6
“Ahh, to be honest, this sort of thing really isn’t my cup of tea. It’s like, having people watch me with those serious looks is gonna make me blush…”
With the group of fifty sitting in a circle, Subaru stood at the center, embarrassed, as he let those words slip.
The place was the Liphas Highway; the time was before daybreak, and the participants were everyone in the expeditionary force.
The group that had persevered through the battle with the White Whale had been joined by reinforcements, the Iron Fangs under Julius’s command, making them a rather large gathering, but the time had arrived when it was necessary to share the objective and information concerning it to all.
For that purpose, Subaru had proposed to sort out all their information in one sitting, but—
“I didn’t think I’d be standing in the middle of all these people for it, though…”
Surrounded by veteran soldiers, beginning with the likes of Julius, Ferris, Ricardo, and Wilhelm, Subaru could not help flinching.
In the first place, he’d often anguished over his low interpersonal abilities since back in his old world. He was well aware that he lacked experience in standing before people like that, let alone the character to stand above others.
But even if Subaru was timid from having them look at him with a certain level of trust in their eyes, he didn’t mind it at all. It just put him in quite a bind.
“Anyway, let’s straighten this out. Ahh, from here on, we’re heading to the Mathers domain…or rather, Roswaal Manor. There, the Witch Cult will probably—no—definitely show up.”
“The Witch Cult, you say…”
When he invoked the name of the Witch Cult, conflicted emotions came over the expressions of various people. Given conversations to that point, there were surely many among them resigned to where it would lead, but even so, it was a different feeling knowing for sure who you were up against.
Though, Subaru did not know exactly what this world understood of the Witch Cult or how they would act on his information.
“As far as I’m concerned, though, they’re the worst of the worst.”
Based on everyone’s reactions, they all seemed to share that thought.
When Subaru took comfort in that, Julius addressed him casually.
“Subaru. How did you come to realize the White Whale and the Witch Cult are connected?”
Ever since Subaru aired his real feelings about their quarrel, Julius’s demeanor had softened considerably. To be frank, that transformation left him conflicted in and of itself, but at the moment, answering the question took precedence.
“Burns me to say it, but I had a run-in with disciples of the Witch Cult. I didn’t get out unscathed and I have a pile of bad memories from it…but there was one guy who ran his mouth,” Subaru explained.
“I see… It would seem the knights’ guess was not in error.”
“I suppose not, meow. The research Old Man Wil put together seemed to come to the same conclusion.”
“Wait, you knew?”
Julius accepted Subaru’s words, and Ferris nodded and concurred. Their behavior surprised Subaru, but Wilhelm gently shook his head and said, “It was mere chance that I noticed the connection. I thought it was unnatural how often the distribution of the White Whale’s appearances coincided with records of the Witch Cult’s activities—it was nothing firm enough to call concrete evidence, but…”
“To Old Man Wil, the White Whale was the main course, and the Witch Cult is like dessert, meow. Ferri wasn’t sure to believe it or not when hearing about it the first time, either…”
“There has been similar talk among the knights. Though to be precise, they were never considered anything but old wives’ tales, tales to amuse one another with.”
As Julius shrugged his shoulders, Wilhelm replied, “That is a small wonder,” and exhaled.
Listening to their exchange, Subaru roughly scratched at his head and said, “For starters, it’s lucky for me that there’s a foundation for you to believe what I’m saying. Either way, if we believe what that Witch Cult guy was saying… Er, that might not be very trustworthy, but I think it’s almost certain they’re connected to the White Whale. The Witch created the White Whale to begin with, right?”
“So it is said. The existence and origins of demon beasts are mysteries to us. Some propagate in the same manner as ordinary living creatures, but some suddenly appear out of nowhere like the White Whale. Though, properly speaking, the only exceptions on par with the White Whale are the Black Serpent and the Great Hare.”
“Feels like some words I shouldn’t just let go are flying around, but they scare me, so is it okay if I move on?”
Everyone nodded as if to say no problem. Seeing this, Subaru cleared his throat and advanced the conversation.
Now that everyone knew that they’d be facing the Witch Cult, there were things that had to be known to all.
“The Witch Cult’s target is Emilia. They intend to burn away the mansion, the nearby village, and everyone inside. That’s why we have to drive the bastards off somewhere.”
“Drive off? Subawu, you’re saying a really naive thing, meow.”
Ferris narrowed his eyes in a flirtatious manner; there was a suggestive inflection to his words as he looked at Subaru. It was a sensual gesture that sent a cold shiver up Subaru’s spine. However, it still came from a guy.
“Whaddaya mean, naive?”
“Shouldn’t you just cut down every last one of a bunch like that? Given what they’ve done until now, isn’t that the proper and just way to deal with them?”
“”
Hearing Ferris unflinchingly propose slaughtering the lot of them, Subaru’s mouth opened in surprise.
It was not the extreme statement that surprised him but the statement that he himself was naive. He, who had gone over and over in his head that they ought to die and had to be killed, was surprised at the change in his mind-set that had made him use such soft words.
That was probably because the order of what ultimately mattered most had changed inside of him.
“Right now, to protect the people in the mansion and village, that’s fine. Whether it’s driving out the Witch Cult, blowing them away, crushing them, beating them to death, twisting their heads off, turning them into mincemeat, roasting ’em, pounding ’em to little bits…”
“I…understand. I see that you’re very angry toward them, so…!”
“—Er! Darn it. No, you’re wrong. I didn’t go picking a fight out of anger and hatred. And it’s unjust to say I got close to Emilia-tan just on account of that!”
“No one said anything like that, meow!”
Subaru’s anger was gradually rekindled as he spoke, with Julius and Ferris ending up calming him down. However, he also gathered that it was unnecessary to smooth such things over. During the previous go-around, people had tended to distrust Subaru, but apparently, this time people didn’t feel even a hint of suspicion about him. That’s wrong somehow, thought Subaru, wrapping his head around it, but…
“After bringing down the White Whale at so much risk to yourself, no one’s saying anything unjust like that, meow? Subawu, you’re surprisingly untrusting of people.”
“I’m not being untrusting…”
In fact, he’d experienced Ferris and Crusch doubting him in just those words. But he hadn’t just frivolously smiled and acted to hide his misgivings from them. Perhaps that transformation, too, reflected a change in Subaru’s way of thinking and acting.
“In any event, surely there is no room to doubt that the Witch Cult is on the move. Given their faith and their past activities, it was anticipated given the fact that Lady Emilia has publicly declared herself a royal selection candidate.”
Separate from Subaru’s internal thoughts, everyone seemed to be concurring with Julius. Their knowing reaction made Subaru finally voice a question he’d neglected to ask at previous opportunities.
“I’ve wanted
to ask this for a while. How did you go from Emilia’s name going public to accepting that the Witch Cult is on the move? It’s a bit weird to me how everyone just accepted that so easily… I thought the Witch Cult was pretty much a mystery to everyone?”
“You’re saying that considering you know which way the Witch Cult is moving?”
Subaru had expected to be laughed at for his ignorance, so he paid no mind.
“Well, there’s no time, so let’s get on with it. So how’d you get there?”
“Ain’t it weird for the one not knowin’ to put it like that…? …Well, ya know to the Witch Cult that the Witch of Jealousy, Satella, is more important to them than life itself. Y’know that, right?” Ricardo said.
“More or less. To be honest, I’ve only touched on that. I read it in a picture book, that’s about it.”
“Well of course, it ain’t like there’s anyone left who’s actually seen her. I’ve only heard of ’er, too. Well, if y’know that the Witch Cult disciples worship Satella, it’s all good. So ya knew that Satella witch is a half-elf, right?”
“That, too, kinda.”
That information hadn’t been written in the picture book, but he’d heard it when Beatrice had explained the Witch of Jealousy to him. Besides that, even in the royal capital, the issue of Emilia’s appearance compared to that of the Witch of Jealousy had come up time and again.
Each time, Subaru had indignantly insisted that it was no reason to put her down, but…
“Emilia’s outside appearance is a dead ringer for the Witch, right? So back to the Witch Cult… It’s simple to them—a half-elf is in the way, y’see.”
“What?”
Subaru, beside himself, unwittingly let his voice jump out of his throat. But from the reactions of those around him, no one else thought anything special of Ricardo’s attitude. In other words, it seemed to be a shared opinion.
“Why’s that? By any normal thinking…not that I’m sure these guys think normally… But normally, why would you persecute someone who’s a half-elf, the same as your dear, precious Witch…?”
“It’s ’cause they worship her and think there ain’t nothin’ better than her, that they can’t allow someone else that’s the same kind. That she’s kind of the same but not the same—an imposter.”
The voice was exceedingly cold, infused with bloodlust down to its frigid core.
Subaru blinked hard and instantly looked toward the individual who had let that voice loose. As he did so, that individual turned to Subaru as well, and the two ended up staring eye to eye.
Subaru flinched from that gaze, as if it could see everything inside of him, when the individual said, “Well that’s the guess Ferri just wanted to try and see, meow.”
The expression easily crumbled as he stuck his tongue out, acting like the atmosphere just then had never existed.
Subaru couldn’t form the words to follow up on that virtual about-face in his demeanor, but with him so rocked back, Ferris put on an innocent look and leaned forward as he said, “In the first place, the Witch Cult guys being weird in the head isn’t a recent thing, so is it a big deal, meow? With the Cult after Lady Emilia, the real problem is who’s leading them.”
“An Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins, I reckon.”
“—?! Wait, you know that name…?”
When Ferris changed the subject, Ricardo concurred, and Subaru bit on the term that came out.
Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins—that was the position Petelgeuse had claimed to have, though he had also babbled about being charged with Sloth on top of that…
“The Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Witch Cult, are they pretty famous?”
“Well, at least enough people figure they exist. Plus, way back before the Witch of Jealousy went on her big rampage, the titles belonged to witches besides Satella.”
“Pride. Wrath. Sloth. Greed. Gluttony. Lust. Six witches bore the names of those deadly sins, it would seem. Either way, it is said that once Satella claimed the mantle of Jealousy, she swallowed all of them.”
In other words, “Witch” meant Satella, the Witch of Jealousy, and other witches of the deadly sins no longer existed within that world.
“But—and I do not know if this is the proper wording—I have heard that those in the Witch Cult acting as leaders have taken the names of those deadly sins in place of the lost witches. Satella is the symbol of Jealousy, which is what they worship. In other words, besides that, there are six—six Archbishops of Sin.”
“Six…”
Listening to Julius’s explanation, Subaru’s breath caught at how little was known of the Cult they were facing.
Since Petelgeuse had claimed to be Sloth, he’d expected that there were others charged with different deadly sins. To Subaru, they were wonderful, familiar words straight out of rich middle school subculture. That said, what stopped the term from making his heart flutter was that his first-hand impression of sloth was just too awful.
—Were there really five more people like that?
“But we brought down the White Whale that was supposedly Gluttony, so the other Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins should show their faces in the Mathers land where we’re headed. It’s our chance to take ’em all out in one shot.”
“Whoa, so stwong~! But Ferri agrees with the view that this is a chance to squish those Witch Cult weirdos. They’ve really underestimated Lugunica, huh?”
“As with the White Whale, they have inflicted damage the world over. The knights have also long suffered at their hands. Many other knights are surely as grateful as I for this opportunity.”
Ferris and Julius concurred with Subaru’s view, and Ricardo made a belligerent smile as well. Wilhelm responded with merely a solemn nod.
That being the case, what Subaru needed to do was make good use of his future information to draft a plan using the fighting strength currently on hand—though really, the plan itself was exceedingly simple, for all the necessary pieces were already on the board.
“Worst case, I’d have to pull this plan off with half the people we have now, but with Julius and them linking up, no more worries about being short on people. I think we can do this.”
“I would like to correct you about one thing. My name is Juli. Certainly, I am on close terms with the eldest son of the Juukulius family, but I would prefer you pay that heed.”
“In a nonpublic setting, that’s just in the way, you know! It’s holding back the conversation!”
“The key to not slipping up at a critical juncture is to pay heed even during normal times.”
“If you wanna warn people about normal, don’t come dressed as a Knight of the Royal Guard! You’re out of character!”
After yelling at Julius for his thin commitment to the ruse, Subaru breathed raggedly while looking at everyone’s faces. Then, he cleared his throat.
“All right, let’s start this—Witch Cult Hunting Made Simple, so that even a monkey can do it.”
With a twist of his mouth and a villainous laugh, Subaru laid out his plan.
The moonlight waned, and one could begin to see daybreak over the Liphas plains.
It was a quiet beginning to the morning of the last day of that loop.
AFTERWORD
Hey, everyone! Hi, Tappei Nagatsuki here, the Mouse-Colored Cat to some.
Thank you very much for sticking with Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- for one more volume! With the tale now reaching its seventh volume, the books are really starting to pile up. I hope that, just like my characters in the story, I have grown as an author day after day. That sounds less like growth than getting older, though…
Now then, this time I have an unusually big announcement, and thanks to give.
I believe many of you are already aware of this, but this work, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, has been slated for an anime release on television!
This, too, is thanks to all your support. Really, really, thank
you very much!
I’ve already written this in afterwords several times, but this story began as a web novel via a website known as Let’s Become Novelists!
It was over three years ago that I began my submissions, read by numerous readers, but it feels like it was only yesterday when someone approached me about putting the series into print. In reality, it was more like two years and a month ago, but really, since then, I’ve reached the point of being so busy day after day that it makes my eyes spin.
I am exceedingly grateful for being blessed enough to reach seven regular volumes and two side-story compilations. Along the way, the possibility of adapting it into an anime came up, and now that I can report that to everyone, my happiness and my gratitude know no bounds.
Truly, thank you very much.
Mind you, turning it into an anime wasn’t the end goal—the work still has a long way to go.
With the work half-finished, it’s still midway through the stories of the characters and through my growth as an author, so I can’t stop now. As before, I’ll be striving at full throttle, and I will be very pleased if all of you who have read this far continue running along with me.
Thanks to the anime release, even more people will know about the work, making me want to keep up the good work writing interesting stories, so best regards going forward!
Now then, all that fervor won’t fill out this space, so here come the other thank-yous.
First, Mr. I the editor. Without your cooperation, Mr. I, Re:ZERO would never have begun to go into print, let alone reach where it is today. Truly, thank you for giving me the gift that is Re:ZERO.
Otsuka-sensei the illustrator. Otsuka-sensei, it is because you give these characters the greatest shape and color that their charm may shine. Thank you very much for yet another incredibly impactful cover illustration! I can’t help being glad that the characters you have drawn will soon go into motion!
Kusano-sensei the designer, you have been exceedingly helpful. Thank you not only for the cover and logo but for many other places related to Re:ZERO’s publication! For future help as well, many, many thanks!
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 7 Page 22
