CHAPTER 6
LIES TO HOPE
1
"—And so three fools ran off to the mansion in a dragon carriage pulled by two wise land dragons."
Having finished giving Emilia the details, Ram seemed exhausted as she put a hand to her brow.
Emilia was just a little surprised that Ram would visibly show how she really felt for once. That said, her surprise was hardly with Ram alone but with Subaru's and the others' chaotic ways as well.
"Mm, I understand what you have told me… Goodness, he really is incorrigible."
"Sheesh," Emilia went, sighing deeply, after which a thin smile came over her.
Her gaze firmly fixed upon the expression Emilia was giving off, Ram narrowed her pink eyes with a questioning look.
"…Is that all you have to say?"
"I think so? Ah, of course, his leaving without waiting for me makes me just a little…yes, really just a little, tiny bit annoyed, but…"
After all, he'd seen Emilia off to the tomb with such grandiose fanfare.
So what was up with him slipping away instead of staying to greet her and see things through to the end?
"But I guess he didn't think there was any way I'd fail, huh."
Really, if Subaru was more worried about Emilia than anything else, he surely would have been there. And yet, he was not, which meant there was someone, in a place not here, who he needed to worry about more than Emilia. There was someone he could not help but go galloping off toward.
—It was because she knew that Subaru Natsuki believed in her that she could think that way.
"I really am a little angry, though. I wonder, does Subaru really love me?"
"…Barusu cares more about Lady Emilia than any other."
"Mm, thank you."
Unknown to Subaru, Emilia was currently trying to confirm his feelings toward her. Seeing that same Emilia smiling pleasantly made Ram lower her eyes, somehow pleased with how things had turned out.
"Lady Emilia, since you've returned, does that mean…?"
"You mean the Trial? Yes, that was… Er, it might be a little difficult to call it resolved. I properly faced my past…but it doesn't seem to be over yet."
"What do you mean?"
"The Trial doesn't end at one. There are two more…and it seems the barrier is only lifted after that. So I'll need to go back into the tomb afterward…"
The truth spoken by Echidna was shocking, but it didn't change what Emilia had to do.
Setting aside the fact that Subaru and the others had ridden off on a separate mission, Ram, the residents of the Sanctuary, and the people from Earlham Village might have to wait a little longer, but Emilia wouldn't stop moving forward until she reached the end.
"You really have become strong, Lady Emilia."
Perhaps Ram murmured thus because she saw the resolve in Emilia's eyes. Feeling an odd hesitance in her tone of voice, Emilia quietly waited for Ram to continue her words.
The quiet continued as Ram fell into silent contemplation for a time.
Finally—
"—Lady Emilia, I am very sorry."
"…It's really rare to hear you apologize. What is it all of a sudden?"
"Ram thinks so as well… This will be the first time Ram bows her head to Lady Emilia in earnest."
Emilia made a pained smile as Ram forthrightly stated that her formalities had been perfunctory to date. Taking in this smile directly, Ram gazed at Emilia, her pink eyes boring straight into Emilia's violet ones.
And then her apology, or perhaps her confession, began.
"Up to this point, Ram did not believe that Lady Emilia could stand on her own two feet. Your heart was broken by the Trial, and you lost even the Great Spirit, who was your foundation… I had wondered, how could you possibly find your footing now?"
" "
"However, this moment, Lady Emilia stands here on her own feet…head held high and ready for whatever comes. I deduct only minor points for the traces of tears remaining on your cheeks."
"Ah, oh, sheesh…!"
Rubbing her sleeves against her cheeks, Emilia diligently eliminated the traces of tears Ram had pointed out. After that, she turned toward Ram once more, softly tilting her head.
"So is Ram cooperating with Subaru and Otto because I'm such a crybaby?"
"Surely, you jest. Ram is not lending a hand to those two whatsoever. Ram is lending a hand to Lady Emilia, after concluding that such cooperation holds value."
"Is that what it is? …Yeah, I suppose it would be."
Emilia had challenged the Trial because Subaru's voice had called out to her. And it was necessary for Garfiel's laments to be halted for Subaru's words to reach her. For that purpose, Otto's and Ram's cooperation was necessary—and as a result of all that, Emilia had managed to step forward.
Certainly, one might call all Ram's actions grounded in diligent service toward Emilia.
"But why? Why did you want to help me, Ram?"
"—Because when one has something to ask, it is necessary to display one's own sincerity."
Those words, and the action that followed them, made Emilia's breath catch.
Emilia watched as Ram knelt before her, reverentially lowering her head to the ground. This was what one called a show of the greatest respect. It was the highest of formalities, meant to demonstrate who deserved the highest esteem of all.
This was not the perfunctory respect Ram had previously shown Emilia but a display of genuine respect—
"Please, Lady Emilia— I beg you, save my liege, Master Roswaal."
"…Save Roswaal?"
"He is completely possessed by obsession, obsession that has bound his heart like a curse for a very, very long time. Perhaps, Ram was fine with him like that even so. Perhaps, Ram was fine even if he did not look her way, even if he thought of Ram as nothing more than a useful tool with which to satisfy his obsession."
Still offering the deepest bow, Ram candidly revealed what lay hidden within her chest.
Perhaps, as she constantly gazed at Roswaal, this was the hope Ram had continued to nurse at the bottom of her heart, under an emotionless mask… It was the hope that she was fine with being a useful tool alone. However, now Ram refused that way of being.
"But his obsession has already strayed far from the path. He has lost sight of the objective that is the foundation of all his hopes, and Master Roswaal clings to his text in name alone… I beg you, break his obsession."
"Will Roswaal be all right with me breaking it?"
"He will not. He will most certainly panic. He will lose his reason to live and might well collapse completely. However, Lady Emilia, you are the only one who can do this. Perhaps, by moving Master Roswaal away from his way of life that has buoyed him all this time…my feelings might succeed in reaching him."
This was an earnest plea. Bowing her head, Ram kept the tone of her voice normal, but she was earnestly pleading.
Emilia did not properly understand even half the words her plea contained. But Ram's wishes, Ram's feelings, were genuine. That, she understood. And that was enough.
"What should I do?"
"—Please sit upon the royal throne."
" "
"Lady Emilia must sit upon the royal throne of Lugunica. When that occurs, Master Roswaal's desire shall be fulfilled. Even as he continues to walk off the beaten path, the day shall come when his feelings are fulfilled. Yes, please offer Master Roswaal this salvation. Please give his life meaning, today as well as tomorrow."
With Emilia pressed into silence, Ram piled word upon word without a pause.
For the first time, Emilia received Ram's feelings, which were spoken with such eloquence.
Maybe that was why. Maybe that was it.
Deep inside Emilia's chest, she felt emotions that defied description as they bore down on her like never before.
That moment, Ram, who'd thought she stood alone, unable to rely on anyone, was now depending on her. The hot emotions that bubbled up as a result were barely containable.
"Please, Lady Emilia."
In front of Emilia, who spoke not a word, Ram slowly bowed her head.
—Her pink eyes were moist from all the love packed into that tiny frame of hers.
"—Save him."
That quiet plea sent a tangible tremble through Emilia's entire being.
That feeling shot straight to her core, with enough impact to make her hands shake. She felt the heat conveyed by the blood coursing through her entire body.
And once those feelings had run their course, there was only one thing remaining within Emilia.
In her chest, a single sense of duty burned hot and bright—
"I'm not really sure how my becoming king is connected to saving Roswaal."
" "
"I probably don't understand Ram's feelings yet. Not really."
" "
"But."
Silently, Emilia looked back at Ram, taking in a single breath.
Bewilderment was vanishing from her swelling chest. Worry no longer remained in her mind.
Never before had her soul burned this hot.
"This is the first time Ram's asked me for anything, isn't it?" So it wasn't necessary to be difficult about this.
"All right, Ram. Now that you believe in me, I want to give something back."
It was probably because at that moment, what Emilia wanted to do and what Emilia needed to do were one and the same. No hesitation was necessary. Emilia simply smiled and nodded.
"This is probably something I have to start working on from here on out."
Boldly, she stated her wish to fulfill not only her own desires but someone else's as well.
"Ah," replied Ram, opening her mouth a little as she bowed. Somehow, the tension seemed to ebb—and her worry, too, judging from her lips, which trembled in relief.
Seeing Ram's expression relaxing, Emilia felt a slight sense of satisfaction. At the same time, she thought it was very in character to see Ram refuse to cry despite her teary eyes.
And then, just as Emilia extended a hand to the kneeling Ram to help her back to her feet—
"—I hope you do not mind my fiiiinally speaking my own words of congratulations?"
"—!"
Feeling a tremble in the hand she touched, Emilia lifted her head toward the voice, which came from behind Ram—in the direction of the settlement. There, she saw a figure calmly standing on the grassy clearing.
The voice was familiar. Their demeanor was aloof. More importantly, it came from the individual who was the veritable center of their conversation
—
"—Roswaal."
And so with faint wariness in her chest, Emilia called out his name.
2
"It seems you were in the middle of conversing, but it feels like the matter came to an end… You do not mind?"
Addressed by his name, the person, who was none other than Roswaal L. Mathers, stepped forward toward them.
He was clothed in his usual eccentric attire, and for the first time in a while, he showed off the white makeup he often wore on his face. This was the Roswaal who Emilia knew—a far cry from the injured, bedridden patient she had seen of late.
"—That is far enough."
"…Hmm."
Emilia's call brought Roswaal's feet to a halt. It was not the hard emotions infused in her voice that forced him to a stop but the palm Emilia turned Roswaal's way.
Emilia had drawn Ram close with her right hand, turning her left toward him. Of course, this was no simple bluff, something the surging mana Roswaal detected made plain.
"My, myyyy, is this not quite a harsh welcome? Even though, upon hearing Emilia had challenged the Trial, I came running over with this gravely injured body of miiiine."
"I would dearly like to believe that is really what you think, but…" Deflecting the truth with her words, Emilia narrowed her neat eyebrows.
By rights, Roswaal was Emilia's chief ally and patron in the royal selection. He was also the savior who'd brought Emilia out of the glacier that used to be the Great Elior Forest, which she'd only just set eyes upon in the past revealed by the Trial—and the one who'd taught her it was possible to save her frozen kin.
It was this Roswaal of whom Emilia was wary—because she felt Ram's palm tremble in her grip.
"Please do not make such a fearful face, Lady Emilia. Even I am genuinely concerned for you… Or perhaps I should say, I sympathize with you."
"You sympathize with me…? What do you mean by that?"
"I mean what I said. I sympathize with you from the bottom of my heart— for this situation where you, knowing no way to be loved save through fulfilling the expectations of those around you, were inevitably forced to confront the past against your will."
As he shook his head in disapproval, Roswaal's declaration made Emilia open her eyes wide.
He spoke the word sympathy as if he pitied Emilia's circumstances. However, the cold, melancholic emotions differed from simple sympathy— It was something bordering on malice.
"Allow me to formally convey my congratulations to you, along with sentiments of sympathy and pity— You have done well to overcome the Trial. I had truly thought it was beyond you."
"…A compliment like that makes it hard to just come out and say thank you. Besides, I have not yet properly finished the Trial. I was told that there are two more."
"Yes, I am aware of this. Besides, I am somewhat relieved— Naaaamely, that even an airhead like you is able to understand that my congratulations just now were not words of goodwill."
Roswaal laced his words with sarcasm as he continued addressing Emilia, who was perplexed and unable to discern his intent.
His hostile emotions were complex, feeling like equal parts lament and joy. But it was clear that his self-wounding and his self-mockery were just scratching the surface of his suffering.
"Roswaal, what did you come here for? Did you really come just to say this?"
"Mostly for that. Also, I wished to see for myself."
"See… You mean, the results of my Trial?"
Roswaal closed his eyes and pulled back his shoulders. In confirming the result of the Trial, perhaps he wished to see what answer Emilia had gleaned from confronting her past…or whether it had broken her heart once more.
"You said you thought I couldn't do it… Have you changed your opinion a little?"
" "
"Yeah, I think you had a lot of things to worry about. Until just a teeny little while ago, I was always pulling back from everything… I caused Puck,
Subaru, and everyone all kinds of trouble."
If he thought Emilia probably wouldn't be able to overcome the Trial, it was only natural.
To be blunt, even that very moment, she found it mysterious that someone as weak as she had challenged the Trial. Her heart easily wavered, her thought process was shallow, and she was fragile and pathetic, yet still.
"But even though I caused them so much trouble, everyone helped me. I'm such a no-good klutz, but everyone still lent me a hand. So I thought, I can't lose heart here…"
Drawing back her left hand, which she'd trained toward Roswaal, Emilia tried to grasp on to all the passionate feelings in her chest. It was not with mana but with words that she wanted to reach out to Roswaal that moment.
But as Emilia spun such words, Roswaal, his eyes closed, let out a faint sound from his throat.
" "
Roswaal laughed, low and prolonged, suppressing his voice so that it came out as a trickle.
Then he opened a single eye—earnestly training his yellow-colored eye on Emilia.
"You say the same things as young Subaru. Is that something you also learned by copying him?"
"—!!"
"Master Roswaal!"
As Emilia's voice caught in her throat, Ram loudly rebuked Roswaal in her stead.
Ram, having maintained her silence up to that point, stood at Emilia's side as she powerfully slammed her pink emotions against her master. However, Roswaal ignored this, seemingly receiving them like a refreshing breeze, and continued speaking to Emilia.
"Those are borrowed words on a stage prepared for you. Even challenging the Trial here was a choice made possible by everyone's goodwill… I find no fault with you. It is I, and the others around us, who desired that you do so. But though he understands this perfectly well, Subaru has forced such a cruel thing onto you."
"That isn't so! Subaru was just…"
"That is his way. After all, he merely shouted encouragement at you that was shorn of all logic and reason, did he not? He summoned all the emotional arguments he could, forcing his ideals onto you alone. I understand, I understand; indeed… After aaaaall, we are the same, he and I."
"Subaru and you are the same? What is that supposed to mean?"
"In that we force our ideals upon the women we love."
When he made this firm statement, Ram gripped Emilia's hand harder with great force.
Understanding the feeling in her palm, Emilia looked straight back at Roswaal's yellow eye. A listless smile continued to adorn the corners of his lips as Roswaal shook his head side to side.
"Just what did he say to you? Words that sounded comfortable to the ears, I am sure. You are soft, Lady Emilia, gently crumbling with ease, which makes you easy to handle as long as one remains polite. Truly, Lady Emilia is weak and fragile, someone embracing such forlorn hopes. You have considered what it would be like to live as a normal girl, I imagine? He has no interest in the real you, not in the slightest. What he loves is the ideal of you that rests within him—is that not so?"
Piling insidious words upon one another, Roswaal lowered his gaze, his eyes seeming desolate.
At first, his words appeared to intentionally insult and scorn, yet, for some reason, Emilia felt like the emotions he revealed were laments that cut into him instead.
Perhaps Roswaal himself could no longer clearly differentiate between whether he was speaking about Subaru or about himself.
Even as his presence overwhelmed her, Emilia took a short breath.
Certainly, Roswaal was compelling enough to bowl most people over. But there was something that had to be said. More than anything else, he wasn't there to say it, so the trembling girl had to say it in his place.
"…That's all you have to say?"
" "
"Is that the only reason why you think you and Subaru are cut from the same cloth?"
The question Emilia posed made a questioning air hover in both of Roswaal's eyes.
However, he suspiciously made no reply. Roswaal had no words to follow that could match Emilia's question. Therefore, there truly was something that needed to be said.
"If that really is all you have to say…"
" "
"You and Subaru are nothing alike."
After all, Subaru, who had chased after Emilia all the way into the tomb, certainly had argued with ideals, and it was not with reason or the importance of liberating the Sanctuary that he persuaded Emilia.
All the same, what he'd vehemently argued were by no means whatsoever soft, pretty words alone.
"You see, Subaru told me that I was a troublesome woman."
"…What?"
"He asked who I thought I was, doing all kinds of things and causing nothing but trouble. He asked how long was I going to keep doing things like this and make him wait with nothing but hope. He said that I was all talk, that I was so lacking in everything, he couldn't even look at me—that's what Subaru told me."
In the tomb, in that cold stonework corridor, Subaru had pressed his forehead to Emilia's, angrily shouting at her.
That instant, Emilia remembered the jeers that had shaken her heart.
"It was just as Subaru said. I'm a weakling, all mouth, coming up short all over the place."
Emilia had even forgotten that she was a weakling, all talk, lacking in this way and that. She'd thrust away her memories and acted like those parts of her didn't exist, but Subaru had understood. He'd seen right through her.
—To Emilia, now that she'd recovered her past, this was something to take deep, immeasurable joy in.
"Subaru saw me as I really am. And I thought, I don't want to show Subaru just my bad sides anymore. That's why you and Subaru are nothing alike."
If Subaru Natsuki was someone who couldn't accept anything less than the ideal Emilia, she'd probably still be in the tomb clutching her knees that very moment.
Even where Garfiel was concerned, she had no doubt that if Subaru, knowing things beyond his ideals, hadn't spoken of idealism, Garfiel would have never lent his ears to such words.
Subaru, knowing Emilia was weak, had told her he loved her nonetheless.
Subaru, knowing Garfiel was kind, had told him to change nonetheless.
Subaru came running to everyone whose feet stood still, scolding them, shoving their backs, making them run as well.
You can do it, he said. You can fight, he said— You don't have time to stand still, he said.
"When my memories returned, I was anxious. With Puck gone, I felt like I was being crushed… When I remembered everything, I felt like I wasn't
myself anymore, like who I was up until now had been a lie."
What she believed in had been demolished, and as a result, she had ceased to move. Cowering in the face of such thoughts, the reason Emilia could stand there having confronted and overcome her past was—
"When you think you want to do something… When you want to change— there are people who will help you, who will give you a helping hand. He taught me there are people like that out there."
"Is that not merely a fraud? A fraud's act meant to convince you to stand once more so…"
"No, it's not a lie. It's not nonsense with no basis at all. Subaru said he believed in me. Those feelings will not become a lie… I won't let them be a lie. That is my answer."
Emilia boldly dismissed Roswaal's rebuttal.
She would never let the words that he…that Subaru had spoken to her when she was helpless and hapless be called a lie, a nonexistent hope. She would not allow it.
The words Subaru Natsuki had firmly declared to Emilia—I know you can do it—were no lie. Emilia had broken out of her own shell, and by doing it, the lie had ceased to be.
It was what people called a wish…a wish that it would cease to be a lie. That was why—
"—I'll turn lies into wishes. Right now, that's what I want to do and what
I need to do."
This was what Subaru had so earnestly, so desperately taught her.
Once, Emilia could not draw her answer out in a concrete form, but at that moment, she'd finally pieced it together.
—She would make this wish come true. That was what Emilia had to do.
" "
Roswaal had not interrupted Emilia, nor had he replied. Still, it took only one look at his eyes to know that her words had not simply rolled off.
His gaze was trained toward both of Emilia's eyes, as if trying to keep the keen emotions under his makeup, under his ornamental smile, from reaching his face. That was how she knew.
Roswaal's mental state was far too conflicted to decipher. He was wise, and Emilia felt he'd lived in a world utterly beyond her comprehension. But that instant, she realized something.
That perhaps the true reason that had caused Roswaal to come to this place might be—
"—Roswaal, could it be that you wanted to make me do something horrible?"
The possibility abruptly came to her mind. The instant she put it on her lips, she could think of no other reason.
Pushing himself to come while deeply wounded, intermingling words of congratulations with insults, speaking maliciously that he had expected nothing of her, and on top of that, mocking Subaru—it was one uncharacteristic behavior piled upon the next…
"It's like you want to make me angry so that I'll punish you."
"…Purely to get this out of the way, I happen to dislike pain."
"—? I would think everyone dislikes that?"
The reply tugged at Emilia's mind, making her incline her head, but he had not denied Emilia's words.
He wanted to be hurt, to be punished. Had Roswaal come to this place in hopes of that?
Even Emilia could understand such destructive impulses, despising oneself to the point of wanting to be put through the wringer. The only difference was whether one directed that inwardly or outwardly.
Emilia was the sort to direct it inwardly. Perhaps that was true of Roswaal as well?
"And so you have changed again— To me, this is exceedingly difficult to accept."
"Roswaal?"
"I respect your decision, and the will to walk forward is praiseworthy. I can comprehend how you discern there is hope after accepting your pain and wounds. That is why I sympathize with you."
Sympathize. Once more, Roswaal brought up the word he had begun his speech with to Emilia.
But Emilia thought she had already asserted that his sympathy was misplaced. There was no reason to view her as pitiable, for Emilia had already found hope.
Finding that hope fleeting, Roswaal shook his head side to side. After all
—
"Even your virtuous decision to be hurt is already meaningless, for this is a finished world."
"Finished world…?"
"Properly speaking, this is a world approaching its end, perhaps? It is a world that has veered off its proper path, a world astray from its proper destination. This Sanctuary and the royal selection are already meaningless."
Slowly shaking his head again, Roswaal spoke those words, seemingly finding this acutely regrettable from the bottom of his own heart. Emilia could not conceal her bewilderment at the inconsistency between his demeanor and the emotions precipitating it.
Even though deep in his heart he still felt frustration, Roswaal was letting everything go.
"Roswaal…what are you trying to cast away? You…you and I started this together, right? Casting it aside midway…that's absolutely wrong!"
"—Then…what is it you wish to do?"
"I don't know! But wrong things are wrong! I don't understand what you're trying to give up on, Roswaal, but don't give up! That's too selfish of you, isn't it?!"
Knowing full well she sounded like she was lecturing a child, Emilia extended an accepting hand toward Roswaal. If Roswaal was going to try and let things go, she'd grab him and drag him back in his stead.
"There's no need to abandon anything— Not anymore."
"…You truly do speak like young Subaru."
As Emilia thrust her chest out, firmly declaring her beliefs, Roswaal sighed. From there, he let his shoulders droop, as if all energy had slipped out of him, and shifted his gaze to the tomb behind Emilia.
"Just how well can you change grandiose language into reality?"
"That's what I'm going to prove from here on out, in the tomb…no, even outside the Sanctuary."
Emilia was firmly declaring to Roswaal that she would challenge the second Trial. Then she shifted her gaze toward Ram, whose hand she had not let go of the entire time.
"Lady Emilia."
Ram, having maintained her silence as she witnessed the pair's replies to each other, addressed Emilia with trembling lips. Nodding to her call, Emilia gently let go of her hand, which had linked the two together.
"I'm going, Ram— Somehow, I will make your wish come true."
" "
Nodding as Ram lowered her eyes, Emilia turned around, shifting her gaze toward the tomb's entrance.
With her words to Roswaal and her words to Ram, Emilia had surely exhausted all the words she possessed. The rest had to be proven with the answer Emilia arrived at—not through words but actions.
Putting a foot upon the stone steps, she desired once more to enter the tomb she had just left. Behind her—
"—You are wrong about one thing, Lady Emilia. Everything began between Teacher and me."
There was an exceedingly nostalgic twinge to his voice.
His voice seemed fiendishly adoring, as if to gently trample one underfoot.
With that voice at her back, Emilia advanced into the tomb, which shone with light. She headed for the stonework room she had once departed. There, the second Trial waited.
—A Trial to make the lying words someone had spoken into a wish come true.
"I saw the past. So next would be…"
Just what awaited her? With the painful battle of the first Trial fresh in her chest, Emilia headed straight back into the stonework room.
When she reached her destination, the faint, pale radiance of the place illuminated the words of support Subaru had left for her.
The remaining Trials numbered two. When the third Trial was overcome, the Sanctuary would greet its future.
The moment she had the thought…
"—Behold the unknowable present."
The instant she realized the voice she heard whispering in her ear was her own, strength drained from her body.
Her consciousness blanked out, and Emilia had the powerful sense that
her soul was being shorn from her body, whisking her off to a place in the yonder.
"Subaru…"
Not even certain what her own lips had spoken at the very end, Emilia knew the second Trial had begun.
3
Having watched Emilia enter the tomb, Roswaal and Ram were left alone on the grassy clearing.
Ram gently pressed her left hand, which Emilia had held, against her chest.
"…Rather unexpectedly, her resolve seems to be extremely hiiiigh. Subaru is indeed a formidable foe."
As Ram did so, Roswaal, having also watched Emilia leave from a short distance away, murmured thus. There was little emotion infused in his tone of voice. He did not seem to be particularly disappointed by what he had spoken.
In fact, Ram was certain of it. Roswaal did not have the heartfelt interest shown by his demeanor just moments before. The proof was how Roswaal was completely unruffled by a result that was surely contrary to his will.
"I am sorry to have put all that goodwill you painstakingly built to waste. To not launch her own outburst after enduring so much vitriol… She truly is weak to the bitter end."
"…Master Roswaal, from what point did you observe Ram and Lady
Emilia's conversation?"
"I had some rather sharp words with young Subaru and the others, you see. I wanted to see Lady Emilia's state for myself…and so I saw you bending your knee before her— You are quite the actress yourself."
Roswaal seemed quite impressed when he replied to Ram's question. In other words, Roswaal had seen Ram give her respects to Emilia and ask for her one, precious wish to be granted.
And having seen it and engaged in his exchanges with Emilia as a result, he was now thanking Ram for her efforts.
"Had Lady Emilia given in to provocation and attempted to inflict harm upon me, victory or defeat in the contest would have been determined in short order…but perhaps the circumstances seemed somewhat too favorable?"
He'd meant to stimulate Emilia's anger and turn it toward him.
Emilia had interpreted it as a desire for her to hurt him. In that, she had been correct. Where Emilia was wrong was that he did not desire this because he wished to receive his punishment.
—Roswaal merely wanted to do his utmost to fulfill what was recorded in his magic tome.
The royal selection existed for that purpose. The Sanctuary existed for that purpose. He existed for that purpose.
Garfiel's grief, Ryuzu's and Shima's long-standing desires, Frederica's devotion, Subaru's melancholy, Emilia's sense of guilt, even Ram's feelings —these were all things he used to accomplish the magic tome's desired result.
"Young Subaru and the others head toward the mansion, leaving this Sanctuary to Lady Emilia. At a glance, this action appears skillful, but it is a poor move. Seeing nothing but what one wishes to see is a habit anyone would term a vice. It is not one I would wish for young Subaru to acquire."
"What do you mean by this?"
"I did not expect that Garfiel would join Subaru's side. But this also means his removal from the Sanctuary side of the board. If his troublesome eyes are closed, I will draw nearer to my objective in a way that hasn't been possible until now."
" "
"I heard you cooperated with them on the Garfiel matter. Of course, I understand that you believed this to be a good thing. Your feelings run deep. I have taken them into account as well, of course."
Ram was hanging her head as Roswaal walked over, gently patting her shoulder. Through his palm, Roswaal conveyed an immense amount of trust toward Ram.
The touch of his fingertips sent Ram's heart beating faster within her chest.
Touching him, exchanging words with him, doing whatever he commanded—these actions filled Ram with feelings that were the pinnacle of happiness. It was no exaggeration to say that they were what gave meaning to her life. It was what she lived for.
—The instant she had the thought, Ram ignored the slight gap it created in her heart.
That moment, she could not humor that hollow sensation.
"Master Roswaal, what do you intend to do from here?"
"What I seek has not changed from before. I merely need overexert myself a trifle."
"Ram will…"
"—You should wait here for Lady Emilia to return. After aaaall, even I will feel pangs in my chest if that valiant girl arrives with no one to greet her."
From the faint lowering of the corners of his eyes, his statement was not one of sarcasm but of consideration toward Emilia.
Even as he schemed to ruin Emilia's efforts, he acted with warped concern for her heart. It was not limited to Emilia; the same applied to Subaru, to Garfiel, and to everyone else.
Hence, Ram bowed to Roswaal, the only one to whom she had opened her heart, and watched him go. Roswaal slipped out of the grassy clearing, not toward the settlement but toward the forest.
She watched him with her pink eyes until he was no longer in view, after which Ram gently closed them. And then—
4
—And then, relying on the scenery displayed within those closed eyes, Ram arrived at a certain place.
It was a building that maintained an abnormal white color, with a foul stench that repelled visitors. It was the Witch's laboratory, lurking in the deepest part of the forest, at the end of a path unworthy of the name—a place she had been told of several times, yet had never reached.
And so Ram stepped into that place, one to which she had never been invited.
" "
She did not conceal the sound of her shoes. If anything, she purposefully made her steps loud, as if trying to carve her presence into his eardrums. In doing so, she announced she had chased after his vision, followed in his footsteps, in order to reach this place.
It was as if to say, in response to so many questions, her appearing here in such a manner was her answer.
"…I see. So by using Clairvoyance, arriving here was an easy feat for you?"
Accordingly, the presence of the visitor—nay, the intruder—was immediately made known to the devil. The devil at the entrance to the room looked upon Ram with a questioning air and a faint whiff of bewilderment dwelling in his differently colored eyes.
Ram was keenly aware that this rare reaction from him made her chest leap with a sense of maidenly exultation.
The secret art of Clairvoyance, passed down among the Oni, did not function unless the wavelengths of the caster and the target were compatible. Naturally, if Ram exerted herself, she could match her own wavelength even to that of demon beasts, but it was a different story where a high-rank opponent was concerned. If such an opponent closed his heart, synchronization was utterly impossible.
In other words, had Roswaal not truly opened his heart to her, Clairvoyance could not function upon him. In point of fact, Ram had not attempted to overlap her own vision with that of Roswaal's even once to this point.
And so she had finally arrived at this place—really, how could she fail to feel joy?
"I believe I asked you to wait for Lady Emilia?"
"Yes, you did."
"Then I bid you: For what puuuurpose have you come to this place?"
"—That is very simple."
When asked, she suppressed the passion that made her heart beat loudly, replying with her expression still neutral and tranquil.
Ram's pink hair swayed as she drew her wand from under the hem of her skirt. It was her beloved wand, granted to her by Roswaal personally when she had only just begun to serve him— It was a magic wand employing Ram's own, broken-off horn.
Twirling it within her hand, she thrust its tip toward her beloved master— "—I have come to rob you of your obsession with the Witch."
To the man she cared for, who was mad with love, she confessed her own love, hoping to sear it into him.
5
—Ram had gone along with the gamble because she viewed it as her best opportunity to fulfill her own wish.
"—Greetings, Miss Ram. The wind is serene tonight. A fine night, isn't it?"
When a certain man addressed Ram, it was the night before Emilia overcame the Trial of the tomb, the night before Garfiel broke through his ten years of stagnation, the night before Subaru trembled from the humiliation of having his verses of love read by undesired parties, and the night before Ram placed her wager for her own long-standing desire—in other words, it was the previous night.
" "
In a cranny of the settlement, Ram stood still in a place that felt bereft of humanoid presence as she stared squarely at the individual.
"…Er?"
"—. Ahhh, I wondered who it might be, but you are the man who was with Barusu, yes? Without Barusu beside you, your presence is so faint that I was unsure what manner of creature you are."
"So I'm not even human now?! Er, I do understand why you would treat me as an appendage to Mr. Natsuki, but…"
"A man improved by being someone's appendage has no worth of his own. Begone."
"This maid is extremely harsh!!"
Ram's attitude left him without an island to cling to, and the young man's voice went shrill as he turned his face toward the heavens. Ram exhaled at his reaction, embracing her own elbows as she looked at him squarely from the front.
The young man tensed his shoulders, seeming uncomfortable under the gaze of her narrowed pink eyes.
"Do you mind if I have a word with you?"
"Setting aside whether I remember you or not, shouldn't you speak your name first? Setting aside whether I remember you or not."
"I am not certain why you repeated that part twice…! …I am Otto Suwen. I may be a mere traveling merchant, but I would dearly appreciate you remembering my name and face even so."
"That depends on whether the conversation you bring is interesting, and to what extent, I suppose I must say."
"Then with candor—could we have your cooperation on Mr. Natsuki's wager with the marquis?"
Having meant to assert that the initiative rested with her, Ram caught her breath a little. That was how easily the young man—how easily Otto had nonchalantly crept into her flank.
When she glanced over, Otto was smiling as he keenly scrutinized Ram with his gaze. Ram grasped that this, in contrast to his frivolous expression, constituted his true worth as a traveling merchant.
"You seem to be quite a fraudster."
"I am merely a man midway through chasing a dream. Perhaps that is why I get along with Mr. Natsuki and his reckless pursuits. Errr, I have digressed."
"Ha! Bald-faced liar. Also, you have set your hopes in the wrong place. Ram's desires align with Master Roswaal's wishes. How did you come to believe I would lend Barusu a hand?"
"I trust you are well aware that where the destination of his wishes is concerned, the flow of events has already strayed from the marquis's
desires? I believe Mr. Natsuki has spoken to you of this as well."
Otto had approached Ram once he was certain beyond a set extent.
Feeling that this was an unamusing fact, Ram slid one hand down to her thigh. The wand holstered there under her skirt was her beloved weapon for the employment of magic.
Even as she thought it was overkill against the likes of Otto, the means to instantly overwhelm him was a precious treasure indeed.
"As I see it, this seems to be my time to excel."
"Your what?"
Seeing Otto twitch a cheek and moisten his lips with his tongue, Ram raised an eyebrow toward him.
"This is a critical moment, or something along those lines. It's nothing to brag about, but my winning percentage for excelling is rather good."
"Such exaggerated confidence. I wonder, do you truly think such confidence is enough to seduce Ram to your will?"
She had no ears to lend to half-hearted invitations. Compared with how she was previously, Otto could only think that Ram's position had also grown precarious… This was a veritable critical juncture indeed.
If he could at least "excel" properly, then perhaps—
"For whatever reason, Mr. Natsuki does not think of Miss Ram as an enemy, come what may— If he is correct, I believe we should cooperate with Miss Ram's own true desires."
"—. What a pity."
"Eh?"
Otto had an idiotic look on his face as Ram sighed deeply, sliding her hand up from her thigh. Then she used that same hand she had drawn back to gently stroke her own hair.
"I said, what a pity— Please go into detail."
Even if she listened to his explanation to the end, it would still not be too late to decide whether to use her wand or not.
At the very least, Otto offering negotiations was not a bad thing. Yes, she would humor him with a show of acceptance.
—And so in response to Ram's urging, Otto proceeded to explain in detail.
"—So what do you think of all this?"
"Are you an idiot?"
Ram was declaring that her eyes beheld an idiot, and the word one should turn upon an idiot was idiot itself.
It was only natural she had the urge to say that. After all, Otto's explanation was no summary or outline but closer to divulging every last card in his group's hand. In other words, he'd exposed their entire scheme to her.
"Do you lack the imagination to grasp what would happen if Ram told Master Roswaal all this…?"
"If you must put it that way, I can imagine nothing good. However, I am a merchant, so I must spare no effort required to succeed where business is concerned— Were failure to result from cold feet, I would bring shame to the
House of Suwen, you see."
Otto was stuffily asserting that he could not bring shame to his family. Such determination could not reach Ram's heart, as she already had no family of her own—at least, it should not have.
"Miss Ram?"
"—. Nothing at all. More importantly, at the beginning, you behaved as if you approached me in Barusu's service…but this is your own decision, isn't it? At the very least, you have not spoken to Barusu where Garf is concerned."
"Ah, er…you really could tell, couldn't you?"
"I do not think Barusu would approve such recklessness. Ram also views this as an extremely stupid thing to attempt alone—enough that calling it a personality flaw does not seem to do it justice."
Of course, Subaru and Otto's plan incorporated countermeasures against Garfiel. And the radical contents thereof required the drafter of that plan to exhaust himself right to death's door, casting such a precarious net that only a thin ray of hope could be seen.
"It truly is a personality flaw. Not that I would say this to anyone, but the planner is absolutely not cut out to be a merchant."
"Do you really intend to hide such a thing when you are looking straight into my eyes like this?!"
Male pride or something of the sort. How trivial, Ram thought disdainfully with a snort.
However, setting aside Otto's concealed determination, the plan was not a bad one. The elements of the gamble were not few—yet, it was far more forward-looking than waiting for inevitable defeat, wasn't it? Accordingly…
"—If Ram is to cooperate with you, there are three conditions."
Ram held up three fingers as she spoke. Otto hardened his expression as he nodded deeply.
"I am listening."
"First, Garf. Giving him a knuckle sandwich is just fine. Ram enthusiastically concurs where it comes to breaking the bridge of Garf's nose — However, after the bridge of his nose is broken, you are to leave him to Ram."
"As I hope you will play a large role where Garfiel is concerned, those words sound quite ominous…"
"That depends on Garf."
She was not particularly concerned. She'd known Garfiel for nearly a decade. So long as he was the same as he'd always been, it was highly unlikely she would be the one to yield…though it was still stupid.
"After that, Lady Emilia. I cannot bear seeing Lady Emilia so haggard now that she has lost the Great Spirit. Tell Barusu he needs to do something — It may be outside of Master Roswaal's intentions, but even so, if we are to move forward, having Lady Emilia get back to her feet is unavoidable, whether I like it or not."
"This time, it is up to Mr. Natsuki and Lady Emilia where that is concerned, yes? Well, it might be the most up-in-the-air portion, but this plan
does hinge on the premise that it will work out in the end."
Otto scratched his pathetic face in response to Ram's statements.
Just as he himself was aware, the basis of the plan put exceptionally heavy emphasis on what was expected out of Subaru and Emilia's relationship. It was a plan built on the premise and the belief that there was something tangible between them.
Emotions included, it was a plan largely reliant on logic, yet that specific part rested on emotional hopes in particular.
"Either way, I expect you to accept these two conditions. As they are necessary and the minimum conditions for the success of your plan, it is not particularly a hindrance to you, I trust?"
"I suppose not. Put bluntly, I had considered it possible you would propose far more difficult and less achievable things… Ah, er, ummm, I imagine the third is quite something, so I should be quiet and wait before saying such things."
"What a fool."
She could understand Otto's wariness. But his concerns were needless.
Certainly, there was no mistaking that Ram was hopping on board the plan for her own objectives. But that was something Otto, who had proposed as much, had no doubt already woven into his schemes.
It was only natural that Garfiel, Emilia, and after them, Subaru and Otto would fight valiantly. It was a good thing for Ram to cooperate to a lesser or greater extent. But Ram would yield the final scene to no one else.
Therefore, the final condition Ram sought from Otto was a simple one. And that was—
"—You will not speak one word to Barusu about why Ram wishes to join his wager."
6
And having arrived at the final scene of the plan she had joined, Ram stood across from Roswaal.
The place was the facility covertly placed in the forest—the place that appeared in Shima's story of the past, and in one sense, the place that served, along with the tomb, as the central pillar of the Sanctuary.
The hovering stench and the abnormally white walls threw portions of her five senses into chaos. However, it was not a problem.
For the man who stood in front of Ram's eyes had robbed Ram of her consciousness, down to the furthest corners of her soul, long, long before.
"Obsession, you saaaaay."
Roswaal murmured in a low voice. He said it both to repeat the claim Ram had spoken aloud and to classify the objective for which she herself had appeared in this place.
That very instant, Roswaal browsed through a variety of possibilities in his mind. Most of them were widely at variance with the truth. Then he came across the possibility he thought most likely.
"I think this is unlikely, yet…could it be you are truly minded to turn your wand against me?"
Raising his eyebrows in apparent surprise, Roswaal had come to a single conclusion about Ram's behavior. By stripping away all the clearly wrong ways to take her words, he had finally arrived at the proper answer.
When he asked her this, Ram stood straighter, which made Roswaal's shoulders sag.
"I see. It has been years since you have turned your wand upon me…but for that time to come now is unfortunate. It also pains me that someone who knows my feelings, and my objective, would call them an obsession…"
"I may not have said it aloud, but I have always thought so. It is only natural."
"Natural… Weeeell, I suppose it is, given your long, long days of humiliating submission."
Even as he slumped his shoulders, Roswaal beheld Ram, who stood resolutely, with his two-colored eyes. From there, he gently ran his fingers through his indigo hair.
"Seeing nothing save that which you wish to see… How truly ironic that I appraised this to be young Subaru's vice, when it occurs right under my own nose. I had thought your actions an expression of devotion in your own way."
"Giving Garf a knuckle sandwich was both for the sake of Ram's objective and for setting Garf's stupidity straight… What is it you intended to do to that group without Ram?"
"I cannot deny the sense that you plaaaayed them very well as a result. For this final contest, young Subaru elected to gamble and cast out his net— I do not trifle with such gambling."
He spoke as if Subaru's decision was ironic, whereas his own thoughts were logical.
In point of fact, she agreed with Roswaal's opinion not once but a hundred times over. Many of Subaru's actions were haphazard, and Otto's plan merely had the heaven-sent fortune of including Ram's cooperation on its side.
Ram's assessment of Subaru was unchanged: He was a man with good timing, and that was all.
"But having good timing alone is Barusu's sole redeeming feature. I was not mistaken in wagering on that single redeeming feature— You have the book, I take it?"
" "
"At a point dubbed the final contest, at a juncture pushing Master Roswaal to make a move himself, it is inconceivable you would not have the book of knowledge in your possession, considering you rely upon it the most."
Roswaal told no one where he kept his book of knowledge. Ram knew only that the book of knowledge was certain to exist, but he always kept it in a place beyond her reach.
This was a golden opportunity where she was certain Roswaal had the book of knowledge in his hands, and thus, she had come.
—This was the moment Ram had been waiting for for a long time.
"—I have not forgotten. It is, after all, the one and only vow made between you and me."
"A sword, to he who would wield it; magic, to he who would cling to it; flame, to he who is devoted to it."
"And an Oni, to he who desires it, one that shall destroy his very foundation, goes it?"
The words of the vow they had exchanged took them back to the very beginning of the pair's relationship.
When Ram was still very young, those were the words of the vow they made after she had borrowed Roswaal's aid to wreak retribution upon the scoundrels who had destroyed the Oni people. It was an oath that showed both her loyalty to Roswaal and her commitment to destroying his wish.
This was the vow sworn between Ram and Roswaal, undiluted in the nine years since its forging—
"So the time has come, then. Certainly, the flow of this world goes astray of my desired path. And thus, the vow comes into force…meaning that I,
having lost my desire, am to offer myself to you as promised."
Roswaal was resolved to offer up the entirety of his very long life in order to arrive at the result recorded within the magic tome—so much that, if he should fail, living would lose all meaning.
"If I was to become a hollow shell, you may do with me as you please.
Such I did promise, yes?"
"Whether you live or die is up to Ram."
"Yes, that was it… After the passage of nearly ten years, you might finally fulfill your retribution."
Reconfirming the vow he could not possibly have forgotten, Roswaal drew a black book out from his pocket. Setting eyes upon the black-bound book, Ram knew with one glance that this was the abominable book of prophecy.
This was the book of knowledge, the continued pursuit that was Roswaal's very reason to go on. It was the magic tome she had sworn to destroy long ago.
"To you, this must have been a long, long, bitter time, I imagine."
" "
"After all…you were forced to pledge loyalty against your will and spend your days with the man who caused the destruction of your homeland. Even if, without your horn, your body required my support in order for you to live, it must have been exceedingly agonizing. I am sorry to have acted as if it is not my affair."
His tone of voice was dry of emotion as Roswaal defined Ram's very existence.
The cause of her homeland's destruction—those words revived a memory and, with them, pain within Ram's chest. She recalled her home village set aflame, the wails of her brethren, her family seeking rescue as they perished.
The Oni, said to be the mightiest of demi-humans, had no way to resist the power of brute numbers. Her people, few in number and assailed with malice that far outnumbered them, met their end in a single night, leaving none but Ram and "—" behind.
Her vow with Roswaal was necessary in order to live thereafter.
This was something that "—" never knew and something that Ram never told "—".
"—?"
Ram narrowed her eyes, feeling disquiet over the throb in her mind and the gap in her memories.
It was like a strange form of amnesia, like losing a memory she'd had until a short time before. She felt like she'd lost something she could not afford to, but Ram glossed over the feeling, acting like nothing had happened by sheer force of will.
"Covering your vengeful heart with a shell of loyalty, you hid the flames of retribution that you nurtured within you while you served me. Even so, there was no more excellent pawn than you. Until now, even within this
Sanctuary, just how precious a treasure have you been?"
Roswaal continued his soliloquy, even as Ram prayed for the ill feeling from her memories to go away.
Many of his words were praise. Understanding the true intentions Ram had long kept hidden, he was giving faint praise for overcoming a number of tribulations to arrive at this point for the sake of fulfilling her desire.
This was a very warped form of love.
It was the love with which one celebrated a child advancing in days and months, reaching out as her desire was about to be granted.
But—
"—And that makes it more the pity. Your decision is but a tiny trifle, premature."
In the span of a single instant, the sentiments of praise infusing his voice turned to disappointment.
A smile came over Roswaal as he shook his head side to side, grimacing at Ram as she gripped her wand.
"You have done well to create an opportunity where I am compelled to have the book of knowledge on my person. If Garfiel ceased his obsession with the Sanctuary, if Lady Emilia ceased relying solely on young Subaru, whatever the result, there would be no way to preserve that which has been written except for me to move personally."
One by one, the conditions required for the fulfillment of what was written had been abolished. The problematic knots that had prevented the liberation of the Sanctuary had been untied one after another. The pawns who served him were gone.
"Though, I suppose saying resolved, rather than abolished, better reflects the depth of your feelings."
"The simplest means is usually the poorest. Ram does not care for losing wagers, either, you see."
"This time, are not the nets cast by your hand rather nuuuumerous? Of course, it is worthy of praise that your Clairvoyance ability enabled you to tail even me. That was splendidly done. However."
Cutting off his words at that point, Roswaal closed one eye, the gaze of his yellow eye shooting right through Ram.
"You should have let me do what I have come here to accomplish and could have accomplished with but one more step. That alone is a pity."
Spreading his hands wide and still holding the book in his right, Roswaal turned his attention to that which stood behind him.
In the deepest part of the facility, a cavity was formed out of the white walls, and from this concealed room trickled out a blue light. Squinting to follow the light to its source, Ram saw an unusually large crystal enter her field of vision—no, a magic crystal, within which a young girl was sealed.
—This was Ryuzu Meyer, the true identity of Sanctuary as Shima had explained it.
"This is the commendable girl who offered up her body for the sake of her friend, becoming the core of the Sanctuary. But this instant, she is not my
objective. What I require is this magic crystal."
"You intend to use the magic crystal as a catalyst to employ Great Magic?"
"Enough to alter the weather, yes— Earlier, I said this world had gone astray from my intentions, but that is not quite precise. The most critical part yet remains. It is in this sense that you were…overeager."
"…I thought events had strayed from the ones written in the book of knowledge?"
"Quite a bit, yes. However, that is not so for the ending. One cannot speak of success or failure until what is written in the book for the Sanctuary arrives at its conclusion— If snow should fall here, what shall become of the Sanctuary? What is its future?"
In accordance with the book of knowledge, Roswaal would make snow fall on the Sanctuary. He had come for the magic crystal to employ it as a magic catalyst. And to employ that spell—
"—Requires an enormous amount of concentration and the very deft use of mana. That instant, you would have been able to achieve your retribution with certainty. Even without your horn, had you attacked by surprise, my wounds are deep and my trust great enough to slow my reactions… You
would most certainly have struck me down."
"…I did not, for to do so would be meaningless."
"—? In the sense that you wish to conquer me when I am whole? Or that you wish to destroy me without a single second to spare? I can somewhat understand such feelings, but…"
"No. I was right… You truly understand nothing, do you?"
Ram's reply left a genuinely questioning look all over Roswaal's face. That fact made Ram close her eyes.
" "
On the back of her eyelids was a vortex of complex emotions she absolutely never allowed to reach the surface. Ram closed her eyes so that her own way of living, something she had sworn never to reveal to any other for her entire life, might be shown to her alone.
Opening her eyes, she lifted her face. Then she trained her usual, impetuous look toward Roswaal.
"Your wish shall not be granted. For you to strictly observe the terms, offering yourself to me as an empty shell, is meaningless. Greeting a broken version of you will not satisfy me."
"My, my, how greedy of you. However, what shall you do about it? Even if the Oni once called you the chosen one of the gods, you are now far from that without your horn. Even though I, too, am wounded, I can employ quite sufficient magic before establishing the ritual. Can you defeat me?"
"No, it would surely be foolish to think so. I understand full well that Master Roswaal's power is second only to his teacher."
When Roswaal claimed she had no chance of victory, Ram nodded, making no effort to refute him.
As a matter of fact, Ram had no chance of victory…even if she hadn't been worn down from the recent fight with Garfiel. Ram did not have even a slight chance of barely eking out a win if she fought Roswaal.
"—Then what purpose could you seek to accomplish, I wooonder?"
Giving the raised book a light toss, Roswaal caught it with his opposite hand and theatrically stuffed it into his pocket. Flickering flames floated up from his pair of empty palms.
Red, blue, green—Roswaal narrowed both his eyes as he showed her flames of one color after the next.
At the tip of Roswaal's gaze, Ram infused power into the wand she held in her hand, sliding her empty, opposite hand into her maid outfit. And then— "Ram has no chance of victory. That much is clear. However—"
"—If it is two against one, perhaps the advantage is ours?"
" "
The voice came from neither Ram nor Roswaal. Within the white-colored building, the sound of this voice echoed across the cavity farthest in back, causing Roswaal's face to contort dramatically.
It was not anger but surprise at the unexpected and delight at being surprised that made him smile.
"So this is the greatest reason you went along with young Subaru's plan…!"
"I told you, Master Roswaal: I have come to rob you of your obsession with the Witch."
Responding to Roswaal's loud voice, Ram grasped the hem of her skirt and bowed.
In the time the pair exchanged those words, a light shone. This gradually took definable form—
"—And I am a passing, wild spirit… It's been a while since I've had a long fight. Let's start, shall we?"
With gray-colored fur, a long tail, and excessively, intensely adorable gestures, a little cat—the Great Spirit—appeared.
In Ram's hand was the magic crystal that Subaru had given to her—along with an uncontracted Great Spirit, lending its aid for a single night on a whim.
"Yes, I see— In that case, certainly!"
"Heya, Roswaal. Come to think of it, I never did get a chance to settle things with you, did I?"
As Roswaal offered his acclaim, the Great Spirit groomed his face as he replied.
Then Roswaal nodded deeply at the situation that had been wrought via Ram's schemes. "—Come."
"As you wish."
—The bewitching, colored flames blazed higher as colorless blades of wind flew with wild abandon, and the world was plunged into explosively freezing cold.
In that one instant, shock waves spread across the Sanctuary, and a macabre dance began between Oni, devil, and spirit.
CHAPTER 7
A HOWLING REUNION
1
—Keeping her breath low in the darkness, Petra did her best to suppress everything from her body that could be defined as sound.
She made her small body even smaller, mindful even of the crinkle of clothing rubbing against air. She walked with her hand over her mouth, for if she did not, her breaths, more chaotic than she could remember, would make a sound from her throat.
She nearly wished she could stop her heart so that its noisy thumping might pause for a minute.
"—!"
Petra's light-brown hair swayed as she walked unsteadily in the mansion, which she had begun to get used to, almost like she was lost in an unfamiliar world. She was glad that the floor had a soft carpet over it. Thanks to that, she was spared from having her trembling toes hitting the floor. She vowed to gratefully wash the carpet the next time she had a chance.
Were it not for such silly thoughts, her legs would have stopped obeying her completely. As it was, her tottering gait was slower than that of a baby. If she stopped, she likely would never walk forward again.
She was in a long corridor with no end to it. This one time, she was tempted to hate the vastness of this large mansion she had grown so fond of.
—How, and why, had things turned out that way?
Until a few brief hours before, the mansion was an ideal workplace to Petra. She'd been in awe of the mansion to begin with, and the maid outfits were cute and wonderful, too. Frederica, the one instructing her, was kind, and the mansion was connected to someone she was faintly fond of. It was perfect.
That perfect world, enveloped by admiration and dreams, was now so frightening that it nearly froze Petra's heart.
The night when everything changed had been just like the previous day until darkness fell.
After the evening meal, she'd tried to bring Beatrice's untouched meal to her; wiped down the girl named Rem, who continued to sleep in her room; and went to Frederica's own quarters to hear her assessment of that day's work. After that, she bathed, returned to her own assigned personal room, and slept in preparation for the next— "—Petra, please wake up. Petra."
"…Miss Frederica?"
Feeling that someone was shaking her body and hearing a voice speaking to her, Petra gently awoke in the middle of the night. When she looked over, Frederica was in uniform, standing by the bed, which made Petra blink her round eyes wide in surprise.
It was not surprise that she had been awoken at that hour. Rather, it was the obvious tension that Frederica exuded.
She remembered that sensation. It was an aura that Petra had felt several times some months ago— "Miss!!"
Immediately wiping away her drowsiness, Petra jumped right out of the bed. Frederica was a little surprised by the sight, but when Petra, grasping the situation, leaped into her arms, she gently held the girl.
Then she stroked Petra's head with her free hand.
"Petra, listen closely— Head outside through the dining hall's kitchen door. Do it quietly, without a sound, but as quickly as you can. You can do it, yes?"
"I can do it… But, Miss Frederica, what about you?"
"I will follow soon enough. Once you are outside the mansion, run as far as the village. Once I meet up with you safe and sound, how about I let you sleep in a little tomorrow?"
Speaking as if making a very slight joke, Frederica let Petra go. Petra was still smiling at Frederica as she felt a tangible sense of tension spread across her entire body.
Something—something was happening at the mansion. And Petra was helpless to do anything about it.
"Petra."
With that brief call serving as a signal, the pair left the room.
The night sky was covered with clouds, and the mansion was submerged in darkness beyond moonlight's reach. Faced with the gloom of the unlit corridor, Frederica squinted, and Petra gently followed behind her. When Frederica narrowed her jade eyes and caught her breath, Petra simultaneously broke into a run in the opposite direction.
"Dining hall… Dining hall…!"
She repeatedly murmured to herself what Frederica had told her. The dining hall was on the first floor of the main wing. Fortunately, by going straight down that particular passage, she would immediately reach it. She'd already memorized the interior of the mansion. Even in the dark, it was an easy win.
But just as she reached the passage that stretched from the east wing to the main wing, Petra came right to a halt. If she raced to the main wing, she could rush straight to the dining hall's kitchen door. Frederica's instructions were to flee as far as the village from there. However— "—Miss Rem is…"
The Sleeping Princess remained in the mansion, lying on her bed on the floor above.
The passage was right next to her. Petra hesitated as she stared at the landing of the stairs below. She felt fear as her instincts begged her to do as Frederica told her.
But Subaru had entrusted Rem to Petra. The forlorn look with which Subaru had stared at the side of her sleeping face was seared into Petra's eyes.
If Petra escaped alone then and there, what would become of her promise to Subaru?
"—!"
Tightly gritting her teeth, Petra roused her timid heart and put a foot on the stairs—toward the floor above, where Rem's room was located.
She revered Frederica. Going against her instructions left Petra riddled with guilt. She was afraid, too. But with the mansion feeling so dangerous, she couldn't leave Rem and run.
It was just like during the forest with the demon beasts— Back then, Subaru hadn't abandoned Petra.
"I'm stupid… Really stupid…"
Her reminiscence at an end, Petra slipped back into her initial melancholy, letting a sound of weakness out as she seemed ready to break into tears.
Her heart was noisy. Her steps advanced slowly. Frederica would be angry. Her emotions were a jumbled mess.
"Agh, darn it… I already have this cute face going for me, so why do I need to do something this stupid…?!! But, but, but…!"
She was scared, she wanted to cry, she wanted to yell. But she did not. She could not.
After all, Subaru didn't. He wouldn't. Even if he was afraid and wanted to break down and cry, he wouldn't.
"I mean, this is absolutely what Subaru would do… That's why— That's why for Subaru, for him only, I have to look good even if it kills me…!"
When her fear became nearly unbearable, Petra whispered to herself to bolster her spirits.
In that dark corridor, she caught sight of her destination, Rem's room. It was a mere eleven yards away, enough to make her heart leap out and run to it. However, her feet could not catch up to her heart's unrest.
Just a few more steps, just a few more feet, just two bedroom doors ahead
—
—I've arrived, thought Petra, lifting her head.
That instant, beyond one of the corridor's windows, the wind blew, moving a cloud covering the moon, and silver light shone into the corridor. Color returned to the world that had been nothing but darkness. Narrowing her dazzled eyes, Petra saw—.
"—Oh my, what a pretty young girl."
A woman in black stood right before her, seemingly blended into the darkness.
"—Ah."
There was a woman standing between her and the door to the room, which was a mere three steps away.
She had glossy black hair that was tied in a triple braid and a pitch-black outfit that accentuated her voluptuous physique. Even Petra could detect the scent of sensual charm wafting around her, and the vile knife she held in her right hand was eerily distinctive—
"According to what I was told, there are two targets and one bonus target.
You would be the small maid, yes?"
" "
"Are you shaking? It's all right—I am certain that your innards will prove very pretty indeed."
She couldn't understand what the woman was saying.
She just understood that the approaching footsteps of this smiling stranger were synonymous with the footsteps of death. Even though she understood this, Petra's legs were held in place by fear, unable to move, even though the vile weapon unsuited to the woman's slender arm was about to cut away her life without any fanfare.
"Good girl… I will introduce you to an angel."
Heartlessly, the woman raised the knife toward the trembling girl.
The blade sliced through the wind, aimed to mercilessly bite into Petra's torso. Then—
"Petra—!!"
Crashing through the corridor window, a shadow filled the space between Petra and the knife. A high-pitched noise echoed, and the sound of metal grazing metal was accompanied by flying sparks and a shock wave that threw Petra onto the floor.
She was showered in blond hair right before her. A back she had looked up at many times over had shielded Petra from the wicked-looking blade. Petra instantly recognized that back, much broader than her mother's. It could have belonged to only one person.
"Miss Frederica!"
"You've been a bad girl, Petra. I distinctly told you to flee. I will punish you later."
"Yes! Yes!!"
Leaving Petra behind her, Frederica confirmed her safety with a glance as she spoke sternly. That kind strictness made Petra reply multiple times in a tearful voice.
Watching the exchange between the pair after her knife had been deflected, the woman contorted her glossy lips.
"Marvelous. You must be the large maid. I am so happy to see both maids together and getting along so well. I must line up both your bowels side by side and compare to see how your innards complement each other."
"I cannot make heads or tails of such taste. I cannot even dignify calling it a hobby."
After listening to the woman's disturbing threat, Frederica replied sharply as she thrust both her arms out.
Her arms made a creaking sound, one that grew progressively more extreme as her skeletal structure shifted. Her pretty nails changed to bestial claws, and golden fur sprouted from the skin of her arms up to the elbows.
"Demi-human blood? If you transform, do the contents of your belly differ from when you're in your usual form? Or are they the same?"
"I have never been curious enough to find out for myself."
"Is that so? In that case, can I ask you to show me after I slice you open?
All you need to do is transform back when you're on the verge of death." "You certainly are confident…"
Even though Frederica's two arms had turned into deadly natural weapons, the assailant showed not the slightest concern. When her attitude was pointed out to her, the woman said, "I suppose so," tilting her head slightly. "A little while ago, I had a near-death experience in the capital, so I improved my skills. You cannot match me."
"…I feel like holding a grudge against whoever didn't finish you when they had the chance."
Frederica's sense of duty and the crazed ghastliness leaking out of the woman—these would not determine victory or defeat, but even to Petra, it was clear that one was head and shoulders above the other.
"Petra, this time, head straight out of the mansion— Use the evacuation tunnel."
"B-but, Miss…!"
Her voice catching, Petra looked toward the door of the room that was so very close. Inside was the reason Petra had been so reckless. Frederica could guess what it was from that glance alone. Accordingly…
"I do not know who hired you to do this, but it seems that Petra and I are your targets."
"Yes. Two maids and one spirit girl. I was a little disappointed about the numbers, but I have high hopes for opening a spirit's belly. Last time, I fell one small step short, you see."
" "
The conversation made her head hurt, but Petra widened her eyes at
Frederica's quick wit. Through offering a little casual conversation, Frederica had learned the woman's objective straight from her lips—Rem wasn't among the woman's targets. The Sleeping Princess had vanished from the enemy's memory as well.
"Go!"
"Yes!!"
A moment after they signaled their mutual understanding, Frederica's voice sent Petra running off to her rear. Simultaneously, she turned her back to the fleeing girl as the attacker flipped her body and threw something. A total of four silvery iron skewers, glimmering in the moonlight, raced toward Petra in an attempt to snipe her legs.
"Your stubbornness is worse than your taste!"
With a single swing of her mighty arm, Frederica struck down all the iron skewers with a bestial claw. During that time, Petra did not look back even once. She raced down the corridor, placing the entirety of her trust in Frederica.
"Such a good girl."
"She's my pride!!"
The woman's obscene voice and Frederica's howl echoed throughout the mansion along with a sound of clashing steel. Frederica collided with the woman, beginning a deadly battle with her life on the line.
"Hagh!! Hagh!! Haaagh!!"
Petra's breath was ragged as she raced through the corridor, practically flying down the stairs.
A chain of high-pitched echoes rang out, and a tremor reached her from the corridor being destroyed. Frederica had judged that her opponent was superior to her. She was fighting valiantly so that Petra might escape.
She had already failed once. Frederica had told her to flee down the evacuation tunnel if all else failed. If she did as told and fled— If she fled, Frederica would die.
The instant she thought that, a single possibility floated into the back of Petra's mind.
"—Lady Beatrice could…"
If it was the final person remaining in the mansion, who she'd heard was
a supernatural being…
"Here…! Maybe over here?!"
Running along the downstairs corridor, Petra flung open whichever door she put her hands on.
She'd heard that the power of Beatrice's spell made it possible to move from room to room within the mansion. Even when searching for her with Subaru, even when trying to bring her dinner, she'd never found the girl, but she was definitely there.
That moment, what Petra needed was a magic user of great power.
If Beatrice was around, Frederica could probably be saved. Petra could protect the mansion and her promise…
"She's not here… She's not anywhere here. Miss…!"
Out of breath, ready to collapse any moment, Petra let her tears flow. She'd opened every single door on that floor in the west wing. And yet, Beatrice was not there. The battle was still raging.
Petra had to find her soon, so very soon. If she didn't, Frederica would…
"Miss Frederica…!"
Even though she had to keep running, strength drained from Petra's feet little by little.
Using her hands, which were shaking so hard that she could not clench them into fists, she struck her own legs over and over. She needed to rouse her battered spirit and continue the search for Beatrice. And yet, her courage was insufficient. Her tears kept flowing.
"—Subaruuu!"
When her weakness slipped out, Petra spoke a single boy's name, as if clinging to it for dear life.
To Petra, this was the name of the bravest person in the whole world.
He was someone with incredible courage, who forced his trembling legs to face an opponent he knew he could not defeat.
When Petra and the others from the village were truly in danger, when they really might have died, he was the one who'd rushed off first and saved them—and so she called his name.
Even though, in that moment, she understood he wasn't there to save her.
"Subaru, Subaru… Save me, Subaruuu!"
"You got it. Sure thing, Petra."
"—Eh?"
Covering her face with her hands, Petra was trying to stop her tears when she unwittingly held her breath.
Between her fingers, in her teary, hazy vision, there was someone right in front of her. This person was kneeling to match heights with Petra, who was crouching, meeting her at eye level.
"Sorry I'm late. But I'm here to help… I'm glad you're safe, Petra."
The person, who had a face with a familiar foul look, shot her a reassuring smile. As much as he tried to be considerate, his expression was not gentle in the slightest—which was why it relieved Petra to the very bottom of her heart.
"Is that you, Subaru…? You came?"
"It's me, and I came. I'm back safe and sound, all thanks to your charm,
Petra."
Nodding, Subaru lifted up his right hand—showing the white handkerchief tied around his wrist. It was pretty dirty, but it was the same charm Petra had entrusted to Subaru on the day he had departed.
It was neither a hallucination nor a dream. Subaru had come back. When Petra reached out to touch his cheek, he gently guided her hand to his face and rubbed her back.
His touch calmed her heart. She wanted to gently let her consciousness yield to the relief. But she could not—not yet.
"Subaru, Miss Frederica is on the floor… There's a scary person in black with a really big knife…"
"A scary person in black with a big knife. Yeah, got it."
This fragmentary explanation of her features left Subaru nodding like he understood everything. Both understood the gravity of the situation. Within Subaru's arms, Petra desperately pointed toward the ceiling.
"Please save Miss Frederica! Subaru, get that woman!!"
"All right, leave it to me!! …That's what I'd like to say, but if I go up against someone Frederica can't beat, I'll be a corpse in one second!!"
"—!"
"—Which is why I brought superstrong reinforcements to help me out."
When Petra was momentarily at a loss for words, Subaru stroked her head as a smile crossed his foul-looking face. From there, he turned his gaze upward, and as feelings of relief and worry mixed together in his black eyes…
"Lot of uninvited guests in the way of tonight's dramatic reunion scene, though…"
2
It was too crude a battle to be called a duel to the death.
"—Shiii!"
Waving her right arm around, she repeatedly slammed through the opening created by one of the iron-skewer attacks. The woman swung her body up and down, left and right, leisurely evading the flurry of attacks with the elegance of a leaf swaying in the wind. When she leaped back to evade the black blade that had appeared, iron skewers flew at her in midair, giving her no chance to evade them.
Frederica's arm, wrapped in thick fur and muscle, was easily penetrated by the sharp iron skewers. Gritting her teeth at the pain, which felt like she had just been burned, Frederica swung her arm, sending the iron skewers flying.
It was not a fatal blow. Still, her wounds were gradually increasing, and her endurance was being whittled away. Compared with Frederica's labored breathing, the woman with the long, swaying triple braids was not even slightly out of breath.
The difference in their fighting strength was crystal clear. The fact that Frederica was still alive simply meant her opponent wasn't being serious, and—
"—What is this compulsion of yours to aim only below my breasts?" "If you must ask, it's my hobby, or perhaps, I should call it my way of life.
I am the Bowel Hunter, after all. Spilling your innards is my creed."
She had not spoken in jest. She was completely serious, something that made Frederica's body shudder. This was no joke. The woman was serious. Nor was her calling this abnormality her creed a lie.
The fact that Frederica had barely managed to stay alive was because the woman had been aiming only for her abdomen.
"However, I do not have too much time to play. If possible, I must strip you of your limbs and go capture the girl from before. You get along so well;
I think it would be nice to open you both side by side."
"Unfortunately, your benevolence does not resonate with me whatsoever —!!"
She knew the woman was toying with her— Therefore, she had to settle this while she was still in a mood to play around.
Explosively launching off her hind legs, Frederica barreled toward the woman with speed she hadn't revealed yet. She'd hidden the transfiguration of her legs up to this point. If she sprinted seriously, Frederica could outpace the wind itself.
Approaching at breakneck speed, she would claw out the woman's vitals.
Or if she could merely graze the body with her claws—
"—I believe that charging straight in is a little simple of you."
"Wha…?"
The instant she thought her bestial claws had hit their mark, the woman vanished into thin air. Slamming down hard enough to shred the carpet, Frederica then looked up to the ceiling and gaped. Having leaped straight up, the woman attached herself to the ceiling and proceeded to begin jumping from there to the corridor wall, to the ceiling again, and then to the floor, all however she pleased.
"—Damn spider woman!!"
"I was called that in the capital, too. I thought it rather rude at the time…"
Raising a voice of dismay, the woman approached from up and down, left and right. Frederica could track motion far better than the average person, but she could not even follow the woman's shadow as it flitted around in the moonlight. Then—
"—After you fall, I would appreciate you showing me what your innards look like in your current form."
The moment after she heard that whisper, Frederica resigned herself to death.
Various feelings raced through the back of her mind in the span of a single instant… They were about the Sanctuary, about her coworkers, about her pretty junior, about the people she had served, about her family. About her little brother. These— "Oh my."
This dejected voice was accompanied by a clash that sounded like thunder.
The roar of steel colliding with steel rang out, and a shock wave shot through the corridor, cracking its windows. Then as the shock wave passed without stopping down the corridor, a single man's voice echoed through it.
"—Accordin' to the general, there's a sayin' that goes offense is the best defense."
It was a low voice, yet it held irrepressible anger within. As he spoke, both his arms—or more precisely, the two silver shields covering his fists— intercepted the woman's knife, sending it bouncing back spectacularly. The force sent the woman leaping far to the rear. The man did not pursue her as he powerfully pounded the two shields together in front of his chest.
"If ya can use shields to defend and attack…that means puttin' the best offense and the best defense together, givin' the best of both worlds, huh?"
It was simple, even infantile, and furthermore, it was the sort of logic a naughty child would think of.
But the man had used that childish logic to great effect, equipping both arms with one shield each, employing them as his own weapons. The man with short, combed-back hair boldly thrust his chest out as he turned toward Frederica.