Like Subaru, the woman also had black hair, which seemed to be very rare in this world. Her hair was tied in a braid that reached all the way to her hips, the tip of which she was twirling around in her fingers.
In short, she was a bewitchingly beautiful older woman. For Subaru, who had no real experience being around women even in his own world, seeing a woman like this was so new to him that he could not help but feel extremely nervous.
Having already lost his cool, Subaru followed Felt’s directions and gave up his chair without any complaint. Felt took that seat, and Rom took the seat to the left of her. Subaru just stood to Felt’s right, unable to hide his nervousness.
With so many people awaiting her arrival, the woman didn’t seem upset, but she did look puzzled. “I get the feeling that there are a lot of unrelated people here.”
“I can’t just let myself be in a position to be talked down on price, you know? It’s the wisdom of the weak. Anyway, Subaru, go fetch us some drinks.”
Felt motioned to Subaru with her hand, like she was ordering a servant around, but Subaru couldn’t bring himself to talk back, and so went behind the counter and picked out some relatively clean glasses, filled them with milk, and came back to the table to set them down.
The woman said, “Thank you,” to Subaru before looking him up and down.
“I understand that old man being here, but who is this?”
The woman must have been able to tell by Subaru’s demeanor that he was not very used to the place. Rather than being wary of him, she had posed a simple question.
In response, Felt smiled her evil smile. “This guy here is your rival. He’s come to negotiate as well,” she declared, and her process of “sweetening the deal” began.
6
“I see. I understand what’s going on now,” said the woman before taking a sip from her glass and licking off the milk left on her lips.
The woman, who went by the name Elsa, gave off an air of eroticism in every move she made. While Felt was explaining the current situation to Elsa, she turned her glance several times toward Subaru, which made him so flustered he could hardly handle it.
“That’s the way it is, so now we’ll start the bidding. I don’t really care who walks away with this badge, so it’ll go to the one who can offer me the best deal.”
“That’s a nice attitude you have there. I can’t say I dislike it. …So, how much did that boy over there say he would pay for it?”
Elsa originally said that she would pay ten blessed gold coins.
If Subaru was going to compete with her offer, she must have thought that he had offered more money. Thinking that it would be better to not take a “wait and see” approach, he took out his cell phone for the third time and demonstrated its use. A flash lit up the inside of the cellar and Elsa’s image was captured by the device.
Elsa raised her eyebrows in response to Subaru’s sudden actions, but Subaru immediately showed her the screen.
“What I have to offer is this mitia. It’s a rare item, and it’s probably the only one in the entire world. According to this muscular man, it should sell for over twenty blessed gold coins.”
“A mitia…” Elsa said, staring at herself on the screen and slowly nodding. With this, Elsa should have realized that Subaru was looking to barter for the badge, not pay outright, and that his offer was not a bluff.
Elsa took a small leather bag out of her pocket and placed it on the table. In the bag was probably the payment she had prepared for the badge—Subaru could hear the sound of heavy metal objects clanging together as she set it down.
Felt fixed on the bag with her eyes like a curious cat, as Rom wordlessly reprimanded her. Elsa placed her white fingers on top of the bag she had placed on the table.
“The truth is, I was given a little extra by my employer, in case you happened to have second thoughts about the price, so I do have a little more to offer.”
“Your employer…? So you’re just following someone’s directions to pick up the badge?” asked Subaru.
“That’s correct. The one who wants the badge is not me, but my employer. …Are you by chance involved in the same sort of work as I am?”
“If that were the case, then that would mean you’d have to be unemployed!”
“So, this unemployed kid over here is saying he’ll pay a much higher price than you offered. Just how much is your master willing to pay?” asked Felt, challenging Elsa.
Elsa silently opened the mouth of the bag, and turned it over. What came tumbling out were several shining blessed gold coins. Felt’s eyes sparkled as she saw the coins layer on top of one another, and even Rom made a sound in his throat.
Subaru was more concerned with the number than the coins themselves. If he counted correctly…
“Twenty coins, exactly,” said Elsa.
“This is all that my employer has given to me. This is what they decided would be enough to pay for the badge, but…am I correct in thinking their estimates may have been a little off?” asked Elsa, directing her question at Rom, rather than Felt.
After counting the coins, Rom gazed down at a nervous-looking Subaru, and then smiled.
“There’s no reason for you to act like such a baby. You should be embarrassed. Aren’t you a man? …It’s true that twenty blessed gold coins is an outrageous amount. However, I remember saying that in the worst case, your mitia should sell for twenty gold coins. In other words, it’s worth more than that.”
Rom took his giant callused hand and roughly patted Subaru on the head.
“The way I see it, the negotiations lean in favor of the kid. No offense to your employer, but it looks like you’re going to have to bring them their money back,” Rom said, shoving the coins back toward Elsa.
Subaru let out a cry of excitement. Felt threw her hands up in the air to signal that she didn’t have a problem with the decision, and Elsa shrugged but did not look all that displeased herself. Subaru followed up with a triumphant pose, but that exaggerated action just made him stand out from the crowd.
“W-what? I’m happy, all right? Let me be! This is the first time I’ve actually accomplished something here! What’s wrong with a little celebration?!” said Subaru, embarrassed.
“I didn’t say anything. If you want to celebrate, then celebrate. As long as I get my money, I’m happy,” said Felt.
“My employer doesn’t actually need that badge, so I don’t have any reason to beg you to reconsider,” added Elsa.
Both Felt and Elsa seemed uninterested in Subaru’s antics.
However, while Subaru wasn’t so mean-spirited that he was hoping for Elsa to beg and plead, he found it strange how disinterested she seemed, despite the negotiations not going her way.
“Well, I’m sorry, Elsa. I imagine your employer’s going to be angry at you.”
“There’s no helping it. It would be different if I failed because I was the one who made a mistake, but in this case, it’s my employer’s fault for thinking that they would be able to get away with paying so little for the badge.”
“But when you plan for as much as twenty blessed gold coins and that turns out to be not enough, that’s got to be tough,” remarked Rom.
“Well, I guess it just means that my luck is in full swing! Does this mean that my era of greatness has finally come?” Felt laughed, oblivious to the mood, in contrast to the two males who were showing sympathy for Elsa.
Either way, Subaru had managed to complete one of the goals he had in coming here. Without having to fall back on a plan B, it looked as though there was a glimmer of hope that he would be able to pay Satella back.
Normally, it would be best to report to Satella that Felt and Elsa were the ones responsible for the theft, but Subaru didn’t have it in him to do anything that might result in either of them getting locked up.
It had been simple opportunism.
“Well, as the negotiations did not go in my favor, I think I’ll take my leave now.”
Elsa stood
up and gulped down the last of her milk. Again, she used her tongue in an erotic way to lick up the last few drops of milk, before looking at Subaru. As she stared at him, it felt as though her eyes were binding him in place. “By the way, what is it that you were planning on doing with that badge?” Elsa asked in a somewhat deep, frozen sort of voice.
The sweet ring of her voice threatened Subaru’s eardrums and made him feel, by some delusion, as though he couldn’t lie.
“…Oh, I was planning on returning it to its owner.” As soon as he said it he knew he had made a terrible mistake.
He had just declared, in front of both the girl who had stolen it and the woman who had ordered the theft, that he was going to return the stolen item to its owner.
“I see. So you’re with them.” Subaru’s words were enough to set Elsa’s cold murderous intent into motion.
“Wha—?!” Subaru felt a sudden impact from his side. The impact was enough to force him to the side, and unable to catch himself, he tumbled to the ground. From Subaru’s perspective there was first pain and shock, his vision spinning as he hit the ground. When he looked up he saw that Felt was clinging to his side.
“What do you—”
“Are you an idiot? Pay attention and get out of the way! You want to die?!” Felt yelled.
“—think you are doing?!” The last part of Subaru’s shout was drowned out by Felt’s.
Subaru was in shock. From his low vantage point he saw Elsa facing toward him.
“Oh, it looks like you managed to dodge that one,” she said, her head tilted in surprise.
Elsa held in her hand a weapon that glimmered with a dull light. The weapon was, according to Subaru’s knowledge, a kukri blade, and it clashed with the rest of Elsa’s image. It was easily a foot long, with the body of the blade bent inward as it extended from the handle. Due to the weight of the tip it was a weapon that was often used similarly to an ax to decapitate enemies or prey, and just by looking at it, it was not hard to imagine the weapon’s vicious brutality.
Despite wielding the blade, Elsa’s serene smile was unchanged. From her stance, it was clear that she had already swung the weapon once. Which meant the only reason Subaru was safe was that Felt had leapt up and tackled him out of the path of the weapon.
Fear, late in coming, made Subaru’s hands and feet shake, and he felt nauseated. However, the situation wasn’t going to stop just for him.
“Rrrragh!” Old Man Rom let out a roar as he rushed toward Elsa, swinging the club that had never left his grasp since the negotiations had begun. The spiked part of the club came barreling down toward her head. Despite the club weighing at least twenty pounds, Rom swung it as if he were swinging a twig, and it cut through the air before slamming against the floor of the cellar.
As the club sprang off the floor it felt as though the entire building had shook. Several stolen articles flew from the shock of the impacts, which continued as Rom and Elsa traded blows in front of Subaru.
“This is my first time in mortal combat with a giant,” said Elsa.
“Go ahead and keep talking, little girl. I’ll turn you into mincemeat and feed you to the giant rats!” As Rom threw his insults he swung his club even faster. Before the power of that swing, any untrained attempt to block would be no more effective than a sheet of paper.
Inside the cellar, there was very little room to move around, and allowing the swings of that club to corner you could easily be a fatal mistake.
However, Elsa’s skill was of such a high level it could only be called freakish.
While still wielding her kukri, dangling from one hand, Elsa, herself like a black shadow, was able to slip around each of Rom’s surely fatal swings. Her movements were precarious, walking a thin line, just barely away from life-threatening danger, and still it was she who was in control of the fight, not Rom.
This can’t be good, thought Subaru instinctively. Something in his head was setting off an alarm. “This is bad…” muttered Subaru, his lips shaking.
“Don’t worry. There’s no way Old Man Rom can lose! Ever since I can remember, I’ve never seen Rom lose a fight!” Felt yelled back, putting her trust for Rom in words as if to dispel her own doubts.
In Felt’s words were experiences built up over long years; experiences that formed her unshakable trust. But even without Felt telling Subaru outright, he could see their trust in how close they were when they interacted with each other.
Despite Felt’s confidence, Subaru was preparing for the worst. But he couldn’t figure out why.
“Take that!”
Before Subaru could pin down his anxiety, there was a change in the flow of the fight.
Rom yelled and kicked over the table, the same small wooden table they had been negotiating around. The table split and splintered from the force of the kick, and for an instant Elsa, who was up against a wall, was hidden behind its fragments, her line of sight cut off.
Rom swung his club down with all his might. If the hit landed, it was sure to be an instant kill. However…
“Rom!” Felt’s distraught scream shook the air inside the loot cellar.
Subaru then saw the result that scream had sought to prevent.
Something was flying, spinning in the air.
It was Rom’s right arm, still tightly gripping his club.
The arm, which had been severed at the shoulder, flew through the air, spraying blood everywhere before it landed against the wall.
The whole room had been showered with blood. Subaru and Felt were no exception.
Felt screamed again.
“If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me!” Having lost his right arm, Rom was spraying blood out of his shoulder like a hose. Without even trying to stop the flow of blood, Rom leapt forward toward Elsa, to attack her with his one remaining arm.
As the splintered wooden table fell to the ground, Elsa stood behind it, still holding the position of the follow-through of her swing.
Before Elsa could flip the kukri back around, Rom’s giant body would crush her. But in that fleeting moment of Rom’s last stand…
“I forgot to tell you before, but thank you for the milk.”
…he was cut short. With her other hand Elsa struck with a broken shard from the very glass she had been drinking from. On the sharp tip of the shard were droplets of blood—blood that had come from Rom’s slit throat.
His arm severed and his throat cut, blood frothed from the old man’s mouth, and as the light from his eyes vanished, he collapsed on the ground. Though his body convulsed there was no strength left in it, as Rom’s life was dragged away even as it clung to his body.
Elsa bowed once gracefully toward the body, as if paying her respects.
While Rom’s body continued to twitch, Elsa gently placed the remains of the glass down by his feet. “I’ll give this back. I don’t need it anymore,” she said coldly, before twirling her kukri around in her hand and pointing its red-stained tip toward Subaru and Felt. However, Subaru, still collapsed the floor, was unable to say anything.
All of Subaru’s thought processes had been arrested by the slaughter that had taken place before his eyes.
Someone that he had been talking to just a few minutes ago was now dead. Dead not by sickness or an accent, but killed by the actions of another, plain and simple.
“Ah, I see that you’re the one with the courage,” Elsa said, impressed, and Subaru, still unable to move, looked up.
While Subaru was still in a state of shock, Felt had stood up and was slapping her legs to keep her knees from shaking. She then pushed back her blood-soaked hair.
“How… How dare you…”
Subaru was behind Felt, so he could not see her expression. However, it was clear from her voice that she was not choking back tears.
“If you put up too much of a struggle, you will only end up hurting more,” said Elsa.
“I bet you’d still plan on killing us even if we didn’t fight back, you psycho…!”
&
nbsp; “If you move too much I won’t be able to make a clean cut. …I’m not all that skilled with a blade.” As Elsa said this, she twirled the kukri around and pretended as if she were practicing the proper cuts to butcher Felt.
But Felt was empty-handed. There was no way that she could win.
In his mind, Subaru had reached the conclusion that he should cry out. He needed to distract Elsa, even if only a little bit, to allow time for Felt to escape.
If he could just give her time to call for help, or even just escape on her own… But even though Subaru had made his decision, he couldn’t stop his body from shaking.
“…I’m sorry for getting you wrapped up in all of this,” Felt said to Subaru in an apology little above a whisper.
“I-I…” In response, Subaru’s face jolted up toward Felt, and forgetting the words he should have said to her, he could only manage a choked mutter as though pleading for her forgiveness.
But Felt left Subaru’s sentiments forever behind her as she dashed forward. There was a loud sound as she kicked off from the ground, and it was as though a gale had suddenly blown through the cellar. Just when Subaru thought that Felt had vanished from his sight, he saw Elsa’s body twist.
A high-pitched sound rang out, and Felt clicked her tongue from Elsa’s side. In Felt’s hand was a small knife, and with Elsa’s overwhelmingly fast reaction she was able to dodge Felt’s attack.
Felt leapt back, riding the gust of air she made as she flew. With Felt’s irregular movements, even the walls of the cellar became like ground to her. Even Elsa seemed to be surprised by Felt’s acrobatic feats.
“So you have the protection of the wind. Oh, how wonderful. The world must adore you…I envy that.” Elsa’s ecstatic smile suddenly turned, and her eyes were filled with hatred as her arm bent back.
Re: Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Vol. 1 Page 11
