands.
What will happen, when this damage reaches the whole jewel?
Faced with this first-ever occurrence, with this entirely unimagined situation, Emilia's mind goes
perfectly blank.
But there is one thing she does know. Which is—
Emilia: “If this keeps going, then Puck will...!”
—This was the goodbye between Emilia and her effective family.
Emilia: “—!”
She raises her head. Looks about the area. No one is here. It's still early morning, and the outside
shows no signs of people activity either. She could raise her voice, but no one would hear her. She
could race out, seeking help, but the jostling feels liable to trigger the end, and so Emilia does not
move.
Lowering her voice, stopping her breath, Emilia gazes as the disintegrating crystal in her hand.
She has no solution. Rather than endeavour to distance the certainly-looming end, she frantically
attempts only to slow it down.
And,
Emilia: “—a”
Her tardiness in avoiding this means out rings the crack of the crystal fracturing to bits.
Upon Emilia's palm as her eyes widen in stupefaction is the green crystal, its form entirely lost. The
jewel fractures apart, the fragments lose their colour, and without any life circulating it, its gleam
dims.
Emilia: “Come, on... Puck, you're... just kidding, right?”
Clinging lastly to hope, Emilia calls out to her palm, her voice weak.
But the gemstone in her hands—lost of its shape—is now nothing more than green grains of dust.
Nevermind a spirit, this thing had lost its power to store even an infinitesimal load of mana, the
green dregs of jewel waiting only to be cast to the winds.
Anyone could see that Emilia's fleeting hopes were already fruitless.
The only one who could not accept the reality of them being fruitless was Emilia.
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Emilia: “N-no, this can't... this can't be happening... I-I mean, Puck he, when we first met he... said
we're f-family... that I, wouldn't be alone any more...”
Reeling in their supposedly assured bond, Emilia repeats back the old promise, her tone infantile.
—The fragmented rock in her hand replies only with silence.
Emilia: “...iar.”
Unable to bear the silence, and her eyes now understanding that this is reality, she looks up at the
ceiling, her amethyst gaze wavering with tears.
Emilia: “Puck, you... Dad, YOU LIAR!!”
Falling to her knees, she hurls the fractured fragments at the wall.
The bits of stone ping against its surface, perhaps the quiet announcement of Emilia and Puck's
overly abrupt parting.
Emilia buries her face in her hands, wailing. Wailing.

No tears flow.
Only a hollow sense of lacking weighs heavy in Emilia's chest.
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CHAPTER 95: SIGMA

Ram: “Barusu. Are the preparations proceeding along for your nefarious plot?”
Leaving a cried-out Emilia behind, it's just after he exits the building that Ram addresses Subaru.
With his hand still to the door, Subaru narrows his eyes at Ram, who apparently was waiting here
for his exit.
Subaru: “'Nefarious plot' sounds crazy disreputable and freaks me out, kinda rather you stop with
that.”
Ram: “You two men are stealthily hiding things from everyone else as you design your plans, yes?
Although, considering that Roswaal-sama has given his recognition, there is nothing I can
especially say about that merchant acting as he pleases around SANCTUARY.”
The MERCHANT Ram's talking about is probably Otto.

While they're both passing their time inside SANCTUARY, Ram, who is spending most of her time
caring for Roswaal, and Otto have interacted with each other horrendously infrequently. Most likely
the best opportunity they get to sparsely talk to each other is during the periods where Emilia is
facing the TRIAL, and they are waiting outside for her.
That said, it's truth that Roswaal has permitted Otto's stay in SANCTUARY. Unable to openly expel
him, Ram's perspective toward Otto remains harsh.
Subaru: “Eh well that's something he should put some effort in about his own, I'm not gonna go out
of my way to revise it.”
Ram: “A statement lacking in proper friendship. When he is paying so much mind to you, do you
not ever consider that you ought to repay him, Barusu?”
Subaru: “Proper friendship... huh. No well I mean I can't refute that, but, from your perspective we
look like friends?”
Ram: “When you've abandoned all restraint and are interacting with such familiarity... do you mean
to suggest you are not? If that's how you act with anyone regardless of their being an absolute
stranger, conversely that would be disgusting.”
Ram hugs her shoulders, making a show of shuddering. Her reaction and statement lead Subaru's
cheeks to relax slightly as he chuckles in the back of his throat.
Perhaps finding Subaru's suppressed laughter creepy, Ram steps backwards to birth distance
between herself and him, her arms still hugging her shoulders.
Ram: “Now, Barusu, I'll restate my first question. —Are the preparations for your nefarious plot
proceeding?”
Subaru: “Going steadily... would be one thing, but there's just a slight excess of turbulent spots for
that to be the case.”
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Nevermind the details of them, it's obvious that his real plans would be seen through.
This is Ram, a card in the hand of Subaru's contract opponent, Roswaal. It's unclear how credible
her words are, and likely she is acting as Roswaal's eyes and ears as he stays injured in bed.
It's inevitable that she'd pay attention to Subaru and Otto's movements. That she's grilling him about
it from directly straight-on is yes indeed rather like Ram.
Subaru: “Well what about you, you came here for Emilia, didn't you? Wasting time talking to me's
not gonna achieve much.”
Ram: “That you've exited the building would mean you've seen to that she's about fallen asleep.
One wouldn't wake so easily after such a great conniption.”
Subaru: “...Pretty harsh opinion there, huh.”
Ram: “It's a frank and objective opinion. Do keep that in mind as a reference.”
—It occurred two and a half hours ago now that the contract between Emilia and Puck terminated.
Subaru had known it'd happen in advance thanks to Puck, but regardless of his more-or-less
understanding and preparation for Emilia's confusion, grief, and shock, the nostalgia that struck
Subaru in seeing Emilia then was indescribable.
Emilia, lost of her single support, half-crazed and bawling.

She had thrown her pretty silver hair into disarray, put her nails to her pale skin, hurled nearby
objects around indiscriminately, throwing a child's tantrum as she bared her emotions.
That the option of going on a rampage with magic did not exist for the frenzied girl was perhaps a
fortune amid misfortune for both herself and everyone else.
Regardless, knowing of Emilia's shock in advance, Subaru had waited in preparation outside her
room. The instant he heard her wailing he swooped in and hugged her firm.
Then for two and a half hours he alone dealt with Emilia's faltering cries, her wails, and her frail
acts of destruction, leaving her there after she fell asleep, exiting, and now here he was.
This encounter with Ram, who he had intended to entrust Emilia's change of clothes and wiping-
down to, probably happened because she had been lying in wait as well. Seeing her with a pail and
cloth in hand allows Subaru to feel somewhat relieved.
Ram speaks quietly,
Ram: “Barusu. —Are you truly putting your hopes in her?”
Subaru: “...”
Ram: “Should you observe what her state has been until yesterday, you will find not a single
optimistic factor for her overcoming the TRIAL. And to compound on this, a situation I believed
could not degrade further has worsened. The Great Spirit has left Emilia-sama's side, correct?”
Subaru: “...You know this much?”
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Ram: “When it's screamed, repeatedly, in a voice loud enough that it's audible from outside, even an
idiot would notice. If you should notice it, Barusu, then I would notice it also. As is surely natural.”
Subaru: “I'm getting the feeling I just got formally equated as an idiot but, I can't refute what you're
saying. That Emilia's situation's sunken further's unfudgable truth.”
In complete honesty, Ram's worries are an exact representation of Subaru's own anxiety.
While he hadn't swallowed the entirety of Puck's words down wholesale, Subaru did back his
proposition.
The statement that Puck's presence was acting as a stopper for Emilia facing her true past. The great
changes with every loop, and his misgivings about Roswaal's gospel. Beatrice's scream, Echidna's
advice, Puck's presence.
Linking the varied items together, Subaru backed Puck's decision and sent Emilia hurtling into a
cage of isolation. Consequently, for the first time in her life, she was truly and actually alone.
The necessary factors for her to escape this are time, and an opportunity.
But the current Emilia is lacking in both. The situation will not bestow her with any calm
circumstances, or with the extra time for her to face it, and the detonating trigger for all this exists
only inside herself.
All that can happen for the latter affair is that Emilia herself finds the trigger. Ram understood this,
and likely did not believe the detonation would be happening.
Excluding that last part, Subaru agreed entirely with Ram.
Subaru: “But I'm still putting my hopes in her, and I do believe in her.”
Ram: “...Your expression is sunny. How on earth is it that you can make such a blithe judgement?”
Subaru: “It's cause I decided to try believing in the things I ought to believe in. It's like having a
FRIEND around putting in efforts for my sake, or having a trusty dragon around kind of saved me,
or... I've come to believe in myself a little more.”
Ram: “And how exactly does this connect to believing in Emilia-sama?”
Subaru: “If you come to believe in yourself, then wouldn't you want to believe in the target for your
attentions? I like Emilia, I want to be her strength. And I like her because, well part of it's the
visuals where her appearance's crazy my taste, but... the serious part's a bit different.”
Subaru shrugs as he returns Ram's suspicious gaze.

The first time Subaru became conscious of Emilia was of course back when he was initially
summoned to this parallel world, where he had no one to rely on and no hopes to cling to, and she
was the first person most kind to him.
She saved his life, and over their following interactions, Subaru came to know the girl called
Emilia, and his desire to aid her. Part of it was justified in the sense of repaying a debt, but back
then not even Subaru had understood the real truth of it.
He then lost her, Returned by Death and reset the world, and although the first memories shared
between them were forfeit, Subaru saved her from her deadly fate and changed the future.
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The happening at the mansion included, the fight with the Witch Cult included, everything resulted
from the passion originating in those first feelings, which scorched at his back all the way.
She saved him in his first time at the Capital.

She saved his near-broken mind once again at the mansion.
His life and mind saved, and wanting to repay her, by his conceit he wounded her.
Thus came the time of their parting, a mutual trench born between them. And with the opportunity
given for him to reflect on his deeds, he stood back up.
Why was it he felled the White Whale, defeated Betelgeux, and was now here still?
Why was it he recognized his deep involvement with the Witch, swallowed down the melancholy of
his past through his goodbye to his false parents, and was now spurred on by an incomprehensible
power still?
Subaru: “Because I love her.”
Ram: “—”
Subaru: “This girl I like's persevering, stubborn, not honest about her feelings at all, won't say she
wants to cry when she does... she's someone who can act without hesitating to put in her all for
somebody else.”
Ram: “Those may be your assumptions, Barusu. While it is true that Emilia-sama possesses a nature
to prioritize others before herself... do you not think it is because that by doing so, she protects her
own mind? Could it not be a mechanism that she may protect herself, of detestable bloodline? Does
being taken in plainly by those wiles, and used how she sees pleasant, not unsettle you?”
Subaru: “Nope.”
Subaru's succinct answer leads Ram to hold her tongue.

Feeling some satisfaction at this rare reaction from her, Subaru glances back at the building.
He thinks of Emilia, lying even now in bed.
Subaru: “If she's using me how she sees pleasant, then that's fine. Even if some part of Emilia views
me in a calculating way, as a tool she can overuse but still won't break, that's fine.”
Ram: “It does not dissatisfy you to be a tool?”
Subaru: “It's not that. It's that even if she uses me as a tool, so long as she still has the will to keep
standing up and walking on, it makes me happy. If the spirit's still there in her for her to raise her
head... then there's heaps of ways I can help her. She can use me however she wants.”
Ram: “—”
Ram narrows her eyes in disapproval.

Being that she is someone of few expressions, this experience is a fresh one for Subaru. Here was
her attitude towards a Subaru unreservedly accepting the word 'tool'. This was almost like how she
herself—
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Subaru: “I actually think it's you who's come up with rationalizations.”
Ram: “—Why do you believe so?”
Subaru: Because I recognized that in your attitude, or your behaviour up to now, there's like this...
pretty precarious side I've seen. I thought you were someone who understood others's stances.
Ram: “Should you witness among others the problems that you yourself cannot fully apprehend,
then likely anyone would harbour such this emotion. It rings especially so, should you learn that the
problems you attempted to rationalize but cannot fully digest have been simplified by another.”
After finishing her speedy speech, Ram averts her gaze, as if embarrassed by her own statements.
She sighs, waving at Subaru to gesture him away from his spot afront the door.
Ram: “Well, enough. Should you be a tool, then all you must do is behave as a tool, and stake your
best to serve your master. Meanwhile, I'll be taking my actions in the way I see fit. My side is at
liberty to do this, surely?”
Subaru: “Well, yeah. Go on and do what you want. —But, well.”
Passing him by, Ram puts her hand to the door as Subaru addresses her nape. She stops, glancing at
Subaru, giving a nod to urge him to continue.
Subaru: “I'm not devoting myself to Emilia while expecting nothing in return.”
Ram says nothing.
Subaru: “I have my things I'm looking for from Emilia. The things I want won't happen without
Emilia's help. I mentioned that stuff before about her perhaps utilizing me with calculating
intentions, but... utilizing her with calculating intentions is my same case, and identical.”
They're not nice words, but interactions with ulterior motives are unavoidable as a function of
getting involved with others.
Said in extremes, that everybody here reach Subaru's desired future was desirable. Meaning that
once Subaru had succeeded in securing that future, he would have fully utilized everyone.
He was down for being used by Emilia. Because Subaru was equally ready to use Emilia for the
sake of his desired future, cling to her, and unrelentingly hold her close.
Ram: “—”
Ram wordlessly steps into the room without addressing Subaru.

The door begins to close, and just before her small frame can disappear—
Subaru: “The gospel's writ's diverged already. —In this world, Roswaal's already free.”
No answer comes to tell whether she heard it or not.
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The door clicks shut, the situation inside now imperceptible for Subaru.
But that said, it's highly improbable that Emilia would wake up and be rough with Ram. Part of that
judgement comes from the calculation that a cried-out Emilia would lack the energy for it, but more
importantly was the idea that she would need more time before waking up.
Subaru: “Tomorrow's my big day. Day after as a spare. ...Either way, cutting it close.”
Should he hit the time limit, Roswaal will bring snowfall and so the Hare will come. That happens,
and SANCTUARY's over. His attempts would lose their momentum, and most importantly, Subaru
was bound by contract.
In accordance to his contract with Roswaal L. Mathers, Natsuki Subaru would have to live
CHOOSING HIS METHODS FOR THE SAKE OF ONLY ONE SINGLE THING.
—With that thought, Subaru thinks: Man, this late.
Subaru: “That I can't give up on this one single future means now's just the exact same thing.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Subaru's battle in SANCTUARY is presently on its third day.
The time limit on his contract with Roswaal is the sixth day. On the sixth day the calamities
assaulting SANCTUARY and the mansion should be nigh unavoidable, so realistically the time limit is
night of the fifth day.
Meaning that, including tonight, there are only three more chances for Emilia to challenge the tomb.
However, that first one of those three scant opportunities would—
Subaru: “Tonight's probably gonna be a bust.”
Learning of Puck's disappearance and then breaking down crying through the morning, Emilia's
bawling herself exhausted and falling asleep happened before noon. She had proceeded to sleep
deeply, showing no signs even now of waking.
Even assuming that she wakes up before tonight, how long would it take for her to recognize the
fact again that Puck was gone? The bond between her and Puck was surely nothing so short or thin
that a few hours was enough to fully deal with it.
Only ever when time is limited do these incessant time-dependant problems crop up. While aware
of the pointlessness of cursing an insidious god's decrees, Subaru still rather wants to curse them.
Subaru: “You being gone made her cry that much... To me that's kinda enviable, and a hundred
times more loathsome, Puck.”
Imagining the visage of the grey cat spirit, Subaru gives a small shake of his head before gazing
onward.
There is nothing Subaru can do for the sleeping Emilia. The very best he can do is hold her hand. If
that would help protect her from nightmares, then he would gladly spend any amount of hours
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doing that.
But, just like how Emilia lacks any excess time, Subaru lacks any also.
He has not organized everything he needs for the bet yet.

His plan does utilize several uncertain factors, but after scrambling up all the budding sprouts he
has and bolstering his hand to the limit of what is possible, he's looking at a 50/50. And even that
was probably optimism.
Subaru: “And so I'm expecting some things from this conversation, Lewes-san.”
Lewes: “And I'm erkspecting serm things from yer too, Su-bo. ...Since I've gertten advisories from
the previous two.”
Gravel crunching underfoot, there at the meeting spot appears a small silhouette—Lewes.
She makes a sour face, unfitting to her immature features, casting her gaze over the meeting spot
that Subaru has prepared.
Lewes: “But that said...”
Lewes: “Choosing this place fer our meeting... Yer can be pretty unkind, Su-bo.”
Subaru: “Think it's a good spot in the sense of probably no one's gonna interrupt, though. Feel like
I'm gonna say unwanted things if we're around the crystal, and also I don't see any chance of me
getting used to that nose-turning stench no matter how many times I wind up there.”
Pinching his nose, Subaru expresses his disgust for the reeking, nose-invading experiment site. This
does turn into rallying about Lewes' birthplace, but probably she shares the sentiment herself. She
gives a small smile, nodding.
Lewes: “Ders sound likely, that.”
Lewes: “But I cern't say I'm pleased abert the substitute yer came up with being Gar-bo's secret
base. If yer wanted somewhere hidden... just that, then there had ter be other options.”
Subaru: “If we're in town, dunno who's gonna be listening in. Garfiel and Frederica's childhood
house... wouldn'tve been a bad pick, but I'm sure it's bad for you like it is for me if someone does
overhear?”
Lewes: “Definitely.”
Subaru shrugs as he seeks her agreement, Lewes grinning as she nods. She then steps into the ugly
shack, a thing constructed from scrap material and dilapidated wood.
Subaru: “This's my bad, but I didn't prepare any comfy sofas. For me and my abounding
consideration for the elderly, it's a real regret I don't even have a single chair to offer you.”
Lewes: “Goodness, so yer making me stand ter talk. Taking a whip ter the aged shows kids these
days ern't what they used ter be.”
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Subaru: “Oh, that line really did sound like someone old. Don't miss a beat on the elderly appeal,
huh.”
Subaru smiles wryly at Lewes as she taps her perfectly straight back, making a show of her non-
existent geriatric failings. He invites her into the middle of the small room, himself with arms
crossed as he leans against a wall.
Subaru: “Honestly for my mental state going on gossiping with a cute girl's really not that bad.”
Lewes: “Flirt. I got jerst a smidge ter many years on me ter be called a girl.”
Subaru: “If we're talking ages, my main heroine's pretty well my senior too. Though, well, that her
apparent age and mental age don't balance to that came rather into illumination recently.”
Real age: ≈100 years. Apparent age: 18 years. Mental age: 14 years.
The complexity of Emilia's genre is superb, and never lets Subaru get bored. Just when she seemed
a loligranny, truth is surprise, she's a grannyloli.
Finally Subaru understands why, relative to her appearance, she's immature, weak, idealistic, and
says rather grannyish things.
Subaru: “And for Emilia's sake as well, I wanna do the things I can. —And so I'll be hearing plenty
of things from you, Lewes Sigma-san.”
Lewes: “Sig... what?”
Subaru: “Sorry, just sprung out. Calling all four of you Lewes-san's confusing so for expediency
came up with them for myself. Alpha, Beta, Sigma, Theta.”
Lewes: “...”
Lewes puts her hand to her mouth in thought, Subaru fumbling on the very first conversational step.
Furrowing his brows at her reaction, which is too lacking to be displeasure, Subaru raises his finger
at Sigma before she can bring it up again.
Subaru: “Anyway, it's a real help that you agreed to this talk. Going from your attitude, Sig... Today
Lewes-san, you definitely must've had the option not to respond.”
Lewes: “If yer having trouble, I don't mind yer calling me Sigma. Being that we're talking about us
individuals, I agree with you that differentiating us is best. Never been need ter do it until today,
though.”
Subaru: “Really? Well then I'll oblige. If you want a cuter one this's kinda your chance for swapping
out for one of the other three's names.”
Lewes: “—Ner, just use Sigma. Or no, do use Sigma.”
Subaru blinks at the shift of nuance in the response, but it doesn't seem Lewes has any intention to
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continue further with this topic.
Lewes: “Now,”
Lewes: “I'm mostly sure I already know, but... what're yer getting me ter talk about, Su-bo? What
about SANCTUARY's circumstances der yer wantter know?”
Subaru: “What I want to know is basically everything I don't know, but... for the moment, it's what
exactly did you see in the tomb, Sigma-san. I heard from Alpha-san two days ago that two Lewes-
sans've challenged the TRIAL. You're one of those Lewes-sans, no mistake there, Sigma-san?”
Sigma: “No, no mistake there. I'm one erv the two Leweses who've gone in the tomb. But, that said,
I've ernly been in once, and fer only a short time... all it wers was stepping in to bring Gar-bo
outside, after he ignored the agreement and went in the tomb.”
This is stuff he's already heard from Frederica. Apparently the Lewes she implored for help was
Sigma.
Subaru: “All it was was stepping in... but in saying, you went inside so you saw something, right?
Sigma-san, you've, um... well, you also, your past.”
Sigma: “—”
Subaru: “If the tomb just absolutely hates you like Roswaal, you get rejected the moment you even
think to go in. There's how Roswaal nearly exploded, and Patrasche who went in to help me was
covered in wounds, too. Swooping in there unqualified requires just as much resolve as it does to
challenge the TRIAL.”
Sigma: “Surely there's possibility I had that resolve ter be wounded?”
Subaru: “That story would be beautiful. ...But then it stops being apparent why you are in fact
opposing SANCTUARY's freedom. It doesn't make sense.”
Sigma: “—”
Information she had not actually confessed—Although Leweses Sigma and Theta had both said
they opposed SANCTUARY's liberation, Sigma elects for silence, unrefuting.
Silence is a deed equivalent to affirmation.
Subaru: “You had to've seen your past in the tomb. That's the impetus for why you're evading
SANCTUARY's potential freedom. What on earth did you see?”
Sigma: “...”
Subaru: “If we're talking possibilities, potentially it's something from around your birth. That'd
maybe be when you were produced from the crystal, or otherwise...”
Sigma: “Lewes Meyer's past, yer mean?”
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Cutting Subaru to the pass, Sigma hits to the core of the topic.
Subaru's lips pull taught in silence, but despite this, he figures this possibility is likely correct.
These four Lewes personalities had been introducing themselves as Lewes Meyer ever since their
birth, acting as the representative of SANCTUARY. Should they have a past meriting any regret, then
it would've been from before their births—perhaps before they became the Leweses they were now,
thought Subaru.
Sigma's reaction has told him that his ideas were not necessarily misaimed.
Subaru: “If what you saw was the past of the one in the crystal, of the legitimate Lewes-san... then I
basically get why you're scared. Since the why is the why she's sealed in the crystal.”
Lewes: “...”
The person who sealed Lewes Meyer in crystal and arranged her as a duplicate-producing device
was the WITCH OF GREED Echidna.
If Sigma had recollected on the time where the witch had sealed her, then that conceivably gave her
plenty of reason to abandon the TRIAL's completion. But,
Lewes: “My stars Su-bo, just how much der yer know?”
Subaru: “...”
Lewes: “The numbers erv people who know what happened ter Lewes Meyer are limited ter the
utmost, even in this SANCTUARY. I highly doubt any erv them werld tell yer about it, Su-bo.”
Something, hesitant to interject, rests in Sigma's expression. She keeps her gaze from Subaru,
staring up instead at the ceiling and its prominent holes.
Lewes: “I dern't think Roz-bo's even, er even the other Lewes who knows the tomb've been told.
With that considered, where did yer learn this from, Su-bo?”
Subaru: “—”
Subaru hesitates on how best to respond.
It's something of a basic question, but nothing simple.

A tingle races down his spine, the atmosphere palpably shifts. These were the portents of the
gambling room—not a mortal sortie, but a scene which would dictate the mortal sorties coming
afterwards.
The sensation's resemblant to when he implored for assistance in Crusch's mansion, before the
White Whale fight.
Meaning that right now at this instant, the way this conversation falls will greatly influence
SANCTUARY's future.
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Subaru: “—”
With the second arrival of silence, Subaru deliberates painstakingly.

The answer Sigma seeks from Subaru will heavily dictate what comes after.
However, Subaru is not very good at supposing the inner emotions of others. In fact he is
excessively ignorant of subtleties. He lacks in smarts, so it's when his brain's burning enough to
shoot flames out his ears that he's about average.
The answer Subaru should voice here is—
Subaru: “I learned it from Echidna. In the tomb.”
Sigma: “—From, the Great Witch.”
Hearing the witch's name, Sigma's expression tenses slightly.

Subaru understood to a painful extent from his time spent in SANCTUARY that Echidna's name
carries heavy significance. While Roswaal dislikes her being called the WITCH OF GREED, Subaru
thinks Garfiel and the Leweses avoid the appellation ECHIDNA.
Echidna's name is, most likely, taboo to them. One that would in both good and bad meanings end
up stimulating the past.
It was a bet on how she would react to him touching the taboo, but Subaru chose his decision.
Subaru: “My qualifications've been revoked right now, but temporarily I was qualified to challenge
the tomb. So I more or less know what you experience in the TRIAL. And also what Echidna's
plotting, why she created SANCTUARY, and why she's producing duplicates like you, Sigma-san.”
Sigma: “...It did feel like yer understood too much fer yer ter've heard this all from Roz-bo.”
Subaru: “And so more or less I figure I know more about the situation than you're anticipating,
Sigma-san. Kinda thinking it'd be nice if this could help you determine what information's safe to
reveal to me.”
Sigma: “Flirt.”
Sigma smiles wryly at Subaru's rather backpedalling statement. She puts her small hand to her
forehead, giving a long sigh.
That ritual was a necessary one for her decision.
Sigma: “If yer've been informed erv SANCTUARY's connection ter the Great Witch, and abert me and
Lewes Meyer, it'd probably be more strange ter keep it secret from yer...”
Subaru: “Well then...”
Sigma: “Dern't rush. I understand how yer feel, Su-bo, but... it's nert that simple. —What yer said
yer wanna ask me is: what did Lewes see in the TRIAL, yes?”
Subaru goes to affirm with a, “Yes,” when a subtle awriness leads him to shut his mouth.
Sigma had just, purposefully, used the word LEWES instead of I. Subaru's furrowing of his brows
144
comes coincident with Sigma's mutter of,
Sigma: “Sharp one,”
Sigma: “Suppersing the question is abert 'the past I saw in the tomb', my answer werld be 'I don't
know'. Because I've never taken the tomb's TRIAL. But it's no mistake that I wers the one who
returned from inside the tomb.”
Subaru: “...In short, this means?”
Sigma: “It's simple. Don't yer think it strange, Su-bo? There's only one chance Lewes had ter go
inter the tomb ter retrieve Gar-bo. But even so, there are two Lewes Meyer duplicates who've
entered it. That strange mismatch between chances and inderviduals.”
Subaru: “Ah...”
Having this pointed out for him, Subaru only now recognizes that he is an incredible dunce. Indeed,
on second thought, Sigma is exactly right. There are two Leweses who entered the tomb, but only
one chance for them to do so—there is only one answer to eliminate this contradiction.
Subaru: “The Lewes-san who went inside, and the Lewes-san who came outside were different...”
Sigma: “That's wert it'd be. If we're saying it how yer would... the Lewes who exited wers me,
Sigma. The Lewes who entered was the Lewes Theta. Theta wers the one who saw the past, and all
I did wers hoist Gar-bo up and bring him outside. Fer my stance on this, too, rather than oppose
SANCTUARY's freedom, process erv elimination puts me as neutral.”
With her gaze on the near-dejected Subaru, she speaks:
Sigma: “—If there's something tellable from my mouth, it'd be what Gar-bo is so frantically hiding,
that past he wers faced with, perhaps yer'd call it fragments erv that.”
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CHAPTER 96: RED DRAWN AT THE LIPS

Subaru: “Fragments, of the past Garfiel saw...”
Sigma: “Truly, it ern't more than fragments. It's me who ran, carting him outter the tomb as he
muttered deliriously, sobbing. I know what the basic story is.”
Swallowing his breath, Subaru faces Sigma.

Garfiel's past—not the information he'd been expecting to get from this talk with Sigma, but still a
topic Subaru eventually needed to suss out.
The chronological order is wonky, but he's got no complaints about gaining new intelligence.
Subaru: “Could you tell me about it? What did the guy... did Garfiel see, and why'd that make him
give up on freeing SANCTUARY? Make him oppose the residents leaving so much?”
Sigma: “—What saw wers his mother's goodbye.”
Subaru: “A, goodbye.”
Something feels to gouge Subaru's chest.

A goodbye with his mother—not a statement unrelated to Subaru, when it came to the TRIAL.
But unlike Subaru, who can look back on it happily, Garfiel's experience lacks any of that. That's
why he's so insanely bound to SANCTUARY.
Sigma: “Su-bo, do yer know about his mother?”
Subaru: “...Sort of, I got a quick version of things from Frederica. Their mother was a normal
human, there were some half-bloods and, um... well, stuff happened, and they were born. Then she
left them in SANCTUARY, and...”
Sigma: “Cruelly, by herself, she left the place and wers happy... ers about where it'd go.”
As she supplements the parts that Subaru has trouble voicing, a fleeting smile rises on Sigma's face.
Sigma's statement is exactly what Frederica had told him about their mother. Alongside saying that
their mother's turbulent life was likely the providence of her proportionally poor luck.
Frederica and Garfiel both use their parents' surnames, with Frederica adopting her father's name of
Baumann. Garfiel apparently uses their mother's Tinzel.
Subaru: “But then, going from what Frederica said, his goodbye with their mother was back when
he was still little... you can say he was shown memories from back then, but just how vivid could
they be?”
Sigma: “Thissers a TRIAL arranged by Echidna, who holds the Book of Wisdom, yer? I'm sure that,
rather than anything so undependable as unclear memories, it crafts the world off the memories
which're closer ter the onset. ...A past diverging not the slightest from what his young self saw
should'der unfolded.”
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Subaru: “...”
That was a weak basis for attempted argument, rethinks Subaru.

Echidna had relied on Subaru's memories and magnificently reconstructed townscapes and school
buildings from the old world, impossible to replicate in this universe.
If contemplating the idea of 'drawing from the deepest reaches of the challenger's memory', then the
concept would be personified by none other than Subaru.
Subaru: “Got it. Agree with that. But, the problem is... how did Garfiel take enough damage, in
seeing his goodbye with his mother again, that he broke down crying?”
Sigma: “...”
Subaru: “Dunno how this'll sound, but that goodbye happened when he was little, and he must've
spent way more time without his mother than with her. This idea where he's stuck in a rut over
something that's come and gone seriously doesn't feel like it fits his charact—”
Sigma: “Do yer think a memory erv being abandoned by yer mother ends with only a shallow
wound, Su-bo?”
Sigma cuts into Subaru's statement, her words equipped with knifepoint keenness.
Feeling that his neck has just been sliced with a blade of words, Subaru unwittingly falls silent.
Sigma lowers her grieving eyes.
Sigma: “Although, it wersn't that me and his sister Frederica were ignorant ter how large the thorns
stabbed inter the boy's heart were. Gar-bo himself might notter've been aware erv it. But
experiencing the TRIAL made that wound come ter fore. ...I think his current exorbitant
conservatism ers because erv that.”
Subaru: “...Well then, what exactly? It's not really that he's resisting SANCTUARY's freedom because
of the outside world or whatever, it's because of... his negative feelings toward his mother, who
abandoned him and chose the outside?”
Sigma: “He must hate it, the outside. The outside that stole his mother, and let him be deserted.
Even should he've tried ter follow her, the barrier blocks us, and we can't go with him. It's
unbearable and mutually exclusive, fer a boy who cared both fer his mother and fer SANCTUARY's
people.”
Subaru: “Maybe he hates his mother? Who left him behind, went to the outside, his mother.”
For a Subaru who has never been disowned by a blood relative, this is a pain he cannot understand.
No matter how shameful Subaru was, or how he presented that was worthless, his parents never
ever thought of abandoning or giving up on him.
Although saved by that felicity, right now, it was tormenting him.
Sigma: “Who could really say...”
Sigma avoids making any immediate assertions.
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She putters her gaze about, searching in uncertainty for the words, then giving a small sigh.
Sigma: “I've never been able ter inquire him what he truly, sincerely thinks erv his mother. I wers a
coward, yer see. It feels like hearing it would bring back memories of back then... of him in the
tomb, cantankerous, so I've never been capable erv asking him.”
Subaru: “Sigma-san...”
Sigma: “But still, even though he knows his past, he introduces himself as Garfiel Tinzel. He
introduces himself with his mother's surname attached ter his fore. My thinking is that surely, he's
doing it so not ter forget.”
Subaru: “So not to forget...”
Nodding as Subaru speaks, Sigma gazes over this shoddy shack—this failure of a shack which
Garfiel put great effort into making—her eyes affectionate.
Sigma: “So not ter forget the emotion, that seeing his past gave him. —Whether that was fury, er
grief, even now I'm still unsure.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Otto: “You look terrible, Natsuki-san. Do you realise that?”
Says Otto out the gate with a wry smile, upon reconvening with Subaru in the middle of the village.
Subaru shrugs as he gazes at Otto.
Subaru: “Well what about you, you sure managed to get filthy in just half a day of not seeing you.
Going traipsing around in forests at your age, how about growing up a little?”
Otto: “Not that anybody would come to look as though they've been frolicking in mud because they
wanted to, but sure!”
Subaru: “Stop shouting, it's rattling my sleep-deprived brain. And speaking of sleep deprivation,
you've got some pretty crazy dark circles going too. Using your precious sleeping hours to go mud-
frolicking... man, were you hit with a compulsion to finish up in this limited timespan everything
you were ruing about?”
Otto: “Could you please stop with this plotline which sounds like a once-popular mass-consumed
microfiction!?”
Going from Otto's yelling, apparently there was a time in this world where some patient stricken with
incurable disease spun tales about his scant few remaining days, composed it into some kind of
performance or media, and it caught on. Subaru's useless knowledge compounds.
Seems like it'd pay to import some stories over from the previous world, once everything's cleaned
up, thinks Subaru.
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Subaru: “Anyway,”
Subaru: “Calling the joking around as over about here... how're things actually looking?”
Otto: “I can't deny that there were some efforts because of your absence... but, I myself would still
think it safe to call it a success. You're welcome to praise me.”
Subaru: “You amazing guy, you're my only hope, super duper you can do it.”
Otto: “Some overwhelmingly blank encouragements, those! I could feel the air going leaden!”
Otto swings his arms from up to down, Subaru watching over the overreaction, his gratitude for
Otto's assistance secretly infinite. But since saying so would be embarrassing, Subaru figures to
never ever mention it and take it to his grave.
Subaru: “Anyway, great to hear your preparations're chugging ahead. How're things progressing for
the other one, by the way? Looking usable?”
Otto: “That one is... there's tricky parts for that one, with the short time limit. There simply isn't
enough time. If I cut into my sleeping hours I might be able to make it on the day after tomorrow...
would perhaps be it.”
Subaru: “You're cutting down your sleeping hours for me? You're so hardworking I'm speechless.”
Otto: “Nnghaah! A can of worms!”
Otto clutches his head, lamenting his misspeech. But, even had Subaru not insisted it on him, he
probably would've chosen to sacrifice his sleeping hours to make up the missing time by his own
judgement.
Subaru, as a FRIEND, had faith in that abounding sincerity of his.
Unaware of Subaru's gratitude, which shows not an inch on his face or in his attitude, Otto dispels
his anguished expression before turning back to Subaru.
Otto: “Now,”
Otto: “Has the stage been set on your end, Natsuki-san? In all honesty, considering the trouble with
Emilia-sama, I'd been questioning for a moment whether to pack my bags and commit a runner.”
Subaru: “I'm confident I'm steadily gathering up the missing pieces. Still have that disconcerting
thing where the finished image's indefinite though.”
Otto: “A-are we going to be all right. There isn't any time left...”
Subaru: “If I'm not done with the puzzle before we hit time, we'll compensate for the missing pieces
with love and courage and friendship. Going off the stories I know, that'll manage something.”
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Otto: “Well alright so, Natsuki-san. While I did say 'with disregard to chances of success', to bet in a
proper contest on the side with zero probability of winning is, rather than simple idiocy, something
closer to suicide-seeking, and...”
Otto goes on muttering, but Subaru ignores him and starts walking. Otto follows to match Subaru's
step, reluctantly.
Feeling no chastisement for fanning Otto's anxiety, Subaru continues heading for the building where
Roswaal is waiting—it's not essential, but he's bringing along the story of how matters have
proceeded thus far.
His conversation with Lewes Sigma now over, Subaru has come to learn some fragments of
Garfiel's past.
Sigma didn't possess any further information, but she did inform that her lack of proactiveness
about freeing SANCTUARY was because of Garfiel's bearing as he rejected his past, and because
Theta's attitude as she pushed the tomb situation onto Sigma was just that unstable.
Going off the duplicates' rotation, Theta is scheduled to show up tomorrow.

What did Theta see during the TRIAL? Probably it was a memory from Lewes Meyer's interactions
with Echidna, but what did she see that made her oppose leaving SANCTUARY?
Once that is illuminated, Subaru should then get opportunity to unravel Theta's stubborn heart. If
that's possible, then it should erase the presence which is suggesting things to Garfiel, and give
Subaru chance to speak with violence-avowed Garfiel.
Garfiel strongly presents his roughness and recklessness, but his nature is not so simplistic that he
unquestionably approves all unruly behaviour. Or at least, such was Subaru's impression.
If he truly was simplistic, and judged it okay to solve all problems violently with his own strength,
then all he had to do was remove every single thing which could possibly threaten SANCTUARY.
Unless you're Emilia with Puck or omnipotent Roswaal, there was surely nobody quantifiable as
Garfiel's opponent in combat strength.
Garfiel is unmistakably the most powerful person in SANCTUARY right now, and should he bare his
claws and fangs to attack, by that alone would he solve every single problem.
That he's not doing it is because despite his looks, his nature is one which seeks rational solutions.
Subaru: “And so we're riding off that softnesss of his and planning secretly behind the scenes... say
that, and it makes us sound like the villains.”
Otto: “I'm not adverse to these methods of utilising whatever we can of whatever's around. But,
well, I agree that this isn't exactly like the protagonist of a play or fairytale.”
Hearing Subaru's mutterings, Roguish Villain B tilts his shoulders as he assists with these roguish
unprotagonisty plans. Roguish Villain A can only think that well if B's motivated for it then good.
Either way, Garfiel's problems are essentially the finisher for lots of the driving forces behind the
problems surrounding SANCTUARY. If they can succeed in persuading him, that's tantamount to
cleaning up Big Problem B.
And as for Big Problem A, the TRIAL—otherwise said, Emilia:
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Subaru: “I'll go see her one more time, after this.”
It's already well into the evening, with nighttime lights lit all across SANCTUARY. The sun has
sunken halfway down the western sky, colouring the world in sunset shades of orange and purple.
Night will come soon, and provided nothing happens, swiftly arriving should be the hour for
challenging the TRIAL.
But Subaru has yet to be reported of Emilia's awakening.

Even assuming she wakes up in time to make the TRIAL, considering the time she'll need to get her
mind in order, the TRIAL seems like it will have to be missed for tonight.
Potentially, worst-case scenario, even the TRIAL for Subaru's Big Day, which is Tomorrow, could be
in danger.
Not even Puck himself, trigger for her present mental problems, had been able to estimate how
much time she would need to come to grips with the shock.
Subaru: “I know it depends on how well I support her after she wakes up, but... being that we don't
know how much damage she's taken, seriously feels I'm just letting it lie there.”
Otto: “Do you think you'll be able to persuade Emilia-sama, or rather not persuade her, but do
something similar? Although, I only heard about Emilia-sama's state after the fact, so it isn't as
though I'm in a place to say anything.”
Subaru: “For the moment what's definite is she's so muddled she can't determine who it is who's
around her. I've never seen her have such a childlike row before, either. If you're asking if I can or
not... the only option's to do it, is my honest answer.”
Otto: “So everything is still on the tightrope, then...”
Otto sighs at Subaru's undependable answer, but nonetheless shows no signs of fleeing. His
awareness that he is making Otto participate in a battle with poor chances of winning leads Subaru
to feel overwhelmingly apologetic.
But that said, Otto's stance as he makes no attempt at abandoning Subaru is truly a grace for him.
Otto: “If that's the status for Emilia-sama, how is the Garfiel situation? Have you acquired any
bargaining materials we could use to mollify him a slight?”
Subaru: “Pretty sure I got the trigger for the bargaining, yeah. Problem is that the preparations to get
him to the negotiating table're still looking behind schedule.”
Subaru's methods for interacting with Garfiel will shift depending on how the conversation goes
with Theta. What will come out of tomorrow's talk with Theta? Subaru cannot discern the initial
clues for Garfiel's Route until then.
That his only possible methods for these negotiations is to unconfidently spout out his accumulated
information is painful.
Say that he's walking a tightrope every single time, and yes, he is.
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Subaru: “—And, we're here. I'll be getting you in on the conversation too, this time.”
Says Subaru to the Otto beside him as they arrive at the building where Roswaal is waiting. Otto
scrunches his face in displeasure.
Otto: “Yes, well, understood. Unlike last time, there's no reason for me to stay outside. I'll nicely
accompany you... aauhg, am I truly declaring myself as an enemy to the Margrave? Once this is all
safely over, my neck's still going through the occupational wringer.”
Subaru: “Relax. If your neck's out of a job, then my neck's out of job or is rabbit food. I'm never
gonna let you die alone!”
Otto: “Absolutely nothing about that is reassuring at all!”
Subaru flashes Otto a thumbs up. Otto wails.

While they go on joking around outside the building's doorway, the door opens from inside, pushing
out—and from the room's interior there appears a maid, her gaze cold.
Ram: “What are you chattering so loudly about, directly outside the door so late in the night?
People will come to doubt the integrity of Roswaal-sama, your master. Hold yourself with more
dignity.”
Subaru: “Sorry... or actually, what the heck, you're here? Emilia's alone?”
Apologizing to the disappointed Ram, Subaru points out the strangeness of her being present. Ram
gives a small sigh, shrugging in affected astonishment.
Ram: “Your worries are needless, I'm returning immediately. Yourselves were to visit Roswaal-
sama, and I was called here for preparations. —Truly nuisances you are, placing this burden on
Emilia-sama.”
Subaru: “Spinning it back to be out faults, really? ...But Roswaal's preparations're what exactly. He's
stuck in bed so it'd have to be nothing, right?”
While Subaru knows that Roswaal is actually healthy enough to get out of bed and kick Garfiel's
head to pieces, Subaru fudges that by pretending that he doesn't know.
Ram closes one eye as she looks at Subaru, giving an annoyed “Enough,” before passing through
the space between Subaru and Otto.
Ram: “Roswaal-sama awaits you, so do enter quickly. Take caution so as not to protract the
discussion and trouble him. ...Once that's done, I'll be taking place at Emilia-sama's side instead.”
Subaru: “Busy lady. You're seriously that worried about a basically-ordinary Roswaal? Would kinda
want you to prioritize Emilia right now. If she's alone when she wakes up, she'll...”
Ram: “I cannot be the one present at her side when she awakes. Do you not understand even that?”
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Ram leaves a blanching Subaru with that statement, her expression one of observing an idiot.
Subaru silently watches her go when Otto jabs him in the side with his shoulder.
Otto: “If that wasn't you attempting to provoke her, that exchange would've been rather terrible.”
Subaru: “...Yeah I know. I was really wondering too, while I was saying it.”
Otto: “If you knew, then that secures my impression of you secretly having a rather unkind side.”
Sweeping Otto's elbow away, Subaru enters the building through the open door. Otto follows
behind. Subaru heads for the backmost room with Otto alongside, to lightly knock on the door
Subaru: “Roswaal, it's me. Okay to come in?”
Roswaal: “Oooohoh, you're here. Dooooo come in, dooooo come in.”
The clown's voice comes through the door—his tone that of his previous demeanour, surprising
Subaru a little as he opens the door. Where—
Subaru: “Ah, so that's what it was.”
Seeing Roswaal on the bed, Subaru gives a nod of agreement.

Finally, he understands what those PREPARATIONS Ram mentioned were.
Otto yelps beside the comprehending Subaru, his surprise peeking through in his expression. Oh
yeah actually, this is the first time Otto's seen this.
Roswaal: “Puuuuuuurposefully coming to report your progress, hoooooooow laudable that is. That
iiiiiiiiiiiiis an aspect of yours I'm foooooooooond of.”
Roswaal speaks in his drawn-out, buffoonish voice, snickering, his clown make-up finally back on.
Speaks with arms spread, in welcome of the two.
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CHAPTER 97: BEFORE THE DAWN

Roswaal: “Do speak. Be it a long discussion or a short consolidation, why not let us see a hearty
coooooooooonversation.”
Roswaal closes one eye, his yellow gaze piercing through the two standing in the doorway. Subaru
can tell that, entangled in the cloying gaze, Otto gulps as if drowned in devilishness. The demonic
hand does reach for Subaru as well, but he had already braced himself, and with a single cough
manages to maintain his position without swallowing his breath.
Subaru: “Coming to greet us in perfect makeup means you got all dressed up on us, gonna blush.”
Roswaal: “Nooooooo need for it toooooooo bother you, now. Were you not the one whoooooo told
me? To wear my cosmetics aaaaaaaagain.”
Subaru: “Right, yeah actually I did say that.”
After finalizing the contract and bet, before leaving the room, Subaru indeed had said that to
Roswaal. He hadn't expected that surprise Roswaal would actually do it.
Roswaal: “These facial cosmetics, for me, are much like a preparations for battle. There was
necessity to never be lax as I acted to spur events tooooooo follow the gospel. I wore the cosmetics
as a means to constantly keeeeeeeeeeep myself primed.”
Unexpectedly hearing the background behind this, Subaru finds himself unwittingly staring at
Roswaal's face.
A visage painted white, with strange, mysterious eyeliner. Red drawn at his lips, and a characteristic
signature over his left eye. Apparently all of this held more significance than just in mocking his
conversation partner.
Subaru: “Or actually you could just be saying things to say them.”
Roswaal: “There's no harm in sincerely beeeeeeeeelieving me. Weeeeeeeell, I'll task the matter up
to your imagination. Being that the gospel had diverged, and I had given up on the world's
continuance, I had already stopped applying cosmetics... the significance of myself wearing them
aaaaaaaaagain, I will aaaaaaaaalso task to your imaginings.”
Subaru grits his teeth, endeavouring to keep his expression stable.

If Roswaal's statement about the make-up being his preparations for battle was true, then it's
obvious why he has it on again as he faces Subaru and Otto.
Likely, he has regained his lost will to live, and his motivation.
Meaning his ideas of ending this world and entrusting his wishes to his next self, this backwards
hope identical in nature to what Subaru had harboured, has been triggered.
Roswaal: “Would it have been better for you that I remained wiiiiiiiiiiithout motivation?”
Subaru: “No, actually. Emilia-tan needs your name and your pedigree and your influence and your
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power for becoming Ruler. You being an empty shell's a problem. Now that your motivation's back
I'm gonna be crushing it, showing you a new hope and dragging you onto our team.”
Roswaal: “Promising words. ...If you're capable of it, dooooooooo attempt it.”
Roswaal's mouth twists into a cheery smile, him keeping the expression as he looks beside Subaru.
Roswaal: “Regardless,”
Roswaal: “This man beside you staring into nothing would be the Otto-kun previously introduced
toooooooo me. Compared to how spirited he was before, he truly looks raaaaaaaather disconsolate.”
Subaru: “Less disconsolate, more like he's just freaking out. Next time he sees the guy he was
thinking to butter up to, the guy's started wearing clown paint. Peeing yourself in surprise's natural,
yeah?”
Otto: “He is truly attempting to make it so that other people have peed themselves, this man! And
please stop unabashedly saying that I'd been thinking to curry favour! It's going to worsen his
impression of me!”
Subaru: “Worsen his impression like goddamn whatever, the instant you started cooperating with
me and opposing him you stopped having any hope of a good impression. At least try establishing
yourself as a fierce opponent so that when the popularity polls happen you'll have a chance at the
upper tiers.”
Otto: “I have not even a fraction of a clue of what you are talking about!!”
Causing a ruckus in his usual way, Subaru watches as some of Otto's tenseness slackens. Otto
himself also recognizes that this back-and-forth was done to relax him, his expression complex.
Watching how Subaru and Otto communicate this only by eye contact, Roswaal creeps his fingers
over his cheek as he gives a meaningful laugh.
Roswaal: “Communicating by your eyes alone, hooooooow great friends yoooooooou must be.
Your relationship with me is supposed to have been the longer one, too. Jealous.”
Subaru: “Stop saying gross stuff. The #1 and #2 places in my heart are permanently sold out. You
think I'd stand there being any gaps for you guys... and especially for this ass to slip in, you ass.”
Roswaal: “Unfortunate. But, thaaaaaaat would mean... that Beatrice is not going toooooooo be
repaid. Your thoughts on her?”
Subaru: “—”
The word exhibits unparalleled effects of conversation control on Subaru.

Subaru had not been on guard that Roswaaal could say Beatrice's name here, and with Roswaal's
know-it-all expression making him uncomfortable, the shock is as if being slapped across the face.
Subaru: “Beatrice is...”
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Roswaal: “She is following the gospel's guidance. Iiiiiiiiiiiin that sense, you could safely call she
aaaaaaaaaaaand I kindred. Although, considering how I am active toward the gospel's writ, and she
is passive, we have our differences in how weeeeeeeee face it.”
Subaru: “If you can get results just by waiting, there's no fuss, is what you mean? I mean I agree
with that, but... that curse ordering her to wait is way too strong.”
Roswaal: “Reason stands to that, would perhaps beeeeeeee the case here.”
In accordance with the orders of her creator, Echidna, Beatrice has kept waiting in Roswaal
Mansion's Forbidden Archive for the non-existent THEY. For this girl, spirit, given no other
objectives since her birth, clinging to this command with stupid sincerity is the only thing which
gives her life meaning.
Beatrice is similar to Roswaal again, in the sense of stubbornness.
Her pleas to Subaru of let me die remain vivid in his memory.

As does her expression, when at the end of the happens in the mansion afterwards, she protected
Subaru. And so—
Subaru: “I'm going to undo that curse. I'm dragging her out of that stinking room, and hanging her
and the books and her dress all out to dry in the sun together. —Whether or not she's repaid is up to
her, afterwards.”
Roswaal: “—”
Roswaal narrows his eyes, his expression one of witnessing something radiant. He then gives a
small sigh, directing his gaze to Otto, who has been waiting for a chance to enter the conversation.
Roswaal: “Aaaaaaaaand? Considering that you've called for his presence here, and the talks you've
been having with him through this conversation... it would be safe to consider Otto-kun aaaaaaaaaas
your side's card.”
Otto: “N-no, I am only a something of an executive to equalize the terms. I surely would never act
with such perfidy as to dissent against your stance, Margrave...”
Subaru: “Stop chickening out when it's this late! Just say it! You don't like his clown make-up, and
the second he's defeated you're painting him up in kumadori red and white!”
Otto: “I don't remember saying that, and what on earth is kumadori!!”3
Subaru flashes Otto a pointless thumbs-up. Roswaal closes one eye, in thought, as he gazes
meaningfully at Otto.
Roswaal: “My impression... your presence contributed to the change in Subaru-kun's

moooooooootivation. It surely must have been something embarrassing tooooooo watch.”
3 It's kabuki makeup.
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Subaru: “I can't exactly deny that, but... thinking about it, story-wise it is pretty weird that I
recovered from a male character's help. Usually this's where the main heroine would get me back on
my feet, right?”
Otto: “You're open to criticise me, but I have nothing to say about it.”
Replying to Otto's defiant gaze with a wave of his hand, Subaru convinces himself that well nothing
to do about it.
It was from outside sources that he borrowed the strength he needed to stand. Now was Subaru's
turn to pull the main heroine up to her feet. Or, to attempt so was what his heart had decided, at
least.
Subaru closes his eyes once, opens them. Perceiving that the sharpness of Subaru's gaze has
changed, Roswaal corrects his posture as the atmosphere in the room shifts.
Upon the bed, Roswaal twines his fingers together as he gets the talk started:
Roswaal: “Noooooooow then,”
Roswaal: “When undergoing isolation carrying the appellation of convalescence, you simply must
find things toooooo do. Inevitably you get bored. That is the way of it... and so I have been keeping
my ears very open.”
Subaru: “Tasteless hobby there.”
Roswaal: “Now, your nefarious plot is proceeding along. ...Have you managed to experience keenly
how intermingled and complex the circumstances surrounding this SANCTUARY are, owing to its
origins?”
Subaru: “The swarm of intermingled complex circumstances've got my head addled, yes. If you got
involved here with Emilia's TRIAL, saying 'all doors barred' wouldn't be enough to describe it.”
Subaru plainly accepts that the situation is an arduous one. But he's already taken the low chances
into consideration here.
Subaru raises his finger, again announcing his lack of intention to give up on improving the
situation.
Subaru: “The time limit for the contract, for the bet, is in three days. I'm intending to get things
moving significantly over tomorrow and the day after, but... seriously don't get in the way too
much.”
Roswaal: “Iiiiiiiiii'm afraid that I'll have to. The realization of the gospel is my dearest wish. I had
thought it somewhat unnecessary to repeatedly explain this toooooo you.”
Subaru: “Within three days I'll have Emilia beating the TRIAL, and have persuaded Garfiel. The
faction fattening up shouldn't be a bad deal for you either. I'm gonna be maintaining a future much
brighter than what relying on the gospel would.”
Roswaal: “When you are the one saying it, most likely that future wooooooould highly valuable, as
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well.”
Subaru piles up the probably-useless persuasion attempts. Roswaal lowers his eyes, muttering as he
imagines what Subaru's proposed future would be like.
But by the time he looks up again, his odd-coloured eyes host no indecision.
Roswaal: “It isn't assured. —That is all the reason I require to reject your proposed future. Should I
abide the gospel, my desired future is guaranteed. Supposing hypothetically that the sacrifices
required to attain that future are many, I regardless care not. Because there is only one thing I
desire.”
Subaru: “And for your one precious precious thing, you'd abandon everyone else who watches over
you. What's going to happen to the people backing your current position, and to Ram?”
Roswaal: “Nooooooow now, best you place an end to that, Subaru-kun. —What do you think
questioning my resolve wiiiiiiiiiill achieve, this late? My answer remains unchanged, as do the tasks
you ought to conduct.”
Subaru: “—”
An anticipated outcome.
Roswaal is not paying Subaru's words any mind. Just like how Subaru rejected Roswaal's proposal
and Echidna's contract, Roswaal's heart has already conceived of the OPTIMUM.
Subaru: “...Yeah, I'm never going to be you, Roswaal.”
Roswaal: “Really. ...That is truly a regret, Subaru-kun.”
Roswaal leans back on his pillow as he slips a quiet sigh. The melancholy thing must be resultant
from the hopes Roswaal held for Subaru.
The hopes of Roswaal, who would abandon even his life during his devoted and solo battle,
believing that should Natsuki Subaru be barred from all potential options, he would unmistakably
acquire the same mentality as Roswaal himself.
Otto: “Let us return the conversation to the central topic. Would this be acceptable, Margrave?”
Says Otto, stepping forward to break the silence of the room. Roswaal's yellow eye gazes at the
grey-haired young man, his wordlessness constituting acceptance.
Otto glances back to Subaru, nodding.
Otto: “I judge that our recognition that three days from now constitutes the absolute period for this
—well—for these circumstances of us manoeuvring SANCTUARY, is mutual. Identical to how you,
albeit coincident to your steering of Natsuki-san, confer us your passive supervision of our
processes.”
Roswaal: “Passive supervision... I'd say I lack memory of making any such commitment.”
Otto: “However, surely I may regard my failure to have presently become burnt cinders as just such
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a statement, correct? Should the might considered be that of Margrave Roswaal L. Mathers,
Foremost Magician of the Imperial Court of the Kingdom of Lugnica, fully should it be capable of
transforming myself into fragments of mana within the space of an instant. Such would be the
simplest method for impeding Natsuki-san's objectives, while simultaneously remaining within
limitations of what will not undermine the bet.”
Roswaal: “Hum.”
Subaru holds his breath as he watches Otto speak his polite and fluent logic. This was a gab so on
fire that they hadn't even arranged for it.
Even Roswaal looks surprised, as he reads the intentions behind Otto's words.
Roswaal: “You're an intriguing one. I'm sure that I had appraised you in exactly this same manner
before, but allow me to revise. —Your personage is far more intriguing than I had imagined.”
Otto: “I humble myself with your praise... actually, is it correct to consider that praise?”
Roswaal: “It was indeed a genuine complement. Ahaaaaaaaa, excellent. By standing here with
Subaru-kun, by risking your life, you have proven your argument. That determination is precious,
and truly tooooooo my liking. Not everybody could dooooooo what you've done.”
Otto: “That... thank you.”
While there is some sense of him being overwhelmed, Otto nevertheless faces Roswaal without
fear. Indeed, Roswaal was fully capable of turning Otto to ash with just a flick of his finger, and
Otto was under conditions where that exact thing was quite liable to happen.
If Roswaal wanted to establish his contract with Subaru, and truly gave no care to how it'd look,
then all he had to do was play foul in the way Otto had said. And even if he didn't do that, Subaru
had no means to protect against it if Roswaal pre-emptively burnt SANCTUARY itself to a crisp, or
summoned snowfall to lure the Hare in ahead of schedule. The bet would be assured as Subaru's
loss.
While Otto does not know about RETURN BY DEATH, and appears to be thinking that Subaru's
survival is an essential condition of the bet, Subaru and Roswaal who are both aware of RETURN BY
DEATH know that Subaru's survival is not even required in the terms. Subaru's biggest point of panic
had been just after forming the contract with Roswaal, and wondering whether he would be burned
to death from behind.4
What to call Roswaal's neglect to conduct this violence, but passive supervision?
Otto: “Regardless, we would be gracious for your promise, Margrave. That no matter what we plan
or do... you will not utilize any extreme measures until three days' time, the end of the absolute
period.”
Roswaal: “Once again you talk larger than you are, ordering me tooooooo make promises.”
Otto: “I highly doubt we can fully complete our gamble if we're simultaneously minding our backs,
4 I can't tell if this paragraph happened on Tappei's end or on Subaru-narrator's.
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wondering whether you will interfere or will not. If you are confident that Natsuki-san will fail, and
are wagering everything with that conviction, surely an abstinence of action would amount to no
great issue?”
Roswaal: “—”
The corners of Otto's mouth rise as he speaks, his talk accompanied by gestures. Roswaal's gaze
sharpens.
Swallowing his breath while he watches over the negotiations, Subaru senses that Otto has made an
action to greatly dictate the contest. His tone was provocatory, and if Roswaal rises to it, they lose.
A heavy silence falls upon the room. However,
Roswaal: “Iiiiiiiiiii see. Subaru-kun, you're blessed wiiiiiiiiiith great friends.”
Subaru: “...Yeah, you're right. When I'm about to make mistakes, I got a good buddy who'll punch
me out of it.”
Subaru answers the grinning Roswaal, for the clown's gaze to go slightly distant.
And Subaru thinks. Probably, Roswaal had no Otto. Who, just when Subaru was about to err,
punched him back onto the correct path.
Probably, Roswaal had had nobody who would correct his stubborn, twisted ideas for him like that.
Subaru: “Nothing doing then. —It's four hundred years late, but we're gonna be doing it.”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru: “Roswaal! Safe to call that attitude from before agreement, right!”
Roswaal smiles wryly, tilting his head.
Roswaal: “Yes, and I will promise. I need to refine the mana for bringing snowfall in three days
regardless. And I will mention, it takes quite the laborious effort even for persons aaaaaaaaas
powerful as myself tooooooooo manipulate the weather. Even when temporary, and in liiiiiiimited
location.”
Subaru: “So now's your mediation time, then. Just for reference's sake, it'd be a huge help if you
could tell us what bad things happen when you meditate.”
Roswaal: “Iiiiiiiiii make no hobby of being charitable to my enemies toooooooo that extent. —
There is no necessity for me to do anything at all, because I know your plan wiiiiiiiill not succeed.”
No concessions to be had on that, apparently.

Subaru snorts, Otto sighs with his expression exhausted.
But, they have safely managed to secure their biggest reason for coming here.
It is an essential requirement that Roswaal does not interfere on or around the Big Day of the bet.
Just getting him to promise not to is a yield. That Otto's oratory was even better than they planned
was huge.
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Roswaal: “Incidentally, Subaru-kun.”
Subaru: “—Hm?”
Roswaal: “I happened to have heard that the Great Spirit has split froooooom Emilia-sama's side.”
It's a change of topic like a punch from above, just when Subaru's thoughts had relaxed. He
straightens his back.
Subaru: “Yeah.”
Subaru: “A problem cropped up in Emilia and Puck's contract, and their slate's been wiped. If you're
going to consider Emilia a spiritualist, then she wouldn't be qualified to be called one right now.”
Roswaal: “I heard that she was in great sorrow, although... with these things liable to fracture her
wounded mind piling up further at this eleventh hour, will it be alright?”
Subaru: “...Who really knows. But our only option for tonight's TRIAL is to skip. We can't tell how
that's going to affect tomorrow onward until Emilia wakes up.”
Even though Puck did warn Subaru about how anguished Emilia would be, the grief was so
abundant that he had wanted to cover his eyes.
Cornering Emilia like that when there's only two days left means taking a challenger with poor odds
in the first place, setting them on a different bet with low chances of winning, and tightening the
gate.
It is only the fact that some wind blows through the hole in the supposedly-shut gate that affords
Subaru his present, faint hope.
Subaru: “That said, my head does feel leaden. But, I'm wondering what would...”
Roswaal: “There's something of a sliiiiiiiiiight mystery here.”
Cutting in to interrupt Subaru, Roswaal flicks his raised finger left to right. Subaru unwittingly falls
silent at the gesture.
Roswaal: “Looking at you now, you definitely would appear to be taking strenuous efforts as you
ruminate on how to get Emilia-sama back on her feet, but... you don't seem especially surprised
about the contract between the Great Spirit and Emilia-sama beeeeeeeing severed. What
cooooooooould it mean?”
Subaru: “—”
Roswaal's almost casual question prompts Subaru to hold his tongue for an instant.
Subaru's lack of apparent shock is because he already knew about it. If Puck hadn't told him about it
beforehand, and given him a locus for imagining what would happen, Subaru probably would have
only been capable of watching on while Emilia screamed and wailed.
That said, that's not exactly a huge difference from what actually happened.
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Roswaal: “Did you... perhaps already know about this situation? About the Great Spirit leaving
Emilia-sama's side. This would be leaving aside just how you caaaaaaaaame to learn it.”
Subaru: “Even saying hypothetically that I did... doesn't make sense for you to be complaining at
me about it. I'm putting in everything I possibly can to win the bet. No reason for that to be
criticised ex...”
Roswaal: “Noooooooo, there's enough. —Those words were all I wanted to hear.”
Roswaal nods, satisfied, as he raises his palm at Subaru. The attitude forces Subaru silent, and he
sighs out his nose, still feeling that he is not on his best game.
Roswaal: “Reeeeeeeegardless.... assuming the course is established for the Great Spirit to leave
Emilia-sama, theeeeeen this presents something ooooooof a problem for me.”
Subaru: “...Really? Going from your plans, wouldn't this be a good turn for...”
Roswaal: “Absolutely not. While Emilia's mind snapping is appropriate kindling your heart, which
cannot bear to witness the sight, Emilia-sama losing her ability as a spiritualist means that she
cannot bring snowfall tooooooooo SANCTUARY. That is a raaaaaaaaather large blow for me.”
Subaru: “Ah...”
Roswaal is talking about inconsistency with the gospel.

In three days, snow will fall in SANCTUARY to lure the Sizeable Hare. Solely for the sake of
following that writ, Roswaal must cover SANCTUARY in snow.
But, that means—
Subaru: “Roswaal, I've kinda been thinking this for ages now...”
Roswaal: “Hm? Whaaaaaaat is it?”
Subaru: “It's about your perfected gospel, and its failings.”
Roswaal: “—”
The thin smile disappears from Roswaal's face. The air goes dry, and the feeling of goosebumps on
his skin is originating from the gaze of the warlock before him.
Otto huddles his shoulders up slightly, Subaru also feeling a momentary pressure sticking against
his throat. The warlock's odd-coloured eyes focus intently on Subaru.
Roswaal: “Continue, Subaru-kun. About these, failings of the gospel... thaaaaat you mentioned.”
Roswaal reaches into the pillow at his back, his hand when he pulls it out now clutching a black-
bound book—the gospel. Just by having this thing appear, something strange and daunting steadily
weighs the atmosphere of the room down.
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Subaru: “T-there's always... been something off about you said, about following the gospel's writ.
But I had so many other things weighing on me that I've been overlooking that offness until
now. ...But, after taking the time to calm down and think about you and the gospel, and probing into
that strange feeling... there's something I noticed.”
Roswaal: “Why don't we hear it.”
Subaru: “Right now we'll leave aside how the Witch Cultist gospels... it was imperfect and this was
the case for it, but it wrote unfriendly writs. What we're talking about is the definitive defect in the
gospel you have.”
Roswaal: “—”
At the word 'defect', Roswaal's eyebrows tremble.

That he nevertheless remains silent is maybe because he holds unending interest in what Subaru is
talking about. For Roswaal, the gospel is literally the lifeline propping up his plans.
He has no reason not to listen when he hears words like 'defect' and 'failing' said in reference to it.
Taking in a small breath, his guts trembling from the pressure clogging his throat, Subaru glares,
forcefully, at Roswaal.
Subaru: “Going from what you've said, your gospel has written about the events happening here in
SANCTUARY, following the path until they all resolve. To you that goes down a route where I
conquer the tomb in place of Emilia, who fails to beat it. As a requirement to corner her and make
her fail, you bring snowfall and have the Hare attack SANCTUARY. You press the mansion with a
predicament to spur my resolve, and pare away the USELESS elements of me. —Is this right?”
Roswaal: “For the most part, eeeeeeeeexactly right. Now, the defect?”
Subaru: “...You didn't know that bringing the snowfall would usher the Sizeable Hare. Your gospel
hasn't written so far as to mention what bringing snow results in. The only thing it says is IT SNOWS,
and because that's necessary writ you actualize it—you're the book's puppet.”
Roswaal: “I am aware. Even supposing that is correct, I care not. By following the book, I can
achieve my desired future. In such a case, what hesitation is there to be had in being made to dance
to heartless and formless letters?”
Roswaal's eyes waver, uncertain of what Subaru will say next. But, having his theory validated this
far grants his hypothesis a definite sense of reality. —Speaking hypothetically, if this is the case,
then,
Subaru: “We really are both clowns.”
Roswaal: “—Hm.”
Roswaal narrows his eyes, the heavy atmosphere in the room steadily compounding. Perhaps this
sensation Subaru felt of the temperature dropping was because the warlock's wave of quiet emotion
was depriving the atmospheric mana of its hideaways.
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Either way, iring Roswaal and touching on the awriness of the gospel was necessary. Both for
solving a question of Subaru's—and for making Roswaal doubt his own condition and practices.
Subaru: “Let's return to the topic. Your gospel has a writ saying IT SNOWS. We'll assume that
fundamentally it means for Emilia to cause the snow. Emilia can't, or otherwise won't do that, and
you cause the snow in her place. Following, the gospel's writ.”
Roswaal: “You are repeating yourself. Hasten to the conclusion. Where is the failing, the defect
in...”
Subaru: “Meaning that basically, should Emilia not cause the snow, you would not cause the snow
either, if you didn't have the gospel. Snow would not fall in SANCTUARY, is also what it means.”
It's a clean conclusion.

Roswaal brings the snowfall because there is a gospel writ saying to. If the gospel had not writ it, or
if the gospel had not existed, then Roswaal would have no reason to enact it.
It's unclear why Emilia would make it snow in SANCTUARY—but if the gospel is truly correct, then
for some reason or another Emilia would have to cover SANCTUARY in snow. Ignoring the SOME
REASON and just making it snow carries no significance at all. And that is without mentioning that
this is history which would not occur absent of the gospel.
Subaru: “Prophecies that don't occur unless prophesied—what exactly is prophetical about this?”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru: “It's because they predict events, no matter how unbelievable or seemingly impossible they
are, that they're prophecies. The imperfect Witch Cult gospels append the writ. So with them, I can
understand the principle of building up the text to counter changes in history. But what about your
gospel? This guy, crowned with that wonderful appellation of perfect.”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru: You match only to the conformity of the text of the pre-written information, for the sake of
making whatever error cohere in the end, and achieve what? You ushered those results, ignoring
absolutely everything else, and how can you believe that time is ticking according to the writ?
You're smart, you have to had noticed it.5
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru: “This is just absence of thought, Roswaal.”
Declares Subaru, jabbing out his finger.

Roswaal had preserved his silence through the speech. But now the pressure encasing the room
abruptly disappears, and Subaru can tell that Otto is taking quick breaths in an attempt to settle his
pulse.
Roswaal closes his eyes, descending into thoughtful silence. That his red-painted lips appear to
5 Frustratingly unsure about theses lines.
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twitch slightly is likely Subaru's bias, in his desire for his words to have influenced Roswaal.
Roswaal: “History... presumes the existence of the prophecy, of the gospel. It heeds that there is
someone who will act exactly according to it, as the gospel's writ comes to proceed on, is the
natural conclusion...”6
Subaru: “Yeah. Actually I had thought of that rebuttal. —And so I prepared my rebuttal as well.”
The statement is rather faltering for Roswaal, and the words are basically nothing like him. And so
they are easily destroyed in the wake of Subaru's voice.
Closing one eye, Roswaal stares at Subaru with only the yellow. It's often that Roswaal's yellow
gaze and its mysterious glint pierce through Subaru, like this.
This might be the weakest gleam Subaru has ever seen of that yellow light.
Subaru: “Show me your gospel. If I can see what kind of writing's in it, I'll agree with your
argument.”
Roswaal: “—hk. I highly doubt I can do that. The gospel would never attempt to display its text to
someone who is not recognized as its owner. I am the owner of this gospel. Even should you see it,
you would not be able to understand the text, and there is even possibility for the brains of
unrecognized persons to be scorched should they touch it...”
Subaru: “You're getting really talkative here, Roswaal. Is it seriously that much of an issue for you
if I see that book?”
Seeing Roswaal get stuck for words, Subaru's eyes widen in surprise.
While the white cosmetics prevent the colour of Roswaal's face from showing through, Roswaal's
refusal of Subaru's proposal is so intense it could even be called an overreaction.
The rapid change in Roswaal's attitude informs Subaru that his statements locked on to Roswaal's
weak point far more than he had imagined.
In the gospel's text, or otherwise the writ, there is something Roswaal is hiding which he cannot let
be known. Was his stubborn adherence to the prophecies also something originally spurred by that
hidden something?
If not, then how could someone on the level of Roswaal have not noticed the contradiction of the
gospel?
Otto: “Natsuki-san, any further would be...”
Subaru prepares to delve in deeper, judging it about time to start lambasting him, when Otto reaches
out to interrupt any further reference to it.
Subaru glances back, about to reject Otto's checking of him, but seeing the seriousness in Otto's
eyes as he watches Subaru back, he decides to cancel on any unruliness.
This hadn't been visible for Subaru, but Otto is seeing it clearly. That reflection in his eyes
announces that right now, they have hit their favourable peak in this discussion.
6 Also unsure.
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Subaru is not reckless enough to overstep that, and ruin everything they have made of this
conversation.
Subaru: “—Roswaal, three days left. Tomorrow, the day after. And, the final day. We'll be settling
everything before then. Please try thinking over what I said.”
Roswaal: “Are you thinking to put me in your debt, I wonder? —You should thank Otto-kun, your
friend. He ascertained a watershed which would have been unfavourable for both of us.”
His expression still absent, Roswaal hides the gospel behind his back again. He then gives his last
statement to Subaru and Otto as they head for the room's exit, their shoulders hunched.
Roswaal: “I will now start preparing the algorithm to manipulate the weather. To canonize the
gospel's writ. —Doing so is is my compass.”
Subaru: “Do whatever you want. If you're gonna keep clinging to it that stubbornly then that's what
you'll do.”
His hand on the doorknob, Subaru turns around to catch Roswaal in his vision.
The warlock's gaze and Subaru's gaze collide, directly opposite.
Subaru: “Once everything's cleaned up, I'm pouring ink all over your gospel until the whole thing's
ruined and black. —And then for the first time, you'll be able to perceive what you see with your
own view.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Done with that conversation with Roswaal, difficult to determine whether it was useful or pointless,
Subaru parts with Otto as he arrives at Emilia's lodgings.
Ram: “—You're here, Barusu.”
Subaru: “Yeah, I'm here. Sorry for making you deal with this for ages.”
Ram makes a bored expression upon witnessing Subaru's arrival as, inside the room, she watches
over Emilia. The expressionless look is completely the regular for her—but, perhaps the slight
tenseness in her face amid the darkness is just Subaru's misconception.
Subaru: “We're done talking to Roswaal. I'll watch Emilia, so you're okay to go.”
Going without touching on the topic, Subaru pulls out a chair and positions it like Ram has, in a
spot where he can watch Emilia. Ram glances at Subaru, seated beside her.
Ram: “It's worrying, wondering whether you will commit anything filthy while Emilia-sama is
sleeping.”
Subaru: “Rather not think your trust in me's so low you'd suspect me as doing anything
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inappropriate in this situation.”
Ram: “My trust would be low. You've revolted against Roswaal-sama, your master, and have taken
an oppositional stance while inside this constrained SANCTUARY.”
Subaru: “...”
It's rather obvious, but apparently Ram knows about the contract between Subaru and Roswaal—
knows about their bet.
This was Ram, who possesses such great loyalty that she would not hesitate to devote her
everything to Roswaal, to the end of the very end. To Roswaal she is a pawn for actualizing the
gospel's writ, and the only person he can use without any suspicion.
Subaru: “What do you think?”
Ram: “—”
She doesn't reply. Just turns to face Subaru, waiting for him to continue.
Subaru puts his emotions in order as he chooses his words.
Subaru: “I don't know how much of the gospel's text you're aware of. But if Roswaal makes things
go according to that book, SANCTUARY will be a shambles. It's not clear if Garfiel or Lewes, or
everyone else will safely...”
Ram: “If you are attempting to use that to persuade me, how truly shallow, Barusu.”
Ram sternly interrupts Subaru's statements. Her cerise eyes reflect Subaru, the unwavering light in
her gaze piercing through him.
Ram: “There is only one precious person highest in my order. That will never waver. Nothing will
ever sway that position. You cannot expect for those words of yours to change my mind.”
Subaru: “...”
Ram: “Besides—my end has already been fully entrusted elsewhere.”
Subaru raises his head, intending to ask what that means, but Ram stands up before he can.
Ram looks one last time at Emilia's face as she sleeps, before turning back toward Subaru.
Ram: “I'm charging Emilia-sama to you. I'll visit again in the morning to wait upon her.”
Subaru: “R-right.. got it. Um, what did you mean just...”
Ram: “Now, what could I?”
With that epitome of I'm not going to answer answers, Ram exits the room. Subaru attempts to call
out to her, but coming up with no words, can do nothing but watch her leave.
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She closes the door, leaving Subaru and Emilia alone in the room.
Being that Emilia is still asleep in bed, all Subaru can do here is watch over her as she sleeps.
It's been around ten hours since Subaru held a disoriented, wailing Emilia until she practically
fainted out of consciousness—the only relief had been that her expression as she slept was not one
tormented by nightmare.
If her past hounded and pained her even in her dreams, then she truly have nowhere for mental
reprieve.
What's waiting for her once she wakes up is the reality that her bond with Puck has been severed.
And how much time will she need to come to grips with that?
Subaru does not know to what extent his presence can alleviate the pain. He wanted to be her
strength—unmistakably he was thinking that, but truly, to what extent?
Emilia: “...rhu,”
Subaru: “—Hm?”
Subaru's consciousness as he submerges in a sea of thought reacts to the faint call.

He looks, to find Emilia with her head softly tilted, her amethyst eyes slightly open and gazing at
Subaru. —She's awake.
Subaru: “You're, up... Emilia, are you alright?”
Subaru: “Yeah, it's me. Does everything feel okay? You were sleeping the whole time... hold on, I'll
come back with some water.”
Emilia: “It's fine.”
Subaru stands up, intending to dash outside, when Emilia's call stops him.
The surprising strength of her words astonishes Subaru, himself unwittingly sitting back down hard
on the chair.
Subaru: “...Emilia?”
Emilia: “It's fine. I'm okay. ...Stay here.”
Subaru lowers his voice, for Emilia to give a firm reply.

Events over the past few days have led Subaru to understand that Emilia is of low blood pressure,
and is not a morning person. Emilia's mind works exceedingly slowly when she has just woken up,
and situations like this where it's been a long sleep should be no exception—but Emilia's amethyst
eyes give not any sense at all of that tiredness.
Subaru: “Do you know what's happened?”
Emilia: “...Mm. I slept the whole day today. I'm already making everybody wait during normal
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times, and, what am I doing... I'm sorry.”
Subaru: “No one! Is going to fault you for that. But anyway, the problem is...”
Subaru hesitates on whether to bring up the topic of Puck. He had thought this subject would be the
first thing coming up once she woke up and grasped the situation. She's putting this off, and is
concerned for everyone else. Not possibly, the shock was so much that she forgot the contract was
broken—
Emilia: “Don't worry, Subaru.”
Subaru: “e, ue?”
Emilia: “I haven't... forgotten that Puck's gone. I remember it. I'm not going to forget it and run.”
Subaru: “Aren't, you?”
Emilia: “Mm...”
Emilia gives a small nod, and Subaru comes to understand that Emilia has not lapsed on the
situation. But in that case, how is Emilia's expression so calm right now?
For a Subaru who knew what she had been like after learning of Puck's disappearance, seeing
Emilia calm like this barely feels real.
He is having trouble swallowing these circumstances, when,
Emilia: “I'm sorry, Subaru. I showed you so many bad parts of me. ...I worried you sooo much.”
Subaru: “No, it's okay for you to worry me as much as you want. I don't mind that. I don't, but...
actually, it's you right now that's...”
Emilia: “—There were so many. Things to think about. They happened. In the dream.”
Emilia quietly interrupts, her eyes downcast. Subaru unwittingly gulps in the face of it, his gaze
fixing on her. Her long eyelashes quiver, and again Emilia sets her gaze on Subaru.
Emilia: “I'm sure I'll be okay tomorrow. I want to believe that. ...Subaru, please.”
Subaru: “...au, mmhm.”
Emilia: “Hold my hand. Can you please say here until morning? If you do, then I'll definitely...”
Emilia's white fingertips reach timidly from under the covers.

Seeing the offered hand, Subaru immediately grips it in his. He firmly cases her slender, dainty
fingers.
Subaru: “If that's all you want, no problem at all. But, Emilia...”
Emilia: “I'm sorry, Subaru. I know there must be so many things you want to talk about and ask
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about. But... please, wait for morning. Because then, I can do my best.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “Stay like this until morning—Subaru.”
Subaru can say nothing further in response to Emilia's near-pleading voice.

He brings the chair closer to the bed, placing Emilia's grasped hand beside her pillow. Emilia looks
at him with her eyes wavering. He nods.
Subaru: “All right. —I will, Emilia.”
Emilia: “Mm... thank you.”
With that short exchange, Emilia's eyes again close.

Unlike her continued forfeiture of consciousness from this morning, this is self-willed sleep, for the
sake of resting her wings. What words will she speak when she wakes?
The worst case scenario that Subaru envisioned has been conquered by Emilia's own power. Feeling
saved by this fact, Subaru watches over Emilia's sleeping visage.
Emilia: “...I trust you.”
Hearing Emilia's half-asleep mutter, Subaru slips a sigh.

—The situation will start moving again, come morning.
The big morning is pressing in, only a few hours away.

And—
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Ram: “How proceeded your conversation with Barusu?”
Roswaal: “A painful tie, is perhaps whaaaaaaat to call it. It alternated in favourable and
unfavourable turns for both he and I. I had already wanted to avoid taking too much action.”
Inside the dark room, at closer range to each other than necessary, the master and servant converse.
Roswaal holds bedside Ram close, hugging her head to his chest as he looks back on the previous
conversation.
Nothing mundane would be enough to shake Subaru's will once he had hardened his resolve. While
Roswaal lacked a clear, definite future outlook of him yet, he had perceived the iron will at his core.
Otto's presence, too, had been a serious blow for Roswaal. Otto, who had grasped the situation
objectively and reigned Subaru in at an effective moment had, in both the sense of keeping the
conversation from collapsing, and in the sense of ensuring neither Subaru nor Roswaal went too far,
firmly fulfilled his role as a balancer.
170
Had Otto not been present, potentially, Roswaal could have practised his eloquence and twisted
Subaru's thinking.
Roswaal: “He looked like a spectator, never to take the stage... but he was suuuuuurprisingly
shrewd aaaaaaaaand capable. Subaru-kun has a good friend.”
Ram: “...If he is interfering, would you like me to do something about it?”
Roswaal: “Let's not. If I was to make that decision, I ought to have made it during that conversation.
The moment that I neglected to do so, that option lost its significance. More importantly... about my
request?”
Closing one eye, Roswaal looks down at Ram with the yellow. In her master's arms and embrace,
Ram shakes her head, looking up from his chest.
Ram: “Without problems. I have ferried it exactly as you desired, Roswaal-sama.” Roswaal: “I
see. I had been hoping for the timing to align. …Now, just what will happen?” Roswaal responds
to Ram's affirmation with a satisfied nod, stroking her head with his free hand.
Ram accepts it, her expression intoxicated and spellbound.
For an instant, Roswaal's eyes as he casts his gaze on the adoring girl is commiserating.
Roswaal: “Don't think badly of me, Subaru-kun. I did promise not to take any direct action. Did
promise, but... I'd like to at least be permitted to utilize plans from my bed liiiiiiiiiiiike this.”
Ram: “—”
Roswaal: “Now, I wonder what will come out of this.”
A joyous smile creeps onto Roswaal's face.
Roswaal: “When he learns that that virtue-loving girl had heard that conversation and all its
underhanded plotting... just what in the world will Subaru-kun's expression beeeeeeeeee?”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—The room was dark.
With the lights out, the room interior descends into darkness. The footsteps of twilight and dreams
abound in this space, and would until dawn visited through the window.
The closed door severed this room from the outside world. Silence overwhelmed this chamber.
There amid the darkness, in the centre of the room stood a bed, where there lay a girl with her eyes
shut.
A silence mute of even sleeper's breathing—broken now by sound.
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Being,
Girl: “...Liar.”
A weak, hazy whisper.

Voiced by the girl in the bed, resentment recited in faintest verse.
Girl: “Subaru, you liar.”
Again, the murmur repeats.

Clenching her empty hand and left alone in the room, Emilia denounces the lies of the absent boy.
—The morning of the big day presses in, with only a handful of hours remaining.
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CHAPTER 98: A BED LOST OF WARMTH
—Close her eyes, and the memories of then come back vivid even now.
White. A world of white.

Awakened and breathing frigid puffs, young Emilia realises that she is amid a snowscape.
Why? asks her heart. But there is no answer.
She cannot remember the context for this, and her consciousness is spotty.
She uprights her fallen body, runs to the window, and looks at the wintry scene outside. White
demise cloaks the entirety of the village inside the familiar, verdant wood, now midway through a
slow and progressive process of freezing.
Being that this is Emilia's first time seeing it, she cannot recognize with certainty that this is the
phenomenon known as snow. But her instincts sear the biting chill vividly into her young memory.
Still unknowing of what is happening, her throat taut, Emilia breaks into a run with her expression
tense.
The moment she bounds out of the old house—out of the great, hollow tree—a cutting gale on her
skin and a piercing cold at her feet assault the girl with their baptism.
The snow immediately grabs her foot, and she tumbles face-first to the ground.
Freezing. Crystallized snow in white flakes. Encountering these white, falling flakes of ice births a
terror in Emilia. They are so awesomely beautiful, but so horrifyingly cold.
With only these simple clothes—just a garment of thin cloth wrapped around her body—Emilia
cannot counter the chill. The shivers racking her from her core originate from both the cold and
from her terror.
The snow pillages her of body heat, and the white crystals could captivate her heart. Emilia wails as
she shoos the snow drifting around her away, and again runs.
Snowflakes dance down from the sky endlessly. The flakes fall to her jaw as she pants, sticking in
her throat. She coughs, running, tears travelling down her face.
She didn't know why she was crying.

But it's scary. She's afraid. Why was she alone here? Where did everybody go? Where did
everybody, kind to her, who smiled at her, who would help her—where did they go?
She attempts to envision everybody's faces, but a muck clogs her thoughts.
The faces of everybody in her mind—their faces, their smiles, the images painted over by black
shadow, attempting to steal their presence out of Emilia's head.
Emilia: “—hk”
Shaking her head messily as tears flow down her face, Emilia keeps running.
She must not think. If she thinks about everybody, the black shadow will consume them. Everyone
precious to her will disappear from her mind.
But if she does not think about everyone, she will be alone. In a cold, impenetrable world of white,
alone—that was an unbearable terror for the young Emilia.
3
Young Emilia is without power and without knowledge. All she can do in this white demise is
struggle.
The falling snow coils around the struggling Emilia as if in mocking, her little body descending
steadily into pure white doom.
—No one's here. She cannot meet anyone. Now, she will never ▓▓▓▓ everybody, just as she never
had.
Emilia: “—Nhaa!”
Lost of where to go in this white world, her limbs numb and unmoving, Emilia falls into a squat as
she cries like a baby.
Her legs sink into the soft snow from the knees down, and although it must be cold, she does not
feel it. Her white skin, often compared to the snow, now burns cold in ruborous red because of that
very same stuff.
Just like that, running away from absolutely everything, Emilia clutches her head as she sinks into
the snow.
The snow falls mercilessly upon the young girl, piling up, as Emilia's small body disappears into the
white, and—
???: “—EMILIA!!”
With her eyes closed and fallen into wakeless sleep, a scream rips through the silence to call her.
Fringed with their long lashes, Emilia's eyes open as she springs up. The instant she does, her light
body is pulled out of the snow and into an embrace.
Emilia: “—a”
???: “It's okay, Emilia. Everything is okay, you're okay. Thank goodness... I found you...”
She attempts to speak, but her perfectly frigid throat only manages a hazy breath. But the other
understands Emilia's condition, hugging her, their voice trembling in pure joy at Emilia's safety.
Brushing her face against their short silver hair, her nose red and sniffly, Emilia expresses her
emotions bodily. To convey that, while they give her the ultimate in love, she feels the same way
about them.
This happiness again, of being cradled in their arms, and to speak there with them.
Amidst the snow which had conveyed little Emilia the despair—perhaps everything is all over—
there definitively existed a warmth, here, right here.
Still hugging Emilia who shivers from joy and cold, the woman with short, silver hair and a relieved
expression now stiffens her face, looking around the surroundings as she starts running.
She draws her lips close to Emilia's ear, exhaling breaths of white.
Woman: “Emilia, hear me? I know you must be worried about lots of things, and not know what's
going on, but... everything is okay. I'll do something about all of this. Even if you and me maybe
end up separated, you will absolutely never be alone...”
Though the woman's words are urgent, Emilia does not understand what she is hearing. But the idea
4
that she would be separated from this person is terrifying. Her numb fingers grip at the woman's
chest, and she shakes her head vigorously.
For young and ignorant Emilia, appealing to the emotions of others is her only point of savvy.
It was by continuously doing this that Emilia managed to remain an Emilia loved by everybody. She
had always done it. And so here at this juncture, too, and from hereon out—
Emilia: “—!”
Woman: “No, you musn't, Emilia. Even if it was okay so far, you can't keep doing it from now on.
You need to be a strong, smart, brave girl. If you aren't, you won't be able to accept yourself, and I
know you'll meet a sad end. And for me, that's... for everybody, and for my brother, that's a
sorrowful thing.”
Emilia: “—u”
She frantically shakes her head.

But nevertheless, the woman heartlessly disregards Emilia's urging. She rebukes Emilia's reliance
on others, saying she musn't do it.
She can't believe it. Of course she would find it painful.

Doing this had always allowed her to do something about things, even things she was told she
mustn't do. So why wasn't it working this time?
Why was her usual practice ineffective now, at the most painful, difficult, and scary moment thus
far? If there were more correct methods, then how had she managed to reach this point without
knowing them? —She was rather starting to detest everybody.
Emilia: “—!”
Woman: “I'm sorry, Emilia. I am so sorry. Never told you even a single important thing, hiding
absolutely everything... letting you stay a cute princess forever, please forgive me... forgive us.”
—No forgiveness. No forgiveness. No forgiveness. No forgiveness. No forgiveness. No forgiveness.
Woman: “The people around you who treasured your smile, and the tender lies they told, please
don't hate them...”
—Hated them. Loathed them. Loathed them. Loathed them. Loathed them. Loathed them. Loathed
them.
Emilia: “—”
She hated lies. She detested lies. Lies were entirely sad things. Lies were the reason behind
everything which hadn't gone her way. Lies were making Emilia alone. She hated lies.
Detested lies. Detested liars. Everybody is just a stupid ▓▓▓▓.
Woman: “Our adorable Emilia... someday, to you...”
Emilia: “—”
Emilia screams in silence. She doesn't want to hear any more. Hearing whatever wouldn't change
5
anything.
The blustering gale, and Emilia's shriek, drown the woman's final words to nothing.
The silver-haired woman looks sadly at Emilia's rejection, and her rigorous struggling, but
nevertheless she dispels all her emotions as she faces onward—
Woman: “—Auh,”
—That is when the true end comes.
The woman who ran with Emilia in her hold perceives the presence before her, and stops.
The faint jolt prompts Emilia to look up, and into her vision—she sees the face of the woman
holding her, looking more tense than Emilia has ever seen.
In her expression is surprise and sorrow, rage and grief, disgust and aspiration—and a slight relief.
Battering at Emilia's cheeks, the cold, white gale intensifies.

The blizzard whirls strong enough to make even opening her eyes an effort. Overwhelmed with
terror, Emilia puts her hands to her nigh-frozen ears—screams.
And—
And—.
————.
—————————.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The fifth morning in SANCTUARY—which for Natsuki Subaru is the big day for prevailing over this
loop series—begins with the absolute worst of news.
Ram: “Barusu. —Where has Emilia-sama gone?”
Having washed his face at the waterin' spot and wiped himself with a wet cloth, Subaru listens to
Ram's statement as she unhesitatingly barges into a location full of shirtless men, and responds to
her with blank astonishment.
Early morning has just passed. In the old world it would be approximately 8 AM. The evacuees and
residents have woken up, and the men are at the waterhole, just done washing off their sweat from
the night.
And then Ram magnificently showed up and fired off that question.
The presence of a woman here as if that is natural flusters some of the men, who swiftly evacuate,
but Subaru has no time to tease them for it.
After all, he doesn't comprehend what Ram said in the least.
6
Subaru: “Emilia... what?”
Ram: “It's as I said. I went to wait upon Emilia-sama, only for the building to be vacant. I had been
certain that you'd taken her outside, but...”
Subaru: “Vacant... how did that happen? I left the building after properly talking with her when she
woke up... then, here.”
Unable to hide his shock, Subaru thinks back on the happenings from this morning.
He had held her hand through the night—or been told to—and upon waking in the morning and
seeing Subaru watching over her at her bedside, a quiet smile had arisen on Emilia's face. Subaru
had thought that another uncharacteristically good awakening from her. She lowered her
gaze down to her hand, still gripped in Subaru's, before speaking quietly to him with his desire to
continue the conversation from last night.
Emilia: “I want to talk after I've sorted it all out in my head properly. I'll have Ram arrange my
outfitting, and when that's done, I know I'll be able to talk.”
And with that she expelled Subaru from the room.

While Subaru had been impatient, considering what Emilia's feelings were, to rush her would be
cruel. Most importantly, Emilia was calm. Attending to her too much might wind up having the
opposite effect than intended. Is what Subaru had determined, but...
Subaru: “So I left, and was thinking to leave the rest to you...”
Ram: “And you exited the building before receiving me... is what happened. I see. —You
blundered, Barusu.”
Subaru: “—”
Subaru has no defence.

Letting his guard down about Emilia and failing to transfer her over to Ram was his mistake. But he
hadn't conceived that it would've resulted in this, when the one in question was Emilia.
Subaru: “Could she've stepped outside a second for nature's call, or...?”
Ram: “Do you think I am careless enough that I would have neglected to check the surroundings
along the way here?”
Subaru: “That wasn't what I... but, if that wasn't it, then...”
Ram: “You truly do not understand?”
Ram's gaze is cold as usual, but just in that instant, the chill intensifies. Her eyes carry the same
look as they had last night, when she glanced at Subaru seemingly in boredom.
Seeing the disappointment and dejection in her eyes, Subaru lowers his own.
Subaru: “—Emilia ran away, is what you're saying?”
Ram: “How else is there to interpret this? Or do you mean that the faction opposing SANCTUARY's
7
liberation had been waiting with a tiger's vigilance for yourself and myself to stray from Emilia-
sama's side, and on this very morning, actualized their plots... is that what you wish to believe?”
Subaru: “...It's not entirely impossible.”
Ram: “To cling to that is incorrigibly repulsive. Either way, it will not change the fact of Emilia-
sama's absence. Even should you disregard her inability to leave SANCTUARY, this is bad.”
Her attitude is harsh, but Ram does have the forethought to keep her voice quiet enough that no one
will overhear. Should it get out that Emilia disappeared after challenging the TRIAL, it's liable to
result in Roswaal's reputation getting soiled.
Ram must have judged this topic as one to be handled discreetly.
Subaru calls her name as he raises his head, his voice a weak murmur.
Like Ram said, even assuming that Emilia has abandoned everything and is attempting to run away,
there is no way that her half-elf self can exit SANCTUARY's barrier.
Emilia remains bound to SANCTUARY, running and running but never to get away.
She isn't so foolish that she would fail to recognize that. But, assuming that she had been so
cornered that she nevertheless wanted to flee, then...
Subaru: “That's my and Puck's responsibility...”
Puck's failure to imagine how great the shock of the contract breaking would be to Emilia was his
mistake.
Subaru's failure to notice her signals and misreading her as being calm was his mistake.
Ram: “Accepting that Emilia-sama has fled and is in hiding... Barusu, ideas?”
Subaru: “Wait. Don't just decide that she's run off. Even saying she's going somewhere, not like you
can just get around this SANCTUARY without anybody seeing you. It basically never happens that
Emilia goes wandering around the place, either.”
Ram sighs, giving a slight nod.
Ram: “I will recognize that was hasty of me, but what are we to do? You're here, so it's obvious that
the men have not seen her. Then are we to put our hopes in the chance that the women, remaining in
the cathedral, have spotted her?”
Subaru: “The people from Arlam Village will come tell us if they saw Emilia staggering around by
herself. Worst case, one of SANCTUARY's people might've seen her... we can start going through
them first, and we shouldn't be too late to come up with conclusions after.”
Although speedily setting up these plans, Subaru more or less understands that all he's doing is
postponing the conclusion. Ram is listening to Subaru's proposals, but most likely she is thinking
the exact same thing.
The common points of recognition between Ram and Subaru are that Emilia has absconded of her
own volition, and that it would be inconvenient for that information to get too widespread.
Whether they're thinking it for the sake of Emilia or for Roswaal is another issue, though.
8
Ram: “Should one of us find her swiftly, it will be our narrow escape. But it would be best to keep
the worst of possibilities in mind. You do understand, Barusu.”
Subaru: “...Don't really want to think about it, though.”
Ram's reminder doubles as an admonition: Do not avert your eyes from the worst possibility.
The chance that Emilia misses the TRIAL, they proceed to go without finding her, and the fact of her
absence leaks throughout SANCTUARY—there would be no recovering from the injury.
Subaru and the others, who know the situation, must put in efforts to resolve the issue before this
can happen.
Subaru: “If we go asking around and still can't find her...”
Ram: “We'll need to expend all the effort we can to comb the forest.”
Subaru: “...That's not gonna be finished in just one or two days.”
Raising his head, Subaru looks at the trees of the forest surrounding SANCTUARY, his brows
furrowing.
While SANCTUARY has the barrier severing it from outside contact, this woodland is plenty big
enough to hide an individual person. And supposing that Emilia is hiding in the forest, she wouldn't
even have to stay rooted in one place.
Today, and tomorrow. There are at most 48 hours left before the deadline for the bet and the
contract.
Within that timeframe they have to find Emilia, make her challenge the TRIAL, and beat it.
—Can he do it?
Can he, who cornered Emilia this deep, and had not noticed the storminess of her heart, grant a
cornered Emilia the strength to move forward?
Subaru: “You're seriously overestimating me here, Puck...”
Ram: “...I wonder if this is also connected to the contract with the Great Spirit severing.”
Subaru: “In the sense of her losing her biggest mental support, doubt it's unrelated. But neither of us
thought it'd make her snap like this.”
There was one more trigger, something, which had added to her stress.
Thinking back on calm Emilia from last night and this morning, that's all Subaru can figure.
Subaru: “—”
No way, he thinks.
He had surely acted after confirming it properly.
But, just hypothetically, supposing that Emilia had noticed—
Otto: “—Natsuki-san!”
9
The sharp call makes Subaru's shoulders jolt in surprise.
He looks, to find a grey-haired young man giving a big wave of his hand, sprinting toward him
from the village plaza.
It's Otto, who has not participated in the morning bath, and had supposedly been preparing breakfast
with the villagers in the cathedral.
He reaches Subaru, pale-faced, putting his hands to his knees as he breathes ragged breaths.
Otto: “Th-there are several things I need to report. There are quite a number if you go into the
particulars, but... for now, the larger two. There is good news and bad news.”
Subaru: “Your news has my interest, but first I have a question. Did Emilia show up at all over at
the cathedral? Was anyone talking about her, anything?”
Otto: “—? No, I've yet to see her this morning. I haven't heard anyone at the cathedral saying
anything, either.”
Otto scrunches his face as Subaru prioritizes a question of no obvious purpose over the news.
Subaru and Ram's expressions both darken in hearing the answer.
Otto perceives their unrest, but judges that his report is more important than mentioning that.
Otto: “So, good news and bad news... which would you like?”
Subaru: “Don't like that they're a pair but nothing to do about that... okay, good news first.”
If he hears the bad news, he'll probably need a lot of time to figure out a counter-plan. And
regardless he's presently in the worst of situations, where Emilia is missing. He would prefer to
avoid doubling up on horrid news and getting stuck in a conundrum.
Otto crosses his arms, nodding.
Otto: “The good news, then. I've completed negotiations with the evacuees exactly as we arranged.
They've made their respective preparations, and are ready to go today at any moment you want. I
requested that they keep themselves ready to respond even to abrupt instructions, so they're possible
even immediately prior.”
Subaru: “—Right. Sorry. Really, I should've been the one talking to them and getting them to help.”
Otto: “Fortunately, my amicability with everyone had intensified over these few days. And when
you consider our ongoing acquaintance, it's sincerely serendipitous that I had this opportunity. But
either way, preparations went without problems.”
Otto voice is firm, but despite his laudable achievements, his face is nothing bright. Whatever
problem happened had been serious enough to overshadow that good news, then?
Yielding to Otto's silent gaze, Subaru presses for the other report—the bad news.
Subaru: “And so what's the bad news?”
Otto: “Just a moment ago, an enraged Garfiel came storming into the cathedral, irate and looking
for you.”
10
Subaru: “Looking for me? Why? I don't think I've meddled enough yet this time for this to be
happening...”
With this loop being the final one, Subaru's persuasion of Garfiel awaits. He needed to practice
extreme caution while interacting with Garfiel, and even after arranging things with Otto and
establishing the bet with Roswaal, Subaru had avoided conversing with Garfiel as much as he
possibly could.
It had paid off, and he had managed to reach the Big Day without ever really interacting with
Garfiel, until this morning.
Subaru: “If we can, it'd be more ideal to deal with him after negotiating with Lewes Theta...”
Otto: “That's the thing.”
Otto raises his finger.

Subaru's eyes widen in surprise, not understanding what Otto's THAT is referring to.
While Subaru remains confused, Otto speaks with his expression grave.
Otto: “That Lewes-san apparently went missing this morning. Garfiel is searching through the
village, his expression frantic. This is how he's looking to talk to you.”
11
CHAPTER 99: ALONE IN A CONFINED SPACE
—A situation where two important characters have gone missing simultaneously.
Faced with an experience which has never happened before in this loop series, Subaru's guts blaze
with entirely panic.
Subaru sprints through SANCTUARY, heading for the lodgings where Lewes is residing. Apparently
she had been living in a small hut on the village outskirts while lending her house to Emilia.
Garfiel: “...So yer fuckin' came.”
Subaru belts the door open as he storms inside, for Garfiel to be inside and welcoming him
imposingly. He crosses his arms, scrunching his nose in clear irritation as he glares at Subaru.
Garfiel: “Yer slow. How long're thinkin' t'keep people fuckin' waitin'.”
Subaru: “I-I was running fast as I could... But anyway, what's this about Lewes-san being gone?”
Garfiel: “Can't yer goddamn see 'swhat it is?”
Garfiel jerks his chin, indicating the cramped room. Subaru surveys his gaze over the space—or
would, if it were wide enough for such a verb. Lewes' temporary lodgings are a tiny shanty shack,
barebones, with the only furniture being a bed.
And if Lewes is not present upon that bed, then without any doubt she is absent from this house.
Composing his breathing, Subaru rigorously wipes the sweat off his brow with his sleeve.
Subaru: “It's obvious she's not here, but... isn't saying she's gone missing exaggerating things?
Lewes-san looks young but she's really a splendid adult. Starting a fuss because she's gone out on a
walk or something isn't very...”
Garfiel: “Fucking shut up! Fuck would you goddamn know! Y'see th'granny, she ain't even once
gone without showin' up at breakfast f'no reason. Never seen her oversleep or stay in bed 'cuzza
sickness, either, and yer sayin' she's havin' a walk? I'll eat you goddamn dead.”
Subaru: “The way you said that was so coarse, but man it's crazy how comfy a relationship you
have with Lewes-san...”
Circumstances are circumstances, but the basis for the idea that Lewes has gone missing is
incredibly weak, and Subaru slumps as he untenses. But Garfiel pays no mind to Subaru's
exasperation.
He approaches Subaru, who has fixed his posture, baring his fangs as he speaks.
Garfiel: “Something that ain't ever happened before 's happenin' now this mornin'. If something that
ain't ever happened 'n this village before's happenin' now, 's cause you people're involved with it,
even an idiot'd know that. —Yer did some fishy with th'granny.”
While Garfiel has incredible intuition for making baseless conjectures and false accusations, this
time his suspicions hit the bullseye.
Lewes's—today it should be Lewes Theta—disappearance is almost unmistakably because of
12
Subaru. It's highly unlikely that someone would've kidnapped Theta simultaneously with Emilia.
She left this spot on her own two feet, without even telling Garfiel. She is identical to Emilia in
being obstructed by SANCTUARY's barrier, so she will not have fled to the outside. Meaning that
Theta's goal is to go into hiding. —And the time limit for her is even more pressing than Emilia's.
Subaru: “If I don't find Theta-san before today's over...”
...the rotation will shift, and tomorrow a new Lewes—Alpha, Beta, or Sigma—will take her place.
Should that happen, it is highly unlikely he will be able to speak with Theta within the two day
limit, and perfection of the SANCTUARY route will be impossible.
Garfiel: “Theeter?”
Asks Garfiel in confusion.

Subaru had been thinking to ask for Garfiel's help in finding Theta, but seeing his expression,
decides to ditch that plan.
The question surging up inside Subaru stops him from saying anything.
Subaru: “—”
It was a simple question, but not one he had ever confirmed.
—Does Garfiel actually know about the four representative Lewes personalities?
Garfiel knows about the ruined experiment site deep in the woods, and about Lewes Meyer in the
crystal. He had challenged the TRIAL, met Echidna, and was qualified as an APOSTLE OF GREED.
Garfiel, possessing the command right for the Lewes duplicates, knows that there are multiple
doubles who all look exactly the same.
But what about the rest? Does Garfiel know about the presence of the four Lewes personalities
Alpha, Beta, Sigma, and Theta?
Garfiel: “N'what? Yer fuckin' shut up aller a sudden. If yer got some kinder clue, fuckin' fess up on
th'double. Yer think we're doin' a SIMPLE SINCERE LIB-LIB, SWINDLED AND IN BLISS here?”
Subaru: “Lib-Lib's going to be swindled forever, like that...”
Imagining a story about joyful prince, Subaru puzzles over how best to reply to Garfiel.
Confrontation with Garfiel is the final barricade for the SANCTUARY route. Subaru is
overwhelmingly unprepared to face him without having heard Theta's motives. But his responses
here are, unintentionally, going to influence the issue.
—How should he respond? At the end of his deliberating, Subaru,
Subaru: “Hey, Garfiel. If you felt like it, couldn't you just summon Lewes-san?”
Garfiel: “—hk!!”
Garfiel's expression shifts violently. With his eyes wavering in discomposure, he grabs Subaru's
collar and yanks him close.
At a range so close their foreheads could touch, Garfiel's golden eyes host rage—rage, abounding,
so intense his gaze alone could practically burn his opponent to nothing.
13
Garfiel: “My amazin' self ain't gotter shred ovva speck ovva glimpse ovva Miufram's inklin' f' what
yer tryin' t'say 'n the slightest.”
Subaru: “I-I don't know what a Miufram is, but... this is not the reaction of someone who doesn't
have a shred of a speck of an idea... stupid, let go.”
Perhaps flipping out and grabbing Subaru was something he did to calm himself down. Garfiel's
words as he attempts to cover things up are incoherent nonsense.
With Subaru's statement being entirely correct, Garfiel's hands slacken, and Subaru uses the
opening to escape. He smooths out his crinkled clothes, taking one step away to open distance.
Subaru: “What I'm trying to say is exactly what it sounds like. Your brains aren't unfortunate
enough that you wouldn't get it. You have methods. You have the fastest, easiest solution. Why
aren't you taking it?”
Garfiel: “Fuckin' saying this bullshit so fuckin' cheerily...”
His cheeks twisted in frustration, Garfiel glares at Subaru with utmost hatred.
But even while the ratios of fury and hostility in those eyes intensify, there is enough grief creeping
in that even Subaru can identify it.
Subaru's expression shifts as he notices Garfiel's sorrow. Garfiel clicks his tongue, the shades of his
emotion having been witnessed, as he looks away.
Garfiel: “Heres's who's qualified, n' so no allowance fer carelessness. 'S a complete unknown what
that asshole witch fucking schooled into you. Fuck off. Fucking fuck off.”
Subaru: “—”
Garfiel: “Yer sayin' y'fucking know about granny's test site. Then probably y'fuckin' know 'bout
th'granny in the source rock too... it ain't something t'just use.”
Garfiel cradles his right arm across his heart, attempting to hide it from Subaru's gaze. While most
likely it is not actually there, this is probably him indicating that he possesses the invisible thing
known as the command right.
With his arm still shielding his chest,
Garfiel: “My amazin' self ain't anythin' like you or Roswaal. This thing'f knowing it's there, and still
thinking t'use them... never.”
Subaru: “...Garfiel.”
Garfiel: “Just me alone is enough. So long as I got me, I don't need anythin' else. Like fuckin' hell
I'd use this power, 'less isth' fifty-ninth second f'the fifty-ninth minute f'the 'leventh hour. —She's
mine nanna.”
The close comes with a whisper.

Subaru has heard Garfiel call Lewes 'nanna' once before. But this time, he dropped the ostentatious
'my amazing self' as well.
That slip was likely Garfiel's true opinion on it.
14
Garfiel: “—Tch.”
Realising that he said something unnecessary, Garfiel kicks at the floor in irritation. The exorbitant
force makes the shoddy house lurch, spilling down dustclouds to tickle Subaru's head and neck,
himself waiting for Garfiel's next move.
Recognizing that his outburst is his own fault, Garfiel's face twists in further discomfort. He shoves
Subaru, who stands before the door, rudely out of the way.
Garfiel: “Move. I ain't got business with you anymore. If you ain't givin' ideas t'where th'granny
went, then my amazin' self'll find her first's all. And then I ain't letting yer touch her again.”
Subaru: “Sure's nice of you to decide that I'm behind this.”
Garfiel: “B'fore you... 'fore all you people came, nothin' went on here, n' it was peaceful. My
amazin' self's getting that back. Not inside n' not outside, I don't need anything... don't need it.”
Is the weak note he ends with as he strides out of the shack. Immediately after exiting he bends his
knees, and with bestial leg strength bounds away—so quick that despite his path being straight, he
disappears from view after only a handful of seconds.
Batting away the dust that Garfiel's departure kicked up, Subaru decides to check over the room
again before leaving.
Nevermind Garfiel and his hasty conclusions. Did Lewes truly disappear without leaving any trace?
Perhaps if she hadn't left behind a clue as to her location...
Subaru: “Yeah right, if she had then someone who's known her longer would've spotted it ages ago.
My nose isn't better than his, and my eyes're nastier too.”
After five minutes of searching around and finding nothing, Subaru sighs his self-flagellating
laments. He exits the building, gazing over toward the village, thinking.
Subaru: “—”
Emilia and Lewes Theta have disappeared almost simultaneously.

Most likely, they left their buildings of their own accord, and are fleeing from Subaru and everyone
else. Perhaps possibility exists for them to be cooperating.
Subaru: “I don't remember ever seeing Emilia and Lewes-san being close, but...”
This is Emilia, whose mind is constantly addled with the Selection and the TRIAL. Subaru presently
is having trouble remembering any occurrence where she interacted relaxedly with anyone here.
While she has had some whimsical conversations with Subaru, Ram, Otto and so on, it doesn't seem
like she's spoken very much with the representatives of SANCTUARY, Lewes and Garfiel.
Thinking back on it now, the scantness of her interactions with outsiders might be because the
desires of her clique made her feel isolated and obligated. The thought makes Subaru's lack of
consideration come to fore. If Subaru had taken better action, he would have managed to find a
clearer solution which would have left Emilia without this overflowing excess of emotion.
15
Subaru: “All of it's just way too late...”
This isn't the time to be thinking about the underlying causes for Emilia's disappearance. And more
importantly, if he probes into it, all it's going to do is aggravate Subaru's self-invalidation.
Right now he lacks the time to be letting his negativity-prone self engage in that self-loathing.
Subaru: “Call it fortune in misfortune that Garfiel didn't know Emilia's gone missing... probably
wouldn'tve gone looking for her before Lewes-san, but no idea what he'd start saying if he had that
to be his pretext.”
But even this relief will be pointless if Subaru does not secure Emilia, and quickly. The situation
with Lewes Theta is not one he can postpone, either.
If he fails to find Theta before Garfiel does, then she will fall into overprotective Garfiel's charge,
and making contact with her will be difficult.
So, to clearly stipulate the things Subaru must do:
Subaru: “Secure Emilia and Lewes Theta before Garfiel can. Both need to be secured within half a
day, then I need to find out why Theta's opposing SANCTUARY's freedom, get Emilia back on her
feet, and have her challenge the TRIAL... I think.”
Otto: “...Natsuki-san, how brambled does the path need to be before you're satisfied?”
Says Otto, who shows up at the shack's entrance at the perfect timing to butt into Subaru's bleak
conclusion.
Otto, who has arrived considerably later than Subaru who sprinted, looks around the room Subaru
had dishevelled as he looked for traces of Lewes. Otto furrows his brows.
Otto: “I'd request for a little more elegance when searching a house. The conversation with Garfiel
looks to have ended safely.”
Subaru: “Ended safely, but hard to really say anything profitable came of it. Anyway, we've re-
recognized what the situation is, and our schedule for what to do next's what I just muttered.”
Otto: “I could only hear that muttering as, new problems have piled into a jumbled mess before we
could resolve the other problems.”
Subaru: “...”
Unable to joke around at Otto's correct impression, Subaru slumps his shoulders.
That he nevertheless feels slightly more at ease than before is perhaps the empowering thought of
THERE'S NO NEED TO KEEP DELIBERATING ALONE that Otto's presence brings.
Otto: “...If you keep looking blatantly relieved like that it's truly going to be problematic.”
Subaru: “—? What?”
Otto: “Speaking to myself. You mustn't have noticed. No, you didn't. If you did and you're doing
this to me, then clearly you already have me perfectly in your pocket, aaaugh grief.”
Otto scratches messily at his grey hair as Subaru tilts his head. But rather than reply to Subaru's
16
confusion, he yells,
Otto: “Anyway!”
Otto: “It's clear that a previously-stalemated situation has degraded further. What will we do?
Requirements which would already prompt one to flee have overlapped with even worse
requirements, and how will we break this deadlock? I have a feeling that if we did it right at this
moment, though, we could still be afforded to abandon everything and escape.”
Subaru: “Desert everything involved with what we've seen and heard up to now? Neither of us have
personalities which could pull that kind of irresponsible stunt.”
Otto: “...Although, Emilia-sama may have done exactly that.”
Mutters Otto with a sigh, averting his gaze.

It's likely not out of spite, but just him wanting to voice the dissatisfaction holed up in his heart.
Subaru consciously keeps himself from criticising Otto for the attitude.
But he does give a small shake of his head.
Subaru: “Turning tail and running from her problems isn't the kind of girl Emilia...”
Otto: “Is, is something you can assert? Natsuki-san. I've been thinking to say this for a while now,
but don't you find you focus far too much on the attractive things about Emilia-sama?”
Subaru: “...What're you getting at. Well yes I mean Emilia is so beautiful my eyes could explode.”
Otto: “That I will frankly agree with, but I'm sure you understand that that wasn't what I meant.”
His poor jokes easily done away with, Subaru frowns as Otto's gaze showers upon him.
Otto raises his finger, his expression one of seeing something painful to watch.
Otto: “Listening, now?”
Otto: “I understand the desire to see only the good things about somebody you love. I'm sure that
such a thing is very common. There is nothing to condemn about projecting ideals upon your
partner.”
Subaru: “—”
Otto: “However, Emilia-sama is not a perfect person. In fact, she has many issues. She does, and
that would include the things which Emilia-sama herself cannot do anything about. Her lineage, her
standing, and many other fetters come attached to Emilia-sama.”
Hearing Otto's fluent speech, Subaru figures that probably he has been intending for a while now to
give him a lecture close to this, and had prepared his lines.
And indeed his words are entirely sound, with no purchase at all for rebuttal.
Otto: “Naturally, those external factors are unrelated to Emilia-sama's own essential purity. And let
us sincerely recognize her beautiful appearance as another point of charm. But you see, Natsuki-
san. Emilia-sama is still of mankind... she is an ordinary, regular woman. She surely would possess
17
the worries, weaknesses, and uglinesses suited to an ordinary woman.”
Subaru: “No but, when it's Emilia...”
Otto: “That you blindly regard Emilia-sama as extraordinary like this is truly odd. Natsuki-san,
surely in this SANCTUARY you've witnessed Emilia-sama's insufficient aspects to the point you're
sick of it. That would not be something limited to this place alone, and is entirely probable to
surface in the future as well. The place she desires is beyond the reach of ordinary people with its
height, you see.”
The Throne. The height Emilia is reaching for, which Otto judges as the zenith.
Subaru knows the others, who are also aiming for that peak.
Noble and sincere, possessing great ideals and assured ability, Crusch Karsten.
Proud and insidious, but consequently never to waver in her self-concept, Priscilla Barielle.
Greedy and calculating, concentrating everything she has to realising her dream, having ascended to
her present social position through her matchless competitive strength, Anastasia Hoshin.
Poor and weak in initial position, but nonetheless possessing ambition which would not permit her
to stagnate there, having exhibited capabilities disproportionate to her age, Felt.
All of the candidates are facing the Selection while possessing virtues, and strong wills which shall
not bend to anyone.
Was Emilia fit to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these worthy opponents?
She was merely kind, kinder than anyone else. Was that alone not enough?
Otto: “Presently, Emilia-sama is lacking in many things. She is not complete. That is how Emilia-
sama is, and so she becomes timid when faced with hardship, and surely she sometimes wishes to
escape. How is it that you do not believe now would be one of those times, and she has desired to
flee?”
Subaru: “...That's. It's that, about Emilia, I would never...”
Never. Subaru is rather incapable of stating what to say next.

He can't find the words. Assuredly present and smouldering in his heart, his feelings toward Emilia.
Which words to use to ornament this thing, his rebuttal to Otto, which will explain it?
Subaru: “—”
Otto: “...Stubborn, aren't you.”
Subaru bites his lip, looking at Otto with a gaze fully hosting rebellion. Otto responds to the silent
gaze, shrugging his shoulders, before giving an astounded shake of the head and staring at the
village.
Otto: “It's not essential that we reach a conclusion about this right now. Our talking won't move the
situation along, after all. Nothing has changed about us needing to search for Emilia-sama and
Lewes-san.”
Subaru: “...Sorry. I know there's heaps of things I have to talk about with you more properly.”
18
Otto: “We're friends, I'll overlook it. —Now, what do we do?”
Jerking his chin to indicate the outside—indicate SANCTUARY—Otto leaves their course of action
up to Subaru.
Run, or fight? Which of the two missing persons should they search for? These questions were
Otto's very trust in Subaru itself.
While he has no intention to treat them lightly, Subaru does laugh at himself for the incredible
abundance he's been given.
Subaru: “Garfiel doesn't know Emilia's missing. And if Garfiel does find Emilia, it's not a huge
issue. —The worst would be for Garfiel to secure Lewes-san before we can. If we don't have any
opportunities to talk with Lewes-san, we're essentially getting further from the best ending.”
Otto: “...In sum?”
Subaru: “—We're looking for Lewes-san. We find her before Garfiel, and hear her story.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: “—Emilia. Everybody's about to have an important talk. So are you okay to wait patiently in
the usual spot for a moment?”
Being shut in the hollow of the great arbour deep in the forest—shut in the Princess Room—with
this line was an affair which greatly dissatisfied young Emilia.
Emilia was raised loved by everyone, in a village in the forest where the elves lived in hiding.
All the adults were nice to her, and they'd entertain her selfish little whims without looking reluctant
at all. She did feel some loneliness about the fact that she only rarely got to interact with children
her age, but she had to follow her instructions. Rules like that are to be firmly kept, her mother
substitute Mother Fortuna had told her.1
Fortuna was taking care of Emilia in the elf village. She was her substitute mom.
With her silver hair and amethyst eyes, her characteristic features were identical to Emilia's. But
because long hair was annoying, she cut hers short, and her sharp eyes were also a large point of
difference from Emilia.
Emilia didn't remember how long it had been since she started living with Fortuna. But she had
heard that she was not her real mother, and was a blood relative somewhere in the vicinity of an
aunt.
Fortuna: “I'm your dad's younger sister. My brother... your dad and mom are busy right now and
can't be with you, so I'll be looking after you.”
1 The name of Emilia's mother figure is フォ ɐナ(Fortona/Fortna/Fortuna) rather than more straightforward
katakanaizations フォ ɐゥーナ(Fortuna) or フォーチーナ (Forchuna/Fortuna). This may or may not wind up
being another Petelgeuse Thing, but since I can't come up with any close-but-not-quite alternate names and
because this spelling appears to be commonly used to mean the goddess Fortuna/officially romanized as Fortuna in
other contexts, I'm content to leave it put (until surprise arc 8 happens and it winds up being a Petelgeuse thing).
19
Fortuna's explanation had greatly shocked Emilia. But that said, the shock was not a negative one.
While Fortuna had emphasized time and time again that she was not Emilia's real mom, as far as
Emilia cared, she was undoubtedly her mother.
Then, neverminding Mother Fortuna's presence, Emilia learned she had a dad and a real mom also.
Usually people's parents only numbered to two, their mom and dad. But Emilia had one dad, and
two moms. What happiness, she thought.
Fortuna: “Your silver hair is from my brother. And your eye colour too, it looks like our family
really showed up there. ...But your kind face is from your mother. Everyone on my side has nasty
eyes.”
Emilia: “...But I like your eyes, Mother Fortuna.”
Harsh, stern eyes were the regular. Occasionally Emilia would disobey her instructions and make
Fortuna mad, and her stern eyes would compound in sharpness, and it would make Emilia tremble.
But, excluding those times when she was in an angry mood, Emilia considered Fortuna an ideal
Mom. Those sharp eyes of hers did of host loving emotions, too.
Fortuna was a strict, but kind mother.

She instated rigid discipline toward Emilia's behaviours, so much so that young Emilia sometimes
thought it excessive, but even so she had always understood that all of it was done with Emilia in
mind.
Violence never accompanied her discipline, and she never scolded Emilia over anything
unreasonable. While it had happened that Emilia did something bad and she cried from the scolding,
they would reconcile and spend the night in the same bed, sleeping together and hugging.
Fortuna: “There are some things I regret sooo much. Where I wish I could've been kinder to people.
If I had thought that way sooner, I'm sure my brother wouldn't have relied on me last.”
A loneliness would arise on Fortuna's face when she said 'sooo'.

That had left a very, very strong impression on Emilia, and so she consciously decided to copy it.
Not when she was sad, but when she was happy or laughing were the times she chose to use it.
My mom doesn't have any sorrows or lonelinesses, was the shallow, childish sentiment with which
she attempted to overwrite her mother's characteristic quirk with good memories.
Emilia: “Hmp... so boring.”
The story returns to the opening, where Emilia is confined to the Princess Room alone.
She did not like being called 'Princess' very much, but it was what everybody in the village called
her. By now she had found herself unwittingly and entirely accustomed to it.
Because she knew they were not making fun of her, and were instead saying it with affection,
Emilia never requested that they stop. But that they even used the moniker for this confining room
was one of Emilia's few dissatisfactions in life.
Emilia: “What could everybody be doing...”
Emilia's confinements in the Princess Room always occurred when somebody was visiting the
village. It wasn't that anyone had told her there were a small number of people entering the forest
and visiting the elves' hidden community, she sensed it on her skin.
This sensation was because Emilia was unconsciously interfering with the forest's minor spirits, and
20
she was acquiring information from them. But, Emilia had not realised this back then.
She would merely sit in the cramped room, hugging her knees, passing time by flipping through the
pages of the time-killer books she'd been given, or playing with the crappy dolls Fortuna had made.
It was a secret meeting that only the adults knew about—was what she'd been told, but apparently
the other kids were involved in the meeting, too. And that was another one of Emilia's more recent
dissatisfactions.
It was Mother Fortuna who had taught Emilia that you mustn't lie or keep secrets. So was it not a
bad thing of Mother Fortuna and the adults, that they were keeping secrets and lying to Emilia?
Once every ten or so days did the visitors come, and accordingly did Emilia spend her short stays in
the Princess Room. While Emilia did have her dissatisfactions, she was not a naughty enough girl to
let them show.
However, this was her don't-even-know-what-th time in the Princess Room, and she and Fortuna
had had an argument the night before. Most importantly, she had forgotten to bring along the dolls
Fortuna gave her, and had left them in her bedroom—the decisive blow.
Emilia: “Wanna go outside.”
She wasn't saying it to anyone. It was just a mutter. Nothing more than that.
But while she hadn't been saying her mutter to anybody she knew, the THEM she knew had heard it
perfectly clear.
Emilia: “—?”
Inside the hollow, in a room lit by the white glow of lagumite crystals, spots of pale-blue light now
mingled. With one blink from her, those abruptly-visiting glimmers captivated Emilia's attention.
The lights danced before Emilia's eyes, and still keeping the young girl a prisoner to her curiosity,
they migrated to a corner of the Princess Room—where they disappeared, as if sucked into the wall.
Emilia: “—”
Emilia stood up, before tottering toward the spot where the lights had vanished. She was a little
scared, but it was her curiosity which burned hotter in her chest.
Standing before the wall which had sucked in the lights, Emilia touched her hand to the thing,
confirming the feel of the wood. Which was when she discovered, just the perfect size for her little
arm to go in, an open hole in the wall.
The glimmering lights had disappeared through this hole.
The front door of the Princess Room was barred from the outside, and could not be opened from
inside. It was an arrangement where Emilia could not escape, even if she attempted to flee.
Thinking back on it, that treatment was excessive and assuredly not fit for peacetime. But Emilia
had thought the whole thing normal, and had no purchase to question it.
However, having discovered that a supposedly unexitable place may in fact be exitable, Emilia's
heart vacillated between her curiosity and her mother's teachings.
She wanted to know what everybody was doing in the village while she was away.
But Mother Fortuna had firmly taught her to listen to her instructions. She needed to stay here and
wait until Fortuna returned to the Princess Room.
21
But what if she sneakily tested this exit route, and after peeking on what everybody was doing,
came back here?
It was the adults who had first broken the rules to not tell lies or keep secrets.
If it was just one, if Emilia broke just one rule, then would they not be even?
Emilia: “—”
Young Emilia considered it with all her might. This was a small, but just cause.
This hole she had stuck her hand into, with a closer look, was a gap between the entangled roots of
the tree. If she put all her strength into it—and although only sightly—the opening would expand.
With her sense of touch as her guide, young Emilia pushed away the roots, eager to secure a space
large enough for her to pass through. Her brow dripped with sweat, and dirt muddied her clothes,
the vestiges of her deeds too visible to get away with saying 'No nothing happened at all' to Fortuna.
Regardless Emilia managed to widen the gap in the roots, succeeded in crawling out from the hollow,
and exited into the outside.
Emilia: “—a”
Emilia's heart harboured a strange sense of accomplishment as the outside breeze showered her.
She had done something bad, where she would be told off if people knew, but she greatly felt the
urge to immediately go to Fortuna and brag: Ahehem, I did it.
Naturally the scolding would be as vicious as flame, and so Emilia yanked on the breaks before she
could start running. That was a dangerous moment.
But, here are Emilia's thoughts:
—If I had listened to my idiot logic back then, and gone to get praise from Mother Fortuna, and she
scolded me vigorously, and I cried and wailed and regretted it and forgot about that stupid gap in
the roots, everything would've been so much better.
If I had done that, then this would have all ended without the trigger for the tragedy afterwards
being pulled.
—What was the tragedy, exactly?
Deaf to the question and successful in her escape from the Princess Room, young Emilia dashed
triumphantly off to where everybody probably was.
Her stealthy hiding as she travelled, peeping around the place, magnified her recognition that she
was doing a bad thing. Help from the minor spirits meant she more or less just kind of knew where
everybody was.
Emilia soon discovered everybody gathered in the village square. Saw them, alongside a group of
people in unfamiliar black clothes.
Emilia: “—”
She hid behind a notably large tree, before nimbly climbing up its branches to the top. Young Emilia
was quite a rascal, and so when she scampered from tree to tree to tree like an animal, it would
horrifically panic the adults, who would frantically attempt to catch her.
22
The acrobatics she learned from these activities thus allowed her to watch over the conversation,
from the adults' blind spot.
The total population of the elf village numbered to about forty. Everyone from adults to children
was assembled there, except for Emilia. The black-robes were fewer in number, and totalled to
perhaps twenty.
Some of them were in the middle of the assembly, participating in the discussion, while the rest
were transferring luggages. The black-robes looked to have come here with wagons, and as they
delivered the luggage from those carts to the villagers, the villagers' faces would brighten, and they
would bow their heads.
???: “—We can't thank you enough for all the care you give us.”
What could they be doing? What could they be saying?

Just when she thought to lean a little bit forward, out of the tree, Emilia heard a voice so close it
could've been whispered in her ear.
Emilia jerked in surprise. She scanned the area, but failed to find anybody who could be the voice's
owner. And before getting to that, that voice just now unmistakably belonged to Mother Fortuna.
Said Fortuna was directly below Emilia—leading the group, and in the middle of a discussion with
one of the black-cloaks.
Fortuna: “It really does help everyone that you're procuring us this stuff we can't get in the forest.
We're glad to accept them.”
Cloak: “And I am grateful to hear so. Our inability to present you any other succour is greatly
vexatious to us. We lay burdens upon you perpetually, Fortuna-sama.”
Fortuna: “We're laying them on you as well.”
Emilia clearly heard the conversation, which carried enough wry smiles for two.
Fortuna's gestures from below Emilia informed her that without a doubt, that exchange happened
right now at this instant. Apparently, Emilia's hearing was presently outrageously sharp.
It was actually the tactful work of the minor spirits who obeyed Emilia's will, but naturally young
Emilia did not notice their discretions.
Fortuna's conversation partner, garbed in a black robe, was a man of bold countenance.
His muscles and height made him stand out prominently among the village of oft-skinny elves. But
so in spite of his martial appearance it seemed unimaginable, he was interacting with Fortuna with
his posture bowed low.
Seeing this brawny man direct unsparing respect toward Fortuna inspired pride in the peeking
Emilia.
The awesome person making this big man grovel is my Mother, she thought.
Man: “And now, while I recognize I ask on each occasion... how is the seal?”
Emilia had puffed her chest out in her misdirected bragging, but the moment the man voiced this
change in topic, that sentiment violently dispersed.
That was how complex and grave the emotion the man had spoken with was.
23
Fortuna: “You're just a worrier—isn't any way to dismiss this. Don't worry, it's stable as ever. There
isn't even a million in one chance it could come undone. —I wouldn't be able to show my face to
my brother or sister in law again.”
Man: “It is an incredible regret, about your elder brother and his spouse.”
Fortuna: “...My brother'd surely been resolved. Though I still don't know what my sister in law
thought. But I do understand the weight of the responsibility trusted to me. I don't want to abandon
that, or leave it only done at half-measures. And aren't you the same?”
Man: “I... I am one incapable of anything else. I suspect it different from the sentiments of duty, or
of responsibility that you bear, Fortuna-sama. Obsession, attachment... perhaps in that vicinity.”
The man gave a breathy laugh. Fortuna watched on, pained.

But that little exchange held no significance for Emilia.
—It is an incredible regret, about your elder brother and his spouse. What could it mean?
Mother Fortuna's brother was Emilia's father. And his spouse meant his bride. His wife. Probably
Emilia's mother.
What could 'those two are a regret' mean? Why, after hearing it, did Fortuna not ask this?
Emilia held on to the branches, sticking out her neck and straining her eyes as she attempted to get a
little closer to hear their conversation. Still unawares that the minor spirits' blessings rendered her
actions pointless, Emilia grit her teeth with her expression frantic, insistent not to miss even a single
syllable of their talk.
Fortuna: “The impetus has nothing to do with the good virtue of the deed. What you're doing is
something you ought brag to everybody about. It's actually sooo frustrating that you can't go around
openly talking about it.”
Man: “Huhuhuhu. Your commendations humble me. However, that indeed would be onerous.
Should the world learn the true purposes of our deeds, I suspect that stable society would again
submerge into a sea of chaos. Neither you nor I, nor most importantly she, would desire that.”
Fortuna: “...Yes, you're right.”
Fortuna nodded in agreement.

It seemed the topic had diverged from what Emilia wanted to hear, and the conversation proceeded
to transform into some harmless, idle chattering.
The two groups finished exchanging goods over the course of Fortuna and the man's talk. One of
the adults called out to Fortuna, who replied with a nod before turning back the man.
Fortuna: “The spirits' blessing keeps the changing of seasons from affecting the forest very much,
but... it's still a huge help that we're getting these clothes, even these beds. Thank you.”
Man: “You are persons who truly deserve greater cordiality, with your achievements. It is
inconceivable that you be forced into inconvenience in such this a place.”
Fortuna: “Don't say such this a place. We love the forest.”
24
Fortuna spoke somewhat jokingly, a small smile arising on her face. A slight grin etched itself over
the man's expression as well, and for a period, an atmosphere of calm flowed between the two.
When—
???: “Cardinal. We have concluded in delivering luggages and preparing our return. Please make
haste.”
Man: “Yes, understood.”
One of the black-robes so addressed the man, who glanced over the village, seemingly reluctant to
part. He then bowed to Fortuna. She and the other adults put their hands to their chests, their actions
directed at the group of black-robes, closing their eyes as they answered with a bow.
The group of black-robes turned their backs, pulling their wagons into motion as they departed—
with the man standing as the last of the procession.
Man: “Right, I absolutely must ask you this.”
Fortuna: “...”
The man turned back around with his finger raised. Fortuna wordlessly urged him to continue.
After closing his eyes once, his gaze then seeming to peer into the depths of the forest,
Man: “—Has Emilia-sama been in health?”
Emilia: “—hk”
After hearing this man speak her own name, Emilia's throat unwittingly jarred. It was thanks to the
sigh she had sighed immediately prior that she had not shrieked instead.
Thankfully deaf to Emilia's slight noise and ignoring it entirely, Fortuna slowly nodded to the man.
Fortuna: “Don't worry. Emilia's full of energy, and is growing up as a good girl. Such a good girl
she's wasted on me. ...But, I apologise. Her meeting you isn't something we can...”
Man: “Nothing more would I need to hear. I do understand. Provided I may confirm Emilia-sama's
good health, that alone is enough. To wish for any further would be a desire beyond the place of this
sinner.”
Fortuna: “...”
Self-deprecation, or more actually self-adomition?

Whichever it was, Fortuna responded with no simple consolations.
He raised his head, his expression suggesting that Fortuna's silence was actually a relief for him.
Silently, each gazed at the other.
???: “Would there be something the matter, Cardinal? —Cardinal Romanée-Conti.”
One of the black-cloaks returned from the group which had proceeded onward and left the man
behind. The man spread his arms in response.
25
Man: “There is nothing the matter. Now, allow us departure. Fortuna-sama, may our next meeting
be soon.”
Fortuna: “Always, thank you. ...I'm sorry, Juice.”
Smiling slightly at Fortuna's final words, the man called Juice this time assuredly went to leave the
forest alongside the black-cloaks.
After watching over their departure until they disappeared from view, Fortuna's shoulders slumped
and she gave a sigh. She then clapped her hands, grabbing the attention of everybody present.
Fortuna: “Now, let's quickly bring the luggage in and partition it up. We'll have the divisioning done
as always, please. I'm off to go bring Emilia out.”
Emilia: “—!”
Seeing the adults and children shoulder the luggage and start moving just as Fortuna instructed,
Emilia tumbled out of the tree and sprinted with all her might to return to the Princess Room.
She twisted her small body through the gap in the tree-roots that she had used to escape, sustaining
scrapes and cuts here and there. Immediately after returning to the room, Emilia noticed that this
was not the appearance of a girl who had been waiting patiently, and was dumbstruck.
Emilia had thought until just a moment ago that even if Fortuna discovered she had gone outside
and scolded her, she would immediately forgive Emilia so long as she reflected and apologized for
it.
But now that she had overheard that conversation, Emilia could not manage to possibly think so
optimistically. In fact, she inevitably had to feel that the talk had been one Fortuna would not want
Emilia exclusively to have heard.
Emilia: “What do I do, whatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo”
It would not be long at all before Mother Fortuna returned and removed the bar on the door. Should
she come under the light, Emilia's appearance would quickly inform Fortuna of her escape.
Young Emilia came to believe Fortuna's potential discovery that Emilia had heard the conversation
as tantamount to her absolute ruin.
Emilia: “If I can at least hide the grazes...”
She was scratched here and there, her knees and arms scraped all over, oozing with some blood. It
was unlikely that sharp-eyed Fortuna would overlook them, and it felt that it would seep into the
water when she took her bath, and that was scary too.
I have to do something! was the single notion she focused on.
Emilia: “—Huh?
And so when the pale-blue lights appeared inside the Princess Room again, Emilia considered their
glow as a pathway to rescue.
The lights wavered to and fro in Emilia's sight, and after toying with her attention with their
motions, the lights this time scattered themselves toward Emilia.
Emilia: “—a, ah.”
26
Just like how they had been sucked into the wall before, the lights this time were sucked into
Emilia's body. They amassed at the sites of her cuts and scraps, their dim gleam painting her open
wounds in white—and after the lights disappeared, all that remained of the grazes was a faint
redness.
Emilia: “—”
This abnormal happening, done to her own body, led Emilia to stiffen wordless and rigid.
The wounds on her elbows, knees, and elsewhere had vanished to nothing, as had their pain.
Emilia's present condition was identical to how she had been prior to escaping.
Emilia quickly threw off her clothes and changed into another outfit which was inside the Princess
Room. After troubling over how to dispose of her torn, holey clothes,
Emilia: “With this...!”
She overturned her pottle of drawing ink, messily staining her old clothes. It was just when she had
dirtied her outfit so greatly that even a wash would not remove the pigment that,
Fortuna: “—Emilia? Are you up?”
Hearing Fortuna's voice call from beyond the door, Emilia jerked up straight.
Her heart pounded violently at the hairs-breadth timing, and although intending to reply to her with
something, she could not get any voice out.
Fortuna: “Emilia? You're sleeping?”
Emilia: “I-I'm up! I'm awake, Mother Fortuna. But, it's...”
Fortuna: “What, so you were up. I'm sorry for making you wait so...”
Relieved to hear Emilia's reply, Fortuna removed the bar across the door as she entered the room.
Fortuna was smiling, but the moment she entered the room her expression shifted, and her pretty
nose scrunched up.
Fortuna: “...What is this? It reeks of ink.”
Emilia: “Ermm... I'm sorry. I spilled my drawing ink lots... lots got on my clothes.”
Emilia stood before the ink pottle fallen in the middle of the room, entirely puzzled on what to do.
After looking between Emilia and the ink bottle, Fortuna put her hand to her face.
Fortuna: “Oh, geez.”
Fortuna: “Well, nothing to do about that. Thank goodness I left a change of clothes in here. If I
hadn't, I'd have to bring you back home with you naked.”
Emilia: “Um, Mother Fortuna... I...”
Fortuna: “It's alright, Emilia. You don't need to be afraid, I know you didn't mean to do it and I
27
won't be mad with you. And more importantly, are you unhurt?”
After matching her eye-level with the timidly-approaching Emilia, Fortuna inspected her beloved
daughter from head to toe. She sighed in relief at the lack of visible wounds, and quietly hugged
her.
Emilia: “Mother?”
Fortuna: “It's nothing. Just, I... missed you sooo much. I'm so sorry. Let's stay like this for a
moment.”
Still hugging Emilia, Fortuna brought her cheek near.

Fortuna usually avoided such embarrassing, mushy behaviours. Emilia thought this action
horrifically unusual, and thought Fortuna rather lonely.
And so,
Fortuna: “...Cheeky.”
Muttered Fortuna, who opened her eye as Emilia stroked her short, silver hair.
But Emilia judged that Fortuna was not telling her to stop, and so she slowly, quietly, continued to
pat Fortuna's head kindly.
There were so many things she wanted to ask her.

But young Emilia lacked in too much and knew of too little for her to be able to put them into
words. She proceeded, saying nothing.
Fortuna: “Emilia.”
Emilia: “...mm.”
Fortuna gazed at Emilia as she continued to quietly stroke her head, and narrowed her eyes. Emilia
saw—in those eyes of amethyst equal to hers, the arisen teardrops.
Alongside her blinking the tears flowed down, dripped off Fortuna's cheek. She went without even
wiping them away as she smiled at Emilia.
Fortuna: “—I love you.”
There were so many things she wanted to ask, wanted to know.

—But for this moment, Emilia determined herself satisfied with just this one statement from her
mother.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Dragging her legs, with pale-blue lights floating around her, Emilia traverses the darkness. Her
exhaustion robs her of the strength to walk, causing her legs to drag. But her will remains
healthy and will not permit Emilia stop walking as she yet continues on.
28
Memories of her childhood, skimming through her mind.
Why was she remembering this past now?
The past Emilia saw in the TRIAL differed slightly from what she had just remembered. The past she
remembered happened just a little earlier than the events shown in her TRIAL.
If she could return to that time—surely, she'd be able to do everything in that past over differently.
Emilia: “Mother, Fortuna...”
Kind, warm, strong Fortuna remained even now as Emilia's ideal in women.
She had always wanted to be like Mother Fortuna, to act being as like Mother Fortuna. And despite
that she always worried and regretted over little things, feared them, and beckoned in consequences
beyond any repair.
Emilia: “ue... heu, hk...”
Consequences beyond any repair. Unassailable anguish races through Emilia's chest at the thought.
This sorrow and this regret and this pain, this jumble of emotion overwhelms her, her foolishness
and insufficiency so embarrassing that she comes close to tears.
She's always like this. She'll always be like this.

She was frantic, desperate, putting in her all, meaning to cut no corners in the least, but still Emilia's
hands never grasped the things she truly desired, or even touched them.
Even the things she was supposed to have had, the things that her hands were supposed to have
clutched, fell like sand through the gaps in her fingers, enchanting Emilia with their transient
glimmer before disappearing to nothing.
It was like that with Fortuna, with Puck, with Subaru, all of them.
Emilia: “It's... my fault. I'm a bad girl. I can't even follow instructions, and so... everybody...”
Sobs pouring from her throat, Emilia drags her feet on.
Amid this abundance of green, sluggish and slow, but still proceeding onward.
Emilia: “And so everybody, always hid it from me, kept it... but, no. If I never knew, never learned,
never noticed... It'd be so much better, and still... and still...”
Amongst a forest of trees. Lights and their pale blue gleam. Black-robed men. Mother Fortuna.
Snake, large and black. Closed door. Snow. World of white. Silver snowscape. Ending, world
ending. Father, mother.
Emilia: “I...”
The endless vortex of words races through her head.

Battered around in their wake, Emilia raises her head, and walks onward.
Emilia: “—”
Frail voice. Faltering gait.

—But eyes wet with not a single tear.
29
CHAPTER 100: MEMORIES BURIED IN DUST
—Searching blind isn't going to get them anywhere.
This was the conclusion Subaru reached after running around the village in search of the missing
Lewes, overtaxing his lungs, every breath excruciating and painful.
Subaru: “—Haaah, haahh, haaaa...”
Hands to his knees, his shoulders heaving violently, Subaru parcels oxygen into his aching lungs.
The mental fatigue from the past few days contributes to the heaviness in his feet, as if they were
jammed full with lead. Even breathing is difficult.
Otto: “Are you alright, Natsuki-san? I truly have to say, you're excessively quick to tire.”
Subaru: “Shut, up... Kinda, just remembered something right now... I was still in the middle of
medical treatment, and with all the problems that've come up since coming here, my exhaustion's
definitely hit peak...”
Otto: “Right right, I hear your sour grumblings of defeat. Now, sit down over there for a moment.
Let's give ourselves a rest and use the break to think. I'll go fetch us some water.”
Says Otto, only lightly puffed, to an entirely exhausted Subaru. He points to a shaded tree,
indicating it to Subaru, before heading off toward the waterin' spot to get some water.
Watching Otto go, and grimacing at how pathetic his own self is, Subaru seats himself in the tree-
shade and concentrates on calming his breathing.
Subaru: “—”
It's been about an hour of sprinting around SANCTUARY in search of Lewes Theta, now.
He and Otto were presently engaging in human wave tactics for it, but presently nothing has come
of it. Their inability to openly recruit more helpers results form the same rationale as not doing it for
Emilia's search.
They must not let the citizens of SANCTUARY or the evacuees know that Lewes, representative of
the place, has gone missing and seemingly abandoned her post. And because Garfiel is thinking in
the exact same way, he's probably searching alone.
Subaru: “Emilia's...”
Speaking with entire sincerity, Subaru would rather worry about Emilia's well-being than Lewes
Theta's.
He doubted she would pull anything rash, but considering how mentally feeble she would be in her
current probably-alone state, the desire strikes him to immediately dash to her side and support her.
But the real priorities exist unfeeling, and indeed Lewes holds higher precedence. Subaru's self-
interests have no room to butt in on that.
If only Ram's separate search effort could find Emilia for us, he thought.
Subaru: “Feels like that'd mean conceding something to Roswaal though.”
30
Ram is pretty plainly on Roswaal's side. She is assisting in the Emilia search out of concern for
Roswaal's future societal well-being, and not out of support for Subaru and Otto. Her efforts in
backing Roswaal just happen to aid Subaru and Otto this time.
The optimal flow would be for Subaru and Otto to secure Lewes, then dovetail into securing Emilia.
If Subaru can spearhead both these conversations, that would be best.
But ideals remain ideals. Empty rhetoric. Counting chickens before they etc.
Subaru: “Things stay like this, and we're gonna hit time without securing either of them. That's the
absolute worst case, absolutely cannot happen. ...Have to do something.”
Stewing over it will not present him any results.

Would it not be more worthwhile to concentrate on combing through SANCTUARY, than stopping to
ruminate like this?
Subaru: “But if that would find them, Garfiel should find them first. An hour's gone by already. He
can get around at more than twice the speed as me and Otto, and him not finding them yet means...”
—Lewes was fleeing, without even Garfiel finding her.
Subaru: “—”
Thinking that far, Subaru feels a tugging in his mind, his breath stopping.
Something here is off. Lewes was fleeing from Garfiel. That much is fine. Or no, it's not fine. Why
was Lewes fleeing from Garfiel?
Wasn't Lewes Theta fleeing because she wanted to avoid interaction with Subaru? Subaru's thoughts
had been that she didn't want to encounter him and have to talk about challenging the TRIAL, and so
she'd gone into hiding and was waiting for her rotation to end.
But there was something strange about this.

If Theta's motives were truly to reject conversation with Subaru, and distance him, then all she had
to do was mention that desire to Garfiel.
Should Garfiel have clear reason to, he would not hesitate a moment in removing Subaru. And if
Garfiel seriously attacked him, Subaru had no means to fight back.
If Theta is truly intending to keep her past a secret, she should incite Garfiel into this.
Why hadn't she done this, had gone without doing this?
Subaru: “She's running, because she wants to be chased... maybe?”
Otto: “No, surely you run because you wouldn't want to be caught. What are you talking about?”
Subaru touches his chin as he mutters, for a killjoy to interject. He looks up to find Otto,
flabbergasted and with a pitcher of water in his hand, presenting the drink.
Otto: “Although I do understand what it's like to get discombobulated with so many things to think
about. Back when I spent four consecutive days without sleeping, dashing around doing business
negotiations, on that last day I was loopy.”
Subaru: “Stockpiling that war story away for a chat over tea another time, anyway it's not like I've
31
gone crazy. ...I'm not crazy, I don't think.”
Otto: “You've lost your confidence about it.”
Accepting the presented drink, Subaru gulps the water down from the pitcher's watering-can spout.
Relishing in the coldness slipping down his throat, Subaru organizes his muddled words.
Subaru: “What's your take on why Lewes-san's disappeared?”
Otto: “...That'd be because she'd rather not participate in an inconvenient discussion, wouldn't it?
Regardless of whether she's willing or not, if she comes across you today, she'll have to have that
talk. ...Well, considering the fact that she can't leave for the outside, I cannot deny that it feels like a
stopgap.”
Subaru: “Right, it's a stopgap. But you know if Lewes-san seriously wanted to do something about
the problem from the bottom up, she's got an easy way to do it?”
Otto: “—You mean Garfiel.”
Otto scrunches his brows as he crosses his arms, in thought.
Otto: “Yes, that logic does... which means, perhaps Lewes-san would rather Garfiel not know about
her disagreement with you, Natsuki-san.”
Subaru: “But that said, Garfiel's already suspecting that we're involved in it. Straight out, hearing
his theory about how any abnormal events happening in SANCTUARY right now're because of us
tripping the flags had my jaw dropped.”
Garfiel's ideas had pierced accurately to the core of it.

Either way, the root cause of Lewes' disappearance has leaked to Garfiel. Lewes should be a capable
enough person that she could anticipate what Garfiel would think of her actions.
Subaru: “Meaning there's two conceivable possibilities.”
Otto: “The possibility that she is truly hiding, thinking that she must not meet either yourself or
Garfiel. And...”
Subaru: “The chance she knew we'd search like this, and's waiting to be found... maybe.”
If it's the former situation, then Subaru and Otto will likely have to throw in the towel. If petite
Lewes sincerely attempts to hide, then definitely she can buy enough time to waste half a day. The
only one who could find her would probably be Garfiel, with his initiative and sense of smell.
But if it's the latter situation, it's a fifty-fifty between Subaru's group and Garfiel.
And in that case, Lewes would surely have made proper preparations for them.
—If a method other than blindly searching at random has potential to find her, then...
Subaru: “We should search somewhere related to Lewes-san.”
32
Otto: “But in that saying, she was absent from her house... And her legitimate home is where
Emilia-sama went missing, making that situation even more problematic.”
Subaru: “Right, you're right. Really doubt she's gone to Roswaal's, and the test site... is probably
where Garfiel went first. Meaning...”
Where there's an equal chance for Subaru and Garfiel, not somewhere that Garfiel would
immediately investigate first, the place Theta would choose would be...
Subaru: “...Otto, I think I got it.”
Otto: “T-truly? From just this minute conversation? You're certain you're not misapprehending?”
Subaru: “No clue why you're being negative on me, this's likely to be it. Or actually if this isn't it,
then that's basically the towel.”
Nodding at the stunned Otto, Subaru gulps down all the remaining water in the pitcher. He wipes
his mouth as he stands up, gazing in the direction of his IDEA.
If Theta was there, then she had not fled. She had simply been waiting in a spot appropriate for this
conversation.
Waiting for Subaru, or perhaps waiting for Garfiel.
Subaru: “Don't you damn notice this, Garfiel. —We're gonna be finishing up the interview with
your guardian before you can.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Fortuna: “We're about to have an important talk, so could you wait here for just a second?”
Emilia: “Yes, Mother Fortuna.”
Replied Emilia obediently to Fortuna, who had brought the girl to the Princess Room and instructed
her to wait.
A smile arose on Emilia's face at Fortuna's send-off, and Fortuna's eyes widened slightly in seeing
in. But she then stroked Emilia's long, silver hair, and just gave a gloomy sigh.
Until now, Emilia had displayed plain and extreme dissatisfaction about staying in the Princess
Room. While Emilia had intended to hide her displeasure, those puffed-up red cheeks and averted
eyes would inform anyone of the young girl's piled displeasure.
That simple-to-decode attitude of Emilia's had been absent for a while now. Of course Fortuna
would think it suspicious.
Fortuna: “...Emilia.”
Emilia: “Whaaaat?”
Fortuna: “—Nevermind. It's nothing.”
33
With her hand entwined in the girl's hair, and having been on the verge of asking some question,
Fortuna shook her head. She departed Emilia and her innocent gaze with a quiet smile.
Something about this did not feel right to her, but she would best welcome Emilia's lack of fuss. She
was also making the visitors wait, and so for the moment, Fortuna accepted Emilia's attitude.
Emilia waved Fortuna goodbye, and the sound of the door's bar clunking into place to echoed from
beyond the thing's closed face. The door to the room was soundly locked, and Emilia was alone in
the Princess Room.
—Or no. Lately, that had not been the case.
Emilia: “It's safe to come out now.”
Emilia waited for a minute to confirm that Fortuna was not coming back, before calling to
somebody in whisper.
She was naturally the only figure present in the room, and there would clearly be nobody to answer
her—when the pale-blue lights crossed into the somewhat bright chamber.
Emilia looked at them, glowing their dim glow, for her amethyst eyes to waver in delight.
These were the mysterious creatures which Emilia had abruptly become capable of consciously
interacting with during her time in the Princess Room—the fairies, as Emilia called them. Truly
they were minor spirits, and while Emilia's name for them was close, the nuance was slightly
disjointed.
Regardless, the minor spirits went without chiding young Emilia for her rudeness.
Emilia: “Fairies, thank you for today again.”
Said the girl, thanking them for giving her company. The lights expressed themselves by dancing
about, gleaming.
Emilia: “—”
Emilia gazed at the sight of the dancing spirits. Her recognition that these lights were good allies to
her simultaneously intensified.
Once they sprinted into this room she had believed lonely and isolated, they would do everything
they could to help Emilia fulfil her desires. Whenever Emilia neglected in proper vigilance, and she
was close to being spotted while walking around outside, they would indirectly inform her about it.
—She had made countless escapes from the Princess Room, now.
Apparently no one noticed the penetrable gap in the roots of the tree, for Emilia succeeded in
constant escapes from the room through that passage. Her forceful manoeuvring at the beginning
meant she had injured herself and damaged her clothes, but now that she had worked out the knack
to it, those things no longer presented concern.
She had used excuses two, three times in sequence about her dirtied clothes, and it had been getting
really about time for them to stop working and for Fortuna to realise what was happening. A close
call.
Emilia: “She definitely was sooo suspicious. But it's all ok now. Hehem.”
34
Emilia puffed out her chest as she bragged of her improvements, and the blue glimmers frolicked
around her head in praise of her. It stung her eyes very quickly, giddied her.
So while Emilia had been escaping on the regular, her grand adventures outside ultimately
amounted to cute little capers. She would peep on the adults' conversations and eavesdrop as she
had the first time, or eat the fruit from the trees without permission, or sneak into people's houses
and move the objects around, leaving them there, that par of mischief.
But mischief is a thing which compounds in intensity, and not even a homespun girl like Emilia
presented any exception to that.
Emilia: “Okay. Say it's about time to head out today.”
Fairies: “—”
The lights swayed in agreement with Emilia, and with this heartening reinforcement, she
magnificently escaped the Princess Room.
She spread out the gap between the branches, considerably slackened from these repeated ventures,
winched her little body into the opening, and dragged herself out of the tree-hollow. Emilia tumbled
down the moment she exited the hole to land on a soft cushion of piled leaves.
This was an escape device that she had prepared over countless tumbles and falls.
Emilia: “What'll I do today?”
Emilia asked the lights beside her as she plucked the leaves out of her hair. She knew that they
wouldn't speak back, but seeing them respond by strobing the intensity of their gleam made her
know that she was not alone.
It was fine and good that she was outside, but her usual deeds were not anything quiet. Her mischief
had leaked as being her doings, and it might even leak that she had been escaping the Princess
Room. The hole getting plugged would be no good at all.
Emilia: “Gotta play it hands off 'till the fires cool down.”
Muttered Emilia as she affected the air of a crafty criminal before walking around the village
without any particular intention. Everybody would be in the square in the middle of the woods, just
starting their talk with the black-cloaks like always. The black-cloaked people would give presents,
and the adults would accept them.
Mother Fortuna would talk with the tall man during this exchange, and after sighting him countless
times, Emilia had noticed people calling him ROMANÉE-CONTI or JUICE. She herself mentally
referred to him as JUICE.
But even though she had found the adults' conversations enrapturing at first, repeated occurrences
of eavesdropping had robbed them of their freshness, and Emilia steadily tired of them.
Fortuna and Juice would talk about lots of things that young Emilia did not understand. That she
still frequently listened in on them was because they would mention her mom and dad's names like
they had the first time, and Emilia reckoned she could learn where they were and what they were
doing.
Very unfortunately, Emilia's plots had yet to succeed.
Emilia: “Hokay...”
35
How about sneaking onto the wagons that Juice's group owned?
If Emilia slipped her small body into the shadow of the luggage of those canopied wagons, she could
probably be ferried outside of the forest very easily. Emilia had yet to see Juice and the others
inspect the wagons when they left the woods.
With the fairies' help, she should at least be able to find an opening and sneak in.
Emilia: “...Hrm.”
After thinking in this vein, Emilia immediately gave up with a: No way I could.
Because attempting to leave the forest would violate her most important promise to Mother Fortuna.
—She absolutely must not leave the forest. There were lots of things outside that would be scary for
her, and it would be dangerous for her until she grew up, so no! Was how she had been firmly
instructed.
That she was not selfish enough to, although already breaking a rule that very moment, dismiss
other promises as the same case and break them as well was the virtue of this girl called Emilia.
And thus she scrapped in the draft phase her plans of escaping hidden in the wagon. By deciding
that there were other ways she could find out what her mother and father were doing.
Emilia: “—Hup, hup.”
During her time spent thinking, Emilia arrived at the spot where the adults and Juice's group were
talking. Emilia darted up a nearby tree, lay belly-down atop the branches, and strained her ears.
As always, Fortuna and Juice were chatting off to the side while the deliveries were going on. But
Fortuna's expression today was especially warm.
Fortuna: “Emilia's been so cheerful lately, and sooo full of energy. Though it's really troublesome
how she keeps getting covered in mud and dirtying her clothes.”
Juice: “Gracious me... it is good to hear that she is well. If your will suits, we will provide you with
replacement apparel. The cold season will soon visit outside the woodlands, so I am sure many
garments shall be discarded in favour of dress more apt for the season.”
Fortuna: “We're already imposing entirely on you, and now it's like we're demanding things too, I
really am so sorry. ...Will that include adult's clothes?”
Juice: “Certainly. I am sure you will look very nice in them, Fortuna-sama.”
Said Juice, his expression mild, for a complex shade to arise on Fortuna's face. She scratched her
cheek embarrassedly.
Fortuna: “...Where could you've learned to say that? I know we've known each other a long time,
but since when have you been able to tell these jokes?”
Juice: “I was merely voicing my honest appraisal? I must have said something peculiar.”
Fortuna: “With your nature I know you're not lying, which really makes dealing with this
impossible...”
36
Fortuna put her hand to her forehead with her expression astonished. However, the smile etched
over her lips proved that she assuredly did not find that exchange unpleasant.
Or no, actually, it in fact looked that maybe, Fortuna enjoyed that exchange.
Emilia: “...Hmp.”
For some reason, seeing her mother looking like that made Emilia feel unamused.
Fortuna tended to give the impression that a stern face was the norm for her, and her showing such a
plainly gentle expression happened rarely to her fellows, and often to Emilia.
It was like something important of her mother's had been stolen, and it peeved her.
Emilia: “Hhrmph, dumb Juice.”
Said Emilia, lashing out at somebody in her one-sided acquaintance. She puffed out her cheeks,
determining that if Juice continued to not say anything she found interesting in this conversation,
she would pull some kind of mischief on his wagon today.
Maybe make cloths catch in the wheels, or spill oils on the luggage bed.
Such were Emilia's petty revenges, but these heart-rending scenes of vengeful tragedy would not be
occurring.
Juice: “—Now then, is the seal fine?”
Juice lowered his voice as he asked Fortuna the usual question. Fortuna nodded, and like always,
Fortuna: “No changes. Same as always, it's a sturdy thing.”
Juice: “For that is its purpose. Regardless, the season is the season. While the predicament may be
cyclical, this year notably hosts many nights where the moon is hidden, and the mana circulation is
insufficient. I find myself wondering if perhaps, it may negatively influence the seal deep in the
forest as well... I cannot keep from the anxiety.”
Fortuna: “The moon... of course, agreed. So that's why the forest's lesser spirits have been doing
poorly lately. ...Understood. It's not impossible the seal could loosen, so after this I'll go check it
myself.”
Juice: “I bid you may.”
Fortuna responded to Juice's bow with a serious gaze and a prompt nod.
While eavesdropping on their conversation, Emilia muttered, “Deep in the forest...” to herself.
Emilia had explored essentially the whole of the elf village. She naturally had conquered all the
places in the forest where Fortuna permitted she may go, and while she would not voice the
sentiment, she did think of the forest as her own garden.
But not even Emilia could envision this DEEP IN THE FOREST place that Fortuna and Juice were
talking about. Most likely it meant one of the places deep in the woods that had been deemed off
limits—so they were hiding things again. Emilia's dissatisfaction entirely compounded.
This was where Emilia's dissatisfaction piled to the utmost.

They had said nothing about her parents that Emilia wanted to know—as always—and even her
37
once-exciting adventures outside the Princess Room were getting trite. And to top it off, despite
how they talked themselves blue about the things Emilia mustn't do, the adults themselves were
both lying and keeping secrets, and so much proof for that had arisen just in this short timespan.
—How about she give everyone some trouble?
Who could fault Emilia for thinking this?

Nobody faulted or criticized Emilia's mischievous spirit back then. They had allowed it to swell,
which accelerated the coming of THEN.
And so were there anybody who would fault Emilia for this, it would be Emilia herself. She could
rebuke her own self's past foolishness beyond compare, and it would still not suffice for all the sins
that resulted.
—But those future regrets do not reach young Emilia.
Just when Emilia rolled up her sleeves with misplaced motivation, Fortuna and Juice finished their
talk. The exchanging of goods also ended without any problems, Juice's group bowed, and the
adults saluted their departure.
Emilia easily sprung down from the branches before speeding back to the Princess Room. She
soared through the gap in the tree roots, reaching the hollow, before frantically composing an alibi.
She quickly finished some drawings, changed her dolls' clothes, and gobbled down her sweets.
It was when she finished her work and wiped the sweat from her brow that she heard Fortuna
calling from outside.
Fortuna: “Sorry for the wait, Emilia. Were you a good girl today?”
Emilia: “Ueh... I-I was a good girl. I was. Mm, yes, I was very good.”
Fooled her with my great performance, thought Emilia with her expression satisfied. Fortuna
silently narrowed her eyes as she stared at the girl.
Although she felt uncomfortable with the sharpness of the gaze, Emilia judged that doing anything
strange here would only intensify Fortuna's suspicions.
Emilia: “W-what is it, Mother Fortuna? Looking at me like that, when me, I haven't done anything.
I ate my sweets, drew pictures, and played with my dolls. I didn't go outside at all. I'm telling the
truth.”
Fortuna: “—Well, then it's all fine.”
It appeared Emilia's acting had deceived Fortuna utterly. Although it did guilt her to deceive her
mom, Emilia scolded herself that she must not be bothered by this, and proceeded to plan out the
script for her merciless revenge.
Fortuna and Juice had talked about a SEAL or something deep in the woods. SEAL meant it was a
place where they were hiding something, was how Emilia's memory decoded the term.
So basically, they were hiding something that would be trouble, if it got outside.
—The manner for Emilia's revenge against Fortuna and the others was decided.
38
She would find where they were keeping this secret SEAL, deep in the woods, and when Fortuna and
the others scolded her, she would use it in her rebuttal as a bargaining chip.
She determined to utilize the seal's location as her trump card for when they learned she was
escaping the Princess Room.
Her eyes sparkling at the majesty of her genius plan, Emilia failed to notice the contradiction in
escaping the chastisement for exiting the room by sullying her hands with something even worse.
Her mother took her hand and guided her out of the Princess Room. After bringing Emilia back
home, Fortuna said she had some things to do. Going by her conversation with Juice, Fortuna was
going to check the SEAL.
And so,
Emilia: “—Please do it, okay?”
Emilia begged the pale-blue lights to follow her mother, one eye shut.
A snapshot of Emilia's matured and beautiful visage, enough to enrapture another with only a smile,
had already begun to bud in young Emilia back then.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
This was the second time Subaru had visited this place, and in this loop, a first.
The buildings stands isolated atop a small hill. Not a seedy enough place for 'shabby' to be an
appropriate descriptor, more of a mediocre family home, absent of any notable characteristics.
A bedroom and a living room comprised its floorplan, the lounge hosted a simple kitchen, and the
whole thing divided its rooms like an old world apartment. Not constrained enough to be
uncomfortable if living alone, but probably cramped for an adult and two kids.
That is the sentiment Subaru harbours as he finally divines the significance of this building.
He stands before the door, knocks. A short period of silence comes before he hears a “Go ahead,”
from inside, and the knowledge that his idea was correct relieves him.
He immediately strains that relief taut, put his hand to the knob, and opens the door.
The faint scent of old house wood skims his nose. The air is lukewarm on his skin as he steps
inside, and,
???: “Yer got here later than I thought.”
There in the back of the room, upon the austere bed, sits a figure. It seems they had just deemed this
moment as about time to get a refill of tea, for they are pouring boiling water into their cup.
That was probably the culprit behind the dampness pervading the room. Subaru confirms that three
cups rest atop the table—but only one is filled.
Subaru: “So I'm the first guest to arrive?”
Lewes: “That's right. Yer the first, Su-bo. Hope yer don't mind yer tea being brewed strong.”
39
Subaru: “Either way doesn't matter. Say it's strong or say it's weak, leaf flavour's still leaf flavour.”
Lewes: “There's a statement with no favour fer tea. Now I understand what Ram wers grumbling
abert.”
Smiling wryly at Subaru, Lewes—Theta—pulls an empty cup over to herself. She pours the boiling
water into the cup, puts leaves in to soak, and pushes it over to Subaru.
Theta: “Here, yer throat must be thirsting. Glug a cup, tardy.”
Subaru: “I feel like when I'm done sculling this cup, my HP's gonna be something where I'm headed
off to church. Anyway that aside,” itadakimasu.
With his joking making Theta's brows knit in confusion, Subaru blows on the cup to cool it before
bringing it to his lips. The thick flavour of grass passes over his tongue and down his throat.
No matter what kind they are, and no matter who brews them, leaves are leaves.
Subaru: “I couldn't even get used to Rem's tea... my body just doesn't accept this stuff, seriously.”
Theta: “Now there's enough of yer impressions, didn't even have ter ask ter know 'em. I ain't ever
brewing fer yer again.”
Glaring at Subaru as he scrunches his face and sticks out his tongue, Theta drinks all of her tea in
one go. She strokes at her long hair, her sleeves trailing as she plomps herself back on the bed,
opposite Subaru again.
Theta: “I was thinking that wouldder settled us down befer getting ter the talk, but lerks like it just
caused unexpected trouble.”
Subaru: “When you throw information from sidestories into the main text, the readers who just
happened to miss it will wind up being confused so let's go without any of that. Switch gears switch
gears switch gears, and let's have our talk.”
Theta: “Sure is easy ter say it...”
Sighs Theta, dumbfounded, before staring intently at her small hands. Her gaze then passes through
Subaru, seeming to stare beyond the door, to the outside.
Theta: “But leaving that ers that... so it wers you after all, Su-bo. Thought it would be. Yer'd be
more likely ter show up than Gar-bo, er otherwise neither erv yer would think of the place before
my rotation.”
Subaru: “...You sure set up some disadvantageous terms for Garfiel. He'd probably start grieving if
he heard that.”
Theta: “Grieving, bawling, it's good fer him to do that. ...But I'd anticipate a more serious reaction.
If it'd been Gar-bo who came here, that wouldder done away with that worry...”
Theta looks at the living room wall, her smile somewhat sad.
40
Subaru follows her gaze, to see hanging on the wall the silvery metal shields—two of them, crossed
over each other, decorating the wall as they had been before.
Those were the shields Garfiel and Frederica had used to play battering matches when they were
young, full of memories—in short, this place is Garfiel and Frederica's family home.
Subaru doesn't understand Theta's motives in choosing this place for the final conversation.
But thinking back on the time he spent here in a previous loop, this was a place which held special
significance for both the Leweses and Garfiel.
Subaru had relied on that memory to lead him here, and Theta was here just as anticipated, waiting
for Subaru.
Theta: “It's a good thing yer came here alone, Su-bo. This isn't something I erspecially want people
ter hear.”
Subaru: “Yeah, I left Otto behind. Didn't seem like I could bring him along for what's coming up
here.”
While the statement sounds like one of discarding a warrior who lacked in sufficient strength, that
isn't what Subaru is aiming for. It's simply that Lewes's past is probably going to need to touch on
the WITCH. It's fine that Subaru be the only one to intrude on that topic.
And so Otto was presently tasked with another role.
Subaru: “Theta-san, I'm safe to think you're one of the Lewes-sans who's been in the tomb, yeah?”
Theta: “Theeter?”
Subaru: “Ah, my bad. For expediency, been calling you that. Yesterday was Sigma-san, the other
two are Alpha and Beta. I doubt you really like it, and I mean I can hold back on it...”
Theta: “...No, dersn't bother me. I see, so that's what it meant. Ah, I see, I do see... it's surprisingly
nert that bad.”
After muttering “Theeter, Theeter” to herself multiple times, Theta's cheeks slacken in
embarrassment. She closes her eyes, and after several seconds of silence,
Theta: “What I'm abert ter talk about is everything I've seen erv SANCTUARY's foundation, and... a
part of the events leading up ter Lewes Meyer being sealed in the crystal.”
Subaru: “—Right.”
Theta: “Just what yer gonner think in hearing it, and what yer gonner say fer me afterward... will be
something which, as one erv the four representative Leweses of SANCTUARY, I will leave up ter
fate.”
Theta smiles. Subaru swallows his breath.
Theta: “It's something yer'd better tackle with careful attention, yer see.”
41
CHAPTER 101: THETA CHAPTER 1
One of the Lewes representative personalities, who Subaru calls Theta.
She had entered the tomb and touched the past of her progenitor, Lewes Meyer, but her memories of
the event were incredibly fragmentary, and even the chronology of events was indefinite.
Theta figured that this resulted from her being an existence crafted from multiple fragments,
severed from the original Lewes Meyer's soul.
Perhaps, then, the other Leweses. Alpha, Beta, Sigma, and potentially the doubles which had not
fostered a personality, would all see different glimpses of the past.
But even should this idea be correct, Theta would prefer the others not enter the tomb.
—Because to show the past she saw to the other Leweses would come alongside unbearable,
intolerable agony for Theta.
???: “—What do you want, I suppose? Staring isn't going to make me give you anything, in fact.”
The memory began with a girl, her hair faintly hued, who glared at her.
This girl was one with a lovable face.

Her hair was so pale it seemed to meld into the light, her skin so white as to be nearly transparent.
Her bluish eyes were large and round, her appearance described easily with the word 'sweet'.
Her hair was tied in two long, winding pigtails, whose appearance alone communicated their
smooth, silky texture, and springy softness.
She wore a dress of a subdued hue, which made the immature-looking girl appear somewhat
adultlike. But, considering the ostentatiousness of what comprised the girl, the dress's colour
inevitably felt to harmonize alongside that.
Lewes: “—”
Lewes recoiled, pierced by the lovable girl's harsh gaze.

Compared to this girl, Lewes's own attire and appearance were the very definition of shabby. They
were of the same general age, which made her own wretchedness even more conspicuous, and just
standing here in this spot was now incredibly embarrassing for her.
Girl: “Hmp. Coward, I suppose.”
The girl snorted in dissatisfaction at the silenced Lewes.

Her lovable appearance transformed that even that conduct into something cute. For Lewes it came
accompanied by pain not from being belittled, but from the hurt of something constricting her chest.
But before she could recognize that this was something akin to terror for displeasing the girl—
???: “Beatrice. What is that attitude? I don't remember teaching you that behaviour.”
A mild voice called. The girl's face stiffened.

The voice came from behind the girl—otherwise said, from directly where Lewes was looking.
Exiting from a small hut in the back of the village was a woman of IMMACULATE WHITE.
42
In white did her hair stretch long. Not even light could be as glowing as her skin. Only her eyes,
lips, long-sleeved outfit and skirt gave her any slight pigment, informing those around that her that
yes, her existence was one of reality.
The person walking slowly toward Lewes and the girl was a great benefactor for this village—the
witch, Echidna-sama.
It was to Echidna's voice that the girl reacted dramatically. The so-called Beatrice turned around,
her expression still tense.
Beatrice: “Auh, erm... you misunderstand, in fact, Mother! Betty wasn't doing any... just, this girl
was...”
Echidna: “I don't remember teaching you to make these disgraceful excuses, either. Speak the
accurate truth. If you're confident that you're not at fault, then you shouldn't hesitate at all in doing
this. Am I wrong?”
Beatrice: “You're, not wrong, I suppose...”
Echidna's voice harboured no sharp emotions, but did contain a silent, pressuring strictness.
Beatrice's shoulders slumped. She brought her hands together, expression timid.
Beatrice: “Exactly as you instructed me, Betty was quietly waiting here outside, in fact. And then
this girl came over, I suppose. Staring at me from far away... so rude, in fact. So I called out to her
and asked what she wanted, I suppose.”
Echidna: “Hm. I see, then. Now, you here, do you find that telling correct?”
Lewes: “Auh... Y-Yes, I, do. Please forgive me. I-I, was very rude, and...”
Beatrice was speaking accurately.

Lewes had, from the village outskirts, vacantly gazed at Beatrice as she leaned against a fence. She
surely had been waiting there for Echidna to finish whatever she was doing. Her posture, her eyes,
had looked rather lonely—and Lewes felt something squeezing her chest.
But even if she talked to Beatrice about it, she would probably just get snorted and laughed at.
Lewes shrunk her small self up even smaller, and attempted to outlast the storm by keeping her
head down.
Echidna: “So you don't deny it. Then it'd turn out that Beatrice was correct, and you might've been a
little rude, Lewes.”
Beatrice: “True in fact, Mother. Betty didn't do anything wrong at...”
Echidna: “However, it's your mistake that your imperious approach frightened her this much,
Beatrice. I'm certain that I'm always telling you. You are special, but it's not so that you can look
down on others.”
Beatrice: “Ueh, mhu...”
Lewes watched their exchange, and realising that Echidna had remembered her name, felt her guts
almost tremble with how moved she was.
43
It was a small village, sure, but Lewes was just some worthless kid.
The Great Witch, her benefactor, remembered her name nonetheless. This was an overwhelming
honour for the people of SANCTUARY, who dedicated to the WITCH OF GREED their gratitude and
respect.
Echidna: “Let's entrust the corrections on that front over to Juice once we return to the mansion. I
predict he'll be very enthusiastic.”
Beatrice: “...I don't like Juice very much, I suppose.”
Echidna: “He says himself that it's his duty to be disliked, so I'd say he'd be fully willing for that.”
Echidna gave the grimacing Beatrice a faint smile, before turning to face Lewes.
Lewes' heart sprung. She had missed the timing to participate in conversation, and figured that
really she better leave. That Echidna's attention focused on her again was a surprise.
Echidna proceeded to approach Lewes, whose shoulders remained hitched and rigid.
Echidna: “Apologies for surprising you, Lewes. Her name is Beatrice... she's something like my
daughter. As you've seen, her discipline isn't quite up to par yet, which is a little embarrassing.”
Beatrice: “It's not 'something like', I am exactly your daughter, in fact.”
Echidna: “Well, I suppose that's how the situation looks. She'll be accompanying me in visits to
SANCTUARY rather often now. You'll have more chances to interact with her, and I'd like it for you
two to get along.”
Lewes: “U-Understood. Please entrust this to me, Echidna-sama.”
With Echidna's hand on her shoulder, Lewes's heart trembled in joy as she nodded.
Echidna nodded back with full satisfaction. Behind her, Beatrice muttered:
Beatrice: “...Whatever, I'm fine being alone, I suppose.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: “Excuse me, you there. I'm certain that Echidna-sama would be present somewhere around
here, have you seen her?”
Called to a halt and carrying a basket of laundry in her hands, Lewes turned around.
And, recognizing who it was who stopped her, she about yelped. Her surprise meant she verged on
dropping the basket, when an outstretched arm swiftly came in and propped it back in place.
???: “Ah, hup—”
Lewes: “Wuah, auah, I am so sorry,”
Lewes bowed her head to the boy, who had slid in to support the basket.
44
Seeing this, the boy raked his fingers through his long, navy hair.
Boy: “No, no need to worry.”
Boy: “I'm who should apologize, for failing to notice you were carrying something. I was lacking in
forethought.”
Lewes: “Surely that's not... I am undeserving, Mathers-sama.”
Mathers: “Whoever they may be, all must remember to practice consideration toward women. ...To
correct you on just one point, I don't especially favour being called by my surname. I'd like for you
to call me Roswaal.”
Said the boy, Roswaal, as he winked.

He was perhaps four or five years older than Lewes, and one head taller. He had not finished
growing yet, and his far-projecting voice had not completed its alteration into that of an adult's,
either.
He possessed that rather sensual appeal attainable only in the short timespan between boy and man,
his behaviour so abounding in natural dignity that even Lewes felt his charms.
As she surely would. Roswaal despite his youth was the head of the Mathers household, which
governed multiple territories. He was assisting the Witch Echidna, was managing SANCTUARY, and
was a paragon.
He was contributing to SANCTUARY's preservation in a different way from Echidna, and people
constantly said never to be rude to him.
With her cheeks reddening thanks to Roswaal's wink, Lewes frantically grappled for the topic he
had stopped her for.
Lewes: “Well, um... so, Echidna-sama... I have not yet seen her today. Beatrice-sama was not at the
usual place, either.”
Roswaal: “I, see. Then she might be delayed. Echidna-sama aside, it's inconceivable that Beatrice
would fail to immediately come see you.”
Lewes: “Ermm, um... I sort of think, it's really coincidence that Beatrice-sama and I talk so often...”
Roswaal: “You're saying it's coincidence because that's what Beatrice calls it, yes?”
Lewes silently nodded.

She had interacted with Echidna's daughter Beatrice countless times since their first meeting, now.
Beatrice would come alongside Echidna in her visits to SANCTUARY, which the witch worked into
her busy schedule, and then often loiter about the place while Echidna finished her business. And
then she would interact with Lewes exceedingly often.
Visits while Lewes was gathering the laundry, or going off to pick wild plants, were surprisingly
frequent.
Unable to hold it in, Roswaal laughed.
Roswaal: “Beatrice isn't honest at all. Not that you should consider yourself as doing poorly with
45
her.”
Lewes: “I am doing poorly, what in the world are you saying. She is being so good to something
like me. I'm the one who is always making Beatrice-sama displeased... it's to the point that I'm
worrying whether she might hate me.”
Roswaal: “You're fine. Beatrice's dislike isn't anything particularly credible. If she truly hated you,
she'd find some reason to not come along.”
Would she? wondered Lewes, tilting her head.

Through most of Beatrice's interactions with Lewes, she would be complaining, and she seemed
prone to grumbling in response to every single action Lewes took. That was what Lewes always
saw of her, so despite being told that Beatrice did not actually hate her, she had trouble believing it.
Lewes, and many of SANCTUARY's people, had often been selected as the recipients for hatred and
hostility in the outside world. Beatrice's thing was overwhelmingly tender compared to what Lewes
knew, and it had a warmth to it, but acerbity remained acerbity.
Roswaal: “I hope the time will eventually come where you all would understand that too.”
Lewes shivered, seeing the sad smile arise on Roswaal's face, wondering how she had messed up to
make his expression be such a thing.
But before she could spout any words to varnish the situation over, Roswaal blinked his yellow
eyes, having spotted something.
Roswaal: “Ah! Teacher! I heard you were present, and came soaring in!”
Roswaal raised his hand, utterly discarding his mature attitude, his face that of an exhilarated child
as he broke into run. Lewes watched Roswaal dash past, his sprint leading him toward a woman—
Echidna.
Echidna spotted Roswaal zooming over, him entirely ecstatic. She raised her brows slightly.
Echidna: “Roswaal, huh. I don't remember me ever allowing you to call me your teacher.”
Roswaal: “You cannot say that today. I'm now fully capable of achieving the assignment you
presented to me before, Teacher. Balancing four types of mana at equal concentration, and creating
rainbow mana. —And by my own power, I reached the point where I can add the remaining two.
What do you think?”
Echidna: “You self-studied to the point that you can bind six of them? My goodness... You could
perhaps call that a foreboding rate of expertise, and also obsession. I'm sure in a bind now.”
It was rare that Echidna's expression ever be one of surprise.

This was Lewes's first time ever seeing it, at least. Roswaal puffed his chest up in pride as he waited
for Echidna to respond. Even Lewes, younger than him, found his attitude adorable. It plainly
abounded in the loving respect for Echidna which he could not fully hide, as well as even greater
emotion than that.
Beatrice: “What're you standing around doing nothing for, I suppose?”
Lewes: “Ah... Beatrice-sama.”
46
Lewes gazed at the two from afar when Beatrice abruptly appeared at her side, peering at her face.
Lewes unwittingly stepped back. Beatrice to crossed her arms, posture practised, and snorted at
Lewes.
Beatrice: “Going on with your staring, just rude as always, in fact.”
Lewes: “P-Please forgive me. I apologize for my impoliteness.”
Scolded, Lewes found herself ashamed in her own shameless behaviour. But Beatrice's brows only
furrowed further at Lewes' apology.
Just by smiling, or not pursing her lips, did Beatrice's face give a softer impression. That Lewes
nevertheless always made the girl grimace thanks to her thoughtlessness was truly inexcusable.
Beatrice: “How long do you intend to stay sulking like that, I suppose? It's dismal. If you've got
time to hold onto laundry baskets forever, you ought to hurry up and move on to the next chore, in
fact.”
Lewes: “R-right. That is what I shall do. Please excuse me.”
After bowing her head to unsparing Beatrice, Lewes swiftly left the scene. When, just as Lewes
began to speedily walk off, Beatrice tottered along behind her, her dress dragging as she followed.
Lewes: “Beatrice-sama?”
Beatrice: “It's nothing, I suppose. Just killing time, in fact.”
Answered Beatrice, dispassionate as usual, as Lewes glanced back. But just when she thought to
look back ahead, Lewes remembered her conversation with Roswaal.
He had insisted that Beatrice did not dislike speaking with Lewes, but—
Lewes: “Beatrice-sama. Would it interest you to help me fold the laundry?”
Beatrice: “...Wha?”
Beatrice's eyes opened wide, her expression shifting to one of shock, with a tinge of anger. Lewes
began to regret Roswaal's urging her into this.
Beatrice: “—If you alone won't be enough for it, then there's no choice so I guess I'll help you, I
suppose.”
Lewes: “Huh?”
Beatrice: “I'm not saying it again, in fact. Come on, get going, I suppose.”
Said Beatrice as she speedily passed Lewes, who had unwittingly stopped walking. Lewes saw in
the moment she passed that her mouth was slacked half in astonishment, and half in some other
emotion.
A heat flared in Lewes's chest as she trotted over to catch up with Beatrice. She gazed at her face,
walking alongside her.
47
Lewes: “Would you be interested in holding some small amount of the laundry?”
Beatrice: “Don't get carried away, in fact. —There's no choice, so just a small amount, I suppose.”
Said Beatrice, her expression one of reluctance, as she reached out to Lewes.
48
CHAPTER 102: RECOLLECTIONS ABSENT IN MEMORY
—She succeeded in finding the seal with much more ease than anticipated.
Emilia: “This is the siel?”
Young Emilia gazed at the strange object before her, her amethyst eyes blinking, and tilted her head.
What stood before Emilia was, discovered in the depths of the depths of the depths of the woods, a
peculiar door in a clearing surrounded by trees.
Although being a door, it connected to no building, and even after circling around behind it, Emilia
found absolutely nothing. It was merely a door, plunked down in the middle of the forest and large
enough that Emilia could crane her neck back to look at it.
Emilia: “How come it isn't falling?”
Emilia thought it mysterious and so pushed the door, but it did not move or open an inch. Emilia's
skinny arms would of course not topple the door either, the thing instead receiving the pressure in
the same way that one would receive a pleasant breeze.
The door looked to be made of wood, but its cold touch felt more like ice. Its surface was smooth,
the sensation strange, like polished stone.
In the middle of the closed double-doors was an ancient lock, its keyhole gaping as large as Emilia's
hand. She had not the slightest idea whose pockets could carry a key for something so big.
Emilia: “Queer...”
Emilia tapped the back of her hand against the door, confirming that despite its supposed hardness,
it sounded back with no echo. Still unsure of what this thing she uncovered really meant, Emilia
tilted her head.
Emilia: “But what could it be? Hm?”
Fairies: “—”
The dim points of light circled round and around Emilia's head as she sought their agreement.
Emilia had recognized that the fairies existed here and there throughout the forest ever since her
encounter with them in the Princess Room, and after revealing that she was searching for the SEAL,
they found its location for her rather quickly.
Although they had been the ones to lead her here, it seemed that they did not know the significance
of the seal either.
But even if they did know, they could not speak, and so they would have no way to inform Emilia.
Emilia: “Dunno, boring. But I did find it. Claplclapclap.”
Emilia applauded herself by herself, and after giving a big nod, left the seal.
Now, if it leaked that she was escaping the Princess Room, she had her ace prepared. Assuming
hypothetically that Mother Fortuna and the others found out about Emilia's great escapes, so long as
she revealed that she knew about the seal—and well she didn't really understand this but probably,
they would be on even conversational terms.
Not that she could really remember what had first spurred her to think this way.
49
Emilia: “Harump. Mother Fortuna and everybody else is wrong. Juice is wrong.”
Emilia recollected on the tall, black-robed man, before sticking her tongue out at him in his
absence.
He was someone, who was not Emilia, who made Emilia's dear Mother Fortuna make her secret
faces. She knew that he was not a bad person, but undeniably, he was her enemy.
Although she had undergone no direct showdown with him yet, should Fortuna ever present an
opportunity for her to meet him, Emilia's volition was primed on the idea to stomp his foot.
Emilia: “The fairies fly in his face, and while he's confused, I step on his foot. And I'll step on him
with both feet. And using my heels. ...That'd hurt probably, I'll use my toes.”
She did not forget to insert a wisp of kindness into her heartless plans.
No ally would accompany her in her cruel warfare. While keeping watch for the enemy with the
fairies, Emilia crept through the forest, departing its depths, on her way back to the village.
This was not her escaping the Princess Room, and was instead Emilia's normal free time. Fortuna
would be away at this hour, venturing around the forest to check that its barriers were steady,
leaving the village occupied only by the elderly and by children around Emilia's age.
The elders could not join Emilia on her adventures, and for some reason none of the children would
really approach her. That did make Emilia feel lonely, but when that happened Fortuna would put
all her energy into playing with her and make her forget about it. It was thus not that big a deal for
Emilia that she could not play with the other children.
Emilia: “And I bet I'm the only one who knows about the siel.”
She alone knew something that nobody else did.

That trifling sense of superiority supported Emilia's trifling self-importance. She puffed out her
chest, bringing the fairies with her as she steadily proceeded through the forest.
Her destination was her abode. Today, she would send her brush running over paper all she wished,
drawing pictures on the irregularly large quantity of sheets that Mother Fortuna had prepared for
her.
Emilia: “The artiste for today feels like drawing a red sky, and a white forest. —?”
She mimed the action of slapping paint to canvas, when abruptly she noticed that the fairies'
movements had turned irregular. She closed one eye as she gazed to follow their path, them splitting
off from the forest trail and moving to disappear deep in the bushes.
Emilia: “Trouble feels afoot...!”
The fairies would usually disappear by turning into particles of light, but presently they were
disappearing by flittering deeper into the woods. Emilia determined that this meant trouble afoot, or
otherwise that they were telling her to come this way.
She separated from the path and stepped into the shrub, to then breezily climb over grasses and
bushes that were taller than her. She ventured between the trees, twigs catching multiple times in
her long, silver hair, exiting to find—
???: “This is quite a predicament I've found myself in. ...The promised time will end up delayed.”
50
—In the dark forest, standing on a narrow trail, leaned against a skinny tree, a distressed man.
Emilia: “—Auh,”
Emilia unwittingly yelped, then immediately clamming her hands over her mouth. But this was a
quiet forest, and that was a child's loud voice. The sound reached the man's ears clearly and
inadvertently pulled his attention.
Man: “Who is there?”
The man tilted his neck, turning his head toward Emilia's thicket.
Meek features. Evenly-cut green hair. His face was skinny, but his body gave a lean impression
rather than a frail one. He was tall, taller than Fortuna, and even compared to this foliage that
Emilia could only peek out of by jumping frantically, he was taller.
This familiar man was Emilia's detested foe, Juice.
Juice: “—”
He stared wordlessly at the thicket, Emilia clutching her head and regretfully resigning that he
would not just let this pass.
What was actually happening was, with her clutching her head and so facing backwards, Emilia's
bum was protruding from the thicket and Juice could see it entirely. But Emilia did not realise that,
and Juice did not point it out.
Dejected and uncomfortable, Emilia poked her head out of the thicket.
Juice: “Goodness me, a darling young lady has app—hk!”
A gentle smile arose on Juice's face—or did, until his shock aborted his sentence halfway. His eyes
shot open, his lips trembling as he stared at Emilia. The fixedness of the gaze was atypically
uncomfortable. Part of that was because Emilia regarded Juice as an enemy, and part of it was
because she could not decipher the complex emotions packed into Juice's stare.
Juice: “Young miss, would... no, you couldn't possibly, perhaps...”
Emilia: “—”
Juice spoke with his voice trembling as he shook his head, as if he were witnessing something
unbelievable. Emilia timidly looked up at him, saw the overwhelming frailty in his expression—and
felt it heartbreaking.
He looked like a lost child, or like someone who had always been walking through darkness now
seeing light, an expression of something both feckless and fleeting, which prompted Emilia to
forget everything she had as yet felt toward Juice.
Emilia: “...Juice, are you ok?”
Juice: “—! aua, aauaaa, AaaaaAaaaaa...”
Emilia walked over, clutched the hem of Juice's black vestment, and spoke.
Juice's expression disintegrated further in that instant, his spine trembling as if a lightning bolt had
51
transmit from Emilia's fingers, and he fell to his knees on the spot.
Emilia's shoulders trembled. Juice was on his knees, bent over, his eye level matched to Emilia's.
From his eyes there spouted an outrageous flood of tears.
The unstoppable stream of tears cascaded into a river down Juice's face. This was the first time
Emilia had ever seen a grown-up cry, and all she could do was watch it happen, her breath still.
Taking hold of Emilia's petrified hand, Juice looked the girl straight in her amethyst eyes.
Juice: “I am, okay... yes, yes! I am very well. There is not any issue, at all... I, I... I have just, truly
just now, been saved beyond any parallel.”
Emilia: “Really? You were saved, even though you're crying?”
Juice: “I am not crying from sadness... these are tears of gladness, of delight, of bliss... Such tears of
happiness, do exist. That is what I, undoubtedly am... b-because you, all of you, taught me.... and...”
His overwhelming emotions communicated through his trembling fingers, and Emilia felt no urge to
shake them away. She laid her free hand over the one already grasping hers.
Juice bowed his head low, his teardrops dripping to the ground, wailing and wailing and wailing
unstoppable sobs, his so-stated tears of happiness proceeding to flow.
—So, crying could be happiness? Then, he was blissful right now?
Emilia: “You're happy, but crying...”
She did feel that she understood it.

Emilia had occasionally spent nights sleepless and alone. She would climb into Fortuna's bed when
that happened, cradle herself in her mother's arms, and pass the time in warmth until the dawn
came.
Emilia would be liberated from her unease, blanketed in happiness, sometimes coming close to
tears. So what Juice was experiencing was a similar feeling to what Emilia felt back then?
Was there something Mother Fortuna could do, that Emilia also could?
Emilia: “It's ok, Juice. You're ok. Everything's ok.”
Juice: “—hk”
Consolingly, Emilia patted Juice's head.

A quake jolted through his body. Emilia took Juice, who still faced downward, and held him to her
little chest. His sobs transmitted to her bosom, his intensity surged into her interior.
She had thought about stepping on his feet before, and now she wound up doing this.
What an impossible guy. A hopeless opponent. No way she could do something awful to someone
who was crying. Surely, Mother Fortuna would forgive this as being hopeless as well.
Emilia: “It's lonely to cry all by yourself.”
Once Juice finished crying, they returned to the village hand-in-hand.
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She had to tell Mother Fortuna about this.
About her walk through the depths of the forest, and about a grown-up crying.
Because the two who shared her secret were no longer enemies, but something like friends.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Leaning against the hardness at her back, Emilia returns from her momentary forfeiture of
consciousness.
She shakes her head, twining her fingers into her silver hair, grimacing at the shrill, incessant
ringing of tinnitus in her ears.
What was that short dream she just had?
That scene was nowhere in her memory. It shouldn't be.

But nevertheless, the unfamiliar sight burst out as if she had actually witnessed it before. The
characters involved were people that Emilia knew, and she definitely had been present for this
production, but they were preforming scenes entirely unknown to her.
She knew Fortuna, knew Juice, knew the fairies, knew her young self.
But she did not remember these events. Unknown events. Conversations not shared in memory.
Dripping down, overflowing, Emilia's unseen sights.

The door-seal. Escapes from the Princess Room. The fairies' guidance. What Juice's black robes
meant. Mother Fortuna's final words, to Emilia.
Emilia: “—Auh, hhk,”
An especially sharp pain rips through Emilia's skull.

She rigorously wipes her welling tears away with her sleeve, the pale skin around her eyes swelling
with red as she sighs.
Ever since her contract with Puck terminated, these unknown memories have been emerging one
after another in Emilia's mind. She had absolutely no idea what they meant.
But she did know that they were not meaningless, and were not baseless delusions.
The fundamental core of Emilia's heart was not rejecting, and not distancing these memories.
She did know. The deepest depths of her heart did know these scenes.
Which meant that these events were ones which truly happened? If so, then why hadn't they been in
Emilia's head before?
Her past, which she witnessed during the TRIAL.

A memory of being in the forest of snow, Fortuna slinging hatred and umbrage at her, what made
her want to scream. Some definitive something, which linked to that point, was missing from
Emilia's memory.
Was the link to that missing piece somewhere in this sea of memory?
If so, then Emilia would have to delve deeper, dredge the depths, and discover what had drowned.
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Emilia: “Have to... find it, quickly...”
Her head, in pain. Her body, heavy. Her vision wavers, the strength sapping from her.
But nevertheless she must lean against the wall, prop herself back up, and keep going.
Slowly, laboriously, dragging her heavy body along, deep into the darkness, deep into the depths,
her face near to tears, by herself, she walks.
Alone.
54
CHAPTER 103: START OF SANCTUARY, START OF DESTRUCTION
Theta: “These memories are fragmentary, but I have figured a sorter chronology to them. I think,
most probably, this ers the way things proceeded...”
Subaru: “...”
Subaru responds to Theta's faltering speech with silence.

He can only choose silence. The information load he's been given is too heavy, and he needs to
organize it before he can properly come up with anything to say.
The foundations of SANCTUARY, back in the generation where Lewes Meyer lived. Meaning that
these were events from four hundred years ago, where there casually existed a witch.
Where there existed the WITCH OF GREED, Echidna.
Subaru: “Honestly, I can't imagine a time where Echidna was just strolling around the place.”
Theta: “The Great Witch's presence might feel distant ter yer, Su-bo, seeing as yer weren't involved
in things back then. Or no, rather, I just feel that she's close, it ersn't that I know her directly.”
Subaru: “When you talk about things you vaguely know about as if you actually lived them, it feels
like you're on the first step to senility. Anyway... Echidna visited SANCTUARY a lot?”
Theta: “It's jerst happening because they're not truly my memories. But, guessing from what I've
seen and what they said, it seems like the visits were reasonably frequent.”
Unlike Theta, who saw the memories, the whole story lacks in truthiness for second-hand-listener
Subaru.
But if there were anything about what Theta said that was bothering him, it would of course be—
Subaru: “Beatrice and Roswaal were in SANCTUARY 400 years ago too...”
Theta: “Like I mentioned, Beatrice-sama was as Echidna-sama's daughter. And fer Roz-bo, the Roz
I'm talking about wers the founder erv the Mathers household... the first generation Roswaal, who
created the opportunity fer the Mathers household ter enlarge. The name Roswaal ers inherited
down the line.”
Subaru: “...Was he friendly with Beako?”
Theta: “From the look erv things, had a charming relationship with her.”
What Theta's story made him envision was Beatrice exactly, dishonest as ever.
So she had gone four hundred years without changing, never being upfront with anyone, always
curt? Even four hundred years later, her attitude remained the same?
Without ever allowing anyone to see how she truly felt, hiding her sentiments inside her little self.
Unchanged.
As he recollects on the girl in the Archive, a keen emotional pain runs through Subaru's heart.
He puts his hand to his chest, enduring the sensation as he shakes his head.
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Subaru: “It surprises me Echidna brought Beatrice along with her. From how she was talking, it
didn't seem like she had any kind of familial love for Beatrice.”
Theta: “It ersn't that I've ever met the Great Witch directly. But going from what I saw in Lewes
Meyer's memory, it feels like the Great Witch did have some kind'er humanity.”
Subaru: “Somehow, I'm agreed with you there.”
Say that she doesn't match Subaru's conception of Echidna, and the story ends there. There was a
gap before and after her death of four hundred years, and that is how much time she spent.
Perhaps it wouldn't be strange, in that castle in a dream, for her to inadvertently take an estranged
view on life.
Subaru: “My end with her was definite, and I'm seriously still trying to put hopes in her?”
Even he has to call it unsalvagable weakness.

This is different from with Ram and Rem. Echidna understood Subaru's feelings and hopes, and
with that understanding, attempted to trample all over them. There should not be any future where
he joins hands with her now.
Subaru: “Anyway, everything so far's been a charming reflection on the past. Doesn't feel like
anything terrifying enough happened for you to purposefully be hiding it from everyone, Theta-
san.”
Theta: “—”
Subaru: “Please tell me what came next. What happened back in SANCTUARY, where everything
seemed right?”
In response to Subaru's low-voiced demand, Theta sips her cold tea.

She mutters to herself,
Theta: “Tastes poor...”
Theta: “What happened, is it?”
Subaru: “—”
Theta: “Ruin happened. And I learned the true reason why SANCTUARY wers made.”
Subaru: “True reason?”
Subaru swallows his breath. Theta nods.

She narrows her eyes, again opening the lid on her memories.
Theta: “The Great Witch and the first Roswaal were in SANCTUARY back then. If something
intimidating and outter the regular happened, it wouldn't just be me, anyone in SANCTUARY would
feel anxious abert it.”
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※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—The air hung taut and heavy. Parched was Lewes' throat.
???: “We must flee here immediately. The preparations are not in order yet. —That he currently
knows SANCTUARY's location means our plans will fail.”
???: “—”
???: “Teacher! Even these moments are precious! He is... he's already nearby!”
The slender-faced boy slammed his hands on the cabin's table.

This boy was one who never lacked in composure or grace—presently, wearing an expression
abounding in frantic panic.
The listener to his appeals was, her eyes closed in silence and hands linked together, the Witch
Echidna. The boy leaned forward toward Echidna, gesticulating intensely as he appealed again.
Boy: “We have no time to hesitate! His power is immense! And I cannot be your strength yet!
Should you ask I be your shield, I will shield you gladly. But as we currently lack countermeasures
against him, even should I shoulder the role, it will amount to my purposeless death...”
Echidna: “We do have methods. —To an extent, I had anticipated this.”
Interrupting the boy—Roswaal's—speech, Echidna opened her eyes and glared at the grain of the
wooden table.
Roswaal: “Wh?”
He exhaled in astonishment. Echidna quietly shook her head.
Echidna: “I've formulated theories over my multiple trips into SANCTUARY. The conditioning on the
barrier should function with considerably high probability.”
Roswaal: “T-then, we...!”
Echidna: “—But the NUCLEUS to activate the barrier is insufficient.”
Roswaal: “—”
Roswaal's expression was one of hope, until Echidna's pained voice made him swallow his breath.
Echidna: “The barrier will not operate without a NUCLEUS. Without the barrier, it is impossible to
repel him from here. If we can't preserve a safe zone, he'll eventually find and destroy us.”
Roswaal: “Which is why we took careful time, preparing this SANCTUARY... we got so far, and... we
were only one step away!”
Wailed Roswaal in frustration as he slammed his fist on the table.

The aged table's legs creaked. Roswaal's hand seeped with blood.
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Silence fell upon the room.
The hour stretched late. A viscous, phlegmy weight infected the air.
Amidst this environment, a girl nervously raised her hand.
Girl: “Erm, about the barrier's NUCLEUS... could I perhaps do it?”
Echidna: “—”
Girl: “I heard before that this would be possible. That I concord with the conditions for your barrier,
Echidna-sama. ...Which she said was why she was paying me privileged attention.”
Echidna: “—Beatrice did?”
Girl: “Yes, ma'am.”
Nodding with quiet determination, her hair pink and long, was Lewes Meyer.
Her cheeks pulled taught with resolution as she stared expressionless Echidna in the eye.
Lewes: “Beatrice-sama said that you have confirmed the concordance between myself and the
requirements. I suppose those multiple mana extractions over these past months have been related
to that.”
After a slight silence, Echidna nodded.
Echidna: “Indeed, you do have high compatibility with the barrier's assembly. It will be possible to
maintain the barrier if we keep you inside SANCTUARY. I have theorized this much. If we take more
time, and harmonize your mana and SANCTUARY's earth into even concord, it should be possible.”
Lewes: “You mean to say that we cannot presently do it.”
Roswaal: “It's not just some simple barrier. For this one to break is impermissible. We've paid
careful attention, proceeding with matters cautiously. We keep the half-bloods we've assembled
over the years inside to condition the barrier. We need you for the final push. But...”
Roswaal cut off his speech, his expression chagrined.

Lewes did not understand the exact details, but it appeared that even with clever Echidna and
Roswaal conspiring together, a difficult obstacle was impeding the plan's success.
Were there truly no means to do something?
—Surely there are, determined Lewes.
Lewes: “Is there no kind of definitive method?”
Echidna: “—”
Lewes: “...I am an individual saved by yourselves, Echidna-sama and Roswaal-sama. I came to this
land, entered into a life absent of disparagement and ostracization, and was happy. If it is possible
that I may repay my debt for having partaken in this experience, I am sure that would be my reason
for living.”
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She presented her heart.
Lewes clenched her pale hands so tight that they whitened even further, Echidna's black eyes
steadily freezing, losing their warmth. It was instead Roswaal, standing at the witch's side, who
found himself beset by complex emotion.
Roswaal: “T-Teacher...”
This was not a statement to entrust the decision to Echidna, but a statement carrying the nuance of
you couldn't possibly...
Nevertheless, it was what pulled the trigger.
Echidna: “—If we crystallize your od and turn it into the nucleus of SANCTUARY, we can shorten the
process to harmonize the soil and your mana. We'll likely erect the barrier.”
Lewes: “And in doing so, save SANCTUARY?”
Echidna: “Avoiding the ruin that the approaching threat presents will likely be possible, yes. And if
we can just buy ourselves time, we'll probably also be able to refine countermeasures.”
Lewes: “—”
Echidna's response was no mere consolation. She spoke neither consolations, nor statements of
wishful thinking.
If Echidna determined that something was possible, it was possible.
Meaning, if Lewes sacrificed her life, that would definitely protect this land. Her dedicated desire to
repay her debt would assuredly be fulfilled.
Lewes: “...When do we start?”
Echidna: “—If possible, I'd like to start preparing immediately. I'll ready the anchor for your
crystallization, and assemble the algorithm. The one to buy us time against the threat will be...”
Roswaal: “My role, correct? I'll work to my utmost ability. ...Lewes-kun.”
Roswaal raised his head, his face grim. No frailty or weakness rested in his expression any longer.
He gazed the determined Lewes straight in the eye.
Roswaal: “I apologize. My ability is too lacking to save my Teacher.”
Lewes: “No, Roswaal-sama, you are my benefactor and have conferred me with an irreplaceable
time. I am grateful for that, and there is no grudge to hold in the least.”
Lewes put her hand to her chest as she shook her head.
Roswaal took a short breath in, a breath out, and looked at Echidna.
Roswaal: “I'll leave immediately. Teacher, your preparations... and, please summon Beatrice.”
Echidna: “...Don't you think it'd be better for Beatrice not to know?”
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Roswaal: “If we do not call Beatrice now at this juncture, she'll resent both of us for the rest of her
life. ...Though, she still might even if we do call her.”
Echidna: “She will? ...Alright. I'll call her afterwards.”
After watching Echidna nod, Roswaal turned to exit the room. Partway along his departure, he
placed his hand on Lewes' shoulder, and gave a single, firm squeeze.
The slight pressure of his nails informed Lewes keenly of the fact that Roswaal cared about her. She
shut her eyes.
Lewes: “...Beatrice-sama.”
Quiet, muttered words.

The thought of the absent girl led Lewes's heart to, minutely, wrench.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Again, a shift in scene.
Lewes: “—”
—As she witnessed that overwhelming pressure, a terror even greater than being resolved for death
sprouted in Lewes' heart.
Roswaal: “—ghaa, hgu”
Roswaal shrieked in pain, spitting blood, as his body flew horizontally across the surface of the
ground.
Seeing him fallen shoulders-first to the ground, casting up clouds of dust as he tumbled, all Lewes
could do was watch on in such stunned astonishment that she forgot to breathe.
Roswaal L. Mathers, who manipulated six hues of magic, and despite being a teenager, had scaled
to the highest peak of the sorcery that the human race could accomplish.
With his overpowering magic he scorched swaths of land to ash, sliced through stone cliffs with
blades of wind, created waters to reverse the flow of great rivers, and could manipulate earth and
rock to craft castles.
This was something so overwhelming, that not even Roswaal with all his power stood a chance.
???: “...You're still going?”
The boy with his dark brown hair walked, perpetually listless, his head swaying.
He was about the same age as Roswaal. The colour of his hair was almost black, with his bangs
hanging low enough to cover his eyebrows, and his face attractive enough to be mistaken for a
woman's. His drowsy, narrowed eyes were of a dark hue, his shirt white and pants black, and overall
he was a person with a horrifically plain outfit.
—With every step he took, with every pebble he idly kicked, Roswaal's body would expel sprays of
60
blood as he ricocheted. Ricocheted. Ricocheted away.
Roswaal: “Ghh! Ghk! Gkkh!”
Boy: “A racket. A bother. Tiresome. Irksome. Drains me. Depresses me.”
The boy spoke lines of negative words, his voice low. But with every mutter and step he took,
Roswaal's screams intensified—and despite the distance, Lewes heard his bones creak.
Roswaal's fallen body was being steadily pressed into the earth, as if the air overhead was crushing
him down. His limbs were already buried in the ground, his flesh torn, bloody tears flowing from
his bloodshot eyes.
Boy: “Can't you just stop now? You worked yourself hard. Can't win against me, but you worked
and you worked. Entirely worked, and this has to be enough. ...Working hard is pointless anyway.”
Roswaal: “Speaking this, idiotic... How could, I possibly... not stop you, here—ghaaah! Aaah!
GuuhaAAaa!!”
Boy: “Haaaaau... it's this that weighs my head most. Nauseates my chest. Dampens my spirits.”
The boy bent his knees and squatted in response to Roswaal's lack of surrender. After giving a deep
sigh, the boy stroked the earth. In accordance to the movement of his fingers Roswaal's limbs
flattened, twisted, shrieks of pain and severed flesh sounding out in unison.
Boy: “I hate this. I really did back off. It's really been so long since I've backed off this much and
it's the worst. The worst, the worst, the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst. —So much
tristitia.”
Roswaal: “Gagh, aaugh—hk!”
The moment the boy voiced final word—enough to depress a person just by hearing it, that decisive
term—Roswaal's torso crumpled beneath the unbearable, compounding pressure.
His abdomen caved in, so much blood abounding from his mouth that one could wonder if he puked
out his guts. His teeth bared, his limbs convulsing. The young magician's reward for never once
letting his fighting spirit wane was for his lifeblood to be mashed to bits.
Boy: “Aaaauh, aaaaaaaaauh, aaaaaaaaaaaaaauh. What is this. Just whaaaaaaat is this. Look at this.
Just look at this. Aaaauh, and I didn't even want to. I feel sick. I feel down. I feel low. All this
tristitia. Tristitia, tristitia, tristitiatristitiatristitiatristitiatristitiatristitiatristitiatristitia—”
Roswaal dripped with blood, no longer capable of shrieking. The boy's apathetic eyes gazed at his
pulped body, speaking screeds of melancholy mutters.
The gruesome end of Roswaal, and the uncanny boy who had brought it about. Lewes was only able
to watch as it happened, the situation beyond any help, when she finally remembered that she had
forgotten to breathe.
Lewes: “—Hauh.”
Her lungs, strained to the limit, kicked into action as her body and brain demanded oxygen. She
needed to take one single breath, get the air inside her, and then hide in silence again. It felt that
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even a single fluctuation in the atmosphere would catch some fragment of the boy's attention, which
terrified Lewes.
She had witnessed her benefactor be battered atrociously, but rather than slay the foe, she opted for
self-preservation. She did not even recognize in this moment her attachment to her miserable life.
Boy: “Aaauh? Could there be someone over there?”
Lewes: “—hk!”
As if proving Lewes's worries as sound, the boy tilted his head to look towards her.
Lewes had been watching Roswaal and the boy fight in the plaza from inside a small building, a
little distance away. She had put her eye to a hole in the wall's wood, and peeked through the slim
crack.
The boy's statement, suggesting that he had noticed that meagre crack from such a distance, made
Lewes shiver. There was no way he could have found her. The hole was minuscule. There was no
possible way, not in the least, that he could have perceived her.
But nevertheless, the boy began walking toward her, without any hesitation.
Boy: “Wellllllllll but you know, it's not like I'm that interested in doing this. Killing everyone isn't
going to make anything goooooood happen. ...Would appreciate it if you'd save me some effort,
though.”
Lewes: “...Eep.”
Boy: “Hrmmmm. Well, so somewhere kinda around there... no, I'll just do the whole thing. God, I
seriously want to just dump everything and go home. I feel sick. I feel down. All this tristitia.”
The boy faced his palm out toward Lewes' building, his gloomy statement her death sentence.
A chill raced up Lewes' spine as the stabbing pain of needles jabbed into her skull. Her eyes welled
with tears, her throat choked on a wail that she failed to endure.
Just like this, an invisible weight would mash Lewes's small body and bones, and she—
???: “AL GOA!!”
With a blooded roar—or no, quite literally a bloody roar—an explosion of flame burned the plaza in
crimson.
The extravagant heat, warming Lewes's face despite the distance, combusted into existence within a
second—its point of origin being the fallen Roswaal's raised hand, its aim being to scorch the boy
from behind.
Boy: “—”
Even the boy had to show some unrest in face of this overwhelming wave of heat, and turned
around. But turning to face the hellfire revealed that this violence was nothing conquerable within
the limits of human knowledge.
With him unable to do anything about it, the rush of red light consumed the boy.
Boy: “Sweat is unpleasant. —Irks me.”
—Or would have, if the words he muttered the instant before it hit had not slammed the
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concentration of scarlet mana to the ground.
This blazing fireball—which should have burned the boy into absolute nothing—went without its
searing heatwaves even dispersing around the area, and instead shrunk into tiny red sphere and
tumbled to the ground.
Roswaal: “Auh, ue, hu...”
Boy: “It still isn't gone, just what power did you put into this? Don't make me use too much
strength. The more I do, the more I want to die.”
The boy grumbled as he clenched his raised hand, hard. As if obeying that gesture, the downed,
shrunken fireball imploded.
The air popped once with a crackle of heat. With that alone, the fire's energy vanished entirely.
Not even the ultimate in fire magic, Al Goa, had done anything.
Roswaal in his moribund state had attempted to rescue the situation. Having seen the outcome
through, he found himself utterly dumbstruck. He had mustered his dying efforts, for this.
Even Lewes, who had managed by a hair's breadth to alter the timing of her death, keenly knew that
both Roswaal's death and her own death had merely been postponed slightly.
Roswaal: “You damn devil... no, you damn warlock!”
Boy: “That's a nasty name, it depresses me. Do you think I'm like this beeeeecause I wanted to be?”
Roswaal: “The person who, from limited selections... of how their lifestyle would be distorted,
chose for this one, was you. Don't you dare pretend you're a victim... Hector of TRISTITIA!”
Hector: “Your sound logic is painful to hear, and feels mortifying. You really are sooooooomeone I
have trouble with.”
The boy squatted down beside the fallen Roswaal. He reached his hand out, toward Roswaal's head.
His destruction had been overwhelming, and without contact. Should his fingertips proceed to
touch, and the boy proceed to transmit his invisible annihilation, Roswaal's body would be flattened
without even its fundamental structure preserved.
Roswaal: “Ghhk... Ul...”
Hector: “You're too late, you won't make it, and I won't let you.”
Said the boy nonchalantly as Roswaal strained his mana in an attempt to cast.
The deathly fingers reached Roswaal—sending guaranteed death to the dying figure.
Roswaal: “—Rhu, bhhb”
Hector: “Bones, clattering. Guts, squelching. Heart, crunching. Hoooooow dooooo you like it?”
A short scream. That consisted Roswaal's death wail.

The boy looked down at the perfectly motionless Roswaal, wiped his knees, and stood. This time,
assuredly, he turned back toward the petrified Lewes.
He acted without any warning as he aimed his palm toward her and launched that invisible weight.
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Lewes: “—hk”
She could not withstand it for even a second.

Pressure pressed down from above, the force many times greater than her own tonnage. That she
toppled down to her chest was a fortune, for if her posture had been different, her limbs would have
snapped into impossible angles as the force squeezed her prone to the ground.
Hector: “If you can't fight this, you're not Echidna. And if yoooooou're not her, I don't even give a
crap any more.”
Lewes: “—e, eep”
Hector: “Be crushed, and drown in the dirt. Save me the effort of digging your gr—”
An invisible hand pulled Lewes' skin taught, the feeling erroneously that of the ground skinning her
alive. The instant that she considered the boy's voice would be the last thing she would ever hear, the
pressure vanished.
She exhaled in ragged breaths, her face dirty with tears and drool as she looked up, wondering what
happened. In the path of her gaze was—
???: “Made it in time—would be pretty hard to say in this situation.”
Hector: “Nooooooo, don't worry. Your student did great work stalling me and buying time. Thanks
to him things aren't quite going how I wanted, and my mood is seriously wrecked.”
???: “Your speaking really hasn't changed at all. You're exactly the same as when we left each
other.”
Hector: “And your gab is dismal as always, too. Why did you start talking in this uncute way? And
when you were so cute before.”
The boy shook his head in lamentation. Standing before him, obstructing the space between himself
and Lewes, was a black-garbed woman of white—Echidna.
The witch glanced at the fallen Roswaal. Her eyes narrowed slightly.
Echidna: “This sight pains my chest more than I anticipated. A failure to remain objective toward a
result is supposed to be an embarrassing faux pas for me, and yet.”
Hector: “Detachedly dealing with it with your emotions would keep him from resting him in peace,
iiiiiiiiin this situation. Not that I care. If you wanna cry, how about we pause for that? Not even I'm
so cruel.”
Echidna: “How are you daring to say this?”
While their acerbic words hinted at an acquaintanceship between them, their relationship was
blatantly not a friendly one.
The two steadily gauged their distance as they faced off. Lewes did not doubt in Echidna's strength,
but she had equally believed in Roswaal, and he had been easily crushed by that overwhelming
power.
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With that established, Lewes could not assert that Echidna's backing gave her any peace of mind.
???: “—Are you going to lie gracelessly there forever, I suppose?”
Lewes: “...huh?”
Lewes raised her head from her prone position, when a hand grabbed her from behind and pulled
her up. As the force dragged her nearer, Lewes yelped in surprise and turned around.
Behind her was a lovable girl, her expression sour and familiar.
Lewes: “Bea, trice-sama...”
Beatrice: “This isn't the time to be gibbering in surprise, in fact. Get away from here quickly, while
Mother is buying us time, I suppose.”
Lewes: “B-But, Roswaal-sama and Echidna-sama ordered me to wait here...”
Beatrice: “It was thanks to said Roswaal's bungling that he realised you're here, in fact. Enough, just
follow me, I suppose. Mother instructed me to take you, in fact.”
Lewes: “Echidna-sama instructed...”
Beatrice's brows furrowed in irritation, but regardless her expression was stiff. Even she, abounding
in self-confidence as she was, felt overwhelmed by the unknown boy.
Nevertheless, she was infinitely stronger than Lewes' own self, who had merely curled trembling
into a little ball.
Beatrice: “The preparations are in place. That's what Mother said, I suppose. She said you'd
understand if I told you that, in fact.”
Lewes: “—I understand.”
Lewes held her breath as she gave Echidna's message a nod. Beatrice narrowed her eyes in
puzzlement of Lewes' reaction, but lacked any time to probe into it.
A torrent of mana was peaking behind them. The conflict between Echidna and the boy was only a
matter of time. No one could anticipate how the battle would go. The most important factor for
securing a definite win would be Lewes's own decisions.
Lewes: “Let's leave. Beatrice-sama, where are the preparations set?”
Beatrice: “...They're inside this old, stale stone room. I transported it along because Mother told me
to, but let me tell you it was tiring work even with my Gate Crossing, in fact.”
Beatrice guided Lewes by the hand as they began their migration.

Lewes followed after Beatrice's bouncing pigtails, glancing back one last time at Echidna, before
sending to her back a bow of her head.
—Surely, they would never speak again.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
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The crystal was a transparent blue, so beautiful that Lewes trembled.
Beatrice: “Don't get enthralled and stupidly touch it, in fact. It'll swallow you if you do, and you'll
become a part of the crystal, I suppose.”
Lewes unwittingly spilled a passionate breath, forgetting the situation. Beatrice stood beside her,
arms crossed, as she warned her to do nothing careless.
Lewes, quite liable to commit that such-dubbed stupidity, panickedly withdrew her outstretched
fingers.
Lewes: “Ah, please forgive me.”
Beatrice: “Whatever, it's nothing to apologize about, in fact. ...So, what now, I suppose? Betty was
only instructed to transport the crystal and summon you here, in fact.”
Lewes: “Beatrice-sama, how did you transport the crystal?”
Beatrice: “When you're on my level, it's easy to move something of this par without touching it, I
suppose. The accuracy and range on Gate Crossing is enough that Mother praises me for it, in fact.”
Beatrice's expression was dispassionate as always, but perceiving her as nevertheless proud,
Lewes's cheeks reflexively relaxed.
She had become very accustomed to talking like this with Beatrice. At first she had accepted
Beatrice's statements at face value, and been horrifically ashamed with herself multiple times.
But over their period of knowing each other, she had learned that the seemingly-imperious Beatrice
was actually surprisingly easy to understand. With that knowledge, she was exactly the darling girl
that she looked, and Lewes achieved in smiling with her together.
How nice would it be if she continued this commonplace conversation with Beatrice.
All while forgetting the disaster besetting SANCTUARY, and the fate awaiting Lewes—not that she
possibly could.
Beatrice: “...? That smile you have right now is incredibly unpleasant, in fact.”
Perhaps Lewes's sentiments showed in her expression, for perceptive Beatrice pointed this out.
Beatrice had been paying Lewes enough attention that she could determine when her smiles were of
a different nature than usual. The moment that Lewes realised this, tears arose at the corners of her
eyes.
Beatrice's eyes shot open. Lewes hurriedly wiped the stuff away with her sleeve.
Lewes: “P-please forgive me... hk. There's simply some, gunk in my eyes...”
Beatrice: “I-it, wasn't like I was worrying about it, I suppose. —Even Betty at least knows this
situation is one where it's hard to say 'stop being anxious', in fact.”
She was off the mark, but nevertheless Beatrice's words were ones of compassion.
A warmth spread deep in Lewes' chest. This was the strength that Beatrice's words gave her. Right
now, it felt so grand she could boast about her.
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Lewes: “Beatrice-sama.”
Beatrice: “What, I suppose? If your preparations take too long, I'm leaving you to go help Mother,
in fact. Roswaal's basically presumed dead already, and nevermind it being him if I don't help, he...”
Lewes: “For a very long time, you have taken good care of me. However—now is our goodbye.”
Beatrice: “—wha”
Beatrice blinked in confusion.

Beatrice and Lewes, inside a cold stone room—two girls, facing each other.
Beatrice blinked again and again and again before glaring at Lewes, who gazed her straight in the
eye. Lewes, who knew her warmth, did not flinch even in the slightest at the sharp gaze.
Beatrice: “What exactly do you mean by goodbye, I suppose? You're running away?”
Lewes: “No, I am not. Should I run and live, perhaps I would someday reunite with you, Beatrice-
sama. But this goodbye shall be one for life. I doubt we will ever be able to speak with each other
again.”
Beatrice: “...”
Beatrice pursed her lips as she peered into Lewes' eyes, searching for the girl's intentions.
Seeing Beatrice's confusion for the first time ever, Lewes quietly selected her words.
Lewes: “The preparations that Echidna-sama spoke of meant something required for placing the
barrier around this SANCTUARY. It apparently should need more time before the barrier can entrench
itself in SANCTUARY's soil, but... the present situation means that we do not have that time.”
Beatrice: “Insufficient time... the barrier won't make it? You mean that barrier was an indispensable
means to keep that man away, I suppose.”
Lewes: “I do. I have clearly seen the danger of that man. He is a peril. I understand why Echidna-
sama is attempting to defeat him at any cost. And I suspect that Roswaal-sama's noble devotion was
because he understood that he could not save Echidna-sama should his efforts be anything less.”
That was how overwhelming that boy was.

Lewes did not know in what exact fashion the activated barrier would benefit Echidna, or whether it
would contribute to exterminating that creature from existence.
But there was one thing that Echidna had assured her.
Lewes: “Echidna-sama has promised me that, should the barrier be activated, it will be possible to
protect SANCTUARY. ...However, myself must be sacrificed for this purpose.”
Beatrice: “D-don't say anything stupid, in fact. Sacrifice yourself... you don't have any groundings
in magic, how could you possibly...”
With panic in her eyes, Beatrice began to hastily speak. But, being clever as she was, her sentence
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cut off halfway as her own statement led her to her question's answer.
Her eyes shot open in shock as she glanced at the blue crystal looming beside the two.
Beatrice: “You root yourself to the crystal's core... act as the central od, spread around the entirety
of SANCTUARY... and if you do that, there's no need to take the time to harmonize?”
Lewes: “Yes. Echidna-sama has stated the same thing.”
Beatrice stood still, wordless. Lewes circled around to enter Beatrice's view, and gave her a smile.
Lewes: “The affinity between myself and SANCTUARY's mana... Beatrice-sama, you are the one who
gave assurance about this.”
Beatrice: “—hk!”
Beatrice's face sprang up.

Her white teeth bit down on pink lips, blood seeping from the flesh.
Beatrice: “I did'n...hk. Betty... Betty, didn't mean to do that when I... wait, no, wait, I suppose. Wait,
in fact. B-Betty will go and speak with Mother, I suppose. Mother might act that way but she spoils
me, I know she'll listen to me, and...”
Lewes: “There is no time. We must decide in this instant.”
Beatrice: “Then Betty will go and assist Mother immediately, in fact. If Mother and I are working
together, that guy's gonna get trounced, I suppose. And I heal Roswaal up too, and the three of us...”
Beatrice shook her head with childish reluctance, her sentence tapering off to a weak end.
Even she herself realised how unpersuasive her statements were.
Beatrice was indeed amazing. Lewes entirely revered how a girl her own age could handle magic so
skilfully, and how she never slacked on her daily studies.
In the spare time she had while doing laundry, sewing, or cooking, Lewes had always been
watching how, simultaneous to her loving respect for her mother and quarrels with Roswaal,
Beatrice would diligently practice her magic.
Beatrice accurately understood her own abilities, and so she clearly comprehended the differences
in fighting strength between herself and others.
She could not expose her mother to danger due to a comforting pipe dream.
Beatrice: “—We can evacuate everyone with Betty's Gate Crossing, in fact.”
Lewes: “...”
Beatrice: “Right? Let's do that, I suppose. I might need to push myself just a little for it, but Betty
can manage it, in fact. While Mother is buying time, we gather up everyone in SANCTUARY and
have them flee to Mother's mansion, I suppose. I'll find an opening to collect Roswaal, and if Betty
and Mother can slip through the door, we'll escape him. ...Yes, this is what we should do, in fact.”
Lewes: “And then live in fear that he will pursue us again? We were ostracised by many people, and
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now it concludes with us abandoning our place of safety... how much time will we need before we
can craft such lives for ourselves again, in a new place?”
Lewes shook her head, her statements gentle yet harsh.

She saw the wounded look expand across Beatrice's face. An intense pain ran through Lewes' chest.
Lewes needed to trample over the compassion of a girl who cared about Lewes, about Lewes's
people so much, reject it, and force her own way though.
Just to what extent did this cruel and selfish conduct betray the days that they had spent together
until now?
—The feelings that they had built up over the days they had spent together, and now, their betrayal.
Lewes: “Beatrice-sama. I love SANCTUARY. I am truly glad that I have been able to live here. I love
the smiles of everyone who dwells here. I do not want to lose them.”
Beatrice: “—”
Lewes: “I have already lived warmth aplenty. I do not think my polluted blood apt for the happiness
that I experienced. And so I am satisfied entirely.”
Beatrice: “That couldn't, possibly be... J-just what, kind of place do you all, what true meaning do
you think, there is to this place that you...”
Lewes: “Yes. We do understand it.”
Beatrice: “—hk”
Lewes nodded to Beatrice, whose expression was one of regretting her words.
Lewes did understand. The true meaning of this SANCTUARY.

Of course she understood that Echidna and Roswaal's gathering of peoples shunned by their races
was not out of simple altruism.
A paradise where the ostracised and belittled could live their lives with pride—was the superficial
hope that they mustn't cling to, but did wish to believe in.
And now she couldn't help but simultaneously resign and comprehend that inevitably, she would
always only see the dazzling positives of the place.
Lewes: “The purpose of this place is to do something about the person pursuing Echidna-sama.”
Beatrice: “...”
Lewes: “I now understand that that is what this place is for, and that that is what we are for.”
Beatrice: “If you... if you understand that, then why?”
Beatrice shook her head in utter confusion.

Lewes smiled in response to Beatrice's pleading gaze.
Lewes: “It's fine. Perhaps that is what it had been at the beginning. But that does not mean that all
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of the time we spent living here was entangled in Echidna-sama's plots. As was not the case for the
all time I lived here, and all the talks I had with you.”
Beatrice: “—”
Lewes: “It isn't the beginning which is important. It's how it ends, and what you feel along the
way.”
Beatrice: “—”
Lewes: “My life here was one of happiness. And so I shall pass on for the sake of protecting it.
Beatrice-sama, I express to you my gratitude for all the compassion you have given me, and are
giving me even now.”
A distant boom echoed to the stone room.

This ground-quaking, air-shaking force was an after-effect from the conflict between Echidna and
the boy, taking place in SANCTUARY's centre.
The fact that it was slowly but steadily approaching proved better that anything that Echidna,
fighting to keep the conflict from reaching this place, was not winning.
Lewes: “—hk”
Lewes closed her eyes, steeling her will. Beatrice's shoulders heaved as she frantically forced
herself to think, searching for the words.
The magic words to dull Lewes's will, overturn her feelings, and reverse her opinions.
But such convenient magic existed not in this world.
Lewes: “Beatrice-sama.”
Beatrice: “...What, I suppose?”
Lewes: “Take care not to eat too many sweet foods.”
Beatrice: “—”
She could never stop herself from reaching for the sweeties during teatime, and she was so cute, but
it would all be spoiled if she got fat. Her teeth, too, did Lewes want for her to keep pretty.
Because, although she did not show it much, she was a truly adorable girl when she smiled.
Lewes turned around and wordlessly approached the blue jewel—the crystal.
The deep glow of the crystal, enthralling. Should she touch it, she would truly be engulfed.
Would it hurt, and would she suffer?

She was resolved to face her end, but she did not know what form the thing would take.
Say plainly that she was scared, and yes, scared was the only thing she felt.
Once that light swallowed her, she would make this SANCTUARY genuine.
And if that genuine world would be a place where everyone was kind, and could live their lives in
peace...
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If Echidna and Beatrice would continue to watch over that SANCTUARY for her...
Lewes: “—”
A tug came at her sleeve.

Lewes turned around. Beatrice stood directly beside her.
She was gazing at Lewes with an expression she had never seen from her before, her fingers forlorn
as they tugged on Lewes' sleeve.
The strength in those fingers was weak, and not even Beatrice could have known what she was
attempting to do with this touch. She reached out regardless. Lewes thought it the action of a girl
who could not honestly put her emotions to words, expressing her feelings honestly.
Lewes: “—”
Lewes tenderly unhooked the fingers clutching at her sleeve.

Their fingertips touched, they shared each other's warmth, making Lewes smile at her end.
Lewes:
“Thank you. —Goodbye, Betty.”
—With those words as her last, Lewes's consciousness was swallowed in blue light,
And vanished.
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CHAPTER 104: THETA CHAPTER 2
Theta: “That makes up all the fragments erv the past I saw in the tomb.”
Theta puts her cooled tea to her mouth, wetting her tongue.
Subaru, seated on the bed and having listened meekly to the story, holds his breath as Theta
announces that the tale is over. And with a long, deep sigh, he expels everything clogged up inside
him.
He strains his lungs to the limit, spitting out all the air and indescribable emotions in him—then,
raises his head.
Subaru: “Those were the true foundations of SANCTUARY, and Lewes Meyer's memories.”
Theta: “I'm sure yer already now what happened ter Lewes, swallowed by the blue crystal. She's
still preserved exactly how she wers back then, deep in the Great Witch's research facility.”
Subaru: “But this doesn't match up with what I know about the crystal's purpose. Echidna didn't say
Lewes Meyer in the crystal is about SANCTUARY's barrier, she said it was for something else...”
Going from what Echidna said in the dream, Lewes Meyer is sealed in the crystal owing to
Echidna's experiments in attempting to achieve immortality.
The process of sealing Lewes in the crystal, crafting duplicates of her, and then transferring
Echidna's own memories into them would accomplish a kind of mock-immortality. Echidna's death
or some kind of mechanical defect meant that the experiment failed to bear fruit, and with the
passage of time, the mechanism continued to autonomously create more and more Lewes doubles.
Theta's story mentions absolutely nothing about all this immortality business.
In fact, it's presented multiple pieces of information which cannot be overlooked.
Subaru: “The real reason Echidna made SANCTUARY... basically it's because of that guy they tried to
remove, but who is he?”
Theta says nothing.
Subaru: “They called him TRISTITIA during the story, but I haven't seen or heard anything about this
guy before. It's news to me that he exists. I'd been thinking the whole time that the person chasing
Echidna was the WITCH OF ENVY.”
The WITCH OF ENVY, who destroyed the six witches of sin.

Subaru had thought entirely that she, who he had met in the dream, was the one who cornered
Echidna. Only for the story to present someone entirely different, who Subaru had not heard even
the vaguest mention of until now.
Of course he would be confused.
But, with how he's being called TRISTITIA, Subaru did have some ideas. Albeit ones that he'd rather
not be true.
Subaru: “The seven cardinal sins are pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust, yeah? ...But
I heard they used to be different, and there's other deadly sins which got absorbed.”
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The term 'Seven Deadly Sins' was one of the keywords to give people of Subaru's ilk heartflutter.
Subaru naturally had some brushes with this information before, and after mobilizing his memories
into action, he finds that yes, there it is.
Subaru: “I think it was... TRISTITIA and VAINGLORY used to be counted as deadly sins.”
The ex-deadly sins, separate from the main seven, TRISTITIA and VAINGLORY. If TRISTITIA existed, it
wouldn't be strange for VAINGLORY to exist too.
Supposing that these were different people, missing from the witches who were extensively known
in the past...
Theta: “It'd be a help fer me if yer guessed on yer own why I couldn't speak carelessly abert these
memories.”
Subaru: “Why you couldn't?”
Subaru scrunches his brows. A sly grin, unfitting to Theta's appearance, arises on her face.
Theta: “What yer just said wers exactly right, Su-bo. I haven't heard a single lick erv anything abert
anyone carrying the title TRISTITIA, erkscept in these memories. And that's the same no matter who
yer ask. Though the world may'erve fergotten the names erv the witches of sin, their existence is
still told—but people don't know that a presence which possessed such incredible power even
existed. ...It's terrifying.”
Theta's explanation, her eyes cast down, illuminates her concerns.

Indeed, there was something strange about this.
The WITCH OF ENVY has been talked worldwide through the generations as a synonym for terror
and hatred. The other witches are sidelined into being existences consumed by the WITCH OF ENVY,
but their presence does still remain in history.
Nevertheless, not even the faintest traces of TRISTITIA's existence are known about at all. Had it just
coincidentally happened that the topic never came up anywhere around Subaru or Theta?
—Was it truly plausible that Subaru, who had attended a witch's tea party and interacted with all the
witches, would not have caught any minuscule sign of this person's existence?
Subaru: “...Did the first Roswaal die? If he did, then what about his descendant, the current
Roswaal? Is he from a different branch of the family?”
Theta: “He didn't die in battle, ers what I heard. From what I've seen of the memories he wers half-
dead, but he must'er managed ter narrowly hold onter life. Though he wersn't ever gonner recover
well enough ter live a normal life. ...After that, this first Roswaal who had supposedly reached the
peak in sorcery continued ter devote himself inter deeper and deeper studies erv magic, I hear.”
Theta knew the truth, and so surely she had once attempted ask about this. She must have been the
one who most wished to verify whether these memories about TRISTITIA were factual.
But seeing how her response is not very clear, it seems her efforts amounted to no success.
Subaru: “SANCTUARY's true purpose is to keep TRISTITIA away from Echidna. Lewes Meyer went
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along with Echidna's plots and sacrificed herself to protect SANCTUARY. ...Then the crystal's
creation of duplicates is something that came later...?”
Theta: “The ability ter generate duplicates is unnecessary fer a system only meant to create a
barrier. In all likelihood, yer right. The issue here is what could the motive be fer installing a
double-creating system afterwards.”
Subaru: “If it was Echidna who did it... then the motive'd be immortality. But if it was... then I have
no idea what she was thinking when she came up with the idea.”
What were Echidna's decisions, after she found Lewes Meyer sleeping in the crystal?
Echidna must know about TRISTITIA. Going off Theta's memories, that is definite. But, for knowing
about him, there's an incredible and compounding unnaturalness about her behaviour during her
dialogues with Subaru.
—This just-spawned, isolated awriness has its answer where, exactly?
Subaru: “I'm seriously still missing pieces for this?”
Gritting his teeth, Subaru thinks vexedly about the segments he's missing for this puzzle.
He scratches at his head, deciding to postpone the labour of finding the answer for the present. Now,
in the final part of Theta's story, the part which Subaru can't overlook is—
Subaru: “—Beatrice lost her friend at the end.”
Theta: “...She did.”
Lewes Meyer was a thing of awe. Beatrice was a thing of obstinance.

Perhaps Lewes Meyer had been unable to recognize that until the very end of the end, and Beatrice
had been unable to recognize that even in the final moment.
Lewes Meyer, now melded into the crystal. How greatly did her final, curselike exhibition of love
wound Beatrice's heart?
Was the consequence of this parting Beatrice, and her continued rejection of others for four hundred
years?
Subaru: “She lost someone in a painful way, so of course it'd scare her to hope again. ...I do get how
you're feeling.”
He has to remember Beatrice, rejecting Subaru's hand, pleading: Please let me die.
Her inability to have hope in others was because her four hundred years of isolation, and because
the starting impetus for her isolation—the memory of her parting with Lewes Meyer—left that deep
and cutting of a wound, then?
Finally, Subaru feels he understands why grieving Beatrice had become dependant on the existence
of Echidna's THEY, and why over a long span of time, her heart abraded.
The wound on Beatrice's heart, herself having lost her only friend, had remained forever as a scab.
Her meeting with THEY and fulfilment of Echidna's instructions should have healed the injury—but
with the progressing of an absurd passage of time, the thing festered with pus, and had practically
swollen to burst.
The girl felt herself at her limit.
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Subaru: “...Have the Lewes-sans ever met Beatrice?”
Theta: “Nerr, never. By the time us duplercates started being born, Beatrice-sama had stopped
coming over ter SANCTUARY, and she never visited again. The other doubles don't know abert the
memories, but I do, and my view says it's best we don't meet her.”
Subaru: “—”
Ultimately, Subaru does agree with Theta's thinking.

In the crystal there sleeps Lewes Meyer. Theta, a duplicate of her, shares the exact same appearance
as Lewes Meyer did back then. But Theta has no memories of interacting with Beatrice as Lewes
Meyer.
If Beatrice meets Theta and the other duplicates now, when the wound remains gaping open, all it
will bring about is anguish for her.
But—
Subaru: “It's essential that I have her meet you and the others.”
This is necessary to get the girl, present at the moment of SANCTUARY's creation and inheritor of
Lewes Meyer's wish, to start walking again.
Subaru: “Is it okay for me to think there's nothing else to why you hid the past so much that you
went into hiding?”
Theta: “...Yer fine. That's the whole erv it. There's the existence erv that strange warlock called
TRISTITIA who I saw in Lewes Meyer's memory. The thing existed, but that truth remains nowhere.
It's overwhelmingly odd, abnormal.”
Subaru: “Agree with you there. There has to be some trick to it, and to Echidna's attitude.”
Theta: “But anyway... right.”
Subaru furrows his brows as Theta cuts off, her casting her gaze down. She keeps her gaze away
from Subaru as she continues.
Theta: “If this SANCTUARY is Lewes Meyer's... if this is a place created by the wishes of our
progenitor, and this barrier was created by sacrificing her life—I have ter wonder what significance
it'd carry, ter break the barrier and liberate the place. I lacked the bravery for it.”
Subaru: “—”
Theta: “The times are the times. We're centuries separated from Lewes Meyer's era. The treatment
toward half-bloods, ostracized and despised in the generation where the WITCH OF ENVY's terror
wers most abundant, must'erv improved some by now. ...We're even getting people urging that we
ought to free the place, and set our sights fer the outside.”
Subaru: “...Naturally though, I'm not saying that everything will be great. Discrimination is still
around, here and goddamn there. And I'm sure there's going to be lots of unpleasant times even
should you leave. But.”
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Subaru recalls the happening at the palace.
Emilia, who had put her will and thoughts to words, and withstood the malevolence aimed at her.
A world where Emilia's ideals were achieved would be a world where the people of SANCTUARY
would be saved. Lewes Meyer's wish would be granted.
Subaru: “And once Emilia's achieved that, this ended SANCTUARY will begin again. Once
everything's worked out well, everyone will be able to call the entire world their SANCTUARY.”
Theta: “—”
Emilia would surely endeavour for it to happen. And although not entirely definite, at least half the
other Selection Candidates seemed like people who would also endeavour for that purpose.
There existed between people no superiority or inferiority surmisable by race.
There would surely come a time where this idea, a natural one to Subaru, would be favoured far and
wide.
Theta: “Fantasy. Comforting, pleasant words.”
Subaru: “They sure are. Got your heart wavering?”
Theta: “Working yer tongue on this senile old biddy, yer a bad boy, Su-bo.”
Stifling her chuckles in the back of her throat, an elderly air covers Lewes's young expression.
Subaru shrugs as he jokes around, Theta's face glorious.
Theta: “I'm interested in having those pleasant words coax me, and maybe that is me being a senile
old biddy.”
Subaru: “You're a girl, might be my dangerous allure getting you dizzy.”
Theta: “Pff,”
Subaru: “That is the first time any of the Lewes-sans has ever snorted a laugh at me!”
Hoisting both hands to the heavens, Subaru poses in defeat. Theta shakes her head at him before
setting her emptied cup on the table.
She looks up at the silver shields, crisscrossed on the wall.
Theta: “The world outside this SANCTUARY—and the time where its whole is a SANCTUARY.”
Subaru: “That time will come. And when it does, it's gonna be a waste staying holed up here. Cause
the biggest fun once we're done's gonna be us taking everyone who said we couldn't, and giving
them the finger.”
Overcoming something of which others have judged you incapable creates merit.
Battles, and challenges, adhere to that.
Their goal in their venture was a dream lacking limits, and that gave their struggle magnificence.
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Theta: “—Alright, Su-bo. I want you and Emilia-sama ter go along doing what yer like.”
Subaru: “Theta-san...”
Theta: “I'd decided from the start. That if yer were the one ter find me here, I'd tell the story and
leave the decision up ter yer. Yer heard the story, and yer still not thinking ter stop SANCTUARY's
freedom in the least... and yer also laughed off my unease.”
Subaru: “Not that I put on enough bravado to actually laugh it off, but yeah.”
Theta: “Even so, that's fine. Mm, it's fine.”
Dispelling something from her mind, Theta nods several times as she affirms Subaru's stance.
Subaru realises that Theta, having been stuck in the prison called this memory, which she could
never reveal to anyone over these many years, has finally reached out her hand.
Would she take the hand of another, and allow them to lead her outside? —That was the decision
she had entrusted to Subaru.
Subaru: “And so, there are no longer any Lewes-sans opposing SANCTUARY's freedom.”
Theta: “That's what it'd be. ...But this ers entirely something which only holds significance once
SANCTUARY has been freed, and the barrier comes undone. Nothing changes about the TRIAL's
conquering resting on Emilia-sama.”
Just when Subaru gives himself a relieved pat on the chest for eliminating one issue, Theta speaks.
Hearing her, Subaru's relaxed cheeks stiffen again.
He definitely had gotten somewhat lax after finding Theta. But the problems remain present and
unresolved.
He had found Theta before Garfiel could.

But he had not found Emilia yet.
Theta: “Yer definitely sure that Emilia-sama has a chance erv overcoming the TRIAL?”
Subaru: “I've taken the measures for it... or more like made her take it. But the medicine worked a
little too well and right now she's kinda sorta a missing persons case. We're hoping for a quick
resolution.”
Theta: “M-Missing persons!? Y-you're really certain this ers going to work, right!? If Emilia-sama
bungles after I jerst revealed this past, it's gonner be an undermining erv so much of my resolve!”
Subaru: “Your anxiety's sound and it's really hard for me to say anything, but... well, after hearing
your story, I thought of something.”
Lewes Meyer, who sacrificed her own life to save SANCTUARY.

Her self-sacrifice, as she prioritized others above herself to the very end, overlapped incredibly with
that girl—who infinitely suffered disadvantage as a result of prioritizing others first.
Even when undergoing compounding pain, repeats of agonizing experiences, her heart withered—
Subaru doubted she would lose sight of what people wanted from her, and what she must do.
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Subaru: “I have an idea of where she is.”
Theta: “—”
Subaru: “And even if that's not it, we searched frantically all around this cramped SANCTUARY. My
buddy should be half in tears right now, tumbling around the place. If all that isn't finding her, then
there's only one place we wouldn't find her.”
Seeing Subaru's conviction, a once-panicked Theta gives a deep sigh. She goes without
investigating into Subaru's idea as she speaks,
Theta: “If yer saying that yer'll find Emilia-sama, and she'll overcome the TRIAL... that'd make Gar-
bo the last gateway ter get through.”
Subaru: “Going from the fragments I got from Sigma-san, his past's about his goodbye with his
mother. You were in the tomb around the same time, Theta-san, so do you have any ideas?”
Theta: “Seeing that he doesn't want ter talk about his family, yes. Yer have how he fusses over me...
and he's enduring the thing with Frederica, too.”
Frederica and Garfiel's parting became something definite when Garfiel shook away Frederica's
hand as she left to journey in the outside world.
Garfiel stayed behind in SANCTUARY to protect the residents, who could not leave unlike quarter-
blooded Garfiel and Frederica, from potentially-existant threats.
—This coincided with Echidna's statement that Garfiel was afraid of the outside world.
Subaru: “Trauma from parting with his mom... huh. Maybe he hates the outside world? I mean I
kinda want him to help me out with something in the outside world, but.”
Theta: “Su-bo and Gar-bo standing shoulder ter shoulder... hm. Mm, that sounds good.”
As she thinks of Garfiel, Theta's smiling visage loses all youthful factors, plainly overflowing with
motherly compassion for her grandson.
Perhaps for the four doubles playing the role of Lewes, the emotion none of them entirely shared
but all commonly felt was a familial love for Garfiel.
And surely, Garfiel felt the same toward them.
Subaru: “...I need to see Emilia first.”
Preparations are proceeding along to deal with the worst-case scenario for the Garfiel Route.
Being that Subaru has contracted with Roswaal—that this has been established as one of Subaru's
requirements to win the bet—conversation with Garfiel is an unavoidable quandary.
Emilia prevailing over the TRIAL was something Roswaal had also deemed as impossible, and
Subaru must have Emilia overcome it on her own.
Having lost Puck, Emilia is missing her mental support. In exchange, she supposedly has lost the
CAP ON INCONVENIENT MEMORIES which is impeding her victory over the first TRIAL.
If things are going in line with Puck's ideas, then this should be what is happening. Once Emilia
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overcomes this and faces the TRIAL, she should be presented a different scene than what she has
been seeing thus far.
Will Emilia be able to give her solution?

—Natsuki Subaru's self-imposed role has been to do everything he can so that, even though he may
not be present, she will be able to give her answer at that moment, and proceed to be able from
thereon out.
Subaru: “I know you'll probably be wanting to support Garfiel right now, but Theta-san, can you
stay right here for a little bit? If he doesn't get too close to here and doesn't find you, then Garfiel's
distractable.”
Theta: “And while Gar-bo's attention's elsewhere, yer gonna get into yer nefarious plotting.”
Subaru: “Everyone's been saying what I'm doing's a 'nefarious plot' and a 'conspiracy' like it's
entirely an obvious thing to call it, but do I actually look like that kind of conniving scoundrel?”
Theta tilts her head but does not answer.

Feeling a badness about that silent reply, Subaru gives a sigh as he scratches his head.
Subaru: “Can I keep thinking that today's the scheduled day, and tomorrow's the reserve? If Emilia's
where I think she is, then the worries left are Garfiel and Roswaal.”
The bottleneck of these two people, who potentially will obstruct Subaru from achieving his win
conditions for SANCTUARY.
His plans with Otto to keep the bottleneck away are scrupulous. The problem is their timing for it,
their prep time, and the chances of it working.
The timing is sporadic. The more prep time they have, the more prep time they have. Their chances
increase in proportion to the goodness of their timing and length of their prep time. —It's an
obvious outcome, but it's the one they want.
Subaru: “Whether we're laughing or crying, we have to sort everything out within two days. We
can't mess up at the critical moment. ...Right, Theta-san?”
Theta: “Yer can look at me fer agreement, but I got nothing I can say. —It's when a man's face is
determined that yer've hit that time. I'll be waiting with expectations.”
While she does not go along with Subaru's ideas, Theta does affirm his volition.
That troubled smile of hers perhaps was the same one that Lewes Meyer had given time and time
again. Surely, this expression was one Beatrice had seen on many occasions.
Persuade Garfiel, support Emilia, and receive Beatrice.

The things he has to do, and obstacles in his way, are entirely too numerous.
The thick stormclouds still hang heavy, and he still hasn't found any clear-cut answer.
But despite it all, Subaru's heart mysteriously isn't downcast.
Because the things he has to do, and the things he wants to do, are the exact same things.
This present, where he can clearly see the walls he needs to tear down—no matter how difficult it
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will be—is so much better compared to before, when he was lost on what he needed to do.
Finally, the preparations are in place for him to reach out to this insubstantial thing called fate.
Subaru pulls his cheeks taut with his hands, a peal ringing out as he psychs himself up.
Lewes's eyes widen. He smiles at her as he gives a light wave and heads for the building's exit.
With his hand on the door, he glances back as if just remembering something, and says:
Subaru: “Actually, Lewes Meyer spoke in a normal way for her age, so how come you duplicates
talk like grannies, Theta-san? Something to do with crafting your persona?”
Lewes: “What in the werld er yer saying. —I'm talking plenty normal fer my age.” With
an indignant snort, Theta puts her hands to her hips as she puffs out her flat chest.
Calling it normal for her age when she looked like that was surely, entirely impossible.
While thinking of the girl in her dress, who would never mature no matter what time passed, Subaru
exits the building—bathes in the wind.
His mood still someways sunny, to face the final challenge.
—Natsuki Subaru's fight to end SANCTUARY, and begin SANCTUARY, begins.
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CHAPTER 105: THE MERCHANT'S TRAP
Garfiel: “—”
Scrunching his nose, the sudden awriness leads Garfiel to stop moving.
His body had been wind as he sprinted great steps over the earth, him now slamming the breaks on
his travel. He jams his right foot into the soft dirt, dust clouds billowing as he stoops his posture
low, turns his head to and fro.
Sniffing and scrutinising the scents in the air, Garfiel is inside the forest surrounding SANCTUARY.
He has been dashing around within the scope of the barrier, searching for the missing Lewes.
He has already checked all the places he thought she might have been, pumped his legs more times
than he can hope to guess, in search of her small, familiar form.
The acceleration of his heartbeat originates from the panic that this sense of foreboding provokes.
Garfiel senses that a development which is horrifically inconvenient for him is unfurling. Outsiders
have been pushing their weight around inside SANCTUARY, and even LEWES is acting different from
usual—she didn't even consult with Garfiel before making her decision.
Garfiel: “These fucking... what the shit is happenin'!?”
Clawing at his short, blond hair, Garfiel traces his finger over the white scar on his forehead.
It was Garfiel's habit to touch this injury when he was confused, when he was lost, when his heart
was close to losing its calm. It was something of a trigger, to stabilize his mind.
Tracing his finger over the scar always made him remember when he got it. And remembering the
time where he sustained this lifelong wound, where he was at his most foolish, let him regain his
composure.
Many people who know this character named Garfiel judged him as being quick-tempered, and the
possessor of a crude personality. That appraisal resulted from his usual conduct and attitude, his
appearance and so on, but actually that judgement would be a mistake.
The character named Garfiel Tinzel was unexpectedly coolheaded and determined, perpetually
urging himself to think.
This too resulted from Garfiel's creed—for he knew that brute strength alone would not be enough
to see his beliefs through, and had indeed keenly realised such.
What did he need to know, need to do, to fulfil his wish? Garfiel allocated all his focus into
considering these questions, and such was how he fostered his obstinate credo.
However—
Garfiel: “And even with all that... why th'fuck is goddamn everybody goin' round doin' whatever
th'shit they like... hk,”
Garfiel howls—in frustration, in agony, his sharp canines bared.

Indeed, the situation had continuously strayed from what Garfiel intended. And because his
stubborn beliefs are the basis for his ideas when he thinks ahead, Garfiel is hideously weak when it
comes to flexible thinking.
Garfiel infinitely possessed only one solution, one stance in regards to SANCTUARY.
And even supposing that the track to reach that answer split into countless branches, it alone
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remained the point he would never concede on. And so he felt that he had paid heed to all the
branches he could conceive.
But Lewes's independent activity and the outsiders' undercover operations had not been included in
those possible considerations.
And sadly, although Garfiel never stopped thinking, nothing meant that had experienced anything
that made him superior to others, or made him especially wiser than any normal person. He was
merely frantic, desperate, and only that.
Taking a deep sniff, Garfiel narrows his golden eyes.

The light fuzz on his back stands on end, confident that he has caught the scent, as he fleetly bends
his legs to leap—and resumes his migration. His feet land on the branches of trees as he uses their
snap-back elasticity to get higher, to go faster, to soar freely through the foliage, chasing after the
scent.
Garfiel: “Group'v 'em... hell're they planning, huh!?”
Clicking his teeth, Garfiel roars as he puts his irritation to sound.

The bellow he looses is close to that of a feline beast, his eyes filled with rage.
What Garfiel scented was the stench of excessively many living beings. The stench of sweat, the
stench of trodden grass and dirt, the stench of tension seeping out from anxious human bodies, the
stench, the stench, the stench—
This was perfectly the stench of a mass migration of humans.

The dense smells numbered to over ten, closer to fifty. The possibilities of that high a quantity, at
this exact timing, migrating in the present SANCTUARY belonged to only one group.
—The evacuees from the village near Roswaal's mansion.
The bunch who'd evacuated here to escape danger. What where they planning, acting in ingratitude
and starting to move at this timing?
Garfiel: “That, son of a bitch... fuckin' pissin' around with me!”
What skims though Garfiel's mind is the sight of boy who Garfiel intensely disliked—a boy with
short black hair.
He was a character with sharp eyes in opposition to his conspicuously frivolous, blithe attitude. But
despite that, he was also a man with a gaze that was occasionally lucid and piercing, as if he had
seen right through Garfiel.
That look of his, as if he were here but looking elsewhere, reminded Garfiel of another man that he
disliked. Inevitably he loathed it.
And this man who he disfavoured even in peaceable times had unmistakably perpetrated this.
This sudden migration of the refugees was obviously happening because that guy stirred them up.
For some reason these evacuees placed exorbitant trust in the boy.
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He had no strength, no special powers to be seen, and seemed only proficient at insincere prattle. As
far as Garfiel cared he was the most loathsome, stupid, weak, and selfish breed of creature in the
world.
Garfiel has to find himself thinking that truly, he should have dealt with him sooner.
There were multiple chances for it, and he was so incredibly open—but his resolve to face pain
alone possessed something unnerving, eerie, and inadvertently Garfiel wound up holding back.
His reward for his hesitation was this present predicament.
And most importantly he had been made to lose sight of what he should most prioritize—his family,
Lewes—as the mob threatening SANCTUARY's peace went off doing whatever the hell they liked.
No matter what, he had to keep the evacuees from exiting the barrier.
It would've been a different thing a few days ago, but the situation has changed.
Garfiel: “Fuckin' prick knows that granny ain't normal.”
There is a crystal in the place that Garfiel calls a test site, that Lewes calls the progenitor room,
where the forbearer for Garfiel's family member Lewes, Lewes Meyer, sleeps.
Honestly, Garfiel doesn't harbour much interest in that crystal.

The girl sleeping in the crystal looks identical to his family, but if her insides are different, then
she's something entirely separate. If on the topic of beings which look the same but have differing
insides, then Garfiel would already know the existence of over twenty Leweses.
It was impossible for Garfiel to feel the same love and attachment for each individual Lewes, and he
didn't intend to try, either.
Garfiel possessed the right to command the duplicates who shared the same face as his
grandmother.
And Garfiel would not shirk from utilizing that privilege. That he regardless endeavours not to use
the command right results from Garfiel's own disposition.
Teaming up with others and ordering people around was nothing to Garfiel's liking. Doll-like
creatures which followed his instructions without complaint annoyed him indescribably.
Those were the only sentiments Garfiel held about the girl in the crystal.
He possessed no further emotions about her. And while Garfiel did think himself broad-minded, he
did not consider himself someone with wide reach.
There had always been little he could give. Two arms, two legs, one body.
What he could present was limited, and necessity existed for him to limit who he presented to.
And so, Garfiel would only give what he could to those who he favoured.
Garfiel: “'N so... 'F y'think my amazin' self's gonna be cordial t'all yer fucks, that's yer
misunderstandin' it perfectly, a rookie's assumption.”
He kicks hard off the trunk of a tree, leaping above the forest.
Garfiel hugs his knees as he spins through the air, leaves swirling up in his wake as he makes
incredible touchdown. The earth caves in beneath his feet, the roars of ground dragons pealing out
from between the trees.
The impact from his landing courses over the earth. Garfiel slowly straightens his back.
That he scrunches his nose is not because he is scenting anything, but because he is furious. He
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clicks his neck, rattles his pointed teeth, his eyes sharp and wrathful as he glares ahead.
Standing before Garfiel is a line of two carriages.

The dragons pulling the carriages are shocked by Garfiel and his murderous presence, going into a
state of extreme agitation as the coachman frantically calls out to calm them.
The coachman is a familiar character to Garfiel.
Garfiel: “Just when'm wonderin' who it is, turns out it's th'wimpy guy. Ha! Suppose 's only what
yer'd expect, yer are the chief in gettin' led around by that asshole.”
???: “That statement is very... no, nevermind, I know all too well what people's opinions of me are.”
Garfiel plunges his hands into his trouser pockets, as the coachman—a troubled-looking man with
longish grey hair who is named Otto, gives him a wry smile.
Otto controls the reins skilfully, beautifully calming the upset dragons down as he sighs.
Garfiel: “What, y'think it ain't no big thing? 'F my amazin' self got serious 'bout threatenin' 'em,
wouldn't be weird fer yer freaked dragons t'vegone runnin' off n' outter control.”
Otto: “And so was the vigorous persuasion to keep that from happening. And furthermore, I'd
already informed them beforehand that you'd likely be coming.”
Garfiel: “Eh—?”
Garfiel's ears twitch as he listens to Otto's important statement.

His fingers reach out to touch his forehead scar without his notice as he steps forward, intending to
question Otto as to his motives.
Garfiel: “Whatter yer mean with that? Yer fuckin' came here thinkin' yer'd use th'ruckus t'escape
outta here, then my amazin' self found you n' now yer glarin'ly blocked. Ain't that what goddamn
happened here?”
Otto: “Indeed, it would be. Taking advantage of sudden troubles while thinking to secure the
greatest profits is orthodox for us merchants. But just when I'd been promised a considerable
reward, and had been intending to succeed in this without any incident...”
Garfiel: “...”
Otto buries his face in his hands, his schemes ruined. But, perceiving a kind of calmness in both
Otto's gestures and words leads Garfiel into confusion.
This is not the attitude of someone whose big plans have been crushed. In fact, is this disposition of
Otto's not entirely identical to Roswaal's, when having someone play right into his hands?
Garfiel: “Yer face n'yer attitude... look exactly th'same 's the asshole I hate most.”
Otto: “That would be yet another horrendous opinion of me, but... for reference's sake, would you
mind me asking who you are referring to? Since I'd like to establish good relations with yourself
from now on.”
Garfiel: “Ha! You, n' my amazin' self? 'M gonna goddamn snigger, moron. —The asshole my
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amazin' self hates most 's loungin' 'n th'nicest room n' SANCTUARY, gettin' waited on professionally
even now, this very second.”
Otto: “I see, very much understood. When the one you have feelings for is so enraptured by a rival
in love, I'm sure it must be difficult for you. I sympathise thoroughly with your plight.”
Garfiel: “I got no goddamn problems with usin' muscle t'shut yer loose mouth.”
Garfiel clicks his tongue in annoyance as Otto mocks his feelings for Ram.
And truly, Garfiel could use his muscles to overturn this situation. This flight of the evacuees ended
in failure the moment that Garfiel found out about it.
They are not getting outside. But so long as they refrain from attempting to force themselves out
anyway, Garfiel doubts there is any need for violence.
What he has to do right now is settle this problem down swiftly, and return to SANCTUARY.
His priorities are entirely to preserve SANCTUARY, and this present problem is undoubtedly just
surplus.
Garfiel: “Anyway, as of now yer escape plan's failed. 'F that son of a bitch's here get him out. I'm
makin' him apologize for pullin' th's stupid fucking bullshit, n' dependin' what he says he might
havet'a see some pain.”
Garfiel needed to have him clear some of this resentment pooled up in his gut.
And additionally, it was necessary for Garfiel to know what that boy—what Natsuki Subaru—was
thinking in pulling this.
He had blustered that he would beat the TRIAL and free SANCTUARY only a couple days ago.
Even saying he had lost heart, it was happening excessively quickly. Said more frankly, it was an
excessive lack of willpower.
Garfiel would take those screwy ideas of his, slap them into better order, and—
Otto: “Ah, well I truly am sorry, but I'm afraid I cannot even attempt to observe your request.”
Garfiel: “Eh?”
Otto: “Haven't you noticed? I am presently wearing an identical face to that of the man you detest
most in the world. Then surely must you not consider this the face of someone liable to do
something that that detested person is liable to do?”
Garfiel: “—”
Indirect and roundabout, Garfiel cannot perceive the intent of Otto's statement.
But Garfiel does judge these statements as ones that he must not ignore. Most importantly, wearing
the same face as the man Garfiel hates—the same face as Roswaal—means planning something and
trying to jangle people around in the palm of your hand.
Garfiel: “...Fuck're you plannin', oi.”
Otto: “Indeed, about that. If I'm to speak while wearing the face that you and I both know, then I'd
suppose you'd call it a nefarious plot?”
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Otto rubs his nose as he speaks, his expression one of being influenced by something bad. Garfiel
narrows his eyes, only now noticing the strangeness of this scene.
There are two carriages before him, two dragons, and Otto. —But upon the driver's platform for the
rear carriage, there sits no coachman.
Or no. The full extent was far greater than that.
Garfiel: “How come, even when th'dragons got that damn freaked n' jolted the carriages, none'f
th'bastards inside're showin' up?”
Otto: “Now, why could it be?”
Otto shrugs as he plays stupid, doing nothing to stop pale-faced Garfiel from approaching the
carriages. Garfiel nimbly hops onto the carriage's rear, and wrenches the door to the passenger car
open.
Witnessing the scene in the carriage, Garfiel gives a shrill click of his teeth.
Otto: “—You realise that there's nobody inside?”
Garfiel: “Look'n 's fuckin' obvious...hk. Th'fuck is going on! My amazin' nose smelled th'stink'v a
bunch of people inside these moving carriages, 'n—!”
Spit flying as he steps into the passenger car, Garfiel aborts his sentence halfway.
At his feet, where he has tread into the car, there is sprawled a pile of clothes. Many clothes. Men's,
women's, adults' and children's all dumped here together—and seeing it, Garfiel recognize that his
nose has been deceived by a remarkably simple trick, his cheeks twisting.
Garfiel: “By this stupid, children's dupe...!”
Otto: “Around this time, the other carriages which departed late from locations separate to these two
will be aiming to escape SANCTUARY. Not even your legs will be able to catch up with them in
time.”
Garfiel: “From other places? Th'fuck're you sayin'. It ain't fuckin' easy t'fuckin' run away from here
without usin' this forest path, this road! Th'joke here is they get lost 'long thway, and my amazin'
nose catches them. Y'don't even fuckin' know that I can cross th'barrier.”
Otto: “You're correct, there is a lot that I do not know about your capabilities. However.”
Garfiel alights from the carriage, standing to face Otto. Garfiel's chest burns with panicked
impatience as Otto approaches.
Otto: “I doubt you know about me, either.”
Garfiel: “—”
Otto: “You are the type to pay no heed to people like myself. You are the type which most detests
people such as me and Natsuki-san, who are proficient only in prattle. And so you paid no mind to
the actions I have taken thus far, and neglected to realise what it is I have done here.”
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Garfiel: “Fuck're, you goin' on about?”
Otto: “I mean to say that I did not walk around the forest and spend late nights in the stables with
the dragons over the past few days without purpose. I have uncovered escape routes which do not
rely upon this road, and thoroughly instructed them.”
Otto hoists up both his arms, his expression triumphant.

Garfiel's sharp eyes widen. His mouth gapes open.
Instructed. Instructed who? The drivers of the carriages? That doesn't really connect with what he's
saying. He spent time in the stables talking to the dragons? Is that what he's trying to say?
If this is true, then,
Garfiel: “Yer really are that bastard's accessory...”
Otto: “Wheh!? I am having some trouble agreeing with your methods of agreeing at me!”
Garfiel gives a sympathetic gaze as Otto kicks up a noisy fuss. This is familiar behaviour from him,
the kind of thing he's always doing when Garfiel spots him around SANCTUARY.
This entirely normal behaviour is indeed, in this context, abnormal.
Garfiel: “Either way, yer goin' back inside now. I'm gonna be findin' th'others n'draggin' them over.”
Otto: “They've dispersed in separate directions, to keep that from happening. It is impossible for
you to catch them. But if you nevertheless intend to run and capture them, I've been told to tell you
this: —The evacuees know nothing about the truth of SANCTUARY or about Lewes-san. You lose
nothing by letting them flee. ...How do you find that?”
Garfiel: “Ain't you just fuckin' great at the groundwork.”
The message is almost unmistakably from Subaru.

He had seen entirely through why Garfiel did not want people to leave. The feeling of being more
and more entangled in another's plots does detonate Garfiel's irritation, but indeed, he has lost
reason to go chasing after the evacuees.
Garfiel: “'F what yer sayin's real fact, yeah.”
Otto: “Truly suspicious, aren't you? I will state that we—and that includes Natsuki-san—do not
want to worsen relations with the people of SANCTUARY. In fact, we would like to elect for
liberation while having preserved friendly relations... and I must wonder whether the thing
impeding a mutually cordial relationship is yourself.”
Garfiel: “...Whatever, I ain't thinking t'make friends er get'n th'way even 'n th'slightest. So long's
we're talkin' bout the inside.”
Otto: “So staunch in your opinions.”
Garfiel: “This's the only thing I ain't ever givin' up.”
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Otto's face is one of astonishment as Garfiel gives a heavy sigh.
But, even though he's displayed suspicion about it, Garfiel judges that the message is probably
truthful. There's the fact that he purposefully bothered to give the warning, but moreso if we're
talking about Subaru—who recognized Garfiel's reasoning for wanting to keep people inside—then
for him to keep the evacuees from possessing information liable to hinder their escape was logical.
Garfiel: “But, still. 'F that's it, then... I don't get why he's trying so hard t'get them outside
SANCTUARY that he's pulling these tricks n' monkey business. If he's doin' it 'cause he think's they're
gonna get injured stayin' inside, that sure ain't puttin' any trust in people yer wanna be friends with,
huh.”
Otto: “Assuming hypothetically that that is the case, what an impressive statement that is to hear
from the one most likely to lead the charge. I too had my questions about it, but according to
Natsuki-san, this is reliable insurance. And also, I'd say it works for purposes of buying time.”
Garfiel: “—”
The moment Garfiel hears the words 'buying time', his expression stiffens.
What was the significance of the term 'buying time' in this situation? Garfiel's tongue wets his lips.
Garfiel: “What fuckin', nasty plots're you...”
Otto: “Ensuring that a man and a woman will be alone together with no insects intruding on them,
I'd suppose.”
Otto shakes his head, his expression one of exhaustion, but also one of accomplishment.
Garfiel moves to refute him, ask what the fuck he's pissing around about, but seeing that expression
makes him stop. That was not the face of somebody telling a lie.
Meaning that he is speaking the truth. And the man and woman he means practically have to be
Emilia and Natsuki Subaru.
Garfiel: “—”
Intuitively, Garfiel realises that these two must not be allowed to meet.
The beastman blood coursing through his veins senses something instinctively.
He springs his head back up, turning to glance toward the village.
If he leaves Subaru and Emilia alone to interact with each other, that will cause the worst of
situations for Garfiel. SANCTUARY's liberation will be achieved, and—
Garfiel: “—”
There's no way they can do it, says Garfiel's rationality.

He himself had witnessed Emilia, overwhelmed by the harshness of the TRIAL, her spirit broken.
And yesterday she had lost some mental support of hers, lessening her strength even further.
Could that girl, her heart so incredibly abraded and kneeling before a nightmare, truly get back on
her feet after only a couple days?
But his instincts scream that he must sprint over there and stop them.
The PAST shown in the TRIAL. Garfiel knew the pasts differed, but the common point between them
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was that they would unseal the lid on the challenger's most unpleasant memory.
Garfiel had ignorantly stepped into that tomb, and been forced to see the PAST.
When he thought back on that event he would go pale, and some unbearable and hollow thing
would seep into his heart.
After that he had lived constantly thinking to be strong, so strong that he would never betray his
decisions. That was how wounding a thing the TRIAL was on the heart of the challenger, cutting,
deep, gouging.
Garfiel: “Situation's changed. My amazin' self's gettin' back to SANCTUARY right this instant. I gotta
find th'two yer talking about, make them change their minds immediately, or else...”
Otto: “Do you believe that I will simply let you escape from under me?”
Garfiel: “—”
Just as Garfiel turns to head for the village, Otto calls him to a stop.
But Garfiel's response is a stern one.
Otto: “—Oueg, ghuh”
Garfiel: “Shut up, take a nap. I ain't got the time t'be playin' with you.”
Closing the distance with one step, Garfiel drives his fist into Otto's stomach.
He avoids the bones, boring into Otto's guts. He goes flying, dribbling as he is hurled away to hit
the ground.
Garfiel had gone easy on him. He had put in too much force to just be stealing Otto's consciousness,
but considering this a repayment for how beautifully he had been swindled, he was actually being
lenient.
Garfiel clicks his tongue at the prone Otto before digging his sole into earth, and—
Otto: “—Now where do you, think you're going?”
—Just when he intends to start running, he stops.

A dumbstruck Garfiel glances back. His gaze lands on Otto, standing.
With his hand to his stomach, coughing up spit, but nevertheless not unconscious.
Garfiel: “Fuck? Not that I was tryin' t'kill you, but I ain't got any memory'v throwin' a punch so
weak it wouldn't knock yer out, oi!”
Otto: “Really, don't you? Then, it would seem my endurance has exceeded your powers of
imagination. Ahh... stern and daily work-outs truly did have benefit. ...A merchant's body is their
capital, and so there is nothing greater than, being in health...”
Seeing Otto laugh in pain, the foreboding that Garfiel feels leads him to properly turn around.
He would strike again, and shear away his consciousness.
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All he has to do is go harsher than last time, and aim for the head. This is highly likely to leave
damage, but it will surely knock him out.
Garfiel: “'S gonna hurt more this time, y'better grit yer teeth'n—”
Otto: “You're still attempting to end this by going easy on me? That contempt is why you will lose!”
Garfiel leans forward, stooping his posture low, when Otto screams.
He glares at Garfiel with bloodshot eyes, swinging his limp arms up with all the strength he can
muster.
The next instant, a screen of up-flung leaves obstructs Garfiel's vision, birthing a momentary
opening.
Garfiel: “Th', f—!?”
Hit with a spur of the moment happening, Garfiel winds up freezing, going still.
And—
Otto: “Eat this!!”
Simultaneous to Otto's piercing shriek, through the curtain of twirling leaves does that thrown
object rip, glow—
—For a light of blazing red to consume Garfiel.
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CHAPTER 106: OTTO SWEIN
Grimacing at the crackling heat on his skin, Garfiel violently kicks a pile of nearby leaves.
Garfiel: “Fuckin' thanks for th'gift, huh.”
Garfiel's mutter is one of irritation, but also one of honest praise.

Contempt will be your undoing, the man had declared. And his statement was irrefutable fact.
Garfiel had unmistakably, thinking Otto had not a speck of combat ability, underestimated him.
Garfiel: “Fire spellstone... what's he plottin', using one that ain't threatenin'?”
A momentary, sight-obstructing curtain of fire.

For a single instant it had singed his petrified body before disappearing. Garfiel reflects on the
thing, annoyed.
It was a lark of an attack. It did sting his skin slightly—but it amounted to nothing more than
sunburn, far removed from any prospects of damage.
But there is one thing he can state clearly.
Garfiel: “'F that hit'd been a deadlier one, not even my amazin' self wouldda gotten out
unscathed...”
His opponent had forced him to circumvent something which should have been fatal.
What to call that except being shown mercy? An opponent who he had held back on, and failed to
knock unconscious, had turned around and slugged him.
And with that, Garfiel is overwhelmingly wretched, foolish.
Garfiel: “He's goddamn fucking with me!”
What's even more annoying is that his opponent had entirely ignored Garfiel, attention pilfered by
the flames, and instantaneously chosen to run. Garfiel's late reaction to the resolute deed, which
paid no heed in the least to prospects of attack, meant he had completely lost sight of Otto.
Soft dirt. Piled leaves. For an environment which should be unfamiliar to him, he certainly did
manage to get away skilfully. This agrees with his statements about walking around the forest at
night.
Nevertheless, if this turns into a genuine chase scene, then there is no way he will escape Garfiel.
Every ten steps that Otto runs is a distance that Garfiel can close in two. That's how great the racial
difference in physical ability is between them.
But even this, Otto had cleverly compensated for.
Garfiel: “—Ghgg! What, hell is!? This... augh! Fuck, my nose's broke!”
The instant that Garfiel sniffs in an attempt to pursue Otto, an intense, painful stench spears his
nostrils. Garfiel's inhale had been incredibly deep—and he wrenches back, shaking his head at the
sting, so intense that his vision strobes.
Garfiel looks, to find sitting there in the spot where Otto had been standing, a transparent bottle. A
colourless liquid flows from the uncapped thing, and Garfiel perceives that this is where the rancid
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odour originates. But that is the limit of what his nose will tell him.
Garfiel: “Asshole... bet he thinks he's fuckin' won, sealin' off my nose.”
Baring his fangs, his options steadily being cut off, Garfiel voices his anger.
Just how many Anti-Garfiel tactics has Otto come up with? Every step of the way, these plans have
suppressed Garfiel perfectly.
Garfiel: “—”
Touching his forehead scar, Garfiel takes a ragged breath as he undergoes his ritual to calm himself.
He takes a deep breath to settle his heart and lungs, wrangling his sense before his fury can drown
it. Thinking is not a faculty which will trigger any more of Otto's traps.
Why was Otto throwing himself into this reckless battle?
And actually, this situation where Otto is challenging Garfiel is already weird.
His objective is to buy time—to pull Garfiel's attention onto himself, allowing over that period for
the evacuees to escape along disparate routes.
If Otto's statements are true, then indeed, there is no way that Garfiel will be able to stop all the
carriages now.
The idea to utilize the command right and have the Lewes doubles chase them crosses Garfiel's
mind, but being that he does not know exactly where each of the carriages departed from, the effort
will amount to nothing.
The doubles lack knowledge and experience, and can only succeed in executing very broad
commands.
And furthermore the girls would not even eat meals regularly unless instructed, and should they hit
their limit inside the forest, they would shrink up into little balls as they attempted to abandon life.
Going to the frantic effort of finding them before they could disappear was yet another prospect
Garfiel was sick and tired of.
Garfiel: “N'th'end, only thing I can count on's my amazin' self. Ha! Just like always.”
He is lacking in moves. His nose is suppressed.

But nevertheless Garfiel takes no pessimistic view. What he has is this tempered and strong body.
More than enough power remains in him to run through the forest, and achieve his goal.
Regardless of whatever Otto's objective is, he has been opposing Garfiel. Surely he was resolved to
earn Garfiel's umbrage, and to have claws and fangs borne at him.
Garfiel has stopped disdaining Otto as being nothing more than simple prey.
He deems him as a catch which requires the utmost in effort, absolutely to be cornered and slain.
—Garfiel fails to notice that the instant he is thinking like this, it means he has already forgotten his
initial goal, and is being wheedled into Otto's plans.
Garfiel: “Sure're behavin' good, y'two. 'S another thing that bastard instructed yer... 's the crap he's
seriously fuckin' sayin'.”
Just before moving to enter the forest in pursuit of Otto, Garfiel turns his head, his sight landing on
the carriages.
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Two dummy vehicles, feigning a flight of evacuees. But that said, the two earth dragons heading the
carriages are legitimate, and they have been seated there ever since the start of Garfiel and Otto's
dialogue, keeping entirely out of the issue.
Garfiel: “Yer make a bad move, n's possible my amazin' self'll hurt ya, huh? Clever of yer. But
actually, ain't that I wanner do any unnecessary kills at all.”
Shaking his head, Garfiel passes the dragons as he again reaches out for the passenger car.
A great number of clothes had been piled inside the car to fool Garfiel's nose into thinking the
villagers were here. Garfiel had dropped the issue after confirming that, but perhaps he should take
another look around.
Garfiel's foot nudges the messy scattering of clothes out of the way as he gazes over the seats and
walls. Nothing particularly stands out, and just when he moves to end the search and alight the
carriage—
Garfiel: “—Eh?”
As he turns around, there hidden on the rear side of the carriage door, is something pasted to its
face.
The white paper flutters in the wind, placed in a position where it is only visible from inside.
—Feeling a sense of foreboding, Garfiel marches to door, tearing the fluttering thing off and
unfurling it in his hands.
<—If you are so completely in the palm of my hands, then doing this was worthwhile.>
Reading the message, Garfiel's vision flashes to furious crimson.
The next instant—the seats of the carriage overturn as a black bundle inside this cramped space
explodes. Beneath the gale-force buzz of the swarming insects' wings, Garfiel's roar drowns to
nothing.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—When Otto Swein was young, for him the world was a cradle of hell.
???: “—”
???: “×××××××××”
???: “※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※”
???: “*********************!*!*”
Perpetual and indefinite, Otto's ears kept hearing words arcane to him.
He would sit dazedly on the floor while, spoken as proximate whispers, otherwise as faraway
shouts, sometimes as lilting songs, elsewise as shrieking deaths, the world constantly inflicted Otto
with its connection.
No matter where he went in the world, the voices chased Otto without end.
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Days and days without reprieve. The eternal echo of this discordant chorale. This cacophony, this
entirely unhelpful infernal concerto, remained constantly attendant at Otto's side.
—How does everyone live in this noisy world like it's nothing?
This was the question Otto held, amid a hell where he could not properly understand the speech of
those around him.
His parents would hold him close, and alongside their smile, fling some kind of words at him. But
regardless of how great a love these words abounded in, the clamour and dissonance would
consume them, never allowing them to reach Otto's ears.
His parents noticed their son's abnormality, and immediately took him to see a doctor. Wouldn't
laugh, wouldn't anger, wouldn't cry. His absolute failure to foster any emotional expression owed
to the fact that Otto perceived all external influences as being exactly identical.
Thus, to the point that it worried his parents, Otto spent his infancy as an emotionless human being.
Perhaps call it fortune that the Swein household was a merchant family, and preserved a middle
class standard of life, with more than enough savings to send their son to and from the doctor's.
But no doctor could find anything physically wrong with Otto. Of course not. If one were to name
Otto's condition, it was assuredly deafness resultant from excessive noise.
A brother two years his elder, and a brother two years his junior. Unlike Otto, his siblings passed
their days as healthy children, growing up heartily alongside their parents' love. Their parents'
attention toward Otto steadily thinned as love proportioned for three people was instead allocated to
two, distancing Otto from his parents' warmth.
Otto held no grudge or jealousy for his brothers or about his parents. For one thing he hadn't
fostered neither the negative nor positive emotions of hatred or finding things enviable, but moreso,
even though Otto generally would not understand what they were saying, his brothers would
interact with him patiently. He thought his parents' mental exhaustion inevitable.
Otto didn't know, had he been in his brothers' position back then, whether he would've been capable
of being so insistently kind to such a strange family member. So in fact he was grateful to them.
Sounds may not reach him, but written word did allow for communication.
It was his elder brother who both discovered this, and attempted to read books aloud for Otto.
Learning to read and write was naturally the ultimate in difficult tasks.
He could not register the sounds needed to comprehend the words. For Otto to understand what a
sequence of words meant took him ten times longer than ordinary children.
But that said, he found no suffering in that. Quite sadly, the sensibility required to find things
agonising was absent in Otto, and children incapable of proper lifestyles lacked in daily activities.
<—Thank you, for everything.>
After he wrote and showed his parents this message, they hugged him, tears streaming down their
faces. Otto still remembers it vividly.
Though he did not clearly understand what gratitude was, he had been treated in a manner where he
ought to do this. That was the decision his young self had made, and after having the words he
wrote out of obligation be judged in this manner, a wave formed in Otto's heart.
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—That might have been the first time since his birth that he cried himself hoarse, screaming.
Supposing it was, then that makes it Otto's second birth wail.
???: “Thiydnyityitkauoubibibibibi”
???: “カモカカモモヵモカヘカカカモヘカカムモモ”
???: “miii miii muuu miii meeh miii miii”
It happened immediately after Otto's second birthing cry that he discovered a faint consistency
within the hellish and once-arcane chorus.
The chaotic noises of this din assaulting his ears could, little by little, be progressively screened and
removed according to Otto's own volition.
It was around Otto's eighth birthday that he became capable of perfectly separating himself from the
ambient noises at will.
Otto was practically a healthy child now, and as if pouring water into an arid desert, he greedily
consumed everything he could.
He had already had to forsake learning what most children did in their first eight years of life. Also
had he endeavoured over his time-consuming studies to learn reading and writing, but nevertheless
his comprehension level was inferior to children his age. Using the weapon so called
'concentration', Otto shortened that gap in one fell swoop.
Otto Swein's sleeping talent, here, bloomed.

He was on par even with his brothers. Or no, his comprehension level and thinking ability surpassed
them. Otto with his exceptional ability to learn then steadily joined the ranks of his peers,
distinguishing himself among them and he—
—Magnificently made repeated blunders at human relations and was entirely friendless.
Otto: “How does everyone live in this difficult world like it's nothing?”
Muttered Otto as he hugged his knees, his face red and swollen from the slap of a girl he was
interested in.
At ten years old, Otto was working diligently in his studies, so as not to shame himself as a
merchant's son. Environments where one could receive a proper education from youth onwards
were not so common in this era. He unmistakably lived in blessed circumstances, spending ideal
days alongside his peers.
The problem here was Otto's methods of emotional expression and mental age, both of which were
seven years immature compared to other children his age.
Otto had neglected to make the mistakes that many children naturally did, and now that he was
capable of them, he was naturally making those same mistakes. However, most of those blunders
were forgiveable because they were committed even when young for children, and when an Otto
who had already passed the majority of that life period perpetrated them, it resulted entirely in
things only describable with the word 'perpetrated'.
And even less fortunately, Otto Swein was a boy blessed with bad luck.
Have his parents tell the story, and Otto's misfortune begins immediately at post-partum, when he
almost drowned during his first bath. And despite this being entirely unintentional he would always
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get dropped, get hit with bird excrement, almost drown in vases, generally his life was one
constantly beset by misfortune.
He had lacked awareness about the fact because he had failed to foster any sense of what misfortune
felt like.
Looking back on his past after having fostered that sensation, Otto shuddered at his own history.
What on earth was it that made a person spend their days so absolutely disowned by fortune?
???: “big one, went. now, just went. its gone.”

???: “shining, shinied, shine is, passing, shiny, shiny, shining,”
???: “hey, bad thing's coming. hey, bad thing's coming.”
It was around this time that a change occurred in those noises which Otto could now shut out.
The chorus, once entirely bereft of any meaning, had become meaningful.
Its majority was things where he even though he understand what it said, he did not understand
what it meant—but, after running around in an effort to transform confusion into comprehension,
Otto discovered the true nature of the hell from his infancy.
Apparently, he could communicate with non-human creatures.

Eleven years after its manifestation, this power later to be discerned as the BLESSING OF
XENOGLOSSY, had finally been recognized by Otto Swein.
What happened next was that Otto, interested in learning the limits of this gift bestowed to him,
ventured all around town as he tested his blessing. Over repeated sessions of trial and error, he
discovered that the more intelligent the creature, the clearer their messages would be.
He spoke with the family's pet ground dragon in presence of his brothers, and revealed that he had
possessed the blessing since his infancy.
Brother: “Right, okay. Right. ...Um, so... Otto. That power is, erhm, it's something. Right, it's really
something and... well, you know. Don't use it where anyone can see you.”
Possessing a blessing meant being blessed by the world, but not everyone welcomed possessors of
such powers. It was one thing if the blessing benefited many people, but Otto's ability only applied
to himself, and his young mind could think of many ways to use it for misdeeds.
Indeed, Otto could agree with his concerned elder brother's opinion.
After making a promise with his brother, whose face was pale and gaze averted, Otto resolved not
to let those around him know about his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY.
It wasn't just about him; this power could be dangerous for those in his vicinity, as well.
Up sparked in the young Otto a sense of duty: he must protect his beloved family.
Three days after his promise with his elder brother his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY became common
knowledge and all of his peers shunned him entirely.
His younger brother caught him talking with the family dragon, and Otto reluctantly told him about
his blessing. He also informed him that their elder brother was concerned about it, and that his
powers were incredibly dangerous.
The next day his younger brother dragged Otto along into a huge group of kids in an attempt to brag
about him, they witnessed him talking to a bug, and for the first time in years Otto saw hell.
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The BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY's flaw was probably that it needed to use the other party's language
during communication. Put succinctly, when Otto spoke with ground dragons he would roar like a
ground dragon, and when he spoke with bugs he would sound like a bug.
It took only an instant for the epithet 'the awkward zoddabug bugger' to spread.
Otto henceforth sealed away his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY and determined never to use it again.
Over several years he managed to undo his horrendously poor reputation, succeeding in erasing the
mortifying memory from the minds of many people.
He achieved it when he was fourteen. A delicate age.
Being fourteen, excuses about his mental maturity would stop having any effect. His physical
maturation was also steadily proceeding into adulthood, and once he finished growing, Otto
possessed rather decently attractive looks.
Grey hair, and somewhat luckless, tender features. Mild eyes alongside a disposition to pour his
best into his activities. Otto had grown to possess surprisingly many factors which tickled the
maternal instinct, and just when he, like any boy his age, began taking interest in romance—
He made an enemy of the most influential figure in town's daughter by using his BLESSING OF
XENOGLOSSY, and was banished.
It was just before Otto's fifteenth birthday, during the cold season.
Sparing the details, he had gotten dragged into some romantic drama affair.
On the night of the most influential figure in town's daughter's birthday party, her boyfriend had
come storming in enraged and claiming that his girlfriend had been together with another man. The
crosshairs landed on, having been spotted talking with the girl immediately prior, Otto.
Otto replied sincerely that he had just been asking her the time, but the red-faced man and his
screams of “Zoddabuggerer!” had no intentions of hearing it.
With this supposedly-erased history dug up on him, yes indeed even Otto had to lose his usual
compunctions.
Thus he unsealed his powers, did everything he could to clear away the suspicions cast on him, and
after listening to every single creature across town, he discovered that the problem girl on the
problem night had actually been with seven different men, and he cheerily conveyed to the poor
guy: “It would seem that you're the eighth!”
After the man punched him, the girl with her relationship statuses exposed hired an assassin on
Otto, who scrambled to escape his birthtown. He relied on his father's connections to then wind up
working for an acquaintance’s company.
He accumulated experience, setting out to journey as a travelling merchant when he was sixteen—
this being Otto Swein's establishment of his independence, as a man.
Otto's journey as a merchant would safely be called a string of difficulties.

His nature to suffer misfortune, despite the passing of the years, had not loosed its grip on him.
Horrendous weather would strike whenever he was transporting fragiles, whenever he thought to
take shortcuts through the hills he'd be attacked by mountain bandits, and whenever he went
camping in a joint venture with other merchants, Otto alone would be attacked by bloodsucking
insects.
That Otto somehow managed to survive despite this constant misfortune was because, quite sadly,
he had been blessed with outstanding enough business ability to counterbalance his poor luck.
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He made no big profits, but suffered no debilitating losses either. He helmed a miraculous and
merchant-wise nigh depraved sense of balance, sitting on the line of net zero, four years passing in
the blink of an eye to land him at twenty years old.
His failure to lose spirit and return home resulted from the presence of the one he had brought along
when he was expelled from his hometown, who he had known since he was little, his ground dragon
Frufoo.
Honestly he did have some complex feeling about Frufoo, trigger for his brothers finding out about
the BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY as he was, but as far as the present Otto cared he was a definite
bond, and something like a beloved family member.
For some reason Otto generally couldn't make other merchants team up with him, and so he often
spent sleepless nights talking with Frufoo to distract himself.
Let me sleep already, Frufoo would say, to which Otto's imploring would somehow manage to get
him to keep going.
It was the usual outcome that other merchants, witnessing him talking in dragon roars beside his fire
in the dead of night, would take detours away from him.
While from an outside perspective that uniformity looked rather uneventful, for Otto the days he
spent were considerably frantic ones—when there came a turning point.
—He had lost out on a business opportunity, and utterly screwed up.
Otto was peddling oil. It would sell for outrageously high prices in northward Gusteco during the
cold season, is what he heard from a red-faced bald man with an eyepatch. Otto exchanged his
metal wares for oil before triumphantly setting his sights on Gusteco—when an entirely
unanticipated breakup of foreign relations slammed him, and he lost any hope of selling his goods.
The next shock to his heart was the news that the metal goods he had struggled to exchange at any
decent value were selling for exorbitant prices in the Capital.
Hit with this development, Otto sensed that his life as a merchant was in peril.
His neglect to search for means to turn the situation around and resuscitate himself was because it
would likely mean letting go of Frufoo. Or forget that, it could even wind up with him leeching off
his family.
That situation alone was one that Otto would never let himself get into.
He had gone five years and over without seeing his family, but his love for them had not waned in
the least. His ability to live his present life, however imperfect it may be, was thanks to his family
who had gone without abandoning him when he was young.
Over those ten years Otto had already given his family a lifetime's worth of trouble. He had to spent
the rest of his life making repayments for those ten years.
His calculations of loan and debt were accurate. After all, Otto Swein was the son of a merchant.
—A trader he knew presented him with an opportunity to make a profit. Otto took it.
However the necessities for this job were not goods, but his dragon's legs. Someone wanted to get
people on traders' carriages, and then have them transported in large quantities.
Otto leapt for it without hesitation, using his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY to blast away at top speed,
enthusiastic to reach the destination before anybody else could.
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He zoomed through shoddy roads, travelling along unmarked paths, ignored Frufoo's statements of
“Ought we stop already, wee bub,” and reached the destination quicker than anyone.
Where,
???: “My my my... where could you be destined with such... HASTE?”
He fucked up.
A group of people with lunatic eyes imprisoned him, rendered him immobile by wrapping him up,
and here Otto sensed that his misfortune had truly, truly hit its peak.2
They separated him from Frufoo, stripped him of his belongings and tossed him into a cold cavern,
their capricious amusement turning him into merely a creature waiting to die.
Who could possibly understand the depth of the despair which submersed Otto's heart back then?
Surely no one.
Because back then Otto had strained all the abilities he had in an attempt to escape, wrenching his
BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY to full power, as he searched for means to flee their wicked clutches.
What broke Otto's rebellious spirit was the entire, overwhelming silence. —When he unleashed his
BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY, a hell equivalent to what assaulted him in his youth should have struck.
The familiar, loathsome cacophony rang entirely, utterly mute.

Insects, woodland creatures, things that supposedly dwelt in the forest and caverns, all of them
hiding from this diabolical presence—and Otto, prepared for hell. Witnessing a hell far transcending
what he resolved, Otto's heart fractured.
His eyes lost their vigour, the strength sapped swiftly from his body. He knew it was all over.
Nothing he could try would work, and here in this cold cavern he would end.
The despair was too great for tears. It happened around the time that he had numbed to the passing
of the empty hours that suddenly, Otto Swein's fate was salvaged.
???: “Whasserere! Damned there putzes witch cult, no discriminates in there's work, har! Nothing
other cuerr'yar expect!”3
A booming voice reverberated through the cavern, bringing Otto out of his trance and jolting him
back to reality.
He lifted his head and called in frail voice for help. The person who heard and appeared before him
was a large, dog-faced beastman with proficient command of the Kararagi dialect, who freed the
captured Otto.
Beastman: “Happy luck for yours, fella! Say wes weren't coming, and no question twice there's
bunch had you slaughtered! Make usses here later and same thing farryarr. Y'gotin by a nick! Byarrr
nick! And course for usses, but sameways make your thanks for the boss kid!”
Otto: “B-Boss, kid?”
Rotating his once-bound limbs, Otto tilted his head at the boisterous beastman.
2 Referring to a method of execution where an individual is wrapped up and bound in a straw/bamboo mat before
being thrown in a river. Otto's case lacks rivers and also likely bamboo.
3 WELCOME TO HELL
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His eyes widened in response to Otto's doubts, before he smacked him in the back with his
enormous palm, earning a wail from Otto.
Beastman: “Boss's a boss! Kid's a kid! Smack there up farra boss kid! Saying honcho, guy ordering
usses upter this far! Won't have a look like his head's chugging muchaways, gottarr say's there
where a straightwise looks say nothing'arr their fella! Ghahahahaaha!”
Otto: “Ha, hauh.... U-understood. Anyway, I thank you very much. And, right, I'll also have to...”
...Thank him as well, is how Otto meant to continue, when he noticed something.
The beastman was looking at him, and had scrunched his face up in surprise. Otto had no clue as to
what this meant. The beastman withdrew a shockingly white napkin from his pocket and handed it
over.
Beastman: “Wharyarr doing, say yours innarr cry then make your cry wharryarr unseen. Whole
pathetic where a man there bawling in public.”
Otto: “Weh, aeh... c-crying?”
Beastman: “Teardrops'errr got yours eyes sploshing whole! Call what for this saying there's not
crying! Sweat!? Heart having sweat!? Fella, even usses Kararagi folk long quit having that joke!”
The beastman turned his back to Otto, considerately taking distance from him. Otto put the cloth to
his face, incredulous, to then witness the great volume of tears that the handkerchief caught—
sincerely surprising him.
The moment he realised he was crying, greater and greater did they overflow.
Otto: “Auh, shit... wh-what is, this... this...hk”
Otto clenched his teeth at the unstoppable torrent of tears as he pressed the cloth to his face.
He could not understand why he was crying, a stream of incoherent curses filling his head to full.
—He'd been released from a despair so intense that his tears had dried up, and so perhaps
accordingly, he was in tears now.
Otto: “I-I'm so glad, I... didn't, die...”
He hadn't achieved anything yet.

He had not repaid a single one of his debts.
If he had died there, he would have ended without his life having any meaning. As it never had.
It was because he survived it that he now recognized that fact.
—With every single teardrop shed, Otto keenly felt his life beginning again.
His first birthing cry, upon being given life in this world.
His second birthing cry, upon learning of his parents' love, and the whereabouts of his own heart.
And his third, upon bypassing the death he had supposedly resolved himself for, and
comprehending what it meant to live for a purpose.
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—Otto Swein, on that day, screamed a birthing cry once again.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Otto: “—Not that I was actually requested to buy time like this.”
Taking great strides, dedicating himself to unfitting acts of physical labour, a wry smile arises on
Otto's face.
These memories of his shameful bawling are awkward enough things that he'd like to forget about
them, but unfortunately all his memories of crying are precious. He couldn't forget them even if he
tried.
The beastman Ricardo who had saved Otto back then said nothing to anyone, and kept Otto's
amazing sobfest a secret for him. That was a debt he would have to repay someday.
And,
Otto: “I repay my debts no matter what. —Since after all, I am a merchant.”
—Who saved his life, the boss kid.
Otto Swein owed something to Natsuki Subaru that he needed to reciprocate.

He would expend his everything to repay the debt of him saving his life.
It was a natural mentality for a trader.
But most importantly—
Otto: “—I am doing it for a friend!!”
Both as a merchant, and as an individual human being, Otto was impelling himself to here, now,
stay his ground.
Otto Swein was entering into a challenge where he was unlikely to succeed.
He had taken a bet with disregard to chances of success, and would dedicate everything in his
power to increasing Natsuki Subaru's chances of victory.
That was Otto's merchant soul at work, and the proof of his friendship.
—Distant from here, coming from the abandoned carriages, he hears the roar of a beast.
Sensing that the fight has begun in earnest, Otto unleashes his blessing—and as he entrusts himself
to the familiar hell, intent to muster everything he has, he runs.
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CHAPTER 107: WITH THE FINAL TRAP,
Subaru: “Alright, counting on you for buying time like we planned.”
Said Subaru to Otto after safely finding Lewes and reconvening with him.
This being a handful of days after the situation was first divulged to Otto, he immediately sensed
that this was the signal. They would engage the processes which they had spent the past two days
preparing for.
Otto: “I have no scruples against that, but do you have any thoughts as to Emilia-sama's
whereabouts? If you cannot reconvene with Emilia-sama while I'm buying time, anything we try
will end in absolute purposelessness...”
Subaru: “That's going without oversight, 'd be pretty tough to say. It's because that went with
oversights that we're in this situation now. But, well, you don't need to worry about it.”
Scratching his head and his expression rather miserable, Subaru's face stiffened.
When he with his sharp, or more rather genuinely nasty eyes made a serious expression, that alone
made him seem like he was barely holding in his anger about something.
While they haven't known each other long, Otto did know Subaru's character and so would not
misinterpret his expression, but inevitably did think him the owner of a rather unfortunate visage.
Subaru thought the same about Otto. Otto's failure to recognize that marked one of those weird
points of commonality between friends.
Subaru: “I've got an idea of where Emilia is. Honestly it's pathetic how I was flipping out panicking
after hearing she was gone, but... calm down, and this's all it could be.”
Otto: “I, see. And incidentally I'd... no, I'll refrain from asking.”
Subaru: “Yeah? You know I don't mind if you keep talking, taking up the duty of praising my
deductions?”
Otto: “I'll refrain. I'm quite unwilling to be your sycophant, Natsuki-san, and supposing my
timebuying ends in Garfiel capturing me, it'll surely be problematic for you should I prattle on and
on, spilling everything?”
Subaru nodded.
It truly was a situation to worry about. Otto didn't think himself resilient against hurt to any notable
degree, and he had no memory of ever sustaining pain that went beyond his limit.
If a cornered Garfiel injured him, it's possible Otto would spew out all the information he knows.
He did not wish in the least to sabotage Subaru in that fashion.
Subaru: “Well, though saying it's you who's leaking the info, I really can only think it's over.”
Otto: “—"
And Subaru's response was a 'no worries go for it'.

His expression suggested he had no idea how the recipient would feel, hearing that statement.
With this much unconscious trust placed in them, who could betray it?
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Subaru wasn't even aware that he was doing it, which truly made him an outrageous friend.
Otto: “Regardless, I will endeavour my utmost to ensure it goes smoothly for you. Since whether or
not you pull this off will greatly impact my future.”
Subaru: “Yeah. If I screw up splendidly, your future's hitting rock bottom. ...If you think it's looking
bad, just run away. He's probably not going to take any joking today.”
Otto: “...Yes, I will keep that option considered.”
Otto responded to Subaru's considerate words with a faint grin.

Resultant from his planning with Subaru, Otto laid the groundwork and finished making the
necessary preparations: The Arlam evacuees are in their carriages with instructions to begin their
escape shortly after himself, the bait, departs.
The plan was that Otto's two carriages, loaded with the villager's clothes to fool Garfiel's nose,
would venture along a highly conspicuous exit path as a lure.
He had stuck through the nights investigating the routes the evacuees could use to flee, and firmly
drilled them into each of the earth dragons.
No failings anywhere. Supposedly.
Then Otto's status as a decoy just needed to leak, while the evacuees succeed in escaping outside,
and they're all good.
Alongside their escape from the Sizeable Hare, due to attack in two days, they would provide
Subaru and Emilia the time they need to speak. Then potentially Garfiel would return to the village,
find Subaru, the situation unfolding into one of combat—
Otto: “—”
I must not allow that to happen, determined Otto.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Otto Swein is not a character abounding in physical ability.
He had learned some degree of self-defence so that he could evade danger while travelling as a
merchant, but compared to people whose lives were ones of genuine battle, he was not merely one
but ten steps behind.
He would never neglect to bring bodyguards when transporting valuable goods, and before when
attacked by bandits while taking shortcut through the mountains, he had tearfully abandoned his
luggage and fled.
Everyone knew that he lacked the martial aptitude to brute force his way through his problems.
Otto: “And so why am I, presently, facing him as an opponent...?”
Wiping the cold sweat from his brow, Otto forces his near-stiff cheeks to give way to a grin. It was a
merchant's principle to always smile during disagreements.
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Having been born into a merchant household, Otto had that precept trained into him. Although he
only had about half his life, from ten years onward, in experience using it.
Regardless, this custom was nothing to mock.

If he could make himself smile, and force himself to believe that THIS BATTLE WAS MERELY ONE
REQUIRING THE USUAL PERSISTENCE , he could steadily find himself accepting the stress as
something comfortable.
His arms move. His legs move. He can certainly run further.
It's a mystery how he has managed to keep running across such terrible ground, and not be out of
breath. The lightness of his sobered heart allows yet another unseen power of Otto's to bloom.
Otto: “Although, it amounts to little when it's only just been realised. Self-conceit is useless,
negligence is the enemy.”
As he runs through the gaps between the forest trees, Otto urges utmost caution from his own
luckless self.
Garfiel, abandoned and far behind, has not found him. But that said, Otto cannot keep running away
like this. His role is to pull Garfiel's attention and prevent him from returning to SANCTUARY.
He must not let Garfiel realise that there is no necessity for him to face Otto.
Otto had hidden in the forest and successively unveiled the traps he set for Garfiel. His motives for
doing so in fact resulted entirely from that thought.
Absolutely. There is no necessity for Garfiel to face Otto.

The key for him to succeed in his goal of preventing SANCTUARY's liberation is to suppress Subaru
and Emilia. Otto amounts to nothing more than a side.
Being that Garfiel had not paid Otto any attention thus far, he must have understood that fact better
than anyone.
Up-flung leaves and a spellstone. A great swarm of winged bugs inside the carriage.
With these two ostentatious, harmless traps, Otto utterly succeeded in enraging Garfiel.
Garfiel had presently lost his composure, and his views narrowed to regard Otto as someone he
needed to defeat. But truly, doing so carried no necessity.
Otto: “But in saying, he'll immediately notice that if he gets the time to.”
Thus all Otto can do about Garfiel, who is entirely dangerous to approach, is continue provoking
him from a reasonable distance.
With Garfiel's nose suppressed, Otto would avoid anything fatal so long as he kept out of sight. But
should he be noticed, Garfiel could close the distance on Otto in an instant—the disparity of ability
between them truly enormous.
Indeed, this demanded a tightrope-esque stress, and caution.
Otto: “—”
Still hidden in the bushes, Otto peers out at the scene before him.
Twenty meters ahead is Garfiel, glaring over the surroundings. His keen nose had attempted to sniff,
and thanks to the kisnis oil slathered over the carriage's wheels, his sense of smell is utterly dead.
His visage as he relies on his vision in his search for Otto, annoyed, exudes the wary air of a
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wounded beast.
Meddling around with this thing to draw its attention was a deed equivalent to sticking one's hand
into a blazing fire, guaranteed to leave a burn, an act of idiocy.
Otto: <Now, I'm counting on you!>

???: <aaaaiiiaaaaaaaiiiooo—>
Otto looses a high-pitched voice. The responding cry passes through his eardrums, being converted
into meaning.
In accordance with Otto's signal, the forest stirs.
Garfiel: “Eh?”
Hearing the rustling of the swaying trees and seeming to find something awry, Garfiel looks up.
Targeting his face, simultaneously launched from the surrounding trees, are the globs of dirt and
dung.
This was the threat display of these tall trees' residents, the woodmice.
Their globs possessed no properties which could leave an injury, but having been attacked from all
directions, Garfiel panickedly leaps away in an attempt to dodge. However, he cannot avoid all of
them, with several hits muddying his legs, him clicking his tongue at the stench and clinging dirt.
Garfiel: “Th' fuck, is! Shit! Why's this... another one of that pisshead's tricks—”
Wiping the unclean stuff off on a nearby tree, Garfiel voices his suspicion of Otto's involvement.
But halfway through voicing his doubts, he notices something, his nose scrunching.
—Woodmice globs possess no wounding powers. They dirty clothes, entrench items in stink, and
nothing more.
But the stench of their dung does draw out the insects who live in the forest.
Garfiel: “—hk!”
Something wriggles up from underground, beneath Garfiel's feet, before bursting out of the earth
and leaping at his legs, entangling them. Garfiel's breath stops. The crawler venturing up his leg is a
long, black, centipede-esque insect.
The centipede, long as a man's arm, crawls up to the thigh of Garfiel's dung-soiled left leg, pressing
its grotesque mouth against him as it consumes the vestiges of the globs.
Garfiel: “Fuck! Gross!”
Brandishing his claws, Garfiel bats the centipede off him. But more and more of the creatures crawl
up from the ground, leaping not only at Garfiel's legs, but fighting with each other over the globs
which missed him, the scene transforming into an infernal spectacle.
These centipedes liked the tree-fruits which were lumped in with the woodmouse dung.
Having walked all through the forest with need to lay his traps, Otto had spoken with many of the
creatures here, and utilized absolutely everything which could probably be useful.
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Contrary to their repulsive appearances, the centipedes were no carnivores, and not venomous in the
least, but find yourself so surrounded by them and they produced more than enough of a threat.
And Garfiel presently—
Garfiel: “—hk! Augh! Y'cheeky pieces of shit!”
—Was screaming, spit flying, as he lost his temper with the horde of centipedes.
He swings his leg up high, then slamming it down to pierce the ground with all the force he can
muster.
Immediately following, in the shape of a rectangular platform with Garfiel at the centre, the earth
springs into the air.
Otto: “—”
Witnessing the incredible sight, Otto unwittingly swallows his breath.

Upon the ground Garfiel sent airborne, with the shockwave keeping the centipede horde from
moving, Garfiel brandishes his claws and feet to successively claim his kills. The floating platform
crashes thunderously back to the ground, the entirety of the centipede horde around Garfiel repelled,
the stragglers burrowing back into the underground out of fear.
The trees the woodmice resided in, too, were caught and felled in the detachment of the earth, the
inhabitants who aided Otto now scrambling to flee.
It seems they had wound up paying a rather high price in exchange for that sugar water.
Otto: “Well, I suppose that's just another outcome of trade... or really, being that it depends on the
negotiator’s abilities whether or not a business deal is a profitable deal, I'd prefer I not be resented
here.”
Having witnessed a fragment of Garfiel's strength, Otto breezily reflects on his deeds in an attempt
to calm himself down. That done, he silences his footsteps as he retreats, preserving distance from
the now-walking Garfiel as he leads him to the site of the next trap.
He hadn't gone two and a half days without sleeping racing around this forest for nothing.
—The instant that all this was over, he'd sleep so furiously he wouldn't even dream.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: <a big one's coming>
—I am aware, yes, I am very aware of that.
???: <behind you, a big one, coming soon, coming now>
—I did tell you that I know about that, I have already fully considered it.
???: <you'll die. you're so dead. poor guy.>
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—I would not actually mind it if you could please stop the pessimism!
With his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY unleashed, a din of discordant noise floods into Otto's ears.
These were the voices of the bugs, of the critters, of every living creature which possessed a will
who lived in the forest—voices of which Otto was screening for statements relevant to himself, the
peak in difficult listening.
This was approximately twenty years since his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY manifested, and about ten
years since he became proficient with it. Even with all of this time, he had never once attempted
something as insane as this before.
Even when he had used his blessing in an attempt to absolve himself of false charges, albeit
provincial that episode had been set in a city, and there was a limit to the number of creatures living
there.
But place him in the middle of an expansive forest, and the quantity of noise for Otto to deal with
far exceeded his maximum limit.
In the air, in the trees, in the leaves, in the dirt, in the stone, these bugs, these critters, possessed
many many dwellings. Listening to all the voices of these hidden creatures equated to over 100
human voices slamming into his brain simultaneously.
It wasn't just hearing.

The BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY demanded comprehension from Otto. Meaning that all of Otto's
neural activity was expending itself on processing everything that his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY
picked up.
Otto: “Bhg...”
A stabbing pain races through Otto's head as his body sways, him leaning against a tree. And, upon
the sleeve he puts to his face to wipe away his sweat, there lands droplets of vivid red blood.
A nosebleed. This blood leaking from his face was proof that his brain was acting beyond its
permissible limit. His brain creaks, creaks, creaks intermittently, the buzzing tinnitus echoing in his
head with no signs of alleviating.
Otto: “Ah, I didn't know. So this is what happens when you keep using it, this blessing of mine.
Entirely unmanageable... or rather said not unrepentantly convenient, leaving me in a predicament.”
He rigorously wipes the nosebleed away, rubbing at his brow as he breaks into a faltering run.
His ears yet continue to ring, but he has no intention in the least of calling off his blessing. Otto
could not keep this chase going by himself.
As before, voices call to inform him of Garfiel's actions. Their observations act as Otto's eyes, for
he cannot glance back behind him.
Otto did not know what others thought about enlisting the aid of insects and mammals, creatures
which possessed wills differing from that of a human's, but it made for no easy task.
For their thought patterns diverged from that of humanity.

What would delight them, what would they hate? What was normal for Otto was outrageous for
them. There was no way he could know what exactly he should use as his weapons when
negotiating.
107
And even among insects and mammals, the greater their intelligence, the more that personal
differences formed. Members of the same species of bug would often possess entirely different
stances on what they favoured and disfavoured.
Otto's imperfect but successful attempt at continuously evading the threat known as Garfiel entirely
resulted from him securing a short albeit definite period of preparation time, and within that time
period expending every moment he had, as well as expending all his best efforts.
—Had Subaru found Emilia yet, and was he talking with her properly?
The time that Subaru had to speak with Emilia—It was solely for the sake of elongating this period
that Otto had placed himself in this hardship.
If Subaru's guess had been wrong, if things hadn't gone according to plan and no apparent progress
was being made on Emilia, then everything would amount to nothing, a transient effort.
Just why was Otto supporting Subaru to such a degree?
During a spate of thinking done to distract himself from his pain, Otto lands on this thought. Subaru
had saved his life, and Otto was helping him as repayment for that debt. That was truth. Subaru had
accepted him as a friend, and sought Otto's assistance, and so Otto inevitably had to be helping
him. That was also truth.
But was Otto truly such a zealous man that, off only those bases alone, he would achieve more than
what was demanded of him?
Otto: “...Ah, I see.”
Something slips through his mind in that moment. It is the trigger which leads him to recognize the
reason.
Otto can't keep himself from smiling.
It's all very simple.

Otto's reason for having faith in Subaru, and helping him, was ludicrously unprofound.
Otto: “Giving up, thinking that no one can understand you, perplexed and troubled... it's all
something that I should know better than anyone else.”
BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY, the power to hear things which others cannot.

Otto, who heard the voices of other animals and knew things he plainly should not, was considered
a nuisance by many people. He lost those who were once his friends and could no longer see his
family. To him, his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY lacked any utilization beyond breaking through
times of emergency, otherwise a superfluous tool.
But because of this blessing, his experience had strayed.

His experiences of being excluded because of his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY taught Otto the pain
of being beyond the comprehension of others. He knew how irritating it was to know something,
but be unable to fully communicate it, despite giving an explanation. It conferred him the resigned
frustration of, well nobody would understand it anyway.
Everything was entirely identical to Subaru before he opened up to Otto.

And so he trusted in Subaru, overlaying the image of him now with the image of Otto then, and ran.
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It's the only possibility.
Otto did not only wish to save Subaru. Through him, Otto had wished to save his own past self, to
save Otto Swein.
???: “Fuckin', found—ya!!”
Otto: “—hk!?”
The moment he notices yet another of his truest thoughts, Otto hears a voice coming from an angle
differing from his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY—for an impact to slam into his shoulders and send
him tumbling across the earth.
He falls to his side, the soft dirt catching him as he tumbles.
Otto: “Bhah, ptt! Wh-what just—ghhk!”
???: “Don't you fuckin' mess 'round with me!”
Otto spits the leaves out of his mouth as he uprights himself, when clawtips jab into his torso. His
constricted lungs wring themselves of air, another violent kick sending him flying across the
ground.
Up and down swap their places and swap their places messily, his head spinning, his thoughts
shaky. No oxygen cycles through his brain, and the blood in his veins feels to clot, the pain
transferring through his capillaries to his whole body.
Garfiel: “Evein' sayin' my nose's dumb, my amazin' self's still got ears. Yer had some goddamn trick
t'get th'bugs fuckin' whinin' on n' on... n' this's th'end of that.”
Otto: “Y-You really must wonder. ..You cannot say you have won yet, just by catching up with
ghgahuh”
Garfiel: “Shut yer backtalk. Yer sure put in a good fuckin' effort... but my amazin' self ain't got
th'room t'waste any more time.”
Garfiel sets his foot on Otto's chest, applying considerable pressure.

Creak, go Otto's ribs. Supposedly-petite Garfiel applies more force than his actual body weight,
Otto shrieking as his limbs flap uselessly.
Garfiel: “My amazin' self steps on yer with all I got, n' yer gonna be smithereens. Bet yer fuckin'
saw me have the ground launch int'r th'air. Th'same shit 's that is gonna be happenin' t'yer body.
Wanna try it?”
Otto: “—Sorry, but I'd rather not.”
Garfiel gazes down, expression intimidating. Otto's words come paired with the smile of a poor
loser, the attitude leading Garfiel to pale. But,
Garfiel: “Well fuckin' ain't you makin' a face like you got some fuckin' guts. I'd seen that 'fore this
fight started, n' we woulnna needed t'have this goddamn runaround.”
109
Otto: “...”
Praise, or something close to it does lace Garfiel's words.

Otto turns his head as he slips a slight sigh. His thin, strained exhales continue as Garfiel narrows
his eyes.
Garfiel: “'F this were all it was, then yer thing ain't nothin' big. 'S how I would overlook it...”
Otto: “—”
Garfiel: “But th'second yer got fiesty, the whole fucking forest turned against me. Even at th'start
where yer threw up th'leaves, the fuckin' bugs under them all flew at me. N' in th'carriage, n' with
th'mouse shit, n' th'centipedes, n' th'snakes springin' from th'trees, n' th'birds who led me into a
fuckin' field of poison flowers, there has t'be some reason fer allerit.”
Indeed, all of these snares were traps that Otto had set while sprinting around the forest. Means to
whittle away at Garfiel's energy, and buy time.
None of them misfired, and all succeeded in drawing Garfiel toward him.
But Garfiel had deemed these multiple natural wonders, inconceivable as coincidence, as all being
Otto's doing. He had noticed that Otto was the reason behind it all.
Garfiel: “Thinkin' ain't my strong suit, but that yer think anyway's what yer call livin'. N' so I
thought. Thought, thought, thought, n' here's what I got. Big majority 'v th'inexplicable crap that
happens in this world, 's 'cause a blessing's involved. —Yer got one 'v those fuckin' blessings too.”
Otto: “...Hu.”
Garfiel: “'S Blessing of th'Forest, or Blessing of Dirt, or fuckin' whatever, but sayin' y'got one then
it ain't weird fer this t'be happenin'. Yer ain't givin' any carelessness 'r mercy, throwin' out everythin'
yer need t'sort this out. ...And so.”
Striking the silent Otto with words, Garfiel leaves him to tremble, kicked, as he glances behind him.
His sharp eyes narrow in pity.
Garfiel: “Don't think I ain't noticed what yer plannin', with those poor quitter eyes'er yers.”
Otto: “—”
Garfiel's gaze lands on an open clearing, where there is gathered a mass of white light.
Sunlight spilling through the foliage—is absolutely not what this multicoloured lights is, it instead
being a mass of mana so thick that it is visible to the naked eye.
Witnessing a swelling of mana so dense that one would be apt to find themselves a raucous drunk
should they carelessly bound into it, Garfiel scrunches his face and looks down at Otto.
Garfiel: “That's yer ace. It ain't like th'empty threats yer had goin' so far. There's something about
that thing which's got th'something t'overpower my amazin' self. ...'F yer'd manage t'keep me stuck
n' a bind, yer might'a been able t'push me into it.”
Otto: “...auh, euh”
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Squatting down, Garfiel lifts the groaning Otto by the collar.
Blood from his overworked brain again streams out Otto's nostrils, dyeing the bottom half of his
face in grisly sanguine. Garfiel turns his head away.
Garfiel: “Yer did great, but yer ain't ever gettin' on my level. Shouldda known yer place, n'
behaved.”
Otto: “My, place, you say....”
Garfiel: “Yeah. Yer ain't got any chance'v beatin' my amazin' self. —Couldn't give a crap whatever
trap that thing is, but we'll have you b'th'one t'taste it.”
With that line, Garfiel throws Otto gently.

Following an incredibly brief feeling of flying through the air, Otto fails to catch himself as he
tumbles across the ground, hurtling into the hive of dense, white mana.
Amid a smog of cloying mana, his head, already dullish in peaceable times, is contaminated.
His eyes spin, his tongue numbs, his nosebleed streams without end.
Trap. The final trap. Flung into it, and now, there was something, happening.
Garfiel: “I'll watch 'till 's over.”
Crossing his arms, Garfiel waits for the fallen Otto's end.
Prone, and capturing that sight in the corner of his vision, Otto strings together his scattered
thoughts: where is here? What does he have to do? And he recognizes.
—His final trap's fruition.
Otto: “...Do you mind if I ask you something?”
Garfiel: “Eh?”
Putting his hand to the ground, Otto frantically uprights himself.

Garfiel's eyes shoot open in shock, not having conceived that Otto could still move. Witnessing
Garfiel's surprise makes for a satisfying feeling. Indeed, Subaru's statements were correct.
To succeed in the deeds of which others believed you incapable was entertaining. It truly was.
Unkind, but this delight shows no signs of stopping.
Otto: “In getting here, Garfiel-san.. how many trees have you felled, and how much earth have you
gouged open?”
Garfiel: “I ain't got any clue what yer tryin' t'say.”
Otto: “The greatness of the quantity of mana stockpiled here where I am... is because that is how
greatly you have angered the forest, that is what it means.”
The sense of achievement leads Otto to forget his pain and fatigue.
111
A firmness comes to his precarious speech, Otto seating himself on the ground as he looks at
Garfiel.
Garfiel uncrosses his arms, finally realising that he has acted just as Otto planned, making an
attempt to move—
Too slow.
Otto: “—Al Dona.”
The abounding mana transmits through the whole of Otto, taking shape in the world by means of a
canto.
—The overwhelming speed and force of the coursing wave of earth batters the whole of the slow
Garfiel, sending him plummeting far beyond the edge of the forest.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Otto: “Haah... haaah... haauh...”
His arms aloft and shaking, Otto breathes breaths so languorous they could be bloody, one after
another.
He had invested all of the ambient mana into that magic, exhausting it.
The sensation of mana drunkenness has faded, fatigue taking its place, his body pained and aching.
—The final trap Otto laid was a simple thing, connecting all the various traps thus far.
With the primary assumption that he would secure the cooperation of the forest's insects and
critters, he would propose that everyone punish the enemies who hurt this woodland.
It seems that Garfiel swaggered around the forest on the daily, and dear oh dear, how audacious his
behaviour must have appeared for the animals of the woods.
Cutting down shrubs to sharpen his claws and build his muscles, even gathering the firewood
needed for daily living—taken from a wider perspective, these were acts of destruction upon the
animals' home.
These nefarious deeds had piled up, and now quite sadly, the majority of the forest's wildlife
considered Garfiel a big, strong, bad guy.
Otto had negotiated with the wildlife, requesting that they assist him in punishing Garfiel. He then
laid numerous traps, and alongside their activation, Garfiel inflicted even further destruction upon
the forest. The woodland's residents concentrated their mana all in one location, promising to lend
Otto their greatest strength.
A concentration of mana so vast as to be visible is AN OBVIOUS TRAP.

Having tripped so many traps and now become attuned to them, Garfiel avoided this one, and flung
Otto into it.
Meaning that he inadvertently aided Otto in borrowing the aid of the forest, and let him utilize
greater magic than he actually possessed.
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The resultant wave of dirt thus slammed into Garfiel, inflicting decisive damage upon his
previously-undamaged self.
Garfiel's negligence, thinking that Otto lacked the strength to oppose him, had helped spur this.
Everything had gone as Otto planned.

Meaning,
Otto: “This time for sure...”
???: “—Yer out of moves.”
Otto gives a despondent sigh. Garfiel's figure appears from between the trees, glaring at Otto.
His clothes are torn, his bare skin flecked with cuts from sharp stones. But his head's important
places appear to have been guarded, with little obvious impact evident in his gait, either.
The pure disparity in power had far transcended Otto's imaginings.
Garfiel: “Honestly, I'm damn surprised.”
Otto: “...Are you, now.”
Garfiel: “Really, I didn't think you'd be able t'do this much. Hell, forget that, I looked down on ya,
thinkin' yer'd give up. —F'give me. My amazin' self pulled some stupid shit when dealin' with a
man.”
Says Garfiel, his expression meek. Otto shakes his head, not needing the apology.
The only thing he wanted to hear was: I concede. But despite Otto doing his everything and
fulfilling his role perfectly, he had not managed to topple Garfiel.
Thus here is where Otto's resistance ends.

Garfiel feels his hands, flashes his sharp claws. Otto would be shown no mercy this time.
—Had he done everything he could?
He keenly felt that he had played every card he had.

Including his BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY, friendship, negotiation, he had used everything to full.
If he nevertheless failed to achieve it, then there was simply nothing he could do.
Otto's capabilities ended here.
And so.
Garfiel: “See ya. —When yer wake up, clean up this mess.”
Otto: “Let's call my individual fight as ended here...”
Garfiel: “—”
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With that breathy mutter, Otto closes his eyes, exhausted.
The attitude far seemed to lack the resolution required to surrender, and—
Garfiel: “No way...”
Garfiel shudders, questioning if there's still more, the hair down his body standing on end as he
warily glances around the area.
There are no signs of anything from any direction. If there is to be more, then it—
Baring his fangs, Garfiel directs his claws upwards.

He takes a breath, his lungs expanding so he may howl. But this produces a delay. He opens his
eyes wide, his mouth bellowing with no roar.
What he yells is no bloodlust, no hostility, but a name.
???: “GARF!!”
A silhouette leaps from the treetops overhead, on descent toward him.

Their short skirt flutters, the point of their wand fixes its aim on Garfiel's head.
Mana congregates at the tip of their wand, light emanating, Garfiel screaming as he watches on.
Garfiel: “Why the fuck are you... RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!”
The blade of wind bursts the next instant, butchering SANCTUARY's forest to shreds.
114
CHAPTER 108: A MAN OF ONLY GOOD TIMING
Mana concentrates at the tip of the wand, the canto overwriting the world—
Whistling wind turns to blades, blades tear toward the entity standing in their eye, and as they burst
—they splay their destruction in every which direction.
The eye of the storm—the one standing in the path of the surging blades is Garfiel, looking up,
roaring.
The blades beat Garfiel's torso, their sharp edges slicing away at his rocklike abdominals. Blood
spills. His failure to be bisected results from his speedy leap away from the maelstrom.
Between the options of counterattack and evade, Garfiel immediately opted to run. Although some
hesitation arises at the corner of his eye, Garfiel manages to avoid fatal injury by covering his head
with his arms, sliding over the ground to flee the blades of wind.
But these were blades launched as a surprise attack, fired to dictate the end of the fight.
The wind does not permit Garfiel any easy escape as it vigorously pursues his retreat. He kicks off
the ground, clicking his tongue at the invisible slashes.
Garfiel: “Th'fucking cheek—!”
Immediately following his extreme backtracking, Garfiel yells as he meets the oncoming
windblades head-on.
He drives his heel into the earth, caving the ground in beneath him, his foot the axle for a
rectangular section of earth to slant upwards and spring into the air. The windblades surging in from
below strike the ground, annihilating the earth's face before dispersing.
The floating platform obeys gravity as it crashes to the floor, kicking up thick clouds of dirt.
An ordinary person would, faced with this incredible scene, surely be struck dumb and paralysed.
But this was not an ordinary person, and this was not be their first time witnessing Garfiel do this.
???: “Hauh!”
Garfiel: “Ch!”
Tearing through the plumes of dust, leaping forth with her short skirt fluttering is a girl.
Beneath her evenly-cut pink hair, her cerise eyes gleam with strong volition. Enough mana exudes
from the tip of her wand to warp the atmosphere, this being the origin point for an outstretched,
unseen blade of wind.
It extends to greater length than one glance would suggest, handled with precision befitting a
maestro of wind manipulation.
Contrary to the inherent vagueness of a blade of wind, these slashes exhibited keenness superior to
that of any half-hearted sword-blade. Garfiel had readied his claws at his hips for a counterattack,
but indeed even he would find the comparison between claws and sword unfavourable.
Still poised to attack and having retreated, Garfiel prepares to jump to flee further back. But the
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wand-wielding Ram's free left hand interrupts him.
Ram: “Fula!”
Garfiel: “Ghhk!?”
A short canto. A strike from the lowest class of wind magic. The attack beats Garfiel's back from
behind, keeping him from taking the preparatory step to run. It inflicts no damage. But, it does stop
him.
Garfiel's gaze as he looks up lands on Ram, her already brandishing her blade—
Garfiel: “—”
What would be best to do here? Before he can consider the thought, Garfiel's body moves.
His claws and fangs, his natural armaments, will not be capable of meeting the blade of wind.
Considering how he's been outmanoeuvred, dodging it will be tough as well. Which leaves only one
option.
Garfiel: “RrrhhhhHHHAAAAAAAA!!”
Roaring, Garfiel slams his palms to catch the point of the invisible sword flat between his hands.
While it may look like he has stopped the sword, when practising this move upon an incorporeal
and invisible blade, the action would amount to no defence.
But, even being a blade of wind, the thing certainly did EXIST. Garfiel's palms as they slam down
disrupt the sword's edge, and his skin which would have been torn to shreds instead gets away with
only a laceration.
The attack's been neutralized, judges Ram, belatedly.
Garfiel: “Fucking 'round with me!”
His launching kick aims for Ram's abdomen, her having just made touchdown.
Garfiel's foot drills through the air, practically enough to break through boulders—but it will not
strike Ram, who stoops her posture down low to dodge. Her stance degenerates so much that she
may as well be sleeping on the ground as she reforms her windblade, aiming a slash for Garfiel's
foot.
Garfiel: “—hgg!”
One-footed, Garfiel leaps to avoid this attack liable to sever his limb from the ankle down. He
succeeds in dodging Ram's blade, but,
Ram: “Your feet stopped touching the ground.”
Immediately following this whisper as it grazes past his ear, a heel slammed down from above
sends Garfiel plummeting toward the ground.
This offbeat attack came from Ram, who dove out of her post-swing stance, launching herself and
her leg out forward while rotating on the vertical.
Midair and unable to neutralize the attack, Garfiel immediately draws his arms up to protect
himself. His bones creak as he is shunted away, ricocheting off the earth to crash to a stop against a
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tree-trunk.
His breath escapes him as he glares at Ram, his eyes golden and furious.
However,
Ram: “Ul Fula.”
There congregates, apt to crush a region of the forest, an overwhelming windstorm—with Garfiel in
its centre as it ravages both him and woodland alike.
Garfiel: “Ghhah—agh!”
The raging wind strikes Garfiel, slices him, tosses him, smashes him against the dismantled foliage.
He is flung so thoroughly he cannot discern up from down, left from right. Having separated from
the ground, Garfiel lacks any way to protect himself, capable only of being beaten by Ram's magic.
The wind stops, the sole aftermath of the storm being Garfiel, barely managing to stand upright.
But blood covers him as he gazes skyward. He falls to his knees, his consciousness halfway gone.
He had been thrown into perfect traps, and taken two hits from extreme tiers of magic.
The very fact that he was still alive illustrated his dumbfounding, shockingly great vitality.
Although it was because his opponents anticipated such liveliness that they neglected any mercy.
Confirming the damage on Garfiel, Ram gives a small sigh. She directs her gaze to Otto, him
having watched the surprise attack from behind.
Ram: “I already anticipated this, but it truly is difficult to lay eyes on you, with how graceless you
look.”
Otto: “Spoken to someone who put all their heart and soul into fighting, that opinion surely has to
be unjustified...”
Ram: “All that everything is is the results. Did your efforts succeed, or not succeed? The process to
reach the result is secondary... and so I will say it again. You look so graceless it is difficult to lay
eyes on you.”
Otto: “Auuh, she's merciless, truly. ...This is exactly who Natsuki-san described.”
Ram shows Otto not a speck of appreciation for his efforts, instead giving him a slight snort as he
smiles wryly.
The damage to Garfiel resultant from his fight with Otto was rather considerable. Leaving aside the
tricky and incessant traps' provocation of him, that final strike did come with enough strength to
conceivably defeat Garfiel.
But if Otto had made any miscalculation, it would be,
Ram: “It seems you didn't remove Garf's EARTHSOUL BLESSING.”
Otto: “Earthsoul... pardon?”
Ram gives a small sigh. She shakes her head in astonishment, looks down at the confused Otto with
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a gaze of absolute disdain, and sighs again.
Otto: “How much disappointment are you going to show? Since I have to say that this does hurt!”
Ram: “Garf's EARTHSOUL BLESSING literally means a blessing where he receives the blessings of
the earth. Provided that his foot is touching the ground, a powerful aegis of dirt encases his body. —
And even were it not, earth magic's affinity here is abysmal. Your ace was an Al-class spell, and
then it just had to be Dona...”
Putting her hand to her forehead, Ram closes her eyes as she looks down.
Ram: “Your luck is so poor, I cannot even feel sympathetic.”
Otto: “So my misfortune detonated again even at this juncture, terrifying! Or actually, if you were
aware of this beforehand, Ram-san, don't you think you would have contributed notably more to the
effort if you had just informed me!?”
Ram: “Ram-sama, surely?”
Otto: “Why is it that everyone has to try kicking me down to the absolute lowest stratum!?”
Ignoring Otto as he raves, Ram swishes the tip of her wand as she heads out to deal with Garfiel.
He truly should be unconscious, but Garfiel's limitless stamina merits admiration. The greatest
obstacle for liberating SANCTUARY is unmistakably him. He must be restrained immediately, and
kept under strict supervision until matters are resol—
Ram: “...”
Stopping in her approach, Ram's brows furrow slightly.

Her pursed lips feel the dry air, her red tongue peeking out for merely a glimpse.
Ram: “Garf.”
Garfiel: “...Goddamn swear. Really truly a merciless lady, you are.”
Garfiel raises his slumped head in response to Ram's call.

His sharp eyes blaze with indignation and hostility, his teeth bare and rattling, illustrating that his
will to fight has not waned.
The surprise attack had supposedly been perfect. It could not have possibly been better.
But even that is not enough to defeat the monster known as Garfiel Tinzel.
Unfathomable quantities of blood pour from Garfiel, but he easily flits to his feet in a manner that
suggests no great fatigue or damages. Everything the windblade and storm had done to him was
entirely superficial.
The lacerations covering his skin are shallow, and the relentless beating had missed any vital areas.
Not a single speck of damage to decisively impair his usual condition had hit him.
Garfiel: “When y'had me pressed against the tree, and cast that spell, I thought I was absolutely
done for. Wound up for that one instant thinkin' like crazy, tryin' t'figure out what t'do. But I couldn't
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come up with any damn ideas at all... n'so I stopped thinking.”
He stopped fussing with his tiresome thoughts, instead entrusting his body to evade for him.
His instincts had greedily elected to survive, magnificently operating his body so that he suffered
minimal damages through the unavoidable storm.
This was the fruition of his racial instinct as a fighting creature.
The fighting sense is enough that even expressionless Ram gives a slight gulp.
Ram boasted that even should her fundamental ability be lower than another's, her nature meant she
always made the better choices. It was rare that she so experienced anyone on par with herself.
While she thought there no necessity to say anything at this moment, her opponent was Garfiel.
That was one of the factors contributing to the inexpressible emotion inside Ram.
Garfiel: “Say, Ram. Why're you teamin' with him? What's gone'n made y'do that?”
Ram: “—”
Garfiel: “Y'do know, right? You teamin' with him means y'support th'plot t'free this SANCTUARY.
Ain't that goin' against that prick Roswaal's will? That asshole... well at least, right now he shouldn't
want SANCTUARY freed.”
Ram: “Do you mean to speak as if you understand Roswaal-sama while in my presence, Garf?
We've known each other for a long time, so surely you would know? That I would never pay heed
to such form of blather.”
Garfiel: “I know full well yer stubborn. N' I like it n'fell for you. N' so that's why my amazin' self
can't agree with this. If yer not givin' up yer principles of Roswaal Supremacy, why're yer teamin'
with them? I don't get how they coaxed you.”
Ram closes her eyes.

It is rare for Ram's lips to tremble like this, for her to visibly be withstanding some style of emotion.
Garfiel's eyes widen, but Ram's expression disperses like mist after only an instant.
Ram: “I... I am acting in the way I believe most meaningful in regards to my wish. That's all.”
Garfiel: “Yer wish... that is?”
Ram: “Naturally, the fulfilment of Roswaal-sama's deepest desire. —And nothing other.”
Garfiel gives a deep sigh.

Ram possessed no further inclination to speak with Garfiel about the contradiction between her
actions and intentions. Nobody could understand Ram's feelings. That is, excluding the single man
who had noticed her core disposition, and called for her like this—
Ram: “He truly is an aggravating man, that Barusu. ...Not that even I understand why that is.”
Ram harboured an indescribable feeling of aggravation when it came to Subaru.

Call it visceral repulsion, or antipathy fostered over their time spent interacting, for the feeling
probably did include such sentiments—but Ram inevitably had to think that this was ingrained in
something deeper.
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Almost as if he were a detested foe, who had stolen something precious from her—that kind of
baffling emotion was what Ram felt for Subaru.
Ram nevertheless agreed to Subaru's invitation. His proposal shook things connected to her heart's
deepest core to that incredible extent.
Ram: “Surely you'll have recovered enough to stand?”
Otto: “Y-you truly are rough in your treatment... I'm sure no one would punish you if you could
please cast just a little healing magic on me...”
Ram: “Do relax. Healing magic is outside my abilities. As there had never been necessity for me to
learn it.”
Otto: “I have never seen a maid so little associated with recuperation before!”
Wailing, Otto taxes his shaking legs as he manages to stand.

His body sways dizzily, the nosebleed finally over. Standing up obviously did not make him
quantifiable as any combat force.
But seeing how Otto's will to fight has failed to wane, Garfiel gives an annoyed snort.
Garfiel: “Y'goddamn... was pretty sure our last bout told yer full well there's nothin' y'can do. Ain't
you seen how damn lively my amazin' self is after y'used yer ace? Be a loser 'bout givin' up and it
makes yer less of a man, oi.”
Otto: “Unfortunately, I do not ever remember forfeiting my deviousness to any degree that would
allow me to accept surrender. I'll strive to be bankrupt; if I still have a body, I can still run. Or at
least that's what I imagine my friend would say here, right as he'd move to start running.”
Garfiel: “...'gain with that pissant.”
Garfiel clicks his tongue at Otto's word: FRIEND.
Garfiel: “How can yer trust so much in that all-talk asshole? He ain't got any real power. No ability
either. He can get his tongue working, n' that's goddamn it. 'S a guy like that any bastard worth
helpin', huh?”
Otto: “Worth, really does invite question. Presently Natsuki-san may lack it.”
Garfiel: “...eh?”
Otto: “But the future will be different.”
Garfiel tilts his head at the unexpected reply, while Otto's grin intensifies.
He had exhausted his stamina and had spent himself on much labour for his tactics, but
neverminding the nigh absolute absence of hope, Otto speaks with not a speck of unease.
Otto: “It's because I am a merchant. I don't think it sounds such a bad deal, to try placing an
investment in someone liable to greatly benefit me in the future. You see, I feel that with Natsuki-
san... just maybe and just possibly, he might perpetrate something huge.”
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Garfiel: “—”
Otto: “But that comes with the condition that he musn't be smothered here. And so just what flowers
will bloom from the sprout Natsuki-san is, and what expensive a thing will they be? ...My role is
perhaps to prune him and cast away the insects.”
He truly does cost a lot of time and effort, says Otto's wry smile as he scratches his head. Hearing
this, Ram gives a bored sigh.
Ram: “Honestly, I cannot tell whether there's anything about Barusu that'd merit that impression.
That he's weak, useless, cannot brew a proper cup of tea and incompetent is something on which I
agree with Garf.”
Otto: “Overstatements are... per, haps not the case here.”
Ram: “But Barusu is a man with strangely good timing when it matters.”
Ignoring Otto as he timidly attempts to support Subaru, Ram makes her assertion.
The men tilt their heads and ask, “Timing?”. Ram nods.
Ram: “Timing. A man of only good timeliness, that is what Barusu is.”
He's a man who is ordinarily useless, and you have no idea what role he could possibly serve—but
nevertheless the character named Natsuki Subaru had a mysterious propensity to be at the places
you wanted him in, at the times you wanted him there.
When Emilia strayed away from Ram at the Capital, Subaru protected her in Ram's place.
Wounded, he was taken to the mansion, and there came the ruckus with the witchbeasts. This again
concluded in Subaru saving both the village and the children, and he participated in exterminating
the beasts. He was not the contributor of the greatest services, but his presence truly did help.
When Emilia returned from the Capital and entrusted the mansion to Ram, and signs of unrest
began to spread across the surrounding region, Subaru returned with a military unit in tow and
beautifully repelled the danger.
The man named Natsuki Subaru was a man with abnormally good timing.
Ram found not a single appealing thing in him, and nothing sexually charming about him either. She
had no idea as to what his good points were, and on occasions felt frustrated with him. Although she
could not remember what it was that frustrated her, or what it was that was tugging at her.
Regardless, Natsuki Subaru amounted to nothing more than that.
Which was why for this affair, Ram would again—
Ram: “It's safe to trust in the goodness of Barusu's timing. —Once Barusu thinks he's seen a
chance, and so acts with that belief, that remains the only single method to salvage any victory.”
Otto: “It looks like you do have some trust in Natsuki-san, Ram-san.”
Ram: “It's Ram-sama.”
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Otto: “Is this truly the time to be bringing that up!?”
Displeased by the man grinning beside her, Ram shuts him up with a sharp glare.
The two coincide in their approval of Subaru's intentions. They mutually agreed on the issue of
them becoming fighters, and on saying nothing about buying time like this to Subaru.
They were aware that they had already bought plenty enough time, but...
Otto: “Somehow, it's mysterious, but this urge to do more isn't going away.”
Ram: “That the traps and the surprise attack caught him perfectly but he still isn't down is an insult.
This is impertinence, Garf. —As you'll be soon to understand.”
Otto: “Aeuh, scary. This woman is scary. I'm starting to feel that maybe Natsuki-san lied, about that
sleeping girl being a kind person.”
Muttering and running his mouth is Otto.

Verifying her grip on her wand, with mana again congregating at its tip, is Ram.
Faced with the two and their readiness for battle, preserving his silence, is Garfiel. He looks down,
listening to the two's voices, before finally, sluggishly, stepping forth.
Garfiel: “—”
Sensing that battle will again unfold, Otto and Ram stiffen.
But in response to their resolve,
Garfiel: “...enough, already.”
A frail, muttered voice.

Otto and Ram furrow their brows.
Garfiel: “Thinking is just a goddamn fuckin' pain—”
Spoken in exhausted tone, Garfiel mutters.

And.
???: “——฀!”
Rocking the whole of SANCTUARY's woods, there thunders a bestial bellow.

Every creature in the forest trembles, bows their heads before this pressure.
—The beast, appears.
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CHAPTER 109: MISSTEP
Otto: “Just as how we discussed before, I'm about to have the villagers escape while I lure Garfiel.
Natsuki-san said he would be fine with just buying time, but I'm feeling greedy for something
more... could I hope for you to assist me?”
After parting with Subaru, before departing on the two bait carriages, Otto spoke with Ram there at
a corner of the village.
Ram crossed her arms in response to Otto's rather unconfident query, herself leaning against a wall
as she closed her eyes. She proceeded in her silence, while the impending start of battle threw Otto
into impatient panic.
Otto: “Erm, excuse me... honestly, there isn't very much time...”
Ram: “Impatient men go unliked. I mentioned this before, but nothing has changed about it
depending on the requirements.”
Ram opened one eye, before promptly discarding Otto's imploring gaze.
The BEFORE she mentioned referred to an event from three days ago. The night where Subaru
challenged Roswaal to a bet, and Otto proposed a joint fight with Ram.
Roswaal urged Ram to leave the room when Subaru visited him, leaving the two alone.
Back then, Otto had been intending to make contact with Ram when she left the building. Otto
accurately determined that Roswaal would distance Ram provided an important matter related to the
gospel came up, and he managed to catch her in a moment of her free time.
Plainly said, three days ago Ram and Otto were crossing the line for shallow acquaintanceships.
They could count their interactions on one hand, and furthermore short of something incredible
happening, Ram had not a shred of interest in any men except Roswaal. The people she conversed
with in SANCTUARY, excluding those related to the Roswaal Mansion, were probably just Lewes and
Garfiel.
And thus when Otto called out to Ram and she looked at him as he were a pebble lying on the road,
he needed to begin the conversation by building up cordial relations.
Otto: “Greetings, erm... Ram-san. It sure is a nice night out.”
Ram: “—”
Otto: “Hello?”
Ram: “—. Ah, I was wondering who you were, and it turns out you're that man who was prostrating
himself behind Barusu. You give so thin of an impression when separated from him that I could not
tell what kind of creature you were.”
Otto: “So I'm less than human!? That truly does hurt to hear. Or, no, erm, I mean I do understand
why I'm being treated like Natsuki-san's accessory...”
Ram: “A man who accepts being anyone's accessory is worthless. Begone.”
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Otto: “Unsparing!?”
Ram's unapproachable attitude swiftly tore Otto to shreds.

With not the slightest interest in Otto, Ram leaned against the wall beside the door as she crossed
her arms.
Otto: “Excuse me, would you mind if we talked?”
Ram: “Leaving aside whether or not I remember it, have you ever considered starting conversations
by first presenting your name? Leaving aside whether or not I remember it.”
Otto: “Why is it that you reminded me twice about whether you'll remember it? Hauhh... My name
is Otto Swein. A humble travelling merchant, although I would greatly appreciate it if you could at
least memorize my face and name.”
Ram: “That would depend on how interesting this talk of yours is.”
Ram conceded not a speck of her dominance in this conversation.

Although indicated that she would listen to Otto's talk, she stated that she would immediately cancel
it should the topic be worthless. Otto again pumped himself up to present a perspective that his
conversational opponent would not have expected.
Otto: “This would be related to what Natsuki-san and the Margrave are presently discussing, but...
Ram-san. Would you be interested in assisting myself and Nastuki-san to liberate SANCTUARY from
its barrier?”
Ram: “—What a farce. My wish is the fulfilment of Roswaal-sama's deepest desire. Should I
respect Roswaal-sama's will, then to liberate SANCTUARY by that method carries no meaning at all.”
Otto: “But that would suppose that matters proceed exactly as the Margrave intends... correct?
Ram-san, would you be aware that events have already diverged from that path?”
Ram: “—”
It was Otto who proposed, following his conversation with Subaru, that they drag Ram in as an ally.
Subaru had been overwhelmingly reluctant about it, but going by what he told him, Otto judged that
this bet was one they had definite chances of winning.
Ram opened her eyes and looked at Otto with her emotionless cerise gaze.
She uncrossed her arms, the fingers of her lowered left hand grazing, most likely, against her wand
equipped there beneath her short skirt.
His choice of words either would or would not incur her wrath, and her rage would bear the shape
of a windblade.
Otto swallowed his breath, wet his lips with his tongue, and smiled the same fearless smile he
always did when making a challenging business deal.
The tenseness of his body vanished as his quickened pulse clicked into a more comfortable pace.
Now, just like always, time to ENDURE.
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Otto: “A path diverged from the Margrave's plots—and there being, the first possibility that your
true wish may be accomplished. My belief is that Natsuki-san and I could aid you with this.”
Ram's fingers wavered, hesitating—before leaving her wand. Seeing this, Otto determined that his
sales pitch was nothing to be belittled.
Having listened to Otto's proposal and learned the details of the plan, Ram presented several terms.
Revealing their entire plan to Ram was truthfully a rather large gamble for Otto and Subaru. Should
they misjudge how their proposal affected her heart, then all of their plans would leak to Roswaal.
But there existed enough merit in converting Ram to risk the danger.
Ram stated several terms necessary to secure her cooperation, and finding them entirely reasonable,
Otto accepted them.
Otto did not tell the details of Ram's terms to Subaru. Necessity existed that he secure the greatest
cooperation he could from her, and keep their proceeding actions a secret from him.
If Otto informed him, Subaru would stop them. If he ran off his feelings and stymied Otto and
Ram's movements, that would likely leave the outcome on many problems as down to luck.
Ram: “Your disposition is an unfortunate one. I haven't any clue what you do as an occupation, but
you wouldn't be suited to being a merchant.”
Otto: “But you absolutely do remember that I'm travelling merchant, don't you!”
Alongside Ram's snort at Otto's secret determination, a pained wail echoed through the sky of
SANCTUARY.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Faced with the overwhelming pressure exerted from the vicious beast, Otto thought it strange that
he was not trembling.
This aberrant form looming before him, with its four meters of length and powerful flesh, was that
of a monster.
Crooked, sharp fangs stretched like sabres from its overlarge mouth, its claws curved in grim
crescents as the life-reaping scythes of a psychopomp. Every single strand of golden fur coating its
body was like a wire, and thick enough to entangle any weapon which possessed a lacklustre blade.
The glint in those eyes as golden as its fur alone retained vestiges of before the transformation, the
complete lack of common points between now and before Otto last blinked conversely making it all
seem unreal.
Having shed his human body and revealed his shape as a mighty tiger, Garfiel was there.
His vile-smelling breath came laced out his throat in growls, a pressure strong enough to freeze
creatures from their core out dominating the whole of the forest.
Otto: “—”
Consciously crafting a smile, Otto attempts to distract himself with a joke.
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But his frozen throat utters no noise, and even his supposedly-grinning cheeks have ignored him
and remain rigid.
Getting belatedly onto this track, Otto realises why he is not trembling.
—It wasn't that he wasn't scared. It was that, faced with absolute DEATH, Otto's body had given up
on the faculties extant to promote survival.
Trembling in fear was defence mechanism which incited the body's survival instincts to try and
keep the soul alive.
It was a phenomenon where the body would demand that the soul not surrender—but when placed
in a situation where this would be entirely pointless, it was actually natural that he not be trembling.
He had heard about it. And so he had imagined it.

Garfiel possessed both beastman and human blood, and he could transform into a beast. Otto had
heard that.
But the reality of it annihilated Otto's flimsy imaginations, manifesting a creature beyond any
human knowledge, devouring his spirit whole.
To this thing, in presence of this creature, Otto had proclaimed some nonsense about 'Buying time is
fine, but how about we defeat him?'. Of course it would condescend him a fight. As if Otto had any
hope of winning this.
And yet,
Ram: “Garf transformed... we've met all the requirements now.”
Says the petite girl standing beside him, her inflection entirely identical to before this overwhelming
creature existed.
He could not even question her: requirements for what? Regardless, the movement so mechanical
that his neck may graunch, Otto manages to look at her—at Ram.
Ram's mouth relaxes slightly, and for the first time, she shows Otto something like a smile.
Ram: “Garf made a mistake by picking this obvious choice. —We've won this fight.”
Otto: “—”
Goddamn really? quips Otto mentally, forgetting his politeness.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—The terms for cooperation that Ram presented to Otto amounted to three.
Ram: “To, regardless of the divergence from Roswaal-sama's plans... from the gospel's writ, in
whatever fashion preserve Roswaal-sama's will to live in this world.”
This term was fulfilled once Subaru challenged Roswaal to the bet.
Roswaal, having been on the verge of abandoning absolutely everything, again bore his war paint
and resolved to once again challenge the world, his eyes brimming with life.
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Ram: “To, unrelated to that issue, ensure that Emilia-sama maintains her spirit to challenge the
TRIAL. If a world diverged from Roswaal-sama's plots yet means to continue, she inevitably will
have to stand for herself. ...We'll prepare a setting to test this, until the day of action comes.”
This term was one that Otto would have to leave to Emilia and Subaru, but at least going off the fact
that she was hearing him out, Ram more or less considered this condition as cleared.
When he heard that Emilia had gone missing, Otto thought that everything was utterly over. But
apparently, Ram didn't. He was scared to ask her about it and for her to change her mind, and so had
not probed into the topic.
And,
Ram: “Supposing those two requirements are met, I have little issue in conspiring with you. ...The
conditions for my cooperation in this plan you're keeping secret from Barusu will have to be
somewhat more complex.”
Otto: “I'm wondering whether, if I may hear it, I might sight some clues for securing victory even
on my own.”
Ram: “If I am going to assist in fighting Garf, it's going to be after the prospects of winning have
been broadened. First is inhibiting his nose. Then inflicting some amount of damage on him, and
robbing him of his composure. I will not interfere until the decisive moment has come, so
accomplish these without my assistance. Being that you've gone out of the way to propose me this
plan, surely you have some ace in mind?”
Otto: “That is, well... more or less, yes.”
Ram: “Of course. And with that established, so, here's the final requirement.”
Otto: “Right.”
Ram: “Make Garf transform. —That is the final requirement for attaining victory.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Ram: “His sense of smell is still subdued, yes?”
Otto: “...”
Ram: “Pathetic.”
Otto: “Gaeuh!”
Seeing Otto so debilitated that he cannot even answer the question, Ram plunges her elbow into his
side. Wailing at the sharp, gouging pain, Otto gasps as he remembers to start breathing.
Otto: “Aeg, aghu... I-I thought I, was going to die... just now, die from just the pressure!”
Ram: “That is preferable to failing even as a flimsy soft meatshield, stay firm. His sense of smell
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should still be subdued, yes?”
Otto: “Forgetting about that unforgettable statement, indeed, it's ruined. Makoil pollen is an
extremely powerful animal repellent, and even humans will fall unconscious should they smell it
from close proximity.”
Ram: “And evenmoreso when it is Garf, with a sense of smell many times superior. This means the
single benefit of his transformation has been nullified. Then is the time, and the damage from before
his transformation... both are as we expected.”
With a breezy breath out, Ram flits her heels off the ground as she shifts to stand on her toes.
Maintaining that posture, she lowers her heels again, then lifts, then lowers, lifts, lowers,
commencing some simple leg exercises.
Otto furrows his brows at Ram's strange behaviour, tiling his head.
Otto: “R-Ram-san? What are you doing?”
Ram: “I'm warming up. Quickly loosening my body before I begin. Loathe as I am to admit it,
Barusu is correct about this being efficient.”
Otto: “Erm, no, that wasn't quite it... what are you doing those exercises for?”
Ram: “That's simple.”
With Otto and his trembling voice in the corner of her vision, Ram finishes her exercises and closes
her eyes. She then opens her eyes again, her feet heading forward—her manner entirely casual, her
gait one of taking a leisurely stroll, as she begins closing distance on the beast.
Otto: “Whah!?”
Ram: “Be silent.”
Otto's eyes bulge as he witnesses her boldness. But Ram rejects his call, her speed slackening not at
all as she heads to meet the tiger.
The tiger stoops low as it glowers at the prey before it, its body stiffening in unguarded surprise for
a moment at the little creature's action—but immediately, it judges the behaviour as an insult toward
itself.
Rage arises in its golden eyes as it raises its forepaw, the thing thicker than Ram's torso, those
vicious claws extended. A single strike from these claws, each big as dainty Ram's arms, possessed
enough force to instantly transfigure her limbs into clumps of gore with just graze.
The wind screams as the reaper's scythe, clad in the shape of claws, ousts Ram's life from the world.
—Imminently.
Ram: “Deplorable, Garf. —Who do you think it is that you're facing?”
Crouching down, Ram bypasses the mighty paw overhead as she speaks to the tiger in
commiseration.
Having put the force of its entire body into the swing, the tiger flounders while Ram's small figure
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dives for creature's chest. With her legs folded in, Ram then stretches out her whole body as she
shunts out her readied fist—
Ram: “Have you ever beaten me in a fistfight even once?”
Garfiel: “——฀!”
The fist from below embedded in its torso sends a beast exceeding several hundred kilograms in
weight soaring into the air.
Its body arcing from the force of the strike, a pained wail spills from the beast's maw. The
shockwave destroys the forest as Otto hears the noise of the air bursting.
Otto: “No, way.”
A girl a head shorter than him had just punched a powerful beast so tall that looking up wasn't
enough to sight the whole thing. And just like that, with her fist still contacting the tiger's torso,
Ram's free hand was slapping the animal around even further.
The blows swap from one hand to the other as they beat the enormous tiger, the thing shrieking
alongside its retreat. Its great jaws aim for Ram with fangs bared, but the nimble girl sets her foot
upon the tiger's nose, and her forceful kick instead sends the beast's face slamming down to the
ground.
The earth shreds away as the incredible beast writhes, attempting frantically to tear apart the limbs
of the girl so toying with him. But Ram dances through the air like leaves in the wind, evading the
tiger's attacks mockingly, driving pointed attack after pointed attack into places where its fur is
shallow.
Her heel into its throat. Her hand into its torso. Her fist punches her past the thing's paw, allowing
her to send a kick into the creature's unguarded face.
The unreal feeling of witnessing her subdue the tiger, as if he is reading a picture book, grasps
Otto's heart.
What on earth was he watching?

Sighting Garfiel bereft of his human shape inflicted Otto with so much despair that his body gave
up on living. Was meant to be the case, so what on earth was he watching, here?
With every swing of the girl's arm, the beast's body would go flying beneath the force of the blow. A
tremendous monster whose very roars could likely slaughter a creature was accomplishing entirely
nothing, unable to land a single hit on her.
The tiger's furious paws defectively mowed through trees, sliced into earth, the chaotic violence
altering the shape of the forest, but the gradually shifting land caused Ram no issue at all.
They could win. Like this.

He looks an imbecile for doubting Ram's pre-battle remarks.
Her statements about purposefully getting Garfiel to transform now held definite credibility.
Garfiel's presence when he transforms into a tiger is overwhelming, something which shows its
power in one-versus-many situations. His very mass is a weapon in itself, and even should he fight
a single individual, he clearly should not lose.
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But when said individual possesses fighting ability beyond that of human capabilities, that changes
the story.
His muscled body becomes a target, his powerful tree-felling forepaws become weapons fraught
with openings, and his decimating strength creates a dimwittedness that keeps him from entirely
opting for either retreat or attack.
Calmly analyse the situation, and it is possible to deduce all of this.

But that said, these ideas only work, and defeating him only looks easy, when presupposing the
presence of AN OVERWHELMING INDIVIDUAL.
A friendly wildcard to counter a transformed Garfiel. The very act of securing one of these
uncommon things as part of his team was Otto's greatest contribution to the fight.
Otto: “We can... we can do it! If it goes like this, then Garfiel...”
Clenching his fists, Otto cheers as he sights the prospects of victory.

Ram's fist supports that hope as it slams the tiger in the side of the face, the creature kicking up
plumes of dust as it skids magnificently across the ground, further and further away.
When—
Ram: “—ghg”
Unable to suppress her groan, and with a stream of blood coursing from her forehead, Ram's body
sways tremendously.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
With the flowing blood dying her vision in crimson, Ram's frantic legwork allows her to somehow
withstand the sensation of her body as it borders on collapse.
The sharp, stabbing pain flashes just above her brow—in the very centre of her forehead. Ram finds
the agony originating from the faint scar there a bothersome thing, her clicking her tongue at it.
Behind her, Otto's voice cracks as he shrieks. Annoying.

It was no one but Ram who best understood that the situation had nosedived. It wasn't that any of
Garfiel's attacks had hit her. With those thoughtless, opening-laden swings, trying to get hit would
be the more difficult option. These screams are annoying. Wanna hit him.
Ram: “—hhu.”
Giving a short breath, Ram's unsteady feet kick off of the ground.
Immediately, the tiger's claws swing down to strike the land she jumped from. Clods of dirt spring
into the air, the dirt projectiles mixing with vivid red droplets as Ram spins, dances to evade.
She was obviously on a time limit, but by some way or another, she could move. She kicks the
tiger's exposed jaw from below, the creature shrieking as she follows with another strike from her
other leg. She uses her momentum from the kick to backflip into a retreat, taking range and then
making touchdown, only for her stance to instantly crumble.
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Ram: “—a,”
A hair's breadth. Ram is slow to dodge the claws as they slice through a tuft of her hair, pink
scattering as it dances through space.
That she dodged that strike was complete coincidence. If her feet had not just happened to slip, then
Ram's head would have unmistakably burst like a red fruit.
Feeling that she is in proximity of death, feeling something indescribable rushing up her spine,
Ram's red lips tear into a grin as she howls.
The exhilaration of battle. Her forehead scar throbs, something between pain and an itch flooding
down her whole body.
Her broken horn. Proof of being oni. In order to fully demonstrate Ram's potential, she absolutely
needed her horn to amass mana from the inexhaustible ambient supply. Her body, having lost the
organ, could not demonstrate even a tenth of its actual ability.
She understood beforehand that should she overtax her body like this, she would immediately be hit
with a backlash.
She had thought to ready the requirements regardless, for if she ended this in a quick fistfight, she
wouldn't lose. And yet.
Ram: “—You've become strong, Garf.”
Ram's murmur overflows with an emotion she rarely shows to others.

Of course Otto seldom witnessed it, and even Subaru's sightings of it were sparse. This was the kind
of emotion she would show to her family, vanished from her memory.
With the gentle smile still etched upon her face, her fists beat and beat the tiger's face mercilessly.
She feels his tough skin on her fists. Her hands have lost their hardness, the recoil from each strike
hitting her directly, breaking the bones in her hand. It feels good. She's fighting. She's living. This
exhilarating sense of killing, being killed. What dominates her is abounding euphoria. More. More.
There is more after this. There is yet another dimension to reach.
Her right hand shatters, no longer capable of forming a fist. The tiger with its crushed face bellows.
Breath like a windstorm looms in before her, her left hand slices through the wind to gouge the thin
skin on the tiger's neck. Blood spouts, the flesh her fingers hook tears down, away, the blood spouts.
Sanguine speckles her white cheeks gruesomely, the lick of her tongue on sweet iron intoxicating.
If her shattered right hand is useless, constrict their neck with her arm. The neck's width far exceeds
her own body, one arm will never make it. Soaring, grappling, using her legs too to strangle the
beast's arteries, claws pressing in to tear her away—dodged. Put in all her body weight and, snap,
goes her finger. The shriek feels good, like she's back home.
Ram: “Bgh, hgn, aggbh,”
This dance they're having is so fun, but her hazy head is aggravating. The bleed from her forehead
shows no signs of stopping, her nose and mouth also beginning to overflow with blood.
She has passed her limit, and her body is beginning to break down. Her body, receiving no mana to
supplement it, cannot keep up with the potential vested in Ram's nerves as they operate her flesh.
Ram continues to move at blazing speeds, still evading Garfiel's claws. This is combat ability so
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overwhelming that not even a single strike grazes her. But the wicked hands of destruction indeed
gorge upon her flesh as they seek her end. Before the claws or fangs can land any hit, she will be
over.
Ram: “—egh, ghh,”
Immediately after taking a deep breath in, a deep breath out, the overflowing stuff spills out of
Ram's mouth in a torrent.
The blood splashes to the ground, and as if the expelled stuff were Ram's very energy, her body
loses its strength.
Her shoulders slump, her legs collapse. The beast surely would not overlook this moment. Its beaten
and enraged visage bares its fangs, swinging its paw to strike Ram's slim body.
However, it—
Otto: “Aaaauauuueh! Dona!!”
Alongside the screeched canto, a wall of earth shoots up from the ground.
It cuts in the space between Ram and the tiger's paw, dulling the attack's force for only an instant
before immediately being torn to smithereens.
But in that single instant a force drags Ram's body back, and with all the possible strength it has,
flings Ram backwards.
—She gets the sense that this is the second time someone has thrown her like this during a fight.
She soars through the air, dazedly staring at the sky as that out-of-place sentiment hits her. The
impact of her back to the ground robs her of her breath, while she nonetheless swiftly raises her
head to register the situation.
There in front of her, in the place she had just been, now stands Otto. It seems he had both judged
Ram's condition as odd and the situation as disadvantageous, and so plunged himself in.
But even having said that, surely there's nothing he can do—
Enraged that a powerless creature has intruded on the battle between itself and Ram, the tiger
intimidates the pale young man with a forest-jolting bellow. Should he freeze, he would assuredly
become food for those fangs. At a juncture which demanded immediate action, Otto balls his hands
into fists and stomps the ground as—
Otto: “——฀!”
—His slender throat expels the exact same bellow as that of the beast's.
This was the BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY that Ram had heard about prior. He had bragged that so
long as it was an intelligent lifeform, be it a dragon or a critter, or even an insect, he could speak
with it. Apparently the power could even communicate with Garfiel, transformed into A BEAST
DEVOID OF RATIONALITY.
Ram couldn't tell what Garfiel's roar sounded like to Otto.

And she cannot tell what Otto's response made Garfiel feel.
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But this exchange of roars does create a brief opening before the beast can unleash its claws and
fangs.
That period is more than enough time for Ram to realise Otto's true motives in throwing her.
Otto: “—฀! Aaeuh! That's, my throat's limit...”
Struggling to withstand a shriek liable to literally draw blood, Otto presses down on his throat as he
coughs.
Punctuating the end to this conversation, the tiger raises its paw, aiming to annihilate Otto with a
single strike. Otto raises his hands before him, his expression determined as he screams in
desperation.
Otto: “El Dona!!”
A thick wall of earth extends before Otto, who neglects to finish watching the thing form as he
sprints backwards. The tiger's paw breaks through the wall in pursuit, kicking up a whirling plume
of dust, looming in on the fleeing Otto's torso—for a direct hit. The slender man flies through the air
like a dead twig, plunging nonstop through bushes and trees.
Whether he lives or dies is entirely determinant on Otto's fortitude.

Ram pays no attention to the result of his decision and actions. To pay no attention in itself was the
deed most appropriate to repay Otto for what he had done.
Ram: “Garf. —Transforming truly was a misstep.”
Announces Ram to the tiger, which turns to attack her next.

Leaning against a tree and freed from the exhilarating feeling of blood, Ram steadily regains her
composure, her wand grasped in her barely-operational left hand, its point aimed at Garfiel.
Mana—shifting.
Ram: “Supposing you had even a speck of reasoning ability left, I doubt you would have
overlooked me.”
Garfiel: “—”
The tiger scrunches its nose warily.

But does nothing further. It has no idea what is coming.
The eyes of the dimwitted tiger do not understand what it means that Ram IS STANDING AMID A
MASS OF WHITE LIGHT.
Having transformed, and over the course of its fight with Ram ravaged the earth, the trees, the
forest, the residents of the woods regard the tiger as an irredeemably violent and wicked guy—
Ram: “I'm not bungling this the way he did.”
Garfiel: “—!”
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Realising something, the tiger stoops low as it charges for Ram.
Too late.
Ram: “—Al Fula.”
The mana congregated from the rage of the forests' residents assembles at the tip of Ram's wand,
bursting into an explosion of light.
—The forest fight in SANCTUARY now, concludes.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Getting the feeling that he just heard a beast roar, Subaru stops walking and glances behind him.
Subaru: “Nah, no way.”
It's way too early for that, is Subaru's very simple impression.
It had been perhaps twenty minutes since he asked Otto to buy time and parted with him. It's
questionable whether Otto has even departed on the carriages yet, and there's no conceivable way
the situation could've progressed that far.
He does come up with the theory that his anxiety is making him hallucinate, but that thought is
actually the terrifying one. Just how unconsciously anxious about this situation is he?
Subaru: “Gotta believe, gotta believe. Otto's devoting himself to buying time. After all, he said that
he'll spill everything once Garfiel catches him... and we didn't tell the Arlam villagers anything they
didn't need to know, so they shouldn't be targets.”
The context for Garfiel attacking the villagers and by extension Subaru as they attempt to leave, by
Subaru's speculation, was whenever he has spoken with Garfiel about the Lewes doubles. Meaning
that Garfiel doesn't want information about the Lewes doubles to leak outside.
Subaru didn't know what the root reason for that is, but if Garfiel doesn't exterminate everything
which might know about them, he cannot be at ease. The loop where he slaughtered all the villagers
except Subaru probably resulted from his inability to determine whether or not Subaru had leaked
information to one of his fellow escapees.
How much trust Garfiel would place in Subaru's assertion that he didn't tell them was a bet, but he
had a mysterious conviction that if he sincerely emphasized the point, Garfiel would probably be
receptive.
Garfiel does not seem the type to deal with finnicky thinking well. Perhaps Subaru's impression
came from some idea where all he had to do was hand Garfiel some basis that'd allow him to settle
the matter without really thinking it over.
Subaru: “And according to Otto, we've got Ram's help secured. Worst case, so long as he's not
cornered, he shouldn't try laying hands on her...”
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If there's anything to worry about, it's the possibility that Ram will provoke Garfiel more than
necessary.
The two have known each other for a long time, and share a past that Subaru can't quite deduce. If
some fissures erupt thanks to their mutual backstory, that could lead to an unforeseen development.
But the reasoning for Ram agreeing to help them was so that Roswaal would keep living in a world
diverged from the gospel, and she should autonomously work to keep on that path. Or at least that
was how Subaru interpreted it, and figured that she would need to cooperate with him and Otto to
achieve it.
Even if Otto's icebreaking dissatisfied her, she would surely, probably go along with it.
Subaru: “Believing in you, Sister. No matter how unreliable Otto is, please listen to him.”
Putting palm to palm, Subaru prays his utmost for their safety.
Unaware that the two had gone off and made a decision skirting the boundary of life and death of
their own accord, Subaru finishes his solitary prayer.
Subaru: “Okay, time for me to fill my role then.”
Tugging his cheeks to psych himself up, Subaru gives a shake of his head before proceeding forth.
The moment that Subaru's foot steps inside the gaping entrance, the unpleasant sensation of
freediving, plummeting through air—of his guts floating upward assaults him.
Subaru: “Euhghhh...”
Putting his hand to his mouth, Subaru forces the welling nausea back down as the treads onward.
This perpetual feeling of floating. The sense that with every step, his guts are strewn in further
disarray. The overwhelming discomfort of his blood seemingly flowing backwards, of the air
slathering its tongue over his eyeballs.
Sustaining a great sense of rejection while the world does everything it can to rebuff Natsuki
Subaru, Subaru takes deep breath after deep breath, his hand to the wall and his face pale as he
drags his feet onward.
Subaru: “Stop, being so cold... y'know this does, actually sting...”
Having anticipated this, Subaru left his stomach empty in advance. Regardless this stomach-
churning nausea demands that gastric juices spill from his mouth.
Subaru forces the feeling down, and forces his eyes open, as he frantically creeps step after step.
And—
Subaru: “Ah, thank goodness. —Finally found you.”
Having proceeded entirely down the short distance of what felt like an endless path, Subaru's
shoulders slump in relief.
Opposite Subaru, leaning against an aged wall, seated there in the dirty and dusty corridor with her
hands hugging her knees, the girl looks up at him with an expression of astonishment.
???: “Su, baru?”
While her voice is faltering, the fact that she called his name confers him full satisfaction.
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Subaru settles himself down beside the seated girl—
Subaru: “Now—let's talk, Emilia-tan.”
Using the same icebreaker as back then, when he could not entirely accept his mistakes, this time it
is Subaru who initiates.
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CHAPTER 110: REASON TO BELIEVE
Having found Emilia, curled up small and hugging her knees, Subaru feels an inopportune relief.
Part of it came from the fact he found Emilia, and part of it came from the fact Emilia was here.
He was convinced that this was the only place she could be, and was wishing that this was the place
she would be. Both of these things proved legitimate, leading something leaden and heavy in the pit
of his stomach to fall.
Subaru: “So anyway, I was thinking, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “...”
Subaru: “In this spot, you definitely can hole up alone without anyone finding you. There's only so
many people who can get in here, and all the people who can get in wouldn't want to anyway.”
Aside from Emilia, only three other people could enter Echidna's tomb.
One of them rejects the TRIAL and loathes the tomb, one of them had witnessed a past belonging to
someone other than themselves and consequently entrusted SANCTUARY's future to another, and the
final one had earned the witch's displeasure midway through the TRIALS and had their qualifications
revoked.
All other persons who possessed the qualifications adhered stringently to the rules imposed on
them, and so would not enter.
Indeed, this was a hiding spot that only Emilia could get to.
Emilia gives no reply to Subaru's words of honest praise.

She simply remains small, looking silently up at Subaru.
Subaru: “—Mind if I sit beside you? Standing's, honestly pretty taxing.”
Emilia: “...”
Subaru: “Where I'm from, silence means yes. Alright, 'scuse me here.”
Bathed in her focused stare, Subaru magnificently says his piece and seats himself beside Emilia.
A range between them as big as two fists is the limit that Subaru's manly spirit and courage can
muster. Getting any closer would have to come after their words and attitudes diminished the
emotional distance between them.
Since right now, the sentimental distance between the two was likely much bigger than a fist.
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “—”
Seated next to each other, the two fall into silence.

Subaru patiently waits for Emilia to speak. Emilia gazes at him as he does, her lips quivering
multiple times, and with some hesitation,
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Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “How come... you're here?”
Subaru: “Ask me how come, and well that's a tricky one. It's because I'm always thinking about
you, Emilia-tan, and thus magnificently figured out where you were, I guess.”
It's really something of an honour.

Since it meant that he was the one who, at least in this SANCTUARY, thought about Emilia the most
and most accurately supposed her feelings.
Though if he were truly attuned to Emilia's feelings, he definitely wouldn't be speaking with her like
this right now in the tomb.
Emilia's eyes widen as she hears Subaru's response.

And she shakes her head, as if that was not the reply she was looking for.
Emilia: “No. No, that wasn't it, Subaru. I don't mean 'why did you come here'... I meant how. Only
people with the qualifications are meant to be able to get here.”
Subaru: “Sure you're not the one forgetting, Emilia-tan? On our first day here, I rushed into this
place to bring you out after you dead collapsed inside. Apparently if you're like Roswaal and the
witch super hates you, it feels like you'll pop just from going in, but it's not that bad for me. Feels
floaty like I'm on an elevator that's perpetually a second before touchdown is all. It's nothing I can't
handle.”
Emilia: “...So that's it.”
She speaks with chagrin that her estimates about this place being impenetrable were inaccurate. Her
gaze as she glances at Subaru, beset by nausea, is worried.
She must be frantically trying to organize a mess of her own mental stuff right now, but that she
regardless winds up caring for others in this situation is lionhearted, pitiable and sweet.
Emilia: “How come... you knew I was here?”
Talking distracts him better than silence, and gives him some relief.
Perhaps having noticed that while he was speaking, and now watching Subaru as he takes deep
breath after deep breath, Emilia presents a new question.
Her query comes laced with suspicion and resignation, mingled with other complex sentiments.
The resignation was cavalier, and the suspicion needlessly paranoid. Both were incredibly rare to
see from Emilia—this might even be Subaru's first time witnessing them.
Emilia: “...Subaru?”
Subaru: “Ah right, sorry sorry. Okay, asking how come I thought you were here, well it's probably
that. That that where there's nothing about Emilia-tan that I don't know.”
Emilia: “Liar.”
It wasn't that he was trying to jest, but his frivolous statement nevertheless faces prompt rejection.
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With her chin set on her knees, Emilia tilts her head as she looks at Subaru. The emotions flickering
through her amethyst eyes mark the pinnacle of chaotic turmoil, enough to nigh swallow him.
Disliking how those emotions are being delved, Emilia averts her gaze, pouting so Subaru can't see
it.
Emilia: “That talk won't fool me. —I don't even know myself well. It's impossible that you would.”
Subaru: “It's surprising how little it is you see of yourself. It does happen that people will be paying
attention to you perfectly, all the way down to your weak points.”
Personal experience—isn't what he'd call it, but things in that vein do occasionally happen to him.
It often occurs that when he's fired up, he cannot reflect on how thoughtless, reckless, and senseless
he is being. It has also occurred where others pointed it out for him, and only starting from there
would he recognize it himself.
Once, someone did point out that Subaru was like this, and starting from there—
Subaru: “Emilia-tan, I figured you were here half off of trust, half off of hoping for it.”
Emilia: “Half and half...”
Subaru: “I ran around the village, but couldn't really find you. Instead of thinking about where you
went, I put all my effort into thinking about why'd you gone. And when I did, I figured you'd
probably be here. And when I found you was a crazy relief.”
Emilia: “...Just, a relief?”
Subaru: “Hm?”
Subaru's mouth relaxes into a relieved smile, when Emilia asks her question.
Her voice is quiet, liable to disappear. Subaru's brows shoot up in hearing it, only for Emilia to stare
at him fixedly, peering into his eyes.
Emilia: “You found me here, and all you were was relieved? ...You weren't mad?”
Subaru: “Heck is that, Emilia-tan. No way, you were scared I'd be mad at you?”
Her timid attitude leads Subaru to almost slip a breathy laugh.

Running off without telling anyone where you're going, but then having your location found and
being scared of reprimands, was exactly what a child would do.
While he can somewhat agree with that idea now that he knows about her real age and real age
mentally, the behaviour is incredibly unlike her.
But Subaru purposefully pays the strangeness no heed, instead shaking his head.
Subaru: “I'm not mad at all. I was feeling hurried, and honestly in a major mega panic, but not mad.
And with the thing where I found you here counted in too, I'm glad.”
Emilia: “...Are you.”
The emotions Subaru felt for the missing Emilia were not anger.
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Supposing hypothetically that there was any anger, it would be for the fact that Emilia had done
something unanticipated and he had missed the warning signs, his crossness aimed at himself.
This hurried, panicky feeling of his, liable as it was to ruin all of the preparations he had made thus
far, had also drowned beneath the flood of relief he felt from finding her.
And so Emilia's worries are needless. That is what he is trying to tell her.
Emilia: “You're not mad.”
That is what he was trying to tell her, but the accompaniment to her mutter is not relief.
Subaru: “—Emilia?”
Emilia: “You are not mad at me. —You won't be mad for me.”
Quiet, hoarse, and shaking.

By the time Subaru's brows scrunch in puzzlement, it is already too late.
Looking down, biting her lip, Emilia opens her eyes wide.
As she endures the flood of tears in her eyes, trying to keep them from spilling.
Emilia: “Why won't you be mad?”
Subaru: “Emili—”
Emilia: “I did something selfish, didn't I? I did something that distressed you, didn't I. I said nothing
and went away, and I worried you, didn't I? I made you anxious, wondering if I'd run away... that's
what I did, isn't it. And when someone does that to you, you get mad, don't you? Or aren't you like
that, Subaru?”
Cutting off Subaru, Emilia speedily speaks line upon line of her emotions.
She emphasizes the selfishness of her own actions, closing in on Subaru in an attempt to make him
condemn her.
Overwhelmed by her uncanniness, Subaru finally realises that he made a decisive error when
choosing his words.
Emilia wasn't scared that Subaru would be mad at her.
Emilia was scared that Subaru would not criticise her actions.
And she was so because—
Emilia: “Why won't you be mad? Are you not mad b-because, you weren't expecting anything from
me? You saw how I failed, but you're still being kind to me... is it because you're not disappointed in
me? Is it because you don't think it would've worked out?”
Subaru: “—”
These might be the anxieties that Emilia had been harbouring the whole time, but been unable to
ever voice, the very darkness wallowing in the pit of her heart.
Repeatedly she challenged the TRIAL, only for her heart to fold every time and for her to return.
She thought herself weak for it, and while there were those who would show their dejection when
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she failed, their number included people who would not fault her, like Subaru and Puck.
While the presence of Subaru and Puck did relieve her, she also, always, had been fighting with this
persistent anxiety.
Disappointment occurred because expectations occurred.

She thought herself weak because it sickened her that she couldn't put in a fight.
But no matter how many times she repeatedly failed, should she regardless be kindly consoled, and
while that worked as a temporary reprieve, it exacerbated a larger, greater sense of anxiety.
Emilia had always feared Subaru and Puck being kind to her.
Subaru: “No, Emilia. That isn't what I think.”
Far too belatedly comprehending the height of the wave cresting in Emilia's heart, Subaru speaks.
If he does not capture Emilia right here, right now, something terrible is going to happen. Should
she continue to reject him, then even if he reaches out, he will never seize her again.
And so without any leeway to even wonder what he should best say, he talks.
Subaru: “I can't be mad at you, but it's not because I think anything like that...”
Emilia: “If that's true, then...! How come! How come you didn't keep your promise?!”
With his knee-jerk statement denied, the new topic leads Subaru's face to stiffen.
The PROMISE. That meant the one he and Emilia had shared last night, and if questioning whether it
had been properly fulfilled—
Emilia: “I asked you to hold my hand until morning! And you promised me by saying 'I will'... so
why did you let go of my hand? Why didn't you keep your promise?”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “B-Both you, and Puck, broke... your promises, and went away. You left me behind, and
went away... you liars. Subaru's a liar. Puck's a liar. ...Liars, liars... liars...”
Her voice in tears, Emilia violently condemns the violation of promises.

Facing down and with teardrops streaming out her eyes, Emilia butts her head into Subaru's
shoulder, before weakly slapping her hand to his chest. The force is equivalent to nothing. But even
so, it hurts as though he's been punched clean though.
This was the whole of the pain that Subaru had not noticed and overlooked, borne by Emilia.
Which Subaru and Puck had showered upon her.
Emilia: “P-promises are, important... and I told you that, I told you that before! That for
practitioners of the spiritual arts, for me, promises are important... and so I want them to be kept...
you're supposed to have apologized to me for not having kept one... and, even still you broke, a
promise again...”
Subaru: “...Emilia.”
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Emilia: “Don't break promises... don't tell lies... you mustn't break promises... if, you do that, if I do,
then, Mother and Juice...”
With her face still pressed against Subaru's shoulder, Emilia's emotions lack any harbour as she lets
them wander, lost. Her surging emotions and grief for the betrayal have torn her thoughts into tiny,
disjointed shreds.
Her inarticulate speech turns further incoherent, ending with Emilia sobbing in the diction of a
wailing child,
Emilia: “Don't tell lies... don't do it...”
Her voice shakes with grief. A clawing pain tears at Subaru's chest.
PROMISE—a word which carried multiple different connotations when used between Subaru and
Emilia. Subaru had once disregarded their promises, wounding Emilia, and spawned a mutual
divide between them.
After their reunion he ascertained the significance of a promise, and they tied one between
themselves in the form of a bond.
And regardless the word PROMISE again echoes without kindness, instead binding the two with
overwhelming weight.
More than anything, Emilia's state when she talks about PROMISES differs tremendously from usual.
Something, some important part of Emilia's foundations, tethers her to promises.
Emilia: “—”
With her head buried between her knees, Emilia weeps.

Every second Subaru spends witnessing this cuts another lash of guilt into his heart.
The sobbing echoes into his ears as he frantically considers what to say.
Should he apologize? Should he pretend he understands? Should he rigorously console her? How
much compassion is safe for him to convey?
Subaru's head spins and spin as he thinks, unable to grasp any hint toward the solution.
What to do, what could he, what should he, what ought he, what would be, the best—
Subaru: “—”
He thinks, and thinks, and thinks, Subaru closing his eyes amidst his whirling thoughts, and—
He feels that he has reached the answer of what to do.
Subaru: “Emilia. —I love you.”
Emilia: “—”
Those words truly had no business being spoken in this situation.
Emilia: “...Huh?”
Hearing Subaru's statement, Emilia gives an astonished yelp as she looks up.
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Her teary amethyst eyes open wide as her gaze captures Subaru. His visage is warped atop the sheen
of her tears—and so he manages to resiliently maintain an unshakable heart.
After all, he no longer has any hesitation on what to say.
Subaru: “Every fucking night, you go shunting yourself again and again into the same exact TRIAL.
The hell is the TRIAL? It's just the goddamn past. Stop dawdling around getting caught up in things
that're already over.”
Emilia: “...ah, euh,”
Subaru: “And just when I think I'll do it for you, you start saying you have to it yourself and get so
fucking stubborn about it. It'd be one thing if saying that made it possible for you to clear it, but if
the outcome's the same, all it amounts to is talk. How about spending a moment to consider what it
feels like to have to watch you lose over and over?”
Emilia: “S-suhbaru...”
Subaru: “And to top it off when your pet-slash-guardian goes missing, you can't even stand for
yourself. You throw a tantrum and worry everybody, then shirk your duties to go sulk in bed. Well
how lovely for goddamn you, enough's enough, I'm sick of it.”
Emilia's eyes bulge in disbelief as Subaru spits word after word. Her wet eyes forget about their
tears thanks to her abundance of shock, her lips unable to voice any meaningful words and
trembling.
Unmistakably, with no parallel, Emilia's heart has been wounded.
Faced with the scorn and disgust of Natsuki Subaru, never once directed at her before, her heart is
torn to pieces.
Emilia's expression contorts.

This was not lachrymose, nor a pending conniption, nor the hollowness of resignation.
Hit with curses she has never been showered in before, Emilia's expression changes. Not to any of
the more fitting candidates, but to something entirely different.
—What arises on Emilia's face is a horrifically dry smile.
Emilia: “That's... right, isn't it. O-of course you'd, think this about me as well, Subaru...”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “They're all things, that you just have to call awful... they are. Ever since I came to
SANCTUARY... no, way before that... I've always caused just so many problems, and so, I...”
Subaru: “Yeah. You honestly haven't done a single good thing since coming to SANCTUARY. I know
I'm not one to talk here, but it's too horrendous to ignore. There's no way to back it.”
Subaru validates the trembling Emilia's invalidation of herself.

Emilia's throat gives a choked noise. A sob, or something close to it is what she swallows down, her
pained smile still on her face as she speaks.
Emilia: “And so, I... both by Puck, and by you... w-was, abandoned, which's natural...”
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Subaru: “Yes. You pulled a ton of crap, and there's still no signs of improvement. For the sentiment
of 'I'll do something about this' to be weaker than 'oh please just let anything happen here' is
overwhelmingly natural.”
Emilia attempts to reply to Subaru's invalidation.

He grabs the final part of her response, with which he judges her harshly.
Subaru: “—But.”
Moments before the conversation reaches its end, Subaru cancels his negations.
Emilia looks up at Subaru. Arisen in her eyes is an emotion that only Subaru would understand.
—Because that same exact emotion had one been arisen in Subaru's eyes as well.
Subaru: “I love you. —Emilia.”
Using the same thing and the same words which he could not escape from, Subaru blocks Emilia's
escape.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The long lashes bordering her eyes tremble, Subaru's statement robbing Emilia of her awareness.
The sight of her, frozen, with even her thoughts ground to a halt, leads Subaru to smile faintly.
Not relief, and naturally not ridicule, put a name to it and it'd have to be nostalgia.
So nostalgic that he wants to start screaming everything, including what Emilia's looking for.
Subaru: “I love you. I love you and love you and love you, love you so much it's hopeless.”
Emilia: “Wh-what are you... all of a sudden...”
Subaru: “I love your super pretty silver hair, I love your amethyst eyes and how when they're wet
they look like jewels, I super love your voice and how I get dreamy just from hearing it, and your
slender long legs and your pale skin, and our height difference and all of that is so to my ideal I
can't stand it, just being with you makes my heart race I can't stop it and oh god I love you.”
Emilia: “—”
Subaru: “I love how you're just a little dopey, it's adorable how you put your best into everything, I
revere how fervent you get for other people's sakes, I think the way you disregard yourself can't be
left unattended, and all of your expressions, and all of your emotions, are things where if I could
witness them from your side, nothing could be better... I am always thinking this.”
Emilia: “Why are you, right now... stop messing around with me!”
His feelings for Emilia, flowing out his mouth.

Emilia casts his words away with a shriek.
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Her shoulders heave, her brows shoot down, as Emilia sees how Subaru's attitude is sidestepping
the issue, is fleeing from the condemnations he made, is attempting to ruin everything they spoke
about, and bares her fury.
Emilia: “Why are you suddenly saying this! This wasn't what we were talking about! Y-You were
saying I'm utterly useless, that I'm entirely lacking, that's what you said! You're sick of it, you can't
bare to watch it... y-you said that I'm, damn...”
Subaru: “Yeah, I did. Get subject to seeing all that uselessness, and how the results are always
something where you just want to sigh over how it was all insubstantial talk, then consider that I'm
impatient at best of times, and I would've long stopped feeling any love. That's saying if it weren't
you, Emilia.”
Emilia: “Why!?!”
While agreeing with the worthlessness of her actions, Subaru denies the single most important part.
Emilia raises her voice, unable to agree, unable to allow this pass.
Emilia: “The uselessness and hopelessness, all of it, that's me! So then why are you trying to
overlook it? Why are you forgiving me? Why...”
Subaru: “If it's just answering that, I'll say it endlessly. Because, I, love you!”
Emilia: “—hk”
Emilia sobs as she presses in closer, Subaru equally jabbing his face in nearer as he yells. Emilia
flinches back, overwhelmed, but for every step she retreats, Subaru closes that exact distance. No
shift comes to the fact that they are within breathing range and gazing at each other.
Subaru: “I love you. And so no matter what unfortunate things I see from you, it feels like I just
discovered another side of you, even when you're lacking I wind up supporting you thinking it's a
barrier for you to overcome, and no matter how fed up you are with yourself, I'll never dislike you.”
Emilia: “—”
Subaru: “Even if you hate how weak and pathetic you are, and brood thinking a that others should
be judging you negatively as well... I'm gonna keep expecting things from you. I am never going to
use your weakness as a reason to desert or to abandon you.”
Emilia's eyes waver.

Her gaze has been fixed on Subaru—her eyes full of acceptance for his invalidations of her,
receptiveness toward resignation, and her weak desire to drown in a pool of sorrow and grief.
Emilia wanted to be invalidated. It does happen that by having everyone generally accept that you
are hopeless, by learning that you are beyond any saving, you only then begin to feel any sense of
relief.
Subaru knew that feeling, but he also knew what it was to be guided out of it.
Because Natsuki Subaru had once attempted to abandon himself, but had been unable to have
another abandon him.
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Subaru: “I am head over heels for you. Everything good about you shines brilliantly for me. And of
course I know not everything about you is good. You're... you're not an angel, not a goddess, you're
an ordinary girl. Pain and suffering makes you want to cry, you want to avoid and bypass things you
don't like, and you have a desire to choose only the easy and fun options so long as they're
available.”
Emilia: “—”
Subaru: “But even including those weak parts, or even call them ugly parts, I entirely love the
person who is Emilia. And so... even now, I'm not disappointed in you in the least.”
Emilia: “—hk! Don't you! T-think that's being far too selfish!”
Spilling from Subaru's mouth, the form of his feelings.

Hearing them spoken in sequence, Emilia fails to suppress her disorder as she refutes him.
Emilia: “You invalidated me, you said lots of times that I'm useless, and now you're still saying you
love me? ...W-who could believe! Subaru, how can you believe in me like that, that's... that's the
thing I don't understand!”
Subaru: “No! No, that's utterly wrong! There's some reason I believe in you, and so I love you. —
That idea's wrong. I love you. And so I believe in you. That way around!”
Emilia: “Just love alone is not a reason to believe!”
Subaru: “—! If love alone weren't reason enough to believe, then who the hell'd willingly go
through all this suffering to help a pain in the ass woman like you!”
Voices peaking, the two's emotions crash into each other.

Subaru puts his hand to the wall as he drags himself up to stand, for Emilia to also stand up to face
him.
Close enough to butt heads, both their eyebrows lowered, Subaru and Emilia howl their feelings.
With spit flying, faces red, yelling 'No you're wrong!', having never before raised their voices at
each other, these two.
Subaru: “I love you! I love you so much it makes me crazy, so much I'd be okay to die. And so I
cope with the pain and the suffering, I am bordering on puking right now but here I am hanging
around you!”
Emilia: “I did not! Ask for that! Going off saying whatever selfish things you want... You're the one
who's never thinking about my feelings, Subaru! Like you are now... where it's my fault you have to
deal with it, and you're always being hurt... you have no clue what it feels like for me!”
Subaru: “Like I could have any goddamn clue, and I'm not gonna think about it, either! All I'm ever
thinking about is how to look cool around you! What will make you think of me best, or what will
make you happiest.... people are going through all the damn effort for it, how about going with the
plan and looking cute every once in a while!”
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Emilia: “Don't talk like I'm a doll! If you want me to be happy, if you're thinking like that for me...
th-then, why did you break your promise! All you had to do was stay by what I asked you! How
come you won't do that for me! I bet you actually hate me!”
Subaru: “I love you!!”
Emilia: “You're lying!!”
Subaru screams the whole of his feelings in desperation, only for Emilia to yell over him.
How great of a detour had he once taken for the sake of voicing these feelings? How great an
obstacle had Subaru overcome for the sake of telling what ought to be told?
These love confessions, thrown around so much they practically look cheap, were all entirely
Subaru's truest sentiments, spoken from the whole of him, seeped through to every portion of his
soul in their legitimacy.
Subaru: “I'm not lying! I love you! How about you talk, what do you think of me! You've always
got this attitude where you're making these fucking insinuations! Do you have any fucking idea
what a jolt it is to my heart every time you make these cute expressions and it looks like there's
hope!? Stop fucking around with me!”
Emilia: “I-I'm not messing with you! I'm just being normal, stop saying weird things! I have so
many things to think about right now and am facing a serious problem, and you're asking what I feel
about you... I'm not able to think about it! Stop it! Don't pester me!”
Subaru: “Who's pestering who here! It's you! Pestering me!”
Emilia: “But it's you! Pestering me!”
Not a fragment of logical debate, this is a collision of emotional reasoning.

Like two tantruming children showering insults on the other, Subaru and Emilia both loudly assert
their feelings.
Their voices echo through the dim, cramped tomb, all the uproar since the long-silent structure's
construction resounding through the place. The intensity of their argument could practically slap the
tomb's sleeper awake, the two breathing raggedly as they commence their fruitless quarrel.
Emilia: “I can't trust anything you say anymore! You are a liar! You broke your promise, and even
still you come showing up around me like nothing happened... y-you thought I didn't notice, didn't
you! But I watched it! I watched whether you were going to keep your promise with me!”
Subaru: “Stop being an asshole! Doesn't it embarrass you to pull this crap, pretending you're weak
so you can test people!”
Emilia: “There's no reason I have to hear that from a promise-breaking liar!”
Subaru: “Me breaking the promise has nothing to do with this!”
Emilia's cheeks redden with fury as Subaru easily attempts to sidestep the issue. She cannot fully
dispel her anger, the emotion so intense that she cannot speak.
Emilia takes several ragged breaths before straining the words out her throat.
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Emilia: “Why... why did you break your promise?”
Subaru: “...I do feel bad about breaking the promise. That I wanted to keep holding your hand and
stay with you until morning was truth.”
Emilia: “That's not what I asked. —Why did you break your promise?”
Subaru: “...I can't say it.”
Gritting his teeth, Subaru replies to Emilia's question with an anguished moan.
Seeing him attempt to dodge questions this late, Emilia gives a long sigh.
Emilia: “You won't keep your promises. You won't tell me why you break them, either. ...And now
you're yelling at me to do something. If you're going to tell me you love me... then act like it! If you
don't do that, I... can't, believe you...”
Emilia: “If you'd kept your promise and stayed with me until morning! Then I know I'd be able to
believe you! I'd believe in you, and be able to entrust everything to you! But you broke your
promise... and so it's, just over for me... I mean, both you and Puck, you left me behind...”
Grimacing, Emilia sticks her fingers into her silver hair, and faces downward.
Her fervour shifts forms, shifts directions, as Emilia grasps herself.
Emilia: “Now that Puck's gone, these scenes have been going through my head. ...They're in my
head, these scenes I don't know, conversations I don't remember, they keep flowing and flowing...”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “I thought I had remembered everything, but all these memories are things I know nothing
about... but still, they really are my memories... and every time I remember them, when something
that's meant to be there but I forgot about comes up, I get anxious...”
These memories Emilia is referring to would be her true memories, which she had wished to ignore.
Emilia had used Puck to seal away a past that she did not want to remember. Her contract with Puck
was ceased, and without their yoke the memories began to overflow, drowning Emilia's interior in
her true recollections.
But for her this was a dramatic thing, which meant an alteration of her very self.
Emilia: “I finally realised that I was leaning on Puck, and running away from lots of things... I'm
certain that Puck left so that he could tell me that. But I'm scared. I'm scared. Puck's gone, and my
real memories are coming out... It's like I'm steadily not being me.”
Subaru: “—”
Emilia: “Once all these memories are here... I know I'm going to be a me unlike who I used to. My
present self thinks that I started in a place with memories which aren't my real ones... but, once I
148
remember where I really started... I know the me who got this far is going to disappear...”
Emilia's resolve and determination had been formed with false memories as their origin points. Thus
once she regains her true memories, once her beginning changes its form, Emilia's present resolve
and determination, and the whole of the path she has walked thus far, will have what happen to it?
???: <—What's important isn't the beginning or the middle, it's the end.>
Subaru: “—”
A voice passes through Subaru's mind.

This familiar but distant voice was a close one for Subaru, belonging to someone he would
regardless never see again.
At the very end of the end of their goodbye, these words given to him as homework.
Yeah. You're right, he thinks.
No matter how events begin, no matter how the path proceeds, until they reached absolute end of
the end of the end, did anybody have the goddamn right to decide whether it had all been a mistake?
Subaru: “No matter what you remember, nothing'll change. I love you. I'll always be loving you.”
Emilia: “—hk. I can, not believe you. This me who you say you love... I-is going to, even if she's
gone, are you still, going to say you...”
Subaru: “Yes. No matter what happens, you won't be gone. I love you.”
Emilia: “...You're a liar. Y-you wouldn't, let me believe... in you...”
Subaru: “—Well then, I'll make you believe.”
Her voice shakes, her eyes waver, as Emilia attempts to reject Subaru.
His words are not communicating this. His attitude would not convince her either. In that case, the
only way to convey his feelings for her was through action.
And so,
Emilia: “Suhbar...”
Subaru: “If you don't want it, dodge.”
Within breathing range—or no, not even their breaths could intervene in the space between them.
Subaru reaches out for Emilia's shoulder, and draws his face in closer. As she witnesses Subaru's
approach, confusion arises in Emilia's eyes, her body going rigid.
For one second, he waits.

If she's going to push him away, this is the moment.
Emilia: “—”
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But Emilia closes her eyes.
Whether it was resignation, or the result of hesitation, Subaru couldn't tell.
Subaru: “—Mmh”
Emilia: “—Ngh”
Their breathing intermingles as Emilia then holds her breath, Subaru's brows furrowing in pain. The
quiet noises come from the force of their teeth striking together. It all begins with that slight, achy
pain, but that immediately disappears from even the crevices of his mind when faced with the
intensity of this heat.
Soft lips. Nothing more than a mutual touch, this kiss.
This being the first for Emilia, and for Subaru his second time kissing her.
It is unlike his first time, with its cold taste of DEATH. His second kiss tastes of LIFE, hot.
In simultaneous movement, their lips separate.
They draw their faces away from each other, both forgetting to breathe as they gaze at the other.
Flushed cheeks. Watery eyes. The him reflected in Emilia's eyes also looks entirely enchanted.
The pathetic expression leads Subaru to come back to his senses first, him remembering how to
breathe as he proceeds.
Subaru: “I love you.”
Emilia: “—”
Subaru: “No matter what bad things I see of you, no matter what arguments we get into, I'm
unchangingly going to keep loving you. That'll never change no matter what happens—and so I am
always believing in you. If you're going to ask why.”
Emilia: “It's because, you love me...”
Carrying on from where Subaru finished, Emilia touches her lips in astonishment. She traces her
fingers over them, as if grasping the vestiges of the touch, her eyes overflowing with water.
The tear descended to her pale cheek falls, glittering like a drop of the moon.
Subaru: “Of course you'd be anxious when unknown memories are coming up. And I understand
being scared because it feels like an unknown you is going to come out. But that doesn't mean the
path you've walked will vanish, or that your feelings will change.”
Emilia: “How come you're... able to say this?”
Subaru: “What's important isn't the beginning. It's the end. —The woman I respect most in the
world told me that.”
Worst in the world at suppositions, but still somehow taught him the most important thing in the
world, his mother.
He didn't think that he understood it entirely, but he did wish to gradually learn.
Because there was a girl right in front of him, with whom he wished to learn it together.
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Emilia stands dead still in her anxiety, while Subaru gives her a relaxed shrug.
To tell her it's no big deal, and blast her worries away.
Subaru: “It's okay, Emilia. No matter what you remember, I'm on your side. It's fine no matter what
forgotten things you remember. But if you're still afraid even then, let's find it.”
Emilia: “Find it... find what?”
Subaru: “Just like how I go zooming around off my love for you, the precious feeling which'll let
you zoom around without worrying about people around you.”
Emilia never hesitated to volunteer herself for the sake of another.

Although, that stated, Subaru did think her attitude as she prioritizes others first noble, beautiful,
and loved it.
The words 'for the sake of ANOTHER' are horrifically kind, horrifically sad.
Because the feelings held for someone of unseen visage would surely never rival feelings held for
someone whose face existed in plain view.
Subaru: “I'm kinda sorta expecting for said precious feeling to get aimed at me.”
Emilia: “My... precious feeling...”
Perhaps she was not listening to Subaru, for Emilia puts her hand to her chest and lowers her eyes.
Her fingers reach for where Puck's jewel would have been.
With their bond broken, there is nothing for her to touch. Her fingertips scratch at empty air. But
Emilia grasps her hand firm.
Emilia: “When I've recovered all of these memories... maybe it'll be there, my precious feeling.”
Subaru: “Yeah. It's there. A reason to keep walking.”
Emilia: “—Mn.”
Dubious, is not how suspicious an expression it is, but regardless it is not one of perfect agreement.
After watching Emilia give a slight nod, Subaru closes his eyes as he faces up to the ceiling.
He gets the sense that the words which had similarly uplifted him had been more powerful.
Gets the sense that it had been kinder words, stricter words, stronger words that saved him.
—Had he managed to be Emilia's strength?
Subaru: “—”
To ask the question would be incredibly lame.

He sighs, and the instant he drains of his strength the sickness he forgot about jolts him. He
impulsively puts his hand to the wall, just barely managing to keep himself from puking.
Emilia: “Subaru?”
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Subaru: “It's nothing... is what I wanna say but, it's something. I am pretty bad right now. Anyway,
if we're going to keep arguing or fighting can we kinda do it outside.”
Emilia: “Geez... But I don't even want to do those.”
Emilia's lips form into a faint smile.

But the weak thing carries the strong appearance of her usual frantic charade. She has not reached a
clear-cut answer yet. Her anxiety has not been fully dispelled.
With his hand against the wall, Subaru starts walking for the tomb's exit.
Subaru's steps are unsteady ones, while Emilia's hand wanders back and forth, indecisive about
whether it should touch Subaru's stomach. It seems their previous meeting of lips had indeed
affected her considerably.
Thinking back on it now, that was pretty ballsy of him. His face flushes hot.
But all those sentiments would have to be left behind for now.
Subaru: “—”
The optimum in showing Emilia that he was her ally, and acting for her sake.
The act of fulfilling the role he had allotted to himself, protecting her, and protecting his feelings for
her.
And so—
Subaru: “I have to finish doing all the things I gotta do.”
They exit the tomb.

Bright sunlight greets the two as they step out of the darkness.
Where,
Subaru: “—Hey, kept you waiting.”
???: “Tch.”
There, clicking their tongue in irritation as Subaru gives a wave—
???: “—Whatever, ain't like I was waitin' any.”
—with his body slathered in blood and hostility in his eyes, stands Garfiel.
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CHAPTER 111: GARFIEL'S BARRIER
Even Subaru can see that Garfiel is drowning in injuries.
The bleeding of his innumerable wounds covers his body in crimson, his breathing ragged and his
shoulders heaving. Blood seeps from his numerous lacerations, and except for the loincloth-esque
garment covering the lower portion of his petite frame, he is entirely exposed.
He has even lost his shoes, standing there barefoot. Subaru lowers his raised hand.
Subaru: “...That's sure not the getup I was expecting for this hello. I figured you were going to be
mad, but not that you'd wind up looking like that.”
Garfiel: “Don't worry nothin' bout me. Jus' had a lil' slip n' fall.”
Subaru's cheeks stiffen as he speaks, Garfiel responding with a dissatisfied look.

Garfiel's statement is of course entirely bullshit. Subaru cannot help the bad visions he gets from
seeing the guy so wounded.
Garfiel had been speeding around SANCTUARY in search of Lewes, and got wonderfully caught in
Subaru's plots for Otto's group to buy time by stalling him.
Subaru can think of only one possible situation where he would wind up having this kind of
appearance. That being,
Subaru: “You moron, Otto, I told you to just spew everything and run!”
Garfiel: “Guy was damn brave. He weren't any fuckin' suited fer battle, n' also ain't been in any real
fights before. N' then he starts spoutin' this idiot shit 'bout it bein' for a friend... he handed my
fuckin' ass t'me.”
With his cheeks twisted in irritation, Garfiel touches the white scar on his forehead.
He's had that injury since before this, but was he saying that every other wound of his had seriously
happened during his fight with Otto?
Having gone through a fistfight—or really it was too one-sided to call it that, but—having traded
fists with Otto, Subaru does understand. Otto is more accustomed to fights than Subaru, but in a
world abounding with people who possess ludicrous combat ability, Otto ought to be classified as a
noncombatant.
When placed in serious combat against a fighter—against Garfiel, who sits at the very peak of
combatants that Subaru knows—there is no way he should win.
And that goes without touching on the fact that Subaru requested only that Otto buy some time
through trickery. Nothing more.
Subaru: “...He's not, dead. Right?”
A frigid line of sweat drips down Subaru's forehead.

His worst-case conception is that the scene ended with Garfiel's claws shredding Otto apart. He
would like to laugh it off as a needless fear, but seeing Garfiel's state, he cannot.
With how incredibly wounded Garfiel is, it's clear that he was forced into a difficult fight. But still,
to demand that Otto under-preform would likely be overwhelmingly selfish.
But, even said, supposing that Otto is dead, it's just pointless.
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Not Otto's death. It's Subaru's life that stops having any point.
Right as he swallows his breath and verges on pessimism, a silver bell calls his name.
These fingers which had before hesitated to touch him, here as his shoulders border on sagging,
now touch. This faint sensation contacting him from behind leads Subaru, on the edge of looking
down, to stop.
He glances behind him, to find Emilia standing there and looking at him with concern. She still has
yet to consolidate the emotions eddying inside her.
This situation where Garfiel is standing here, indignant and covered in blood, must be
incomprehensible from her perspective. But she likely has recognized that this was not any
mundane affair. In her eyes as she watches Subaru, her concern beats out her anxiety.
Subaru: “Don't worry, Emilia. My bad for being pathetic. ...I just remembered who it is that's
standing behind me, so I'm calmed down now.”
Supported by her gaze, Subaru gives a deep breath out before turning back to face Garfiel.
The entrance of the tomb sits on a sight incline, so Subaru is looking somewhat down at Garfiel.
Garfiel's posture as he slouches is poor, his sharp gaze piercing through Subaru with enough
intensity to practically kill him.
Garfiel: “Looks like while my amazin' self was rushin' around, yer bastards sure went pullin'
whatever the fuck shit yer wanted. Fuckin' sneakin' sneakin' sneakin' sneakin... eh? What's that? Yer
didn't fuckin' know my amazin' self hates these dirty fuckin' tricks?”
Subaru: “I didn't know we needed your permission to do stuff around here. Or actually it's obvious
that's the kind of character you are so I did know that just from looking at you. Figured you'd be
mad, but also figured nothing more than that'd happen.”
Garfiel: “Eh?”
Garfiel's stance is one of intimidation, but Subaru just replies with a shrug. Perhaps because
Subaru's statement carries no more effort spent psyching himself up than usual, Garfiel scrunches
his nose.
Looking down at Garfiel's annoyed expression, Subaru's face tightens.
Subaru: “Garfiel. What happened to Otto.”
Garfiel: “He went n'pulled all that nice fuckin' bullshit on me... n' so my fangs maim'd'm t'bits n'
now his body's out fertilizin' th'forest.”
Subaru: “—”
Garfiel clicks his oversharp fangs as he licks his lips, causing Emilia to swallow her breath.
Overwhelming rage emanates from all of Garfiel. That fact alone conveyed how great a fight Otto
had put in against him.
As well as the fact that Garfiel had been unable to cut any corners while fighting him.
And so,
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Subaru: “So he's alive then. The heck, you had me fucking worried... My guts were seriously frozen
there wondering if everything'd been ruined, no joke.”
Subaru: “But why the hell did he go off doing... couldn'tve been, I mean he said he managed to get
Ram's help, did she wind up putting some weird ideas in his head? Sounds like something Ram'd
do... I mean she didn't tell us how she'd move at the critical moments.”
Garfiel: “Oi, OI, Fuck off!”
Subaru: “Which means Ram goddamn helped with tearing you up. I mean yeah. No way Otto could
do this much solo. The hell. This had me wondering if that damn Otto'd been hiding some secret
powers from me, was sorta fracturing my feelings of friendship with him.”
Garfiel: “—Fucker! Th'fuck're you goin' on about! Eh!?”
Garfiel howls in rage, his flood of emotions slamming into the ground, rupturing it.
The earth caves in beneath the force of Garfiel's stomp, creating a crater with him in the centre.
Fissures spread across the pit of the crater as its dust wafts around Garfiel, him baring his fangs.
Garfiel: “I fuckin' killed him, that's what I'm tellin' you! Th'guy's gone! He used his mystery blessin'
t'get th'forest on his side, fuckin' humiliated my amazin' self with goddamn bugs n' mice. N' at
th'end he hit me with some huge magic he ain't got any chance'v actually usin' by himself. N' so...
my amazin' self paid my respects f'r th'bastard's fightin' spirit. —Paid him with my claws, n' fangs!”
Subaru: “The forest on his side... Right. So that's another way you can use the BLESSING OF
XENOGLOSSY. That ass, hiding something that important from me...”
Garfiel: “N'same for Ram, who th'guy wheedled on! Y'see that Ram, she came'n fuckin' butted int'r
our fight, fuckin' attackin' me full force... n' so my amazin' self's fangs chewed her dead too.”
Subaru: “...”
Gritting his teeth, Garfiel buries his face in his hands as he looks up at the sky.
While he wordlessly watches Garfiel's laments, Subaru ruminates over Garfiel's statements.
So yes, Ram and Otto had established a fighting unit, and confronted Garfiel.
Having Ram's assistance, it's possible that they managed to corner Garfiel to the very brink of
defeating him. But regardless, the barricade presented by this beastman was thick.
Garfiel: “I ain't got any urge t'chase after th'guys who ran off durin' him buyin' time at th' moment.
But I ain't got any thought t'overlook what yer bastards're doin' here either. You get away from
there, n' don't get any closer. No one's goin' n' th'tomb any more. My amazin' hands 're tearin'
th'thing down.”
Subaru: “You do that, and there'll be no way to break the barrier. ...This SANCTUARY'll be a closed
little garden forever, you seriously good with that?”
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Garfiel: “'M good with that. Everything 'cept that is bad.”
With that statement, Garfiel's feet lead him out of the crater and toward the tomb.
His gait loses all sign of doubt, communicating that he will not hesitate an instant to make the deed
the just stated a reality.
Bloody and fraught with total injury—but even in this state, an extreme disparity in strength exists
between Subaru and Garfiel.
Even with all his wounds, the ability of the man named Garfiel far exceeds that of Subaru.
Both his creation of the crater and the rancour emanating from him make that obviously clear.
However,
Emilia: “I-I, am not letting you do that!”
Subaru excepted, there exists yet another person present here to block Garfiel.
Emilia steps forward from behind Subaru, standing in Garfiel's way as he attempts to close in on the
tomb. Garfiel looks up at her, unimpressed.
Garfiel: “What, oi. Get outta my way, y'flimsy woman.”
Emilia: “No, I will get in your way. I'm not letting you destroy the tomb. Because no matter what,
I'm going to overcome the TRIAL.”
Garfiel: “It's damn obvious yer can't do it. Day after fuckin' day yer wah wah wah wah cryin' all
over th'damn place. N' now yer lost yer friends, can't help that yer gonna be sad. Go curl up n'bed
n'fuckin' cry. Y'do that, and I ain't doin' nothin.”
Emilia: “—hk”
Sorrow flashes over Emilia's expression in response to Garfiel's cruel statement. But said expression
only last for an instant as Emilia immediately swallows down the pain.
Emilia: “I'm sorry, but even if you say those things, I can't step back for you. I need to challenge the
TRIAL. And then face my past, and...”
Garfiel: “Just goddamn fuckin' everybody!”
Cutting in halfway through Emilia's statement, Garfiel clicks his tongue in irritation, fury blazing in
his eyes.
The grisly pressure he expels compounds in intensity, Emilia's shoulders trembling. Seeing her fear,
sharp-eyed Garfiel snorts.
Garfiel: “What happened t'that blusterin' 'bout yer past? Th'second yer scared of my amazin' self, all
goddamn chance is gone yer ever gonner get over what yer most afraid of. —No one can do
anythin' 'bout that shit. The witch just does this malicious crap so she can goddamn laugh at
people.”
Subaru: “Well isn't that a disparaging invalidation of the witch.”
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Garfiel: “Eh?”
Garfiel shifts his blazing gaze from Emilia to Subaru, and jabs his finger at him.
Garfiel: “What? Yer sayin' yer wanna fuckin' protect that asshole witch? They say NO MORNING OR
AFTERNOON FOR POTOTSK, but is yer fuckin' stinkin' self just whole out that witch's slave, eh?”
Subaru: “—”
Subaru shuts his mouth.

Garfiel's brows furrow in puzzlement, but he does not seem to understand why Subaru has gone
silent.
The witch sleeping in the tomb is ECHIDNA. And the witch's miasma enfolding Subaru belongs to
the WITCH OF ENVY.
Only informed to some marginal degree, and unable to smell the miasma himself, Garfiel's
comprehension of the situation is not great enough to recognize that discrepancy.
And having had his spirit broken after challenging the TRIAL only once, Garfiel does not even
understand the meaning of Echidna's TRIAL.
Subaru: “You're just half measures about everything, Garfiel.”
Garfiel: “...Fuck you'd just say?”
Putting together all of Garfiel's statements and actions thus far, this is how Subaru appraises him.
Garfiel responds to Subaru's curt words in low, threatening voice. But even while faced with this
looming and ghastly pressure, Subaru looks him in the eye without fear.
Subaru: “It's something you were unable to do, so others'll also be incapable of it. That's how I
think, so undoubtedly you're that type. —How awful've you let your complacency get?”
Garfiel: “...”
Subaru: “Yes, you're right, Emilia has failed the TRIAL multiple times. That she's been forced to
watch a past she doesn't want to see and came out bawling afterwards is another thing I can't deny.
When Puck left she lost it to a revolting extent, and I can't even assert she's righted herself yet.”
Garfiel falls silent as Subaru jerks his chin toward Emilia, who stands beside him.
Emilia looks at Subaru in surprise at these sudden comments from him. But, perhaps impressed
with Subaru's expression as he voices these unkind assessments, she refrains from interfering.
These opinions Subaru was stating were ones that Emilia had already accepted herself. While they
definitely ought to be embarrassing for her, they were not statements that she should ignore.
Subaru thought her ability to judge that, and face these things, splendid of her despite her weakness.
And so,
Subaru: “Maybe challenging the TRIAL won't presently lead to any change. She might lose today as
well, and come back crying again.”
Garfiel: “If yer fuckin' know that, then why're yer havin' her, over n' over...”
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Subaru: “But, Emilia will challenge it. Countless times. —Unlike you.”
Garfiel swallows his breath.

Seeing exactly how a quiver flashes through Garfiel's sharp gaze, Subaru speaks without fear.
And once more, as he stares down directly at Garfiel,
Subaru: “Garfiel. You lost and you ran away, and Emilia is not like you.”
Garfiel: “—hk! Don't, you fuckin' dare, get cocky!!”
Immediately following Subaru's statement, Garfiel shouts in rage, his right foot shattering the earth.
The impact of his stomp sends the ground flying aloft. By some unknown logic it takes the shape of
a rectangular slab the size of a tatami mat, which Garfiel's left foot shunts into.
The earth block rotates on the vertical at horrifying speeds, wrapping itself in a galeforce wind as it
zooms right past Subaru—and slams into the wall aside the tomb's entrance, impacting the ancient
structure.
Dust and a section of entangling ivy, of moss and so on, peels away to fall from the tomb wall. They
rain upon Subaru's head but he remains unflinching. Emilia's shoulders do hitch up for a moment, but
having heard Subaru's statements immediately prior, she does not make any motion to move away.
Seeing the faint but definite bond of trust between the two, Garfiel's eyes shoot open outrageously
wide. The gleam in his bloodshot pupils compounds in ferocity.
Garfiel: “Fuckin'! I can't stand either're you! Aauh! Can't stand you! Can't goddamn stand you! With
yer fuckin' know-it-all mug! With yer fuckin' unruffled mug! If my amazin' self feels like it,
th'two're yer bastards're chunks've gore so mutilated yer won't be tellin' yer goddamn apart! You
don't fuckin' know that, huh!?”
Subaru: “I do know. That you're incapable of doing that.”
Garfiel breathes raggedly as he kicks at the earth, voicing threats upon threats upon threats. But his
vigorous intimidations no longer have any effect on Subaru's heart.
Of course not. With everything that's happened, from his conversation with Lewes, and this present
situation—putting it all together, even Subaru finally understands what lies at Garfiel's core.
Although showing this much rage, and hostile toward Subaru's group, Garfiel—
Subaru: “You won't kill me or Emilia. Or no, it's that you can't. I mean Garfiel... you've never killed
anyone before, have you?”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru: “You had a fight with Otto and Ram, but you made sure you didn't kill them. Otto's one
thing, but it goes absolutely for Ram. They're not showing up because you did something to
immobilize them... and stopped there.”
Garfiel's irritated behaviour comes to a stop.
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He quiets his breath, staring at Subaru. Hearing the words that Subaru flung at Garfiel, a look of
confusion arises in Emilia's eyes.
Being that she has only seen Garfiel's usual disposition, Subaru's declarations must be rather
difficult to accept for her.
But Subaru is confident.

Garfiel, at least while in humanoid form and possessing his own will, could not make the decision
to kill anybody.
—Subaru has confronted Garfiel several times throughout these loops.

Over differences in opinion. Otherwise when Garfiel abruptly viewed Subaru with hostility. He once
took a hit from Garfiel which stopped him when he practised violence upon Roswaal, and lost his
eye.
But it was also Garfiel who healed the one-eyed Subaru afterwards, and even when he took a hostile
stance, he had never once killed Subaru.
There was one exception. Garfiel had transformed into a tiger and slaughtered the evacuees. It's a
memory that Subaru would rather not recollect. But it is also an impossible memory for him to
forget, vivid, an event which made him even now feel things about Garfiel that he could not really
swallow.
But, reflecting on the event, there is something Subaru noticed.
Garfiel could not speak while transformed. He brandished his claws and fangs according to his
instincts, having degraded into an animal. Even when he turned his weapons upon the villagers, that
had likely been according to instinct.
But, back then, that first villager—that first single person who became the trigger for the slaughter
—when Garfiel killed him, it was to the very end of the end, truly scraping to the borderline, that
Garfiel hesitated about it.
Back then, the excess of rage and panic had kept Subaru from understanding.
When Garfiel turned to approach that very first person, Subaru thought his panic had made
everything look sluggish. But that was not the case. It was legitimate hesitation.
Once he killed him, once he lost that hesitation, was the moment Garfiel truly became a beast.
Cognizant to the taste of blood and life, the eyes of that tiger were things that Natsuki Subaru
remembered with loathing.
Subaru: “Your eyes aren't like they were back then. You won't let yourself kill anyone, yet.”
Garfiel: “Fuck's your, basis fer that. Nevermind Ram, my amazin' self ain't got a speck've a reason
t'hesitate in gnashin' yer lackey dead.”
Subaru: “Exactly, nevermind Ram.”
Emilia: “H-Hey... you two, is there some kind of grudge you have against Otto-kun...?”
Emilia timidly cuts in to comment about Otto, who is receiving very unfortunate treatment in this
conversation.
But, perhaps for the first time ever, Subaru consciously ignores Emilia and jabs his finger at Garfiel.
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Subaru: “If you'd thought to hit me right now, you could've done it. But you didn't think to hit me.
You just used threats. It's murderousness as an accessory. Wonder which of us's the scared one.”
Garfiel: “Oi, oi, OI... watch how yer prattle yer mouth, bastard. Go any further, and yer never know
which words're gonna be yer last.”
Subaru: “Quit making threats you can't follow through on. I had my fill of cowardly people trying
to act tough back in the alleyway with Tom Dick and Larry. Though at least they had enough guts to
stab me.”
Garfiel: “Stop... stop it...”
Gritting his teeth, Garfiel looks at Subaru with an expression of fury.

However, his opponent is Natsuki Subaru. No greater juncture existed for him to show off his
talents than when pissing people off. And so,
Subaru: “And your oh so prided claws and fangs too, you groom them nicely every day, but just
leave them there as decoration. If you want, how about trying on some stylish nail stickers? It's
what all the girls do where I'm from. Don't think it's a perfect match for your spineless, girly self?”
Garfiel: “I told you t'fuckin' stop—!!”
Another strike.
The gouged-out earth bounces into the air, skimming over Subaru's head to crash into the tomb.
There's no need to dodge. Garfiel never had any intention of hitting.
Subaru: “If you're gonna play with mud, go do it in the sandbox. Do you understand that this thing
behind me's a priceless historical artefact? And aren't you stationing yourself as the fangs or
whatever that guard this SANCTUARY? This thing behind me's the grave of the local witch. She's
your buddy, don't discriminate against her.”
Garfiel: “She ain't! My fuckin'! Buddy! It's because that fuckin' buried witch's here that... my
amazin' self... my amazin'...”
Subaru's gab is in perfect form. Even Garfiel's breathing gets choppy and feeble, faced with
Subaru's fluent provocations.
Garfiel had come here while pushing his wounded body. Then he continued in this tiring
conversation, and spent no time hesitating to waste his energy on pointless threat displays. His
bloodflow accelerates in tune with his emotions, some of his supposedly-stable injuries opening
again.
Garfiel takes ragged breaths and stands very still as he glares at Subaru. When his gaze switches to
Emilia. His nose scrunches up, as if he has noticed something.
Garfiel: “Oi... fuck off, you. Fuck's with those eyes.”
Emilia: “...”
Garfiel: “If yer got somethin' yer tryin' t'say, goddamn say it! It's fuckin' pissin' me off I'm gettin'
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looked at like that!”
Perhaps seeing something in Emilia's eyes as she wordlessly watches him, Garfiel howls.
Complex emotion rests in Emilia's amethyst gaze. She shakes her head.
Emilia: “Garfiel... what are you so afraid of?”
Garfiel: “I'm, afraid... yer sayin'?”
Emilia: “Well you're afraid. You're talking loud, reaching out as best you can, and stomping the
ground to cheer yourself up, aren't you?”
Garfiel: “Like yer know, fuckin' anything 'bout me...”
Emilia: “I do know. After all...”
Cutting off Garfiel's quieter statement, Emilia takes a single breath.
Emilia: “—I've also been living in constant fear of many things.”
Garfiel's breathing freezes.

Emilia touches her chest, her fingers confirming the absence of the crystal, a fleeting sense arising
in her eyes.
Emilia: “I managed to get to this moment while always scared of lots of things. I left lots of things
to Puck, I leaned on him... I didn't notice I was doing it, and I made it here. But today, since just a
moment ago, I feel like I finally understand it a little.”
Garfiel: “Shut up.”
Emilia: “I don't clearly know what's right yet, or what it is I have to do. But I feel like I know that
there's SOMETHING. And I can find that SOMETHING inside the tomb. I can't move out of your path.”
Garfiel: “Shut it. Disappear. Don't talk to me.”
Emilia: “...But don't you truly already have that SOMETHING?”
Past his limit, Garfiel's head springs up. His knees bend slightly, for his petite frame to go bounding
off like a shot.
He leaps for Emilia with horrifying speed. —But just before he can reach her, Subaru cuts in
between them.
Subaru: “Garfiel!”
Garfiel: “—Tch!”
Reaching his arms out toward the oncoming Garfiel, Subaru charges while simultaneously
protecting Emilia. Subaru collides with the strike, going tumbling, wincing in pain at the battering.
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After rolling several times from momentum, he stops face-up on the ground. Garfiel puts his claws
to the fallen Subaru's neck as he bares his fangs at Emilia.
Garfiel: “Right now! Right fuckin' now, get away from here! Don't, n' I'm paintin' yer clothes red
with th'blood from his dismembered neck!”
Emilia prepares for battle.

She may have lost Puck, but she is still a practitioner of the spiritual arts. She could enlist help from
her contracted minor spirits to use magic. Leaving aside whether she would win, she could fight
Garfiel.
And thus Emilia immediately moves to build up mana—
Subaru: “Emilia, stop! I'm fine! He won't do anything anyway!”
Garfiel: “Shut it! Fuckin' enough, 'm sick of this crap! My ears're rottin' off listenin' t'th'bullshit
from yer n' that woman! 'F I rip open that loose mouth'er yers n' cut off yer jaw, maybe yer ain't
gonna talk none'v this shit anymore?”
Subaru: “—gh,”
Leaning down on the fallen Subaru, Garfiel runs his sharp claws over his left cheek. Their points
gouge into his flesh, Subaru wailing quietly at the burning pain.
But even still, his eyes do not yield.
Subaru: “You get us out of the way, destroy the tomb, and then what? ...You think running and
running and running is going to let you get away?”
Garfiel: “It's yer own regret. Goddamn who can do anythin' 'bout it? That thing ain't got th'slightest
idea 'v lettin' us get away. Why is it you ain't gettin' that!”
Subaru: “No, I'm not getting it, Garfiel. —Since your past, and your regrets, can be overcome.”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru asserts.
Garfiel and Emilia swallow their breath.
Subaru: “It was painful, it was suffering, it was so overwhelmingly pathetic that I couldn't face
anyone and I gave up. But the only who thought it was hopeless was me, and actually, nothing was
beyond hope at all.”
Even saying they were fake events, false parents, and created from memories.
Subaru faced his biggest regret, and procured a single answer as well as a goodbye.
The TRIAL assuredly did confer Subaru with pain. Just remembering it made his insides creak, the
thing in his chest was perpetual, and the TRIAL had branded Subaru with both his past and with
suffering.
Subaru: “But, including that pain and absolutely everything, I swallowed my past. Swallowed
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it. ...While yes the witch is an asshole, and I'll never forget how she betrayed me when I tried to
trust her.”
Passing through his mind is the visage of the white witch, always smiling mysteriously.
No matter how much time passes, Subaru will never unravel his complicated feelings about her.
But, there should be no need to betray even the feeling that he acquired back then.
Subaru: “I'm grateful to the witch. I'm glad I could face my past. I ran, I ran, I ran and I ran... but
I'm glad I couldn't escape.”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru: “Garfiel. —Are you seriously still running from your past with your family?”
Garfiel: “Wh—!?”
Garfiel's face changes colours.

It reddens in rage, pales in shock, and now, turns pallid.
The clicking from his fangs results from the trembling of his chattering teeth.
With chills, or perhaps in dread, Garfiel looks down at Subaru.
Garfiel: “Who, told you... about my past?”
Subaru: “Basically everyone you're thinking of. Do you think that's a betrayal? Or do you think it's
something else?”
Garfiel: “ue, au, aehu...”
The overwhelming fury keeps Garfiel from even speaking as he gives choppy, faltering breaths. His
breathing comes intermittent. Witnessing this violent shock happening immediately before his face,
Subaru continues.
Subaru: “The witch told me that you're afraid of the outside world.”
Garfiel replies with nothing.
Subaru: “Frederica told me that when she offered you to leave with her, you denied her.”
Garfiel replies with nothing.
Subaru: “Lewes-san told me that what you saw in the tomb, was your goodbye with your mother.”
Garfiel replies with—
Garfiel: “Moth, er...”
Subaru: “I heard the superficial outline of you and Frederica's circumstances. You're siblings from a
human mother, and two different half-blood demihuman fathers. You two quarter-bloods aren't
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bound by SANCTUARY's barrier. Frederica left SANCTUARY so that she could create a place to
receive the people from here, for when the barrier is eventually broken.”
Garfiel: “Sister...”
Subaru: “But you didn't take Frederica's hand, and stayed inside. Why did you? What is it you want
to do, for what purpose is it, that you're still here?”
His breathing labours.

Garfiel's hand as it presses Subaru to the ground starts putting in more force. He was not doing this
to silence Subaru. Garfiel was so entirely ruined that if did not put his strength into something, cling
to something, he would imminently break down.
Subaru: “In the tomb you saw your past. You saw your mother leaving you and Frederica behind in
SANCTUARY... did you?”
Garfiel: “—“
Subaru: “That's the reason you're avoiding the outside world?”
Silence is to be taken as a 'yes'.

Garfiel remains silent, looking at Subaru with weakest gaze he's given yet. It could not even be
called a glare, this powerless look.
His expression was that of a small child, scared of his secrets being exposed.
Guilt for cutting into another's wounds arises in Subaru's chest. He subdues the feeling, grappling it
down, as he presses Garfiel for the truth.
He stabs his finger into the faintly visible wound, forcing the hole wider, letting the blood flow.
Subaru: “Because your mother abandoned you. Because you hate your mother who abandoned you,
because you hate the outside world that took your mother, you detest the outside world!?”
His theories from speaking with Lewes.

His advice from Echidna, saying that Garfiel fears the outside world.
The reason that his goodbye with his family remains in Garfiel's heart, and even now stings him as
barbs.
Hearing the assertive tone of Subaru's statement, Garfiel frantically shakes his head.
Garfiel: “No! No, nonononononono, yer wrong!! The fuck'd you goddamn understand! Stop runnin'
yer mouth like yer know shit!”
Subaru: “That's right! What I said is my imaginings, and what my mouth's running is know-it-all
bunk. The only one who can say what you're really thinking is you. If I'm wrong, then what are your
actual feelings on this!?”
Force presses down on his lungs. Subaru shows no pained expression as he raises his voice.
Showered in Subaru's voice from below him, Garfiel's face stiffens. He looks away.
Subaru: “You rejected Frederica who left for the outside, you bound yourself with the duty to
protect SANCTUARY, and you're interfering with people who challenge the TRIAL while they attempt
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to break the barrier! What is it you're scared of! What is it you fear! So you just hate the outside
world!?”
Garfiel: “Yer, all wrong...!”
Subaru: “So you just hate your mother who abandoned you! You challenged the TRIAL, saw
yourself being abandoned, and so that's what you're afraid of!”
Garfiel's expression twists in grief.

He lifts his hand from Subaru, uprighting himself in an attempt to escape Subaru's verbal pursuit.
But he will not get away.
Subaru reaches out, grabs the back of Garfiel's neck, and pulls him to a stop.
With Garfiel's gruesome, bloodsoaked face within breathing range, Subaru glares at him, presses
further.
Subaru: “Answer me, Garfiel! What is it you're afraid of!”
His theory from speaking with Lewes, Echidna's words, Roswaal and Frederica's attitudes, Ram's
expression when she looks at Garfiel—Subaru saw an answer differing from all of them.
If he was right, if this was the truth, then...
Garfiel: “No, my amazin' self's... my amazin'... “
Subaru: “What is it you truly think!!”
Garfiel: “My amazing... mine, mother...”
Garfiel swallows his breath, gazes up at the sky, his fangs chattering as he,
Garfiel:
“—I wanted her to be happy!”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Garfiel: “We were in the way, weren't we!? Myself and my sister, we were in the way of her
happiness, weren't we!?”
Flowing over.
Everything that Garfiel had been holding in until now.
Garfiel: “Well I knew that! She abandoned me and sis. And of course she would!”
Garfiel's reasoning, which he had kept in his heart, never revealed to anybody.
Garfiel: “Couple of goddamn brats she couldnt've wanted, n' ones with demihuman blood at that...
of course we'd impede her from living in the outside world! Leaving us behind, throwing us away,
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what is weird about that… there ain't nothing... incorrect with that!”
Unable to hide his wavering voice, he buries his face in his hands to hide his wavering eyes.
Garfiel: “I get why we were abandoned. So I don't resent mom for abandoning us! 'S goddamn
obvious! Myself and my sis, we were impeding our mom's life! She threw us away, and left
SANCTUARY so she could be happy!”
While still young, Garfiel had seen his mother off as she left the two of them behind and exited
SANCTUARY.
He could not have understood what he felt back then. But the feeling had laid its roots in him,
grown inside him over a long span of time, and bloomed into a single answer.
Being: His mother had just abandoned them.

However,
Garfiel: “But y'know, that night... I, saw it. There in th'tomb, in the TRIAL, I saw it. I saw it. S-she,
left us, and left SANCTUARY, and... right then, right after she left, her carriage got caught in a
landslide, swallowed in the dirt and she just died...”
Subaru: “—!”
Garfiel: “Sis doesn't know... Sis fucking thinks mom's off somewhere, forgotten about us and living
a happy life. ...But reality's not that! Mom, the second she abandoned us! She died!”
Fragments of the truth, sobbed out of Garfiel's mouth.

The harshness of it overwhelms both Subaru, aware of the circumstances, and unaware Emilia.
Garfiel remains before the silenced two, head still buried in his hands, his breathing ragged with his
weeping.
Garfiel: “She just damn died... she never got to be happy...”
Subaru can give no reply.
Garfiel: “Why? But you know she left for the outside so that she could be happy?”
Emilia can give no reply.
Garfiel: “But you know she left us because she wanted to be happy?”
Neither Subaru nor Emilia can give Garfiel any reply.
Garfiel: “She abandoned us, but if she never got to be happy and just immediately died, then...”
The unanswerable questions stream from Garfiel's mouth.

And surely—
Garfiel: “What are we meant to do about our sadness, about this feeling of being thrown away?”
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—These questions had always, always chorused eternally inside his heart.
Garfiel: “I wanted mom to be happy!”
Power comes to his teary voice.

Garfiel draws his hands away from his face, gritting his teeth as he pauses.
His fangs could crack. His canines could tear through his lips.
Garfiel: “The sadness we felt! And the loneliness of being disowned! It was meaningful because it
was for her happiness, that's what I wanted to think! I wanted to be able to hate mom!”
Having lost any harbour for his feelings about his mother, Garfiel's heart has been trapped inside
SANCTUARY.
Without anything to strike against, his emotions had been the fuel to keep aflame the blaze
consuming his soul.
Garfiel: “But mom just died! Me and sis, we had a sad experience and that was it. Mom didn't get to
be happy at all, heavy rocks and sand buried her, she died in agony.”
Having reached this conclusion, there amid the smouldering ashes inside him, Garfiel decided.
Garfiel stands up. He draws away from Subaru.

He looks up at the tomb, and in a low voice,
Garfiel: “—I ain't ever going t'the outside world.”
His voice shakes.

In rage, in sorrow, in vestiges of fury, the flame still blazing even now.
Garfiel turns around.

He looks down at the fallen Subaru, and clicks his sharp fangs.
Garfiel: “Desertin' th'place and going outside ain't going to give you happiness! Trying to change
anything comes accompanied with pain, and not everybody can withstand that hurt!”
Subaru: “—”
Garfiel: “There's shittons of hopeless people out there! This place's full'v'em! What'm I meant to do!
Just make them sacrifices for happiness, and give them sad experiences?! Just be like my sis?!”
Subaru: “—”
Garfiel: “I will—my amazin' self will—protect them.”
He clenches his fists.

His howling stops, his eyes hosting quiet determination as he pauses.
Garfiel: “My amazin' self'll protect them. Everything my hands can reach, my amazin' self'll protect.
Protect, protect, protect... never ever lose anybody... never let anyone experience anything like what
my mom did!”
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Not anger, not sadness, prompts Garfiel's heart to tremble.
Neither Subaru, nor Emilia, can move when faced with these feelings of Garfiel's.
Garfiel spreads his arms wide, turning his back to the tomb, and shouts.
Garfiel: “I'll be the barrier! A real one, dividing inside and outside, a barrier!”
Subaru: “Garfiel...”
Garfiel: “I! Will! Protect SANCTUARY, protect everyone! Protect nanna! My amazin' self's the only
one who can do it! My amazin' self's the only one who knows it! And it's fine for them not to
know!!”
Garfiel's nigh bloody scream, his resolve, his determination.

Faced with that, they cannot speak.
Garfiel has steeled his resolve entirely.

And so,
Subaru: “It's okay, Emilia.”
Emilia calls out to Subaru as he stands up, steps forth.

He gives a wave of his hand to her concerned voice as he approaches Garfiel.
The two face each other, mutually between an arm's reach.

Words would no longer stop Garfiel.
And so, there was only one thing to do.
Subaru: “You goddamn stubborn, oblivious bastard...”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru: “I understand your resolve. My assumptions'd been wrong. And your assumptions are
wrong too. And so... I'll go and rectify them.”
Garfiel stoops down slightly, his arms dangling at his sides.

Although he may look undefended, an abnormal and ghastly aura emanates from him as he takes
this serious battle stance.
Subaru raises his hands to take his own battle stance, as well.
With Garfiel as his opponent, having determined that words will not work, to fight him on his turf.
Subaru:
“I'll force you into absolute surrender, and teach you. —That you're a kind, weak, stupid idiot!”
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CHAPTER 112: THE INSTINCT TO REJECT WEAKNESS
—The fight peaked with unimaginable severity.
The two men face each other, trading fists from straight on.
Hard bones batter into flesh, muscles bursting, blood dripping. There come the wails, the unpleasant
heaving of frothy respiration, the wretchedness of the sloppy fistfight as it burns into the eyes of the
observer.
Standing before the tomb's entrance, the onlooking Emilia puts her hand to her chest.
Her eyes host confusion, her fingers waver in search of something to cling to. The perpetually
reliable presence at her chest and their warmth, aware as she is of its absence, still binds her heart.
Subaru had said things to her inside the tomb.

Subaru asserted that he loved her, cherished her, and so he believed in her.
Indeed, a part of her did feel saved by these words. But it also came with compounding anxiety.
Her true memories were being resurrected alongside the ticking of the seconds.
She had believed that false memories were where she began, and with that belief, reached this point.
Once her beginnings, her trigger for getting this far, changed, just how would it change her?
Her truest feelings conflict with each other in argument, unease rooted deep within Emilia.
Subaru had shouted that even if Emilia changes, his love for her will remain unchanged.
This boy who had hurt and suffered for her, and attempted to fight to the end for her—she had not a
speck of doubt about his feelings. He had proved them continuously.
—What she can't trust is her own self.
She walked along a path which had its foundations set in an incorrect beginning, and although she
thought she had the end of this road in sight, she stopped. She wondered whether she might be
walking in the wrong direction, hesitating despite seeing the end.
Her feet have stopped moving.

Would she be permitted to start walking again?
Would the path she walks be a new road, or the same road she walks now?
Emilia: “—”
She wanders within the labyrinth of unanswerable, impenetrable questions.

Even now, unable to speak up, and aware that she lacks any right to stop them, Emilia watches the
two men fight.
A scream, and to great heights, the blood spatters.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
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Cutting through the air, the swing of a fist.
Knuckles come looming for his face—at depressingly slow velocity.
“Tch!”
No need for an overblown dodge.

He tilts his head in the barest minimum, evading the fist without sustaining even a graze. His
opponent's stance disintegrates due to that big swing, and there into the adversary's undefended
stomach, he jabs his knee to gouge their bowels.
His knee feels their rib-bones and flimsy muscles, the attack transmitting to the depths of their gut.
Their mouth, already multiple times subject to expelling fluids, vomits up blood unrelenting.
“Ggauh, aug,”
They hold their stomach, their movements faltering, their visage atrocious. He pounds his uplifted
arms into their slouched back, following from his frontal attack to now scramble their innards from
behind.
They had managed to withstand the kick, but they fail to endure the strike from behind and easily
collapse. He kicks them to rotate their fallen body upwards, then follows up his attack by driving
his toes into their left flank.
Their screams peal.

Their breathing heaves with vomit and blood.
His fists, his knee, his toes. With every strike the sensation of their skin, of their flesh paring away,
rebounds to him.
Usually that would jubilate him, but presently he only felt incredible discomfort.
These actions repeated over and over and over and over—and what in the world was the point of it?
“Enough's goddamn 'nough, fuckin' give up already.”
He casts jeers on his coughing, unsightly opponent as they spit up blood.

He is failing to take their consciousness. He can strike their head, kick their stomach, but they quite
detestably will not concede it.
Especially detestable, when is attempting to make them understand the disparity in strength between
them.
Garfiel: “Yer sure a fuckin' brainless bastard, oi! Yer ain't got a hint ovv'er a chance'ev winnin'! Yer
back's slouched! Yer swings're pointl'ssly big! Yer balance's wobblin' everywhere, 's a goddamn
tragedy!”
Subaru: “...My bad.”
Garfiel: “Aaaugh, yer fuckin' shitpile! Do yer know what it fuckin' feels like t'have t'entertain this
pointless, pighead'd game of yers? Fuckin' fuck off, fuck off.”
Garfiel spits his insults at Subaru, who attempts with laborious breaths to upright himself.
Subaru's hands contact the ground as he struggles to push himself up. Recipient to punches, his face
is swollen, and his nosebleed coats the lower portion of his visage with red. Some of his teeth surely
must be broken or missing. His guts, his ribs, wouldn't be strange for some of them to be busted.
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With the violent pain ravaging his body, he should not be able to even remain conscious. And yet.
Garfiel: “What's th'damn point! Didn't yer challenge me 'cause yer thought yer had hopes'v winnin'!
All yer fuckin' doin' is showin' off how goddamn ragged n' beaten yer are I can't even watch it! …
Take a fuckin' nap!”
Subaru: “—Ghguh!”
Obstinacy, stubbornness, those words cannot describe the tenacity Garfiel senses as he once again
brutalizes Subaru.
He sweeps Subaru's legs out from under him, drives his foot into Subaru's flank when he collapses.
Blood spews from Subaru's mouth as Garfiel kicks his tumbling form skyward, then drives his
elbow into his suspended frame to shunt him back to the ground.
He ricochets off the earth, the hard ground beating his body before he comes to lie spread-out on the
floor.
His eyes peel wide, he exhales an airy breath, and this time for sure lies motionless—finally
knocked him unconscious. Garfiel gives a long sigh.
Subaru: “Fuck're you, looking like it's, over...”
Garfiel's shoulders heave with his ragged breaths, when the voice he hears from below prompts his
eyes to shoot open in shock.
The man he surely had knocked unconscious somehow, wavering, manages to stand.
Garfiel: “Don't, goddamn joke...”
Subaru: “Yeah... this's, no joke here. With how beaten, up I am I... can't think of a... single, funny
anecdote...”
Garfiel: “That ain't what I m—”
Subaru: “—Hhhah!”
Exhibiting a nightmarish doggedness, Subaru spits a sharp breath and swings his fist.
Naturally, no matter how desperate the punch is, from Garfiel's perspective it's equivalent to being
assaulted by a child. His hand easily catches and diverts the oncoming fist, and as compensation he
drives the heel of his palm into Subaru's guts.
The strike drills into a space between his organs, rippling to impact his internal fluids—his already-
vacant stomach constricts, and up flows blood and yellowy bile.
Subaru: “Gugh, bhubh...”
Garfiel: “'S th'same thing no matter how many times yer try, how many fuckin' times do—”
Subaru holds his stomach and crumbles on the spot as Garfiel once again urges him to surrender.
He cannot bear to watch the disgusting atrocity of it. Garfiel averts his gaze, clicking his tongue.
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Garfiel: “—!”
And past his face roars Subaru's fist.
Garfiel: “Wh!?”
Subaru: “Garfiel, you fuck. Who gave you permission to just ditch me?”
Left arm forward, right arm back.

Seeing Subaru readied in combat stance, his will to fight not abolished in the least, Garfiel feels
something near a shiver.
He doesn't consider Subaru a threat for even a moment.

Anyone could tell that Subaru was making empty threats, the strength gap between him and Garfiel
too great for any amount of struggling to compensate.
He could keep sending Garfiel these reckless punches, but be it a thousand times or a million times,
the ironclad strength gap meant Garfiel would simply dodge every attempt.
All of Subaru's struggling, every single moment of it, was futile.

No matter how many times Garfiel punched, kicked, threw him, no matter how much pain he
sustained, his overstressed body would never touch Garfiel.
Garfiel: “Y'fucker, stop shittin' around!”
Subaru: “Haah?”
He was facing an opponent who could not win, but nevertheless lofted stubbornness alone as his
weapon.
His spirit alone would not fold, his feelings alone would not falter. Perhaps that mentality ought to
be called strength, a strength unbound by the flesh.
Seeing him stand up after falling again and again perhaps did jolt Garfiel's heart to some degree.
But, if he was hoping that this display would make Garfiel change his mind, that constituted an
insult beyond parallel.
His spirit alone would not fold, would not bend. These concepts possessed what point, exactly?
Garfiel: “Do yer really fuckin' think that 'f yer keep bein' bullhead'd, even knowin' yer won't win,
my amazin' self's eventually gonn'er stay my fists? Really fuckin' think that my amazin' self's
gonn'er get sick'v punchin' n' kickin' yer, acknowledge yer spirit n' stand down... that I'm gonn'er
lose by ceding to emotions, is that what yer trying t'fucking say!?”
Subaru: “—”
Garfiel: “Don't fuckin' joke. This fight between me and you ain't any fuckin' game! Yer beat them
down, er yer get beat down. There ain't any other endings t'this!”
He stomps the ground.

The power of his EARTHSOUL BLESSING fills him, the earth supplying his body with overflowing
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vitality.
Compared to when he had finished fighting Ram and Otto in the forest, and so pushed his ruined
body to venture here, his flesh is in better condition. This not-even-a-fistfight with Subaru was not
exacerbating his fatigue, in fact he may as well be sitting in treeshade and having a pleasant
reprieve.
And this minuscule influence of Subaru's is meant to sway Garfiel's heart just goddamn how?
Garfiel: “Yer goddamn said it, didn't you! That yer gonna teach my amazin' self that I'm weak, that's
what yer goddamn said! Well th'fuck is this, then! The fuck is weak! The fuck're you teachin'! The
one who ain't got th'strength and 's gettin' forced into surrender, the brainl'ss idiot here is goddamn
you!”
Garfiel remembers every syllable of Subaru's pre-battle declaration.

It was utter buffoonery. Entirely farcical. Every inch of this man defined the word fraudulent.
Garfiel: “N' that guy n' Ram too! Both've them who battled me at least had th'guts t'try 'n win! N'
that's why I fought them back with everythin' I had. They worked their brains comin' up with plans,
compensatin' for where they lacked by usin' their smarts... those two had th'guts enough for me
t'acknowledge them. But what about you!”
While he did not know the exact details of how it worked, Otto had used his blessing to get the
forest on his side, and cornered Garfiel. His methods of herding Garfiel into that final blast of
incredible magic illustrated that he had utilized all his vitality and intellect, his fighting spirit so
great that Garfiel would gladly commend it as the apex of what the weak could do.
Ram's offensive which began with her surprise attack, although conferring him with an agony
equivalent to betrayal, was indeed a fight perfectly befitting of Ram.
Merciless, no punches pulled, a battle between persons of genuine strength.
Both had made their most desperate efforts while fighting Garfiel, and fully intended to steal
victory.
Their methods deserved esteem. So much so that Garfiel had to recognize them as foes and yet
glorious.
Garfiel: “Compared t'them... there ain't any way t'be more obscene. Y'get done in 'n done in 'n yer
still stand up... n' so fuckin' what? No matter how much yer beaten, yer spirit won't yield... n' fuckin'
what does that say? Even sayin' yer hopes'v winnin' er zilch, yer ain't ever fleein' the fight... what's so
fuckin' commendable!?”
Subaru: “—”
Garfiel: “Yer think I'm impressed? That yer bloodsoaked, wobbly legged, can't even open yer
fuckin' eyes right, n' yer still standin' up thing, 's gonna stir my feelin's n' I'm gonn'er stand down?
I'm gonna churn you t'goddamn mincemeat... What fuckin' idiots do yer want t'make of me, n' of
th'people who acted for yer sake?”
The greatest indignation Garfiel has ever felt in his life blazes within his chest.
The fight has been defiled. He has been insulted. And not only that, but this man's methods were
attempting to pollute the nobility, the resolute will, of those whose fights Garfiel had acknowledged.
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Garfiel: “Take a fuckin' nap. Pull the fuck out. You fucking disgusting, miserable pile of pile of pile
of shit. Yer best answer 's to accept yer've lost n' curl up t'nap in yer cot, you halfwit.”
Subaru: “...”
Still in his fighting stance, Subaru bathes in Garfiel's lines and lines of curses.
His head wavers unsteadily, his eyes near swollen shut but somehow managing to capture Garfiel.
His will to fight was not waning, which precisely made his filthiness an eyesore.
If all these words, these blows, these punches were not leading his spirit to bend, then what did he
have to do to break him?
If pain will not achieve it, then only one solution remains.
Garfiel: “How 'bout you try goddamn tellin' him, huh!?”
Turning around, Garfiel calls out to Emilia, observing the fight from the tomb's entrance.
Her shoulders tremble minutely as the conversation is suddenly aimed at her. The display of
weakness makes Garfiel click his tongue in irritation.
Garfiel: “Yer can't bear t'fuckin' watch, now you goddamn tell him that! He ain't fuckin' listenin'
when I say it. Have th'girl he loves tell him he looks disgustin' n'lame, that his efforts ain't achievin'
nothin', that he's benign shit!”
Emilia: “...I-I,”
Garfiel: “What!? Yer sayin' y'can't fuckin' do it? Does it look t'you he still has any hope'v winnin'?
Or do yer like watchin' this? Yer watch the guy who loves you get torn up n' broken down for yer
sake, n' does that delude you into feelin' yer loved, fuckin' really, oi!?”
Emilia: “—hk!”
Emilia freezes rigid, her eyes wide open, as the spite showers upon her.
Garfiel's merciless statements thrust daggers into onlooking Emilia.
If Garfiel's fists will not stop Subaru, then Emilia's words are the only option.
His body would be broken by Garfiel, his heart would be broken by Emilia, and so being even
Subaru would surely yield.
Over the course of watching the fight, Emilia's face twisted multiple times in pain as she witnessed
Subaru be beaten.
Unlike Subaru with his mysterious resolve, Emilia's heart has not steeled itself for anything yet. She
is still the same girl who lost the TRIAL and sobbed wailing afterwards.
Garfiel had no great intention to lambaste her for that.

To be overwhelmed by the TRIAL, by your past, was natural. Who on earth could negate the
memory of their greatest regret?
The concept that you could overcome your past, your regrets, was utter bullshit.
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Subaru had mixed up what were realistic ideals and what were unattainable fantasies, a madman.
This boy persistently standing before him chased entirely after fantasies, and demanded that others
do the same thing. He was legitimately insane.
He was the same breed as Roswaal, an imbecile whose vision encompassed one thing and nothing
more.
Garfiel: “Fuckin' stop him, n' end this! Both me, n' you! We're dancin' to th'tune of that witch's
bullshit. N' that's all that's goddamn happenin'.”
Emilia: “I—”
Emilia's back straightens as if struck by lightning, her eyes shooting open.

Her captivating eyes are damp with tears as she looks at Subaru. Her lips quiver, Garfiel's gaze still
fixed on her, as she moves to call Subaru to stop.
Everything will be over then.
But—
Emilia: “—”
Before she can speak, Subaru is the one to call.

She closes her mouth as she listens intently to Subaru's faint voice. Frantic, so as not to miss
whatever he may say to her.
To her, Subaru states merely one, single thing.
Subaru: “...Watch me.”
Nothing more.
Spoken in frail voice, practically whispered to himself.
But Emilia hears it, looks up in astonishment, and after several seconds of hesitation—
Emilia: “—Mm.”
—Puts her hand to her chest and nods.
Garfiel: “...Hah!?”
Faced with their exchange and entirely uncomprehending, Garfiel shouts in confusion.
His eyes widen in fury, only for Subaru to jab at him his finger.
Subaru: “...So you've been going on griping for a while now, but you got it wrong, Garfiel.”
Garfiel: “Th'fuck?”
Subaru: “Maybe to you, I look like an idiot putting in their all despite having no chance of
winning... but I'm not joking around. I've learned crazy goddamn well when it comes to knowingly
getting into fights I can't win after suffering pain thanks to you. Never doing it again.”
Subaru's face is a swollen mess, yet it still manages to twist into a scowl.
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This event that Subaru is referring to is nothing that Garfiel could know, but apparently it relates to
some overwhelmingly detested memory of his.
But even pitted against that sentiment, there is something he said which Garfiel must not overlook.
Garfiel: “Fuckin' ridiculous. It ain't even ideals or fantasy anymore, yer straight out not seein' what's
there. F' y'stopped challengin' opponents y'can't beat... then th'hell's this situation, oi. Th' fuck is this
situation!?”
Subaru: “Isn't it obvious, stupid? I still... haven't abandoned the fight for even a moment.”
Perhaps his consciousness compounds in clarity as his speaks, for strength begins to return to
Subaru's voice as he makes his assertion.
This baseless vitality of his seals Garfiel's throat mute with how it enrages him.
Subaru: “Long as I can still stand, I haven't abandoned the fight. ...And the point where I stop
standing back up only happens once I'm dead.”
Garfiel: “...”
Subaru: “And with how you chicken out during the decisive moments, you can't kill me. ...Meaning
you can't stop me. It might only be bit by bit, but I'm inching toward my win. My victory is
definite.”
Garfiel: “Y'fuckin' imbecile! This ain't a thing 'f me bein' able er not able t'kill you. How the fuck!
With what struggle! Are you fuckin' possibly goin't'beat me!?”
When wounded head to toe and as ragged as an old dishrag, any amount of words ring hollow.
Subaru's statements equate to nothing more than extravagant prate. 'You can't stop me unless you
kill me' was merely him expressing his volition. And assuming the claim was legitimate, he was
then meaning to state that unless killed he could keep fighting, and eventually manage to land a
fatal blow on Garfiel?
That would not occur, and would need incredible quantities of time and miracles to ever happen.
Garfiel: “My amazin' self breaks yer limbs, n'then yer can't do nothin' n' it's over! Whether yer
conscious, er whether yer wann'er win! 'D have nothin't'do with it!”
Garfiel roars in furious rage.

His feet siphon vitality from the ground, his once-fatigued body regaining strength halfway to his
usual. This constituted more than enough power for mutilating Natsuki Subaru.
He stomps off the earth, goes flying for Subaru.

Faced with Garfiel's approach, Subaru jabs out his fist as if happy about this turn of events. It's
moronic. Slow. Unequivocally insufficient. He easily dodges it, strikes him in the abdomen. Pistons
his knee into his chin, grabs him as he recoils and throws him hurtling to the ground. He drives his
heel into his fallen form, wresting out two, three screams of agony.
A merciless series of attacks. And with this—
Subaru: “...It's over, you think?”
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Garfiel: “—!! Pisshead, what the fuck IS THIS!?”
Supposedly sustaining even more grievous bodily wounds, Subaru stands up.
Witnessing it, an unknown, arcane feeling begins to mantle Garfiel's heart.
He couldn't defeat him? He couldn't win? No, those were not where his anxiety lie.
It was in the suspicion that maybe, truly, exactly as this man stated, merely accumulation of
physical damage would not manage to stop him.
Garfiel: “What th'fuck is th'point in riskin' yer life for this! Say you somehow manage t'beat my
amazin' self, do yer really think that half-witch can beat the TRIAL! You seriously think that's th'case
here, huh!?”
Subaru: “...”
Garfiel: “Like those miracles could happen! Like that convenient shit could happen! Million to one,
billion to one chance, sayin' yer beat my amazin' self, doing that ain't gonna change anythin' 'bout
that woman! N' it's th'same for anyone! When yer have a messed up, hopeless past... when yer see
how yer regrets've stewed, you can't do goddamn anything about it! Why ain't you understandin'
this!”
Subaru: “You're the one who should be hearing that question!!”
It lacks in enough momentum to be a burst of outrage, possesses to much emotion to be an appeal.

The cracks skirting though Garfiel's logic-devoid words fracture further beneath Natsuki Subaru's
yell.
Subaru: “Stop goddamn going off deciding everything on your own, Garfiel!”
Garfiel: “Fuck're you...”
Subaru: “Stop goddamn going off deciding what Emilia's limits are. She isn't that weak.”
Distant, standing before the tomb, Emilia swallows her breath.
Subaru: “Stop goddamn going off, deciding what my limits are. No one tells me to fold, or to
abandon everything and cower. My surrender is never happening.”
Spitting blood, the glint in Subaru's eyes grows stronger.

And,
Subaru: “Fucker, don't goddamn go off giving up on yourself. You can do goddamn more. More's
out there for you. ...You were a damn kid, you weren't even fully grown yet. Fucking clinging to an
intractable idea you came up with when you didn't even have pubic hair!”
Subaru straight-out informs Garfiel that the belief he stubbornly held, the creed which had kept his
heart bound to SANCTUARY, is imbecilic.
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Garfiel: “—”
Garfiel immediately opens his mouth to reply.

But something feels to have stabbed into his chest, keeping any speech from exiting his throat.
He cannot say anything. Nothing is coming out.

His head blazes white. It isn't that he thinks Subaru correct. There is no possible way Garfiel could
be wrong. The self he started being after he realised he was wrong was not wrong.
He must not be wrong.

And so this man claiming that Garfiel was wrong, must not be permitted to be here.
Garfiel: “Hah... hahhh... got it...”
Subaru: “...”
Garfiel: “I need to stop you. I ain't got any idea'v any'v what yer sayin'. But it's makin' me feel sick.
N' so, I'm stoppin' you.”
He must stop him.

And the way to stop him is surely, the exact way the man had previously stated.
—So long as he still breathes, this man cannot be stopped.
Garfiel: “Then... I'll, kill you...”
Subaru: “Can you?”
Garfiel: “Fuck off. —The method t'do it was always right here.”
If he will not stop unless killed, Garfiel would now kill and stop him assuredly.
Now, here, he would make the choice.
—Make the choice to entrust himself to the abhorrent, vile blood of the beast sleeping inside him.
Garfiel: “—σσσσσ”
He holds himself, all the blood in his body seething with incendiary heat.
The inferno feels to superheat his every exhale with red. His cells squirm, his muscles swell, his
mass explodes in size.
His limbs grow thick as logs, his abdomen bloating to snap off his loincloth. Golden fur sprouts
across his whole as his sharp fangs mature instantly into elongate sabres.
His face protrudes into a snout, the world changing colour alongside the slitting of his pupils.
His thoughts solder. The mind of the once-present Garfiel Tinzel drowns.
The exhileration of transformation, and the feeling of his bestial instincts driving out his rationality.
Once everything's done and he returns, what remains before him will be ravaged chunks of
scattered gore. The final visage of Natsuki Subaru.
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He had not been able to stop him short of doing this.
He had neither intent to lament, nor to repent for that.
People who lacked strength were bad.

The weak could proffer nothing. All there was to it.
His consciousness was fading.

His bestial instincts screech in jubilation, jaws opening to devour their miserable prey—
—The dimwitted animal's vision drowns beneath an eruption of ink-black fog.
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CHAPTER 113: JEWELS NEVER COME FROM THE SOLITARY QUENE
His eyes won't open fully. Blood flows through him so poorly he veins might as well be clogged.
But the scarlet dripping from his nose and his wounds shows no signs of dampening—was he or
was he not wanting for blood? Bleeding some of it out might actually be perfect for his broiling
brain.
With all the punches he's taken, Subaru's recognition of the world comes with just a smidgen of lag
while he shakes his head and thinks these thoughts.
It really felt he had been standing up solely for the purpose of getting punched again.
He did not mean to stand there doing nothing, but even supposing he punched or kicked back, his
attacks would not hit. With every blow he sustained he spat blood, suppressed his pain, made
himself smile a cryptic smile which screamed 'your attacks are entirely ineffective!' and stood back
up. And repeated this.
They were not ineffective.

Both the insides and outsides of his body groan, the entirety of his guts practically burst and mushed
together. The bones supporting his body feel erroneously to have crumbled to dust, and the fact that
all his limbs still move according to his will can only be described with the word 'miracle'.
However, not a single one of these things resulted from a miracle.

Every time his consciousness seemed about to fall, about to falter, his fading awareness would be
grabbed by the neck and dragged back to him in stern reprimand.
From inside his pocket crackles a hot, sharp pain—an excessively spartan compass, practically
cooking his brain.
While it's something he had requested himself, his cheeks still twist at how relentless it is.
He was using tricks to keep himself from losing consciousness. Regardless, numerous other
strategies existed for Garfiel to stop Subaru.
That Subaru nevertheless, as he recklessly continued to stand up, never sustained damage which
would perfectly incapacitate him, was entirely due to Garfiel's own judgement.
If he took a real hit from a Garfiel in top form, then Subaru would be done in a flash. Just one hit
would transform him into sloppy chunks of gore.
The exorbitant damage Garfiel sustained from Otto and Ram's fight did contribute to why this has
not happened. But Garfiel, who strained his wounded body to get here, still possessed the fangs to
kill Subaru in one bite and the claws to shred him apart with one swing.
That this has not happened is due to, unable to fatally injury another no matter what his own
condition is, Garfiel's judgement.
Ultimately, Garfiel is far too kind—is likely the situation here.
The Leweses, Frederica, even Ram, all of them had appraised Garfiel that way.
His usual crude disposition and boorish behaviour made unimaginable the sensitivity of his heart.
Although he spoke of violence, internally, he constantly nurtured and focused his strength in a
manner that would protect.
Someone he found unforgivable, someone liable to destroy SANCTUARY.

Even with such a person as his opponent, he could not make the decision to take their life.
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Subaru: “—”
Subaru knew he was taking advantage of Garfiel's disposition and kindness.

Utilizing Garfiel's personality had been a principle of Subaru's for fighting him all along. With
Garfiel as his opponent, too kind to give it his all, then Subaru was somewhat convicted that he
would not be killed.
But even said, he has a grievously wounded Garfiel facing him, and he's getting decked.
If Garfiel had been in peak condition, Subaru surely would not be getting away with so little. For
that he felt grateful to Otto and Ram, who had endeavoured for him while ignoring his plans.
—Could they be dead?
Being that Garfiel's personality keeps him from killing Subaru, it's inconceivable that he would
have killed Otto and Ram. Even if it had wound up happening, Garfiel's attitude would give it away.
And most importantly, if Garfiel had killed Ram, then no reason existed for him to show up and
stop Subaru in human form. To rationalize, and remain in bestial shape would be natural.
Garfiel had not denied Subaru's statements about his neglect to kill them.
Meaning that the conclusion to Otto, Ram, and Garfiel's fight amounted entirely to that.
Garfiel: “—σσσσσσσ”
Garfiel cradles himself as his body starts transforming.

His arms, his legs, enlarge not one but two times over, his torso's thickness and size shifting into
something overpowering. His claws and fangs become sharp as blades while his face morphs from
that of a human to that of a feline.
Golden fur coats his bare skin. Four feet contacting the ground lug his great body.
—What materialized here, with Subaru reflected in its slit-pupil eyes, was a golden tiger.
He needed to kill Subaru to stop him.

After countless swings of his fists, Garfiel finally reached that conclusion.
And so to kill the Subaru that he needed to kill, Garfiel made his decision.
He would call to the blood sleeping within him, to his bestial instincts, become a tiger and take
Subaru's life.
All while in the shape of a dimwitted animal, to end this without witnessing anything.
Subaru: “But that's where you're messing up, Garfiel.”
His inability to kill his opponent, and inability to strike them down with his fists, was kindness.
Making the decision to protect SANCTUARY, to protect himself and those around him, was also
kindness.
But running away to where he would not witness his actions, all for the sake killing of someone he
could not kill, had nothing to do with kindness. What it was was Garfiel's weakness.
And Natsuki Subaru would not hesitate to take advantage of it.
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Subaru: “Begging you, body of mine. Don't break down from this!”
Hostility fills the transformed Garfiel's eyes, their reflection being Subaru.
His limbs bend. Omens that the beast will come charging to rip Subaru apart.
This is the sole juncture he has for decision. Subaru grits his teeth once before focusing on his
body's centre—on the gateway tied to the point just below his navel, and shouts.
Subaru: “—SHAMAAAAAAAAAC!!”
Garfiel: “—”
The instant the tiger opens its mouth, the world answers to the fervid call.
Ink-black fog erupts in the space between Subaru and the beast, drowning away the form of the
towering creature. Moments before its consumption there swings an outstretched paw, but it strikes
nothing before vanishing beneath the smoke.
Once the spreading abyss of dark swallows the beast, the unfurling confusion hoists the creature's
existence into end.
Subaru: “ue, aauh...”
The instant he finishes watching the events through, an impact like a blow to his head assaults
Subaru's skull.
The sharp pain of a drill boring into his cranium from both within and without makes his vision
strobe in crimson, lights dancing all around. Unlike the dull pain of Garfiel's punches, this was an
unsparing sharp hurt, as if shaving away at his soul—hurt he manages to swallow down, ingest.
The taxation of his gate, which he had been warned not to use.
The Capital's greatest healer had cautioned that he may never be able to use magic again. Betraying
that advice, Subaru utilized the thing once more.
He feels his imperceptible gate burn. The foundations of this gateway within his centre sways
tremendously, and somewhere far and distant and separate from his body, something severs.
This pain of something violently, messily, being wrest away.

Alongside the lossful sense of what will never be recovered, it brings Subaru's heart understanding.
Subaru: “Thank you.”
A strand he had continuously relied upon is cut.

He doesn't mind. An option that he supposedly lacked in the first place had merely been eliminated
in earnest.
Regardless, it was owing to that power that he managed to get this far, and for that he was grateful.
For this was farewell.
Subaru: “—”
He looks forward.
His last cast of magic had failed to fully enshroud Garfiel's tremendous form. While crucially his
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head is veiled in the centre of the smoke, his overhanging body has its right flank peeking out.
He put in his absolute best, and still managed only this.

He sighs out his nose. A clot of blood stuck there dislodges, spills. He rigorously wipes it away with
his sleeve as he leads his unsteady legs to step forward.
He reaches for his pocket. Palms the hard thing, feeling intense relief that it has not broken over the
course of this battle. Should this thing be gone, he didn't have a fuck of a chance.
Subaru: “—”
The inky fog is steadily beginning to thin.

How many seconds since he cast? Ten? Five? Might even be shorter. He seriously had not a single
speck of magical talent in him. But right now he was grateful for it.
The tiger's right flank was visible. Captured in a world of obfuscation, body immobile.
While the magic had been imperfect, it conversely robbed Subaru of any need to deliberate.
And so there is no deliberation in his course.

Right foot, left foot. Far too slow to be called running. But so goes this laggard, momentum-helmed
sprint.
There, once he draws close enough to touch this immense frame—
Subaru: “Get back down into my court, Garfiel.”
—Into that thick shoulder, Subaru takes the shining blue crystal from his pocket and pushes—stabs.
Light, spilling over.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
<After your contract with Emilia's broken, you're back to being a free spirit... yeah?>
<Well, I suppose that's what it would be. But, even calling me free, my individual power is pretty
immense. Your run-of-the-mill person wouldn't be able to provide the mana to maintain me. And
besides, no matter who else it could be, I don't have any urge to contract anyone but Lia.>
<So that mana to maintain you.. it has to seriously be a lot?>
<Yup. For example’s sake, Subaru, we'll pretend that you tried to conduct me, and even borrowed
power from the ambient mana... Mhm, I suppose you'd dry up in say, a day.>
<Uh...? Sounds tighter than I thought. But is that enough that you could you fight?>
<That day we're talking about is where I'm not materialized and you're just carrying me around. If I
materialized would be, mm, I guess it'd take five seconds before you're out. Want to try it?>
<How about no. But man, seriously what happened to that thing about me having affinity with
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spirits?>
<So long as we're talking about these spirits over here, might be preface you needed for that. But
even if that wasn't what it meant... my situation comes with special circumstances. I seriously am a
spirit specially for Lia.>
<—>
<The plan to employ me after my contract's broken and freak out Lia is hitting some setbacks.>

<Sorry. And even pretending that it would probably work, there's the problem of the anchor...
actually, since we're here, we might've been able to manage something about that.>
<Anchor... something like the crystal hanging around Emilia's neck?>
<That one really is special. But fortunately there should be something made of the same material
around here, and we could at least figure something out if we borrow just a tidge of it. But either
way, even if I'm stuck inside the crystal, and left just stuck inside the crystal, the mana just isn't...>
<—So, something I wanna ask.>
<Hm? Yes?>
<Leaving aside whether it's a contract, is it possible to just have you inside a crystal if you're
agreeing with it? Um, so long as the mana supply's there.>
<That'd be right. But, securing that mana supply would be incredibly difficult. Because I'm literally
draining the mana, in my case. Sucking and sucking, until you're incapacitated...>
<—>
<...Subaru?>
<Say, Puck.>
<Mhm?>
<So those replacements you mentioned for the crystal, where are they?>
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Stabbing into the tiger's right shoulder, expelling a terrific light, is a blue crystal.
Neither polished nor sanded, the cut-away jewel's sharp point drives into the animal's skin, where it
grabs the creature's vitality and siphons it away.
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Subaru: “—ghh!”
Dazzled by the light, Subaru topples backwards as if assaulted by forceful winds. He falls on his
behind, retreating as he watches the scene before him, where the tiger swallowed in smog still has
yet to notice the alternation to its own body.
That crystal sizeable enough to grasp in the hand would voraciously drain the mana of creatures it
stabbed. Just keeping it stored in his pocket had exhausted Subaru incredibly.
What would happen when that effect was applied directly to the body? The answer lay right in front
of him.
Garfiel: “—auh, aaaghh!?”
The smoke clears.

The visual obstruction from the fog, and forced confusion from the magic.
By the time he is released from both of these, the tiger—Garfiel—has lost the majority of his animal
flesh, on his way back to his original shape as a young humanoid man.
His fur flakes away and to the ground, limbs once the width of many logs tied together returning to
a sane thickness. His fangs and claws shrink, his body cracking and creaking as it reverts to human
form.
The one looking most baffled by this transfiguration is none other than Garfiel himself.
His eyes shoot open in shock at his loss of his bestial shape and return to his original body. He
raises his arms, staring at his human hands with quivering, golden eyes.
Garfiel: “Th, ridicu... what th', hell...”
Subaru: “I did tell you, Garfiel. —I don't get in fights I can't win.”
Garfiel's head springs up to look at Subaru.

Subaru wipes off his rear as he stands up, his face swollen but smiling insidiously. Garfiel
comprehends the alternations to his body, and the fact that he remains severely wounded. He turns
his head, to notice the foreign object stabbing into his shoulder.
Garfiel: “Hell... 's, this? No, this thing is...”
Subaru: “Pretty sure you recognize that light. Me and you should both know it.”
Garfiel: “Yer bastard, where'd you... get...”
Subaru: “Obviously. —From Lewes Meyer's crystal. It's one of the jewels from the stock to keep it
going.”
—The laboratory deep in the woods.

Lewes Meyer, who became the cornerstone of the barrier to protect SANCTUARY. The crystal which
held her trapped and eternally crystallized depended on some fraction of the duplicates to maintain
its functions.
At regular intervals, Lewes duplicates would exchange the driving mechanisms inside the glowing
crystal's lower base. And of course, those crystals were not infinite in quantity. The supply in
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SANCTUARY would eventually run dry, and no longer work to maintain its faculties.
Subaru: “Which means they have to be brought in here regularly with food and stuff. When you're
one of Roswaal's backers, there's more than enough opportunity to pinch say, one of them.”
Garfiel: “But, just doin' that... just stabbin' me, ain't gonna, drain my strength like this... what
goddamn, trick did yer put...”
Subaru: “Well. ...Maybe there's a preposterous and starving monster inside that crystal?”
His breath faltering, Garfiel struggles to speak

He reaches for his shoulder, attempting to somehow pull the jewel out—but the blue crystal
practically rejects Garfiel's fingers as it stubbornly remains in his flesh, unyielding.
Giving a deep sigh, Subaru lets his body untense as he turns to look behind him.
He looks up to where Emilia quietly looks down upon him. Subaru's situation must have appeared
doomed even to her.
Regardless, she never attempted to stop Subaru's battle. This girl who, when he fought battles while
running off a stubbornness unreasonable in either of the two's case, had once so fervently attempted
to stop him.
Even Subaru understood that there was something, which he not quite assert as being trust, between
them.
That something between them surely was some something which they had yet to put into either
words or form.
The crystal has pinned Garfiel's actions to a stop.

Emilia must have noticed something, seeing that glow. She didn't know what. But it was fine that
she not know. For now.
Subaru: “Watch me, Garfiel.”
Garfiel: “Eh..?”
Subaru: “If you want to stop me, then do it by your own hands. Don't leave yourself to that blood
inside you, where you can't damn tell what you're doing. You're the one who's making idiots of
people.”
He steps forth.
His body creaks, blood dripping without pause from somewhere.
His life is flowing out. But he has no intent to either stop, or let himself be stopped.
Subaru: “You're trying to stop us. We will stop you. —Emilia will challenge the tomb. SANCTUARY
will be freed. We don't have time to sit around at stalemate.”
Garfiel: “Jus' spoutin' whatever fuckin' bullshit y'goddamn like! Who fuckin' asked! Who fuckin'
gave you permission! This place, just as it is, stayin' as it is, without any changin', is fine!”
Subaru: “Not like it can possibly stay unchanged, stay stagnant, stay like this forever. That's
something that... centuries ago, before the place wound up like this, someone ought to have
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realised.”
Garfiel: “There're people! Who don't want it t'change! Who want it t'stay the same!”
Subaru: “I figure it'd be fine if you, keeping things entirely unchanged, could keep reigning as the
place's guardian eternally and forever. ...But, y'see, there're things you can't achieve alone no matter
how hard you try.”
Time would, the generations would, both eventually leave Garfiel behind.
Eventually, he would lose the power enough to keep protecting the unchanging SANCTUARY.
Subaru: “Just like how we all ganged up to corner you, there's gonna come a time where you can't
manage it on your own. Like any second.”
Subaru walks, to arrive before Garfiel.

Garfiel clutches the crystal in his shoulder, his breathing unsteady but his eyes nevertheless strong
as he glares at Subaru. Subaru reciprocates the glare from straight-on.
They both knew that merely slinging words at each other would not suffice.
And so—
Subaru: “Go get dead collapsed, Garfiel. Behold the power of numbers.”
Garfiel: “There had t'be other goddamn ways t'say that!”
Garfiel roars.
A fist comes swinging below. But sluggishly. With the crystal draining his energy, barely any
strength remains in Garfiel. Subaru breezily tilts his head aside—and fails to move as intended and
so eats a fist to the face. His vision swims.
Garfiel: “Yer who's gettin'th'goddamn lights out! Then my amazin' self's knockin' th'tomb down, n'
you n' the others, I'm keepin' all'er yer here 'till yer dead!”
Subaru: “So that's what you were fucking planning, huh!”
Subaru responds by stretching out his faltering legs and slamming his fist upwards. Unavoidable,
the punch smashes into Garfiel's face. For the first time this whole fight, Subaru lands a clean hit.
Terrible posture, the core of his body unsteady, his arm not even fully extended, a shitty excuse for a
punch.
He naturally could not expect the strike to be as powerful as he hoped, but against the present
Garfiel, it was more than enough.
Garfiel: “—Gh, ghaug,”
Now accompanying his bodily wounds, the mana supporting his body is being leeched from his
core. Garfiel already stood at the precipice of martial incapacitation, and Subaru's strike would be
the decisive blow to send him hurtling off.
But,
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Garfiel: “Ain't, gonna work!”
Subaru: “Ghhge!”
Garfiel's two feet stomp the ground as hard as they can, his posture lowering as he drives his elbow
into Subaru's solar plexus. Subaru screams, utilizing his lowered head to strike Garfiel's forehead
with a headbutt. The two both recoil at the numb pain to their skulls, both send out their fists as they
right their heads, both land their hit.
With fists mutually driven into the other's cheek, blood begins to flow from the noses of the two.
Subaru was at the limit for physical damage, while Garfiel was, with the mental factors included,
sitting in critical territory.
The glow of the crystal in Garfiel's shoulder steadily grows dimmer.

That perhaps proved that Garfiel was near exhausted of mana, or otherwise said, proved the battle in
proximity of conclusion.
Subaru: “—Ghhabh!”
Garfiel: “Fuck're you dozin' off for!”
The instant he drops his guard, the fist at his cheek flicks open, sending his face rebounding with a
smack.
For a moment the strike sends his consciousness soaring off to elsewhere. He immediately grits his
teeth, hard, the pain of his cracked tooth as it shatters guiding him back to consciousness.
He could not rely on trickery any more to keep himself from falling unconscious. Now the object
was contributing in a different form, in a fashion without any greater parallel. Subaru would have to
withstand all the pain on his own.
Negligence. Conceit. Idiocy.

Subaru would always be weak, and would never sincerely be the superior party in a fight.
Subaru: “And so... I can't be slacking off!”
Garfiel: “Ggha,”
He swings his left arm down to hook Garfiel by the neck, sending the two of them toppling to the
ground. With his body battered, Subaru grimaces in pain as he attempts to upright himself. When a
vicious pain spears across his left arm, pinned to the ground as it is.
He looks to find Garfiel's fangs biting down on the upper portion of his arm.
Subaru: “Geeuhe!”
Garfiel: “—Ghggg”
Subaru: “Aaaihg! Get off! This hurts, you idiot!”
Subaru punches Garfiel in the face to make him let go. His arm is squelched into freedom as the
fangs release, but a limb pierced to the bone has no hope of moving. And his right arm—
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Garfiel: “Got... yer!”
Subaru reaches out his right arm in an attempt to repossess his left, when Garfiel grabs his shoulder.
While he may have lost the strength to throw a swing or a kick, he has not lost the strength to grasp.
Constrictive force enough to shatter a boulder destroys Subaru's right shoulder, bones and all.
A dull cracking resounds through the air alongside Subaru's silent shrieks.
His upper left arm has been mutilated and his right shoulder has its bones destroyed, both
nonfunctional. With his arms robbed of their capabilities, Subaru's eyes shoot open as Garfiel kicks
him down.
Garfiel: “'S th'end! Now there ain't nothin' y'can do! What I shouldd'er done was this... was turn yer
into a floppin' sardine from th'start!”
Seeing Subaru writhe on the ground, Garfiel's cheeks twist in victorious jubilation. He gets to his
unsteady feet before turning his head to the sky, letting loose his voice.
The howl of an animal, an aria of triumph. Now all Subaru could do was wait to be stepped on,
finished off, and—
Subaru: “...How many times do I have to tell you, don't decide my end!”
The blow of the headbutt thrust up from below bashes Garfiel in the nose, sending his eyes
spinning.
He stumbles off course. Subaru stands with his arms hanging limp. It's impossible. Ridiculous. This
isn't a question of strength of will, but an issue resting on an entirely different dimension.
Subaru: “My end, and your end... neither are here yet.”
Garfiel: “G-goddamn... fuck off... don't yer dare stand. Quit standing... I...”
Garfiel's face twists in agony as he takes a single step in retreat from the standing Subaru.
As if, unable to use his arms and capable only of standing as he was, he was scared of him.
Garfiel: “Th'fuck is this persistence gonna do! Th'people here, every last one'v 'em! Every single
one's a hopeless dreg! The outside rejected 'em, n' here's th'only place they have! They go outside,
and what! What happens!”
Subaru: “You leave, and be something. If you're going to be here to end peacefully, then do it.
Neither one of those options are available here any more.”
No matter how much strength Garfiel flaunts, and no matter how he fights, it will not change the
coming future.
Garfiel by himself cannot stop the threat the Sizeable Hare presents. No matter how hard he tries, he
will fail to save some people. And each time that count increases, he will lose his strength, until he
is eventually defeated in the face of insatiable hunger.
If Subaru could communicate that future to him, perhaps he could be impelled into action right here.
But that would not mean that he changed his mind.

It would only be a temporary push. His heart would remain sealed inside SANCTUARY. Once he
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knew the danger had passed, he would return here, still pretending the place was a paradise while he
submerged into stagnation.
Ignoring the push at his back, ignoring the hands offered to him, disregarding all of it, Garfiel
Tinzel would feign his mourning of his mother's death while unceasingly consoling himself.
Subaru: “Leave this place, Garfiel. This blockade you're scared of doesn't exist.”
Garfiel: “There is a blockade! I am one! I'm an unfailing blockade, separatin' inside and outside!
Me, n' nanna, n' the others! We all stopped still! It's already the end for us!”
They gave up once. The people of SANCTUARY feared connection with the outside, retreated into
their paradise, and gave up on contacting the world outside the forest.
And so Garfiel was trying to protect that enclosed paradise. Asserted he would.
That was equivalent to letting their lives be made consummate. Because of one person, going off
doing things on his own.
Subaru: “Then we'll break that blockade... right here and right now, us!”
Garfiel: “That guy! And Ram! They're havin' beddy byes! And yer gonna be gettin' yer peace too!
This 'us' yer talkin' about don't fuckin' exist anymore! Here's the end fer me and fer all you!”
Subaru: “Do you think it's fucking smart to give up? It's damn obvious that it's cooler not to! You
think that when you give up on everything and stop, walking means the end for you? Just take a
little rest and walk again! The opportunity for it visited you goddamn ages ago!”
The TRIAL which resulted in him fearing the outside world.

Garfiel experienced that TRIAL, and Lewes and Frederica nevertheless loved him.
Frederica chose to step into that outside world, to create a place where the people of SANCTUARY
could live, once the barrier was someday broken.
She would have turned to look back, and offered Garfiel her hand.
She would have seen Garfiel stopped still, and offered that he walk again.
Of course. After all, Frederica was Garfiel's sister.
When a little brother cries themselves stuck, it's their big sis who reaches out for them.
Subaru: “You said Frederica left for the outside world, and left you behind. But you're wrong.
You're absolutely wrong, Garfiel. You aren't bound to the barrier. If you wanted to follow her, you
could've any time. You're the one who neglected to!”
Garfiel: “...I,”
Subaru: “You're the one who drew away first, Garfiel! Then you fucking winge winge winge about
it being your sister's fault! You don't think it's fucking pathetic!?”
The pit of his chest burns. What on earth was he saying? He was starting to lose track himself.
Deep in his gut, in that very core, something dark squirms.
The supernatural gateway beneath his navel, connecting Subaru to the outside world, has lost its
function.
So then, right now, this thing in the pit of this body, asserting its presence, was what, exactly?
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Still unsure of his head, of his body, of this man before him, he screams.
Subaru: “Any time! Any moment! When you want to act! When you want to change! The instant
you think that marks the starting line!!”
Suffer failure, lose everything, wallow in resignation and stop, hug your knees and cower.
Even should the disappointment in yourself, the disappointment of others, the isolating feeling of
being abandoned by your precious ones all feel to steep you from your depths upwards, and you're
stuck thinking that you're worthless.
Subaru: “Raise your head again, walk the path in front of you. And how can anyone order you to
give up on that!”
Give up! Relinquish! Surrender!

Idiocy. All of it, insipid bullshit warranting no heed.
If there is someone hugging their knees, and you feel the caprice to call out, you best as well
support them.
Do your best! You can do it! I don't know what's up, but if you stand and keep running, you'll reach
somewhere.
—His chest, burns.
Subaru: “Aren't I right, Garfiel!”
He calls the name of the man before him, his eyes wavering feebly, his visage small.
—His guts, blazing.
Subaru: “Aren't I right, Emilia!”
He calls of the name of the girl behind him, her gaze looking down at him, her standing on the
threshold between weakness and something else.
—His eyes, with it spilling over.
Subaru: “Say—aren't I right, REM!!”
His head raised, mouth open, eyes wide, he calls the name of the person who gave him the impetus
to stand.
He had been taught that giving up and coming to a stop should surely not mean the end.
Natsuki Subaru desired that the power he was given that day reach every single person there was.
Subaru: “—”
A power which does not belong to Subaru squirms within the core of him, shrieking its birthing cry.
Cheering the fact of its birthing, and welcoming the fact of its birth.
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With Natsuki Subaru as an intermediately, it again connects to the world.
Heat, spilling over.

In the centre of Subaru's body, a conflagration burns.
It eddies in the space before Subaru, scarlet flowing out his bloodshot eyes, and takes form,
tampering with the world.
Garfiel: “I!”
Garfiel soars.
He raises his claws to swing, bares his teeth to show, no longer using words, but actions to deny
Subaru's assertions.
Unable to spin words, unable to put his feelings to form, this is the only method he can conceive.
He doesn't know anything else. And so Garfiel reaches his claws for Subaru.
Heat spilling from bleeding Subaru is congregating right in front of him, but he doesn't notice. Right
in front of the Subaru he is leaping at, there spawns a warp in space, an inconceivable fissure in the
world, but he doesn't notice.
—He does not notice the overwhelming force extending from that fissure.
Well naturally. He cannot see it. Or no, nobody except Subaru could see it.
Because this thing, which only Subaru can negotiate, is UNSEEN HAND.
Subaru: “—”
The world looks to move in slow motion.

This sensation is a far too familiar one for Subaru. While on the brink of dying, or in the instant
before sustaining a fatal wound, or when suffering punishment for voicing the taboo, it's always
during pain and depresses him.
But unlike those times, this illusory sensation is presently, here for Subaru's sake.
He sees oncoming Garfiel very clearly.

Full hostility—but, it also carried the wisps of a child's tantrum.
Subaru focuses his gaze on the tip of Garfiel's chin.

Somehow, he knows. Before makes it happen, he gains comprehension.
All he has to do is fix his aim, and let this thing he's tugging taut loose.
That alone, and surely, it would be accomplished.
—And so Subaru does exactly that.
The unleashed power shouts in glee, sniping defenceless Garfiel from below.
The outstretched torrent of force takes the shape of a fist, extends to the shape of an arm, which
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slams a punch into Garfiel's face midway though his leap, shooting him high skyward.
Garfiel: “—wh, wha!?”
Struck by a completely unanticipated attack, Garfiel fails to catch himself as he slams back to the
ground.
He tumbles to a stop, splayed out on the earth. Subaru understands that he has just fired the decisive
blow.
Simultaneously, an incredible load of something is wrested away from inside him.
Subaru: “Euhg, auh... au,”
He falls to his knees, his body folding as he vomits all he wishes. But not a single drop of blood or
bile comes out. Not a drop of scarlet or saliva, for nothing extraneous remains within him.
That was what a final strike it was, on the tail of so much effort.
The torrent of power unravelled and dispersed immediately after sniping Garfiel.
Its fountain likely remains inside Subaru even now, but he doesn't sense that he can withdraw it.
The present Subaru, at least, lacks anything more he can give.
If he uses that arm any more than he just has, he will need to sacrifice more.
But, being that the fight is over, for the moment that necessity is—
Subaru: “Come on... you're joking.”
Garfiel: “—Don't, und'resti, mate...”
Broken down, bordering on unconsciousness.

His vision edged with white, so exhausted any blink could be his last.
He had expended such incredible efforts, and still.

Garfiel Tinzel, with an outrageous nosebleed streaming down his face, is standing.
Subaru: “Seriously, just how tough are you...”
Garfiel: “'F I ain't, ain't foldin', it... ain't, ain't end, endin'...”
Garfiel's consciousness is halfway gone.

His unfocused gaze appears to look at Subaru while not looking at him at all. Tenacity alone was
allowing Garfiel to stand, rejecting that final push.
Almost surely, Subaru could shove him and that would topple Garfiel.
But the strength to enact that attack was equally lacking in Subaru. Nevermind taking a hit, Subaru
was ten seconds away from losing consciousness too.
They had both done their absolute best, having used up every power in their possession to reach this
conclusion.
It had always been true for Garfiel, but unmistakably for Subaru too, all of their strategies are done.
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If Otto and Ram had not worn Garfiel down, Subaru probably would not have been able to get this
far.
The idea that he could do something so long as he had the blue crystal as his hidden ace had been
naive. Help in maintaining consciousness, and debilitating Garfiel to the utmost. Even with both of
these things, Subaru surely would not have managed it.
The blue crystal on Garfiel's shoulder flickers.

It both seemed encouragement and reprimand for a Subaru on the verge of sinking into failure, and
unwittingly he finds himself close to giving a wry smile.
Subaru, the crystal, Otto, Ram.

All of this power combined, and they still could not beat Garfiel. He is, without a doubt, strong.
Subaru would sincerely acknowledge that. And so,
Garfiel: “And now, yer...”
Subaru: “Don't... think bad of this, Garfiel. I did say we're breaking that blockade.”
Garfiel: “There ain't nobody...”
With unsteady steps, Garfiel closes in on Subaru.

His arm hangs aloft, and at its tip and dirtied with blood, there exist dull claws.
Should they reach him, Subaru reaches his end.
Garfiel puts the whole of his focus into this attack.

And so he does not notice. The tremors, the noise, of what is approaching.
—The final push, to secure Garfiel's defeat.
Garfiel: “O, ver!?”
???: “—ϡ!”
Drowning out his shout comes the dignified roar of an earth dragon.
The charging black dragon rams head-first into undefended Garfiel, striking him in the side and
sending him flying.
Garfiel: “—Gaugh!?”
Stricken with an impact which literally carts him away, wide-eyed Garfiel shoots off as easily as a
kicked pebble.
He bounces once, twice, three times off the earth, kicking up dust plumes and caking himself in dirt
before coming to lie face-down on the ground.
He does not twitch an inch.
Seeing this, the contributor of the merciless final attack arches her head, roaring.
Subaru: “What do you think, Garfiel...”
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Aside Patrasche as she bellows of the victory, Subaru calls out to the fallen Garfiel. In a voice so
frail, it's questionable whether he heard it.
The key which decided this battle. What was it?
Well it was simple.

In a fight against strong Garfiel, weak Subaru did not fight alone.
Meaning,
Subaru: “This—is the power of numbers.”
Garfiel: “Had t'be, other... goddamn, ways t', say that...”
Motionless Garfiel responds sourly to Subaru's words.

Subaru's cheeks relax slightly in hearing it.
Subaru: “Okay then, it's the assemblage of everyone's feelings, a victory for bonds.”
Garfiel: “Haah... 's like a damn, JEWELS NEVER COME FROM THE SOLITARY QUENE...”
With that, Garfiel falls silent.

Seeing that fact through, Subaru comprehends their definite victory, before looking up at the sky.
Subaru: “Finally heard a saying that worked...”
With that satisfied statement, he abandons all consciousness and allows himself to fall.
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CHAPTER 114: LIES INTO WISHES
Carried on the roar of a ground dragon, the battle's end echoes through the skies of SANCTUARY.
A black dragon, which had rammed into wounded Garfiel, landed the decisive blow for the fight.
This dragon, Patrasche, had run to the scene as if sharing a telepathic link with Subaru, and
beautifully given an unparalleled assist in the final stage of the combat.
Patrasche: “—ϡ!”
This was the second confrontation between Garfiel and Patrasche in SANCTUARY.
On they day they arrived here, carriage-lugging Patrasche had gotten into combat with Garfiel when
he arrived to repel the invaders, and suffered a doubtless defeat.
There exists a border between soldiers and civilians. No one could blame Patrasche for being made
to eat dirt. Naturally, Subaru did not fault his steed either.
But Patrasche's thoughts on it were an entirely different matter.
She had failed to protect her master, and underwent disgrace.

For a member of the proud Diana bloodline, this was a dishonour which needed to be overturned
unequivocally.
Being that Patrasche and Subaru cannot communicate verbally, the swift arrival of this opportunity
was not a topic they could discuss with mutually perfect comprehension.
And so, with the parts she could not convey included, she demonstrated her thoughts by action.
This roar from the dragon was devoted to her master and to her ancestors.
With how the sound came mingled with accomplishment and satisfaction, and how the dragon drew
her snout close to the unconscious Subaru, surely anyone would understand that.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Listening to Patrasche's roar in her restored honour, Emilia gives a deep sigh.
It felt like breathing had been banned. Or rather, the fight had been one to make you forget about
breathing entirely.
Watch to the end, Subaru had told her. While keenly perceiving her own powerlessness, Emilia
spectated the mens' gruesome confrontation to conclusion.
Subaru had spat blood, moaned in pain, broken down.

Who could suppose how many times Emilia bordered on calling out and running over?
But every time Emilia's weak heart came near to discarding that she wait, Subaru's words of, watch
me, and his nigh-perfectly timed gaze stopped her.
Neither her action, nor her speech, were pardonable here.

It frustrated her, and she found it hard to bear, but she must not avert her gaze.
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It wasn't that anyone told her.
But Emilia's heart quietly perceived that she absolutely must not do those things.
She did not understand this feeling revolving around her chest which had kept her stopped.
Subaru had exhibited incredible stubbornness, Garfiel had howled with such incredible ferocity, the
confrontation came to its end following the two mens' sloppy fistfight—what was it that the fight
was founded upon? Being an outsider to the situation, and a woman who struggled to understand
male logic, Emilia could only grasp the situation in fragmentary terms.
But Subaru had demonstrated his doggedness and faith with this fight, enlisting much aid to defeat
Garfiel.
And that fact did indeed cause an indescribable feeling to swell within Emilia's heart.
Still driven by that feeling, Emilia recognized that the two's fight was one which deserved
commendation.
Meaning that the significance of their battle absolutely must not be tarnished.
And so—
Emilia: “...Roswaal.”
With one hard blink, Emilia abandons her hesitation and turns to face forward.
Her gaze oversteps Subaru and Garfiel toppled on the ground before her, reaching to the gaps in the
trees beyond.
—Where there wordlessly stands a warlock.
Emilia: “It makes people uneasy if you're just quiet like that. They'll start to think you're up to
something.”
Roswaal: “Myyyyyyyyy goodness, how that certainly does sting. And all when I came here,
pushing my wounded body, for the sake of yooooooourself and Subaru-kun...”
Emilia: “If that's really what you think, then I'd want to be more relaxed, but...”
Out from the bushes in front of Emilia there emerges someone tall—Roswaal.
In these several days since their arrival in SANCTUARY, Emilia has only seen him in bed. That he's
outside and loitering around here makes her somewhat wary.
Roswaal fundamentally is a backer of Emilia's in the Royal Selection, and her only ally, politically
speaking. The one who brought Emilia out of the forest and presented her the path to the throne, and
suggested that the villagers sleeping in ice could be saved, was also him.
And so, leaving his idiosyncrasies aside, Emilia had never truly viewed Roswaal as an enemy, or as
offensive, or as dangerous so far.
So far as just a couple seconds ago.
Emilia: “The minor spirits have been noisy and restless for a while now.”
Roswaal: “...Hrrrrrrrrrrrm.”
Emilia: “Everybody's saying they sense something sooo menacing. ...And right now, even I can see
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it too.”
Her voice low and tense, Emilia slowly descends from the tomb's entrance down to the open square.
Subaru's face as he lies there is satisfied, while Garfiel's is twisted in regret. Beside Patrasche as she
stands between the two is where Emilia takes her place, putting her in position to protect the three
of them should anything happen.
Protect the three—she ultimately must have that thought, with how irregular a vibe currently
emanates from Roswaal.
A dense, abnormally thick concentration of mana is warping the atmosphere around Roswaal.
Just how concentrated was the mana inside this man? This was Roswaal L. Mathers, who
commanded all six types of magic, known as the greatest magician in the country.
When this man detonated his magic to its greatest limit, just what miracles could happen?
Emilia: “—”
Feeling tipsy off the dense mana, Emilia swallows her breath.
Patrasche moves to stand in a place where she is blocking Roswaal's line of sight to Subaru,
stretching out her neck as she growls intimidatingly at the warlock.
She had also sensed a threat in Roswaal's anomalous atmosphere. Seeing the two's caution, Roswaal
gives a shrug, his attitude entirely the same as always.
Roswaal: “How scary. I wooooooould prefer if you could abstain frooooooom looking at me like
that. Aaaaaaaalthough, my nature is one where animals and so ground dragons disfavour me
ridiculously. Should the same apply for spirits, that does explain why Beatrice won't be cordial
wiiiiiiiith me.”
Emilia: “Stop fooling around. And I'm certain she's unhappy with you because of something else. …
I don't know if it was always like that, though.”
Roswaal: “Nooooooooo. A long time ago... truly a long time ago, it waaaaaaaaasn't like that. When
there were no earth dragons, it used to be that people came here riding grim oxen—riding farrow.”
Emilia: “When, there were no earth dragons...?”
Emilia's brows furrow.

While she is not exactly the most knowledgeable on the topic, earth dragons are creatures firmly
joined to everyday living, and the culture and history surrounding them—their connection with
humanity—has supposedly gone on for a long time.
What Roswaal must mean is IN LUGNICA. Emilia's studies are too lacking for her to pinpoint just
when earth dragons started being densely used in Lugnica, though.
Roswaal slips a small sigh at Emilia's confusion.

Somehow, it gives a sense of pre-anticipated disappointment.
Roswaal: “Then you would not know either, Emilia-sama. Weeeeeell, I suppose you wouldn't.
While you may have inherited blood from the long-lived elves, your years only amount to a century
and some... when you have spent the most of that time asleep, surely you wouldn't remember the
world aaaaaaaaaaas it was then.”
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Emilia: “...You're saying weird things, Roswaal. If we're going to talk about this, then you're way
younger than me. Um, but I lose if we mean time spent awake.”
That Emilia spent up to a century inside the ice, abandoned by the world and its time, was history
that Emilia found embarrassing.
Even with the world at large considered, she plainly should be an elder of the population. But she
lacks the experience and knowledge fitting to her age.
Including her inability to beat the TRIAL, her time in SANCTUARY has made her recognize that there
are many areas in which she lacks—including this.
But Roswaal just responds to Emilia's worries with a snort, laughing them off.
The reaction is an unanticipated one. Emilia's brows shoot up in surprise.
Emilia: “Wait, Roswaal. Why are you laughing like that?”
Roswaal: “—. Please excuse me. It truly was nooooooothing important. ...Merely reflecting that
ignorance occasionally does create situations which are so humorous that it's sad.”
Emilia: “...You mean, you're making fun of me. I can at least understand that much.”
Roswaal's rather insolent statement leads Emilia's brows to rise, her wariness compounding.
Strange mana encircles Roswaal. As if spurred by this stuff he has whetted, Roswaal's attitude
toward Emilia is different from how it has ever been.
Emilia has never experienced clear spite from Roswaal before.

The Emilia that Roswaal knew was someone who was always screwing around, often spoke
mockingly, and told jokes on Subaru and Puck's par for idiotic, but like them he had never said
anything which was disparaging toward Emilia.
Because Roswaal needed to cooperate with Emilia for the sake of his goals, and interact while
placing her in the superior position of RULER.
Tracing the logic backwards, Roswaal does not presently see the merit in acting such with Emilia.
He had probably lost his temper with her and her constant inability to beat the TRIAL, and given up
on her. And that was okay. Because if that was the situation, she could at least understand and agree
with it.
But something else presently scares Emilia more than that.
Emilia: “Roswaal... how long were you watching Subaru and Garfiel fight?”
Roswaal: “—How long, which is to say?”
Emilia: “I noticed you there... just a minute ago. When Subaru and Garfiel were hitting each other...
right after Subaru used Shamac.”
Taxing his ragged gate, Subaru had used magic for the who-knows-what'th time.
He had strained the dregs of mana that he had and used magic as if mustering the absolute last of his
power. It resulted in a rather ineffective spell, which soon dispersed.
Thinking back on it, that had been the exact moment where Emilia truly wanted to run over to
Subaru.
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Subaru once strained the last of his power to cast Shamac in Emilia's presence before, and it had
ended in his overwhelming and unquestionable loss.
Surely no one would fault her for envisioning his image back then overlaid atop his image right
now, and come close to calling out. But when Subaru jabbed his hidden ace, the crystal, into Garfiel
and the odds shifted to fifty-fifty, an emotion other than panic sprouted in Emilia's heart.
And having lost that pressing sense of urgency, Emilia first noticed it.
Noticed the irregular signs of someone watching the battle, just like her.
Emilia: “At first, I thought you were there to help Subaru if he reached his limit. It looks like Ram
and Otto-kun did something to try stopping Garfiel, so I wondered if you were here as
reinforcements for Subaru too. But...”
Roswaal: “Yoooooooou're exactly correct, I indeed came here as reinforcements for Subaru-kun. Is
what I could say, but you wouldn't beeeeeeeeeelieve me.”
Emilia: “Even without Puck, I can at least figure out mana currents. You were watching the fight
where you could intervene at any time... but, who you were aiming for was...”
Roswaal: “—”
Roswaal's odd-coloured eyes narrow as he looks at Emilia.

His eyes had been narrowed like this while he was watching the fight. With his magic at its peak
and always ready to fire, with his aim fixed on Subaru.
Emilia: “Answer, Roswaal. —What were you thinking to do to Subaru?”
Emilia faces her palm out toward Roswaal.

Puck is not with her. There's anxiety to be had over her mana control. The minor spirits are trying to
warn Emilia, them terrified of Roswaal and the ominous magic he dons.
If she cannot depend on them to help her entirely, then she has to do it herself.
Emilia: “Please, answer. If you don't, I...”
Roswaal: “We are far past any question, and you're stiiiiiiiiiiiill hesitant in your decisions. No end
exists for your blitheness. Or perhaps you place too much expectation in the goodwill of others? It
was supposed to be that your days thus far were ones where you were recipient only to malice. How
is it that you manage to be so incredibly exposed?”
Emilia: “—hk”
Roswaal overpowers Emilia's pleading words with unrestrained spite.

His heterochromatic eyes equally host animosity, him not conceding Emilia an inch. The same
applies to the multiple forms of mana churning chaotically inside him.
Matters are proceeding in a questionable direction. Emilia unwittingly reaches for her chest, then
remembers that the familiar touch there is absent, and grits her teeth.
Her weakness, unconsciously trying to entrust her worries to Puck, frustrates her.
To obfuscate that weakness, Emilia increases the strength in her glare as she gazes at Roswaal.
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Emilia: “You don't want to answer my question. Then, I won't—eep”
hold back either, is how she means to continue.

The instant she determines so, and begins to build a concentration of mana, something bumps the
side of her head.
Surprised at the dishevelment of her silver hair, Emilia looks to her side, to see the snout of a
ground dragon.
It's Patrasche. Her push—or really strike, being that it was too forceful of a shove to be described
otherwise—prompts Emilia's eyes to widen. The snout of the black dragon's elegant face once again
butts into Emilia's forehead.
Emilia: “You...”
They cannot speak with each other, but even still, it seems like Patrasche is supporting her.
—Calm down. With composure, do what it is you ought to.
Feeling that Patrasche is sternly telling her this, Emilia realises that she has gotten fired up. She
closes her eyes. By the time she turns back to face Roswaal, her hand no longer touches her chest.
Roswaal: “Truly... I have noooooooo good memories with ground dragons.”
Seeing the change in Emilia's expression, Roswaal gives his irritated opinion of Patrasche.
Patrasche's care had so effectively destroyed Roswaal's plans. Meaning that just then, Roswaal had
wanted Emilia to get violent on him.
Emilia: “I don't know at all what you're thinking right now. If she hadn't stopped me just then, I
know I would've... but, it's almost like you wanted me to.”
Roswaal: “I will simply mention this for consideration. It's because I dooooo dislike being hurt.”
Emilia: “...? But everyone dislikes that.”
Emilia furrows her brows. Roswaal's lips look to slacken sardonically. Emilia can not figure in the
least what that smile means.
Either way, brute force is not the option she should be picking here.
Emilia: “Tell me, Roswaal. It's obvious that you're not your usual self right now. How come
you're... being desperate like this, tell me.”
Roswaal: “...Desperate, you say. Hrm, goodness my goodness how surprising.”
Emilia: “It's like you're abandoning everything, and you could've been hit with magic and you didn't
care... you could tell me it's not desperation, but I wouldn't believe you.”
Emilia could understand that destructive behaviour where you grow sick of yourself, and let
yourself act like an absolute insane wreck. The question is whether you direct it inside, or outside.
Emilia was the type to direct it inside. Perhaps Roswaal was the same.
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Emilia: “If you are, then talk to me. I don't know what I can do for you, but I can help. I mean, up
until now you've helped me with so many things, and...”
Roswaal: “—No. That is enough, Emilia-sama.”
But Roswaal's frail voice rejects Emilia's offered hand.

He speaks with the most level voice he has thus far, his eyes numb as he looks down at Emilia. His
clown makeup—beneath those laughing cosmetics, Emilia can tell that he is suppressing his
emotions to a painful extent. She gulps.
Roswaal's expression looks like he has given up on absolutely every single thing there is.
Emilia: “Enough... what do you mean?”
Roswaal: “What it sounds like I mean. I do not intend to have you understand my plots, and these
two's wounds and the TRIAL... and even the Royal Selection doooooooon't matter a for a second any
more. —For already this world is an ending one.”
Emilia: “An ending world... or, what's this about it not mattering? The Royal Selection and the
TRIAL don't matter... Roswaal, what are you saying!?”
Emilia yells in anger, unable to comprehend what Roswaal is saying.

Roswaal is bathing in suspiciousness. But the hollowness of his expression, and the mana encircling
his form, are so abounding in emptiness that it could physically constrict.
Roswaal's heart was presently hitting the peak of instability.

While did Emilia understand that, his claims were not something she could accept.
What Roswaal wanted to abandon was everything important to Emilia, an undefinable something
which Subaru's risk-taking had demonstrated.
Garfiel's shouts had clearly illustrated where his stance lie.

He wanted to destroy the tomb, and keep the TRIAL from existing any further.
What was he seeking by making SANCTUARY's barrier unbreakable? Probably an unchanging day to
day life, is what Emilia just kind of figures.
And Emilia could sympathize with Garfiel's stance.
Going without changes, being able to go unchanged. That path was a tranquil one, and comfortable.
If you could have a mundane life where you spend your time in a peaceful place with those you
cherish, then nobody could deny the desire to remain submerged in that environment.
But Subaru point-blank denied that desire, demonstrated his stubbornness, and cast the concept
aside.
Emilia was identical to Subaru in terms of stance, for she was urging that change come to
SANCTUARY. But her reasoning was not as definite as Subaru's, nor did she understand the feelings
of SANCTUARY's people as thoroughly as he did.
This place was a necessary step along the way for her to achieve her goals, nothing more than a spot
where she had trodden. What would those around her think of the changes her interference brought?
Being entirely focused on her own interior, Emilia had failed to ask this entirely obvious question.
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The one who instead asked had been Subaru.
Once again she had made Subaru shoulder her burden, and overlooked everything.
And it was because she keenly realised that that this presented existed.
But Roswaal was trying to discard this present which Subaru's risk-taking had opened.
Emilia: “Roswaal... what are you trying to abandon? It's what... what started with you and me,
right? And halfway through, you're... this isn't forgivable!”
Emilia snarls, for Roswaal's brows to react.

A wisp of strength returns to him as he covers his blue eye with his hand, his yellow eye trembling.
Roswaal: “It started with me and you? What are you talking about?”
Emilia: “Huh...?”
Roswaal: “It started with me and my Teacher. —Assuredly, nooooooooot you. And so, allowing it to
end should be within my own and my Teacher's liberty. Of course it is.”
Emilia: “You can't just do that!”
Even with the incredible aura overpowering her, Emilia raises his voice.
She glares at the clown, swinging her arms up.
Emilia: “So maybe it did start with you and this person... but the issue isn't just about you two any
more. It's not just my issue either. We dragged lots of people into it, caused problems for lots of
people, and we've kept going like that! You can't just go ending it whenever you want!”
Roswaal: “The road leads only to end now. So whaaaaaaaat could be inconvenient about letting it
all end beeeeeeeefore we reach that terminus? Indeed it was hopeless for us… We'll place our
expectations in our next selves, and Subaru-kun.”
Emilia: “In Subaru?”
Put expectations in Subaru, meaning what, exactly?

Emilia glances at the fallen Subaru, renewing her awareness that Roswaal's words must not become
reality.
Of course.
Subaru had already done more than enough. If expectations were put in him, he'd answer them
excessively. They should not be seeking any more from him than he has already done.
When something is given, it naturally ought to be repaid.
Emilia: “How can you say that the path Subaru opened leads to the end? Subaru's group all worked
together to open a closed path. Isn't that what this battle was?”
Roswaal: “To go either left or right will lead to a dead end. When faced with this crossroads,
aaaaaaaaaany struggle is in vain. For, the entirety of the truly correct course is written here.”
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Roswaal withdraws a black tome from his pocket.
Seeing this unfamiliar thing, an impulse rises inside Emilia, clawing at her chest. Her eyes open
wide.
That book gives her a terribly bad feeling.

It has no title or cover-wrap, looks an entirely mundane book, but for some reason just looking at
the tome makes Emilia feel a pressure which nigh fosters mental instability.
Emilia: “That book's...”
Roswaal: “A replica of the BOOK OF WISDOM. Or perhaps it could be called a superior gospel. To
all except myself its writing appears as illegible scribbles, but not for me. It is a text which accounts
the path along the correct history, which ought to be followed.”
Emilia: “History which ought to be followed... you mean like the Dragon Stone?”
Roswaal: “They follow the same principles should you trace back their roots, is what Teacher told
me.”
Only when Roswaal says the word 'Teacher' does emotion return to his eyes.
His tone was one of envisioning someone darling, as if that simple two-syllable word had long
carried emotion he could not fully suppress, a diction which allowed much such supposition.
Roswaal was capable of thinking of someone this way, no issue at all. He was capable, but he was
attempting to deem everything he saw as worthless.
Emilia: “You mean, because we're going a different course than what that book says, you'll ruin
everything? But what will doing that accomplish? If we look for a different path, different from the
book, which isn't a dead end...”
Roswaal: “You're saying the exact same things as Subaru-kun. Is this another idea coming second-
hand from him?”
Roswaal laughs slightly. Feeling that he hit the bullseye, Emilia's throat jars.
Her expression prompts Roswaal to give a bored sigh.
Roswaal: “Borrowed words, opinions pre-prepared. Even the idea that you ought to challenge the
TRIAL was something that you were pushed into... Weeeeeeeeell, I will not fault you. It was I and
those around you who demanded that you do it, not yourself. Words spoken with the knowledge that
your empty, insignificant self can do nothing other than this... Subaru-kun encourages cruel things.”
Emilia: “Cruel things...”
Roswaal: “The subject here is him, so ooooooof course he went without explaining the logical
necessity or whatever have you about challenging the TRIAL, and merely gave you a motivating
speech, yes? He pushed his complacency onto you, and claimed that you could do it if you willed.
Indeed. Iiiiiiiindeed I know. Aaaaaaaaafter all, he and I are oooooooof the same breed.”
Emilia: “You and Subaru are the same? What do you mean?”
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Roswaal: “It means that we impose our ideals upon the women we love.”
Assertion.
Roswaal closes one eye, gazing at Emilia with the yellow. His smile is strong as he throws
statement upon statement at the silenced Emilia.
Roswaal: “With what words did he accost you? Entirely statements pleasant to the ear, yes? He
spoiled you, imposed ideals upon you, treated you so tenderly and carefully as if he were handling a
fragile object. He didn't consider for a second that you are in actuality weak and brittle, that you are
fearful and desire to flee, that you possess such a mundane breed of heart. He doesn't have a shred
of interest in the real you. What he's infatuated with is the sparkling version of you he has in his
own head. —Cooooooooorrect?”
Emilia: “—”
Roswaal: “I am also that way. With her, I only saw the ideal. You're wonderful, you're brilliant,
there's none greater than you. That's how I consoled her, what I kept telling her, focusing my love as
if handling a work of glass... even though those things carry not even the slightest of meaning.”
Speaking quickly, Roswaal averts his gaze, seemingly irritated.

Was he talking about Subaru, or was he discussing himself? Perhaps not even Roswaal himself
could clearly distinguish it.
Overwhelmed by his momentum, Emilia takes a small breath.
Takes it so that can say what she has to say, even though intimidated by Roswaal's attitude.
Emilia: “...That's all?”
Roswaal: “—”
Emilia: “That's all the common points you think there are between you and Subaru?”
Roswaal looks suspiciously at Emilia.

A doubtfulness has risen inside him. His neglect to say anything is obviously his answer to Emilia's
query. Which means yeah, she has to say it for him.
She has to correct his idea.
Emilia: “If that's all you were trying to say, then...”
Roswaal: “—”
Emilia: “You and Subaru are nothing alike.”
Indeed, Subaru had spoken lines upon lines of idealism, and not explained the significance of
liberating SANCTUARY to Emilia.
But Subaru's argument assuredly did not consist entirely of niceties and Emilia-focused lip service.
Emilia: “So, Subaru, he called me a pain in the ass of a woman.”
Roswaal: “...What?”
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Emilia: “That who do I think I am, doing so much crap but causing so many problems. Always
fussing over what's already gone, stop giving others these empty expectations. Every word out your
mouth is just insincere talk, you're lacking in everything, it's unbearable to watch. —Subaru said all
of this for me.”
Roswaal: “—”
Emilia: “Subaru is paying proper attention to me. Now I'm thinking that I can't keep showing him
only my lame parts. You pretend you're looking ahead when you're really not looking at anything at
all. You're nothing like Subaru.”
If Natsuki Subaru was someone who could only envision an idealised image of Emilia, then surely
she would still be hugging her knees inside the tomb.
And with Garfiel, too. If his opponent had not been Subaru, who knew more than the ideals but
nonetheless opted to argue with idealism, then he would not have listened.
Subaru saw Emilia's weakness, but still told her he loved her.
Subaru knew Garfiel's kindness, but still demanded he change.
Whoever they were, if they wished to stay stuck in one place, Subaru would run over and reprimand
them.
You can't be here, there's more you can do, raise your head, look forward, swing up your fists, you
don't have time to be staying put.
—You can't stay standing still forever.
Roswaal: “Natsuki Subaru, made the correct choice in this SANCTUARY...? That kind of ludicrous
thing couldn't... that would mean, the writ of this Book of Wisdom...”
Emilia: “My memories were revived, and I was anxious. Puck went away, and I was close to being
crushed.”
The discrepancy between what he thought and the answer Subaru gave leads Roswaal into
confusion.
Emilia puts her hand to her chest, not to feel for the presence there, but to feel the thumping of her
heartbeat.
Emilia: “I thought that, once I remembered everything, I'd turn into somebody else. I thought that,
once that happened, it'd wind up that the person I've been until now was wrong.”
Inside her mind even now is a girl lost in memories.

Once that girl attains a definite image, someone irreversible will appear.
Once they come, Emilia's world will change completely.

Emilia feared that change, leaned toward rejecting it, but, she knew the shift was necessary.
No matter what changes, that will not make the path she has walked thus far disappear.
No matter how Emilia changes from hereon, even if she becomes a self with a differing origin than
what she currently has, that does not make the feelings she presently holds a mistake.
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She may be at stalemate, may have stopped still, but she would walk again.
Sight what direction seems forward, and proceed.
Emilia: “When I want to do something, when I want to change something, when that's what I want
to do—I have someone who will tell me it's okay, and lead me forward. That's what I learned.”
Roswaal: “That is trickery!”
Emilia: “It's not a lie at all. Subaru told me he believes in me, and I want to believe in him. Though
what he said might look like baseless nonsense. Though I might want to say it was a lie... I have to
make it so that it isn't a lie.”
She did not want to let the label of 'liar who went around preaching about the insubstantial hopes
there are in useless unsalvagable Emilia' fall onto Subaru.
Natsuki Subaru asserted that Emilia could do it.
And presently, Emilia was making that statement a lie.

But if she broke through her shell, and achieved what she could do, his lie would not be a lie.
These were what people called WISHES.
Emilia: “Turning lies into wishes, by doing these things I have to do now, is what I want to do.”
As Subaru frantically, desperately taught her.

What rested inside Emilia, previously beyond her ability to put into form, finally takes shape as
words.
She cannot tell whether this is truly the correct answer.

What would change something indefinite into something correct would be Emilia's actions.
And she would like to proceed without hesitating to do it, without indecision about it.
Roswaal: “—! Absurd!”
Roswaal's face pales as he draws backward.

He casts away his usual composure, and the emptiness he had until now, strangling out his voice
with his expression despairing, shivering in fear at Emilia's answer.
He swings up his arm, points at Emilia. His voice cracks as he shouts.
Roswaal: “Why, how! How did you wind up reaching that answer now, here!? How did Natsuki
Subaru earlier communicate to you something I couldn't communicate to Teacher!? Him, right now!
At this stage! It isn't okay for him to achieve those feelings!”
Emilia: “I remember what I was afraid of. Right now I'm in the middle of steeling myself to face
it... what are you afraid of?”
Roswaal: “It's obvious! Deviations from the writ! Going on without history proceeding as it is
written here, and no longer being able to achieve our promised reunion! What else would I be!”
Emilia: “But it feels like that isn't what you're having a problem with right now.”
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Roswaal: “—!”
A fire of rage sparks in Roswaal's eyes.

He was voicing was his wrath at the fact that he could not sympathize with Subaru's mentality.
Roswaal wanted Subaru to feel something which he himself had experienced in the past.
What he said before about him and Subaru being the same breed probably had been no idle
bantering, but what Roswaal was convinced should be the way of things.
Perhaps he thought that himself and Subaru should follow down the same stream in how they
confronted their lovers, and suffer the same wounds.
That unshakeable conviction of his was now close to crumbling.
That was how Emilia perceived Roswaal's present turmoil.
Roswaal: “Aaaaguh, what is happening! How is this happening to me of all people!”
Roswaal puts his hand to his mouth, uncaring of his paint as it falls away, his cheeks twisting.
Roswaal: “Have I been dancing on strings since the moment of the bet? Garfiel's loss, and Emilia's
recovery, all of it was calculated? ...Was I in error from the moment I started making plots in
counter to a sage's ability to preclude? ...But then, for what purpose am I...”4
Emilia: “Roswaal?”
Absorbed in a dizzying storm of thought, Emilia's presence flies out of Roswaal's awareness.
What he's thinking about so frantically is probably how to correct a world that has deviated from his
plans.
But no method to achieve such a thing existed in this world any more.
Emilia did not know what kind of prophecies were written in his book.
Roswaal is this cornered. The deviation must be incredible.
So much so that you could already call this place a different world—
Roswaal: “—Ahh, I see.”
Roswaal slips a mutter.

His voice has regained its intelligent tone, making Emilia anticipate that he has temporarily dealt
with his discomposure. Through a logical conversation, they could find a point of compromise and
—
Roswaal: “There's nooooo need to worry about anything. After all, there's the CONTRACT. There was
no puzzling to be had about whether or not he would reach LEGITIMACY.”5
Emilia: “What are you talking about? Roswaal, what is it...”
4 Ability to preclude → more literally 'ability to stop action from happening, ability to make someone give up on
their plans; deterrence.'
5 Could also be 'no puzzling to be had about whether or not he would reach THE LEGITIMATE X' where X is
unspecified.
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Roswaal: “Nothing. It was not any thing at all, Emilia-sama. My deepest apologizes for worrying
and for troubling you. You best proceed in the way that is desired of you, and that I expect of you.”
Bowing, Roswaal casts away his clownish demeanour as he gives Emilia a smile.
Emilia of course cannot just agree with this. In a complete change from his previous disarray, he's
back to his usual attitude.
That the disarray looked the considerably more GENUINE behaviour is insane.
Emilia: “...Acting in a way you expect. What are you expecting from me?”
Roswaal: “It's natural. —That you challenge the TRIAL as you please, and that results be reached.”
Roswaal neglects to mention exactly who those results would favour.

Perhaps he's desiring it whichever way it goes, Emilia just kind of senses.
She doesn't understand why Roswaal desires that.

Nor why he got so cavalier, nor why he swallowed it down and it settled.
It's just a sea of things she doesn't understand. But,
Emilia: “Right now, you... definitely won't tell me about them, will you.”
Roswaal: “...”
Emilia: “It's okay. I won't try to force you to say it. I know I'm not qualified to do that right now. —
But don't you get the idea that you can keep hiding it forever.”
Roswaal: “—Heartening, indeed. Knowing the truth, and now recovering yourself, we'll see if you
can stay to your bluffs.”
He ends with a rather spiteful statement, but also a statement Emilia finds pleading.
With that, Roswaal turns his back to her and walks. He is likely heading back to the lodgings where
he was recuperating.
In the end, she doesn't know why he came here and watched the fight. But the churning dense mass
of mana remains, inside Roswaal's body as it pines for a miracle.
Roswaal: “Yes. —Emilia-sama, a warning.”
Emilia: “Yes?”
Roswaal stops, raises his finger. Emilia's brows raise.

Roswaal smiles wryly at the fact that Emila displays a far too undefended attitude when facing
someone she had just finished having an effectively hostile conversation with.
Roswaal: “About Garfiel... you would best not underestimate how deep-set hiiiiiiiiiis nature is. His
obsession is not so shallow that a simple defeat in a fistfight would change his mind.”
Emilia: “—Got it.”
Emilia accepts it. With that, Roswaal leaves the scene.

She sees him off, to realise that the only things remaining here are Emilia's breathing, and the
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breathing of the black dragon which had glared at Roswaal's retreating back to the end.
And then the deep, sleeper's breathing of the two unconscious men.
Emilia: “Hauhhh...”
Emilia's brows tremble as she gives a deep sigh.

Noticing that Patrasche's eyes widen in response to this, Emilia gives a wry smile.
Emilia: “No, it's okay. It's thanks to you that I kept my composure. ...But that was sooo tense. That
could've turned into a fight with Roswaal.”
Emilia: “Mm. I hate fighting when I don't even know why we're fighting. And why was Roswaal
being like that? ...Maybe Subaru would know.”
Emilia replies to Patrasche's caring gaze while she kneels down beside the bloodstained Subaru, and
gently lifts him up.
Her fingers rub away the drying blood as she strokes his swollen face. His expression twitches, as if
feeling the tickle of the pain.
Emilia: “I need to heal them. Subaru and Garfiel both hate pain.”
Emilia: “Ah, it's okay, you don't need to look so concerned. I'm a little worried about my control
since Puck's not here, but when it's just some simple healing, I can have the minor spirits help.”
Emilia speaks to the surrounding spirits, their dull glow shrouding her form as she enlists their aid.
The tender lights veil Subaru and Garfiel, their injuries beginning to mend.
Subaru's expression looks to relax.

Emilia gives a small smile as she gently places his head upon her lap.
How many times has she lent Subaru her lap, now?
She's been given far too many things, so many that she has no idea what to do to repay them.
Emilia: “When you wake up, there are really sooo many things I want to ask you.”
With that whisper, Emilia twines her finger into Subaru's bangs.
Subaru's face scrunches up. Emilia's cheeks relax slightly.
—It happened ten minutes later that Otto emerged from the forest, Ram shouldered on his back, to
reconvene with them all.
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CHAPTER 115: YOU ARE NEVER A MATCH FOR THE GIRL FROM YOUR
YOUTH
He feels something precious shedding away inside him.
The sensation is unlike that of his gate, whose existence has reached finality.
Something entirely separate, different, squirms within Subaru.
Was it hot? Cold? The fever it carried gave indication of neither.

Was it with shape? Without? Its nebulousness indicated not even that.
The dingy muck had coursed through Natsuki Subaru, cheering in joy for its release outside, to
demonstrate its power and disperse.
But its vestiges remained fluctuating through Subaru even now.

The abnormal sensation gave Subaru an indescribable feeling. This was not something he
recognized, or something he had felt before. But he did possess both knowledge and understanding
about it.
So while he does question WHY? and HOW?, he does not question WHAT? or WHAT FOR?
He did not need to ruminate over the identity of this thing. He would be best off to question WHY,
but presently his query would not reach anyone who could answer.
Meaning that Subaru has only one thing to consider.
INVISIBLE STRIKE, UNSEEN PALM, UNNOTICEABLE BLOW.

All of them sound either lame or rehashed, lacking in style.
A black hand which only Subaru could see.

What only Subaru could control, which was—
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “THE IMPERCEPTIBLE WILL OF THE GODS... We'll call it Invisible Providence...”
???: “...Huh? What did you say?”
Squinting open his eyes with his consciousness still fuzzy, a fragment of his thoughts slips out his
mouth.
That instant, the silver-haired visage immediately in front of him opens its eyes wide.
After several blinks, Subaru recognizes that he has returned from the world of unconsciousness into
reality. He notices the connection between the soft sensation beneath his head and Emilia's
proximity.
Subaru: “Oh. I'm getting a lap pillow from Emilia-tan again.”
Emilia: “You are. What's the count now? For me lending you my lap when you're unconscious.”
Subaru: “Take some conditions into account and maybe three. Have to win a big bout to reach this
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paradise.”
Emilia: “Y-you're sooo not drowsy at all... do you remember what happened before you fainted?”
Subaru: “Yeah and clearly. I'll reminisce on it nice and slow, while we chat and I gaze at your
face...”
Subaru jokes around while he pushes aside the thoughts in his weighty head and gets his ideas into
order. He then remembers the shower of furious blows he sustained before fainting, and
comprehends.
He immediately puts his hands to his face, kneading his cheeks as he looks up at Emilia.
Subaru: “Crap. Actually I think I got beat up pretty bad. Emilia-tan, am I okay? My face isn't so
messed up it's unlookable?”
Emilia: “Don't worry. It doesn't look that weird.”
Subaru: “And spoken without any malevolence!”
Emilia tilts her head in mystification. Subaru removes his hands from his cheeks and promptly
checks that his joints are all okay. A faint numbness hangs around his shoulders, lower body, and
neck region. But most of his wounds are sealed, apparently post-healing.
Emilia: “Subaru, it tickles if you move around on my lap too much.”
Subaru: “Ah, sorry. No! I wasn't trying anything dirty with that! I mean I wasn't but, how about I
double check just to be sure?”
Emilia: “Don't. I'm going to shove you off my lap if you keep saying this stuff. Stop being so
saucy.”
Subaru: “Who says saucy any more?”
After responding to Emilia's harsh gaze with a wry smile, Subaru uprights himself from her lap.
While it does hurt to part with it, he can't impose forever.
His physical status, compared to his top form, is sitting at about 60%. Definitely not perfect, but
he's thankful for Emilia's healing.
Subaru: “Thanks for healing me. You managed to heal without Puck?”
Emilia: “My contract with Puck might be broken, but my contract with the minor spirits isn't. And...
I don't know how this will sound, but it's not like I can't use magic.”
Subaru: “Really? My knowledge was magicians and spiritualists have different structures in how
they handle mana... that you can't have both.”
Lessons learned in the mansion from Puck and Roswaal.

Magicians can only use magic proportionate to their internal store of mana, while spiritualists must
establish communication with a spirit so that they can utilize the inexhaustible ambient supply.
That's the entire extent of how Emilia's ability to use magic vaguely diverts from Subaru's
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knowledge.
Emilia lowers her gaze.

Subaru's brows furrow at her strange reaction. She gives a small sigh.
Emilia: “I didn't think I could either... but, I did mention that my memories are coming back. Part of
them was knowledge about how to just use magic... which I think got sealed as well.”
Subaru: “Your memories sealed your ability to use magic?”
Emilia: “Yes.”
She nods. Her failure to articulate is probably because she cannot tell what this all signifies. Subaru
does not understand why her ability to use magic was sealed in the recesses of her memory either.
And his present information load is looking too sparse for speculation.
Either way, she used her newly-usable magics to heal Subaru.
Subaru: “Nevermind the circumstances, if it meant you were able to heal me, it's a huge help. How
is everyone...”
else, is how he intends to continue, when he realises that this is not the time for him to be relaxing.
He should have recognized this fact the moment that he remembered why he fell unconscious.
Subaru's opponent Garfiel, and Otto and Ram who apparently opposed said Garfiel. Are they safe?
Subaru: “Don't think the situation's too risky, but I'm gonna go before they end up as forest fertilizer
and help—”
???: “I appreciate that you're worried about me, but I would manage well without having to hear
your imaginings about these worst-case scenarios.”
Subaru: “Huh?”
Animating his wavering body to stand, Subaru moves to start running away from the tomb and into
the forest. When the astonished voice of a young man stops him. He careens to a halt and glances
behind him, to see someone sitting on the tomb's stone steps—Otto Swein, with his hand raised.
Subaru: “Aaah, aaah!?”
Otto: “How glad I am to see your surprise. I apologize for worrying you, but seeing as the worries
go both ways we'll agree not to mention it, and...
Subaru: “Hi-yah!”
Otto: “Eewhauhg!?”
Having confirmed their mutual safety, a rather satisfied smile arises on Otto's face—when Subaru
charges. He rides the momentum as he leaps to acquaint Otto with a flying kick.
Stuck between the stairs and Subaru, Otto cries out.
Otto: “Ow! Ouch! Stairs are, grinding my head—ow! M-my hair! I'm going bald! Wh-Natsuki-san,
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what on earth are you doing!?”
Subaru: “Shut it, stupid! Stop trying to be cool. What's going on with this vibe where it's like you
did something big? Who told you to do anything more than buy time? You know how close my
plans were to winding up par for course because of this? But if you hadn't helped I don't think I
would've beat Garfiel so I can't say I don't thank you!”
Otto: “I have no idea what you're even saying any more!!”
Unable to give a sincere thanks, Subaru scuffles with Otto on the stairs while he speaks, when Otto
kicks him away. Subaru rolls down the steps to land on his backside before standing up.
Subaru: “Either way, glad you're safe. If you died you'd make for an annoying visitant bedside.”
Otto: “I'd rather we leave these eccentric customs undiscussed. ...Or actually, why didn't those
sentiments of yours show up nicely and at the start?”
Subaru: “Don't slather on too much praise, we're talking me here!”
Otto: “I am aware of that, yes!”
Otto puts his hand to his brow, before noticing that Emilia has been quietly watching their
exchange.
Otto: “Ah, Emilia-sama. I apologize for excluding you. Though it's all Natsuki-san's fault.”
Emilia: “Mm, I was watching so I know. Don't worry.”
Subaru: “No friends in sight... No, I mean I'm drowning in friends and that's why I'm in this
situation. —Anyway, you being safe means that Ram's okay too?”
Emilia and Otto look at each other and nod. Subaru sticks his tongue out at them before inquiring as
to the safety of their unseen and final collaborator. Otto nods.
Otto: “Being what her condition was after I woke up and found her, I have to say I was chilled.
...Fortunately her situation wasn't as horrendous as it looked. Although, she awoke while I was
carrying her to reconvene, and did speak some rather potent venom...”
Subaru: “Sympathies. She seriously is harsh-tongued with people outside her circle. ...It's
impressive you managed to talk her into this. How'd you do it?”
Otto: “One of the terms for securing her cooperation would be that I do not tell you that.”
Otto puts his hand to his mouth, indicating that he is not going to talk.
Subaru's lips quirk, eager to say something, but he determines that speech is not going to get Otto to
bend and he promptly abandons any further inquisition.
If some vaguely harsh questioning was enough to get him talking, then he wouldn't have risked his
life going along with Subaru's practically-nonsense plots.
Stubborn, a nuisance, and a great friend.
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Subaru: “Crap!”
Otto: “Ow! Why am I getting hit!?”
Subaru: “Just be quiet.”
Subaru shoves Otto's shoulders, then paying no heed to his complaints before turning to face
Emilia. To find that Patrasche has materialized beside her at some unknown juncture and is pressing
her snout into Emilia's silver hair, the two of them smiling.
Subaru: “What's this? Since when've you been such good friends?”
Emilia: “Some things happened while you were sleeping... and she really helped me. She's sooo
great.”
Subaru: “Right? She's my pride and my partner, no joke. Yeah, Patrasche?”
Subaru approaches and reaches out to stroke her back. But the dragon dodges away before his
fingertips can touch her, avoiding his hand.
Subaru: “Gahugh!?”
The swing of her tail strikes Subaru in the ass, leaving him half in-tears from pain as he leaps. He
looks at her, questioning and defiant, to see that her sharp eyes have sharpened further and she is
growling displeasedly at him with her neck stooped low.
Otto: “Would you like a translation?”
Subaru: “No, even I can figure this one out.”
Subaru replies to Otto's considerations with a shake of his head. He gives a small sigh.
Subaru: “—It's 'don't make me worry', isn't it.”
Otto: “Additionally, don't get carried away. I'm not doing it again. Imagine what it's like for me. But
with a 'yes fine you can come in' nuance in the anger.”
Subaru: “Seriously what is going on with your heroine power? Are you throwing your name into the
heroine race?”
Subaru gives a wry smile and reaches out. This time his fingers do touch Patrasche's tough hide.
She closes her eyes, accepting it as if inevitable, Subaru's gratitude for the tolerant dragon
unending.
Patrasche's assistance in the Garfiel fight, that being the decisive blow, occurred as a factor of her
incredible and unhesitating trust.
As always, flimsy Subaru needed to indebt himself to many people every time he wanted to scale
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any mountain. Would the day ever come where he would settle those debts?
He doubted it. But had to do it.
Subaru: “So what's going on with the conquered and debt-producing mountain, Garfiel?”
Emilia: “Garfiel's recovering and is over there. But it might be better not to interrupt.”
Subaru: “Interrupt?”
Subaru tilts his head. Emilia puts her finger to her lips.
Emilia: “Ram's looking after him right now, you see.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Ram: “Are you awake, Garf?”
What Garfiel sees when he wakes up is the face of a familiar girl.

This was someone he wanted to see upon waking, who he did not want to see upon waking. It's a
complex feeling.
But he cannot deny that his chest has begun to beat faintly faster. Garfiel hums.
Garfiel: “Yeah... 'm up.”
Ram: “I see. Then move. This has gone on far long enough, and my legs are numb.”
Garfiel: “Augh!”
The instant they establish communication, Garfiel is expelled from the soft touch as his head falls to
the ground. He hadn't been expecting a kind reaction, but this kind of coldness does hurt.
And especially so when his pride is already wounded, and his crush is the one being icy.
He rubs his head and gazes bitterly at Ram. She sits on the grass with her legs folded, patting at the
spot where Garfiel's head had been resting, her thighs. She responds to Garfiel's gaze with a
displeased “What?”.
Garfiel: “Ain't nothin'... Same 's always, yer a lady who ain't got a scrap'v kindness.”
Ram: “When the moment requires kindness and the recipient merits kindness, then of course I'll be
kind. That I'm not being so now means that this isn't one of those moments.”
Garfiel: “...My amazin' self got that merit?”
Ram: “It's utterly transparent what you want me to say. You mustn't be like Barusu, Garf. If you
wish to know what a woman truly feels, devise a cleverer scheme.”
Garfiel lowers his gaze. He head goes springing back in the wake of Ram's poke to his forehead.
The shock races through the point just above the scar that Garfiel always finds himself touching.
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His fingers brush across the scar on his brow as he sighs.
Garfiel: “Thinkin' back... yer the one who gave me this injury.”
Ram: “—. I had to act frantically to settle your shenanigans. Do you think I did something as drastic
as knock your face into the stone because I wanted to?”
Garfiel: “Feels same 's t'day when yer were beatin' me down, that yer were smilin' like crazy...”
Ram: “My life isn't unlimited. When it's merely doing something that I'm reluctant to do, it's
profitable that I smile and convince myself it's enjoyable. Desperate measures.”
Garfiel: “How 'bout thinkin'v th'mental scars that leaves f'r th'guy who gets his head cracked open,
oi!”
Ram just sighs, her expression even more bored.

Of course. She would never accept that she was wrong, and her stubborn mentality would never
bend. Proud, noble, tough, tenacious.
Which is why Garfiel admired her, and wanted her.
Garfiel: “...You ain't wounded any, Ram?”
Ram: “Who could suppose. I have had Emilia-sama mend the conspicuous injuries, but it might be
impossible to remove all of them entirely. How are you going to take responsibility for despoiling
me?”
Garfiel: “Make you my wife...”
Ram: “You'll fail. Think of a different method. —And that was audacious of you, Garf. That you
dared to abandon the losers.”
Garfiel: “...”
Ram's harsh gaze silences Garfiel.

The anger in her eyes is a condemnation of the fact that he practised leniency at the battle's end.
Garfiel had neglected to finish off both Ram, defeated, and Otto, upside-down in the shrubs. Indeed
their survival had been his decision, and it may have sullied the glory of the fight.
But Garfiel could not brandish his claws at the unconscious girl. Even disregarding his feelings for
her, and other different and varied factors, he surely would not have managed it.
After all, he lacked the courage most vital for a warrior.
Ram: “It impresses me that you avoided my last cast of magic.”
Garfiel: “...Ain't like I was tryin' to. When I was beaten down n'started reversin' my transformation,
I got this foreboding feelin'. Then my body moved quicker th'n my head. Thassall.”
When the forest's mana had been assembled, and Ram cast the most advanced wind magic there is,
rather than think, Garfiel left everything to his survival instinct and evaded the blades of wind.
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He used the feeling of the invisible gale grazing millimetres past his skin to escape. The attack had
ravaged every tree in sight down to nothing, and alongside his rather artistic dodges he managed to
flee from its range.
Once he returned to the scene, he found the fallen Ram and Otto.
Were Garfiel a true warrior, he would have boasted of his survival and taken their lives. But Garfiel,
who needed to surrender himself to his animal blood if he was going to take a life, could not do it.
Garfiel: “I'm...”
Ram: “—”
Not a warrior. Merely someone who wears a warrior's airs, speaks empty threats, a fake.
He had stubbornly believed that even a fake like him, provided he had the power, could subdue
everything and protect those he wished to protect without taking any lives.
But his ideas had been largely invalidated.
He had believed that he possessed enough strength to defeat even great groups of outsiders.
But in reality he lost to merely three people and a ground dragon. And for each of their reasons all
of those people were practically non-combatants.
If a hostile warrior came to SANCTUARY, they would easily destroy Garfiel. This was what he was,
after running his pompous mouth with talk about being SANCTUARY's barrier.
—He mulled over many thoughts in this deficient head of his.
Throughout the battle, and even outside of battle, Garfield never stopped using his assuredly poor
brain.
What strategy would be optimum? What action would best help everyone? Was there a way to do
this without hurting anybody? And even if someone would be hurt, it was fine so long as the only
injuries were to himself.
All his days spent holding these beliefs and doing his best had been entirely superficial, acting only
to conceal his weakness.
Ram: “Garf.”
Garfiel: “...”
Ram: “I'm going to give you a word of advice. Listen well.”
Garfiel: “...Yeah.”
Still looking down, Garfiel gives a nod.

What words would Ram, his crush, shower upon him? Her usual statements were harsh, but she had
probably never truly washed her hands of him.
Ram's personality was one where she was soft to people inside her circle. And although their
relationship was not without its faults, she and Garfiel had known each other for a long time, and
she considered him as part of that count.
But now her hostility was clear. He probably was not included in that category any more.
Her imminent announcement would be Ram's parting with Garfiel in earnest, and—
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Ram: “Garf, you're stupid so thinking is utterly pointless. A waste of time. Otherwise said, a waste
of life.”
Garfiel: “...eh?”
Ram: “You're who said it. Garf, you dodged my magic when you acted without thinking anything.
And that is exactly the case. You may not have noticed it, but when you are thinking nothing you
are considerably stronger in fights. When you're being a barefaced idiot, considerably.”
Unable to comprehend what he is hearing, Garfiel's eyes widen.

While he had expected her to find him useless, her statements are aiming somewhere entirely
unanticipated.
Ram: “I don't mean for you to abandon all rationality and transform. In fact I will mention that your
transformation makes you even weaker than when you are thinking. You become a bigger target,
and your weapons are slow. Stay in human form, focus on your opponent, and fight without
thinking.”
Garfiel: “Th-th'hell's this!? Since when was this th'topic'v....”
Ram: “This is important. —Because now you're going to fight on many occasions as an ally to me
and Emilia-sama.”
Emotion clogs Garfiel's throat.

His face flashes red, his sharp fangs clicking as he speaks.
Garfiel: “Fuck off! Y'fuckin' piss 'round with me, be enemies, crush my ideas... n'yer still forgivin'
me, n'tellin' me t'forgive you!?”
Ram: “Don't be an idiot. I don't forgive you and so I'm demanding you serve us. If we forgive you
and our standings become equal, we'll need to make requests to gain your cooperation. Foolishness.
We are the victors and you are the loser. I don't forgive you and so I am ordering you. Understand?”
Garfiel: “'S fuckin' nuts!”
Garfiel bares his fangs as he stands up.

His body sways for an instant, but with how most all of his wounds have been healed, it isn't a
problem. Healed. The moment he reaches that thought, even more shame claws at his heart.
Garfiel: “I accept I lost! Cause I did! But that ain't th'same deal as whether 'm gonna back down! I
lost, yer got me, understood! But my amazin' self's still alive 'n kickin'! 'F yer really gonner move
things along without askin' me, then what yer shoullder done was kill me! Second you ain't doin'
that 's the exact second yer cowardice's th'same 's mine!”
Ram: “Cart before horse. If we let you die when we need your strength, that contradicts our goals.”
Garfiel: “...But I!!”
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Ram: “Incessant snivelling!”
Before Garfiel can roar in anger, Ram gets to her feet and howls.
Her cerise eyes host fury as she glares at Garfiel.
It's menacing. Overwhelmed, Garfiel winds up shutting his mouth.
Ram: “You lost. You have lost. Then act like the loser you are and heed the commands of the victor.
How wretched must you be in presence of a woman you like, flaunting your inane and girlish
temperament as a sore loser, before you will be satisfied, Garf? Your flagellation of others becomes
flagellation of yourself the moment that you lose, all you have changed is the aim of your braying,
idiotic.”
Garfiel: “Uawh.. ah,”
Her statements are spot-on. Garfiel cannot manage a single word.

Before the fight, he had imposed certain issues onto other people. Now that he's lost, he's imposing
his own weakness. It proves that nothing has changed about his wretchedness as he yells at
whatever he thinks is weak.
He stopped yelling about the outside which he thought weak, and started yelling about his own self
who he had to acknowledge as weak.
Garfiel: “But what'm I meant t'do!? Go laughin' like a stupid idiot n' stand'n line with yer
entourage!? I can't do that! I'm acceptin' I lost... but that don't mean I'm acceptin' yer words 's bein'
right!”
Not a dodge, but Garfiel's true thoughts.

He acknowledges his loss. His opponents being numerous is a topic irrelevant to discussion. If he
starts expounding why he lost, he would never end.
The problem is that nothing has sprouted in the depths of Garfiel's heart to instil him firm
conviction in Subaru's claims.
Ultimately, the ideas he has obsessed over all until this point remain unchanged, and even should
someone demand that he fight alongside them, he cannot simply nod in assent.
Garfiel: “What'm I meant t'do, with this, half-way situation...”
Ram: “If you don't want to be stuck at a half-way, then all you need to do is prove that you're
moving.”
Garfiel: “...What?”
His breathing still ragged, Garfiel looks at Ram.

Her expression has regained its usual composure as she looks Garfiel straight in the eye.
In her eyes he sees the reflection of his own feeble face.

He would rather look away, but Ram's gaze does not permit him to.
Ram: “I don't know what Barusu said, but I can imagine it. And so, Garf... you should confirm it for
yourself.”
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Garfiel: “Confirm it, myself... confirm what?”
Ram: “Whether you're capable of changing, or whether you're still a petrified, whimpering child.”
Garfiel finally recognizes what she is telling him.

The instant he comprehends it, his heartbeat assaults him, thumping at an unprecedented speed.
Cold sweat streams down his back, sticking to him, spreading inside him.
His pulse grows wild, a ringing reverberating endlessly in his skull.
This is his trauma, with its barbed chains constricting his heart, great enough to bring these
abnormalities all across his body.
He feels a chill, looks behind him. The tomb looms there as ever.
—Confirm. Something, in there.
Even supposing he went in, what could he confirm?

What new answer was Ram expecting him to find there?
Nothing would change. Nothing could change.

But why, even knowing this, was he failing to assert I WON'T GO, and instead wavering between I
WILL and I WON'T?
Garfiel: “...What'll I learn by going in?”
He's getting hooked into it. Utterly.

He didn't think anything would change, but he also desired to confirm it.
He stiffens in terror, his heart wailing in rejection, but his soul howling.
He wanted to confirm. He needed to confirm.

Confirm whether the bloody shrieks of the boy blocking his path, whether the assertions of Natsuki
Subaru, were correct.
Confirm whether everything he had lived thus far had been mistaken.
Ram: “You look resolved.”
The chattering of his teeth, and the unrest of his heart, have calmed.
All signs of his cold sweat are gone. Garfiel wordlessly turns to face Ram.
Garfiel couldn't tell what she was expecting of him, with her stern words of encouragement.
And perhaps the question of whether or not Garfiel would ally with them was not where Ram's
focus lay.
They've known each other for a long time. There's some things he just understands.
What Ram seeks is not exactly for Garfiel to join them.

She seeks that Garfiel will reach a conclusion on how to live his life. Everything else is secondary.
She's a good lady, someone to be thankful for, thinks Garfiel.
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Ram: “Don't worry, Garf.”
Perhaps unsettled by Garfiel's silence, a rare warmth peeks through in Ram's tone. She gives
Garfiel's bare shoulders a light tap.
Ram: “If anything frightening enough happens that you cry, I'll comfort you. —Our relationship
goes back a long way, after all.”
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CHAPTER 116: WITH GRANDMOTHER, WITH MOTHER, WITH SISTER; AS
GRANDSON, AS SON, AS BROTHER
Ram: “Apologies for this when you're motivated, Emilia-sama, but Garf is entering the tomb first.”
That is Ram's first line after finishing her chat and returning to the group with Garfiel.
Subaru's eyes widen. Emilia and Otto are also plainly surprised.
Subaru: “Garfiel's doing the TRIAL... seriously?”
Ram: “Most seriously of seriously. Yes, Garf?”
Ram nods and glances up to Garfiel, who stands beside her.

Their height difference is not that great, but regardless Garfiel is slightly taller than Ram. He sticks
his fingers in his bangs, matted with dry blood, and averts his gaze so as to not engage in the
conversation.
Ram grabs that unengaged ear of his and yanks it.
Ram: “Are you listening, Garf? What nerve you must have, ignoring us.”
Garfiel: “Auahg! Adduhd!? Oi, Ram!? My amazin' ear's barely hangin' onter my head right now! 'S
seconds from coming off... 's bleedin'!”
Ram: “It seems that introspection you had after that beatdown from us isn't functioning. I'll mention
now that our side still has Emilia-sama left, who hasn't exhausted her stamina in the slightest. You
do recognize what will happen if you rebel?”
Emilia: “I-I... wasn't thinking to do anything violent...”
Everyone is drowning in wounds and sitting at the peak of exhaustion—except for Emilia, who had
not participated in the fight and remains in top condition.
They had just ended a battle where the whole point was to not get Emilia involved, and still Ram is
instantly using her to start making threats. Terrifying backbone.
Garfiel: “Yeah, I get it. We start fightin' again here and my amazin' self ain't gonna win. EARTHSOUL
BLESSING's given me a lotter my strength back... but it ain't enough fer a fight.”
Subaru: “That's a relief to hear. I'd seriously rather not get into any more fistfights with you.
Thought I was gonna die. You're sitting second or third in this month's rankings.”
Otto: “Natsuki-san, just how many butcheries have you squeaked through? It's scary.”
Subaru recollects on his fistfight with Garfiel and shivers. Otto envisions the grisliness of the scene
and shivers.
This ranked in second or third place for his experiences in almost dying—but considering that he
has also actually died, perhaps the peril he faced here was not really so hazardous.
Garfiel: “...How'm I th'second or third?”
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Subaru: “Well that's where you are. Second or third.” something something We take this outside and
more's gonna happen.
Garfiel: “Ha! Yer smooth talk ain't gonna hook me. 'S a DERDERDE LURKS IN THE SHADOWS OF
QUICK RICHES.”
Garfiel snorts away Subaru's challenge, and traces his fingers over his forehead scar.
His sharp gold eyes then gaze at the sight behind Subaru and the others—at the tomb, looming.
Garfiel: “Wheedlin', n' actual force... still can't believe yer used both. Now's t'try seeing things with
yer view, n' decide.”
Emilia: “What are you deciding?”
Emilia quietly asks Garfiel.

He looks at her. She looks back at him straight-on.
This might be the first time that they have ever faced each other in earnest.
Emilia is recipient to Garfiel's horrifically violent gaze. But even so, her amethyst eyes do not
waver in the least.
Perhaps seeing something in the eyes of the other, both of them smile.
Garfiel clicks his fangs, while Emilia's fingers reach for her chest, before she seems to remember
something and stops.
Seeing that, Garfiel reaches for his left shoulder.
Garfiel: “Ngh, hah...!”
The blue crystal jutting from his shoulder comes out with a splorch.
He does begin bleeding, but he forces the flow to stop by tightening his muscles. Emilia's eyes
widen at it as he tosses the removed crystal to her.
Emilia: “Ah, oh...”
Garfiel: “Jus'take it. 'S probably right fer you t'be th'one holdin' onter this thing.”
Emilia promptly catches the crystal, looking at it while Garfiel speaks bluntly.
She accepts Garfiel's statements while the brilliance of the crystal in her hands leads her to gulp.
The jewel glows dimly, strobing, almost seeming overjoyed that Emilia has caught it.
Subaru crosses his arms as he watches on from aside. Still the same even though he can't speak, he
thinks.
Emilia: “Thank you, Garfiel.”
Garfiel: “My view is I just chucked away somethin' annoyin' fer me s'all. No reason fer yer t'thank
me.”
Garfiel looks up at the sky with no particular intention.

Tangerine hues creep across the panoramic, soon to welcome night. Before long, the TRIAL will be
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ready to start.
Garfiel: “—I'm gonna be checking. Whether I'm who's wrong, or you're who's wrong.”
Garfiel's shoulders slice the wind as he turns around.

His path leads him toward the tomb—the nightmarish place which had carved abhorrent memories
into him in childhood.
After all this time, what will he see there now?
Subaru: “Hey, Garfiel.”
A call from behind stops the supposedly-determined Garfiel.

He clicks his tongue and glances behind him, to find that Subaru is who halted him, his hand raised.
Garfiel: “What?”
Subaru: “I mean, not trying to rain on your parade or anything. But seeing as there's still an ounce
of time before the TRIAL starts...”
While entirely raining on Garfiel's parade, Subaru scratches his head.

It looks like he's having difficulty saying something. Garfiel clicks his fangs to urge Subaru on.
Subaru sighs.
Subaru: “Please at least get dressed. You're in only a loincloth that's ready to fall off any second,
there's a line for tawdry here and you've crossed it.”
Barbarian style with the breeze tickling his privates.

A vein pulses on Garfiel head. Ram gives an astonished sigh.
Ram: “What a tawdry episode.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—After getting dressed and entering the tomb, Garfiel senses that meets the TRIAL's conditions.
The air hangs damp within the stone structure. A chilly breeze blows past, carrying the scent of dust,
making Garfiel grimace. His nose is far too effective, and the stench from the enclosed chamber is
an assault to his senses.
Garfiel: “Don't wanna be stayin' 'round here too long.”
His mutter echoes down the corridor. Nothing replies.

He feels firm ground beneath his feet, firm ground beneath his feet, as he intrudes deeper and
deeper into the tomb.
Garfiel recognizes that his pulse has accelerated without his notice.
He challenges the TRIAL, and he will see the consequence. He was ready for that. But still he cannot
be calm, because the memory for Garfiel is one which evokes intense and irremovable dread.
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Experiencing it again will make something change, his heart insists.
What on earth about Garfiel would change from witnessing that debacle again? He had never even
forgotten it for an instant in the first place.
The vivid memory has burned into his brain far too vividly.
What would seeing it again do except reinforce that memory further?
Garfiel: “...P'thetic. I'm here b'cause that's what I wanna check.”
Garfiel mocks himself as he lines up screeds of tenable logic, insistent to flee.

It's a girlishness where he can agree with Ram's scolding and derision of him. He had never wanted
to know or realise that he was such a coward of a man.
—But if he is the kind of man who submits to frailty and girlishness, what is going to do?
Garfiel: “—”
His feet stop atop the stone-paved path. He focuses his attention on the ground below him.
A warm wave of power courses up from his soles, the gift of the earth to Garfiel and his
EARTHSOUL BLESSING.
His may have been wounded, brutalized, and exhausted, but merely contacting the ground is enough
to restore Garfiel's body, his strength compounding.
Nevermind how he was in the instants after being beaten. Now that he's had a short rest, he's at 40%
of his top capacity. He should be capable of destroying the tomb if he wanted to.
And Subaru and Ram and the others would not be able to stop Garfiel's destruction. It would utterly
eliminate the point of their strenuous efforts spent defeating Garfiel. He could eliminate the point,
right now.
Were they so stupid that they hadn't considered that?
Garfiel: “Fuckin' shitheads.”
Of course they had.

Emilia was probably ignorant to the concept of 'doubting people', and Otto was probably missing a
few important screws, but nevermind them. Calculating Subaru and that Ram would surely not
overlook the possibility.
They're thinking that even if Garfiel regains his strength, he will not destroy the tomb.
Did they think him too cowardly to, or did they just trust him?
Garfiel cannot tell which it is.
Would this solution come after he defeats the TRIAL too?
Garfiel: “...Stupid.”
With that, Garfiel resumes walking.

Thinking about complicated stuff is not his speciality. His poorness at using his head remains the
same both in his daily life and during battle. He regardless frantically works his brain because
someone long ago told him to.
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Ram: <Think more while you're fighting, Garf. It'd make me happy if you did.>
Garfiel: “—eh,”
He remembers who told him to think while living.

Which was why he had so earnestly, with such asinine sincerity, remained to fixated to the idea.
The exact person who had told Garfiel to think while fighting had wound up informing him that he
was better at fighting when not thinking. Crossing the line for absurdity.
Garfiel: “This's damn bullshit, oi... huh?”
A smile wells up inside him.

Just when he attempts to stifle the smile dead, Garfiel spots the corridor's end.
A rectangular space welcomes him. The TRIAL room.

Pale ghostly lights phase the chamber in from darkness. Garfiel steps inside, his stress somewhat
calmed, and he looks at the stone door at the back of the room.
This door will open after the three TRIALS are cleared. Though since he has never seen it open
before, he does not know if that is the truth. Nothing gives any indication of what is inside, either.
If he remains here standing still and waiting, the TRIAL should start.
Garfiel: “—Eh?”
Garfiel crosses his arms, bored as he glances around the chamber, when his brows rise. Into
Garfiel's nocturnal vision there slinks an oddness about the room.
He strains his eyes in attempt to confirm exactly what it is, and—
<—First face your past.>
A voice.
Instantaneously, his vision wavers, his consciousness blurring.
The past, was here.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: “I didn't think at all that you'd be coming here again. —It makes me feel very happy.”
Once his consciousness reaches sobriety, Garfiel realises that he is standing in a forest.
He turns his head, to see the sight of a familiar woods—but compared to the scenery that Garfiel
knows, these woodlands are somewhat YOUNGER. It's only a few years of difference, but being that
it's a place he interacts with daily, Garfiel can easily notice the discrepancy.
This is the past.

And he is in a dream, challenging the TRIAL.
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After smoothly accepting these facts, Garfiel checks to see how he is.
His limbs are there. Everything from his neck up, eyes and nose and ears and etcetra exist without
issue. He opens his mouth and bites down hard, for his fangs to click like unsheathed blades.
He's fine, no problems. Actually it feels like the injuries he sustained before entering the tomb have
been healed.
???: “Your injuries from reality aren't carrying over because this place only hauls in your mind. If
you suffered a wound serious enough to influence your mind, then it wouldn't heal even in the
dream. This one's already been verified, so for example if someone who was missing an arm in
reality was invited to this world, their missing arm wouldn't heal and...”
Garfiel: “Shut it with yer long-winded blabberin'. Can't yer tell 'm ignorin' yer?”
???: “Indeed I can. But even so I just have to speak with you. I'd sorta like it if you could respect
these feelings of delight I have for our prolonged reunion.”
Wanna try it? Says the doll-like smile of the girl standing opposite Garfiel.
From top to bottom a black funeral dress-esque vestment garbs her, her hair and skin pure white.
Her smile was alluring enough to enchant any man, but facing her was enough to tell that it was
utterly empty.
This visage was another thing which had not changed an inch from what he remembered.
Garfiel: “My amazin' self's grown up, but you ain't changed a bit.”
Girl: “Because I am very unfortunately deceased. Dead, with only my soul stuck in the world. No
matter how the time passes, I can't walk the same trail as the living. This is a pretty sentimental
topic, isn't it? It's not really like you.”
Garfiel: “'Like me', now there's words only people who know me real well got any business sayin'.
Our meetin' happened ages ago n' we only did it once. Ain't that we talked 'bout anythin' important
either.”
Girl: “Perhaps that's exactly how I look to you. But I have to wonder if that'd have any bearing on
whether the time I've spent looking at you has been equivalently equal.”
He knows that he can't outfox her in conversation.

While withstanding the urge to click his tongue, Garfiel glares at the witch standing there with not a
speck of ill will on her face—Echidna.
Perhaps acting as an inspector for the TRIAL, Echidna had accompanied Garfiel like this the last
time he saw the past, as well. Not out of any human concern for him as the TRIAL brutalized his
heart, but to make sure that he did not miss a single one the events unfolding, out of a gross kind of
curiosity.
Losing will to speak with her any further, Garfiel looks at the forest.
If this production which was the past has already started, then the arrival of the actors is only a
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matter of time.
Garfiel has not the slightest intention to delight this witch who mere conversation can delight.
Echidna: “So cold.”
Echidna accepts even this attitude of Garfiel as something pleasant as she stands beside him and
strokes her white hair.
During this juncture, where he's watching her from aside, the change happens.
Garfiel: “—”
Faced with a scene he supposedly knew was coming, Garfiel swallows his breath.
The edge of the forest—also said, the dividing line for the barrier which delineates SANCTUARY's
inside and outside.
Just being around the barrier is enough for those trapped within it to come near to unconsciousness,
and undergo the unpleasant feeling of their being being thrown into disarray.
In the environs of this boundary line there appear four silhouettes.

One is Lewes with her long pink hair, her appearance identical to what it is in present reality.
Another is a girl of perhaps ten years with beautiful, silky blonde hair—Frederica.
And standing opposite to Lewes and Frederica is a woman, her blonde hair tied in a ponytail, her
face gentle.
In her hands she cradles an infant. A blond child, with nasty-looking eyes.
Garfiel: “ah... M-mom...”
The instant he sights the woman and recognizes who she is holding, a feeble sound escapes his lips.
But his call for his mother does not reach any of the four.
—Naturally. Nobody can interfere with the past.
Echidna: “Even supposing that you reach out, you won't touch her. Nothing you say will make her
smile back. I know it sounds ridiculous coming from me, but I sympathize with how you're being
forced to watch something cruel.”
The witch's sentiments, which make him want to shout Don't you goddamn talk!
But the eyes of the witch as she watches Garfiel, his face twisted in anguish, host no malice. This
scene is not something that the witch prepared with malicious intentions.
How would the challenger's regrets manifest, how would the challenger face them—and what
would be the outcome of it? That alone was what this natural disaster sought.
Garfiel: “—”
Garfiel trembles. The four are having a conversation.

Their statements, their words, the tone of their voices, none of it is reaching Garfiel.
They are opening their mouths, making sound.

But when it travels through the air and vibrates against Garfiel's eardrums, no definite meaning
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arises from it.
Anguish arises on Lewes' face. Frederica bites her lip in an attempt to keep herself from crying.
Their mother looks worried, while Garfiel in her arms smiles happily.
No sound accompanies this painful scene because this is Garfiel's memory.

Young Garfiel did not store the content of this conversation in his memory. And so the words they
speak do not reach present Garfiel.
But this memory is one that tugs at him dimly, shallowly.

The scene has been reproduced, the performance playing on as if to rile him up.
Echidna: “I wonder what they could be saying. Can you figure anything?”
Garfiel: “Stop talkin' t'me. —Yer just gonna give some stupid answer anyway.”
Considering what happens after this, he can figure what they're saying.
His mother is attempting to leave for the outside world, while Lewes and Frederica are trying to
convince her to stay. Young Garfiel is unable to participate in the conversation, merely being held
by his mom and basking in that joy.
Garfiel: “—Ghhah!”
An unbearable urge strikes Garfiel, leading him to step forth.

Echidna's brows rise as Garfiel lumbers over to the four. He stands right beside them, but none
notice him. He gazes at his sister, shorter than him, Lewes, unchanged, and himself and his mother,
all from straight-on.
Cradled by his mother, young Garfiel smiles guilelessly.

It pisses him off. This guy doesn't know what's coming next, he's not even qualified to participate in
the conversation to convince his mother to stay, just sitting there smiling.
How to quantify the regret and despair that came of the fact that he merely sat there, smiling?
Garfiel: “Augh! Ghhah! Aaaaaagghghhh!!”
He swings his arm up, his claws ripping through the air.
He wanted to stab his claws into the infant's happy face and overwrite it with despair. He wanted to
make him know how imbecilic his decision was.
But his claws pass through the infant's face, and even through the arms of his mother as she cradles
him.
He could stomp the ground and use his blessing to try and send them flying, but nothing would
result. The swings of his arms grow larger, the phantom of his mother getting wrapped up in the
destruction, but no change occurring at all.
Garfiel: “Why! Am I! Being shown this shit!!”
He swings his arm up fruitlessly. Strikes the ground.
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But the destruction does not transmit to the world of memory, which remains sternly as is.
Unable to vent his anger or make the past disappear, his voice shaking, Garfiel turns around and
bares his fangs at the witch.
Garfiel: “It's the same! It ain't changed at all! Nothing's changing 'bout how mom didn't stay, or
'bout what happened to her after! You satisfied now, eh!?”
Echidna: “You're free to messily throw attacks around however you want, but don't you think it's
slightly extraordinarily selfish to blame me for this? It's definitely not a mistake that the past is
unfurling because of things I intended... but you're the one who, knowing what this place was, came
back here. If you were anticipating for something to change, then the one you should lambaste for
its failure to change isn't me. It's you.”
Garfiel: “Me?”
Echidna: “Entirely. This place hasn't changed because you haven't changed. You can't accept the
past in a different manner from before because you can't accept change in yourself. If you accept
yourself to change, or elect not to change, then you'll be capable of overcoming the TRIAL. And
actually, there was a boy who elected for change who did overcome his past.”
Garfiel cannot manage a single word in response as Echidna tells him of a previous victor.
It's easy for him to disregard it as just Echidna bullshitting. But if it's not her bullshitting, then—the
moment he thinks it, Garfiel knows fear.
Someone has overcome their past before.

SANCTUARY has not been freed. This person who overcame their past did not manage to conquer the
following TRIALS. But even still, presuming that they overcame their past—
Garfiel: “N-No... yer can't trick me! Yer need t'have demihuman blood t'be qualified t'challenge the
TRIAL! It ain't possible that anyone thinner than a half-blood who ain't me or sis's come to
SANCTUARY before! Meanin'! Anyone qualified's still in SANCTUARY! And this guy who took the
TRIAL here and beat their past don't...”
exist. Garfiel hesitates on the final word of his assertion.

The witch's provocations tug at him, and just when he comes close to doubting his own thoughts,
the facts to refute her come flying at him. But is he truly correct?
The witch smiles somewhat happily.

This was not her welcoming the destruction of her lies, nor her welcoming Garfiel's debate.
This expression was one of waiting, for something that would more intensely tickle her curiosity.
Echidna: “This guy who beat it doesn't what?”
From the bare-faced tone of her question and from her attitude, Garfiel senses it.
Echidna is looking for something. Waiting to see whether, from the information that Garfiel himself
has presented, he will or will not reach the solution.
And Garfiel realises.

Just who the witch, who Echidna, is talking about.
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Garfiel: “No goddamn way...”
Garfiel was talking about the requirement to challenge the tomb.

But an exception existed.
The witch had not directly stated this, and this was entirely Garfiel's speculation.
But most likely, being an APOSTLE TO THE W ITCH OF GREED simultaneously qualified someone to
challenge the TRIAL.
Garfiel knows only one person to whom this applies.

And hadn't he already told Garfiel before?
—I've taken the TRIAL, and seen my past.
Garfiel: “But, he said he couldn't overcome th'past, he said himself he couldn't overcome the
TRIAL...”
Echidna: “You don't think that saying those things would avoid unneeded conflict? Or that
unwanted things would happen if people knew that he overcame the TRIAL, maybe?”
Garfiel: “Shut it, I ain't talkin' t'you. Don't butt in!”
Echidna's words lead Garfiel's brain to strobe, his thoughts in turmoil.

It is correct to acknowledge that he—Natsuki Subaru—had challenged the TRIAL. He knew that the
TRIAL meant facing the past before Garfiel could mention anything.
Garfiel recollects on Subaru back when he said he failed to overcome it. Garfiel had been so
shocked to learned that Subaru was qualified that he inadvertently ended the conversation before
asking what he really ought to have, but—
Subaru's expression back then was not the face of a man battered by his unconquerable past. He did
look frustrated about a failure to achieve something, but it was not the look of a man harbouring a
personal problem. That look was one which, reflected on the water's face as he went to bathe, Garfiel
got to witness every day.
Subaru's bearing as he attacked Garfiel did not carry the visage, nor the voice, nor the assertions of
a man suffering prolonged hangups with his past.
Garfiel: “He... overcame, his past? You can overcome your past?”
Echidna: “Just for hypothesis, supposing that something where he gave you some kind of pompous
lecture happened, wouldn't it make sense that he preached because some basis made him capable of
it?”
Garfiel's hazy mind thinks back on his exchange of fists with Subaru.
Subaru and Garfiel had both been hitting their limits for staying conscious. He could not remember
the entirety of what Subaru yelled back then. No, he mustn't give up. He must here, right now,
remember those words and question himself.
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What was he told? What was yelled at him?
His past, his stagnation, his immobility, his barrier, his SANCTUARY, his family.
What happens to the hopeless, to those who have stopped moving?

If you want to start something, then you are free to start anything.
???: “—Then you are going to leave regardless of anything?”
A familiar voice strikes Garfiel's ear.

But this is a voice which should not be audible.
Because this was not the voice of someone who could interfere with Garfiel here, and not the voice
of someone Garfiel could interfere with here.
???: “Yes, I am leaving. I know I'll be causing problems for you, Lewes-sama.”
???: “Yer don't hafter worry about that. The problem's how the kids're gonner feel.”
The voice are the familiar ones of his family, and the unfamiliar ones of his family.
The sounds match to the movements of Lewes and her sour expression, and the movements of his
mother who faces her.
For the first time in his life, Garfiel hears his mother's voice.
Garfiel: “—”
He swallows his breath as the scene robs his attention.

His mother gazes down lovingly at the Garfiel in her arms, rocking him gently. Frederica grasps the
hem of their mother's skirt as she looks up at her, and strains out her voice.
Frederica: “M-Mother... I-I... I...”
Mother: “I'm sorry, Rica. I know how it's going to worry you.”6
Frederica: “That's okay. I will be fine. But, poor Garf...”
Mother: “Should I take him with me? But your mommy is a bumbler. I'm sure he'd go through bad
experiences. Rica, you're my girl but you're so dependable, please look after him.”
Frederica, although sad, gives her goodbyes to their mother.

Garfiel hadn't known that his sister agreed with their mother's departure from SANCTUARY. Lewes,
as she holds Frederica's trembling shoulders, also looks to respect their mother's decision.
Mother: “Gar, your mommy will be coming back.”
Their mother lifts Garfiel up.

Ignorant to his mother's determination, he smiles cheerfully. She holds him close. Kisses his
forehead.
6 Her nickname for Frederica is フー (fuu) from フ ɏ カ. It doesn't work in English.
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In the exact same spot that Garfiel now has a scar.
Mother: “I'll be coming back with your daddy. Until then, wait for me.”
Her eyes abound in affection, her voice abounds in compassion.

To keep from losing the unforgettable memory, again and again, his mother kisses him.
Eventually, she hands young Garfiel to Lewes.

Lewes cradles Garfiel firmly as she and his mother share a nod. His mother then hugs Frederica,
and showers her beloved daughter's forehead in a rain of kisses too.
Garfiel: “—Haa, auh. Aauh, aaagh.... aaaaaaagh...”
While witnessing this, Garfiel has at some unknown juncture fallen to his knees.
What in the world is he watching?
He doesn't know this. He's never seen this before.

This was supposed to be the memory from when he was young, when he knew nothing, when he
challenged the TRIAL, where he saw something more hopeless, more garnished in crushing despair.
And even though he remembered it, even though he remembered that vivid feeling of being
abandoned in that memory, he had believed the memory a precious one and cultivated his
obstinance.
All the empty threats, all across his days up until now, which he made to hide his sorrow and misery
—peel away, crumble away, as something entirely different overwrites them.
What was this? This memory?

Hadn't his mother abandoned him and his sister, leaving them in search of her own happiness?
Hadn't she expelled these nuisances from her life and determined to walk her own path?
It's utterly reversed.

His mother deserted himself and Frederica and left. Explaining why Garfiel had been capable of so
securely creating the person who was GARFIEL TINZEL.
The second Garfiel realises that it's all the illegitimate result of misdirected ideas, his secure
barricade morphs into a brittle dirt wall, his world collapsing beneath him.
Garfiel cannot even stand any more as his family's goodbyes reach their end.
His mother, reluctant to part, touches Frederica and Garfiel one last time, and entrusts everything to
Lewes as she takes her bag and turns to exit the woods.
She stops many times along her path. Glances back, at Frederica who is waving. Sees how Lewes is
holding Garfiel's hand, making him wave his goodbye to his mother, and she waves back.
She collects herself and again begins to walk. Stops. Glances back, waves.
Over and over, over and over and over and over, as his mom exits the forest—
Garfiel: “—Wha!?”
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Just when he moves to stand up and follow her, his vision warps.
The world is losing its edges, and not entirely because of the teardrops swamping Garfiel's eyes. It's
happening for a more clear-cut reason.
The edges of his vision are swarmed in white light, and the forest is disappearing.
Like the end of the world. The unanticipated finale leads Garfiel to turn toward the witch behind
him, and yell.
Garfiel: “Why! Why is it ending here! It ain't reached the fundamental...”
Echidna: “No, it's over. There's no need to see anything further. It's not me who determined the
dream as finished, but you. Congratulations, Garfiel. You've rewritten your past.”
Garfiel: “What're you...!? Stop fucking with me! Th'part my amazin' self most has t'do something
about 's after this!”
Echidna: “There's no need to see what comes next, and even supposing that you've envisioned some
idea of what does happen next, interfering with it is out of your scope.”
Garfiel: “Auh—”
You can't change the past, the witch is saying.

Garfiel's reddened face pales as he falls, partway to standing up, back to his knees.
He knows how his mother truly felt. And now this.

The fate of his mother, having left this place, would not change?
His mother left SANCTUARY for Garfiel and Frederica's sake in search of his father. But immediately
after its founding that journey was crushed, alongside his mother.
—Didn't this just escalate an already hopeless memory into something even more dismal?
Didn't a memory of despair piled upon despair just switch into one of hope crushed by
hopelessness? What about himself was he supposed to change, with this?
Frederica: “Mother loved both you and I, Garf.”
Garfiel springs his head up.

Looking down at him as he kneels is his sister, still young. She is looking at him. A supposedly
blind past, incapable of interaction, is interacting with him.
Frederica: “Our Mother left SANCTUARY for the sake of our family. Does that dissatisfy you?”
Garfiel: “Don't, fuck with me! So fuckin' what that we were loved! D-don't, shove u-undue
memories onto me. I...!”
Frederica: “How much easier it was to be unloved.”
Says young Frederica, somewhat mocking toward Garfiel.
235
Their height difference is literally that of a child and an adult. But Frederica pays not the slightest
care to his height, talking from straight-on and with an expression suggesting that he is such a
handful of a little brother.
Frederica: “Allowance to believe that your love is unreciprocated gives you capability to justify
yourself.”
Garfiel: “No!”
Frederica: “You love her, and she loves you... should you have discovered this, you would no longer
be capable of justifying your neglect to soar outside, your remaining holed in SANCTUARY.”
Garfiel: “No! No, no! And when yer don't even fuckin' know anythin'... what do you think happened
t'mom!”
Frederica: “—Surely I would know.”
Garfiel leaves himself to his anger as he roars, when a shock hits him like a slap to the face.
Frederica's expression vanishes. She looks at Garfiel, seeming to endure some emotion.
—What did she just say?
Frederica: “Surely I would know. Even should we suppose that after Mother left SANCTUARY she
perhaps faced instantaneous misfortune... surely that information would have reached me.”
Garfiel: “N'so... so what!?”
Frederica: “And surely you understand that this information could not have reached you. You are no
longer a juvenile, Garf.”
Frederica knew what happened to their mother.

And even Garfiel understands why she had been unable to tell young Garfiel that.
Who on earth could inform a young boy that his mother had met a cruel demise?
If he had not peeped on the TRIAL in this tomb, Garfiel never would have known. That he did know
was because he had trampled over many considerations and kindnesses which had been trying not
to let him find out.
Frederica: “In truth, you did remember that Mother loved you.”
Garfiel: “...”
Frederica: “You yourself wounded the spot where Mother had kissed you, where she had last
touched you, in an attempt to pretend that it had not happened.”
His fingers touch his forehead scar.

This wound had not existed on his brow when he was young.
He sustained this injury immediately after he challenged the TRIAL. In a state of pandemonium,
Garfiel bashed his head open on the walls, on the floor, harming himself so greatly that he suffered
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a permanent wound.
This scar was his injury from back then. And the truth behind this scar was, surely, what Frederica
had just said.
Frederica: “It's ending now.”
Frederica whispers.
Before he can realise it, the world has already lost almost all of its shape.
The forest is gone, as are his departing mother and Lewes. Not even the onlooker witch is anywhere
in sight, the world remaining with only the siblings Frederica and Garfiel.
Frederica: “Even should you use wounds to conceal it, you cannot erase your past. Nor can you
erase the fact that you were loved.”
Garfiel: “What'm I... meant to do?”
Garfiel feebly asks Frederica.
Garfiel: “If mom's end isn't changing, then that means th'outside's still scary for me. Going out
there, and Nanna and everyone else having to go out there, scares me.”
Frederica: “You must ask this small elder sister of yours before you can figure any answer?”
Garfiel: “I know it's p'thetic! But yer th'only one I can ask. C'mon, tell me... Sis, why did you...”
Frederica: “What is it that you wish to do, Garf?”
Interrupting him, Frederica tilts her head.

Garfiel's sentence jams. What he wants to do? That's not what they're talking about. It's what should
he do, what does he need to do. That's what he's asking.
Frederica: “What is it that you wish to do, Garf?”
Looking somewhat exasperated, Frederica repeats the question.

Garfiel swallows his breath.
Garfiel: “I want t'do, what people're looking for.”
Frederica: “What which people are looking for?”
Garfiel: “I wanna do what... what the people who need me are looking for from me.”
Frederica: “Why is it that you feel this way?”
Garfiel: “Because... they're what made me remember.”
Remember what? Frederica doesn't ask.

But, those eyes, the same gold as his, do ask the question.
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Garfiel: “—That my mother loved me.”
—The world of the dream shatters to dust, the past vanishing into the beyond.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru sees Garfiel's expression as one of having undergone exorcism.
Subaru had spent approximately an hour fidgeting outside the tomb with his arms crossed, waiting.
The group been anxious, never looking or speaking to each other, as they simply waited in silence
for whatever would happen.
Subaru: “So what're all our plans if reneges on his promise and destroys the tomb?”
...Is a joke that Subaru told in an attempt to ease the mood, only for Otto to say something
incredibly inconsiderate to the situation and eat a dropkick from Ram, but generally speaking it was
all very quiet.
Lewes: “...Gar-bo.”
Lewes has reconvened with them, her expression anxious and hands linked as she restlessly looks at
the tomb.
This present Lewes should be Theta, but regardless of which Lewes it is, they would all care about
Garfiel dearly.
There's the whole affair where they ganged up in a group of 5 to beat up Garfiel, and also that
whole affair where Garfiel had a complete change of heart and entered the tomb. Both of these
events must have given Lewes more than a little shock to the heart.
Emilia looks at the tomb in suspense as she stands beside Subaru.

While naturally she must be curious about Garfiel's attempt too, once Garfiel exits the tomb, it's her
turn to go inside.
The argument inside the tomb, and the fight between Subaru and Garfiel afterwards.
Subaru cannot tell what kind of change those events have had to her mental state. But her anxious
expression is deeply steeped in concern for Garfiel, with not an ounce of reluctance toward her own
TRIAL. This is ideally not a bad omen.
Otto: “—Ah!”
Subaru thinks his thoughts, when suddenly Otto points at the tomb and speaks.
He's saying something situation-dumb again, thinks Subaru as he grimaces, Ram clicking her
knuckles. But this time it rather seems their conclusions are hasty ones.
Lewes: “Gar-bo!”
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Lewes stands up and dashes for the tomb.
Following her gaze, Subaru realises that a silhouette has appeared at the tomb's entrance.
Short blond hair, scar on brow. A sharp gaze, canines bladelike and pearly.
With a small frame and slouched posture, but emitting a dreadful and imposing aura.
Garfiel Tinzel.
Otto: “See, it's exactly what I said it'd—hyeek!”
Recipient to a jab from Ram's knee, Otto goes tumbling across the grass.
But without anyone raising the topic of Otto's suffering, they instead run over to Garfiel.
Subaru bounds up the stone stairway to reach him. Lewes has already arrived and stands before
Garfiel, hemming and hawing over what to say.
Lewes: “G-Gar-bo. Erm, I...”
Garfiel: “Don't go making a face which don't look like yer. 'M sorry fer worryin' you.”
Lewes: “Gar-bo.”
With that blunt statement, Garfiel puts his hand on small Lewes's head.
Patting his grandmother's head—is incredibly indecent, but given their heights, it's natural for these
two. And seeing as Lewes isn't complaining about it, to point it out would be the epitome of
tasteless.
Ram: “How did it go, Garf?”
Ram clears the stairs following Lewes and Subaru, and calls out to Garfiel.
It was Ram who gave Garfiel the direct impetus to challenge the TRIAL. Aware of the background
circumstances, a rare-in-Subaru's-presence shade of worry peeks through in her expression.
Garfiel hums in thought.
Garfiel: “Can't yer see with yer eyes th'results? Gotta say I expected somethin' more.”
Subaru: “For some reason that sounded like a middle schooler bragging about shoplifting, but if
this's what you're saying... you did it?”
Garfiel: “—Lined off an era for myself, m'thinkin'.”
Garfiel gives a deep sigh out his nose.

Everyone comprehends him instantly, but it's a different sentiment which rises to fore.
Garfiel has overcome the TRIAL, and reached a conclusion about his past.
This means a step has been taken toward SANCTUARY's liberation, and proves that the TRIAL is not
unreasonable or impossible.
Subaru: “Alright then. You keep riding off that momentum and go for the other TRIALS too, and...”
239
Garfiel: “Piss off. Only TRIAL my amazin' self's takin's this one. It ain't my thing t'be doin' th'others.
Yeah?”
Emilia: “Yes, you're right. The rest of this is my job. Can't have it be taken away.”
Garfiel glares at Emilia, who accepts the gaze from straight on.
Garfiel: “Witch's got her usual asshole thing goin' on. Make sure t'watch out.”
Emilia: “Huh? You're giving me advice? Thank you. I'll remember it well.”
It's Garfiel's breed of encouragement, and sardonicism. Emilia accepts his encouragement while
beautifully ignoring the sardonicism.
Garfiel looks utterly thrown. Seeing that expression makes Subaru's cheeks relax into a smile—and
this time, Garfiel's gaze lands in Subaru.
Subaru's brows shoot up as Garfiel scratches his cheek.
Garfiel: “Uh, I need to, right... yeah.”
Subaru: “What's up? Skittishness's out of character for you. You're an archetype which just kills
those hesitant or broody patterns, we'll do tribal play instead.”
Garfiel: “I ain't got any idea what th'damn hell yer sayin', but I can tell yer makin' fun of me, oi. Yer
gettin' yer teeth beat in... aeh, er, no nevermind.”
He swings up his arm, only to lower it without doing anything.

Garfiel's suspicious, or really not-exactly-getting-to-the-point behaviour makes Subaru tilt his head.
When a smile arises on Ram's face, as if she understands everything.
Ram: “Garf.”
With that, she pokes Garfiel in the hip.

Garfiel sighs, shaking his head resignedly.
Garfiel: “It's probably 'cause of you that I passed the TRIAL. Thank you.”
Subaru: “...Did you just thank me?”
Garfiel: “I ain't sayin' it again. But, I got t'remember somethin' I wanted t'remember. So goin' in
there was... beneficial. Fuck!”
Perhaps with his embarrassment peaking over his time spent talking, Garfiel's face reddens in
agitation as he jabs his finger at the wide-eyed Subaru.
Garfiel: “Listen! My amazin' self did lose, n' my TRIAL did change. But! Yer ain't gonna see me
accept every word'v everythin' yer said as correct n' raise th'white flag n' surrender! Yer talked
fuckin' big, sayin' yer'll change this SANCTUARY! F'that change hurts or pains th'folks inside, yer not
gonna be gettin' any mercy!”
Subaru: “U-uhh... r-right, as reasonable...”
240
Garfiel speaks overwhelmingly menacingly, Subaru overawed but nevertheless managing to get
words out.
Subaru could give Garfiel no absolute assurances. But he could promise that he would be doing his
best to make things good. That much was definite—and just as he goes to say so,
Garfiel: “So I'm gonner be watchin' yer from right up close t'see whether yer wind up just bein'
some all-talk bastard'r not. —You better pull it off, CAPTAIN!”
Subaru: “—”
Garfiel vigorously slaps Subaru's shoulders, gaze fixed on him, and makes that incredible statement.
His unexpected form of address and his attitude stun Subaru so much that he's slow to react.
During that delay, Garfiel immediately passes by Subaru and descends to the bottom of the stairway
with Lewes. Almost as if he's scared that someone will see his face.
Emilia: “Garfiel, your face is sooo red.”
Perhaps catching a glimpse of his face before he can pass by, Emilia speaks while trying to hold
back a smile.
Which means that no Subaru's ears were not tricking him.
Subaru: “Captain... I'm not the one heading this group, that's Emilia.”
Emilia: “But it was your group which beat Garfiel, Subaru. He accepted what came out of a man-to-
man conflict, which means his Captain is you. Isn't it great, Captain?”
Emilia smiles without any ill will, Subaru lost on how to respond.
Ram jabs the troubled Subaru in the side.
Ram: “Accept it.”
She shrugs.
Ram: “He isn't sure what he should be doing when he gets emotional either. Let him do what he
wants.”
Subaru: “But still. I am utterly weak to it, but it's...”
Ram: “Leaving aside strength in a fight, you're the older party, Barusu, so at least give him that
much leniency. Garf is a child despite how he appears. Doesn't it feel as if you've got a younger
brother now?”
Subaru: “No hold on.”
Ram: “What?”
Subaru: “Can you go over that?”
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Ram: “Over what?”
Subaru: “Garfiel's younger than me?”
Ram: “Ah,”
Ram gives a comprehending nod.
Ram: “You didn't know? Garf is younger than you, Barusu.”
Subaru: “How young.”
Ram: “I believe he's fourteen this year.”
Subaru: “Fourteen!? Fourteen... you're a chuuni!?”
The entirely unanticipated news makes Subaru's voice crack in surprise.

Suddenly he can agree with being called CAPTAIN, and with Garfiel's overly childish stubbornness.
Subaru: “A middle schooler in the peak of his rebellious age... right there's a nightmare to tame...”
Mutters Subaru, his voice even more exhausted than after their fistfight.
242
CHAPTER 117: LOVE LETTERS
With Garfiel's hostility quashed and the shocking reveal of his age, a period of rest falls upon the
scene outside the tomb.
Everyone surrounds Garfiel, each waiting for their chance to speak.
Subaru: “But man... our guy to guy fight sure starts feeling different now that it was just us ganging
together to beat up a middle schooler. It's iffy.”
Otto: “Garfiel's age is a shock to me as well, but surely those misgivings would be unwarranted?
The fact that our opponent, who we all needed to work together and gang up on to defeat, was
actually fourteen holds not the slightest bearing on the details of the combat.”
Ram: “Exactly. Garf is disproportionately powerful for a babyish teen, and no rationale exists to
begin hemming and hawing over the fact that we ganged up on him.”
Garfiel: “All of yer shut yer traps 'bout gangin' up on me! Yer lookin' fer another tussle!? Eh!? My
amazin' self's always ready fer it!”
Subaru, Otto, and Ram all nod. Garfiel sends spit flying.
Thinking back on everything that Garfiel's said and done so far, and seeing him yelling and
asserting himself the way he is now, yes indeed this is a fourteen year old.
The way that Subaru had been treating Garfiel as if he was in the same age-group may have actually
placed a filter over how he interpreted everything that was happening.
Subaru: “Actually, how old were you when you took the TRIAL before? It'd be from that point that
your stubbornness got worse.”
Garfiel: “My memory fer it ain't perfect, but... think I was three or four. Don't 'xactly remember
anythin' 'cept th'TRIAL.”
Otto: “You'd expect that, yes. Three or four... why, that's the same age as when I still thought that
the world was hell.”
Subaru: “You're bringing up heavy stuff out of nowhere, stop. I don't wanna hear it.”
A grim smile arises on Otto's face as he speaks.

Otto must have his problems, but delving into them right now is going to be overload. Subaru's
arms are already chock full of more baggage than he can carry, and he's resorted to balancing it on
his head and hammocking it in his lap.
Emilia: “Do you mind if I ask you for specifics?”
With the joking over, Emilia kicks off the real topic. Her face is tense.
Her gaze fixes on Garfiel, and her question most likely means SPECIFICS ABOUT THE TRIAL. Garfiel
snorts.
Garfiel: “No real spec'fics t'tell. Me n' you're gonna have different pasts n' they're gonna need t'be
beaten' differently. Don't think I'cn tell yer anythin' useful.”
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Emilia: “I know. My TRIAL is my trial. It won't help very much to ask you about it.”
Garfiel: “—? Then what on earth're yer askin' 'bout?”
Emilia: “Now that you've overcome the TRIAL... no, overcome your past, do you feel like you've
changed? That you can accept that change in yourself?”
Garfiel narrows his eyes in silence.

The atmosphere is getting tense. Subaru and the others swallow they breath as they wait for
Garfiel's response.
A period of silence. Garfiel touches his nose, for his fingers to then trace upwards along his scar.
With that done,
Garfiel: “Can't tell whether t'say ths'thing changed, or t'say that I got it back.”
Emilia: “Mm.”
Garfiel: “This scar on my noggin's somethin' I did t'myself. T'try n'forget a bad memory.”
Garfiel taps his forehead, his gaze fixed on the person standing beside and looking at him—Ram.
Her cerise eyes blink.
Ram: “Garf.”
Garfiel: “Shut it, don't say nothin' 'Tll make me miserable. Pushed th'blame fer it ont'er someone
else so I could hide a bad memory. ...Realising now how yer knew that n'went along with it fer me
suddenly makes me feel like crap.”
Garfiel grumbles. Ram watches him somewhat resignedly.

Subaru cannot grasp the exact significance of what they're talking about, but he can tell that this
information refers to things that only Garfiel and Ram would understand.
And can also tell that Garfiel and Ram have a definite, warm, and familial kind of bond.
Garfiel: “Anyway, whether we're sayin' it changed er came back, I ain't th'same as before. Yer guys
changed me. So now's to see how yer'll all change... makin' sure yer don't wind up all talk.”
Emilia: “Mm. Good. ...And I'll be doing my best to match your expectations.”
Garfiel's cheeks twist while Emilia smiles, full of determination.

Subaru abruptly realises that if you consider the mental factor alone, these two are the same age.
Fourteen year olds.

A boy and a girl in the emotional throes of puberty, and a situation requiring that the future rest on
them.
Subaru is seventeen verging on eighteen so he can't say much, but what a manga-ish, anime-ish,
something-in-that-vein-ish predicament that this has wound up being.
Emilia: “...Staying too long is just going to dampen my resolve.”
244
Emilia stands up and wipes off the grass from her waist.
She gives a deep breath out, her eyes gleaming with strength and looking at the tomb—the site of
the TRIAL.
Subaru: “You're going?”
Emilia: “I am. ...Following Garfiel's performance, I'm absolutely going to beat it.”
Garfiel: “Can yer do it?”
Emilia: “I am doing it. I've decided not to fear change.”
Subaru's question, Garfiel's question, Emilia nods to each.

Subaru stands up and falls into line beside Emilia as she starts walking toward the tomb. He might
not be able to enter and stay with her, holding her hand, but he has determined to keep at her side
until her departure.
Ram: “Emilia-sama.”
Emilia stops and turns around, for Ram to give her a curtsey. While holding her skirt, solemnly, as if
she were a servant paying respect to someone of higher status.
Subaru: “Well no crap. Emilia-tan is a master to her.”
Ram: “Silence your muttering, Barusu. Practice prudence enough to know that this is no situation
for that.”
Ram sternly rebukes Subaru's mumbling. Emilia's eyes widen, and Ram collects herself by once
again bowing her head.
Ram: “I request forgiveness for my rudeness. I had, in full sincerity, doubted whether you would
rise to the situation.”
Emilia: “...Mm. I'm sorry, for being so ineffective.”
Ram: “Indeed you were ineffective and a blight to onlooking eyes.”
Subaru: “Oh come on.”
How much courage had it taken Subaru before he could convey that sentiment to Emilia? While
grinding his teeth at Ram and her easy scaling of difficult hurdles, he listens on.
Ram: “But now you have risen, and have resolved to challenge. Whether that was anteceded by a
desire to, or whether your sincere wish had been to flee, presents not the slightest of an issue.”
Emilia: “...”
Ram: “I had determined. Would your stance be one to challenge the TRIAL, or be else? Where I
would entrust my own problems rested upon that. Should you have exhibited a desire to flee in
surrender, I would have followed to the world's course. But should you have exhibited desire to
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fight—”
Ram glances at Subaru.

How did he connect to this part of her speech, punctuated here at it was? Perhaps that provided the
answer for why she allied with Subaru and Otto to fight Garfiel.
Ram: “May your endeavours proceed well, Emilia-sama. For your safe return shall I await.”
Ram curtseys in silence, an impeccable exhibition of a maid giving farewell to her master.
Seemingly empowered by Ram's send-off, Emilia gives a firm nod with her expression cheery.
Seeing this, Subaru uncrosses his arms and nods.
Subaru: “So just with how this conversation's going, you got anything to say Otto?”
Otto: “Well it's amazing how demanding that prospect feels now, but is this truly a situation where I
should be saying anything!? Don't you find anything wrong with this!?”
Subaru directs the conversation onto Otto, figuring that he will have prepared something to say, but
apparently whatever he had in mind can't beat Ram's speech.
Seems like he wanted to pay consideration for the situation, and let it all end cleanly—but.
Emilia: “Okay. Please go ahead.”
Otto: “—!”
Unheeding to Otto's distress and figuring that he'll encourage her, Emilia is 100% ready. She waits
with her expression tense, failing to notice his panic.
Otto puts his hand to his forehead with a look of resignation.
Otto: “Erm well yes, Emilia-sama.”
Emilia: “I'm listening.”
Otto: “It happens that actually, I've paid some rather considerable damages thanks to this whole
debacle. Though yes naturally this includes a 'joint-investment' nuance, and the damages involved
are ones where I had factored in beforehand the fact that I would be paying them...”
Emilia: “Um?”
The topic transforms into money business. Emilia, not the brightest in mathematics, looks confused.
Otto bites his lip and raises his finger.
Otto: “Well yes so!”
Otto: “I chose to undertake these damages with the anticipation that someday you would grow into
something great and hefty. So you will need to prevail and ensure that I regain the expenditures I
made for this bet!”
Emilia: “...I think I'm already all grown up. Eating will make me fatter though.”
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Subaru: “Don't use tricky phrasing on our sheltered angel. Also Emilia-tan I think everything you're
doing right now hits the golden ratio so just keep going like that. Right now you are loveliest.”
From her head to her toes, Emilia's current state is perfect.

That said of course he'd still find her lovable regardless of whether she thins down or fattens up.
But leaving Subaru's sentiments aside, Otto looks like he cannot find anything to say about the fact
that his statements aren't communicating, and after a bit of flailing,
Otto: “...Come back safely. I'm supporting you.”
Emilia: “Mhm, understood. Otto-kun, thank you for helping me too.”
Emilia responds to Otto's hideously safe summarization with a strong nod.

Garfiel gives slumped-shoulders Otto a comforting shove. Witnessing that, Subaru and Emilia once
again head for the tomb.
Night has fallen over SANCTUARY. Time is such that the TRIAL will occur.
Emilia takes one last session of deep repeated breaths, in and out, to steel herself. With her beside
him, Subaru considers what would be the best thing to say to see her off—what would? What
would? And—
Emilia: “Subaru.”
Subaru: “Hm?”
Emilia: “So about the thing in the tomb...”
She's anxious about the TRIAL.

Figuring this, Subaru waits for Emilia to continue. But she is unable to say anything as she glances
at him sporadically, her expression uneasy.
For some reason, her cheeks are tinged red.
Emilia: “S-so, erm, the thing in the tomb.”
Subaru: “Thing in the... oh, you don't mean what's coming up, you mean the stuff from before?”
Emilia: “Yes. Geez.”
It's so obvious I was, says Emilia's expression as she puffs up her cheeks. But considering how the
whole scene had been going until now yeah Subaru can't agree with this criticism of hers.
Like anyone would think that Emilia, ready to imminently challenge the TRIAL, was worried not
about the future but the past. Though considering that the TRIAL waiting inside the tomb is also the
PAST, the whole topic of time starts getting fuzzy.
And though the momentum and all the grisly stuff that followed meant Subaru forgot about it,
thinking back on it, the deed that he committed was something which could send his face bursting
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into flame.
Talking with Emilia, slinging insults, shoving love at her, snapping down to steal a kiss—calling it
an explosion of all the resentment he had built up over these five loops makes for no excuse.
That whole affair is probably what's troubling Emilia.

It's pleasant to see the crimson on her pale skin, but Subaru has no leeway to be getting transfixed
here either.
Emilia: “Inside, where we, um... you know.”
Subaru: “Y-yeah... mhm, right.”
Emilia: “And um, I think it's going to be tough. But it's important, so... when the TRIAL and
everything else is done, let's take our time to talk, okay?”
I already think my mind's taking it tough, he thinks while nevertheless promptly nodding to Emilia's
proposal.
It's Subaru's first time, and definitely Emilia's first time. Their feelings crashed into each other, and
they have mountains of things they need to sort out. And Subaru would also need to string together
excuses while getting on the unavoidable topic of REM.
Either way,
Subaru: “Oh. You're thinking about the past, pretty calm, huh, Emilia-tan.”
Emilia: “Am I calm? I'm not sure. I might just be bluffing.”
Subaru: “But if you can bluff then it means your head's not full to bursting. You'll pull it off. I can
bet on it.”
Subaru shoots her a thumbs up, his teeth sparkling. Emilia tilts her head in mystification.
Emilia: “Bet what on it?”
Subaru: “The right for us to go on a date.”
Emilia: “Then what happens if you win, and what happens if I win?”
Subaru: “I win and I can go on a date with you, you win and you can go on a date with me.”
Emilia slips a laugh, and for a period, the two chuckle together.
It truly does seem that Emilia is neither stressed nor anxious.
Emilia: “I'll bet for me beating the TRIAL.”
Subaru: “Okay, I'll bet for you beating the TRIAL.”
Emilia: “And if we both win?”
Subaru: “Two dates.”
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Emilia: “Uh-huh.”
Like always, Emilia smoothly ignores Subaru's flirting.

She glides forward. Her silver hair dances on the wind, glimmering under starlight. Subaru raises
his hand as he sees her off.
Subaru: “Take care now. Watch out for cars, and men.”
Emilia: “Stop being silly.”
With a wry smile, Emilia's shape disappears into the tomb.

The unlit corridor swallows her beneath darkness, robbing her silhouette from Subaru's sight.
There is no longer anything Subaru can do for Emilia.

Everything is now a problem that she must overcome herself.
Garfiel: “Stop lookin' so worried, Captain. Makes yer less'v a man.”
Subaru: “Man when I think that you're a middle schooler somehow I can just accept this stuff you
say. I was like you too once upon a time.”
Garfiel comes over to an antsy Subaru's side and scolds him. Subaru shrugs, when Garfiel strikes
his fist to his palm, remembering something.
Garfiel: “Oh yeah, Captain. When we were fightn' n' yer smacked me flyin', what was that?”
Subaru: “You mean Invisible Providence?”
Garfiel: “Inv... what?”
Subaru: “Invisible Providence. THE IMPERCEPTIBLE WILL OF THE GODS. Isn't it cool?”
Garfiel: “'S crazy cool yeah.”
Garfiel has found a compatriot.

UNSEEN HAND's rap is pretty bad, so let's hope that Invisible Providence catches on. But either way,
doubtful that all Garfiel's asking about is its name.
Garfiel: “Magic... ain't what it is. 'S just a feelin', but th'vibe ain't right.”
Subaru: “If we're gonna bother classifying it, honestly I have no clue either. But it's definitely
occult. Try all you want but you'll never copy it.”
Garfiel: “Ain't gonna. Hittin' someone where they can't see it 's chicken.”
Subaru: “Ch-chicken he says this punk...!”
He had merely wanted mutual understanding as to Invisible Providence's awesomeness, only to

shockingly be stricken down.
“My bad my bad,” says Garfiel looking completely unapologetic, but making no effort to inquire
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any further. Probably, he's sensed it. This occult thing makes no good territory for a man to delve.
Subaru: “...But still, what karma?”
Invisible Providence is—unmistakably—Betelgeux's UNSEEN HAND. There's a discrepancy in

strength, and he could only produce one hand, but the sensation is exactly it.
Why was the same power that the abhorrent madman held now dwelling inside Subaru? Perhaps, it
had something to do with the WITCH FACTOR that Echidna had mentioned.
Witch Factor. The words suggest nothing pleasant, and Betelgeux had also used the term. And
Subaru's first time using this UNSEEN HAND-esque thing was not during this recent battle. To evade
a charge from tiger-form Garfiel in a previous loop, he had used it unconsciously.
Meaning, the witch factor is steadily taking root inside Subaru.

Subaru knew that he could no longer use Shamac. Repeated abuses of his gate had extinguished that
function of the exhausted magical gateway. His once-non-existent link to the magical world was no
longer anywhere within his perception.
He had lost his yearned-for magical powers, and gained occult powers in their place.
Subaru: “Better than having no aces up my sleeve. Using it, feels like there's a technique but also
doesn't really...”
Regardless, nothing has changed about the scarcity of his options in battle.
He would wring and wring his wily little brain, enlisting help from others while divining an escape
from fatality.
The height of the walls Subaru must face remain as high as ever.
Garfiel: “Oh, jus'thoughter somethin', Captain.”
Subaru: “What's up? Or really this whole Captain thing is still throwing me off.”
Garfiel: “Yer'll get accustomed. Anyway, there's somethin' I gotta 'pologize for.”
He hasn't accepted the change in name, but Garfiel just admirably looks on. The case was the same
with Emilia, but Subaru has to give a wry smile with how conversation topics keep coming up.
He shrugs to urge Garfiel on. His fingers trace over his scar.
Garfiel: “My amazin' self went in th'tomb. N' so my amazin' self went in th'TRIAL room.”
Subaru: “Uh-huh.”
Garfiel: “N'so, I saw them. —Yer, erhm. Those. Frantic results.”
Subaru's brows furrow for an instant—but he immediately realises what Garfiel is referring to, and
his eyes shoot open.
Shocked, Subaru's ears blaze red.
He saw them. He saw them he saw them he saw them!
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Garfiel: “W-wasn't tryin' t'do anythin' bad. But t'think it'd wound up bein'...”
Subaru: “S-stop talking! Forget it now! You, crap... I forgot! I mean... I mean, I didn't think it'd
wind up that you'd go in the tomb! And then it... augh, fuck!”
Clutching and shaking his head, Subaru's face grows hotter.

Garfiel as he watches on with pity is currently an odious thing. Perhaps even more loathsome than
during the fistfight.
Subaru: “You forget about it! That's all I'm looking for! Okay, conversation over! Done!”
Garfiel: “Yeh, will do. ...But, here's what I thought when I saw'm. Yer an absolute, incredible
moron... but I'm glad yer ain't dead.”
Subaru: “I said it's over, are you some braindead brat!? Wait! You are a brat!”
Although called a brat, Garfiel has grasped Subaru's weak point and remains the superior party. He
laughs away Subaru's screams of sad defeat before descending the tomb stairs.
Following after Garfiel as he returns to everyone else in the clearing, Subaru prays for Emilia's
good fortune, while simultaneously begging that she does not notice his CHEERS.
If that breed of thing doesn't reach its intended recipient before anyone else, it's over.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru begs in vain.
Emilia: “I'm here...”
Exiting the stone corridor, Emilia arrives in the room where the TRIAL takes place.
Amid the cold, damp air, Emilia walks with the dimly-glowing wall as her guide and gazes at the
door in the back of the room. This closed door will likely open once the TRIAL has been cleared.
Garfiel came back to the group without opening the door. Meaning, she—
Emilia: “Have to do my best to get inside there.”
She doesn't know what could be lurking in those depths.

But the TRIAL does not end with only one, as the WITCH had told her of multiple.
When she thinking of the witch conducting the TRIALS, a painful itch spreads through Emilia's
chest. This again resulted because the white witch's reception of Emilia was—
Emilia: “Huh?”
Momentarily in thought, Emilia casts her gaze about the room, when she notices something odd.
During her time spent hugging her knees and waiting for night in this tomb, Emilia had kept
halfway through the corridor, and had not ventured as far as this room. Meaning that this is her first
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time witnessing the chamber in two days.
Only been two days, but something has changed over that time.
While mulling over what that something is, Emilia realises what is so odd.
Emilia: “This is...”
Brushing her fingertips over the wall, Emilia murmurs.

Her amethyst eyes begin adjusting to the dark. They capture the change amid the dim clearly.
Emilia: “You idiot, Subaru.”
With a laugh in her voice, Emilia finds herself saying this.

Because that's just it. Look at this, think like this, and there's no way you don't wind up saying it.
Emilia: “You are such an idiot.”
Contrary to her words, Emilia's expression abounds in tender affection. This change on the portion
of wall she is touching, over the wall before her, over a whole face of this room, top to bottom:
—Etchings. Pictures, letters, chiselled into the wall all large and crooked.
This big chibi drawing of a cat is a familiar picture of Puck. Many drawings of Puck are etched into
the wall, all surrounded with writing.
The messy I-glyphs, strewn everywhere as if written by a child, prove beyond any doubt that he had
worked frantically with Emilia's interests in mind.
<You can do it, I know you can!> <Me and Puck are supporting you, everything's okay> <This girl
I'm into is amazing! Have confidence in yourself!> <Once this is all over let's go on a date!> <Go
for it, Emilia!> <Nobody is expecting anything from us. Is there anything more fun than proving
them all wrong?> 
Emilia: “Idiot... idiot, idiot, idiot... You featherbrain, Subaru.”
She had to challenge the TRIAL now, and was bracing herself to face something painful and
unpleasant, and here he is pretending to support her while making her cry, this awful man.
She understands.
She understands now.
Emilia last came here two days ago. There was only one day of opportunity for these drawings and
writings to be etched.
And that was the only juncture where Subaru had time to leave Emilia's side, and only juncture
where he so stubbornly kept silent about what he was doing over that period.
Emilia: “—Mm. You're right. Let's go for it, Subaru.”
With her fingers lovingly brushing the letters, Emilia responds to the etched words.
Instantly, she feels herself falling into slumber, the world's edges turning dim.
The TRIAL is coming.
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That terrifying past is coming.
—But Emilia's lips stay smiling.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “Broke my promise to go write love letters, and then someone else winds up seeing them
first... My life's over...”
Garfiel: “Yer exaggeratin' it...”
Surrounding Subaru who is too stricken by shock to stand, Garfiel and the others allow themselves
to look as flabbergasted as they want.
But having said that, there is nothing for the group to do here except wait for Emilia to come out.
While it does sound cool to hang around here believing in her, it also composes a trial for everyone
who has to sit around and wait.
Subaru: “It took Garfiel about an hour... so we should probably think that Emilia'll take that long
too.”
Otto: “Supposing that she succeeds, you'd be corre—ow!? Also awgh!?”
Otto's reward for his insensitive gaffe is Ram's elbow. Seeing Otto jabbed by Ram, Garfiel's face
twists in jealousy and he sends his finger flying to poke Otto's forehead.
Otto topples backwards as he tumbles to the ground, which nobody mentions as they,
Subaru: “Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you and Garfiel, Lewes-san.”
Lewes: “Sermthing ter ask me and Gar-bo?”
Lewes stands there uncomfortably as she looks up at Subaru.

She had gone into hiding, and although unintentional, wound up aiding Subaru and the others in
their plans to defeat Garfiel. She still seems somewhat lost as to how to approach Garfiel, their
grandmother-grandson conversations having been rather awkward for a little while now.
That said, Lewes is the only one worrying about it, and Garfiel feels not a scrap of negativity
toward her.
Subaru: “Yes. A question. Though that said it's tricky whether or not you'll be able to understand it
right now, Lewes-san.”
Tricky to understand right now, meaning tricky to understand for Theta.

Alpha, Beta, Theta, and Sigma are the four Leweses representing SANCTUARY. With the Garfiel
problem resolved, the Leweses' stances toward SANCTUARY's liberation should hopefully be in
accord, but it's essential to check.
But most importantly, there are still some things which don't feel quite right.
Subaru: “Garfiel, you're all for SANCTUARY's freedom now right?”
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Garfiel: “It ain't a thin'v bein' fer it, Captain. My amazin' self lost t'yer. N'so I'm not gonna get in yer
way while you go freein' SANCTUARY. I'm gonna be actin' t'make sure th'people in that changed
SANCTUARY ain't sufferin'... 's my stance now.”
Subaru: “Right, that standpoint right there.”
Garfiel: “Eh?”
With his finger raised, Subaru pulls the breaks on Garfiel's speech.
Garfiel looks mystified, as does everyone else listening. Nobody must have felt that Garfiel said
anything strange. But Subaru is uneasy.
Subaru: “When we first came here, your standpoint wasn't for it or against it, it was pretty neutral...
the same kind of thing like you said just now.”
Garfiel: “...I was thinkin' yer'd all get on guard 'bout me 'f you knew where I was leanin'.”
Subaru: “But you got wary about us instantly and plainly. Maybe we tripped and made some
blunder, or say tripped on a tiger's tail, but anyway what was with that change in mentality?”
It's just weird.

At least on Emilia's first day taking the TRIAL, or until just around the time that she took the TRIAL,
Garfiel's presentation towards Subaru's group was friendly.
Garfiel always exposed his hostility on that night after she failed the TRIAL. With the witch's
miasma emanating from Subaru as his pretext, Garfiel would declare himself an enemy.
But Garfiel cannot actually smell the witch's miasma from Subaru. Someone else is noticing the
miasma, and Garfiel is entirely opting for hostility after learning about the fact from them.
The person reporting to Garfiel about the miasma, and spurring him into hostility is—
Subaru: “Lewes-san, not in favour of SANCTUARY's freedom, was eyeing me.”
While looking down at the silenced Lewes, Subaru rests his raised finger on his crossed arms.
The Lewes here is Lewes Theta—the only duplicate which had been not in favour of SANCTUARY's
liberation.
Alpha and Beta are in favour of liberation, and Sigma is neutral. Theta knows of the true Lewes
Meyer's past, and views SANCTUARY's liberation as dangerous. If he's going to add any more
support to his speculation, then it's to note how inconceivable it is that any other Lewes would spur
Garfiel's change of attitude.
Garfiel nods, his face puckered.
Garfiel: “Yer nailed it, Captain. Nanna told me that...”

Lewes: “Yer got it figured wrong, Su-bo. I never told Gar-bo about...”
Their voices coincide, but their arguments conflict.

Subaru furrows his brows as Garfiel and Lewes look at each other. Garfiel's mouth flaps open and
shut uselessly as he points at the stunned Lewes.
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Garfiel: “H-Heck're yer sayin'? Yer told me on th'first night that lady took th'TRIAL. Yer smell witch
from th'Captain. Then there's th'half-witch lady too, maybe they're the witch's assistants... n'so, I...”
Lewes: “Did I mention...? No, I herv noticed the miasma around Su-bo, and I dern't have the most
spotless thoughts about Emilia-sama's heritage, but... that ern't relevant ter this. I wers trying ter
make my decisions ter follow along with Roz-bo's outline as best I could, and...”
Subaru: “Wait! Wait, freeze! Lewes-san, you just said you don't know anything about this.”
Lewes is rejecting Garfiel's statements.

Garfiel looks to be in utter disbelief, but being that these are words coming out of Lewes's mouth,
they are true.
The people of this SANCTUARY are contracted NOT TO TELL LIES while inside SANCTUARY.
Subaru: “Leaving aside situations where the person doesn't think they're lying, Lewes-san's
assertions that she hasn't done something can't be a lie.”
Garfiel: “But, it's true that I!”
Subaru: “I'm not doubting you. ...I know you've been lied to. Lewes-san. Do all the Lewes-sans
accord with what you just said?”
Lewes's face pales as she nods.

This means that none of Leweses Alpha, Beta, Theta, or Sigma are the LEWES who spurred Garfiel's
change of attitude.
But Garfiel himself had stated that his change of attitude had been prompted by LEWES.
Subaru raises his head, looks at Garfiel's face.

He clicks his teeth as he shakes his head, not a trace of a lie in his complexion. His personality isn't
suited to telling lies anyway.
And now that his pretence of being SANCTUARY'S BARRIER has been stripped away, it's ever the
more apparent.
Subaru: “Ram.”
Ram: “...I will mention that no magic exists to change a person's shape. Not even Roswaal-sama
would be capable of such a thing.”
Subaru: “What do you think's going on, then?”
Ram has no response.

She must not know how to resolve this contradiction either. But Subaru is generally convinced that
this is A TRAP SET BY ROSWAAL. Or more really, there's no other options for what it could be.
Subaru: “Would like to wait here 'till Emilia comes back, but...”
Only ten minutes have passed since Emilia entered the tomb. Once she clears the TRIAL and comes
back out, Subaru wants to be the one to welcome her with arms spread wide. Wants to celebrate her.
But—
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Subaru: “Let's interrogate Roswaal. Have to find out what bad things he's doing at this last hour.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Emilia cannot tell whether waking up inside a dream ought to be called awakening.
Until just a moment ago she had been inside a stone chamber. Ejected from the TRIAL room, Emilia
now finds herself inside a familiar forest.
Tall trees surround the environs, cool breeze on her skin and warm earth at her feet.
These memories, flashbacks.

What she would see during her TRIAL, a white forest snowscape.
But that has not begun yet.

No snow falls, green being the welcome to Emilia's consciousness-only self.
Where,
???: “Hey. These past few days have had a real turnout.”
While Emilia holds her breath to confirm her own position, she hears a voice.
Emilia's visitation has formed this dream world. Within a scene from a memory which until now
had not even existed, standing there in the tree-shade, as if this is all entirely natural, is somebody.
Head to toe garbed in black vestment, hair and skin like scattered snow, this woman of white.
With only two hues in repertoire, but having divined from them sublimity, this witch of beauty.
Who presides over the TRIAL, lord of the tomb which shows visions of the past—the WITCH OF
GREED, Echidna.
The witch stands with the tree trunk aiding her as she tilts her head at Emilia.
Emilia stares back at the witch from straight-on. Swallows her breath.
Echidna: “Truly, a turnout. Both of guests warranting a warm welcome—and the undeserving
uninvited.”
Emilia: “...”
Echidna: “It's amazing how you can come back so shamelessly after flaunting all that hideousness.
Even I have to find myself shocked at your audacity and at your failure to quit.”
The witch staring at Emilia strikes her with words, things full of spite and disdain.
These numb, dark eyes have not the slightest resemblance to those dark eyes which always look at
her so kindly. With all the malice she has known and been showered in, Emilia can tell.
This is malevolence on an entirely different dimension from what she knows.

All of the spite aimed at Emilia until this point had been for A SILVER-HAIRED HALF-ELF, a blade
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lacking reason.
But the spite from this witch is not like that.
This is not for A SILVER-HAIRED HALF-ELF, but EMILIA-focused enmity.
Echidna: “You hit setbacks and bawl, but provided you can debauch a man into embracing you you
don't care, you whore. You defiler who desecrates my world. Shameless and self-loving you are as
he forgives you over and over, you reprobate. —What do you think, witch-child?”
Until recently, these abusive words had clawed at Emilia's heart.

It wasn't that she yielded before this malice and gave up on the TRIAL, but these words did begin the
flaying and abrasion of her heart, chipping away at her capacity to resist her past.
The witch did not wish for Emilia to take the TRIAL, or to overcome it.
The witch did not have any single expectation that Emilia would overcome the TRIAL at all.
<Nobody is expecting anything from us. Is there anything more fun than proving them all wrong?>
Why indeed Subaru is exactly correct.
And so Emilia raises her arm, jabbing her finger toward the heavens.
The same way that Natsuki Subaru did when stating the audacious, when stimulating his courage.
Emilia: “My name is just Emilia. Born in Elior Forest, the Witch of Glaciation.”
Emilia can tell that the witch is daunted.

Feeling satisfaction in that, Emilia lowers her skyward finger to point at her.
Emilia: “A fellow witch's spite isn't going to make me bend. After all, me, I'm a pain in the ass of a
woman.”
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7
7 Echidna's pronoun during Garfiel's trial was watashi. For Emilia's it is back to boku.
Echidna's comment about getting men/a man to “””embrace””” her can also be a euphemism for sex.
CHAPTER 118: THE DAY ALPHA ORIONIS SMILED
Emilia walks leisurely, with practised gait, along the unmarked trail with its tall tall trees.
She steps on grass, treads on earth, taking care not to trample on any flowers hidden beneath the
bulging roots. She feels the hard ground beneath her feet, but Emilia finds it strange—after all, she
is dreaming.
Nevermind how it goes in an ordinary dream, here she can feel the texture of the tree-bark, smell
the sweet aroma of the flowers, and feel the warmth of the breeze.
Emilia: “It's a dream world, but I can feel everything like normal. Why is that?”
Echidna: “Dream world, would be an entirely figurative descriptor for it. This is a place constructed
from the memories of the TRIAL's challenger, which drags in only the consciousness, a space fitting
for the appellation 'alternate world',. These are things withdrawn from the memory of you, the
challenger, so of course your senses can interact with this world. Conversely, if I attempt to touch
the ground or perhaps the trees, I won't feel any tactile sensation.”
Emilia: “So that's it. ...Can I go on a rampage, and turn the forest into a hodgepodge?”
Echidna: “What a barbaric and witchlike idea. Indeed you have tactile sense, but you can't influence
this world. To add, you and the living beings recreated in this world can't even touch each other.
Though, if the TRIAL were in another form then it would possible.”
Emilia: “Another form?”
Echidna: “Full of questions, aren't you. How about using your own head for once? Seek and you
shall find. Though for you, constantly spoiled and fawning on men as you are, I'd say it's outside
your capacity.”
Emilia: “Hmp...”
Emilia takes the lead, the WITCH OF GREED following behind while keeping a fixed distance.
Echidna gives her venomous lecture, sneering at Emilia's ignorance while looking thoroughly
unimpressed. But, despite that animosity, her statements are legitimate.
Emilia puts her hand to her mouth and thinks.

There is a difference between touchable memories and untouchable memories. A method for Emilia,
with only her mind present in this world, to touch the people who walk about these memories.
Emilia: “I thought about it but I couldn't get it. Tell me the answer.”
Echidna: “...”
Emilia: “What's wrong? Do you have a tummy ache?”
Echidna: “Your attitude gives me pyrosis. While it certainly feels unpleasant, if you exclude him
and my friends, the only one who could inspire such emotion in me would probably just be you.”
Emilia: “Echidna, you have friends.”
3
How nice, is the nuance in Emilia's muttering. Echidna sighs.
It seems she did not take Emilia's statement with the nicest of interpretations. Emilia hesitates on
how to reword it to make it communicate properly, when,
Echidna: “The regrets of the past that you glimpse in the TRIAL do not consist of only a single scene
for everybody.”
Emilia: “Erm?”
Echidna: “There are pasts fixed on a single moment of time which you regret. And differing from
those, there are also ongoing... for example, pasts where you regret your relationship with
somebody. In the second case, the recreated past will not be a single isolated scene, but will instead
recreate those characters as they are inside the challenger. You could speak with them, touch them,
even make happy love with them.”
Emilia: “...Okay. So that's how it works.”
Emilia nods in comprehension.

Indeed, REGRETS can have these distinctions. Some people will regret that they got in a fight with
somebody, and some people will regret everything that came in the aftermath.
Which to conquer is entirely dependant on the person.
Emilia: “You don't like me, but you answered my question for me.”
Echidna: “Because I'm just sooo nice a person, is the kind of misunderstanding I'd loathe for you to
make. I've done nothing humiliating enough for you to regard me favourably. That I wind up
answering these questions is entirely a result of my disposition.”
Emilia: “Right, right.”
It doesn't put her in the most jovial of moods, but Emilia has more or less figured out how to
interact with the icy Echidna.
Echidna definitely hates Emilia like one would hate a serpent, but Emilia cannot dislike Echidna.
She doesn't know her well enough for that.
Reasoning backwards, it means that Echidna knows Emilia well enough to hate her this much—but
she will has no chance to ask about it here.
???: “—Huhu! Ahahha! Here! This way!”

Emilia: “Eep!”
The sudden and loud voice of a young girl calling from behind surprises Emilia.
She freezes, when the little girl circles around her to run past from behind her to before her and
away. It shocks Emilia that she had managed to come so close without Emilia noticing, but she
promptly senses that this was not because of her own negligence or inattention.
The girl who overtook Emilia runs about, her long silver hair flapping in disarray.
Amethyst eyes, a well-worn children's vestment. She dashes confidently around the forest, her face
as she laughs very familiar to Emilia.
This person is her young self—back when she knew no REGRET, Emilia in a bygone time.
4
Echidna: “Utterly ignorant, but it's still astonishing how dumbly blithe she looks.”
Emilia: “Don't start saying things about little me too. And... we'll find out soon whether or not that's
anything bad.”
Such is Echidna's prejudiced judgement of the frolicking young Emilia.

Feeling a throbbing in her temples after objecting to Echidna's appraisals, Emilia grimaces.
Her contract with Puck has ceased, and her sealed memories are resurrecting one after another.
Her days spent with Mother Fortuna. Juice's group and how they brought supplies to the village.
The seal, and the FAIRIES who helped her escape the Princess Room. And, the day that she met Juice
who she wasn't meant to meet, and they became friends.
Emilia: “How did I manage to live without memory of these things, like it was completely
normal...?”
Emilia's memory was fraught with holes, but Emilia had lived without finding anything strange
about that at all.
Who knows what would have happened if she noticed the pitfalls, but without the TRIAL'S
involvement? There would be no recovering from it. Perhaps Puck, who would've known Emilia's
abnormal state better than anyone, didn't tell her about it because he understood that.
Pieces of her reviving memory still remain sleeping beyond the ajar door.
She had not been able to spy their entirety before challenging the TRIAL, but that was fine.
Here, in this TRIAL, all of Emilia's sealed memories will likely be revealed.
She can figure that something inside her will change definitively after having seen them.
Emilia: “But I'm not scared of that any more.”
Echidna: “Crying and bawling you cling to men or your father. Are you going to stop making
decisions typical of the filthy woman you are?”
Emilia: “I know they'd probably forgive me... but I don't want to do that, and for me or for Subaru
to feel disillusioned because of it. I don't want to be weak, and rationalising that I can stay weak.”
Echidna: “...Do whatever you want. All I'm doing is stockpiling yet another result in my memory.”
No matter how much spite Echidna spits, nothing can shake Emilia's nerve now.
Perhaps having perceived that over their conversation, Echidna resignedly closes her mouth.
The witch's comments have abated in their fury. Emilia gives a sigh and devotes her attention to her
past.
In front of her is Emilia, running about guilelessly. And,
???: “Please wait, Emilia-sama. It is perilous to traipse the area in this way.”
Emilia: “I'm not in danger, I'm fine. You're the one with scraped knees, Juice.”
5
Juice: “No injury to myself is anything for concern. But any injuries you may sustain are dire. Not
even my death would constitute recompense for wounds imposed on your sumptuous skin.”
Chasing the frolicking Emilia is a tall man in black habit—Juice. His stern face gives rise to a
definite gentleness and affection as he softly chides Emilia, who continues capering heedless of his
warning.
???: “Juice. The way you said that actually made it sound sooo dirty.”
Juice: “My intentions in speaking had been otherwise... never would I consider Emilia-sama in such
a manner.”
Juice is addressed by woman following behind him as he follows Emilia—a woman with short
silver hair, sharp eyes and beautiful looks.
Having spotted her, Emilia's throat feels to cramp.
Emilia: “Mother Fortuna...”
Although aware that this healthy sight of her mother is only occurring in a memory, Emilia cannot
keep herself from feeling the urge to cry.
Emilia loved her. Respected her more than any other. Even after all this time, Emilia considers
Mother Fortuna a member of her family at least as precious as Puck.
Fortuna goes to stand beside the worried-looking Juice, casting him a glance.
Fortuna: “And that's not just for Emilia, it'd sound that way no matter who you said it to. You're
supposed to be getting on in years by now, Juice.”
Juice: “Age is something which presents rather little significance to me. Speaking in reference to
living for a long duration of time, by my view even yourself and Emilia-sama would be infants.”
Fortuna: “I'm an infant by his view... hrm.”
Fortuna lowers her gaze as she mutters displeasedly.

Juice's brows furrow in concern, but Fortuna does not respond. Instead Emilia toddles back to them,
her cheeks puffed out.
Emilia: “Aaugh! Mother Fortuna, Juice, how come you're not chasing me! We're playing tag! You
have to chase!”
Juice: “Ah! My deepest apologies, Emilia-sama. The failing of this negligent Romanée-Conti, to
persist lifelong and evermore...”
Fortuna: “Don't spoil her like that, Juice. —Emilia, you do remember why your mother and Juice
started chasing you, yes? Girls who don't think about what they've done annoy your mother sooo
much.”
Emilia: “Eep!”
A hint of anger slips into Fortuna's smile, prompting young Emilia's shoulders to hitch.
6
She thinks back on why the two were chasing her, and realises that she has needlessly riled a
hornet's nest. Her face pales as she giggles in an attempt to distract from the issue, then turns and
breaks into a run and—
Fortuna: “No luck. Mother Fortuna caught you.”
Emilia: “Awuh! I'm sorry Mother Fortuna! It's not what you think! The fairies wanted to play, and
said to go outside, and so...”
Fortuna: “Girls who blame other people, or rather fairies, also annoy your mother. Do you
understand, Emilia?”
Caught in a hug from behind, Emilia panics while Fortuna speaks to her in whispers. Young Emilia
stops struggling and hangs her head dejectedly.
Emilia: “I'm sorry, Mother Fortuna. The room was so boring, and Juice is my friend so I wanted to
see him, and I just went out.”
Fortuna: “And then you ran away because I spotted you. You knew that you did something bad.
That was something you sooo shouldn't have done.”
Emilia: “I know...”
Fortuna: “You mustn't break promises. Keeping promises is important. Promises are a
representation of trust, and breaking them means betraying that trust. Don't do it.”
Close to tears, Emilia attempts to look down—when her face is caught between two hands, and she
is forced to look properly into that pair of amethyst eyes.
Fortuna: “Emilia, promise me. You'll keep your promises from now on.”
Emilia: “Mmhm... yes, I promise. I'm so sorry, Mother.”
Fortuna: “Alright. Everything's fine then.”
Having heard Emilia's teary pledge, Fortuna holds her darling daughter to her chest.
She tenderly strokes sobbing Emilia's silver hair, accepting her child's maturation with a gentle sigh.
When,
Fortuna: “Juice? What are you doing over there?”
Juice: “I-I have... w-witnessed, far too brilliant a sight... the tears... beyond my control...”
Juice squats in the shade of a tree as he presses a handkerchief to his face, bawling. Apparently
hearing that mother-daughter conversation had sent him over the emotional edge.
Seeing Juice cry both in her recovered memories and during the TRIAL leads Emilia to remember
that he was a weepy drunk. A warmth unfurls through her chest.
Fortuna: “But anyway, Emilia. These fairies you mentioned are...?”
7
Leaving aside Juice as he blows his nose with the kerchief, Fortuna gets back to a part of Emilia's
testimony that bothered her. With the topic of FAIRIES raised, Emilia looks up at Fortuna from
within her embrace, her eyes still red.
Emilia: “Oh, they're...”
Emilia: “Fairies, come here.”
Young Emilia reaches out her arm as she speaks to the world.
As if her pale fingertips were a perch, several glowing lights appear, drifting over to convene
around her hand.
Both Fortuna and Juice look shocked to witness the sight.
Fortuna: “It couldn't be, minor spirits? And so many of them. ...How?”
Emilia: “...? I talked to them, and lots of them came out. They come out when I'm playing in the
Princess Room now.”
Juice: “To conduct this sum of minor spirits at such an age... Emilia-sama, it seems that you possess
distinguishable aptitude for spiritualism.”
Emilia: “Aptytoode, for spiritualism?”
Juice: “These who you call fairies are beings known as minor spirits. Extant ubiquitously
throughout the world, open your heart to them to converse and form a contract. Those who are
favoured by spirits, and borrow their strength to achieve the extraordinary, are referred to as
spiritualists.”
Emilia: “I can be one of those?”
Juice: “Certainly. Proceed to mature in good health, favoured by spirits as is presently so...
undoubtedly, many spirits, and more powerful spirits, will come under your direction.”
Emilia's face beams as she hears Juice's explanation.

But Fortuna stands up, and nudges her elbow into Juice's side.
Fortuna: “Hold on, Juice. No funny talk. Going off saying that managing a few minor spirits makes
you a spiritualist... and, Emilia doesn't need it.”
Juice: “So might be how you opine, but Emilia-sama shall not remain a child indefinitely. It will
happen that she cannot stay at your side. My belief would find its additional necessity in her
establishment of herself as herself once that eventuality comes.”
Fortuna and Juice, arguing over where Emilia's education should be focused.
Watching their exchange from aside, the older Emilia inevitably has to think it.
Emilia: “Mother Fortuna and Juice are like a mom and dad.”
Fortuna: “Wh!?”
8
Without a trace of ill will in her expression, young Emilia states the exact thing that older Emilia
thinks.
Emilia watches Fortuna's face redden while agreeing with the fact that, yes, her younger self had
thought the same thing.
Fortuna: “Okay, Emilia, don't say anything weird. Your mother and Juice have known each other for
a very very long time, our relationship isn't one you can talk about like that.”
Juice: “Exactly, Emilia-sama. Fortuna-sama and myself have known each other for a very long
time... in fact, it would have been since being in the company of your mother and father...”
Fortuna: “—Juice.”
Fortuna starts with a frantic explanations, but Juice's loose lips lead her tone to plummet. Juice
seems to sense his mistake as he puts his hand to his mouth.
Juice: “Forgive me.”
Emilia: “Mother, and father?”
Fortuna: “I'm sorry, Emilia. We'll talk about that another time. But anyway you go back to the room.
I haven't forgiven the fact that you snuck out.”
Emilia: “Hrmp... You're so mean, Mother Fortuna...”
Feeling that Fortuna is trying to fudge the conversation, Emilia puffs out her cheeks to display her
displeasure. But Fortuna appears stubborn, and puts her hands to Emilia's puffed cheeks, pressing
down to make her expel the air.
With the air puffed out of Emilia's mouth, Fortuna goes down to match Emilia's eye level.
Fortuna: “Be a good girl, behave. This isn't the last time you're going to get to see Juice. I'll, erm...
make another chance for you to see him.”
Emilia: “Really!? You promise? No going back on it?”
Fortuna: “Oh, no, this girl. Just where could she've learned to be so fussy?”
Fortuna gives Emilia a wry smile as she brings up the previously-covered topic of promises, before
taking her in an embrace.
Fortuna: “Yes, I promise. This is a promise between you and me, and it's sooo important.”
Emilia: “...Okay then. I'll go back to the room.”
Young Emilia gives Fortuna a trusting nod.

Released from the hug, Emilia runs over to Juice before she can start her return to the Princess
Room. She extends her hand to Juice, smiling.
Emilia: “See you, Juice. Promise that we'll meet again.”
9
Juice: “—Yes, assuredly. May we make audience again in the future. I shall be awaiting the day.”
Juice takes the small, extended hand, completing the handshake.

With her smile met with a smile, Emilia nods and nods and nods before releasing her hand and
announcing her goodbye.
Young Emilia readies to return to the Princess Room—
Echidna: “Here they are.”
Whispers Echidna, having silently watched over everything until now.

Emilia hears Echidna clearly and raises her head, looking around to try and determine what Echidna
is referring to—and spots it.
Emilia: “—”
A white young man.

White skin, white hair. He wears a simple shirt and pants, nothing ornate about him. His face does
have its looks, but even said he is lacking in anything defining, his appearance utterly banal.
He could mix into a crowd and disappear instantly with how he epitomizes all lack of individuality,
but his presence right here, right now, makes him seem an abnormal kind of outsider.
Fortuna: “...Who're you!?”
Fortuna in the memory also notices the man, immediately holding Emilia close as she voices her
clear caution.
The man leans against a tree trunk and runs his hand through his white hair.
Man: “Don't you think it follows reasonable sense that when asking a person for their name, you
begin by introducing yourself first?”
The reply makes Fortuna's eyebrow twitch.

Seeing this, the man's mouth twists, the atmosphere he emits dismal.
Man: “Who, is one of those questions where when you give this response I can only think it as stale
and trite but, now that I've actually wandered into a context fitting for that kind of thing why aha I
can indeed understand why people have the urge to say this. Here are fellow persons for the first
time making the presence of the other. Our standings are supposed to be definitively equal as we
begin in our efforts to establish a relationship, but now we have a condescending someone trying to
extort a name unilaterally. I wonder if it's occurred to you. That you're unconsciously,
unsympathetically, and by your own accord treating me as inferior, has that occurred to you?”
Fortuna: “...For a man, you sure love talking.”
Man: “For a man, is where your prejudice shows though and indicates how ignorant you are to
comparative examples of men. And first of all what right do you think you have to take these
creatures called MEN, a class which includes more individuals spread throughout the world than
what is conceivably countable, and compare me to them? This attitude of yours... it's giving me a
little trouble to overlook. It's all lacking in any degree of reasonable courtesy. It's taking this
individual I am, taking my rights, and disregarding them.”
10
It appears that Fortuna's every word has made the lunacy in the man's speech escalate.
With the man growing more and more dangerous, Fortuna exposes her wariness as she braces
herself for combat. But the one to pull the breaks is Juice, standing beside her.
He looks up at the white man, his expression stern as he opens his mouth to speak:
Juice: “Regulus Corneas! For what reason are you here! We had an immutable promise that I would
be the only one involved in this affair!”
Regulus: “Call it an immutable promise or call it whatever you want, it's all just you going off
saying things yourself and presuming things yourself in what is actually just a normal agreement.
Look at you trying to push people into submission with that domineering phrasing of yours, what
great and pompous drivel you've started spewing from your spirit mouth. Trying to restrict my daily
actions, even though I'm not permitted any kind of perfidious behaviour anyway... so that's what a
spirit is? Have you ever considered putting a stop on the infringements you're making to my mind
and person?”
Juice: “Nothing you say presents an answer! If you were displeased with the agreement, we could
have discussed it at church! What have you appeared here for! And who told you that this place
is...”
???: “—This has happened on my instruction.”
Juice's voice trembles in rage as he yells at the displeased young man, Regulus.
But cutting into their argument, never once before heard in this altercation, comes a woman's voice.
Everyone watching the scene has their own reaction to that voice.
A shiver arises in Juice's eyes, Fortuna's eyes blaze in fury, young Emilia shakes her head as she
tears up in her mother's arms, Regulus crafts an ominous smile.
Emilia as she watches the memory swallows her breath, while Echidna merely closes her eyes.
She comes forward, this single girl.

This character standing beside Regulus as he looks down at Emilia, Juice, and Fortuna, is a girl so
beautiful that all who see her would tremble.
Her long, platinum hair gleams sweetly as if sunlight given form, flowing to her slender neck and
streaming down her back.
Long eyelashes border her eyes, their shade so deep a blue that they seem to entrap the world, her
looks so overwhelmingly attractive that even a god would hesitate to touch her fingers, with all her
perfect pulchritude.
Her petite frame is adorable enough that even having the wind cradle her appears risky. What garbs
her is merely a single white cloth, and the whole aura of it suggests that the world would permit
nothing else to touch her skin.
The presence she holds is not that of an ordinary person, and her appearance is not what an ordinary
person would have.
Her voice possesses an almost magical allure, binding the minds and bodies of those who hear it,
11
nobody present here capable of saying anything any more.
Girl: “Is there something wrong? Cardinal Betelgeux Romanée-Conti?”
Tilting her head, the girl fires her question.

Being looked at by her, being talked to by her. Just the fact that any one of her actions are aimed at
oneself is enough to inspire an overwhelming euphoria, such that death would not be an aversive
prospect, the sensation unavoidable.
Although she knows that this is the past, Emilia feels her mouth rapidly going dry as she looks at
the girl.
—This thing is dangerous.
Juice: “Why are you... no, Regulus Corneas! Why have you brought her here!”
Juice grits his teeth, rejecting the emotions swelling up inside him.
—This thing, is dangerous.
Regulus: “Do you think it's possible for me of all people to pull any such stunt as 'bringing people
places' with how it infringes on the will of others? It is by her own volition that we are in company.
Your attempts to make all of this my fault are yes an amazing exhibition of prejudice. I'd appreciate
you not to go off passing your unasked-for judgements on this human being that I am.”
Girl: “Cardinal Regulus. He is rattled. Do not fault him too much.”
The corners of Regulus's mouth tremble in a frantic attempt to keep ecstasy from showing on his
face as he bows respectfully.
It's strange.
Regulus is overwhelming, alien. That he is so obediently obeying her will illustrates beyond any
parallel how abnormal this girl is.
Juice looks up at the girl, his eyes trembling in shock and confusion as he shakes his head.
Juice: “That is... remarkably, cruel... Pandora-sama...”
Juice's breathy voice leads the girl to smile faintly.

This girl's smile, blessed by the world and harbinger of even greater felicity. The girl, Pandora,
answers all the gazes aimed at her with a tolerance that permits everything.
She spreads her arms wide, as if her small reach will cradle everything in existence.
Pandora: “Now, shall we begin? —For the fulfilment of cardinal desire of us witch cultists.”
Fortuna: “PANDORAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
With young Emilia protected behind her, Fortuna thrusts out her arms to generate a blue magic
circle before her. Icicles materialize with overwhelming momentum, their aim set directly on
Pandora.
12
Pandora: “Goodness.”
Fortuna: “Be impaled, and apologize to my brother and the rest!!”
Pandora casually puts her hand to her mouth. Fortuna strikes.

Each of the icicles is as large an adult's arm, and their number is near to twenty. They form at
speeds fast enough to be continuous, shooting one after another—spearing into the astonished girl
before exploding into white vapour.
The crackling of shattering ice rains upon the crackling of shattering ice without end, the white
smoke cloaking over the surroundings as Fortuna regardless relents not a second in her attack.
Young Emilia's mouth gapes open with Fortuna standing before her, her beautiful face twisted in
rage as she hoists up her arms.
Fortuna: “AaAand now—!!”
Following the motion of her arms as she swings them down, a ball of ice massive enough to
decimate the forest trees plummets down from above. Its aim is true as it slams into the spot where
Pandora was, white demise drilling itself into the forest ground, marking the grave.
Not even the older Emilia has anything she can say about Fortuna's overwhelming magical prowess.
Even supposing that Emilia had Puck's help, like hell she could handle magic that proficiently. She
had never made low estimations of her mother, but learning that her strength was greater than what
she remembered makes her shiver.
However,
Regulus: “Say... you were paying me absolutely no attention during any of that, were you? You
weren't paying me even the slightest thought and you still opted for an attack that would entangle
me in it, honestly don't you find that suspect? Do you know what it means? What it means is that
you infringed upon my presence, my life, my rights.”
Immediately following the protracted complaint, the massive ball of ice shatters to pieces from the
ground-up.
The shards of ice-crystal scatter through the air, dreamlike, the sight of Regulus casually standing
there being overwhelming abnormal. The sight of Pandora standing beside him uninjured, also.
Regulus makes a show of easily brushing off his coat. Despite the ferocity of the attack he sustains
not a single injury, in fact not even his clothes are sullied in the least. Pandora adjusts her bangs
slightly, disrupted by air pressure as they are.
Most likely Regulus, standing before Pandora, had protected her—but it's all preposterous. Emilia
has not a clue as to what happened.
Echidna: “So that's this generation's Greed. Considering what an impossible fluke of a meeting it is
for me to be witnessing this, it really is very fascinating.”
Emilia: “You know what that was?”
Emilia addresses Echidna, who has moved out of the tree-shade and into a spot where she can better
observe the fight. Echidna glances at Emilia, her eyes narrowing.
13
Echidna: “I can make a guess, but it's far from anything definite. If we can keep watching this for a
little longer, I might be able to figure out what's going on, but... It doesn't seem that circumstances
will allow for that.”
Emilia: “What do you...”
Echidna: “There they go.”
Although frustrated, Emilia directs her gaze forward.
Even with Fortuna's offensive, the fight has produced zero results.
Seeing Regulus stepping forward and looking displeased, Juice stretches out his arm.
Juice: “Fortuna-sama, I ask that you take Emilia-sama and withdraw! We are presently powerless
against Regulus Corneas!”
Fortuna: “You...! That woman is right there, and you're telling me to stand down!?”
Juice: “Consider the situation! Who is it that you are protecting in this instant!”
Fortuna: “—!”
Juice bellows at the belligerent Fortuna. Fortuna's face stiffens in shock as she glances behind her,
to find young Emilia holding anxiously onto her mother's clothes.
Emilia: “M-Mother...”
Fortuna: “Emilia!”
Juice: “Please withdraw. From there, rescue the village. The followers who accompanied me to this
place share me in my feelings. They will surely aid you.”
Fortuna: “If we do that, what will you do?”
Fortuna bends down and holds Emilia to her chest, while Juice speaks calmly.
She stands up with Emilia in her embrace, looking anxiously at Juice.
Juice: “—Please calm your worry. I am not remaining behind absent of any plan.”
Juice, although exuding tension, responds to Fortuna's concerned gaze with a smile.
Seeing it, Fortuna closes her eyes.
Fortuna: “I'm coming back to help you.”
With that, Fortuna breaks into a run through the forest, Emilia in her arms.
Emilia struggles in her grip, peeks her head out from over Fortuna's shoulder.
Emilia: “JUICE!!”
14
Juice: “—”
Juice turns to glance at Emilia, his expression somehow relieved as he raises his hand.
With that, and with Fortuna and Emilia sprinting deep into the forest, Juice disappears from the
couple's view.
Emilia: “...It's strange. Me, I was taken away, so I shouldn't be seeing what happens here.”
Echidna: “Don't disparage my architecture of these worlds of memory. Your memories may be the
starting point, but the construction comes from my algorithms and takes reference from the Book of
Wisdom. To an extent, it's simple to compensate for the events which you haven't seen. Although...”
Standing aside the bewildered Emilia, Echidna's gaze tracks the path of Fortuna's escape.
Echidna: “Speaking for the sake of overcoming your TRIAL, it's correct that we follow them. What
do you think? Should we transition over?”
Echidna indirectly announces that Emilia ought to follow Fortuna. Which rationally speaking is a
correct statement. The TRIAL is concerned with Emilia's past, so she should be prioritizing whatever
young Emilia is seeing and doing now. But,
Emilia: “Echidna... that kind of sounded like you're trying to make me go that way.”
Echidna: “...”
Emilia: “Me overthinking... isn't it. Your phrasing and attitude just then was weird.”
Echidna: “...Whatever you think is up to you. And also, this side's moving again as well.”
Echidna goes without answering Emilia's question, her expression blank as she steps back a small
distance. Her retreat is probably to avoid getting showered any side-damages from the imminently-
starting fight.
No matter how terrible the damages are, nothing will affect Emilia or Echidna. But if anything
alters the surroundings, they can not avoid the impact that will have on the earth they are standing
on.
Regulus: “Well wasn't that cool of you, Betelgeux. But whose permission do you think you have to
be doing these things? Do you have any idea at all why I'm here? Think about it in any way you can
possibly conceive, and it's obvious I'm here on business. Not with you, with the other one. You
getting in my way here means you're obstructing me from doing what I ought to do. It's infringing,
my rights.”
Juice: “Say anything you wish, Regulus Corneas. But, with my being at stake, I must not allow you
any passage further!”
Regulus: “Well said. Not that I could give less of a care about the founder of the Witch Cult, but
how wonderfully said, when it was some smidgen of past contributions that landed you in the seat
you're occupying. How can you possibly believe that you have any hope of beating me, properly
chosen into my seat as I am?”
15
Juice: “That... I will now present.”
Regulus's anger intensifies over the course of his egotistical strings of logic. Juice responds quietly.
His hand reaches into his vestments, his expression steeled with resolve. To Emilia it looks the
expression of a man resolved for DEATH.
Emilia: “No... Juice, what are you doing!?”
Emilia's vicarious experience of her past has led her to remember her nickname for him.
With the situation such that he is resolved for death, Emilia promptly reaches out her arm in an
attempt to stop him. But the present Emilia has no means to influence the past.
Her outstretched hand passes through him, feeling no touch of the palm that she had grasped in her
youth.
Regulus: “That's...”
From his pocket, Juice withdraws a small, black box.

Regulus's brows furrow at first, but he promptly seems to guess at the thing's identity as his eyes
shoot open wide. With Regulus showing shock for the first time, Juice's resolute gaze pierces
through him.
Juice: “You should be able to sense it. Your hands have also held it once before.”
Regulus: “I am aware. Very aware, and so my jaw's too busy gaping at your abject stupidity for me
to speak. Perhaps you were keeping that hidden on your person thinking it'd be your ace or
whatever else idea you've come up with, but couldn't you tell from the moment you had it anywhere
near you? You! Are unqualified to have that! It wasn't anything else, it's the thing that's decided
that!”
Juice: “...Indeed, my compatibility with it is none. Owing to that, I have merely held what was
entrusted to me and nothing else. However, it also serves for the sake of junctures such as these.”
Pandora: “Cardinal Betelgeux Romanée-Conti.”
Juice responds quietly to the infuriated Regulus.

Pandora, not having moved an inch from her original spot, cuts into their conversation.
Juice raises his head. Pandora's face is tranquil.
Pandora: “Happy travels.”
Juice: “—”
No hostility or goodwill or ill will or nothing, just simple words of blessing.

And so being, Emilia cannot prevent her horror, and neither can Juice.
The blessing almost looks to have butchered Juice entirely as he grimaces, enduring the pain. He
twists the box in his hand, taking off the lid.
Inside the box upon his palm is a black, squirming SOMETHING.
16
Juice: “I beg you forgive me, Flugel-sama.”
With that, Juice presses both the dark something and the box to his chest.
Instantly, the something snaps onto Juice's body like droplets of water, compounding in volume
explosively to envelop him wholly.
It's as if Juice is being absorbed by some viscous creature. Emilia shrieks in silent grief as the
SOMETHING shrouds Juice's body, constricts him.
Regulus: “Imbecile.”
Spits Regulus, for the first time phrasing his judgements succinctly.
His scornful gaze is fixed on Juice, enveloped in the SOMETHING as he hoists his arms to the
heavens, his mouth agape and shrieking. Not as if in pain, not as if in joy, but as if some other
emotion is throwing his being into disarray.
Emilia: “—”
A baffling sound joins the shrieking.

The sound of someone clapping their hands.
Pandora: “Magnificent.”
Whispers platinum Pandora as she gives her applause.

As she watches Juice, swallowed and panting in the wake of the emotional torrent, her cheeks
redden in ecstasy.
The slight hitch in her breathing is, unmistakably, because the scene is exciting her.
Regulus: “Pandora-sama?”
Emilia is not the only one with questions about Pandora's attitude, for Regulus speaks.
He furrows his brows at the clapping Pandora. She glances back at Regulus with her cheeks still
red, aborting her applause to point at Juice.
Pandora: “Cardinal Regulus Corneas.”
Regulus: “Yes.”
Pandora: “He is coming.”
Instantly, Regulus flips to hang upside down, and goes flung hurtling high into the sky overhead.
Regulus: “Wha—?”
It's the same kind of infantile violence as grabbing a doll by the leg and flinging the thing away.
Regulus has not a clue as to what is happening either, making a dumb noise as he hits the apex of the
throw—only to slam back down to the earth. Having obviously transcended terminal velocity in his
fall, it seems he had been thrown with his LEG STILL GRABBED.
Helpless, Regulus smashes to the ground head-first.

Out thunders the echoing boom as the earth bursts apart, the trees caught in the crash falling and
17
falling in sequence toward Regulus's point of impact. The secondary attack pins Regulus beneath
the lumber, silence falling upon the forest.
Emilia falls speechless, her blank mind working frantically to figure out what on earth just
happened.
She didn't see a single thing. But supposing there is something that she did make out—
???: “I am sure I did... INFORM.”
Fallen to his knees and robed in black vestment, blood streams from the man's eyes as he gazes
forward.
Glaring at the gaps between the trees and the rising plumes of dust, breathing ragged and having
turned his resolve into a victorious bet, is this man.
Freed from the agony of being shrouded in black SOMETHING, he stands.
He is—not Juice. This man, is Betelgeux Romanée-Conti.
Betelgeux:
“I will not allow you to pursue them... you shall pass—NO FURTHER!!”
18
CHAPTER 119: BACK THEN, EVEN NOW, LOVE UNCHANGING
Streaming tears of blood and gritting his teeth, Juice shrieks.
Emilia cannot stop the goosebumps from running down her spine.
Until a moment ago, a black SOMETHING had been trying to subsume Juice's body. It has stopped
gorging on the outside of him, and presently squirms within him.
Juice's body spasms, pitches, beneath his black vestments.

The blood seeping through the thick fabric gives suggestion of how gruesome his state is, and
informs that an unimaginable nightmare is unfurling in his interior.
Emilia: “Juice...”
What on earth did Juice put inside him?

And what was that attack that toppled Regulus? It was like she couldn't see what was happening,
and gives Emilia a sense of deja vu.
It's almost as if, just a little while ago, she had witnessed the exact same—
???: “You have proven your resolve magnificently. Cardinal Betelgeux Romanée-Conti.”
A breezy female voice interrupts Emilia's thoughts.

The calm speaker is Pandora, looking down at Juice as he breathes raggedly and spits blood. Even
while watching Regulus shunt into the sky, her tranquil countenance had remained utterly unshaken.
Pandora: “You have done well to subsume that witch factor, being that you are unqualified. With
my name as Pandora, I confer to your resolve and to your ironclad will the seat of SLOTH.”
Juice: “Do you believe that I desire any SUCH SEAT? My present desires total merely to one. Without
a moment of regret for my sacrifice, the safety of that family!”
Fortuna and Emilia are gone from the warzone.

Juice had resolved to stake his lifeblood on their escape. Pandora's brows perk up in surprise, when
a redness flushes her cheeks, her smile intoxicated.
Pandora: “Love. Very wonderful.”
Juice: “It is an emotion that you will NEVER UNDERSTAND!”
Pandora, persistently transcended and aloof. Juice, prepared to fight to the end.
He supports himself painfully on one knee as he raises his trembling arm, forcing his bloody eyes
wide as he screams:
Juice: “Authority of SLOTH—Unseen Hand!!”
Overwhelming pressure bursts from Juice's position.

But Emilia's eyes cannot discern the nature of this force. Juice had merely extended his arm and
yelled, yielding no visible changes in the world.
Even so,
19
Emilia: “The forest's being torn down!?”
Throughout the area surrounding Juice, as if beset by invisible serpents, out spreads the aftermath of
destruction. Trees snap, earth shatters, clumps of dirt and grass scatter through the air.
Juice: “Aaau... aaaaAAAAAAAAAA!!”
All while indiscriminately ravaging Juice's surroundings, the destruction answers to his scream as it
directs it path toward Pandora. Although faced with demolition akin to an oncoming giant, trampling
over the woods, she shows no indications of moving from that spot.
So being, the destruction proceeds on its course, capturing the small Pandora and—
???: “Say.”
Juice: “—!?”
???: “I came here, I'm present here, so what do you think you're doing in moving the situation along
without paying the slightest of mind to me? Giving and wantless as I am, I still have to think that
about now's a suitable enough time for me to be angry.”
The instant the invisible serpent reaches Pandora, a white figure cuts into the attack's path.
His hair fluttering, Regulus's raised hand has stops the shockwave. An impact which would kill any
ordinary person washes over him as he simply stands there, absolutely nothing happening to him. Or
even that is understating it. He had been slammed into the ground with a force strong enough to
burst the earth apart, his body supposedly buried in the soil, and forget about injuries: there isn't
even a speck of dirt on him.
Emilia: “No way...”
Her hand to her mouth, Emilia is speechless.

His safe return from Fortuna's surprise attack she could at least understand. If he possessed combat
ability far exceeding that of Fortuna, then perhaps he had managed to defend against the lethal
attack.
But Juice's invisible strike presents a different story. There is no white fog to obstruct Emilia's view
this time—she had plainly witnessed Regulus be thrown into the air, and slammed into the ground.
He had, undefended, been slammed into the ground.
There was still some million in one chance that it hadn't wounded him.
But the absolute lack of dirt or soil or whatever filth on him is beyond any explanation.
There's some kind of trick, preventing attacks from—no—preventing outside effects from
influencing Regulus.
Juice: “Regulus Corneas!”
Regulus: “Can I say how unpleasant it is? The factor has not acknowledged you, and there you are
ignoring your bodily collapse to force the thing into submission. You don't think that's an insult to us
who reached our seats by way of proper process? That it doesn't wound the unwavering speck of
pride I have in myself?”
In line with the swing of Juice's arm, Regulus's face rebounds.
20
His neck rotates as if he's been punched, but when he promptly returns his head to proper position,
not a trace of the blow besmirches his face. He simply furrows his brows in displeasure, undefended
as the consecutive punches proceed to batter him.
Echidna: “I don't think staying here will show us any particular developments.”
Juice's offensive to Regulus' defensive as he mercilessly repels the attacks.

Emilia watches her old friend staking his life in the battle, when Echidna addresses her from behind.
Emilia glances back, glaring the expressionless witch.
Emilia: “You're telling me to leave? But look at what happened to Juice, how frantically he's
trying!”
Echidna: “Though, the question of whether his efforts are going to reach a desired result does leave
some room for debate. And unfortunately, I have no intentions of debating with you. It doesn't
interest me to torment the weak, and hearing even one extraneous syllable out your mouth is the
pinnacle of unpleasant.”
Emilia: “Then it should be fine for us to stay quiet and watch. I'll...”
remain here, and see Juice's resolve through to the end.

But when she goes to make that assertion, Emilia's own heart keeps her from saying anything.
The hand fails to touch anything at her chest, and so she recalls why she came here. It was to
challenge the TRIAL and overcome her past, is why.
Emilia is currently witnessing her legitimate past, which she wanted to forget.
Juice's fight here assuredly did happen, and perhaps its outcome is what she ought to watch over,
rather than what became of Fortuna and young Emilia.
—But that would be taking Subaru's feelings, having seen her off, and Juice's feelings, having
attempted to secure Emilia and Fortuna's escape, and betraying both of them.
What happened to Fortuna and Emilia after Juice presented them their escape?
She needed to unearth more of her slumbering, unrecovered past, and reveal the answer.
Echidna: “It seems like even your deficient brain can understand which decision is wiser.”
Emilia: “...You're right. Let's follow me and Mother. Will Juice...?”
Echidna: “Don't worry, it's a battle between Cardinals of Sin. The scales won't tip in either of their
favours so easily. It's another story supposing that someone else joins the fight... but, it's
inconceivable that she would involve herself in battle anyway.”
The ferocity of Juice and Regulus' fight compounds.

Blood trails from Juice's eyes, his nose, his mouth. Correspondent with the escalation of damage
ransacking his insides, the unseen destruction he manipulates shoots up in accuracy and force.
But Regulus remains so unchanged and ordinary that it's abnormal. Even with the destruction
showering his undefended form, he merely stands there with a bored expression, looking down
upon Juice's resistance.
It practically feels like, if he chose to go on the offensive, the situation's trend would instantly shift.
21
Pandora: “Hauauh...”
Echidna's gaze spears through to Pandora, heart racing and expression aroused.
Indeed, it seems that she is not going to involve herself in the fight. A beautiful girl faced with an
abnormal battle, panting rather sexually—leaving all that strangeness aside,
Echidna: “I'm changing the scene. —To you and your mother, escaped into the forest.”
Emilia: “—oop,”
Echidna raises her hand and clicks her fingers.

Everything in Emilia's vision warps as the forest scenery shifts, the false feeling of the ground
beneath her feet being covered over with something new abruptly leading her to stumble.
She raises her head. No destruction has reached this section of the forest, this familiar spot.
???: “No! Mother, no! Please don't leave me!”
Hearing the shrill voice of a crying child, Emilia jerks her head up.
What she faces is a familiar tree—with its inside hollowed out and re-purposed into a room large
enough to shelter a small child, what herself and her mother called the PRINCESS ROOM.
Fortuna and crying young Emilia are conversing outside its entrance.
Emilia clings to Fortuna's chest. Fortuna grasps her daughter's shoulders, and frantically,
Fortuna: “Please listen to me, Emilia. Everything's okay. I'll come... yes, I'll deal with this quickly
and come right back. So please stay hidden here while I'm doing that. Please.”
Emilia: “No! I don't wanna! Mother Fortuna, you're making a face like Juice did! Like Juice did,
what're you gonna do! L-leaving me, what're you... going to...”
Emilia's little hands cling desperately to keep her mother from escaping.
Fortuna should be easily capable of untangling herself from a child's grip if she wanted to. Her
reasoning for not cruelly untangling herself from Emilia's hands is evidenced by her amethyst eyes
as she gazes at Emilia.
Fortuna is Emilia's mother. So she cannot bat away the hands of her crying, clinging daughter.
Emilia: “Don't leave me! Let me be with you! I won't tell lies any more! I won't break promises! I'll
be a good girl, I'll be a good good girl... so don't leave, me...”
Fortuna: “Emilia... Emilia, Emilia, Emilia!”
Not wanting to be separated from her mother, and willing to sacrificing everything so that she does
not have to separate from her mother, Emilia shrieks. Fortuna, her expression breaking down with
emotion, hugs her daughter tight. If she does not press her daughter's face to her chest as she is,
she'd see it.
Her daughter would see her mother's expression, see the overflowing and unceasing tears, see the
teardrops wetting her mother's cheeks.
22
Young Emilia had not seen her mother crying, but older Emilia clearly did.
Emilia had never imagined that her perpetually noble, marvellous, strong, respectable, not even
weak in the slightest mother, had ever been so wounded and assuaged with sorrow that she cried
such feverish tears.
As she watches her mother cry, the onlooking Emilia hits her limit.
Unable to put her hands to her cheeks in time, the tears in her eyes arise one after another.
Having seen this, having seen her mother's face in this instant, she understands.
Not that she had ever doubted it, but truly in this second, she is again convicted.
Emilia: “Mother Fortuna... was, my real mother...”
Her birth mother, whoever she was, doesn't hold any significance to Emilia now.
As if Fortuna's insistence that she was just a substitute could ever make Emilia forget that she was
her real mother.
Although spoken by precious and respected Mother Fortuna as they were, those words alone were
ones that Emilia could not accept.
Emilia: “I love you, Mother Fortuna...”
As if anyone could say anything to make this feeling bend.
???: “Fortuna-sama—!”
A man's voice calls out to Fortuna from behind as she holds Emilia close.
Fortuna wipes her face with her sleeve, hiding her torrent of tears as she turns to face the speaker.
Her gaze lands on an elf man in lightweight dress.
He is one of the elves who lives in this village, and someone who Emilia knows too.
Fortuna: “Arch, how is the village?”
The man runs over while Fortuna questions him in regular voice. The man, Arch, looks to have
noticed that Fortuna was crying, but goes without touching on the topic and shakes his head.
Arch: “It's the same everywhere. The Cardinal's subordinates and the village's men are reciprocating
the fight, but...”
Fortuna: “Isn't looking good, then.”
Fortuna lowers her gaze, biting her lip at the poor state of the battle.
Emilia looks anxiously up at her mother, saying nothing as she grips her clothes and trembles.
Arch notices her shaking.
Arch: “It's okay. You don't have to be scared, Emilia. Believe in all us villagers, us adults. And
besides, your mother is a very strong, very scary person.”
Emilia: “Mm, mm...”
23
Fortuna: “Arch, was that 'scary' really necessary? Geez...”
Fortuna crosses her arms in indignation. But she does nod to Arch's indirect words of consideration:
We can't stay utterly pessimistic about this, and gazes at the Princess Room.
Fortuna: “Hiding her here won't work any more, will it.”
Arch: “Frustrating as it is, staying in the forest means they'll find her before long. Could their goal
be...?”
Fortuna: “The seal deep in the woods, likely. Where did they find out about it? And even that
woman!”
Fortuna seems to have particular hostility toward Pandora's presence as she bites her lip in
frustration, before giving a strong shake of her head.
Fortuna: “It's fine, but anyway, I'm going. I'm the strongest fighter in this forest, this isn't the time
for me to be dragging feet over here.”
Arch: “No! We will be the ones to fight! Fortuna-sama, you take Emilia and exit the forest!”
Fortuna: “What will running away accomplish? Have our peacelands stolen from us... that logic
isn't going to stop me. Us losing isn't the problem here. The problem here is having them disclose
the seal!”1
Fortuna beats back Arch's yells with an even stronger tone.

And, embarrassed that she snapped back at him,
Fortuna: “I'm sorry.”
Fortuna: “I know you resent me. There was honestly no reason for all of you to get wrapped up in
this. When Emilia and I came... placed burdens you didn't need.”
Arch: “No! As if there could possibly be any one of us who thinks that!”
Fortuna: “Arch...”
Arch responds ferociously to Fortuna's regretful voice, as if this alone is something he must not
allow her to say. His face reddens, his long elfin ears tapering back in fury.
Arch: “Please stop constantly excluding us from your problems! With our long lifespans, perhaps it
may have only felt like the blink of an eye... but even so! We spent the same time together, saw the
same things together! Have you forgotten that!?”
Fortuna says nothing.
1 The word used for 'disclose' more commonly means exposing something hidden to the public, but has a second
meaning of 'graverobbing' which might(?) have potential to be the correct meaning in this context.
On reflection if you take it extremely literally 'disclose the seal' works fine for both meanings. WONDERS of language.
24
Arch: “Who could possibly think ill of you! When we have great debts to you, your brother... to
Emilia's mother, how could you ask that we shamelessly forget what we owe!”
His emotions detonating, Arch pleads Fortuna while practically in tears.

The yet-young elf breaths raggedly as he falls to his knees, sniffling as he looks up at Fortuna. She
closes her eyes in silence.
Fortuna: “I'm sorry. —Once again, I've invalidated the family I live with.”
Arch: “Fortuna-sama... I-I may have, said too...”
Fortuna: “No, it was important that you did. I'm sorry, Arch. And thank you.”
Fortuna gives kneeling Arch her thanks, and presents him her hand. After a moment of hesitation,
Arch takes Fortuna's hand and quietly stands back up.
Fortuna turns to face Emilia.
Fortuna: “Emilia. You Mother has an important role she has to fill to protect everybody. We're going
to be separated for just a little bit.”
Emilia: “D-don't, Mother. I... I...”
Fortuna: “Please. It's only for a little bit, so please listen. Go with Arch, and leave the forest. This
forest is... going to be, sooo dangerous soon.”
Speaking to Emilia, who borders on tears as she shakes her head, Fortuna glances back to Arch.
Her determined amethyst gazes makes Arch's skinny body go rigid.
Arch: “For-Fortuna-sama... I,”
Fortuna: “Arch. You're still young, and have a future. Please take Emilia, and... I know it's a hard
world to live in, but there has to be hope.”
Arch: “I... don't say these things as though it's the end! I-I'm staying in this forest to the last, with
everybody!”
Fortuna: “Please, Arch, Emilia. She's my, my brother's, my sister in law's, daughter.”
Arch: “—!”
This was merely the voice of a frail woman, absent of Fortuna's strength and nobility.
Hearing the voice of this woman and mother, Fortuna, tears stream down Arch's face.
Arch buries his face in his hands as he sobs.
Arch: “It isn't fair...! When you hear something like that, you know it's impossible to refuse...! I,
want to fight with everyone! But!”
Fortuna: “I'm sorry. For pushing everything onto children, please forgive us.”
Fortuna puts her hands on the shoulders of the crying young elf, begging for forgiveness.
25
Arch says nothing, but accepts Fortuna's request.
Now, the people that Fortuna must persuade here amounts to only Emilia.
Fortuna: “Emilia”
Emilia: “No! I, I wanna be with you, Mother! Please! I ask please! Please, let me be with you! I
don't wanna, be alone...”
Fortuna: “You're not alone at all. Listen closely.”
Emilia bawls, unreceptive. She puts her hands over her ears, trying to shut out every word of her
mother's goodbye, which makes older Emilia want to pull her young self's cheeks taut.
Not to punish her for disobedience. But so that she cannot escape from a single syllable of any of
the words that Fortuna is going to speak.
Fortuna: “Emilia.”
Fortuna squats down. Hugs Emilia.

She takes Emilia's arms in her grasp, stops her from plugging her ears, and when her daughter acts
out by pressing her head against her, Fortuna nuzzles her cheek against her daughter's silver hair. As
though touching something, someone, more beloved than any other, taking care so that they will not
break.
Fortuna: “Your Mother is always right there with you. Right there when you close your eyes, in
your memories. Right there when you cradle yourself, in your heart as it grows warm. Right there
when you call out, beneath the same sky that your voice echoes. You and Mother are always
together. Always, always, forever... together.”
Emilia: “Liar. Liar, liar, liar... You're lying, Mother...”
Fortuna: “Emilia. —Promise.”
Emilia attempts to discard her mother's words as being mere consolation, when Fortuna looks her in
the eye and speaks. The word PROMISE leads Emilia to swallow her breath, shut her mouth.
Led by Fortuna's gaze to her outstretched palm, young Emilia too, places her palm to Fortuna's.
Fortuna: “Emilia and her Mother will always be together. That's what I promise you.”
Emilia: “Y-you'll, really... be with me?”
Fortuna: “Yes, really. More than anyone else in the world, your Mother loves you, sooo much, Lia.”
The tender call of 'Lia' is what makes the dam of tears for young Emilia, for old Emilia, burst.
Sobbing and bawling, two Emilias present and past.
Emilia: “Mother Fortuna... l-love you too... love you, love you...”
Emilia: “I love you. I love you, Mother Fortuna. Love you, sooo much, love you, treasure you...”
The emotions of the two Emilias overlap as they frantically answer to the love given to them.
26
They strain their voices, press their bodies close to her, to show that should they do otherwise they
will fail to convey, fail to express, all of these feelings in their hearts.
Fortuna: “Love you, Lia.”
On her cheeks, eyelids, forehead, Fortuna's soft warm lips touch her.
Although permitted to share touch, to share embrace, Fortuna had been late to learn how to express
love as a mother, and never would do such things—making this the moment that Fortuna truly, from
the bottom of heart, first accepted herself as being Emilia's mother.
Fortuna: “—I'm counting on you, Arch.”
Arch: “...Understood.”
Having conveyed her absolute love to her daughter, Fortuna stands and calls for the young man.
Arch receives the bawling Emilia from Fortuna, holds her firm, and gives Fortuna one big bow of
his head.
Fortuna: “Get away safely.”
Arch: “I will... Yes, I will! I won't let Emilia... won't let this girl be hurt by anybody!”
Fortuna's cheeks relax in relief.

She points to a road deeper into the forest.
Fortuna: “That way. I'm begging you.”
Arch: “—”
Arch breaks into a run, toward where Fortuna is pointing, saying nothing.
In his hold as he sprints through the forest, Emilia peeks her head out from behind his shoulder—to
sight her mother as she grows distant. She cries out, but makes no sound.
Fortuna's sharp eyes soften so tenderly,
Fortuna: “—I love you, Emilia.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Held by Arch, Emilia looks frantically in the direction where her mother has disappeared.
Like she's begging, that consistently staring like this might make her vanished mother reappear.
Like she's hoping, that perhaps she'll come to follow them.
Arch: “Emilia!”
Emilia's stubborn spirit communicates well to Arch as he holds her small form.
Arch's face turns into a mess as he considers what to tell her young heart, having undergone
separation with Fortuna.
27
Echidna: “—I'm surprised.”
Says Echidna to Emilia, the two running side-by-side in pursuit of Arch.

Still affected by the parting with her mother, and not quite suppressing her weeping, Emilia
questions Echidna using only her gaze. The white-haired witch shrugs.
Echidna: “That you didn't stay behind there, and followed your past self without hesitation. I was
certain that it'd be like before when watching Sloth, that you'd protract the scene with your mother
so girlishly.”
Emilia: “...I know I told you before. I'm here to watch my past through! Mother, and Juice, and
everyone... that's why they...”
Echidna: “Mmhm, mmhm. Said something unasked for, didn't I?”
Looking like she did not get the answer she wanted, Echidna shakes her head.
Even Emilia has to feel irritated with Echidna's callousness, but before she can mention it, young
Emilia buries her face in her hands.
Emilia: “Why? Why? How, come this... happened? I-it's, because I... I, broke my, promise... and left
the, room...”
Arch: “No. No, Emilia. It's not your fault at all! It's not Fortuna-sama's fault, it's not anybody's
fault! There's no need to blame yourself!”
Emilia: “But then, how come? How come, we're separated? Mother... and Juice too, how come... do,
do they hate me? Lots of, heaps of people, hate me so, this's why it...”
Her incredibly sudden parting with Juice and Fortuna has cornered Emilia's heart right to the
precipice of breaking.
Thinking back on what foreboded this situation, and on her own actions, young Emilia sinks into a
sea of self-invalidation.
She broke her promise. She left the room she wasn't meant to leave. She knew about the seal she
wasn't meant to know about. It looks like everything that caused this started by her own deeds.
Emilia: “Should I've... stayed there, stayed in the room? If I did, would, nobody be gone... and I
could, be with everybody?”
Arch: “Emilia...”
Emilia: “Was, I a bad girl...? Is everybody, in the world going to, hate me... and, I'll be alone?”
Arch: “No... No, Emilia! Nobody, there's nobody out there who hates you. The world isn't here to
hurt you. ...The world's here so that everybody can celebrate you!”
Arch frantically tries to persuade the bawling Emilia.

Part of is an attempt to stop Emilia's crying, but a larger part is much like a wish—because he
himself would like to believe it.
28
Arch's shouts strike older Emilia's heart.
It wasn't just Fortuna and Juice. He and the other villagers had all protected her, loved her, reached
out to her to make sure she wasn't alone.
It was not until this exact instant that she truly remembered: it had always, always been like this.
???: “You over there—!”
With a sharp shout, somebody slinks into the space before Arch as he runs.
The black-robed character bounds out from a gap between the trees, which prompts Arch to stop
immediately and for his gaze to grow wary. But the man raises his hands in response.
Man: “Wait, don't panic! I'm one of Cardinal Romanée-Conti's fingers!”
Arch: “The Cardinal's...!”
Hearing Juice's name from the puffed man in the robes makes relief arise on Arch's face. The man
approaches after seeing Arch lose his wariness, and notices Emilia.
Finger: “That girl... then, Fortuna-sama couldn't possibly be...?”
Arch: “There's no need for concern. She's... She has merely entrusted me with Emilia, and left us
together. Fortuna-sama is the most skilful of any of us in the village. She will surely defeat the
trespassers, and...”
Finger: “...Though I find this hard to state, I'm afraid that's a difficult prospect.”
The man lowers his gaze, his voice weak.

Arch raises his brows. The man sighs, his expression grave.
Finger: “We have confirmed the presence of the Cardinal of Greed, and our Cardinal has entered
into combat with him. Were that the only problem, and we repelled the extremist members of the
faith, it might be possible for us to drive them away, but...”
Arch: “Some other issue has...?”
Finger: “—The witchbeast BLACKSNAKE has been loosed in the forest.”
Arch: “—!?”
Arch is stunned.
He shakes his head in disbelief, gesturing to the forest.
Arch: “That's ridiculous, impossible! The Blacksnake is even less controllable than the White
Whale or Sizeable Hare! It's not the White Whale, under Gluttony's command, or the Sizeable Hare,
whose course can be guided... the Blacksnake is just a natural disaster which listens to nobody! A
catastrophe among catastrophes! How!”
Finger: “...The Witch Cult's Pandora-sama has accompanied him. Pandora-sama cannot go so far as
to control the Blacksnake with her authority, but she can lead it to a destination.”
29
Arch: “Pandora? That isn't a name I've...”
Finger: “She exists in secrecy! In the Witch Cult she is taboo not to be spoken, neither by the
Cardinal's faction of moderates nor by the extremists. Now she has come here.”
Arch's shock keeps him from saying a single word.

Arch's failure to sink into despair results from the heartbeat of the life in his arms. Results from his
knowledge that he is not permitted any pessimism.
Arch: “Fortuna-sama has stated that I am to lead Emilia to her escape. Regardless of what may
happen to the forest, this girl... this hope, must be protected!”
Finger: “...I will accompany you. Although I cannot say how much this frail person of mine can
assist.”
Arch's persistent will to fight leads the man's crestfallen look to recover into determination.
He casts his robe open, revealing rather stout muscled legs and for his age, breaking into a run as he
takes the lead along the path out of the forest.
Finger: “We'll proceed while taking care to avoid the extremists. Now, if we can just exit the forest,
prospects should be—”
brighter. But in that exact instant,

Something entangles the leg of the man in the lead, leading him to fall. He topples onto his side as
Arch cries out and panickedly runs toward him.
But the man shouts to the approaching Arch,
Finger: “Stay back!!”
Arch: “—!?”
Finger: “My blunder... but to think it came so quickly!”
The man uprights his fallen body. But, upright himself is all he does. His legs, for some reason, do
not move an inch.
Beneath his overturned vestments—marks like black burn wounds besmirch his exposed shins.
Finger: “It's the vile tongue of the Blacksnake! Flee!”
Arch: “But!”
Finger: “I am already beyond saving...”
The man's face rapidly begins to change in appearance.

His skin from the neck up steadily drowns in dark, mottled marks, the eyes of his gentle-looking
face bulging open, eyeballs close to falling out as his face sinks in.
His fingers claw at his mottled neck, his mouth spilling massive quantities of yellow froth.
Finger: “ghb, bgbhgh... ahgbh, bgh...”
30
Immediately following his agonized moan, his eye sockets, his nostrils, his ears, his mouth, every
single orifice begins leaking with dingy blood, strangling his life to nothing as it gushes away.
While of course it goes for Arch, with Emilia also being subject to witnessing the pitiful death,
neither can keep their usual composure. Even Echidna's expression looks scrunched up in pain.
Arch: “Potpourri of Pestilence... Witchbeast of Blight, the Blacksnake!”
His voice strained, Arch states the name of the man's killer, the beast.
While surely it could not have been in response to that call, a forest silent but for Arch and Emilia's
breathing abruptly becomes host to another noise.
The slopping, of a large animal licking its lips.

The slithering, of something long and thin slinking across the earth.
The noise is on a ridiculously incorrect scale, and it's hard to really pin down. But it almost
resembles the noise of a serpent faced with prey, its tongue flicking out, as it squirms across the dirt.
Arch: “—Fuck!”
Having guessed the true identity of the sound, Arch realises that himself and Emilia are right in the
middle of the Blacksnake's hunting ground.
Although aware that yelling only acts to their disadvantage, he has to yell. He can think of no other
methods to rebel against the thing.
Although unsure of where to run, Arch sprints away from the man. He has not a single thought for
Fortuna's directions any more. Right now, he must escape from this threat. Must protect that what
must be protected.
The frantic resistance of that young elf—
Arch: “Ahg—”
—is cruelly crushed as a vile, black tongue ensnares his right ankle.
The areas of bare skin which the tongue licks are besmirched with dark, mottled burn scars.
The instant he sees it, Arch aims his open palm at his foot.
Arch: “...FULA!!”
Without hesitation, he fires a blade of wind to sever his scarred leg from the shin down.
He loses his footing, and props his falling body on a tree trunk. Blood spurts from him, the
agonizing pain soldering his brain as he endures, gritting his teeth so hard that they fracture.
Arch: “Humaauh!”
A crack sounds through the air as Arch's severed stump begins freezing over. White mist transpires,
Arch shrieking as he forces his bleeding to stop.
His gruesome deeds stun older Emilia silent. Instant decisions, counteracting the pain. And his
strength of heart, having not released Emilia from his hold even after all of this.
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Emilia: “Arch...?”
With her head pressed to his chest, young Emilia had not witnessed Arch's actions. Neither did Arch
have any intention in the least to let her see them.
Even with his face covered in cold sweat, he gives Emilia a clumsy smile.
Arch: “It's... nothing... I'm... all fine!”
Although his speech falters, Arch replies so as to not let Emilia sense anything is wrong.
But cruel fate laughs ever on at the spirit of this noble man.
His leg has been severed, his frantic deeds done to plug the bleeding of his stump—as the uninjured
portions of his frozen leg look to dehydrate, fissuring like a plane of earth bereft of water, the
damage spreading.
It's as if Arch's leg is dying like a dry wasteland. And it isn't stopping at just the leg.
Arch: “...Emilia. Do you see the white flowers between those two trees?”
Emilia: “...Mm.”
Arch squats down the with the tree supporting his back. Having alighted to the ground, Emilia looks
where Arch is pointing, and nods as she spots the white flowers.
Arch wipes the sweat from the brow. Hides his agony.
Arch: “Can, you run to those flowers? Run, past the flowers... go straight... go straight, ahead...”
Emilia: “I, can. I can. But...”
Arch: “Then, get running—”
Although confused, young Emilia now recognizes that Arch is in incredibly irregular straits, her
amethyst eyes wavering.
Wavering because she will be alone. Because again, she will lose someone.
Arch: “Everything's okay. Emilia, you, won't be alone...”
Emilia: “Arch...”
Arch: “Now, run off. No matter what you hear, don't look back... run!”
Arch's sharp command makes Emilia's shoulders hitch, and with that, Emilia runs. She withstands
the urge to look back, instructed as she is not to do it.
Arch's words, Fortuna's words, Juice's words, all echo through Emilia's brain.
So that she can believe: If she does everything as she is told, everything will go back to normal.
So that she can convince herself: keeping by instructions is the only hope she currently has.
Running away, leaving him behind, Arch watches Emilia disappear into the direction of hope.
He gives a long sigh. Rolls up the sleeve of his jacket.
32
The dehydration has already covered his legs and waist, having come as far as his abdomen.
He can move neither of his legs, and in fact it seems that just touching them will be enough for
them to shatter and disintegrate.
Once the dehydration reaches his chest, gets to his heart, what will happen?
He hears the slithering of the beast, faced with prey.

He hears a slithering, noise like it's plotting to take the fleeing girl, the forest's hope, the
significance of Arch's expenditure of the faint life he had left, and steal it.
Arch: “Like anyone could let you get away...”
The slithering stops its retreat.

As if it has regained interest, in the still-living prey.
The noise approaches. Meaning, although he senses that end is approaching, Arch's cheeks relax.
The fact that death is looming in on him means that death is growing distant from the girl.
Arch: “I know she'll be okay, Fortuna-sama.”
The end slithers closer.

He hears it, and although exposing himself to mortal danger beyond parallel, Arch's pride in his
achievements leads him to smile.
Arch: “—”
That smile, even though parched arid, remains without ever going dry.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Emilia has long passed the white flowers.
Emilia: “Hahh... hahh... hauhhh...”
Her breathing hitches as she demands long strides from her little legs while dashing through the
forest.
All while thinking about her mother and Juice and Arch, focused on the idea that running in this
direction Arch indicated is the best thing she can do, not going to consider anything else.
Emilia: “Auhh... aaaaauah!”

The tears flow. Desperately, she keeps the sobs from pouring out her lips.
What was happening, and why was it happening?

Everybody knew something, and she didn't know anything.
She didn't know what to do, didn't know a thing. Was there nothing she could do?
Who were the people attacking Fortuna, Juice, Arch, and the others? What could she do that would
33
make them go away? For what goal did they—
Emilia: “The, siel...”
Yes.
Fortuna and Arch had mentioned something. And Juice's talks with Fortuna surely indicated that
this object was something important.
Meaning, their goal was?
Emilia: “—auh,”
Emilia's feet as she runs suddenly strike air, and losing sight of the ground, she comes to realise that
she has entered into sloping basin.
She immediately reaches out to try and stop herself, but the steep incline gives no aid to the small
girl, and on the heels of her momentum Emilia trips, tumbles, falls.
Normally, perhaps she would cry from the scrapes and bruises and stand back up.
But this time, with both her body and mind entirely fatigued, the strike of Emilia's head against the
ground leads her to fall momentarily unconscious.
Emilia: “I...”
All of this, when she needs to do something. All of this, when she thinks she's figured it out.
With the flame of duty kindled in her little chest, her consciousness aborts.
—The story shall leave the side of the girl, temporarily to return to the scene of the fight.
To see two fates, and see how they conclude.
34
CHAPTER 120: ELIOR FOREST, GLACIATED EVERMORE
—The site has already changed so drastically that you could forget what it originally looked like.
Destruction like a rampage of giant, frenzied serpents. All trees felled down to nothing, some
severed from their roots and dancing violently through the air.
Several craters, too deep to sight the bottom, lie gouged open on the fractured earth. The ruin is so
exhaustive that the entire region could imminently cave in and transform into a pit to hell.
All of this destruction is the work of one man, standing in the dead centre of the devastation.
Blood spills fresh from his face, his breath faltering while he nevertheless manages to keep himself
upright. He has taken SIN unfitting to him inside him, his life whittled away in exchange for power,
this desecrater.
He is Juice—Betelgeux Romanee-Conti.
Juice: “—”
He breathes ragged, his face so lost of colour that it has transcended the word 'pallid'.
But even so, he has regained more calm than what he had at the beginning of the conflict. It seems
like the raging SOMETHING has, for the moment, accepted the uncomfortable environment as its
temporary lodgings.
His bones and flesh have already been ravaged from inside, but control of the body is now entirely
entrusted to Juice, the power acting as equivalent for rent having increased in strength and accuracy.
Wielding this authority, overwhelming destructive power.

Unseen Hand's strength is immense, allowing him to extend his arms to places he cannot touch, let
his fingertips contact what he cannot contact, sending power crashing into someone he should have
no hopes of opposing.
Juice's power, leader of the Witch Cult's moderate faction as he is, will never match that of the
extremists what with their militaristic bent. And that goes double when discussing the person who
possesses the greatest ability for combat in the cult, Cardinal of GREED Regulus Corneas.
That Juice is managing to somehow face Regulus without instantly being turned into gory paste is
unmistakably the achievement of the witch factor he subsumed.
But, Juice's frantic resistance has,
Juice: “How do... you, FIND, THIS...”
Glaring ahead with his bloodshot eyes, Juice strangles out his voice as he holds his trembling arms
aloft.
Unseen Hand's unrelenting, uninterrupted storm of concentrated violence. Having been endlessly
battered around by the thing, the enemy vanishes beneath the dense plumes of dust,
Regulus: “Oh, you're done?”
When the smoke resides, it reveals Regulus merely standing there, looking bored with his finger in
his ear.
His figure as he stands there rigorously probing his ear could conceivably be detached from the
35
environment from how absolutely none of the assault has affected him. As if he had been pasted
onto the scene of the annihilation in post-production.
Juice: “Even with... all of this!”
Regulus: “How about toning it down and taking a moment to realise? To realise the discrepancy. To
realise that between you and me, there is a clear power discrepancy. And you can disregard however
good your compatibility against me could hypothetically get, because that isn't even the issue here.
There's nobody out there who can beat me, or can wound me. You can go ahead and subsume a
witch factor, and then go ahead and bring the Dragon and Sword Saint along with you, it's still not
going to work.”
Juice: “...Perhaps you may, say so... although it rather appears that I have... purchased from you,
CONSIDERABLE TIME.”
Regulus: “Because there's no need for me to get into a panic to overtake you. Aren't your eyes
telling you? I'm just here as a chaperone. Do you think I'd go out of my way to come to this kind of
place if I wasn't? Being in my mansion surrounded by my wives is enough to glut me for the
minuscule fraction of peace I desire. But, well, I have to say I'm starting to get bored.”
Regulus slowly steps forward.

He walks calmly through the transmogrified forest, descending from his position until his eye level
matches that of Juice, and gives an easy swish of his arm.
It's like he's swatting an insect. Juice braces for anything to happen.
Calling within himself, he sacrifices his flesh and blood to the dark, squirming thing to gain power.
He takes in a breath, ready to use the push welling up from inside him to batter Regulus around,
When Juice's arms go flying through the air, severed at the shoulders.
Juice: “Wh!?”
Regulus: “What a dull reaction. With how you've been annoying me, don't you think it's simple
courtesy to at least writhe in a form of agony that's fun to watch? Though I suppose there was no
point expecting anything.”
Juice: “aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAHHH!!”
With his arms splaying blood about the surroundings as they tumble across the ground, the eyes of
the disarmed Juice shoot open wide as he shrieks.
The cut at his shoulders is sloppy, leaving an ugly wound as if a beast's fangs have mangled his
arms off. His right arm is gone from the shoulder down, his left arm severed about halfway down
his humerus.
Juice convulses in gruesome pain.

Bloody froth spills from his mouth, the excess of pain leading him to grit his teeth so hard that he
breaks tooth after tooth after tooth. His legs, already lacking in strength at the best of times, falter
and drop him down to his knees. His forehead hits the ground, despair creeping over Juice's
expression.
36
Regulus: “In the end, your resolve or your determination or your whatever and so on and all those
other things I suppose we're going to talk about, well here you see what they amount to. And it's the
same for everyone, so don't bother worrying about it. There's nobody out there who can live while
carrying more than their arms' capacity. Live while satisfied in your own little world, fulfilled,
focused only on your own concerns. According to what's fitting to your calibre. And you don't even
have arms to hold anything now... the conclusion here is obvious, don't you think?”
Juice: “AAAH! AAAAAAahhh...”
Regulus: “And being entirely honest, it's not like I'm enjoying this. You might see me tormenting
you like this and perhaps think that I'm some kind of sadist who feels pleasure when inflicting pain
on others, but actually that would be an incredible misapprehension, and a great insult to the
personality what I possess. I'm not doing this because I want to do it. There's nothing in my life any
more that I do because I want to do it. Fulfilled as I am, regardless of whether the nuance is a good
one or a bad one, my preference is to reject the influence of anyone else. I am without want. I am
fully fulfilled. You don't have any right in the slightest to resent me. I was simply walking along,
and you were simply in my path.”
The spouts of blood dampen in their velocity, Juice's screams transforming from something loud
into something quiet.
With the quiet, ragged puffs of his breathing, Juice's form as he expels bloody foam spasms like an
insect seconds away from demise.
Regulus's words carry no malice, or hostility, or anything at all.

Because as far as he cares he is stating the absolute truth, and no reason exists to pair it with any
emotion of any form. Regulus has no need to hide anything, and so truly believes this.
Juice's desperate deeds had influenced Regulus Corneas so little that his bangs did not even sway in
the resultant breeze.
Regulus: “Speaking in full sincerity, this was all very anticlimactic. I was being called along which
had me thinking that something would happen, and... well, not that there's ever been a situation
which hasn't resulted in an anticlimax for me, but if I'm getting summoned I'd at least like for you to
show me something that can hope to counterbalance to the effort I put into walking around.”
Pandora: “I give my apology, Cardinal Regulus. I have put you through the pains to accompany me,
and the trip has failed to meet to your expectations.”
Pandora addresses Regulus as he looks down at the nigh-withered Juice.

She had also kept through all of Juice's onslaught with Unseen Hand while standing stock still in the
very same spot that she had first appeared.
Just like Regulus, her outfit has not changed an inch. Not a speck of dirt pollutes the white cloth
enshrouding her small, thin frame, the purity of the garment preserved, and her beautiful face
suffers not a single wound.
Regulus: “I do not mean to say that you are at fault, Pandora-sama. I'm just saying that all these
forest people and the idiots in the moderates are unanimously pathetic. Trash without even the
slightest intention to improve themselves. They're not like me, sitting at heights where the very
concept of improvement carries no necessity, they have these attitudes while being mundane rabble
whose lives are over if they ever stop struggling. They're rejecting the idea of meeting their own
capacity, and from my perspective as GREED I have to say that level of desire is inconceivably
37
shallow.”
Pandora: “It is not the case that every person in existence can consider matters in the same way that
you do, or reach the same domains that you have. You are more special than anybody else, and
satisfied in that self of yours. You are perfected and glorious. While they are imperfect and also
glorious.”
Regulus: “I'm not the most favourable when it comes to debates. I have no compunctions against
receiving your praise, but I cannot say that I'm seeking commendation either. Though, there was no
need to bring myself and the Blacksnake alongside, was there? You could easily dominate this forest
on your own, Pandora-sama.”
Somewhere right now in this forest, there exists the pestilent witchbeast.
The presence of the repugnant and malicious thing prompts Regulus's disgust, all without him
realising that from anyone else's perspective, he would deserve to be thought of in the same manner.
Pandora nods.
Pandora: “If we are considering in terms of overturning their resistance, then it would indeed be
possible for me to achieve it by myself. However, those are not the terms in consideration. As I
assuredly did not come here for the purpose of harming the inhabitants of this forest.”
Regulus: “This is what you're saying after bringing the indiscriminate Blacksnake here and leaving
it to its devices? I'm sure that you're being entirely genuine about not meaning to cause harm... so
have you then rationalized that fatalities are simply unavoidable?”
Pandora: “When pursuing a noble goal, it is essential that some lives be given as sacrifices. But
even so, one cannot disremember the zeal to rebel against even that wicked fate. I believe that the
beauty of such spirit cannot be invalidated.”
Regulus: “You're diverging from the point, but essentially you're talking about killing people to
achieve your goals. Ahahaha. If that's all we're discussing, then I'd call it preferential to state it
plainly and clearly. Compared to making me waste a day of my time racking my brain pointlessly,
far more preferential.”
Pandora: “I feel very fondly about your approach.”
Pandora gives an enchanting smile. Regulus shrugs.

Regulus lowers his gaze back to Juice, who will probably die if left alone, and begins walking over
to deliver the finishing blow.
Regulus: “Well it's not like I think you'll die from that body dying, but pulling your insides out and
keeping you trammelled does make our operations easier. Though it's pretty strange to be talking
about trammelling someone who doesn't have a body.”2
Regulus raises his leg, ready to stomp down and smash Juice's skull to bits. But right before he can
make contact, a voice cuts into the scene.
???: “AL HUMA!!”
2 Doesn't have a body → more accurately, doesn't have a head or neck. I'm 99% sure this futzing doesn't matter at all
(the 1% is the chance that Juice is the mysterious kind of spirit that has pinkies or something) but hey.
38
Obeying the canto, matter takes in the world's mana to achieve form.
Appearing alongside the explosive noise is a ball of ice so giant that it encompasses all of the
visible sky above. The trees are felled and the sky's panoramic is easily observable, but the only
thing to observe is a vast sheet of pale blue ice.
Regulus: “Ahh... I swear, nobody can give it a break.”
Regulus looks up to see the continent of ice floating above him, ad clicks his tongue.
Immediately, the immense ball of ice plunges down from directly above him—
—The earthquake, and the unavoidable shockwave, batter Regulus entirely.
This explosion of air and rumbling of earth exacerbates even further the collapse of this forest only
describable as a 'disaster zone'.
The sheet of ice shatters into fragments, with the crushed trees and boulders, the ground pulverised
under this incredible mass, changing shape once again within only this one single day.
Shard of white ice dance through the air, scintillating.

Among their gleam is a man toppled limply on his side, with a silver-haired woman dragging him.
Woman: “Juice! Juice, keep steady! This is... what am I meant to...”
Juice: “Fohr, tuna, sama... is that, YOU?”
A weak light returns to Juice's nigh-dead eyes.

His life still remains equally in danger, but he still manages to barely remain conscious. Fortuna
nods
Fortuna: “Yes, yes, it's me. Juice, you're...”
Juice: “I am, FINE... this flesh is, due to wither someday... The finger who trusted me, and entrusted
it to me, will understand... of more concern is, Emilia?”
Fortuna: “I left her with someone trustworthy and they fled the forest. She's fine.”
Juice: “I, see... I am, glad to HEAR SO...”
???: “—Except there's nothing to be glad about at all!!”
Just when Juice's blood-slaked face relaxes in relief, the voice of an enraged Regulus shouts over
him.
Having been stricken by a massive sheet of ice, Regulus's expression is furious. He combs his hand
through his bangs, his eyes hosting clear animosity.
Regulus: “The very second you come back, and just who do you think you are to pull this stunt? I
was seconds away from stomping that guy's head in, me, I was! With what right, with whose
permission, are you taking my... my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my
my my my my my my my my my my my mymymymymymymymymymymy!! Getting in!! My
way!!”
39
Screaming as if in tantrum, Regulus squats down and puts his hands to the ground. He proceeds to
swing his arms up, casting up dirt to dance through the air, the soft soil flying toward Fortuna and
Juice.
The quantity of scattered dirt is not especially much. It's the kind of thing a child would do,
throwing sand about a sandbox, the embodiment of crude and infantile anger.
Fortuna sights the dirt and ignores the stuff as she immediately focuses her magic for a
counterattack.
But,
Juice: “You mustn't! If you neglect... to evade, all the earth...”
Fortuna: “Huh?”
Juice interrupts Fortuna's canto, headbutting her to the ground. The two tumble across the earth
undefended, when Juice strains himself to use UNSEEN HAND and throw the couple further
backwards.
Rather than intercept or defend against the dirt, he opted that they tumble messily across the ground.
Just when Fortuna verges on yelling to question what the hell Juice is doing, she sees it.
The moment that the dirt and pebbles that Regulus threw hit the ground, out peals the staccato noise
of raindrops beating on a rooftop as COUNTLESS TINY HOLES BORE THROUGH THE EARTH.
Each hole is only the size of a grain of sand, but the density and piercing property of them present
an issue.
The mystery attack had by and large concluded by only gouging open the earth, but one fragment of
the assault did manage to hit a tree which still precariously retains its original shape.
This tree, with a trunk so thick that it's questionable whether Fortuna could loop her arms around it,
rips open with countless tiny holes and bursts into smithereens.
It's easy to envision that hitting someone, and them instantly exploding into bloodspatter.
And the most terrifying thing is,
Regulus: “Why the hell are you people dodging! Just take the attack, turn into gore, and go be food
for the bugs! That goes for you, Betelgeux, you pile of scum, and for that woman too. I was
thinking you might be okay to take as my 79th wife, and then you go and pull this rubbish!”
Regulus bends down, arms to the ground as before.

The most terrifying thing is, a deed of destruction on this calibre just meant throwing dirt around for
Regulus—and took no greater effort than that, child's play.
The enraged and belligerent Regulus had taken a direct hit from Fortuna's strenuous attack, for
nothing to happen to him. Aberrant, is the word to describe it.
Regulus Corneas possesses transcendental powers in attack and defence. And that incredible power
is locked up in a body that hosts an egotistical, infantile mind.
A dangerous entity, as if power identical to the Dragon were given to a petulant child—such is how
Fortuna judges this monster.
40
Regulus: “If you're not keen for being gore chunks, how about I pluck off your limbs and arrange
them as decoration! I'll make you regret having made a fool of me... of GREED!”
Pandora: “Please wait, Cardinal Regulus.”
Just as Regulus prepares to once again shower Juice and Fortuna in dirt, Pandora calls him to a stop.
With his hands still touching the ground, Regulus turns his head to look at Pandora. The rage remains
thick in his expression, and even when facing Pandora, who he had treated respectfully, he shows no
signs of discarding his anger.
Regulus: “...What, Pandora-sama? Right now, I am midway through shaking in uttermost rage as
my rights are being violated. You have some task for me, when I'm like this? What are you
conniving, trying to stop me? Take careful mind of your words, and, this instant, you answer me...”
Pandora: “Please settle your anger, Cardinal Regulus. I do not permit you to kill them here. Is there
nothing that you feel in seeing them?”
Regulus: “In seeing me right now, do you think I look like there's nothing I feel? —I go prostrating
myself and for this, don't get fucking carried away, you woman!”
Seemingly forgetting that they are allies, Regulus swings up his arm with his target being Pandora.
Up launches the spray of dirt, cutting straight through and decimating the trees in its path to strike
her. It hits, her body exploding into a splatter of blood and gore.
Fortuna: “...No way.”
Fortuna mutters in astonishment as she witnesses Pandora's evisceration. Someone she had loathed,
now killed ruthlessly due to a breakup of internal relations.
Fortuna had utterly believed that Pandora would have some ace to disregard even Regulus's attacks,
but here she is: strewn in scarlet chunks across the ground, fertilizer for the ruined earth.
Regulus: “This is what happens when you prattle bullshit at me. How come nobody can practice
any basic goddamn form of consideration? Don't get in my way. Don't obstruct my path. Don't
interfere with my actions. Don't rebel against what I do. Am I really asking for anything so
difficult? Say, what are your thoughts on this?”
Regulus turns to Juice and Fortuna, a shadowy gleam in his eye.

This was not the time to celebrate about a drop in enemies. If the enemy remaining after a drop in
enemies is a person of absolute strength, then the situation hasn't changed at all.
Fortuna had used the greatest power in her disposal to hit Regulus with that surprise attack.
And even after being hit with it, Regulus's body suffers no wounds and his clothes don't even suffer
a wrinkle. It's frustrating to admit, but Fortuna cannot defeat Regulus.
Juice has also been so cornered that his body has broken down. Even if Fortuna asks him to do the
impossible and fight on his deathbed, the combat is going to be one-sided.
All Fortuna can do is have them lure Regulus's fury, and buy time for her daughter to run.
Juice: “Let me, deal with this... Fortuna-sama.”
41
Fortuna: “But Juice, you...”
Juice: “No matter how... much blood I shed, until all of my bodies are deceased, I can... KEEP,
GOING. I-I, shall amass time, for you... to, flee...”
Fortuna: “Don't say these ridiculous things.”
Fortuna's cheeks relax as Juice attempts to upright himself in her arms.

It mystifies her that she can craft a smile at a time like this. She'd rather like to brag.
Fortuna: “You're telling me to leave you here and run? If I was going to do that, I wouldn't have
come back here. I parted with Emilia to come back here, telling me to leave now is impossible.”
Juice: “H
HOW, EVER... then, if so, why... have, you returned? I-I...”
Fortuna: “To keep you from dying. And if you do die, for me to be at your side.”
With Fortuna's amethyst eyes gazing on, Juice's bloody eyes wrench open.
Considerably lighter now that he has lost his arms, Fortuna draws Juice's body closer, to tell him
from within breathing range:
Fortuna: “In a world without you, in a forest you no longer visit, what is there for me? I'm weak. I
can't survive a long period of time without you there.”
Juice: “You are not weak in the...”
Fortuna: “I'm weak. I act strong when I'm around you and Emilia, that's all.”
With that, Fortuna helps Juice up.

Fortuna props the trembling Juice up so that he stands, her body close against his as she supports
him.
Seeing the couple standing in what could almost be an embrace, Regulus's face turns abjectly
disgusted.
Regulus: “Look at how fired up you are after such a protracted period of ignoring my question.
What on earth could be going on? What on earth could this be? After I showed you how incredible
the power gap between us is, after I taught you in such succinct and plain terms, how can you
possibly figure that you can do anything? What on earth are you people thinking?”
Fortuna: “Windbag of a man. After how our attitudes have demonstrated it, surely you can tell?
Thanks for all the lectures, but we've got only one response.”
Juice: “IIN, DEED.”
Fortuna and Juice share a glance, and speaking together:
Both: “—Like we care, idiot.”
Their voices overlap, with Fortuna flipping Regulus the bird as a bonus.
With that, Fortuna and Juice scramble up whatever power they have available.
42
Regulus's face flashes crimson in fury.
Regulus: “...!! Very well! I'll take the two of you, butcher you into indistinguishable chunks, hurl
you into the Blacksnake's dingy maw—”
???: “What I told you was to wait, Cardinal Regulus.”
For the third time, an interruption to Regulus's plans.

Pandora's arm descends from above to press Regulus's head down, his body proceeding to sink into
the earth without any resistance. Buried chin-deep into the earth under a second, Regulus glares up
at Pandora as she lands beside him.
Regulus: “Just incessantly!”
Pandora: “Should it be necessary that I stymie your will, I shall. As of now, my goals in having
brought you here have been by and large accomplished. You have done far enough and I would
appreciate you go home.”
Regulus: “You drag someone along, but the second you're satisfied you demand they leave? Do you
think anybody could agree with these ideas of yours? Until I've settled this irritation of mine and
returned to being my usual self, I will assuredly never—”
Pandora: “I see. Then I will do it. CARDINAL REGULUS COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE HERE. HE IS IN HIS
MANSION, SPENDING HIS TIME WITH HIS WIVES .”
Regulus: “Wa—”
The next instant, just as Regulus goes to shout something, he snaps out of view.
It isn't that he's sunken entirely into the dirt. He has truly blinked, vanished out of this scene. In the
spot where he once was, the hole from him being plunged into the dirt is gone.
All as if affirming Pandora's statement, that HE COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE HERE.
Pandora: “Being that the racket has left the scene, we can now discuss at a more leisurely pace.”
Fortuna: “...Can I ask you something first? How come you're here? I know just saw you die a
minute ago.”
Pandora stands there as if this is entirely normal.

This girl, calm smile on her face, is supposed to be a scattering of gore. Fortuna glances over to
where her remains were strewn, and gulps.
Not a trace of the gory mess remains in the slightest. Just like how Regulus has disappeared, her
corpse is vanished.
Fortuna is utterly lost for words. Pandora tilts her head.
Pandora: “Could YOUR EYES HAVE DECEIVED YOU?”3
Fortuna: “—!”
3 The trick behind Pandora's powers and how they work has yet to be explained. This is how the line clicked in my
head, but it's questionable whether my phrasing gives any legitimate suggestion as to what her power is doing.
43
Fortuna shudders.
This should not be possible. But the world has reformed itself into a shape that supports Pandora's
words. Invalidating what Fortuna had supposedly seen, and overwriting it all with something
strange and unknown.
The corpse is gone, Pandora is resurrected. Regulus is gone, the aftermath of his deeds are gone.
Immediately after realising this, Fortuna looks aside and nearly screams at the shocking thing that
has happened.
As he stands beside her, Juie's arms—Juice's severed arms, are back to normal.
Pandora: “Since Cardinal Regulus is not here, the consequences of his actions have disappeared. It
is all very simple. Although, the mending of Cardinal Betelgeux's arms is a result of my
beneficence.”
Juice rotates his recovered arms in confirmation. Fortuna's eyes waver as she watches on.
Fortuna: “Juice, your arms...”
Juice: “They feel to move WITHOUT ISSUE. My body, also... the insides excepted, without issue.”
Pandora: “I have not rewritten so far as to change your ingestion of the factor. I would like to
commend this action of yours, and the actions of she who has returned for you. Please consider this
an illustration of my sincerity.”
Pandora is an emblem of hatred for Fortuna. That hasn't changed, and the moment she laid eyes on
her, she assuredly could not hold back her rage.
But Fortuna had not imagined that Pandora would be such a mysterious, unfathomable opponent.
She cannot come up with any clues as to what happened. She cannot comprehend what is going on.
Everything that happened today in this forest transcended Fortuna's imaginings. The one thing she
does understand is that, thanks to all of these incomprehensible happenings, everything is on the
verge of ending.
Juice: “Fortuna-sama, compose yourself!”
A roar cuts into Fortuna's stunned mind just as it begins to stall.

The pain of her slapped cheeks leads her to blink, and find Juice right there, looking at her. He
grasps her shoulders.
Juice: “I am sure that you have queries, and am sure that you are confused. HOWEVER, you must
leave that aside for the PRESENT MOMENT. What is crucial is to safeguard this forest, safeguard
EMILIA-SAMA! And... the defeat of that woman shall ACHIEVE SUCH!”
Fortuna: “—Juice.”
Strength returns to Fortuna's eyes. She glares at Pandora.
Yes. He's right. She might be strange and unknown, and the inability to anticipate what will happen
44
next is terrifying. But even so, Pandora had eliminated powerful Regulus from this scene, and
returned Juice's missing arms.
She has foolishly weakened own combat forces and rejuvenated the enemy. She might not even
have realised that she has cornered herself.
Fortuna: “You're exactly right, Juice. Wondering about what's happening can happen later. Now is
when!”
Juice: “We combine our strength, and DEFEAT HER! Should we repel her, the remaining cultists in
the forest also WILL WITHDRAW. —We can SAVE EMILIA-SAMA!”
The image of her daughter passes through Fortuna's mind.

She had been prepared for their previous goodbye to perhaps be their last. And she had indeed been
acting until now with that exact resolve. But now, she sees a new hope.
Emilia will be saved. By none other than Fortuna and Juice's power.
Fortuna: “—Frigid white, captor of time, magic palm of sheer ice.”
The magic which had stricken Regulus even now churns within Fortuna, seeking a place where it
may detonate. Her canto presents that power with form, with a target, as mana interacts with the
world.
Out sounds a crack as the sharp-tipped icicle forms, the thing large enough for multiple giants to
heft in concert, a spear of ice.
Its point aims at Pandora. Should it launch and strike her, she will be mutilated, her remains
scattering everywhere and freezing beyond any hope of repair.
Beside Fortuna, Juice hugs his shoulders as pressure surges from him as well.
The power runs frenzied beneath his tattered vestments, the wounds except those on his restored
arms reopening. Even in this grievous state, he will expend the whole of his soul for the sake of
those he believes in.
Faced with the manifestation of their powers, Pandora does not even take fighting stance as she
smiles.
Pandora: “Now, please do come. —Allow me to savour your resolve to its very limit.”
The couple's power quakes the world, all in an effort to rip apart Pandora's smile.
And,
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Emilia wakes up in the basin and shakes her head, managing to recall her location as she glances
around the area.
Emilia: “Right... I...”
45
Herself, covered in mud, and unfamiliar scenery. Scraped knees, legs pained from excessive
running.
All of it weighs down on Emilia as she regains consciousness, with the panic constricting her chest
and her rejuvenated memories informing her that this is neither a lie nor a dream.
Emilia: “Mother... Juice... Arch...”
Precious people, who had all staked their own lives so that she could escape.
As she recalls their faces in sequence, Emilia remembers that she must do something. Everyone
who had tried to protect her told her to run.
That they want her to run dead ahead, and escape the forest.
But, Emilia also thought this:

There has to be something she can do for everybody.
Emilia: “That's, right... the siel, the siel!”
Seal. The word lingers in her memories from before losing consciousness.
The discussion a stern-faced Fortuna had had with Arch. About how the scary people had come here
searching for the seal in the forest.
The forest's seal lies deep in the deepest depths of the forest where Emilia lives, a mysterious door.
Leading to nowhere, just a metallic-looking door standing there in the middle of the woods.
The adults called the place the seal. Emilia knew its location.
Emilia: “Have to go there.”
Going there would not present Emilia with anything she could do.
She didn't know how to open the door, and she didn't even know what the word 'seal' exactly meant.
But she knew something extremely important was there, and knew its location—which was more
than enough for Emilia.
Considerations about what she might be able to do are not what spur her into action.
It is the hope, that going there will make things change, that pushes her forward.
Emilia: “The siel should be... but, which way was it?”
Having tearfully parted with Juice, tearfully parted with Fortuna, and ran around the forest in Arch's
arms, Emilia runs directly for an unknown place, alone.
This may be the forest where Emilia lives, but it is no longer the forest that Emilia knows. The
region that Emilia frolicked in was limited only to the village's surroundings. Forget about the seal's
location, she could not even put her finger on where her mother or Juice would be.
Emilia: “Auh, hah...”
Emilia wails at her own powerlessness.

She knew what she needed to do, but lacked the strength to achieve it. She has no mother to cling to
when troubled, here. She has to be the one to act and save her mother.
Emilia: “—Hm?”
46
Emilia's earnest feelings spur those watching over her into motion.
Emilia wipes away her tears, when dim lights pass by her face and lead her to blink. She looks up,
to find several glowing lights cutting into her vision.
Emilia: “The, fairies?”
Emilia calls them fairies. Fortuna and Juice call these supernatural entities spirits.
Supposedly lacking any language or will, the lesser spirits answer to the young girl's frantic plea.
The lesser spirits dance in circles before the paralysed Emilia. They all move in one direction then
back again, there then back again, over and over, demonstrating the course.
Emilia's voice trembles as she realises what the spirits are trying to say.
Emilia: “You're telling me, where to go?”
They don't reply. But they do bob up and down, as if in affirmation.
Emilia: “If I go that way, I'll find the siel? I'll be able to save Mother and everybody?”
The spirits strobe brightly.

Emilia wipes away her tears as she shakes her head.
This isn't the time to be bawling here forever.

Her mother and Juice and so many people had helped her, and when she started crying, even the
fairies came to cheer her up. After all of this, she cannot pardon herself to cower here endlessly.
Emilia: “Mm... mm, mhm.”
The spirits bob about, as if confirming whether Emilia is well. She nods in reply, and with her small
frame swaying, breaks into a run. She follows the spirits' guide, dashing desperately over the rugged
earth.
She passes over hollows, scales steep inclines, passes through the gaps between trees.
At many points along the path are areas that the spirits can travel through, but Emilia cannot. She
stumbles, branches scraping at her cheeks, tumbling mouth-first to the ground, which she spits out
before standing back up.
Her breathing labours, tears of fear and pain welling up again.

She sniffs her snot back up, wipes her tears with her muddy sleeves, gives her grazed knees a slap
and runs.
She withstands the pain and the hurt, running with all her might as the memories pass through her
mind.
Memories of her time spent living in this forest, ever since she first gained cognizance.
Fortuna was a stern mother, and never spoiled Emilia in the least. She wasn't Emilia's real mother.
Emilia had proper, real parents, like normal.
Such had been a common thing to hear from Fortuna, repeated over and over, which Emilia both
believed and did not believe. She had real parents. That made her happy. But Fortuna was also her
47
real mother. And as far as Emilia cared, that was unquestionable truth. It was because of today's
happenings that she truly understood that.
She remembers being scolded. She remembers nights where she would hold a crying, apologetic
Emilia, and sleep together with her. She knew that she would always stroke her head when she
woke up until got out of bed, so that Emilia would not be lonely.
Emilia knew better than anyone that her mother loved her.
Everybody in the village had been kind to her.

There had always been a kind of alienation, where it felt like they were keeping their distance, and
weren't sure how to interact with her. But even so, they never said anything that would hurt her, and
always treated Fortuna well.
She knew that even with the Princess Room, everybody had done their best to make sure it would
be a nice place for Emilia to spend her time. They prepared toys so that she wouldn't feel alone
while inside, and made lots of hand-stitched dolls for her. The count of dolls multiplied by the day,
and Emilia had long ago ran out of enough fingers and toes to even hope to play with them all.
All of those dolls, every single stitch of thread, was proof of their care toward Emilia.
Emilia had hated Juice at first.

Because everybody's distancing of her and locking her in the Princess Room always happened when
Juice's group was visiting. The adults were hiding things from her so that they could do something
fun. When she first escaped the Princess Room and witnessed Juice and Fortuna talking, and saw
Fortuna smiling at him, Emilia was jealous of Juice.
She thought she would never forgive him. But he had broken into tears upon meeting her. Cried and
cried, spilling tears of happiness, and Emilia forgave him.
After all, those were tears of warmth. She thought back on how peaceful she felt whenever Fortuna
hugged her, and patted Juice's head. She kept by his side as he cried so that he wouldn't feel alone
when the tears stopped. He's hopeless, she thought.
Just hopeless. She thought.
Emilia: “I... with everybody, again...”
She wanted to sleep with Fortuna again.

She wanted to invite everybody to the Princess Room.
She wanted to take that cheeky Juice, who was trying to protect Emilia, and definitely stomp on his
foot.
She wanted to see everybody again.
Emilia: “Because I'm, a good girl...”
The tears blur her vision as she runs, and after passing by a handful more trees—Emilia discovers
the seal she has been seeking, and,
???: “Welcome.”
A girl with platinum hair stands before the door, her arms spread to greet Emilia.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
48
Girl: “Thank goodness. You were the first to arrive. I was glad to have finally found the seal, but I
could not locate the essential key. I am truly relieved to have found you safely.”
Emilia: “Why are... you here?”
The girl, Pandora, addresses Emilia with familiar tone and strange pressure. Emilia's throat trembles
as she asks her question, and Pandora gives a small clap of her hands.
Pandora: “Huhuhu, you must be surprised. It is all very simple. This seal is very important to me.
And so I have always been searching for it. It is one of the reasons that I have come to the forest
today. Which means that I need to be here.”
Pandora's response isn't what Emilia is looking for.

Emilia was trying to ask about Pandora's reason for being here, in this spot. When Emilia had last
seen her, Juice had been blocking her and Regulus's path.
If she's here, then that means Juice...
Emilia: “Why are... you here?”
Perhaps having noticed how close Emilia's heart is to shattering, Pandora's eyes widen. She puts her
hand to her chest as she seems to reflect on what she just said.
Pandora: “I apologize. The reply that I gave you was strange. I am not the one you are asking about,
you are asking about Cardinal Betelgeux and your Mother.”
Pandora is late to understand it, but she does wind up reaching the correct answer.
If Pandora had continued being mistaken, Emilia could have ended all this without her question
being answered. Even though she herself did not know what she was seeking, with all of this.
Pandora smiles tenderly.

It carries no malice or maliciousness, abounding in kindness, appearing an honest attempt to dispel
Emilia's anxiety.
Pandora: “Please do not be worried. You are concerned about Cardinal Betelgeux and your Mother,
both of whom are safe.”
Emilia: “Huh?”
Pandora: “There is no need to be so anxious, though it would have been best should you have asked
so originally. Neither I nor the members of the cult have come here to harm anybody in the forest. It
is as I have stated, I have visited as I have business with this seal. So being, I am not so foolish as to
create any unnecessary sacrifices.”
Pandora's words are kind, and thunk one after another into Emilia's overburdened heart.
If Emilia is going to trust what she's saying, then Fortuna and Juice are safe. Perhaps whatever's
happening to everyone in the forest is nothing as bad as she figured.
In fact, this girl had just said that she had business with the seal. Meaning, once she's done with that
business—
49
Emilia: “When you're done with the siel, will you please go home...?”
Pandora says nothing.
Emilia: “Wh-when you're done with the siel, will you please leave the forest and go home? Go
home without doing anything bad to everybody?”
Pandora: “—Why, of course. I have no desire for unnecessary sacrifices either.”
Pandora gives a deep nod, as if she's making a promise.

She then points at the seal, and tilts her head at the teary Emilia.
Pandora: “Which means that I would like for you to please give me the key. Provided that we may
open this door, we shall withdraw from the forest immediately.”
Emilia: “Key...?”
Pandora: “Yes. A key. Considering the form of a door which this seal has taken, a key is necessary
to open it. You would be in possession of that key.”
Emilia: “I, don't know anything about that...”

She truly has no idea what Pandora's alluding to. She doesn't remember anyone giving her anything
like a key, and the seal had been kept secret from Emilia in the first place.
There is no possible way that Emilia could own a key for a seal which she had been kept in the dark
about. It doesn't even bear thinking, with how natural this conclusion is.

Pandora also shakes her head.
Pandora: “There is no need for secrecy.”
Emilia: “I-I'm not keeping secrets... I really, really don't know! I don't have any key! I haven't been
given a key! Me, I can't open the siel!”
Pandora: “I see. —Then, I will have to dig through the forest so that I may find the key.”
Pandora's expression looks incredibly pained. She lowers her gaze.

While her actions and tone are sympathetic toward Emilia, her ironclad mentality means that she
will most likely do exactly the thing she is saying that she will. Emilia trembles.
If she cannot open the seal right here and right now, this girl will dig through the forest.
Dig through, is simple, vain decoration for it. Pandora is going to DIG THROUGH the forest, the
people living in it, Fortuna and villagers, and Juice's group to get this thing.
This is an abnormal entity.

So abnormal, that Emilia is convinced that not even Fortuna would be a match for them.
50
Emilia: “I-I'll open it! I will open it!”
And so, Emilia calls out before Pandora can start acting.
Pandora's face brightens.
Pandora: “You truly will? Thank goodness. So the key was in your possession after all. I had
thought it would be. After all, you cannot deny that you are the witch-child.”
Emilia: “A, witch's...?”
Pandora: “Indeed, yes. Now, if you would like to see to the seal? Provided that I may investigate
what is inside this door, we will stand down immediately.”
Handing the scene over to Emilia, Pandora waits elatedly for her to act.
While the term she mentioned does claw at her chest, Emilia cannot retreat and so steps forward.
Little Emilia can look up, and look up even further, but still not sight the top of the door.
It's like a giant door that a giant made so that a more giant giant could pass through. The idea that
tiny Emilia has to open this thing is some kind of empty, hollow fantasy.
She stands before the door. Standing is all well and good, but Emilia has no idea how to open it.
Back when she located the seal, Emilia went through all her usual ideas for how to approach the
thing. She has already tried pushing it, pulling it, climbing it, far and long ago.
Emilia's tiny form had not made this ancient door move an inch, and she could not even get the
thing to creak, much less open.
Today will be the same case.

She can reach out and touch it, but it gives not the slightest indication of moving.
Emilia: “Hahh... hauh, hahhh... ahh...”
Her pulse races abnormally fast, her blood churning sluggishly through her head.
Her chest flashes hot, and her thrashing heart could leap out of her mouth at any instant. But her
limbs are dead cold, heavy, as if stuffed with lead.
She has to move it but cannot.

If she does not open this thing, something terrible will happen to everybody.
And she knows this, but can't do anything.

Terror and despair bleach her thoughts stark white, crushing Emilia whole.
Pandora: “—Please consider thinking: I am a key.”
The voice is horrifically smooth as it slips into desperate Emilia's ear.
—I am a key.
As ordered, Emilia focuses on only that image.

Instantly, Emilia feels a weight in her hands. She looks at them. To find that she is grasping a large,
ancient, silver key.
51
Emilia: “A key...”
Pandora: “It is visible to you now? If so, then you indeed are the key.”
Says Pandora happily.

But there is something unnatural about her statement. It almost seems like Pandora cannot see the
key in Emilia's hands.
Emilia: “You... can't, see it?”
Pandora: “—. No, I cannot. That key will only be given to the hands of the qualified. I am certain
that in this world, there are only two people capable of opening that lock.”
Pandora seems to find that position enviable. And indeed, her gaze is not fixed on the key in
Emilia's hand. Although unsure what it means that she cannot see a key which is so perceptible that
it has weight, Emilia turns back to the door.
A sudden key—but Emilia can't find anything that looks like a keyhole.
This door does not even have a doorknob. And although the key is big, in pales in comparison to
this door. Can this grungy old key really open it?
Emilia: “—ah,”
When Emilia instinctively figures out how to use the key.

Searching for a keyhole is unnecessary. The door itself is like a keyhole.
This door is not running the seal.

It is merely acting as a cap for the seal. The door is not sealing anything. The seal is something
more insubstantial, operating inside of this door.
Pandora: “Now, please open it.”
Accepting Pandora's demand, Emilia takes a step forward.

Simply pressing the key against the door, and willing for the door to open, will be enough to open
it. By that alone, this door will be freed from its long, long post.
—If she opens this door, everybody will be saved.
Pandora: “...Is there something wrong?”
But the moment before she moves to press the key to the door, Emilia's outstretched arms halt.
Noticing how Emilia's fingers have stopped shaking, Pandora furrows her brows slightly.
Emilia goes without replying, instead staring at the key in her hands.
If she proceeds to press the key to the door, the seal will open.
But—
???: <Emilia. —Promise.>
Emilia hears in her mind the whispered words from her mother's goodbye.
52
Their conversation back then had not been about the seal.
But Emilia remembers. That she promised her mom that she would keep her promises.
She does not know about this seal. She mustn't know about this seal.
Emilia doesn't know about this place, and isn't meant to interfere with it.
She promised Fortuna. Her keeping her promise must get higher priority than anything else. She is
betraying her trust, and musn't do it.
Nobody will forgive Emilia if she is a bad girl. Nobody be able to forgive her.
And so, she must not open this seal.
Emilia: “I-I, can't open it...”
Pandora: “—Why is that?”
Emilia: “The promise... because, I promised. I don't have anything to do with the siel. I'm not
allowed to open it.”
Pandora: “I see. Promises are truly important things. I think it is very splendid and great that you
would like to keep your promise. However... they are also things which are dependant upon timing.”
Pandora matches her gaze to Emilia's, who shakes her head. She strokes Emilia's silver hair.
Pandora: “I suspect that this promise is one between yourself and your Mother. Your Mother is a
very wonderful person. She has taught you something venerable and correct. Your will is precious
and deserves to be upheld.”
Emilia: “A-and, so...”
Pandora: “But, it sometimes happens that there come times where you must make a decision which
will run contrary to a promise. Perhaps it is cruel that I am seeking a decision from you when you
are still young. However, fate and its looming decisions will not take into consideration the
circumstances of those it trifles. Fate loves those who resist in turn to its waves, and inspires hope in
the outcome of the decision. Which is the hope that you seek?”
Emilia: “Which, hope?”
Pandora nods, smiling maternally.
Pandora: “Yes,”
She presents her hands to Emilia.
Pandora: “First is the hope that you will keep your promise with your mother, proceed without
opening the seal, confront my party, and overcome this tribulation.”
Pandora raises her right hand, as if holding this invisible thing called hope.
53
Pandora: “And second is that hope that you defy the promise with your mother, open the seal, grant
the wishes of my party, and the situation will settle down with no further injuries.”
Pandora raises her left hand, again showing Emilia this invisible hope.
Faced with these two hands, Emilia goes rigid.

She cannot even recognize her breathing, with how her lungs feel to have frozen. Should she say
anything careless, Pandora may instantly withdraw both of her hands.
Unable to touch either of the hopes presented to her, perhaps it will end with them being taken away
from right under Emilia's nose.
—The terror grasps the young girl's heart firm, not letting go in the least.
Pandora: “Which hope shall you choose? —I leave the decision to you.”
The right hope. The left hope.

The hope resultant from breaking the promise. The hope resultant from keeping the promise.
Pandora's sweet and alluring voice.

Fortuna's kind and chiding call of her name.
She cannot even hear her heartbeat under all this noise.
Sound disappears from the world, leaving Emilia behind in a land without colour.
She's thinking. Deliberating. Her thoughts are blazing, her brain could boil any moment.
She focuses every bodily function she has into thinking, giving the impression that everything from
her neck down has died. She cannot hear her pulse, her limbs utterly motionless and alienated from
her will.
She can't choose, she can't choose, she can't choose she can't choose she can'tchooseshecan'tchoose.
Which choice will save everybody? What should she do that will help everybody?
What can she do that will make her everybody's strength? What should she do? Somebody, tell her.
Emilia: “—ah.”
Pandora: “I see. So that is your decision.”
Her thoughts solder, her vision clouds, when Emilia slips a small sound.
Seeing her decision, Pandora's long-lashed eyes lower their gaze.
—Emilia's fingers are touching Pandora's right hand.
The path to not break the promise, not open the seal, and hope for everyone's rescue.
Emilia: “I... promised, my... mother, I'd keep... my, promises, so... mother...”
Pandora: “Until the very end, you trust in your mother's words, your compass. The answer you have
reached following your indecision, and the result that your life has divined, shall I respect.”
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Pandora nods in agreement as Emilia's eyes overflow with tears.
She releases her hand from Emilia's grasp. Emilia falls to her knees as Pandora looks on, gaze
merciful.
If Pandora wanted, she could have just pushed Emilia's hands to the door while she held key.
While that has nothing to do with whether or not Emilia would will for the door to open, being that
she had been seeking some kind of support, it may have been enough to send her over the edge.
Pandora knew that, but didn't do it.
That alone was something trustworthy about this utterly bizarre girl.
Pandora: “And so,”
Emilia: “...huh?”
Pandora: “Please respect my decision as I consider methods to open the seal.”
Emilia raises her head, stunned.

Pandora is not looking at Emilia. Her gaze is directed somewhere behind her. Emilia follows her
line of sight, to find a silhouette pushing away the shrub as it soars onto the scene.
With her short silver hair,
Woman: “PANDORAAA!!”
And covered in blood, it is Fortuna.

Compared to when Emilia last saw her, she is drowning in injuries. But even so, having been
convinced that they might never meet again, just knowing that she's alive is a relief for Emilia's
heart.
Fortuna: “Take this!!”
Apparently having not noticed Emilia's presence, Fortuna fires off six icicles, striking Pandora
without the least of mercy.
Emilia's body stiffens at the danger, when Pandora glides in to position Emilia behind her,
protecting her.
Pandora: “Beginning your offensive without first observing the area is very dangerous.”
With that, an icicle spears Pandora through the chest. Her thin waist, her right arm, her right light all
proceed to be impaled with icicles, with one last strike blowing off her platinum head.
Emilia shrieks as she witnesses Pandora's small frame be skewered with ice. Pandora's body
staggers, slumping back to land on Emilia.
Emilia catches the decapitated body as it gushes with blood. She screams. It's all too unreal.
Fortuna: “...Emilia?”
Hearing the scream, Fortuna whispers in dumb shock as she seems to come back to her senses.
Rather than accomplishment in having bested a detested foe, Fortuna's eyes waver in discord as she
registers that her daughter is present at this scene.
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Fortuna: “Why is Emilia...? She was meant to have escaped the...”
Pandora: “To question why is a rather terrible thing. Your daughter was worried about you,
wholeheartedly hoping to help you as she ran to this site. How is it that you, her mother, can
proceed without praising her intrinsic purity?”
Fortuna: “—!”
Pandora's voice calls out from directly aside Fortuna.

Fortuna's amethyst eyes shoot open from both the unexpectedness of it, and at the fact that
Pandora's corpse has vanished from Emilia's arms.
Pandora: “When you look as surprised as you do, you truly do resemble each other. Parent and child
indeed.”
Fortuna: “—! Emilia and I aren't blood relatives! Her adorable face is from my sister in law!”
Pandora: “I give my apologies for that.”
Fortuna's mouth twists in rage as a sword of ice forms in her raised hand. Her sweeping slash slices
diagonally through Pandora's torso, spraying blood everywhere. Pandora collapses back-first and
limp to the ground.
Pandora: “Which means that her foster parent is her Mother. That being, you have not erred in your
methods of raising her. Your daughter has grown to be a very honest, good girl. Her true parents,
your sister and brother, would surely be overjoyed.”
Fortuna: “Don't you dare talk about my brother and sister in law!!”
The fallen corpse disappears as Pandora goes over, as if this is normal, to Fortuna. Fortuna swings
down her sword to bisect her, and slices off her head with the backswing.
She immediately glances behind her to kill the revived Pandora with a stab. She shoves her
backwards, where she slams into a treetrunk, pinned.
Fortuna: “El Huma!!”
A blanket of frigid mist shrouds the pinned Pandora, transforming her into an ice sculpture.
A humanoid sculpture is born, sealing Pandora—already beautiful enough to be a masterwork of the
gods—eternally in the forest as a belonging of nature.
Pandora: “This indiscriminate use of magic is only going to exhaust you. Would you like to take a
moment to calm down, and for us to reattempt by waiting for an opportunity to talk?”
Fortuna: “—! Tedious talk!”
The ice sculpture remains, with only Pandora inside having escaped and starting walking around.
Fortuna spins around to find Pandora standing there, and sloppily swings her fist to hit her. It isn't
even a magical attack. Just a punch resultant from vain struggle.
It strikes Pandora in the face as if drawn straight to it.
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Emilia: “—aagh,”
Fortuna: “E-Emilia!?”
Blown away by her mother's punch, Emilia fails to catch herself and goes tumbling across the
ground. Having unintentionally beaten her daughter, Fortuna's face pales as she frantically rushes
over to the fallen girl's side.
Fortuna: “No! Emilia, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! That wasn't what I...”
Pandora: “This is the pain that you feel when hit. A pain equivalent to being hit has surely just run
through your heart. Are you beginning to understand how heartless your actions are?”
Her hands holding an uprighted Pandora, Fortuna's throat jars as she shoves the girl away. She
stands up and looks around to find Emilia standing beside the seal as ever. No traces of being hit
remain upon her white cheek.
Fortuna: “You've been saying so much nonsensical junk, over and over!”
Pandora: “But this time it was different, and soothed you. Are you unable to devote some fraction of
that emotion toward someone who you believe you hate? I am not telling for you to love everyone
out there in the same way that you love your daughter. But, there are some who change after
receiving only the slightest of care. If I could be part of that count, then I would like to proceed
without repeatedly presenting you any tragedies.”
Fortuna: “Who the hell do you think you are to demand kindness from me!? Emilia's parents...”
Noticing Emilia's gaze on her, Fortuna quickly shuts her mouth.

Emilia stares fixedly at her mother's tense face. When in presence of her daughter, no matter how
detested the enemy is, there are some things which should not be spoken.
Pandora: “Then here is what we shall do. Would you like to try being the one to persuade your
daughter? I have confirmed that she possesses the key, but it appears that she will not open the door.
Because she is keeping her promise with you.”
Pandora: “If you rescind your promise, no chains will bind her stubborn heart. I promise that,
provided that I may undo the seal, we will leave this forest without doing anything further. Indeed, I
promise. I will keep my promise. ...Very nice words.”
Spoken with no hint of jest, and most likely her sincere thoughts.
But there do exist statements and actions which become overwhelmingly sardonic because of their
lack of ill will.
Fortuna has seen more than enough to judge Pandora's statements as so.
Fortuna looks at Emilia.

Emilia simply clasps her hands and waits for her mother to speak. Her hands look to be gripping
something, which is likely because she's holding the door's key.
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Emilia has wound up recognizing the key. And if Fortuna utters a single word to render the promise
ineffective, she will likely open the door. Believing that doing so will save the forest.
Fortuna: “—Don't be stupid.”
Pandora: “Stupid, you say?”
Fortuna: “You'll stand down? You won't do anything more? How will you doing that benefit us?
With everything you've destroyed, everything you've ruined, all the things we had to protect that
you crushed underfoot, with even our pride broken and distorted... what's left for us!?”
Pandora: “Things may be born from places which are barren. Do you not consider that the
magnificence of life?”
Fortuna: “When it's the pillagers saying it, the words are empty and superficial!”
Fortuna roars, jabbing her finger out at Pandora.

Pandora tilts her head, not seeming to understand what Fortuna is saying.
Fortuna: “The struggle is beautiful. There's nothing more respectable than a will to live. —Stop it
with this facile talk. After robbing of us the peace we staked our lives to create, stop your
condescending speech. We had comfort and happiness and everything here. You're the ones who
ruined it!”
Pandora: “Our opinions appear to differ.”
Fortuna: “When your positions aren't the same, the sights you see aren't the same either. With how
you're always looking down at us from on high, I'm sure you see the sky as being a different height
from us!”
Spits Fortuna.
Pandora looks horrifically sad, but Fortune isn't going to respond to that. She instead keeps up her
caution toward Pandora as she dashes over to Emilia, who stands beside the seal.
After confirming that this is definitely her daughter, Fortuna falls to her knees and hugs the small
girl.
Fortuna: “Oh, Emilia... Emilia, I'm sorry. Why are you... where's Arch?”
Emilia: “Arch... told me, to run to the white flowers... so, me, I ran...”
Hearing this, Fortuna supposes the young elf's demise.

She hugs Emilia to her chest, keeping her from seeing her tears. Just how many had perished in this
forest due to the sinister cult's violence?
Indeed, this forest will never return to being what it was before.
Fortuna: “Emilia, Emilia... you did so well to keep your promise. You're amazing. You're amazing.”
Emilia: “Mother... Mother, I, I...”
Fortuna: “Emilia... you're my pride. My treasure.”
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A clinging daughter, her mother hugging her.
Pandora watches on with her expression intoxicated. Her face almost looks like she is monopolising
the most beautiful sight in the world, all for herself.
Pandora: “I have enjoyed seeing this beautiful familial love. Mutual affection truly is magnificent.”
Fortuna: “That's disgusting to hear when you're saying it. —The seal's staying put. I'm not handing
her over to you. Get to being an icicle, and wither here.”
Pandora: “From your phrasing, would this not usually be when you advise that the other party
leave?”
Fortuna: “All I want right now is to dump the shards of your frozen corpse off the Cascades.”
Voicing curses that Emilia has never heard before, Fortuna once again begins honing her magic.
Pandora purses her lips, seeming pained.
And then.
???: “I have finally—CAUGHT UP!”
His voice sounding somewhat crazed, a man soars over the trees to arrive at this spot.
He leaps over the tall arbours, his momentum that of having been thrown, arriving on the scene with
his holy vestments slathered in blood. It's Juice.
Fortuna: “Juice!”
Juice: “Fortuna-sama!”
With just one call of the other's name, the two coordinate perfectly.
They stand positioned on either side of Pandora as she occupies the centre of the clearing, the two
of them commencing with their assault from both ends.
Fortuna's left hand grips Emilia's wavering right hand firm.

Emilia looks up at her mother's face.
—Her expression as her gaze pierces through enemy is so beautiful she could shiver.
Fortuna: “Al Huma!!”
Juice: “Unseen Hand!!”
Fortuna casts magic of the most powerful degree, while Juice calls upon all of the witch factor's
power at this final moment to utilize this occult ability.
The overwhelming powers surge forth, and—
Emilia: “—mother?”
—With UNSEEN HAND piercing her chest through, Fortuna's blood rains upon Emilia.
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※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Strength drains from the hand clutching Emilia's as she witnesses Fortuna's body fall limp.
Juice: “NoOW is—THE END!”
Juice makes violent touchdown as he shouts, sweeping his battered arms hard to the side. As if
pulled along by that gesture, Fortuna's body dances through space along the exact same trajectory.
Her limbs go limp like a doll's, and her body tumbles across the ground as if discarded. Blood
shoots out from her convulsing form like a geyser, painting the grassland red in an instant.
Juice: “That did, PROVE EFFECTIVE. ...After all of this, assuredly...”
With a ragged sigh, Juice falls to his knees.

Emilia does not see how Juice yet gazes at the fallen Fortuna with caution.
She merely draws closer, gait tottering, to Fortuna as she sleeps prone.
A hole gapes open through Fortuna's back and breast, the damage so great that the innards of her
ruined body are visible. The force of the bleeding dampens, leaving Emilia sitting in a puddle of
blood.
She hugs her mother's pale head, somehow managing to set it on her lap. Red spots sully Fortuna's
pretty silver hair, and Emilia frantically attempts to clean her by wiping the grime away with her
fingers.
But Emilia's fingers are already dirty with blood, and the more she touches, the bloodier Fortuna's
hair gets.
Juice: “Fortuna-sama! Do not loosen your guard, I ask that you remain vigilant! Once I verify...”
Emilia: “juice?”
Juice: “—”
With a sharp breath, Juice heaves himself up with his palm faced towards Fortuna.
Hearing him, Emilia calls his name. After a moment of looking distantly at nothing, he blinks,
Juice: “Emilia-sama?”
He looks to have only now noticed the girl sitting in the pool of blood.
His gaze lowers down, to where Emilia's lap hosts the woman's head, her limp body lying there
uselessly.
His eyes, shoot open.
Juice: “...Impossible.”
His expression one of disbelief, Juice shakes his head.

Between his own plodding self, and the fallen Fortuna, there stands a platinum girl.
Pandora smiles at Juice as he looks on.
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Pandora: “I am afraid that there is nothing to be done. YOUR EYES HAVE MERELY DECEIVED YOU.”
Juice: “aaaAAAHH... AAAAaAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!?”
Putting his hands to his face, Juice ruthlessly drives his nails into his skin, carving out crimson
gashes.
The force is enough that his fingernails pare off, the bright blood from his gouged cheeks painting
his face scarlet.
Juice: “Impossible impossible impossible impossible impossible impossible!? Wh-what, what am,
what am I DOING!? What have I DONE? Why, whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy!? Then for
what purpose have I... what... ahh! Ahhhh!? AaaAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!”
Juice had taken a witch factor into his body, and kept the thing's discordant power restrained by
force of will.
The most important support for that resilient will snaps away. Every single thing inside Juice
crumbles away.
Because the powers he had gained by risking his life had destroyed the one he had risked his life to
protect.
Juice suffers mental damage beyond any possible repair, screaming as he loses his sanity.
Juice: “For what purpose—did I do anything!?”
Pandora: “Everything, for love.”
Juice's eyes peel wide, froth spilling from his lips as he gazes at the sky.
Pandora's quiet voice answers the screams of his soul.
Pandora: “You have sacrificed your soul to save the person you love. This is not anything ordinary.
All of your long, long time spent supporting the Witch Cult was also for the sake of that love. All of
your deeds are the outcome of love. A most excellent, pathway of love.”
Juice: “Love... LOVE... love... love... love... love...!”
Pandora: “Exactly. There is no need to fear or regret anything. Everything was inevitable. It was all
according to the path of fate. The road had continued its course to lead to this point. EVERYTHING,
FOR LOVE.”
Juice: “For, love...”
As he deliriously mutters the words back, Juice's mind shatters to pieces.

Juice's eyes lose their colour. He is trancelike, motionless.
He mutters inaudible whisperings, endlessly, a living cadaver.

Seeing Juice's mind so utterly broken, Pandora gives a satisfied sigh.
???: “Emi, lia...”
Just as Juice's being shatters into tiny pieces, the flame of yet another life begins to dim.
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Emilia: “Mother,”
Called by a voice so frail it could disappear, Emilia calls back in astonishment.

Her trembling arms reach out to draw her mother closer, to find that she had grown depressingly
light. At some point, the flood of blood has stopped its flow.
Which means that her mother is okay now, right?

Emilia is not immature enough that she can think this and protect her mind. Fortuna, too weak to
even move, plainly wears the face of a dead man.
Fortuna: “...I'm, sorry, brother...”
Emilia: “Mother,”
Fortuna: “I didn't... stay, by, a single thing, you... told me...”
Spoken like a child giving an apology, as Fortuna voices her regrets.

Blood no longer streams from her body, though tears pour from her eyes. Emilia feels the hot
teardops land on her fingers, and scrambles to gather them up.
Because Emilia inevitably feels that these compose the entirety of her mother's current strength to
live.
Fortuna: “I know, you'll... be angry, sister... I know you, won't, forgive me...”
As she listens to Fortuna mutter incoherently, Emilia finally realises.

Fortuna's amethyst eyes have not been reflecting any light for a long time.
She has long lost her sight, and they have degraded solely into organs for shedding tears. She is not
even looking at Emilia's face. She has not even noticed that Emilia is right beside her.
Emilia can touch her, can hug her, but won't reach her.
Faced with Fortuna as she sobs like a child and seeks forgiveness, Emilia—
Emilia: “—I forgive you, mother.”
Emilia: “You're my... you were so good to me... and not even Father, or Mother, could beat you with
how you like me sooo much...”
Emilia: “So you, don't have to apologize. You do not have to. Emilia will always, always love you,
Mother Fortuna. Love you. Love you, love you... love you...”
The dam bursts.

Her voice loses its usual tone, as the overflowing tears drip one-by-one onto Fortuna face.
Should teardrops compose the strength to live, then the final miracle here was the strength conferred
by Emilia's tears.
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Emilia: “...Mother?”
Fortuna: “Lia.”
Her hand slowly reaches out, to touch Emilia's cheek.

A hand which should not be moving strokes Emilia's cheeks, her ears, tickles her hair. As if
touching something beloved, so as not to break it, lovingly.
Fortuna: “You big crybaby.”
Fortuna: “I love you, sooo much...”
The strength drains from her.

Her arm thuds to the ground.
Emilia senses that Fortuna's body has grown lighter.

Her body has lost its strength, and this should be compounding the weight on Emilia's lap, but
Fortuna as she lays in Emilia's arms has definitely grown lighter.
The most important part of her mother, which must not be shed, has been shed.
Even Emilia can understand that.
She has lost Fortuna, her mother.

Juice, Betelgeux Romanée-Conti, has lost his mind.
And Emilia,
Pandora: “Now, have you prepared yourself to choose the hope which follows the opening of the
seal?”
Ask Pandora after walking over to Emilia, who holds Fortuna's corpse close.
She watches Emilia sit, all while wearing that calm expression and waiting silently for her reply.
Finally, Emilia understands.
Emilia: “Open, the siel?”
Pandora: “Yes. Although highly unfortunate, your Mother, who you shared your promise with, has
passed away. There is no need for promises to bind you as fetters for any longer. What do you
think?”
Listening to Pandora as she speaks insane logic, as if it's normal, Emilia comprehends.
She knows what this demon wearing human shape was thinking in pulling this stunt.
This demon did what she did so that Emilia would break her promise.
Entirely for the sake of making Emilia lose sight of a promise's significance, Pandora had caused
Fortuna's death, tormented Juice's mind, and annihilated the forest.
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Pandora: “Right, I forgot.”
Pandora: “I doubt that they will be necessary for you any more.”
Pandora reaches her hand out toward unresponsive Emilia's face. For dim lights to begin glowing,
encircling Emilia, before selecting Pandora's arm as their home and perch.
The minor spirits.

The fairies who had guided Emilia to the seal, and shown her the path.
And, why were they, going to Pandora?
Pandora: “Seeing as I doubted that you would come here on your own, I have enlisted their help.
They do not communicate with words, but they have been very reliable.”
Pandora smiles as she thanks the spirits, and with that, they dance through the air.
Since when had this started? Emilia cannot even tell.
Emilia's head wavers as she looks up at the seal's door.

It feels like the door is looming, pining to someday be opened, and watching Emilia. She feels the
weight of the key in her hands. She had thought that she had dropped it somewhere, but now it is
again in her grasp.
Pandora: “You do have the key. Then, you know what to do.”
Pandora gives a nod. Emilia slowly stands up.

She lowers her mother's head from her lap and silently sets it atop the grass. She twines her finger
through her bangs, arranging her prided mother's beautiful face nicely.
And,
Emilia: “Just die.”
—A blade of frigid wind whistles through the air, slicing Pandora's body to pieces.
Her spouting blood freezes in an instant. Flowers of frozen crimson bloom furiously.
With a single icicle standing central in their midst, out scatter the sanguine-flecked petals, a
masterpiece of ice and death.
Pandora: “That was rather dangerous. Where on earth is this all coming—”
Rods of ice spear down to impale Pandora's limbs, a spear of ice shoots up from the ground to
pierce Pandora from groin to crown, her frozen body screeching as it shatters into pieces.
Pandora: “Please calm down. I am sure that discussion will lead us to an understanding.”
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Balls of ice close in from both sides, crushing Pandora between them and transforming her into a
splatter of blood.
Pandora: “We should stop. You are kind by nature, and not a girl capable of harming others. Has
your Mother never told you so?”
A spinning blade of ice slices through Pandora from the feet up, casting up a spray of red sherbert.
Pandora: “It would sadden your Mother to see you like this. Neither your legitimate Mother and
Father, nor Cardinal Betelgeux, would desire this.”
Emilia: “JUST DIE!”
White mist cloaks Pandora's body, transforming her into a sculpture of ice. The giant icy sword
which slams into her the moment after smashes rather than slices her with its force, beating the
Pandora sculpture to the earth.
But despite this storm of destruction and bloodlust,
Pandora: “This is something of a predicament. It appears that the effects were the opposite of what I
had intended.”
Emilia: “Just die, just die, just die, just die!!”
Bawling, swinging her arms, Emilia rains icy destruction upon Pandora.
But even as they all strike her, and she dies gruesome death, she continuously comes back fully
restored after only the space of a blink.
Emilia: “Hahhh! Hahhh! Hauhhh!”
Emilia is approaching her limit for using this excess of magic.

With her repeated casts of magic unfitting to her, red-faced Emilia's lower body begins to freeze.
The vast mana swallowed inside her young body is running rampant, and failing to escape outside
in time.
Pandora: “The manifestation of power surpassing your capacities, such that you cannot even avoid
damages to your own body, would be because of your bloodline. The blood of a witch cannot
escape that karma. —Perhaps this forest had been necessary so that you would not awaken to this
power.”
Emilia shakes her head in refutation of the noise. Her right led is entirely frozen, and it's
questionable whether she can even stand. She falls to her knees, her eyes brimming with bloodlust
as she glares at Pandora.
Seeing that pointed, ominous gleam, Pandora shakes her head.
Pandora: “This is unfortunate when I am standing before my dearest goal, but I believe that I will
65
withdraw for the day. It does not seem that you will be willing to listen to anything more about
kindly opening the door.”
Emilia: “Just die, just die just die just die, just die...”
Pandora: “I will regard this day as well enough finished with only the presence of your lineage, and
the creation of a new Cardinal of Sin. I will achieve my goal at another time."
Egocentric logic, disregarding of other and entirely self-centered.

Pandora appears to have washed her hands of the situation, when white flakes flit through her
vision.
Snow.
Emilia's outrageous magical powers are running amok, warping weather to the extremes and
making it snow.
At first it merely sprinkles down, but the snow progressively builds in force and strength, soon
coming cloaked with wind ferocious enough to call the whole thing a blizzard.
Pandora: “It appears that, whenever we next speak, I will have to begin by having you expel
everything before we may even face each other.”
Pandora looks down from the sky as she walks over toward Emilia, who breathes white puffs.
Although she witnesses a hated enemy approaching, Emilia cannot move. Her body has already
frozen up to her waist, and she cannot even raise her arms any more.
Pandora: “You have caused this frenzy of power, and will proceed to fall into a long slumber. Will
the mana of this glaciated forest be fully exhausted, or will an entity possessing power comparable
to your own counteract it? Whichever it may be, I suspect that you will spend more than a short
period beneath the ice.”
Emilia: “Just die, just die!”
Pandora: “I regret to tell you that I will not die. I suspect that both you and I will still remain
healthy by the time that the ice melts and we again meet. And certainly, once that time comes, we
cannot have things proceed in the vein that they currently are. And so.”
Pandora's white finger touches cold against Emilia's forehead.

Emilia's amethyst eyes seethe with loathing. Pandora smiles without any malice.
Pandora: “ALL OF YOUR MEMORIES LEADING TO THIS DAY ARE CONSUMMATED WITHOUT MY
PRESENCE IN THEM .”
Emilia: “—Ah,”
Pandora: “Feel free to supplement them however you wish. Indeed. You did your very best to keep
your promise. It would make me glad if that fact could be engraved in your heart, and you could
proceed to be as you presently are.”
With her body frozen up to her breastbone, Emilia's face recoils, her gaze unfocused and puttering.
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Her eyes spin and drool trails from her mouth as Emilia's mind is ransacked.
It crumbles.
Indiscriminately and unfeelingly, the wallpaper of her memories is replaced.
The conversations she had fade into the distance, while insults she surely did not receive assault her.
Important, unfading—a promise.

She kept her promise, and that alone was something that she would never forget. And she would
never forget to keep her promises, either.
She kept her promise. The promise was kept.

Nobody had any reason to invalidate her for keeping her promise.
Pandora: “What conclusions shall your heart reach, and what smile will you give me when next we
meet? I will be eagerly awaiting our wonderful reunion.”
The blizzard rages through the forest. Pandora holds her long, dishevelled hair down as she starts
walking.
Having remained on his knees in a stupor, Juice is halfway buried in the snow. Pandora whispers
something to him. He stands up, expression powerless.
The two of them, Pandora and Juice, walk side by side as they leave the snowy forest.
Emilia can only watch them go.

The freeze has already reached her face, and her awareness remains only in her eyes.
Emilia lowers her gaze, and notices it.
On the ground before her, there is an unnatural lumping of snow.

As if, in the middle of this white snowscape, somebody is hugging her.
Emilia: “—”
Her mouth doesn't move. She cannot even close her eyes any more.
Her body is frozen, and her heart is freezing. Emilia's consciousness—
Emilia: “—ther,”
—then came to spend a century encased in the unmelting ice.
Until a spirit found her, a spirit who was searching for her, a spirit given life in this world entirely
for the sake of her.
—Until that time, Emilia remained frozen in the ice.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Having witnessed it all, and faced with the sight of her own frozen self, Emilia stands stock still.
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She remembers everything that happened.
These scenes of the past, slowly unfolding ever since she had woken up.
All of them have been peeled of their superficial, false skin, and come flowing out.
Young Emilia had seen everything that day. She saw how Fortuna died in her arms, how Juice's
mind broke and went insane, and witnessed the perpetrator of all this evil.
And she forgot them, because of her own weakness and desire to forget them?
Echidna: “It would be a mistake to fault yourself for the falsification of your memories.”
The girl standing beside Emilia, Echidna, addresses her.

Just as Emilia had experienced her memories vicariously, Echidna had witnessed everything that
happened from start to finish.
She glances at Emilia, who gazes at the snow.
Echidna: “That thing you confronted was the WITCH OF VAINGLORY Pandora. She brandishes
superficial and self-serving logic, REWRITING events however her whims and pleasures dictate. The
dampening of her influence would be a result of time's passage, and your very own strength.”
Emilia: “My, strength...”
Echidna: “As you can see, your strength is so immense that you can't fully control it. If we are
speaking entirely in terms of combat, you surpassed Pandora even here, when you were young. But
battles aren't so shallow that you can prevail on strength alone. And especially not when Pandora is
a witch with a penchant for surviving.”
It isn't clear how far her knowledge spans, but it appears that Echidna knows about Pandora.
Although, her expression as she speaks with Emilia is as bitter as ever, and she doubts that she will
get an honest answer if she asks her any questions.
Emilia: “...You're not insulting me like you were before?”
Echidna: “That's the kind of thing about you that I hate. Of course I'm thoughtful enough to be
considerate toward someone who just remembered the death of their mother. Even if that someone
is a filthy licentious whore.”
Emilia: “Thank you.”
Echidna gives a sigh, speaking no further comforts.

Noticing that she's coming close to smiling at Echidna's attitude, Emilia realises that she has been
attempting to divert her attention from the grisly memory before her in a show of weakness.
These resurrected memories are utterly things which shake Emilia's perspective of the world.
Things which overturn Emilia's life from its very outset.
After all, Emilia was going to save everyone in the forest—and so was her reasoning for devoting
herself to the Royal selection, but,
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Emilia: “I wonder if anyone's still alive... in this frozen forest.”
Emilia had witnessed both Fortuna and Arch's deaths.

The BLACKSNAKE's attack was information which had been absent in Emilia's memory. She knew
the beast's might, and the wicked characteristic it possessed.
The Witchbeast of Blight the BLACKSNAKE infects living creates with a hundred diseases just by
contact alone. And it places curses on the land it travels, transforming the region into a locality of
death where only witchbeasts can live.
—How many people had survived before the village was buried in snow?
And were those who survived and now encased in ice uninfected by the Snake's pestilence?
This was equivalent to Emilia losing her very reason to fight.
Indeed, she can agree with these memories being sealed.

Even had Pandora not interfered, perhaps Emilia would have wanted to forget about these events.
That is how utterly hopeless these memories are.
Echidna: “...Standing here indefinitely won't end TRIAL.”
Echidna gazes at the silent world of snow.
Echidna: “The past went along without any issues. Challenger of the TRIAL as you are, you must
have recognized your greatest regret. Now you need to present an answer.”
Emilia: “Present an answer for the TRIAL?”
Echidna: “The first TRIAL is beaten by demarcating an end to the symbol of your regret. Do you
affirm the actions of your past self, or reject them? If you are unable to fully accept this and reject
the question, this will all end without the TRIAL being accomplished.”
Emilia gives a deep sigh.

She has thought over and over about what she needs to overcome the TRIAL.
When faced with counterfeit memories, she had questioned herself as to why she was unable to
overcome them.
Losing Puck, and having to take over the parts of herself that she had entrusted to him, was what
first let the cap on Emilia's memories come loose.
Now, Emilia finally stands at the starting point for the TRIAL.
But even though her legs have reached the starting line, she has lost sight of the starting line in her
own heart.
She left the forest because she wanted to save everybody, save her mother.
It's turned out that those ideas weren't even idealistic ones, they were straight-out fantasies.
Her mother is dead, and she doesn't know if the villagers are safe.
If she loses the reason that she set out on this path, what remains for Emilia?
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Emilia: “—That's already been taught to me.”
Just when it seems that her heart is beginning to waver, a hand reaches out from the light and stops
her.
A powerful arm, to pull Emilia forward when she is lost as to her destination.
Don't give up. Look forward, raise your head, watch me.
Over and over, again and again, he had said that to her.
He knew that Emilia was weak, but roared at her not to stay weak.
When Emilia shook her head and insisted everything was over, he said that nothing was damn over
and pulled her back up.
When Emilia wanted to give up, thinking that she was useless, he had baselessly asserted that she
was the best.
The pain from their teeth striking each other, and the warmth of their overlaid lips, lights a flame in
Emilia's heart.
Emilia: “Mother loved me.”
Echidna: “—”
Emilia: “I wanted to help Mother Fortuna. I wanted her to hug me again as we slept in the same
bed. I wanted to tell her, countless times, that I love her.”
Echidna: “Then do you regret it?”
Echidna is asking about the moment of Emilia's decision, with the two hopes.
Back then, if Emilia had taken Pandora's hand and broken the promise, perhaps Pandora's group
would have withdrawn from the forest, and Fortuna and Juice would not have been stolen.
IF, HAD I, SUPPOSING. Using those words to look back on the past, perhaps this would indeed be the
case.
Emilia: “I don't regret anything.”
Emilia: “I don't regret that I kept my promise, and stayed my ground back then. If there's anything I
regret, it's that I wasn't strong enough, and couldn't consider things more wisely. I'll never regret
that I stayed true to my Mother's teachings and didn't listen to Pandora, ever.”
After all, hadn't Fortuna told her?

That she was proud of Emilia, who had determined to keep her promise, and that she was her
treasure?
Those very words were a treasure, to remain inside Emilia forever.
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Echidna: “Your fight hasn't lost its meaning?”
Emilia: “Nope. I... couldn't save mother. But I still don't know about everybody in the village.
Everybody might be waiting there, waiting for rescue under the snow. I'm the only one who can
save them.”
Echidna: “That land's been polluted by the Blacksnake. Even assuming that there are villagers alive
under the frost, I doubt that they will survive long while harbouring infection.”
Emilia: “That's just how you're imagining it'll go. A nasty kind of speculation. Everybody's waiting
for rescue under the snow. I'm gonna get them out of there quickly, and they'll all tell me off. And
then laugh, glad to be alive.”
Echidna: “Imbecilic delusion.”
Emilia: “No, it's a forecast for a happy future!”
Emilia steps forward.

She faces Echidna and she gestures to the snowscape.
Emilia: “I won't let you invalidate something that no one's even seen yet! I'm not going to accept
that the things my Mother left for me ended so sadly! I'm going to realise my Mother's ideals!”
Echidna: “Ideals? Your mother was searching for something?”
Emilia: “She said so. That one day everyone would leave the forest, and be able to live like normal.
Just like how Juice's group and all the villagers could get along, and how Subaru told me he likes
me, one day that world will arrive which my Mother and Juice were supposed to walk together!”
Echidna: “And the frozen villagers will be included in that world? After you trapped them in the
ice?”
Emilia: “I feel sooo sorry about that. I'll apologize over and over, and over and over until they
forgive me! And once they forgive me, I'll show them the world. Tell them that they don't have to
live in secret any more. That this is the world that Mother Fortuna was talking about!”
Echidna: “—”
Taking a deep breath, Emilia shouts.

They are no longer in the snow, but a world of white light.
Heedless to the absence of the prickling chill, and to the departure of the scene composed of her
regrets, Emilia raises her voice.
Emilia: “I'll shout myself hoarse as I holler my dreams, so that my Mother in the sky can hear it!”
Echidna: “—”
Emilia: “I am happy in the world that my Mother loved!”
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The world fractures.
Seeing the fissures run through the white space, Emilia finally notices the change in setting. Her
eyes widen in surprise, and Echidna strikes her hands.
Together, in applause.
Echidna: “I see, understood. I didn't expect that I'd know what would happen, but this exceeds
anything I imagined. This pushy, complacent, hubristic, egotistic, hypocritical and forced purchase.”
Emilia: “Exactly. Anything wrong with it?”
Echidna: “No, I don't really care. But this is one of those points where you're exactly like your
mother.”
Echidna scrunches her pretty brows, when Emilia asks her question.
Because it sounds like,
Emilia: “My, mother... you don't mean Mother Fortuna, you know about my other mother?”
Echidna: “I know her. She's part of why I get so emotional when dealing with you. Though there is
still some kind of irrational resentment to it, as I lament: why does it always only happen with
you?”
Echidna gives a shrug, her form beginning to fade.

Emilia feels a vague kind of weight press down on her consciousness, a floating feeling like waking
up from a dream circling around her.
Echidna: “Here's the end. No matter how complacent the logic is, a settlement with your past is a
settlement with your past. All you have to do is dance clumsily around as you take your mother's
resolve to sacrifice herself and use it as your rationalization.”
Emilia: “You can say anything you want. Me, I've gotten used to your insults.”
Hand to her hip, Emilia shows off her composure to Echidna, who doesn't forget to give one last
jab. Echidna averts her gaze.
Echidna: “There's still two TRIALS left, but... frustratingly, I doubt they'll prove much of an
obstacle.”
Emilia: “They won't?”
Echidna: “Constant rationalizations are the nemesis of self-inquisition. These TRIALS, which intrude
on your interior, have terrible comparability with the present you. You could call it a boon resulting
from your utter neglect to think.”
Emilia: “When you talk in a way that sounds like I'm not thinking, it actually strings sooo much.”
Emilia bares her displeasure.
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That said, their conversation here is close to meeting its end.
Echidna is practically gone from view, and Emilia's head is beginning to fog. She cannot keep
herself conscious any longer.
Echidna: “—I hate you.”
Emilia: “But I don't really hate you.”
What expression did Echidna make in this moment? Even though Emilia doesn't see it, she gets the
sense that she knows.
Her consciousness, ascends.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Emilia regains her conscious and groans, a hardness at her back.
Behind her is a wall. It seems that she has collapsed against it, and fallen unconscious with the thing
still supporting her.
She reaches out to touch the wall and checks the writing rudely engraved there. She runs straight
into an I LOVE YOU, and winds up smiling at the perfect timing.
Right now, Emilia wanted his words more than anyone else's to be the ones validating her.
Emilia: “—I'm sorry, Mother.”
Her smile twists, as her voice slips, choked, out of her mouth.
Her apology echoes through the dark room, as does the noise of her sniffling.
Teardrops stream one after another, unstoppable. Unendurable.

She had chosen to act strong, to be stubborn, and not let the witch see her cry. Inside this tomb,
where there are no worries of any onlookers, Emilia presses her face against the wall and cries
magnificently.
Emilia: “Mother... mother...”
The tears overflow.

They're truly from forever ago. Tears that she needed to cry one hundred years ago.
She had forgotten about it, and so had never been able to mourn her mother's death. In this small
chamber where no one will know about, Emilia proceeds to mourn exactly that.
So that once she exits, no one will know what her face looks like in tears.
So that she could end this, without the boy who told her weak self that he loved her seeing her being
weak.
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She cries, and cries, and cries, and cries.
All while mourning the memories of her mother, her mother's affection, and everything she had
given her.
Emilia remains exactly like this, proceeding to cry with her face pressed to LOVE.
74
CHAPTER 121: HELP HIM
She wipes away her tears and pats her cheeks.
She combs her fingers through her hair, bordering on a mess as it is, and smooths out the wrinkles
in her clothing.
Did her face look horrendous right now?

Puck would usually be here to comment about Emilia's appearance, but he isn't. Though, the
misshapen crystal that Garfiel gave her does reassure her with its dim light.
Emilia: “...We won't be seeing each other's faces for a while.”
The crystal in her hand siphons her mana out from her fingertips.
It's an uncontracted Great Spirit, and all it's doing is resting there inside the anchor, but it still
demands an incredible load of mana. Had Subaru or Garfiel spent a full day accommodating that
mana drain, they may have been run utterly dry.
But even the forcefulness of this mana drain pales in comparison to Emilia's vast stores of mana.
Emilia has regained her memories, and remembered that she can use magic without a spirit's help. If
she focuses her attention on her gate, she can feel the outrageous current of mana circulating
through.
Emilia had been why Puck could manifest in reality. Puck would brag that it was happening using a
conglomeration of ambient mana, but most likely, a large portion of the feat drew off of Emilia's
unacknowledged mana stores.
All of it, so that Emilia would not have to face her forgotten memories.
Emilia: “You really are so overprotective.”
With a slight smile, Emilia raps her finger against the crystal.
Perhaps in protest, or perhaps smiling wryly, the crystal strobes its light in response.
Emilia: “...Okay. Mm, everything's fine now.”
Her mood has calmed down considerably, too.

Thinking about Fortuna or Juice makes her heart sting, and should she relax her guard, she will
definitely wind up crying again.
But Emilia cannot stay cowering forever.

She has things she needs to do. And they were surely things that Fortuna and Juice would expect of
her, and desire from her.
She exits the TRIAL room, and heads through the stone corridor, making for the exit.
Two TRIALS remain. Overcoming the first TRIAL isn't enough to make the door in the chamber
open. Most likely, she will need to complete all the TRIALS before it will.
The requirements to make the next TRIAL start are unclear. Exit and enter the tomb again?
Potentially a passage of time? Either way, the TRIAL did not heartlessly start on her during her
period spent crying in mourning. So it feels like re-entry is the requirement.
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Emilia: “What would I do if Echidna does something mean to me? ...I think she was sooo mad at
the end.”
I hate you, she said. But I don't really hate you, replied Emilia.
Part of that comment had been revenge against Echidna and her constant belittling of her, but
considering that this witch was in command of the TRIALS, perhaps she could have used a little
more self-control.
Emilia: “I wish for you to please not be too mad.”
While praying for Echidna's good behaviour, Emilia heads for the tomb's exterior. Moonlight
spilling in at the end of the hallway informs her of the exit.
She instantly forgets about Echidna for now and raises her head cheerily.
That past she remembered was assuredly nothing trifling.

It still doesn't quite feel real yet, but it was definitely a huge and unshakable event which composed
part of the foundations of the character called Emilia.
But for now, all she wanted was to inform the people who believed in her that she had beaten the
TRIAL.
To see the person who said, You can do it, and tell them: I did it.
Squinting under the dazzling moonlight, Emilia exits the tomb—
???: “I welcome your return, Emilia-sama.”
Greeted at the square outside by Ram and her curtsey, not a single other person in sight, Emilia tilts
her head.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—We'll rewind time a little, back to when Emilia's TRIAL began.
While traversing the route to Roswaal's recuperation hut, intending to verify the guy's motives,
Subaru swallows his breath and stops still.
He can tell that Garfiel, walking beside him, also has his eyes shoot open in clear shock. For him,
this situation truly must be a bolt out of the blue.
Subaru had imagined some circumstances and possibilities beforehand, but even he cannot conceal
his surprise. While feeling some sympathy for Garfiel, Subaru sighs at the character blocking their
path,
Subaru: “I did think you'd be around... but actually seeing you makes me feel kinda defeated.”
???: “Now thert's a serprise. Goin' by what Roz-bo said, yer got eyes enough ter see through the
whole erv everything, Su-bo.”
Subaru: “That's him anticipating too much. Seriously, how huge are his estimations of me?”
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From Roswaal's perspective, where he is aware of RETURN BY DEATH—or rather, the Redos, then
indeed perhaps it all looks like the doings of an omnipotent god.
But the power isn't that infallible. It provides absolutely no help in reclaiming what precious things
have already been lost. That's the sort of unhappy power it is.
Narrowing her eyes, the pink-haired girl—the look-alike for the Lewes who they parted with
outside the tomb, one of the Lewes Meyer doubles—smiles slyly.
Subaru had anticipated her existence and his reaction only amounts to him slumping his shoulders,
but Garfiel's reaction is dramatic. His eyes peel wide as he glares at the face of his grandmother,
Garfiel: “Th'hell... why th'fuck's there another granny here? There ain't more than one talkin'
granny, n' th'rest'v th'fellas who got granny's face're under my orders to...”
Lewes: “Everything has its exceptions. ...Right. If we say that the Lewes Gar-bo knows as the
representative of SANCTUARY is the place's overseer, then I'd be the caretaker of SANCTUARY's
faculties. A will inherited from Lewes Meyer, continuously protecting the place.”
Subaru: “Then speaking in terms of the system, you're against SANCTUARY's freedom. I thought it
was weird that none of the Leweses were against liberation and goading Garfiel. So the one who
secretly took that role... was you. —Lewes Omega.”
It's not Lewes who reacts to the name, but Garfiel. He glances back at Subaru, looking dubious.
Garfiel: “Ohmegah?”
Garfiel: “Hell's that, Captain. That name.”
Subaru: “When there's several of them and you don't differentiate them, it's hard to keep the Lewes-
sans straight. So just for expediency, we're calling the Lewes-sans we know Alpha, Beta, Sigma,
and Theta. But now there's obviously a fifth Lewes-san, OMEGA. Not thrilled with it?”
Garfiel: “No, I just mean that name's way too cool f'r th'granny... ain't fair.”
Subaru: “Basically. When there's more of you, I'll give you cool names too.”
Garfiel: “But there ain't gonna be more of me...”
It seems like Subaru's naming sense has appealed rather intensely to Garfiel. The two recognize this
unexpected point they have in common while Omega sighs.
Omega: “I dern't mind whatever yer gonner call me, but yer leaving me behind ter have a happy
chat. Since when have you two been such good friends?”
Subaru: “Men who trade fists with the evening sun as their backdrop are always pals. Even if comes
after getting decked following a four-versus-one. Right, Garfiel?”
Garfiel: “Well yer sure got over whatever goddamn guilt yer had, Captain.”
It seems like Garfiel still cannot really agree with losing due to force of numbers, but coming from
him, the jab is pretty poor. That aside, the joking around to buy time and think ends here.
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Subaru faces Omega. She strokes her long hair.
Omega: “The look in yer eyes's changed. Not a kid ter drop yer guard around.”
Subaru: “This whole kid thing feels pretty fresh, not bad. Omega-san, do I have this right? You're
not like the other Lewes-sans, you don't have a rotation? I really don't want to have Gamma,
Ampersand, Dollar, and Pound show up too.”
Subaru goes off listing whatever signs he can think of. Garfiel's eyes sparkle.
While Subaru consciously ignores the admiring gaze of a fourteen-year-old, Omega strokes her flat
chest.
Omega: “Dern't worry. I'm the only one holdin' the role erv overseer. Without a spec'erv a doubt, I'm
the last Lewes in SANCTUARY with any sense of will.”
Subaru: “Not gonna go back on that comment? Going off who I know, up to 20,000 people with the
same face'll show up.”
Omega: “Now that has ter be going too far. SANCTUARY wouldn't be able ter hold us.”
His worst fears undermined, Subaru relaxes.

He furrows his brows at the calm Omega.
Subaru: “I mean it's nice that you're just telling us who you are, but... what happened? With how
you've been treated like a hidden gem up till now I was thinking entirely that you'd be in the
shadows. So why're you suddenly showing up now?”
Omega smiles.
Omega: “It ain't nothing tricky,”
Omega: “The peace between yer and Gar-bo meant yer figured out I exist. Yer might not've
actually got yer grips on me, but the second yer think that MAYBE SHE EXISTS, I lose. I showed up
figuring I'd behave nicely to face my judgement.”
Subaru: “Saying 'face judgement' is really overstating it. ...But there has to be more to it than that,
yeah?”
If Omega seriously wanted to achieve her goals, she surely could have played more of a hand. Even
should Subaru's group suspect her existence, until they manage to actually find her, she remains the
superior party.
Subaru: “Call it guerilla warfare or whatever, if you ever felt like being an obstacle, you could've
been. And your role is being the Joker to pull that off. Roswaal's been keeping quiet about your
existence this whole time, and...”
Omega: “Roz-bo's state is part erv why I'm showing up so nicely.”
Subaru: “Roswaal's, state?”
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Subaru's eyes widen. Omega shakes her head.
There's something sardonic about that attitude, and cavalier.
Omega: “Yer take a look at Roz-bo as he holes up in his room right now, and yer'll figure out right
away why I'm thinking erv just giving up. And erspecially when I was helping him as SANCTUARY's
caretaker, with the idear that he'd steer the place int'er its correct form. ...Not gonna happen with
that.”
Being that Subaru knows the other Leweses, he finds Omega's dejected remark to be rather harsh.
Perhaps Garfiel interprets her comment as being strict too, for he does not interject about her
unsparing opinion of Roswaal.
Omega is tasked with being SANCTUARY's manager and caretaker. It's unclear when she first got that
role, but she's probably been active for much longer than Alpha and the others. Her current attitude
may have been built up over all that time.
Regardless,
Subaru: “Nevermind whatever you've been doing until now, is it safe for us to think that you're not
gonna get in our way any more?”
Omega: “Well, if yer follow my views on the correct steering, then I still got lotser things I'd like ter
interfere with. SANCTUARY's liberation ain't what Lewes Meyer wished fer... but, times are times. If
the era means that SANCTUARY stops being necessary, then my role isn't needed either. What's kept
me going until now wers essentially the thought erv not wanting ter be left behind.”
Omega's voice is somewhat sad, with anxiety peeking through about her role's end. This post she
has served for so long is reaching its conclusion.
Subaru doesn't know what exactly Omega feels when she reminisces on her life. While a good
portion would be a sense of will and volition, perhaps there would also be a sense of liberation
smattered there too.
Garfiel: “Stubborn, ain't ya. 'S a good thing t'be, granny.”
Omega crosses her arms and looks up at Garfiel as he clicks his fangs.
Garfiel: “'S same fer me. I was stubborn like yer were, granny Omega. N'my thing was even worse
than yers. But th'Captain used his strength, used his numbers, n' smashed th'whole fuckin' thing
apart. Was honestly thinkin' 'fuck this!'... but now I just feel damn refreshed.”
Omega: “Gar-bo...”
Garfiel: “'S what th'Captain said. SANCTUARY losin' it's barrier don't mean that th'world we live'n's
gonna be gone. SANCTUARY disappears, n' th'whole'v th'outside world becomes a SANCTUARY. 'N
there, both you n' my amazin' self got things we can do.”
Omega looks down, in thought.

Her expression loses its anxiety and her brows uncrinkle. Instead she looks to be scrutinizing
Garfiel's words, and he nods in satisfaction.
Subaru taps Garfiel's shoulder.
Subaru: “Garfiel, do you... have a fever or something? You are saying some super smart, super
79
embarrassing stuff right now.”
Garfiel: “Captain. Do y'think I got th'brains t'come up with this? 80% of what I just said's comin'
second hand from you.”
Subaru: “Seriously? I said that? Nononono hold on, oh crap, belated mortification.”
Garfiel gives an astonished sigh as Subaru squats down to the ground, ears red. He then faces
Omega again and swings out his arm, gesturing an open path.
Garfiel: “I get what yer sayin', granny Omega. N'yer basically answered what I was gonner ask.
Now's just ter question 'bout th'nefarious plot, n' showin' up in person t'see th'asshole who came up
with it.”
Omega: “Anything yer want. ...Wonder what I'll do.”
Mutters Omega. Subaru hums his agreement.

Omega had been keeping her existence a secret. Not even Alpha and the other Leweses noticed her
or what she was doing. Now that her role has ended, Omega can appear in public for the very first
time.
Subaru: “If you go to the tomb, Ram and Alpha-san's group... right now it's Theta-san. They're
waiting there. They've probably already figured out what's going on, so just go and talk with them.”
Garfiel: “They figured out what's goin' on, goddamn seriously? My amazin' self didn't figure a
single thing'v this.”
Subaru: “That's 'cause your head's running a whole lap behind.”
It's actually more baffling that he didn't get an idea of it, after that past conversation. All those times
where Garfiel's instinctive actions impeded Subaru's activities in SANCTUARY float through his mind.
Either way, Omega's anxiety is probably needless. Theta knows that there are many duplicates of
herself, and Ram probably knows about the duplicates too. They'll accept her.
So the problem is,
Subaru: “The mastermind of the nefarious plot, a face-to-face conversation with the boss clown.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
When he enters the room, Subaru has to wonder if he's even been here before.
Roswaal has been in this room ever since Subaru first came to SANCTUARY. This is the room he has
visited every time he has wanted to talk with Roswaal. He can even remember where all its
ornamentations are arranged, and yet.
Roswaal: “Weeeeeeeeell, if it iiiiiiiiiiiiiiisn't Subaru-kun. How nice of you to come. Even though
you must be veeeeeeeeeeeery busy.”
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Subaru stands wordlessly with his hand still touching the opened door as Roswaal glances back at
him, and speaks in that aloof tone. He gives a joking kind of shrug, which prompts Subaru's heart,
for an instant, to want to think that nothing is irregular. But Subaru suppresses that thought and
instead faces Roswaal.
The room is an absolute mess.

The bookcase has been overturned, and the ripped white bedsheets lie dumped upon it. The bed is
broken in two, wood chips everywhere. The warlock stands in the middle of this destruction with
his hands dripping blood.
Seeing the splinter-wounds on his hands, Subaru recognizes: He just smacked the bed apart.
Garfiel: “Captain...”
Having also seen what a wreck the room is, Garfiel takes a half-step forward, placing himself in a
position where he can protect Subaru. Roswaal's abnormal state is not evoking a caution in merely
Subaru.
Garfiel's golden eyes are clearly wary. He stoops his body forward, so that he can immediately
suppress Roswaal should he do anything shady.
Roswaal: “Hoooooooow domesticated you've beeeeeeeecome, Garfiel.”
Says Roswaal mockingly, his lips twisting in malevolent crimson.

Keeping that smile, he closes one eye to view Garfiel only with the yellow.
Roswaal: “It's shocking how quickly you changed your tune. You're protecting Subaru-kun, which
means that you've been added to his merry band of friends. Aaaaaaand that you took your will of
wills, the love that you have held so long for your mother, and discarded it.”
Subaru: “Roswaal, you're wrong. Garfiel isn't allying with us because he had some change in his
feelings. He's just shifted his ideas a little, and...”
Roswaal: “Thaaaaaaat is what I'm saying is superficial. You are beaten up en masse and lectured,
and that's all it takes to change your stance. Your feelings are so weak that losing a fight is enough
to change them. Easily altered, shoddy.”
Subaru: “Roswaal!”
It is Subaru and not Garfiel who gets enraged with Roswaal's screeds of heartless words.
After finishing the intense fight with Garfiel, Subaru came to understand a fragment of his feelings,
a fragment of his mental pain. And also came to understand that it was assuredly nothing frivolous
or cheap.
Roswaal cannot be forgiven for trampling all over Garfiel's feelings.
Subaru: “You take that back! You don't have any right to mock Garfiel's feelings!”
Roswaal: “Call pliant what is pliant. Call brittle what is brittle. Is there any reason to be criticised
foooooooor stating facts? Your overreaction actually reinforces my statements' legitimacy. A
twopenny sketch where cheap relationships try to validate cheap feelings. Truly... an offence to the
eyes.”
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Subaru: “—!”
Subaru moves to approach Roswaal in a rage.

But the one who stops him is in fact Garfiel. The one most wounded by Roswaal's insults, Garfiel.
Subaru can imagine how hurt he must be as he timidly turns to glance at his face.
However,
Garfiel: “Yer words ain't got a lotta punch t'em, Roswaal.”
Says Garfiel, his arms crossed in boredom and head lightly tilted.
The attitude shocks Subaru, and does the same for Roswaal.
Had this been a Garfiel from just a little while ago, he surely would have left himself to rage and
snapped at those words. But he, right now, disregarded them. As if he were bathing in a warm
breeze.
Garfiel: “I ain't able t'deny that 'm full'v half-measures. 'Till this mornin' I was on yer side, n' now
I'm on th'Captain's. Yer right when yer say it was a quick change'a tune.”
Roswaal: “After your perfidy toward your beliefs come the rationalizations, I seeeeeeeeee.
Goodness me, it appears that the strength you've validated all this time also proooooooooves
substandard in reality. Ten years... assuredly no short period of time, only for a handful of days to
alter your doctrines.”
Roswaal shrugs and shakes his head. A murky emotion rises in his odd-coloured eyes as he glares at
Garfiel.
Roswaal: “And that is what I'm calling cheap. If you really loved her, then your feelings would
never change their form. Do you believe that your ten years, and Emilia-sama's century, can be
handled so cheaply?”
Roswaal: “All you did was interact with Subaru-kun for a handful of days. What could possibly
happen in this time? Did you create something with him which could rival your feelings toward the
one you love? Of course you didn't! No matter what you create with those at your side, it will never
compare to what you feel for your love! It won't rival it! That is what it means to love someone
most!”
Roswaal kicks a piece of bed which had fallen to the floor. It rebounds and flies toward Subaru and
Garfiel, but strikes neither of them as it instead hits the wall behind them.
Splinters of wood rain to the ground. Roswaal's assertions make Subaru hold his breath.
—Scour away everything except what is most important.
That is what loving something meant to Roswaal.

There is nothing precious he builds outside of the one he decides on, and he finds no necessity to
build up anything precious outside of that, either. His feelings toward that one thing are then
ironclad, and if opportunity exists for him to bring them to fruition, he will not hesitate in the least.
This is what Roswaal believes 'love' is.
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The moment Subaru comprehends Roswaal's thoughts, Roswaal looks at him as if he noticed it.
His yellow eye churns with the outrageous zeal of love, consuming.
Roswaal: “Do you remember the terms of our bet? The bet that you presented. Once that bet leads
you to bind your greatest prepotency and become mundane, what can you do? You can do nothing.
Because you... you, are so inferior that you can't even manage mediocrity!”
Roswaal: “The potential for you to be a foolproof ace exists solely because you have that power.
Once you throw that away and become mundane, within a time limit you won't even be capable of
floundering at ordinary par! Nobody! After living with one another, is capable of overcoming
feelings engraved over time! It doesn't happen!”
Garfiel's decade of obsession with SANCTUARY and distortion of his love for his family.
Emilia's century, with a past so terrible that she wanted to forget, and guilt that she left behind.
And,
Roswaal: “A decade, a century, and my four centuries! Do you think I can tolerate for even a second
that you, nobody else but this mundane you, are the one to overturn that!”
Subaru: “Because feelings never change?”
Roswaal: “Exactly!”
Subaru: “Because you've had these feelings for a long, long time?”
Roswaal: “Yes, exactly!”
Nobody can overwrite their feelings. Feelings will never, ever, change or bend.
Finally, Subaru feels that he gets it. Finally, he feels that he understands Roswaal.
Roswaal wants his feelings to be validated.

He wants to validate somebody else's feelings, so that he can believe that this is what feelings are.
And so Roswaal wanted Garfiel to remain weak.

He wanted Garfiel to remained obsessed with his feelings, frantically protecting something that
wouldn't change.
Subaru: “Seriously, how come, Roswaal?”
Feelings for one single loved one.

For the sake of validating that, Roswaal is obsessed with what others are like when they have
feelings for someone.
Even though Roswaal should know better than anyone what it is for someone to feel something for
someone else.
Subaru: “How come you only see the weakness of love? If you know that loving someone without
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end is a strong emotion, how come you only see the weak things about it?”
Roswaal: “—Because that's what I believe.”
Replies Roswaal, his voice strangled.

Incredible fury flashes through his eyes, as if he were glaring at the thing he hated most in the
world.
Roswaal: “Exactly! Like how you believe in others' strength, and expect things from them! I believe
that everybody remains consistently weak! They are weak, frail, minuscule people, incapable of
actualizing their love for their precious one outside of merely clinging to them, that is what I
believe!”
Subaru: “—!”
Roswaal: “I have gone four centuries without ever forgetting about her! The time we've spent apart
is infinitely longer than the time that I spent with her, and still she is emblazoned in my heart and
never going to leave! My heart is still in pieces from that day of our goodbye, nothing about me has
changed!!”
Roswaal steps forth.

Garfiel cuts in to stop Roswaal from approaching Subaru. But Roswaal puts his hand to Garfiel's
chest, looks down at him,
Roswaal: “Wasn't it easy? When you spent ten years giving heed to the shouts of love inside you,
and through that time believed in them obstinately, didn't you manage to bask in the feeling of
loving someone?”
Garfiel: “—! Bastard...”
Roswaal: “It's fine, entirely fine. It's what everybody ought to do. There is no person capable of
living in solitude! All live with feelings for another. And that is enough... so then why are you
attempting to alter your feelings. Attempting to betray them. Did you not love her!?”
Garfiel: “Yer got it wrong! I...”
Roswaal: “What changed you!? Your muscled body was defeated in a fight, and you lost? You spent
ten years for a malleable love, bent by the shattering of your fangs? Then the one disgracing and
desecrating your ten years is in fact you yourself!”
Garfiel knocks away the hand at his arm. He attempts to use the backswing to thrust Roswaal back,
but Roswaal wrenches himself aside and evades. Garfiel's eyes shoot open as Roswaal grabs his
arm and hoists him into the air.
Garfiel: “Hrah—!”
However, once Garfiel hits the peak of the attack, he puts his foot to the ceiling and manages to
overpower Roswaal's momentum, saving himself from slamming back-first into the hard surface.
He forces his body to flip around, giving him three points of contact minus his grappled arm. He
rewards this by yanking his grappled arm, pulling Roswaal closer, and ramming him in the chest
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with a headbutt.
Roswaal: “Ghuh...”
Garfiel: “Ha! 'F I hadn't heard from th'Captain that yer can do martial arts too, yer'd've gotten me
good.”
Looking down at Roswaal as he falls to his knees, Garfiel gives a roll of his previously-grappled
arm.
He bares his fangs.
Garfiel: “Hey Roswaal. Yer sayin' things that an idiot like me ain't gonna understand. Yer can go on
about yer four centuries, but fact is yer a young guy who maybe ain't even thirty. N' I know my
amazin' self's sittin' at half'v that.”
Garfiel reaches out to grab Roswaal's collar, hoists the clown close.
Roswaal's face is twisted in pain. Garfiel scrunches his nose.
Garfiel: “But it ain't that my amazin' self's goin' with th'Captain 'cause I lost a fight. 'S true that
th'loss did smart. Yer said it, my amazin' stubbornness's been doin' me good fer ten years. My head
ain't mushy enough fer a loss t'turn that around.”
Roswaal: “Then why are you standing in this room...”
Garfiel: “'Cause th'Captain... actually, 's was Ram. Sh'told me this after I lost. T'go into th'tomb n'
look at th'TRIAL. N'so, ten years later, I saw what started these ten years'v feelin's.”
Roswaal: “Wha?!”
Shock flashes through Roswaal's expression.
Roswaal: “Impossible... you're, you're not capable of facing your past again!”
Garfiel: “Yer can say 'm not capable all yer want. I already went n' done it, n' saw what I saw. N'so,
I wound up understandin'.”
Roswaal glares at Garfiel, who shakes his head. That silent, focused gaze of his is waiting for
Garfiel to divulge what he learned.
But, Garfiel merely opens his mouth wide, and,
Garfiel: “I ain't gonna tell yer what I figured out. 'S a waste on you.”
Roswaal: “What!?”
Garfiel: “But I will tell yer one thing, why'm sidin' with th'Captain.”
Garfiel lets Roswaal go, sending him toppling down to a graceless landing on his behind, and looks
at Subaru. He sighs slightly as Subaru flinches at the intensity of it.
Garfiel: “'S cause of goddamn course yer'd rather team with th'people sayin' yer strong, we need
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you, than someone makin' yer think yer gonna stay weak forever.”
With that incredibly reasonable logic, Garfiel looks away from Roswaal. He passes him by, to stand
beside Subaru with his arms crossed.
Subaru glances over at him. And away. And over. And away. And—
Garfiel: “What.”
Subaru: “...No, it's nothing. Counting on you.”
Garfiel closes his eyes, looking uncomfortable, when Subaru speaks and then squats down in front
of Roswaal. With his neck down and head drooped, he makes no attempt to look at Subaru.
Subaru: “Garfiel saw his past. That might've changed his viewpoint, but that doesn't mean the
feelings he's had for his family for the last ten years weakened or wavered. The strength of the
feeling stays the same, but he's changed. You don't find that idea a believable one?”
Though he may no longer be obsessed with Sanctuary, Garfiel's feelings have not weakened in the
least. He learned that his unreciprocated love for his mother was actually mutual, and how great a
shock did that give him? Subaru couldn't know.
But who could think that Garfiel was weak, seeing him now? Though he had wavered, and likely
would lament.
Subaru: “And it's the same for you. We're not telling you to warp these feelings you've had all this
time for someone. We just want you to change how you demonstrate those feelings. If there aren't
going to be sacrifices for it, then of course we'll help you.”
Roswaal: “...I cannot tolerate that. And so what does it matter if merely Garfiel's feelings have
changed? For our purposes, yet another vital person remains.”
Subaru reaches out to Roswaal. But Roswaal does not attempt to take his hand.
He shakes his head, terrible at surrender, as he speaks about Emilia.
Subaru: “Emilia's not going to do what you want either. She's going to overcome it.”
Roswaal: “She cannot. She'll be crushed by her regrets, regret ever hoping that she could change,
and come crying and clinging to you... as suits her.”
Subaru: “Like there's a girl out there whose face's suited to crying. And actually, have you even seen
her cry?”
Subaru recalls Emilia in the tomb, before their argument.

She was carrying a heavy responsibility, and grieving the loss of her bond with Puck. Her
expression when Subaru glared at her, unable to hold back her tears.
Recalling it lights a fire in his heart.
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An unbearable inferno of rage, burning him whole.
Subaru: “I have never seen a woman so fucking horrendous at crying before!”
Roswaal: “To be wounded, to be disparaged, that is the lot of half-elves like her. Sharing the same
birth as the WITCH OF ENVY is a congenital curse. It's inevitable that she be despised as a WITCH.”
Subaru: “Fuck off, what about her's a witch? This witch you're talking about doesn't goddamn
exist.”
Roswaal faces down.

Subaru grabs his collar and forces him to look up, his eyes pitched in anger as he puts them on even
eye level.
Reflected in Roswaal's eyes is Subaru, blazing with an unstoppable fury directed at the world.
Yes. Right now, Natsuki Subaru is sick of everything in the world.
What about Emilia was a WITCH? There wasn't any damn WITCH.
And if there was one, it would be—
Subaru: “If you're saying she's a WITCH! It's because you all made her one! You keep telling her that
of course she's weak, it's obvious she'd be hated, all because of her useless birth, and you are going
to make her into a WITCH!”
He recalls the WITCH's tea party.

The scenes flash through his mind—of the old witches, titled with sin.
Minerva, Sekhmet, Typhon, Daphne, Camilla, Echidna.

And he remembers Satella, who saw him off the moment the dream shattered.
Like he could forget her.

Her face—looked exactly like Emilia's.
Subaru: “Has anyone told her even once!? That when she's sad, when she's suffering, it's okay for
her to cry! That if she can't wipe her tears away, someone at her side will do it for her! Has anyone
told her even once that someone would be there for her!?”
No matter what horrible things she goes through, she accepts it as natural.
Surely her heart would have been filled with pain, and it would feel like the sadness could crush her.
But nobody had allowed her to cry, making her so terrible at crying.
Over repeated experiences in crying and crying and crying and crying, everyone learns to keep the
tears out of their voice, out of their expression, and themselves out of sight.
But she doesn't know that.

She had made it this fare without ever knowing that, and so she was terrible at crying.
A world that would do this, a world that had done this—was presently so loathsome to Subaru that
he could go mad.
Subaru: “If the obvious thing in this world is for nobody to take her side, then my presence is going
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to change it! You think four-hundred year curses can't change, and I'm going to teach you!”
Roswaal: “—”
Roswaal's eyes shoot open as Subaru jabs his finger to the heavens.
By some bizarre turn, his posture right now, and Emilia's pose to the insulting witch, mirror each
other perfectly—
Subaru: “My name is Natsuki Subaru! Knight to the silver half-elf, Emilia!”
Once, Natsuki Subaru had crowed the exact same line without any preparation for it, and many
mocked his foolhardy determination. Thinking back, he had been even more useless back then than
he was now.
But there is one thing different between now and then.
Even if someone laughs at him for it, Natsuki Subaru will feel no embarrassment.
Subaru: “Emilia's doing it, Roswaal. This girl you think's so weak is gonna tear right through the
last hope you have left.”
Roswaal: “As if, she can..”
Subaru “The weakness you're clinging to's getting peeled off bit by bit, and all that'll be left'll be to
talk to you... I'm trusting that you'll finally start to listen.”
Even after hearing all of this, Roswaal's heart does not yield.
He's exactly right. Something built over four hundred years can't be altered with just a single word.
It's like how Garfiel's decade and Emilia's century required both words and actions to begin moving.
Roswaal's four centuries will be the same. The actions and the words of Subaru's group will, finally,
affect him.
Is what Subaru wants to believe.
Roswaal: “...Regardless of what anyone may do, my feelings shall not waver.”
Roswaal crawls past Subaru. He reaches out his shaking hand to grab a black book beside the
broken bed, and cradles it to his chest.
A legitimate, future-charting GOSPEL.
Garfiel and Emilia have outgrown the weakness that Roswaal believes in.
Omega and Ram have diverted from Roswaal as he attempts to establish his path.
The only HOPE that remains for Roswaal now is the gospel.
Once he has lost its writ, Subaru will be able to speak with Roswaal genuinely for the first time.
Roswaal: “I'll, make it snow...”
Subaru: “Do what you want. I'm crushing all your plans and crushing them unremittingly.”
With that reply to Roswaal's nigh delirious muttering, Subaru turns to exit the room. He nods at
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Garfiel, who seems to want to say something, and the two leave the room together.
At the very end, Garfiel glances back to the room with Roswaal in it. And, perhaps seeing
something in him as he is left behind, whispers:
Garfiel: “Y'damn idiot.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Their conversation with Roswaal over, Subaru exits the building and gives a sigh.
A deep one, wringing all of the air out of his lungs, expelling everything in him.
Subaru: “Crap. We were trying to make him stop the attack on the mansion, but it feels like we just
cornered him into doing it.”
Garfiel: “Started talkin' some nonsense crap 'bout makin' it snow, too. Didn't look like we were
gonna get a real conversation outta him... it ain't yer fault, Captain.”
Subaru: “No, I totally cornered him when we didn't need to. Even though I knew the second we
went in that Roswaal wasn't exactly in a normal state of mind, what the heck was I doing?”
Subaru feels like he finally understands Roswaal's principles and motives in earnest. And Subaru
has clearly given his response and feelings regarding them.
He did think it necessary to inform Roswaal that Emilia was going to clear the victory conditions,
so that he would acknowledge his loss.
But—
Subaru: “Doing that meant we lost out on the most important point...”
Garfiel: “'M tellin' yer, don't get down 'bout it. Ain't like my amazin' self got curious listenin' from
aside wonderin' what yer were gonna do, but what yer said ain't anythin' incorrect.”
Subaru: “I mean, that's the idea...”
Garfiel: “But anyway... that pose was so cool!”
Giving Subaru a smile, Garfiel promptly jabs his finger to the heavens.
Honestly, the pose has only ever gotten terribly negative reviews since coming to this world, so
finding someone who can empathise with it is the peak of happiness.
It's Garfiel's way of comforting Subaru. Probably. Hopefully.
???: “—Natsuki-san! Garfiel!”
When somebody calls to the two.

They glance over, to see Otto running toward them. He had been doing something else, and comes
to a stop before them.
Otto: “It looks like you're done speaking with the Margrave. How did everything go?”
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Subaru: “Yeah. Got him to pick up the fight we put down.”
Otto: “Was that what we were attempting to do here!?”
What they were actually meant to talk about was the final trap that Roswaal set in SANCTUARY, and
try to make him change his mind about it.
They found out about Omega's presence on the way to Roswaal's, and Roswaal is too thick-headed
to change his mind about anything. Negotiations have failed.
Garfiel: “Hey, guy. Don't get on th'Captain's case too much. He did this super fiery awesome
backtalk. Put me in a good mood hearin' it.”
Otto: “Do you remember what you went there to do? This truly isn't a joke.”
Unable to refute Otto's complaints, Subaru reaches the peak of guilty reflection.
But Garfiel gives the dejected Subaru a boisterous slap on the shoulders, and raps his finger off a
dissatisfied Otto's forehead. He watches as Otto yelps, pitching back, and squats down to the
ground.
Garfiel: “Yer right, th'talk didn't go great. But all that was a back-up plan anyway. —I'll be doin'
somethin' bout th'trouble at Roswaal's mansion.”
Garfiel guffaws in reply to Otto's silent criticism.

He bares his fangs, and with a loud click,
Garfiel: “Leave everythin' t'my amazin' self. —I am th'goddamn strongest.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Ram: “And so the three idiots and one clever dragon have departed by carriage for the mansion.”
Done with the story, Ram puts her hand to her chest with her expression rather exhausted.
It's a rare thing for Ram to display emotion when around Emilia, and surprises her a little.
Emilia: “I see then. ...Well, I guess they had to.”
Ram: “...Is that all?”
Emilia: “That's all. I mean, I am still a little... sooo just a little miffed that they weren't waiting for
me.”
All those talks, and they're not even around to see how she did. What's with that.
Emilia: “But it means they don't think I'm going to fail.”
If Subaru really was more worried about Emilia than anything else, then he would've stayed behind.
His absence here means that somewhere else, there is someone who needs his help more than her.
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Since Emilia knows that Natsuki Subaru trusts in her, that's how it seems.
Emilia: “I wonder if he really does love me. What do you think?”
Ram: “Barusu has more feelings for you than he does for anyone else, Emilia-sama.”
Emilia: “...Huhuhu, thank you.”
Emilia puts her hand to her mouth and smiles, for Ram to lower her gaze in thought.
After a few seconds of silence, she looks up again.
Ram: “Emilia-sama, I must apologize.”
Emilia: “What's wrong?”
Emilia's eyes widen.
Emilia: “It's sooo uncommon for you to apologize.”
Ram: “I think the same. ...However, now is the first time that I bow my head to you sincerely.”
All of my curtseys up until now have just been poses, announces Ram. Emilia smiles wryly, while
Ram looks her straight in the eye.
Ram: “I... did not believe that you would come to stand. The TRIAL had broken your spirit, you lost
the Great Spirit who was your support... you even learned that Barusu had been keeping secrets
from you. I did not think for a second that you would rise to your feet.”
Ram: “However, even with all that has occurred, you have not yielded. When you left your bed, and
I realised that you had gone to the tomb... I at least recognized that I had been discrediting you.”
But even so, Emilia hadn't gotten back to her feet at this juncture that Ram is indicating.
She just hadn't tried to abandon the TRIAL. That alone was something that she never considered. She
could assert that.
Emilia: “And so you helped Subaru and Otto-kun?”
Ram: “I merely believed that my assistance would lead to a future worth seeing. It would be wrong
to perceive it as myself assisting them. The person I had been assisting was you.”
Emilia: “...You might be right.”
Subaru's words were indispensable for Emilia to get back to her feet.
And Subaru's defeat of Garfiel was necessary to prove those words. And defeating Garfiel required
Otto and Ram's help.
Looking only at the results, you could say that Ram aided Emilia.
Emilia: “Why did you do that for me?”
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Ram: “—Because it is essential to demonstrate your own sincerity before making a request.”
Emilia: “—”
With that, Ram kneels before Emilia.

Whenever Ram demonstrated politeness around Emilia up to now, however insincere the sentiment
may have been, it was always by grasping her skirt and preforming a curtsey. Something within the
scope of a maid's duties.
But this time is different. This is the ultimate demonstration of politeness, where anyone living in
this world illustrates all the respect that they have.
Ram: “I ask of you, Emilia-sama. —Please save my master, Roswaal-sama.”
Emilia: “...Save Roswaal?”
Ram: “He is preoccupied with delusion. A curse of a delusion, which has kept his heart bound for a
long, long time. Perhaps I would have been happy even with that. Even should he never cast his
gaze upon me, and never regard me as more than a tool to accomplish that delusion, I would have
been happy.”
Still kneeling, Ram bares her heart to Emilia.

Beneath her expressionless mask, she may have been holding this wish the entire time.
Ram: “However, his delusion is no longer capable of taking form. The world has diverged from the
writ of the gospel, the basis for everything, and Roswaal-sama now clings merely to letters... I
request that you may destroy it.”
Emilia: “Will Roswaal be okay if that's destroyed?”
Ram: “I doubt so. He will likely be thrown into disarray. He may lose sight of his life's meaning and
suffer breakdown. But you are the only one, Emilia-sama. Who might be able to grant Roswaal-
sama's delusion... his feelings, in a world diverged from the gospel's writ.”
Her head bowed, Ram pleads Emilia.

Half of her speech is failing to communicate clearly to Emilia.
Roswaal's gospel probably means that black book that he showed her. He had also mentioned that
the world was diverging from its text.
What would Roswaal do in a world different from what the book said? How could Emilia do
anything to do something about the hopes of a hopeless Roswaal?
Emilia: “What do I have to do?”
Ram: “—I ask for you to ascend to the throne.”
Emilia: “—”
Ram: “For you to be seated upon the throne of Lugnica. Once you achieve this, Roswaal-sama's
feelings will be fulfilled. Please teach Roswaal-sama that the day will come where his love is
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realised. Give him reason to live for today, and for tomorrow.”
This is the first time Emilia has ever seen Ram so talkative.
And so.
And so...
This emotion flooding up in Emilia's heart, indescribable, is...?

These feelings, unstoppable, as someone who had thought her useless requests her aid, are...?
Ram raises her head.

The great love filling every inch of her small form glistens wet in her cerise eyes.
Ram:
“Please, Emilia-sama. —Help him.”
The quiet words make Emilia shiver.

It feels like a shock to her bloodstream, enough to imagine that a hand is jolting her heart once,
twice.
After the shiver races through her body, only one thing remains inside Emilia.
Blazing hot in her heart, solely a sense of duty.
Emilia: “I honestly don't know how me being Ruler will save Roswaal.”
Ram: “...”
Emilia: “And I don't think I can truly understand what your feelings are, either.”
Ram: “...”
Emilia: “But.”
Returning Ram's silent gaze, Emilia takes a breath.

Hesitation is gone from her heart. Anxiety is gone from her mind.
Her soul blazes hotter than ever before.
Emilia: “This is the first time you've ever requested anything from me.”
And so,
Emilia: “I'll do it, Ram. You believe in me, and I want to answer to that.”
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In this instant, the things that Emilia ought to do and wants to do overlap so perfectly that there is
no need to deliberate. She says with a smile:
Emilia: “And that's definitely something I'll need to start, right here.”
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CHAPTER 122: BOOMING REUNION
Holding her breath, the girl creeps though the darkness with her footsteps mute.
She draws her small frame even smaller than usual, paying heed to the rustling of her clothes. Her
hand stays over her mouth, for if she fails to physically obstruct it, she'll let slip her wheezy
breathing.
She truly wishes that her heartbeat's incessant pounding could shush itself too.
The auburn-haired girl, Petra, walks through the finally-familiar mansion anxiously, as if lost in an
unfamiliar world.
In this instant, she is truly grateful for the fluffy carpeting over the floors. She found it laborious to
walk on, but it's thanks to it that she can walk without producing any noisy footsteps.
She pledges to herself that, should she get another chance to clean them, she'll put all her gratitude
and diligence into their washing.
Should she not allocate her attention into unrelated topics like laundry, her barely-moving legs will
come to a stop. Even now she was proceeding at the slow pace of a caterpillar, so what would
happen if she stopped completely? Just thinking it terrified her.
She presently loathed the length of this long, stretching, endless corridor.
Petra had been overjoyed when she was accepted to work in this large mansion.
Although near to the village, Petra considered this mansion an extremely faraway place. It wasn't a
problem of distance. It was a problem of social position.
The governor and lord of the mansion the Margrave would come to Arlam Village during his spare
time.
Although nobility, he assumed no pretentious airs, and he laughed off and forgave the impolite
remarks of children. Petra had never heard the villagers badmouth the Margrave except on the topic
of his dress.
And Petra had not particularly paid special focus on the Margrave either.
But she had always admired the size of his mansion.

Being from a small village and with two normal parents, Petra would never reach this place. While
she had talked about wanting to go to the Capital and make clothes when she grew up, that was
merely a dream she created that was appropriate to her standing. She knew from childhood how to
give up on reaching for things that she would never attain.
When Petra was unexpectedly given a chance to work at the mansion.

And to add to that, she would be with someone who saved her life and she felt some feelings
towards. Which fact delighted her more? Keep it secret, but the latter one just slightly wins out.
Regardless, her employment in this mansion was the start of a dreamlike life for Petra.
While the expansive hallways, abundant rooms, and extensive time spent on cleaning did dizzy her,
the hectic days brought joy to Petra's life.
This place of aspiration and dreams now chilled her to her core with how it terrified her.
95
Petra doesn't know what happened, or what was going on.
What she does know is that she had finished her work, as usual, and has just had dinner alone with
her senior maid, Frederica.
Petra stood on a stool was she cleaned the dishes, while Frederica collected the meal which had
been meant for Beatrice-sama. They had failed to get it to her.
Petra has never seen Beatrie even once. She did sometimes wonder whether she really existed, but
seeing that Frederica, Emilia, and Subaru seemed to know her, Petra went along with it without
saying anything.
The lords of the mansion, somewhere far away.

Ignoring the servants Petra and Frederica, two people remained in this mansion. One was the
unseen Beatrice, and the other was the girl called Rem.
Neither of them would eat meals, which somewhat dissatisfied Petra.
But Petra pitied the sleeping Rem, and she could not forget how carefully Subaru treated the girl.
Subaru's expression as he gazed at Rem's face was incredibly vivid, so emotional and anguished
that Petra hesitated to even feel jealous.
And so—
Petra: “...I gotta save Rem-san.”
This unwittingly-voiced verdict alone spurred Petra's actions.
After Frederica disposed of Beatrice's dinner and Petra cleared away the dishes, Frederica instructed
Petra to double-check the work itinerary for tomorrow alongside other things.
Petra truly wanted to help Frederica with the leftover work, but being still midway through her
physical development, Petra's body would not withstand the fatigue of late nights. That Frederica
acknowledge Petra's enthusiasm and then send her off to bed was the usual way of things.
But tonight, while on the way to her room, something irregular happened.
—All of the lights in the mansion turned off.
Surprised by the sudden darkness, Petra clung to nearby Frederica. Frederica took her tenderly in a
hold, and after speaking words upon reassuring words, held her breath.
Petra would never forget how the atmosphere froze.

She had experienced this heavy aura before. The anxiety coursing inside her led her to strengthen
her grip on Frederica, who quietly drew her hands away.
Frederica: “Petra. Be a good girl, listen to me. —Use the stairway behind us, and exit. Without
making any sound, silently, as fast as you are able, flee.”
Petra: “B-but what about you?”
Frederica: “I'll follow soon behind. Once you have exited the mansion, run to the village. After we
safely reconvene, we will wait until morning to tidy everything up.”
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Frederica faced forward as she spoke her gentle words.
She then pushed Petra lightly behind her, creating distance between herself and Frederica. The
misty air hid the moon back then, providing her with absolutely zero sources of light.
Petra sensed Frederica stepping silently forward.

Simultaneously, Petra obeyed Frederica's instructions and set out down the corridor, her path
opposite to Frederica's. She managed to reach the stairway, and just when she thought to proceed
down, remembered.
Petra: “This is... just like the forest.”
She remembered where she had experienced this heavy, freezing atmosphere before.
This was the aura from two months ago, when she and the other village children had entered the
forest.
The aura she had felt when in the middle of a forest full of bloodthirsty witchbeasts, with her life in
peril.
Petra: “—I gotta.”
The instant she realised that, Petra's feet proceeded not downstairs, but up.
She remembered Frederica's instructions. She did feel guilty for violating them.
But she could not leave Rem in a mansion identical to that forest.
Because she remembered how Subaru had brought her out of those terrifying woods back then.
Petra: “—ah,”
After thinking back on those scary memories, Petra senses that she is near her destination.
Make no sound. Go unnoticed. By stubbornly adhering to those rules, her sluggish journey reaches
the end of its path.
Just reaching Rem's room did not make small Petra capable of carrying and fleeing with her.
Petra had been so overwhelmed by urgency that she had not even considered that fact. She merely
though that, should she reach Rem's sleeping room and confirm that she was there, everything
would work out.
A sense of duty unfitting to her small stature, and the terror of knowing that death was near,
harangued her.
Nobody could fault Petra for failing to notice the obvious.
Just a few more steps, a few more meters, two rooms away, and there it would be.
Almost no distance at all left to reach her destination.

Her hear pounds so loud it could explode, the noise of her breathing slipping out between her
fingers.
Just a little further, just a little more, just a—
—Reaching the room, Petra looks up.
97
And that's when it happens. When, outside the hallway window, wind blows aside the clouds that
block the moon.
Moonlight beams in through the window, bringing colour to a once-dark world.

And Petra sees it.
???: “My, what an adorable maid.”
A woman so dark as to meld into the shadows stands directly in front of her.
Between Petra and the door, just three steps away.
She is a tall woman, with long hair.

Her sensual clothes display her voluptuous body gregariously. Her hand gives her braid a flick as
she calmly approaches, all exceptionally erotic.
Provided that you fail to notice the large, gleaming knife in her free hand.
Woman: “From what I'm told, I have two targets with one more appended. You're the little maid,
aren't you?”
Petra: “...au,”
Woman: “You're shivering? Don't worry. —Your guts are bound to be pretty. Girls with futures
always have beautiful entrails.”
Petra has no idea what she is saying.
But she does know that her advance is synonymous with the approach of death.
Petra knows this, but her feet freeze in too much terror to move.
The slender woman holds an unfittingly large knife.

Once that thing strikes her, Petra's life will be messily reaped.
And yet,
Woman: “Good girl. ...I'll send you to meet the angels.”
Heartlessly, the woman raises her knife, the shivering girl as her target.
The blade slices through wind, cutting into Petra's belly—soon.
???: “PETRA!!”
A large silhouette swoops in from the other end of the corridor, cutting into the space between Petra
and the knife, sparks flying alongside shrill metallic noise.
Petra's protector, their long blonde hair fluttering, is a very familiar character to her.
There is only one person with a back so large and dependable that it does not seem that of a woman.
Petra: “Big Sis Frederica!”
Frederica: “You naughty girl, Petra. I told you to flee... you are going to get a scolding after this.”
Petra: “Y-yes m'aam!”
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Says Frederica in a stern tone as she glances back at Petra.
Petra trembles at the words naughty girl, nodding several times at Frederica's back in tears.
Woman: “You're the big maid? Big did indeed mean big.”
With the two having their exchange in front of her, the knife-wielding woman retreats a short way
and tilts her head. The way her braid sways with the movement doesn't match with the woman's
strangeness, seeming somewhat comical.
Frederica: “My large size does bother me, you realise. Likely from my father.”
Woman: “Then your father was big. And when you're that big, you're bound to have superb guts.
I'm excited.”
Frederica: “Your hobbies cannot be called tasteful.”
Woman: “Women's guts are brighter and more vivid than men's. I'll do a comparison with yours,
and teach you that.”
Frederica jabs her arms out in front of her as she takes combat stance.
Her hands come adorned with clawed cestus, which are likely the weapon which parried the
woman's strike.
They make use of Frederica's large, powerful build, so you could call it a weapon suited for her,
but...
Frederica: “Frustratingly, this is not going to prove an adequate match.”
Woman: “You do look like you have some ability to you, but probably, not as much as me. After an
experience in the Capital where I practically died, my skills have gotten better.”
Frederica: “I see. I find myself rather wishing to curse whoever failed to terminate you.”
Cold sweat rises on Frederica's brow.

The overwhelming grisliness radiating from this woman makes Frederica feel the strength disparity
with just a glance. She looks like she is merely standing there, doing nothing, and yet a thick aura of
death exudes from her.
How many lives did she reap to radiate this ghastliness?
Frederica: “Petra. This time, truly do leave the mansion. I shall stall her.”
Petra: “B-But, Big Sis...”
Petra glances at the door to the room beside them.

With that, Frederica comprehends why Petra disobeyed her orders and came here.
And so,
Frederica: “I would not know who has commissioned you... but it would appear that Petra and I are
listed as targets.”
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Woman: “Yes, you are. You, the little maid, and the spirit girl. I'm not exactly satisfied with the
numbers, but I've never opened a spirit's stomach before, so I'm excited for it. I was just a step
behind last time and didn't manage to do it.”
Frederica: “You certainly divulged that information smoothly. Does this not disqualify you as a
professional?”
Woman: “I don't mind it. Your mouth's going to stop working soon, and if you're thinking to
complain to my employer, then I just have to keep you quiet.”
Frederica: “How deranged.”
This conversation could give someone a headache.

Frederica senses that speaking with the woman any further will be pointless. Regardless, she had
managed to get the answers that she wished to hear.
Frederica: “Petra. She is targeting yourself, myself, and Beatrice-sama. Do you understand?”
Petra: “—Yes, m'aam.”
Petra nods as she wipes away her tears.

With that last exchange, and this statement, Petra supposes Frederica's intentions.
She's a smart girl. A good student. Someone Frederica doesn't want to die.
Frederica: “Leave!”
Petra: “Yes m'aam!”
Petra practically trips over herself as she breaks into a run.

Immediately, the black-garbed woman throws something at her. Four knives, slicing through wind
as they loom in on Petra's back. Their superb aim is brilliantly disgusting, and a snap of Frederica's
cestus barely manages to deflect them.
Shrill metallic noise peals out as all the thrown knives rebound, thrown off course.
Petra does not even look back as she flees. She trusts Frederica entirely. And she has to answer to
her demands.
Woman: “She's a good girl.”
Frederica: “Yes, she's my pride!”
Frederica swings her left cestus at the woman, who dodges by tilting forward slightly. However,
then targeting the stooped woman's stomach, Frederica unleashes a kick.
Frederica's kick drills through the air, capable of destroying walls. Unlike her normal human mother,
Frederica's father was a half-blood from a lineage of fighting creatures. While she did not entirely
approve of the blood coursing through her veins, she was thankful for its strength this time.
The kick slams into the woman, her eyes wide. She immediate brings her free hand up to block, but
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the kick will be more than powerful enough to snap those skinny arms of hers and—
Frederica: “Wh!?”
Woman: “Does this truly surprise you?”
Frederica swallows her breath. The woman's scarlet lips relax into a smile, everything upside down.
The moment that her hand touched Frederica's leg, in a situation which would not forgive even the
slightest error in force, the woman pulled off some nigh impossible acrobatics. She leaned her body
weight into Frederica's kick and pulled herself into a one-handed handstand. Frederica shivers at the
feather-light woman perched on her leg.
Frederica: “Spider!”
Woman: “Someone else called me the exact same thing not too long ago.”
Her voice sounds somewhat stung, but no such sentiment reflects in her ferocious strike.
Moonlight glints off her blade as it sweeps for Frederica's neck. Frederica immediately draws up her
cestus to parry it, but both this arm, and the other which was supposed to aid in the deflection,
scream in pain.
Although one-handed, and with arms far skinnier than Frederica's, the woman's grip strength is
immense.
Sparks fly as the blades shriek against each other and Frederica lowers the leg that the woman is
perched on, then aiming for her face and—
Woman: “Poor choice.”
The knife remains caught in the cestus's claws—as the woman uses this as a pivot point to flip even
further overhead.
The trajectory of Frederica's kick was supposed to have caught her as she fell, but instead passes
harmlessly beneath her as the woman's free hand reaches for her leg. Out from beneath her skirt,
there peeks yet another foreboding knife.
Woman: “Show me your vibrant insides.”
Still upside down, the woman's two knives fly in from both sides, force enough to slice Frederica in
two.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Soaring down the staircase, Petra gives great swings of her little arms as she runs.
She hears the shrill peals of metal and metal from upstairs, and Frederica's quiet scream.
Petra was not foolish enough to stay fixated on stubborn, childish ideas that would keep her from
listening to Frederica, fighting so that she could flee.
But even Petra, who knows absolutely nothing about fighting, does know this.
101
That shadowy woman is a horrifying monster.
Frederica's face had looked so scary, but the woman's smile hadn't faltered for even a moment. Petra
was not unaware of the strength gap. In fact she was incredibly aware of it.
Leaving Frederica behind like this means that she will be murdered.
Petra: “But if, Beatrice-sama was here...!”
The is one last person present in this mansion.

It seems like the shadowy woman is unaware of Rem's presence. Naturally, Petra does figure that
the woman will add Rem to her list of targets if she does find her, but so long as she and Frederica
refrain from announcing the fact that Rem is here, it's unlikely that the woman will notice her.
Petra: “This one... not it, then this one!?”
Having descended the staircase, Petra opens a random nearby door and checks inside.
It's unbelievable, but apparently Beatrice lives inside a moving room in this mansion. Should you
open many of the mansion's doors, eventually one will lead to Beatrice's room. That's how powerful
of a magician she was.
Petra needs that magician's help right now.

If this person is present here, then she will surely help Frederica. She'll do away with that shadowy
woman, and protect Petra's dream mansion.
Petra: “Not here... not here either... big sis!”
Out of breath and eyes flowing with tears, Petra is near to collapse.
She has opened all of the nearby doors in the servant's quarters. But Beatrice has not appeared. How
long has it been since Frederica started fighting that woman?
Petra needs to hurry, really needs to hurry, and yet.
Petra: “Big, sis...”
She needs to run. But her legs won't move.

Petra claps her hand against her leg in an attempt to invigorate her withering heart. But it isn't
enough. She can't be brave. And her hopes are seconds from waning dead also.
Petra: “—Subaru,”
With weakness dominating her heart, the name she calls in desperation belongs to someone who is
not here.
It's the name of who Petra thinks is the bravest person in the world.
He is amazing and courageous, overpowering his shaking legs as he faces opponents he cannot
possibly defeat.
When Petra and the other villages were in real danger, and she almost died, he was their saviour—
and his name is the one she calls.
Even though she knows that he isn't here.
Petra: “Subaru, Subaru... help me, Subaru,”
102
???: “Alright, will do, Petra.”
Petra: “—wha”
Crying and with her face buried in her hands, the voice leads Petra to look up.
Tears blur her vision. Somebody is standing right in front of her.
They kneel down to match the cowering Petra's eye level, and,
???: “My bad for being late. But here I am to help you. ...Thank god you're safe, Petra.”
His familiar face with its nasty eyes gives her an awkward smile.
His expression as he tries his best to comfort Petra isn't tender in the slightest, which brings Petra
absolute relief.
Petra: “Are you... Subaru? You're here?”
Subaru: “It's me, and I'm here. Everything's okay now.”
He gives a nod to comfort her. Petra reaches out to him.

She pats at his cheeks, and when she leans forward too far and falls, he catches her.
It's no hallucination and no dream, he is here. He is here for her.

She would love to bask in the relief it brings her. —But this is not the time for that.
Petra: “Subaru... Big Sis Frederica's fighting with a lady upstairs.”
Subaru: “Frederica is?”
Petra: “She's dark, with a big knife... and really scary.”
Subaru: “A dark horrifying lady with a huge knife... yeah, I know her.”
Subaru grimaces.
It seems like they both understand how threatening she is. Petra tugs Subaru's arm.
Petra: “Please, save Big Sis Frederica! Beat that lady, Subaru!”
Subaru: “Okay, just leave everything to me! ...Is what I wanna say, but if I face off against someone
who Frederica can't beat, I'm gonna be a corpse in under a second!”
Petra: “—”
For an instant, Petra's heart threatens to flood with despair.

But Subaru's palm comes down to stroke Petra's head gently.
Subaru: “And so I sent in some crazy strong reinforcements instead.”
Subaru looks up as if staring at the floor above, apparently imagining the scene unfolding there. His
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expression is somewhere between relaxed and anxious, an undefined thing.
Subaru: “Have a nuisance being an incredible nuisance for the reunion, though.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Frederica is seconds from accepting as fact: I am going to be sliced in two through the stomach.
???: “Sorry fer this... but you ain't invited.”
Metal clashes against metal alongside a voice which sounds pleasantly displeased.
It's a contradiction, but true.
They sound excited, but also sound disgusted by their opponent.

Which is really to be expected.
Woman: “You...”
???: “Yer gonna be sittin' there downside up for fuckin' ever, eh!? —Get th'hell off!”
Her blades blocked and attack ineffectual, up slams a ferocious kick into the woman's chest. Her
body curves into a C as she blasts away, and the man lowers his raised leg while he clatters his arms
against each other.
Both his arms are equipped with silver, gleaming shields.

One one-handed shield for each arm, both covering his fists.
Man: “Accordin' t'th'Captain, they say THE BEST DEFENCE IS A GOOD OFFENCE.”
Sharp fangs bared, the man's teeth click as he speaks.
Man: “So there ya go. Got defensive shields set up t'go on offence. ...'S best offence and best
defence happenin' at th'same time, so with two bests ain't it th'strongest?”
It's dumb, child-tier logic.

But this man is applying his child-tier idea, and using two shields as weapons.
The blond man takes a stance with his feet positioned far apart, glaring attentively at the opponent
as he cranes his head back at Frederica.
Man: “Ain't I right, sis—whatth'frickin'hell yer huge!?”
Instantly, the warrior's atmosphere about him dissolves.

The man's—no—the boy's eyes shoot open in shock as he gazes Frederica top to bottom.
Boy: “Wh—yer serious!? That's my sis!? Ain't my sis meant't be smaller, skinner, with a softer
lookin' face!? This ain't my sis, 's more like my bro.. agahh!?”
104
Frederica: “Do not be impolite.”
Frederica jabs her knee into the rude, staring boy's side.
The boy tumbles to the ground before sluggishly getting back up. Looking at his dizzied face,
Frederica notices it. The scar on his forehead.
Frederica: “Is that you, Garf?”
Garfiel: “Nevermind that, 'm I really safe t'be callin' yer Frederica... can't frickin' believe it... gahk!”
Frederica: “Do not neglect to appropriately refer to me as your elder sister.”
Halfway though standing up again, an elbow to the back sends Garfiel back into agony.
Looking at him in pain like this makes Frederica remember when they were young: they had no
toys in SANCTUARY, and had use their bodies to stave away boredom.
Frederica had just flung Garfiel away with complete disregard for their nine-year age gap. Exactly
the same as back then.
Frederica: “No. Garf... you have truly grown large.”
Garfiel: “'S just sounds like sarcasm when yer sayin' it, oi! N' just so you know, my amazin' self's
still gonna be gettin' bigger! Don't think yer gonna be lookin' down't th'topp'er my head forever!”
Frederica: “Huhuhu, allow me to amend that. Your body may have grown larger, but you remain as
small as always.”
Garfiel: “Th'hell was that!?”
Garfiel bares his teeth as he objects to Frederica's statement. This interaction with her little brother,
the first time in ten years, fills Frederica with an unbelievable happiness.
Who would have thought that the day would come where she spoke with Garfiel outside
SANCTUARY.
—Someone who ventured to SANCTUARY surely did well.
Ram, or Emilia, or Subaru? Which of them was it?
Frederica: “Ah, Otto-sama was also with you.”
Garfiel: “Ha, that guy flat never gets his payoff. Think about A MIGURD-MADE BRIDGE COLLAPSES
ON THE USUAL and eh guess h's just that kind'a guy.”
Up arises the vision of a dejecting-looking grey-haired man.

While the siblings both reach this conclusion, from deep in the dark hallway there comes,
???: “Do you mind if I begin to act now?”
Garfiel: “Yer bothered waitin' fer us, pretty consid'rate of yer. 'F yer gonna be so nice then how
about forgettin' yer work n' goin' damn home. My amazin' self ain't lookin' t'punch women around.”
105
Woman: “Goodness, how kind of you.”
Garfiel gestures as if swatting away a bug. The woman smiles.

Frederica taps Garfiel's back, for he is overwhelmingly lax.
Frederica: “Garf. You are going to have a painful time should you judge her by her womanly
appearance.”
Garfiel: “Yeh I got it, she ain't anythin' normal. N'anyway y'better bet th'only lady n'the world who's
gettin' my real lady treatment is Ram.”
Frederica: “If you believe that sounded cool, I will tell you that it was not cool in the slightest. Ram
would snort at you.”
Garfiel: “Th'fuck!?”
Frederica looks astonished. Garfiel glances back at her, indignant.
—That instant, a silver disk comes shooting from the woman's hand.
A disc. Or no, it wasn't a disc, it's a knife rotating at insane speeds on the vertical. The thing
whistles through the air too fast to see and it looms in on Garfiel, ready to split his head open and
splatter fresh blood about the corridor.
Garfiel: “Y'know,”
Woman: “—”
The metal shields clatter together as a searing shower of sparks bursts out.
The thrown knife slices the face of the raised right shield, before a deft shift in the thing's angle
sends the knife flying up to pierce the ceiling. Garfiel goes without watching this, instead racing
forward, gliding over the floor on approach to the woman as he raises his other shield.
Garfiel: “I did tell yer t'get th'hell out'v here, yeh?”
Woman: “I heard, and here's my response.”
Just before his fist can strike, the woman flits backward and yanks in her arm.
Immediately, the knife behind Garfiel rips out of the ceiling, rotating again with its momentum as it
attacks him from behind.
A string is tied around the knife's handle, connected to the woman's other knife.
Frederica: “Garf!”
She is too slow to warn him.

The blade rotates as it closes in on Garfiel's arm, hoisted and seconds from slamming into the
woman, ready to slice the appendage in two. But,
Garfiel: “—Fuckin' cheek!!”
106
Frederica: “—!?”
The instant that Frederica reaches him, or perhaps does not reach him, Garfiel shouts.
His arm explodes in girth. Golden fur coats it, the thing thick as a log, clearly not the limb of any
human but instead that of an animal.
Even the woman has to look rattled.
With a roar, Garfiel slams his fist and the shield into the woman's stomach.
Of course, having paid not a speck of care to dodging, the knife protrudes from Garfiel's arm. But it
has failed to cut through the thick limb and its coat of wiry fur entirely.
Woman: “—Gauh!?”
Garfiel: “Get outta here, woman!!”
Entirely bothered by the pain, the swing of Garfiel's fist blasts the woman away. Unable to kill the
momentum, she slams into the ground, proceeding to bounce and roll further across the floor. Garfiel
watches her tumble as he yanks the knife out of his shoulder. His fangs sever the connecting string
and he tosses the knife out a nearby window.
Garfiel: “Ha! KRUGAN SLAYS THE ENEMY EVEN MINUS HIS ARMS! 'F yer think m'gonna freak out'n
cower at some pain, yer dead wrong, moron!”
Frederica: “The one being a moron is you!”
Garfiel: “Dgha!?”
Garfiel boasts, when his sister's fist strikes the back of his head.
Garfiel falls into a squat, glancing back in protest to the unforeseen chastisement.
Frederica: “Fighting in a manner which injures yourself... Grandmother would cry if she saw this.”
Garfiel: “Aeuh, guh... a-ain't like I don't know what th'granny'd think'v it...”
Frederica: “Is that how you are referring to Grandmother!? I do not recall raising you to be like
this!”
Garfiel: “We ain't seen each other since I was four n' finally when we get our reunion yer doin' this,
yer th' one who's bein' unbelievable here!”
Garfiel breathing jars. Frederica also glances forward, to find a black silhouette languidly getting
up.
The woman quietly uprights herself and flips the knife around in her hand before catching the blood
dripping from her mouth on her finger, and licking it. A lovely smile arises on her face.
Woman: “—Wonderful, you are. Very wonderful. A lively boy.”
Garfiel: “Honestly, my amazin' self wasn't thinkin' yer'd get right back after that one either. My bad,
underestimated ya a lil'.”
107
Garfiel presses his hands together as he apologizes.
The exchange doesn't exactly seem like one between two monsters trying to kill each other, but it
does lead Frederica to forget the passing of time for a moment.
She shakes her head, getting herself back together.
Frederica: “Garf! This woman is shrouded in mystery. Take care not to slacken your guard...”
Garfiel: “'M sayin' I got that. But anyway. Sist... sis, d'you know a girl called Rem?”
Frederica: “...? Yes, she is in this mansion. I, erm, heard that she is Ram's younger sister.”
Frederica isn't irrevocably certain about this point either.

Frederica has known Ram since childhood, and those memory include no younger sisters of hers.
But Subaru explained that Rem was Ram's younger sister, and she resembled her to a shocking
degree. Apparently she was suffering from a Witch Cult affliction which erased her from everyone's
memories.
Garfiel: “She look like Ram?”
Frederica: “Exactly like Ram. But that is no pardon for you to use her as a replacement.”
Garfiel: “I ain't gonna do anythin' scummy like that. Jus'lookin' t'check. —Seriously, then.”
During their conversation, the woman rolls her shoulders and rotates her legs, checking her physical
condition.
Perhaps she's giving them time to have their conversation. Her thoughts aren't exactly clear.
Either way,
Garfiel: “Sis, 'f she's somewhere on this floor, find an openin'n bring her out. My amazin' hands're
gonna be full dealin' with her.”
Frederica: “W-what are you saying? I will be fighting as well. With us together, our chances...”
Woman: “I truly wonder about that.”
Frederica looks at the woman, gaze sharp, when the woman conceals her smile beneath her knife.
Woman: “Please don't make such scary expressions. And I believe that your baby brother will prove
that I'm not wrong in my statements.”
Frederica: “...Garf?”
Frederica's brows furrow in confusion.

Garfiel adjusts the angle of his shields.
Garfiel: “Sorry, sis. This ain't someone easy enough that I can keep worryin' 'bout what's goin' on
behind me.”
Frederica: “Wha!”
108
You'll hold me back, is the judgement passed on speechless Frederica.
While she did recognize that her own abilities did not even touch that of the woman, it's still
insulting to hear that you are so useless that you will be a detriment.
Garfiel: “Don't go misunderstandin' me, sis. I ain't sayin' yer a detriment.”
Frederica: “...Then what are you saying?”
Garfiel: “'F me n' this chick get serious, this place's gonna turn into a warzone.”
Garfiel points at himself, then to the woman. She smiles happily, as if affirming his words. She
fiddles with her braid before stooping down forward.
Woman: “Exactly. ...And so it would be best that you stand down.”
Battle—a sense which only the truly strong can comprehend.

Recognizing that she is far outclassed, a frustration blazes inside Frederica.
She has reunited with her brother after ten years, and she cannot even assist him at all.
Garfiel: “Stop thinkin' bout pointless crap, sis.”
Frederica: “Garf...”
Garfiel: “Look't my arms. These shields're th'ones me and you played with when we were little. The
strength I have now started with me n' you.”
Frederica's eyes widen.

Concern, care, and something other than those emotions comes through in his voice. Frederica feels
that her younger brother has matured, her heart growing hot.
Garfiel: “Th'Captain still handed my ass t'me with th'power'v numbers. But bein' 'n top shape starts
changin' that story too.”
Stepping forward, Garfiel clicks his teeth, batters his shields.
Garfiel: “Come at me, woman. This's my celebration fer leavin' SANCTUARY. N' I'm startin' it by
annihilating th'first obstacle in my way!!”
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CHAPTER 123A: GUTHUNTER VS THE SHIELD OF SANCTUARY
Subaru: “Got it? In total there are four people in the mansion we have to save. They're all girls.”
Inside the carriage, Subaru raises four fingers as he explains.

The scenery flows by as they speed along the rugged road. But even so no wind or jolting assaults
their carriage. While vaguely finding it a mystifying sensation no matter how many times he
experiences, Subaru nods to the two people looking at his raised fingers.
Subaru: “First is Frederica. Our buddy Garfiel's older sister. Saying the attacker's already there,
Frederica's the only one who could buy us any time.”
Garfiel: “Sis, hrn... Ain't seen her for ten years now.”
Looking uneasy, Garfiel scratches at his short, blond hair.

Garfiel had been so stubborn about staying in SANCTUARY. It's going to be hard for him to face
Frederica, who had abandoned SANCTUARY for the outside world.
Otto: “You truly have not seen her in a decade? From the Margrave and Ram-san's accounts, it
sounds as though they travelled between the mansion and SANCTUARY rather frequently.”
Garfiel: “It wouldd'er been awkward fer sis too. She never came along with that asshole Roswaal...
sh'did send a bunch of letters though, apparently.”
Otto: “Apparently?”
Garfiel: “Gave them all t'granny without reading them.”
Garfiel averts his gaze, looking sulky. His awkward attitude toward his sister is exactly that of a
child. Their reunion is definitely going to be an emotional one.
Subaru sighs. Otto's impression of all this looks to be about the same as his as he pulls the reins.
Otto: “Then the second would be Petra-chan.”
Subaru: “Yeah. Roswaal Mansion's precocious and hopeful new maid Petra's the second. She's a
completely ordinary village girl with no underside at all, so if she gets targeted it's 100% Bad.”
The attacks on Roswaal Mansion so far have ended in dead Petras 100% of the time.
The other three are also highly likely to die, but Petra has no means to fight back at all. So it's
common that she gets dealt with quickly.
If they're going to protect her, they will need to find her immediately.
Subaru: “Next is Rem. She's Ram's younger sister. Though you probably don't remember her.”
Garfiel: “M' still n' disbelief 'bout it, Captain. 'S just the idea of Ram havin' an identical twin sister.
How th'hell could I forget that, when my amazin' self's known her such a long time?”
Subaru: “It's a CURSE where even Ram's forgotten her. Talking about ways to deal with that's gonna
be a change in topic, but... anyway, Rem's not so urgent. The assassin attacking the mansion, Elsa,
doesn't have Rem on her list of targets. I don't think her employer knew about Rem's existence
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when they hired her.”
Otto: “Although, should she discover Rem-san sleeping in the mansion, I doubt the encounter will
end peacefully.”
Subaru: “...You're right about that.”
We're talking about Elsa here.

Rem might not be on her commissioner’s list, but if she discovers her, she'll probably do something
just for kicks. And while Subaru hasn't seen it himself, Rem has been killed during these loops.
All he can do is pray that Rem is not in a room that Elsa just happens to open.
Otto: “Regardless, this dependence on the opponent's decisions can't be called an overly great
strategy.”
Subaru: “Where I'm depending on you guys, and also depending on the enemy. This is Natsuki
Subaru's brand of warfare, dubbed REVERSE FURINKAZAN.”
Garfiel: “S-so cool...!”
Garfiel clenches his fists, eyes sparkling.

That his random bullshit statement has given Garfiel such expectations makes even Subaru feel
guilty. He decides that later, when they have real time for it, he will teach Garfiel about actual
furinkazan.
He furrows his brows as he looks at Garfiel.
Subaru: “Though...”
Subaru: “I mean it's been horrifying watching this, but is this actually seriously working?”
Garfiel: “Well we're in a rush, ain't we? 'F there were any better way, my amazin' self'd go for that
instead.”
Says Garfiel, looking displeased.

His words are sensible ones, but Subaru's statement is truly inevitable. For Garfiel is presently
outside the carriage, holding on to the thing, while talking with Subaru and Otto through the
window.
His hands clutch the windowframe as he dangles there, hanging alongside the zooming carriage
with his feet brushing across the ground, getting dragged along by the vehicle.
Subaru has seen an enemy get mashed in a carriage's wheels before, and being that this could easily
be a repeat if Garfiel's hands slip, he can't watch on very peacefully.
Subaru: “If something goes wrong and you get smushed, it's no holds barred on my PTSD and we
also stop having anything we can do about the mansion.”
Garfiel: “Th'hell, Captain. Bein' a damn worrywart. Everythin's all fine. Just watch this!
N'thisn'thisn'this! N'this n'this!”
Subaru: “Stop!! I'm gonna die!! I'm gonna die before you do!!”
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With the windowframe as the pivot, Garfiel starts spinning round and round using just his arm
strength. Between the WINDBREAKER BLESSING and Garfiel's inhuman grip these acrobatics are
possible. And his hold on the frame is so strong that the thing warps and creaks. Subaru can imagine
the pending despair of the carriage's owner which is to say Otto.
Otto: “His EARTHSOUL BLESSING doesn't come into effect unless his feet are touching the ground.
Since we need Garfiel to be in top form, or something close to it once we reach the mansion, we can
only rationalize this as a necessary measure.”
Subaru: “I mean I get the logic. You know, from an outside perspective this looks like us speeding
as fast as we can to shake off some guy trying to get in the carriage. When what's actually
happening is we threw a fourteen year old out of the carriage to drag him along the ground while
zooming at top speed.”
Otto: “You do realise how preposterous both those perspectives sound when you use that
phrasing!?”
Otto, handling the reins, probably wants to avoid giving that first impression. But the two dragons
tirelessly pulling the carriage, Patrasche and Frufoo, pay little heed to the coachman's intentions and
just run ceaselessly.
This is all more or less why Garfiel is using this mock-acrobatic means of locomotion.
Emilia's magic did heal his serious wounds back in SANCTUARY, but that did not replenish his lost
blood or mana.
The travel distance between SANCTUARY and the mansion is about half a day's worth. Even if they
have the dragons sprinting well, how much time can Subaru and the others really spend on
recuperating?
Nothing has changed about Garfiel, with his EARTHSOUL BLESSING amassing power from the
ground, being their ace. Subaru and Otto are only there to arrange a setting where he can fight at his
best.
Garfiel: “But anyway, y'stopped talkin' halfway, Captain.”
Subaru: “Huh?”
Garfiel: “Th'thing we were talkin' bout. We gotta save four people, n'we only got three. I ain't heard
'bout this last person. Who's she off bein'?”
Pulling himself up, Garfiel peeks into the carriage. He gives Otto a questioning gaze as well, but
Otto just shakes his head and shrugs.
Otto: “I'm afraid that I haven't encountered this final person either. I was in the mansion for
approximately a week... but I never even saw her in passing.”
Garfiel: “You ain't even seen her face n' she hates yer so much she don't wanna see you, yer gonna
be okay, guy?”
Otto: “I would like to think that that is not the reason I've failed to see her!”
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Otto frantically voices his objection while Garfiel watches on with pity.
Subaru strikes his fist against the seat and sighs.
Subaru: “The last one... Beatrice, probably, won't come out unless it's me.”
Otto and Garfiel shut their mouths as they look at Subaru.

The seriousness in his voice probably meant they believe him, even without asking why. Truly
reassuring companions.
Subaru: “I'm taking Beatrice out of there. Dragging her out of there. I need to do it.”
Nobody else. Subaru has to be the one.

Even if Beatrice puts on a show, acting like she doesn't want it.
Garfiel: “'F that's what yer say then that's what it is, Captain.”
Otto: “If possible, I think we should evacuate the nearby villagers in Arlam as well. It will avoid
some chaos. How about I do it?”
The two each show their support for Subaru's decision.

Subaru has his role. And they have theirs.
Truly, entirely, dependable people.
Subaru: “Thank you, idiots.”
Otto: “He's incapable of giving an honest thanks, the idiot!”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The battle escalated entirely, spreading destruction across the luxurious mansion.
Steel clashes against steel, shrieking metal comes with showers of sparks, the blows and slashes
destroying the mundane life of the moonlit Roswaal Mansion.
The windowpane shatters and the shards of glass scatter. Damage to the floor sends the carpet
flying, while paintings hanging on the wall splinter to fragments.
Woman: “Wonderful. You're excellent.”
Garfiel: “It don't make me happy to hear that from anyone 'cept Ram!!”
Garfiel launches his shielded right arm, jabbing past the woman as she dodges aside, for the strike
to slam into the wall. He pursues her in her escape, using the momentum from his right arm to pivot
in the air and strike her backhanded with his left.
Woman: “Bad luck.”
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Garfiel: “It ain't over yet!”
The woman dodges. But before she can swing her blade, Garfiel wrenches his body again to
dislodge his right arm from the wall, sending a strike hurtling for her. The woman aborts her
downward slash to raise her arm, using the kickback to flip backward through the air—the instant
that Garfiel's blow skirts past the woman's feet, the room ruptures.
Backhand blow to the left.

Punch to the right.
Sweep leg back and to the left.
Jab to the right.
Pivot and kick to the left.
Striking blow after blow as he spins, Garfiel offers no leniency in his pursuit of the woman. She has
no room to do anything except avoid Garfiel's assault, and sensing that her feet have reached the
end of the corridor, Garfiel raises his head.
Garfiel: “Yer done!!”
Stepping forward, Garfiel unleashes his fists.

The punches drill through the air, silver reflections of moonlight shooting through the dark corridor
in violent pursuit of the woman.
These are the arms of a beast, so powerful that they will assuredly turn a human body into gore.
With her back to the wall, the woman flicks up her leg to place the sole of her right foot against the
wall also.
She determines her aim to counter the incoming punches, jabbing out her dagger so that Garfiel will
impale himself on its blade. Metal clashes against metal as the knife is caught between the shields.
However,
Garfiel: “Like that trick's gonna work!”
Her plan must've been to slip her dagger between the shields and stick Garfiel with her knife in his
charge. But Garfiel's muscles are not so weak that any woman's skinny arms will accomplish
anything.
With the kurkri's point still between the shields, Garfiel twists aside to snap the dagger apart.
But before he does—
Woman: “Then what if I add another trick?”
With her wall-set foot as the pivot, the woman flips upwards.
Instantly, the woman's foot strikes the handle of her trapped knife, opening a slight gap between the
shields.
And into that opening,
Woman: “Here's the real thing.”
Now entirely inverted, the woman holds yet another knife in her other, left hand. This is her third
omninous-looking kukri. Just how many is she hiding on her?
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The thin knife easily slips into the gap between the dagger and shields.
The deadly blade does not even whistle through the air as it pressed forward, aiming to slice
Garfiel's neck. Even if he transforms this second, the strike will hit the most lethal of spots.
But Garfiel chooses a fiendish way to counter the blade.
Woman: “Incredible.”
Garfiel: “—yhher prhahise ain't ghonher mhake me happy!”
The woman whispers, enraptured. Garfiel spears his head forward.

His sharp fangs literally bite the woman's left blade to a stop. Blood drips from the shallow cuts at
the corners of mouth, and the knife's metallic stench pierces his nostrils.
Garfiel: “Fhuckin' stinks!!”
Putting force into his jaw, Garfiel snaps the knife to bits.
He spits out the shattered fragments as he swings his clawed foot up to strike the yet-inverted
woman from below. The force of the kick will burst her skull apart—to counter it, she sacrifices her
arm.
A wet cloth sounds to have slapped against the wall as pure scarlet splatters over the hallway.
Garfiel uses his sleeve to wipe the blood from his face, and gives a deep sigh out his nose as he
glances back.
Several meters away, having escaped the dead end, stands the woman. But with many bones broken
from her wrist to her shoulder, her left arm hangs crooked and twisted.
Garfiel: “Pretty fuckin' good t'get away by losin' only an arm. Crap, m'mouth hurts.”
Woman: “...Huhu, thank you. Ahh... it hurts. It truly does. I feel alive.”
Garfiel: “Eh? Ain't just cuttin' others, yer like getting' cut yerself too? Now that ain't somethin' my
amazin' self can understand. Not that I was thinkin' t'make understanding with yer at all.”
The woman drips blood as she smiles splendidly, bringing about visceral disgust in Garfiel. He
batters his shields together—and notices there, behind the woman,
Garfiel: “Hey, sis. Th'fuck're you still doin' over there? Like yer just saw, 's not feelin' like I can
show you me bein' cool th'whole time. Get off t'doin' what yer have t'be doin'.”
Frederica: “...I-indeed. I shall.”
Frederica had not actually been watching in silence, but had been petrified and unable to move.
That was how extra-dimensional the fight between Garfiel and the woman was.
If Frederica had gotten involved in this battle, she would swiftly withdraw after the first few blows.
These two are just that superior.
Frederica keeps her attention on the woman's back as she glances at her destination—Rem's
sleeping room. It's only a few meters away, and she is much closer to the room than the woman is,
but she cannot envision herself reaching its door before her.
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If she could at least reach the room, she could shoulder Rem and escape out the inside window.
Woman: “You don't need to be so guarded, older sister.”
Frederica: “...Huh?”
Woman: “Right now, I am stricken with your little brother. It doesn't bother me what business you
have in whatever room, or what you're going to do there. None of my interest is devoted to that.”
Frederica: “—!”
The woman does not even glance back as she assures Frederica her safety.
She probably isn't lying. She doesn't seem like the kind of person to trick the enemy in this manner,
and she doesn't need to, either. Above all, anyone listening would hear the sincerity in her words.
Right now, all of her attention is devoted to Garfiel.

She truly could not give less of a care about Frederica.
But the woman emits an aura so dreadful that it could encapsulate the whole mansion. A pungent,
violent bloodlust, which make her initial foreboding air look like a child's joke.
Garfiel: “Sis.”
Frederica: “—I believe in you.”
Frederica swims through the corridor, drowning in the woman's ghastliness as it is, to reach her
destined room—
—After glancing at Garfiel one last time, Frederica slips into the room.
Witnessing this, Garfiel gives a deep sigh.
Garfiel: “Yer so unruffled that yer can overlook sis... ain't what's happenin' here.”
Woman: “Do I look like enough a cheater that I can stay unruffled when faced with such a
wonderful partner? Right now, I am only for you. —Ahh, I can't bear it.”
Both radiant allure and blood-iron horror coexist in this grisly woman. She smiles.
Bathed in her fiery, passionate gaze, Garfiel spreads his stance and stoops his body low.
Garfiel: “Honestly, 's just fuckin' gross. M'rippin' yer apart, manglin' yer t'shreds.”
Woman: “I promise to extract your guts without hurting them too.”
Her left arm still dangling, the woman's healthy right arm readies her knife.
She stoops down so low that her breasts could touch the floor,
Woman: “I am the GUTHUNTER, Elsa Granhiert.”
Garfiel: “...The Strongest of Shields, Garfiel Tinzel.”
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The instant that the introductions are over, Elsa moves.
Elsa's smile phases into blank darkness as she sprints, so swift that she gives no impression of being
wounded. The instant that Garfiel hears the first footstep, out peals the noise of pounding against
the walls, again and again and again, from every direction.
Elsa kicks off the floor, off the walls, off the ceiling as she closes in on Garfiel. She moves so fast
that he cannot focus his aim, and moves like no creature he has seen before. Something approaching
with these nightmarish movements was no humanoid nor beast.
And the most surprising thing is, she's obviously faster now than she was before being wounded.
Garfiel: “Entertainin'!!”
Garfiel bares his fangs, laughs, and moves.

If the enemy is using tricky movements to approach, then Garfiel will counter by doing the same.
He puts his hands and feet to the floor. And off his rear foot, explodes.
Garfiel the human-sized bullet shoots down the mansion's corridor.

He positions his shields before him, his charge as ferocious as a tiger's with a shockwave that blasts
away the shattered window glass and fragments of wall.
He does not observe what comes of that, instead roaring as he spears his arm into the floor to force
himself to a stop. He immediately flips himself around and back into bestial posture, and again his
rear foot annihilates the floor.
The quake rocks the mansion, the carpets suffer in the destruction, flying about in tatters. Shreds of
red cloth catch on Garfiel as he soars—
Elsa: “Ahahahaha!!”
Elsa plummets down from the ceiling, swinging her blade, which strikes against the zooming
Garfiel's shield. The shockwave stabs through eardrums as destruction rocks the moonlit corridor.
Elsa laughs as she rebounds, making a breakneck flip sideways. The force of the slash has thrown
Garfiel's course, sending him plummeting head-first into the wall. He busts through the stonework
to land gracelessly in a guest room.
Plumes of white dust shadow the areas as Garfiel grabs the leg of the nearby bed. His biceps swell
as he easily lifts the 100-kilo bed and tosses it out the hole he just came through. Boom, bust, and
from beyond the bisected bed comes the black woman's thrown blade.
Garfiel parries it with his left shields and uses his right to slam the approaching Elsa in the face. But
she ducks, and the strike merely grazes her braid. The end of her black hair tickles the tip of
Garfiel's nose, when he then obeys the terror rushing up his spine and immediately zooms forward.
He barely manages to dodge the slash coming to slice up through his groin, his back instead taking
the hit as he blasts though the door. The battlezone relocates to the corridor.
Giving him no time to catch his breath, Elsa comes zooming in pursuit of Garfiel. Garfiel kicks at
her skinny waist. A hit, isn't what it feels like. Elsa contorts her body strangely to evade, and dodges
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the shockwave from the kick by shifting so that it merely brushes her belly. Garfiel stands stuck
with his leg outstretched as the blade of Elsa's kukri butches the air, closing in.
This isn't like the attack she fired before, when cornered. If Garfiel tries to catch this in his mouth,
the speed and force of the thing will slice his head in two. Garfiel's decision is instantaneous as he
catches the sweeping blade on his right shield, allows its path to continue to his left shield, and then
away.
Shrieking metal. Showers of red and yellow sparks. Dark eyes opened in surprise, and the woman's
exposed belly. Garfiel roars as he slams his raised leg to the ground. He takes his stance and moves
to drive his fangs into Elsa's torso, intending to quite appropriately rip open her guts.
Garfiel: “—!”
That he aborts his lunge and uses the momentum to pull his head in instead can only be called
instinct.
Late to dodge, Garfiel's left ear goes flying off and he takes evasive action through the spray of
blood. He puts his foot to the wall, dodges the oncoming strike by shooting to the ceiling. Dodges,
dodges, dodges entirely.
Garfiel's outstretched arm rips through the ceiling, leading part of the upper floor to collapse. This
creates an opening in Elsa's pursuit, which Garfiel uses to escape. His hands and feet land on the
carpet, and Garfiel uses his palm to put pressure on the bleeding coming from his head and its
missing ear.
He takes a ragged breath. Grits his teeth at the burning pain. He sees Elsa cut through the thick
smoke, walking closer, and smiles.
Garfiel: “Y'fuck... 'm pretty sure I'm meant ter'v turned yer left arm useless.”
Elsa: “You're right. It hurt. But people's wounds do heal.”
Garfiel: “This's just goin' of my piddly knowledge, but when a mangled arm fuckin' heals we ain't
talkin' about humans any more.”
Or really, it's transcending the category of 'living creature'.

Garfiel may have his EARTHSOUL BLESSING, but he still needs several hours if he's going to make a
shattered arm operable again. When on mana-rich earth, and doing everything he can to slack off.
That she can heal during battle, and so quickly, is ridiculous.
Subaru had told him beforehand that she doesn't die even when you kill her, and now Garfiel's
initial speculation feels legitimate.
Garfiel: “Which makes things quick. Yer ain't a human. Dunno 'f yer were born one, but either way
yer at least stopped bein' one.”
Elsa: “You don't look it, but you're surprisingly clever.”
Garfiel: “I told yer it only makes me happy when it's Ram praisin' me. N' anyway I got n'idea 'bout
yer weird healin'.”
Jabbing out his finger, Garfiel states his speculation.

Despite everything and despite how surprising it may sound, Garfiel likes books. With nobody to
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rival him in strength in the boring SANCTUARY, reading became an important time-killing activity
for him.
But that said, the books Garfiel likes are adventure novels, myths, folklore, things in that vein. His
interests unfortunately do not land on anything productive for procuring knowledge.
Garfiel: “N'th'books my amazin' self read, there were lots'er monsters, heroes, those kinda things
where yer don't know if they really existed. And there was one'v'm just like you.”
Elsa: “...I'd like it if you didn't equate me to a phantasm from a picture book.”
Garfiel: “It wasn't a picture book, was one'm full'a letters. ...Did have some pictures in it but
whatever that don't matter. And I can't say clearly it was a phantasm.”
Looking indifferent, Elsa listens to Garfiel.

This thing where she entertains conversations to the end really does jar with the ferocious
impression she gives while fighting.
Garfiel'll have that face of hers going pale.
Garfiel: “After all, yer th'same as one'v the old Witches.”
Elsa: “—”
The swaying motion of her dagger halts.

Elsa's dark eyes look nonchalantly at Garfiel. He jabs his finger at her,
Garfiel: “—Yer a goddamn VAMPIRE!”
Elsa: “Not that I drink blood or anything.”
With a sigh, Elsa kicks off the ground.

Her left arm has healed completely. She weilds kukri in both hands as she closes in on Garfiel. He
blocks she sweeping slash by raising his shields, simultaneously shooting his right leg out to kick
her—and Elsa launches her own kick along the exact same trajectory, the two of them crashing feet-
first into each other and blasting away.
Garfiel: “Not fuckin' cool! Yer arm's seriously all back t'normal!?”
Elsa: “But didn't you heal your ear as well, while you were buying time? We're even.”
Garfiel mentally sticks his tongue out at her.

During their time talking, Garfiel used the hand plugging his wound to heal the injury with magic.
He hopes for the missing section of his ear to steadily come back, but if he suffers a wound equal to
what Elsa suffered, then Garfiel's healing magic will only amount to a quick and dirty stop-gap.
Garfiel: “Yer ain't denyin' it. So yer really are a vampire?”
Elsa: “People can call it whatever they want. I don't suck blood, and my meals are ordinary. When
I'm in the sunlight all that happens is that the guards get riled, so it's not really anything special.”
Garfiel: “So yer on about guts so much because yer a vampire?”
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Elsa: “That's particular to me. I just like gazing at fresh guts and touching warm-looking intestines.”
Garfiel: “That's way fuckin' creepier.”
Elsa sheds and dumps her impeding black cloak.

Garfiel judges that Elsa's motivation has spiked even further and clicks his teeth. He batters his
shields together,
Garfiel: “S' a big world... bit've a drag, but yer better pull it off, Captain.”
With that, Garfiel roars as he swings his shields down at the oncoming Elsa.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—He opens the door, and what comes from the room is the scent of paper.
Perhaps the cloying the smell carries the weight of all the days and years spent closed inside this
space. Or perhaps if you consider the appellation A TIME-STOPPED ROOM, days have nothing to do
with it.
Subaru: Just got stuck with some time in Sanctuary to think about all that stuff. And your answer's
another thing I wanna hear.
Beatrice: “—How come?”
Without the librarian's permission, Subaru enters the Archive.

As always, the mood here is both melancholy and tranquil. There are no windows to let in sun, or
for ventilation. Staying here a long time is bound to worsen your mood and your health.
And especially so when the expression of the girl watching Subaru is so utterly exhausted.
Beatrice: “How come you managed to reach this room again, I suppose? I don't remember calling
you, in fact.”
Subaru: “Sorry, but showing up uninvited is just who I am. Impossible to forget that time back in
middle school where I showed up uninvited to a friend's birthday party and made the whole thing
awkward.”
Even dense Subaru decided to be more prudent after that one.

Though, since he announced “Well, that's all for today!” and left noisier than anyone else, he
stopped getting invited to anybody's birthday party.
Subaru: “It's miserable and my heart's about a second from popping so let's cancel that topic.”
Beatrice: “You're the one who brought it up, I suppose. You're like that about everything, doing
things always of your own accord, in fact.”
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Subaru: “Yup, always of my accord. So no matter how much you hate it, I'm here.”
He sees the girl swallow her breath.

After respectfully bowing his head in a way that she can see it,
Subaru: “I'm taking you out of here, Beatrice. —I'm dragging you out into the sunshine, where we'll
play until your dress is caked utterly brown with mud.”
Beatrice sits as she always does, on the stepladder, cradling herself.
With the black tome cradled in her arms as always, her wavering eyes gaze at Subaru.
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CHAPTER 123B: HAPPINESS REFLECTED ON THE WATER
—Taking a breath, she again challenges the tomb that she just exited.
Inside the stone tomb, isolated from moonbeams, only the pale glow of the walls provides any
source of light. It wasn't uncommon, in places where ambient mana thrived, that such natural
phenomena helped to preserve visibility.
However, it was unusual for this natural lighting to be inside a manmade structure. It had, most
likely, been reproduced by some inbuilt mechanism of the building.
A mechanism like a metia, functional so long as the required mana was stockpiled—sensing that the
lighting in the tomb follows this or similar logic, Emilia quietly takes a breather.
Inside this tomb, she feels the presence of the minor spirits distantly.
It's not that they're gone. Minor spirits are like ambient mana, existing everywhere. There's a
question of whether you can perceive their presence, or whether they they're strong enough for their
presence to be perceived, but they would be utterly absent nowhere.
This particular perception of them arose from the wall's light-producing mechanisms.
The tomb preserves a rather high rate of mana passage into and out of its space. The mana inside the
tomb is kept at a fixed volume, with mana quantities never exceeding or falling short of that
amount.
The degree of mana needed for preserving the wall-lights is so scant that the minor spirits cannot
manifest themselves sufficiently, and that's why their presence in this tomb feels faint. Even
assuming that minor spirits are present, they would be debilitated in this environment.
Emilia: “This place is sooo nasty for spiritualists.”
Reaching that conclusion, Emilia mutters to herself.

Perhaps overcoming the first TRIAL liberated her somewhat from her sense of being cornered.
Having finally gained enough composure to observe her surroundings, Emilia's impression of the
tomb is that.
It's not any great threat for a magician, who casts using the mana stored inside themselves. But if
they exhausted their stores they would have no means to replenish them, and a magician with few
gates would probably find the tomb a troublesome place too.
Though if we're talking Emilia or Roswaal, it would barely effect their combat capabilities.
Emilia: “Which is strange... since I can hardly sense anyone outside.”
Having regained her capabilities as a magician, Emilia's perception of mana has strengthened.
When she was outside the tomb, she felt the mana of so many entities that she couldn't restrain it.
She had probably picked up the mana of practically all creatures, or perhaps the presence of
practically all od, tugging at her perception. The wear on her mind was intense. She would need to
learn how to control it quickly.
But that behind-the-scenes battle is postponed while inside the tomb.

Instead she needs to wait for the TRIAL. Honestly she doesn't know which option's preferable.
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Emilia: “Ram was pleading me. Have to keep focused.”
Emilia thinks of Ram, begging to Emilia with her head bowed.

Ram never showed such weakness, and there she was baring her emotions so intensely. How could
Emilia repay her for everything until now if not by answering to her plea?
Subaru, having returned to the mansion without observing Emilia's results, also had faith in her.
His actions expressed his unwavering conviction that Emilia could do it. She needed to answer to
Subaru's trust. Or actually, she needed to do even better than expected and surprise him.
Emilia: “I'm glad they believe in me, but that's not what this is about.”
Though they might've been in a rush, Emilia still has to object to the fact that they all left without
seeing her. She should be permitted to jolt them and sulk.
And especially in Subaru's case. The two of them needed to have a very, very serious conversation
after this.
Emilia: “Anyway, this feeling... the TRIAL's here.”
The moment she entered the tomb, Emilia felt it on her skin.
She had been somewhat unconvinced that exiting and entering the tomb would be enough for the
TRIAL to prepare itself, but the overwhelmingly cool air in the tomb keenly informs her of the truth.
There's no need to postpone it.

Inside the TRIAL room, the second TRIAL is awaiting Emilia.
Emilia: “I saw my past. Then, the next one is...?”
Her cheeks tense, nearly stiff, as she strokes her belly.

She uses the irregularity in her breathing to determine whether her nerves are steeled. They are,
acceptably so.
—The Trial Room waits unchanging as it welcomes Emilia.
It hasn't even been an hour since she left. Of course it hasn't changed.
Perhaps this room alone preserves a greater load of mana, for visibility is slightly better here than in
the hallway. The doorway in the back of the room stands shut and healthy as ever.
What awaits her there, once she has overcome the third TRIAL?
Just as she thinks that thought,
<—Witness the uncomeatable present.>
Emilia: “—hk”
She hears it.

Murmured at her ear, her own voice.
The instant she attempts to consider what 'uncomeatable present' could mean, her consciousness
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fades to white.
The intense sensation tears Emilia's mind and soul from her body, dragging her into another world.
Unable to rebel, Emilia crumples leaning against the tomb's wall, before collapsing.
Her vision blurs. Her thoughts flee. Her consciousness drowns.
Emilia: “Subaru,”
Unsure of what her own lips said at the close, the TRIAL begins.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: “Hey now, Lia. Where are you going off to, come over here.”
Stopped by that gentle voice, Emilia turns around.

A woman with short silver hair beckons her to the dining table. Her eyes are nasty. Her voice is
gentle. Either indicates Emilia's ideal for women.
Fortuna: “...? Are you still half-asleep? Then you stayed up late again. You're not a child any more,
you can't be giving others trouble like that.”
Fortuna approaches, her tone chiding as she pokes Emilia in the forehead.
Pressing down on the faint red mark on her forehead, Emilia widens her eyes.
Emilia: “Woah.”
A sound of astonishment slips out her lips before she can register it. That's how greatly the sight
strikes at Emilia's heart.
This is the first time Emilia has ever seen Fortuna sacrifice her ease of movement and wear an
apron. The over-adorned frilly white apron mismatches to Fortuna's personality, but suits well to her
beautiful appearance.
Emilia: “Mother, you're cute.”
Fortuna: “—. Where did that come from? You really are half-asleep.”
Her cheeks reddening slightly, Fortuna grasps Emilia's shoulders and turns her around. She gives
Emilia's back a push, and,
Fortuna: “Wash your face in the river. You'll stop saying weird things once the cold water's woken
you up. Though when it's you, Lia, that might not change even when you're properly awake.”
Emilia: “Wh-what are you saying, Mother? That's not what it is. I'm not half-asleep at all... and I
didn't say anything a trifle weird in the first place.”
Fortuna: “Where are you learning this archaic speech, a trifle? I'm sooo worried that everyone
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might be teasing you and putting these things in your head. I'll have interrogate Arch later.”
Emilia pouts. But Fortuna merely nods back, not conceding an inch. While shocked that her own
opinions are not working, Emilia slumps her shoulders and starts walking her journey for the river.
???: “Goodness, hello there, Emilia. You're not looking the cheeriest.”
???: “Gosh, she really isn't. Which means Fortuna-sama told her off? She may've stayed up late.”
???: “Emilia's old enough now. I'm sure she wants her me time now and then.”
After exiting her house and embarking along the road to the river, the elves of the village address
her.
A group of older elves sit at a table surrounded by thick tree roots as they chat. She had heard they
were the same age as Fortuna, though everyone, including Fortuna, sees Emilia as young.
Emilia: “Good morning. You're all out early.”
Elf: “It's you who's late, Emilia. It's nice that you're helping your Father's work, but it's a waste of
your youth if you don't use some of your time for yourself.”
Elf: “Exactly, exactly. You're so cute, Emilia, you need to have fun while you're cute.”
Elf: “If I were as young and cute as you, Emilia, I'd be bicycling the village.”
Emilia tilts her head at the term 'bicycling the village' while the women all look at each other and
laugh, squealing. The details of their conversation are more or less beyond Emilia, but it's good that
everyone is having fun.
Finding herself feeling happy, Emilia relaxes as well.
Elf: “There, now that's much better than looking down. Smile, smile, let's see a smile.”
Emilia: “—Right.”
After pointing at the smiling Emilia, the women's fingers pull their cheeks into a grin.
Finding their argument as legitimate, Emilia identically makes a smile and nods.
Waving a goodbye to the women, Emilia resumes her course toward the river.
She scales the gnarled tree-roots, passes through gaps in verdant leaves. Hearing the burbling of a
brooklet, Emilia breaks into a jog, her face beaming.
Emilia: “Iiiii'm—heeere!”
???: “Waugh!? Emilia!?”
The instant she pushes a branch out of the way and pokes out her head, she sees someone towelling
themselves dry right in front of her, looking shocked. Realising that the intruder is Emilia, the
youth's eyes flit here and there and there in confusion—
Emilia: “Ah,”
Youth: “Auh,”
Emilia puts her hand to her mouth as the youth's feet slip and he plunges into the river.
SPLASH. A spray of water cascades up as he lands in the brook.
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Emilia: “Arch! Are you okay?”
Standing atop where he fell, Emilia looks down and calls down to him.
Bubbles arise one after another on the water's face for a moment, before a blond young man floats
to the surface. He wipes his face with his hand, then raises his hand at the onlooking Emilia.
Arch: “Look, Emilia! Don't interrupt people right when they're almost done bathing!”
Emilia: “I'm sorry. I didn't think anyone'd be here... but I'm glad it was you, Arch.”
Arch: “What're you implying!?”
Emilia pats her chest in relief. Arch yells, cursing the absurdity of it all.
Emilia puts her finger to her lips and hums.
Emilia: “I mean we're close Arch, so you'll forgive me.”
Arch: “Auh...”
Emilia: “Me, I've always thought of you like a big brother... so you'll definitely say there was no
helping today and forgive me, I think.”
Arch: “Think damn what. Goddamn it... has no idea what I feel...”
Arch mumbles his regrets while sinking his mouth into the water, spewing bubbles. Which means
the latter of his statement drowns and Emilia does not hear it.
Emilia: “And I came here to take a bath. Can I jump in next to you?”
Arch: “Wha? I-Idiot, don't! Take a bath, in somewhere as open as this? Of course you can't! Be a
little more discrete! Are you trying to be a child forever!?”
Emilia: “Nuhh...”
Arch: “No nuhhs!”
Emilia: “Wehh...”
Arch: “No wehhs either!”
Having readied herself to leap into the river, Emilia pouts at Arch's prohibition on bathing. She's not
sure why he's so panicked, but either way Arch is being mean today.
Maybe he's mad about slipping and falling in the river.
Emilia: “Arch, I'm sorry.”
Arch: “Er, um... h-how come you're being so docile suddenly?”
Emilia: “I thought maybe you really didn't like falling in. I'm sorry. So let me take a bath too. If I
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don't, Mother Fortuna won't let me eat.”
Arch: “That's something a kid'd think!”
Yells Arch, hands to his head.

He stops dog paddling for an instant, and sinks into the water slightly. Meaning, for an instant, he
takes his attention off Emilia.
Emilia: “Woo,”
Arch: “Ah!”
After her quiet cheer, sunlight skims across Emilia's eyelashes and—she's falling.
Her silver hair flutters out behind her as she shoots toes-first into the water.
Emilia's contact with the water gives not a single unneeded splash as she sinks with shocking calm,
reaching the bottom of the deep river.
In the clear water, Emilia's open eyes sight the fish and water plants swaying in the current. Her foot
contacts the river bottom. She savours the tickly feeling of sand as she ascends.
Her face pops up beside Arch,
Emilia: “—Pahh,”
Arch: “No! Pahhs!”
Emilia smooths her wet hair back, and backstrokes away from the yelling Arch.
Arch furrows his brows, perhaps wanting to say more, but seems to guess that saying it won't stop
Emilia anyway. He gives a deep sigh and goes around to behind Emilia.
Emilia: “This feels nice, Arch.”
Arch “Well you jumped in yourself so maybe it does for you. I got pushed in, and sprayed with
water when you jumped in so I'm feeling terrible.”
Emilia: “Okay. I'm glad you're having fun too.”
Arch: “You really are an optimistic girl, Emilia...”
Feeling complimented, Emilia floats on the water as she puffs out her chest.
Arch averts his gaze and scratches at his nose. His cheeks are red. But the water's cold. Does he
have a fever?
Emilia: “Are you unwell? Is that why you're mad you fell in the water?”
If so, then of course he'd tell her off for what she did, even after she apologized.
Though, she'd like to drag Arch out of the river and heal him with magic immediately.
Arch: “No it's not that, don't worry. That's not what's going on. ...Um, Emilia. Around guys, you
shouldn't... no I mean, around people, you shouldn't be this exposed. Especially around people
you're not close with.”
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Emilia: “...? But Arch, you're who I'm closest with?”
Arch: “Even around people you're close with! Erm... b-but just only do it around me.”
Emilia: “Not around Mother?”
Arch: “Around Fortuna-sama, me, and that woman!”
Yelling at Emilia as she tilts her head, Arch bites his lip, his face reddening further. Then he sinks
into the water and grumbles, disappearing from Emilia's view as she furrows her brows.
...is the instant when he splashes up by the riverbank, and pulls himself onto the shore.
Arch: “Okay, you get out of there too, Emilia. When you're just trying to wake up, usually you'd just
wash your face, not take a bath. I don't think Fortuna-sama would tell you go bathing right in the
morning.”
Emilia: “Actually, you might be right. ...I didn't bring a change of clothes.”
Arch: “Seriously, what are you doing...”
Says Arch, looking astonished at Emilia's reckless behaviour.

Emilia starts swimming over to him, when he dashes into the forest and returns with a towel.
Arch: “Wipe yourself down with this, and wrap it around yourself until you get back to your house.
Heck, you're a handful of a child no matter how old you get.”
Emilia: “Ahaha, I'm sorry, Arch. Thank you for lending me this.”
Even Emilia has to reflect on her actions after all of this.

His outstretched hand takes her arm and pulls her out of the river, where she takes the towel and
dries her long hair. It glimmers silver in the sunlight, terribly heavy with water.
Emilia: “...Was my hair always this long?”
Arch: “What're you talking about? You've been growing it out for ages. Something about how it's
the same colour as Fortuna-sama's, and looks pretty.”
The towel absorbs the water, when Arch hits her with that statement.
After hearing it said it does feel like he's right, but when exactly did she decide to grow it out?
Although feeling that something isn't quite right, Emilia chooses to avert her gaze from the
strangeness. She gets the damp out of her hair and begins towelling her body. That done, she peers
into the river and reaches out to fulfil her original goal of washing her face—
—Seeing her face reflected on the water, Emilia's throat jars.
Pale skin. Amethyst eyes. Pink lips. Long, glistening silver hair. All exact components of her own
self. Nothing has changed, and nothing is strange.
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As if.
Strange things, odd things, incorrect things, are all she sees here.
Emilia: “auh, ah...”
Patting, slapping at her cheeks, Emilia exhales choppy breath after choppy breath.
Her lungs feel like they're convulsing. She can't breathe properly. Her guts constrict, and throbbing,
painful pressure coursing through her whole.
Arch: “Emilia, what's wrong?”
Noticing Emilia's irregular state, Arch speaks with his voice low.
Emilia keeps staring at the water's edge, motionless, as Arch touches her shoulder and strokes her
head from behind.
Arch: “Did you see something strange in the river?”
Emilia: “...No.”
Arch: “Did your stomach start hurting? I can't use healing magic, so I'll have to take you to
someone else...”
Emilia: “That's, not it.”
She feels the touch of Arch's palm and hears the sound of his voice. But does not draw her gaze
away from the water.
Arch follows Emilia's gaze, seemingly realising what she is looking at. He timidly points at Emilia
reflected on the water.
Arch: “Did something happen to your face? But I think it looks the same, pretty as always.”
Emilia: “It's an adult's...”
Arch: “Huh?”
Emilia: “My face is an adult's. ...I've never even seen my face before.”
Seeing an unfamiliar face on the water, Emilia whispers with trembling voice.
She moves her fingers to check whether this face may not be hers, but the reflection mirrors her
movements and denies that possibility. This face belonged to her. Never seen it before, and it's hers.
Emilia: “I...”
After noticing that one decisive point of oddity, many more inconsistencies come into focus.
She looks down. Her chest has grown. Her hair too.
Her limbs are longer than she remembers, and there's supposed to be a bigger size difference
between herself and Arch.
People's perceptions of her and conversations with her have changed in nuance.
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And how many times have people pointed out that she's not a child?
No. She isn't.
Emilia: “—I have to go.”
Arch: “Emilia?”
Emilia stands up, her head swaying slightly as she turns around.
The forest she ran through, and the village. The house where Fortuna awaits.
She needs to go back there.

She doesn't know what she needs to do yet, but that point alone is unshakeable truth.
Emilia: “Arch, I'm sorry. I'm going back to Mother Fortuna's.”
Arch: “Y-yeah... that's fine, but is everything okay with you?”
Emilia: “I'm fine now. I'm sorry for interrupting your bath. And I'll be okay without the towel.”
Emilia takes off the towel and pushes it against the confused Arch.
She makes sure that he takes it before breaking barefoot into a run. Fast as she can, back to her
house—and behind her,
Arch: “Emilia!”
She hears Arch.

Her heart insists that she has no time to wait, but she still ends up stopping. As if someone had told
her to never let a single thing Arch says escape her.
She glances back. Arch raises his hand.
Arch: “I don't know what's up, but if you're ever worried about something, you can always talk to
me! Because I... because I'm like a brother to you!”
After a second of hesitation, Arch gives Emilia those impassioned words.

For some reason, hearing them makes something surge up in Emilia's chest.
She's definitely happy to have heard those words.

But she has a feeling that that the thing swelling up from her heart differs from ordinary joy.
Emilia: “Right! Thank you, big bro!”
Emilia waves in response to the blushing Arch, and resumes her run.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Fortuna: “...I'm sure I just told you to wash your face, so how did you manage to come back with
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your whole body sopping wet? Your Mother's mystified.”
Sighs an astonished Fortuna as she welcomes her dripping-wet daughter back home.
While her hair has mostly been towelled dry, Emilia's white clothing sticks to her skin and water
drips from her skirt.
Emilia: “I'm sorry, Mother. I was kinda... sooo kinda half-asleep.”
Fortuna: “I know I said to wash your face to get rid of your sleepiness, and you sure did put some
energy into doing that. You really are a child no matter how old you get. Did anyone see you
looking like this?”
It's embarrassing that someone would see you when you look like a drowned rat, is probably what
she means.
Then, miraculously, no she didn't run into anybody on the way back.
Emilia: “No, it's okay. Only Arch saw.”
Fortuna: “Hm... Arch. Well, if it's him... but I suspect Arch has started viewing you differently than
he used to...”
Emilia: “Mother?”
Fortuna: “Ah, erm, no, it's nothing. Now, come here.”
Emilia lowers her gaze. Fortuna looks on resignedly before stroking Emilia's head, then taking her
hand, and pulling her into the house. But water continues to drip from her clothes.
Emilia: “Mother, the house is getting all wet.”
Fortuna: “Just need to towel that dry afterwards. Anyway, I have a towel, so dry yourself with that
and get changed in your room. I'll make breakfast when you're back.”
This house, made in a hollowed-out tree, was created by pouring mana into an old arbour to change
the thing's shape. Emilia and Fortuna's house was hand-made by Fortuna, and is a rather large
dwelling for only two people. The second floor has each of their rooms, while the first floor is a
dining and kitchen space.
Thinking back on it, it was a luxurious use of rooms.
—'Thinking back on it', is a rather weird statement.
Fortuna: “Come on, get going.”
Emilia: “Wagh,”
A towel presses itself into her face while she is in thought. Emilia looks at Fortuna in protest, but
seeing her Mother's gaze as she puts her hand to her hip quickly leads Emilia to surrender.
The towel smells like sun on her face. She dries herself as she returns to her room on the second
floor.
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Her room is a plain thing.
This also goes for Fortuna, but Emilia doesn't especially like pointless decorations. Her room hosts
the bare minimum of furnature, with a few extra fixtures. It has a wooden box with her clothes in it,
which Emilia squats down next to. She grabs a random outfit out of it and speedily changes out of
her wet clothes and into that.
Just like with her room, Emilia feels no urge to embellish her clothing.
She pulls a short-sleeved outfit, long enough to cover her uppers and lowers, over her head. Then
she changes her undergarments and exits the room. —While making a conscious effort not to look
at the object beside the clothesbox.
Emilia: “Mother Fortuna, I'll wash the wet clothes by myself, so...”
???: “Goodness. I think that filial and excellent of you.”
Emilia: “—”
Emilia puts the laundry in a basket and comes down the stairs, when a man's voice welcomes her.
Emilia's breathing jams as she hears the kind, affectionate voice. She looks over at the dining table.
Usually Fortuna and Emilia would be the only ones around that table, and so one of these three
chairs is excessive. It's the chair they use when a certain someone is visiting, which Fortuna brought
out from deeper in the house.
The person seated in that chair is of course the familiar,
Emilia: “Juice.”
Juice: “Indeed, it is lovely to see you again, Emilia-sama. Now, has anything notably different
happened for you?”
Emilia: “Me? No, it's been same as usual. Juice, it's been sooo long. I didn't know you were coming
today, how come you're here?”
Juice: “You did not know? I was sure that I had asked my finger to contact you prior...”
The mild-faced man, Juice, puts his hand to his chin in thought. He is a good-natured person and
appears to be earnestly disconcerted, but Emilia instantly deduces the culprit.
She passes by Juice to peer into the kitchen, where she sees Fortuna with her hand to her mouth,
stifling a laugh.
Emilia: “Mother, you kept it a secret.”
Fortuna: “Huhu, now did I? I might've only forgotten about it.”
Emilia: “I don't think so. Juice's seat is there, and you're making food for three.”
Fortuna: “Ah, sharp eyes. You're usually a little off-kilter, but you're so perceptive about these
things.”
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Fortuna winks at Emilia and whistles as she picks up a dish. She presents it to Emilia.
Fortuna: “Now come help set the table, Lia. You can't cook anything on your own, so I should at
least be able to ask you to arrange things.”
Emilia: “Hrmp... changing the subject. And I can't cook because you won't teach me.”
Fortuna: “You'll absolutely mix up the sugar and salt, and I'm too scared to put a girl who can't
handle a knife properly in the kitchen.”
Cutting off Emilia's rebuttals, Fortuna sets dish after dish on the table. Although unsatisfied, Emilia
follows dejectedly behind her to the table.
Seated at the table, Juice looks at the fragrant dishes and breaks into a smile.
Juice: “I am privileged to partake in your cooking, Fortuna-sama. The joy does not fade, no matter
how numerous the occasions I relish it.”
Fortuna: “And there you go again, saying that so easily.”
Juice: “I am merely conveying my honest feelings?”
Fortuna: “That's what I'm saying is devious.”
Juice tilts his head, looking somewhat distressed.

Watching their exchange makes Emilia smile. Just watching them is enough to make Emilia
completely forget about how Fortuna argued her into submission.
Emilia: “If Mother's food makes you so happy, Juice, you should just live here too.”
Fortuna: “Wh—Emilia!”
While placing a large plate overflowing with vegetables on the middle of the table, Emilia rides the
conversation and tries that sentence out. Immediately, Fortuna looks panicked and her face flashes
red as she glances over at Juice.
Fortuna: “D-don't say anything crazy. Juice has so many things he has to deal with, he's fitting time
in his busy schedule to come see us and...”
Juice: “I am overjoyed by the offer, Emilia-sama. Were it a possibility, I would like to oblige.
Sincerely I would.”
Fortuna rushes to object while Juice replies calmly, the two in utter contrast. Juice's statement kills
Fortuna's momentum and she plomps down into her chair, before drawing herself up small.
Looking at the two, Emilia also takes her seat.
—This scene unfolding before her looks overwhelmingly natural to Emilia.
Emilia: “Mother, Juice, if neither of you object then you should just do it. No one's going to stop
you from being like that. Ah... unless I'm stopping you?”
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It's plain to see that Fortuna and Juice think favourably of the other.
Perhaps they're not going any further than this fixed limit because of Emilia's presence.
However, Emilia's worry is—
Fortuna: “You're not.”

Juice: “You are not.”
—promptly dispelled by the two as a needless anxiety.

Emilia's eyes widen. Fortuna and Juice look at each other, realising that they said the same thing,
and laugh.
Emilia: “See, you really do get along sooo well.”
Fortuna: “Stop teasing us, Emilia. Juice, tell her off too.”
Juice: “Indeed, Emilia-sama. Fortuna-sama is a splendid person. Should someone of my likes

overstay their welcome, it will burden her with objectionable rumours.”
Emilia: “Hrrmpf. But, I think you're too late for that.”
Juice undersells himself as he elevates Fortuna. Emilia sees a sadness in Fortuna's gaze as she looks
at him, and raises her finger.
Emilia: “After all, everyone always tells me it when I go outside the house. Not to cause trouble for
Mother Fortuna or Father Romanée-Conti.”
It's pretty funny how dumbstruck the two look at hearing that.
Emilia puts her hands to her mouth to keep herself from laughing, settles her breathing, and,
Emilia: “I'm serious. When I stayed up last night, and got transfixed in bridging the differences
between the old books you gave me, Juice, and the maps... everyone praises me for helping in my
Father's work.”
Fortuna: “Wh-who is, saying...”
Emilia: “Tehena-san from across the street, Mitto-san and granny Tansei.”
Fortuna: “Those three gossips...!”
Imaging their faces floating in the air, Fortuna bites her lip in frustration.
Her brows shoot down in anger, her face just a little scary.
Emilia says, 'now now' to console her, and,
Emilia: “Anyway, everyone thinks that. And me too, um, I, erm, thought about stuff, kinda a lot,
and, hrmm, uhhh... it's...”
Juice: “Emilia-sama, there is no need to force yourself to ponder it.”
Emilia: “N-no! I think it's good! But it just kinda feels like Mother's being taken away so I can't
calm down!”
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Everyone else is fully ready for it, but the two of them and Emilia are being fickle.
Though their problem is one thing, and Emilia would prefer that her emotions not get in the way of
their decision.
After all, even by Emilia's view, they're a wonderful match for each other.
Emilia: “I think it'd be sooo great. You two should think about it too.”
Fortuna and Juice are silent.
Emilia: “Not anyone in the forest, and not me, and not anyone's going to stop you. I'm not gonna let
anyone tell you it's bad or you can't do it!”
Emilia's hands strike the table as she speaks zealously.

She then realises that she's getting too passionate, and looks taken aback. The two gaze at her as she
strokes her hair and seats herself.
Emilia: “A-and so... I'll leave the rest to you young'ns.”
Fortuna: “Seriously, Emilia, where are you leaning this?”
Fortuna looks astonished as always at red-faced Emilia's comment. But the expression soon
vanishes beneath a laugh,
Fortuna: “Hee, huhuhu.”
Juice: “Ahaha, Emilia-sama... indeed, you have grown. I was lacking in discernment when I judged
that nothing was different.”
Fortuna: “You were, Juice. She's my prided daughter, of course she would.”
Juice: “Yes, I underestimated her.”
Fortuna and Juice look at each other and laugh.

The atmosphere around the two is even more tender than before, and Emilia senses that her own
statements have brought about a change.
The two of them abound with warmth.

The gaze they share, surely, carries a different nuance from before.
—It's a terribly happy scene.
Fortuna: “...Emilia?”
Fortuna glances at Emilia and calls her name.

Emilia swallows her breath and buries her face in her hands. She panickedly wipes away the tears
threatening to spill from her eyes, and gives a forced, “Ah,”
Emilia: “I, think there's some gunk in my eye. Gunk that's sooo big.”
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Fortuna: “That big? Are you okay?”
Emilia: “I'm okay, it's only fist-sized.”
Juice: “A-are you certain you will be well?”
Emilia: “I'm fine!”
Emilia rubs vigorously at her eyes as she stands up.

She leaves the table, and begins heading for the second floor.
Emilia: “I'm going to put in some really good eyedrops. It'll freshen my eyes up so well they'll fall
out.”
Fortuna: “Your eyes are such a pretty amethyst, Emilia, don't throw them away. They're exactly like
my brother's, and lovely.”
Emilia: “And they're the same colour as yours, Mother.”
Perhaps not expecting that response, Fortuna's eyes open in surprise. Emilia sees Juice laugh at her
expression, and Emilia laughs too.
She smilies as her foot lands on the staircase. She glances back at the two.
Emilia: “You two eat breakfast. I'll be back right away.”
Fortuna: “It won't be good once it gets cold, so really do come back right away.”
Emilia: “Mm, right right away.”
Juice: “Then we will await your return restfully, Emilia-sama.”
With those send-offs from Fortuna and Juice, Emilia takes a deep breath.
She glances back one last time, looks down at the two at the table,
Emilia: “—I love you both.”
With that, Emilia returns to her room.
Emilia closes the door to her room and sighs, expelling all the air inside her.
Her innards feel squeezed, constricted. She slaps her cheeks to psych herself up, shakes her head,
and walks over to a corner of the room.
Next to Emilia's box of clothes is something long and thin, with a thin cloth draped over it.
Emilia had never thought to reach for that thing until now, but,
Emilia: “If I don't face it, it won't start.”
Give her courage.
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Emilia traces her finger over her lips, remembering the warmth as she pulls the drape.
The cloth falls.

Behind it is a polished full-length mirror to reflect Emilia from her head to her toes—
???: “—Did this scene of ideal happiness grant you with anything?”
—With a white-haired witch standing where Emilia's image should be.
137
CHAPTER 124: LISTEN UP, STUPID
—How many times has he come to this room to see her?
The first time they met, Subaru easily foiled the girl's illusory looping hallway and entered the
Forbidden Archive.
Their first impressions of each other were mutually horrid.
Beatrice preformed a mana drain one someone still midway through convalescence, and promptly
downed Subaru. Afterwards she had to put up with his endless revenge-inspired meddling.
They would insult each other every time they met, but despite that got along ridiculously well, and
Subaru found himself stopping by the supposedly-veiled Forbidden Archive.
Subaru and Beatrice had had many yelling matches, spit flying everywhere, over these almost-two-
months that Subaru has been in the mansion, just one immature exchange after another.
Those exchanges changed after the Royal Selection properly began and Subaru returned from the
Capital.
Beatrice was rejecting him. With knowledge gained in SANCTUARY, where she was absent, Subaru
learned her history and fate, and accordingly understood some reasons for her stubbornness.
Then he prattled as if he knew anything, trying to understand her solitude—and Beatrice, long
bereft of tears after these four hundred years, wailed her laments.
There was nothing he could've said to the exhausted girl after that. Immediate circumstances led
Beatrice to lose her life, and Subaru saw that final expression on her face as she protected him.
That expression seared itself into his memory. Running off his emotions, Subaru returned here.
—So that this time, no matter what it took, he'd get her out of this place.
Beatrice: “Taking me out of here...?”
Is Beatrice's bewildered response to Subaru's grand opening statement. She hugs the gospel tighter,
drawing her knees to her chest as she sits atop the stepladder.
Beatrice: “Unwanted meddling, I suppose. Nobody asked for you to do that, in fact.”
Subaru: “This isn't about anyone asking or not asking me. I'm taking you out of here. Decisively.”
Beatrice: “Just scram and have that foolish girl comfort you on her lap, I suppose.”
Subaru: “You little... this's war! You say something like that and it's war!”
Beatrice brings up a topic back from when Subaru was overloaded in this mansion, and he strains
his voice to distract from his internal shame.
Beatrice snorts at him and glances away.
Subaru: “Anyway, this isn't the time to be mucking around like this. We have basically no room to
postpone anything. Have you grasped what's going on outside?”
Beatrice: “...I do know that some uninvited guests have come to the mansion, in fact. After the big
138
and little maid did something or other, two preposterous people started going on a rampage, I
suppose.”
Subaru: “Though, one of those preposterous people's a helper who I brought along. I don't think
he'll lose, martially speaking, but unfortunately I get this feeling the difference in their resolve'll
determine the win. And so I can't accommodate too much of your solemnity here.”
Beatrice: “Then you're evacuating the mansion's residents while your assistant buys time ...is your
scheme, in fact. Are you trusting in your ally or aren't you with this sloppy strategy, I suppose?”
Subaru: “The strategy's like this 'cause I know he's way too kind.”
The restorative effects of Garfiel's EARTHSOUL BLESSING mean that his current condition is 80~90%
of his maximum. When adding on his lack of hesitation for battle, he's quite a considerable fighting
force. But Subaru doubts that he has sufficient resolve to kill his opponent, which will keep him
from putting in his all, which is a bit of a minus.
Meanwhile Elsa is in perfect condition. Subaru judges her strange, unexplainable combat strength
as a good match for Garfiel at his best. Her tendency to enjoy herself during her battles is something
of a minus for her combat-wise, but she has that inexplicable immorality. Elsa's statements give no
suggestion that killing her indefinite times will make her stay dead either. Subaru's tentative
estimations dictate that Elsa has the slight advantage.
Subaru: “But if the strategy's working, Frederica should collect Rem while Garfiel's suppressing
Elsa. Petra met up with Otto, so now there's only one essential evacuee left before we can save
everybody.”
Beatrice: “Essential evacuees... you mean to say that Betty is the last, in fact.”
Subaru: “Yeah, I do.”
Subaru had instructed Petra go meet up with Otto, who has guided the villagers in Arlam to safety,
and retreat after helping with a few gambits in the mansion.
Subaru has spent time reaching the Archive, and she should have finished her departure by now.
Subaru: “And so I'm getting you out of here. If you don't wanna run while holding my hand, then
I'll piggyback you or cradle you or do whatever to you, so just behave and come over here and...”
Beatrice: “Don't make me repeat myself, I suppose. I don't need your help, in fact.”
Subaru steps closer and offers Beatrice his hand, but she speaks low to reject him. He comes to a
stop in front of her as she turns her head in indication of the room.
Beatrice: “Hear me, I suppose? An isolated space, of power worthy of Betty, separated from the
cloisters of time. This is Beatrice's Forbidden Archive, in fact. Regardless of whatever threatens the
outside, that threat will never reach Betty's Archive. Your fears are needless, in fact.”
Subaru: “Nope, they're needed. Your Archive's randomness does mean it's strongly advantageous
when it comes to fleeing, true... but, it has a fatal flaw. And the enemy knows what it is.”
139
Beatrice: “A fatal, flaw?”
Beatrice furrows her brows, indeed unable to let the comment pass. But Subaru just responds to her
harsh gaze with a nod, and gestures to the door behind him.
Subaru: “Your power which randomly connects to some door in the mansion is strong. But... it only
works on the mansion's CLOSED DOORS. So if you leave the mansion's doors open, you're certain to
reach the Archive eventually, since you'll be losing doors until only the Archive's is left.”
Subaru: “It's such a stupid thing. I bet you didn't notice it either. I was wondering why I hadn't
realised it until practically I witnessed it myself.”
Subaru remembers when Elsa, having noticed the loophole in GATE CROSSING, found the Archive.
If Garfiel wasn't around to impede her, Elsa would unmistakably come here while using that exact
same method. And likely take Beatrice's life.
Subaru: “Though of course, it's not like I'm underestimating you, or saying that her showing up here
means you're going down easy. It's just that her strangeness is some of the extremest I've ever
experienced. If we can do this without facing her, there's nothing better.”
If they can defeat Elsa then he would like to do that, but it's not an essential requirement for
clearing this loop series. If Roswaal is the one hiring her, then so long as Subaru crosses the time
limit for the issues in SANCTUARY, Roswaal should stop having any reason to keep hiring Elsa.
The whole insignia affair in the Capital proves that this would make Elsa withdraw.
Either way, right now they need to survive through the attack on the mansion and—
Subaru: “Beatrice. This place isn't safe. If you're not here, she won't disturb the library. So just for
now...”
Beatrice: “Why does that woman know how to break Betty's GATE CROSSING, I suppose?”
Subaru: “—”
Subaru spits out the suitable bargaining chips to convince Beatrice to leave.
But Beatrice, perhaps listening to Subaru's statements or perhaps not, whispers a whisper differing
from what Subaru's looking for.
Subaru shuts his mouth. Beatrice remains upon the stepladder.
Beatrice: “It's inconceivable that she would abruptly conceive of how to break Betty's GATE
CROSSING on her first encounter with it, in fact. Whoever taught her those methods knows me, I
suppose.”
Subaru: “Beatrice. This isn't the time for that conversa—”
Beatrice: “—It's Roswaal, in fact.”
Subaru can't divert her.

Her swift thinking makes Subaru swallow his breath.
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Seeing his reaction, Beatrice understands everything. Roswaal hired Elsa, and his goal is to kill
Beatrice. Which means—
Beatrice: “It is written in Roswaal's gospel that I be killed, I suppose.”
Giving no heed to either Subaru's affirmations or denials, Beatrice sighs.

It's unlikely that the relief Subaru perceives in that sigh is just his imagination. Unable to overlook
the comment, Subaru puts pressure on Beatrice.
Subaru: “Want to tell me what that sigh was? And why the hell you look like you're agreeing!?”
Beatrice: “It's what it looks like, I'm agreeing, in fact. If Roswaal's gospel has ordered him to do
this, then that means my fate is decided, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Fuck is that... Roswaal's book is Roswaal's book, and your book is your book! Your book
really says to go get killed by Roswaal, does it!?”
Jabbing out his finger, Subaru glares at the gospel in Beatrice's arms.
If nothing has changed from the previous loops, then for four hundred years, that book has written
just blank white paper.
Beatrice's expression turns gloomy and she opens to a page of the gospel. She spreads the book
open and presents it so that Subaru can see it—showing a book of only empty pages.
Beatrice: “Nothing is written, in fact. Identical as ever, only blank pages, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Then there's no reason for you to get killed like Roswaal's book says! It's same as ever,
you're who decides what you do!”
Beatrice: “...The same as ever, I'm the one deciding?”
Subaru: “Yes! Nothing being written means you must've faced choices during all this time. Small
things to big things, you're the one who decided every path you took! So there's no reason for you to
dance along to someone else's choices this time, eith—”
Beatrice: “What in my life have I ever decided?”
The doleful question crushes Subaru's momentum.

Beatrice tilts her head as she gazes at Subaru, her eyes melancholy. She flips through the blank
pages
Beatrice: “All the time Betty spent in Roswaal's mansion, protecting the Archive that Mother
entrusted to her, endlessly, endlessly... when during that did I ever have time belonging to myself?
When did Betty, having lived empty centuries without writ, ever leave her footsteps anywhere in the
world? What did Beatrice ever do, and who is she?”
Subaru: “Bea, trice...”
Beatrice: “Betty's life, Betty's four hundred years, are as blank as this gospel, in fact. A void, in fact.
What I chose by myself, what I gained by myself, what can attest of myself... all non-existent.”
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Beatrice claps the gospel shut and sets it on her lap. She strokes its nameless cover as she quietly
speaks,
Beatrice: “I'm identical to an empty book. Losing me here simply means losing a blank, letterless
text. Never anything to anybody, merely a book shoved in a bookcase—it'd be laudable for it to be
gone, in fact.”
Subaru: “What if there's people who don't want that blank book gone?”
Beatrice feels to be verging on abandoning her four centuries and her future. Subaru manages to get
words out in an attempt to connect to her heart.
Subaru has not yet found his reply to Beatrice's tearful scream from back then.
But even so, should he fail to speak here, she will give up on herself.
Subaru: “You called it nothing, a void. But there assuredly is a book wedged inside that bookcase.
There are people who know that book exists. And maybe there's people who'll want to pick up that
book someday, you think they'd stand the thing going off and destroying itself?”
Beatrice: “The book has neither name nor author, I suppose. Supposing for argument that this
benevolent someone exists, opening that book and seeing the inside would only disappoint them, in
fact. The blank book doesn't want to watch the disappointment unfurl across that person's face
either, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Then! Then what is that book doing in that place!”
Beatrice: “—”
Beatrice gazes emotionlessly at Subaru.

It feels like a retort, saying this whole dialogue lacks any apparent meaning. Subaru raises his head
regardless, continuously reaching out to Beatrice's distant heart.
Subaru: “If someone who picks it up's just going to be disappointed... then for what sake is that
book there? Wasn't the book made because it had meaning?”
Beatrice: “...The book's author crafted that book for the sake of a person, in fact. The book is made
to appear empty to everyone except for that SOMEONE, I suppose. If we assume there's to be
meaning, then the very instant the book reaches the SOMEONE comprises the meaning of that book's
creation.”
Subaru: “And so then—”
Beatrice: “The book mustn't be disposed of until it reaches the SOMEONE, you're saying, I suppose.”

He notices an instant before can voice it what a cruel breed of hope he is arguing for. Beatrice sees
Subaru's expression, and a horribly pained smile arises on her face.
Beatrice: “Exactly. If Betty truly were just a book... then she'd be happy to wait for that day, in
fact.”
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Beatrice would have waited there for that day when the SOMEONE's fingers flipped through her
pages.
If she were a book.
—But Beatrice isn't a book. She's a little girl, shivering from prolonged isolation.
Beatrice: “If I were a soulless, mindless book... then I could have faultlessly believed in Mother's
instructions forever. I could have been Mother's lovely Beatrice forever, I suppose.”
If she were an entity like a doll, lacking a heart and comprised only of ornamentation, she would
have never deliberated.
If she were an entity like a book, unshaken by the constant passing of time, she would have never
lamented.
Beatrice was not that thing.
Beatrice: “But I have a heart. Should time pass I do think about things, at least enough to lose faith
in what I believed in, in fact. I agonize and deliberate, I suppose. There were countless nights where
I scrambled to salvage my memories, because I'd forgotten what Mother's face, what her smile
looked like!”
Subaru: “—”
Beatrice: “There were times I couldn't bear being alone, and I yearned to touch someone! But
everyone leaves me behind! They'll say whatever they'll say, state it's for the sake of something
more important than me, assert their rationale, and desert me! Mother did! Roswaal did! —Even
Lewes did!!”
Beatrice shouts, her face scrunched up and near to tears.

Hearing the name Lewes makes Subaru remember what he heard in SANCTUARY about Beatrice's
past. And the root of all the present Leweses, Lewes Meyer.
She and Beatrice had only known each other for a fleeting instant, but their story still told of a
definite bond. —Still left a persistent scar on Beatrice's heart.
Beatrice: “—Just, enough, in fact.”
Beatrice loses her momentum. The tone of her voice plummets.

Her expression, twisted with emotion, returns to its usual apathy as she hugs the book on her lap
close.
Beatrice: “Betty's gospel will not outline Betty's future. ...I've known it for a very long time, in fact.
Even Mother forsook Betty's fate far and long ago.”
The lack of writ about the future means that the gospel's owner has fallen into a dead end.
While judging off Subaru's possession of Betelgeux's gospel, that was how Beatrice appraised
books with frozen writ. Appraised that the same thing was happening to herself.
Beatrice: “If Betty's fate has been outlined in Roswaal's gospel... how sardonic, I suppose. But that
does ease me, in fact. It's inconceivable that Roswaal would take half-measures, I suppose.”
143
Subaru: “An old friend of yours might kill you... how is that relaxing?”
Beatrice: “It's obvious, in fact.”
Beatrice nods.
A fleeting, affectionate smile arises on her face.
Beatrice: “If Roswaal's gospel has written about me... then it means that Mother has certainly not
forgotten about me, I suppose.”
—Warped.
Beatrice's smiling visage makes Subaru notice that he is seconds from drowning beneath an
emotional torrent.
It's warped. Beatrice's visage as she rejoices in her contact with her mother's love is so warped it's
unbearable. Subaru could stand that this thing, that this happening, was a mother's love—as fucking
if.
Beatrice: “...What are you thinking to do, in fact?”
Subaru bites his lip and endures the sensations welling up in him as he steps forward.
Caution cloaks Beatrice's expression as she perceives the alarming vibe emanating from Subaru.
Subaru: “—”
Beatrice: “I asked you a question, I suppose. What are you thinking to do, in fact? If you try
anything, I'll show no mercy, I suppose. I've already accepted my fate, in fact.”
Subaru: “Accepted goddamn what. So you're no different from Roswaal. No, he's at least self
aware, you're multitudes more awful. Utterly hopeless, let it get fucking worse.”
Anger surges from inside him.

It's an emotion that Subaru has constantly combated since all these events in SANCTUARY.
Anger at himself while challenging the TRIAL, anger at the witches for toying with him, anger at
Garfiel for underestimating himself out of childish stubbornness, anger at Roswaal for obeying the
writ to try and affirm the fragility of feelings, anger at Emilia for not believing in herself or Subaru's
love—
—and now anger at Beatrice, and everyone who cornered her into this.
Subaru: “You're stupid. Say whatever about your fate, say whatever about your Mother's orders,
anyone looking from aside's gonna think it's sad. You have a heart? You can't be a book? Of course
you goddamn can't, stupid. Did staying holed in this moldy room make you incapable of
recognizing that?”
Beatrice: “Stu...!”
Beatrice's eyes shoot open, and after a look of surprise—indignation.
144
She gets to her feet on the stepladder, her skirt swaying as she points at Subaru.
Beatrice: “You! Who do you think you are referring to with that comment, I suppose! I'm stupid,
I'm stupid? How do you dare say this, in fact... and especially by you! What do you think you could
possibly know about Betty, I suppose!”
Subaru: “I know you're stupid, and you don't realise you're stupid, so I'd say I know you better than
you do! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stuuuupid!!”
Beatrice: “Y-y-you...!!'
Subaru flips the bird as he curses, turning Beatrice's face crimson and blocking off her words. Her
rage is too incredible for her to come up with any retort.
Barging into openings like that happens to be Subaru's forte.
Subaru: “A four-hundred year void? Drop the affectations! You hugged your knees crying for four
hundred years is what you did! You had all that time to think, why the hell are you clinging to this
single answer forever! The book's not telling you anything so you think that means I DIDN'T DO
ANYTHING? Are you stupid!?”
Beatrice: “O-of course I thought about things, in fact! As I plainly would, I suppose! Can you
conceive how many things I tested to see if the gospel's writ would change! But no matter what I
did, no matter how I waited, it didn't! So!”
Subaru: “That's what I'm saying is stupid! The book's got nothing in it so you work to try and make
letters appear, the hell is this, invisible ink on a New Year's card? No one does that any more! If
none of that was working, start thinking of other possibilities!”
Beatrice: “O-other, possibilities...”
Subaru: “Straight-out. The possibility your mom's book was wrong.”
Beatrice falls utterly speechless.

But she immediately snaps at him, determining his reply as moronic.
Beatrice: “You hold your tongue, in fact! Mother would never pull such an idiotic stunt, I suppose!
You... you could not possibly comprehend Mother's vast thoughts, in fact!”
Subaru: “Nope, don't know'em at all, stupid. Like I care anything about what your mom thinks.
What we're talking about is you. And you said it, didn't you. You said that she'd never pull
something that idiotic. Really? Can you assert it? You've never doubted your mother even once?”
Beatrice: “What, are...”
Subaru: “Four hundred years! Gone with a self-writing book sitting absolutely blank! The person
you're waiting for never came either! You spent all of that time alone, had so much room to think it's
ridiculous, and you never thought of it even once? You seriously never thought that this was
strange!?”
Four centuries spent believing in someone.
145
Perhaps it sounds like a sterling way of being. But in truth it is crooked. Especially when spent only
ever thinking about the person, and only ever about their words.
Especially when you're Beatrice, who does not think her wish will come true, and has nigh given
up.
Beatrice: “I-it is inconceivable that Mother would bring about anything incorrect, I suppose! O-of
course she wouldn't, in fact. She is Mother, I suppose! Do you think it possible to doubt the words
of your own mother!?”
Subaru: “Of course I do! I think the stuff my mom says is overwhelmingly lacking in credibility!
That time when she misheard news that 'a satellite fell into the atmosphere' as 'a satellite fell into
Aichi prefecture' and I went zooming out with the big scoop without verifying it is when I stopped
trusting her! That was in third year primary!”
He would never forget the day that he sincerely accepted that, spread the rumour, and turned into a
schoolyard laughingstock.
Subaru never trusted anything his parents said ever again. And he had already deemed his father's
statements as unreliable prior to that.
Subaru: “Four hundred years, and you never doubted her for even a second!? I'm not even twenty
years old, and I'd run out of fingers before I could count the number of fistfights I've had with my
dad. And that's with twenty years. You had twenty times that, and you never felt that way even once,
huh?”
Beatrice: “You... what are you wishing to make me say, I suppose!? I utterly cannot discern it, in
fact! Your aims, the point of your remarks, are utterly arcane to Betty! Arcane!”
Subaru: “Then I'll say it loud and clear! So that your stupid self and your stupid mother can hear it!”
Beatrice is about ready to clutch her head in frustration when Subaru approaches, and takes her
hands.
Beatrice looks up. Subaru draws his face close, into breathing range, and asserts to the teary girl:
Subaru: “Stop getting thrown around by a blank book and a four-hundred-year-old promise. —Be
the one who chooses what you want to do, Beatrice.”
Beatrice: “—”
Subaru: “It's four hundred years. Plenty long enough for at least one rebellious phase to hit.”
Beatrice has admirably been trying to obey her parent's instructions.

Her stubborn volition to keep that promise has spawned her solitude and a timespan of emptiness.
Her mother, Echidna, seems to find even that time spent in agony as something sweet, but from
Subaru's perspective it's profane immorality.
She's forgotten how to cry and the feeling of wanting to cry, the fuck about this is 'sterling way of
being'. Don't make him puke.
With her hands still in Subaru's grip and atop the stepladder, Beatrice looks away from Subaru.
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Her height as she sits on the top step is practically equal with Subaru's eye level. She eventually tilts
her head down, lets her lips move,
Beatrice: “Th, en... this is, what you're attempting to say, I suppose. Betty, disobey Mother's
orders.”
Beatrice: “Abandon everything you believed in over these centuries and be free... that is what you
are so easily saying to me, I suppose.”
Her shaking voice gradually regains its composure.

It begins to fill with something that is not shock, and Subaru feels his hair standing on end. Ever
since coming to this world, this sensation alone is one he has undeniably honed.
That being, the sensation of a direly hazardous entity.
Beatrice: “—Demanding that I, Beatrice! Violate a contract! Speaking as if you know anything!”
Subaru: “—Aguh!?”
As if stricken by a galeforce, Subaru goes flying backwards.

His back strikes the archive floor, still encircled by a wind which slams him into the wall. His
breathing stalls. His bones creak all across his body and his vision strobes as he raises his head.
Beatrice remains atop the stepladder, but her expression is one of fury as she looks down at Subaru.
Beatrice: “Contracts are absolute! Absolute, in fact! And especially so for contracts made between a
spirit and a witch. You demand that it be annulled unilaterally, and by the spirit? You understand
nothing, I suppose! Such a thing would never be forgiven! Not anyone! Not anything! And not even
I myself would permit it, in fact!”
Subaru: “—From someone searching for backdoors in that contract and thinking if they can't violate
it better try and get killed, that's rich.”
Subaru sighs to force the pain out of him as he sluggishly uprights himself.
Beatrice's rage is not faltering, and her adorable expression remains thick with malice. Subaru raises
his head and laughs venomously.
Subaru: “You're an incoherent mess, Beatrice. You haven't realised how inconsistent you're being?
Of course you've realised it, haven't you. You're a smart person.”
Beatrice: “Be silent, I suppose.”
Subaru: “No, I won't. Annul the contract? Sounds perfect. When you hate keeping the promise so
much that you literally want to die, just stop. No one'll fault you.”
Beatrice: “I will fault me! Why is it you don't understand that, in fact!? Contracts are absolute, and
keeping them is...”
147
Subaru: “Why don't you understand it? If keeping the contract kills you, you need to violate the
contract and live. Is it really so strange that I'm opting for this?”
Subaru easily discards these contracts Beatrice is so fixated on. Beatrice has no words. Subaru
might presently look like an incomprehensible, monstrous creature to her.
Subaru finds it far more mystifying that he's being recipient to that opinion.
Keeping promises is important, of course.

Emilia has criticized him multiple times for breaking promises, and he has gone through multiple
painful experience because he broke them. And so even Subaru knows that keeping promises is very
important.
Even so, he feels no hesitation about making Beatrice violate her contract.
And his reasoning for it is exactly what he just told her.
If anyone demands that Beatrice keep the promise and die, Subaru's flipping the guy the bird and
telling him this: He will make her violate the contract, and make sure Beatrice lives.
It's not even something to think twice about.
Beatrice: “Th-that is unrelenting, incorrigibly insidious of you, in fact...”
Subaru: “I know it's unrelenting, and I am sorry for saying it. But it's important so I'm not
surrendering this.”
Subaru's stance was decided from the very beginning. From the very beginning, the whole issue
depended on Beatrice's feelings.
Beatrice cannot hide her panic and confusion at Subaru's disparagement of contracts. And of course
she can't. Contracts are that important a thing for spirits.
Having witnessed the relationship between a spirit and a spiritualist, Subaru knows they are firm,
weighty, utterly unshakable things.
He knows, and he's saying it:

You are more important than it.
Beatrice: “I-if, you... were THEY...”
Subaru's response to contracts is overwhelmingly overwhelming.

Frailty creeps onto Beatrice's expression, which borders on breakdown.
Her lips speak of the insubstantial someone that Beatrice has waited for over these four centuries.
The fictional entity that Echidna cruelly invented so that she could know WHO BEATRICE WOULD
CHOOSE.
Beatrice wants to be saved.

The way that Subaru's words shake her heart and bring her to tears proves it better than anything.
Beatrice: “Will...”
Beatrice's teary eyes focus on Subaru.
148
Her lips tremble, and, practically clinging,
Beatrice: “...you be Betty's THEY?”
This question could be the full stop on what has gone on for four centuries.
And might be exactly what Echidna ordered her, making it what the witch wants to hear.
Who would Beatrice determine as being this insubstantial THEY?

The witch used her daughter to satisfy her own curiosity, letting her spend four hundred years in
solitude.
The payoff for all that time rested in that question.

Beatrice swallows her breath. Subaru looks her in the eye, and declares:
Subaru: “Are you stupid? —Of course I wouldn't be this weird mysterious THEY of yours.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
After the ferocious shockwave gusts through the Archive, Beatrice takes the books thrown about by
the wind and returns them to their bookcases.
While they did fall to the floor, none of the books look to have separated from their bindings,
fortunately.
Beatrice reflects remorsefully on her use of force while inside the Archive, relieved that only very
minor damages occurred.
They are her comrades, who passed four hundred years of solitude alongside her.
Beatrice had not been lying about her wish to be a book. She had fantasized many times about being
like these texts, something which could wait for such a long time without it rocking her heart at all.
She now thought it hope born from a stupid idea.
Beatrice: “Conceivably, it is laughable, I suppose.”
This is the wretchedness into which she has been cornered.

She mocks herself for it. But inside her small chest, self-deprication falls subordinate to wrath.
Beatrice: “That guy... that guy... truly, what is wrong with him, I suppose!”
Just thinking about him aggravates her, brings her close to stomping the ground.
She'd like to vent these pent-up emotions on something, but everything in this place which her
Mother instructed her to protect is precious.
Unable to find anything to take her tantrum out on, all Beatrice can do is wait for her bloated
emotions to wither.
She returns the final book to its shelf and sighs as she smooths out her appearance. Then she seats
herself back on the stepladder, reaches to cradle the black tome—and stops.
A blank book. Just throw the thing away! He had said so easily, so many times.
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Then at the vital moment, he rejected the option which would have allowed Beatrice to discard the
thing. Absolutely, entirely, so incomprehensible it infuriates her.
Beatrice: “I'm exhausted, in fact...”
But her fury will not last forever.

Beatrice stops puffing out her cheeks, takes that book she had hesitated to hold, and puts it to her
heart.
Ultimately, to the end of the end, leaning on this thing is the only way to protect her mind.
Just as Roswaal's gospel has writ, Beatrice's end will arrive soon.
What emotion should she feel as she waits for it to come?
It's finally ending. Wouldn't that be a good enough sentiment?

It's the one she's supposed to be feeling, but now that it's actually happening, she's lost.
—You are stupid. For some reason those words remain, sitting heavily in her heart.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Blown away by the shockwave, Subaru tumbles down the corridor until he slams back-first into a
wall. His side strikes directly against a column, leading him to shriek and writhe.
Subaru: “Ghhah! Hhgahghh... I-impossible! Halfway through the conversation, and that idiot
just...!”
The door in front of him slams shut. Subaru reaches out for the door, his expression hateful, but
naturally the sight he sees after cracking the thing open is not the Forbidden Archive—merely a
guest room.
GATE CROSSING has activated, and Subaru has been expelled from the Archive.
Subaru: “I pissed her off so much she threw me out... fuck, messed up with my word choice!”
What he was trying to say wasn't incorrect, but there was contradiction between how he was telling
it and showing it.
Resulting in Subaru being thrown out of the Archive, and distanced from success.
Subaru: “Anyway, can't stay here. Have to find Beako through another door and...!”
???: “N-Natsuki-san?”
Subaru turns around, thinking to conquer the doors via utterly random selection, when a voice
addresses him. The familiarity of it, and the fact it's calling him lead him Subaru to stumble and for
his eyes to shoot open.
His gaze lands on Otto, peeking out from a neighbouring room, when he's supposed to be
somewhere else. And peeking out from under Otto is Petra, also peering at Subaru.
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Subaru: “Y-you guys? Why're you still in the mansion? I thought I told you that just one wing's fine
and to run away after opening the doors?”
Otto: “Unfortunately, the situation outside has changed rather dramatically...”
Otto shakes his head, his face pale as Subaru approaches

It's inconceivable that Otto would be joking in this situation. Otto has aborted his escape, and there
must be something happening which warrants that.
Subaru: “What happened? Short version please.”
Otto: “Witchbeasts did. Hordes of witchbeasts are encircling the mansion, and we cannot move.”
Subaru: “Witchbeasts!?”
Subaru's eyes shoot open wide at the unexpected word and he looks to Petra for confirmation. She
nods several times in response.
Petra: “Erm, there's lots of witchbeasts which aren't the dogs... like snakes with two heads, or like
possums, lots of them.”
Subaru: “Do these guys live in the nearby forest?”
Petra: “They do, but.... the barrier should be keeping them out.”
Subaru: “This barrier again...”
During the previous witchbeast debacle, they confirmed that the barrier between Arlam Village and
the woods surrounding the mansion had been repaired. Afterwards they put top priority on looking
out for weaknesses in the barrier, so it's inconceivable that a mistake could've happened after such a
short timeframe.
And most importantly, the beasts are surrounding the mansion for some reason.
Subaru: “It's like with those mutts, some weird volition is operating on them...? What about Arlam's
people? Are they okay?”
Otto: “I couldn't locate any witchbeasts when I instructed them to evacuate, and since they've used
the carriages from the Duchess to flee, they should be safe. Patrasche-chan is guiding them too.”
Subaru: “Okay. That's a relief.”
It's more trustworthy that the clever dragon be tasked with escorting them than some random guy.
While praying for Patrasche to pull it off, Subaru grits his teeth. The situation is unfolding down a
track unknown to him yet again.
This witchbeast attack has never happened before.

Naturally, considering the timing, it has to be related to Elsa's attack.
Subaru: “What about Frederica and Rem?”
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Petra: “We haven't run into Big Sis Frederica or Rem-san... Erm, I-I don't really think they can
break through them and get away.”
Subaru: “Which means they're also still in the mansion. We'll be thankful the beasts're still staying
outside, but how much can Garfiel do?”
Subaru strokes Petra's head, praising her strong heart for remaining composed during this extreme
situation. If it were Subaru when he was her age, it wouldn't be weird for him to piss himself crying.
But circumstances prohibit them from staying here.
Subaru: “Where are we right now? Which wing of the mansion?”
Otto: “The eastern. Garfiel should still be battling in the western wing, so I'd suggest avoiding that
area to circumvent damages...”
Subaru: “And so the possible escape routes are...”
Of course Subaru needs to collect Beatrice, but it's also indispensable that Otto and Petra escape.
Subaru descends into thought, thinking to scrutinize his mental map of the mansion for any possible
escape routes. However, a voice drowns out Subaru's contemplations:
???: “—Oh my? You were all gathered here, waiting for me?”
A petrifying feeling, like a blade stroked against the back of their necks, leads all of them to freeze
rigid.
Subaru promptly pulls Petra's arm and hugs her close as he timidly glances behind him.
Further down the hallway, lit with bars of moonlight, out peal someone's approaching footsteps.
Their shape soon enters recognizably into the light,
Subaru: “What the hell is Garfiel doing!?”
???: “I'll unveil pretty guts from all three of you—”
Kicking off the floor before the shrieking Subaru, the Guthunter's black shadow darts as she bounds
near.
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CHAPTER 125: THE ROSWAAL MANSION BATTLE
???: “—DONAA!!”
The only one who manages to immediately react to the oncoming threat is Otto.
He holds his hands out in front of him, influencing the world with a canto—the torrent of mana
breaks through the mansion floor as up surges a wall of earth, which blocks the whole of the wide
hallway and impedes the shadow's advance.
However,
Elsa: “Nuisance.”
Subaru: “Just one hit!?”
One short statement, and two swings of a kukri.

The slash tears through the wall like paper, and with one kick to the bisected blockade, the whole
thing crumbles instantly.
Scattered particles of mana alongside the collapsed wall's remains. An archetypically sadistic smile
alongside the silver gleam of a knife.
Elsa: “First is to slit your throats and silence you, or I suspect you won't be cooperative.”
Subaru: “Stop saying this terrifying stuff!”
Using the momentary opening Otto created, Subaru holds Petra close and tumbles into a
neighbouring room. Otto follows a second behind, shutting the door before immediately
manoeuvring behind the bed.
A slash cleaves through the door. The dangling lower portion of the door plummets, kicked, into the
room.
Subaru: “Take this I guess!”
Elsa swoops into the room, for Subaru to attack her with a wooden clothes-hanger. She dodges by
tilting backward and slices the thing in two with a flourish of her blade, aiming for Subaru's throat
with the backswing. But thanks to Petra jumping in and pushing Subaru out of the way, the contact
ends with only a graze.
Elsa: “Goodness. Bad girl.”
Subaru: “She's our pride and a good girl, moron!”
Blood seeps from Subaru's neck. He presses down on the wound pulls Petra close, retreating.
A ghastly grin arises on Elsa's face as she prepares to pursue them.
However,
Otto: “Then how about this!”
Otto tosses a spellstone, aiming for Elsa's face.

This glowing red thing, packed with fire mana, behaves much like a shotgun bullet. It's Otto's trump
card, even more pure than the one he used against Garfiel.
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Otto's hidden ace shoots straight for the defenceless Elsa—detonates.
The spellstone bursts apart in crimson halfway between Otto and Elsa.
Noise and light whip through the room, a heated wind fanning Subaru as he watches:
His eyes focused so intensely that time feels to lag, Subaru sees how Elsa doesn't even bother to
turn around as she throws her knife and curbs Otto's spellstone.
The stone detonates at an unintended point in space, burning Otto's eyes. He screams as he pitches
back.
Elsa drives her foot into Otto's exposed stomach, sending him shooting away to crash into a wall.
She does not even glance at the crumpled Otto as she instead turns toward Subaru, who swallows
his breath. Elsa's brows hitch up.
Elsa: “Oh? You're... I think I know you from the Capital.”
Subaru: “I-I'm honoured you remember me. So with that relationship in mind, would you mind
overlooking us?”
Elsa: “I make a point to, no matter how long it takes, witness any guts I previously failed to
behold.”
Subaru: “She's a collector!”
Subaru can feel Petra clutch tighter at his sleeve. His thoughts solder white.
He keenly senses that his gate is dead. He can pray or set his soul ablaze, but neither his mana nor his
gate are giving the slightest murmur of response. It's impossible for him to use Shamac here, and
more importantly it would be a fool's work should he immobilize himself again.
Which leaves him with only one method—Invisible Providence.
Subaru: “—”
The instant he decides to use it, a dark, alien thing slithers through Subaru's body.
It had been still, but began asserting its presence the moment it realised that Subaru was calling it,
eager to display its power and cheering.
A foreboding feeling strikes him, as if he is feeding a repugnant monster.
While consciously ignoring the feeling, Subaru issues orders to the dark power shrieking its birthing
cry, and determines to cut open a pathway from his inside to the outside.
He could cry blood with this agony, and he is aversive to using this power.
Regardless. He clings onto what he can, utilizes what he can, and lives while capitalising on
whatever he can.
All to save everyone he wishes to be saved.
Elsa: “Ahh... what a thrilling expression you have.”
Subaru: “I'll show you something better.”
Elsa: “How excited I am.”
Taking aim at Elsa's core as she brandishes her two blades, Subaru pulls the trigger taut.
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Now he just needs to release, and her slender form will be shredded mauled and perforated.
Subaru: “—○○○”
A squirming thing flows into his bloodstream, courses through his whole.
It almost feels like the air he breathes is chromatic, like he is cloaked in blazing heat, as the dark
alien nails extend, Elsa's bisection conceivable and anticipated.
Just like this, offer up everything, and—
???: “Subaru!”
A grieving cry, and the dull pain of a pinch at his side.

Subaru scrunches his face in surprise, the repugnant emotions inside him dispersing immediately.
What remains are the faint dregs of dark taint, and unchanged emanations of black murder.
Elsa has begun swooping near, and Subaru as he panickedly tries to repair his aim will not manage
it in time—when,
Elsa: “—Close.”
???: “—Evaded!?”
It takes Elsa a microsecond to ascertain the gust closing in from behind, and dodge.
She aborts her attack on Subaru and twists away, dancing out from under the claws which gouge her
back.
Flipping backwards, she drives a kick into Frederica's flank and rides the momentum to jab her
elbow into Subaru, sending both of them flying as she somersaults backwards—escaping from
between them to calmly land on the room's bed.
Elsa puts her hand to her back, looks at the blood on her palm. She looks to be in ecstasy.
She then looks at Frederica, kneeling on the floor, and tilts her head cheerfully.
Elsa: “Yet another... no, two more people to receive me. Truly a wonderful mansion.”
Frederica: “That ambush did not even work... those are not the reflexes of a human.”
Frederica groans in frustration, unable to hide her shivering.

The blow to his chest leads Subaru to cough as he crawls over to Frederica.
Subaru: “Frederica, my bad, thank you. And, Petra too.”
After addressing Frederica, Subaru thanks Petra, her hand in his. Petra shakes her head with her
eyes teary.
Petra: “N-no, I'm who should say sorry. But, Subaru... your eyes looked so scary, and...”
Subaru: “Honestly, I think I was on the border of getting swallowed. That might've turned out bad if
I wasn't pulled out of it. Guess I can't be careless about using Invisible Providence...”
Petra: “Inv... what?”
155
It doesn't even merit any surprise from Subaru that his ace is a double-edged sword.
The problem here is how its uses are now limited further—all he can do is pray that this current
backfire resulted from using it in quick succession.
He at least can anticipate that counting on Invisible Providence for this fight will mean losing far
too much in exchange.
Petra: “Big Sis Frederica...”
Frederica: “It must have been frightening for you, Petra. You did well to not cry.”
Petra still clutches Subaru's sleeve when Frederica calls her. Frederica gives that appraisal of her
precious faux-sister's efforts while turning to face Subaru, her expression stern.
Frederica: “Subaru-sama, my apologies. I recognize that you desired for me to take Rem-sama and
flee the mansion... I've failed my task.”
Subaru: “No, it's hopeless it in this situation. And the outside's even worse than here... where's
Rem?”
Frederica: “I have her.”
Frederica holds nothing in her hands, both equipped with clawed cestus.
Subaru is anxious about Rem's apparent absence, when Frederica turns her back to face him. Firmly
secured there with ropes, carried on Frederica's back, is Rem.
She's bound securely, but that still makes way to an overwhelmingly surreal scene.
Subaru: “I know we're in an emergency, but it looks like Rem's neck'll snap if she's moved around
too much it's terrifying!”
Frederica: “Fortunately, would be a word I'd hesitate to use, but Rem-sama has been separated from
the regular flow of time. Being so, I find nothing apparently affecting her even despite some
somewhat rough treatment...”
Subaru: “E-even so try to treat her carefully as possible okay?”
It's the result of Frederica thinking to do the best she can.

Subaru doesn't want to complain about it when he doesn't have any alternative plans to offer. He
will have to have Rem endure through an uncomfortable experience for a little while.
But either way,
Subaru: “None of us can fight except Frederica. Me and Petra aren't battlers. Rem's asleep. Otto
fought his best, but for all his struggle he fruitlessly wound up...”
Otto: “Except I'm not dead!? Could you please not spin these terrifying tales while people are
dizzied from hitting their head!?”
Subaru looks down solemnly, which resuscitates Otto who lies tumbled on the floor in a corner of
the room.
156
He shakes his head and crawls over to the group, and trembles at the bisected door and
clotheshanger.
Otto: “Who would've thought that the spellstone would be shot down like that... it worked fine on
Garfiel.”
Subaru: “They've got different experience when it comes to fighting, and their brains are probably
made different. Don't compare them. It's sad.”
Frederica: “Garf... then he truly has been raised in the manner which he appears to have been. I was
not watching over him...”
Subaru puts a stop to Otto's cruel comparisons.

It seems like even Frederica has some thoughts about Garfiel after their ten-year reunion. She might
feel guilty that her eyes strayed from him and he grew up into a sort of a punk.
Leaving all that business aside and their fostering of brother-sister relations as something to do later,
Subaru: “Gotta do something to solve the problems at hand.”
Elsa: “Can I assume that you're about done with your pleasant chat?”
Subaru: “Sorry for making you wait. And how about you? Are you mentally ready for a five-versus-
one beatdown?”
Elsa: “I'm afraid you're including three, or perhaps four stray children in your calculations?”
Elsa smiles faintly as she accurately counts the number of non-combatants.

The kukri in each of Elsa's hands sway as she easily hops off the bed. Watching this, Subaru
realises:
—No blood is dripping from Elsa's back any more.
Subaru: “But it looked like it'd been pretty deep?”
Elsa: “You mean my wound? Don't worry, it's fine. Look at what's happened already.”
With that, Elsa does a turn on the spot.

And just like Subaru suspected, the wound Frederica inflicted on Elsa's back is perfectly gone. The
clawmarks still remain gaping open on her clothes, so it wasn't that he'd imagined it.
Frederica is the first as everyone except Subaru swallows their breath, faces tense.
Conversely, Subaru just gives a deep sigh and curses his bad premonition for being correct.
Subaru: “I mean I knew killing you won't make you stay dead... but are you kidding, your wounds
heal too? You're basically just a monster.”
Elsa: “I don't remember ever discarding my humanity, and I have to have some contentions about
how you're saying this to a woman. Besides that, where could you have learned about my
characteristics?”
Subaru: “Anyone'd think something was up the second you weren't split in two by Reinhardt.”
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Elsa: “I don't go through experiences like that one often. I almost did get split in half. —I wonder
what a hero's guts are like. It's extremely fascinating.”
Although having borne witness to such incredible combat strength, it doesn't seem Elsa has learned
her lesson.
It'd be fine for her to go around hounding Reinhardt, who feels like he wouldn't die even if you
killed him, so why is she so focused on constantly causing problems for Subaru's team?
He has too many bitter complaints and grievances with Roswaal than he can ever hope to voice.
Frederica: “Subaru-sama... her being present here would mean, Garf is...?”
Asks Frederica timidly, her expression stiff.

Having witnessed the abnormality of Elsa's constitution, she is anxious about her brother's absence.
But Subaru has no answer which can dispel Frederica's unease.
If there's anything he can tell her, it's,
Subaru: “Unfortunately, I can't explain why she's here either. But I seriously doubt Garfiel's been
beaten down in such a short timeframe.”
Frederica: “From what I witnessed, their strength seemed on even par... Garf had looked to hold a
slight advantage.”
Subaru: “That's how I see it too, but in the end we don't...”
...know, Subaru means to say as he glances toward Elsa, when his breathing freezes.
Following Subaru's gaze, Frederica looks over there as well and also holds her breath.
Elsa's brows furrow, perplexed, as she also looks at that same spot above her head.
It looks like the room's ceiling is sinking in—falling—and,
???: “Th'fuckin' cheek!!”
???: “Ee, eep!?”
Subaru: “That moron!!”
The instant they hear the ceiling breaking, Subaru and the others rush to the door.
Right after the five of them flood out the door, the ceiling collapses to crush the entirety of that
room, furniture groaning and wood snapping apart thunderously.
The explosive noise and the gale gust out the room, the aftermath of the destruction flowing down
the corridor.
Up billow plumes of white smoke. Subaru spits the gritty dust from his mouth as he tumbles down
the hallway to escape the scene. It seems that everyone has manage to avoid getting caught in the
collapse.
And from beyond the smoke,
???: “Don't yer pull none'v th's stupid crap! Now out'n'front we go!”
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A familiar, uncouth voice shouts with fervour.
The battering of metal on metal and the noise of a blow follow the voice, until a silhouette cuts
through the smoke and tumbles into the hallway.
Subaru: “Uh, wha!?”
Seeing that tumbling silhouette, Subaru finds himself yelping in surprise.

Well of course. This figure is not the one he anticipated, and is instead a clawed furry quadrupedal
beast—with spotty fur, which looks much like a hyena.
But it is not the size of a hyena. It's huge, twice as big as Subaru.
Subaru does shudder for a moment at the arrival of the giant beast, but immediately notices that the
hyena's eyes are devoid of life, and the animal is dead. He looks to find that its neck bones are
broken, and may be bent into angles opposite of what they're meant to be.
Something possessing incredible power had obviously snapped the thing's neck.
And if we're to say that there's anyone in this mansion who could probably do that to the beast, it'd
be—
Garfiel: “Hey, Captain. Th'hell, y'were still inside?”
—Garfiel, who kicks the smoke away and coolly appears in the hall.
He notices Subaru and the others staring in astonishment at the dead hyena, and guffaws.
Garfiel: “Yer don't need t'freak out, 's all good. My amazin' self killed it.”
Subaru: “Right, thank you... or not! You stopped paying attention to her! And so I thought I was
gonna die! I was terrified! I thought I was dead!”
Garfiel: “Yeah yeah my bad, but my amazin' self wasn't thinkin' t'let her go fer an instant. Sh'ran off
while I was tangled up with th'pest.”
Subaru: “Pest which means?”
Garfiel's face twists bitterly as he clicks his fangs.

This pest he's talking about probably means the hyena. Going off the previous conversation, it
definitely has to be some kind of witchbeast but—and that's when:
???: “Geez! I can't believe this! Elsa! Elsa! Dooo somethingggg!”
Elsa: “I'd love to, but I'm sure you're the one who said 'leave this to me, go do something about the
others'. Though I'm happy to have more bellies to gut.”
Two female voices, one loud, one calm.

Instantly, the room that Garfiel crushed bursts once again, and again silhouettes cut through the
smoke to appear in the corridor.
Weighty footsteps, and light footsteps—with a size disparity so large you'd hesitate to call them
only two pairs.
Otto: “...What is that thing?”
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Unable to keep silent any longer, Otto points at it and asks Subaru for an answer.
Subaru feels the cold, damp sweat oozing down his body.
Subaru: “From what I'm seeing, a biggish hippo.”
Otto: “Bigg'ish'?”
Subaru: “Yeah. 'Cause hippos are big anyway.”
If you took a hippo and tripled its size, it might manage to be this creature.
Black flesh, with a thick rocky hide. Its round eyes host a red gleam, wicked and hostile. Its mouth
is so large that it could probably eat Old Man Rom in one bite, with flat teeth like mortar stones.
It resembles a hippo at a glance, and is probably what you'd get if you tripled a hippo's wickedness
and ferocity.
???: “Spotty Rex's deaddd! He's deeeaaadd! Poor boy! It's awfuulll! Awfuulll!”
High-pitched sobs wail out from atop the giant hippo in mourning of the hyena's death.
The person riding the hippo, legs flailing everywhere, is a small girl. Her brown hair hangs in a
braid, and her features are rustically simple.
Her face is familiar to Subaru.
Subaru: “...From the witchbeast forest.”
Back when Subaru got caught up in the loop series at the mansion.
She's from when Subaru went into the deepest reaches of the forest to save the children from Arlam
Village. And she's the main reason that the children were lured into entering the forest.
Subaru had heard from Roswaal that she vanished after the whole affair was over, but,
Petra: “She's from back then!”
It seems that Petra has reached the same conclusion.

If Subaru had been the only one to notice it, then he might have discarded it as some kind of
misunderstanding on his part. But if Petra's memories are telling her the same thing, he has to
accept it.
This girl was involved with the witchbeast debacle.

With the current situation considered, that means that even that debacle was—
Subaru: “Roswaal's, plans!”
She's working with Elsa. So Roswaal was behind the witchbeast affair too?
Which means that the events in the Capital, the events in the mansion, all of everything was in
Roswaal's hands. All of Subaru's efforts had been in accord with a future dictated by a dark book of
prophecies.
Subaru: “Like I can accept something so stupid!”
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Fate being fixed is a real no thanks.
At very least, it will start changing from now on. All this means is that he's put the witchbeast
debacle aside as another thing to interrogate Roswaal about, and that he has yet another reason to
smack that clown in the face.
Subaru blazes with rage and rebellion. The girl atop the hippo finally notices his gaze.
She blinks her round eyes and waves at Subaru.
Girl: “Oh, you're the guy from before. And Petra-chan's here too. It's been aaageeees.”
Subaru: “Y-you're sure not discouraged from talking. You do realise what this situation is?”
Subaru can't hide how the girl's unconcerned attitude catches him off.
She tilts her head at Subaru's blatant caution.
Girl: “I realise, I'm wooorkiiing. Mama'll scold me if I don't do my work. But then Elsa's there off
doing whatever she wants.”
Elsa: “Taking the rear post is tediously boring, it was a mistake to appoint me there. My methods
are far more vivid and fresh for enjoying life, compared to being made animal feed. Being killed by
me is the better choice for the victim too, correct?”
Elsa starts walking over to the hippo's side as she directs the conversation onto Subaru.
Subaru sighs, then raises his finger.
Subaru: “Okay, then I'll give you the coolest proposition ever. You take that knife you're holding
and flip it around. And then you plunge the thing into your stomach. After that you roll around on
the floor. Guts everywhere, I'm happy, you're happy. It's the seppuku challenge. Isn't it cool?”
Girl: “Pff! Ahahahaha! That's awesome! Come on, Elsa, wanna try it? Elsa, you like guts. It'll be
fun! I'm excited!”
Elsa: “Sorry, but I've already done that so many times after getting this constitution that I'm bored
of it.”
After learning that his super cool proposition has already been practised in reality, a super cool
shudder rushes down Subaru's spine.
Regardless, this doesn't change that they have two predicaments sitting in front of them.
Subaru: “I don't know how it works, but is it safe for me to think she's controlling the witchbeasts?”
Garfiel: “Doubt yer wrong. S'th'same f'th'ones outside, n'same f'that mutt, allv'm're doin' whatever
sh'says no fuckin' fuss at all. —What's the plan, Captain?”
Honestly, the situation has changed immensely from the initial plan. It's not just Elsa, they have
another foe—and it's someone who commands massive witchbeasts.
So long as there are beasts outside, it's going to be nigh impossible to escape the mansion
peacefully. And most importantly, Subaru's team has not yet assembled all of the people they need
to save.
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Even if they take Frederica, Petra, and Rem to the village, it's not enough.
Subaru: “Garfiel... can I ask you to do something crazy?”
Garfiel: “Try me, Captain.”
Subaru: “I want you to stall Elsa and the girl simultaneously.”
Garfiel: “—”
Subaru knows that he's asking for something unreasonable.

Just Elsa alone is a foe who presents unparalleled difficulty. While Garfiel is keeping her put, he
also needs to keep the attention of the massive witchbeast.
Subaru has, since coming to this world, learned the threat witchbeasts present to a painful extent.
And so,
Garfiel: “No problem. Just leave it t'me. Gotten fired up now.”
Subaru: “—!? S-seriously? No kidding? You can do it?”
Garfiel: “'S what'm here for. Been talkin' some massive talk. Too late fer me t'start whinin' over
th'enemies bein' strong'r havin' numbers. 'S a THE MEEDAN WHO SHOULDERS THE MOUNTAIN
LOSES ANYWHERE TO RUN.”
With that, Garfiel clatters his shields together.

Even Subaru can tell that it's bravado, and not supported by any real self-confidence.
Regardless, Garfiel is the only one he can rely on for this.
Subaru: “Garfiel. I know I already said this countless times in the carriage, but...”
Garfiel: “I hear ya. My amazin' self got no ideas'v dyin' in this place either.” Garfiel
interrupts Subaru and eases him by pushing him forward with his shoulder.
He is indicating that there is no need to say anything else.
Repeating it would be inconsiderate toward Garfiel's resolve. So Subaru swallows his words and
returns a push to Garfiel's shoulder.
By that alone, he presses a dicey form of trust on Garfiel.
Garfiel: “Now get goin'. I ain't able t'get serious 'f yer gettin' in th'way.”
Garfiel bares his fangs as he speaks to the others.

Hearing it, Otto, Petra, and Frederica look at each other.
Otto: “Garfiel, don't die. I don't want to be zipping around cleaning Natsuki-san's messes by
myself.”
Frederica: “We truly have not spoken enough. But very well. We'll speak another time, with
Grandmother alongside us.”
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Petra: “Y-you can do it, scary-looking man.”
Garfiel smiles wryly while nodding to the three.

Subaru feels like they just loaded a pile of death flags on him, but actually with how huge the pile is
it flips into a comforting life flag, is how Subaru rationalizes things in a bid to cling to hope.
Garfiel: “N' so, yer opponent from now on's my amazin' self. This time I ain't gettin' distracted and I
ain't lettin' yer flirt around. My claws n' fangs n' shield's're gonna beat yer into tears!”
Roars Garfiel as he sharply turns around.

Bathed directly in his aggression, Elsa smiles while the girl's mount give a low growl.
Elsa: “Mei Lee. Don't interfere this time.”
Mei: “But you're the one interfering, Elsa! I'm just doing what Mama saaaiiid tooo!”
While having their disagreement, Elsa and the girl attack Garfiel.
Garfiel braces himself as he catches the heavy blow on one shield and the sharp blow on the other,
sparks flying as Subaru runs away as fast as he can.
Subaru: “Otto! Frederica! Situation's changed! Since we can't leave the mansion out anywhere
proper, we'll escape from a different route so we don't get eaten by witchbeasts!”
Otto: “You say 'a different route', but I'm sure we'll be faced with the same outcome even should we
take a backdoor. If we can't have Garfiel supporting us for combat, what should we do?”
Subaru: “What if you do frantic witchbeast negotiations with your BLESSING OF XENOGLOSSY, and
depending how the bargaining goes they surrender the path and we escape? Here's your chance to
be the lead role.”
Otto: “Witchbeasts generally just say ME EAT YOU WHOLE, so it isn't really a conversation!”
It was a faint hope to begin with, and Otto looks miserable as he responds to it, running alongside
Subaru.
Yes, there exist people who you can speak with, but not communicate with. It seems that principle
works for both humans and animals. Elsa makes good proof of it.
Which means that there's only one escape path Subaru can think of left—
Frederica: “Subaru-sama. I have an idea for an escape route.”
Subaru: “I know, Frederica. It's probably the same place as what I'm gonna suggest. But...”
There's a problem with that route.

Just as Subaru goes to point out what it is, he dashes out the hallway and swallows his breath.
Subaru: “No matter where we run they just can't make it easy for us, fuck!”
—Before them, two hyenas notice their presence and come rushing to attack.
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Though the cast of the Roswaal Mansion Battle has changed, the fight remains heated.
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CHAPTER 126: ATTACK OF GUILTILAW, EBONY KING OF THE WOODLANDS!
—Sparks of steel on steel shriek and shriek in succession.
Garfiel: “Ghaaaaaaaahgr!”
Elsa: “Ahahaha! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!”
Her body dances through the air. Her blades elect for no fixed course as they slash for Garfiel's
vitals.
Who knows how she is capable of these moves. Every single casual-looking strike closes in with
deadly force and accuracy to imminently gouge into Garfiel.
Her crooked blade shreds through the air, transcending sound as it flies at sonic speed.
Garfiel redirects the blow upwards with his shields, defending himself by letting the strike slide
away rather than block it directly.
The force of the woman's slash remains lethal as she shifts merely the trajectory of her swing, her
body flowing adeptly aside. Cutting into that opening, Garfiel takes aim at the woman's open
stomach and swings up his leg.
Garfiel's kick is mighty as a cannonball, easily capable of demolishing walls of stone.

If it hits someone at full force, their fleshy human body will offer absolutely no defence as its
overwhelming strength exhibits destruction on their innards.
And Garfiel has, in fact, succeed in landing such blows to pulverise the woman's flesh and bone
more than a couple times now.
However,
Elsa: “I've seen this before.”
Garfiel: “Fuckin' fuck off!!”
The woman twists her open side and back away from the kick's trajectory. Garfiel's foot strokes
across the woman's back, merely grazing her, before tangling in her black cloak.
It's an instantaneous, but conceivably fatal lag for both the woman and Garfiel.
Elsa: “Hah—”
With a quick exhales, the woman reaches her arm around to her back, entangling the cape further
over Garfiel' legs. Her other hand darts up from behind, herself halfway through a backflip, racing
for Garfiel.
The swing will slice Garfiel's right thigh in two—before he can think, Garfiel hops with his free left
foot and jabs it directly beneath his entangled right.
Garfiel's left foot slams into the flat of the ascending blade.
Metal and wrist snap as the woman cries out sensually, dropping her knife. She does retreat, but
being that his leg remains entangled and he falls back to the floor, Garfiel cannot pursue her. He
uses the momentum from his kick and puts his hands to the ground to backflip away, opening
distance between them before disentangling his foot.
Garfiel: “Got yer wrist n' yer knife, haha.”
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Elsa: “That's fine. I have spare knives, and my hand will be moving again before long. And my
cloak... it's practically just an impediment while fighting you.”
Garfiel: “Yer can keep yer bravado ter yerself.”
Elsa: “We'll check on your guts whether this is bravado.”
Garfiel uses the stolen cloak to wipe off his sweat and dumps it on the side of the hallway.
Elsa pays no mind to her cloak as she lightly touches her crooked left hand with her right, and calls
out to the massive silhouette behind her.
Elsa: “Mei Lee. Don't just watch, give me another knife.”
Mei: “Geez, just doing whatever you want, Elsa. I'm not your luggage girl or knife caddie. And you
keep fighting so Boulderpork can't cut in.”
The girl riding the massive witchbeast puffs out her cheeks in reply as she flings something to Elsa.
It's a holder for the knives Elsa uses. She draw two fresh kukri out of it, holding both of them in one
had as she feels out their grip. She looks up at the girl.
Elsa: “It's a blight on your own cuteness that you brought that giant witchbeast along. Though I'm
glad to dance with him without any nuisances involving themselves.”
Mei: “But it's gonna be ridiculous if you get caught up in that and let the mark get away. If mama
knew what you did, she'd totally scold you. I'm gonna tell her you were naughty, Elsa.”
Elsa: “If I were scared of scoldings, then I wouldn't start without you or steal your food. It's enough
for you and the others to be the good children. I personally don't mind being troublesome.”
While she speaks, Elsa tosses the two knives in the air and begins juggling with them one-handed.
The size and speed of the blades as they spin means that Elsa could lose an arm if she made a
mistake, but Elsa's risky manoeuvres end with one knife in her right hand, and one knife in her left.
Elsa: “My apologies for making you wait. It seemed like waiting would be enough to fix my hand.”
Garfiel: “Don't worry yerself 'bout it. My amazin' self's also lookin' t'buy time, and I ain't crass
enough t'butt into a talk b'tween sisters. Family talks're damn important.”
Elsa: “Goodness. Why do you believe that she and I are sisters?”
Garfiel: “'Cause yer callin' th'same goddamn lady yer mom? It don't matter that yer hair n'eye
colours're different. 'M talkin'bout bein' family nevermindin' yer blood.”
Hearing Garfiel's reasoning, Elsa's eyes shoot open for a second in surprise. She puts her hand to
her mouth, and slips a very cheery laugh.
Garfiel: “Eh?”
Elsa: “Huhu... ah, no, forgive me. I wasn't expecting that response, so I went just a little bit
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funny. ...You truly do seem like a good boy.”
Garfiel: “Stop treatin' me like a kid. My amazin' self's n' amazin' man.”
Elsa: “Indeed? Although, it doesn't feel to me that you're fully a man or an adult.”
Elsa replies to the dissatisfied Garfiel with her cheeks still relaxed.
Garfiel's brows furrow in puzzlement, making Elsa's smile even more cheerful.
Mei: “Elsa Elsa. Don't you get the feeling this scary-looking guy's actually really precious?”
Elsa: “Yes, Mei Lee. I am beginning to get that feeling. I may have sighted for the first time in a
long while somebody who I'd rather keep alive after pulling out their guts.”
Garfiel: “Stop runnin' yer damn mouths. Yer both gonna be takin' a nap after eatin' my amazin'
fists.”
Garfiel sharply turns his wrists as he speaks.

He doesn't really understand Elsa and Mei Lee's conversation, but he can definitely tell that they're
slighting his determination.
Should Garfiel understand that, then he has no kind words to offer.
Unless they apologize in tears as they beg for forgiveness, Garfiel will pulverise them immobile,
and give them the punishment they deserve. —Such is Garfiel's duty.
Garfiel: “Bring it on already. Yer even buyin' even more damn time f'th'Captain'n'th'others t'get
away. And my amazin' self ain't hopin' t'be gettin' a gold star fer runnin' away. M'beatin' yer t'yer
last inch, teachin' yer a lesson. That my amazin' self's the strongest shield inside or outside
SANCTUARY.”
With that, Garfiel batters his shields together.

A screech rings down the hallway as Garfiel lobs his determination at the two enemies in the
moonlit corridor.
Mei: “—Pffhahaa! Elsa, did you hear that? He's the strongest shield! Strongest shield... pff. Pffhaha!
He is precious!”
However! The situation turns that Mei Lee laughs, of all things, and Elsa's smile also intensifies!
They do not seem to be threatened.
Garfiel: “Fuck're you laughin' at, huh?”
Mei: “Ahh, it's so funny. So funny I just laugh. You're funny too with how you think you're oh so
strong, but it's the group that ran who're also just so so funny.”
Garfiel: “Th'Captain's group's funny?”
Mei: “They so are. Aren't they? My pets are surrounding the mansion, so there's only one place to
go to escape. That's actually meant to be Elsa's post, but she went off acting on her own, so I put a
replacement there.”
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Elsa: “—”
Mei Lee shots Elsa a criticising gaze. Elsa unabashedly pays it no heed.
Her murderous eyes stare at Garfiel, observing his every action, making it extraordinarily difficult
for him to move. And he also has to pay attention to Mei Lee's comment.
Mei Lee thumps the back of the witchbeast she's riding while Garfiel's gaze grows sharper.
Mei: “Except for Boulderpork, I brought one more huge pet with me today. He's blocking the path.
So when you buy time, it actually does the opposite of what you want.”
Mei: “You think when you're done with me and Elsa, you're gonna catch up to the others and save
them but, you're really actually not. So when I see you doing your best to buy time without even
realising that, everything's just soo funny.”
Unable to keep herself from smiling, Mei Lee laughs at Garfiel's silliness.
Faced with her juvenile malice, Garfiel gives a deep sigh.
Indeed, there are many unstable requirements piling up on them. Mei Lee is correct, they are
definitely facing a situation which exceeded their plans.
However,
Garfiel: “Ha. Stupid bullshit.”
Mei: “...Huh?”
Garfiel: “Yer th'ones who ain't gettin' it. You got more monsters around? We're th'ones gettin'
pinned? As fuckin' if me or th'Captain'd let that fly.”
Enjoying the way that Mei Lee's smile disappears, Garfiel steps forwards.
He watches as Elsa reacts, stooping herself slightly forward, as he says:
Garfiel: “Th'Captain n' them beat th'shit outta me. —They're gonna snort laughin' so hard they blast
yer dumb obstacle right outta here!”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “We'redoomedwe'redoomedwe'redoomedwe'redoomedwe'redoomedwe'resodoomed, what

is even happening anymore!?”
Utterly out of breath, Subaru whines as he dumps himself to the floor.

On the third floor of Roswaal Mansion's main wing, on the platform leading to the staircase to the
top floor, are assembled Subaru's group—Subaru, Otto, Frederica, Petra, and Rem, all holding their
breath as they stay put.
The fatigue is blatant on all of them as they sit there, with deepish wounds present on the whole
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party.
But especially,
Subaru: “Are you alright, Frederica?”
Frederica: “...I am, this is merely trivial, it is not anything serious. Subaru-sama, I apologize to you
for demonstrating such fecklessness.”
Subaru: “We'd be getting nowhere without you. The pathetic ones here are us guys, me and Otto.
I'm sorry. We're weak.”
Otto: “T-this time alone... I lack any margin to refute your ribbing, Natsuki-san.”
Otto gives a frustrated sigh. Subaru spits the blood out from his mouth.
While ignoring the hideous pain across his whole body, Subaru readjusts Rem's position on his
back. —He has switched roles with Frederica, and is now tasked with carrying Rem.
Otto guides Petra by the hand while Subaru is shoulders Rem. Their only fighter, Frederica, stands
at the frontlines while opening a path—such has been the optimal plan for these five.
Right after parting with Garfiel, Subaru's group were attacked by two hyena witchbeasts.
Between Otto's spellstones and Frederica's fighting, they barely managed to repel the hyenas, but
they soon discovered many more witchbeasts placed throughout the mansion to torment them.
Batlike Blackwing Mice lurking in the hallway between the main and separate wing.
Hyenalike Spotted Rex wandering throughout the mansion, attacking whenever they could.
Possums that cast a net over the team after they entered a room, and swooped down the second they
let their guard down.
They had a particularly painful battle when dealing with a two-headed snake thick as Subaru's arm.
They managed to drive the Blackwings away with smoke, Frederica's claws bested the Rex, they
fled from the possums while having their rear ends chewed, Otto's frantic negotiations managed to
stall the snake, and Subaru took the opening to grapple the thing and have Frederica decapitate it
twofold—and now, they're here.
Subaru: “We're just, utterly... we lost because we had to split up with Garfiel...”
Otto: “Don't be so faint of heart. Now is about when Garfiel would be confidently shouting that
we'll succeed, so let's hold expectations at least equivalent to the ones that he's placed on us.”
Subaru: “With how dutiful you are, you really don't feel suited to being a merchant...”
Otto is looking the least dire of all of them, stamina-wise. Subaru gives him a wry smile, psychs
himself up, and gets to his feet.
The Rem on his back is, honestly, so light it's saddening. Subaru had heard that unconscious or
sleeping people were heavy to shoulder, but Rem alone isn't exhibiting that.
He can barely feel her weight or her warmth. Her very presence is dim. Her faint heartbeat and
respiration alone prove that she is alive as Subaru firmly corrects her position.
As if terrified that, even though this will surely not happen, he'll drop her and not notice.
Petra: “Big Sis Frederica...”
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Frederica: “Do not worry, Petra. There's no need to look so anxious... we will reach our destination
very shortly.”
Frederica responds to Petra's nervous gaze with a hearty smile.

But Frederica's situation is not as optimistic as she is making it out to be. A hyena mauled her arm
during a fight, she is unable to lift her bleeding left arm, and her movements lack their usual lustre.
They cannot hope for her to fight at full strength, and need somewhere to immediately heal and rest.
Subaru: “Though yeah, we really are close to our destination.”
Mutters Subaru as he looks up the staircase—at the uppermost floor.

The team is trying to reach Roswaal's office. Of course they're aiming for the escape route there, the
bad road that Elsa had welcomed Elsa's invasion in all the loops previous.
When Subaru first lost his plan to flee outside mansion, he had bordered on discarding this route as
well—but after a conversation with Frederica, changed his mind.
It happened right after they left Garfiel and repelled the two hyenas.
Frederica: “There is a concealed passage in the Master's office which leads to the outside. Though
it, we may capably escape the mansion and flee to a cabin in the forest. Should we use it...”
Subaru: “Sorry, Frederica. It's not gonna be that easy. There's reserves posted in the hidden passage.
Since that's the path that woman got in here through.”
Frederica: “—”
Aware that he the situation is nigh hopeless, Subaru nonetheless reports this information.
Subaru has run into Elsa before while trying to check the hidden passage. Leaving aside whether
she entered through the route this loop, she at the very least does know the passage exists.
Subaru: “Going off what Elsa and that girl said... it sounds like they have other allies. Leaving aside
whether this 'mama' is actually their mother, considering how they look nothing alike... if they're
gonna post a rear guard, then they're gonna post someone at that passage.”
Of course they're going to block the path.

Witchbeasts are surrounding the mansion, and there's an enemy in the escape route too. They're
utterly trapped, and Subaru forces his brain to fire.
Things are desperate.

It's wretched that, in a situation where their escape route is ineffective, they can't use Beatrice's
help.
They wouldn't have to be agonizing about this if Subaru had succeeded in convincing Beatrice.
With her GATE CROSSING, escaping this place would be so simple that they wouldn't even need to
think about it.
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Subaru: “...I'm so selfish.”
Subaru knows about Beatrice's anguish and the reason behind it, and he's still trying to cling to her
aid.
He can't get her help here because he failed to bring her outside, and that in itself proves that he
wasn't seeing her properly.
It's natural that she hate and eject him from the room.
Otto: “Natsuki-san.”
Petra: “Subaru.”
Perhaps thinking something about Subaru's expression as he broods, a tap come to his shoulder and
a tug comes to his arm.
He looks to find that the tap is from Otto on his right, and the tug is from Petra on his left. The two
each use their methods to bring Subaru back to reality, then realise that they did the same thing, and
scrunch up their faces.
Looking at the two of them, Subaru sighs, feeling saved.
Frederica: “Subaru-sama. I believe that we ought to choose that path nonetheless.”
Subaru raises his head. Frederica raises her finger.
Frederica: “As you have stated, it presently appears that we are trapped in a deadlock. Ferocious
witchbeasts are encircling the mansion, and the enemy is aware of our sole route of escape.
Ordinary thought would have it that we will be killed unavoidably...”
Subaru: “Yes, right. I think the same, so I've been wondering about whether we could at least find a
weak spot in the perimeter of witchbeasts, but...”
Frederica: “Incidentally, Subaru-sama. Where have you previously met that assailant woman?”
Interrupted by Frederica's low-voiced question, Subaru quietly holds his breath.

Unable to read her intentions in asking it, Subaru nods.
Subaru: “Yeah.”
Subaru: “She targeted Emilia in the Capital before. The Sword Saint just happened to show up there
and owing to that everyone got out fine. Though it'd be way too convenient to expect that hottie to
burst into the scene here, definitely.”
Frederica: “I, see. Your last encounter involved the present Sword Saint. No, regardless, that does
not matter. I do not wish to know the methods used previously to repel the woman, I would rather
like to know her personality.”
Subaru: “Her personality?”
Subaru tilts his head at Frederica's rather nebulous question.
Subaru: “I mean, her personality is she's the same weird fetishist that she looks like. She's the
GUTHUNTER, loves cutting open people's stomachs and checking out the insides. She's up there in
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the worldwide rankings for danger.”
Frederica: “And judging by how she appeared to enjoy her confrontation with Garf, she would be
particularly fixated on doing the deed by her own hands... correct?”
Subaru: “Not like I know her, but yeah she's probably that kind of character. ...I don't see where
you're going with this?”
Frederica: “It is simple, Subaru-sama. —Unexpected events in this attack are occurring for the
enemy as well.”
A powerful assertion.
Subaru's eyes widen in surprise.
Frederica: “Witchbeasts presently encircle the mansion. The young girl who was also present is
likely a manipulator of witchbeasts... we shall perhaps call her a witchbeastmaster. The enemy's true
designs had been to assault the mansion whilst the witchbeast perimeter was in place, and attack
those of us inside, would be what it appears.”
Subaru: “What makes you think that?”
Frederica: “—The timing between the attacks from the beastmaster and the Guthunter are not
synchronized.”
For a moment, Subaru furrows his brows in thought. But he immediately realises what Frederica is
trying to say, and hits his fist to his palm.
Subaru: “That's it, so that's it! Fuck, why didn't I notice it? Yes, Frederica's got it right! With that
weirdo's personality, of course this'd happen!”
Otto: “Wh-what is it? I don't quite see how everything connects...”
Subaru kicks the floor in frustration and excitement. Otto looks somewhat nervous, but Subaru just
gives him a nod.
Subaru: “It's real simple, Otto. The witchbeast attack's actually meant to corner everyone in the
mansion. And when we're cornered, we can't run away like normal. So we head for the hidden
passage. —Is the natural course of events. Right?”
Otto: “That would be exactly the course we have followed, correct? But weren't we saying that the
enemy knows of the secret passage, and so we cannot use it?”
Subaru: “Exactly. The correct course of the attack is, we're cornered and run into the hidden escape
path, and that's where we all get killed by a waiting Elsa. That's their plan. ...But it's gone astray.
Elsa isn't in the passage right now.”
Otto: “—”
Why isn't she?

Considering Elsa's disposition, the answer's obvious.
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Subaru: “Elsa didn't want to miss out on prey so she started moving on her fucking own. That's why
she's out of sync with the beastmaster. And it means she's not at the spot that she's meant to be
blocking. —So there's no one at the hidden passage!”
Frederica: “The original plans had been for the woman to lie in ambush in the passage.
Consequently, being that events are diverging from their plans, it is extraordinary unlikely that a
rear guard is presently occupying the passage. The enemy shall surely realise that the situation is
divergent from their plans should they be given time. Likelihood is steadily increasing that they
may send another individual into the passage.”
Petra: “So we gotta race there while no one's around!”
Following on from Subaru and Frederica's theories, Petra practically leaps as she gives the answer.
Subaru laughs as she puts her hand on Petra's head, and pats her auburn hair vigorously.
Subaru: “Full marks.”
Subaru: “With the information we have, this's what's most likely. Either way, it's a more hopeful
idea than breaking through the witchbeast perimeter outside. And worst case, we can at least check
what's happening with the office. ...Let's do it. This is the only way we're all getting out safe!”
—Ready for that plan, the team arrived to this sight outside the office.
Everyone is both physically and mentally exhausted. Regardless, the hope of reaching their goal
filled them with enough energy to move their incredibly wounded selves.
And now, that flicker of hope is—
Subaru: “...You have to be kidding.”
Mutters Subaru reflexively after reaching the top of the staircase and peeking into the hallway.
Otto pokes his head out above him, as does Petra below him, and all seeing the same thing, they
agree with Subaru in dumbstruck shock.
Frederica: “What has happened? Is the Master's office...?”
Frederica sits on the stairs behind them as she asks this of the three scouts. But going by their
reactions, she likely has surmised that the situation is looking bad.
Subaru stifles his footsteps as he turns around and says, rather anxiously,
Subaru: “There's a real nasty-looking one camping outside the fucking room.”
—To Subaru, it looks like the monster CHIMERA.
A lion-esque feline head, with the skinny body of a horse or a goat. Its long tail whips about like a
snake, and although it is smaller than the beastmaster's hippo mount, it's more than stupidly huge
enough to block the mansion's expansive hallway. A strange entity which looks to have burst out of
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myth—with easily surmised prowess in combat.
Otto: “That... is the witchbeast GUILTILAW. I-It lives deep in woodlands thick with miasma,
something of the king of beasts... and now, in a human village... it isn't meant to be the kind of
witchbeast that you could possibly bring with you to a mansion...”
Subaru: “What're chances that we're misestimating, and it's actually a wimp? Like, it looks like that
but actually its personality's gentle and you just feed it katsuobushi and it's happy, or something...”
Otto: “I wouldn't know what katsuobushi is, but are you saying to approach it with food? It will
probably end in the beast chomping you in half.”
Otto's statement leads Subaru to think of how huge Guiltilaw's head is.
Indeed. With a mouth that big, Subaru is a two-bite meal.
Subaru: “No but transformed Garfiel's even bigger. Okay, let's go get him and compare sizes. If our
guy's bigger then that guy'll slink away dejected.”
Otto: “If we go back to summon him, then that woman will carve us to bits. You can stop being
funny, Natsuki-san. ...Have you thought of any ideas?”
Otto entertains Subaru's joking, but his gaze is expectant.

It's like he's expected Subaru to have come up with some idea over the span of that little exchange.
Thinking Otto the placer of quite ridiculous expectations, Subaru glances back to Frederica and
Petra,
Petra: “Subaru.”
Frederica: “Subaru-sama.”
And they're gazing at him with expectation too.
Subaru: “—Seriously, just what expectations are you putting on me?”
Giving a deep sigh, Subaru shivers at the weight of the huge expectations. He adjusts Rem's
position on his back, and closes his eyes.
What, presently, are their possible combat forces?

Frederica is injured and Otto has basically no magic. Neither Petra or Subaru are fighters, and they
are on the third floor of the mansion's main wing. There is no way they can call Garfiel up here, and
even thinking of getting Beatrice's help is a bust.
But that said, fighting while using everything available is the only technique Subaru's ever had.
Everyone's abilities, their capabilities, materials present, the opponent's situation, the requirements,
Subaru thinks of them all, considers them all, mulls over them all—and sighs.
Subaru: “When neither martial or magic forces're looking like they'll work... time to stake it all on
my unmatched knowledge from the 21st-century.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
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The first thing to catch Guiltilaw's attention is a sound.
Guiltilaw: “—”
Having heard the peal of something hard tapping and tapping and tapping against the floor,
Guiltilaw raises his snout.
Silent King of the Woodlands. Some localities indeed refer to Guiltilaw as such, and unlike other
witchbeasts, he does not favour needless roars and pointless noise.
Contrary to his great frame and queer appearance, he soars deftly though the wastes, making not the
slightest sound in approaching his prey before landing a single fatal strike and slaying the creature.
Such sneaky and assassination-eqsue hunts are his greatest forte.
Thus, although his MASTER may have ordered it, Guiltilaw cannot see the hunt of lying in ambush in
one spot as anything but foolish utilization of his prowess.
Although naturally, he has not the slightest intention to be an ingrate and defy his MASTER's orders.
Because the breaking of his HORN allowed Guiltilaw to escape from his curse.
Guiltilaw casts his snout around, searching for the source of the sound while ruminating on his
MASTER's orders.
Remain in place outside this door, and hunt any enemies what may approach—such is the duty that
Guiltilaw has been ordered, and his MASTER's desire.
Tap tap tap. Those nigh defenceless sounds clearly are footsteps.
Many two-legged creatures, such as his master, make this sound when they walk. Among their
number are the truly strong, who do not even make such noise as footsteps, but the lord of these
footfalls is not that.
They are undefended, uncalculated, unintentional, unheeding—possessing not a speck of grace.
Guiltilaw finds them irritating to mangle even for a meal with how utterly weak they are.
Silently, Guiltilaw glides away from the door.

The footsteps are coming from the western staircase, the direction from which he has heard
intermittent sounds of battle for some time now.
Guiltilaw knows that his MASTER has brought in accompaniment with other witchbeasts. While
instructing many beasts inferior to him in strength and size to surround the mansion, his MASTER
tasked Guiltilaw with defending the door, mounted herself upon a large and dimwitted beast, and
went hunting.
It did dissatisfy Guiltilaw that she chose that merely-size beast for her hunt and left him behind to
guard the rear. But should the foes he face here at least be powerful ones, then he can both agree
with his reason for being brought here, and preserve his honour.
Thus, Guiltilaw did not do anything so foolish as leave his post to attack the enemies, no matter
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what beasts they faced, until they managed to reach this very spot.
A weakling who could not even reach Guiltilaw's location did not merit battle.
A weakling butchered by beasts weaker than himself did not merit the hunt.
However. They prey has overcome the other witchbeasts, and arrived at this spot. The second that
Guiltilaw sensed their presence, he felt secretly thrilled.
—And this is what he has been waiting for?
Something fragile, ignorant of what it is to even hide footsteps, with such weak lust for battle.
One swing of his claws, one flourish of his fangs, would scatter this fleeting, inferior being to bits.
What surges inside him is rage. Only rage.

His fangs will ravage the prey, and without a single lump of their flesh going down his gullet, he
will leave them strewn about the floor.
That is the only thing that will assuage this burning feeling of insult.
Pursuing the footsteps, Guiltilaw moves without casting any shadow over the moonlight. Should
there be anyone to witness him as his great frame glides silently in motion, they would surely think
themselves observing a nightmare.
The ebony assassin approaches the footsteps, finding that the prey seems to have stopped at the next
bend—Guiltlaw draws his claws to bisect the prey from behind.
Guiltilaw: “—!”
With not the slightest sound, Guiltilaw stretches out his neck and bounds for the prey's back—
however.
Guiltilaw: “—?”
The prey that he caught, and sensed had been within mauling range, is nowhere to be seen.
Unsure of where to swing his upraised paw, Guiltilaw stalls for a millisecond, feeling something
awry. He sniffs as he turns his head.
Where has the foolish, frail, flimsy prey gone?
Once again, the noise of footfalls strikes Guiltilaw's ears.

He lowers his head and looks toward the noise, to find that it seems to be echoing from the stairway.
The noise of the prey's footsteps, descending, running down the staircase.
It appears they they have noticed his presence and somewhat accelerated to avoid him. But should
Guiltilaw learn of such a thing, then he shall never allow the prey to flee.
Guiltilaw turns his head. Looks at the door that his MASTER ordered him to protect.
He may be distancing himself from his post, but this prey is surely the exact prey that his MASTER
ordered him for. Should he slaughter the prey, that is tantamount to observing his MASTER's orders.
With that decision, Guiltilaw pursues the gracelessly fleeing prey.
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He is effectively teaching the prey that the moment they turned their back on him—nevermind that
they were within range of his strikes—they lost any means of resistance.
For Guiltilaw, who dashed over mountains and reigned over the woodlands as King, the hunt of
fleeing prey was an everyday act of amusement.
The only prey worthy of being absorbed into this flesh were the truly strong.
Prey that turned their backs and lost their fangs to resist him merely existed so that he would not
forget the feeling of blood and gore on his claws and fangs—and they ought to learn this too.
Guiltilaw descends the staircase, following the footsteps.

He kicks off the wall at the stairway landing, dancing through the air to the floor below. He reaches
the second floor, then the first floor in pursuit of his prey, and now stands in the lowest floor of the
building.
He perceives the distant signs of fighting.

The scent of his MASTER, and the stench of the annoying dimwitted beast accompanying her. The
remaining scents are blood and steel, the aroma of the strong.
Were it possible for him, he would prefer to venture in that direction, and participate in the fight.
He wishes to brandish his claws and fangs in presence of his MASTER, ripping the strong fighter to
pieces and drowning them in a sea of blood, supping upon the taste of victory.
However. He must not desire such a thing right now. He has orders to uphold.
—Should he swiftly hunt this prey down, perhaps his participation shall be permitted.
Guiltilaw: “—ϡ”
Guiltilaw feels the burning in his fangs ever more keenly, his body shuddering.
Again he hears the footsteps, and pursues them to hear a door shut further down the dark hallway
before looking at the door, freshly closed.
Darting over, standing silently before the door, Guiltilaw uses his long tail to dexterously open the
portal.
This is not his first time invading the dwelling of the two-legged creatures and brandishing his
fangs.
He understands the framework of these 'doors', squeezing his massive frame through the doorway as
he sneaks into the room. He had been expecting the prey to be waiting here at this very moment, but
he cannot find the slightest glimpse of them, and yet again Guiltilaw suffers utter surprise.
But his disappointment this time does not hide far away.
Turning his head, Guiltilaw's gaze lands on a corner of the room—on the wardrobe.
Sticking out from the crack between the wardrobe's two doors is fabric from the prey's
overgarments. They swooped inside in a panic, and their clothes were caught there. The shallowness
of this prey, believing that they are hiding from Guiltilaw while failing to realise that, is humourous.
Guiltilaw silences his footsteps. Creeps near the wardrobe.
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He raises his tail, sharpens its tip, and hesitates for not even a second.
His tail pistons, pierces easily through the wardrobe like a spear.
It leaves a round hole as if made by a drill—and many more of them, coin-sized holes stabbing one
after another into the wardrobe, skewering the pathetic prey what cowers inside.
When more than twenty holes litter the wardrobe, Guiltilaw ceases attacking with his tail.
He reaches out his front paw and yanks the wardrobe door so that he may observe the pathetic, dead
prey. The perforated door opens easily, and the prey inside—
Guiltilaw: “—Grawh!?”
The instant Guiltilaw goes to confirm the corpse's presence, a burning shock to his nose makes him
recoil.
A terribly intense stench shoots through his nostrils, the sensation so painful he could wail. He
promptly looks back at the wardrobe, to find a transparent bottle, broken and overflowing with
colourless liquid.
The stench is coming from this substance. And the prey is not inside the wardrobe.
The protruding cloth had merely been clothes protruding from the wardrobe.
Once again hearing footsteps peal from the hall outside the room, Guiltilaw turns around.
His nose is not working, but his eyes and ears are fine. He spots a shadow dash down the corridor,
and while lamenting the insult of his disabled nose, pursues the shadow.
Guiltilaw has never faced such humiliation in his life.
This is not a bold and honest confrontation against Guiltilaw, who has overwhelmed all enemies he
has ever faced, nor is it him easily sinking his fangs into fleeing prey. This is an entity scrambling
so horrendously for life of a wretched likes Guiltilaw has never seen before.
Assuredly, kill them. Slay them. Maul them, splay them over the dirt, trample them.
Forgetting to even silence his footsteps, Guiltilaw's massive frame soars into the room where the
footfalls fled.
He easily blasts through the twin doors. What welcomes him is a room remarkably larger than the
others he has seen.
A large table stands in the middle of the room, and in the back of the room is a hearth.
Candlesticks sit lit upon the table's white tablecloth. In a room with the moon as the only source of
light, the flames flicker bewitchingly.
Fire is an irritating thing for Guiltilaw.

Even during day, when the great globe of white fire remains in the skies overhead, Guiltilaw detests
fire being near him. After all, the forest that Guiltilaw lived him was engulfed in flames, and he lost
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his peaceful home. His horn was broken and he began obeying his MASTER during that affair as
well, so fire prompts memories of both liberation and humiliation for Guiltilaw.
He hears no footsteps. But he does hear something else.

Opposite the door he just came through is yet another door, on the other end of the large room.
From that likely-cramped space beyond the door, he senses something.
Guiltilaw sniffs, but his sense of smell has not returned yet.
He cannot smell the aroma of the prey wetting itself in terror. When he mauls the prey, he likely will
be unable to smell or taste its blood either, which is a disappointment.
But he can put those sensations off for another time, so long as he succeeds in slaughtering the prey.
Right now, only erasing this sense of humiliation blazing in his chest, and making the prey who
disgraced him shriek its death wail, will offer Guiltilaw any solace.
Guiltilaw steps forth, heading straight for the room.

Then he stabs his sharp tail into the room's door. It fills with holes just like the wardrobe did, and
Guiltilaw pulls the door open before taking a breath and leaping inside.
Guiltilaw: “—σσσ!!”
He soars into the room, roaring.

His bellow intimidates the prey, scares the weakling so that it may compensate him with his claws
and fangs into its flesh.
He whips his tail about, spreading destruction throughout the room, when dust erupts from shredded
bags and boxes sitting on the cupboards. His forepaw slams down on the floor, shattering it and
shredding through the cloth draped across the ground for dust to erupt yet again, from below—but
no. These plumes of dust thick enough to block out Guiltilaw's vision are only growing thicker.
Guiltilaw: “—!?”
Guiltilaw's vision drowns in white, which invades his windpipe the second he takes a breath,
making him cough. Some kind of, massive quantity of flour is dancing through the air.
Enough flour to rob him of his vision, and even rob him of the breath needed to roar.
???: “Got him!”
Someone, some creature, speaks.

Guiltilaw hears their voice not from inside this room, but the previous one,
???: “Eat this, the soul of science—flour explosion!!”
With a sound, something is hurled into the white-choked room.

The bright, flickering thing is one of the candlesticks from the table in the previous room.
The candlestick strikes the wall, its flickering flame falling the floor and blooming larger for an
instant.
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???: “H-huh...?”
But that's all.

The candlestick remains fallen to the floor, doing nothing in particular. The speaker sounds to have
misunderstood something, and Guiltilaw knows that they are standing petrified outside the room.
Guiltilaw: “—ϡ!”
Guiltilaw's instincts tell him that he is never getting this opportunity again.
Some breed of insufficiency has happened for the enemy. And if that insufficiency had not
happened, Guiltilaw would have been in danger.
Comprehending this, Guiltilaw twists his body, electing to escape from this room.
If he can exit to a spacious room, a place where he can swing his paws and his tail freely, no plans
the prey come up with will present any issue. He'll use the overwhelming disparity in strength to
force them to submit, and wrest victory.
There's no need to do anything more than that—.
???: “Yes, didn't I tell you? That instead of doing that nonsense thing!”
???: “It's quicker to just do this!”
The instant that Guiltilaw thinks to soar out of the room, he hears two more prey speak.
A low voice, and a high voice. The moment that he realises these are prey of different sexes,
Guiltilaw senses that the shelf behind him is collapsing toward him.
The string drawn across the entryway is connected to the leg of the shelf.
Forcefully tugged, the shelf collapses onto Guiltilaw's back. But its size only allows it to hit
Guiltilaw's massive behind.
The force the blow carries inflicts damage on Guiltilaw equivalent to zero.
Calmly taking the blow, Guiltilaw severs the string with his claws.
And when he prepares to definitely leap out of the room—
Guiltilaw: “—?”
The cupboard opens, and the liquid overflowing from it streams all over Guiltilaw's body.
It feels slimy, unlike water. Its colour is slightly yellow, and having it slathered over his prided
black coat is hideously unpleasant for Guiltilaw.
But that discomfort disappears instantly.
Guiltilaw: “—!?”
???: “Here is Otto Swein's personal investment of trading oil—take as much as you want!”
The prey's voice calls from outside the room.

But Guiltilaw has no leeway to mind the weak prey's voice in that moment.
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—The oil he is covered in catches on fire, and detested flame burns his body whole.
Guiltilaw: “—ϡ!!”
The King of Beasts, descended from the plains and forever obsessed about his throne in the
woodland skies, without ever knowing what bested him, combusts in flames as hot as his
humiliation.
4 Tappei A/N: Guiltilaw-san, flubber of debuts.
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CHAPTER 127: THE FINAL DAY OF ROSWAAL MANSION
Subaru: “Otto, you mentioned this, right. Something about using wind and water magic to make
footsteps peal from far away.”
Otto: “...Actually I believe that we did talk about that before, but it impresses me that you
remembered. Magic that simple isn't impossible for me even with my currently impoverished mana,
but... how would I use it? The only time I ever use it is when I want someone to turn around for a
moment.”
Subaru: “We'll be using it exactly how you said. You make footsteps peal, pull their attention, and
guide them into a trap. —Then I blast them away with the soul of science.”
Otto: “You sound absurdly confident about this, though what exactly is this 'soul of science'...?”
Subaru: “Simple, strong, certain death: a dust explosion. The methods and materials are simple as
hey presto. All you need's some fire and flour. If it's powerful as I know it is, it's gonna be more
than enough to blast away just one single monster.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Otto: “...Is what you said, then I believed you and assisted you in it, and this is what happens!”
Subaru: “Shut up! Scientific advancement always comes with sacrifices! Why didn't it work!? There
wasn't enough flour, or not enough fire, or... are the laws of physics just different in this world? So
that's why the dust explosion didn't...”
Petra: “Auughh! None of that even matters, focus on getting it out! Ahh, oh no! Oh no!”
Petra butts in, screaming, into Subaru and Otto's yelling match.
The three of them are in the kitchen on the first floor, lit by the glow of blazing flame. Because,
Subaru: “You used too much oil! How're we gonna put this out!? It's spreading!”
Otto: “Do you think it's possible to shirk on oil when hunting such a ludicrously huge monster!?
And if we couldn't bring the flammables out and simply left them there, the results would be the
same anyway! You are definitely paying the fees for this afterwards!”
Petra: “Just stop it, you guys! This isn't the time for this! We can't put it out! Run!”
Subaru: “You sound like a middle schooler failing to recover from a mishap with fireworks...”
Says Subaru, exasperated, when he notices that the tablecloth in his hands has caught alight. The
flames don't go out no matter how he bats at them, so he resignedly dumps the cloth into the fire.
The fire from the storage pantry has spread within an instant, and the flames have started circling
around to the dining room and kitchen as well. It feels like the spellstones they use for cooking will
get caught in the blaze and explode at any second.
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Subaru: “We sacrificed way too much for this...”
Says Subaru, frowning, as he looks down at the charred corpse fallen at the threshold between the
pantry and the dining room. It's the beast that was blocking the door to the office on the third floor,
which Otto lured downstairs with his sneaky magic, then got covered in the storeroom oil and
burned to death.
It had brains befitting its brawn and graciously triggered every single trap without suspecting a
thing. Fortunately it was seemingly susceptible to fire, falling into a panicked frenzy when it caught
alight, and proceeded to burn up without doing anything else.
Subaru did face a conundrum when his dust explosion failed, but Otto and Petra's backup plan of
using oil led them to victory.
For once you could say that Otto and Petra's failure to understand Subaru's lectures on the terror of
dust explosions, and dimwitted insistence to lay down insurance, saved them.
But if we're to mention problems that arose from it, then it'd be that the flames that killed the
witchbeast have, even after felling the beast, neglected to go out.
The fire burns the walls of the mansion, burns the food inside the pantry, tongues of flame reaching
to the legs of the dining room table.
It reeks of smoke, of a fatal and burning world. Subaru's vision begins to haze. In this land without
fire brigades, they are lacking in enough water magicians to put out the fire.
Subaru: “I know that we needed to do this, considering how Garfiel and Elsa're fighting and
witchbeasts are prowling around... but it's so big we'd have to reconstruct the building...”
Otto: “This isn't the time to be discussing it, Natsuki-san. We'll follow Frederica and escape.
Swiftly, before the third floor staircase stops existing.”
Petra: “Hurry! Hurry!”
It all feels unreal to Subaru as he watches flames engulf the familiar scenery, when Petra and Otto
tug at his sleeve.
Otto and Petra are the only people here except Subaru. Frederica and Rem split up with them when
they began their plans to trap the witchbeast, and have also been tasked with judging when the beast
moved away from the door, and then securing the hidden passage in the office.
It did worry Subaru to entrust the task to Rem and wounded Frederica, but thinking about pure
combat ability, it's a sensible plan. Even when Frederica's unable to use an arm, she is far more than
capable of defeating Subaru and Otto.
Either way, they succeed in repelling the witchbeast.

While praying that their reading is correct and no other enemies are in the passage, Subaru's team
burst out of the dining hall and sprint up the stairway, aiming for the top floor.
Subaru: “What do we do if Garfiel dies in the fire!?”
Otto: “Garfiel surely isn't so stupid, he'll be well! And it's possible for him to escape by charging
through the witchbeasts outside!”
Subaru is anxious about the fire's spread, and how it chips away the battlefield for Garfiel. Otto's
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shouts are correct, but seriously what if—
Petra: “Big Sis Frederica!”
While Subaru broods, the three reach the third floor.

Out of breath, Petra sights Frederica standing outside the office and waves to her. Frederica seems
to perceive that the group's fight was successful, and instantly looks relived.
Frederica: “Thank goodness, you're safe. It comforts me that nobody is missing.”
Otto: “Please excuse me, may I ask why you are saying this while staring at me? Do you mean that
I seem probable to go missing? Please stop, I'm near to weeping!”
Subaru: “Yeah yeah, just calm down calm down. We'll put improving your reception aside as an
issue for later, and for now think about how to deal with our current problems. Frederica, how's the
passage?”
Frederica: “It operated without any issue. And I have confirmed that the path itself is also safe, at
least as far as the inner room... incidentally, am I simply imagining this smell of something
burning?”
Frederica narrows her eyes as she asks about the stench. Subaru grimaces, looks at Otto and Petra,
and the two shake their heads.
Subaru: “Ahm, well we kinda made a couple mistakes, and the fire we used for defeating the
monster got really huge. And so...”
Frederica: “The mansion has begun to burn. ...I had not anticipated that the building would return to
a state of complete normalcy, but now it shall burn down entirely. ...It's no comparison to our lives.”
Subaru: “Oh, you get it. Yup. Yup it's an inevitable sacrifice.”
Frederica: “I have little sentimental connection to this mansion. Instead, Ram's sentiment for the
building is likely strong, so you would best prepare yourself for a scolding afterwards.”
Subaru: “Wheuhghh...”
Imagining the relentless and endless chastisement, Subaru suddenly feels trepidation for their
reunion.
But it's good that he can think about the future like this. Frederica smiles wryly at Subaru's attitude,
and a relaxed atmosphere spreads across the scene.
Subaru: “Now, we just imposed another time limit on ourselves, so let's get out of here quick.
Frederica'll take the lead, then Petra then Otto. If you hit a safe zone the second you're out of the
passage... hard to tell what side of the barrier you'll be on, but either way follow Frederica's
instructions. Best plan is to meet up with the villagers who fled with Patrasche if you can.”
Calling an end to the jokes, Subaru quickly explains what their current direction is.
Frederica and Otto's expressions tense as they nod in response. But Petra furrows her brows.
She raises her little hand and calls,
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Petra: “Subaru?”
Petra: “I-isn't this kinda funny? It almost sounds like you're not coming with us...”
Subaru: “—It does. I'm sorry, but I'm not leaving with you. We're splitting up.”
Petra: “Why!?”
Cries Petra in surprise.

She reaches out and grabs his sleeve, her fingers shaking, trying to keep him from going.
Petra: “Let's just run! The mansion's burning, and there's so many scary monsters! You can't beat
them in a fight, can you, Subaru? So won't you run?”
Subaru: “Well you're right so I have no excuses there, but I'm not gonna fight. Though I guess in a
sense, it is a battle.”
While happy for Petra's concern, Subaru gently unhooks her fingers. He sees the grief permeate her
big, round eyes, paining his heart.
Otto taps her shoulders from behind, taking care not to startle her.
Otto: “Petra-chan. Natsuki-san has something that he needs to do. Until he's done it, he cannot leave
the mansion.”
Petra: “But! Subaru's weak! He's in danger! We should just leave you behind instead, Otto-san!”
Otto: “You're not saying that because you believe in my strength at all, are you!?”
Shaking her head, Petra looks up at Subaru with tears in her eyes. Subaru kneels down to get on
Petra's eye level and pats her head.
Subaru: “I'm sorry, Petra. You, and Rem, and Frederica will all escape the mansion safely. But that
still isn't the entire rationale for why I came back to the mansion. There's still one more person I
have to get out of here.”
Petra: “B-Beatrice, sama?”
Subaru: “Yes. Have you met her?”
Petra shakes her head.

Petra started working here about ten days ago. She has not caught sight of that shut-in girl even
once during her time living here. Beatrice is indeed a hardcore shut-in.
Even though Subaru basically never left his room except to go to the bathroom either.
Petra: “I-is she really around? You aren't just thinking too hard, and fooling yourself that she...?”
Though she probably is not intending to, Petra begins doubting reality.
Could it be that this person only exists inside your own head? Is what she's asking.
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Subaru: “She's an absolute pain, lonely but a complete meddler, takes everything upon herself and
answers questions all on her own and suffers for it, can't settle issues on her own so she wants
someone else to end it for her.”
Petra says nothing.
Subaru: “I'd really rather not think that my imagination could come up with someone like this. If
I'm gonna fantasize about anyone, it's gonna be a helper character who's with their fondness gauge
at maximum.”
Beatrice would never once do a single thing that Subaru wanted, didn't know what either she or
others desired, was trying to give up on thinking, and was the pinnacle of nuisancehood.
And so Subaru needs to teach her.
Subaru: “You know, Petra. Beatrice is basically the same age as you. And with how you're mature in
lots of ways, you might resemble her first friend.”
Petra: “Her first friend?”
Subaru reminisces on the past Theta mentioned.

Thinks about Lewes Meyer, Beatrice's old friend, who left a permanent scar on the girl's heart.
Beatrice and Lewes may not have recognized it themselves, but from an outside perspective, they
were obviously friends.
Subaru: “Petra. Once I come back with Beatrice, definitely be her friend. You'll like her. 'Cause it's
so fun teasing her.”
Petra: “Even more than Otto-san?”
Subaru: “Yeah. You don't even need Otto any more.”
Otto looks like he wants to say something, but Subaru consciously ignores him.
He draws his hand away from Petra's head and stands up.
Subaru: “I'm doing it. I'm searching for Beatrice. I'll do my best not to die in the fire, but if I do
burn to death then I want it to go down in the records that I died because of Otto's oil.”
Otto: “I'd really rather that not happen. If you don't come back safely I'll slap you, I swear.”
Says Otto, looking miffed, as he sets his hands on Petra's shoulders and draws her near him.
As if drawing a line between Subaru, and the four of them.
Subaru: “Frederica. I'm counting on you.”
Frederica: “Unsparing to my health, I swear that I shall cut open a path to our escape.”
Subaru: “Be sparing. If we can't keep you, it was pointless for me to come here.”
Frederica's eyes widen.

It's not often that Subaru sees her looking so surprised. Feels kind of nice.
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Finally, Subaru looks at Rem, on Frederica's back. The sleeping princess shows no signs of seeing
Subaru off.
It's fine. Rem isn't meant to be seeing Subaru off. Subaru is meant to be greeting her.
Petra: “Take care, Subaru!”
Turning his back to the four, Subaru breaks into a run.

Even at their parting, Petra's voice washes over Subaru's back. But he doesn't glance behind him.
Petra would not desire him to, either.
The flames are spreading steadily across the mansion.
—With his hand to an unaffected door, Subaru must wonder whether this fire will reach the
Forbidden Archive.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The shield catches the blade as it slashes down, and to a screech of sparks and metal, the knife
flows away.
Weaving into each other's openings, a forceful kick plunges into Elsa's stomach—she takes the
blow, rotating to dissipate the strike's force, and uses her momentum to slash at Garfiel, her blade
closing in to slice his head in two. But,
Garfiel: “Lax!”
Elsa: “Goodness. How harsh.”
Garfiel's wide, open jaws close down on the blade, making this the fourth mouth-intercept of the
day.
The force of Garfiel's jaw instantly shatters the knife, and Elsa draws her hand back before leaping
backwards in retreat. The theft of her favoured weapon makes her smile deeper.
Elsa: “If you were wrong by even a hair, your head would have shot off. It's certainly impressive
that you did it.”
Garfiel: “Got th'trick t'it down. 'M startin' t'get bored 'v how you fight, 'bout now.”
Elsa: “How cold. Looking like you understand a woman's entirety, when you've only known her a
short while.”
Garfiel: “...Fuck off with that embroilin' phrasin', oi. —Hrn.”
Garfiel sticks his finger in his ear, grimacing, and sniffs as he notices something.
He looks down the hallway. His mouth curves into a grin.
It doesn't look like Elsa's noticed it yet, but Garfiel's sense of smell has picked up the stench. This is
the stink of stone and wood on fire—otherwise said, the aroma of flame.
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Mei: “—Ahh, geez, I can't believe it! He's sooo useeeleessss!”
Right after Garfiel smiles, the girl atop the witchbeast puffs out her cheeks.
Elsa glances at her. Mei Lee remains peeved as she continues,
Mei: “Apparently the Shadowlion who's meant to be stalling the others just died. He never listened
to my instructions anyway, and he got mad real quickly so he was always a problem, but... how did
he manage to die when aaallll he had to do was nap outside a door?”
Elsa: “The true question is, why did you bring such a useless beast with you?”
Mei: “The Shadowlion was the only one except Boulderpork who wasn't in rut or hibernation. And
he still died, I can't believe it.”
Groans Mei Lee as she tosses another knife to Elsa. Elsa recieves it, confirms the feel of its grip,
and remains utterly apathetic this information from Mei Lee.
It doesn't look like Mei Lee cares at all about the dead witchbeast either. The poor creature.
Regardless. What he's overheard makes a wicked smile arise on Garfiel's face.
Mei: “Eww. Scary-looking precious guy, you're making a real nasty face.”
Garfiel: “My mug's nastiness ain't a match fer th'Captain's. N'anyway, ain't it 'xactly what I told ya?
Yer sneaky plots ain't nothin' t'th'Captain n' his happy band'v friends.”
Elsa: “While yes, they have exceeded our expectations... where does that leave them now? The
slaughter of one useless witchbeast doesn't change that we still have numbers. We continue to keep
you, their pivotal combat force, pinned here... and nothing especially changes about their
predicament.”
Garfiel: “Yeah, yer right.”
Elsa holds her two knives loosely while Garfiel crosses his arms.
He sniffs again, thinks back on his fight with Elsa until now—and decides.
Garfiel: “'S'bout time fer things t'get movin'.”
Elsa: “What do you—”
Mei: “Elsa!”
Garfiel's statement makes Elsa raise her brows. But before she can finish her question, Mei Lee
cries out.
Garfiel looks to find that the Boulderswine's eyes have changed colour, and the giant animal is so
agitated that it's stomping around on the spot. Mei Lee calls out to the creature, getting it slowly
back under control. But it seems like the witchbeast has, just like Garfiel, noticed the fire.
Mei Lee pats the Boulderswine to calm it down, then looks gravely at Elsa.
Mei: “Elsa, the building's burning. Somebody set it on fire.”
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Elsa: “—”
Garfiel: “Hell're you sayin' with that 'somebody'. —'S was obviously th'Captain. Makes sense, n'
good that it's so upfront. Witchbeasts're beasts. If yer gonna drive 'em away t' make a path, quickest
way's t'scare 'em with fire.”
Mei: “But... then he came to the mansion to save the people inside, only to burn it down in his
escape?”
The decisiveness of Subaru's actions stuns Mei Lee speechless. Elsa also looks to be having trouble
consolidating this information, perhaps because it doesn't fit with her image of Subaru.
But Garfiel's heart remains horribly calm in contrast to their surprise.
Naturally, Subaru had not told Garfiel beforehand that he would go this far. Garfiel did believe
Subaru someone who took daring actions, but not even he expected that he'd burn down the
mansion. Which makes Garfiel feel comfortable as someone who decided to enter under Subaru's
tutelage.
And most importantly, the fact that this situation has been arranged lights a spark in Garfiel.
Garfiel: “Mansion's burning. Outside's a horde of witchbeasts.”
Elsa: “—?”
Garfiel: “Got people we gotta save, n'adversaries we gotta stall. Th'only guy who can fight's me, n'
th'Captain told me he's leavin' this up t'me.”
Mei: “What're you suddenly going on about, Mister...”
Garfiel: “'S goddamn obvious.”
Elsa tilts her head. Mei Lee looks like she's observing something creepy.
Garfiel clicks his fangs, feeling refreshed.
His body is light. Nothing scares him any more.
Garfiel: “With all these conditions in place, what fuckin' man out there ain't gonna get fired up!? M'
goddamn goin' for it. 'S a FACING THE DRAGON, SWORD SAINT REID LAUGHS AND DRAWS BLADE.”
Elsa: “You recognize that that saying means someone abnormal and insane?”
Garfiel: “Y'bet I know. And? Yer sayin' there somethin' wrong 'bout my amazin' self n' you bein'
here?”
Garfiel affirms his own stupidity with a refreshing breed of momentum, leading Elsa to stare in
utter astonishment. But only for a moment.
She immediately grins, licking her lips as her eyes soften beautifully.
Elsa: “You are correct. You are sincerely correct. You've stated it perfectly.”
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Agreeing with him, Elsa points the knives she wields at Garfiel.
She crosses her blades, her long, black hair dancing as she tilts her head.
Elsa: “But would you mind if we had a change in attitude? I doubt that you are suddenly going to
grow any stronger, and also suspect that you recognize this after clashing with my constitution
numerous times. A bout may leave me as the more wounded party, but the confrontation still
remains unproductive.”
Garfiel: “Yer right.”
About ten minutes have passed since Garfiel and Elsa started fighting.
Steel has already met steel over one hundred times, each competing viciously with the other.
Garfiel holds the slight advantage in terms of combat ability. He narrowly surpasses Elsa in brute
strength, in speed, and in his techniques, never once conceding predominance.
But Elsa can heal her wounds in mere seconds and happily accepts injury without feeling pained in
the slightest, never once hesitating in either her offence or defence.
And while getting into wounds, it's worth mentioning that Garfiel is also wounded. He also needs
time to heal himself, while Elsa does not.
He is inferior to Elsa in terms of stamina. Should the fight turn into an endless cycle of bouts, then
her blades will soon catch Garfiel.
However,
Garfiel: “Five... no, maybe six? 'S how many times my amazin' self beat you in.”
Elsa: “Yes, you may be correct. And?”
Landing a direct hit with a kick, smashing her into the wall with his shield, grabbing her by the leg
and slamming her head-first to the floor—Garfiel has landed many fatal strikes on Elsa.
The injury healed every time, and he truly was not achieving anything, but—
Garfiel: “I was anticipatin' four 'er five times at best.”
Elsa: “—”
Garfiel: “Vampires ain't immortal. You pile enough killin' blows on 'em... 'n eventually they're
gonna run outta life. That's what I'm gonna be doin' t'you 'fore this mansion's all burned down.”
Garfiel takes his stance, legs apart, as he laughs ferociously with his fangs on full display.
Elsa hears him in silence, the smile vanishing from her face. She fiddles with the end of her braid
before giving a quiet sigh.
Elsa: “Mei Lee. —Give me it, and you pursue them.”
Mei: “Elsa... are you serious?”
Elsa: “When given rationale to do it, failure to do it is discourtesy to the opponent. My only regret
is that I may not be able to extract your guts cleanly.”
Replies Elsa with her eyes closed. Mei Lee does not question further.
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She drops the knife holder she has been championing to the ground, and draws a different holder—
one containing merely two knives, and throws it to Elsa.
Garfiel: “Hmm?”
Garfiel hums cheerfully as he watches Elsa draw the knives from the holder.
These two blades radiate a pressure so intense that none of the others she's used can compare.
The knife in Elsa's left hand is completely black from the handle to the blade. It looks identical to
the kukri she's been using at a glance, but this one's blade is curved with countless, bestial fangs
down its edge, specialized more for goring than ripping.
The knife in her other hand is the exact opposite, pure white with a thick body. It also looks like a
kukri, but its thickness makes it seem like a strike from it could snap bones, and pairing it with the
black blade makes its ruthless image compound greatly.
Garfiel: “Yer tellin' me that's yer ace?”
Elsa: “These are the ones I use when I'm focusing on killing the opponent, rather than seeing their
guts. Exclude Mother, and you are the third person I've used them on.”
Garfiel: “That's one hell'v'n opinion I ain't glad for, n' one hell'v'a family I ain't jealous 'bout, oi.”
Garfiel scrunches up his face at the unpleasant confession.

Mei Lee gives orders to her witchbeast as she nimbly moves herself. The dimwitted beast stomps the
ground, charging through walls as it heads toward the main wing in pursuit of Subaru's group—
however,
Garfiel: “Well, thanks fer showin' me yer ace. I don't show you mine, n' 's what ya call unfair, yeh?”
With that, Garfiel stomps the ground.

Immediately, a pulse rushes out Garfiel's sole and through the ground, speeding down the hallway,
passing beneath Elsa before reaching the witchbeast—and exploding.
Pork: “—!?”
Mei: “Boulderpork!?”
The earth caves in beneath the beast, which loses its balance and crashes into the wall as it falls. The
impact rocks the mansion, and Mei Lee is unable to stay atop the witchbeast, instead coming to land
in the hallway. She strokes the fallen Boulderswine's rump as she looks at the floor, sees the
unnatural depression, and glances behind her.
Mei: “Don't tell me, you did this?”
By utilizing his EARTHSOUL BLESSING, Garfiel can conjure depressions and protuberances in any
surface within visible range that he can determine as being GROUND. It comes with disparities in
effectiveness depending on how far away the target is or how large a scale he is aiming for, but it's
more than enough for him to bluff with.
Garfiel has learned from Subaru to, when you've got something you really don't want others to find
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out, laugh with complete shamelessness.
Garfiel: “'S about what it is. Yer safe t'think that me not lettin' yer escape's n' expression'v my will.
Long 's my feet're touchin' th'ground, yer ain't escapin' from anywhere my amazin' eyes can see ya.”
Elsa: “Mei Lee. You can put minimal forces upstairs. Call the others, and awaken that beast.”
Mei: “...Mama'll be mad.”
Elsa: “What will truly earn us a scolding is if we fail to remove the threat. And, I doubt we'll have
the leeway to worry about what will come afterwards.”
Garfiel: “So y'do get it.”
Mei Lee's expression loses its calm as she nods, puts her fingers to her mouth, and whistles.
Garfiel silently watches on as the thin sound echoes far, all throughout the mansion. If the two were
speaking truths, then witchbeasts should be approaching this spot before long.
This situation is only blazing hotter and hotter.
Elsa: “I'll pluck off your limbs and shoulder you home once you're lighter. I doubt this will all be
worth it if I'm unable to enjoy myself protractedly.”
Garfiel: “Where's th'option t'just quit it with th'guts thing?”
Elsa: “I'd rather quit breathing.”
Garfiel clicks his neck at that statement, before stooping forward in preparation to receive the
enemy's strike.
Elsa sways loosely and nimbly positions her white knife behind her, flexes her arm,
Elsa: “—I assure you that I, more than anyone else, can love you to your flesh and marrow.”
A horrific, debauched smile. The shriek of blade rubbing against blade.

And,
Garfiel: “—Ghgh!?”
The white knife sticking from Garfiel's left shoulder breaks his bones apart.
—The battle between the Guthunter and the Shield of Sanctuary, enters its final phase.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
His beaten shoulders, his hips, his head all hurt.

He is battered all over after falling many times, always stifling his pained moans from the impact
dead.
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He runs, runs, runs, out of breath, knees shaking, eyes fogged, runs.
It hurts to breathe. He keeps his head low, so as not to inhale smoke. The flames have already
engulfed the majority of the building, through which he sprints as he searches for a yet-untouched
door.
Subaru: “—hk”
Discovering an unopened door, Subaru flies madly at the doorknob and wrenches the thing open.
Before him is revealed an utterly mundane guestroom, which will shortly drown in a sea of flame.
Leaving the sentimentality aside, Subaru leaves the door open as he runs for another room. He goes
for adjacent room, and the one adjacent that, and the one adjacent that, opening every door he sights
—
Subaru: “—There!”
Freeing him from the scent of soot and char, the stench of aged paper streams out of the room.
Subaru sniffs the familiar, musty smell as he stomps across the threshold.
He raises his head. Addresses the person occupying this chamber.
Subaru: “Hey! Enough of this, stop being angry and listen to—”
Beatrice: “Get out, I suppose!”
An invisible shockwave comes racing at him, threatening to blast him away. But Subaru manages to
hook his fingers on the carpet to defend himself from the force.
Amidst a pressure so intense it could drag him backwards with it, Subaru's cheeks twist into a smile.
Subaru: “Hah! Don't underestimate me too much. You think I'd put up with getting thrown out of
here so quickly, over and over, by the exact same meth—”
Beatrice: “I won't say it again, in fact!”
Subaru: “Bhggagh!?”
A thick book rides the wind to smack against Subaru's forehead, dizzying him and sending him
tumbling, flying backwards, ejecting him from the room.
He shoots down the corridor. Crashes into a wall. He shakes his head as the door closes itself in
front of him, and he hurriedly leaps at the thing—already too late. This room is no longer connected
to the Forbidden Archive.
Subaru: “Asshole! Who're you taking after, goddamn loli!”
After violently kicking the door open, Subaru breaks into a run in pursuit of another door.
That the room hadn't sent him to the second floor of the eastern wing—an area close to Garfiel's
fight with Elsa—was probably Beatrice's kindness.
Subaru: “Then at least listen to me, stupid!!”
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Beatrice must be thinking the exact same thing from within the Archive.
Keenly feeling that truth, and rejected times upon times, Subaru sprints through the mansion in
search of the door to the Forbidden Archive.
With the fight in the western wing in its final phase, and the fire from the main wing blazing
through the whole building—only a question of time remains until Roswaal Mansion burns to the
ground.
5 Tappei A/N: Guiltilaw-san, what have you done!?
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CHAPTER 128: LOVE YOU TO YOUR BLOOD AND GUTS
He drives his fangs into the green tail slipping before him. Mindlessly tears it apart.
Purple fluids splatter everywhere and vivid blood showers his face, but he doesn't care. His left eye
has already been bathed in venomous fluid and blocked shut for ages.
He roars to obfuscate the burning pain before slamming his arm into the two-headed snake, killing
it. He kicks its corpse, keeps everything in front of him in check as he retreats, and when the chill
races up his spine—he instantly recoils back.
And the grisly blade screams past, grazing his chin.

The witchbeast in the blade's path becomes prey to the fanglike knife. Flesh is shredded, blood
spatters in sheets, a scramble of organs forms a curtain before him—which he charges through,
aiming for the perpetrator woman before ramming his arms into her torso.
Elsa: “—!”
His right shield at her chest, his left shield at her flank, her flesh squelching and bones cracking at
each point.
At his ears, before his eyes, from all directions come the cacophonous cries of beasts, their shrieks,
his roars, crashing conflict, the pounding of metal on metal, too many noises mashed together for
him to properly register the world.
He doesn't care. This stuff in front of him, in his right-eyed vision, is what's real.
Her voluptuous breasts crater in, the force of the gut-wrenching blow making her vomit blood. Even
with her scarlet lips turning a deeper shade of sanguine, and faced with pain enough to threaten her
life, her expression remains one of rapture.
It might not even be her combat strength, or her stamina, but that mentality of hers that's the real
nuisance.
Elsa: “—Hah!”
Garfiel: “Ghrrrrr!!”
Her short exhale. His responding roar.

She swings her left arm from behind to in front, shrill noise pealing out from behind him. The slash
reflects off the wall, rebounds off the ceiling, hits the floor as it comes pressing for the back of his
head.
Garfiel: “—”
He directs his attention behind him, extinguishing the idea of evading it from his mind.
The woman before him draws her right arm firmly back, preparing to piston her serrated black knife
into him. If this is to catch him between the two knives, then this blow will likely slice open his head,
or maybe his throat.
He tilts aside, forcing himself out of the blade's path as it rushes to stab the back of his head.
A thunk resounds out from around his left shoulderbone. Feeling the tip of the rebounding blade
bite into a gap between his bones, he clicks his tongue—when the knife slices into his joints,
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rendering his right arm momentarily motionless.
Elsa: “Huaaah!”
Garfiel: “Shah!”
So violent as to mute all sound, she looses the readied blade.

This unremitting attack makes for less of a 'slash' and more of a 'pointy bludgeon'.
The strike will blast his head off should it hit, mutilating it utterly. Garfiel immediately raises his
left arm to intercept the strike, but with his poor posture, he cannot avoid all the damage to his right
shoulder.
Animal teeth shriek against metal for only a microsecond before Garfiel's arm is easily shunted
away.
With only a meagre drop in its speed, the back blade resumes its charge for Garfiel's head. More
than enough strength to cleave apart his skull presses in, a second from hitting.
Hitting—
Elsa: “—!?”
—what Garfiel kicks up, forcing it into the path between his head and the knife, the witchbeast's
corpse.
An uncomfortable feeling like a hard-skinned vegetable against his cheek, and blistering venom that
burns the skin it touches. Risking being bathed in both these things, he salvages the benefit of
avoiding fatal damages.
The knife slices into the witchbeast's corpse, the battering force of the blow proceeding through the
cadaver to strike Garfiel across the face.
The impact pummels him, sending him whirling left to right, spinning in circles—and with two
wilful steps into the ground, he soars backwards.
His EARTHSOUL BLESSING activates, obeying his will to make the ground he stepped on explode.
The detonation sends him soaring backwards, the woman now to his back as he proceeds to zoom
straight for her. —With the woman's white blade still sticking out of his shoulder.
The instant the blade touches her, the woman flinches.

Though she knows that the side contacting her is the pommel, it still makes her falter from making
any instantaneous decisions.
With his right shoulder still against the woman, Garfiel spreads his stance to drop his centre of
gravity.
The instant this makes the woman think to step backwards and open range, Garfiel's arm shoots up
and grabs her face in a vicegrip.
Garfiel: “—Partial Transformation!”
Immediately following his scream, a change occurs in the arm clutching her face.
The arm swells explosively—growing a coat of golden fur in an instant, transforming into the log-
thick arm of a beast.
And naturally, it ends in a beast's paw, what with saber-like claws,
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Elsa: “Kyhaaaaah!”
The thick claws gouge into the woman's face, splaying blood everywhere and making her recoil.
His five fingers as they drive into her head prompt the same pain and injury as knives. Evens she
has to put her hands to her face, backpedalling, shrieking while looking to the ceiling.
Garfiel: “Rhm!!”
He plunges a kick into a torso, shunting her back.

The force battering her chest carries more than enough strength to further destroy her shattered
bones and ruptured innards, churning them into a greater mess.
The fallen woman drops her weapon, spitting up pure scarlet as she gives a faltering laugh.
It's horrible to listen to, and he's more than ready to swoop in and make it stop, but,
Garfiel: “Fuckin'! Just one after another!”
Just as Garfiel moves to pursue her, witchbeasts flood into the gap in his assault.
Rats with black wings, possums bloated in proportion to their anger, Spotted Rex assembled here
from throughout the mansion, and a restored giant—the Boulderswine all rush in.
His claws rip apart the swarm of rats, one stomp of his foot eliminates the swollen possums, his
kicks snap the necks of the Rex snapping at him, all as Garfiel faces the charging Boulderswine
head-on.
Mei: “Get squished!”
Garfiel: “Y'think I'm gonna be toleratin' that, y'dumbass!”
Tons of weight come charging with explosive force.

Rather than a blow from an animal, this cannonball is equivalent to a building dropping on him.
Not even Garfiel could take a direct blow from this and get out safely. He'd be unable to offer even
a second of resistance, get blasted away and trampled flat.
However,
Garfiel: “'S what makes it fun—!”
Bracing his legs, Garfiel unleashes his Earthsoul Blessing to its utmost limit.
He feels the blessings of the earth pulsing up from underfoot, rippling through his flesh.
A warfaring glint lights Garfiel's golden eye, fangs bared as he smiles wickedly, detonating the
blood lying dormant inside him.
Garfiel: “—σσσσσȠ!!”
This strangled bellow is not addressed to the outside, but a call to his own interior.
Flowing through his body, difficult to accept as it is, definitely not something he acquired by
choice: his bloodline. He calls to his usually-hidden pedigree, feeling goosebumps as his soul
trembles.
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Just like his left arm that tore the woman's face apart, Garfiel's right arm swells explosively.
Starting at his arms, his shoulders, his torso, his neck, his head all crunch as his skeleton changes
shape, his face morphing from that of a human to that of a ferocious feline—a massive tiger.
Following the enlargement of his torso, his hips, his legs, his clothing fails to endure the pressure
and bursts apart. Scraps of cloth hang off his frame, the two shields on his arms barely managing to
stay equipped as small bucklers—here is a beast that, by physique alone, can compare with the
oncoming Boulderswine.
The floor creaks, caving in beneath him.

Even this solidly-constructed mansion cannot endure the confrontation of these two massive beasts.
So giant that the hallway cannot contain him, Garfiel shatters the walls, ornaments crashing to the
ground as his back scrapes across the ceiling.
Mei: “—Wugpig!!”
The girl atop the witchbeast shrieks in response to Garfiel's transformation.

She must be screaming the name of the witchbeast. Answering to its master's call, the Boulderswine
gives a roar so strong as to disintegrate boulders and opens wide its maw with all its flat teeth,
racing for Garfiel.
The witchbeast rears up on its back legs, raising its forelegs to stomp Garfiel flat.
The massive tiger, its golden eyes flaring, lets its own legs propel it into the opening before the
behemoth's crushing blow hits and stabs its claws into the Swine's thick, stony hide.
Blades screech against bedrock as the tiger's claws are peeled out of their sockets. Knifes fail to
puncture the thick hide, and the Swine's plummeting forelegs proceed to slam straight into the tiger.
The stomp presses down on the tiger, a crushing pressure on its shoulders. The force pins Garfiel's
upper body to the ground, the merciless impact prompting the tiger to shriek.
Mei: “Don't stop, Wugpig!!”
Bones shatter and flesh squelches, but the noises do not deter the witchbeast's master.
Hearing her wailing voice, the Swine roars and raises its forelegs up, ready to stomp once again and
crush the tiger's head.
However,
If his claws won't work, the tiger has only one weapon left.
Twisting its neck, the tiger with its crushed shoulders uses its spine to upright itself. The Swine's
forelegs are raised and its belly is exposed—the tiger bares fangs.
Not even a witchbeast with skin as solid as rock can have its entire body at the exact same
toughness. Compared to its legs or back, its vital regions are going to be less heavily guarded.
And so, the tiger drives its sharp fangs into the Swine's bared stomach.
Mei: “Boulderpork!?”
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Garfiel: “—ℓℓℓℓ₰!!”
The tiger's jaws, so immense that they could swallow a man whole, close around almost half of the
Swine's extensive belly.
For a moment, the Swine's hide does attempt to resist the piercing fangs. But like the points of
knives stabbing into a fruit, the sharp fangs instantaneously and effortlessly tear through the thin
skin.
The Swine's shriek comes as the tiger kicks at the floor, using the momentum to roll sideways.
With his fangs still sunken into his prey, attempting to shred the creature apart—it's the hunting
behaviour of riverside-dwelling water dragons.
Were Natsuki Subaru here to witness it, he would deem it as being something close to the death roll
of an alligator, a creature that does not exist in this world.
His hindlegs strike the floor, buying rotational and forward force as he mangles the Swine's torso.
Inside the thick hide rest a vast store of blood and guts, which spill relentlessly out from the
bitewounds and onto the mansion hallway floor.
Pork: “—ζ”
Eyes wide, the Boulderswine gives a weak death wail as it collapses.

The tiger spits out chunks of the Swine's flesh before slamming its rear leg into the massive
creature, toppling it onto its side. The girl, having dismounted the witchbeast at the moment of the
crash, is utterly lost for words as she watches her witchbeast's gruesome death.
Mei: “No, way... I don't believe it...”
Stepping back, the girl glances behind her to see what troops she has left.
Many witchbeasts have heeded her call are steadily assembling here. But they are only a mob of
small- and medium-sized creatures, none of them large like the Boulderswine.
Mei: “Ugh! What is this!? Elsa! Elsa! Dooo somethinnngg!”
Elsa: “...That is a rather, unsparing demand.”
Realising that she is at a disadvantage, the girl slings senseless insults while calling her partner's
name. Reply does come, from a shadowy woman who crawls out of the darkness.
Her mangled face has regenerated. She fiddles tirelessly with her bloodied braid.
Elsa: “Gouging a woman's face open without hesitation, you are indeed fantastic, you are.”
Garfiel: “—σσ฀! σσ฀! σσ฀!”
The woman laughs with a bloodsoaked grimace. The tiger, shoulders broken, growls in agitation.
Its massive form quakes, before it butts its massive head against the fallen Swine, and pukes.
The tiger moans in pain before its great body begins losing mass, bit by bit, and its enlarged form
starts returning to human shape. After a few seconds there now stands a half-naked boy, batting
away shredded strands of golden fur.
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Garfiel: “Auh... fuck, m'back. Head hurts...”
Elsa: “I see... so you are half-beast. I did think your eyes looked rather nasty for a human.”
Garfiel: “'F we're gonna be followin' yer logic, that means our Captain ain't human either.”
Garfiel shakes his head, getting a grip on the sensation of his own human body.
Over the course of returning to human form, his broken shoulders have mended enough that they can
both move. But in saying that, they still do flare with pain every time he moves them, and make his
thoughts burn a soldering white.
He can't stay in top performance for much longer.

But the same should be going for his opponent.
Garfiel: “Went n' busted open yer witchbeast's guts fer ya. Yer allowed t'go happily swimmin' n' that
ocean 'v blood there, I ain't gonna mind.”
Elsa: “I'll have to decline. Animal guts serve as no substitute unless I'm extraordinarily starving.
The beauty of guts is that they are disembowelled from people.”
Garfiel: “Yer aesthetics make no sense t'me.”
Garfiel sticks his pinky into his ear and picks rigorously while giving an astonished sigh.
Elsa is overwhelmingly disadvantaged, but her attitude isn't budging.
—Garfiel estimates that it will take five more tries at most until Elsa's immortality ends.
And Garfiel has already showered four lethal blows on her. Five if you include the mauling of her
face. This should be about time that she starts hitting the limit for her regeneration.
Meaning that Elsa's stock of lives is already exhausted. Garfiel is injured as well, but that isn't going
to make him slack in this fight.
Being that no support is possibly coming from Mei Lee's beasts, they effectively have their blades
at the other's throat—so why is she being so composed?
Elsa: “It's not that there's any special reason for it. You don't have to be so scared.”
Seeing Garfiel's brows furrow in puzzlement, Elsa speaks as if comforting a child.

Garfiel scrunches up his face in response, growling like an animal.
To obfuscate the fact that she has clearly seen the slight confusion in his heart.
Garfiel: “Fuck off. Stop talkin' like yer know anythin'.”
Elsa: “But it's plain to see. Disembowelling someone means facing someone before they are
disembowelled. Your face is a familiar one to me.”
Garfiel: “—”
Elsa: “It's the face of being unable to comprehend a deviant.”
Garfiel falls speechless, his throat feeling to clench. Elsa puts her hand to her mouth and laughs.
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She smiles slightly as she tilts her head.
Elsa: “Don't worry, it's fine. I'm not wishing to be understood by anybody. My happiness is
something I acquire by spurning the life of another. To live is to spurn death.”
Garfiel: “...'M gettin' that 'f I take this seriously, 'm gonna go nuts.”
Garfiel raises his arms, battering his shields together as he rejects any attempt at understanding her.
He doesn't have the leeway to be thinking about her circumstances. And her last statement has just
eliminated any reason he had to pay attention out of whimsy.
Garfiel: “But I will ask yer this. ...'F yer pledge that you ain't ever gonna do nothin' bad again n' run
away, 's not impossible that I'll let you go.”
Elsa: “You truly are a precious boy.”
She shows her final mercy, then dispels it with a smile—the signal, to charge.
Blasting off, Garfiel soars ahead. Elsa counters him by swinging her white blade up to hit the
ceiling, hit the floor, revolving and rebounding as it closes in on Garfiel.
Elsa's wide white blade is a stringing-together of multiple knives. The blade-edge alternates from
one side to the other, the knife rippling like a snake's bones as it ricochets through the hallway.
Up? Down? The knife easily outspeeds the eye, soaring about as a white light. Garfiel braces his
shields over his head and abandons the option of evading. The knife plunges down into his upper
left arm, imparting him with the pain of broken bones as he resumes his advance.
Elsa: “I was born in Gusteco of the north, where it is very, very cold.”
Split-second combat is unfolding in this battleground, but for some reason her lilting voice sneaks
into Garfiel's ears.
It isn't even audible. His attention is pyroclastic, focused amidst instantaneous trade of deadly
attacks. There is no opening for this voice to butt in.
Is what it should be, but the woman's voice slips smoothly into Garfiel's consciousness.
Elsa: “The divide in wealth was fierce, and it wasn't uncommon at all for lower-class children to be
abandoned. I was one of those children, with no parents I ever knew, drinking dirty water to
survive.”
Garfiel: “—Rghhhh!!”
Elsa: “I spent my days stealing objects, threatening people, doing things in that vein, with the
people around me constantly changing. Why am I alive? What is happiness? ...Not questions I had
any time to consider back then.”
His fist plunges forward, inches from belting Elsa's face.

But she leans aside to dodge the overblown attack, slicing her black blade up to cut shallowly
through Garfiel's torso.
The bestial fangs pilfer his flesh. Elsa licks her lips as the bright blood bathes her.
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Elsa: “It was frigid that day.”
Garfiel: “Shut up! I ain't goddamn listenin'!!”
Elsa: “The wind blustering from the lofty mountains was so strong, so cold, that it froze the town
that day. My breath could freeze in that chill, when the shopkeeper I stole from caught me.”
With a hot sigh, Elsa speaks on, enraptured.

Her blades of death compound in momentum, slicing cut after cut into Garfiel as he fails to keep up.
Elsa: “No one would complain if he killed me, but seeing as I was a girl... I can still remember his
face as he smiled, and moved to strip my clothes.”
Garfiel: “Gh, auh...”
Elsa: “The bitter wind howled as he stripped my overwear, snatched my underwear... and when I
contemplated that before he could do anything to me, the cold might just kill me first, I happened to
pick up a shard of glass.”
Her leg sweeps up to try and belt him in the side of the head, but Garfiel counters it with a headbutt.
The impact reverberates through his brain and makes him recoil, but surely shattered Elsa's foot too.
Elsa draws her leg back, retreats. But her expression remains one of ecstacy.
Elsa: “I wasn't thinking about anything. I just had the shard of glass, then when he leaned forward I
pressed it into his stomach, moved it, and sliced him open.”
Garfiel: “—”
Elsa: “I felt nothing for his screams, or the fact that I had taken a life. But amidst that icy gale, I did
think,”
Garfiel's breathing freezes. Elsa smiles.
Elsa: “How warm, blood and guts are.”
Elsa's blade swings up, threatening to split apart Garfiel's skull. He glides aside, kicks off the wall
to manoeuvre behind Elsa, slams a kick into her back—but she instantly twists around and strikes
his shin with her pommel, diverting the kick.
His leg crashes into the wall, which crumbles alongside plumes of dust. Garfiel clicks his tongue as
he leaps back and away.
Elsa: “If there is happiness in the world, then it is in the warmth and beauty of forgetting the cold.
From birth I had nothing, and now I had this: the first definite happiness I ever found. —You can't
understand, can you?”
Garfiel: “Ain't wantin' to, either.”
Elsa: “That's fine. I don't want sympathy.”
Garfiel: “Then why'd y'tell me th'damn story, 's fuckin' gross.”
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Elsa: “Why, I wonder?”
Garfiel's eyes house hostility as Elsa tilts her head, mystified.

And she narrows her eyes saucily, licks her lips salaciously,
Elsa: “Because I find you truly darling.”
Garfiel: “...Sorry, but I already got a girl I like. Ain't got time t'be datin' a crazy bitch.”
Elsa: “So cold. But it's fine. I'm only concerned about your innards.”
It feels like a conversation is happening, but fundamentally no conversation is.

Over all his exchanges with her thus far, Garfiel has finally come to understand this.
He has no interest or sympathy or anything for Elsa's life story.

That was her foundation, she had those experiences, and she became this monster. That's all.
Garfiel's shields already know who they ought to protect.
Garfiel: “—You're dead, Elsa Granhiert.”
Elsa: “Once I kill you, I will adore you, Garfiel Tinzel.”
Each calling the name of the other, the half-beast and the murderer wage violence.
The beaming light of the white knife slices through the corridor's darkness, and the black knife
pistons forward cleave Garfiel in two.
A knife ricochets everywhere in the corner of his vision. He cannot defend against the attack, nor
does he have the option of evading it. But if he fails to take the blow and dampens his charge, he'll
merely be repeating the same foolish mistake.
Garfiel: “—”
The knife slices through sound, dancing throughout the hallway.

If he cannot perceive the blade's point, he can only aim for the point it was thrown from.
Garfiel thrusts out his left arm, the fasteners on his shield loosened—and lets the thing fly.
He had loosened the bindings when he battered the shields together. Now he is tossing it, and Elsa's
eyes shoot wide open as it smashes directly into her left hand—something crunches, and her broken
fingers drop her white knife.
Having lost the hand manipulating it, the knife stabs into the ceiling, where it falls still.
A deep, dark smile, and a surging roar. A deathly blade murders the air as it swings down—Garfiel
charging straight into it—and strikes him.
He sets his right arm upon his head to receive the direct hit from the black blade.
The shockwave pierces through his shield, rocks his skull. His eyes spin and he comes close to
stumbling forward, but just manages to stomp firm and catch himself.
He did it—when the woman's knee shoots up and smashes Garfiel's nose.
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Elsa: “You mustn't be careless and think you're safe.”
She says with a laugh, sweeping her leg up at Garfiel as he recoils.

Her leg hangs poised high, and from her shoe comes the glint of a blade in the heel—with his point
aimed to stab Garfiel through the neck—
Garfiel: “Yer the one who better not be overlookin' my amazin' weapon.”
His open jaws swallow her heel and the blade whole, gnashing at her slender foot.
With her bones and the knife chewed up to the heel, Elsa's eyes shoot open wide.
Elsa: “Goodness.”
Yelping in surprise, Elsa staggers away but loses her balance and tumbles to sit on the spot.
Her right leg is mangled from the ankle down, inoperable, and the force of her own attacks has
broken her arms as well. With her left leg as her support, Elsa gazes at Garfiel—
Elsa: “—Ahh,”
Taking in a breath, Elsa blushes like a girl in love.

Her exhale carries enough heat to be chromatic. Her wet eyes abound in hot passion.
—Before Elsa, Garfiel shoulders the immense Boulderswine, and throws it.
Although aware that she will be crushed beneath its incredible mass, it is not until the silhouette
swallows her that Elsa's gaze strays from Garfiel.
With her breathing ragged, gazing at the grimacing blond boy with love—
Elsa: “I feel thrills.”
The overwhelming weight crushes the murderer, the vampire, the Guthunter, until nothing remains
untouched.
Her flesh squelches. Fresh blood mingles with fluids from the witchbeast.
Scenting the stench of death, Garfiel howls.
Roaring, bellowing, booming like thunder through the burning mansion.
—The Shield of Sanctuary Garfiel Tinzel, and the Guthunter Elsa Granhiert, have concluded their
battle.
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CHAPTER 129: —CHOOSE ME
—When she thinks back on that instant, the terror assaults her even now.
How her clinging fingers were cast aside, and her name was affectionately spoken.
The love in their goodbye. The determination and tears in their smiling eyes. Both carried far more
than enough weight to silence her.
What should she have said? She still doesn't know.

What had she been thinking? She can no longer remember.
What ought she have done? She still fails to see any answer.
—And so Beatrice remains, even now, cowering motionless in the Forbidden Archive.
Beatrice: “...Lewes.”
The sound out her lips is a fragment from a memory so ancient, even just the word sounds wistful.
When she speaks that name, emotions bursting, the frozen time inside Beatrice—the four-hundred
year void—instantly comes surging to the surface.
Beatrice secluded herself inside the Archive, waiting for THEY's eventual arrival, only after Lewes
Meyer had been lost as her existence became impetus for the establishment of SANCTUARY, and the
Warlock Hector had been repelled.
Beatrice had lost someone so close to her that they could safely be called her only companion.
Anyone could see how haggard Beatrice was, having lost that friend owing to her own inability.
And everyone knew that only time would mend her injured heart.
So her Mother's conclusion was simple.
Echidna: “I suspect that warlock will return to destroy me someday. I plan to set up means to
oppose him before that happens... but even that might be fallible.”
Beatrice: “Yes, Mother.”
Echidna: “If we engage in confrontation again, it will develop into truly heated, absolute combat.
Considering the enemy's strength, my chances of surviving are about fifty-fifty... or maybe a little
lower? Since Roswaal's unfortunately lost his gate, and can't assist in battle.”
Echidna lowers her gaze, but Beatrice's unaffected demeanour remained stable.
It's not that she's suppressing anything. Ever since that day, her emotions have almost entirely
stopped showing on her face. Who could suppose the effect that the overwhelming loss, the
emotional aftershock, had had on her?
It could be that her emotions froze exactly because her heart knows that effect.
Echidna looks at Beatrice and her unchanged expression, running her finger through her white hair.
Echidna: “I'm already one of the witches least suited to combat. Once I know I can't enlist aid from
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Roswaal, genius in sorcery, it's after expending all possible means that I finally begin seeing hopes
of victory.”
Beatrice: “...What should Betty do, I suppose?”
Everyone knows that Roswaal was half-killed in the battle to establish SANCTUARY's functions. His
gate was utterly decimated, making him ineligible as a magician.
The sight of her comrade lying in bed, still moribund in this very moment, arises in Beatrice's mind.
Sounding somewhat desperate, she assaults Echidna with questions.
Beatrice: “Should I do the same as Roswaal, and buy time until your algorithms are complete? Or
should I sacrifice myself, conglomerate of powerful od that I am, and become the nucleus for the
algorithm, I suppose? I won't regret it for an instant when it's for your sake, in fact. ...Please, use me
however you'd like, I suppose.”
Beatrice grasps her skirt and curtseys, displaying the greatest of trust to her mother.
Honestly, the emotion is far too brittle and fleeting to be called TRUST. But Beatrice is unable to
comprehend her own present mental state, and even supposing that she did understand herself, she
would have likely reached the same solution.
Reckless lust for vengeance, and indignation at her powerlessness—the question of whether or not
she recognizes these two feelings of hers constitutes the only single difference.
Echidna: “—I see. Once you've told me that, even I can ask for favours without any reproach. You
truly are a good girl, Beatrice.”
Beatrice: “...Yes. Betty's your daughter, in fact.”
Hearing such words from Echidna would usually overjoy Beatrice.

Perhaps Echidna was aware of that, for she was careful give Beatrice verbal praise only
infrequently. But now those magic words sink into Beatrice's empty chest with a hideously hollow
thunk.
Perhaps nothing will rekindle the fire in her heart.
Is what Beatrice thinks, and so she fails to immediately react to Echidna's next words.
Echidna: “Beatrice. I'm entrusting you to oversee my archive of knowledge. Until the time that must
come does come, you'll protect the knowledge as the Archive's keeper. —So that nobody can steal
it.”
Beatrice: “...wha,”
Echidna: “Fortunately, you have unparalleled affinity for Yin magic. You'll use GATE CROSSING to
link a familiar location to an isolated space. ...Yes, we'll call it the FORBIDDEN ARCHIVE. There, I
want you to guard over the extent of my knowledge, compiled into books.”
Beatrice's eyes shoot open in shocked turmoil as Echidna keeps speaking, leaving her behind.
Beatrice had expected Echidna to order her to accompany her in this battle of life and death. Cast
into an utterly unanticipated role, Beatrice can only glance about in bewilderment.
Even though witnessing her daughter's discomposure, Echidna continues without missing a beat.
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Echidna: “It'd be best to link the Forbidden Archive to Roswaal's mansion. I'll dismantle my
laboratory, and prepare for the final battle. I'm sorry, but I can't expend any people to carry the
books. I'd like you to ask Roswaal about preparing the bookcases and securing labour.”
Beatrice: “W-wait...”
Echidna: “It won't last forever. Both you and I are already liberated from the fetters of predestined
lifespan. The cycling of the seasons isn't especially meaningful for us. But in saying that, once you
consider that I may be lost, it's irresponsible for it to lack deadline. Which means...”
Beatrice: “Please wait, I suppose!”
After a deep breath, she shouts.

Beatrice cannot comprehend what her mother is saying.
Or no. Her instincts are screaming at her, telling her not to comprehend it. Echidna's thoughts are
vast, always easily excelling what the ordinary man could possibly understand. Meaning that
Echidna's statements represent the optimum, and Beatrice had never thought to interrupt her before.
But now is not like that. Nothing like that.

If Beatrice lets Echidna speak her whole screed, she will surely regret it.
If Echidna states the whole of her opinion, what she'll present is the absolute optimum solution with
no purchase for debate. The world will follow a course affirming Echidna's stance, and Beatrice will
be unable to defy it.
To defend against that, Beatrice must interrupt before Echidna can finish.
Beatrice: “Mother... what are you saying, in fact? I-I, don't understand what you mean with this
Forbidden Archive, I suppose. Betty is! Staying with you!”
Echidna: “Having you with me won't influence the confrontation with the warlock much at all,
unfortunately. Naturally, it would surely increase my chances, but... only by a pittance. It would fall
under statistical error.”
Beatrice: “B-but if it's better than me being absent, then Betty will help you, in fact! It'd be—”
Echidna: “You can't. The risk that we'll both be destroyed outweighs a tiny, potentially non-existent
boost to my prospects of winning. Considering that there is a less than fifty-percent chance that I
will survive this battle, I have to endeavour to ensure my knowledge survives to the hereafter.”
And ensuring her knowledge survives to the hereafter means upkeep of this Forbidden Archive that
she's trying to entrust to Beatrice.
In this moment, Beatrice curses her GATE CROSSING and her ability to create unique spaces. If she
didn't have these powers, her mother would never desire that she take this ro—
Beatrice: “Don't... tell me... my powers were for this?”
Echidna: “—”
Beatrice: “You knew from the beginning that this would happen... supposing so, then it isn't just
about this Forbidden Archive, wh-what happened in SANCTUARY was also...”
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Echidna: “Having ways to anticipate things doesn't necessarily mean using them. I did have means
to both perceive this route, and settle matters without travelling it. But I swear on my way of life
that I have not utilized that power. That alone I want you to believe.”
Echidna shakes her head in response to Beatrice's strangled question.

Echidna approaches Beatrice, who is chewing at her lip, before taking a book from the bookshelf
and presenting it to her daughter.
Beatrice: “This, is...?”
Echidna: “An imperfect replica of my BOOK OF WISDOM. The Book of Wisdom's algorithms are
both advanced and moreso complicated, so I didn't manage to fully unravel them all... but it should
be enough to work as a simple guide for the owner's future.”
Beatrice accepts the book, tracing her shaking fingers over the cover.
She raises her head to look at Echidna, who stares at Beatrice with the same faraway gaze she
always has. As though she's looking somewhere into the distance.
Echidna: “There are two books. One goes to you, and the other has been given to Roswaal. I expect
Roswaal will manage what comes next provided he reads the book. I know it's a one-sided request,
but I want you to see it through.”
Beatrice: “—”
Beatrice looks down at the book, her eyes wavering as she finally realises that she is far too late.
I have to make her speak, I have to make her say it. Were her ideas, but they were not nearly
sufficient.
Echidna, her mother, had already settled on all of her answers.

Beatrice could cry, pleading and clinging, but it would not change Echidna's stance.
Because that's the kind of person the WITCH OF GREED Echidna is, and the kind of witch she is.
Echidna: “We'll return to the topic of cutoffs. I might not return, but the archive must be opened to
someone someday. Once that happens, it'll be clear to you. Someone suitable to inherit my
knowledge will surely come for you.”
Beatrice: “Come, for me...”
Echidna: “We'll call this person THEY. The cut-off is when THEY open the doors to the Forbidden
Archive, and announce that your duties are over. —This is my final request.”
Final request.
The phrase makes Beatrice swallow her breath, and look up at Echidna's face as she gazes back at
Beatrice.
Her mother's constant, unchanging expression.

But Beatrice feels that, in just this single instant, it comes mixed with unfamiliar emotion.
Echidna: “Betty. —Please, be well.”
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※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
After parting with Echidna, Beatrice obeyed her mother's request and went to stay in Roswaal's
mansion, using her Yin magic to create the FORBIDDEN ARCHIVE and stockpile books of her
mother's knowledge there.
It's the sea of knowledge that Echidna had spent her life amassing and cataloguing. When holed up
in this room of books, it feels like her mother is embracing her.
Leaving aside the question of whether or not Beatrice used to perceive it that way, she did obey
Echidna's instructions.
If she neglected to immerse herself in her duties, the bereavement tormenting her heart would
exceed what she could bear. She passed her days in the Archive, oblivious to time, with the loss
always plaguing her.
???: “Replicating souls... overwriting into vessels...”
Beatrice could not accurately determine just when it started feeling hollow.
But once enough time passed that she no longer remembered when she last held a real conversation,
an adult Roswaal began venturing into the Forbidden Archive.
Roswaal: “I'll be iiiiiiiiiiiiiintruding once again today.”
The skinny, unshaven young man limped into the room.

He used a cane and walked with a lumbering gait—the battle with the warlock had destroyed his
body, and his gate had lost the majority of its functions. Even attending to daily life was an arduous
task for Roswaal now.
Even so, after he recovered some amount of strength, he strained his inconvenient body and
displayed his debilitated condition as he faced the bookshelves.
He was just skin and bones. His looks, known for their beauty, shone with no brilliance. His sunken
yellow eyes alone blazed wet with insane ferocity.
Beatrice: “—Do whatever you want, in fact.”
Though really, Beatrice didn't want to let anyone at all enter the Forbidden Archive.
Until the THEY that Echidna mentioned came, this place was meant to be Beatrice's SANCTUARY,
never to touched by anyone's eyes.
But Roswaal was an exception. He alone was devoting himself to Echidna's wishes, as Beatrice
was, a companion who she had spent more than a little time with.
Roswaal's wishes alone would permit Beatrice's heart to open the Archive.
It may have been Beatrice's faint sense of camaraderie that determined the fate of Roswaal L.
Mathers, and his family.
Roswaal ventured to the Archive, sank into the sea of Echidna's knowledge, and staked his entire
lifetime upon a search for something.
Beatrice did not know if his efforts ever wound up bearing fruit.
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But the Roswaal L. Mathers who had studied with Beatrice under Echidna, ten years after Echidna
and Beatrice parted—when bordering on thirty years of age—lost his life, and his descendant
inherited the mansion.
Roswaal: “Myyyyyyyyyy goodness, it is a pleasure to meet you, Beatrice-sama. My predecessor

had told me about you.”
Beatrice: “...Roswaal's dead, I suppose?”
Roswaal: “The previous Roswaal has passed away. But do be at ease. I, the current Roswaal L.
Mathers, have inherited the debts toward your duties and your mother.”
The second Roswaal gave Beatrice a smile.
—With one of his eyes yellow, and one of his eyes blue.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Nothing especially noteworthy happened after that.
The Mathers family continued to introduce themselves as Roswaal down the generations.
Though aware that they did this to remember their respect for Beatrice's deceased mother, Echidna,
Beatrice did not allow the Roswaals unlimited entry to the Forbidden Archive.
Naturally. The only Roswaal to whom Beatrice could give special treatment was the first one. All
the other Roswaals were imposters.
She did accommodate them somewhat, given that they were providing the mansion needed to
preserve the Forbidden Archive, but nothing further.
From then on, Beatrice would only ever open the Archive to THEY.
This awaited THEY, and the guidepost her mother had given her, forced Beatrice into solitude for a
very, very long time.
???: “Your power is magnificent. Please, grant it to me as my spirit.”
—Shut up. Get lost.
???: “You've been isolated here for so long. It's a horrendous fate. It doesn't matter who ordered you
to do this, it's unforgivable.”
—What would you know? About the precious duty my mother desired of me.
???: “You don't think knowledge ought to be free? Can you imagine how many lives would be
saved if the knowledge stored here was spread? You must already recognize it yourself.”
—It has nothing to do with 'how many'. I'm only looking to save a handful of people. And there's
nobody I can save any more, except one.
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Four hundred years.
Beatrice wasn't seeking them out, hadn't permitted them in, but even so many people visited the
Forbidden Archive.
They each flung whatever words they'd fling at Beatrice, keeper of the Archive, before inevitably
demanding that the Archive be opened.
Their proposals, propositions, and demands did sometimes sway Beatrice's heart.
She wondered countless times after the doors burst open, and she noticed the daylight spilling in
from outside, whether this may finally be the arrival of THEY.
But, heedless to Beatrice's expectations, not a single one of them knew about THEY, and Beatrice's
book mentioned nothing indicating that they were THEY either.
So Beatrice cast away the words, the hands, everything they offered her, rejected them, and kept her
mother's words close as she passed the time until today.
Over the years, resignation and disappointment steadily overtook Beatrice's heart.
She wished that she had spoken with the first Roswaal more.
Ever since she lost the only person who could share her memories of Echidna, Beatrice had to face
this concept called 'eras' all by herself.
She had nobody to rely on. Her only option was to be stubborn, and seclude herself inside an
impregnable, isolated barricade.
Over four hundred years, her cage consequently took shape.

Was it a prison locked from the outside, or from the inside?
—Not even Beatrice could tell any more.
Puck: “Hey there, Betty. It's really been forever. It's me, Puck.”
This inconceivable reunion was perhaps the only event that even minutely thawed Beatrice's frozen
heart.
Beatrice: “B-Bubby? How come, you're here...?”
Puck: “This mansion's Roswaal went and swindled my daughter. So here I am with her. I wasn't
expecting you to be here. I'm glad we got to see each other.”
The name of this cat spirit, bashfully washing his face with his paw, is Puck.
Like Beatrice, he is a man-made spirit created by Echidna. He is the only entity who shares
Beatrice's birth and circumstances, applicable as being her race.
The time that Beatrice and Puck spent together four hundred years ago was short, but felt long.
Puck was created before Beatrice, and separated from Beatrice's group before the battle with the
warlock had begun, wandering the world in accordance with his purpose.
Beatrice never thought that they would meet again, and practically considered him dead. She keenly
felt how the centuries-long reunion made her heart surge.
But, her joy only lasted an instant—.
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Puck: “After I left you, I spent about three centuries wandering the world before I finally found Lia.
I'm not sure what you're waiting for, but I know your wishes will come true.”
Beatrice: “Yes, yes I suppose. But I envy you, in fact. The role Mother gave Betty has...”
Puck: “Mother? Who was she, again?”
Beatrice: “—”
Beatrice remembers how Puck looked, not joking in the least, his head tilted in mystification.
When Puck left, he and Echidna formed several contracts. Beatrice didn't know the detailed terms
of them, but Puck's forgetting of Echidna is obviously part of it.
Beatrice: “...No, nevermind it, in fact. I'm glad I got to see you again, I suppose.”
Puck: “Mhm, it's great, Betty.”
Puck, having fulfilled his purpose and meaning in life, looked dazzling to Beatrice. But she knew
that the topic she wanted to broach would only serve to impede his path.
So she kept quiet, smiling sadly as she wished her brother well with his future.
The unexpected reunion gave Beatrice slight joy, but moreso agony as her dead four hundred years
pressed down on her heart.
Comparing herself to Puck, who fulfilled his role, Beatrice was dumbstruck at the overwhelming
disparity in their performance.
And she thought:
Beatrice: “...I'm no longer able to ever laugh like you, Bubby.”
Beatrice decided to get as little involved with Puck's beloved half-elf daughter as possible.
If she didn't, Beatrice would wind up taking out her pent-up resentment on the girl. She would do
such wrong to her beloved brother's blameless, precious daughter that the situation would never be
fixed.
Calling her heart to a stop and suppressing her emotions was her forte.
She had spent four centuries constantly doing it through the sunrise, after the sunset, submerged in
the moonlight.
Her speciality. A familiar deed. Lucid resignation. That kind of thing.
That kind of life—which suddenly met an intruder.
Subaru: “M-make it painless ok.”
Beatrice: “It's incredible that you're so persistent in your frivolity, in fact.”
It had truly been forever since someone had entered the Forbidden Archive without permission.
While looking down at the boy, fallen on the floor from the mana drain, Beatrice sighs and strokes
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her hair.
Using her space-connecting powers to send the boy into a labyrinth had been an act of simple
revenge.
Revenge for having to help in healing the boy when he came in wounded yesterday. Revenge for
having to grant the request of the half-elf girl he saved.
Her plan had been to alleviate some of her sourness about the affair by pestering the boy.
Then he defeated GATE CROSSING on his first attempt.

He must not have noticed how shaken Beatrice had secretly been.
Beatrice: “Not someone I want to have anything more to do with, I suppose.”
Said Beatrice after expelling him from the Archive.

Not even Beatrice could determine how he reached the Archive in one attempt. Perhaps his affinity
was for yin magic, and he just happened to be on Beatrice's wavelength that day.
But even if he did have yin affinity, he lacked any affinity as a magician.
He'll only be staying for a few days. With that thought, Beatrice managed to ignore the
uncomfortable strain in her chest.
Puck: “Betty. Were you mean to him? Come on, don't do that. He helped Lia, so you better give him
a real apology.”
Puck showed up in the Archive the next morning to scold Beatrice for her actions, and now she had
to confront the boy she had just decided she'd stop having anything to do with.
Subaru: “She shows up, and what the hell does this loli start saying?”
Beatrice: “What I suppose is that word. I've never heard it before, and it still disgusts me, in fact.”
Subaru: “It means 'too young to go down their route'. Sides I'm not really into younger girls.”
Beatrice: “...Your extensive discourtesy to Betty loops around to be pitiable.”
Tit for tat.

She hadn't intended to apologize anyway, but this conversation completely eliminated any urge.
Beatrice passed breakfast in silence, saw Puck's rather resigned expression, and breathed a sigh of
relief. Seems like he'd forgiven her.
In exchange, it wound up that the boy would be sojourning in the mansion for the long-term.
Beatrice's desire to seriously start cursing the situation intensified, and she decided to excuse herself
and return to the Archive. The mansion came with complex circumstances and history anyway, and
right now was a state of emergency, too.
This gutless boy would give up before long.
All Beatrice had to do was endure until that happened.
Subaru: “Hey, Beatrice. Done with work so here I am to hang out.”
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Completely oblivious to Beatrice's thoughts, the boy came parading into the Archive while looking
like a nitwit, annoying Beatrice even though she hadn't asked for any of this, and just kept doing it
whenever he found time to spare.
Beatrice could only sit there, stunned at his impudence.

There had been others qualified to enter the Archive without Beatrice's permission. But they had all
been seeking the Archive's knowledge, or seeking the powerful spirit Beatrice.
The second they opened they mouths, it'd be requests to liberate the knowledge. Or requests to
contract with Beatrice. Always.
Subaru: “Beatrice. —Mind if I pull your drills and make them sproing everywhere?”
Beatrice: “Are you trying to die, I suppose?”
Just when it looks like he's going to say something serious, it's the same crap as usual.
He had been somewhat desiccate in his first few days after waking up gaining employment in the
mansion, but after that, his overly-familiar attitude was off the charts.
...Is what Beatrice thought, when suddenly:
Subaru: “I'm stuck with no way out. Completely upfront, I'm looking for your help.”
—He noticed the first signs of the Witchbeast Affair in the forest surrounding the mansion.
With his body bathed in a witchbeast's curse, discussing de-cursing and potential origins of the
curse with Beatrice, she felt that there was something different about him compared to before.
And she simultaneously noticed:
The yin power she perceived from him, and its somewhat crooked manner of peaking.
The witchbeast affair ended without being any of Beatrice's concern, he apparently resolved his
differences with the maid sisters, and was welcomed in as a true member of the mansion.
He then went around being his jolly self, pestering her with an attitude even more over-familiar than
before, and there was that one delicious episode among others about his mystery condiment called
mayonnaise, all while Beatrice began meditating on an impossible fantasy.
—A boy who showed no great interest in the knowledge, or in Beatrice's power.
Could he be the one who Beatrice had been waiting for?

The suspicion was baseless, continuous, and exhausted her. But when she tried to deem it as a
legitimate theory, she stymied herself by opening her blank book of prophecy.
Being that the prophetic text said nothing, this boy could not be Beatrice's awaited THEY.
And he was lacking in too many ways to be Beatrice's awaited one anyway.
First, his eyes were nasty. His attitude too. He hadn't any cultured refinement, and short legs. He
regarded something else as more important than Beatrice, and was not gentle with her.
In fact she couldn't find anything good about him. It addled the mind as to what the half-elf girl and
blue-haired maid found so appealing.
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There wasn't anything good about him, so why couldn't he just be uniformly disliked and alone?
If he was, then when he showed up in the Archive, she wouldn't hesitate to change the way she
interacted with him a little.
Is what she sometimes thought, and yet.
Roswaal: “Beatrice. I'm thinking to invite Emilia-sama and Subaru-kun to SANCTUARY.”
Said Roswaal to Beatrice after returning from the Capital.
A variety of questions whizzed through Beatrice's mind, her eyes wide. But Roswaal silenced
Beatrice's queries with a single action.
He stroked the cover of the prophetic book in his hands.
Roswaal: “...Do you understand? Beatrice.”
Beatrice: “I-I, do understand, in fact. ...Do whatever you wish, I suppose.”
Beatrice could say nothing else.

After Roswaal turned his back to her, and she learned that he was leaving for SANCTUARY in
advance, Beatrice decided that she would hole up in the Forbidden Archive and go without seeing
anyone.
The writ of Roswaal's gospel was demanding contact with SANCTUARY.

Beatrice did start having hopes for her own gospel after hearing that. But her prophecy book
contained endless pages of pure solid white as always, abandoning her heart in a wasteland.
Beatrice knew what came of Lewes Meyer's sacrifice.

She also knew that the place had gone unfreed for four centuries. And that people diverged from
demihuman races were held inside there, awaiting liberation.
And that it was a barrier the half-elf girl needed to overcome if she was aspiring for the throne.
—But what would happen to Lewes Meyer's sacrifice if the place was freed?
To Beatrice's feelings of powerless about being unable to save Lewes Meyer?

To her overwhelming sense of loss, that triggered her parting with Echidna?
Her emotions had nowhere to go. Sensing that the supposedly-frozen things had begun to pulse
again, Beatrice knew that the end to her fate was truly coming.
Beatrice did not know the details of what happened outside the mansion.
The boy returned from the Capital with a memento of someone dear from Beatrice's memories.
Seeing it, and feeling that the world had left her behind once again, Beatrice saw the boy's group off
as they left for SANCTUARY.
And, thinking that what they would bring back from SANCTUARY would be her answer, gave up.
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※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Beatrice: “And so Betty has decided, in fact...!”
Before they could bring back her answer, Beatrice sensed deadly violence whipping through the
mansion.
Once she realised what was causing it, Beatrice understood that fate had truly deserted her.
Beatrice: “I won't break my promise to Mother. ...But it is meaningless to spend any more time in
this emptiness, I suppose!”
THEY would never come. But she could not stop waiting.
Meaning that Beatrice needed someone to steal the option of 'WAIT' from her.
If that meant losing her life, then she'd offer it without any hesitation.
If there was someone, anyone, who she felt she could entrust this duty to even somewhat, then she
could believe that her final wish would be granted.
So when the boy—Natsuki Subaru—burst into the Forbidden Archive this night, Beatrice's heart
was moved with more emotion than can be expressed.
It felt like fate, which had never once attempted to give Beatrice's mind solace, had finally rewarded
her.
If his hands would take her life and make her defy the promise, then even that would be—
Subaru: “I'm taking you out of here, Beatrice. —I'm dragging you out into the sunshine, where we'll
play until your dress is caked utterly brown with mud.”
—And he said this.
Beatrice: “Unwanted meddling, I suppose. Nobody asked for you to do that, in fact.”
She didn't understand. What on earth was he saying?

He had never, not even once, behaved anything like THEY before. He had never snatched her gospel
away and told her, “Sorry for the wait.”
Subaru: “Stop getting thrown around by a blank book and a four-hundred-year-old promise. —Be
the one who chooses what you want to do, Beatrice.”
Beatrice: “—”
—So then why was he, after all this time, disrupting Beatrice's heart after she had already steeled
her resolve?
I'm meeting my end, had been the only thought in her head.
She saw the boy upon his return, and hoped: I will end by his hands.
But he was trying to show her a future that diverged from her hopes.
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This wasn't what she desired.
Her heart that could desire this hope had, over four hundred years of time, long ago withered to
nothing.
Beatrice: “I-if, you... were THEY...”
...Is what it was supposed to be, but while listening to the boy's indignant speech, something
changed in Beatrice's heart.
Her slumbering emotions shook like flowers taking bloom after winter. She raised her head.
There would be no taking this statement back, once she said it.
She was dispelling her four-hundred year obsession with her mother's binding words, and now
clinging to something entirely unrelated and new.
And though she understood that, from her mouth, the decisive words—
Beatrice: “Will... you be Betty's THEY?”
Subaru: “Are you stupid? —Of course I wouldn't be this weird mysterious THEY of yours.”
The instant he spoke it, his expression somewhat mocking, Beatrice's newly-budded hopes were
betrayed.
She doesn't really remember what happened afterwards, as she surrendered herself to anger and
expelled him from the room.
But she did know that she had said something she couldn't take back, and before it could develop
into something that couldn't be taken back, was snuffed out.
Beatrice: “—”
What an utter clown she was.

This meant that she had done nothing more than betray her mother's instructions. And her betrayal
had been barred from procuring results, degrading Beatrice's pledge into something horrendously
cheap.
Beatrice: “I'm exhausted, I suppose...”
Then all she has to do is let things proceed as she had originally intended.
It had been a mistake to consider taking his hand in the first place. That had not been the owner of a
heart so valiant that they could soil their hands for the sake of another.
That had been someone like Beatrice, constantly fretting about trivial things, indecisive and unsure,
constantly piling excuses upon excuses, the owner of a weak heart.
And so the DEATH to end Beatrice would come in a different—
Subaru: “Finally back! Hey, stupid. Stop throwing people out halfway through conversations. Now
just listen to me and—”
Subaru: “Plot!?”
217
Butting in to Beatrice's contemplations, the boy bursts back into the Forbidden Archive.
The instant she sees the boy, edging on speaking something more, Beatrice's emotions seethe and
she blasts him away with a pulse of magic.
She watches him fail to endure it and shoot out of the Archive until the doors slam shut.
Their conversation had disintegrated, capped off with his decisive comment, and still. Just how
shameless was he?
Beatrice cannot comprehend how he could leave her with that statement, and then show up so
brazenly.
She puts her hand to her chest to deal with her irritation, gives a sigh, and—
Subaru: “How about cutting this out! Is this you throwing a tantrum!? If you're gonna resort to
violence first thing, the conversation's not going any—”
Beatrice: “You cut it out, in fact!”
Subaru: “Dua!”
The higher grade of magical pulse impacts his head, proceeding down to batter his torso.
Once she confirms that the screaming, tumbling boy strikes the wall outside the door, the Archive
once again severs its connection to the hallway.
She can't believe his persistence.

Is he ignorant to the concept of 'giving up'? Or does he not realise how deeply his thoughtless words
had wounded Beatrice's heart? Whichever it was, the boy is continuously rejecting GATE
CROSSING's goodbye.
Beatrice: “...This is truly no joke, I suppose.”
With that irritated mutter, Beatrice drags the stepladder over from the back of the room, and takes
her usual position opposite the door. She cradles her book of prophecy in her arms as she glares at
the portal.
—The boy would be belting that door open once again.
With his selfish logic and inconsiderate sales pitch, he would come.
Times upon times upon times, she would reject him and cast him away.
Because he was not THEY.

Because he himself had forfeited his right to take Beatrice out of here.
And so Beatrice would never, ever leave here.
She merely has to end here, alongside her unfulfilled promise.

Because that was the only thing that would now grant Beatrice solace.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
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Blasted out of the room, Subaru crashes head-first into a wall for his breathing to halt.
This is his sixth time being thrown out of the Archive after his first failure in persuading Beatrice.
He feels that all these repeated blasts in such a short timeframe have made him better at catching
himself when dealing with invisible attacks.
But Beatrice's magic pulses are beginning to feel out how intense they can go without seriously
damaging Subaru, meaning he absolutely mustn't slack.
Subaru: “This isn't the time to be polishing your stupid magic, fuck! She's not listening...”
Wiping away his sweat with his sleeve, Subaru demands that his knees get him to his feet.
He's been running constantly since yesterday, had blood shed and broken bones mended, meaning
he's physically exhausted. The utter fatigue makes his vision hazy, and the only thing keeping him
moving is willpower.
Subaru: “The fire's gonna be spreading for real around now...”
Subaru stoops himself low and turns his head this way and that, clicking his tongue, for fatigue
alone does not explain his poor vision.
The fire that killed the massive witchbeast is steadily engulfing the whole mansion.
The lower floor of the main block is nigh completely drowned in flame, and he can see plumes of
smoke wafting from the eastern and western wings too.
The spreading fire has driven most of the witchbeasts out of the mansion, so there are no monsters
to block Subaru's path as he sprints about. But the temperature inside the building is heating up like
an oven and his sweat is evaporating swiftly, his singed flesh bordering on charring at any moment.
The building will start collapsing before long, and Subaru's fate will drown to nothing in the fire.
Before that can happen, he needs to fulfil his goal and flee here with Beatrice.
But Beatrice's heart remains stubbornly closed.
Subaru: “It does help that the mansion fire's cutting down the number of doors, but...”
That's really the only conceivable benefit of the blaze.

GATE CROSSING only operates on the mansion's functional doors. So open doors or burned doors do
not apply.
The further the fire spreads, the fewer doors will potentially lead to the Archive.
Subaru: “That said, the fire's gonna cook me before the doors are cut down.”
And he doesn't want to think about what would happen if all the mansion's doors burn away.
Subaru doesn't know specifically how Beatrice's GATE CROSSING links spaces to one another.
Potentially, the incineration of the mansion may sequester Beatrice's Forbidden Archive, turning it
into a permanently isolated hyperspace.
There is one place Subaru can think of that GATE CROSSING might connect to outside of the
mansion, the laboratory with Lewes Meyer's sleeping crystal, but—
Subaru: “Would she link the mansion to there in her current mental state...?”
219
Beatrice's GATE CROSSING has sent Subaru to SANCTUARY once before.
Subaru has speculated on why this irregular event occurred.
Beatrice had emotionally detonated and forcibly expelled Subaru from the Forbidden Archive.
Her intentions strayed as she focused intensely on a 'farewell'—and her GATE CROSSING
consequently sent Subaru to the laboratory, is his idea.
That location is a symbol of sad and painful farewell for Beatrice. So perhaps that's why Subaru
was sent to SANCTUARY back then.
Making it inconceivable that Beatrice's GATE CROSSING would link to the laboratory now.
Beatrice is not focusing on 'farewell', she is focusing on 'end'.
If she loses her connection to the world, the mansion, Beatrice will reach her end.
It feels to Subaru that Beatrice's ultimate decision will be to do that.
Subaru: “I'm not letting you ever be ended like that!”
Taking a deep breath, Subaru breaks into a run while keeping low to the ground.
He leaves the previous door open and searches for the next door, batting away smoke as he
proceeds deeper into the mansion.
He hears the constant crackling of the building's structure burning in the inferno.
His skin is scorched and the boiling air threatens to sear his eyes. He endures both with a grimace.
The smoke slipping into his nose brings him near to choking, when he discovers a yet-unopened
door and pounces for the doorknob.
The blazing doorknob emits heat, and sears Subaru's hand. Already his palms are atrocious with
many ugly burns. He is quite used to gritting his teeth in agony.
With a stabbing pain piercing through his temples, he kicks the door open.
Subaru: “—”
He tumbles into the room with its cloying stench of ancient books.
He opens his mouth wide and takes a deep breath, having fallen face-up, and he glares at the dim
ceiling above.
A familiar atmosphere, and rage prickling at his skin—definitely the Forbidden Archive.
Beatrice: “You again, simply incorrigible...!”
Subaru: “Hauhh! Of, course I'm back! I'm coming here however many times it takes to kidnap you.
If you don't like it then let me drag you out of here right now! Then that'll be the end of these
exchanges!”
Beatrice: “Enough of your useless chatter, I suppose! I know that the mansion is burning, in fact! If
you don't flee outside immediately, you will simply burn to death in the fire, I suppose!”
Subaru jerks himself up, his breathing ragged as he glares at Beatrice.

She remains seated on the stepladder, her round eyes as sharp as they can get as she bares her rage
at Subaru.
220
For an instant, slight emotion dashes along the edge of those eyes, and Beatrice's lips tremble.
Beatrice: “Or... do you mean to burn dead with the mansion and Betty?”
Subaru: “Are you stupid! After everything I've said, you still don't get it!? I'm not thinking at all to
die with you! I'm here to drag you out without you dying!”
Beatrice: “—! Domineering without fail, I suppose! Leave!”
Subaru stands up, pouncing for a bookcase to bide through the first magic pulse.
He feels the gale battering him, and then a second pulse that utterly drains him of energy. He
glances up to find Beatrice with her left hand raised toward the ceiling, her face twisted in anguish
as she forces herself to smile.
Beatrice: “I pilfered your mana, in fact. You must remember this sensation, I suppose.”
Subaru: “You, little...”
Beatrice: “Should your grip on the bookshelf slacken, that is the end, in fact. Stop involving
yourself with me, I suppose!”
The moment his knees start to give out, the third pulse of magic strikes Subaru from head-on.
An invisible wall of force crashes into him. Unable to support himself, Subaru is again pushed
toward the door, proceeding to tumble and fly out the—
Subaru: “Nnngh!”
—Reaching his limbs out as far as he can, Subaru manages to catch himself on the door.
Pain runs through his limbs, and experience tells him that his arms are fractured and may be broken.
He grits his teeth and forces himself to ignore it.
Beatrice: “Wh—”
Subaru: “Go through it so many times, and even I can learn how to get through. So want to defer to
my efforts and start getting in the mood to talk?”
Beatrice: “You've lost your chance to speak with Betty, in fact. By your own actions, you are the
one who squandered it, I suppose. ...Why do you not understand that, in fact!?”
Subaru: “I don't get it, no. Since aren't you actually guilty for this as well?”
His hand against the door, Subaru gets to his feet and wipes away the blood dripping from his open
lip.
He watches how Beatrice's brows furrow in utter confusion, and slips a wry smile.
Beatrice: “What's so funny, I suppose?”
Subaru: “I just confirmed that my consecutive assault isn't fruitless. If you're seriously rejecting me,
stop with the finicky crap and just blast me away. You have the power for it. It'd be so much quicker
221
to just do that.”
Beatrice: “...You are telling me to kill you.”
Subaru: “Not that you can. That was me being a jerk. Sorry. But if you're seriously rejecting me,
then there should be easier ways for you to do it.”
Beatrice, bordering on tears, has refused to kill Subaru before.

Subaru has not advanced to a stage where he can understand what her sentiment or reasoning was
back then. So all he has is speculation. Assembled from what fragments of her past Subaru knows.
He had his suspicions, and still asked that question, astounding himself with how mean-spirited he
truly is.
But if he doesn't ask it, Beatrice won't realise.

Realise the contradiction between her thoughts and actions, and the fact of Subaru's presence here.
Subaru: “If you seriously don't want to see me, then seclude yourself in the Archive, Beatrice.”
Beatrice: “What... are you... Betty has not taken a single step out of the Forbidden Archive, in fact.
But you are forcing yourself in of your own accord, and...!”
Subaru: “Nope, that's incorrect. If you were serious about holing up in here alone, there's no
goddamn way I'd reach the place so many times in such a short timespan. Your rejection's just
superficial.”
Beatrice: “That! Is because... yes, is because you are enacting the method to cheat GATE CROSSING,
in fact. And the mansion is burning, reducing the number of doors...”
Stuck for words, Beatrice's rebuttal trails off to a weak end.

Subaru's statement has made her doubt herself. And even if not, Beatrice has lost the pillar that kept
her standing through these four hundred years, and is currently unstable.
She can no longer tell if Subaru's words are right, or if her emotions are right.
Subaru: “—”
And honestly, Subaru doesn't know either.

He has no clue why he's managed to reach Beatrice's Forbidden Archive so unfalteringly in this
short timeframe.
It may be because the mansion's doors are burning away, leaving him with fewer options.
Or maybe the emergency situation is prompting his yin abilities to showcase absurd strength, and
that's letting him defeat GATE CROSSING.
It might be that Subaru is actually correct, that Beatrice is not truly rejecting him, and the doors of
GATE CROSSING are open to him.
Subaru wishes it for it to be the latter.

But the reality is insignificant. What Natsuki Subaru needs to do here, now, is secure any possibility
of bringing Beatrice out.
222
Beatrice: “You... you! Are not Betty's THEY!”
Yells Beatrice, clutching at her skirt.

She gives up on thinking as she appeals to Subaru, howling.
Beatrice: “You said you weren't, in fact! You... you said you weren't, I suppose. If you were THEY...
even if you said it as a lie, Betty would have believed you. Even knowing it was a lie, all I could've
done was believe you, in fact.”
Beatrice: “But you said you weren't, I suppose. Said you weren't, said I was stupid, in fact. Why
yes, I suppose. You're correct, in fact. Betty is stupid, a stupid imbecile, who even now cannot
disregard a promise from four centuries ago... and so! Nothing you say will change that it is over, I
suppose!”
Choosing rejection, an invisible wind whips around the shouting Beatrice.

The torrent of magic gusts at her dress, at her long hair, filling the Archive with a tense and
turbulent air. Subaru senses that this is the greatest gale yet, his body shuddering in terror at the
coming strike.
His cowering heart wants to him to retreat, to flee outside the door.
He manages to suppress the urge, bites deeper into his lip, and raises his head.
To tell what must be told.
Subaru: “I...”
Beatrice: “—”
Subaru: “I'm not your THEY. I'll say it however many times. Your awaited prince isn't coming on his
white steed. Not to the end, not ever!”
Beatrice: “—! Then! Betty shall simply rot here, in fact!”
Subaru: “Not happening. I'm not letting you choose that. I saying however many times it takes for
you to change your mind. THEY isn't coming. You can't keep your promise. —But you won't be
allowed to die.”
Beatrice: “I just... hate you so much, I suppose!!”
With that, Beatrice's emotions explode.
The torrent of magic changes form as it adheres to a single goal, a white light dominating
everything in Subaru's vision.
He doesn't even have time to feel the gust of wind.
The shockwave pounds Subaru through his front and out his back, scrambling all the innards he has.
His blood flows backwards through him as everything inside him is wrung out his pores, the pain
agonizing.
223
His eyes spin, he loses his sense of balance, undergoes overwhelming vertigo, loses all perception
of sound and smell and light. This might be what humans call dying.
—But, Natsuki Subaru knows.
Subaru: “—What are you doing?”
Withstanding a nausea so intense his organs could spill out his mouth, Subaru forces himself to
speak so that his weakness is imperceptible.
The world exists underfoot, and the moment he recognizes that fact, he steadily regains his
perception. He has his limbs, has his head, his organs aren't spilling out his mouth, his soul hasn't
shed its vessel.
So what. Same thing as usual, just a near-death experience.
Natsuki Subaru is learned enough to know: this is not DEATH.
Beatrice: “You are, joking, in fact...”
His vision sways, blurry and unstable.

Regaining enough focus to somehow recognize that he is inside the Archive, he gazes at the girl in
front of him, her arms spread wide as though witnessing something unbelievable.
It's Beatrice.
Not even she can comprehend his failure to die, and the preservation of his fundamental shape.
But there's no mystery about it. Subaru knew it would turn out like this.
It is inconceivable that Beatrice would let herself kill Subaru.
Beatrice: “—”
His consciousness is hazy. But willpower allows him to anchor his near-forfeited mind.
The girl before him is wavering. She cannot comprehend her own self, unable to fully reject him, as
she looks at a ragged Subaru in terror.
Suspecting that his voice will reach her in this instant, he scrambles to assemble his waning
consciousness, and speaks.
Subaru: “I'm, not... your, THEY...”
Subaru: “But.”
The repeated and repeated rejections put Beatrice on the verge of tears.
The conversation would usually end here. Before it can—before Beatrice's emotions can swell to
their limit—Subaru speaks.
Subaru: “I... want to be with you, Beatrice.”
224
Subaru: “You're kind, and so you won't be sad, I want to be by your side.”
Beatrice: “Auh... ghh...”
Beatrice's expression twists.

It's as though she's suppressing fury, as though she's suppressing tears, as though she's struggling to
keep some utterly undocumented emotion from showing on her face.
But she swallows her words, sighs a ragged sigh, and picks up the book on the stepladder. She flips
through the pages, wrests through the pages, her fingers scrunching the paper, then gives quiet
whine.
When,
Subaru: “—Wh, at?”
Before Beatrice can take any action, Subaru's vision warps.

It has nothing to do with his hazy consciousness or deficient blood. It's a question of reality.
The Forbidden Archive is beginning to bend in front of Subaru.

The ground around him warps, the bookshelves losing their balance as they topple down one after
another. Books fall messily to the floor, instantly drowning the ground in a sea of tomes.
Even still, the world continues to bend.

The ground beneath Subaru's feet twists too, undulating like a bellows, preventing him from
maintaining his balance.
Subaru: “What... what's...!?”
Beatrice: “—”
While clinging desperately to the door, Subaru looks at Beatrice.

He finds that in this rippling room, Beatrice's surroundings alone are untouched. The stepladder she
sits on moves not an inch, supporting Beatrice's weight as she looks at Subaru.
Subaru: “—auh,”
Before Subaru can say anything, the ground beneath him tilts.
The floor under Subaru fissures open with a noise like the ripping of paper. A black space expands
from beneath the floor-tiles, unmistakably about to send him somewhere by methods other than
GATE CROSSING.
She might even be imprisoning him in some non-existent, hyper-dimensional space.
Subaru: “—Shit.”
It happens the moment he notices the hole and takes a step back.
The world slants in earnest, sending Subaru falling backwards in deference to gravity. The door's
gaping mouth swallows him, sending him back to the blazing mansion through GATE CROSSING.
Subaru: “Hhot!”
225
The heat of the wall he crashes into makes him wail.
He raises his head, to find that he has been ejected into a hallway fully engulfed in inferno. The
only thing he manages to recognize is the fact that he's in the main wing.
The flames singe him utterly as he looks at the door he just exited, and, noticing that the door's
lower half is already swallowed in flames, is stunned.
It's a miracle that GATE CROSSING even worked. He doesn't think for a second that jumping at that
door will bring him back to the Archive.
Subaru: “Fuck, ing... if, this is the main wing...”
Then he might be able to find a functional door upstairs.

Vaguely recognizing from the number of doors that this is not the uppermost floor, Subaru decides
to head for the stairway, engulfed in flames as it is.
The smoke stings his eyes, tears welling over. His lungs burn with every breath, though he manages
to keep the smog from snatching his consciousness by holding his jersey to his mouth.
Every minute counts. Like fuck he's actually going to reach the Archive—No. This isn't the time for
whining.
He cannot forget Beatrice's expression at the end.
Subaru: “Stupid idiot, making that fucking face again...”
The numbness in his limbs from Beatrice's magic pulse leaves his body.
He drags his body along, the thing more or less obeying his will, whittling at his soul as he runs for
the end of the corridor.
Beatrice's expression flickers through his mind.

It's the same face he saw in a previous loop.
When he and Beatrice faced Elsa, and the supposedly-defeated woman took Beatrice's life.
When Beatrice shoved him away to protect him, and had her stomach destroyed.
When she saw that Subaru was safe, and her body wordlessly turned to particles of light.
Subaru has not forgotten her final expression from back then.
It was not relief at having protected Subaru, nor joy at having procured her desired death, but a
grimace.
—I don't want to be alone. That kind of expression, obvious to anyone.
Subaru: “So like hell... like hell I'm gonna leave you on your own!”
With that, he leaps into the fire as he searches for escape.

He feels something squirming and wrong inside him, but the heat from his singed flesh and the pain
from his burnt skin prevent him from focusing on it.
Were Subaru an objective witness to this, he might unwittingly recoil from how repulsive it was.
Subaru, running through the fire with his pledge to bring out Beatrice, is wreathed by an
overwhelming mass of black miasma, embracing him almost like a protective vestment of shadow.
226
Oblivious to this, Subaru breaks through the wall of fire and reaches the stairway.
He gives a ragged exhale, looks at the staircase above, and recognizes that this is the second floor.
He proceeds to climb the staircase, thinking to dash straight for the uppermost floor—when.
Subaru: “—”
He hears the noise of something wet being dragged across the ground, and looks down.
The noise is coming from downstairs. His rationality tells him that this is impossible.
All he can hear around him is the crackling and booming of the burning building.
This is a mansion seconds from collapse, and that is the first floor of the main wing, where the
inferno started. Nothing should be moving down there.
Subaru's sprinting all through the mansion means he knows this conflagration, which even the
witchbeasts fled.
So this noise has to be a hallucination.
—But if it is, then what's that?
While dragging something along with it, a silhouette emerges from the flames.
It is destined for the upstairs as it climbs the staircase as Subaru had, stopping at the landing
between the first and second floor—and looks up as it notices Subaru's presence directly above it.
The silhouette is wearing black clothes, holds a black knife, has black hair, and is a woman.
Subaru: “Elsa...?”
Elsa?: “—”
The silhouette doesn't respond. But this definitely looks like the black-garbed woman Subaru
knows.
Why is she here? Could Garfiel somehow have lost? If so, then Subaru's battle—Subaru's battle to
save everything—has ended in defeat, and,
Subaru: “No, I'm off...”
Just as he starts getting those ideas in his mind, Subaru shakes his head.
Subaru has to trust in Garfiel's strength. Even supposing that his opponent was strong, Subaru was
betting on Garfiel to win.
Otto and Frederica had done everything they could to assist in evacuating Petra and Rem.
Garfiel would have done his absolute best as well.
How would Natsuki Subaru have possibly gotten this far without believing in his companions?
Subaru: “Garfiel wouldn't have lost. So, why're you...”
227
Believing in Garfiel's valiant fight, Subaru flings words at the silhouette below him.
This woman shouldn't be here. What is underlying her actions?
But just when he goes to question her, Subaru notices something.

Or no. He's forced to notice.
Subaru: “—You're not Elsa any more, are you?”
The dark eyes looking up at Subaru shine with not a speck of light.
The things are so hollow and empty that it's unbelievable that those are eyeballs in those sockets.
The noise is coming from the crushed lower body of the silhouette, dragging along behind it. But
the thing still acts like it's alive, which Subaru finds incredibly repulsive.
Subaru did think she had life force enough that she wouldn't die, but she's still incapable of dying
after all that destruction?
Subaru: “Though, this isn't the time to be pitying her...!”
Even supposing she's incapable of dying, Subaru has no words of sympathy.

Considering the fact that Elsa showed up before being half-dead, sympathy would be lenient
treatment even despite her state. That said, Subaru doesn't make a hobby of tormenting walking
corpses.
He rationalizes that she just needs to get caught in the mansion's collapse, and have the flames
cremate her.
Subaru: “Get swallowed in inferno. I'm leaving to get Beatr—”
Shaking his head, Subaru disregards the silhouette and determines to head upstairs.
With a slight noise, the silhouette leaps.

Its mouth gapes open as it aims for Subaru, swinging its wicked blade.
Subaru: “—”
The wind from the knife as it grazes past his nose makes Subaru's lungs forget to breathe and heart
forget to beat.
The thing just tried to take Subaru's life, so natural that it may as well have been walking over to
him.
But its strike just barely misses Subaru, instead shattering the floor before the tips of his toes.
The enemy hadn't been going on easy on him, its dead lower half had simply lacked the leg strength
needed to pounce. If it had that leg strength, that attack would have killed Subaru.
Subaru: “You've gotta be kidding!”
He promptly kicks the silhouette as it pitches forward before ascending the staircase.
He dashes so intently that he forgets to breathe, glancing back at the shadow. The silhouette's head
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sways from the kick and it jerks its limbs awkwardly to the ground like a marionette, then scuttling
like a spider in pursuit of Subaru.
Subaru: “Are you joking!?”
He had called her a spider-woman before, but he didn't think she actually was one.
Stunned at her inhuman locomotion, Subaru soars to the top of the stairway. He imagines the
silhouette pursuing him as he dives into the inferno of the third floor hallway.
In the very middle of this hall is the office. That room, being the sturdiest in the mansion, should
still be generally undestroyed—
???: “—σσσ!!”
Subaru: “Dhhah!?”
Intercepting Subaru as he leaps into the blaze, a lion-headed witchbeast roars.

Having lost its mane, and with over half of its body burned grotesquely, this is unmistakably the
witchbeast that Subaru's team supposedly killed in the dining room.
Apparently the near-dead beast returned to this door in adherence with its master's orders.
Meaning that Subaru is presently a moth darting into a flame.

An unanticipated meeting amidst fire. The pun is working disgustingly well.6
The half-burnt witchbeast swings its foreleg what with those giant claws. The attack grinds away at
the wall, closing in to strike Subaru's neck, more than strong enough to mow Subaru down easier
than a weed despite the beast's moribund state.
Subaru: “You're one-trick ponies!”
But Subaru dodges by ducking low and diving forward.

Subaru has learned from the other witchbeasts that they aim for their prey's vitals. Judging that the
beast will definitely aim for the head, Subaru dives into a forward roll to slip past the beast's flank.
This beast, fully capable of devouring Subaru in one gulp, roars in rage as it attempts to readjust
itself and face Subaru. But things will not come so easy.
Beast: “—σσσσ!!”
In pursuit of Subaru, the skittering silhouette bares its fangs at the half-dead witchbeast.
The beast, its back turned, is slow to react as the silhouette’s flourished blade showers a slash down
upon it. The beast's rear left leg is amputated at the joint, blood pouring from the crooked wound as
the creature's shrieks echo through the corridor.
The beast whips its snakelike tail, striking for the silhouette that crawls across the ground.
The silhouette avoids it nightmarishly, manoeuvring beyond human capacity to bat the beast's tail
away with its blade, stab its knife into the beast's open wound, and bore deep into the injury.
6 飛ん火にいる夏の虫は‫ۇ‬神聖‫ە‬まǸ ちゃんいうバンゼの曲‫ۏ‬神様ۧれは酷いなり‫ ې‬出る面

白い諺 ۣ‫ۈ‬意味は‫ۏۇ‬ないも知らۤにこいǹۖ自ら死ぬۨｗｗ‫ۈې‬読めるなら‫ە‬まǸ ちゃんを聴く
いい‫ۈ‬読めないなら‫ە‬まǸ ちゃんを聴くいい‫ەۈ‬まǸ ちゃんいい‫ۈ‬
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Subaru listens to the earsplitting screech resound as he heads for the office's door, certain not to let
the opportunity escape.
He kicks the record room's door open on his way, but it fails to lead to the archive, instead leading
only to time loss. The beast and silhouette are still fighting behind him, but being that the only
howls he hears are from the beast, it's obvious how the scales are falling.
Subaru: “Beatrice!”
Having reached the office, Subaru prays to himself as he belts the door open.
If the Archive appears before him, he can say goodbye to the monster battle.
But what cruelly shows it self is only the sight of the dishevelled office.
Subaru: “Fuck... Then this wasn't it!”
Practically illustrating the strength of Beatrice's rejection, the office diverges from Subaru's wishes.
He can no longer search for other doors, or return to the lower floors of the burning mansion. If
there are any potential doors left, they'd be—
Subaru: “The hidden passage...”
It's difficult to call the hidden passage, which opens via a mechanism, a 'door.'
The passage opens by way of a sliding bookcase, and it's rather unlikely that passing through its
entrance would lead him to the Forbidden Archive.
If there are any other doors left, they'd be deeper inside the passage.
Subaru: “There should be a door midway through the passage that opens to a small room... but...”
In a previous loop, Elsa ambushed him from beyond that door.

But he doesn't know if that door falls within GATE CROSSING's area of effect. And above all, Subaru
has to think that this is Beatrice's doing, leading him from door to door to try and expel him from the
mansion through the hidden passage.
She may be aware of the mansion's current state, and be leading Subaru down a route that will give
him survival.
In that case, the hidden passage may not even lead to the Forbidden Archive.
He may be led outside the mansion, to the mountain cabin at the end of the escape tunnel, and
forever lose his chance to save Beatrice.
Subaru: “—Not giving me any time to think!”
Subaru hears the beast's death wail as the decisive blow is struck.
The witchbeast, which unwittingly put in a valiant fight to buy Subaru time, has most likely died for
real to Elsa's silhouette.
With a shake of his head, Subaru dives into the hidden passage.
A spiral staircase lengthy enough to reach the mansion's underground welcomes him—and it seems
that the inferno has reached even this tunnel, the heat and smoke precluding anyone from doing
anything here.
Subaru puts his hand to his chest to cope with the aching, steeling his resolve as he speeds straight
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down the staircase. Descending right after ascending. The heat simmers him, and just imagining
what colour his skin must be makes for a terrifying thought.
After eventually reaching the end of the staircase, Subaru peers into the darkness of the passage, his
breathing ragged.
It seems like the smoke had been leaking in from a gap in the stairway wall, for he sees no effects of
heat or fire in the subterranean passage.
Instead of the threat of burning, Subaru has to deal with fumbling in pitch darkness.
He walks in deeper for another ten or so meters before reaching a somewhat wider space, finds the
door to the small room he's looking for, and stops.
Subaru: “Here...”
Subaru has never gone deeper into the hidden passage than this door. He doesn't know if any other
doors exist beyond this door.
Meaning that this is potentially Subaru's last chance for a door to lead to Beatrice. And if this place
functions as a proper hidden passage—
Subaru: “—”
Shaking his head to dispel his weakness of heart, Subaru reaches for the doorknob.
If Beatrice has lead Subaru here with intention for him to survive, then his chances here are poor.
Subaru fearfully touches the doorknob—
Subaru: “Hhht! This door's another...”
Crying in pain as his hand burns, Subaru grimaces and glares at the door.
The door's response, as if it had reflected Subaru's heart, makes a wave of disquiet surge up in him
and—he notices it.
Subaru: “The doorknob's, hot...?”
While the underground passage may be heated, there are no signs of fire.
The smoke and heat had likely been leaking in through a gap in the stonework that composes the
staircase. If Subaru's speculation is correct, then it's inconceivable that this door would be so hot.
This door is hot enough that you have to wonder if it's indeed been seared by flames.
Subaru: “...Beatrice. If you can hear this, please listen.”
Taking care not to touch the door, Subaru looks slightly upwards and mutters.
With belief that his voice will reach the absent girl.
Subaru: “Did you lead me here? If you did, knowing that the only escape route is through this
hidden passage, then honestly I'm speechless at what a schemer you are.”
Beatrice's tactics to lead Subaru this far were indeed quite considerable.
The encounter with Elsa's shadow and the witchbeast surely had nothing to do with Beatrice, but
she definitely led Subaru here move by move.
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If he proceeds to open this door and reach the mountain cabin, Beatrice's plans will likely be
fulfilled.
Subaru: “But apparently thing won't go so smoothly. ...I could open this door, but I won't manage to
escape how you want me to. This isn't me being stubborn and insisting that I don't want to run away,
okay? I'm at least half in that mood, yes, but... it's something more serious.”
Addressing someone who might not even be listening, Subaru smoothly strings word after word.
He taps his nails against the door blocking the way before him and gives a sigh.
Subaru: “If I open this door, I'm probably dead. You and the others might not notice this, but right
now, that's how things are on the other side of this door. It's hard to explain verbally... but I
understand the soul of science and I can tell.”
Setting aside the failure in the dining room, Subaru's 21st-century knowledge is howling at him.
This door Subaru is presently looking at is a door commonly found during fire-related emergencies,
and must not be touched.
No joke at all, Subaru's life is in danger.
What comes next is a question of whether Beatrice is listening. And if she is, will she believe what
he's saying?
Subaru: “Beatrice. I'm going to open the door. —I'm leaving how you judge my statements up to
you.”
Although aware that this thing before him is a threat to his life, Subaru's heart is rather calm.
It's not that his nerves are steeled, or that he's resolved himself.
It's that he can calmly entrust his life to another.
I mean, after all.
Subaru: “—Beatrice, I trust you.”
With his hand burning in pain, Subaru flings open the door.
And—
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Rather than climb down the spiral staircase, the shadow reaches the bottom via something closer to
'plummeting'.
Shadow: “—”
The blood flowing from the shadow is clouded like muddy water, its visage as it drags its crushed
legs along so ghastly it does not look a thing of this earth. With a wicked black blade in its right
hand, and the dead witchbeast's heart in its left, the shadow clenches its fist to crush the organ as it
proceeds deeper down the passage.
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The skulking shadow has a human's shape, but not even it can determine whether or not it possesses
human will.
Its body has been destroyed such that it cannot function, its life has been whittled such that it cannot
revive, and it has already exhausted the absolute dregs of its vitality as a shadow.
If you asked how the silhouette could regardless be moving around like this, then the shadow would
respond: because its personality before it was a shadow was just that intensely tenacious.
The shadow eventually, silently, reaches the deepest part of the passage.
The shadow lacks a will, and possess no goal other than to corner anything moving and take their
lives. Sensing that its mark has gone through here, the shadow gives an easy flourish of its wicked
blade.
Shadow: “—”
With a clunk, the door in front of the shadow splits apart.

The shadow kicks the door's debris aside, and moves to peer into the darkness beyond,
Shadow: “—”
A slight wind breezes by, making the shadow feel that they are being sucked into the darkness.
White smoke overflows from deep in the darkness, and a haze begins to form before the shadow.
And then—oxygen flows into the room where incomplete combustion occurred, mingling with the
traces of the fire, instantly superheating and bursting out of the room.
Backdraft.
There's no way that the shadow, a dimwitted thing moving only to destroy, could have anticipated
the explosive phenomenon.
Shadow: “—”
The burst of flames engulfs the shadow, hellfire burning its body to nothing.
The shadow's body had lost means to either restore or revive itself, waiting only to rot, when
incinerating fires envelop it, exceeding carbonization as the blaze peaks instantly hotter—and burns
it to nothing.
The fire's momentum does not stop with merely the shadow as it proceeds to zoom through the
underground passage, transforming the spiral staircase into a sea of searing heat, and gusts into the
office to explode for even greater conflagration.
—The Roswaal Mansion now truly collapses as it meets its moment of demise.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Seeing how the Forbidden Archive has changed, Subaru swallows his breath.
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Fissures run through the floor near the entryway, the hole to the hyper-dimensional space still alive
and well. The fallen bookcases have no hopes of recovery, and in fact a portion of the room is up in
flames.
The situation in the Roswaal Mansion has starting affecting the Forbidden Archive too.
Subaru: “—”
But, noticing the gaze fixed upon him, Subaru suppresses his shock and changes his gears.
For now, he shall focus everything on only one single girl.
—For this is surely his last chance.
Beatrice: “You're an idiot, in fact...”
Subaru: “That's seriously the first thing you say?”
Beatrice: “Well you are, I suppose. Betty put in so much effort so that you might escape, then you
squander the opportunity, and come back, in fact. ...The mansion no longer has any doors, I
suppose. The Forbidden Archive has caught aflame too, in fact.”
She's right.
The fire spreads to some of the fallen bookcases, turning the beloved books one by one into ash.
This entire place is flammable, and it's going to burn in a flash.
Subaru: “Which means this'll be the end both for me and for you.”
Beatrice: “...Yes. It's the end, I suppose. There is not much that Betty desires any longer. The fire
has spread to the knowledge destined for THEY, which utterly defies the promise, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Does it. Then, I want you to listen to my final speech.”
Beatrice's empty eyes look at Subaru.

She says nothing to encourage or refuse him, but the reaction probably means that she's at least
willing to listen. Subaru gives her a nod, and takes a small breath.
The words he hadn't managed to tell her before, at their previous parting.
Right now, he will tell her everything he wishes to tell, in full.
Subaru: “Beatrice. —Help me.”
Beatrice: “...Huh?”
Assertion, spoken with chest held high.

Shock dashes through Beatrice's eyes in response to sooty-faced Subaru's declaration.
She had surely attempted to imagine what he would say.

While drawing near to her unavoidable end, Beatrice had definitely run many simulations of what
words Subaru would accost her with.
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I want to save you. I won't let you be alone. Perhaps those manly words, and the cool greeting she
had expected from THEY, where what she had been waiting for.
But if Subaru is to communicate his true feelings, such statements are impossible for him.
Subaru: “So I've been considering how I'm saying this cool stuff like, 'I'm bringing you out of
isolation', or 'I'm going to save you'. ...Really, they're all I could come up with while riding off
momentum to get through the situation. So I've been sincerely considering. What is it I think of
you? What do I think of you, and what do I want to communicate to you?”
Subaru presents his sincere, unadorned thoughts to the wordless Beatrice.

While turning a blind eye to how cowardly and unfair it is that he's leaving the reception of all this
up to her.
Subaru: “This whole me saving you thing's a joke, the truth of it is, you don't need my help at all.
You're strong, you're smart, you're cute... you can do anything you put your mind to, and can get
done anything you want done.”
Beatrice: “—”
Subaru: “You are more than capable enough of living on your own. Of course. If you weren't then
you wouldn'tve managed four hundred years. So not a word of this stuff about helping you or saving
you resounded with you.”
Beatrice: “—”
Subaru: “But even though you're strong and smart and can do so many things, it scared you to live
on your own. It hurt you. It made you lonely. Nobody can fault you for clinging to THEY.”
Beatrice: “After you rejected... Betty's feelings... what could you... possibly understand!”
Biting her lip, Beatrice glares at Subaru with something like hatred.
But that wavering emotion fails to fully be hatred. Beatrice holds on to that fading fury, frantically
trying to preserve it as Subaru shakes his head at her.
Subaru: “I do know. That you're kind. That when someone's having nightmares, you'll hold their
hand to ease them. That when someone's in unworkable trouble, you'll offer your hand and open a
path. That when someone you can't help hating loses someone close to them, you'll lament for
them.”
Beatrice: “Talking as if, you know anything...”
Subaru: “I'm powerless. I can't be any help to you. But if we're gonna say there's anything I can do,
not wanting you to be alone, then it's only cling and beg.”
Beatrice's eyes widen. Subaru presents his right hand.

It's raw with burn scars, disgusting to look at. But it's still better than his atrocious left hand after all
the damage it took.
He wipes it, prepares it, makes it clean enough to suitably hold her hand.
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Subaru: “Beatrice. Help me.”
Beatrice: “—”
Subaru: “I won't be able to live with the loneliness without you. Help me.”
To a third-party listener, it would sound an overwhelmingly pathetic and shameful form of coercion.
I can't live without you, so please take my hand, is his threat.
He cannot do anything for the other, so he is teaching the other that they can do something for him,
and by that rationale, demanding that they live.
It's an excessively selfish, unreasonable, and hopeless means of coercion.
Beatrice: “Not, fair... it isn't fair, in fact.”
Beatrice: “Using, those words... and, saying it so... after all this, you... when you're not THEY... when
you rejected Betty, and yet...”
She is tongue-tied, lost for words, hesitant to speak, emotional, and anguished.
Her eyes remain set on the hand presented to her as she firmly embraces the book in her arms.
Tears spill from her eyes.
Beatrice: “I was alone for four hundred years! I spent all that time in isolation, so what could taking
your hand now, possibly... you'll just die anyway! Human lifespans pass like a blink of the eye to
Betty... after all of this! How could I cling to this!”
Subaru: “It's impossible for me to imagine your four hundred years. I can't talk like I understand it,
either. Four centuries, I haven't even lived a twentieth of that. I know I can't understand all of your
fear for what'll come after I die.”
Beatrice: “Then! Then... nothing you've said, presents any solution...!”
Subaru: “But, tomorrow, we can be holding hands.”
Beatrice: “—”
Subaru: “Tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that too. It might not be four hundred years,
but we can spend our days together. It might not last for eternity, but tomorrow, and in this present, I
can treasure you.”
Subaru: “Beatrice. —Choose me.”
Subaru has already chosen.

Now he presents the choice to Beatrice. It all rests on her.
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Will she stay loyal to her mother, and punctuate four centuries by being swallowed in flames?
Will she disregard her promise to her mother, abandon her meeting with THEY, and take Natsuki
Subaru's hand?
Beatrice: “Y-you are, THEY is...”
Subaru: “Not me. Don't equate me to some other guy you built up in your head. I'm me. Natsuki
Subaru. Take all your unreciprocated feelings for this four-hundred-year asshole you've never even
seen, and dump them.”
Beatrice: “—”
Subaru: “Rather than fear a goodbye that might someday come, live with me in a definite tomorrow.
I'm weak, but I'm still aiming so high... if we're together, you'll be so busy fussing over me you'll
stop having time to think about being bored or lonely.”
Beatrice: “...nng,”
Subaru: “Choose me, Beatrice.”
He'll repeat it however many times it takes for the words to reach her.
Because he understands her wavering feelings, and her wavering heart.
So that the selfishness of Natsuki Subaru can shoulder the burden of her guilt for her indecision, and
shame for breaking the promise.
So that this girl will never cry alone again.
Beatrice: “But you'll go away...”
Subaru: “It won't last forever. The future you're fearing will definitely come. The time when you're
left behind, eternal as you are, will almost definitely come. But if you think only of fear for
farewells, and throw away all the fun of being together, it takes far too much out of both of our
lives.”
Beatrice: “But you'll leave me...”
Subaru: “Let's be together. Let's live together. Let's go together. Let's pile memories upon memories,
enough to blast away your fears of goodbye, enough that you can smile and say with your chest
held high: I enjoyed it. Enough that you recover those four centuries you spent in solitude, and
counterbalance them.”
Beatrice: “Even if... that happened! I'll be alone, someday!”
He steps forward. Closes the distance.

The girl's wavering eyes reflect him.
He looks pathetic, he looks deplorable, he's a far cry from the prince she's been waiting for.
But right there is usual, mundane Natsuki Subaru.
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Subaru: “You'll live forever, and the time you spend with me might only be a microsecond for you.
So I'll carve it into your soul. My microsecond.”
Beatrice: “—”
Subaru: “—That Natsuki Subaru was a man, who even through eternity, was too vivid to ever fade
to sepia!”
The Forbidden Archive crumbles to the sound of shattering glass.
The area around Subaru and Beatrice is surrounded in spacial fissures and scorching flames.
But in this second, he feels not fear nor fire.
The only thing in Subaru is Beatrice.

And the only thing in Beatrice is Subaru.
Beatrice's shaking hands clutch the book received from her mother.
With belief that unhooking her fingers means mending her centuries of solitude, Subaru reaches out
his hand.
And shouts.
Subaru: “Choose me! Beatrice!!”
Beatrice: “—auh,”
Subaru: “You want someone to take you outside! That's why you are always! Sitting opposite the
goddamn door!!”
With the decisive boom, the world meets its end.

The Forbidden Archive, the girl's isolated cage, is swallowed and disappears in rifts and fire.
But the instant before that happens.
—A single book thunks to the floor of the Forbidden Archive.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Having escaped through the hidden passage and reached the mountain cabin, Otto's group watches
the mansion burn from atop a hillock.
Otto, Petra, and Frederica. And Rem shouldered on Frederica's back. The four of them succeeded in
safely evacuating through the passage to the mountains.
The mountains, and particularly the area around the cabin, apparently have a barrier around them to
repel witchbeasts. They see no signs of either wild witchbeasts or witchbeasts in ambush in their
vicinity.
But not a single person here has the composure to rejoice about their survival.
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All of them gaze at the mansion with something like a prayer, waiting for visible change to occur.
While trusting in the safety of Subaru and Garfiel, both still inside.
Otto: “—”
Putting the treatment of his wounds aside for later, Otto gazes at the mansion, regretting even to
blink. Petra stands beside him, clutching her arms with a strength inconceivable by her youth.
She's worried, so worried, so worried it's unbearable. Everyone knows that the young girl feels great
fondness for Subaru. Considering her grief, it's impossible that Otto not pray for Subaru's safety.
Otto: “—”
Otto gently places his hand atop her head to calm her.
He gives her a smile as she looks up at him in surprise, before returning his gaze to the mansion.
And he notices it.
Otto: “...There.”
In the middle of the burning mansion's main wing.

A massive explosion of flame bursts from the office with the hidden passage that Otto's group used.
The windows shatter, overflowing inferno spreading everywhere in an instant, before the mansion
loses its shape—and collapses.
Petra: “Auh...”
Otto hears Petra's cry of grief.

And Otto, too, having witnessed the same reality and figured the same thing as Petra, withstands the
urge to scream in denial. If he throws a fit here, it will be a disservice to the heart of the girl who
most likely wants to cry even more than him.
But Otto's thoughts are instantly invalidated.
Petra: “Otto-san, look!”
Otto: “Adagh!?”
Just when Otto borders on lowering his gaze, Petra's little hand slaps him across the cheek.
The impact startles him, sending sparks across his vision and dizzying him. But he soon sees Petra's
look of elation as she points at the mansion, hurriedly looks over as well, and understands.
Otto: “Hah, hahaha...”
—A pillar of white light is extending from the destroyed mansion to the heavens.
The light twists like a rainbow, changing its angle high in the sky, shooting far to the east.
Practically announcing that its destination lies there.
Otto knows what rests in that direction.

So his cheeks relax as he watches Petra cheer in joy, and,
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Otto: “Now it's all up to you. —Truly, I am exhausted.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Meanwhile, that same light that brought Otto relief is witnessed by Garfiel, half-naked and clad in
only a cloth around his waist. He clicks his fangs.
Garfiel: “Ha! So y'did pull it off, Captain! Knew ya'd do it! 'S a POSTHUMOUSLY TOO HOSHIN
KEEPS HIS PROMISES!”
Having escaped the burning mansion and sprinted into the woods, Garfiel puts his hand to his hip
and laughs like an idiot.
Lying on the ground beside Garfiel is a girl, her limbs bound in restraints made of the same cloth as
Garfiel's waistwrap—Mei Lee, unconscious.
Spoils of war! Is not how he's going to boast about it, but she's a living witness who was involved in
the attack, and there are many things they need to interrogate her about.
But above all, Garfiel's principles would not allow him to kill the young girl.
Garfiel: “'Said, th'shadow lady must'a been burnt t'a crisp.”
Garfiel gazes at the destroyed mansion, sighing.

He threw a witchbeast at her which crushed her—it's an indirect method that left no feeling in his
own hands, but Garfiel still did choose of his own volition to butcher a near-human life.
His fingers shake, and he can feel a wrenching pain in his stomach.
But Garfiel suppresses those feelings with a shake of his head, seating himself beside the sleeping
Mei Lee before leaning against a tree.
Garfiel: “F'now we'll put off th'aftertaste'v winnin' and th'feelin' of killin'. Nothin' my amazin' self
does now 's gonna accomplish anythin'. ...Countin' on you, Captain.”
Thrusting out his fist, Garfiel glares at the trail of white light, and:
Garfiel: “Once this's all cleaned up, we got a guy we both gotta give a good smack 'cross th'face!”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—She's been caught.
She knew this would happen, and she still grasped for it.
Even though she's known forever that, should she take this hand, should she cling to this warmth,
she would never be able to return to her nights of isolation and solitude.
Even though she'd admonished herself about how insanely foolish it was to live while depending on
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an ephemeral warmth.
That voice, calling for her.

Those eyes, gazing at her.
Those hands, requiring her.
Even though she'd known how she could not possibly refuse.
—Subaru.
“Yes, that's it.”
—Subaru, Subaru.
“Yes. That's my name.”
—Subaru, Subaru, Subaru.
—Subaru!!
“And you finally called me by it.”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—The blizzard rages.
Blinding curtains of white unfurl, every puff of breath freezing the instant it touches the outside air
of this gelid world.
The breeze bathing her is frigid, and the blizzard winds carry snow so sharp it nigh cuts the skin.
But even amidst this ferocious storm, the girl with her silver hair fluttering holds strong willpower
in her amethyst eyes, and faces forward.
“I'm never, never... going to let you take anyone!!”
A glow cases her arms as she stretches them out, and unleashes a massive volume of magical power.
The blizzard amplifies the glacial magic that wreathes itself in pale light, which then slices through
the world like an incandescent sword, one-by-one slashing apart the white witchbeasts passing
overhead.
The unpleasant noise of their chittering fangs peals without end.

The embodiment of hunger—an ancient calamity beyond any salvation, specialized only to devour
its prey, something with which no-one could coexist.
Faced with the multiplying malice of 'hunger' there stands, not retreating a single step, the silver-
haired girl.
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But her breathing is ragged, and she has lost some control over her gargantuan mana, with white
crystal beginning to cover her lower body.
If this continues, she will soon transform herself into an ice statue.
But, even though she knows this, she cannot retreat.
“—”
The girl glances behind her.

There rests everything that she must protect from the witchbeast's slaughter.
A dilapidated ruin, and several lives who are placing their hopes upon her small shoulders.
And a man, having not entered the ruin, who dazedly observes the girl's battle, and a dead-still pink-
haired girl in his arms.
Half her body feels frozen. But a fire blazes in her heart.
Who could possibly winge and whine after witnessing them?

For what purpose, and with whose confidence, is she standing here?
“I... I won't let you be the end to anybody! Everybody's hands were linked together... and I'm going
to protect that! That is what I promised my Mother!”
A torrent of pale light crashes into the horde of approaching witchbeasts.

They cry no death wails, falling motionless amid the white gleam. They witness their companions'
sad deaths, before instantly choosing to cannibalize them and chewing into ice.
It's terrible to watch.

But perhaps, potentially, that's what people look like too when they're clinging to hope.
Even so. Even so.
“So long as I haven't forgotten about Mother and Juice, and about everybody today... and about
what he wrote for me, I am never giving up.”
Even if she does end up encased in ice, she will never regret it.
Cutting through the blizzard, the encroaching witchbeasts grow steadily and steadily nearer, closing
in on the girl and those relying on her.
If she has to, she is resolved to give her life.
But just when the girl is tormented with that thought, she hears a voice.
“No need to push yourself so hard, Emilia-tan.”
“—”
She knows that someone has just landed beside her, having descended from high above.
She looks aside. The blizzard blusters too strong, and she cannot make out their face through the
veil of white.
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But she knows exactly who this is.
Their voice, their attitude, and above all, the fact that they would always come for her whenever she
most wanted them.
“You can hold off and fall back. —The inaugural battle of deliverance is here.”
“I'm sorry. That kind of went over my head.”
It feels like they're smiling.

The silhouette begins to walk, immediately followed by another, smaller silhouette.
She hears a second voice.

That sounds lively, as if the speaker's been waiting for a very, very long time for this moment—
“What comes next is a complete unknown, in fact.”
“Yeah, we'll be doing something about this. —Together, me and you!!”
Spirit Beatrice and Contractor Natsuki Subaru, two people who will from now on engage in battles
upon battles while linked hand in hand, commence their inaugural fight here.
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CHAPTER 124B: YOU REFLECTED IN THE MIRROR
While facing the witch who stares back at her from the mirror, Emilia sighs.
Composed solely of monochrome black and white, the WITCH OF GREED, Echidna.
Having discovered Echidna in this dreamworld reproduction of her room, Emilia keenly feels that
this truly is a place constructed from her own head.
A peaceful, tranquil, kind world where her life in the forest continued forever.
A world where she could spend her days alongside Fortuna's, Juice's, Arch's, and everbody's smiles.
Emilia: “But that world doesn't exist, does it...”
Echidna: “Utterly not. This is a false world constructed with your memories and wishes as the basis.
However, the world-arranging algorithms that precede over the TRIAL transcend human knowledge.
The people you see in this world are most exactly who they would have been, had there been just one
flick of the switch.”
Emilia has just remembered the truth the day of behind Elior Forest's freezing.
Had there been no casualties back then, and the forest's tranquillity have been preserved, their lives
would have been ones where everyone smiled.
The sight of Fortuna and Juice, seated jovially at the dinner table, has seared itself into Emilia's
mind.
It is exactly the scene that young Emilia had wished to see from the bottom of her heart, and equally
was so for the present Emilia, with her memories restored.
Echidna: “Has witnessing the uncomeatable present made you want to submerse in this world?”
As if peering into Emilia's heart, Echidna assaults her with sweet temptation.
Emilia raises her head. Echidna gazes back, her eyes as cold as her voice. She strokes her snow-
white hair, letting it flow over her shoulder and down her back.
Echidna: “Your mother, and that goodman. Does witnessing their happiness give you no desire for
this to continue forever? I'm sure you've thought it pleasant and so dreamed of spending your days
with everyone in the forest, and of your friends being so familiar with you.”
Emilia: “...What are you trying to say?”
Echidna: “Just some resentment, or something like it. That you've found me means that you've
already reached your answer regarding this world. And I know that this answer of yours is to choose
reality over dream, and exceedingly dull. If we're going to be seeing results regardless, I may as
well leave some faint indentations behind.”
Emilia: “—”
Echidna: “Rather than the happiness of your mother and your peers, you elect for a reality where
they met unfortunate demise. The result of your TRIAL is: you are ultimately a wretched woman
who prioritises herself over others.”
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Echidna's fierce criticism lances through Emilia's chest.
Her words are so cutting that Emilia feels pain, and though she has not actually been stabbed, she
puts her hand to her chest and impulsively retreats a step.
Emilia's reaction makes Echidna snort.
Echidna: “So long as that's given you some self-awareness. Anyway, the TRIAL doesn't take the
personality of its challengers into consideration. So long as they're qualified, be they a hopeless
moral bankrupt, or be they a conglomerate of egotistic narcissism, the TRIAL will accept them
equally. Rest assured. You'll achieve your goals in short time.”
Emilia: “It's sooo... sore a spot you're going for. Are you like this with everyone?”
Echidna: “Not at all.”
Echidna shrugs in response to Emilia's strained statement.
Echidna: “Other than you, there's only two people in the world who I interact with spitefully.”
Emilia: “It doesn't make me happy at all to be chosen for that world three. ...I don't remember ever
doing anything that would make you hate me that much.”
Echidna: “There's no need to look so worried. My hatred for you has nothing to do with you being a
half-elf. It isn't a question of your pedigree. With no connection to blood or nature, I just hate
you. ...Or no, that may not be strictly correct.”
Emilia: “—?”
Echidna lowers her gaze, feeling something off about the latter half of her statement. Emilia
furrows her brows at the brooding witch, before giving a small shake of the head.
There's no way she can turn tail and just leave those previous comments sitting there.
Echidna has said so many things that need to be invalidated. Not only for Emilia's sake, but for the
honour of everyone in the forest.
Emilia: “I don't think there's much to do about you hating me. I know how hard it is for absolutely
everyone to like you. Since so many people have told me they hate me.”
Echidna: “If that's the case then it would've been nice of you to show some prudence and stay in the
forest.”
Emilia: “Well I'm not going to do that. I'm sure I said it in the last TRIAL. I'm going to melt the ice
and save everybody. Then I'm going to hold my chest high and teach everyone that now, the world's
an easier place to roam.”
Echidna: “Easier to roam. What a brazen lie. Discrimination between races remains great, and
people cannot easily accept those who differ from themselves. Which is why places like
SANCTUARY retain their function even today. The disagreements you're referring to will forever
result in compounding casualties throughout the world. Am I wrong?”
Emilia: “...You're not wrong.”
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Echidna's severe comments put Emilia on the border of pessimism.
Emilia still remembers the days she spent with Puck in the forest. How the nearby villages feared
her, and showered her in more than a few curses and more than a little spite.
Echidna's merciless attitude makes Emilia think about those days. She can try not to recollect on
them, but the wounds and their unhealed scars continue to assert their pain.
Emilia: “But I'm going to act as if you are.”
Echidna: “—”
Still focused on that pain, Emilia firmly rebuts Echidna.

She watches Echidna narrow her eyes, and bites her lip, strength entering her eyes.
Emilia: “Being unlike others does, sometimes, make painful disagreements happen. Whether there's
lots or not many of you might be a big factor for what determines the victims and assailants,
sometimes, too.”
Echidna: “And it's been repeats of that, throughout history. People cannot accept those unlike them.
The disparity in numbers represents exactly the disparity in strength. The many oppress the few.
Now that you understand this truth, and have gotten a little bit wiser, what are you going to do?
Gather up the few, and create a utopia for weaklings? Now wouldn't that be exactly the essence of
this place we call SANCTUARY?”
Emilia: “That's... one option you could choose, I think. But I want to choose a different path. Even
if I can't change that there were victims or assailants, the future's another story.”
The second that Emilia says the word 'future', Echidna's expression freezes numb.
To Emilia, it feels like Echidna is angry, as if this is something she absolutely doesn't want to be
hearing from Emilia of all people. But Emilia continues.
Emilia: “I'm sure I'm going to do lots of things throughout the Royal Selection. I might face even
more insults and spite than I did before. But I want to always say that I will never stop. To ask
what's so wrong about being unlike someone else. To ask what's so scary about being unlike our
neighbours.”
Echidna: “I'd rather you stop making be say this, but this is fundamental truth. People cannot accept
the discrepancies between themselves and others. By essence, all creatures desire for others to be
the same as themselves. To like the same things, love the same things, hate the same things, abhor
the same things—they feel secure when matters are so, and love their capacity to sympathise. Your
platform will be denied. As the ramblings of the weak.”
Emilia: “But that's just a neglect to think! It's lame!”
Echidna: “L-lame...?”
Yells Emilia. Echidna's eyes shoot open, looking not to have expected that word in the least.
Emilia puffs out her chest.
Emilia: “It is!”
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Emilia: “It's so lame. You're not like your neighbour, so you hate them... are you a child? It's
ridiculous that someone would block their ears for a reason like that. I'll say it countless times to
any of those nitwits. Rather than mindlessly yell that you don't like it, if you're looking to quiet my
endless tirades, it's easier to change your thinking a little.”
Echidna: “Absolutely self-centred. Incredible self-deception. You'll eliminate the opinions of others
that you wish not to hear, so that you may enforce your own?”
Emilia: “I'm not eliminating anything. It's up to them whether they unblock their ears. —I'm just
confident that I'm the more stubborn.”
Her hand to her hip, Emilia demonstrates to Echidna that her will will not bend.
Echidna's expression turns sour and she averts her gaze from Emilia.
Echidna: “Whatever you may assert, the world has not changed yet. The forest-dwellers, frozen in
ice—supposing that they are alive, and you do bring them into a thawed world, society is not
prepared to accept them. All you are doing is tossing those who were kind to you into adversity. All
for your hypocritical beliefs.”
Echidna: “You wish to free your friends as soon as you can. But should you free them, your friends
will suffer as the world rejects them. Living is suffering, and death too is suffering. In a world like
this, what can your individual willingness do? What can it change. What does it change?”
Echidna is sincerely inquiring this of Emilia.

She has verified Emilia's resolve through the two TRIALS of the past and impossible present. Now,
Echidna is asking Emilia about her resolve for the future.
About Emilia's prospects should she follow her intentions through.

About the route she will take to reach her imagined future.
About what Emilia will use as her cornerstone, and upon what concrete basis she will create this
path.
Emilia nods in reply, and:
Emilia: “I'll think about that after I finish the TRIAL!”
Echidna: “—Huh?”
Emilia: “It's putting the cart before the horse if I get so focused on the future that I forget where I
am. I know how this sounds when I'm the one saying it, but I'm a bumbler. When there's a wall I
have to scale, but I'm worrying about what's on the other side of it, I'll wind up falling into the hole
at the foot of the wall.”
Between the TRIALS and her argument with Subaru, Emilia feels that she has a rather correct,
objective view of herself.
She feels that her appraisal of herself is also unrestrained.
She is not someone so adroit that she can manage many things on her own.
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It's a question of whether, after putting in her very best effort on the thing right in front of her, she'll
manage to procure results.
She has hope for the future. Prospects for the future.
Resolved to aim for those hopes and prospects, she must take the very first step on the road to
achieve them.
What she should be establishing right now is that exact, first step.
Echidna: “...I finally remembered how pointless it is to debate with you. Honestly this was all rather
idiotic of me.”
Emilia: “I know that you're smart, but I kinda think it's sooo unfair for you to shut down other
people's opinions like that.”
Echidna: “Do you believe that we exchanged any opinions? I presented questions, and you replied
with empty platitudes. I'd forgotten. That you're a hopeless child, unable to stand on your own,
constantly relying on others, a weak woman.”
Emilia: “You're right... I am a weak child.”
Emilia lowers her eyes and gives a small shake of her head.
But she immediately looks back up, and matches her gaze to Echidna's.
Emilia: “But,”
Emilia: “Is being weak really so wrong?”
Echidna: “...What?”
Emilia: “I know that the person who taught me something very important would say this. It isn't
wrong to be weak. It's wrong to want to stay weak.”
She thinks of the black-haired, nasty-eyed boy.

Lamenting his powerlessness, but kind and thus suffering more wounds than anyone else in his
efforts, a precious boy.
If it were him, who borrowed everyone's aid but nevertheless took a place for the most painful parts,
he would absolutely say that.
Echidna: “Reorientation.”
Emilia: “Mm. I was slow to reorient.”
Seeing how a smile arises on Emilia's face, Echidna perceives that there is truly no room for debate.
Echidna has no methods to stop the persistently optimistic, overly-enthusiastic Emilia.
Meddling in the issue any further would even begin to impact her dignity as a WITCH.
Echidna: “...Well, enjoy the remaining TRIAL. Once you've completed it, a reality far harsher than
these TRIALS awaits you. I'm sure you'll come to understand just how difficult it will be to uphold
your shiny platitudes.”
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Emilia: “Thank you for going out of the way to talk to me. I'll make sure to remember what you've
told me. And...”
She must be moments away from dissappearing from the mirror.

Seeing how Echidna's reflection begins to fade in the mirror, Emilia continues her speech. Echidna
furrows her brows, looking sour. And Emilia,
Emilia: “Thank you for showing me this world.”
Echidna: “—”
Emilia: “It might be an impossible world, but it's still one I wanted to see. I never thought a day
would come where I'd see them, Mother and... Father Juice laughing together like this. Thank you.”
It did hurt when Echidna told her that this world was not real.
But even if it is an impossible world, these scenes are what would have occurred.
These scenes full of happiness and love, enough to make Emilia tremble in joy and sorrow.
I'm so glad I got to see this, thinks Emilia from the bottom of her heart.
Echidna: “...You.”
And so Emilia expresses her thanks—and Echidna's expression shifts.

Her expression has been one of witnessing something disgusting, her attitude has been one of
withstanding displeasure, her stance has been one of scorn toward all of Emilia's action, and she has
shown many such faces until now—but this expression is different from all of them.
—Echidna, looking close to tears, simply gazes at Emilia.
Emilia: “Echidna?”
Echidna: “I hate you. —I just, hate you.”
Says Echidna, voice strangled and face cast down.

Her image in the mirror then warps, and the white-haired witch disappears from the glass in an
instant. Instead what appears is a girl with long, silver hair and—
A wave of rejection spears through Emilia's chest as she promptly averts her gaze from the mirror.
Her pulse has accelerated, and her breathing has grown slightly ragged.
She's supposed to have steeled herself for this, but it still terrifies her to be reflected in a mirror.
Emilia: “—”
A century passed in the frozen Elior Forest before Puck saved Emilia from the ice. —She has never
seen what she looks like grown up.
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The reason's simple. She's just scared.
Her century of slumber in the ice means that Emilia's heart has remained immature, while her body
has matured to womanhood.
Once she regained consciousness, and first realised that she couldn't control her body very well,
Emilia was struck with the illusion that her body may not be hers, and spent many nights in tears.
The reactions from the neighbouring villagers helped spur on that trauma of hers.
Emilia shared the same distinctive physical traits as the WITCH OF ENVY, and the villagers feared
her like a demon. Even though they realised that Emilia was going to do them no harm, they
continued to alienate her.
Once people knew that Emilia was not going to do anything, what awaited her was a life of
discrimination, spite, and curses. During that time, Emilia came to at least unconsciously recognize
that people hated her because she looked like the WITCH OF ENVY.
That would be when she started rejecting mirrors and keeping her eyes from her own visage, which
others detested.
Puck noticed Emilia's mental wounds, and removed everything reflective from her vicinity. He
would even call out to her when she was out fetching water, distracting her so that she would not
face herself on the water's surface.
—One of the clauses in her contract with Puck, where he was the one in charge of Emilia's daily
grooming, was most likely something to protect Emilia.
To protect his daughter, who could not look in a mirror, Puck used the contract as pretext to mask
her trauma.
Emilia: “...I really have had so many people looking after me.”
And how long has she spent sulking alone without realising how others felt?
This is the end of the time she's spent in ignorance of what she's been given.
She takes a breath. Freezes.

And raises her head, undertaking the personally momentous deed of sighting herself in a mirror.
Reflected in the mirror is a girl with long silver hair and amethyst eyes.
Who is glaring so intently at her, looking as if it's the end of the world.
Emilia: “—The heck.”
She says, the whole thing anticlimactic.

Seeing her matured visage in the mirror, Emilia sighs.
Emilia: “I look less like Mother Fortuna than I thought, it's too bad...”
After her sulky mutter, the world shatters into pieces.
This happy, desired, but inevitably-to-part dream world, ends here—.
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※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Emilia: “—ah, hauh.”
After regaining consciousness, Emilia realises that she had fallen asleep while leaned against the
wall.
She had slumped to sit on the floor with her legs splayed out aside her, relying on the wall engraved
with Subaru's messages. She combs her fingers through her dishevelled hair and imagines the sight
of her own self.
So that was her appearance, feared by many as a WITCH, and what Subaru constantly said was 'cute'
or that he 'loved'.
Emilia, with her impoverished understanding of personal aesthetics, cannot tell which party is
correct.
However, Mother Fortuna is Emilia's conception of the prettiest and coolest of people. And so she
does not think nasty eyes are a bad thing, and actually she doesn't dislike how nasty Subaru's eyes
are either.
Emilia: “I just got back, this isn't the time for me to be thinking about weird stuff.”
Putting her hands to her cheeks, Emilia pulls the breaks on her own thoughts.
It's all so ludicrously spineless of her. She safely ends the TRIAL and returns, and just looking at
Subaru's handwritten messages seriously gets her this elated?
Emilia: “But... this does mean that the second TRIAL is really over, right?”
Mutters Emilia to nobody as she gets to her feet and starts thinking about her results.
Going from how Echidna was acting at the end, the TRIAL is most likely over. Unlike with the first
TRIAL, Emilia feels no particular sense that she has overcome anything.
But she indeed did wrest her near-captivated heart away, and managed to return.
Emilia: “—”
Fortuna and Juice. As Emilia thinks back on how close they were, her heart aches.
But she suppresses her sorrow and turns her back to the TRIAL room.
Supposing that the third TRIAL is ready, it will require Emilia to exit and enter again as she did with
the second TRIAL.
She'll coast off her momentum to defeat the third TRIAL, and liberate SANCTUARY.
For Subaru's sake, and for Ram's request, and to actualize the big talk she spoke to Roswaal, people
need her to take action.
Emilia: “—It's just pitch black.”
Passing through the dark corridor of the tomb, her footsteps pealing off the stone floor, Emilia
narrows her eyes as she notices how dim the light spilling into the ruin's entrance is.
Perhaps clouds are blocking out the moon, or this hazy glow is from starlight.
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In SANCTUARY, which loses essentially all sources of light come nightfall, only the natural lighting
pouring down from above serves to rip through the nocturnal dark.
Emilia: “—huh?”
Is what Emilia ponders as she walks.

So when she steps outside the tomb, the horde of gazes focusing on her lead her throat to
unwittingly jam.
???: “W-we are in her presence!”
Somebody speaks up, and a chatter instantly spreads through the crowd.
The stir only unfolds further before the flinching Emilia, the overwhelmingly large group of people
all focusing their attention on her.
—These are the residents of SANCTUARY.
The people who live in SANCTUARY other than Garfiel and Lewes.
Emilia has not interacted with them any more than necessary during her time here. Partly because
Emilia's mental state hadn't been calm enough for it, partly because they had not been actively
trying to interact with Emilia either.
Emilia has a kind of resignation when it comes to people staring at her like this.
The residents detest Emilia's lineage, but hold expectations for her to liberate SANCTUARY, and most
of all must ascertain whether she is someone worthy of standing at their head.
And so Emilia had thought it impossible that they would show themselves to her in such great
numbers before she had succeeded in liberating SANCTUARY.
Emilia had been convinced that interaction with them would only ever come about once she had
achieved in attaining results.
So then why were they all gathered here?

And why were their gazes towards Emilia—filled not with loathing, but strong expectation?
???: “Can't say it's the nicest erv things...”
Before the bewildered Emilia, a girl steps forward from the group of villagers.
With her long, pink hair, this person is Lewes.
She steps forward to represent the villagers as she gives Emilia a smile.
Lewes: “Everyone here ers stuck at a standstill. Wondering what answer yer gonner give ter the
TRIAL, and... worrying about what will happen ter us after SANCTUARY's been freed.”
Emilia: “...I think it's inevitable that you would. But how would this be 'not the nicest of things'?”
Lewes: “Now thert's easy. Everyone in SANCTUARY, about Gar-bo and Su-bo's fight, er about your
argument with Roz-bo, or... well, lots'er things. We've all been derscussing them in detail, and from
there...”
Emilia: “D-discussed it!?”
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While she watches Lewes scratch her cheek, Emilia's cheeks flush red.
Nevermind Subaru and Garfiel's clash of wills, Emilia's argument with Roswaal was just her being
pushy with her unrefined opinions.
She had rationalized to herself that it wouldn't be embarrassing for anyone to hear it, but now that
she knows that someone actually did hear it, it is making her embarrassed.
Emilia: “But, even if you did hear about it... Lewes-san, where did you?”
Lewes: “Hrm, so abert that... fer however I might look, I gert incredibly sharp ears. With it, yer
pretty much can't keep anything a secret so long ers yer in SANCTUARY.”
Emilia: “You do. ...Wow.”
Lewes's confession of eavesdropping winds up impressing Emilia more than angering her.
Failing to notice how the young-looking old woman sticks out her tongue, Emilia nods in
recognition of why so many people have assembled here.
And,
Villager: “E-Emilia-sama.”
Emilia: “Y-yes?”
Lewes: “Yer sound like yer met through a dating service.”
He's one of the villagers—and being that he's in Sanctuary, most likely a demihuman half-blood.
His canines are slightly long, and his pupils are slit. He looks about as old as Roswaal or maybe a
little bit older, seeming somewhat tense as he steps out before Emilia.
Villager: “I'm... no, we are, um... in complete sincerity, we are still undecided.”
Emilia: “—”
Villager: “About whether we may trust in you, or what it will mean to learn of the world outside
SANCTUARY. Plainly said, the outside is awash with things we don't know, and scares us. We were
all born inside here and have lived inside here. We know nothing of the outside.”
This was what Garfiel had also propounded, the way of life in SANCTUARY.
The four-hundred year barrier has forced the people inside into life here for generations. They had
no way to escape, and perhaps no need to think about the outside, either.
But now means to escape exists plainly before them, and this utterly foreign and unknown person
named Emilia is attempting to liberate them.
Of course people would feel unease and rebellion. And doubtful that many could burst into the
outside world, utterly confident.
Emilia had feared that Garfiel's anxieties had been the consensus of opinion inside SANCTUARY.
And this man in front of her is saying things that are validating that fear.
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Villager: “We could perhaps come into Roswaal-sama's care outside, but how would that differ from
our present circumstances? ...Plainly said, we are more anxious than hopeful. The change frightens
us.”
Emilia: “...Mm.”
Villager: “However.”
Emilia nods and edges on lowering her gaze, when the man's statement stops her.
The man straightens his posture before continuing, his expression tense.
Villager: “Everyone has heard Garfiel's... has heard the boy's voice.”
Villager: “We know what that trooper was thinking, and how he felt. And know the exchanges
between him and that black-haired young man, and between yourself and Roswaal-sama
afterwards.”
His back still straight, the man's expression twists.

Regretful, and near to tears. It sticks in Emilia's chest.
Villager: “I, sincerely speaking, thought it pathetic. That a fourteen-year-old boy was so worried for
us, and that a child under twenty years old was howling at us like that. ...And even though Roswaal-
sama stated that you could not do it, we listened to your words as well. And so, Emilia-sama.”
Emilia: “—Yes.”
Villager: “No matter what the results may be, and no matter what may occur after this, I believe
your effort to challenge the TRIAL incredible. Venerable. Not all of us share that sentiment, and not
even I have entirely accepted you yet. But I request that we may witness it to completion.”
Witness what? No need to ask.

Bathed in his wilful gaze, Emilia looks at those behind him—the crowd of people who are
accepting him as their representative—and nods.
Emilia: “Understood. I'll be sure to end everything safely... and you'll listen to what I have to say.”
Villager: “Yes. That is a promise. And to think of judging someone off hearsay, without ever
interacting with them... we're the last people who should be doing that, huh. —Wahgh!”
The man slumps his shoulders. When Lewes pinches his hip from behind.
The man springs up and turns around in objections, but Lewes just snorts a laugh.
Lewes: “Yer sure went on a while, sure are serious, aren't yer. And yer fell back int'er talking casual
halfway through. 'Cause yer ain't used ter doing this.”
Villager: “...M-my apologies.”
Lewes: “Anyway, there's what we're thinking. Apologies fer the meddler.”
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With that charming little exchange, Lewes gets the man to stand down.
Emilia takes a deep breath, something other than oxygen puffing up her chest.
Lewes is giving her graces, and the people of SANCTUARY have come to see her efforts through.
Who could estimate how greatly it reassured her?
Emilia: “Thank you, Lewes-san. Now, I know I can try sooo hard.”
Lewes: “I see, I see. Well, good. ...Next one should be the last TRIAL.”
Emilia: “Yes, it is. —I'm going to challenge it right away.”
With the strength they've given her, Emilia turns around to face the tomb.
But halfway through her turn she freezes, remembering something, and glances back to Lewes.
Emilia: “Ah, oh... actually, Lewes-san, have you seen Ram? I'd like to tell her that I finished the
second TRIAL, but...”
Lewes: “...Ram's left here ter attend ter some business. But she she's praying yer good luck. 'You
have your tasks, and I have mine. Let us see them both achieved.'”
It sounds like Ram, and even though she knows it's just a report, it makes her want to give a wry
smile.
Ram's task—where, and with whom, will she achieve it?
Emilia feels something astir in her chest, but she consciously suppresses it.
Ram is believing in her. And so, she will believe in Ram.

Just how Subaru and the others made a path for her, she wants to proceed from their efforts and
make a path as well.
Emilia: “I'm going.”
Lewes nods in reply, and the villagers's jabbering sees her off.
Filled with even stronger resolve than the first or second times, Emilia steps into the tomb.
Where—,
<Face the impending calamity.>
The final TRIAL, approaches—.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Ram feels how her heartbeat grows a touch distant in her chest.
She has never been bathed in such hostility from this person ever before.
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Physical contact with him, exchanging words with him, being ordered by him.
Those things were the epitome in joy for Ram, and her meaning in life.
And so the fact that she feels girlish elation—even when when he regards her with hostility—
overjoys her.
???: “...Hoooooooow dare you show yooooooourself here.”
Mutters the tall man opposite Ram, glaring at her.
His tantalizing voice makes a sweet ache run through her brain.
Just by having his heterochromatic gaze on her, everything below her waist feels like it could
shatter.
Although, this is naturally not the time to display such weak and girly things.
A woman like that would merely be deemed useless and discarded.
???: “Nooooooooow then, what could you have coooooooooome here for?”
Ram: “—That is simple.”
She replies as usual, her face expressionless and manner tranquil.

With her pink hair swaying, Ram draws her wand from beneath her skirt, before pointing it at the
beauty before her—pointing it at her dearly respected master,
Ram:
“I have come to snatch you away from your witch delusions.”
And confesses that she is here to burn her loved one, consumed by an insane love, with her own.
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CHAPTER 125B: STARTING AS REVENGE
The wind rages.
A single, strong gust whips violently at their hair and clothes as they face each other.
The setting is the outskirts of SANCTUARY, near the hidden house where young Garfiel and
Frederica lived, in an unpopulated and unremarkable meadow.
There are no residencies anywhere near here, and even if there were, nobody would possibly pass
by at this juncture. All of the people of SANCTUARY should be busy waiting for Emilia's TRIAL
results.
To cheer Emilia on, and for Ram to exploit to clear out the crowd.
Roswaal: “Delusion, yoooooooou say.”
Ram does feel somewhat guilty about using Emilia like this, but refocuses her attention as she sees
Roswaal's lips relax into a smile.
Roswaal sweeps his long, navy hair down his back, then closes one eye and glares at Ram with the
yellow.
Roswaal: “When you are the one saying it, aware of my feelings and my goals, it's quiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite
the sad thing to hear.”
Ram: “I have have simply kept silent, but always thought so. As I naturally would.”
Roswaal: “Natural... weeeeeeeeell, I doooooooo suppose so. From your perspective, it was a life of
prolonged prostration and disgrace.”
Ram: “—”
Ram responds to Roswaal's shrug by lowering her gaze.

She more or less understands what he's trying to say. Of course she would. Ram has always been
paying attention to Roswaal. She understands to a painful extent how he, recipient of her love and
loyalty, would perceive her allegiance to him.
Roswaal: “So, the first thing you do once unfettered from the contract is stray frooooooom my
plans. That would be what you did in supporting Subaru-kun and aiding in subjugating Garfiel,
correct?”
Ram: “It had carried dual meanings, both for my objectives and to rectify Garf's idiocy. ...Were I not
there, I suspect that they wouldn't have managed anything.”
Roswaal: “It does feel that everything worked out 'in the end'. Subaru-kun makes some rather
thoughtless bets, when so many precious things are involved and at stake. ...I would never even
think to make such an idiotic gamble for my precious one.”
It's something of a sermon: cynical about Subaru's decision, and insistent that his own ideas are the
rational ones.
And honestly, there is nothing about Roswaal's statement that Ram can refute. Many of Subaru's
actions were utterly unplanned and haphazard. He had the luck of Heaven on his side for the whole
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Garfiel affair, including how Ram participated in it.
Ram's opinion of Subaru being a man of only good timing hasn't changed at all.
Should you focus only on the question of achieving a goal, then Roswaal's ideas are far superior.
Provided that the gospel can be trusted.
Ram: “Won't make gambles... because what came of prioritising accuracy was the gospel.”
Roswaal: “Eeeeeeeeexactly. Although you seemed not to trust it, and have aaaaaaaaaaalways been
adverse to it. Again, inevitable. You've been praying for its writ to divert at any point that it possibly
could.”
Ram: “...I will not deny that.”
Cannot deny that.

Ram truly was adverse to the gospel. But there's a huge discrepancy between Roswaal's conception
and Ram's real motives as to why.
And it racked Ram with a sorrow that she never let show on her face.
Roswaal: “Do you remember? The contract that we formed, with the gospel as our intermediary?”
Ram: “—That, provided that history is moving as stated in your gospel, I wager my life to serve
you. In exchange,”
Roswaal: “Should time proceed down a path diverged from the gospel's writ, my goals face a
standstill. Should I lose sight of my goals, my life loses all meaning. You are permitted to do
whatever you wish with my husk.”
Ram: “Your life or death rests upon me.”
Roswaal: “That waaaaaaaaas the contract.”
With that, Roswaal draws a black book from his breast pocket.
He cradles the thick tomb close, stroking its cover as he gives a sigh.
Roswaal: “It must have been truly long and painful for you.”
Ram: “—”
Roswaal: “After all... you had to spend your life swearing reluctant loyalty to a man partly
responsible for the destruction of your birthplace. Contrary to your prayers, your heart delights
when with me... it must have been agony. My deepest apologies for being so aaaaaaaaapathetic.”
Roswaal spins spiteful words to wound Ram.
Partly responsible for the destruction of your birthplace. Hearing that sentence, pain and memories
of her hometown, and family, in flames pass through her chest.
The ONI have a low population even for demihumans, but in exchange, possesses incredible
strength.
Ram's race had gathered up their scant numbers and established a village deep in the mountains,
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then were exterminated overnight between fire and knives, leaving Ram and ▒▒▒ as the only
survivors.
She had formed the contract with Roswaal the morning after the fire, as she gazed dazedly over the
scorched village.
Ram accepted the contract for the sake of survival.

Without ▒▒▒ ever knowing anything, and equally without Ram ever telling ▒▒▒ anything.
Ram: “—?”
Feeling an inexplicable sense of awriness and a faint aching in her head, Ram furrows her brows.
She feels that there is an unnatural vacuum somewhere in her memories. That there's something that
has to be there, but it's being obfuscated by a network of lies, telling her that no such thing existed.
Even though Ram's memories make no sense without it—.
Roswaal: “The despicable longing within you, and the lust for revenge that your true heart fostered.
Even with these contrary desires squabbling within you, you proved a truly eeeeeeeeexcellent pawn.
Just how extensively have I used you, with your obedient conformity to the gospel?”
While Ram searches her memories to try and find what is off, Roswaal continues his speech.
This isn't the time for this, she thinks as she aborts her search for the vacuum and faces Roswaal,
who speaks sweetly as he praises her loyalty.
But the glances he sends Ram begin to adopt another kind of sentiment.
Roswaal: “But who woooooooould have thought that you'd betray me and ally with Subaru-kun. Do
you comprehend how much grief I have suffered because of this?”
Ram: “...I have not defied the terms of our contract. Should the world proceed on a course differing
from the gospel, I will adhere not to your words, but to my own heart. The contract... should I have
disobeyed it, then I would not have escaped unharmed.”
Putting her hand to her chest, Ram asserts the legitimacy of her actions.
This contract between Ram and Roswaal was, naturally, not any simple spoken-word promise.
Spells are engraved on both of their souls, and they will suffer more than appropriate penalty should
they defy the terms. Since this has not happened, Ram's heart has not defied the contract.
But Roswaal gives a big shake of his head.
Roswaal: “Thaaaaaaaat is what I'm referring to. Considering that you have not been punished for
disobeying the contract in this situation... your soul believes without the slightest of doubt that you
are adhering to the contract. And I must find that a terribly unfortunate judgement.”
Ram: “What might you mean?”
Roswaal: “It's simple. —The gospel's writ has not diverged yet. The contract between you and I
truly reaches its terminus further from now, in the future.”
Asserts Roswaal, his voice low as he looks Ram in the eye.

The statement makes even expressionless Ram's cheeks tense. What she is hearing differs greatly
from what the contract's spell acknowledged.
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Even with all these conditions in place, Roswaal's stubborn heart is not surrendering in the least.
Ram: “The writ has not diverged? Barusu will not challenge the tomb to liberate SANCTUARY, and
Emilia-sama is not doing anything to bring about snowfall. How could you state that the writ has
not diverged in this situation, Roswaal-sama... has something happened?”
Roswaal: “Nothing at all, it's theeeeeee same as ever. While, true, neither of the things I stated have
come into fruition... they still may yet.”
Ram: “That will not happen. Barusu has left SANCTUARY, and Emilia-sama is defeating the TRIALS.
To then state that matters will resolve to fit the writ... is this the floundering of an obstinate child?”
Roswaal: “I am quite a mature adult and so can deny being an obstinate child, but I can't deny that I
am floundering. Iiiiiiiiiiiinded, here is my useless floundering. —An endless, over four-century long,
peeeeeeeeeerpetual stretch of floundering.”
Changing his course, Roswaal asserts that his own actions are 'floundering'.
The clown laughs from the back of his throat, his expression twisted in insane elation as he slaps his
knees, praising the perfection of it all.
Roswaal: “Floundering, exactly, it's floundering! There is the punchline! Is there any word to more
accurately describe this obsession of mine? Nooooooooope, there isn't! Floundering... floundering...
ahhaaaaa, wonderful. It had never even occurred to me.”
Ram: “Roswaal-sama!”
Roswaal: “A man floundering in dependant obsession, and a servant whose lust for revenge against
a madman has morphed into loyalty to him. Our circumstances are truuuuuuuly crooked and
comedic. Hoooooooowever, calling my actions floundering will do nothing to change my
intentions. You have acted prematurely.”
Roswaal's insane smile disappears as he presents the gospel to Ram, so that she can see it.
Roswaal: “No matter what you may believe, the contract remains unchanged. Until she overcomes
the tomb's TRIALS, nothing has diverged from the writ that Natsuki Subaru will liberate
SANCTUARY. And even should she not bring snowfall, no deviation will come to the writ provided
that I bring snowfall.”
Ram: “—”
Roswaal: “You may appeal to the terms of the contract, but I also act in equal compliance. And so
we sit upon parallels. The time has not come yet for you to enact your revenge.”
Roswaal lightly tosses the book, catching it in his other hand before stashing it in his breast pocket.
Flickering flames arise atop his outstretched right arm.
Roswaal shows off how the flames change colour from red, to blue, to green, narrowing his eyes.
Roswaal: “You are still subject to the terms of your employment. You have acted impertinently as
my servant and so face punishment. If you had truly believed that the world diverged from the
gospel, then all you had to do was wait for two more days. I would have presented myself to you
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without resistance. ...Hastiness serves well for nothing.”
Roswaal shakes his head in lamentation.
Roswaal: “Although,”
Roswaal: “I do understand your desire to destroy me as soon as conceivably possible.”
Ram: “...So you truly do understand nothing.”
Roswaal: “—?”
Ram closes her eyes, murmuring feebly in reply to Roswaal's cynical smile.
Beneath her eyelids there rests a wave of complex emotion, never to show on her face. By closing
her eyes, Ram can see her own way of life, which she pledged to never show to anybody.
She raises her head. Mana converges at the tip of her wand, poised this entire time.
Ram: “There is no meaning in having you should it be after the contract is fulfilled. After you've
been destroyed, there is no meaning at all.”
Roswaal: “—Come.”
Ram: “As you wish.”
—Flames of vibrant hue crash into invisible blades of wind.
With waves of heat surging through their SANCTUARY, the oni and the warlock begin their crooked
dance.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Emilia perceives the exact instant that the TRIAL starts.
Her five senses vanish, and she forfeits the general concept of 'having a body'.
Her sensory organs depart from her control, leaving her as only a mind floating helplessly in space
—which is what she is right now, only a soul.
This one obviously differs in nature from the previous TRIALS.
Emilia: <—>
She can't speak.

She has no mouth. No eyes either, but strangely enough, she can perceive the world.
Or no. You could say that she perceives the world, but it's not such a coherent thing yet that you
could confidently call it a 'world'.
Emilia's consciousness floats in a void of darkness.

She can regardless recognize her own self because of the many lights speckling this dark.
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The dim lights come in many colours, splayed about in considerable number.
They resemble the glow of a minor spirit, but they give a decisively different vibe from the living
spirits.
They may resemble minor spirits, but their light more closely matches that from a spellstone.
Regardless, being that these surrounding lights have scattered around to circle Emilia, she feels that
she will not lose sight of the world.
Emilia: <—>
Surrounded by lights, and relieved that she has not been left alone, Emilia starts feeling
progressively confused about the utter lack of happenings here.
The dim lights simply float there in their positions, not doing anything at all. Echidna has been
showing up at the start of these TRIALS to explain what has been going on, but this time she isn't
there to act as a guide.
Time simply passes on by—though Emilia cannot tell what the time disparity is between the inside
and outside of the tomb, she knows that doing nothing will lead to nothing.
Emilia: <—?>
I have to do something, thinks Emilia, and a change occurs.

Emilia's consciousness, formerly fixed in place and immobile, transfers over to another spot—close
enough to the lights that she could probably touch them.
She has no body, but she can touch light. It's a weird sensation.
But she has no other way to express it. If she did, then she might simply be invisible to herself and
instead have a body constructed of primal magic—she may just be od.
If her od is what holds her consciousness and soul, then that does somewhat explain her current
condition.
Reaching some amount of agreement, Emilia thinks to validate her ideas by heading for one of the
lights.
There have to be more than twenty of these scattered lights. With no particular reason for it, Emilia
reaches out for the light that glows a dim silver.
And the instant her od touches the light—she sees it.
???: “Hate, hate, absolutely hate you. Me, I loathe you. I really do. All of it, entirely true. Ever since
we first met... I've downright hated you.”
Emilia: <—!?>
Immediately following the voice, a vivid scene slips into Emilia's perception.
Beneath an overwhelmingly giant sun, in a burnt field, standing beside a massive and dilapidated
building, bathed in crimson sunlight, is a girl with blood wetting her silver hair—Emilia.
It's her fully-grown self, who she has just witnessed in the second TRIAL.
And she looks woeful as she stands before the ruin, assaulting someone with her words.
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Emilia: “I've had the thought countless times, and denied it countless times, but... yes, a nightmare
really did catch up to me. And so I'll say it.”
Emilia: <—>
Emilia: “Maybe we really shouldn't have met after all.”
A tear streams down from the corner of her amethyst eye.

It trails down to her cheek, falls from her chin, and the instant before it strikes the ground, the world
bursts into nothing.
Emilia: <—>
Swallow her breath. As just an od, she's incapable of something so dexterous.

All Emilia can do is accept the scene she just witnessed.
What was that light? What was this scene?

That had definitely been Emilia, but she doesn't remember this at all. Or perhaps that had been an
impossible scene, like the one in the second TRIAL.
Emilia: <—>
It's not, thinks Emilia.

She calms her chaotic mind, searches through her memory, and remembers.
The words she heard in the tomb when entering the third TRIAL.
<First face your past> <Witness the uncomeatable present>
And now the third one. Yes, it was:

<Face the impending calamity>.
Impending calamity. So, the future?

She had seen the past and a present, and for the finish, here's the future.
So this is the baptism that the TRIAL shows those challenging these alternate worlds?
Which means that Emilia will eventually meet this future?

Where she is in such a dismal place, crying as she conveys her regret for meeting somebody?
Emilia: <—>
Emilia uses her feelings of denial to dispel her unease, recovering a superficial level of calm.
But, once her mind registers the darkness again, another change occurs.
The silver light that Emilia's od had just touched disappears.

A vacuum fills the space that the light once occupied, the thing now missing. Emilia is puzzled by
this, but promptly realises what it means.
If each of these lights represents a future, then Emilia needs to touch every one of these futures
before she will be freed.
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—If this is a TRIAL, then she will have to make some kind of choice after she's seen all the futures.
If Echidna is waiting anywhere, then she'll be waiting there.
Meaning: Emilia must witness over twenty futures.
Emilia: <—>
Will they be differing futures, or all fragments of the same future she just saw?
While feeling her non-existent heart wilting, Emilia reaches for the neighbouring light.
This one is blue, reminiscent of something vast and deep, like an ocean—.
???: “You're absolutely right. They were our enemy, and the wound was deep. If we withdrew here,
being that neither of us can heal, maybe we wouldn't have managed any rescue.”
???: “In that case...”
???: “But they were just a kid. —And isn't that enough?”
Again, the scene changes.

Now she witnesses a thick forest, with two people standing at the edge of a sheer cliff.
She can't see their faces. But she knows both of their voices.
One is very familiar, and thought the other one isn't, she does remember it.
The two are facing off before the cliff, one of them kneeling, the other looking down at the kneeling
party. Both of them look horribly morose, Emilia feels.
???: “You... you are a hero. A hero's... all, you can ever be!”
???: “I...”
???: “Why thank you so very much for your help!”
One silhouette reaches their hand out to the other, who turns their face away and imparts those
cavalier words of gratitude.
This feels like a definite farewell between these two people.
A goodbye laced with only irreparable woe and disappointment.

The world begins to fade again, and Emilia's consciousness returns to the dark space.
Emilia: <—>
Emilia had not been present in that scene at all.

She knew who the people in it were, but it feels awry that she herself was absent.
She's meant to be facing these lights while conceiving of them as futures.

So why on earth is it showing her futures where she is absent, or scenes that she will not be present
for?
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—Is she being shown how her decisions may affect the futures of those around her?
If so, then these scenes only present one possibility out of many.
It's telling her to witness how her decisions will impact those other than herself.
Emilia: <—>
The blue light vanishes as the silver light did.

Twenty lights still remain.
—Each one of them carries the weight of a choice.
Steeling herself for this, Emilia reaches out to see the outcome of her decisions through.
In the next future, and the future after that, Emilia's decisions await.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
With a swish of her wand, she creates and unleashes a blade of wind.
Invisible and inaudible, the whirling blade closes in on its target's throat as an assassin.
Roswaal: “Is that all?”
But Roswaal easily evades the imperceptible attack by nimbly jumping away.
Of course he would. He is the head of the renowned Mathers family of sorcerers, a rare breed of
magician proficient in all six classes of magic. For Roswaal L. Mathers, perceiving others'
manipulation of mana is child's play. Even wind magic with its invisible blades is as visible to
Roswaal as fire in the night.
Roswaal: “My turn.”
With a swing of Roswaal's arm, three fireballs of differing hue rain down upon Ram.
A red fire, a blue fire, and a green fire—all three of them pursue Ram when she leaps backward,
quite annoying in how they tail her. She runs backwards, her breath slightly ragged, as she
unleashes another spike of magic. The windblade strikes the three flames, which Ram thought
would snuff them out, but instead they each react in differing ways.
Ram: “—!?”
The instant the red flame takes the hit, like taking a bath of oil, it combusts into a pillar of fire.
The blue flame is easily sliced to pieces by wind, its embers shooting out in all directions.
The green flame looks to be engulfed in wind, when it then absorbs the wind mana and changes its
shape, morphing into a snake of green fire that slithers across the ground in pursuit of Ram.
The fire pillar blazes at Ram, who kicks off from a massive tree to avoid the blue flames, and then
tumbles across the ground to dodge the green flame's fangs before again striking the fire-snake with
her windblade.
The snake bursts into small flares, which scatter over the meadow to smoulder.
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Roswaal: “Oh my... that was only one exchange of magic, and yet you seem quite wounded.”
Ram: “Hahh... hauhh...”
Roswaal: “If you acted with belief that you could win, then I must say that your estimations are
raaaaaaaaaather naive. Why yes, I am currently devoting a large allotment of magic to the algorithm
to manipulate the weather. Hoooooooowever, I am not so careless to accordingly neglect what is
aaaaaaaaaaat hand.”
Roswaal tilts his head as he watches Ram, her shoulders heaving with every breath, and spreads
flames to encircle them.
He creates the three hues of flame again, which take the form of giant fireballs in his hand before
moving to revolve around him. Their numbers compound with every revolution, gaining speed. It
only takes a few seconds before Roswaal is veiled in a vortex of chromatic fireballs.
Roswaal: “This is from one flame of each colour. Ten flames of each type, for a total of thirty
fireballs. You won't manage to dispose of them all with your current abilities.”
Ram: “—”
Roswaal: “Although, were you intending to confront me while my combat strength was minimized,
it was the epitome of foolishness to aid in the fight against Garfiel. My abilities may be diminished,
but that means nothing when your abilities are diminished as well. I can tell from the mana
overflowing from you. —You transformed, didn't you.”
Asks Roswaal, his voice low. Ram settles her breathing and answers only with a glance.
Perhaps having expected no reply, Roswaal shrugs.
Roswaal: “Of course you would turn out like this, should you transform without my aid. You may
challenge me with only the slightest of mana, but you'll approach your limit within a minute of
fighting. If we view this in terms of you expending your best efforts for the sake of your goal, it's an
affront to the eyes.”
Ram: “An affront... to the eyes, you say.”
Roswaal: “Iiiiiiiiiiiindeed, an affront to the eyes. You did state this before. When I said that you
needed only wait two days to see if the world had utterly diverged from the gospel, you stated that
would be pointless. I had been wondering what you meant at first... but I've contemplated it, and
come to a solution.”
Her breathing is calming down, but neither her stamina nor magic is replenishing. Roswaal knows
this, and so he is holding off on attacking Ram to have this conversation.
It's another story if she starts being an obstacle, but Roswaal doesn't intend to kill Ram.
And Ram has to feel that this complacency of his is an insult.
Roswaal: “If we take your goal to be revenge, then the answer is simple. You may brutalize me
when I am a cripple, but that will not appease you. That is the only reason I can conceive that you
would abandon your chance for definite revenge by challenging me now. It is only when you slay
me, partway through my own goals, that you will achieve revenge.”
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Ram: “—”
Roswaal: “That was partly my mistake for pressuring you into a choice at a critical moment when
you were still young. It may have panicked you, after time passed and you realised thaaaaaaat fact.
And so you've run amok to ensure the opportunity does not escape you. ...Though, you can see how
that turned out.”
Ram: “—auh,”
A sound slips from Ram's throat.

A hoarse, breathy sigh.
Roswaal's odd-coloured eyes fixate on Ram, making sure not to miss a single one of her actions.
With that gaze upon her, Ram thinks back on everything she's done for the last half of her life.
Although she always knew it, recognizing it again, after all this time, does prick her.
Feeling the pain, Ram opens her mouth.

Wide, so wide, as she looks up at the sky—
Ram: “Ahahahahaahahahaha!”
Roswaal: “—Ram?”
They're mirroring each other.

As she thinks of how Roswaal chortled earlier, the thrill only escalates inside her.
Her reasoning is entirely different to Roswaal's, but yes indeed this is amusing. She has to laugh.
And of course she would. Because, in the end.
Ram: “After all the interactions, after all of that contact, you still haven't realised how the other
party feels.”
He's dim, he's insensitive, no, it's something on an entirely different level.
He's stubborn. He is fixated. He has determined that this would never happen, and so not moved an
inch.
To him, it's inconceivable that the passage of time would see feelings that started as revenge
transform into yearning.
Ram: “I have been by your side... because of the contract.”
Roswaal: “Yes, indeed you have. In that smouldering village, you and I formed a contract of
vassalage. I still remember how, even without your horn, your eyes blazed wet with fury. And so I
sealed that away through the contract, and redirected your vehemence into loyalty. Although, I did
believe that a day like this would someday come...”
Ram: “You're right. You were right. I wished to murder you. But you stole that opportunity from
me, and I proceeded to spend my days in the mansion with this inexplicable loyalty... and.”
Roswaal: “Unfettered from the contract, you have today determined to sate your desire for rev—”
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Roswaal is lining up his theories. It's hilarious.
It's truly as if he pays no attention to anything except his own feelings, she thinks.
Ram: “Roswaal-sama, I am in love with you.”
Roswaal: “—”
Ram: “I wound up falling in love with you. That is why there is no purpose in attaining you once
you are broken. That is not the Roswaal-sama who I desire.”
Roswaal's eyes shoot open as his body freezes rigid.

He is stunned, as if he had truly, seriously not anticipated this in the slightest.
He promptly shakes his head, attempting to come up with words, but his lips merely quiver with
nothing meaningful coming out of them.
Ram: “Is something the matter?”
Roswaal: “Of, course there... are you, mocking me? After all of this, mocking me? You recognized
that your strength is too lacking, and so are attempting to shake me mentally, and...”
Ram: “How could I possibly believe that such wiles would work on you, Roswaal-sama? I am
simply stating what I truly feel.”
Roswaal: “That only makes it even less conceivable!”
Yells Roswaal, stomping at the ground.

Reflecting his agitated mental state, the shroud of fireballs flies into disarray. They soon come to a
halt, floating at various points around the surroundings as Roswaal glares at Ram.
Roswaal: “You love me? What on earth are you saying. You detest me. I'm a man you detest. I'm a
man partially responsible for the destruction of your birthplace. You're meant to hate me so much
you'd like to murder me!”
Ram: “I did at first. But not now. Now, I love you.”
Roswaal: “This idiotic...! Who would, think such a cheap...!”
Feelings that started as revenge must proceed to be revenge.

Feelings that become yearning must only ever start as yearning.
Roswaal stubbornly believes that people's desires and feelings cannot change.
And so he cannot believe that Ram has changed her mind so dramatically as to alter her way of life.
Roswaal: “What about your revenge! Did you not pledge for it! Did you not face your ashen village,
and swear upon the souls of your dead brethren that you would accomplish revenge!”
Ram: “I do think it wrong toward my brethren, and it does pain my heart to think of my birthplace.
However, I cannot change that I have fallen in love. I am prioritising my own feelings over those of
the dead.”
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Roswaal: “—!”
Ram: “And you are not my direct foe, Roswaal-sama. Should my lust for revenge obscure my
vision, that would be the more shameful course. ...Would be my excuse.”
Roswaal is utterly lost for words.

Understand the situation right now!! would probably be an unreasonable demand. Roswaal is a man
who has gone for a very, very long time while sticking to his feelings.
Wholeheartedly, persistently devoting his love to one single person, doing everything he could to
make his wishes come true.
His emotions, his heart, and his belief that things ought to be this way are far too strong.
And so he cannot understand feelings that change over time, or understand that strength.
There's really nothing she can do about the fact that she finds even this aspect of him darling.
Ram: “I shall never allow you to become an invalid.”
Roswaal: “...You're contradicting yourself. No matter what your feelings are—no, doubly so
presuming that they're exactly what you stated—I don't understand why you are challenging me
now. If the gospel diverges, then I lose my purpose in life and mentally suffer. You are aware of
this, so why!”
Ram: “Because this is the moment. Barusu, Emilia-sama, Garf... now that all of them have brought
your heart close to wavering, I face my single and only moment of opportunity.”
So long as the contract persists between Roswaal and Ram, Ram cannot defy Roswaal. That Ram is
currently disobeying Roswaal is because her soul has judged that she is unfettered from the
contract, as Roswaal pointed out.
But is she truly? If one party believes that they fit the conditions, then they are exempted as a target
for the contract. Does the system of 'contracts' truly posses such a vague and loose set of judgement
criteria?
And so Ram pleads.

That she is not the only one who believes that the requirement to disregard the contract, the
divergence of the world and the gospel, has been met. That some corner of Roswaal's mind has
registered the same thing.
That this situation has arisen accordingly.
Roswaal looks utterly confused as Ram turns to face him, holds her breath, and dashes forth.
She draws her wand, wringing out the dregs of mana she has to cast a spell.
Roswaal: “—! It's useless!”
Ram's actions lead Roswaal to dispel his turmoil and order his floating fireballs to strike and stall
her. But not a single one of the fireballs hits her as she keeps low to the ground, their heat doing
nothing more than singeing her skin.
Ram has fulfilled the criteria needed to follow the gospel's future until now—and he cannot
determine whether to discard her. The fact that he cannot perceive Ram's designs also plays into it.
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Perhaps he might even regret killing her.
If so, then that alone is enough to elate her so magnificently that she forgets her previous
melancholy.
Ram: “—El, Fula!!”
She concentrates the powers of wind, invisible destruction detonating before her.
Roswaal has prepared himself in fighting posture, but he is not her target. She aims for the ground
beneath it, rupturing it open and sending a great explosion of dirt to drown out his field of vision.
Roswaal: “Do you think this smokescreen will...!”
Ram: “—!”
One sweep of Roswaal's arm shatters the momentary veil of dirt into pieces.
The barrier fades to nothing, and as she watches it, Ram gives a sharp exhale and concentrates
power to her forehead.
Ram: “...auh, ghh,”
Agony. Her vision drowns in scarlet as bloody tears spill from her bloodshot eyes.
Her muscles, her bones, both of them creak as she hears the noise of her tendons ripping.
She ignores all of it, gritting her teeth so hard that she shatters them as she steps forth. The ground
beneath her shatters, and in that instant, Ram has transcended the limits of mortals.
Roswaal has batted the screen of dirt away—and Ram soars at him faster than a nanosecond.
He notices Ram, but before his eyes can even shoot open, she moves. Her outstretched arm reaches
for Roswaal's torso, and he swallows his breath as he realises that her hand is contacting his chest.
Transformation. Nothing else could have fostered this advance in Ram's abilities.
Although it is only momentary, Ram's strength currently exceeds the limits of the human body.
Roswaal must realise that it was his blunder not to consider that she could shatter his ribcage and
pop his heart.
However,
Roswaal: “—Wh, at?”
When the shock and pain fails to come, Roswaal can only blubber in astonishment.
In the blink of an eye, Ram has skidded to a stop about ten meters away from Roswaal. She faces
down, and vomits blood as she falls to her knees.
Roswaal furrows his brows, unable to comprehend the purpose behind Ram's actions.
But once he sees what is in Ram's hands, his expression instantly shifts.
Roswaal: “That!”
Ram: “To, me... this is, the root of all evil.”
His face pale, Roswaal moves to start sprinting over. Ram responds merely by glancing up before,
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without any hesitation of all, giving a swing of her arm.
—And the gospel in her hands goes flying into one of the smouldering green flames.
Roswaal: “—!”
Roswaal screeches mutely, but still the blaze consumes the gospel and bursts even hotter. Alongside
a satisfying boom, the ancient book transforms into a pile of green ash.
Ram watches on, as if she has been yearning to see this for a very long time,
Ram: “—Now, finally,”
Ram sighs in satisfaction, her cheeks growing flush.
—The fireball thrown out of rage pierces through her petite frame in the very next instant.
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CHAPTER 126B: WE'LL NEXT MEET AT A TEA PARTY
—She views the future.
???: <—Gone without, you cannot even wield a sword. Thief!!>
???: <Witness. The victor remains I.>
???: <Subaru, Emilia-neesama, I know you must be so tired. I'm sorry. But I'm going to wind up
being a burden too. I'm sorry. All the thanks I'd wanted to say could never be enough...>
—With every coloured light she touches, Emilia sees a different future.
???: <To think that someone I wanted to kill so much was actually a kind person, what an incredible
nightmare.>
???: <There exist feelings which musn't be spoken. Does it satisfy you, now that they have come to
light?>
???: <Does this make you feel that you've seen your promise through? If it does... if it does, then I
was better off bound and dead in that cave! If I was going to see this dawn, then I should have just
offed myself sooner...! Shit, shit!>
???: <God I'm sorry. I'm weak and so this. God I'm sorry. I couldn't make the kill, god I'm sorry.
Now ▒▒▒ will always be alone forever. God I'm sorry for being so weak...>
—Woe, ire, death, rebirth, farewells, meetings, the future comes to her in many forms.
???: <Yes... my dear grandchild... must've grown up well...>
???: 
???: <It's simply that I realised something. ...That along the path up to today, I haaaaaaaaaadn't been
walking alone.>
???: <How come... there's no soul inside!?>
—Must the future be despair? Is there nothing but sorrow and suffering?
???: <Just 's promised, 'm fuckin' killin' yer! Yeh!? NATSUKI SUBARUUUUUUUU!!>
???: <Am I being so covetous? Am I saying anhything so indulgent? Don't anhybody die, don't
anhybody weep... what is so complikkated about it?>
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???: <After all, we must bleed ourselves to our very last drop to atone, yes?>
???: <Right and wrong and good and evil's all a bunch've bullshit. You're stopping right there. Say
it's Dragon or say it's Witch, if you're blocking the way then I'm... then we're, gonna smash you.>
—Then, was it wrong of her to choose this path? Was she mistaken to wish for any favours?
???: <—I believe that to pray for favours is hubris. Prayers are for when you seek forgiveness.>
—In the final world of light, a girl that Emilia has never seen awake and speaking talks.
I'd like to have a proper conversation with her, she thinks.

The sentiment proves more than enough for her deny the rejection of everything.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Emilia's vision clears, and she realises that she is in a breezy meadow.
A hillock with a white table. Emilia herself sits upon a white chair, unable to remember what
happened only a few seconds ago. But she does know that she is in a dream world.
Emilia: “Echidna?”
If anyone is going to greet her at the end of the TRIAL, then it's going to be the thing's supervisor,
Echidna. Emilia casts her gaze around in search of her.
But even though she can see this field stretch on to the horizon, she sights no shelters or anything
indicating the presence of people. And should she leave the table to go walking around, she might
lose the table and never find it again.
She's definitely right here in this spot, but it strangely feels like she might fall off the horizon.
Emilia takes deep breaths to calm herself down, and decides to start moving if nobody's around.
Perhaps there's an exit somewhere. She'll find that, and get out of here. She's got nothing to gain by
wasting time here.
???: “It's been like this forever—haa—but why is it that these situations—huu—always wind up
being my post—haa? I can't say I'm thrilled with it.”
Emilia: “...auh,”
Seeing the ball of hair that suddenly appears across the table from her, Emilia freezes.
She stares at this thing before her in shock, still halfway into standing up.
And gulps.
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???: “Mm... an understandable reaction—haa—and the correct one—huu. The kid from before
must've been a tad obtuse—haa.”
Emilia: “—”
Every word out this person's mouth comes mixed with a gloomy sigh.
She is a rather listless woman with overwhelmingly long magenta hair, wearing a black robe. Her
comments are not thorny at all, and she looks relaxed as anything.
—But Emilia regardless feels a pressure so intense it's practically strangling her.
If this person felt like it, then Emilia's head would be vanished in an instant.
Emilia has regained her past, and can now manipulate such a vast quantity of mana that her body
cannot contain it all. Even though she has gained a massive boost in her capabilities as a solo
fighter, she feels that she has no chance against this woman.
She'd kill Emilia as easily as swatting a fly—and Emilia knows this.
Woman: “You don't need to be so wary—huu. I'm not looking to hurt you, or to get hurt—haa.
Since that'd be a drag—huu. But Echidna just doesn't want to see you so she—haa—forced me
here.”
Emilia: “I-I, see...”
Emilia gives a timid nod.

The pressure wreathed around this woman shows no signs of letting up. Nothing has changed about
her ability to easily decimate Emilia. But if nothing is going to change about the fact that the
woman can kill Emilia whenever she wants, then that'll stay the same regardless of whether she's
scared or not.
Emilia inhales, holds her breath, exhales. Doing this, she forces herself to calm down.
Emilia: “You're here in Echidna's place... so you're also a witch?”
Woman: “—. I see—haa—so you're braver than I thought—huu. That you're not timid during the
critical moments—haa—might be you taking after your mother—huu.”
Emilia: “You know about my Mother?”
Woman: “I can't tell you anything, but yes—haa.”
The unexpected relation makes Emilia gulp, but the woman looks utterly exhausted after making
that comment. Emilia could try to probe into it, but she probably wouldn't get anything.
Thinking to herself: Someday, Emilia decides to temporarily shelve the topic of her mother. She has
seen her past, seen an impossible future, and now Fortuna and Juice's light remains shining in her
heart.
For now, that's more than enough.
Emilia: “What would you like me to call you?”
Woman: “It's nice when children don't throw tantrums—huu—I'd like Typhon to get a lesson from
you—haa. My name's Sekhmet—huu. As you've guessed, I'm the Witch of Sloth—haa.”
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Sekhmet leans her body onto the table, looking up as she gives a faint smile.
The bags under her eyes and the unhealthy-looking pallor to her skin are something of a concern,
but her features are attractive, and she is a beautiful woman. Still, the word 'witch' and the ghastly
aura she emanates do indicate that she is definitely not anyone ordinary.
Sekhmet: “I really couldn't—huu—care less about how our names as witches are treated in the
present—haa—so that doesn't matter—huu. I just want to get this request done with—haa—and
settle down into self-indulgent slumber—huu.”
Emilia: “Erm, if it's such a bother for you... could no one else have done it? Echidna doesn't have to
be the one if she doesn't want to... but aren't there any other witches?”
Sekhmet: “You're not going to—haa—get a conversation out of anyone else—huu. Minerva's the
only one who could manage an actual conversation here—haa—and she can't show her face to you
—huu.”
Emilia: “Minerva...”
Sekhmet speaks with awful rhythm thanks to her pauses to sigh. But hearing that she offers a better
conversation than the other witches makes Emilia terrified of imagining what the others are like.
But even that sentiment is overpowered by the strong feelings Emilia has for the word 'Minerva'.
Emilia: “Minerva...”
Mutters Emilia to herself as she tilts her head.

The word feels horribly nostalgic, something that would stimulate her memories. But that said,
Emilia cannot remember hearing it in any of her memories up until now, or in any of her recovered
memories either.
But it's a mysterious name, that could evoke thoughts of someone very close to her.
Sekhmet: “No sense talking about someone who isn't here—haa. Anyway, I'm just here to pass a
message along from Echidna—huu. Then I'm leaving it up to you what ideas you come up with to
end the TRIAL—haa. Pretty easy job for me—huu.”
Emilia: “Erm, thank you for your efforts...?”
Sekhmet: “I'll pretend that worked—haa. Now, listen closely—huu.”
Sekhmet calls out to the brooding Emilia, and lies her head sideways upon the table. She gazes up at
Emilia, and with a sigh, sets her right hand on the table too.
Sekhmet: “In the third TRIAL—haa—you would've seen the future—huu. Those futures are
possibilities of what will happen—haa—in this future where you decide to overcome this tomb—
huu.”
Emilia: “Possible, futures.”
Sekhmet: “There's a chance they'll all happen—haa—and a chance none'll happen—huu. Though,
considering Echidna's personality—haa—even I can tell that the futures you saw weren't the nicest
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ones—huu.”
What do the other witches think of Echidna? At the very least, it seems like Sekhmet considers
Echidna as someone mean. Emilia can't exactly say much on that.
Sekhmet's opinion of Echidna is actually a little worse than what Emilia figures, but it's difficult to
demand a worse appraisal than 'mean witch' from Emilia.
Sekhmet: “The future splits into infinite pathways, and so derives possibilities—haa. But the
futures you saw were all seeds thick with tragedy—huu. After they sprout and bud, what blossoms
will come of them...? Haa. Are you prepared to wilfully walk a path of poison blooms that may
leave everyone unhappy...? Huu.”
Emilia: “—”
Keeping silent, Emilia gazes earnestly at Sekhmet.

Sekhmet looks fatigued after giving such a long speech. But she soon furrows her brows when she
notices Emilia's gaze.
Sekhmet: “...I'm pretty sure that I already gave you the question, haa.”
Emilia: “Huh, what? That was the question? I answer that, and the TRIAL ends?”
Sekhmet: “That's what it'd be—huu. ...Though, considering your goal, you could say that the Trial
was over the instant that you managed to get here—haa.”
Sekhmet makes it sound like a free round. Emilia gives a wry grin.
Emilia doesn't mean any ill. But the issue is just so banal it surprised her. After all, it's obvious how
Emilia would respond.
Emilia: “Worlds that end tragically for everybody. No, I'm not prepared to see those at all.”
She has to think of memories that rip at her chest, that claw at her heard.
In that world of darkness, amid those coloured lights, Emilia heard their wails times upon times.
Emilia: “These are futures where everyone might meet a sad end. In the dark world before this, I
saw a lot of them. Where everyone was crying, suffering, angry. I don't know the details of what
happened, but I don't want to see a future like that.”
Sekhmet: “...But, I can assure that if you continue on the path you're on—huu—it's highly likely for
such things to happen—haa. Is that going to make you flee? Huu.”
Emilia: “No. That's going to make me face it.”
Sekhmet narrows her eyes as Emilia shakes her head and puffs out her chest.
The overwhelming pressure threatens to consume her, but Emilia's spirit will not yeild.
If she comes close to losing heart, memories of her mother and father support her. If she comes
close to giving up, she has someone who will encourage her to keep going.
Emilia: “We'll sprint so fast we dodge the sad futures. But if that isn't going to work, we'll ride our
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momentum to soar over them. If people fall in the jump, we'll put in our all and pull them back up.
And if we keep doing this, we'll wipe away every single tear.”
Sekhmet: “You sure sound confident for being so reckless—haa. When you merely talk about ideals
and what's convenient for you, you'll break the instant that you slip up—huu. You don't think that'll
happen? Haa.”
Emilia: “If I were alone, it might.”
Emilia responds fearlessly to Sekhmet's mocking words.

In a sense, Emilia's stance is one that means being dependant on others. But that is the option that
Emilia has left, after never being able to choose a single thing for herself.
Sekhmet: “—”
And Sekhmet looks utterly floored.

She immediately looks down, the table and her hair concealing her expression. When,
Sekhmet: “Pff, khaah... haah, hahahaha! Ahh, yes! So that's it! Yes, that's it, that's definitely it, of
course you'd give that answer now! Ahhh, hilarious!”
Emilia: “Is it really that funny?”
Sekhmet: “It's an absolute riot to me—haa. Okay? Huu. So, Echidna, right—haa. She's this terrible
wacko even after her death—huu—who enjoys watching the TRIAL's challengers agonize over their
pasts and presents and futures alone—haa. The idea that her plans would be destroyed, and like
this... ahh, it's hilarious—huu.”
Sekhmet laughs uproariously, taking pained breaths while speaking with cheer. She lifts her head
and sits upright, leaning against the chair back to view Emilia from straight-on.
Sekhmet's eyes host a nostalgic gleam as she smiles,
Sekhmet: “The TRIAL presumes that you're taking it alone—haa—and you answer it by saying that
you won't face your challenges alone—huu. —If Echidna heard this, she'd moan sour grapes all day,
all while looking dead serious—haa.”
Emilia: “Oh. So that's the reply I could've got. ...Mhm, I sooo want to see that expression on her
too.”
Sekhmet: “She's a terrible loser, so I doubt she'd let you see her looking like that—huu. That's a
privilege reserved for us dream-dwellers—haa.”
Emilia: “So unfair.”
Emilia pouts, which just makes Sekhmet's expression more gleeful.

To an outside observer, the harmonious joy abounding from them might make them look like
friends who have known each other for decades.
Sekhmet: “Though, in exchange for that, I'll bestow you with your TRIAL results—haa. As you'd
expect, there's nothing to complain about—in fact, you pass with a gold star—huu.”
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Emilia: “Should it really be that simple?”
Sekhmet: “Did you want a more oblique answer, or some dramatic spiel—haa? Apologies, but you'd
be wrong to expect something like that from me—huu. I'm the supervisor right now, and my word
goes—huu. ...The TRIAL's over without any issue—haa.”
With a deep breath, Sekhmet snaps her fingers. She fails to get a sound on the first attempt, or the
second, but on the third try finally manages a click—and a breeze gusts from behind Emilia.
Emilia glances behind her, her silver hair swaying, to find that a door has appeared at the bottom of
the hill. It doesn't look like it leads anywhere, but Emilia intuitively knows that this door is the
dream world's exit.
Emilia: “You mean... once I go through that door, the TRIAL's over?”
Sekhmet: “That's the one—haa. Congratulations—huu. In the four hundred years—haa—since this
tomb was made and Echidna's TRIALS came into operation, nobody had defeated these TRIALS—
huu. Well, not that there was an abundance of challengers in the first place—haa.”
Emilia: “...Yeah. Not many people have been to SANCTUARY, and meeting the requirement to get
trapped in SANCTUARY is actually surprisingly tough.”
Sekhmet: “There's that too, but... well, it doesn't really matter—huu. It's all over anyway—haa.”
It does bother Emilia how Sekhmet starts getting vague, but she doesn't pry into it. More
importantly, she's elated to hear that the TRIAL is over.
Honestly, she doesn't feel any sense of achievement yet. It hasn't hit her yet. She had struggled so
much with the first TRIAL that she'd almost broken down, thinking this whole thing impossible.
She did feel that she came here resolved not to lose, but even so.
Sekhmet: “You don't look like you agree with it—huu.”
Emilia: “Erm, well I am kinda bothered. Sooo just kinda bothered.”
Sekhmet: “Echidna doesn't present problems that can't be solved—haa. It's incorrect to say that's the
whole of it, but that's basically the whole of it—huu.”
When it's one witch saying it about another, it's probably right.
Emilia nods reluctantly in a show of agreement. Sekhmet glances at her, examining her, before
giving a small wave of her hand on the table.
Sekhmet: “Once you exit—haa—that door behind you, it's goodbye to this dream castle—huu.
Which also means that's the end of the TRIAL—haa. And that you're qualified to enter the room—
huu—in the back of the TRIAL chamber—haa.”
Emilia: “Open, the door. Mm, right. And go in there... what's in there?”
Sekhmet: “The mechanism that keeps the tomb functioning is—huu. Once it's stopped—haa—
SANCTUARY's duties will come to their end—huu. You'll how how to stop it once you go in—haa.”
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Emilia: “I stop the tomb's functions, and SANCTUARY's duties end. So the barrier disappears.”
If the barrier is extinguished, then Emilia and the people of SANCTUARY will be able to exit the
forest.
She doesn't know how many people will leave for the outside world once the barrier is opened. Or
whether life on the outside will truly be to their benefit.
But they can't stay closed up in here any longer.

Just like how Subaru argued Garfiel down, Emilia has to convince them. This is the end of a period
spent in a place with stopped time.
Once time is moving again, how are they going to make a place for themselves to live?
If possible, then Emilia wants to search for the answer with them.
She can guide them by the hand, give a push to their backs, and no matter how hard it is, she can
walk at their side.
Though it's an unreliable, shaky, and fledgeling demonstration of leadership.
Sekhmet: “It's enough.”
Says Sekhmet, as if she's seen into Emilia's thoughts.

That comment alone doesn't come with any of her characteristic sighs. Sekhmet said it for her while
looking her straight-on, and it makes Emilia gulp.
And smile.
Emilia: “Mhm, thank you. That's how I want to go my way.”
With that, Emilia gets to her feet.

She brushes her hair into order, before bowing her head to Sekhmet.
She doesn't really know why she's doing it.

But it feels like simply saying a goodbye won't be enough. Why is it that she feels so grateful?
Sekhmet surely won't tell her.
She pushes her seat in, and descends the hill on her way to the door.
The door feels emepheral as it stands there in the middle of the meadow, and Emilia realises that
she feels somewhat sad to be leaving the castle in a dream.
White table, crisp breeze. Bright sunshine, perfect weather.

It would be so fun to hold a tea party around that table.
Emilia: “Sekhmet-san. Can you tell Echidna something for me?”
Sekhmet: “...Let's hear it—haa.”
Emilia: “If we ever get the chance to see each other again, let's have a tea party. Even if I'm doing it
in a dream, I'll definitely welcome it.”
Sekhmet: “—No problem at all. I'll tell her.”
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Her hand on the doorknob, Emilia glances back to address Sekhmet, who smiles.
Emilia returns the smile, and opens the door.
Beyond the door is darkness.

But for some reason, she feels no hesitation about stepping into it. Emilia already know exactly
where it leads.
She has overcome her past, chosen her present, and now meets a door to the future.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Feeling somewhat suffocated, Emilia sits up on the hard ground.
Coming back from the TRIAL isn't the same as waking up from sleep.
It's not that her body fell into slumber, but that her consciousness was taken from her body led
somewhere else. Her body and soul were in different places, and seeing that her soul wasn't
sleeping, of course it's different from sleep.
If this were the same kind of thing as normal sleep, then considering that Emilia is rather bad at
waking up, quite a lot of time would pass until she was really awake. Puck would be the one to
wake her up before, but he isn't here now, and so it would've eaten considerable time.
And now she will need to learn how to deal with this on her own, for the future.
Emilia: “—Ah, gotta stop.”
Emilia shakes her head to dispel her sleepy thoughts, and puts her hand to the wall as she gets to her
feet. She feels pretty much fine. It still doesn't feel like she's overcome the TRIALS.
But if what Sekhmet told her in the dream was true—
Emilia: “I should be able to open the door.”
She looks to the back of the chamber, sighting the stone door across the small room.
The door hadn't moved an inch when she pushed or pulled it before, and just like how the tomb's
walls glimmer slightly to Emilia's vision, this door also looks to be cloaked in light.
Unlocked. Might be what it means.

Emilia's footsteps peal as she approaches the door. As she stands before it, she holds her breath for a
moment.
On the other side of this door will be something that liberates SANCTUARY.
Sekhmet said she'd know what to do, but honestly Emilia's a little worried that she won't. Emilia
isn't exactly confident about her smarts.
Is she not allowed to bring anyone along with her? Though, alongside the fact that not many people
can get this far inside, she gets a feeling that the door won't open if anyone else is around.
Perhaps this is all happening because of how smoothly it all went: Emilia cannot erase her paranoia
about this door.
Perhaps it's all a deception, she wonders. You could that being warier than before, but it's a
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wariness limited to things connected to Echidna. A sense of caution she gets because she knows the
personality of the person who set this up.
Emilia: “Anyway, have to go in. Okay, here I go.”
She balls her hands into fists to psych herself up, and moves to put her hand to the door. Should she
push or pull? While she considers the issue, and just as her fingertips graze the door—
—The stone door slides sideways to make a path for Emilia.
Emilia: “...I feel like Echidna's smiling so nastily right now.”
Mutters Emilia, pouting at her spoiled start.

Emilia gets the feeling that this door's gimmick is some very elaborate pestering from Echidna,
which slightly calms her tension.
She gives a sigh, gets herself back in the mood, and steps into the room.
The door opens into a room less than half the size of the TRIAL chamber.
It's smaller than a room that's already small. Just two beds from the Roswaal Mansion would be
enough to occupy all the space.
She hadn't expected the room to be this cramped. Her eyes widen at how constrained it is, before
she spots the thing in the back of the room and puts her hand to her mouth in shock.
—In the back of the room is something like a transparent coffin, with a woman lying inside.
Her time is frozen, keeping her so beautiful that you could wonder if she was only sleeping.
The coffin looks to be made out of spellstone, and when Emilia touches it to examine its purity, she
is shocked at how superior it is. Such high-grade crystal would excel even Puck's old anchor.
A woman is sealed in spellstone capable of sealing things superior to the Great Spirit Puck. —Of
course, she isn't breathing. Emilia feels no life from her, and what remains is a husk.
Her long, sleek hair is white as frost. Her cheeks and neck, what areas of skin are visible, possess
the beauty of virgin snow. Emilia's breathing near hitches before her stunning visage.
Her beautiful form is garbed in perfectly black raiment, with not a single superfluous colour
present, the dress-like vestment crafted to her in miraculous concord.
A beautiful woman who can be described with the two hues 'white' and 'black'.
True beauty—the utter lack of need for any superfluous accessories—would probably feel terror
when faced with this black and white countenance.
Emilia: “She's beautiful...”
Emilia's thoughts escape her lips.

Emilia would find another strikingly beautiful woman if she looked in the mirror, but her sentiments
have nothing to do with that.
She is simply so enraptured by the beauty of this thing before her that she is absolutely moved.
A beautiful woman of black and white.

That would be someone she met in the castle of dreams, the WITCH OF GREED.
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In the depths of the tomb, waiting there beyond the defeat of the WITCH OF GREED's trials is,
Emilia: “She looks like Echidna... but who is she?”
A woman reminiscent of the Thirst for Knowledge Incarnate, but who Emilia has never seen before.
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CHAPTER 127B: NEVER QUIT
The only observable thing in this room is the white woman in the coffin.
Emilia: “Then, this thing she's entombed in... is the mechanism to turn off the barrier?”
Says Emilia after looking over the room, looking perplexed with her head tilted.
There are no nice and obvious levers, or spellstones you just have to crush. A dim glow shrouds the
transparent spellstone encasing her, and Emilia can tell that it is siphoning mana.
The only functioning thing in this place is this coffin.
Emilia: “Seriously, who is she... maybe Echidna's mother?”
Emilia thinks back on the witch who always looked so disgusted around Emilia.
She also had white hair and wore black clothes, like the woman in the coffin, and Emilia remembers
vividly how attractive her features were as well.
The visage of the witch in her memories and of the woman in the coffin have many points in
common.
Like the positioning of her closed eyes, or the shape of the bridge from her lips to her nose.
Echidna had looked like a late teen, while the woman in the coffin is more in her early twenties.
Perhaps it's better to think her Echidna's older sister than her mother.
Emilia: “And... there's no name. But this is supposed to be Echidna's tomb.”
Except Emilia goes in, to find that the woman in the coffin is not Echidna.
Perhaps the tomb's name was a deception, or—
Emilia: “Maybe this is Echidna, and the girl I saw in the dream wasn't Echidna?”
It's a crazy theory, and even Emilia has to shake her head.
Leaving aside whatever Echinda would say, Sekhmet surely would have mentioned something. And
now it's too late for Emilia to simply regard anyone else as being 'Echidna'.
Emilia: “It's Echidna's tomb, but someone else is sleeping here... might be what's happening.”
If so, then they better change the name of the tomb.

It says that ECHIDNA RESTS HERE. But it's someone else's place of slumber, which causes lots of
problems. Offerings will be going to the wrong person, among other things.
It's not the most clear-cut of conclusions, but still Emilia reaches it as she inspects the coffin, taking
care not to touch the thing.
She glances over the flow of mana. It appears that the coffin and the tomb are absorbing minuscule
amounts of mana from the earth linked to the tomb, and are using that mana to power some kind of
algorithm.
It's an infinitesimal load of mana it's absorbing, but it's still powering as something as huge as the
barrier, indicating that it's gathering the mana from quite a large area.
'Earth linked to the tomb' had been a literal statement.

The entire breadth of the forest inside the barrier is probably the tomb's power source. And the tomb
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takes tiny loads of mana at a time so that it won't affect that power source.
Emilia: “It's amazing... so amazing, that I have no idea what it's doing...”
The algorithm is siphoning a flow of mana, powering the magical faculties.

Emilia can write simpler algorithms, but the complexity of the algorithm for the barrier around
SANCTUARY far exceeds her comprehension.
If she stops these processes, she doubts that they will ever restart.
Not that there's any need to restart them.
Emilia: “There. If I cut off this flow, that will probably sever the supply.”
Emilia follows the flow of mana and locates the origin point for the barrier, which uses the coffin as
its nucleus.
Inside the tomb, where the woman's hands are folded atop her stomach—is the exact point into
which the mana flows. If Emilia meddles with the mana there to disrupt the algorithm, then that will
terminate all of this tomb's faculties.
Emilia: “—”
For a moment, she hesitates.

Terminating the tomb's faculties will probably damage the mechanism that starts the TRIAL. Which
means that she'll no longer be able to enter the castle of dreams.
—She will probably never get to have that tea party with Echidna.
The witches, or at least Sekhmet, know about Emilia's mother.

She had felt both awe and nostalgia for Sekhmet's overwhelming power. She wants to know what
exactly that sense of familiarity signifies.
If she cannot enter the castle of dreams, she is furthering herself from that goal. And that—
Emilia: “—I just can't let go, can I?”
With that mutter, Emilia disrupts the weak flow of mana transmitting from the coffin to her
fingertips.
A shift occurs in the power that supports SANCTUARY's faculties and comprises its barrier. It
meddles with the critical parts of the algorithm, compounding from a small into a massive
alteration.
The glow eventually melts away, all signs of the algorithm vanishing from the spellstone coffin. All
that remains after one last flash of light is the pure spellstone, with the woman still sealed inside.
Emilia: “...I guess that's the end.”
Having observed no visible changes, Emilia timidly looks around the area. The flow of mana
previously circling through the tomb is gone, leaving the tomb as nothing more than massive stone
building.
With a quiet sigh, Emilia leans against the coffin.

The tomb has probably stopped rejecting the unqualified now. Emilia ought to bring Roswaal or
Lewes inside, being that they probably know what's going on, and ask them who the person
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slumbering here is.
Emilia: “It's over... yes, it's over...”
By repeating the statement over and over, Emilia attempts to catch the truth that she is not feeling.
She thinks back on the lofty talk she gave to Roswaal before challenging the tomb.
Roswaal had told her: All you have to do is procure the results you desire.
Emilia couldn't suppose what his sentiment had been, but she doubted that he wanted her to beat the
TRIAL. Though, he was also the one who beckoned her here and was endorsing her as a Selection
Candidate, leaving her befuddled as to his reasoning.
Emilia: “Teacher... is what he said, right?”
What she also recalls is this person who Roswaal called TEACHER.
Even someone at the pinnacle of magicianhood like Roswaal would, naturally, have had a master.
Roswaal's master, that being this person called TEACHER, had started SANCTUARY with him.
Emilia: “And maybe... that was you.”
Thinks Emilia as she strokes the coffin.

If Roswaal had his Teacher, someone irreplaceable to him, then perhaps this white woman would
suitably be it.
Emilia: “—I need to talk to everyone.”
Emilia shakes her head and pulls her gaze away from the coffin.
Though, she will have to postpone the talk about the entombed woman. According to Subaru, if
they fail to exit SANCTUARY before tomorrow night—that is, dawn of the day after next—then
something terrible is going to happen.
If anything obviously out of the ordinary happens in SANCTUARY, run away as fast as you can, he
said.
Though she has a whole day of extra time, she doesn't know whether any unforeseen circumstances
are going to pop up.
She trots out of the room and into the hallway, making her way to the exit. If things are still the
same, then Lewes and the people of SANCTUARY should be waiting for her outside.
Emilia's footsteps peal over the stone as she runs down the corridor, before exiting the dark tomb
for open plaza.
Where,
Emilia: “—Huh?”
Met with a blizzard raging through SANCTUARY, Emilia breathes a hazy, white breath.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
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The snow encompasses everything in sight.
The gale roars close by, and the snow thieves her body of warmth. After a white puff of breath,
Emilia's amethyst eyes blink as her throat freezes in shock.
—What on earth happened!?
???: “—lia-Sama!”
The wind howls. Her chilled ears throb in pain.

Frigid gusts feel to slice at Emilia's skin, dressed lightly as she is, when she hears a voice calling
from beyond the blizzard and stops still.
Snow has already accumulated up to Emilia's knees and threatens to swamp her down. She takes
every step forcefully, trudging through the frost, to find silhouettes gathered beyond the veil of
white.
They must be the people of SANCTUARY. Meaning that they waited for Emilia in this blizzard,
without ever retreating indoors—
Emilia: “Everyone! Why are you all outside in this sn... huh?”
Emilia imagines everyone huddled together to stave off the cold, when she stops.
There are about forty SANCTUARY dwellers including Lewes. That's a huge number to start with, but
Emilia also spots someone who shouldn't be here.
???: “Emilia-sama! Is the TRIAL over!?”
The speaker is a young man with a crew cut.

Emilia knows him. Because she spoke with him before coming to SANCTUARY, and she would have
spoken to him even had he not acknowledged her.
It's a youth from Arlam Village's young men's brigade.

Seeing him, when he's supposed to have left SANCTUARY several hours ago on Otto's instructions,
makes Emilia's eyes shoot open. And what surprises her even more is that it's not just him.
With crewcut as their leader, Emilia spots several other people from Arlam. They have come in
carriages, huddling with the people of SANCTUARY inside the vehicles or in its shadow to endure the
blizzard.
Emilia: “Wh-why is everyone...? But, didn't you evacuate?”
Man: “Yes, we did. On Subaru-sama and Otto-san's instructions. They said that the dragons know
the way, so just run.”
Emilia: “Then why!? Didn't you hear that it's going to be dangerous here?”
Man: “We have heard. And we were told.”
The youth grits his teeth, before raising his head and pointing beyond the forest.
Man: “To wait outside the forest, return once the signal appears from SANCTUARY, and retrieve
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those still here.”
Emilia: “Huh?”
Man: “Such as Ram-sama and the others. Anyway, they would fire magic into the sky. We were to
return to SANCTUARY once we saw it, load the residents into carriages, and leave.”
Emilia: “Who gave these instructions!?”
Man: “Otto-san did.”
Hearing Otto's name makes Emilia think of that flaky-looking merchant.

Though, no matter what impression he gives, he is Subaru's friend. Every time she sees the two
talking jovially, it reaffirms Emilia's assessment that he's someone capable of rivalling Subaru.
Otto had definitely planned a lot of the happenings in SANCTUARY, starting with the Garfiel affair,
while acting as Subaru's co-conspirator.
Meaning that these instructions are hugely significant.
Emilia: “B-but, this was still reckless. The blizzard is blowing so hard... you should've known that
doing this was crazy!”
The man says nothing.
Emilia: “What's wrong?”
The man makes an awkward-looking expression and averts his gaze. Emilia doesn't overlook his
reaction, instead pressing him further.
Emilia's amethyst gaze pierces him. He puts his hand to his brow, and sighs a frigid-white sigh.
Man: “Otto-san told us that the truly dangerous thing would be if it snows prior to the signal. Since
snowfall marks the time limit... he told us to immediately leave the forest then.”
Emilia: “They even knew about the snowfall... no, just, nevermind that. Why did you come, then!?”
Man: “—Because it snowed.”
The man straightens his back and gives his firm reply to Emilia's wails.
His gaze is so strong, Emilia falls speechless.
They knew that snowfall meant danger.

And they saw it snowing in SANCTUARY, and understood that they had reached the time limit for
that danger. With that knowledge, they chose to come here.
They sped here, to where the residents of SANCTUARY were in danger.
Man: “We suspected that Subaru-sama or yourself would have done exactly this.”
Emilia: “—”
With a wry smile, the man answers the question in Emilia's throat.
So the evacuees overlooking the carriages behind him were Arlam's young men brigade. Since their
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goal is to evacuate the people of SANCTUARY. Everyone unneeded must have left them and
evacuated. That said, those who left would be forced into the tribulation of evacuating by foot.
And these men were here, because they judged that this was correct.
Man: “Emilia-sama, if the TRIAL is over... can they exit this place?”
Emilia: “Y-yes, they should. But, with this snow and wind...”
The man gazes at the ground, clicking his tongue in frustration.

Snow has piled so thick that walking even a short distance is a trial. Carriage wheels won't find any
purchase in this; they are stranded.
But if they could at least find somewhere warm, where many people could bide through the cold—
Emilia: “If we can't relocate as far as the cathedral... let's get everyone inside the tomb. The mana
there keeps the inside warm, and we don't have to worry about the building collapsing beneath the
snow.”
Man: “It's possible to go in?”
Emilia: “I turned off the tomb's dangerous mechanisms, everything's dandy now. Anyway, are you
able to transport everyone as far as the tomb? And the dragons should be loosed from the carriages
and let inside too.”
The six dragons had accommodated the brigade and brought them all the way back here. Even in
this instant, the dragons' carriages are protecting two digit columns' worth of people.
It's inconceivable that they could possibly abandon the dragons.
The man nods with a, “definitely.”

This should be good enough to deal with the snow for the moment. The issue now is that something
dangerous is going to happen alongside the snowfall.
Emilia: “I wish we'd actually talked about this beforehand!”
Emilia mourns the lack of time she had to speak with Subaru before challenging the TRIALS. This
probably happened because Subaru didn't want to leave Emilia with anything that would needlessly
worry her.
Though she's glad for his thoughtfulness, it's ridiculous that it's going to hamper her reaction to the
danger.
Emilia can think of three people who, like Subaru's group, probably know about the snow. That is
Roswaal, Ram, and—
???: “Yer've done well ter make it back ter us, Emilia-sama.”
Emilia: “Lewes-san!”
A pink-haired girl hops out of a carriage and onto the snow—Lewes. With now short she is, the
snow that reaches to Emilia's knees reaches to her thighs. She trudges laboriously through the snow
while Emilia hurriedly approaches her.
Emilia: “The TRIAL's all over now! Is everybody here!?”
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Lewes: “All erv SANCTUARY's people, en all erv the humans who came back fer us err present, yes.
But...”
Emilia: “But?”
Lewes: “Miss Ram and Roz-bo ain't here. The two'erve them have been somewhere else since
before it started snowing.”
Emilia gazes over the people and the carriages.

She does not spot that familiarly bizarre outfit, nor that dependable pink-haired girl.
Emilia: “If I don't search for them... Lewes-san! Do you know? What's going to happen if we stay in
SANCTUARY with all this snow?”
Lewes: “—”
Lewes's cheeks stiffen and she lowers her gaze. Emilia recognizes what this means.
Lewes knows what is happening. She knows what the danger is.
Emilia: “Please tell me, Lewes-san. We have to prevent it.”
Lewes: “But yer see, the timing fer it's off. Su-bo said that Roz-bo's planning fer snow ter fall
tomorrow night, so there muster've been some mistake fer it to be snowing now...”
Emilia: “What mistake, it is snowing right now! So! We need to do whatever we need to do when
the snow comes! Lewes-san!”
Emilia puts her hands on Lewes's small shoulders as she attempts to persuade her.
Lewes's sour expression shifts, until she's left staring at Emilia in dumb shock.
Emilia: “Wh-what's wrong, Lewes-san?”
Lewes: “...Emilia-sama. Have yer gone into the building deep in SANCTUARY's forest?”
Emilia: “Deep in the forest? No, I haven't...”
Emilia tilts her head in confusion.
Lewes: “That isn't posser...”
Starts Lewes, before looking at the tomb behind Emilia.
Lewes: “Then maybe there wers sermthing in the tomb... that seemed special, perhaps? Like,
perhaps.... a giant spellstone, er something similerr.”
Emilia: “—There was. A sooo giant spellstone. I kinda wanted you and Roswaal to look at it later...”
Emilia glances around the area, then draws her lips near to Lewes's ear.
So that nobody else can hear her, as they begin preparations to move the dragons.
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Emilia: “There was a woman inside the spellstone. I don't know who she was.”
Lewes: “—!”
This information rocks Lewes's expression.

Lewes's eyes shoot open as she stares at Emilia. After a long, long sigh,
Lewes: “Then...”
Lewes nods as if agreeing with something.
Lewes: “Understood. Emilia-sama, ask whatever yer wish. I'm obligated ter answer you. Obligated
ter follow yer orders.”
Emilia: “I'm not ordering anything!”
Lewes: “Listen. That thing yer touched in the tomb ers a spellstone that picks who's qualified ter
command LEWES. Yer now hold those qualifications instead erv Gar-bo. I... no, we, shall obey you.
Please order us however yer wish.”
With that solemn reply, Lewes attempts to lower herself while thigh-deep in snow. This will result
in her kneeling and burying herself head-deep in snow, and panics Emilia.
She promptly grabs Lewes by the shoulders to stop her.
Emilia: “Awuh! Right, okay! So I can ask things from you, Lewes-san. Then I'll ask this. Please tell
me what happens when there's snow in SANCTUARY.”
Lewes: “...Su-bo says that once it snows in SANCTUARY, the witchbeast SIZEABLE HARE will come.
It's drawn here by the mana in the algorithm ter do something as massive as change the weather ter
snowfall... ers the word.”
Emilia: “Algorithm to change the weather... then, somebody's behind this!?”
Lewes silently nods.

This is magic immense enough to manipulate the weather. Puck could easily do this, if he was being
serious. Which makes Puck the most suspicious candidate, but considering Lewes's attitude and the
context of the situation, Emilia immediately lands on the culprit.
Emilia: “...Is it Roswaal?”
Lewes: “Most likely. I think Miss Ram left ter try and stop him. But if the snow came anyway, then
it's possible that...”
Emilia: “Stop. I don't want to think about it. Anyway I need to find them. Lewes-san, I'm going to
start searching the village for them. If you have any ideas where they could—”
Lewes: “No need fer that, Emilia-sama.”
Lewes interrupts Emilia with incredible confidence.
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It's like she knows exactly what Emilia's thinking, and it makes Emilia gulp.
And,
Lewes: “Us Leweses keep a close eye on everything in SANCTUARY. —We'll find and get yer ter
them in a jiffy.”
Lewes gives Emilia her stamp of approval.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Ram, as she lies unconscious, almost looks to be merely sleeping.
Roswaal: “...Ram?”
Roswaal draws the fallen, limp girl into his arms, jerking her . But Ram gives no reply.
This girl. Who would put aside anything to give Roswaal's words priority. Ram.
Of course she doesn't reply.

Ram is dying this very instant. And it's all because of Roswaal.
The burning of the gospel had sent him into a fury. His vision seethed with crimson, he had no idea
what was anything anymore, but he knew that he could not forgive Ram for doing this and—
Roswaal: “—”
—Struck her with a ball of fire while she was undefended, blasting her away.
She had overtaxed herself with imperfect oni strength, and burdened herself with the exact same
fatigue only hours earlier. Ram's body had reached its limit.
When a fireball blasted her.
Her life hangs in the balance.
Roswaal: “...Ram.”
Roswaal cannot remember what he thought as he drew near to her prone form and touched her.
Even now, as he holds her close and gazes at her sleeping, he does not think anything.
Roswaal regarded Ram as an incredibly convenient pawn.

She had gone through ordeals by his hand, and their contract preserved an extremely simple
relationship between them.
He exposed his true thoughts only to Ram, and spoke of his goals only to Ram. He believed that,
once that goal was achieved, he would hand himself over to her as his reward for his accomplice.
But Ram betrayed Roswaal partway through his course.

Ram's statements had been correct; going by her contract, the script for the situation had not
unfolded as Roswaal intended, and her rebellion was her pre-established revenge.
So he will not fault Ram. If forced to say anything, then he would've liked her to postpone her
revenge and administer it once the situation about the barrier had been definitely determined.
Then there was the topic of his bet with Subaru. Garfiel had been unexpectedly pliant, and some
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sympathetic-sounding talk had seen Emilia reattempt the TRIAL, but ultimately Subaru's speeches
were the ramblings of a weakling.
It is impossible to defy a predetermined future. The path to reach that future may change, but events
will still lead to the destined end. Should someone stray from the path leading to the correct ending,
what awaits is doom.
But they're still resisting it, and it makes Roswaal laugh. And the fact that Roswaal knows this, and
knows how weak he is for fearing their actions, also brings laughter.
Why are they trying to change anything? He can't understand it.

Once any feeling reaches its peak, once it apexes, it will never fade in intensity. If you love
someone, if your heart ever blazes with love for someone, then that heat, that brilliance, ought to be
eternal.
And the same concept applies even if the emotion in question is hatred.
Feelings you have held for a long, long time ought to ascend to legitimacy. Feelings fostered over
time are ironclad, never to yield to anyone. They absolutely must be.
Garfiel's hatred for the outside has shattered.

Emilia has accepted her detested and sorrowful past.
And Ram's endless, vengeful hatred for Roswaal has,
Ram: 
Roswaal: “—!!”
A love confession like a curse, burning deep in his ears.

Words that came from the mouth of the girl in his arms, which absolutely never should have.
Had the contract been binding her heart or soul, then he would have understood it. Her burning
desire for revenge had been converted into subordination to Roswaal, and her hatred into affection.
Which was why Roswaal had Ram assist him in his goals more than anyone else, and trusted her for
what would come after their realization more than anyone else.
Because Roswaal believed in her love-converted hatred, and her vengeful desire to kill him. Because
he believed in the hatred in the eyes of the girl he first met, and how she gazed at him with absolute
murder.
—And yet Ram betrayed her own vengeance, to extol love.
Roswaal: “Why did you, Ram? ...I don't understand it...”
Roswaal hears how her faint breathing grows distant, and senses that Ram's life is ending.
Her heartbeat fades. Something screams that this mustn't continue. His right eye aches. Aches, so
terribly. Stop! Stop asserting yourself. He's going to lose himself.
What should he do? What must he do? He cannot tell what it is he needs to do, and what it is he
mustn't do. He cannot remember it. He cannot conceive it.
He looks around the area. Nothing here is what he seeks. The gospel, which told Roswaal of the
correct path, has been lost in flames. Nobody will teach Roswaal. What is the choice he must make
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here? Nobody will teach him.
There is nothing for it now.
Roswaal: “—Wailing wind beckons the snow, light upon the earth repatriates to sky. Each droplet is
silence given form, ivory untouched by past karma's favour laments unchanging eternity—”
A canto.
This hummed, lilting canto gives direction to the power wreathed around Roswaal L. Mathers. The
vast store of mana interacts with the refined algorithm, bringing dark clouds to the night forest.
Frozen wind whips past, and a chill cold enough to freeze to the core rages through SANCTUARY.
Clouds burdened with snow shroud all of the enclosed forest, and white frost dances to the earth.
—This is the power of the massive-scale magic algorithm ULTIMILLION.
Roswaal: “—ugh, khh,”
The canto ends, and the extensively-held magical power is released.

A massive load of mana is ripped out of Roswaal, and even he, who boasts a transcendental store of
mana, feels somewhat dizzy.
Mana for magic this extensive should truly be built up over several months, and its should be used
on a smaller area. Roswaal is irregular for procuring the mana over only two days, and for affecting
a range more than twice the size of the usual.
After the magician who achieved this feat gives a long sigh, he finds himself utterly lost on what to
do.
Roswaal: “I've made it snow, as the gospel tells... what do I do now?”
Roswaal has forgotten that he has made it snow one day earlier than what the gospel's writ stated.
Or actually, not even the bet occupies any corner of his mind any more.
Roswaal does not pay any heed to the process. His only concerns are for how the events around
SANCTUARY conclude. Snow falls, and the barrier is undone.
Should that happen, should that happen—then what happens?
Roswaal: “Ram... yes... Ram.”
He can no longer hear Ram's breathing.

Roswaal looks down at her face, and gently touches her forehead. Her transformation means that
her scar, where her horn used to be, is bleeding. Roswaal wipes away the blood, and as he always
does with Ram, injects colourless mana formed from a combination of all six mana types into her.
This was a ritual the two had always done, so that Ram's oni blood would not conquer her.
It's not that he's thinking anything.

Roswaal unconsciously understands that he is merely betting that her vitality as an oni will keep her
alive. He has no questions about saving her.
Ram needs to live. For the sake of Roswaal's goals, and for what comes after the realisation of those
goals.
Roswaal: “Teacher... Teacher, I... What! Am I supposed to do! Teacher... Teacher! Please tell me...
please... guide me, again...”
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Roswaal's confusion reaches its pinnacle, and he cannot even comprehend his own heart as he
wails.
Though he is trying to ensure Ram's survival, his anger about her betrayal remains. He knows that
he has lost his beacon, but still searches for that old light.
The snow falls, encasing Roswaal and Ram in white flakes.

Everything drowns in the white, disappearing.
With the thought of, and perhaps that is fine, not present in him in the slightest.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Emilia cuts through the snow, breathing white puffs as she dashes onward.
Emilia: “Huma! Again, Huma!”
She shouts, casting ice magic upon ice magic.

She is doing it to avoid time loss from her feet getting bogged in the snow. She uses her magic to
purposefully harden the snow, giving her a path to sprint upon.
Some people might slip and find themselves in quite a bit of danger by using this method, but,
Emilia: “All! Right! Got it!”
Emilia is a practitioner of ice magic, and grew up in Elior forest. She is accustomed to frozen
ground. She dashes over the freezing snow of SANCTUARY as if she owns the place, with her small
escort running after her.
Emilia: “Is this honestly working for you?”
Asks Emilia, out of breath, to her guide. The girl looks up at Emilia, and replies with only a nod.
They can communicate, but she won't talk to Emilia. This is exactly what Lewes—what the
representative Lewes personality—had told her to expect.
Lewes had suddenly begun showing special respect to Emilia outside the tomb.
She informed Emilia that she was an entity born from the soul of a girl named Lewes Meyer, and that
there were several duplicates of her in the same circumstances. These Leweses functioned as EYES
spotted around SANCTUARY, went searching for Roswaal and Ram in the community, and were now
guiding her to them.
There exists in the world extraordinarily rare magic called 'duplication magic'.
Emilia had never heard about it being utilized on living creatures before, but perhaps it had been
done as a kind of forbidden magic. Emilia had kept herself from asking all the questions she wanted
to ask, ran through SANCTUARY while relying on the Lewes double, and dashed all about in search
of Roswaal and Ram.
Emilia: “If I don't hurry... the Sizeable Hare will show up!”
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The witchbeast SIZEABLE HARE.
Even Emilia, ignorant of the world as she is, knows the name of this creature.
It is one of the three witchbeasts alongside the White Whale and Blacksnake, and like those other
two beasts, regarded as a calamity.
It is a witchbeast of weak, frail, tiny little hares. But the beast itself is a group of individuals, a
horde of creatures. It is not each individual hare, but the entire group of them that is the calamity
called the Sizeable Hare.
With its endless hunger and overwhelming numbers it would devour everything in its path. But still
that would not sate it, and it would proceed to wander the world while cannibalizing itself. Indeed a
calamity.
The terrifying thing is how it can multiply itself infinitely. The Sizeable Hare will usually be low in
number, cannibalizing itself to stave hunger when there is nothing to eat—but should it lay eyes on
prey that stokes its appetite, it cannot be stopped. It will compound endlessly in number, gnashing
away until the prey is destroyed, then cut its numbers back down as it moves on and leaves behind a
wasteland. That's what this thing is.
Emilia determines that she must face this incredible witchbeast.

They have already lost the time they need to flee the Hare's attack. The accumulated snow hinders
their escape, leaving Emilia and the others without options.
The non-combatants will hide in the tomb, while a frontline is formed at the entrance.
That is the only strategy they have for opposing the witchbeast. It'll be Emilia and Roswaal. If
possible they'll include Ram, needing to assemble all the combat power available in SANCTUARY.
And so—
Emilia: “—”
Snapped treetrunks and buildings battered from battle. Gashes in the earth, and unnatural pilings of
snow. —A man and a woman, close together in a tree's shade.
Having found Ram limp and sleeping, and the dazed Roswaal, Emilia shouts.
Emilia: “—Roswaal! Ram!!”
Emilia leaves the silent Lewes double behind as she slides over the frozen snow. She manipulates
the ground beneath her however she wants, scattering flakes of ice as she moves like a snow pixie,
before grabbing Roswaal's shoulders as he lies motionless and half-buried in the snow.
Emilia: “Are you listening!? Roswaal, come on, Roswaal! We're in trouble! We have to save
everyone! This isn't the time to be frozen!”
Roswaal: “—”
Rocking him makes the snow fall off Roswaal's head. It reveals his expression, and Emilia clicks
her throat.
Roswaal's face as he looks at Ram, his eyes dim, looks feeble.
Emilia: “Roswaal...?”
Roswaal says nothing. He hasn't even noticed Emilia.

His lack of reaction scares her, and she lowers her gaze to what is cradled in his arms. There sleeps
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a pink-haired girl,
—With snow on her cheeks, showing no signs of melting.
Emilia: “—! Ram? Ram!”
Emilia calls to Ram in Roswaal's arms, and tries waking her up.
But Ram gives no particular reaction. Of course she doesn't reply, but she doesn't open her eyes
either—in fact, her eyelids don't even twitch. Emilia touches her cheek, and her lips, to find them
abnormally cold. As if she's—
Emilia: “That, isn't happening!”
Emilia rejects her ineffectual thinking as she grits her teeth and reaches into Ram's clothes. Her
hand strokes across Ram's chest, where she finds a faint heartbeat.
It could disappear at any moment, frail, and feeble.
Emilia: “—She's alive! We're okay! We still have time, Roswaal!”
Yells Emilia with hope as she glances back to Roswaal. But Roswaal remains with his hand on
Ram's brow, looking utterly dazed.
And Emilia notices it.
There is a massive amount of mana flowing from Roswaal's hand and into Ram. And this is acting
as Ram's lifeline.
Emilia: “Then, you're saving Ram's life...”
Roswaal: “—”
Emilia: “—!”
As she hits upon that truth, Emilia also hits upon the bitter truth.
Ram is unconscious, in dire condition, and Roswaal must administer the delicate treatment to heal
her. They cannot participate in the fight.
Meaning that Emilia must face the Sizeable Hare on her own.
—Can she do it?
This monster is one of the three that has survived for four hundred years, since the WITCH OF
ENVY's era.
Who could guess how many people had steeled themselves to face this thing, just as Emilia was
now? None of them had managed to destroy the beast. How does Emilia propose to fight it alone?
Without Puck. Only Emilia.
Emilia: “If we go now...”
Maybe they can still run? But what are they meant to do if it chases them?
If they encounter it without any refuges or hiding places, then Emilia cannot protect the civilians
from the beast. Guarding somewhere like the tomb presents the most potential.
It hurts that Roswaal and Ram can't help in combat, but Emilia musn't abandon the fight.
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Emilia: “Roswaal. Bring Ram and come along with me. Everybody from SANCTUARY... mm,
everybody is taking shelter in the tomb. And I'm going to protect them. Don't give up on healing
Ram, and—”
Roswaal: “It's useless.”
Emilia meets Roswaal's eye level and begins to tell Roswaal of her resolve, when his whisper
interrupts her.
Roswaal stares at Ram's face, his eyes still hollow.
Roswaal: “Useless. Everything is... I don't know the future. I don't understand myself. ...This world
is done.”
Emilia: “So you're back to saying this! Who cares about the book! Maybe someone kind of
important wrote it, but how does that have any say in what we do!”
Unable to bear his resignation, Emilia raises her voice at Roswaal.

Why is this happening? This is not the Roswaal that Emilia knows.
Always composed, making bold decisions like nothing, acting like he knows absolutely everything
there is to know, all with a grin. Wasn't that Roswaal?
Who is weak man, who has given up on everything, looking like a cornered and lost child?
Emilia: “Roswaal. I can't understand what you're feeling or how you're hurt right now. I do want to
understand, but there's no time for me to learn. ...But I want to make that time. And so I need you to
work with me.”
Roswaal: “—”
Emilia doesn't understand Roswaal. He could continue being like this, and she still wouldn't
understand him.
But if they converse, and divulge their feelings, there are things she will understand. And things she
will never understand if she never does this. And things that will never be communicated, if the
time for them is never given.
Emilia needs to create the time they need to grow closer to one another.
Emilia: “Please, stand up, Roswaal. Neither of us are ending here. We won't let Ram end either.
We're all going back to everyone, together, and—”
Roswaal: “I...”
Emilia is insistent. But Roswaal does not meet her gaze.

He continues staring down at Ram, his scarlet lips moving to say:
Roswaal: “I, quit...”
Spoken so quietly, it could disappear.

The frigid, whistling winds do whip by, and the words are barely audible.
The whisper hardly left his lips. It's questionable whether Roswaal himself even heard it.
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But she definitely does hear that quiet sound of surrender.
And so, Emilia—
Emilia: “—Don't you dare say that!!”
—Grabs Roswaal by the collar, and screams in anger.

The movement rocks Roswaal's head, and he whimpers in pain. Emilia assaults him, unrelenting,
with her words.
Emilia: “You quit!? What are you saying 'you quit'!? There is nothing out there to possibly quit!
There is nothing for you to quit! Don't you dare give up! Don't you dare surrender! Not me, or Ram,
or you, have any single thing we're possibly done with yet!”
Roswaal: “—”
Emilia: “I finished the TRIAL! The past I was so scared of! A happy present that could've happened!
Sad futures that might come! I saw them all! And I still decided to walk this path... and with that
resolve, I can finally walk it!”
She howls.
Wrath beyond what Emilia can ever remember surges up inside her.
Yes. There it is. Listen to that whiny voice, hear those pathetic opinions, see that gutless spirit. This
is what it looks like when you accept surrender as your end.
Emilia's roaring makes Roswaal's cheeks stiffen, and he averts his gaze. This is not him being
worried for Ram, this is him distracting himself and running from something he doesn't want to see.
Emilia grabs him by the jaw and forces him to face her.
Emilia: “Look at people's faces when they are talking to you!”
Roswaal: “—hk”
Emilia: “You won't understand what people are thinking if you don't look them in the eye. You
won't understand why people are doing what they're doing if you don't look them in the eye. Keep
your eyes on mine, hear my voice, stand up, and follow me.”
Roswaal's odd-coloured eyes blink as if realising something.

His lips twitch. But he manages no words.
Roswaal: “—auh,”
Emilia: “I'll never let anyone say that they quit. As long as you're alive, there's nothing out there for
you to quit. And—I am not letting anyone die here!”
Emilia gets to her feet. Turns around.

Over ten Lewes doubles have assembled here. All of them kneel reverently, awaiting orders.
Emilia takes a breath, and shouts her command.
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Emilia: “Take Roswaal and Ram back to the tomb. I'm protecting everyone, no matter what.”
Speaking grandly, and aware that she only acquired this right by coincidence, Emilia leads the
obedient Leweses as she breaks into a sprint through Sanctuary's snow.
The Leweses group together to support Roswaal and Ram, taking turns to make the path while
following after Emilia.
—Emilia no longer hesitates in her course for an instant.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
And the tales—
“No need to push yourself so hard, Emilia-tan.”
The boy who cherishes the girl who decided to protect everything returns to her side,
“You can hold off and fall back. —The inaugural battle of deliverance is here.”
“I'm sorry. That kind of went over my head.”
Their usual banter makes her smile as she supports her failing body, her eyes tracking the white
silhouettes as they press forward.
The two silhouettes, walking hand in hand.
She hears two voices as well.

They sound lively, and, feeling that she has been waiting to hear this, the girl's heartbeat pounds.
“What comes next is a complete unknown, in fact.”
“Yeah, we'll be doing something about this. —Together, me and you!!”
And the tales converge, their wishes perfect mirrors as they enter the finale.
Knight and Princess, facing beast in blizzard-swept SANCTUARY.

A Knight who cannot manage on his own brings a magician at his side, consecrating everything to
victory.
—The final battle of SANCTUARY commences.
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CHAPTER 130: FACES IN THE SNOW
Icy winds whip past. Frigid temperatures slice at his skin.
A horde of white hunger swamps everything in sight. The hand he is holding is warm.
Natsuki Subaru feels not a speck of hesitation or doubt about standing here.
Subaru: “Great that we had that cool entrance and all, but isn't this a little weird!?”
Yells Subaru about the unanticipated scene as the snow batters his cheeks.
Roaring wind rages through SANCTUARY, which is currently embroiled in thick snow. Subaru was
ready for this to happen eventually, but the date is mismatched to what he remembers.
SANCTUARY would be buried in snow and lure the mob of white witchbeasts at morning—there was
supposed to be over half a day of surplus time left.
Behind Subaru there stands a silver-haired girl, breathing white with her shoulders heaving. Emilia
has been unable to fully restrain the mana overflowing from her body, and half-encased herself in
ice. Her left side is covered in white, and though it must be painful, not a speck of anguish shows on
her face.
Subaru mentally praises the bold Emilia, while simultaneously suspecting her as causing the snow.
Was she unable to control this frenzy of magic, bringing snow, and beckoning the Hare?
Subaru: “But then the order's off...”
The sequence between the uncontrolled magic and the Hare's arrival are backwards.
Emilia used her magic to oppose the Hare, which resulted in her suffering damage. If Subaru is
following the correct course of things, then the real cause is—
Subaru: “—”
Behind Emilia, Echidna's tomb looms.

Subaru acknowledges the gazes peering at him out from the entrance, and nods. If the people inside
are the residents of SANCTUARY, then they are not feeling the effects of the tomb's mechanisms.
That means that the tomb's operations have terminated, otherwise said that Emilia has defeated the
TRIAL.
Emilia has overcome the TRIAL. Snow is falling earlier than anticipated. There's the state of
SANCTUARY's citizens, and Emilia's resolute shouts and expression. And there's also,
Roswaal: “—”
Roswaal, dazedly staring at Subaru while sitting beside the tomb's entrance. Subaru doesn't have
time right now to check if Ram, sleeping in his arms, is okay.
All he can do is trust that she is.
Beatrice: “Subaru.”
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When the small hand gripping Subaru's own gives him a tug.
Hit with an unfamiliar form of address from a familiar voice, Subaru chokes.
Subaru: “oughbbhnuh”
Beatrice: “...Explain that bizarre reply, I suppose.”
Subaru: “It just feels so novel when you say my name, so. Can you do it again but sounding
bashful?”
Beatrice: “What!? You are actually mad, in fact! This is no time for buffoonery, I suppose!”
Beatrice snaps at Subaru's silly request, her expression terrifying.

Subaru reluctantly drops the issue, expecting her to ignore it no matter how much he pesters her,
when,
Beatrice: “S-Subaru... there, I did it, in fact.”
Subaru: “Beako you are adorable.”
Beatrice: “—! I'm never saying it again, I suppose! I'll remember this for after we're done, in fact!”
Yells Beatrice, her face red as she swings her held hand in a huff.
Subaru looks at her, charmed, while also directing his attention to the horde of approaching hares.
He licks his dry lips.
Subaru: “So, Beatrice. We're fighting the Sizeable Hare, where's your mental prep sitting?”
Beatrice: “I am moments post-contract. The opponent is one of the great witchbeast triumvirate. We
are unprepared and conditions are poor. My contractor is a novice. I haven't participated in battle in
four hundred years.”
Subaru: “And?”
Beatrice: “I could ask for no handicap finer, I suppose.”
Beatrice smiles fearlessly as the beasts, their teeth chattering, swoop in to close the distance. Subaru
steps forward to face their attack and glances to Emilia behind him.
Subaru: “Me and Beatrice are about to crush the Sizeable Hare. Emilia-tan, I'm sorry for this, but
some're gonna slip past so I want you protecting everyone!”
Emilia: “I'm...”
Emilia cuts her sentence off there, hesitant for a moment.

But after closing her eyes and taking a quiet breath,
Emilia: “Right. Leave it to me. —And I'm leaving it to you.”
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Subaru: “Yup, all mine.”
Put the right people in the right places, split the roles up between them, do what's best for you to do.
Emilia gives a deep breath as she concentrates on controlling her magic and erects a defensive line.
The snowfall continues to rage as Emilia forms a blockade of ice.
Subaru steps out from Emilia's line of defence as he gazes at the white typhoon.
Red eyes and sharp fangs stretch on as far as his eyes can see. Coated in pure white fur, this is the
witchbeast spurred by the most primitive and insatiable hunger in the world. The Sizeable Drove—
otherwise said, the Sizeable Hare.
The chittering of their fangs makes the ache in Subaru's soul spread to his whole body.
He has died gruesomely, flesh devoured and innards ravaged, to those fangs. He has felt the agony
of a hole gaping through his abdomen, spouting blood while teeth severed his windpipe. And he
knows the overwhelming feeling of loss from death, his body chewed up and missing limbs, in
Emilia's arms.
To complete this loop series, Natsuki Subaru must surmount this witchbeast.
Beatrice: “—Are you afraid, I suppose?”
Asks Beatrice to Subaru, holding his breath as he gazes at the beast.

Her face is impassive as she glances up at him. But her eyes, and her expression, inform Subaru far
more eloquently than her words.
—Inform him exactly who it is that stands beside him.
Subaru: “Nope. Not at all.”
Beatrice: “Oh?”
Subaru: “Emilia's at my back and you're at my side. It's like I'm strongest man in the world.”
Beatrice: “Doubtlessly, in fact.”
Beatrice's cheeks relax into a smile.

So you do get it, says her expression. Subaru joins her in her wicked smile.
The Sizeable Hare enters a frenzy, rushing for the brazen duo.
Beatrice points her free right hand, the one that is not holding Subaru's, at the Hare.
Beatrice: “We'll begin with a warm-up, I suppose. —El Meenya.”
Space spirals alongside the canto as purple crystals materialize around Subaru and Beatrice,
surrounding them.
These things, with the brilliance and bearing of icicles, are the magical stakes that Beatrice used in a
previous loop to skewer Elsa. In a single instant, forty of them have formed.
It takes less than a moment for one to aim and silently shoot off—without its aim deviating in the
least, to spear straight through the open mouth of a hare. The skewer proceeds to plummet through
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the air and plunge into the rearward horde of hares, where it explodes. Fragments of crystal shred
through the hares around the site of impact, slivering them.
That is what one shot can do, and Beatrice fires forty at once.
The looming omnipresent destruction brings bloody flowers to blossom through the white world.
The ruthless opening attack annihilates hundreds of hares. Aftermath of the destruction litters the
clearing, where the surviving hares shriek in agony. The beast can multiply infinitely and there are
still units of it left, but even so, it works Subaru up.
That is, Beatrice's unimaginably devastating destructive capabilities do.
Subaru: “W-woaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
Beatrice: “I-is it that incredible, I suppose? It isn't anything so impressive, in fact. This is the lowest
of techniques from Betty, I suppose. A piece of cake, in fact.”
Subaru: “No, what, the... this, savage magic! What affinity!?”
Beatrice: “It's obviously going to be yin, I suppose. I'm not the best at other types of magic, in fact.”
Says Beatrice, not looking entirely satisfied about Subaru's praise.

The ravaged witchbeast immediately starts cannibalizing the gore from the corpses and multiplies
itself again, but Beatrice pays this not the slightest of mind.
Beatrice: “Pay attention in fact, Subaru. Here's a lecture from one yin user to another, I suppose.”
Subaru: “What, is that all?”
Beatrice: “Huh?”
Subaru: “Was our relationship just about both being yin...”
Beatrice: “Th-that wasn't what I meant, in fact. You're a fellow yin user, my contractor, and also
umm... Betty's Subaru, I suppose. Yes. And so here's my lesson to you, in fact.”
Beatrice, flustered, probably doesn't even know what she's saying. She coughs before raising her
finger and lowering her voice.
Beatrice: “About the apex of yin—the apogee of Yin Magic.”
Subaru: “What do I need to do?”
Beatrice: “Hold my hand, and keep me from being alone, I suppose.”
Subaru: “I mean I do think that's important, but...”
Beatrice: “...It seems you don't quite understand spiritualism, which gives me some concerns for the
future, in fact.”
She can be as exasperated as she wants, it won't change that he doesn't know what he doesn't know.
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Beatrice shakes her head at Subaru as he frowns, and pulls him forward by the hand.
Beatrice: “Fundamentally, a spiritualist and a spirit fight on the battlefield as single entity with
separate minds, I suppose.”
Subaru: “A single entity with separate minds...”
Subaru thinks about Emilia's fighting style.

The most striking battle that involved both Emilia and Puck was the one with Elsa in the loot house.
Emilia had placed Puck on offence while she took charge of defence. She would also use simpler
techniques to buy time so that Puck could unleash massive attacks.
That bald old man mentioned that that was the basis of how spiritualists fight.
Subaru: “So I just have to do that. Okay, time for Shamac!”
Beatrice: “Being subject to your defective Shamac would probably damage us as well so I would
rather we not, in fact. And Subaru, your gate is...”
Beatrice trails off, looking reluctant to speak. Subaru feels apologetic that he forced her into giving
this consideration. His gate is probably junk.
He abused it. He can feel that it's broken. Again, he is speaking fantasies.
Beatrice: “—It's coming, I suppose.”
Mutters Beatrice halfway through her speech. The instant after Subaru grunts in confusion, he
realises that his feet are no longer touching the ground.
Beatrice kicks off the ground, and the jump carries the two of them straight into the air like a spring.
That exact nanosecond, a horde of witchbeast's fangs closes in on the spot the two had just been.
The Hare's fangs clatter against each other as the hares leap off the ground in pursuit of the two.
Subaru: “We're flying!?”
Beatrice: “We only jumped, in fact. I've diminished the effects of gravity with the yin spell MURAK,
I suppose. If we desired, we could fly by riding the wind, in fact.”
Subaru: “You see we're falling though!?”
Beatrice: “We could keep riding the wind if we were simply fleeing... but we are annihilating them,
I suppose.”
Like leaves tossing in the wind, Subaru and Beatrice are buffeted by blizzard. They regardless fail
to gracelessly flip upside-down midair, probably by Beatrice's doing.
The two are on slow descent from their ten-meter high peak. The hares wait below them with their
mouths gaping open, leaving Subaru to put his hopes in another rally of magical spears.
Beatrice: “Subaru, a continuation in fact. Spiritualists don't cast magic by using their internal mana,
but by directly manipulating the ambient mana, I suppose. A contract with minor spirits is essential
for this, so you are not currently meeting those requirements, in fact.”
Subaru: “Ah, uhrm, Beatrice-san? There's, there's kind of a whole bunch of them right under us!?”
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Beatrice: “Just listen to me, I suppose. Your gate is trashed, and you cannot use minor spirits. So
poor useless hopeless Subaru's only role is to stay at Betty's side and praise Betty's magnificence, I
suppose. Why are you even here, in fact?”
Subaru: “That's what I wanna know!”
Beatrice: “Then I'll teach you, I suppose.”
The witchbeasts leaping up from below them will start reaching their feet in no time at all. If their
fangs bite on, the hares will never let go. Even he has to find it overwhelmingly lame to take huge
damage and start crying after how cool and composed he acted.
Subaru yells rather hysterically at Beatrice.
Subaru: “What do I do!?”
Beatrice: “Visualise, in fact. Imagine the same crystals that I made before, I suppose. They are
crystallized mana, spears weaved from corporeal magic. They taper to sharp points, with ruinous
shards packed inside them, piercing through defences and stabbing into flesh. —Visualise this
attack.”
Subaru: “Visualised!”
Beatrice: “Now all you must do is incant, I suppose!”
The horde of hares waits below them, mouths agape.

Red eyes, bloodstained maw, sharp fangs, instincts that view Subaru as merely a wad of meat.
Utterly repugnant, utterly loathsome, this is the greatest adversary in SANCTUARY.
Both: “—El Meenya!!”
Subaru and Beatrice's cantos mirror each other, and the conjured spears rain down at the ground
from on high.
Explosions and destruction rock the earth of SANCTUARY, eviscerating the ugly witchbeast.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Emilia: “Amazing...”
Sighs Emilia in admiration as she freezes a hare that slipped past solid.
Her amethyst eyes stay fixated on Subaru and Beatrice, fighting the beast beyond the shroud of
snow.
More specifically, Emilia's eyes stay fixated on Beatrice as she holds Subaru's hand.
Emilia herself is a spiritualist, who is using the minor spirits' magic this very instant. She
understands to a painful degree how incredible this magical confrontation is.
First, Beatrice is not receiving any magical reserves from Subaru.
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They are definitely connected by the pass from their contract: it's simply that Beatrice is abstaining
from doing so. Subaru was thrown into combat immediately after forming this spirit contract. If
Beatrice siphons the mana she needs from him, he won't last.
Beatrice understands this, and is taking care not to burden Subaru.
Second, it's not that Beatrice is taking magic from Subaru—she's giving it to him.
It's not the most accurate phrasing, but it's the truth. Subaru, as he holds hands with Beatrice, is
receiving Beatrice's support, allowing him to use magic that should be inaccessible to him. He isn't
using his gate, and is instead using Beatrice's presence itself like a gate.
There is no way that Subaru can possibly understand how monumental this is.
Beatrice the spirit is supplying the magic for both herself and Subaru not from some outside source,
but her own magical stockpile.
And third, she is legitimately witnessing advanced yin magic.

The class of a magician's magical affinity greatly influences their future. Specialization in any of the
four main types of magic will demarcate them into distinct roles, and the same applies to the two
special types of yin and yang; meaning that their essence differs greatly from the other four, even
before reaching the advanced stages.
And then is the fact that they initially look to lack uses. They comes with lots of problems, like the
time needed to procure results or required quantity of magical power, that are also cons.
So the yin and yang affinities are both rare, and have few advanced practitioners.
Many spells have been lost over time, unlike with the main four, making it a difficult environment
to produce any new great magicians.
Yin has all of these glaring issues, and Beatrice has mastered it. And she is using ancient magic,
long lost to time and history, as if it's nothing.
Emilia: “Woah, they went really high that time. Huh? They're gone... oh, there they went.”
The way they fight is so dreamlike and phantasmal that it makes her lose her sense of reality.
Though part of it probably comes from the fact that Subaru and Beatrice are so amicably holding
hands.
Emilia can tell that Subaru is fighting desperately, but Beatrice is even smiling.
She must be having a lot of fun. It's not that she enjoys fighting, or flaunting her power. It's just that
doing this is fun for her.
Emilia: “—”
Emilia blinks, and Subaru and Beatrice have moved to a completely different spot. It's teleportation
magic akin to the more limited GATE CROSSING. Purple spears blast through a row of hares from
either end, the beasts shrieking furiously as they try to leap at the two, only for their bodies to catch
on something midair and shred apart.
Emilia strains her eyes. She spots it.

The fragments from the detonated spear have not vanished, and instead sit suspended in space, as if
frozen in time. The leaping hares shred themselves on those splinters, ripping themselves apart.
The crystalline trap is spread all across the area as the witchbeasts move, jumping, tumbling to
resolutely attack the two, all while triggering the trap quite comically.
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The Sizeable Hare is a fearsome witchbeast, but the individual hares are not that threatening.
They lack any great power, and should an experienced fighter pay mind to the hare's ferocity while
combating it, they will definitely come out ahead.
A fighting style as reckless as 'follow your instinct to eat' will learn nothing. They want their fellow
hares to be caught and dismembered in the traps, because their hunger is everything. So they pay no
heed to the fact that they will die caught in the exact same trap, jump at them, and become a
cadaver.
Emilia: “Ah!”
Emilia strikes another hare that escaped the siege with her magic.
She dashes over to the frozen hare and kicks it to pieces without any hesitation. It shatters into
shards of ice, so utterly deceased that it cannot reform.
Subaru and Beatrice have been putting in such a good fight that only a surprisingly few hares have
slipped past to Emilia. Emilia can even concentrate on suppressing her own magical power.
But even as she watches Beatrice's display of overwhelming strength, Emilia cannot erase the
kernel of anxiety within her.
Beatrice's snare is powerful and cunning. The Sizeable Hare keeps catching itself in the trap,
building a mountain of corpses. But Emilia cannot see the end.
What Emilia witnesses is one of the hares trembling, when another hare appears as if sprouted out
of the first one's back. The hares repeat and repeat this, the beasts multiplying like mice.
100 hares compounds into 200 in an instant, and into 400 in the next.
It has numbers, and wretched instincts ignorant to the concept of 'stopping'.

Which is why this beast is counted as one of the great three, and has gone four hundred years doing
whatever it wishes as a CALAMITY—
Emilia: “Subaru, Beatrice.”
Emilia calls their names. Though they look to have an overwhelming advantage, they mustn't fall
negligent.
Emilia will never forget how she shivered after returning to the tomb with Roswaal and Ram, and
first confirmed the Sizeable Hare's presence.
Those eyes regarded every single thing alive as nothing more than its food.
An entity truly incapable of any co-existence will make those who oppose it feel that utter despair.
To oppose that overwhelming absurdity, Emilia needed to demonstrate comparable power.
And that was what she had intended to do.

A torrent of magic churns within her, not fully under her control. It surely cannot all belong to her
alone, and should she unleash it, it will annihilate the Sizeable Hare.
She would be offering her life in exchange. And she was prepared to do that, if it came to it.
She murmurs his name as he fights on.

Her had known about the Hare's attack beforehand, and it doesn't seem that he's fighting it without a
plan. He's brought Beatrice out of the Forbidden Archive, and has her so full of life.
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He would never do anything to bring gloom to that smile.
And so Emilia believes in Natsuki Subaru.

White magic, capable of ending everything, asserts its presence in her heart. She holds it down,
advising that its time has not come yet.
—She believes in his words.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
For Subaru, using magic has always been tantamount to whittling away his soul.
At first it had been exactly like what Puck and Roswaal had said, that Subaru possessed not the
slightest of talent as a magician. It was so bad that, when he first used Shamac, he couldn't keep
himself from wringing out his mana and so fell immobile.
He next got by on hits of Bocco Fruit. He used magic during his duel even when he was prohibited
from doing so, and ultimately he abused his gate so terribly that it collapsed.
He has not any hope of being a magician.
Magic had saved Subaru many times, but he considered it something like whittling away at his
already delicate core, sharpening it down, something like that. He thought it inevitable that it broke.
And so he had only dreamed about doing what he's doing now, firing off consecutive blasts of
incredible magic, and could only think this reality impossible.
Subaru: “Hey, Beatrice! Should we really keep blasting them like this!?”
The Sizeable Hare generates more hares than what Subaru and Beatrice defeat. The hares eat their
dead brethren, steadily compounding in number. It seems like they're using their multiplication as
energy, for each hare grows more forceful the more that their number compounds.
This does encourage some dim hopes that, if they keep buying time, the hares will eventually run
out of energy to multiply themselves. But,
Beatrice: “There's no limit to their propagation, in fact. That's how they were crafted to be, I
suppose. Even when they verge on destruction they will not be destroyed. Unless you annihilate
them all at once.”
Subaru: “So what do we do? Do you have any ideas?”
Beatrice: “Subaru, are you trying to rely on adorable Betty for everything, I suppose?”
An explosion of crystal opens a hole in the mob, blasting the hares away, to be dismembered on the
suspended shards. Beatrice sees this through as she pulls Subaru's arm and hops into the air. Though
neither her tug nor her jump are that forceful, she easily succeeds in both.
Beatrice walks on air, dancing through space to avoid the hares' fangs as she weaves through gaps
in her crystalline snare. The lack of a single drop of blood sullying her extravagant dress proves
that, in this fight, she feels not the slightest agitation or unease.
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Beatrice: “We're moving, in fact.”
Subaru: “Right.”
With that, space bends, and the two engage in a short-range teleport.
They cross through space in a manner unlike GATE CROSSING, reappearing behind the horde of
hares. The beasts sniff, but having lost Subaru and Beatrice, remain fraught with openings.
Beatrice: “You take the left, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Right's all yours.”
Visualize. Beatrice's magic reacts to Subaru's fantasy, manipulates the world, and brings about that
transformation.
He definitely feels that he is benefiting at her expense, but that's why he's not playing around in the
slightest.
The purple crystals of yin's Meenya spells form in accordance to Subaru's imagination.
Subaru generates winding grooves on the projectiles to magnify their piercing force before firing
them off all at once. His hands never touch them, but they do fire according to his will.
It's like he's drawing a mental bowstring, to shoot incorporeal arrows.
They spear through the air, landing a direct hit on the undefended hares, blasting the mob of them
screeching away.
Beatrice's destruction does the same thing to the right end of the mob, scattering them in all
directions.
Fissures in space swallow mobs of hares, sealing several hundreds inside a closed space as if in a
picture frame. The hares hop about beyond the looking-glass. Beatrice fires a crystalline spear at the
heedless mob of hares—shattering the planar world to pieces, sending the hares inside to their end.
Subaru swallows his breath, astonished at Beatrice's multifaceted sorcery.

While Subaru keeps repeating Meenya like an idiot, Beatrice keeps repeating entirely new
combinations of yin magic to annihilate the Sizeable Hare.
It's as if she's showing off every card she has in hand to Subaru. Or as if she's doing it to remind
herself of her skills.
Beatrice: “About now, in fact.”
Subaru: “Hm?”
The Sizeable Hare has been cut down in number, only for it to instantly regenerate the exact
quantity it lost.
Subaru witnesses this, and again feels the strangeness that he has been feeling for a while now.
Putting that together with Beatrice's muttering, Subaru feels the urge for a conversation.
Subaru: “Beatrice. They've been recovering the same number they lost... but doesn't it feel like
they've never gone over their original amount?”
Supposing there are one thousand hares, if Subaru defeats one hundred of them, it multiplies to
make one hundred more. If he defeats two hundred hares, he gets two hundred more hares. The
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scales have not tipped once, no matter how many of them he kills.
But Subaru has never seen them multiply beyond that highest number.
Beatrice nods to Subaru.
Beatrice: “Their multiplication itself may be unlimited, but there is likely a ceiling to how many
hares there can be, in fact. So they cannot multiply beyond that, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Then, if we can finish off that ceiling all at once...”
Beatrice: “Theoretically, that will destroy it. ...But that presents its own difficulties, in fact.”
Subaru sees hope, but Beatrice makes a complicated expression.

Well, of course. There are enough hares to drown out everything in sight. If they had the magic to
burn everything in visible range then they might be able to destroy the Hare, but how much power
would it take to do it all in one second, and get all of them?
It's a violent plan akin to missile bombing the whole region. And if even one of them survives, they
will all instantly regenerate. The risk is far too great.
Subaru: “Then... okay. That's it.”
Beatrice: “You've thought of something, I suppose?”
Subaru: “It's me being utterly dependant on you yet again but yeah.”
Subaru watches the witchbeast multiply as he whispers into Beatrice's ear.

Beatrice lowers her gaze in thought, and nods.
Beatrice: “I've been thinking the same thing, in fact. But doing it would require...”
Subaru: “I know there's a bottleneck. However! You better not get the wrong idea, Beatrice!”
Beatrice: “—?”
Subaru: “It's not like we have to solve this problem on our own, yeah?”
Beatrice's eyes widen at this. She gives a quiet sigh, pitching over in Subaru's direction to set her
forehead on his chest.
Beatrice: “Truly, Subaru... you present some extraordinary solutions, in fact.”
Subaru: “I do promise to be such a thrillingly fresh and novel contractor that you'll never ever get
bored.”
Subaru shoots her a thumbs up, his teeth sparkling. Beatrice smiles wryly before looking up, her
face against his chest.
Beatrice: “Fine I suppose, let's do it in fact. But even Betty needs time to pull this off, I suppose.
Let's see you manage well over that period, in fact.”
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Subaru: “Just pretend you're relaxing on a safe sturdy boat. It's what I'm doing.”
Beatrice: “We'll see who'll be doing the paddling, I suppose.”
Beatrice pushes away from Subaru's chest.

She takes a breath, closes her eyes, and begins focusing on escalating her magic.
Seeing this, Subaru psychs himself up and kicks off the snow.
The witchbeast's fangs click and clatter as it chases Subaru, running. Silhouettes come swooping for
his legs. But they're too slow. After these two days of butcheries, the Sizeable Hare looks wimpy.
Subaru: “Out of the way! Move it! I don't have the time to deal with you right now!”
Subaru dodges the fangs, kicks away the hares.

He incants, using crystal spears to force open a path as he charges through the clearing with
Beatrice cradled in his arms, sprinting back to the tomb.
Emilia: “Huh, wha, Subaru!?”
Emilia looks shocked as she witnesses Subaru's return.

Subaru skids to a stop beside her before placing Beatrice, her eyes closed, on the snowy ground
beside him and stroking her head.
Subaru: “Sorry, Emilia-tan! We're having some trouble pulling it off on our own!”
Emilia: “I-I mean, that's fine, but... what do we do now? Right, I'm going to—”
Subaru: “No, we have an idea for how to beat it. You don't have to use your suicide bomber
absolute death moves. Or actually just don't use them. It'll make all our efforts until now pointless.”
Emilia swallows her breath and stares intently at Subaru's face.

Did she seriously think he wouldn't figure it out? She seriously did, didn't she.
Of course Emilia would, if truly backed into a corner in a situation like this, bring harm to herself to
land the decisive blow. What an impossible girl.
'It's okay to hurt myself if it saves everyone?' Just stop.
Subaru: “It's best that everyone's safe and everyone's saved, duh.”
Subaru: “So Emilia-tan, I have kind of a crazy request. If it doesn't look feasible then I'll think on it
more, but if it looks feasible then I want to see your best. —Let's all win this together.”
Emilia: “—”
Emilia puts her hand to her chest, seeming to feel something about Subaru's statement, blinking
several times.
Subaru conjures crystal spears and fires them at the witchbeast horde to hold them in check, buying
time for Emilia to come to her decision. It does not end up taking long at all.
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Emilia: “Alright. Let's do this, Subaru. I'm ready for anything.”
Says Emilia, steeling her resolve, her gaze determined.

Subaru pumps his fists as he glances back to her.
Subaru: “That's the spirit. Here we go!”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru feels incredible swells of magic beside him, coming from both sides.
Emilia stands on his left, and Beatrice on his right.

Each of them holds one of Subaru's hands, linking the three of them together.
There was no real significance to them doing this. It's just to motivate Subaru.
In context of battle, you call 'motivation' 'morale'. And high morale is essential for dictating the tide
of battle.
Subaru: “Visualise, visualise, visualise!”
Subaru envisions the wicked, powerful, magical assault.

He creates pointed amethyst spears and bombards the expanse of approaching hares with them. He
fights his hardest, repeating volley after volley to keep the hares from reaching either themselves or
the tomb.
Subaru is not using his own mana to cast this magic. So he is casting without suffering any strain—
would be a complete misunderstanding.
He is getting the mana he needs to cast from Beatrice, but Subaru is the one regulating the magic.
He visualises the spears' force, their aim, their quantity, materializes them and fires them, then
instantly moves to the next attack.
He would be suffering even more bodily fatigue alongside this, were he an actual magician. He
cannot hope to imagine the immense burden and concurrent workload. He can agree with his lack of
talent for it.
The spears strike against the ground, shockwaves and detonations sending the hares flying as they
screech in protest. Their fangs click and chitter and click and chitter and click and with the howling
blizzard as accompaniment, it sounds like the cog-wheels of hell, or something to that effect.
The cogs on the grim conveyor to send Subaru's team to the guillotine press ever closer.
Subaru: “Meenya! Meenya! Ah, crap! Biting my tongue on this magic!”
While grumbling about the unpronounceable incantation, Subaru takes aim at the charging Hare.
He fires the conjured crystals, and the leading hare's head—goes untouched as the spear strikes the
ground before it, and the shockwave pushes it back into the mob.
The plan is in phase one.

Subaru is controlling the horde with his conjured spears, but he isn't killing them. They want to
avoid disruption to the ceiling, and having the hares multiply at some indefinite juncture.
He is keeping the Sizeable Hare at its ceiling while pinning it in place. Although,
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Subaru: “If you're attracted to mana's smell, then there's no way you're prying your attention from
us.”
After all, there are two people here maintaining nigh-unwitnessed magnitudes of mana. And they're
both beautiful girls. Subaru, right now, has flowers in both hands. Anyone would envy him.
Subaru: “Visualize, visualize, visualize... come on, you gotta be jealous! Wanna try coming closer!”
Hums Subaru, not neglecting to taunt the animal.

Part of it is to inflame the enemy, but it's more about Subaru encouraging himself. If he feigns that
an extraordinary situation is an ordinary one, he can manage to keep himself going.
If he doesn't do this, he cannot assure himself steady knees. Both of his hands feel a warmth. With
this touch on his palms, he absolutely cannot show the pathetic side of himself.
Subaru: “Visualize, visualize, visualise...!”
Mutters Subaru over and over as he strains his eyes.

The horde of hares has pushed forward; there is a limit to how far Subaru can restrain them. But
preparations are not in place yet.
Not Emilia's, or Beatrice's, or Subaru's.
He feels someone squeeze his hand, and looks to find Emilia gazing at him, her eyes faintly open.
Her preparations are in order, then? She is smiling, awaiting Subaru's signal.
Subaru: “—hk”
Pushed onward by Emilia's gaze, Subaru strains his bloodshot eyes further.
The curtain of blustering blizzard is thick, constantly concealing and revealing the places he is
trying to see. But the sight of their wriggling, white forms does tell Subaru of the slight difference
between the witchbeast and the snowbanks.
—Just a little more, a tiny, right there, there, there, there!
Subaru grits his teeth. Waits for the moment.

Confirming that the front, the sides, all of it, everything is correct, Subaru's eyes shoot open.
Subaru: “Now, Emilia! Follow the lines!!”
Shouting, Subaru squeezes down on Emilia's hand.

Emilia's amethyst gaze focuses firmly to the front as she looks at the lines Subaru drew.
While he kept the Hare in check with conjured spears, Subaru had been simultaneously drawing
lines across the earth with mana. Using formless mana to gouge into the earth had been the utmost
in difficulty.
But Subaru, as talentless as people called him, overcame that ordeal by a combination of focus and
PRETENTIONS that far exceeded those of the ordinary person. The ones that disallowed him from
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looking uncool around others, those pretentions.
He drew four lines in total.

Four long lines, that form a box around the mass of hares.
Lines that would tell Emilia where to aim.
Emilia: “Excellent, Subaru! You did sooo wonderful!”
Cheers Emilia at his beautiful set-up, saying things she would usually never say.
Emilia raises her right hand, Subaru's hand still in her grip, and places her half-frozen left hand atop
it. And, incants.
Emilia: “—Al Huma!!”
The multitude of magic surges as the world transforms in accordance to Emilia's canto.
Mana rushes to Emilia and Subaru's linked hands before shooting into the atmosphere, piercing
through the earth, and converging with Subaru's lines of mana.
—The earth bellows as something incredible occurs.
Subaru: “Woah...”
Says Subaru, astonished, as he watches what happens.

Well of course. Anyone witnessing this would react the same way.
Emilia's magic traces over the lines that Subaru drew—and all of the snow within the box starts
levitating.
All of the hares within the box remain atop the snow platform, but they have not noticed that these
tremors happened because the ground beneath them is floating.
It may be a limited space, but the floating platform is still about twenty by twenty meters.
This sight, of so many hares crowded together and shuddering on this platform, beautifully
demonstrates the supernatural nature of 'magic'.
Subaru: “Emilia!”
Emilia: “Got it! I'm not letting them get away!”
But if they stop here, then the Hare is just going to jump off the platform.
There is one more thing they have to do to keep it from escaping.
Emilia raises their linked hands up high—and swings them right down.
The floating snowfield rumbles. Surely, the Hare never imagined what would happen.
A roar, and a frigid blast of stabbing wind.

It showers over Subaru and the others as they keep their eyes fixated on the platform, to see the
results through.
—By the time the wind stops, the snowfield is vertically shut.
The left and right ends of Emilia's floating platform have folded to meet at the centre.
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The ground has been shut in the same manner as a book, sealing the Hare inside the snow without
any means of escape.
Subaru hurriedly looks over the closed platform's surroundings. They missed—none. Movement—
nowhere.
All of the hares are in one place, trapped in an extraordinarily small area. With this,
Subaru: “The big one's all on you, Beatrice!”
Subaru calls to Beatrice, telling her that the secondary set-up is complete. Hearing this, and having
quietly chanted the canto the entire time, Beatrice's eyes open.
Seeing the sight before her, Beatrice laughs quietly.

It's not surprise or anything like that. A smile abounding with trust arises on her face,
Beatrice: “Here is the pinnacle of yin. —Al Shamac.”
The instant she murmurs the canto, shadow drowns out the world.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—For a moment, it is manhandled by something like vertigo.
But it really does only last for a moment.

The vertigo stops, and a shock impacts its feet. Then the bondage pressing on its body disappears. It
starts off by giving a big shake to get the snow off its fur.
It sniffs the air, looks around the area.

Its eyes, its nose, its ears, all get the better of it as they prioritize the hunt for prey. Its red eyes
glance about as it searches for sweet-smelling game.
Nothing. There had been prey so delectable that it made its stomach wrench painfully, right in front
of it, just a second ago. With tender flesh and sweet blood, prey that might sate this starvation even
temporarily had definitely been right there.
Its nose smells nothing. Its eyes see nothing. Its ears hear nothing.
The prey is gone. It looks around. Nowhere in sight.
Hunger instantly overwrites its disappointment. To distract itself from its hunger and urge to chew,
it decides to bite into the white mass beside to it.
It gnashes at it, shreds its flesh, slurps at its blood while clawing out its innards. It chews away to its
heart's content, swallows it down, and then notices that identical meals are unfolding all around it.
There's less prey now.

It doesn't feel like it's in danger, but in accordance with its survival instincts, it bites off the head of
another white mass that frantically consumes all around it. Bites into it, and swallows it down.
And this repeats. And repeats. Spurred on by endless hunger, it goes to the neighbouring prey, and
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the prey neighbouring that, and the prey neighbouring that, and the prey neighbouring that, and the
prey neighbouring—.
Eventually, after devouring everything around, it is the only thing left.

It licks up the blood soaking the ground, leaving not a single scrap of gore or blood-soaked grass
left. Once it tidily cleans up the remains of the meal, it truly is alone.
But even with meat in its stomach, starvation far exceeding its body mass assaults it.
It cries out, teeth chattering, near to madness. Unending starvation, insatiable hunger. The
maddening lack of release, no matter how much it eats.
Mother must have felt this too.
For an instant, a mysterious thought passes through a mind dominated by hunger.

The indistinct thing had been a simple flash of emotion, nothing so cultivated as to reach language.
And it, too, vanishes eternally in the face of maddening hunger.
The creature trembles, trembles violently. It shrieks as it feels its innards churn about, and it
unconsciously creates another entity.
This sudden, new white mass tumbles back-first onto the ground, as if it's forgotten how to walk.
Every single one of its organs registers this thing prey, and it bites into the tumbling mass without
any hesitation.
It swallows it down without allowing it even to shriek. After eating, the hunger still torments it. And
following all this agonized struggling, another creature other than itself is born into the world.
And it repeats, and it repeats, the same thing going on and on and on and on.
It's alone now. Nothing else exists in this world. There are buildings, and forests, and earth, and air
and wind, but no prey. It's alone.
And it proceeds to eat.

Eventually, even IT is devoured by another stomach, and disappears.
The new lonely one repeats and repeats it all until it is that no longer. The world turns.
—Insatiable hunger is never to be sated.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The momentary presence of the incredible shadow makes Subaru swallow his breath.
Subaru: “—”
The black orb that Beatrice's canto created swallows the snowfield trapping the Hare that Emilia
sealed, then proceeds to shrink smaller and smaller, before eventually shrinking smaller than a
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marble and silently vanishing.
Even Subaru, who does not know the theory behind this feat, understands what this means.
Al Shamac, the greatest of Shamac spells, is magic that affects space.

The magic swallowed the Hare and the snowfield, then blasted them all into another dimension.
Neither regeneration nor multiplication mean anything any more.
Because it's literally another world's issue.
Subaru: “I know I did... ask you to send them into an isolated space like the Forbidden Archive,
but...”
Beatrice: “Do I hear malcontent, I suppose?”
Subaru's voice trembles before the incredible feat, while Beatrice pouts beside him.
She puts her hands to her hips, quite displeased with Subaru's attitude.
Emilia: “Seriously, wow...”
The whole thing makes Emilia's eyes open wide as well.

Emilia is more learned in magic than Subaru, so her surprise is happening on another vector. Her
powers have probably settled in somewhat after half-freezing herself and using such immense
magic. Once she figures out how to control it, she'll probably be fine.
Subaru looks around, confirming that there is nothing where the Hare used to be.
Then he glances behind him, and confirms that the tomb is secure too. Peeking out from the tomb is
an expressionless mob of Leweses. Looks like the Lewes doubles have all managed to reach safety
too.
Roswaal is leaning against the wall beside the tomb's entrance, with Ram in his arms.
Ram's hand is touching Roswaal's cheek, and Subaru can see that Roswaal is crying.
Subaru: “—”
Witnessing that, Subaru feels the weight in his chest disappear.

There are still so many things that they have to talk about. Otto, Garfiel, and the others are still back
at the mansion. He does believe they're safe, but they need to meet up and talk. And on this side,
too. He has so many things to ask Emilia.
But somehow, it feels like everything is all right.
There are so many things he hasn't verified yet. But seeing Roswaal crying, and Ram smiling softly
as she watches him, makes Subaru feel that: hey, everything's all right.
Emilia: “Subaru, come on!”
Subaru takes his breather, until Emilia suddenly pokes his cheek.
Emilia smiles at Subaru when he looks back at her, and then gestures to the area behind him. Where
there Beatrice stands with her arms folded, still looking sulky.
Beatrice: “I believe that this ace deserves a few words, in fact.”
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Beatrice puffs out her cheeks. Subaru replies with a nod.
And,
Beatrice: “Ah, eep!”
Subaru slips his hands under her arms and lifts her right up.
He ignores her adorable yelp, embracing her as he spins around on the spot,
Subaru: “You did it! Knew you could, I'm so in love with you, Beako!!”
Beatrice: “Wh—hold it! Sto—let me—let me go, I suppose! Betty isn't...”
Subaru: “Yes yes yes! You are adorable! Beako is wonderful! Beako is supreme! All hail Beako!”
Showing her in praise, Subaru spins round and around with Beatrice in his arms.
Beatrice's face flashes beet red as Emilia watches them frolic, her gaze awfully gentle.
The spirit and contractor, spinning and spinning in an energetic expression of delight—
Both: “Ah!”
—lose their footing at the last moment, and happily plunge face-first into the snow together.
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INTERLUDE: EACH GIVES CONCESSION
Subaru: “—Aaand, done!”
Subaru sticks the two twigs into the heap of snow before him, then wipes the sweat from his brow.
It's an amateur work, thrown together in an hour, but he still has to be impressed at the results.
Murmurs of admiration spread through the onlooking crowd as well.
Subaru: “Yeah, I must have a talent for this stuff. If we're ever hurting for food money, we can make
it snow, and make it as the esteemed snow artists of the nation.”
Emilia: “Stop being so silly. I'm not going to make it snow to help you with that. ...But, it really
does look sooo good.”
Says Emilia with a white puff of breath as she sits on the stone steps, observing Subaru's work.
Reflected in her amethyst eyes is Subaru's snowman—but since labelling it as a 'snowman' wouldn't
quite describe it correctly, perhaps it's better to call it a 'snow sculpture.'
There are now about 20 sculptures of Puck crafted from the leftover snow in SANCTUARY. What had
compelled Subaru to make so many? Ask him, and he would only be able to answer with: copious
romanticism.
But it's making Emilia and SANCTUARY's people happy, so the shallow rationale will suffice.
???: “I'm sure that you're not trying to be, but you truly are an idiot, Barusu.”
Says someone else, judging Subaru harshly.

The speaker is a girl, seated on the steps with her head on Emilia's lap. She has dressed out of her
trademark maid uniform and currently wears a simple white outfit.
Her clothes burned as she wavered between life and death. While her face does look paler than
usual, neither her tone nor venom suffer for it. So everything's good.
Subaru: “The two of you keep ganging up to call dumb... I did put in quite a bit of work throughout
this whole mess, so can't you be nicer to me? I could use a little more commendation.”
Emilia: “Mm, you're right. Thank you sooo much, Subaru. But I was the one doing work when you
were away, so actually I'd like commendation too.”
Subaru: “The stuff you've started saying, Emilia-tan...”
Though, Emilia does deserve praise for protecting SANCTUARY during Subaru's absence. It's
uncertain whether the residents would have escaped the Hare had Emilia not instructed them to go
in the tomb. And had Emilia not cleared the TRIALS, there would've been nowhere to take shelter
anyway.
Neither is it certain that Subaru would have thought to use the tomb as a shelter. Since his thoughts
had been fixated on escaping before the snow came.
Subaru: “Well, we'll call it a happy mistake that the Men's Brigade came back and sparked your
motivation, Emilia-tan. ...Seriously, thank you.”
This is true for previous affairs too, but this whole series of events involved far too many gambles.
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It feels like Subaru couldn't manage on his own, and constantly had others rescuing him. Even
though he'd decided to take the hardest parts upon himself, ideally.
Emilia: “But of course, though. If you do absolutely everything for me, Subaru, I'm going stop
knowing what I'm even doing here. You've done enough zipping around that it's okay for you to rest
a little.”
Subaru: “No it's just that when I want to help with all the brains and brawn I don't have, running
around like an idiot's all I can do.”
Emilia: “But that's going to change, yes?”
Says Emilia teasingly, suppressing a laugh as she strokes Ram's head. Subaru instantly understands,
and rubs his finger under his nose as he replies with a, “yeah.”
He made many mistakes, and others were constantly rescuing him, but he managed to save basically
everything he needed to. And he would never agonize over these issues alone again.
Subaru would no longer hesitate to rely on others, would not slack in his own efforts either, and has
people to give him a good kick in the ass when he needs it.
Subaru: “—”
Subaru looks up, shifting his gaze from the clearing to the tomb.
His gaze goes past Emilia as she sits on the steps, all the way to the mouth of the tomb. Inside that
place, its TRIAL mechanism absent, are two people.
What could they be discussing inside? It does prey on Subaru's mind, but,
Subaru: “Well, even I have enough tact not to interrupt them.”
There's a wealth of opportunities they have to speak, but they couldn't stand to wait.
Surely. They have mountains of things to discuss.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
A girl and a man face each other with a transparent coffin between them.
Girl: “Mother...”
Murmurs the girl as she looks at the woman in the crystal coffin.
It feels like she's floating, like her feet aren't touching the ground. Some of it is from the remaining
rush of battle, some of it is from her feelings of loss and liberation from losing her old haunt, and
most of it is from the unreal sight before her.
She had never thought that she would see her mother again.
The woman in the coffin—the witch, Echidna—looks not at all different from Beatrice's memories.
Long, white, beautiful hair alongside her intelligent yet gentle features. It vividly revives memories
of how she smiled at Beatrice, though it only happened rarely.
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Beatrice: “Betty... wasn't able to keep her promise to you, I suppose. I'm sorry.”
Beatrice strokes the coffin, beginning the four-hundred-year reunion with an apology.
When they parted, Echidna had instructed Beatrice to give her stockpile of knowledge to THEY. Had
given her abundant books to fill the Archive, and a gospel that told the future.
Beatrice no longer has either.
The gospel telling the future that Echidna desired of Beatrice, and all of the knowledge that Echidna
amassed, has departed the world as ashes.
Beatrice: “Betty never even met THEY... and the books have burned, in fact. I've done excessively
many things I must apologize for, I suppose.”
I'm a terrible daughter, thinks Beatrice.

A foolish daughter who could not achieve even one of her mother's requests, even with four
centuries. Now she is meeting her mother who she cannot even face, and should be apologizing
profusely, but—
???: “...You look raaaaaaaather more refreshed.”
Mutters the man across from her, easily disclosing her thoughts.
Beatrice glances up to see a man with long hair arise from the dim, smiling weakly. It's Roswaal.
He's supposed to be a familiar face, but Beatrice cannot keep herself from feeling offput by him.
Perhaps because his eyes, always crazed in pursuit of his goals ever since Beatrice had met him,
now look uncertain—and because he is missing is clown makeup, his face bare.
Beatrice: “You best me in terms of refreshed in fact, Roswaal. Making my presence without
cosmetics means violating the instructions from your predecessor, I suppose.”
Roswaal: “The clown make-up was a sort of war paint for me, yooooooou see. Wearing it let me
interact with others spiritedly, as though I were donning a mask. But there's sooooooooomething I
realised.”
Beatrice: “Yes?”
Roswaal: “That regardless of the make-up, I am aaaaaaaan absolute clown. So how meaningful is it,
truly, that I neglect my cosmetics?”
Beatrice: “I see, in fact.”
Beatrice nods as Roswaal gives a joking shrug. She fiddles with her pigtails in silence before going
on,
Beatrice: “Now,”
Beatrice: “You must have things to say to Mother, I suppose. Reunion with her has been your... has
been your family's deepest wish, in fact.”
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Beatrice: “You mark perhaps the tenth Roswaal since the progenitor who directly knew Mother, I
suppose. Lords of the Mathers family have been short-lived for generations, so the visitors to the
Archive shifted rather steadily, in fact. ...You've been different ever since childhood, I suppose.”
Beatrice may not have been deeply involved in the history of the Mathers Family, but she did watch
from aside how their affairs progressed.
The first Roswaal was Echidna's only student. Though he lost almost all of his magical ability in his
fight with the warlock Hector, he did not give up on being Echidna's student.
He frequented the Archive even after Echidna's death, disregarding the dazed Beatrice as he
obsessively searched and searched and searched for something, and likely gave that something to
his descendant before dying.
Ever since, all the descendants from Roswaal's line demonstrated magical capabilities bordering on
those of their progenitor, and the Mathers family expanded.
Now is the current Roswaal. The man standing in front of Beatrice.

This Roswaal exhibited the most supreme talent out of all the Roswaals yet. He was such a genius
that, secretly, even Beatrice had to shiver.
His power eclipsed that of the progenitor, who Echidna had singled out personally, and could have
done anything he wanted with his claim as one of the strongest magicians in the world.
Beatrice: “You had all that talent, and you still failed to escape the Mathers' curse, in fact. Your
family has been entranced with thoughts of reuniting with my deceased Mother, the path a cruel one
you fixedly walked... I do sympathise with you somewhat, I suppose.”
Roswaal: “Do you? But how are you and we any different? You spent four centuries bound by the
words of your deceased mother. It's identical. Or rather, unlike my family's shifting over the
generations, you suffered pain in solitude beyond what anyone can empathise. We did what we
needed to strive forward toward our goal. You simply suffered in place.”
Says Roswaal, his words even graver than Beatrice's.

In the end, they're both bad, she thinks.
Roswaal's family has inherited the same feelings over lives upon short lives, in pursuit of a single
reunion.
Beatrice had been trapped in an empty cage for her immortal life, waiting for the day that she could
fulfil her promise.
An objective onlooker would see them as equally foolish clowns.
The two glare at each other in silence.

But their silent competition ends when Roswaal averts his gaze.
Roswaal: “This is a tedious argument. When two fools point at the other whilst mocking their
foolishness, we begin crossing the boundaries of vain comedy.”
Beatrice: “...You are correct there, in fact.”
Roswaal: “Do you mind me asking something?”
Roswaal raises his finger. Beatrice silently looks up, expressing her consent by neglecting to reject
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him.
Roswaal looks down at Echidna as she sleeps in the coffin.
Roswaal: “Did Subaru-kun manage to be your THEY?”
The word 'they' makes Beatrice swallow her breath. She has never spoken directly with Roswaal
about THEY. But Beatrice does not think it strange for him to learn about her from sources outside
her knowledge.
And thinking back on it, the people who had visited the Archive until now had ultimately been
brought there by Roswaals up to the previous generation. The Roswaals easily could have heard the
story from them and passed it on to their descendants.
And frankly you could say that even Subaru had been brought there by Roswaal.
—Not that Subaru would accept it if you told him so.
Roswaal: “...Why are you laughing?”
Beatrice: “—Ah. Sorry, I suppose. I'm not laughing at you, Roswaal, in fact. It just made me
imagine something amusing, I suppose.”
It amuses Beatrice how she managed to figure, with pinpoint accuracy, what the black-haired man
would say. He's just that straightforward, perhaps. She doesn't want to think any further into it than
that.
Either way, Beatrice shakes her head.
Beatrice: “That man is... Subaru is not fit to be my THEY, in fact.”
Roswaal: “...Hrm.”
Beatrice: “Subaru isn't nearly qualified to inherit Mother's archive of knowledge, I suppose. He has
no mind to educate himself with the knowledge or use it for his purposes, and he lacks the
fundamental background to do either, in fact. And he looks dumb and he's flimsy and he's useless at
magic and his legs are short, I suppose. He isn't Betty's awaited THEY in any capacity.”
Roswaal: “That soooooooounds quiiiiiiiiiite the harsh opinion.”
Beatrice: “Exactly, I suppose, Betty is harsh, in fact. And so I rebuffed every opportunity that came
to me over these four centuries. ...I rebuffed them with THEY, in fact.”
Beatrice does feel something like guilt towards all those who tried to take her out of the Archive,
when she thinks of it now. Not all of them had reached out to Beatrice while thinking only in their
own interests. Some of them had spoken kindly to her.
But Beatrice cast away every single hand that reached for her.
Beatrice: “I know that I should've chosen THEY, I suppose. That I should have faced everyone who
called to me, individual by individual, and properly thought out my answer, in fact. I was meant to
choose someone suitable to inherit the Archive, Echidna's knowledge... that has to be what it was, I
suppose.”
Roswaal: “However, you say that the one you picked, Subaru-kun, is unfit to be THEY?”
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Beatrice: “I do, in fact. There's no issue, I suppose. Betty's choice is Subaru, in fact. Not THEY. I
chose Subaru, I suppose.”
Beatrice sees how Roswaal's breath catches and his eyes open wide.
It must be a difficult answer for him to accept, considering how he has devoted himself to Echidna.
Beatrice had been in the exact same position as him until only a moment ago. She understands how
Roswaal feels so much that it hurts.
And because she understands, she has to explain it at length.
Beatrice: “Subaru laughed at me when I begged him to be they, in fact. He crowed that he could
make me happier than someone I've never seen, I suppose.”
Roswaal: “What a... prideful thing to say.”
Beatrice: “I don't dislike that forcefulness, in fact.”
Rather than enticing her with polite speech, explaining to her what she should do, and clarifying
how he would use Echidna's knowledge, he was utterly candid.
Roswaal: “But no matter what he preaches, Subaru-kun will not place you in first. It's obvious
simply by looking at him... you must already recognize this.”
Beatrice: “You don't seem to understand, I suppose, Roswaal.”
Roswaal: “I don't?”
Beatrice: “Betty didn't leave the Archive because she's Subaru's number one, in fact. I left the
Archive because I want Subaru to be my number one, I suppose.”
Choose me, he said.

I'll be too lonely to live without you, he said.
Convenient prattle, she thought. Pleasant bullshit, she thought.

But it swayed Beatrice's heart. It resonated. It took her heart, sealed stuck in one place for four
hundred years, and jolted it.
Now that she knows the freedom she felt the instant she took his hand and left the Archive, and how
it almost brought her to tears, her heart just won't stop.
Beatrice: “Abandoning my post may disqualify me as Mother's spirit, but I don't mind, in fact. Betty
is contractor Natsuki Subaru's spirit, I suppose. My regret and shame for that... is gone, I suppose.”
Roswaal might consider it a betrayal.

He had also been bound for four centuries by Echidna's curse, and perhaps Beatrice's announcement
that she escaped it first was a betrayal to him. She didn't escape by fulfilling her role, but by
abandoning it.
If she's going to face her Mother, or face Roswaal, she has to rationalize that.
Beatrice: “—”
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Her heart is already resolved. She has already taken that hand.
Beatrice is going to live a life so vivid it never fades to sepia. Something so intense that, no matter
how the years drag on, she never forgets those important to her.
So she keeps silent, waiting for Roswaal to reply.
Roswaal: “You don't have to brace yourself. I'm not the Witch Echidna's spokesman. I have no right
to intrude on your answer, whatever it may be. Just do what you wish.”
Beatrice: “Roswaal...”
Roswaal: “And even had you not abandoned them, you would have never fulfilled Echidna's orders.
Because I would have prioritised my own desires over you and sacrificed you. If we are speaking of
betrayals, that constitutes a significant one.”
Beatrice: “—”
Penitently, Roswaal acknowledges his wrongdoings for what happened in the mansion.
Just as Beatrice had realised in the Archive, Roswaal was the one plotting to take Beatrice's life. She
had reasoned it the result of the gospel. Though she doesn't see how it all connects.
Beatrice: “Roswaal. What happened to your gospel, I suppose?”
Roswaal: “...It's burned to nothing. Thanks to a wicked maid who deeeeeeefied her master. The
future is in ashes now. And perhaps eeeeeeeeeeverything is.”
Beatrice: “Everything is hollow and the future lies imperceptible... would be something, but you
look considerably refreshed, in fact.”
Roswaal: “—I wonder iiiiiiiiiif I am.”
Roswaal casts his gaze down in reply to Beatrice's perfect repeat of their previous conversation. He
reaches for Echidna in the coffin, for her untouchable fingertips.
Roswaal: “I'm sad that I've lost the definite path to the answer I seek, and scared. ...But perhaps I'm
also joyed to read a story that I never could have read before. Though, I haven't felt so in over four
centuries now, so I can't tell whether it's legitimate.”
Beatrice: “...?”
Beatrice scrunches her brows. Something feels off about that statement.
Seeing her confusion makes Roswaal smile slightly.
Roswaal: “We haven't spoken nearly enough,”
He says with some self-deprecation.
Roswaal: “You can't dismiss it aaaaaaas being beyond our control. At first there was need to be
blindly fixated, but after that we did have time. We spent so much time in the same mansion. And
even so, even though we had seen the same things, I kept avoiding you, like I was scared of talking
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about it.”
Beatrice: “Roswaal, what are you trying to say, I suppose?”
Roswaal: “I'm saying that it could've been... that we could have spent our last four hundred years
like we did in Teacher's laboratory together.”
Beatrice: “Teach—!?”
Finding an old, familiar word in Roswaal's quiet speech, Beatrice swallows her breath.
She breathes a shaky breath as she swallows down the implications,
Beatrice: “Impossible, are... you, Roswaal?”
Roswaal: “I've always been Roswaal?”
Beatrice: “No! Not like that... you have to know what I mean, I suppose!”
Roswaal: “I'm only joking. And you're correct. I'm—it's me, Beatrice. Roswaal.”
The instant he interrupts himself, Beatrice sees Roswaal in double.

She sees a tall man with long navy hair, and a young man with hair the same colour. That is the
youth who adored Echidna, abounding in wits as he tagged along everywhere behind her.
Beatrice: “But, then... Roswaal, this... how!?”
Roswaal: “I'm using one of Teacher's theories from her hunt for immortality, soul transcription. I
adopted the least risky of the experiments conducted in this SANCTUARY, and tested it on myself.”
Beatrice: “Soul transcription... that's the experiment to transcribe your consciousness and memories
into an empty vessel, achieving a subjective immortality... but that experiment ended in failure
when the souls failed to adhere, in fact!”
Roswaal: “Transcribed souls are pretty poor at adhering to vessels when they're empty. That was a
setback, but... If the issue is a problem of familiarity between the soul and vessel, then I overcame
that problem by increasing that familiarity quotient.”
The research faced setbacks due to problems of familiarity between vessel and soul.
After Lewes Meyer became the nexus of SANCTUARY, Echidna's crazed thirst for knowledge lead
her to consider adopting the crystallized Lewes for other experiments.
But the Lewes doubles lacked any quality that let them accept foreign souls, and the experiment
ended in failure. Roswaal is saying that he bested this issue by associating the vessel with the soul.
After mulling over this, Beatrice finally understands what Roswaal's presence here truly means.
—By transcribing his soul into the body of his descendants, entities close to himself, the first
Roswaal continuously extended the path to reach his goal.
Roswaal: “Are you going to call me inhuman, Beatrice?”
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Roswaal: “Are you going to call it inhuman that I, desiring only my reunion with Teacher,
committed the atrocity of assembling my ignorant children as vessels?”
Roswaal's words stab into Beatrice.

But the way that Roswaal gazes so calmly at her makes it almost seem that he's waiting for her to
lambaste him.
So Roswaal wants to face judgement too? Just like her, when she informed him that she abandoned
her contract with Echidna?
Roswaal must want to ask Beatrice, who knew Echidna, about the morality of his actions. About his
four-hundred-year obsession, his unerring and unrequited love that has done nothing but
inconvenience others.
Beatrice: “...It's not my job to say anything about it, in fact. I know how this sounds, but Betty's
relationships with your descendants were shallow, I suppose. Though, thinking on it now, they were
all just you, in fact. So I feel no disgust that you founded yourself on your children outside of the gut
reaction, I suppose. My thoughts on it are euch, in fact.”
Roswaal: “Euch, huh. Hooooooooow harsh.”
Beatrice: “But that's all I think, I suppose. Actually, I'm overjoyed that a friend from four hundred
years ago is still alive, in fact.”
Roswaal: “...I, see.”
Roswaal closes his eyes. That might not have been the reply that Roswaal was looking for, but
Beatrice doesn't care.
Beatrice is conveying her emotions honestly. That's how she resolved to be when she left the
Archive. And now,
Beatrice: “Roswaal. Squat down for a moment, I suppose.”
Roswaal: “Squat? Here?”
Roswaal tilts his head as Beatrice points to the ground beside her. Beatrice nods. Roswaal's eyes
widen as he obediently squats down on the spot.
Beatrice watches Roswaal squat down as she removes her right shoe. She grasps it firm in her right
hand,
Beatrice: “Grin and bear it, in fact.”
Roswaal: “—Ghah!?”
Roswaal's face now rests at the perfect height to get slapped with a shoe.
The satisfying slap echoes through the room as it whacks Roswaal's face aside. He puts his hand to
his reddened cheek, eyes spinning.
Beatrice puts her shoe back on during his confusion.
Beatrice: “Since I'm generous, I'll say that's enough to forgive you, I suppose. ...It's just
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consequences speaking for consequences, in fact. Subaru's going to forgive you too, so I may as
well let you off, I suppose.”
Roswaal: “...And I think that's your hindsight bias speaking after everything ended with no deaths.”
Beatrice: “It is, in fact. Also, Subaru's amazing for all the work he did to prevent any deaths, I
suppose. You ought to take a lesson from him, in fact.”
Roswaal: “—. Ha, hahaha! Reeeeeeeally now! I ought to take a lesson from him! Ahaha! My god...
ahh, is that not, geeeeeeeeeeeenuinely humorous?”
Roswaal laughs as if Beatrice, hands on her hips, just told an excellent joke. He cannot keep himself
from pitching back in laughter and bonking his head on the wall. Then he strikes the back of his
head against the wall several times more, before giving a deep sigh.
Roswaal: “Sorry. —But I don't feel that I've done anything wrong. Let me state that much.”
Beatrice: “Whatever, I suppose. If you're going to apologize, do it the others, in fact.”
Roswaal gives Beatrice's curt statement a nod.

Still seated on the ground, he looks up at the coffin.
And,
Roswaal: “Beatrice. What follows is a discussion only between you and me.”
Beatrice: “—”
Roswaal's lowered voice makes Beatrice narrow her eyes.

Beatrice crosses her arms and jerks her chin to say, well, we'll see what you have to say. Roswaal
places his hand on the coffin as he pulls himself to his feet, and gazes at Echidna.
His odd-coloured eyes teem with maniacal passion,
Roswaal: “—If it were possible to truly see Teacher again, would you assist me in it?”
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “Man, they're really not coming out. I know they have a bunch of stuff to to talk about, but
isn't this too much?”
Impatient with the stale situation, Subaru pouts as he waits in the clearing.
He has already made ten more snowmen. There are now thirty sculptures of Puck making various
expressions, transfixing Emilia and SANCTUARY's residents.
And Ram, who had quite enviably been borrowing Emilia's lap for the past while, has recovered
considerably and now leans easily against the stone steps. But since her gaze keeps shifting toward
the tomb, it's clear that she's worried about what's going on inside.
Beatrice has been awoken, and Roswaal has backed down.

Subaru doubts that anything violent will happen, but he does understand Ram's concerns. They
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haven't heard Roswaal say for himself that he's calmed down after his fit.
But they're assuming that he isn't okay.
Subaru: “Well we're just leaving that to Beako.”
Beatrice has known Roswaal for even longer than Ram has. And Beatrice was the one to tell them
that the female corpse in the tomb was Echidna's.
It's best that the two of them talk alone if they're going to be doing it in the corpse's presence.
Subaru can get involved on the topic of what they're doing with Echidna's corpse afterwards. No
issue.
Subaru: “And it'll be easier to talk about our future course after we meet up with Garfiel and the
others.”
If they managed to escape the mansion safely, then they should be coming straight to SANCTUARY.
Subaru asked the Men's Brigade to drive their carriage back to Arlam Village, too. They should
meet up with everyone by tomorrow night at the latest.
They need to deal with the snow covering SANCTUARY and assess damages. Considering how long
that will take, it's best that they do have this free time. And also for the sake of their nerves.
By focusing on making snowmen, Subaru has managed to more or less calm down emotionally. He
should be able to hold a peaceful conversation with Roswaal.
He's able. Yes he is able. He rather considers himself able.
Emilia: “Good work, Subaru... Why are flailing your arms around?”
Subaru: “Ah, I mean, nothing? I'm not shadowboxing as practice to beat that fucker's face in! He'll
probably get me first anyway!”
Emilia: “Really?”
Says Emilia beside him, tilting her head and looking confused.
She looks cheerfully over the rows of snow sculptures.
Emilia: “There's a whole mountain of Pucks. I know he'd be happy to see this.”
Subaru: “Would he? I'm imagining him complaining like, 'But I thought I was prettier than that?'”
Emilia: “Oh, that did sound like him. Puck, are... ah, he's sleeping right now.”
Mutters Emilia as she withdraws a blue crystal from her breast pocket.
The jewel has settled down into a state where it glows a deep blue, reflecting the sunlight on the
snow as Emilia holds it.
Puck, devoid of any contract with Emilia, is sealed inside this crystal.
Subaru: “But you can't summon him like you could before.”
Emilia: “No, I can't. This crystal isn't pure enough to seal a spirit as strong as Puck. He's staying
inactive so that the crystal doesn't break, but... I don't think I can touch him or talk to him like
this...”
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Subaru: “Gotta get a better gemstone. Something like the old green one.”
The crystal pendant hanging from Emilia's neck. It shattered into pieces following the cessation of
Puck's contract, and apparently was quite a rare stone.
Puck apparently had it with him when he first contracted Emilia, so not even she knows where to
acquire one.
Emilia: “But I'll definitely get a good gemstone and bring Puck back someday. Then... there are so
many things I want to talk about with him. There's everything he kept quiet from me, and
everything I discovered because of it.”
Emilia lovingly strokes the gem's face, her amethyst eyes full of determination.
She looks so stunningly beautiful that Subaru has to swallow his breath. Emilia notices this and
glances up at him with a questioning hum. He rubs his nose.
Subaru: “Er, no, it's sorta... Emilia-tan, you've changed. I mean you've always been cute but now it's
like you're strong too?”
Emilia: “If I am, then it's thanks to you and everyone else. I'm always only ever getting things from
others. I want to be able to repay everyone soon.”
Subaru: “I mean that's the same case here about the only ever getting things thing.”
Subaru and Emilia both keenly feel their powerlessness.

But that doesn't mean they're going to lick each other's wounds. Subaru gets that impression from
Emilia, which he finds both heartening and isolating.
He finally got some of the confidence and strength for him to support her, and then she dashes so
far ahead that she doesn't need it.
It feels like he could run after her forever, and he'd never catch up.
Emilia: “By the way, Subaru... so, um.”
Subaru: “Mhm?”
Emilia: “They're taking a long time in the tomb. ...Mhm, it sure is long.”
Subaru submerges himself in sentimentality, when Emilia awkwardly calls to him. She glances over
to the tomb, which sits there the same as ever.
But Emilia's face is steadily changing colour. Her cheeks grow flushed, and seeing how the intense
blush reaches to the tips of her pointed ears, Subaru panics.
Subaru: “E-Emilia-tan!? Your face just flashed to red, I mean are you okay!?”
Emilia: “I-I'm, okey. I am absolutely composed. Now I would, uhrm, like to discuss a certain
matter.”
Subaru: “I, I'm, indeed.”
For some reason having Emilia speak politely makes Subaru wind up doing the same.
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Emilia glances over the area, and once she confirms that no one is nearby, she gazes red-faced at
Subaru. More specifically, she gazes at Subaru's mouth.
Emilia: “So, um... Subaru, it's like, you said that you l... love me, right?”
Subaru: “Erm, um, yes. I did say that. I love you.”
Emilia: “—. Well, that, erm, makes me, sooo, sooo happy, but...”
The way that Emilia's sentence trails off gives Subaru a bad feeling.
She just said “That makes me happy, but...”. Subaru can think of only one thing that could follow
on from this.
This sentence ends in: Let's just be friends.
Subaru: “I did mention this before, that I'm waiting for you to notice me, and'll put in my best effort
so that you do.”
Emilia: “I'm... that, makes me very happy. But, even when you say these things to me, I don't really
understand what it is to like someone like that.”
Emilia: “It was the same in the carriage, and it's the same now in the tomb. You're telling me you
love me, but I still have nothing I can tell you. I know it's sooo terrible of me...”
Hearing her sentence reach its feeble end, Subaru puts his hand to his chest in relief.
Emilia's answer is still in standby mode, then. Nothing's changed from before, which is fine.
So long as Subaru's repeated and persistent love confessions haven't sickened her, everything's fine.
Subaru will offer Emilia his hand without fail, provided she could just get stuck enough to need it.
That's the slight discord between Subaru and Emilia's recognition of the other's feelings. Which
becomes utterly pointless with Emilia's next statement.
Emilia: “But! I think that we really need to talk about the baby in my tummy!”
Subaru: “—”
—.
————.
————————.
Subaru: “Pardon me?”
Emilia: “I don't know if they're a boy or a girl yet, but either way we have to shower them in love!
But I was never taught about that so I don't know what to do... You have to talk to the dad for these
things.”
Subaru: “No, no, no no, no... wait, wait, wait...”
Subaru's mind cannot catch up to Emilia as she rapidly talks on.
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The speed of Emilia's speech has made her out of breath too, and Subaru can see that she's agitated.
There is no way that the two of them can converse decently like this.
Subaru: “Emilia-tan, take deep breaths, and calm down a second. I'm doing that, right now, taking
deep breaths to calm down. Oh hey there's some snow over here.”
Subaru squats down, gets a handful of snow, and smacks it onto his face to physically cool himself
down. He hears Emilia breathing deeply as he forces himself to think rationally.
The baby in Emilia's tummy. Emilia's the mom, and Subaru's the dad. He doesn't get it. Subaru's
coming of age still has yet to happen.
Subaru: “Emilia-tan. When you say baby, you mean like an infant, right?”
Emilia: “E-exactly. I know it'll be tough with the Royal Selection, but... that's not the baby's fault,
and we have to make sure they're happy! I want the baby to get the love it needs from the people
who must love it.”
Emilia's determination is noble and beautiful.

But what she's saying doesn't make sense. Subaru has never done anything like that with Emilia.
Which means that Emilia and someone else have—no he'd rather not think about that.
Subaru: “Emilia-tan... you know that babies don't come from storks or cabbage patches, right?”
Emilia: “But when a boy and a girl kiss that makes a baby.”
Subaru: “—”
He is stunned.
At her ignorance, and how adorable she is for thinking this.
Emilia: “Subaru? What's wrong? Hey, Subaru!”
Emilia doesn't look to understand anything at all as she calls Subaru's name.
It somehow looks like her expression has grown stronger thanks to motherly self-awareness.
Perhaps that was why Emilia seemed strong to him. Which means that maybe he shouldn't fix this
misunderstanding.
—No. He must. This isn't the time for him to be thinking this stuff. If Emilia keeps on this course,
everything's going to continue alongside Emilia's fake pregnancy. She'll be imagining her stomach
growing bigger by the day and talking to the thing. Which is cute, but presents its own problems.
Emilia: “Subaru, maybe, you regret kissing me...?”
Subaru: “Uh no actually I'm craving your infinite kisses!?”
Emilia: “A-are you now...”
Subaru regrets his knee-jerk response as the conversation flows deeper into a swamp of
misunderstandings.
Subaru basically just told Emilia that he's craving infinite baby-making. And he is, but that comes
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later.
Emilia needs to be educated properly at this very first stage.

But how come Subaru has to be the one to do it?
Subaru: “C-curse you, Puck!”
Subaru curses the cat spirit sleeping deep in the crystal.

In his mind, he sees the cat put its paw to his head, stick out its tongue, and say: Whoops!
—Subaru, after all his ambivalence, only realises that he can have Ram or Frederica do the
explaining long after Emilia starts pestering him about picking names for the child.
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INTERLUDE: EMILIA FACTION • WARLOCK • SPIRIT • SPIRITUALIST
Bones creak at the moment of impact, his body whirling through the air before slamming into the
wall. Unhalting, the shock pierces through the flimsy woodwork, splinters showering the figure as
he shoots out of building. He lands to skid gracelessly over the snow, kicking up frost as he
tumbles.
“—”
The prone figure doesn't even twitch. Everything falls so silent that he could practically be dead.
Subaru glances at the person who was shunted through the wall, and at the pugilist inside the
building. The assailant notices Subaru's gaze, and with a satisfied sigh,
“Yeh... I goddamn got it done, oi.”
Says the blond boy who smiles as he clicks his sharp fangs—Garfiel.
Subaru scratches his head, watching Ram run over to the pummelled Roswaal,
“Y-you sure did,”
He manages to say.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Garfiel and the others met up with Subaru's group in SANCTUARY half a day after Emilia announced
her pregnancy, otherwise said, on the morning after the Sizeable Hare fight.
Patrasche came to SANCTUARY pulling a carriage of six people, including Garfiel.

Hearing that the girls they'd gone to rescue in the mansion, Rem, Petra, and Frederica were all okay,
and that the rescuers Garfiel and Otto were fine too, relieved Subaru.
But the bonus that they brought along with them was,
???: “Oh look, hi there again, Mister.”
Says a girl with pigtails, bound in a corner of the carriage—Mei Lee, the beastmaster who attacked
the mansion with Elsa.
The unexpected reunion strikes Subaru dumb. Mei Lee addresses him with the same friendly tone
and demeanour as before, in the mansion.
Mei: “Care to hear me out? This blond guy has just no clue how to treat ladies. He leaves them
sitting there wrapped up in bindings, it's so awwwfulll. Don't you think so, Mister?”
Subaru: “Yeah. Though I don't know what you could've done to me so I'dve gagged you too.
...Which means we caught you, but what about Elsa?”
Mei: “No clue there. But Elsa wouldn't have survived that blaze, would she? So I guess she's dead.
Doesn't bother me.”
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Mei Lee doesn't care in the slightest about the death of her supposed compatriot, Elsa. Subaru
furrows his brows.
Subaru: “You sure must be relaxed if you're looking for better captivity conditions. Doubt you're
gonna be having a great time. You did some really bad stuff.”
Mei: “I know. But I messed up, so it's kinda just like, oh well. And if I go back Mama will just scold
me anyway.”
Subaru: “Your mom. I know you mentioned this a few times in the mansion, but that means you
have some kind of kingpin. ...Well, just another thing that'll get cleared up by talking to Roswaal.”
Mei: “Give me meals thrice a day with no peppirs, okay?”
Mei Lee cheerily turns her back to Subaru, announcing that the conversation is over. They'll have to
deal with her incarceration later. But either way, she's an important witness to what happened in the
Roswaal Mansion attack.
It genuinely surprises Subaru that Garfiel had the smarts to capture her.
Next is the safety of SANCTUARY and the Arlam villagers. After they learned that those who
evacuated SANCTUARY earlier were safe in a nearby town, everyone's well-being was secured.
Just when Subaru put his hand to his chest in relief, the first blow of closure struck.
Garfiel: “Personally think my amazin' self's bein' damn nice t'let yer off with just one punch.”
Garfiel swings the arm he used to punch Roswaal as he gazes at the open hole in the wall. Though
Subaru has quite a few objections about Roswaal, and believes that Garfiel's fury is justified,
Subaru: “When that punch is stronger than ten of my punches combined, I really have to wonder
about calling it 'nice'...”
Garfiel: “Stop bein' so passive, Captain. C'mon, have a go.”
Garfiel snorts and presents something to Subaru. Subaru looks to Garfiel's hands, to find him
holding a branch that he must have gotten in the forest.
It's a rather good branch, thick and long. Like a wooden baseball bat.
Subaru: “...Where is this going, exactly?”
Garfiel: “'D be a dick move t'hit him a bunch. Yer get one shot, but ain't no one got any right
t'complain if yer use this t'make it a good one.”
Subaru: “It's already enough of a dick move to beat him up after what you did!”
And he's using a weapon. Subaru could start arguing semantics over whether or not this counts as a
'punch'. But Garfiel just tilts his head, and jerks his chin toward the hole.
Garfiel: “It don't look like anyone agrees with yer, Captain.”
Subaru: “Huh?”
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Stricken with a rather rueful Garfiel, Subaru looks outside to find that Ram has gotten Roswaal
back to his feet, where Frederica faces him with her fist brandished over her head.
Frederica: “Brace yourself, Master!”
Frederica's powerful arm cuts through the air as she drives her fist into the same spot Garfiel hit, his
left cheek. Roswaal goes flying through the air yet again, this time coming to a stop several meters
away when he slams into a tree trunk. The impact makes snow fall from the treetop, burying
Roswaal beneath it.
After witnessing it all, Frederica claps her hands with a satisfied nod.
Subaru: “Seriously!? Everyone endorses this retaliation?”
Garfiel: “We gotta get closure, Captain. 'S gonna be fuckin' awkward later on 'f he don't get his
payback fer what he did. Ain't like I ain't gonna heal him. 'N there's Emilia-sama too.”
Roswaal pokes his head out of the snow, his eyes spinning, as Petra and Otto await their turns
beside him. Ram pulls Roswaal out, while Emilia stands nearby to heal him at a moment's notice.
Subaru: “I mean Emilia-tan is there as a healer yes? She absolutely isn't waiting her turn yes?
Though I guess she does have a right to be included.”
Garfiel: “Eh, think'd be hard with her personality. But anyway, that's what yer got. So c'mon,
Captain.”
Garfiel pushes the wooden bat over to Subaru. He timidly accepts it.
Subaru: “You won't let me in on the talk if I don't hit him?”
Garfiel: “I ain't goin' that far. 'S just that you wanna smack the shithead 'cross the face too, yeh?”
A shove to his back makes Subaru step out of the house.

Garfiel shoots Subaru a thumbs up from across the hole in the wall. Looks like he's imitating things
from Subaru. With that send-off from his yet-uncomfortable brother surrogate, Subaru goes to the
very end of the Roswaal Closure line.
Incidentally Petra just slapped Roswaal's face with a soaking cloth.
A wet, satisfying thwack echoes throughout SANCTUARY.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Subaru: “Ahem, okay. Now that we've had our closure, I think it's time for us to discuss recent
events and figure out what we're doing for the future.”
After clearing his throat, Subaru takes charge of the proceedings and glances over the group.
All the important players in this loop are together in the cathedral. Which is quite a number of
people, and makes Subaru sentimental about how the household has grown.
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In the cathedral are the old residents of Roswaal Mansion—Subaru, Emilia, Beatrice, Roswaal, and
Ram—alongside the new Roswaal Mansion residents Otto, Frederica, and Petra. And then are the
main figures from SANCTUARY, Garfiel and Lewes.
Rem is currently sleeping in Lewes's house, under the care of Pico and the other Lewes doubles.
Emilia: “Subaru, your eyes look kind of distant, are you alright? Are you still not feeling well?”
Subaru: “Nope, I'm fine. Just getting sentimental. Team Emilia's doubled in size. Though, add in
SANCTUARY's people and the villagers from Arlam, and you'll start getting a bigger figure.”
Emilia: “...You're right.”
Emilia nods, her eyes similarly distant.

After demonstrating her will by holding her ground, and holding the defence lines against the
Sizeable Hare, the SANCTUARY dwellers and Arlam's young men's brigade must view her more
favourably. Just because someone is dependable in a pinch doesn't mean they're a Ruler, but it's a
world of difference compared to when they were alienating her.
If they can interact with her more often, then they'll surely come to learn Emilia's personality. They
just need to gain more understanding like that, over time, thinks Subaru.
Subaru: “Aaand I'm off topic. Okay, back to the point. So we all know what happened in
SANCTUARY and at the mansion? Now I'd kinda like to exact some responsibility from the guy who
triggered it all, or ask for some details, but...”
Everyone in the room turns to look at the topical mastermind.

Roswaal lies limp in a corner of the cathedral, in Ram's lap. His eyes open as he notices the gazes
upon him.
Roswaal: “Oooooooooh? After you have all tormented me so thoroughly, you stiiiiiiiiill must
brutalize me further before you aaaaaaaaaare satisfied?”
Subaru: “You get what you pay for. Emilia-tan even healed you, so stop saying this shameless junk.
But anyway, I'm more surprised about Ram.”
Ram: “...For what?”
Subaru sticks his tongue out at the mouthy Roswaal as he redirects the conversation onto Ram. She
holds Roswaal's hand as she rests his head on her lap, her words making Subaru furrow his brows.
Subaru: “No, I mean,”
Subaru: “I know you weren't in top shape, but I'm impressed how you just kept quiet and watched
the Roswaal Closure. I was certain you'd flip.”
Ram: “Foolishness, Barusu. ...I don't believe in the least that Roswaal-sama is utterly incapable of
mistakes. But I do wish to take his side when his path is mistaken. Of course I would find myself
thinking that way. And you cannot see even that? How foolish.”
Subaru: “Don't open and close by doubling up on the fool business! But anyway with that logic,
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you...”
Ram: “Exactly. You were justified to strike Roswaal-sama. So I accept that he was stricken. That I
tend to him with care and kindness afterwards is my convenience.”
As always, Ram's exhibitions of love are somewhat masculine.

Nobody can complain at her about her devotion to Roswaal. Garfiel alone does look like he's beset
with a dilemma, but he stays silent, probably because he's always been talked out of mentioning
anything.
Beatrice: “You have odd tastes, I suppose. After all those burns to your stomach... were Betty and
miss silver-hair not around, you would have been left with those scars, in fact.”
The next one to speak is Beatrice, who sits quietly beside Subaru.
Her knees are folded up to her chest as she leans against Subaru's left shoulder. She has assisted
Emilia in Ram's treatment, erasing the injuries, and so allowed Ram to recover so well.
Ram: “I give you my gratitude, Beatrice-sama and Emilia-sama. But I would prefer that your saving
my life acts as no pretext for you to meddle with affairs of my love.”
Beatrice: “Betty isn't generous to do that, I suppose. If you're going to devote yourself to this
wrongdoing man, even if it hurts you again, that's at your liberty, in fact.”
Roswaal: “—It won't happen again.”
Beatrice gives Ram her harsh reply, when Roswaal hears her and sits up.
The two of them catch their breath, and Subaru also gulps.
Roswaal is not wearing his cosmetics, exposing his unadorned face.

Without his clown make up, the handsome man covers his left eye with his hand, and gazes over the
people assembled in the cathedral with his blue. He bows his head deeply.
Roswaal: “I will never achieve anything by so arrogantly making sacrifices of us ever again. —I
swear it on the soul of my mentor.”
All: “—”
Roswaal: “And I'd rather Beatrice not punch me a third time.”
Jokes Roswaal as he raises his head and looks at Beatrice. Beatrice looks away, sour.
Beatrice: “The second one was your punishment for moronic blather, I suppose. The third's beyond
me, in fact.”
Roswaal: “Which is how I'd like it to stay. I'd prefer to avoid undergoing any more revenge from
you all. Garfiel and Subaru-kun were so ruthless that even I had to prepare myself for death.”
Subaru: “You're putting my hit in the same class as that? It couldn'tve been that strong.”
Though Subaru had wanted his punch to be one with some oomph.
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His strike cleanly struck the tip of Roswaal's chin, and what a sight it was to see Roswaal too
dizzied to stand.
Either way. Roswaal's statements do feel genuine. Meaning that Subaru is unhesitant to give trusting
him a try. It seems that something moved Roswaal as he watched Ram risk her life to burn his
gospel, contributing to his change of heart.
Subaru: “Though you're being kinda anticlimactic considering we diverged from that gospel you
loved. I was seriously thinking that winning you over while you have a breakdown'd be the last job
to do in SANCTUARY.”
Roswaal: “That bud was plucked before it could sprout. No words of mine can change that I lost our
bet. At the moment that I lost myself, and defied both my contract and gospel toooooooo bring
snowfall. And you preformed so excellently that I indeed did do that.”
Subaru: “...Well, it's because Garfiel and Emilia-tan put in serious work.”
Roswaal: “You have a bad habit of neglecting to name yourself at moments like this. Either way, the
results are the results. You overcame every TRIAL that I thought impossible, and liberated
SANCTUARY. ...I have lost.”
Garfiel: “—So hey, Captain.”
Roswaal shrugs with resigned acceptance. Subaru finds himself too stuck to say anything, hen
Garfiel raises his hand and butts in.
His glare remains fixed on Roswaal, while his sharp fangs clatter.
Garfiel: “Are yer ser'sly thinkin' t'add this guy t'our team? Honestly, I still ain't quite agreein' with
that.”
Subaru: “Garfiel...”
Garfiel: “Well, fuckin' duh! Th'fuck was this prick thinking he was doing in SANCTUARY and
th'mansion? Sayin' you weren't there, Captain, th'village'd be rabbit food n' my Sis n' this girl'd be
killed fer fun by the guts lady! We protect this guy, 'n we don't known when he's gonna go back
t'slicing our necks!”
Howls Garfiel as he stomps the floor, a slight quake running through the cathedral.
Garfiel is correct. They have had their conversations and beat-downs with Roswaal to bring closure,
but that had only been the pre-amble for hearing his explanations.
Roswaal had exposed everyone here to mortal danger for the sake of his own goals, and Subaru has
seen everyone lose their lives multiple times.
This world that has no sacrifices, where everyone is together and safe, was only accomplished
because he had those deaths as a groundwork while he worked together with everyone.
Subaru is furious enough that he wants to slap Roswaal, and interrogate him. He wants to do what
Garfiel is saying, and turn his back on Roswaal.
Subaru: “But still, we need Roswaal.”
Garfiel: “Captain!”
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Subaru: “We absolutely need Roswaal's help if Emilia is going to win the Royal Selection. She
loses this guy as her supporter, and Emilia's out of the running. We'll make him pay, of course... but,
we can't just say 'okay goodbye now!'”
Garfiel: “Yer really fuckin' telling me to forgive a guy who tried to kill my family!?”
Subaru: “—”
Garfiel's emotional words pierce Subaru.

No matter how Subaru tries to pacify him with words, Garfiel will not agree. He had almost lost
Frederica, and almost lost Lewes.
This boy had spent over ten years training himself so that he could protect his family. Roswaal is his
unforgivable nemesis.
Frederica: “I... forgive the Master.”
Garfiel: “...Sis!?”
But the one to rebut Garfiel is his very own blood relative, Frederica, who had almost been
murdered.
Her long, blonde hair sways as she speaks. Garfiel's eyes shoot open in shock.
Garfiel: “Fuck're you saying! This shithead tried to...”
Frederica: “And given that, I am still alive. Because you saved me, Garf.”
Garfiel: “Yer talkin' from fuckin' hindsight! He tried! To kill you! And Nanna! And ain't that... ain't
that all there is to it!”
Frederica: “...The Master has cared for me for over a decade.”
Garfiel's shoulders heave as Frederica narrows her eyes. Her gaze inspires compassion, as she is
perhaps moved by her matured brother's anger.
Frederica: “That I may achieve my goals, I accepted the hand that the Master offered me. I have
learned much over the time since, and now I am here. To speak in more common terms, I exploited
the Master's generosity for my own purposes. Would our debts not be even?”
Garfiel: “Don't fuckin' treat debts on the same level as life! You don't know when he'll betray—”
Otto: “Erm, I apologize for this when you're so enthusiastic, but would you mind if I interjected?”
Garfiel tries to argue, but this time Otto pulls the breaks.
Garfiel's furious gaze turns to Otto, who has his hand raised. But Otto lets the glare wash off him as
he soothingly says,
Otto: “Now just calm down, calm down.”
Otto: “We'll put aside Garfiel's emotional argument for a moment, and consider Margrave Roswaal's
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likelihood of committing something like this again... I think we're safe to believe that he won't, at
least momentarily.”
Garfiel: “Eh? Fuck're yer sayin' prick. Yer fuckin' asleep? I'll put yer lights out, oi.”
Otto: “The contract, remember? The instant that this affair reached an obvious conclusion, a
contract was bound between Natsuki-san and the Margrave. Correct, Margrave?”
Otto is entirely calm as he deals with a seething Garfiel.

It is also bold of him to verify the state of the contract not with Subaru, but with Roswaal. Roswaal
realises Otto's intentions, his eyes widening somewhat.
Roswaal: “Otto-kun iiiiiiiiiiiis correct. Owing to the contract between myself and Subaru-kun, I
cannot defy Subaru-kun's course.”
Garfiel: “Course, bein'?”
Subaru: “He dumps the gospel and helps make Emilia Ruler. That's the contract between me and
Roswaal. He can't pull this crap any more.”
Subaru takes over, Garfiel grinding his teeth in anger.

Subaru has won the bet. Roswaal is bound by the contract, preventing him from forcing the future
to follow the writ of the missing gospel.
Though it's another question as to whether that makes Roswaal harmless.
Garfiel: “That still don't close th'books on what he did! 'F we settle this with a 'I'm so sorry I won't
do it again', we ain't ever getting' ROGOS'S REVENGE DEMANDS MORE THAN ONE HAND!”
Garfiel's shouting emphasizes his stance even still, creating a divide of opinion among the group
regarding Roswaal's deeds.
Subaru, Otto, and Frederica accept them.

Garfiel and Petra reject them.
Emilia and Lewes are undecided.
Subaru will need to wait and watch to see how Beatrice and Ram fall. Their relationships with
Roswaal differ from everyone else's.
Subaru: “Petra...”
Like Garfiel, Petra is adamantly furious at Roswaal.

She grips her skirt, her face red as Subaru calls her.
Petra: “I'm still against it no matter what you say, Subaru... -sama. The Master tried... our Lord tried
to do something terrible to the villagers. Even though everyone trusted him. Even though I thought
our Lord was a good person!”
Roswaal: “...It does hurt toooooo hear that.”
Even Roswaal has to frown as a little girl lambastes him.
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Petra is probably the one best reflecting the general feelings of the populace, without any ulterior
inter-faction motives or complicated circumstances. Not because she's a child. But because her
attitude clearly speaks of the rage she feels toward Roswaal for betraying her honest opinion of him
as her Lord.
The villagers of Arlam and SANCTUARY have not been informed that Roswaal was behind this
whole mess.
Petra is present at this meeting as a sort of representative because, after the bits and pieces of
conversation she heard in the mansion led her near to the truth, she never spoke up to secure
absolute conviction. They are trusting in that cleverness of hers.
If Petra had tried to thoughtlessly dig for answers as any child her age would, they might have said
some junk to deceive her. But they didn't.
Subaru: “I know I'm repeating myself, but we need Roswaal. If we drop Roswaal here, we close
Emilia's path. You can say you don't want to work with him, or conversely we could bind him in
ropes to get him to, either way he's working with us.”
Garfiel: “We ain't gonna convince each other, Captain.”
Subaru: “We're not. So we need to find a compromise. What do you want Roswaal to do that will
satisfy you for now? And apologies but we can't have you kill him.”
To keep Garfiel in check as he starts getting to his feet, Beatrice stands up. Short as she is, it's more
than enough to look down at the boy as he sits.
Garfiel clicks his tongue and shifts his glare to Roswaal,
Garfiel: “First is securing th'necessities fer th'gramps n' grans in SANCTUARY. Yer gonna make sure
everyone's safe, no matter if they're stayin' or goin'. 'S the first concrete step t'achieving what Sis's
trying t'do.”
Roswaal: “Very well, accepted.”
Garfiel: “I ain't gonna be hearin' any excuses 'bout not havin' th'funds 'cuz the mansion burned
down.”
Roswaal: “The building that burned was an auxiliary residence of the Mathers. The main residency
is elsewhere. I try not to be so grossly unprepared as to fall into something as ridiculous as
bankruptcy.”
Roswaal's confident reply shocks Subaru.

It's news to him that the incinerated mansion was a side residence. He starts looking stupid for
worrying about where they would live now.
Garfiel: “N'following from that condition, two more promis... no, a CONTRACT.”
Roswaal: “—”
Garfiel raises two fingers. Roswaal falls silent.
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Garfiel lowers one finger.
Garfiel: “First's what th'Captain said. You pledge t'everyone here that you'll stick t'those terms. That
you ain't pullin' any more of this shit.”
Roswaal: “...Yes, of course. And the other?”
Garfiel: “Easy. —You violate that, and my amazin' fangs mash your head to pieces.”
Frigid bloodlust emanates from Garfiel.

The murderousness that should be spearing only into Roswaal is so intense that its ripples brush
against everyone's skin like a razorblade.
Roswaal: “Very well. —Let us tie the contract.”
So when Roswaal accepts it only a few seconds later, and Subaru feels the bloodlust dissipate like
an ebbing wave, his body untenses and he breathes a sigh.
Garfiel sits cross-legged with his elbow on his knee and hand on his chin, looking unsatisfied.
Garfiel: “...'S all I got for th'moment. You best leave it there too, miss.”
Petra: “But...”
Garfiel: “It ain't gonna make yer friends or family happy if y'tell them.”
Petra, bordering on tears, looks up at Frederica beside her. Frederica nods, and Petra suffocates her
sobs by pressing her face to Frederica's chest. It's enough to pain anyone's heart.
Subaru: “Anyway, while we still have questions about how we're securing aid for Arlam's and
SANCTUARY's villagers, and where we're going now that the mansion's in ashes, and basically what
we're doing, can we say that we've finished exacting responsibility and've all had our say on this?”
After waiting for Petra's sobbing to stop, Subaru sums up everyone's thoughts.
If nobody objects, then they have completed the first stage of conversations about the SANCTUARY
and mansion affairs. Now they just need to discuss the other issues one by one—
???: “Excuse me.”
But someone does raise their hand in the silence.

And it's the leader of their group, who has not yet given her opinion on Roswaal, Emilia.
Everyone's gaze focuses on her are she looks to Subaru, seeking permission to speak.
Subaru: “Go ahead, Emilia-tan. Feel free to say anything.”
Emilia: “Then I'll oblige.”
Emilia nods at Subaru and looks at Roswaal. Roswaal raises an eyebrow, looking rather surprised as
he waits for Emilia to speak.
And she does.
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Emilia: “Roswaal hasn't done the most important thing yet. This discussion isn't over until he does.”
Roswaal: “Most important thing...?”
Roswaal fails to figure out what Emilia is talking about, looking confused. Subaru tilts his head too
as he contemplates what Emilia could be trying to say.
Emilia looks over the group, and with a quiet sigh,
Emilia: “When you do something bad, you have to say you're sorry.”
All: “—”
Emilia: “Everyone's been telling Roswaal to do this and do that to prove that he's repented, and
Roswaal swore to his Teacher that he won't do anything bad again, but before we even get to that,
isn't there something he has to say? Roswaal, did you say it even once? I didn't hear it.”
Her cheeks red with anger, Emilia rails on Roswaal.

She is saying things so juvenile that it leaves everyone speechless. But Emilia is not joking in the
least, and is truly, demonstrably mad.
Emilia is angry. Even though she rarely ever gets angry at all. Except it's happening, and Emilia is
mad.
To ensure that something so obvious, but that everyone forgot, does happen.
Subaru looks at the astonished Roswaal, and smiles as he looks to catch him off guard.
Subaru: “Apologize, Roswaal. If we're going to doing things together, then you're obligated to, just
as a person.”
Roswaal: “—”
Subaru shares Emilia's stance, the sentiment spreading to everyone in the cathedral.
Roswaal perceives what this sea of gazes is seeking from him, and swallows his breath.
Emilia: “—Mm, that'll do.”
The way that Emilia smiles after seeing Roswaal's apology leaves an incredible impression.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
—Subaru makes an indescribable expression as he looks down at the woman in the coffin.
Roswaal: “Whaaaaaaat an impolite face to make whiiiiiile looking at my Teacher.”
Says Roswaal, as he peers at Subaru from aside.

Inside the deepest room of the tomb, Subaru and Roswaal face each other with the coffin between
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them. So that they can speak, without anyone intruding.
But before that,
Subaru: “This is honestly your Teacher, the WITCH Echidna?”
Roswaal: “Iiiiiiiiindeed. Her body rests eternal in the spellstone, her mortal beauty preserved.
Living was worth it, when I can meet her again as I am now.”
Subaru: “All I really have to say about your descendant-hopping super-motivated faux-stalking is
euch.”
Roswaal: “Beatrice hit me with the eeeeeeeexact same comment.”
Roswaal seems to be having fun, but Subaru feels no urge to smile.

Beatrice told Subaru that Roswaal has been perpetuating his life by transcribing his soul. Subaru
had told a joke about something similar before, but he had never even dreamed that it would be
correct.
But it does make him agree with the family's fanaticism for Echidna, since it was all actually just
Roswaal.
Subaru: “Do you feel guilty at all about your descendants? ...I guess the answer's obvious.”
Roswaal: “The Mathers family was made for that purpose. I began it, I continued it, I constructed it.
It doesn't discomfort me, no matter who criticises me.”
Subaru: “The quintessential stalker.”
Roswaal: “Surely not. Regardless, there's something I'd like tooooooo confirm. About this person
you saw in the TRIAL, who is not my Teacher called Echidna.”
Roswaal narrows his eyes as he speaks. Subaru narrows his eyes as well.
There are differences between the Echidna that Roswaal is talking about, and the Echidna that
Subaru met in the dream castle. That was the shock Subaru got when he glimpsed the woman in the
coffin.
Subaru looks down at her figure once again.

Long white hair and pale skin. Beautiful features, and a sleek black dress. Her distinctive
characteristics are identical to Echidna's. But she is obviously someone else.
The Echidna that Subaru knows is slightly younger than the woman in the coffin. Her features erred
more on the 'cute' than the 'beautiful' side, and her hair was cut shorter than the woman's.
They do look alike. If someone called them sisters, Subaru would believe it.
However,
Roswaal: “My Teacher had no relatives. She had no elder sister, and no one to call a daughter
except Beatrice. I know this better than anyone else.”
Subaru: “So, who was the Echidna in the TRIAL? It was her, but with her youth restored... isn't what
it feels like either. They're different people. I can tell that this isn't just a thing about ages.”
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Roswaal: “Anyone intruding on the TRIAL must be connected. If this person was the one managing
the TRIAL, they are assuredly connected. Perhaps some external party took action while I was
unaware... would be conceivable. But.”
Roswaal doesn't continue, but Subaru senses that he has dismissed whatever he was going to say as
impossible. He doesn't have any basis for it, but perhaps Roswaal is confident in his stalking
proficiency. It's a confidence telling him it's impossible that someone could do something bad to his
Teacher without him knowing about it. Which is gross.
Roswaal: “I feel that you're imagining something rather iiiiiiiimpolite.”
Subaru: “Blame your imagination or actually just blame you. Anyway, me and Emilia both saw
Echidna during the TRIAL. Or at least, an Echidna that isn't this one.”
Emilia had been present when Subaru first saw the woman in the coffin. That was when they
realised that the woman Beatrice called Mother was not the person they called Echidna.
Who was the girl in the dream? Without ever reaching any conclusions, Subaru wound up starting
this talk with Roswaal.
Subaru: “We can't use the TRIAL's systems to enter the dream again?”
Roswaal: “The tomb's functions were ceased by a destruction of the algorithm. The art for it is lost,
and the requirements are complex. And the miasma permeating this tomb has escaped. This tomb is
just an ordinary, historical stone structure now.”
Subaru: “I, see...”
Disappointment that he cannot confirm it, and disappointment that he cannot see her again, assault
Subaru simultaneously. Just for some reason, Subaru didn't find interacting with her and the
WITCHES so bad, even factoring in the whole betrayal thing.
So losing the opportunity to do so summons melancholy in Subaru.
Subaru: “...We'll put the unchangeable stuff off for later. So, what are you thinking to do with the
woman in the coffin? Bury her?”
Roswaal: “I'll neither bury nor burn her. Subaru-kun, I'd like you not to misunderstand. ...I desire
reunion with my Teacher, but that doesn't mean I've been yearning toooooo meet my Teacher's
cadaver. This is merely one step along the way.”
Subaru: “What do you mean?”
Subaru raises his brows, wariness and distrust swelling within him.
Subaru had thought that Roswaal's desired reunion with his crush was a face-to-face meeting with
the corpse in this tomb.
He hadn't considered it until he learned that her corpse was actually in the tomb, but the second that
Subaru found out that Roswaal's mentor was inside here, of course he began to think it.
But Roswaal easily rejects that idea.
Roswaal: “I desire to speak again with my Teacher, with blood running through her, soul housed
inside her, life breathed within her. Retrieving her corpse is simply the first step.”
346
Subaru: “You're going to resurrect the dead!? That... this world has magic to bring back the dead!?”
Roswaal: “Make sure you don't misunderstand. This possibility is present because it is her. There is
no way to bring back lives that have met a conventional death. The Od Lagna would never permit
such convenient magic as resurrection.”
Subaru: “Od Lagna?”
Subaru scrunches his face at the new word.
Roswaal: “Od Lagna is... how to say, a stockpile of mana in the fount of the world. No, supposing
that the world itself were a living creature, then it would be its nexus, and the od of the world.
Though we can only imagine as to its exact location, and whether it is sentient or not.”
Subaru: “The od of the world... wouldn't permit it, meaning?”
Roswaal: “To explain that would require quick perusal of the entire history of magic to this day.”
Subaru: “In three sentences.”
Roswaal: “How harsh.”
Roswaal stokes his chin as he considers what to say. Then he begins explaining as coherently and
succinctly as he can.
Roswaal: “All of the magic in this world was devised by past magicians. The first incidence of
magic was when an individual with outstanding talent in the manipulation of mana began casting
magic of their type. As more people became capable of magic, and disparities in proficiency began
to arise, it became difficult to classify the phenomenon without assigning names or classes.”
Subaru: “That's when magic got names, and was split into the separate type affinities.”
Roswaal: “Yes. While magical techniques and knowledge was expanding, people with incredible
talent for it began being born. They devised novel uses of mana, separated from the existing forms
of magic, to create new magic. The development of magic has always proceeded as mundane
magicians comprehensively over-apply the novel discoveries from a prior selection of geniuses.”
Subaru: “Kind of a spiteful lecture, since you're one of the geniuses.”
Roswaal: “I may have gone through unpleasant times, oooooonce or twice.”
In every world and universe out there, the overly proficient ones are alienated. There was a time
when Roswaal was immature, and suffered those gazes and obstacles. Though nowadays he would
definitely smile back and secretly get revenge.
Subaru: “So what does this have to do with Od Lagna?”
Roswaal: “The existence of a font for magic and the power called mana. Research investigating into
the topic proceeded as people tested unprecedented approaches and methods for using mana. Those
347
who created magic with shocking effects began to stand out even among the geniuses. Each case of
this magic produced results beyond compare to previous magic, such that a single magician could
alter a region's geography. —And when they did, they all saw exactly the same thing.”
Roswaal: “With its dim glow, it was the mana that they so naturally manipulated. But this was a
mass of power overwhelmingly more vast than any mana they had touched before—these
magicians, with their cognizance of so-called forbidden magic, all witnessed this expanse of mana,
and their minds soon fell ill.”
Subaru: “And that was Od Lagna... the fountain of the world?”
Roswaal: “Just as humans fear injury or disease, the world rejects those liable to shake its
foundations. Is what some first started saying about Od Lagna. The true common point between
those whose minds were broken by witnessing Od Lagna, was that they reached new heights of
magic that would have rewritten the practice's history.”
It's unclear how powerful their magic was.

They had divulged some portion of the theory behind their magic, but before they could publicly
exhibit the completed algorithm and have it adopted for use, the magician who invented it would
invariably have their mind broken.
Subaru: “Then resurrection would be one of them?”
Roswaal: “I wish to see my dearly departed again. The desire is omnipresent, shared by everyone,
and more than a few geniuses were motivated by it. Though, before they could reach anyone, they
all lost their minds to Od Lagna.”
How sardonic, thinks Subaru.

It isn't clear whether Od Lagna truly exists, or that Od Lagna destroyed the magicians' minds. But
still, they sought. To find the limit of their abilities. To realise a goal that everyone would yearn for.
Roswaal: “One theory states that Od Lagna is the consciousness that rules over everything in the
world. And though it warrants scepticism, perhaps Od Lagna could be the one bestowing people
with BLESSINGS—is the nonsense that people have come up with.”
Subaru: “Trying to stay uninvolved, and then involving itself... that celestial bunch never make
sense, no matter where you are.”
Roswaal: “'That celestial bunch' is an entertaining way to put it.”
Ignorant to the logic behind Subaru's epithet as he treats Od Lagna as a god, Roswaal laughs.
Subaru hadn't expected this discussion, but their real topic is elsewhere of Od Lagna.
Subaru brings the conversation back to,
Subaru: “So, your reunion with your Teacher won't enrage Od Lagna.”
Roswaal: “Eeeeeeeexactly. It doesn't use any forbidden arts, or any special powers or algorithms. In
fact, I'm far more worried that you would be the one displeasing Od Lagna.”
348
Subaru: “...Honestly I was thinking the same.”
Return by Death. Subaru doesn't intend to reveal its requirements to Roswaal in detail, but it's no
exaggeration that Subaru's ability is conceivably touching on the resurrection taboo.
Subaru has used Return by Death to alter his own doomed fate, and even saved the lives of others.
If Od Lagna witnessed this, there is no way that Subaru would pass its harsh standards.
Unless, perhaps, the entity that allows Subaru to Return by Death is strong enough to survive Od
Lagna.
Subaru: “Just the idea makes me shudder. Anyway, your methods for this are...?”
Roswaal: “Sorry, but I'm not going to tell you that now.”
Subaru shakes his head and gets back to talking, when Roswaal fires that statement.
Subaru's eyes dart about in confusion for a moment as he fails to understand what was said.
Subaru: “Huh, wh, wha? What did you say?”
Roswaal: “Only whaaaaaaat you heard. I'm not going to tell you my methods for achieving my
ultimate goal. I'm rather sure that nothing in the terms of our contract reeeeeeequires me to.”
Subaru: “I mean, yeah, but... come on!”
Roswaal: “I want to make this clear to you, Subaru-kun.”
Says Roswaal coldly. He walks around the coffin to come to Subaru's side, looking down at him as
he raises his finger.
Roswaal: “I have lost my guide the gospel, and lost sight of the path of how things should be. But
that doesn't make me abandon my goals in the least. Our contract prevents me from using my past
approach. And even supposing I laid pointless obstacles before you, Garfiel would rip my throat
open, so I am also barred from that.”
Subaru: “...Yeah, exactly. So what can you do? What path can you pick except one where you reveal
your goal, and come to us for help?”
Roswaal: “That is simple. —I will oversee you.”
Subaru: “—”
Oversee. It's definitely not a peaceful word, and it renders Subaru speechless. Though Roswaal's
eyes gleam in different colours as he looks down at Subaru, they are lit with identical emotion.
Roswaal: “Fortunately, your goal of making Emilia-sama the Ruler overlaps with my path to
achieving my goal. This is where you were supposed to secure an unshakable will of iron, devoting
yourself to Emilia-sama no matter the loss, and become a Knight riddled in wounds.”
349
Roswaal: “But that route is defunct. You instead chose to walk a more painful, more agonizing path
of thorns. Though I do respect you for it, I also pity you.”
Subaru: “Excuse me?”
He can't let that pass. Subaru glares at Roswaal, who shakes his head. He is definitely doing so out
of pity for Subaru.
He faces his palm to Subaru, who is both irritated and confused.
Roswaal: “This is where you should've learned what it is to lose something. You should have
become a SAGE, who even in the face of loss, stringently protects only what is precious. I know
how it sounds, but I wanted to save you.”
Subaru: “What's so sagely about that. What is so clever about accepting loss!”
Roswaal: “You have rejected loss, chosen to salvage everything, and you will hurt for it. You will
repeatedly suffer wounds beyond repair, repeatedly suffer loss, frantically attempt to regain what
you lost, the invisible hurt compounding perpetually. And I pity that.”
Subaru: “—hk”
Roswaal: “And so I will not be lenient about your refusal to be a SAGE, and decision to be a FOOL.
As expected, yes? After all, you're the one who chose this.”
Roswaal's hand lands on Subaru's shoulder.

Subaru trembles as Roswaal draws his face near to Subaru's, and whispers in his ear,
Roswaal: “—Should you lose anyone who you needed to protect, I will swiftly incinerate the
survivors.”
Subaru: “...!?”
Roswaal: “You've chosen to save everything. You must not miscarry a single thing. A world of loss
must not lead to the future. So long as a future where you accept loss could lead to a future I do not
desire, I will invalidate it. —Now that the gospel is gone, you are what guides me to my goal,
Subaru-kun. Only you, and your path.”
Roswaal draws his face away and gives Subaru's chest a light shove.
It isn't particularly strong, but Subaru pitches back as if he's been stricken, his breath catching as his
back hits the wall.
This man, Roswaal L. Mathers, is terrifying.
His conceptions have changed. He has stopped relying on the gospel, and will never do anything to
throw Subaru or Emilia into adversary again. He will assist Subaru if Subaru desires it, and will put
in his all to keep Emilia en-route to the Throne.
But if Subaru makes even the slightest mistake, Roswaal will instantly overturn and ruin everything.
No lie and no deception. Roswaal will absolutely do it.
350
Roswaal: “What, there's no need to be so scared. Provided that you continue to fulfil your roles, I
will offer you my utmost assistance. —That is the contract between us.”
Subaru: “...Really taught me to be more careful when looking at contracts.”
Roswaal: “Your duty is to ensure that not a single person present today is lost, Subaru-kun. Without
ever losing a single person, lead Emilia-sama to the top. Should you achieve that, I will also fulfil
my goal. I will see my Teacher again.”
Subaru weakly hangs his head. Roswaal gives a long sigh at him, and nods.
His shoes peal on the stone as he corrects his posture.
Roswaal: “Upon my name of Margave Roswaal L. Mathers, once we return to the main estate, I
shall appoint you, Natsuki Subaru, as Knight. —The promise will be fulfilled.”
Subaru: “—”
Accolade.
Something that Subaru has yearned for, the right to stand at Emilia's side.
Hearing it after everything else in this conversation does diminish his joy, but after everything
Roswaal has said, he will definitely stay to his word. He gains no benefit from not supporting
Subaru.
Seeing Subaru silently nod, Roswaal turns to exit the room. This conversation is over, is what he
must mean.
But his footsteps pause before he can exit, and he turns back.
Roswaal: “Right. I did just tell you that I'd be helping you wholeheartedly, so heeeeeeere's another
piece of information.”
Subaru: “...What is it.”
Roswaal: “—I hired the GUTHUNTER to kill Beatrice, but both this and the previous attack from the
BEASTMASTER are completely unrelated to me.”
What more could there possibly be? Subaru had thought, his jaw dropping as Roswaal speaks.
Unable to comprehend what Roswaal is saying, Subaru remains utterly still as he seeks further
explanation. Roswaal closes one eye,
Roswaal: “There's nothing to add. I was the commissioner for the affair in the Capital, and
requested Beatrice's assassination. But I never asked anyone to kill Frederica or Petra, and had no
time to tell them the particulars. I had been following the gospel's writ and placed the order before
the Selection started, you see.”
Subaru: “But, that can't... I mean, she and Elsa are from the same group! So!”
Roswaal: “Someone other than myself was operating to attack the mansion, iiiiiiiiiis what it means.”
351
Subaru: “—”
Roswaal: “Adversity never seems to end, and isn't there worth in resisting it?”
With that cynical statement, Roswaal's footsteps grow steadily distant.

The voice echoing through Subaru's head throws his mind into disarray as he stands, utterly still, his
back leaned against the tomb's cold wall.
All the issues he had supposedly resolved still sit smouldering in his chest.
Feeling heat from the embers, Subaru clutches his head, and sighs deeply.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
???: “You look depressed, in fact.”
What saves Subaru, brooding as he is, is the astonished voice of a young girl.
Subaru sits there as he sees her dress sway. His gaze traces up the luxurious fabric to find an
adorable face looking down at him, arms crossed.
Subaru: “Beako.”
Beatrice: “I don't know what Roswaal told you, but my contractor needs to stop making that face, I
suppose. It reflects poorly on Betty, in fact.”
Subaru: “That's a real issue. And I just told you how awesome I'd be oh hell this is pathetic.”
Subaru slaps his cheeks and shakes his head.

Beatrice kneels down to reach Subaru's eye level, before narrowing her eyes.
Beatrice: “It seems that he said some terrible things, I suppose. ...I don't mind hearing out your
whining, in fact. As a temporary, special service, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Just the sentence 'whining into a little girl's chest' is abysmal so I'll give that a pass. If it
really is looking bad then I'll instantly be there though.”
Beatrice: “Well, if you're so inclined then I'll deal with it with you, in fact.”
Beatrice snorts as she gets to her feet. Subaru lifts himself up as well.
He looks ahead, gazing at Beatrice as she stares at the coffin.
Subaru: “...That's your mother, there.”
Beatrice: “And she isn't the Echidna that you know, I suppose.”
Neither of them know what this means.

But Beatrice is glad that she got to see her mother again, even if as a corpse. If the one sleeping here
had been the Echidna that Subaru knows, 'disappointment' wouldn't be enough to describe it for
352
Beatrice or Roswaal. Though Subaru is fine for Roswaal to do some anguishing, he doesn't want to
see Beatrice in any more sorrow.
After all, Beatrice has already lost one of her desired reunions.
Subaru: “I wonder what happened to Lewes Meyer's crystal.”
Beatrice: “...I don't know, in fact.”
Murmurs Beatrice, leaving Subaru without a clue of what to do.
Echidna's laboratory rests deep in SANCTUARY's woods. Inside is a system to produce Lewes
duplicates, and the original Lewes Meyer who acts as both nucleus and operations for the barrier
around SANCTUARY.
A girl named Lewes Meyer is sealed in the crystal there, like this woman in the coffin.
Or should be.
—Because the Lewes Meyer crystal has disappeared.
Beatrice had gone to the facility with Subaru, determine to see her old friend again, and was
dumbstruck at the sight. Subaru cursed that he hadn't gone in to check the facility himself
beforehand.
A giant hole gaped open on the floor where the crystal had been, both the supporting base and
Lewes Meyer's body absolutely gone.
Subaru wondered whether they had fallen into the underground beneath the rancid, stinking room,
and asked Emilia to sent minor spirits down to check—to no avail. Beneath the facility was a cavern
that led to the forest through an underground passage.
Whoever took the crystal knew about the passage's existence, and had been waiting for the barrier
to be broken before grabbing the crystal—is the only theory he can conceive.
The thief's motives aren't the issue here.

The issue is that they have stolen the chance for Beatrice to see her friend again. She may be acting
strong, but she must be worried.
Subaru will get it back someday, and this reunion will occur.
He is determined for it.
Subaru: “Well I can sound as pompous as I want, I'm still insignificant by myself.”
Subaru rolls his shoulders and stretches his arms, wryly recognizing his own powerlessness.
He is relying primarily on Beatrice, but also Emilia and Garfiel for strength.
And for smarts he can depend on Otto, or loathe to say it but Roswaal. Everything else is Frederica
and Petra—he truly does have others compensating for a lot.
As always, Subaru's skill and ability remains feeble and limited.
Beatrice: “Subaru, what are you grinning about, I suppose?”
353
Subaru: “Just thinking, there are times where you're weak and pathetic, but there's also times where
you're not. All I can do is leave it to you.”
Beatrice: “It feels that I understand what you're saying, while simultaneously I don't, in fact.”
Though she cannot discern what Subaru means, Beatrice smiles, perceiving that he is counting on
her. Subaru gives her a nod,
Subaru: “Well yeah,”
Subaru: “I'm not expecting you to figure out that much. It'd be pathetic if you saw through me. But
anyway, man spiritualists are amazing. I've never done magic like that before, all got me really fired
up.”
Beatrice: “...Ahm, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Though that was another case of be being completely dependant on you so I can't go
bragging about it. I mean I can say I'm a spiritualist, but it hasn't exactly hit me yet.”
His contract with Beatrice has been consumed by the course of events around the library's collapse,
making it a rather brief affair.
Though he felt a definite connection when she called his name and settled herself in his arms, which
seems to be enough.
Beatrice: “Subaru. —I have something important to tell you, in fact.”
Subaru: “Hm?”
Beatrice looks serious. Subaru tilts his head, waiting for her to speak.
Beatrice: “Your contract with Betty means you're a spiritualist, but... Betty is very different from
most spirits, in fact. So you would best consider yourself as being slightly different from a genuine
spiritualist, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Well the other spirits I'm aware of aren't humanoid, and Puck's the only one that's sentient,
talks, and moves around. So I get you're a little different.”
The only other spiritualists that Subaru knows would be Emilia and Julius.
Emilia is contracted to Puck, and also has a relationship with the minor spirits. Julius has multiple
contracts with multiple lesser spirits, stronger than minor spirits, and should be operating as quite
the powerful spiritualist.
One exception to the pattern is the evil spirit Betelgeux—but Subaru would rather not remember
him and so he will be omitted. Exceptions are exceptions after all.
Beatrice: “Betty is... well, strictly speaking, Betty and Bubby are diverged from the principles of
other spirits, in fact. Mother... the Witch Echidna made us, meaning that we are man-made spirits, I
suppose. With that said, it's logistically difficult to create us by infallible means... while Betty is
inestimably powerful compared to ordinary spirits, I do have some flaws, in fact.”
Subaru: “Flaws...”
354
Beatrice looks ashamed as Subaru voices the word.
Beatrice is prideful, and has incredible respect for her mother. It must hurt her to acknowledge that
she has flaws at her most fundamental aspect.
But Beatrice casts that weakness away with a sigh,
Beatrice: “Bubby and Betty each have different flaws, but... one of my flaws is monopolization of
my contractor, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Monopolization of your contractor?”
Beatrice: “Put simply, merely by preserving a contract with Betty, the contractor exhausts
practically all of their capabilities as a spiritualist. So... erm, being that you're in a contract with me,
Subaru, you can't contract with any spirits except Betty, I suppose. That applies be the spirit minor
or lesser, in fact.”
Subaru: “...Okay, got it.”
Grasping Beatrice's point, Subaru nods several times.

Preserving a contract with Beatrice uses so much of Subaru's resources, that he has none left to
contract with other spirits.
While Emilia can ask the minor spirits, rather than Puck, for their aid, Subaru is unable to do this.
Subaru: “Well that's kind of a disappointment, but I'll accept it anyway. There's heaps of benefits to
a contract with you, ignoring the cons. And I'm not going to let go of you to go making contracts
with some dumb minor spirits.”
Beatrice: “G-good.”
Hearing that reply, Beatrice's tense cheeks relax somewhat. But she instantly erases that expression,
clears her throat, and,
Beatrice: “Th-there's still more left, I suppose. Though it's a very minor thing compared to that
other one, in fact. No need to think too hard as you listen, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Okay. Well I'm drowning in stuff I don't know here so please just tell me anything.”
Beatrice: “Erm, so well, Betty is a little, yes, just a little higher grade compared to most spirits, and,
erm... I have poor mileage, in fact.”
Subaru: “Mileage... makes you sound like a car.”
It takes a lot of MP to use powerful magic or summon creatures in video games. That balance
between cost and power is the mileage, but why is Beatrice having such a hard time saying this?
Subaru: “Huh? But for having poor mileage you used tons of magic against the Hare, and you let
me use magic too, and you weren't sapping anything from me either right?”
Beatrice: “That was using mana from the stockpile I had amassed over a long period, I suppose.
Had I been taking the mana I needed for that fight, not even thousands of you would suffice, in fact.
355
You can thank me for that, I suppose.”
Subaru: “W-well sure. I can't imagine how strained I'd be if I tried doing any of that.”
Consecutive Meenyas and that final Al Shamac.

One Shamac is enough to exhaust Subaru's store. There is no way he could have provided for all of
that.
Subaru: “But we can't keep doing that, can we? I'm your contractor, so of course I need to supply
you with mana.”
Beatrice: “I'm expecting you to, in fact. Man-made spirits like Betty and Bubby are substantiated
od, meaning we don't naturally produce mana, I suppose. So we need to get mana from the
atmosphere or our contractor, in fact. And I can only receive my mana from people, I suppose.”
Subaru: “Okay. ...Then how were you getting by in the mansion?”
Beatrice: “...I-I was taking bits from everyone there, in fact.”
Beatrice must feel guilty about it, since she looks away as she talks.
She looks embarrassed, and her gaze grows even redder as Subaru stares at her. While Subaru
doesn't white understand what nuance mana drains have among spirits, going off Beatrice's reaction,
it is apparently not very good manners.
Subaru: “Anyway you look like you're very sorry about it so I won't probe into it. So supposing we
save the mana you collect from me for everyday functioning, how much stored mana do you have
left?”
Subaru's mana reserves are paltry and Beatrice consumes lots of mana.
Meaning that they will have to use Beatrice's powerful magic sparingly, chipping away at her
reserved mana bit by bit.
So Subaru must confirm how much mana she has remaining.
Beatrice: “—None, I suppose.”
Subaru: “...Hm?”
Beatrice: “None, in fact. I used everything I stored over those four centuries in that battle, I
suppose. The loss of the Forbidden Archive also took quite an amount... and that final Al Shamac
was the killer, in fact. I have no mana left in reserve, I suppose.”
So, what. That means...
Beatrice has no mana stored up.

Subaru's mana is barely enough to cover Beatrice's day to day.
Beatrice consumes lots of mana, and doesn't have the mana to use her powerful magic. Subaru's
contract with Beatrice means that he can't enlist the minor spirits for help.
Subaru: “So... did we just make a team of a spirit and spiritualist that can't use magic!?”
356
Beatrice: “W-well, I suppose that's one way you could put it, in fact.”
Subaru: “How else could you put it!? The hell! Are you kidding me, is this seriously happening!?”
Going from the results, what Subaru achieved by becoming a spiritualist was acquiring a little girl.
Subaru: “Actually I'm really worried about where this is going now!? Are you sure we'll be okay!?”
Beatrice: “Whoopsie, I suppose.”
Subaru: “It's not funny!!”
This is the newborn pairing of two people that create half a spiritualist.
Their arguing echoes, far, far, forever through the tomb.
357
APPENDIX: ADVENT
—Footsteps peal through the cold, dark chamber.
Not a speck of light beams into the space, making the path a charge through dark or shadow.
But the footsteps sound without hesitation, travelling through the rancid chamber with a casual gait.
With such ease that they may as well be traversing their own room.
“—”
Water drips. Insects squirm.

Mud and gravel crunches underfoot. This place inspires nothing but discomfort, but the silhouette
gives not the slightest murmur of discontent.
Hordes of insects open a path as they flee the silhouette, their stronghold disturbed. Water flows
over their feet, the gentle downward slope their guide as they walk on.
Eventually, the silhouette stops, their long hair flowing behind them as they look up.
As before, there is no light.

But their eyes shine with a gleam called conviction.
Dim lights dance as wind whips around the silhouette's feet.

Their long, pink hair and long-sleeved robe flutter in the breeze. At their feet, at the point from
which the wind blows, a circle draws itself in the ground.
“So the starter algorithm still works.”
With that murmur, the silhouette atop the glowing circle—the girl—levitates.
She ascends as if riding on an invisible floor, rushing for the roof of the dark. That instant, as if
ghosting through the bedrock, the girl launches to the outside.
The sunlight burns her eyes. The girl closes her eyelids.
It takes exactly ten seconds for her to open her eyes again. Sun rays piece through her eyelids and
into her eyeballs. Prompted by rebellion toward that, and some amount of impatience, she keeps her
eyes open wide.
—What she sees is the sun rising anew. “...It's
far less emotional than I expected.” Faced
with the daylight, the girl tilts her head.

Indeed, not a single ripple of emotion arises in her apathetic eyes. After all her time spent with a
false sun, she had hoped that seeing the real thing again would move her, but the results are
unpromising.
“Either way, I've safely left the barrier. Meaning that the thing safely defeated the TRIAL,
frustratingly. I'll give my thanks for that and no more.”
If that hadn't happened, it would have been inordinately difficult to leave SANCTUARY. She would
358
catch herself in her own scheme. When she thinks of the girl who dealt with that mess, she feels
something akin to displeasure sprout in her heart.
“Well, it's no issue. I can't be too reckless in this body, and I might as well traipse about for a while
to fill in the blanks.”
The girl flexes her hands open and closed, checking her body's condition.
Duplicates of a progenitor body-vessel, and a subsumed soul of the same nature. She has fit her soul
to it and anchored in, but familiarizing to it will take time.
“He already gave me a name, after all. I think I'll call myself Omega.”
She smiles as she treads on the grass, slipping through gaps in the trees to exit the forest.
The journey is somewhat troubling for a young girl's legs, but it's no matter. The fatigue and pain
prove that her soul and body are connected. She must enjoy her long-lost life in abundance.
“Beatrice has left the Forbidden Archive, Roswaal has lost his gospel. Though considering the man
who pocketed the burnt remains, and Garfiel's persistent rage, the fires are still smouldering yet.
How will he face what's to come? Perhaps I'll watch over him, from the sun and in the shade.”
Purposefully excluding the girl that irks her, she begins to walk.
There is a world where she's going. What never grows dull for her, abundant, endlessly sating her
curiosity, a mountain of treasures for the dead Thirst for Knowledge Incarnate.
“If I'm like this, perhaps I'll understand someday.”
Along her path, the girl sights a ring of flowers, and smiles.
She plucks a flower petal, sniffs its scent, pops it in her mouth.
Even beautiful flowers shall wilt. Why must the flowers wither?
Are even the beautiful memories shared between people destined to wane?
“—Ahh, why must love fade?”
Muttering, her long pink hair swaying, the girl steps forth.
Again the WITCH is unleashed on the world.
359

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ARC 4: ETERNAL CONTRACT: PHASE 1

CHAPTER 1: IN THE PLACE WE HAVE RETURNED

???: “It will be lonely here.”

Says Subaru as he glances at the head of the line of carriages.

???: “—I would find no need in being concerned on that matter.”

Just like Wilhelm, Subaru holds an intense grudge against GLUTTONY.

???: “Subaru-kyun. Rem-chan's secured, come check.”

Subaru: “She's not gonna get thrown off or anything right?”

Felis: “You're really taking her home with you?”

Felis: “I knyow that. Subaru-kyun, you're nyot that mean of a person.”

Felis: “Myore importantly,”

Subaru rotates his neck and shoulders.

Subaru: “But, he's a guy.”

Felis: “Yes, Feli-chan is a man in mind and body both.”

Subaru: “But that's something...”

???: “—The Karsten clan can be damned.”

Abruptly, those words hammer on Subaru's eardrums.

Felis: “Crusch-sama alone absolutely will I protect.”

Felis: “But more than a threat, it's a death sentence?”

Subaru: “That's worse! Geez.”

Emilia: “Ah, Subaru. Is Rem-san's bed properly set up?”

Crusch: “Yes, right.”

Emilia: “Thanks. —I don't remember becoming yours yet, though.”

Subaru: “Emilia-tan, that's...”

Smiling, Crusch holds the hand on her chest out to Emilia.

Crusch: “I am glad to have become your acquaintance. No fear is in me in the least.”

Crusch: “Absolutely, let us meet again.”

—A suffocating atmosphere fills the carriage on the journey back home.

Can't have it like this, thinks Subaru as he crosses his arms.

Otto: “What is it?”

Subaru: “A merchant who spices things up?”

Otto: “He's treating me like something bawdy!”

Subaru: “Shut up, Otto.”

Subaru: “Yup, shutting you out!”

Emilia: “You're already zipping over to sit beside me, Subaru.”

Emilia: “I do believe that, but whether I accept it is another story.”

Emilia: “...What did you just say?”

Subaru smiles bitterly and gazes at the sleeping Rem.

Emilia: “You love her, don't you?”

Emilia: “Saying this is a bit, but... Subaru, are you cheating?”

Emilia: “Even though you said you love me.”

Emilia: “I think I understand.”

Subaru: “A disease. ...Well, I can't refute that.”

Emilia: “You won't get me so easily.”

Subaru: “Need to have you pull me 'till I'm torn apart.”

The conversation in the carriage continues smoothly from there.

And the talk returns to its origin point.

Subaru: “He's playing it safe, or...”

Emilia: “Something happened at SANCTUARY?”

Their concerns go on to be concerns for the villagers.

Otto: “Did you just say 'ugh' while looking at me?”

Otto: “That's a terrible thing to say!”

Subaru: “It's not disturbed... it's all orderly!?”

With the figure towering in from behind, Subaru sees it.

CHAPTER 2: JEERS AND THANKS

—Subaru oh Subaru, your dying is so pathetic.

Subaru: “The mansion's living room...”

Emilia: “Ah, Subaru, you're awake?”

Subaru: “Eerrm, what was it that just happened again, Emilia-tan?”

Subaru: “I was sleeping?”

???: “Emilia-sama, may I intrude?”

—So long as you ignore her build and vicious smile.

Frederica: “Huu, euhu...”