“Mm? Ahh, okay! I’m happy and super thrilled you’re all right, Mister Half-Bawling-My-Eyes-Out!”
When Subaru bounced the conversation Mimi’s way, she divulged the circumstances of Otto’s rescue. After Mimi voiced that truth, she cocked her head and said, “Isn’t that right?” as Otto collapsed then and there.
“Ahh, it’s no wonder you half bawled your eyes out. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. This is between you, me, Mimi, Ricardo, and after that, the Iron Fangs and everyone in the expeditionary force…”
“Does that not make it an open secret…?”
“Anyway, there’s no worry about the Witch Cult attacking this village, so you can cool your heels here. Also, my condolences over half bawling your eyes out, and my condolences about the moneymaking talk, too.”
“Your condolences…? Surely you cannot mean…?!”
Otto looked around the village in shock, looking like his world had come to an end.
“Do not tell me that everyone has already been…”
“The fact that you’re alive after being captured by the Witch Cult means you’ve been blessed by heaven… Er, no, the fact that you got captured to begin with means heaven has abandoned you. Well, live strong!”
“If you are going to console me, won’t you look after me till the bitter end?!”
With Otto breaking into tears, Subaru gave him a pat on the shoulder and looked at Ricardo. As he did so, the dog-man wrinkled his snout and tilted his head up. Apparently, even his veteran mercenary’s eyes judged Otto to be an utterly harmless object of pity. Subaru thought of that as the silver lining in the cloud.
“So from here on, this’ll be the front line against the Witch Cult. We’ve got a lot to do…but I can’t think of anything you can do to help with that. Maybe you could sort out the list of the freight the other traveling merchants left behind?”
“Will you pay me a fee for that?!”
“Man, even I’m surprised. You’re even more desperate than I thought. Yeah, yeah, I’ll pay. Someone here tag along with Otto?”
With suspicions about him lifted, Subaru gave Otto a job to do and moved that concern to the back of the line for the moment. Instead, Subaru headed to the expeditionary force, just finished reorganizing its ranks with Julius at its head.
“You reunited with a familiar face, yes? Is that really enough warmth toward an old acquaintance?”
Julius, noticing Subaru’s approach, turned toward him before he could say anything. Subaru grimaced at his words, pointing over his shoulder toward Otto, now standing facing the pile of freight.
“Behind the stupid laughs and the stupid conversation, I was suspecting he was up to something the whole time. My personality’s gotten so rotten I’m starting to hate myself.”
“Thanks to that rotten personality, we have come this far unscathed. I believe you should take pride in that rotten personality—though perhaps you should not express it in those exact terms.”
“Your personality is pretty rotten, too. I guarantee it.”
“Yes, yes, have you two rotten personalities finished speaking yet?”
The exchange between Subaru and Julius made Ferris cock his little head and smile mischievously. In a vengeful mood, Subaru grandly curled his lips and spoke.
“What is it, rotten personality kitty ears?”
“My, what a way to speak to me, meow. And Ferri tries and tries his hawdest for everyone’s sake, meow!”
“And your earnest efforts have always been of great aid. So what have you learned?”
“Mm. I’ve managed to learn a few things about the fingers from the captured Witch Cultists.”
When Julius prompted, Ferris’s smile vanished as he pointed to a cabin they’d commandeered.
Ferris must have been directly checking inside the body of Kety, the captured Witch Cultist held within.
During the previous go-around, Ferris had suffered repeated anguish from being unable to stop the Witch Cultists from committing suicide. For that reason Subaru had been somewhat anxious about the examination of Kety’s body, but—
“First, the cultists seem to have a magic stone embedded into them that turns into powerful poison for suicide purposes. But the fingers seem to get special treatment… Instead of poison, there’s an explosion ritual embedded into them, so that when they kill themselves, they take everyone nearby with them.”
“Sounds like it’s not so much meant for stopping information from leaking out as for the archbishop’s Possession, huh? If he needs to die so he can body swap, it’s a given he’d counter being knocked out and tied up by killing himself.”
“For suicide… But surely it is likely a method of external activation exists. What about that case?”
“I was worried about that, too, so I nullified the ritual and ripped the whole thing out~~!”
Ferris had a simple answer to Julius’s concern. But judging from Julius’s wide-eyed reaction, that had been no easy feat. Ferris continued. “Also, about the characteristics of the fingers that Subawu was so concerned about… It’s not so much stagnant Gates as having weird clumps of mana. I think the presence or absence of this sets the fingers apart from the regular cultists, and that the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins can only transfer into the ones with this planted in them.”
“So the condition for Possession is the difference between the general members and the premium members of the club. What happened to that clump of mana?”
“I melted it and scrambled it all up. So we can’t really call him a finger anymore.”
“You managed all that?! That’s huge!”
Subaru, his voice leaping at Ferris’s report, grabbed his slender hand and vigorously shook it up and down. He had nothing but praise for Ferris’s skill in checking so much in such a short time.
“Meow meow!! Well, it’s what you should expect of Ferri, meow? But it’s also thanks to your figuring out that the fingers committed suicide a different way, Subawu.”
“No, all the credit for this goes to you. You would’ve had a ton of regrets if it didn’t work out…”
“What the…? Ferri would never regret anything where people like that are concerned!”
Ferris stuck his tongue out and pried his hand loose from Subaru’s shake. Subaru made a pained smile at Ferris’s teasing demeanor. Ferris would never know it, but Subaru was congratulating him for winning the rematch from the last time around.
Besides, thanks to Ferris’s valiant efforts, he’d largely managed to piece together a hypothesis.
“Besides, if you neutralized the conditions for Possession, that prisoner won’t die, right?”
“However vile his tongue, the Gate inside his body has been set straight… We should bring him back to the royal capital and treat him as a precious source of information. He fainted from the pain of pulling the ritual out, and he’s still out cold~~!”
Ferris closed one eye and guaranteed that Kety’s life was safe, if nothing else. Subaru couldn’t conceive of the pain of having the ritual ripped out of him. And then—
“We’ve finally managed to take a single proper prisoner. There’s no need to take more risks. You see what I’m getting at?”
“What, you think at this point I’m gonna go soft weighing those guys against the people important to me…?”
When Ferris’s eyes questioned his resolve, Subaru nodded to them without showing even a moment’s pause.
To bring down the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins of Sloth, the Witch Cultists had to be wiped out, fingers included. That meant a literal battle of annihilation.
And it was none other than Subaru Natsuki who would sound the signal for that battle to begin.
“…Hmm. You really have straightened yourself out, Subawu.”
As Subaru clenched a fist, Ferris narrowed his eyes, murmuring as he gazed at the side of Subaru’s face. The contents of that murmur brought a pained smile over Subaru as he slumped his shoulders.
“Hey, now, don’t put it like that. It doesn�
��t sound like much of a compliment.”
“I’m not complimenting you. You’ve gone from bad to normal. Don’t get carried away with yourself, meow.”
With an adorable face, Ferris laid into Subaru until the bitter end.
He’d probably been the person to judge Subaru the most harshly of all since they’d departed the royal capital. That was probably because they both lacked the power to do battle by themselves—those who can’t fight alone are stuck together, for better or worse.
While Ferris’s appraisal of Subaru’s weakness was harsh, it was fair at the same time, and Subaru hated that.
“Don’t like that, huh? Right now, you’ve climbed up to normal. Understand?”
“Normal, huh? Gotcha. But it makes me kinda glad.”
“—People don’t want to have their beliefs twisted out of shape, you see. Subawu, you must not hesitate or go astray. So don’t let anything shake your resolve.”
Ferris responded to Subaru’s lighthearted words with a statement in a firm voice. It thrust deep into Subaru’s slightly relaxed chest, driving home just what was the source of his so-called resolve.
No, Ferris didn’t have to say it. It was something he had to realize and face by himself.
“Preparations are completely in order— Subaru, we may begin anytime.”
Having put the expeditionary force in order, Julius addressed Subaru to create an opportunity for him. It was not just he—everyone from the ranks of the expeditionary force and the Iron Fangs awaited Subaru’s voice as one.
Their morale was high before the climactic battle, their spirits beginning to soar above the battlefield centered upon the village square.
“—”
Subaru felt that fighting spirit as he slightly tipped his head back, looking up at the sky.
He couldn’t remove all uncertain elements. Even so, he’d sent Emilia and the others off, entrusting them to Wilhelm, and thanks to Ferris, they’d grasped the true nature of the fingers. Julius was awaiting his signal.
He’d done his utmost to put human affairs in order. All he could do now was smile, reel it all in, and await the verdict of heaven.
“—Let’s do this. Everyone, start just like we arranged.”
He lowered his gaze from the sky, turning it straight toward the members of the expeditionary force standing before him. At his urging, the warriors mounted their beasts of war without a word, acting in accordance with Subaru’s words.
“”
“Yeah. Thanks, Patlash.”
The jet-black land dragon had been standing close to Subaru’s side the whole time, eagerly awaiting her turn. Subaru stroked her hard hide with his palm before mounting up like the others.
Julius’s and Ricardo’s mounts were to their sides, sandwiching Subaru between them. Ferris, left on the ground by himself, nodded to Subaru with a serious look as Subaru took his place in the vanguard.
Then he heralded the start of the final battle.
“Now, this time we’ll settle this— Sloth, Sir Fate, I ain’t goin’ easy on ya.”
3
Subaru had inferred several things about Petelgeuse’s Possession.
First, it was the power to shift into the bodies of others, stealing them for himself.
Second, Petelgeuse’s so-called fingers were retainers for him to transfer into, so as a precondition of defeating Petelgeuse, all the fingers had to be destroyed.
Third, if Petelgeuse lost all his fingers, he would transfer to a different body instead. Subaru’s body was the leading candidate.
The parasite of the mind was so powerful, it was virtually impossible to resist by one’s own devices— The end.
“Now that I’m writing these down, this is like, kills-you-as-soon-as-he-sees-you-level stuff. Plus he even has Unseen Hands, so you can’t just laugh and say, ‘Nah, nothing’s that evil.’”
The Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins had two powers. Subaru was confident that if you didn’t know them, you could challenge him a hundred times and be killed every time.
In the course of repeating while keeping his memory, searching over and over for a plan to beat him, Subaru finally saw with clarity the fearsomeness of his foe. Small wonder the Witch Cult had had such influence on the world over the course of four centuries.
Such was the scale of Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti, the madman specializing in killing at first sight.
“Well, that’s what I’m here for.”
The best thing for taking on a kill-at-first-sight enemy was someone for whom it wasn’t first sight.
Thus it was Subaru Natsuki, he who had Returned by Death, who was Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti’s mortal foe.
Once again, Subaru cut through the gloomy forest of overgrown trees as his feet carried him to the wall of rock.
Green covered the landscape at every turn, a world where even directional sense seemed suspect. However, Subaru’s steps were certain. His senses, his feet, the experiences carved into his memory—all these things guided Subaru forward.
“Let’s get this show on the road.”
Smiling bitterly at the quickening of his heartbeats, Subaru murmured thus as he gave his chest two light slaps. Then he headed forward. The place had come into view.
Until that moment, Subaru had never approached that place with the resolve to fight in his heart. The last time around, he’d been buying time as a decoy; before that he’d been drowning in the bloodlust of others and the yearning for suicide.
But this time was different. At minimum, this time was different from the others.
Subaru had come to that place with the resolve to fight hardened in his heart, all so he could bring a long, long string of karma, a battle repeated over and over, to a final end.
“—It is good that you have come, disciple of love.”
Subaru shuddered with joy when suddenly the forest opened and he was greeted with warm words of welcome.
When he slipped out of the woods, a sheer cliff spread straight ahead of him, rising high into his field of vision. A slender man was standing in front of the rock face with both arms spread wide. His eyes welcomed Subaru with a fiery glow.
Was it now four times he had been greeted by this sight?
No matter who it was, when you saw someone’s face repeatedly, you let the person into your heart to a certain extent—but it seemed that was impossible so far as this man was concerned.
“I AM the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Witch Cult charged with Sloth—”
The madman stretched out his hand, bloodied from self-inflicted wounds, as his trademark line lit the spark. With his eyes drenched in madness, the man arched back, stuck out his tongue, snapping his eyes wide as he said—
“—Petelgeuse…Romanée-CONTI!!”
With a flutter of his black habit, the madman loudly proclaimed his name with a clap of his bloody hands. Petelgeuse proceeded to stamp the ground, breaking into a happy little dance as he laughed with delight.
“It is A fine day, A splendid day! To think that this day, the day of the trial, I would BE greeting a new adherent of love! I AM moved, greatly moved, moved to tears, my chest is on the verge of bursting!!”
The madman let spittle fly as he embraced his own body of skin and bones. Subaru harbored disgust for his eccentricities, but he was accustomed enough to smooth over his facial expressions in the man’s presence.
On top of that, Subaru executed the operation just as agreed upon beforehand. Namely—
“Lord Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins! It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time!”
These words spoken, Subaru rushed over and knelt at the madman’s feet. He touched his left hand to his chest, raising his right aloft as he bowed his head with utmost respect and spoke.
“I am truly embarrassed to have made it to you on the very eve of this trial! Lord Archbishop, by all means, please use this body, this soul, to fill any vacancy among the faithful, and add me to your fingers with all haste!”
T
hus, with an excess of bombast, did Subaru speak bald-faced lies. He proclaimed his prepared lines with a high-pitched voice, infused his face with maximum reverence that went only skin deep, and silently awaited the madman’s reaction.
“”
Petelgeuse made no response to Subaru’s earnest plea. He said nothing. He did not move. The disquieting silence made Subaru swallow his saliva as he increased his caution and alertness concerning Petelgeuse’s next move.
The silence continued for about ten more seconds before it was abruptly broken by—
“OOOH! Such, such fervent zeal from the very first meeting?!”
Petelgeuse gazed up, extending both hands to the heavens. His voice and his entire body were shaking; he had been moved to tears.
“What a disciple love has called! In all my time cursed as Sloth, I cannot recall one with such clear eyes! YOU! YOU, a pious adherent of love! How unworthy I must be to have overlooked you all this time! I ASK you to forgive my slothfulness—!”
Petelgeuse cast his limbs aside as he practically leaped onto the ground in front of the fragile-hearted Subaru. Without hesitation the madman prostrated himself on the rocky ground, banging his head against the surface several times. The merciless self-punishment made his forehead bleed, but he had such a great tendency to inflict self-harm that he probably did this much every day before breakfast.
Now that Subaru knew it was someone else’s body, the disgust he felt when seeing Petelgeuse act that way was stronger than ever before.
Either way, it would not do for him to self-punish to the point of dying. Behind the scenes, the operation was quietly proceeding—messing up by letting Petelgeuse switch bodies would waste everything.
“Please stop, Lord Archbishop! Such actions bring no joy to the Witch Cult!”
“Ahh, but! Butbutbutbutbuuuuut! My very own sloth! My sin! The ugly fact ONE such as I have not repaid Her love! I possess no other way to REPENT!!”
“That is not so! The Witch Cult would rather its cherished followers repay her favor than see them hurt themselves! It is the will to carry out the trial that will surely bring it joy!”
Petelgeuse was continuing to thrust his head against the ground when Subaru used rambling speech to stop him. But suddenly the words brought Petelgeuse to a halt; he stared at Subaru, eyes wide open. With those parched eyes upon him, Subaru strongly nodded, not that it meant anything to special to Subaru.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 9 Page 10
