Ever relaxed, Al sat on the stairs leading up to the door. As he did so, he drew his curved broadsword from his back-of-the-hip sheath and laid it over his lap.
“She’s not in that bad a mood, is she? I don’t wanna get sliced to ribbons, and I’m tired of dealing with her when she’s unreasonable and in a temper.”
“…Sorry, but she’s dumped a lot of her unreasonable demands on me, too.”
After Al gave his petition a blunt reply, Subaru took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
4
—And so, we return to the beginning of Subaru’s standoff with Priscilla.
After he entered, Subaru spotted Priscilla waiting for him at the far end. She sat in a chair positioned above some stairs, elegantly continuing to read, not acknowledging Subaru at all.
Without an opening line to get things started, Subaru’s bewilderment and nervousness only grew as time steadily pressed onward. That’s why when the sound of Priscilla’s book suddenly closing shut reverberated through the room, Subaru’s shoulders jumped in surprise.
“—Now, then.”
Subaru gritted his teeth a little, feeling like his weakness had been blatantly exposed. Priscilla, not looking like she cared one bit, stroked the cover of the closed volume as she made her remarks.
“’Twas a boring tale.”
“…You sure looked like you were into it, though.”
“When reading any book, it is proper to become immersed in the world between the pages and be able to state what was gained after finishing a tale. Only a fool would declare something boring without completing it.”
It seemed she was as avid a reader as the claims said. After declaring the foolishness of appraising unfinished books, Priscilla took the volume she had read in full and tossed it into the air without warning.
“—Ahh.”
Subaru watched, lost in bewilderment, as the soaring tome suddenly burst into flames. Scorched by the incredibly powerful fire, only black ashes remained dancing in the air.
“Now then, this is robbing me of my precious morning reading time. At the very least, have you brought me a tale to pique my interest more than that book?”
With a devious, crafty smile, Priscilla recrossed her lithe legs and pointed a white finger at Subaru. He felt as if the heat of her fingertip were pressing against his forehead when he willed his parched tongue to move.
“—It’s about Emilia, a royal selection candidate, same as you. I want you to lend me your strength so I can break her out of a tricky situation she’s in right now.”
“—”
Closing a single eye, Priscilla silently prodded Subaru to continue. Under her red gaze, completely unmoved, Subaru earnestly concentrated on the words he’d rehearsed.
And so, he laid out everything over the course of several minutes before reaching his conclusion.
“The Witch Cult…is it? …Hmph.”
Propping herself up on her elbow, Priscilla supported her head with her hand as her other hand slapped her knee. Having listened to the very end of the modified version of what he’d said at the Crusch mansion, she had murmured to herself with some deep-seated emotion before she closed her eyes.
“Yes, the Witch Cult. If no one does anything, they’re going to hurt an awful lot of people. Emilia won’t be the only casualty. I want to take them down before that happens. That’s why I need—”
“Hee-hee. Heh.”
“—?”
Abruptly, Priscilla leaned forward, her shoulders slightly trembling. Subaru’s brows rose at the small sound from her mouth, and Priscilla’s head snapped up.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! Amusing! You are very amusing. I see, you’ve certainly swayed my heart more than that book. You must be incredibly talented to come up with a farce like this!”
Priscilla laughed and laughed, mocking Subaru. It was the howl of a fiendish, carnivorous beast. He instinctively understood that this was the kind of smile that a cat might wear while tormenting a mouse to death with its claw.
“…! What’s so funny?”
“That you do not understand makes it a true masterpiece. Tell me, do you actually fail to comprehend just how illogical your actions have been?”
Priscilla ran a finger through her orange hair, twirling it around as she giggled in amusement. Subaru remembered this manner of speaking, proclaiming the speaker had seen right through him. It was the same tone that Subaru had heard a number of times at the Crusch mansion. It was saying, You just don’t understand.
“I do not know if you simply have no one to rely upon, but going around informing the opposition of your own side’s weakness serves only your enemies’ interests. For us, seeing you lower your head and say, ‘We’re too weak and desperate, please help us,’ is a matter for celebration.”
Priscilla tapped her temple with a finger as she ridiculed Subaru’s desperate plea.
He’d considered the possibility that she would brush him off. But he hadn’t expected she would tear into him like this.
“Not caring about appearances is fine, but you have considered this too little—far too little. Aiding the enemy to help your own camp when it falls into crisis… Your behavior is that of a talentless employee. You are hopeless. Death would be far preferable.”
Priscilla rose from her chair while hurling insults without restraint, going down the stairs until arriving right in front of Subaru.
“Indeed—’twould be better if I severed your head myself.”
The next instant, Priscilla pulled a fan out from her cleavage, resting it upon the carotid artery on the right side of Subaru’s neck. He had seen neither her step nor the swing of her arm; only a master could pull off this move.
Even though the fan was not a bladed weapon, Subaru felt like it could lop off his head the instant it moved.
“You couldn’t even see it?”
Priscilla moved aside her fan, speaking as if Subaru’s unwitting gulp bored her.
“Not just foolish but slow as well. There’s no saving you… Though, to bear with such terrible treatment and still be thinking of your master—I admit such devotion is admirable. And so…”
Priscilla narrowed her eyes, audibly opening her fan and using it like a red curtain to conceal her own lips.
“Even I would have a bad taste in my mouth if I dismissed you with nothing but a laugh. Thus, I shall grant you an opportunity.”
“…A-an opportunity?”
“Yes, an opportunity. ‘This is your big shot,’ in other words.”
Priscilla’s pronunciation of the modern phrase was strange; perhaps she’d learned it from Al. Priscilla folded her fan once more and extended it toward Subaru. For some reason, Subaru could not evade its straight, silent motion as the end of the fan pressed into his forehead, sending him tumbling onto his backside. Then…
“Lick it.”
Priscilla offered her bare foot before his eyes.
“—”
Not understanding what she meant, Subaru felt his gaze wander between Priscilla’s face and leg.
With Subaru seemingly lost, Priscilla spoke to him gently, as if explaining for the benefit of a poor student—or to torment her slave.
“Crawl across the floor, ruminate on your humiliation like a pathetic wild stray, and lick my foot like a babe suckling its mother’s teat. If you can do this, I shall consider your proposal.”
“Wha—?!”
“If you don’t want to, that’s perfectly fine. If your meager personal pride comes first, wave your tail and your master shall abandon you to the wilds. Either way should provide amusement.”
Priscilla concealed her lips and smiled, as if to say she would enjoy his fall regardless of his choice.
Subaru felt his guts boiling over in anger at the pure malice of Priscilla’s behavior. But though he was on the brink of crying out something in a coarse voice guided by emotions, he restrained himself. If he gave in to his feelings and charged ahead, these negotiations, too, would end in failure.
“—”
He looked between the foot still hanging before him and Priscilla’s mocking smile. When he closed his eyes, he saw their faces one after another: Emilia, Ram, Beatrice, and the children and adults of the village. Little by little, he cooled the magma seething inside his belly.
In anguish and consternation, he came to the conclusion that—
“I…got…it.”
Enduring the humiliation, Subaru kneeled and took Priscilla’s foot in his hand.
When he thought of the agony-filled deaths Emilia and the villagers had to endure, how could the humiliation Subaru would taste in their place even compare? To avoid that hopeless future, to find the world he needed to reach, he didn’t mind being a dog or worse.
His trembling lips neared the top of her white foot, about to press against her fair skin—when—
“Ahh, it seems you truly are—nothing but a very, very boring man.”
The kick, from right before his nose, sent Subaru flying, as if he weighed hardly anything.
“—”
He flipped head over heels, losing track of which way was up.
Subaru couldn’t comprehend what had happened.
An incredible blow slammed into his head and, after a few moments in the air, his entire body crashed into something. At that point, he stopped feeling anything.
It took his intermittent conscious thoughts an ill-defined amount of time to catch up and realize he was lying on the floor, limbs splayed.
A large volume of some kind of viscous liquid poured out from his nose.
“What you have is neither loyalty nor faithfulness. It is filthier than that. It is a dog’s existence and a pig’s greed. A lazy pig that wants, wants, wants. A swine’s greed is the most unsightly of all.”
Neither the ringing in his ears nor his nausea would stop. The inside of his skull was spinning. He heard Priscilla’s voice from somewhere, but the details weren’t sinking into his head.
“Even if you drive off the Witch Cult, I shall destroy your camp by my own hand for harboring such a beast. I have reached this decision based on your thoughtless actions.”
As he lay down, she gripped his collar and violently lifted up his body.
When his torso was raised, more blood flowed out of Subaru’s nose. Subaru coughed, finding it hard to breathe as she insulted him mercilessly at close range.
“—Take pride in this. It is you who has invited that woman’s—Emilia’s—destruction.”
She thrust him away at full force, and Subaru’s body rolled and slid all the way to the entrance.
“—Aldebaran!”
When she yelled in a sharp voice, the sole door to the outside opened from the other side. Al poked his face in and looked at Subaru, who was covered in blood by the door.
“What in the world happened here…?”
“Throw out this repulsive fool. Or cut him in half, I care not.”
“Well, I sure care… Hey, c’mon, bro.”
Without a single word of rebuttal to his enraged master, Al easily hoisted up the fallen Subaru and passed through the door. But on his way out, he gently turned his face toward Priscilla in the center of the room.
“Don’t be so angry, Princess. Violence ruins your pretty face, y’know?”
“If you do not wish me to break your broken visage even further, take him and go. I will not say it again, Aldebaran.”
“Like I said, don’t call me that.”
Quick on his feet, Al descended the stairs with Subaru over his shoulder and spoke in a considerate voice.
“Anyway, it’s best if you get out while the going’s good. It’s Princess. If she changes her mind, it’s not unthinkable for her to tell me to cut you down. Get out of here while she still thinks it’s all right to not kill you.”
“A-huu…?”
“This…is bad. I’ll call the young lady you brought with you. Just get outside, okay?”
Al shrugged at the barely conscious Subaru, a deft feat under the circumstances. After that, he picked up his pace even more, leaping his way down the stairs.
5
“—Subaru?!”
When she saw Subaru sitting slumped against the mansion’s gate, Rem’s face went pale as she ran over.
Subaru was slack-jawed as Rem touched him. She checked the state of his injuries as she chanted a healing spell. A pale light enveloped the wound on Subaru’s face.
“What happened upstairs?”
“Ahh, that. Looks like our Princess’s mood turned sour. I told him to be careful, but… Well, you have about as much chance trying to perfectly predict the moods of a cat.”
Al’s reply was rather awkward but his statement did not carry a single shred of guilt or apology. Rem, aghast at his demeanor, was about to raise her voice in protest.
“…You don’t…need to say anything.”
“—! Subaru, can you think clearly?”
In accordance with his healing concussion, his fuzzy mind had begun to clear. Rem’s face brightened at the sound of Subaru’s voice, but she closed her eyes, focusing on his treatment.
“I really cannot let you out of my sight, Subaru. You were away not even an hour, and yet you return with such grave injuries.”
“Hey, it’s not like I’m trying to get hu—”
Now that his circulation had returned to normal, blood poured freely from his nose once more. Rem immediately caught the trickle with a hand she had held over him, drawing a handkerchief from her side and placing it against his head.
“Please hold this on your nose. The bleeding will stop on its own. I will continue treatment.”
“……ight”
Subaru held his nose as Rem had told him while he received gradual treatment via mana. Meanwhile, Al watched, nodding as if to say, Looks like you’ll be okay.
“There’s no point just standing around, so I’ll head back inside. I don’t know what you were talking about, but from the looks of things, it didn’t go well. If you take too long leaving, Princess’ll seriously tell me to cut you down, bro.”
“Cut Subaru down…?!”
“Hey, don’t make that scary face, young lady! I’m saying she will! So get outta here before she gives me any orders. It’s not like I wanna do something like that.”
After his dramatic reply to Rem’s overreaction, Al’s shoulders sank as he shook his head.
“Well, take care of yourself, bro. And young lady… Ah, that’s right, you’re Ram. Take good care of bro here.”
“—Ram is the name of my older sister. My name is Rem, Master Al.”
When Al gave his flippant parting words and turned his back, Rem formally introduced herself. That instant, Al’s feet stopped.
“…Rem?”
The one-armed man stopped before he looked up, then slowly turned around.
“Don’t be silly. You’re Ram, right?”
“I am Rem… Forgive my rudeness, but where have you met Sister, Master Al?”
Rem explained how he’d mistaken her for her nearly identical older sister as she posed the question. However, Al made no reply. He raised up his one arm and touched his helm, busily poking the metal.
“What the hell’s goin’ on here…?”
Al sounded nervous, seemingly unable to process the information. The increasingly rapid tapping offered further proof.
“So you’re Rem…and your sister is Ram?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“This might be a weird thing to ask but…is your older sister alive?”
“…? I do not understand the meaning of your question. Sister is alive, as she should be.”
The instant Rem gave that answer, Subaru, who had been listening to the conversation in silence, felt goose bumps all over his flesh.
“—This ain’t funny.”
A low, cold voice accompanied by a grave echo reached his ears.
Al was leaning forward, his hand over the forehead of his helm, murmuring as if wringing the words out of his throat.
It was only then that Subaru understood that Al was the source of the dreadful chill he was feeling.
An instinctive alarm went off, telling him that he could not stay here. Rem, sensing the same thing, gently pulled close to Subaru. She suspended the treatment, still bent over as she asked a question in an audibly guarded voice.
“Subaru. If I lend you my shoulder, can you stand?”
At those words, Subaru dipped his head in a nod, doing his best to match his movements to Rem’s.
“Hey, relax. I’m not gonna do anything.”
With a shake of his head, Al reeled in his ghastly aura and acted like they were needlessly concerned.
Subaru’s shoulders subconsciously eased as the tension in the air dissipated. Even Rem’s neutral expression softened as she, too, felt a sense of relief.
“Sorry to say this when the bad atmosphere just lightened up, but you’d better get going. Feels like I’m not in a great mood myself.”
“…Understood. Please tell her thank you for her time.”
“Roger that. Take care, now.”
Concluding the proper social pleasantries with Al, Rem lent Subaru her shoulder. They walked off together, her petite frame supporting his weight as they put Bariel Manor far behind them.
They descended the hill, growing more and more distant from the mansion, as all the while Al continued to stare at their backs.
“You gotta be joking me. So that’s what it was… Makes me wanna puke.”
6
Now that negotiations with Priscilla Bariel had broken down, all paths were well and truly closed.
“My top priority was borrowing some muscle, but I guess I can’t even manage that, huh…?”
Battered by despair and powerlessness, Subaru held his nose as the words poured out.
Priscilla had crushed him on that crucial day’s morning, and already it was nearing noon. Only half a day remained until the time Subaru had set for them to depart from the royal capital—time-wise, he had even less margin for error. Yet in spite of that, he couldn’t claim it was one step forward, one step back—every step had been backward.
ReZERO_Starting Life in Another World Vol. 6 Page 5
