Now, the same thing had happened again. Yet, even in spite of that—
“I’m the only one…who remembers…”
In a daze, Subaru voiced the undeniable fact.
Just like in the last go-around, when Subaru never forgot the erased merchant or Rem, sacrificing herself so that Subaru could escape, he alone remembered.
Two of the squad leaders gathered under Crusch…had become different people.
Bathed by the annihilating mist, the original squad leaders had been erased. Everyone accepted the next in line as the squad leaders in their place, with no one noticing the sudden change in rank.
Faced with that abnormality, Subaru knew that the Witch and the White Whale really were cut from the same cloth.
Subaru Natsuki continuing to remember the things everyone else had forgotten—surely this was not unrelated to Return by Death, a trait possessed by Subaru alone.
Crusch looked over the faces of the expeditionary force and cut the conversation short.
“Now that it has submerged into the mist, we cannot know from whence it attacks. Crowding together is a poor plan—we shall disperse, and employ mana repulsion crystals.”
Seeing everyone nod at the order in his peripheral vision, Subaru’s eyes widened when he realized he didn’t see Wilhelm or Ricardo among them. Surely even those two were not erased by the mist…?
“So you have returned, Wilhelm.”
But Subaru’s nervousness was belied by a figure’s timely return from the mist.
Having sliced through the dense fog, the Sword Devil seemed ghastly, his entire body bathed in blood. Wilhelm wiped off his blood-sullied swords, tersely smearing the blood from his cheeks as an afterthought.
“I ran too far ahead—our losses?” Wilhelm asked.
“A total of twenty-one… Essentially one squad was annihilated. We can no longer hope even to properly honor the memory of the fallen.”
Being erased by the mist literally meant one’s existence was wiped clean. With no traces left of them, even in people’s memories, there was a complete blank where they had once existed in the world.
Subaru wondered if the bonds and feelings, even love, that had been so certain until then, vanished someplace.
When he looked closer, Subaru saw a pack of ligers behind Wilhelm, and among them were Ricardo, straddling his extra-large liger, and the two lieutenants. Apparently, just like Wilhelm, those fighting right up against the White Whale had endured minimal damage.
“The mist comin’ out makes this rough. Mana repulsion crystals are scarce, and we’ve less than I’d like… If we use ’em in the wrong place, we’re done.”
“If we strike it with one more concentrated attack, it shall surely fall to the ground. Having lost sight of it, this is the right time to employ them, averting a surprise attack among other things. Objections?”
When everyone endorsed Crusch’s judgment, her gaze turned to the support unit under Ferris’s command.
“Ferris, launch anti-magic crystals from the magic crystal cannons. Twice only. We must employ them with care.”
“Preparations are already complete~. Anytime, at your command.”
When Ferris tapped his chest, Crusch drew in her chin, looking over everyone before the battle recommenced.
“From here on is the real battle! The response remaining in your own hands shall prove that our attacks are effective upon the White Whale! Certainly, our opponent is mighty and unfathomable. Worst case, there may be none who shall remember our deaths. However!”
Crusch, able to launch cutting blows with her bare hand, drew from her hip the treasured sword of the House of Karsten—a sword no doubt long bereft of use—and raised it to the sky, declaring in a loud voice:
“For the sake of the dead with no name left on their tombstones, for the sake of the weak who would be menaced by the mist in the world ahead, we shall slay it, whatever it takes! —Come with me!!”
Every manner of weapon was raised to the sky, everyone shouting in exultation as one.
The mist shuddered from the incredible surge of morale, ferociously setting their dampened fighting spirit alight.
“Launch the anti-magic crystal!!”
At Crusch’s order, the individuals under Ferris’s command fired magic crystal cannons in a salvo—the next moment, with a great roar, the magic crystals soared high into the misty sky when…
“The mist…is clearing—!”
…the glow of the magic crystals shattering in the heavens erased the white mist obstructing their sight all at once.
Properly speaking, all the mist covering the four corners of the plains had not been swept away. In the end, all that had changed was the density of the mist, which had thinned so that it was no longer difficult to maintain a clear view.
But one could call even that result sufficient.
—The White Whale’s mist was apparently a calamity wrought from the vast mana it possessed. In other words, the White Whale scattered its mana in the direction of its choosing, and this became the mist visible to others.
The anti-magic crystals—by rights, crystals with the effect of forcing the mana in an area back into a colorless state, thus neutralizing it—had used their power to nullify the mana of the mist, blowing it away.
It was a dangerous gamble, for if the anti-magic crystals worked too well, it would also diminish the strength of their own magic attacks, but it seemed there was no need for concern so long as they could see remnants of the mist.
“Not enough to clear away all the mist, huh?”
“In turn, there is no effect on our own magic. I, too, am in peak condition.”
Rem gave a little nod, but it was the glow of the horn on her forehead that offered the real answer. The fact that it sensed mana swirling around the area and had begun building Rem’s magical energy once more was the proof.
“—All right! I can’t get cold feet now. I’ve come too far to be useless now. It’s time for us to take the stage!”
“Yes! Let us go!”
Rem handled the land dragon’s reins, and its neigh matched the bounce of Subaru’s rump. He grabbed hold of Rem’s hips atop the dashing land dragon, searching for sight of the White Whale in the thin mist above their heads.
With Crusch at the head, the expeditionary force set out as well, dispersing as its various parts searched for the White Whale. With the battle resuming at possibly any moment, Subaru felt the tension drying his throat out in a hurry.
No one saw the White Whale come out yet. It felt like before the start of the battle, when they waited for the White Whale to appear in the night sky, when…
“—Mist.”
Suddenly, a bad premonition popped up in the back of Subaru’s mind.
He had no special kind of proof of it.
They were still able to use magic within the effect of the anti-magic crystals. When he remembered the various things spoken before the operation, and his experience meeting the White Whale on the previous go-around, that anxiety suddenly bubbled to the surface.
There were remnants of widely scattered mist in the atmosphere.
The White Whale had expanded its own turf and obstructed their fields of vision, the oldest trick in the Demon Beast of Mist’s book. That was all the prior information he had, but could he really say that it was the only reason he was afraid?
But before the doubt in his head could take form…
“!!”
…the squeaking chorus that echoed across the slightly misty Liphas Highway came quicker.
“What the hell was that?!”
The high-pitched echo was like a woman’s shriek, instilling a sense of disgust that made Subaru want to cover his ears. It was both roar and laughter, yet repulsive on a whole other level, traversing the mist to mock them across the plains.
“Just now…!”
Subaru tried to put the question into words when he noticed it—that the mist coiled around his entire body seemed to melt into him, as if trying
to permeate his flesh.
And then—
“Aaa, aaa, aaa—?!”
The first shift came in the mounted dragon unit running alongside.
Subaru’s shoulders jumped at the strange voices, sounding nothing like ones coming from sane human beings. Guessing that something had changed, he looked over to see cavalrymen racing beside him, tumbling from their land dragons one after another.
“Hey! What’s wrong?!”
Following the shouting Subaru’s intentions, his own land dragon did a U-turn and headed toward them. He passed between the land dragons, confused by the loss of their riders, and called out to the tumbled men.
“You all right?! Falling from a horse can get you hurt pretty b…”
Subaru, concerned about such injuries, unwittingly let his voice die off midway. Having fallen from their land dragons, the knights were writhing around—but their state was far more precarious than mere physical wounds.
“Uu, uu, uu, aa—”
The strange voices they raised were not like those of human beings; they were closer to the noises of beasts.
One man was frothing at the mouth, convulsing on the ground with his eyes rolled up. Another man let out a moan as he desperately scratched at his own arms. Yet another clenched down on his molars until they broke, pounding his head against the ground.
There was no single set of symptoms, but even so, he knew: It was madness, using the mist as a medium to spread.
“This is…”
“The voice just now directly affected their minds through the mist… It is like mana poisoning, but this is terrible…!”
With Subaru restraining his voice, Rem put a hand to her forehead, making an anguished face as she replied.
“Mana poisoning…? So this really isn’t normal mist after all?!”
Judging from Rem’s state and the feel of the mist coiled around his body, Subaru realized that this was the real function of the mist.
The wide-area mist was an unavoidable trap inflicting abnormal status on the beings within its broad reach. The vastness of the effect, and the damage it inflicted, was in plain sight.
Subaru didn’t think the effects of the mist were limited to the squads around him and Rem, either. In fact, even as far as his eyes could see, he saw multiple squads stopped in their tracks, trying to deal with the abnormal state of their allies.
“So some people are resistant to the mist, and some aren’t…? I don’t feel a thing…!”
“I only feel a little from…my head… I am calm…now.”
Breathing deeply several times, Rem touched the horn on her forehead as she calmed herself.
In the meantime, Subaru dropped from his land dragon, rushing to stop those attempting to hurt themselves.
“Hey, cut that out! Your wounds’ll… Whoa!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Stay baaaaack!”
One of the confused men slapped his arm aside, scratching his arm without mercy. When the sharp pain sent Subaru into retreat, the man resumed his self-harming behavior, scraping his face enough that it began to bleed.
“That hurt, but ain’t this pretty bad? They might not stop till they’re dead!”
“Subaru! You’re hurt?!”
“It hurts and I feel like cryin’ a little, but it’s nothin’! More importantly, everyone’ll tear themselves apart if we don’t do something! Isn’t there anything we can do?”
As Rem rushed over, she had a grim look on her face as she shook her head to his reply.
“Unfortunately, I do not know how much effect my healing magic would have. This is not simply interfering with the body but the Odo directly through their gates. Only Master Ferris can deal with such powerful mana contamination…”
“In the first place, how long can he hold up against mental contamination? Besides the two of us, we’re pretty much wiped out here!”
The squad running alongside Subaru and Rem was virtually routed—and the few unharmed souls were trying to stop their comrades from hurting themselves like Subaru had.
“If Ferris gets contaminated, we’re totally done for. What do we do…?”
This was only as far as Subaru could see. He could only despair that it was like that everywhere else, too.
Along with Crusch and Wilhelm, if Ferris, their pillar of support, were to fall, that would be it for them. It would be difficult to even maintain the fight at all.
“Everyone who can move, get the wounded to the Great Tree! Use whatever force you have to!”
But he heard Crusch’s voice from the other side of the mist. A series of voices responded, and apparently, Crusch had escaped the effect of the mist. She was conveying how they would deal with that same menace.
Immediately after ordering the entire force to attack, she was instantly changing policies. Crusch’s voice was chagrined, and Subaru, too, felt anger as he vented abuse at the White Whale.
“Strength-wise, fighting with people wounded is tougher than fighting with the dead, but do monsters even think to do that…?!”
“It seems Master Felix is safe. With him going around healing, the effects of the contamination should at least be diminished, but…”
Rem hesitated, but Subaru knew what she was trying to say.
With this much damage sustained, Ferris would have his hands completely full. With manpower split to gather the wounded, that made their fighting strength that much less. And more importantly—
“There’s not enough time. We can’t just be defenseless like this till Ferris heals everyone.”
“Worst case, with the expeditionary force grouped up together like this, the White Whale’s mist could swallow it whole. I do not wish to think it is that intelligent, but…given it has created this situation, that is optimistic.”
“It’s possible it’s doing all this out of instinct, but…no, we can’t underestimate it either way.”
Resigning herself to the danger, Crusch meant to entrust the wounded expeditionary force members to Ferris. Naturally, it was necessary to do something to buy time so that the White Whale did not approach the wounded.
They needed to tender an attractive piece of bait to distract it from thoroughly pounding its enemy.
“—Whew.”
Deeply breathing out, Subaru emptied his lungs.
Wringing oxygen out of his body to his limit, he naturally felt stifled inside his chest—his heartbeats slowed, and he knew that its rhythm was growing surer.
Subaru spontaneously made a strained smile at how unexpectedly calm he was.
He’d always been swept around by circumstances, toyed with by the events before his eyes, and Subaru’s heart had reflected his emotions, running wild over and over.
So why was it he was so calm, then, on the precipice of his decision?
“…Borrowed or not, courage is courage, I guess?”
Subaru thumped his chest and breathed in deeply. He paused once, closed his eyes, and then breathed out and opened his eyes. He turned forward. Before Subaru, Rem, riding the land dragon, was looking down at him.
What was Subaru going to say? What did he desire? That was what she was waiting to hear.
“Rem, stick with me through the most dangerous part.”
“Yes—no matter where it may lead.”
Without hesitation, Rem accepted Subaru’s request, a smile appearing on her face.
With that accepted, Subaru ran over to the land dragon. Rem lent her hand, and he virtually flew onto the land dragon’s back, straddling it as he headed toward the knights restraining their comrades struggling on the ground.
“Rem and I will draw off the White Whale! In the meantime, get them treatment from Ferris. After you hand them to Ferris, anyone who seems all right, hook up with Crusch!”
“Draw them off?! How in the world will you…?”
“Like this.”
Subaru smiled at the aged soldier raising a voice of doubt, drawing his breath and clearing his throat, then announced, “—Everyone who can hear this, co
ver your ears!! And if you can’t, stay right there!!”
Subaru’s full-force voice echoed across the misty plain.
Rem listened comfortably to Subaru’s loud voice, and then touched her hands to her ears. The nearby knights also rushed to cover their ears; other expeditionary force members within earshot had surely done the same—just as Subaru had asked of them at the briefing before the operation.
And then, Subaru willingly invoked the taboo—
“I’ve Returned by Death—”
The instant he spoke it, Subaru’s heart was wrenched by a rising fear—that, in spite of his intentions, those black hands would stretch toward his comrades, toward Rem.
But he forced that fear down, raising his voice so that the Witch might hear.
—You can have my heart, so gimme a hand here!!
Subaru opened his eyes wide, suppressed his weakness, and shouted in his heart—and a moment later, it came to visit.
“I love you.”
It was a frail, delicate voice that seemed to whisper into his ears.
However, what was the ardor infused within that made his breast tremble?
Unwittingly, tears welled in the corners of his eyes, and Subaru’s breath caught as he was struck by the urge to chase after the receding voice to embrace the speaker that very moment.
His entire body was governed by the heat of love, burning white-hot in his mind—
“…I’m back.”
After a brief sojourn, Subaru’s mind woke to reality.
The fervor that had ruled Subaru until the moment before grew distant, and he became unable to remember the deep feelings he’d had until then. But he did feel unease at the fierce pain he’d supposedly resigned himself to having miraculously failed to arrive. Yet, even so…
“Rem, how is it? The Witch’s scent on me…”
“You stink!”
“That was the idea, but isn’t that a bit harsh?!”
Though not thrilled to receive a black mark from Rem, he’d accomplished his objective.
His body shrouded in the Witch’s miasma, Subaru looked back and raised his voice to the knights all around.
“Get away from us right now! Get as close to the big tree as you can and link up with Crusch as best as you can manage!”
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 7 Page 11
