"Now, then."
The girl picked up one of the abbles lying before her and deposited it into the bag at her side. Subaru was down to his last two chips, so to speak. When their game had begun, he had ten—he never imagined he'd go on an eight-ina-row losing streak, leaving him in danger of losing the shirt on his back.
"Now you know what happens to those who challenge me. I am the pinnacle, and you are suited only to wriggling around at the bottom."
"Hey, isn't it a little extreme to treat me as the bottom of the pyramid just because I'm losing? Pride comes before the fall, you know…a fall to rock bottom!"
"You may rest easy. All is rock bottom except for me. The world has me, and all else is beneath."
Subaru wanted to refute her irrational logic, but that would only make him sound like a sore loser.
"Now then, what shall we do next? If you do not trust your luck at coin flips, a different wager is fine."
"Oh, now you've done it… I'm down in the bottom of the ninth, but I propose we do rock-paper-scissors!"
"Rock, paper, scissors…?"
When the girl raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar term, it gave Subaru a tiny ray of hope.
"Rock-paper-scissors is a way to settle things. At the signal, you make a shape with your hand, and the stronger shape wins. There're three shapes: rock, paper, and scissors. Paper beats rock, scissors beats paper, rock beats scissors. Understand?"
"Oh, yes, I understand. A rather amusing game, it would seem. What is this signal?"
"Well, when you finish saying rock-paper-scissors, you show your hand when you get to the 'scissors' part. Oh, and if you both show the same hand, you say rock-paper-scissors again as the signal and do it over on the spot."
"That is all there is to it? Very well. I shall go with paper."
"You're already showing your hand?!"
Subaru shuddered at the breathtaking speed with which she strategized. He'd just finished explaining the rules, and here she was, picking it all up like a pro, poised greedily with victory in her grasp. He supposed he should praise her.
She said to him, "Let us begin, then. Rock…paper…" Subaru felt nervous about falling behind.
"Ah, wait, time-out. I haven't decided what I'm gonna go with ye—"
With his thoughts still in a jumble, the girl reached the signal and raised her hand high.
"—scissors!"
The girl's hand indicated paper, just as she had proclaimed. Subaru's hand was rock. She commented, "It would seem that you owe me another
abble, complaints about the method notwithstanding."
"It's not that! Statistically, people subconsciously keep their hand closed when they're tossed into rock-paper-scissors without warning! Ugh, I'm such an idiot!"
The strategist had been defeated by his own scheme. Subaru certainly looked defeated as he handed the girl her abble.
—With this, Subaru was down to his very last abble.
"Now, let us gamble for the last abble and bring this to a conclusion, shall we?"
"You wouldn't show mercy on me and let me keep the last one, would you?"
"All the abbles you carried belong to me. Leaving one in your hands is the same as leaving you all. It is all or nothing. That being the case, we may as well gamble for all the abbles on the final round. That goes for both of us," the girl added, meaning it would be her ten abbles against Subaru's one. It was truly emblematic of the girl's ruinous, high-stakes way of thinking.
He asked, "—How about rock-paper-scissors for the last one, too?"
"I have already made my decision. All that remains is for you to choose the method and present me with my abble."
The girl showed no doubt about her victory, nor any intention of letting Subaru go. In other words, he had no choice but to harden his resolve—to trap a Rakshasa by the vilest of means.
The two called out simultaneously, "Rock…paper…scissors!" When both showed their hands, sound vanished from the world.
With her fist clenched in a rock, the trembling in the girl's red eyes only grew.
"Th-this is…"
"Listen and be amazed, look and be astounded! Behold, the ultimate combat technique—RoSciPer!!"
"What is that…thing?! You did not inform me such a hand was possible!"
"Shut up! I didn't mention it, but it's your fault you didn't ask! That part is rock, this here's scissors, and over there is paper! In other words, my hand's beaten your rock!"
"If such logic holds, a different part loses to my rock."
"Ahh! Ahh! Ahh! I can't hear you! My rock is borrowing power from the scissors and paper, forming the holy trinity of friendship, effort, and victory! It's all here, baby!"
Raising the hand of RoSciPer to the heavens, Subaru boldly proclaimed victory with his flagrant cheating.
He was well aware his logic was absurd, a desperately underhanded attempt to throw the wager itself into doubt. But the girl defied Subaru's expectations, sighing deeply as she said, "I see. Certainly, it is I who was in error. At the same time, I am amused at how my expectations have been surpassed… Very well, you have won. You may do as you please. Here you go." After her minimal warning, she abruptly stepped forward. Without thinking, Subaru, floored at how quickly she jumped to the next step, stepped back a distance equal to the one she had advanced.
"…Do not tell me that now it is time to feel my breasts, you have lost your nerve?"
"Huh?! I-I seriously don't know what you're talking about! Who's s-s-sscared here?!"
"…Truly, you are a vexing man. I suppose such bashfulness is adorable in its own way, but…"
And there they stood, Subaru getting cold feet at the last moment versus the girl whose pride did not permit her to take back what she had offered. One advanced and the other retreated—a standoff that continued until outside forces intervened.
Abruptly, the girl's gaze left Subaru and focused on the entrance to the alley.
"—Mm, it seems this will become troublesome."
"Er? It looks like some pretty rough-looking dudes are coming this way."
"And the one at the vanguard is a commoner, I recall. Goodness, these fools do not interest me even slightly."
"What are they thinking, coming back after hearing Reinhard's name like that?!"
"It would seem they have called your bluff about being acquainted with the knight among knights. It is rather easy to understand. Even they have reputations to protect, so they have returned in greater numbers for retribution."
"Damn it, this day is just nothing but trouble!"
First, he had a close call back on the dragon carriage, then he had gotten on Emilia's bad side, and now this. Today's really not my day.
Since the girl was just standing there, Subaru grabbed her hand and dragged her along, carrying the bag of abbles as he rushed deeper down the alley.
She protested, "Hey, what are you doing? Do not touch me so carelessly."
"Now is really not the time! If you don't wanna get all beat up before marriage, run!!"
The girl wasn't very motivated to run as Subaru pulled her down the beatup alley and plunged into the darkness. The men behind them pursued with a great shout and a flurry of footsteps.
Subaru, cursing the heavens for his truly unlucky day, kept running with a desperate expression on his face.
5
"If we do not hurry they will gain on us. Is this time to play around?"
"I d-don't wanna hear that from y… Time out, seriously, wait a…!"
They'd been racing through run-down streets for the last five minutes, but the girl was running well ahead of him, showing no sign of losing her breath. On the other hand, Subaru, never one to hold up for long sprints, was about to collapse from exhaustion. At first, he had been in front, but his endurance issues soon switched their positions.
"I'm convalescing, so this is really pushing it… But we're in a pretty bad spot. Doesn't look like many people live here… You have any ideas?"
The other group was a fair distance behind them. However, they were in one long alley, so slowing down meant it was only a matter of time until they were caught. He'd have liked to get on a thoroughfare, but all he could see was a maze of other back streets.
"It is not my problem! Everything I set out to do turns out well for me. I do not think deeply about things, for I do not need to. I need only trust in this fact."
"Yeah, well you lost at rock-paper-scissors to me earlier…"
At least they hadn't bumped into a dead end, but that didn't improve their predicament.
Right in front of the winded Subaru, the girl suddenly came to a halt.
"—Mm, this is indeed rather vexing."
Subaru, still holding her hand, also stopped. He looked at her, wondering what the deal was.
"Hey, we don't have time to stop here. If we don't put in as much distance as we can, they'll catch up with…"
"—I have lost interest."
"I see, you've lost intere… Wha—?!"
Subaru was in utter shock at the girl's unbelievable statement. She returned his gaze, apparently bored.
"I said, I have lost interest. In the first place, why must I run? I shall decide what I do myself. I absolutely shall not be forced to do anything because of what lowlifes say or do."
"Th-that's easier said than done, you know?! That ain't gonna fly in a situation like th—"
"Mm, I have decided. You shall have the honor of carrying me." "No thanks!!"
As Subaru crossed his arms in a clear sign of refusal, the girl scowled as if he was putting a damper on her mood.
"The honor of carrying me is not for just anyone to receive. Only a man who does not know fear would reject such a thing."
"Do I look like a macho man that can carry someone and run?! Even when I was at full strength, it took everything I had to carry a girl with way fewer style points than you! And I'm about worn out now!"
As Subaru used the remains of his energy in protest, the girl shot him a look of scorn, but he couldn't use what he didn't have.
Her games led them to a stalemate costing them precious time. That was the thought in his head when, out of the blue, he heard an aged voice.
"It's been some time since I've seen you. What are you doing here?"
The speaker's large frame emerged from the darkness. Subaru lifted his gaze to a typical height for making eye contact, but found himself staring at this man's chest. He raised his gaze even farther to his ugly, balding head.
—A familiar and very muscular old man gazed down at Subaru and the girl.
"Gramps is here to save the day! We can win this—!"
"You're quick to annoy someone who hasn't seen you in a while. I'm leaving you here."
"Wait, I really need your help! It's, like, the tenth crisis I've had in the last month!"
"That's too many!!"
As they exchanged banter in lieu of greetings, the giant—Old Man Rom— peered at Subaru and the girl.
"What, in more trouble, are you? Causing a ruckus with a woman? Quite the adventurer you are."
"Do not look at me so rudely, you filthy gnarled tree."
"Hey, I'm ribbing him, too, but that's really harsh!! Don't say that to the old man giving us a get-out-of-hell-free card! Don't take it personally, Old
Man Rom. We've just got a little case of excessive honesty here!"
"You certainly are good at wearing a man down. Hurry and hide!"
Subaru covered the girl's mouth before she could spew insults again and rushed toward the place Rom had silently indicated. There was a pile of scrap wood there that seemed able to comfortably conceal two people.
Subaru pushed the girl down first before squatting himself. She looked like she wanted to complain about the dust, but his hand over her mouth managed to keep her silent.
"We're okay on this end, Gramps!"
"No, you're not… I'll hide you with my body. If they see you it'll be trouble for me, too, so don't move."
Grumbling all the way, Old Man Rom hid them completely behind his huge body. A mere ten seconds or so later, a commotion of footsteps came from a nearby alley—
The leader of the men shouted, "The hell, I thought it was the brats, but it's the old man! Shit!"
Old Man Rom fielded the foul language with a serene expression.
"What? You shouldn't surprise your elders like this."
Old Man Rom hadn't put any special invective into his sentence, but the displeasure of a giant like him carried a force all its own. The entire group shuddered, the leader included. But one of the members of the group pointed at Old Man Rom and mocked, "Hey, wait, it's Grandpa Cromwell. Hey,
should you really be talkin' smack to us here?"
The furrows of Old Man Rom's wrinkled face deepened further in a bitter response.
"I do not like being called that name."
"Get outta here, old man, or we'll bust up your loot cellar and make you the laughingstock of the slums."
"That place has gotten incredibly dirty over the years. If you destroyed it entirely you'd be doing me a favor. So how about I do as I please?"
"Yeah, fine. Now, Cromwell… Did you see two brats runnin' this way?"
"I didn't see them. Do you know where my blond daughter is?"
"Beats me. You picked her up off the street, so what's the big deal? Man, goin' senile must suck."
The men waved farewell, laughing derisively as they noisily left the area. Old Man Rom watched their retreating backs, biting his lip as he held back his anger.
As Subaru watched his face through a small gap, he couldn't help but feel bad for him. He was glad that Old Man Rom was friendly for their belated reunion, but he seemed a little different from the Rom Subaru knew.
"Hww wong rre…"
"Mm?"
A whisper-like voice interrupted Subaru's thoughts, prompting him to look to the side. Right beside him was the beautiful girl, so close they were practically breathing the same air, her mouth still covered by Subaru's palm. "…you gonng to cvrr my…MOUTH?!" Chomp.
"—Yipe!!"
At the merciless bite, Subaru let out a high-pitched, puppy-like yelp that quietly echoed through the nook in the back of the alley.
6
"Thanks for hiding us, Old Man Rom. The last time I saw you, I thought you'd had the sense knocked right out of you, but I guess you made it through fine."
"…Do you want me to change my mind and call those youngins back?"
"You sure are petty for a big guy! With me here, there's more than enough petty for everyone!"
Subaru grinned and shot him a thumbs-up. Old Man Rom sighed with a worn-out look.
They'd moved from the previous narrow alley to a more open city street. Old Man Rom conversed with Subaru while guiding the pair to a place where they could blend in.
The girl, having kept her silence until that moment, finally tugged Subaru's sleeve in irritation.
"Hey, you. I see you having an intimate conversation. Who is this old man? Explain it to me."
"This old man is the face of the royal capital's slums. The giant's Old Man Rom—trader for the bosses of the sticky-fingered types and all-around stingy bastard. He's got bad eyes, loves his cute granddaughter, and he's not nearly as tough as he looks."
"That is his worth after having lived a long life? I see. I pity your pathetic existence, gnarled tree."
"Your lady friend is an annoying little girl, isn't she?"
Old Man Rom was indignant at the harsh appraisal. Though Subaru's explanation was the truth, he set that aside and gave Old Man Rom a warm smile.
"I'm so glad I ran into you, really. Even I was getting desperate back there. I didn't have a clue what I was gonna do."
Old Man Rom made a strained laugh and casually looked Subaru over.
"…The way you switch gears so quickly really throws an old man off.
Seems you managed to escape with your life back then, too…" His face twisted painfully as he saw the scars on Subaru's body.
"I may not be one to talk, but it seems that knife wielder got you pretty badly."
"Nah, that babe only got me in the stomach. All the other wounds are from a thing that happened after."
"Goodness! Something else happened to you, not even a month later?!"
Subaru thought Old Man Rom's loud reaction was quite sensible as he reviewed the last month—though in truth, the boy had experienced nearly twice that time. Those turbulent weeks had included the maid sisters, the demon-beast incident, and the Liliana issue.
With Subaru keeping his mouth shut, Old Man Rom seemed to accept things all on his own, shaking his head as he brought up a separate issue.
"—Hey, brat. Do you know where Felt went off to?"
"…Haven't you heard? Reinhard took her with him, or so I'm told…"
"Reinhard…the Sword Saint? Why would the knight among knights take her with him?"
Apparently, this news was a bolt from out of the blue.
Subaru thought back to how things had gone down at the loot cellar, finally noticing the inconsistency. Old Man Rom was out cold before Reinhard had entered the fray. Rom and Reinhard hadn't interacted while Subaru was conscious.
"So, what, you just woke up in a wrecked shop without any explanation, and all you could do was wonder?"
"It wasn't nearly that bleak. I woke up in the guards' garrison. I appreciated their healing me, but I let myself out right after."
"Ah, yeah. Not exactly a comfortable place for you, huh."
A criminal wouldn't feel at ease waking up in a police hospital. Subaru couldn't blame him for getting out of there ASAP without hearing all the fine details.
"So that's why you didn't hear, huh? Okay. Anyway, let me fill you in on what happened before I blacked out, plus the little bit that apparently happened after."
After that preamble, Subaru acted out a dramatic retelling of the events at the loot cellar. Old Man Rom watched Subaru's meaningless theatrics with admiration, and even the bored-looking girl leaned forward, gripped by the performance from start to finish. Subaru concluded, "She was so surprised! And then I said, '—I want you to…tell me your name.'"
The girl replied, "Ho-ho, a rather fine choice of words, if I do say so myself. I must grudgingly approve."
Rom followed up, "Keh, you really told her… Bah, this is no time to admire! The bottom line is that you don't know any more about Felt other
than the fact the Sword Saint took her with him, do you, brat?"
"Part of why I came here today was to do some footwork to find out exactly what happened…"
But he'd hit a roadblock right at the heart of it, the attempt to make contact with Reinhard.
Rom murmured to himself so faintly that Subaru did not hear.
"But… The House of Astrea, of all things…"
Old Man Rom had a serious expression as he lifted his face. Subaru helplessly shrugged.
"Well, I'm gonna see if I can get ahold of Reinhard, so I'll let you know if I hear anything. I mean, I wanted to find out if Felt was safe and sound to begin with."
"That'll be a big help… You seem oddly trustworthy. Is this girl involved with this somehow?"
"No, not a bit. I don't even know her name."
"Just how many scrapes do you get into for girls whose names you don't know?!"
"Hey, back when I didn't know Emilia-tan's name, I was pretty desperate, so I don't think anything I did was that weird."
Subaru's indifferent reply made Old Man Rom rub his eyebrows in exhaustion.
"No point thinking about it. All right, fine. I'll rely on you, so let me know if you find out anything about Felt. If I can repay you, I will."
"You're really gushing. It's because it's your adorable granddaughter, huh?"
"—That's right. She's…like a granddaughter to me, so please."
Subaru's jaw dropped at Rom's straight-up, unashamed agreement with him. He wondered if the blond thief girl really knew how deeply he felt for her. Knowing her, he figured she'd go red in the face and try to blow it all off.
As Subaru's discussion with Old Man Rom wrapped up, the girl haltingly murmured, "Reinhard… To hear the name of Reinhard here, of all places…"
She suppressed a laugh. Subaru's relaxed expression tightened again as he turned toward her.
"Hey, it's not polite to eavesdrop. Don't go listening in on other people's business like that."
"I did not listen in. You two oafs simply began speaking right in front of me.—You. From the way you speak of him, it seems your claim to know the
Sword Saint was not a bluff. Are you close?"
"It'd be a bit much to say we met once and became best friends forever, but we're on good terms, yeah."
Subaru owed a debt to Reinhard. He had enough of a sense of reciprocity to pay it back…even if he couldn't exactly imagine Reinhard in a crisis that Subaru could bail him out of.
Subaru asked his new companion, "Well, what do you know about Reinhard? You don't seem like a fan of his."
"From what I have heard, he is a rather twisted person. Beyond that, I have only seen him slightly from afar."
The way she declared someone to be twisted without having even spoken to him suggested it was her own thinking that was twisted. But with the girl's silence indicating she had no intention to elaborate, Subaru turned his attention back to Old Man Rom.
"Leaving her aside, how should I get in touch with you?"
"There's a store called Cadmon on Market Street. Give my name to the grumpy-looking man there and he'll get in touch with me."
"All right, all right. Cadmon… Cadmon?"
As Rom explained how to get in touch, Subaru tilted his head at the familiar-sounding word.
Either way, he'd fulfilled his promise to pay Old Man Rom a visit. That was one thing off his to-do list. To take care of the rest, first, he needed something else…
"Incidentally, the girl and I are actually completely lost. I don't want my adventure to end here before I can fulfill my promise, so ah, could you lead us back to the main street?"
"Mm, all right. Leave it to me. Which street is it?"
"Back to the garrison. Please and thank you."
"Didn't you hear me tell you I escaped from that garrison?!" Old Man Rom's exasperated shout filled the sky above the alleyway.
According to that sky, he'd been separated from Emilia for nearly an hour.
7
The orange-haired girl gazed at the back alley indifferently and muttered, "At first, I thought the disorder of such a grimy place held promise, but now that I am accustomed to it, it has nothing to draw my eye. It is quite useless for assuaging my boredom."
She raised the hem of her dress and shook it, a blunt expression of her insufferable displeasure.
"I don't think the royal capital's designer drew up these streets to be exciting," Subaru remarked.
"The world exists for my sake, so should not everything in it serve to amuse me? I have no idea what the man who approved such boring streets was thinking. Royalty should have a keenly discerning eye. Lack thereof seems to have been decidedly fatal of late."
Just hearing her statement set Subaru's heart racing. His head whipped back and forth to see if anyone had overheard.
"Th-that's a pretty arrogant thing to say right at the king's door, you know…"
The girl snorted at Subaru's caution, or rather, cowardice.
"A dull reaction and a futile concern. It would seem that you, too, are part of the common rabble."
"I'm well aware I'm a one-hundred-percent common, ordinary, straightdown-the-middle guy, and I'm fine with it. I don't want to waste any more time hanging around you, anyway. The girl who's waiting for me will hate me."
"What absurdity. It is an insult for you to think about anyone besides me during the time we are together. I may be accompanied now, but I think nothing at all of walking alone."
"Well, you should think about it. Being with you is miserable."
He was the chaperone for a girl who seemed to be arrogance incarnate. Subaru's self-pity flared up again at how he'd once again thrown himself under a bus in no time flat for the sake of someone he'd never even seen before. But he remarked to himself, "Ah, whatever…"
They were strangers to begin with. Neither knew the other's name. Once they reached the main street, they'd never see each other again. He wasn't magnanimous enough to shut off his own feelings of discomfort to try to make friends with just anyone. In Subaru's book, forcing yourself to like something you hate was among the most distasteful things around.
That Subaru had decided this, yet had no intention of leaving the girl on her own until they'd exited to the main street, was evidence as to what kind of person he was.
Coincidentally, Old Man Rom was not accompanying them. He abhorred going out onto the main street, so he led them to an adjacent alley before heading off. Subaru somewhat regretted the loss of his company, but…
"—While I was thinking about all that, here we are."
Just ahead of a bend, he could finally see the bright, western sun over the road. Subaru beheld the uninterrupted flow of people passing to and fro, relieved that his suffering was finally at an end.
"Now that we're out of there, we're total strangers again. I have to look for my cutie-pie companion, so I don't wanna get into any more trouble, like hanging around you. I'm sure your escort has been desperate to find you, so if you stay put I'm sure you'll meet up with him soon."
With the moment of their parting so close, Subaru vented out all the resentment that had built up during that time. Naturally, the girl was poised to respond, but instead, she halted and crossed her arms in silence.
"What, nothing to say? Okay, maybe I went a little too far, but I can't change how I feel. Things haven't exactly gone smoothly, but if you try a little prudence now and again, I'm sure…"
Subaru was simultaneously excusing his resentful words and lecturing her when she sneered back.
"Mmm, I think I pity you just a little. Whether you are aware of it or not, you so thoroughly play the fool. It is no virtue. It is merely a thin shell within which you conceal your weakness. It is as repellant to the eye as your face."
"The first part sounded serious, but that last part was definitely making fun of my looks, wasn't it?"
"If you intend to maintain the game to the very end, it is no concern of mine…"
Whatever the girl wanted to say wasn't registering with Subaru. Consistent with her bearing and actions, she made statements without any consideration for the comprehension of others. No doubt he wouldn't get a straight answer even if he pursued the matter further. With that in mind, Subaru gave up on speaking to the girl further.
Or, perhaps telling himself the girl was incomprehensible was his way of avoiding the truth. But he wouldn't receive any more answers here to begin with. After all, the instant the two exited the alley, they were greeted by a voice—Emilia's voice.
"—I've finally found you."
Unlike the back alley, the bright rays of the sun illuminated everything on the main street. The sunshine dazzled and burned his eyes. That radiance haloed her white robe as she looked at Subaru.
Her elegant brows were furrowed. Her fingertips restlessly toyed with her sparkling hair. Her gloomy, violet eyes quivered as her lips loosened in slight relief. It was plain as day how much she'd worried about Subaru.
Subaru both deeply regretted making her worry and was happy she had worried. His expression brightened at their reunion, unexpected but eagerly awaited.
"Ah, Emili—"
But as Emilia let out a soft sigh, he felt that something was wrong. He began to call her name but stopped when he saw someone beside her—a male someone with a burly chest.
"Wait, wait, wait! Don't go flirting with Emilia-tan when I'm not around!"
Subaru dashed forward to put himself between the man and Emilia. But his glare at the silhouetted man froze in the face of a torrent of sharp words.
"Hey, hey, lil' missy. I think your guy here has a screw loose. Is he all right?"
The chummy voice addressing Emilia was a bit hard to make out. That was only natural, since the speaker's head was covered in a full-face helmet.
The jet-black helm, meant to conceal his entire face, looked highly refined, but the headpiece alone wasn't what made him stand out—though that description is misleading. He stood out because the helmet actually was alone.
"More worried about an interloper than excited for your reunion? What a fascinatingly complicated sense of masculinity."
"Well, you've got pretty horrible fashion sense, don't you?!"
"And you've got quite some lip toward your seniors. I'm an easy-going old man, so I'll let it slide, but someone else might chop your head off."
Subaru gaped as the man tapped a finger against the nape of his neck in obvious amusement. Yes, the bare nape of his neck, for while the man wore a pitch-black helm over his head, beneath he wore only a shabby mantle and an open linen vest-and-shorts combo that made him look like some bandit. His "shoes" were sandals with split-toe socks. Behind his waist, he carried a handsome sword with a fat blade resembling a Chinese crescent sword. Everything clashed with everything else.
Subaru's tracksuit was no less out of place, but the man's attire was surely the greater offense to common sense. Subaru tentatively asked Emilia his burning question.
"Emilia-tan, don't tell me this guy's outfit passes for normal here in the capital?"
"Don't worry, Subaru. I'm as shocked by what he's wearing as you are."
The man erupted into laugher and promptly divulged what he was doing with Emilia in the first place.
"Oh yeah, she was really shocked. It was so cute. I said I was looking for someone, and I was pretty surprised when she said she'd come along, though."
Subaru put a hand on Emilia's shoulder and stared at where the man's eyes probably were.
"Emilia-tan's kind-heartedness is a real virtue, but you still have to pick who you help. Why do you think a poisonous mushroom looks so bad? It's saying, 'I'm poisonous. Danger. Eat me and you'll die.' That's to stop damage before it happens."
The man replied, "You're making it sound like I'm a dangerous guy. That's horrible."
"Back where I come from, one look at you and they'd bring all the local school kids together and tell them about kidnappers."
Subaru blew off the man's flippant comment and returned to Emilia.
"Anyway, Emilia-tan, like I'm always telling you—watch out for men and cars. Men are wolves, so you can't show them that defenseless, adorable, smiling face… Are you upset?"
"No, I'm just thinking that sounds more like something I've said to you than something you've said to me, Subaru. No offense."
Subaru was tempted to cover his face, regretting that his slip of the tongue had only heaped more trouble onto him. But the coming lecture was mercifully interrupted by an outside party. The orange-haired girl stepped forward and pompously declared, "Mmm. How perceptive of you to wait for
me at my destination. Your loyalty is admirable, Al." Her words made the man—Al—laugh out loud.
"…To be honest, I want to say it was dumb luck I happened to be here, but that'll just put you in a bad mood. I agree with you, Princess. Yep, it's just like you said!" He stood beside the girl and ruffled her orange hair with the palm of his hand. "Apparently, by sheer coincidence, the person the lady here was looking for and the person I was looking for were together. Maybe you could call it fate?"
"So it's like the saying, even chance meetings are the result of karma? No thanks, I don't want any threads of fate except red ones with Emilia-tan." There was a momentary pause before Al's reply.
"—This guy's got quite a mouth on him."
But Al's laughter and the light wave of his hand wiped Subaru's doubts away. All his actions had been with his right hand the entire time—for the man didn't have a left hand.
So the man had one arm, a pitch-black helmet, and a haphazard threadbare outfit. Judging from his tone of voice and his appearance below the neck, he was probably a bit more than twice Subaru's age. In spite of that, he didn't come off much like Subaru's senior, sporting an attitude as light as his clothes.
To put it kindly, he was easy to get along with. To put it rudely, he was an adult that needed to pull himself together.
Subaru commented, "With Puck there as your guardian, I'm wondering why he let you go around with this guy…"
Puck replied to Subaru's question telepathically.
"Lia spotted him looking in garbage bins on the side of the street as soon as she stepped out of the garrison. Her meddling happens at lightning speed, so I didn't have any time to stop it."
"Oh, come on…"
Subaru's reply couldn't hide his exhaustion. True, Emilia's soft-hearted nature was nothing new, but Al looking for his traveling companion in trash bins was completely off the rails.
He wondered if the man had put any funny ideas in her head while they'd been alone. Subaru gave Emilia a look of concern when he realized that…
"—?"
…without a word, Emilia had slipped behind Subaru's back as if to avoid the eyes of other people. She pulled down her hood to hide her face again, keeping her voice quiet as if that would erase her presence.
Subaru dubiously raised his eyebrows and looked toward the orangehaired girl who seemed the cause of Emilia's misgivings.
"What, staring at me?" the girl said. "Drinking in the beauty you will dearly miss once I depart? Certainly, it is cruel that my beauty is so divine, but it is rude to stare in silence."
"Sorry, my eyes are in perfect shape… Everyone found who they were looking for, so how about we break this up?"
Subaru gave the girl—the one Emilia seemed to be hiding from—a dismissive reply as he directed the spotlight away from her and toward Al.
He didn't know why, but Emilia seemed averse to the attention.
So Subaru did what he felt would serve her best.
Al replied, "Well, that's all fine… The decision to shift the talk to me instead of Princess included."
"…I sympathize with you more than a bit… No, a lot."
Al shrugged at Subaru's rather earnest words and looked down at the girl.
"An adult with a broad mind can put up with a lot without gettin' sick of it. Even a proud cat that's never been housebroken. Maybe I've just gotten old enough to find it adorable."
Subaru couldn't see his eyes through the helmet, but he sounded like a father figure protecting his beloved daughter.
They get along pretty decently, huh, thought Subaru vaguely in his mind.
He added out loud, "Well, we're gonna head this way… How about you?"
The girl replied, "Then I shall go that way as well."
"…Then, we're gonna head the other way."
"Then I shall go the other way as…"
"Oh, good grief. Are you stalking me?! What, did you fall in love with me or something?!"
"I imagine that is a joke, and a petty one at that. Lackluster men die in lackluster ways, you know."
With great pomp and ceremony, the girl, dispassionate to the bitter end, departed with her companion. Her hesitant steps proclaimed that even though she wanted them to part ways, she found it unamusing to do so.
So with all the invective remaining in him, Subaru said to the departing girl, "Hey, arrogant chick, take this."
"What an insolent tongue to direct at me. With one command, Al could take that head off your—"
As the girl turned around with some very menacing words on her lips, her red eyes widened. Her hands stretched and caught the pair of abbles lazily arcing toward her.
"Take 'em. These are bonding abbles. In the end I may have won the bet, but the winner has the right to show mercy like a noble warrior. Take care not to wander into bad guys like that from now on, okay?"
"I will have you know I did not become involved with those men by acting like some foolish child."
"…Incidentally, why did you get involved with them?"
"When I asked them if it was not inexcusable that they should live with such impoverished faces and attire, they became agitated."
"You're the one in the wrong there!!"
Subaru sympathized with Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest all over again and turned his back to the girl, pulling Emilia along by her arm. The small measure of payback gave him some satisfaction.
Emilia kept her head down as she went along with him. As they quickly departed, they heard one final muffled shout from the street behind them, filled with apparently genuine gratitude.
"—Lil' missy, thanks for comin' with me on my search!"
8
"Hey, Emilia-tan, they're gone now, so why don't we talk finally?" Subaru asked.
Parting ways with the arrogant girl and her guardian, Subaru and Emilia walked together for a while before stopping.
He was worried that something he'd said had brought about Emilia's sudden change in behavior. After a brief silence, Emilia lifted up her face and, just as Subaru expected, the subject was the girl she'd attempted to hide from.
"Subaru.—About that girl from earlier… She… Where did… Why were you…?"
"Ehh, Emilia-tan! What, are you jealous? We're at the point where you're just burning with envy?"
"—Subaru."
With one word, Emilia cut off Subaru's typically glib reply. She had a solemn expression, and the tension in her cheeks told even Subaru that bad jokes weren't going to cut it.
"Err? Emilia-tan, what's with the really serious look…?"
"Please, Subaru, don't make light of this. Why were you with that girl…?"
Emilia seemed to want to hear something from Subaru. It threw him off, but he sank into thought to try to give her the earnest reply she sought. But just as Subaru focused properly about things for once…his efforts were for naught as an angry, rough, and coarse shout interrupted their conversation.
"Finally found ya! You're a lot of trouble, damn it!!"
At the voice, Subaru scanned the area, aghast. Roughnecks were on both sides, blocking the street to prevent their escape. Dumb of Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest stood at the vanguard of the men, glaring at Subaru.
"I've been lookin' for you and the woman to pay you back for makin' fun of me before."
Subaru replied, "…So you brought all your friends for payback over a war of words? No matter how much you resent an insult, a man with a spine wipes his own butt… That's what I…always believed in…!"
"Hey, don't try to make me feel bad! What do you know about me, anyway?!"
Subaru listened to Dumb's abuse, complete with spittle flying, as he quietly looked around. There were fifteen or sixteen men blocking the street.
He couldn't exactly expect Reinhard to bail him out of this one.
"Meaning, it's pathetic, but the best thing I can do is rely on Emilia-tan and Puck, so…!"
Puck telepathically praised Subaru's quick turn to the aid of others.
"It really is pathetic, but I think it's commendable you accept your helplessness so quickly."
Subaru felt sorry for Dumb and company, but Puck the Great Spirit could take on street thugs regardless of their numbers. It'd be WinterFest in Lugunica's summer.
But before Subaru could shout, "Take it from here, maestro!" and yield the path like a villain in a historical play, a telepathic thought rich in meaning arrived from Puck.
"You have quite a disturbing image in your mind there… But apparently
I'm not needed."
Faster than Subaru could ask what he meant, a rather scary statement came from overhead, heralding the descent of a certain blue-haired maid.
"—I came here tracking Subaru's scent. What kind of disturbance is this?"
Tumbling end over end as she descended, Rem held down the hem of her skirt and landed with a boom. She brushed the dust from her sleeves as everyone gawked at her.
Rem made an adorable little tilt of her head.
"So, Subaru. Do you have something you wish to say to me?" Subaru pointed at her feet and voiced his question.
"Let me start with, err… He's ah, not dead, is he?"
Rem lowered her gaze. Underneath lay Dumb, smashed to the ground the moment she landed.
Head buried in the city street, the hoodlum said one last thing before he ceased to move altogether. "Not another…maid…" Rem slowly nodded.
"He is breathing."
"It's all good, then!! That's Rem for you, the all-purpose maid everyone wants in their time of need!"
"Oh no… Saying how you can do nothing without me, you are making me blush."
Subaru and Rem engaged in their daily routine, even as Rem's violence had the thugs reeling. Subaru's praised made Rem's cheeks go red as she demurred. In the meantime, the men gradually regained their bearings.
"D-don't toy with us here! You really think you're gettin' out of this alive…?"
Rem's voice lowered as she switched to her emotionless Work Mode.
"I judge that these men are threatening Subaru and Lady Emilia's safety."
The hooligans faltered at the change. Subaru felt a pang of pity for them while raising a finger to Rem.
"Rem."
"Yes?"
"Don't kill them, okay?"
"You are as kind as ever, Subaru—I shall half-kill them, then."
In a miraculous combination of equal parts violence and loveliness, Rem leaped into the mob.
Some lunged at her only to be thrashed. Others turned tail and ran. Others still squatted down and cowered, unable to grasp what was going on—Rem heaped punishment upon them all impartially.
Subaru gawked at the sight of people flying through the air like they weighed nothing.
"Whoa, that's amazing."
The impending end of the strife before his eyes filled Subaru's head with tranquility, as if he were removed from the uproar. He never even noticed the violet eyes staring at him, nor the pleading murmur that accompanied them. "—Subaru."