Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 12

by Tappei Nagatsuki

  “W-wait. Whaddaya mean, downsides? There wouldn’t be some huge exaggerated thing like…”

  “You don’t think there’d be any? You look on pacts too lightly, particularly where the Witch of Greed is concerned—she who came into contact with the most humans among all the Witches, whose words interfered with history.”

  “All of those were acts taken in life… Though I cannot say that all of those who formed pacts with me found happiness.”

  Minerva was thrusting before Subaru’s eyes a side of the Witch he didn’t know. Furthermore, as if to bolster the validity of the words, Echidna was, in the end, asserting that she meant no harm to Subaru.

  Subaru was tormented by the pair’s words, but emotionally he wanted to believe Echidna.

  Of course he did. Ever since associating with Echidna at the tomb like that, they’d met several times over. She was also someone to whom he could divulge the circumstances he couldn’t to anyone outside the dream, someone who understood Return by Death.

  That was why, through the offer of cooperation that went by the name of pact, Subaru had found salvation.

  As Subaru mulled it over, he stared at the white-haired Witch and the blond-haired Witch in turn. Emotionally, he doubtlessly tilted toward Echidna. However, Minerva’s presence had him concerned.

  Why had she leaped out? Previously, Minerva had leaped out to deliver healing via punches and save Subaru from impending death. This was the Witch of Wrath’s reason for being.

  That same Minerva had gone out of her way to cut into the conversation, something that had to give him pause.

  “Echidna. When a pact is formed, there has to be a demerita…no, compensation.”

  “…I suppose there is. A pact requires compensation. Just as I am to provide you with my knowledge, you must offer me something to serve as compensation.”

  “If that’s so, what do you want from me? —What do I have to offer you?”

  That question was one that needed to be asked and answered before a pact was formed. Indulging in Echidna’s benevolence, Subaru had sincerely forgotten that he had to offer her something, too.

  —And just what compensation could a Witch extract from a fool at an impasse in a blind alley of fate?

  “There is no need to be tense. There is no need for concern. The compensation I seek from you is not a difficult thing. For that matter, among the pacts I have formed to date, I would call it exceptionally forthright.”

  “…What, then?”

  “It is a simple thing. What you feel, what you think, what is left in your heart, the futures you know, the things you do, the possibilities you create, the fruits of all the ‘Unknowns’ that hail from your existence—I…wish to taste them.”

  Her cheeks faintly reddened, Echidna confessed as if she was a young maiden in love.

  The fruits of the Unknowns—the poetic, roundabout wording made Subaru knit his brow.

  “That’s… Are you saying you’d pull my emotions and memories right out of me?”

  “You say the most provocative things. You are mistaken. I simply want to see the scenery you see, to hear the music you hear, to stand in the place of knowing the Unknowns that spring forth from you. That is all it will take to satisfy me.”

  As if to wipe away Subaru’s concerns, Echidna clarified what it was that she sought.

  All that she wanted was to see Subaru walk off toward his destination and to gaze at the same scenery he did along the way. She wanted to know what Subaru felt, what Subaru knew, and the results of Subaru’s actions.

  “That’s not a lie, is it?”

  “The occasion of a pact is no place for lies. So that I may remain myself, I vow that I shall absolutely never turn my back upon these words. Even at the cost of my life.”

  Touching a hand to her chest, Echidna added, “Though I am already dead,” concluding with a lighthearted demeanor.

  He did not think that those words were lies. Perhaps that was simply what he wanted to believe.

  But if it was just him wanting to believe, that was enough. If Subaru were to think that way, then—

  “It is all…true, but…she has not…said every…thing?”

  Just when Subaru was about to accept Echidna’s confession and try to send Minerva away, his shoulders jumped. It was a voice he had heard only tens of minutes before, and the sound anything but pleasant.

  “The Witch of Lust…Carmilla!”

  “S-stop… I’m not, doing anything… So don’t make such scary eyes… No…”

  “I was born with this mean mug. This ain’t some kind of special glare meant just for you.”

  With broken grassland separating Subaru and the pair of Witches, a third Witch appeared from a position a short distance removed. Carmilla, dressed no differently from earlier, timidly stared down at her own feet.

  She did not look toward Subaru. She did not meet anyone’s eyes. But that did not mean she was silent.

  “E-Echidna is…not lying…but she is hiding lots of things, okay?”

  “She’s hiding things…?”

  At that late stage, no anger rose within him at successive Witches coming to stand before him. However, the Witches successively standing before him were making assertions one after the other that he could not simply let pass in silence.

  The same went for Echidna. Toward the suddenly appearing Carmilla, she closed one eye and said, “Suddenly appearing and lobbing insults is very rude. In the first place, why are you giving him warnings? Unlike Minerva, you have no reason to give him your backing. You must despise him.”

  “A…r-reason like…Minerva? I have a proper… Mm, I don’t. But, Echidna, you…deceived me…didn’t you?”

  Echidna’s statement was orderly; in contrast, Carmilla’s words were halting and broken. Eyes downcast, the Witch’s speech pattern was frail. However, in contrast to her voice, her assertion was uncompromising.

  Even as Carmilla’s gaze timidly wandered, her demeanor stared straight at Echidna. “I don’t…l-like this boy. But…Echidna because you…deceived me… People who do things to me I don’t like are…absolutely unforgivable.”

  —Only the last phrase was so clear that he heard it distinctly.

  It took some time before Subaru could comprehend what this meek Witch was saying. That was how much at variance that last phrase was from his image of the Witch to that point.

  —In silence, without averting her eyes whatsoever, Carmilla stared at Echidna.

  A vortex of emotion hard to put into words rested in her eyes—laying within was a somber darkness resembling hatred for those who bore enmity for her or who turned similar emotions toward her; this she absolutely could not forgive.

  She was love of self-personified—that was the thought that rose in the back of Subaru’s mind.

  “Good grief. Even if it was necessary, making Carmilla do something contrary to her will was a blunder on my part. Making an enemy of you is exceptionally troublesome, after all.”

  “That is…because everyone is my ally… Being hated by me is…terrible, you know…?”

  By no means were meekness and militancy necessarily exclusive. Carmilla might have been introverted—so frail of personality that she could not even meet other people’s eyes while conversing with them—but she would show no mercy to her enemies. The former was unrelated to the latter.

  “What have you…? What have you people been talking about all this time?!”

  And surrounded by the Witches’ perilous atmosphere, Subaru finally exploded. Feeling the gazes of the three Witches turn toward him, Subaru had a desperate look as he pleaded his case.

  “Quit cutting me out of the conversation already! It’s my…it’s my choice, damn it! Say it so I can understand! What’s Echidna hiding?! What do you know?!!”

  “Please do not lend your ears to these girls, Subaru Natsuki. I have made my vow. To waver here would be akin to doubting that vow. That would be simply too cruel…”

  As Subaru raised his voice in anger, Ech
idna spoke with a calm, collected voice to the last.

  Once more, Subaru began to feel like something was off about that calm, collected tone. Moving past the rising passion of his earlier mental state, he gave her words fresh scrutiny.

  Why were the two Witches interrupting Echidna’s words?

  Something was odd. She hadn’t said anything odd. She’d vowed that she was not lying. The other Witches acknowledged that, too. Then just where was the problem—?

  “I shall repeat myself, Subaru Natsuki. Once you choose me, once you form a pact with me—I will, without fail, bring you to the future you desire.”

  “—Sigh. Bringing out ‘without fail’ at the very end is so cliché…”

  “—!! Who is it this time?!”

  As Echidna stretched a hand out toward him, her assertive words were weighed down by a languid voice.

  When he looked over, he saw a bizarre creature opposite Carmilla, a mass of purplish-red tumbling abo— No, this was no bizarre creature. This was a person, a human being with such a great amount of hair, it looked like a giant ball of fur.

  She had hair reaching down as far as her toes, a sultry outfit that was primarily black, and a voluptuous, feminine physique. Her skin was so pale it was beyond notions of white; her sultry, beautiful face could not shake off that unhealthy impression.

  The beautiful woman sat on the ground leaning on her hip, gazing at the scene with purple eyes—he knew at a glance she was a Witch.

  “So what, you’re the sixth…”

  “Sekhmet, the Witch of Sloth, sigh. I thought I should at least introduce myself, sigh. In the end, I am simply insurance…of this place’s equality, phoo. So I’m on watch duty to keep things in line, sigh.”

  “Equality? Insurance?”

  “I will kill anyone who resorts to force, phew. I am the, sigh, restrictive force for that purpose, phoo.”

  Regularly peppering her speech with sighs, the Witch of Sloth—Sekhmet—told her story with a very personalized manner of speaking. In contrast to the tone of her voice, the contents were savage, but none of the Witches moved to object.

  Echidna had said it just prior: Sekhmet could kill all the other Witches there put together.

  But what of it? In that moment, just how many Witches were going to appear in that—

  “Ohhh? Baru came? And everyone’s together? That’s rare, huh?!”

  One after another, uninvited Witches crashed the already broken tea party.

  With Gluttony and Pride now joining Greed, Wrath, Lust, and Sloth, this amounted to a reenactment of the nightmare that occurred four hundred years prior, and at the center of it, Subaru cried out.

  The only one there to face the gathered Witches, the foolish, ordinary person named Subaru Natsuki shouted.

  “Stop it! Stop screwing around! What do all of you want with me?! I just… I only wanted some way to get by! You’re in the way of…!”

  “I think I told you, sigh. The pillow talk at the end is very cliché, phoo.”

  “At the end…?”

  Sekhmet’s languid words weighed down Subaru’s raspy shout. The other Witches said nothing about what Sekhmet spoke, save one, for Echidna slightly narrowed her eyes. “Sekhmet, you’re—”

  “I am not taking anyone’s side, sigh. I just want to be courteous to the lad, phoo.”

  What she meant by courtesy or what coursed in the silence between Echidna and Sekhmet, Subaru did not know.

  However, from what Sekhmet had said, the words of the Witches to that point, and from Echidna’s responses and demeanor toward them, Subaru’s contemplations finally led to a single hypothesis.

  “”

  The hypothesis that floated up drove none other than Subaru himself into silence. It was extremely difficult to accept; accordingly, Subaru hardened his cheeks and looked at Echidna.

  “Echidna…you said, without fail, you’d bring me to an optimal future, right?”

  “Yes, I did indeed. That is a fact. There is no mistake; I shall fulfill this pact. Between my intellect and your special nature, it shall be accomplished without fail.”

  Echidna’s response to Subaru’s question was exactly what Subaru had hoped to hear, a full hundred marks for the reply.

  This pact, properly fulfilled, would put Subaru on the path to the optimal future. It was just that—

  “Your cooperation will help me arrive at the optimal future…but will that be by the optimal path?”

  “”

  “Why aren’t you saying anything? Answer me, Echidna… Answer me, Witch of Greed!!”

  As if biting, as if tearing away at that stifling silence, Subaru howled.

  Subaru stepped forward, heedless of the overpowering, ghastly atmosphere that came from being surrounded by six Witches. There was but the Witch Echidna before him in his eyes; he had eyes for none other.

  And faced with that sharp gaze, Echidna let a little sigh trickle out as she said, “To grasp the future you desire, you must accept sacrifices along the way. —You simply lacked the resolve for that, Subaru Natsuki.”

  “—!! Wait, wait, waitwaitwaitwaitwait! Wait, Echidnaaa…”

  “No, I will not. This is something you should know better. Think about it.”

  Faced with Subaru pressing the point, Echidna’s reply went far outside his desires. Her words were most certainly not ones that would clear up the doubts that Subaru harbored.

  As Subaru shook his head side to side, repulsed by the warped nature of those words, Echidna spread both of her arms and continued, so that Subaru might comprehend her own thoughts, her own feelings—

  “The Return by Death that you possess is an incredible Authority. You do not comprehend how it is truly to be used. You can redo the world any number of times before you arrive at the result that you desire. To a researcher, this is the ultimate ideal manifesting in physical form. Is that not so? By rights, you should only be able to obtain one result for any particular thing. You can make excessive amounts of varied deductions and suppositions about the results. But there is usually but a single result. You can never repeat the exact same conditions in search of a different result. The conditions all shift: time, environment, memory, procedures. ‘Back then, if I’d only changed one thing, the results would be different.’ This is not in the realm of ideals but of dreams and delusions. Because I have the heart of a researcher, your Authority truly makes my mouth water. With ‘identical conditions’ and ‘verification of differences’ secured, one can identify a ‘proper result’ and a ‘variant result.’ How could I not covet that? With it before me, how could I not test various possibilities? Of course, I will not coerce you to use Return by Death. You will use that power for the sake of the result you desire. And I shall lend my wit as much as you please so that your desire might be granted. I have high hopes that the great many results that shall be borne from this shall serve to satisfy my inquisitive mind. No one would punish a girl for wanting such a small thing, surely? Your desire for a future and my curiosity shall be satisfied together. Perhaps this makes you uneasy, for I do not know the future, either. I will not purposefully lead you to a mistaken future in order to test the results. All Unknowns are equal before me. By mulling and struggling against the same problems, the answer will come. This makes necessary the highest form of relationship between us. I swear I shall protect you with all my heart. But that does not change the fact that I cannot interfere with reality. If a physical obstacle stands before you, I can expect that challenging it will break your mind and body many times over. If it comes to that, I genuinely intend to exert my every power to protect your mind. I will not tell you there are no ulterior motives involved in that. But I don’t want you to think that I am calculating everything because of my inquisitive mind. I do think fondly of you, and it is a fact that my maidenly heart wishes to be of aid to you. I am repeating myself, but you and I are ideally compatibility. I can say it plainly. I will use your power, and you will use me for the sake of your ‘optimal future.’ It is my gen
uine desire to be a woman used for your own convenience. Though it would only be in this dream world, should you desire it, I do not mind using this body of mine to comfort you. I shall happily grant it to you. Oh my, that might not be the best thing for the people you care for, that silver-haired half-elf and that blue-haired demon…they who you have sworn to save and protect without fail. Not that I can claim any particular opinion toward them, but at any rate, please take it as expressing how strong, how unshakable my feelings are. Many difficulties shall befall you in the future as well. Your resolve shall lead you to challenge them, but that is tragic. I will become the beacon that lights your path. So, too, will I be the bonds you wish to protect. Your questions, your burdens, your feelings, your hopes…unexpectedly, through the Trial, you have taught me just how much value these things hold. Certainly, to you, the scenes you saw might have been Hell itself. But given the choice between knowing beforehand and ignorance, I wish to praise the will to learn even such tragic facts. With these serving as your gruel, you shall stretch a hand toward the future, even at the cost of your life. That Trial was necessary so that you might learn there might be sacrifices made for that future’s sake. As you use Return by Death more and more, perhaps your emotions might fray, perhaps the deaths of people precious to you might fail to move your heart, but most of all, you might have to lose some part of yourself in order to arrive at the place at which you are destined to reach. The Trial prevented that end. I did that, in order to protect you. If those scenes pained your heart, putting you on the verge of breaking, I do not exaggerate in saying I did it for that sake. Because it would serve as the linchpin for your moving forward, I accepted it. With my words, I shall grant you the strength to advance forward. I will console you, I will scold you, I will even love you. Or if it is hatred you require, I will devote that to you, all for you. You like girls who devote themselves to you, yes? You need me. By yourself, you cannot grasp the future. It is none other than I who is the most suitable girl for you. —You need me. And I need you. Already, there is none other than you who can satisfy my curiosity. I mean, I’ve already discovered you. You broadened my world. Through you, I, said to be the Witch bearing the greatest intellect in the world, have tasted the fruit of the Unknown once more. If you want to use that power to save someone, then save me. Having even the crumbs of that noble thought is enough for me. Please. I want you to trust me. Perhaps you think I deceived you because of the fact that I did not expose enough of what I truly thought beforehand. I wanted to get the timing right. If I exposed these feelings while our relationship was still shallow, you would probably have pushed me away. I did not want that. I could not endure that. That goes for you too, yes? If you lost me as a collaborator, your heart would surely be broken. We are both working toward our optimal ends. And I know what that optimal end is. I can help you. Through infinite trial runs, you will arrive at the future, albeit with your heart worn down and scarred by the ordeal. Let me do this. I will never betray your trust. Certainly, my heart might be attracted to the resulting choices, and my inquisitive heart may waver toward paths other than that which is optimal. I cannot hold my own greed in check enough for me to tell you that will never happen. I acknowledge that. But I will gloss over nothing. I will speak openly and honestly. Even if the result of that will damage your trust, I will expend no effort to win that trust back. No matter what might happen, I will, without fail, bring you to the future you desire. I absolutely, absolutely will. So as the choices necessary for that become clear, would you not let me be the one to choose? It will be precisely according to the preamble for the pact: I will grant what you desire, what it is that you seek. It will be no more and no less than this. After that, how much you permit your body to be sliced for the sake of that which you desire and crave is up to you. I have conveyed my resolve. Next, I want to hear yours. I want you to demonstrate that you, who would form a pact with me, who would benefit from my cooperation, have the enduring spirit required to arrive at the future without fail. It is you, the first and only one to overcome the second Trial, who can puff out your chest and speak these words with pride. Do this, please me, and I shall release you from the tomb and guide you to the third Trial. Beyond that rests the liberation of the Sanctuary. In so doing, the precious people most important to you, the people you care about held captive in the Sanctuary, will be saved. For the sake of this, you will undergo a true Trial. For the sake of that, seize me, use me, do with me as you please as you let your greed rage, and we shall grasp the future together. This is everything I have to offer to aid you and find what you desire, what you seek. I intend to peel back everything honestly and earnestly. I will not allow the other girls around us to interfere any longer. It is as you said: This is a matter between you and I alone. I want you to give me your answer. I have told you everything… Truly the naked truth. Passionately. This might be close to love. A vow of love. So how will you respond to my love? I want a reply. This reply, after all, will be another thing serving to satisfy my curiosity.”