Hearing Subaru’s words made Emilia furiously blink her violet eyes. Smiling at the sight, Subaru spread his arms wide as if trying to hug the night sky itself.
“I don’t know how much strength my words’ll have, but I’m saying it ’cause I feel like it. Emilia, you’ll be all right. I’m sure you can do it. I’m here for you.”
“Subaru…”
“My words might not be much compared to the real deal, but if playing the role helps, great.”
He truly did not know how much his words could support her in the stead of what she truly wanted to hear from her family. Even so, Subaru’s words made Emilia give the crystal lying against her chest a squeeze.
“…Mm, thank you. That really gave me the courage I need. Really.”
“So I managed to help Emilia-tan a little bit?”
“Don’t say weird things like ‘a little bit.’ Subaru, you’ve always been helping me… Even today, I failed, and still you…”
“But tomorrow’ll probably be different. You’ll make sure of it, right?”
In the face of Subaru closing one eye in a wink, Emilia closed her eyes and let out her breath. Then, after Emilia maintained her silence for several seconds, she nodded.
“—Yeah, I’ll do my best. Cheer me on, okay?”
“You know I will.”
Subaru responded to Emilia’s soft smile by baring his teeth and giving a thumbs-up.
The response deepened Emilia’s smile, and after a little bit of mutual laughter, the pair walked toward the settlement. After a bit of quiet time together, they came to a fork in the road.
This was where they would part for that night—Subaru going left to the Cathedral, Emilia going right to the Ryuzu residence.
“Well, you’d better get some sleep this time, Emilia-tan. Any loss of your beauty is a loss for the world.”
“That way of talking is a lot like Puck. You too, Subaru. You won’t get taller if you keep staying up at night.”
“I’m at the end of my growth period anyway, so you don’t need to worry about that…!”
With a bitter smile on him, the pair waved as they parted ways then and there. He truly wanted to escort Emilia all the way, but it was unclear just how long Ram’s sabotage keeping Garfiel tied down would last. Blithely running into Garfiel would only be trouble, so with great regret, he abandoned the role of the wolf in gentleman’s clothing.
—Besides, if he was together with Emilia any further, his resolve would be dulled.
“…Looks like everyone’s fast asleep, huh?”
Passing along the nighttime path to bring the Cathedral in sight, Subaru cautiously stepped inside.
The interior of the building had a large hall reminiscent of a place of worship with only candles to illuminate it, and the villagers’ sleeping breaths arose from a communal space. Most of those sleeping in the open space were the village’s menfolk. The women and children and the elderly were sleeping in rooms too frugal to be properly called bedrooms, but they were the closest thing under the circumstances.
Rather than complain about their accommodation, they acted to make the best of it. Subaru greatly admired their ability to do so. He did feel apologetic toward the several traveling merchants wrapped up in similar circumstances.
“That’s why I can’t let them treat me as more special than they are…”
Paying consideration to those asleep, Subaru meticulously made his way to the back of the hall. There lay the space kept open for Subaru, which at first the villagers had kindly furnished with not only a rug and a blanket but also the immense luxury of a pillow.
That was something he just could not allow, so he’d firmly refused in favor of sleeping accommodations like everyone else’s.
“—So you’re back, Mr. Natsuki?”
“Ew, ew, sorry, did I wake y—? Doesn’t seem like it.”
Looking back toward the quiet voice, in the sleeping space immediately beside him was a plump bla— Correction, Otto with a blanket pulled over him. Under the blanket, he was relying on a lagnite ore’s light to read a book.
“I was worried that you were so late in returning. I feared you might have carelessly gotten lost in the forest and fallen into distress.”
“Like hell I would… Wait, don’t tell me you were waiting for me to come back?”
“I will not for I did not. I am merely adjusting the calculations for how much the merchants here with me need to demand from the Marquis for compensation for the loss of business during our time here. Though as it has taken quite a bit more time than I had thought, I was thinking I should finally get some sleep.”
As he spoke, Otto closed the book in his hands and returned the luminous ore to its leather pouch. This made the light even more meager, and the expression on his face grew less distinct as well.
But even without being able to see his face, Subaru could manage to see through such a clumsy lie regardless.
“What are you, an overprotective mother…?”
“At least make me out to be the male parent… Er, I actually have no idea what you are referring to.”
After trying to gloss things over in various ways, Otto curled up in the blanket and turned his back toward Subaru. Maybe he thought he’d be found out if he said any more. His thinking he hadn’t already been found out was kind of pathetic.
Sighing at the sight of his back, Subaru lay on the rug of his own sleeping space. Pulling the blanket up to chest level, he felt sleepiness close at hand, contrary to expectations.
He had no intention of sleeping for particularly long. Even so, his body apparently craved sleep more than he had appreciated.
“Mr. Natsuki, I believe this is very forward of me on various levels, but if anything happens, I am here to listen.”
“…This guy says some weird stuff in his sleep. Gives me the creeps…”
“Is that the kind of reply to give to someone worried about you?!”
Riding his emotions and raising his voice, Otto looked like he was immediately covering his mouth with his own hands. Fortunately, there was no sign of the sleep around them being disrupted by that single blow.
“Behave and go to sleep. If the villagers explode because of your jabs, there’ll be no stopping it.”
“Um, I was not saying that as a joke…”
“I know, I know. I know already. —And that’s why I can’t tell you.”
The latter half alone was a murmur that seemed to vanish inside of his mouth.
After that, Otto fell into silence, apparently dissatisfied with Subaru’s lack of further words. He soon lost his battle against sleep. Subaru heartily sighed as he sensed that from Otto.
He did not doubt Otto’s offer in any way. If Subaru asked, no doubt Otto would cooperate. He really was far too good to other people to be cut out as a merchant.
He’d seen that benevolence for his fellow man get him killed. That was why he absolutely wouldn’t ask the man for help.
He wouldn’t have Emilia or Otto or the people of Earlham Village save him.
Subaru would wager his own life and save them all.
7
After several hours of sleep at the Cathedral, Subaru was there when daybreak came to greet the Sanctuary.
Shaking his still-sleepy head, Subaru spurred his mind to awaken. Even that short sleep had somewhat softened the fatigue of brain and body. At the very least, he did not need to worry about falling off a dragon in the near future.
“Well, in the end, I’m relying on your running technique to help with that part.”
This said, Subaru stretched a hand out to his favorite pitch-black land dragon—Patlash—standing right beside him. Upon this, their first reunion since the day before, Patlash fondly brought the tip of her nose over to Subaru. Making a little smile at the adorable gesture, he savored the ticklish feeling and stroked her head.
“I know I’m waking you up like this, but I’m counting on you to get the job done. —It’ll be one run all the way to the mansion.�
��
Patlash responded to Subaru’s request with a sound from her throat. It sounded to Subaru’s ears like, It can’t be helped, leaving him very grateful for the depth of his beloved dragon’s fondness.
—Very early in the morning, away from prying eyes, Subaru was trying to leave the Sanctuary.
His objective was to take on affairs at Roswaal Manor, for prioritizing that over the tomb was the plan Subaru had decided on that time around.
In complete secrecy, his aim was to get a grip on the situation arising at the mansion, develop firm countermeasures, and return. In the present circumstances, Subaru remained far more ignorant of the events set to occur at the mansion than the situation in the Sanctuary.
He couldn’t save anyone like that. Accordingly, he would proceed to the mansion to learn about those things. Besides—
“If I know the circumstances, I can rely on Echidna, too. Right now, I still don’t have enough data to hold a conversation.”
He could lament his ignorance and powerlessness after he had acted. Subaru didn’t deserve to have such laments yet.
His preparations were insufficient for conversing with the Witch. But that did not mean he was without hope.
“Beatrice, isn’t part of the Witch Cult… That I know for sure.”
This was something Roswaal had spoken to Subaru about during the go-around before last.
Roswaal had declared that the book in Beatrice’s hands was an inferior version of what might otherwise be called a book of knowledge, but that book had nothing to do with the Witch Cult. If Beatrice was unrelated to the Cult, she was not his enemy. He could save Beatrice.
That, to Subaru, was hope. Of course, there were many unnatural aspects to Beatrice’s demeanor toward him. But the biggest issue had been held at bay. For the moment, that was enough.
“If there’s a way to save Beatrice and then Rem and Petra ’n’ Frederica, that clears the mansion side.”
Touching the handkerchief wrapped around his wrist, Subaru crisply put his objective into words.
If he knew how to deal with the issues at the mansion, he could pour all his efforts into taking on the tomb and liberating the Sanctuary. If there were firm ways to take on both sides, he ought to be able to break through even those twin towers of suffering.
Just how many times Subaru might have to sacrifice himself for that end was an unknown variable, but—
“—That’s the only value I have here.”
Flicking a finger off his own forehead, Subaru put his own resolve into words, carving them into his chest.
This time, his return to the mansion was the morning of the second day, the fastest timing yet. He’d beat out last time’s speed record and return to the mansion, spurring Petra and the others to evacuate. Everything would begin with that.
Before he set off, Subaru dealt with his one lingering regret—sliding a letter under the door into the entrance to the Ryuzu residence. The contents were addressed to Emilia, expressing on paper his desire that she not worry about him.
“Not that this makes any logical sense, since my premise is that I’m redoing this world…”
This time, Subaru wasn’t telling anyone in the Sanctuary about his return to the mansion. All he’d done was write that letter, an effort to inform Emilia and those immediately around her.
He’d firmly cut down the possibilities of liberating the villagers and taking Ram and Otto with him. This time, Subaru would return to the mansion alone. What he needed to guard against the consequences of that surely had a very simple answer.
Leaving the letter behind even so was to guard against unnecessary accidents. If Subaru clouded the reason for his sudden absence, at a minimum he could avoid chaos in the Sanctuary. He wanted to avoid an undesirable change occurring to the greatest possible extent, passing it off as his running some kind of errand to the mansion and so forth. —That was his ostensible reason, at least.
When you ripped that facade away, his real reason was terribly simplistic. He didn’t want to make Emilia sad. That was all.
Even in a land fated to vanish in a world fated to be erased, Subaru did not want to make Emilia sad. For that reason alone, Subaru left a letter behind.
Truly, the best thing would be for Subaru to stay. Her smiling face from the previous night rose into the back of his mind.
“—Let’s go, Patlash. Sorry to make you wait.”
Shaking his head, Subaru severed himself from lingering regret as he mounted Patlash. When he gripped the reins and spoke to her, Patlash made a little sound, turning her head to the way out of the Sanctuary.
Her running feet already had the blessing of wind repel deployed around them, so that Subaru felt neither the sway of the land dragon nor the resistance of the wind. At a speed outstripping the wind itself, Patlash raced through the forest at daybreak.
Even the Lost Woods of Cremaldi was all for naught before this all-too-clever land dragon. She continued her sprint with no sign of getting lost in the Lost Woods. At that rate, they’d get out of the forest in another hour—
“—Aww, too bad. It’s just like the story o’ one should be suspicious of Berbe’s different sweat.”
When the voice poured down from overhead, Subaru instantly pulled back the reins.
Receiving this command, Patlash kicked up a cloud of dust as she slammed the brakes. With the land dragon standing at a halt, her wariness toward the figure standing straight before her as one of the guardian deva kings was laid bare by her neigh.
But if anything, the opponent bared his fangs in amusement at the hostility.
“Ha! Ain’t you all worked up early in the mornin’. That land dragon has some serious guts, don’t she?”
“…That’s because, aside from her tastes in men, Patlash is a completely perfect lady.”
“Real adorable of her. —Unlike your land dragon, you’re nothin’ but a stupid bastard, though.”
Ferocious vigor poured out, and from a single step on the ground, Subaru felt as if the forest itself was being shaken. Such was the oppressive feeling that the youth who had shown himself—Garfiel—was thrusting in his direction.
The prickly sense of oppression made Subaru swallow his saliva as he raised both of his hands up.
“…There’s a misunderstanding between me and you. I think that’s something I need to clear up.”
“Misunderstanding…? Like hell there is. You’re runnin’ away in the middle o’ the night with your tail curled between your legs. That’s the small of heart for ya. ’Cause if it ain’t that…”
On that note, Garfiel audibly clamped his fangs down, a distinct grimace appearing as he said, “—Then that just leaves a guy stinkin’ of the Witch headin’ out to do wicked deeds, am I right?”
Crinkling his nose, he spat the words out, making his hostility clear.
What he had said made Subaru close his eyes for a moment; then he stroked the agitated Patlash’s neck, dismounting so that he would stand at the same eye level as Garfiel. He sighed at confirmation that the Witch’s stench—the miasma clinging to his body—was indeed the cause of Garfiel’s antagonism toward him. However, he simultaneously felt that something was a little off.
Amid that vagueness, Subaru formed words for the purpose of giving that amorphous ill feeling a tangible form.
“Just now, you mentioned the Witch’s stench, but I’ve had a fair number of people point that out to me before.”
“…Heh, that so? I dunno about what other people think. It’s one helluva stench, though.”
“Setting my body odor aside, those people decided based on my actions. It’d be a big help if you did the same. At the very least, you let me go right after I came out of the tomb, right?”
“”
Seeing Garfiel go silent made the bad feeling that had been bothering Subaru grow more distinct.
Simply put, the timing with which Garfiel pointed the miasma out was unsettling. Why had he chosen this moment rather than right after he’d come o
ut of the tomb? Of course, it was possible that when he’d noticed Subaru acting away from prying eyes, he’d linked that to his suspicions about the miasma, giving him justification to be hostile—
“—If that’s the case, just say the word and I’ll give you a sincere and honest apology from the bottom of my heart.”
“”
When Garfiel heard Subaru’s question, his mood clearly shifted. At his back, Patlash gave off a slight growl, perhaps the work of a land dragon’s acute sense for danger.
Even without such instincts, Subaru could tell that Garfiel’s annoyance was at dangerously high levels.
“I asked something inconvenient for you. That’s written all over your face, Garfiel.”
“…Stop it. Don’t annoy me any more than ya have.”
“No can do. This is your reward for getting in my way. If you hadn’t shown up, I’d have let it go, but since you did show up, I’m taking the opportunity. —Garfiel, your face will give me my answer.”
Garfiel’s voice grew quieter; in its place, the ghastliness residing in his expression grew hotter still. Keeping his eye on that, Subaru raised three fingers. And then—
“I have three guesses for what’s put you in a sour mood. The first is the miasma…but I have my suspicions about that. If your nose is for real, I can’t square it with your actions yesterday.”
He started by raising his doubts concerning the miasma. Garfiel’s cheek twitched slightly.
“The second is you spotting me as I ran out this morning. It’s true that was wildly suspicious…but that’s weird, too. Unless you’ve been tailing me the whole time, it’s like you have someone else keeping an eye on me.”
His next shot was a bluff, since he’d already heard as much from Ryuzu. Garfiel’s pupils narrowed.
“The third and final guess is what links the first and the second together. It’s the girl who looks just like Ryuzu that I saw in the forest. That girl—oof.”
With the third assertion, he had clearly succeeded in getting under Garfiel’s skin—something that became obvious when the world Subaru saw was suddenly flipping upside down when he was only midway through his sentence.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 12 Page 9
