"Everything I've done up to this point has followed what the book laid out."
"The book said someone with the power to 'correct' the world would appear at Emilia's side."
"So I built a series of events aimed at everyone who'd gathered around her."
"To figure out which of us was that person?"
Gojo furrowed his brow at Roswaal.
He already had a guess. Who else but Subaru? The protagonist of this world, holder of Return by Death, the one carrying his feelings for Emilia like a lit torch. A man like that would be willing to die however many times it took to clear a path to the throne for her. If someone close to him ended up in danger, he'd throw himself into the fire without a second thought.
"No."
"It was to understand that correction ability. How it worked, how it activated, what conditions set it off."
"And whether the person carrying it could bear the weight of all of it."
"You did those unforgivable things for that?"
Subaru, who'd barely managed to get his temper under control, felt the fury rise again.
He'd been on the receiving end of more of it than Gojo had. The Witch Cult incident alone would stay with him for the rest of his life.
"If that's all it was, why didn't you tell us? Why didn't you just ask..."
"Four hundred years."
Roswaal's voice cut him off. The look he gave Subaru was perfectly calm.
"To bring my teacher back, I've lived four hundred years. Taken the lives of twelve of my own children."
"I've seen too many people make grand promises. The moment their lives are on the line, they betray, they give up, they fall apart."
"What people say when they're safe, comfortable, with an easy way out, is all false."
"Only when they're cornered, when they have to bet their life on a choice, does the real person surface."
"Someone with the power to 'correct' the world wouldn't be stopped by such simple problems."
"But by running them through this, the bearer of that ability learns what he's up against. Really learns it."
"Words lie. Expressions lie. Promises fold."
"Only actions and outcomes don't."
"I needed him to become something that could bear every despair the world has to offer. Something that could rewrite fate."
"Only a person like that can help Emilia win. And help me bring my teacher back."
"Isn't that right, Subaru?"
The moment those last words hit the air, Gojo knew. Roswaal had read Subaru down to the bone.
"Subaru?"
"Hah ha ha ha, you did all that, gave us this whole lofty speech."
"And the conclusion you landed on is this idiot? That's a little too funny. Look at it any way you want, Satoru's the stronger one here, right?"
Felt was the first to react, breaking into a laugh at the idea.
And also the last.
Her laughter trailed off as she registered that no one else was even smiling. The silence around her had weight.
The grin stiffened on her face.
"Why's no one saying anything? Did I get it wrong?"
Silence was the answer.
Felt's composure cracked.
"So after all that, everyone else knows and I'm the only one left in the dark?"
"Huh?"
"You people are too much."
"Whatever happened to mutual trust? Partners helping each other out?"
Gojo looked at the fuming girl and reached over to pat her on the head.
"Easy. It's not that we didn't want to tell you. You knowing is how you die."
"Die?"
"You think I'm a kid? How would I die? And Reinhard's right there to protect me..."
"The Witch of Envy would carve you up. In a way Reinhard probably couldn't stop."
"And even if she didn't, the one doing the telling dies. Ask Betty. The first time I tried telling her, I died for it. Not an experience I'm keen to repeat."
"And it wasn't important enough to push the issue, so we let it ride."
The mention of the Witch of Envy sobered Felt fast. Hearing that Gojo himself had "died" for the slip tightened things further. She waved her hands quickly.
She didn't know what dying from it actually entailed, but it clearly wasn't anything pleasant.
"Fine, don't tell me. I wasn't that curious anyway."
Her life's ambition came down to earning enough money to live comfortably. She was close to pulling it off. Stirring up fresh trouble was the last thing she needed.
"How did you figure out it was me?"
Roswaal had named him outright, and Reinhard hadn't flagged it as a lie. So the man wasn't bluffing. Subaru asked directly.
"Thump, thump."
Roswaal tapped the Book of Wisdom. "The book told me. From the start."
"The book showed me that you have near-unlimited chances to try again. Endless possibilities."
"Though."
He looked over at Gojo.
"What caught me off guard was that a person who shouldn't exist at all appeared in the pages."
"At first I wondered if the Book of Wisdom itself had gone wrong. Or if the outsider was the one who actually held the power to change everything."
"It's happened before. Betty can confirm that."
"So in the early days, I hesitated."
"But in time, it became clear that Satoru was at most an unstable variable. Much like Reinhard."
"Then why did you send Elsa after Ram and Rem?"
Subaru couldn't fit it together. Anyone could see how fiercely loyal the sisters were to Roswaal.
"Specifically for your reaction, Subaru."
Roswaal said it lightly. The words hit like cold water.
"For... my reaction?"
Subaru stared at him, refusing to believe what he was hearing.
"You love Emilia. You'd throw everything you have into backing her dream, yes?"
"So what happens when someone gets between you and that support?"
"That's the moment where you have to choose."
His voice was measured.
"Sacrifice others if you must. Help Emilia. No matter who those others are."
"For this... you did all of that for THIS?!"
Subaru couldn't get his mind around it. Two people were supposed to die, and by the hand of the man they trusted completely, all so he could observe a reaction.
"That's right."
"Just as I would throw away anything to bring my teacher back."
Roswaal spoke like a pilgrim at the altar of his own faith.
"I hope you can reach that place as well."
"Lunatic."
"You're a deranged lunatic."
Subaru muttered it like he was meeting the man for the first time.
Taking that in, Roswaal turned his gaze to Gojo.
"Truth be told, if Satoru hadn't intervened, I might've held off on this confession a while longer."
Gojo rolled his eyes at the redirect.
"Leave me out of it. If you wanted to keep it buried, that was fine by me. No skin off my back."
"Useless. With you around, Subaru wouldn't get the forging he needs."
"Forging?"
"You're hardly qualified to use that word. If anything, you should be the one following Subaru. The future you're chasing only works if he helps you get there."
"Which is why I'm choosing to lay all this out now."
The smile on Roswaal's face was steady.
"Do Ram and Rem know any of this?"
Subaru's voice cut in out of nowhere.
"Ram knows the Book of Wisdom. She knows what I've been pursuing."
"We also share a Vow. As long as the world's course holds to the Book of Wisdom's record, Ram is bound to offer me absolute loyalty. Unconditional obedience to every order. My sword and shield."
"On the other hand, the moment the world strays from that course, the moment my plans fall apart completely, then my life, my freedom, every part of me, is hers to do with as she pleases. Whatever she decides, I accept. No resistance. No conditions."
Roswaal laid it out without flinching. To Subaru, none of it made sense.
Gojo propped his chin on his hand and offered a bit of consolation.
"Don't twist yourself up over it. You've done plenty for Emilia, haven't you? It's the same idea."
"Just think of Ram as another version of you."
"Makes it easier to parse, right?"
"..."
Subaru went quiet. He had no counter for that.
"But supporting Emilia and reviving your teacher don't even connect, do they?"
Felt's question came in from the side, genuinely puzzled.
"They do."
"According to the book, making Emilia queen is the key to bringing my teacher back."
"So..."
"Huh?"
"What you're saying and what you've been doing don't match at all."
"Don't tell me you're backing someone other than me or Emilia."
Even Reinhard's head came around at that.
Faced with a ring of eyes, Roswaal smiled.
"Miss Felt, I've yet to see even a flicker of desire for the throne in your eyes."
"Of course, if by some strange turn you did end up queen, I trust you wouldn't forget my contributions to the cause."
"I've held up my end of our arrangement all along."
Felt pursed her lips. There wasn't much to push back on. What he said happened to be true.
"So the heart of reviving Echidna is the person you back becoming queen. You picked Emilia because Subaru, the one with the 'correction' ability, would follow her to the ends of the earth. Higher odds of winning."
"And everything you've been doing is meant to keep Subaru standing firm, so that whatever hits him, he doesn't fall back. Support for Emilia locked in. Conviction hardened."
"That about right?"
Gojo had listened through the whole thing, and laid out the core in one clean sweep.
"Yes. Exactly as Satoru says."
Roswaal nodded seriously.
"Well, since we've got the truth on the table, this is easy enough to deal with."
"Nothing worth agonizing over."
"The fact that you made the choice to come clean means you know what you're doing. You understand that pushing the original plan further is wasted effort."
"So help Emilia. Help them the right way."
His eyes shifted to Subaru.
"And don't worry too much about this one. Remember the Vow he mentioned?"
"Roswaal knows his original plan is dead in the water. That's why he's making this call."
"Which means the balance between him and Ram just flipped."
Gojo gave Subaru a conspiratorial wink and waggled his brows.
"You get it? You win Ram over, and keeping him in line is a cakewalk."
Subaru blinked. Without Gojo's nudge, he would've missed the angle entirely. Anger had been doing most of his thinking for him.
Hearing it now, the pieces slid into place.
He knew how Vows worked. Short of one party dying, the bindings held.
"What if Ram doesn't listen?"
"Easy. Tell her that if she doesn't, you'll gut Roswaal."
Betty and the others had to turn their heads, mouths twitching.
That was a particularly cruel line to take.
"Gut him with what?"
Subaru gave him a flat look.
"You forgot how I described your ability to Felt?"
Subaru blinked. Then his eyes lit up.
"Now you see it? Used right, it's the same as being able to call down the Witch of Envy whenever you want, and she'll take care of anyone else you point her at."
"Right!"
"Why didn't I think of that!"
Subaru slapped his hands together, the delight impossible to hide.
For a long time now, he'd quietly tormented himself over not having the raw strength that Gojo and the others carried. One nudge from Gojo, and the whole picture cracked open.
He remembered clearly what he'd told Gojo about the consequences of using Return by Death. If Gojo hadn't been as strong as he was, the slip would've killed him.
"Of course, you'll need practice with how to actually use it."
"Not right now. Once we've wrapped this whole business up, around the time you hit a new Save Point..."
And from there the two slid into a huddled conversation, leaving everyone else in the room standing on the outside.