“What absurdity. It is an insult for you to think about anyone besides me during the time we are together. I may be accompanied now, but I think nothing at all of walking alone.”
“Well, you should think about it. Being with you is miserable.”
He was the chaperone for a girl who seemed to be arrogance incarnate. Subaru’s self-pity flared up again at how he’d once again thrown himself under a bus in no time flat for the sake of someone he’d never even seen before. But he remarked to himself, “Ah, whatever…”
They were strangers to begin with. Neither knew the other’s name. Once they reached the main street, they’d never see each other again. He wasn’t magnanimous enough to shut off his own feelings of discomfort to try to make friends with just anyone. In Subaru’s book, forcing yourself to like something you hate was among the most distasteful things around.
That Subaru had decided this, yet had no intention of leaving the girl on her own until they’d exited to the main street, was evidence as to what kind of person he was.
Coincidentally, Old Man Rom was not accompanying them. He abhorred going out onto the main street, so he led them to an adjacent alley before heading off. Subaru somewhat regretted the loss of his company, but…
“—While I was thinking about all that, here we are.”
Just ahead of a bend, he could finally see the bright, western sun over the road. Subaru beheld the uninterrupted flow of people passing to and fro, relieved that his suffering was finally at an end.
“Now that we’re out of there, we’re total strangers again. I have to look for my cutie-pie companion, so I don’t wanna get into any more trouble, like hanging around you. I’m sure your escort has been desperate to find you, so if you stay put I’m sure you’ll meet up with him soon.”
With the moment of their parting so close, Subaru vented out all the resentment that had built up during that time. Naturally, the girl was poised to respond, but instead, she halted and crossed her arms in silence.
“What, nothing to say? Okay, maybe I went a little too far, but I can’t change how I feel. Things haven’t exactly gone smoothly, but if you try a little prudence now and again, I’m sure…”
Subaru was simultaneously excusing his resentful words and lecturing her when she sneered back.
“Mmm, I think I pity you just a little. Whether you are aware of it or not, you so thoroughly play the fool. It is no virtue. It is merely a thin shell within which you conceal your weakness. It is as repellant to the eye as your face.”
“The first part sounded serious, but that last part was definitely making fun of my looks, wasn’t it?”
“If you intend to maintain the game to the very end, it is no concern of mine…”
Whatever the girl wanted to say wasn’t registering with Subaru. Consistent with her bearing and actions, she made statements without any consideration for the comprehension of others. No doubt he wouldn’t get a straight answer even if he pursued the matter further. With that in mind, Subaru gave up on speaking to the girl further.
Or, perhaps telling himself the girl was incomprehensible was his way of avoiding the truth. But he wouldn’t receive any more answers here to begin with. After all, the instant the two exited the alley, they were greeted by a voice—Emilia’s voice.
“—I’ve finally found you.”
Unlike the back alley, the bright rays of the sun illuminated everything on the main street. The sunshine dazzled and burned his eyes. That radiance haloed her white robe as she looked at Subaru.
Her elegant brows were furrowed. Her fingertips restlessly toyed with her sparkling hair. Her gloomy, violet eyes quivered as her lips loosened in slight relief. It was plain as day how much she’d worried about Subaru.
Subaru both deeply regretted making her worry and was happy she had worried. His expression brightened at their reunion, unexpected but eagerly awaited.
“Ah, Emili—”
But as Emilia let out a soft sigh, he felt that something was wrong. He began to call her name but stopped when he saw someone beside her—a male someone with a burly chest.
“Wait, wait, wait! Don’t go flirting with Emilia-tan when I’m not around!”
Subaru dashed forward to put himself between the man and Emilia. But his glare at the silhouetted man froze in the face of a torrent of sharp words.
“Hey, hey, lil’ missy. I think your guy here has a screw loose. Is he all right?”
The chummy voice addressing Emilia was a bit hard to make out. That was only natural, since the speaker’s head was covered in a full-face helmet.
The jet-black helm, meant to conceal his entire face, looked highly refined, but the headpiece alone wasn’t what made him stand out—though that description is misleading. He stood out because the helmet actually was alone.
“More worried about an interloper than excited for your reunion? What a fascinatingly complicated sense of masculinity.”
“Well, you’ve got pretty horrible fashion sense, don’t you?!”
“And you’ve got quite some lip toward your seniors. I’m an easy-going old man, so I’ll let it slide, but someone else might chop your head off.”
Subaru gaped as the man tapped a finger against the nape of his neck in obvious amusement. Yes, the bare nape of his neck, for while the man wore a pitch-black helm over his head, beneath he wore only a shabby mantle and an open linen vest-and-shorts combo that made him look like some bandit. His “shoes” were sandals with split-toe socks. Behind his waist, he carried a handsome sword with a fat blade resembling a Chinese crescent sword. Everything clashed with everything else.
Subaru’s tracksuit was no less out of place, but the man’s attire was surely the greater offense to common sense. Subaru tentatively asked Emilia his burning question.
“Emilia-tan, don’t tell me this guy’s outfit passes for normal here in the capital?”
“Don’t worry, Subaru. I’m as shocked by what he’s wearing as you are.”
The man erupted into laugher and promptly divulged what he was doing with Emilia in the first place.
“Oh yeah, she was really shocked. It was so cute. I said I was looking for someone, and I was pretty surprised when she said she’d come along, though.”
Subaru put a hand on Emilia’s shoulder and stared at where the man’s eyes probably were.
“Emilia-tan’s kind-heartedness is a real virtue, but you still have to pick who you help. Why do you think a poisonous mushroom looks so bad? It’s saying, ‘I’m poisonous. Danger. Eat me and you’ll die.’ That’s to stop damage before it happens.”
The man replied, “You’re making it sound like I’m a dangerous guy. That’s horrible.”
“Back where I come from, one look at you and they’d bring all the local school kids together and tell them about kidnappers.”
Subaru blew off the man’s flippant comment and returned to Emilia.
“Anyway, Emilia-tan, like I’m always telling you—watch out for men and cars. Men are wolves, so you can’t show them that defenseless, adorable, smiling face… Are you upset?”
“No, I’m just thinking that sounds more like something I’ve said to you than something you’ve said to me, Subaru. No offense.”
Subaru was tempted to cover his face, regretting that his slip of the tongue had only heaped more trouble onto him. But the coming lecture was mercifully interrupted by an outside party. The orange-haired girl stepped forward and pompously declared, “Mmm. How perceptive of you to wait for me at my destination. Your loyalty is admirable, Al.”
Her words made the man—Al—laugh out loud.
“…To be honest, I want to say it was dumb luck I happened to be here, but that’ll just put you in a bad mood. I agree with you, Princess. Yep, it’s just like you said!” He stood beside the girl and ruffled her orange hair with the palm of his hand. “Apparently, by sheer coincidence, the person the lady here was looking for and the person I was looking for were together. Maybe you could call it fate?”
There was a momentary pause before Al’s reply.
“—This guy’s got quite a mouth on him.”
But Al’s laughter and the light wave of his hand wiped Subaru’s doubts away. All his actions had been with his right hand the entire time—for the man didn’t have a left hand.
So the man had one arm, a pitch-black helmet, and a haphazard threadbare outfit. Judging from his tone of voice and his appearance below the neck, he was probably a bit more than twice Subaru’s age. In spite of that, he didn’t come off much like Subaru’s senior, sporting an attitude as light as his clothes.
To put it kindly, he was easy to get along with. To put it rudely, he was an adult that needed to pull himself together.
Subaru commented, “With Puck there as your guardian, I’m wondering why he let you go around with this guy…”
Puck replied to Subaru’s question telepathically.
“Lia spotted him looking in garbage bins on the side of the street as soon as she stepped out of the garrison. Her meddling happens at lightning speed, so I didn’t have any time to stop it.”
“Oh, come on…”
Subaru’s reply couldn’t hide his exhaustion. True, Emilia’s soft-hearted nature was nothing new, but Al looking for his traveling companion in trash bins was completely off the rails.
He wondered if the man had put any funny ideas in her head while they’d been alone. Subaru gave Emilia a look of concern when he realized that…
“—?”
…without a word, Emilia had slipped behind Subaru’s back as if to avoid the eyes of other people. She pulled down her hood to hide her face again, keeping her voice quiet as if that would erase her presence.
Subaru dubiously raised his eyebrows and looked toward the orange-haired girl who seemed the cause of Emilia’s misgivings.
“What, staring at me?” the girl said. “Drinking in the beauty you will dearly miss once I depart? Certainly, it is cruel that my beauty is so divine, but it is rude to stare in silence.”
“Sorry, my eyes are in perfect shape… Everyone found who they were looking for, so how about we break this up?”
Subaru gave the girl—the one Emilia seemed to be hiding from—a dismissive reply as he directed the spotlight away from her and toward Al. He didn’t know why, but Emilia seemed averse to the attention.
So Subaru did what he felt would serve her best.
Al replied, “Well, that’s all fine… The decision to shift the talk to me instead of Princess included.”
“…I sympathize with you more than a bit… No, a lot.”
Al shrugged at Subaru’s rather earnest words and looked down at the girl.
“An adult with a broad mind can put up with a lot without gettin’ sick of it. Even a proud cat that’s never been housebroken. Maybe I’ve just gotten old enough to find it adorable.”
Subaru couldn’t see his eyes through the helmet, but he sounded like a father figure protecting his beloved daughter.
They get along pretty decently, huh, thought Subaru vaguely in his mind. He added out loud, “Well, we’re gonna head this way… How about you?”
The girl replied, “Then I shall go that way as well.”
“…Then, we’re gonna head the other way.”
“Then I shall go the other way as…”
“Oh, good grief. Are you stalking me?! What, did you fall in love with me or something?!”
“I imagine that is a joke, and a petty one at that. Lackluster men die in lackluster ways, you know.”
With great pomp and ceremony, the girl, dispassionate to the bitter end, departed with her companion. Her hesitant steps proclaimed that even though she wanted them to part ways, she found it unamusing to do so.
So with all the invective remaining in him, Subaru said to the departing girl, “Hey, arrogant chick, take this.”
“What an insolent tongue to direct at me. With one command, Al could take that head off your—”
As the girl turned around with some very menacing words on her lips, her red eyes widened. Her hands stretched and caught the pair of abbles lazily arcing toward her.
“Take ’em. These are bonding abbles. In the end I may have won the bet, but the winner has the right to show mercy like a noble warrior. Take care not to wander into bad guys like that from now on, okay?”
“I will have you know I did not become involved with those men by acting like some foolish child.”
“…Incidentally, why did you get involved with them?”
“When I asked them if it was not inexcusable that they should live with such impoverished faces and attire, they became agitated.”
“You’re the one in the wrong there!!”
Subaru sympathized with Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest all over again and turned his back to the girl, pulling Emilia along by her arm. The small measure of payback gave him some satisfaction.
Emilia kept her head down as she went along with him. As they quickly departed, they heard one final muffled shout from the street behind them, filled with apparently genuine gratitude.
“—Lil’ missy, thanks for comin’ with me on my search!”
8
“Hey, Emilia-tan, they’re gone now, so why don’t we talk finally?” Subaru asked.
Parting ways with the arrogant girl and her guardian, Subaru and Emilia walked together for a while before stopping.
He was worried that something he’d said had brought about Emilia’s sudden change in behavior. After a brief silence, Emilia lifted up her face and, just as Subaru expected, the subject was the girl she’d attempted to hide from.
“Subaru.—About that girl from earlier… She… Where did… Why were you…?”
“Ehh, Emilia-tan! What, are you jealous? We’re at the point where you’re just burning with envy?”
“—Subaru.”
With one word, Emilia cut off Subaru’s typically glib reply. She had a solemn expression, and the tension in her cheeks told even Subaru that bad jokes weren’t going to cut it.
“Err? Emilia-tan, what’s with the really serious look…?”
“Please, Subaru, don’t make light of this. Why were you with that girl…?”
Emilia seemed to want to hear something from Subaru. It threw him off, but he sank into thought to try to give her the earnest reply she sought. But just as Subaru focused properly about things for once…his efforts were for naught as an angry, rough, and coarse shout interrupted their conversation.
“Finally found ya! You’re a lot of trouble, damn it!!”
At the voice, Subaru scanned the area, aghast. Roughnecks were on both sides, blocking the street to prevent their escape. Dumb of Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest stood at the vanguard of the men, glaring at Subaru.
“I’ve been lookin’ for you and the woman to pay you back for makin’ fun of me before.”
Subaru replied, “…So you brought all your friends for payback over a war of words? No matter how much you resent an insult, a man with a spine wipes his own butt… That’s what I…always believed in…!”
“Hey, don’t try to make me feel bad! What do you know about me, anyway?!”
Subaru listened to Dumb’s abuse, complete with spittle flying, as he quietly looked around. There were fifteen or sixteen men blocking the street. He couldn’t exactly expect Reinhard to bail him out of this one.
“Meaning, it’s pathetic, but the best thing I can do is rely on Emilia-tan and Puck, so…!”
Puck telepathically praised Subaru’s quick turn to the aid of others.
“It really is pathetic, but I think it’s commendable you accept your helplessness so quickly.”
Subaru felt sorry for Dumb and company, but Puck the Great Spirit could take on street thugs regardless of their numbers. It’d be WinterFest in Lugunica’s summer.
But before Subaru could shout, �
��Take it from here, maestro!” and yield the path like a villain in a historical play, a telepathic thought rich in meaning arrived from Puck.
“You have quite a disturbing image in your mind there… But apparently I’m not needed.”
Faster than Subaru could ask what he meant, a rather scary statement came from overhead, heralding the descent of a certain blue-haired maid.
“—I came here tracking Subaru’s scent. What kind of disturbance is this?”
Tumbling end over end as she descended, Rem held down the hem of her skirt and landed with a boom. She brushed the dust from her sleeves as everyone gawked at her.
Rem made an adorable little tilt of her head.
“So, Subaru. Do you have something you wish to say to me?”
Subaru pointed at her feet and voiced his question.
“Let me start with, err… He’s ah, not dead, is he?”
Rem lowered her gaze. Underneath lay Dumb, smashed to the ground the moment she landed.
Head buried in the city street, the hoodlum said one last thing before he ceased to move altogether.
“Not another…maid…”
Rem slowly nodded.
“He is breathing.”
“It’s all good, then!! That’s Rem for you, the all-purpose maid everyone wants in their time of need!”
“Oh no… Saying how you can do nothing without me, you are making me blush.”
Subaru and Rem engaged in their daily routine, even as Rem’s violence had the thugs reeling. Subaru’s praised made Rem’s cheeks go red as she demurred. In the meantime, the men gradually regained their bearings.
“D-don’t toy with us here! You really think you’re gettin’ out of this alive…?”
Rem’s voice lowered as she switched to her emotionless Work Mode.
“I judge that these men are threatening Subaru and Lady Emilia’s safety.”
The hooligans faltered at the change. Subaru felt a pang of pity for them while raising a finger to Rem.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 4 Page 8
