Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World. Volume. 9.
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‘Chapter 3:- THE SELF-DECLARED KNIGHT AND “THE FINEST OF KNIGHTS”.’
Sub-chapter 1.
“May the grace of the spirits be with you.”
Climbing aboard the dragon carriage for evacuation, those were the words of prayer Emilia left the expeditionary force upon her departure from Earlham Village. To Subaru, that grace was as powerful as any blessing.
With only the best intentions, Emilia was deceived via an exaggerated performance for her own sake and sent away from Earlham Village along with the villagers themselves. Time continued onward.
It was also after Subaru had made full use of Return by Death to capture Kety—the finger from the Witch Cult lurking among the traveling merchants.
Subaru watched the horde of dragon carriages run off as his eyes shifted to the formation of knights accompanying them. Ten knights had been selected from among the expeditionary force to escort the evacuating carriages. The chance the Witch Cult would detect the evacuation was low, but they’d sent a detachment just in case.
The dragon carriages had two destinations: the royal capital and the Sanctuary. Subaru knew nothing about the latter except the name, but the fact that Ram had given it her stamp of approval was proof enough it was safe. Their safety was no doubt far more assured than that of Subaru and the others facing the decisive battle with the Witch Cult.
After all, the greatest combat power in the expeditionary force was escorting Emilia and the others.
“Sir Subaru, I pray for your fortune in battle.”
“Take care yourself, Wilhelm,” Subaru said after Wilhelm brought up the rear of the detachment from atop his land dragon. Facing the battle to come without Wilhelm was akin to rolling the dice. However, where the impending decisive battle with Petelgeuse was concerned, the Sword Devil’s presence was not an indispensable element for defeating the madman. For that reason, fully aware it was a reckless request, Subaru had insisted on entrusting the defense of Emilia and the other evacuees to Wilhelm, to which he had readily agreed.
“Well, Petra and the others did jump at the chance to take care of Emilia…”
The children had merrily accepted Emilia aboard their carriage, just as Subaru had asked. The children had led Emilia by the hand, making her relieved that they had not rejected her. Remembering that scene, deep feelings of warmth arose in Subaru’s chest—and at the same time, pangs of guilt.
“Using happy feelings to fool Emilia into going along with the situation and escaping… I’ve become quite a villain, playing with people’s hearts like that. That stuff about me not reading atmospheres or human hearts seems like a lie now.”
Grimacing in self-derision, Subaru vigorously scratched his own head.
It was too easy to dismiss his deceiving her as his hoping for Emilia’s safety. Even so, the fact was, it had put her mind at ease. Besides, asking her to ride with the children had been a calculation by itself.
“Even if the lie’s exposed, as long as someone holds Emilia back…”
The gentle Emilia probably couldn’t shake off the hands of people concerned for her from the bottom of their hearts. Hence Subaru had intentionally created a situation where the children would bond with Emilia.
“She’ll look down on me if that part ever comes out, so I’ll keep that a secret for life…”
Puck, too, had agreed that it was better that way. The spirit, his fellow actor cooperating with the performance—or rather coconspirator—would not be leaving Emilia’s side.
Emilia’s security was guaranteed like never before—at least, he wanted to believe that.
“Looks like the village types and the half-demon girl left already. Looks like ya did pretty good, huh?”
As Subaru collected his thoughts, he heard hearty Kararagi dialect tossed his way from behind. When he looked back, he saw Ricardo coming over, carrying his great hatchet with him. Subaru glared at the dog-man’s dog face and spoke.
“Stop calling my pretty Emilia a half-demon, you half-mutt!”
“Ohh! Gettin’ called a half-mutt is surprisingly humiliatin’! I’ll have to remember that one!”
He let loose a hearty, sarcastic laugh, and his forbearance drained the bitterness out of Subaru’s strained smile. However, Subaru’s cheeks soon tensed anew as he walked beside Ricardo and turned toward the forest.
“So how’d it go? Got the job done like I asked?”
“Hey, we split up to hit them by surprise in places they never expected to be attacked, right? If I screwed that up I’d quit my post. Every last part went great. We kicked their asses all over the map!”
Ricardo amiably showed him the blood still stuck to his great hatchet, patting the map on his hip with his palm.
“Meaning we were right the places marked on that map were where their hideouts were.”
“That’s what they get for bein’ so methodical with their plannin’. You did good, bro.”
Ricardo bared his fangs. The original owner of the map on his hip was, in fact, Kety the Witch Cultist. Thanks to his capture according to Subaru’s scheme, they’d gained both his conversation mirror and his map. The map contained a highly detailed layout of the Mathers domain, and ten places had been marked upon it.
The markers were probably for Witch Cult hideouts—and to find out for sure, Subaru had sent Ricardo & Co. to the closest marker on the map. The results had apparently been as expected.
As if to prove that information correct, members of the Iron Fangs leaped out of the forest on their ligers, merrily galloping around the village square and by all appearances unscathed.
“Yahoo! We slaughtered ’em all!”
“Sister, do not say such foul-sounding things! We took proper captives!”
The smiling banter between the siblings, smelling of blood, made Subaru pat his chest in relief. He was happy about victory, but also that no one had been lost in the process. No matter how high the odds of victory, the one sending people off to battle always had reason to be concerned. Likely those reasons had been greatly minimized because of that map.
“And besides that…luck’s really fallin’ your way, bro.”
“—? Whaddaya mean by…?”
“The hideout you picked me to hit had this layin’ around.”
As Subaru cocked his head, Ricardo took something out of the cloth tied around his waist and tossed it Subaru’s way. Subaru immediately caught it, and his eyes went wide at the light sensation in his palm.
This was a mirror—indeed, the spitting image of one he had seen very recently.
“A conversation mirror…and this has to be on the other end of the one Kety had!”
“Accordin’ to our info, the Witch Cultist we captured was communicatin’ by mirror. Now that we got this from the ones I just mopped up, they won’t be tellin’ the other Witch Cultists nothin’… Real convenient, bustin’ up their communication network like that. Ya couldn’t ask for a more promisin’ start!”
When Subaru’s eyes popped wide at results beyond his wildest hopes, Ricardo opened his maw in a great laugh.
If his deduction was fact, they certainly had gained even more of an advantage over the Witch Cult. But after the feeling of everything going well had been followed by his tasting heaps of bitterness the last time around…
“—”
“Hey, bro. You don’t look very happy.”
“…No one escaped the hideout you smashed? If even one escaped, it’s all for nothing.”
“Whaddaya think this sharp nose o’ mine is for? Of course not. Just…”
Ricardo strongly thumped his chest, but suddenly he awkwardly lowered the tone of his voice.
“I’m sure no one got away, but it’s kind of a problem if there are other mirrors.”
“I knew it! What? What was it?! Some kind of fatal flaw… There’s an issue that’s gonna knock out the entire foundation of the operation, isn’t there?! Shit! I knew things were going too well!!”
“Hey, hey, what’s with the fantasies of damage?! Ya can’t be a general and be a worrywart like that! Besides, there’s no guarantee somethin’ bad happened, so stop assumin’!”
As a pale Subaru clung to him, Ricardo retorted with an overly intimidating face. Then the dog-man wrapped an arm around Subaru’s head, choosing his words to rectify the latter’s stubborn paranoia.
“Look here, see? It’s not like anything bad’s happened. Just we can’t celebrate till the Witch Cult’s smashed flat… Ahh, seeing’s faster than talkin’ anyway. Hey, bring in that guy from earlier!”
As Subaru grimaced, his head still in Ricardo’s grasp, Ricardo indicated for his men to bring something over. When Subaru saw what they carried, his expression shifted—first to worry, then to disbelief.
Atop a liger, a single human being was being carried in, his entire body bound by rope.
“~~!!”
When the person noticed Subaru and Ricardo, he wrung out a muffled wail. Perhaps it was an objection to the impropriety of his treatment, or perhaps a plea to spare his life—
“We found ’im in the middle of the Witch Cult roost. I think he just got captured by ’em out of bad luck, but… Hey, what’s with ya?”
In the middle of his explanation, Ricardo found it odd that Subaru’s eyes were nailed to the wrapped-up person. But this was surely the natural reaction for him to have.
After all, the bound man wriggling around there was none other than—
“Pfft.”
Unable to contain himself, Subaru let out a small sound. He pointed to the young man bound hand, foot, and even torso, and burst out laughing.
“So you got yourself captured! I thought I was never gonna see your face here, Otto!”
And so Subaru called out the last name in the dramatis personae, excess misfortune having thus far denied him the stage.
Sub-chapter 2.
After letting quite a few laughs fly at his expense, Subaru freed Otto from his bonds.
“Though I am…not particularly inclined to simply say, ‘Thank you very much for aiding me…’”
“Hey, is that how you talk to the group that saved your life? You wouldn’t want nasty rumors to spread, would you?”
“What kind of base villain are you?! What a person! Oh, fine, thank you very much! Thanks to you my life has been spared! Not that living brings any great comfort, damn it all!”
Half in desperation, Otto spoke his thanks to Subaru, who was bullying him with full knowledge of his precarious circumstances.
Otto had been discovered when Ricardo & Co. raided a Witch Cult stronghold. Apparently he’d been affixed to a cross in a cave in the mountains, and he had been rescued on the verge of becoming a human sacrifice.
“Well, we can’t rule out the possibility he’s a Witch Cultist, so we should bring him back tied for now…”
“We’re treasuring him, almost like, ‘Let’s keep him around just in case. It’s nice to have a human sacrifice on hand when you need one’?”
“What kind of appraisal is that for someone you just met?! I haven’t done anything to you, you know?!”
Red faced and bound, Otto moved his limbs around and wailed at Subaru’s overly harsh words.
“Well, setting that aside,” said Subaru, brushing away Otto’s frustration. “So how did you wind up captured? If there’s something behind it, go ahead and tell us.”
“That is, ah…something I truly do not wish to divulge for reasons of personal convenience…”
“If you don’t want to say it, that’s fine— Incidentally, changing the subject, most of the traveling merchants gathered in this domain right now are heading toward the mansion of Marquis Mathers to make a little money.”
“That’s not changing the subject, though! I heard that so I know already, you know?! Ahh, that’s right! I am the fool who leaped at the fortuitous talk of profit, first in line charging down this treacherous road and captured through his own ill fortune! Go ahead, laugh!”
“That so… Glad you’re all right, then. Tch, you’re making me break into tears…”
“What is with those hollow tears?! Is not grasping at a fishy story explanation enough for you?!!”
Subaru pitied Otto and his wistful, energetic confession, warmly taking in the sight of him lamenting the inhumanity of it all. Apparently, his merchant nature had spurred him into some rather impulsive actions. Subaru was relieved that the impression he’d received from their previous encounters hadn’t changed at all.
Subaru’s mischievous demeanor led Otto to let out a sigh of unbridled dejection.
“Goodness…what a person, after I properly thanked him for saving my life and everything…”
“Wha— I did save your life, you just don’t want me to rub it in? You owe me one!”
“To be frank, I feel like this ‘one’ is a particularly large debt, so one I feel little desire to acknowledge!”
Otto’s face scowled grandly when Subaru raised his index finger and declared him to be indebted. Afterward Subaru smiled as Otto kept repeating, “Debt, debt…” as he took it in with a look most sour.
Yet at the same time, his actions established to Subaru that there was nothing suspicious about him, relieving him of the need for extra prudence.
“—”
It went the same for Ricardo, on guard as he watched the two conversing from the side.
The mere fact that he’d been brought from an enemy stronghold made Otto’s position delicate to the extreme. Considering that Kety, positioned as leader of the traveling merchants, was a spy, Subaru couldn’t help but give Otto, who had gotten along well with Kety during previous go-arounds, the strictest of scrutiny.
After all, carelessly trusting him only to be betrayed would render Subaru’s efforts to date all for naught…
“…Man, I’ve turned into a pretty disagreeable guy.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I’m glad you’re all right. Hey, Mimi, that’s great, huh?”
“Mm? Ahh, okay! I’m happy and super thrilled you’re all right, Mister Half-Bawling-My-Eyes-Out!”
When Subaru bounced the conversation Mimi’s way, she divulged the circumstances of Otto’s rescue. After Mimi voiced that truth, she cocked her head and said, “Isn’t that right?” as Otto collapsed then and there.
“Ahh, it’s no wonder you half bawled your eyes out. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. This is between you, me, Mimi, Ricardo, and after that, the Iron Fangs and everyone in the expeditionary force…”
“Does that not make it an open secret…?”
“Anyway, there’s no worry about the Witch Cult attacking this village, so you can cool your heels here. Also, my condolences over half bawling your eyes out, and my condolences about the moneymaking talk, too.”
“Your condolences…? Surely you cannot mean…?!”
Otto looked around the village in shock, looking like his world had come to an end.
“Do not tell me that everyone has already been…”
“The fact that you’re alive after being captured by the Witch Cult means you’ve been blessed by heaven… Er, no, the fact that you got captured to begin with means heaven has abandoned you. Well, live strong!”
“If you are going to console me, won’t you look after me till the bitter end?!”
With Otto breaking into tears, Subaru gave him a pat on the shoulder and looked at Ricardo. As he did so, the dog-man wrinkled his snout and tilted his head up. Apparently, even his veteran mercenary’s eyes judged Otto to be an utterly harmless object of pity. Subaru thought of that as the silver lining in the cloud.
“So from here on, this’ll be the front line against the Witch Cult. We’ve got a lot to do…but I can’t think of anything you can do to help with that. Maybe you could sort out the list of the freight the other traveling merchants left behind?”
“Will you pay me a fee for that?!”
“Man, even I’m surprised. You’re even more desperate than I thought. Yeah, yeah, I’ll pay. Someone here tag along with Otto?”
With suspicions about him lifted, Subaru gave Otto a job to do and moved that concern to the back of the line for the moment. Instead, Subaru headed to the expeditionary force, just finished reorganizing its ranks with Julius at its head.
“You reunited with a familiar face, yes? Is that really enough warmth toward an old acquaintance?”
Julius, noticing Subaru’s approach, turned toward him before he could say anything. Subaru grimaced at his words, pointing over his shoulder toward Otto, now standing facing the pile of freight.
“Behind the stupid laughs and the stupid conversation, I was suspecting he was up to something the whole time. My personality’s gotten so rotten I’m starting to hate myself.”
“Thanks to that rotten personality, we have come this far unscathed. I believe you should take pride in that rotten personality—though perhaps you should not express it in those exact terms.”
“Your personality is pretty rotten, too. I guarantee it.”
“Yes, yes, have you two rotten personalities finished speaking yet?”
The exchange between Subaru and Julius made Ferris cock his little head and smile mischievously. In a vengeful mood, Subaru grandly curled his lips and spoke.
“What is it, rotten personality kitty ears?”
“My, what a way to speak to me, meow. And Ferri tries and tries his hawdest for everyone’s sake, meow!”
“And your earnest efforts have always been of great aid. So what have you learned?”
“Mm. I’ve managed to learn a few things about the fingers from the captured Witch Cultists.”
When Julius prompted, Ferris’s smile vanished as he pointed to a cabin they’d commandeered.
Ferris must have been directly checking inside the body of Kety, the captured Witch Cultist held within.
During the previous go-around, Ferris had suffered repeated anguish from being unable to stop the Witch Cultists from committing suicide. For that reason Subaru had been somewhat anxious about the examination of Kety’s body, but—
“First, the cultists seem to have a magic stone embedded into them that turns into powerful poison for suicide purposes. But the fingers seem to get special treatment… Instead of poison, there’s an explosion ritual embedded into them, so that when they kill themselves, they take everyone nearby with them.”
“Sounds like it’s not so much meant for stopping information from leaking out as for the archbishop’s Possession, huh? If he needs to die so he can body swap, it’s a given he’d counter being knocked out and tied up by killing himself.”
“For suicide… But surely it is likely a method of external activation exists. What about that case?”
“I was worried about that, too, so I nullified the ritual and ripped the whole thing out~~!”
Ferris had a simple answer to Julius’s concern. But judging from Julius’s wide-eyed reaction, that had been no easy feat. Ferris continued. “Also, about the characteristics of the fingers that Subawu was so concerned about… It’s not so much stagnant Gates as having weird clumps of mana. I think the presence or absence of this sets the fingers apart from the regular cultists, and that the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins can only transfer into the ones with this planted in them.”
“So the condition for Possession is the difference between the general members and the premium members of the club. What happened to that clump of mana?”
“I melted it and scrambled it all up. So we can’t really call him a finger anymore.”
“You managed all that?! That’s huge!”
Subaru, his voice leaping at Ferris’s report, grabbed his slender hand and vigorously shook it up and down. He had nothing but praise for Ferris’s skill in checking so much in such a short time.
“Meow meow!! Well, it’s what you should expect of Ferri, meow? But it’s also thanks to your figuring out that the fingers committed suicide a different way, Subawu.”
“No, all the credit for this goes to you. You would’ve had a ton of regrets if it didn’t work out…”
“What the…? Ferri would never regret anything where people like that are concerned!”
Ferris stuck his tongue out and pried his hand loose from Subaru’s shake. Subaru made a pained smile at Ferris’s teasing demeanor. Ferris would never know it, but Subaru was congratulating him for winning the rematch from the last time around.
Besides, thanks to Ferris’s valiant efforts, he’d largely managed to piece together a hypothesis.
“Besides, if you neutralized the conditions for Possession, that prisoner won’t die, right?”
“However vile his tongue, the Gate inside his body has been set straight… We should bring him back to the royal capital and treat him as a precious source of information. He fainted from the pain of pulling the ritual out, and he’s still out cold~~!”
Ferris closed one eye and guaranteed that Kety’s life was safe, if nothing else. Subaru couldn’t conceive of the pain of having the ritual ripped out of him. And then—
“We’ve finally managed to take a single proper prisoner. There’s no need to take more risks. You see what I’m getting at?”
“What, you think at this point I’m gonna go soft weighing those guys against the people important to me…?”
When Ferris’s eyes questioned his resolve, Subaru nodded to them without showing even a moment’s pause.
To bring down the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins of Sloth, the Witch Cultists had to be wiped out, fingers included. That meant a literal battle of annihilation.
And it was none other than Subaru Natsuki who would sound the signal for that battle to begin.
“…Hmm. You really have straightened yourself out, Subawu.”
As Subaru clenched a fist, Ferris narrowed his eyes, murmuring as he gazed at the side of Subaru’s face. The contents of that murmur brought a pained smile over Subaru as he slumped his shoulders.
“Hey, now, don’t put it like that. It doesn’t sound like much of a compliment.”
“I’m not complimenting you. You’ve gone from bad to normal. Don’t get carried away with yourself, meow.”
With an adorable face, Ferris laid into Subaru until the bitter end.
He’d probably been the person to judge Subaru the most harshly of all since they’d departed the royal capital. That was probably because they both lacked the power to do battle by themselves—those who can’t fight alone are stuck together, for better or worse.
While Ferris’s appraisal of Subaru’s weakness was harsh, it was fair at the same time, and Subaru hated that.
“Don’t like that, huh? Right now, you’ve climbed up to normal. Understand?”
“Normal, huh? Gotcha. But it makes me kinda glad.”
“—People don’t want to have their beliefs twisted out of shape, you see. Subawu, you must not hesitate or go astray. So don’t let anything shake your resolve.”
Ferris responded to Subaru’s lighthearted words with a statement in a firm voice. It thrust deep into Subaru’s slightly relaxed chest, driving home just what was the source of his so-called resolve.
No, Ferris didn’t have to say it. It was something he had to realize and face by himself.
“Preparations are completely in order— Subaru, we may begin anytime.”
Having put the expeditionary force in order, Julius addressed Subaru to create an opportunity for him. It was not just he—everyone from the ranks of the expeditionary force and the Iron Fangs awaited Subaru’s voice as one.
Their morale was high before the climactic battle, their spirits beginning to soar above the battlefield centered upon the village square.
“—”
Subaru felt that fighting spirit as he slightly tipped his head back, looking up at the sky.
He couldn’t remove all uncertain elements. Even so, he’d sent Emilia and the others off, entrusting them to Wilhelm, and thanks to Ferris, they’d grasped the true nature of the fingers. Julius was awaiting his signal.
He’d done his utmost to put human affairs in order. All he could do now was smile, reel it all in, and await the verdict of heaven.
“—Let’s do this. Everyone, start just like we arranged.”
He lowered his gaze from the sky, turning it straight toward the members of the expeditionary force standing before him. At his urging, the warriors mounted their beasts of war without a word, acting in accordance with Subaru’s words.
“”
“Yeah. Thanks, Patlash.”
The jet-black land dragon had been standing close to Subaru’s side the whole time, eagerly awaiting her turn. Subaru stroked her hard hide with his palm before mounting up like the others.
Julius’s and Ricardo’s mounts were to their sides, sandwiching Subaru between them. Ferris, left on the ground by himself, nodded to Subaru with a serious look as Subaru took his place in the vanguard.
Then he heralded the start of the final battle.
“Now, this time we’ll settle this— Sloth, Sir Fate, I ain’t goin’ easy on ya.”
Sub-chapter 3.
Subaru had inferred several things about Petelgeuse’s Possession.
First, it was the power to shift into the bodies of others, stealing them for himself.
Second, Petelgeuse’s so-called fingers were retainers for him to transfer into, so as a precondition of defeating Petelgeuse, all the fingers had to be destroyed.
Third, if Petelgeuse lost all his fingers, he would transfer to a different body instead. Subaru’s body was the leading candidate.
The parasite of the mind was so powerful, it was virtually impossible to resist by one’s own devices— The end.
“Now that I’m writing these down, this is like, kills-you-as-soon-as-he-sees-you-level stuff. Plus he even has Unseen Hands, so you can’t just laugh and say, ‘Nah, nothing’s that evil.’”
The Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins had two powers. Subaru was confident that if you didn’t know them, you could challenge him a hundred times and be killed every time.
In the course of repeating while keeping his memory, searching over and over for a plan to beat him, Subaru finally saw with clarity the fearsomeness of his foe. Small wonder the Witch Cult had had such influence on the world over the course of four centuries.
Such was the scale of Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti, the madman specializing in killing at first sight.
“Well, that’s what I’m here for.”
The best thing for taking on a kill-at-first-sight enemy was someone for whom it wasn’t first sight.
Thus it was Subaru Natsuki, he who had Returned by Death, who was Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti’s mortal foe.
Once again, Subaru cut through the gloomy forest of overgrown trees as his feet carried him to the wall of rock.
Green covered the landscape at every turn, a world where even directional sense seemed suspect. However, Subaru’s steps were certain. His senses, his feet, the experiences carved into his memory—all these things guided Subaru forward.
“Let’s get this show on the road.”
Smiling bitterly at the quickening of his heartbeats, Subaru murmured thus as he gave his chest two light slaps. Then he headed forward. The place had come into view.
Until that moment, Subaru had never approached that place with the resolve to fight in his heart. The last time around, he’d been buying time as a decoy; before that he’d been drowning in the bloodlust of others and the yearning for suicide.
But this time was different. At minimum, this time was different from the others.
Subaru had come to that place with the resolve to fight hardened in his heart, all so he could bring a long, long string of karma, a battle repeated over and over, to a final end.
“—It is good that you have come, disciple of love.”
Subaru shuddered with joy when suddenly the forest opened and he was greeted with warm words of welcome.
When he slipped out of the woods, a sheer cliff spread straight ahead of him, rising high into his field of vision. A slender man was standing in front of the rock face with both arms spread wide. His eyes welcomed Subaru with a fiery glow.
Was it now four times he had been greeted by this sight?
No matter who it was, when you saw someone’s face repeatedly, you let the person into your heart to a certain extent—but it seemed that was impossible so far as this man was concerned.
“I AM the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Witch Cult charged with Sloth—”
The madman stretched out his hand, bloodied from self-inflicted wounds, as his trademark line lit the spark. With his eyes drenched in madness, the man arched back, stuck out his tongue, snapping his eyes wide as he said—
“—Petelgeuse…Romanée-CONTI!!”
With a flutter of his black habit, the madman loudly proclaimed his name with a clap of his bloody hands. Petelgeuse proceeded to stamp the ground, breaking into a happy little dance as he laughed with delight.
“It is A fine day, A splendid day! To think that this day, the day of the trial, I would BE greeting a new adherent of love! I AM moved, greatly moved, moved to tears, my chest is on the verge of bursting!!”
The madman let spittle fly as he embraced his own body of skin and bones. Subaru harbored disgust for his eccentricities, but he was accustomed enough to smooth over his facial expressions in the man’s presence.
On top of that, Subaru executed the operation just as agreed upon beforehand. Namely—
“Lord Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins! It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time!”
These words spoken, Subaru rushed over and knelt at the madman’s feet. He touched his left hand to his chest, raising his right aloft as he bowed his head with utmost respect and spoke.
“I am truly embarrassed to have made it to you on the very eve of this trial! Lord Archbishop, by all means, please use this body, this soul, to fill any vacancy among the faithful, and add me to your fingers with all haste!”
Thus, with an excess of bombast, did Subaru speak bald-faced lies. He proclaimed his prepared lines with a high-pitched voice, infused his face with maximum reverence that went only skin deep, and silently awaited the madman’s reaction.
“”
Petelgeuse made no response to Subaru’s earnest plea. He said nothing. He did not move. The disquieting silence made Subaru swallow his saliva as he increased his caution and alertness concerning Petelgeuse’s next move.
The silence continued for about ten more seconds before it was abruptly broken by—
“OOOH! Such, such fervent zeal from the very first meeting?!”
Petelgeuse gazed up, extending both hands to the heavens. His voice and his entire body were shaking; he had been moved to tears.
“What a disciple love has called! In all my time cursed as Sloth, I cannot recall one with such clear eyes! YOU! YOU, a pious adherent of love! How unworthy I must be to have overlooked you all this time! I ASK you to forgive my slothfulness—!”
Petelgeuse cast his limbs aside as he practically leaped onto the ground in front of the fragile-hearted Subaru. Without hesitation the madman prostrated himself on the rocky ground, banging his head against the surface several times. The merciless self-punishment made his forehead bleed, but he had such a great tendency to inflict self-harm that he probably did this much every day before breakfast.
Now that Subaru knew it was someone else’s body, the disgust he felt when seeing Petelgeuse act that way was stronger than ever before.
Either way, it would not do for him to self-punish to the point of dying. Behind the scenes, the operation was quietly proceeding—messing up by letting Petelgeuse switch bodies would waste everything.
“Please stop, Lord Archbishop! Such actions bring no joy to the Witch Cult!”
“Ahh, but! Butbutbutbutbuuuuut! My very own sloth! My sin! The ugly fact ONE such as I have not repaid Her love! I possess no other way to REPENT!!”
“That is not so! The Witch Cult would rather its cherished followers repay her favor than see them hurt themselves! It is the will to carry out the trial that will surely bring it joy!”
Petelgeuse was continuing to thrust his head against the ground when Subaru used rambling speech to stop him. But suddenly the words brought Petelgeuse to a halt; he stared at Subaru, eyes wide open. With those parched eyes upon him, Subaru strongly nodded, not that it meant anything to special to Subaru.
When he did so, Petelgeuse’s obsession seemed to fall away. A single tear trickled down his face as he spoke.
“Yes, it is just as you SAY.”
“—?!”
He said it in an uncharacteristically gentle way. The next moment, Subaru found Petelgeuse strongly embracing him.
Subaru’s throat caught as powerful, instinctive repugnance hit him, but the madman paid his reaction no heed. Petelgeuse grandly wept, wiping away neither his flowing tears nor the blood on his forehead.
“Ahh, I am wrong, I am deeply mistaken! Yes! The trial! What I require is not to punish, judge, or slay myself, but the trial! What terrible slothfulness, forgetting that while wallowing in the joy of my own wounds! I thank you! I thank YOU!!”
When Subaru turned in Petelgeuse’s arms, he faced upward as Petelgeuse showered him with one-sided gratitude.
Petelgeuse wiped the blood off his brow and thrust his right hand’s fingers into his mouth, the same mouth that bespoke the foolishness of self-injury, crushing the thumb, index, and middle fingers one by one.
“I am worthless if I am slothful! Diligence is the most valuable thing in this world, and in this world, sloth is the worst vice that I must abhor! Ahh, AHH, ahh, I must repay Her love!”
He was in a precarious, incoherent state in which word and deed were no longer aligned. He reflected upon self-harm as he crushed his own fingers, only to lament his rash actions the next moment.
Subaru, feeling the need to bring his mad, nigh-unbearable nature to a quick end, put his hand in his pocket. However, his palm was not greeted by the hoped-for reaction. More time was needed for the operation to proceed.
“Lord Archbishop—may I speak to you about the trial?”
Fearful of an ugly silence taking hold, Subaru took a deep breath, concealed his inner thoughts, and spoke those words. The last time around, he had failed to get anything out of Petelgeuse regarding the trial, so he was still in the dark about the particulars. A trial meant a test of some sort. The Witch Cult was subjecting Emilia to some kind of test in accordance with its dogma.
If fate bound Emilia to the Witch Cult going forward, he wanted to dig up something…
“Lord Archbishop, now that I have joined you, I would truly like to ask you about the trial.”
“The trial…”
When the words haltingly trickled from Petelgeuse, his expression suddenly lost all emotion. Perhaps his mania from before had vanished into thin air; as the madman gazed at Subaru with hollow eyes, he put the remaining fingers—the ring finger and the little finger—of his already-bloody right hand into his mouth, crushing them with his teeth. And then—
“Yes, the trial! The TRIAL!! THE trial! We must carry out the trial and test her! We cannot fail to test this half-demon, and learn if she is a suitable vessel for the descent of the Witch!”
Subaru was bathed in a strange, shrill voice and stinky breath as Petelgeuse broke into a little dance. Subaru grimaced in shock and disgust as the madman’s declaration sank in.
“A vessel for the Witch’s…descent…?”
“If she passes, embrace her! If she fails, eliminate her! We must test the half-demon’s capacity to accept life, whether she is suitable for the Witch, whether the Witch’s love can be sealed within! And the TRIAL is how we determine this!”
The madman responded to Subaru’s doubt-instilled voice with his own mad voice, raising his hands above his head in the process. The words struck Subaru like a revelation; he was horrified by the comprehension he had gained.
Vessel. Witch. Descend— If he could take the meanings of those words at face value, then…
“If the trial determines she’s a suitable vessel for the Witch, the Witch will descend into her body…”
“Someday that fateful day shall arrive when the Witch is resurrected into this world—! We exist to bear witness to that moment! And for this purpose I, and my fingers, shall exhaust all efforts… This is MY love!”
Petelgeuse was moved to tears, for in his world, it was the most blessed occasion conceivable. The sight of the madman before him made Subaru sick to his stomach.
Based on all that, all the acts of savagery Petelgeuse had engaged in, all the slaughter he had perpetrated, and his pushing Subaru’s heart to the breaking point had been because—
“—You people don’t see any value in Emilia herself, do you?”
To them, “Emilia” was nothing more than a box into which they could stuff the soul of the Witch.
They were after a container. Their great objective—the revival of the Witch—loomed large before them. The girl’s aspirations, how gentle her heart was, how hardworking she was…these things simply didn’t matter.
This was at once bottomless contempt for Emilia as an individual girl and, to Subaru, whose heart was greatly swayed by her existence, a humiliation difficult to endure.
“—Monster.”
Petelgeuse did not notice that for a single moment, a single word, Subaru let his true feelings slip.
He did not think of burning a village to the ground as excessive in the slightest if it was for the sake of his villainous goals. He could casually dismiss the life story of each and every person he laid hands upon, brushing their dreams and futures aside.
That was why Petelgeuse and the Witch Cult were Subaru Natsuki’s enemies.
“…Lord Archbishop, I have humbly heard your esteemed views. Hearing the ideals of the Witch Cult, and your determination to win, I am truly, deeply impressed. Let’s make certain this trial succeeds.”
“Ohhhh! You are indeed splendid! Yes! We shall become as one, and wholeheartedly hurl ourselves toward my long-cherished desire! Since the day I accepted Her favor, my entire being, my entire spirit became rubbish devoted solely to repaying Her love… Ahhh, Satella! I BELONG to you!”
Petelgeuse approved of Subaru’s superficial praise, accepting it with great delight rather than doubt.
“It is YOU, an ideal disciple, who should truly be exalted! With the favor so rich within you, should you intend to join the fingers. I shall bestow the Factor upon you without DELAY!”
“Then by all means, please make me one of your fingers!”
“I am truly delighted by your unexpected offer! BUT, BUT…the numbers of my fingers have already been filled. There must be something more suitable for the likes of you… Yes, that is IT!”
Petelgeuse was counting on his bloodied fingers when he put a hand into his habit like he’d just remembered something. What he took out of his pocket was a single black book—his Gospel.
The madman lovingly touched its cover; his breath went ragged as his eyes perused its contents.
“The words recorded in the Gospel, its entire tale of love, is what guides MY future! Accordingly, all that I am…all that I ever shall be, is recorded WITHIN!”
Froth came into the corners of Petelgeuse’s mouth as he browsed the pages with a laugh.
Subaru, who had once stolen that Gospel from him, knew that the strange contents of the black book were indecipherable. But to its owner, Petelgeuse, the characters constituted a legible tale. And his actions were in accordance with its passages.
If that was true, Subaru’s real enemy was whoever had written that Gospel’s passages to begin with.
“Present thy Gospel.”
Petelgeuse, audibly closing his Gospel, spoke that single phrase. The madman cocked his neck at a ninety-degree angle, twisted his hips to the same extent, and stared at Subaru with a neutral expression.
These were the words Subaru feared most. According to previous experience, even if a conversation had gone well up to that point, that question served to sever the flow.
If someone was a Witch Cultist, they had a Gospel—no exceptions. The black books, their origin and method of creation unknown, served as proof of identity among members of the Witch Cult.
Accordingly, Petelgeuse was asking Subaru to show his ID.
Whatever answer he might come up with would greatly influence the course of circumstances, but—
“What is THE matter?”
In contrast to the silent Subaru, Petelgeuse left his head bent at that angle, his long tongue drooping out.
All he had to do was show off his Gospel. A disturbing air began to waft around Petelgeuse as Subaru failed to prove himself even to that extent. Amid that bone-chilling aura, Subaru slowly put his hand into his pocket.
Then he thrust what he had taken out before Petelgeuse’s eyes. But—
“What…is this?”
“As you can see, it’s a metia, Lord Archbishop.”
Petelgeuse’s eyes were wide in surprise, for that which had been thrust before him was a mirror—a conversation mirror, to be specific. There was no doubt that the madman recognized it; after all, it had been in the possession of one of the madman’s very own fingers. The fact that Subaru had it was throwing the madman off.
But his surprise did not end there. Before his eyes, the surface of the mirror began to faintly glow.
“Ah, it’s turning on. Wow, your face is scarier than I heard!”
The adorable voice they heard over the mirror was very much out of place in the current situation. Subaru couldn’t see the mirror’s surface, but Petelgeuse was no doubt seeing the speaker, a certain kitty-eared knight.
It was like playing a really bad joke—but this constituted the signal for the operation.
“What have YOU… No! What have YOU people done!!”
“Now, then. Ahem. Tora-tora-tora!”
“—?!”
Ferris suddenly stated those words to an uncomprehending, angry Petelgeuse. The madman did not know the meaning of the words. Accordingly, Subaru explained them.
“It means, ‘The surprise raid was a success’—”
Subaru pointed to the mirror in his hand, laughing at the wide-eyed Petelgeuse.
This was not the made-up smiling face from earlier, but the real Subaru—smiling like a little punk.
“Wh-wha—?”
“You don’t look like you’ll understand no matter how many times I say it. Well, don’t worry about it.”
With Petelgeuse thrown for a loop, Subaru continued his full, beaming smile as he raised a hand above his head.
And then—
“I can’t understand what the hell you’re saying, either!”
“What a—?!”
Subaru spoke fighting words as he snapped his raised fingertips. Responding to the aggression, Petelgeuse instantly shifted to a combat posture. But the movements of the sprinting figure rushing in from the side proved quicker.
“Ga, haa—”
Raising a shriek, the madman was sent flying head over heels, crashing and rolling over the rocky ground.
“—”
Watching this, the pitch-black land dragon neighed, as if to spurn the madman for having made her wait for so long.
The dragon judged the unproductive conversation to be at an end. Her roar echoed across the forest sky.
Sub-chapter 4.
He felt heat from the conversation mirror as he returned it to his pocket. The operation was proceeding to its second phase.
That fact spurred Subaru to harden his resolve once more, raising a middle finger toward the madman’s astonished eyes.
“As for everything we were discussing, my answer is no.”
“Wh-wh-wh…?”
“If you don’t get it, I’ll say it so it’s easier to understand: After careful consideration of your offer, there is an insurmountable clash of organizational culture between us. Therefore, though this is highly arbitrary of me, I am removing myself from consideration. I pray for your continued activity and growth hereafter…and stuff.”
Subaru indicated that talks had broken off with a kind and careful explanation that was even harder to understand. With Patlash close by his side, he proceeded to gallantly mount her, taking the reins as he looked down at the madman.
Petelgeuse, confused as he looked up, belatedly came to understand, whereupon he became filled with anger at Subaru’s act of violence and shouted,
“Do you comprehend what you are doing?! I am an Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins! An Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins granted the grace of the Witch! I have received Her favor, the same as y—”
“Sorry, but I’m tired of hearing about all that. The Witch can go eat shit, Petelgeuse.”
“Why! Why, I ASK! Why, do you refuse Her love?! The favor of the Witch! What is YOUR reason for rejecting Her grace? I, who have abandoned all things for Her, cannot compreHEND!!”
Petelgeuse tore at his head, letting spit fly as he spoke with intense emotion. He actually seemed intent on convincing Subaru with those desperate cries.
If so, exchanging words with Petelgeuse truly lacked even a single shred of worth.
“When I look at you, I sympathize with you a bit, too. But let me tell you this.”
Subaru paid the madman’s delusions little heed as he recalled the intricacies and rampages that had arisen from his own heart. He’d professed that he was right, asserted that everyone around him was wrong, and had spent his time wailing and engaging in temper tantrums like a child.
I see. It really is unbearable to watch. This is like the horrible example everyone should learn from.
“Right now, you’re the one who’s crazy, and I’m the one who’s right— It ends here, Petelgeuse!”
And so he bade farewell to his own mistakes.
There had been nothing tying Subaru and Petelgeuse together in the first place. The madman, too, instantly understood that it had all been a performance and a fraud. The next moment, his decision was cruel and severe—
“Violence, heresy! You shall pay for this—I shall rend YOU limb from limb and offer your soul to the Witch!!”
Petelgeuse’s laments cut off in an instant. His shadow seemed to explode, spreading and swelling as it became a multitude of pitch-black arms. These objects of overwhelming density cascaded toward Subaru like a waterfall to rip him limb from limb, wring his neck, and violate his soul, just as Petelgeuse had declared. But—
“Why—?!”
“Hey, I was playing tag, you’re it with demon beasts in these parts just two months ago!”
Patlash surmised Subaru’s intentions through his unskilled use of the reins, moving more than she had been commanded. The wise dragon’s movements deftly evaded the evil hands pursuing them as she leaped, escaping beyond the area of effect.
The distance between them widened. Petelgeuse could not conceal his shock at his perfect opening attack being foiled. His eyes and mouth opened wide, so much that they nearly tore, and he wailed, “Just now! Those movements! You evaded! The Favor granted unto me?! Impossible, insufferable! Why can you see my authority?!”
“Who knows? The Witch left her scent on my body, so go ask her. Oh, did I mention that unlike you, the Witch gave me a meet-me-anytime permission slip?”
“—! What do you mean by… You blaspheme the Witch, Satella, by feigning closeness to Her!”
“Hey, we’re so close she reaches out and grabs me by the heart—literally.”
Subaru added a wink, taunting Petelgeuse with a maximum of ridicule.
That moment, the madman’s tolerance instantly reached the boiling point; his face went red with rage as he bit his own fingers to the core. A dull sound rang out as his teeth snapped the fingers, crushing nail, flesh, and bone alike.
Responding to his intense emotions, the shadows swirling around the madman increased in density. Their total number increased, and even for Subaru, able to see the invisible evil hands, the difficulty level had just been jacked up.
However, the one most surprised by the increase in the evil hands’ numbers was Petelgeuse himself.
“The Factor granted to my fingers has returned…?! Why?! What has happened to my…?!”
“As the Witch Factor you handed out comes back, the number of hands you can control increases. Well, the answer’s obvious, isn’t it? Hey, do the math, Lord Archbishop! Or maybe you’re just too lazy!”
“—! —!!”
Petelgeuse was at the mercy of consternation and rage when Subaru redoubled his taunt. When it came to getting under other people’s skin, Subaru Natsuki came second to none—but an opponent like this, with zero resistance against instigation, was practically dancing on the palm of his hand.
Exactly as planned, Petelgeuse was so angry that his face was dark red, thrusting his bloodlust-infused fist toward Subaru and sending the arms to bluntly smash him flat and rip his very life out.
“Patlash—!”
The land dragon grasped Subaru’s intent, continuing to evade the carpet bombing–like Unseen Hands offensive with frightening accuracy. She was so dependable that Subaru truly couldn’t bow his head enough to her.
Subaru judged that they could continue to hold out against the first wave of attacks.
“Operation Stage Three, let’s go!”
“Just how many petty games do you intend to play…! Against my diligence, this is all futile… Aa?!”
Petelgeuse readied himself for a counterattack, but the next moment, Subaru’s action made his words choke in his throat.
“Turning your back to me… Just how much do you intend to mock me?!”
“Sorry! But your stinky breath is making my eyes burn, so I have no choice!”
With a command to Patlash, Subaru moved away from the rocky area and made a beeline for the forest. Patlash violently trampled the grass, blowing open a makeshift road like the wind itself as they distanced themselves from their foe.
“Do not think that! I shall allow you! To ESCAPE!!”
Petelgeuse shouted, but in contrast to his words, he crouched down then and there. The instant after he did so, he sat holding his knees like a gym student as a shadow grabbed hold of him, hurling the madman toward the heavens.
As if in a twisted game of catch, his body sailed with ease until another evil hand caught him. Catch, throw, catch, throw—repeating this over and over, Petelgeuse was hot on Subaru’s and Patlash’s heels as they fled.
It was nightmarish pursuit, and it was not only he who pursued the pair.
“Now, now, now, come forth! He mocks and scorns the exalted Witch, violates Her trial and Her favor! Rend his flesh into tiny pieces and offer him to the Witch!
When Petelgeuse’s command fell from the sky, Witch Cultists hidden in the cave under the cliff appeared in the forest without a sound. They had not attended Subaru and Petelgeuse’s conversation, but now that they knew Subaru was their foe, they had no reason to hesitate. Their steps seemed to glide along the ground as they pursued Subaru and the land dragon.
Petelgeuse was above the treetops, and at their backs, the Witch Cultists were ferociously chasing them—
“Here they come here they come here they come! Patlash, hang in there!”
“—!”
At Subaru’s highly imprecise command, Patlash dealt with the crisis using her own judgment. She opted for speed, crashing through the slender trees that impeded her large frame. She trampled upon roots, vaulted over a depression, and snapped leafy branches apart as she charged straight forward, heading for their destination by the shortest possible route.
“Futile! Meaningless! I shall catch up to you! Even that diligent land dragon’s resistance shall be blotted out, overridden by diligence of my OWN!!”
From afar, mad shouts poured down upon them, and the tyrannical evil hands poured down like a waterfall. They aimed at the sprinting Patlash, each landing in the forest with all the force of a cannonball. Huge trees were broken at the trunk and sent flying, with dust clouds swirling up from the ground being pulverized over and over.
But, despite that waterfall, the dust cloud, and the madman’s hatred pouring down, the land dragon ferociously burst through.
“—”
Patlash, neighing loudly, was not unscathed. Even so, the land dragon had slipped through the attacks, protecting Subaru and herself. She had faithfully seen all Subaru’s clumsy commands through.
“Sorry for leaning on you this hard… You’re the best, Patlash!”
“Howeverhoweverhoweveeeer! It ends HERE!”
Petelgeuse’s cackling, laughing voice interrupted Subaru’s praise for his favorite dragon’s valiant efforts. Pointing beneath him, the madman was not speaking of Unseen Hands. Rather, he indicated the group of black figures chasing them.
“—”
With cross-patterned swords in hand, the Witch Cultists pursued the land dragon with unthinkable speed. The menace they posed far exceeded that of Petelgeuse’s clumsy attacks.
At that rate, the Witch Cult’s blades would slice apart the land dragon’s scales, whittling her life away. But a moment before that could happen—
“Wah—!” “Ha—!!”
A high-pitched double roar made the air tremble, becoming a shock wave that bore through the world.
These very particular voices formed a roar wave that enveloped large trees and boulders in a straight line, rocking the atmosphere as it slammed into the Witch Cultists. Bloody mist danced in the air where the shock wave had slammed into the group.
So far as Subaru knew, only three people in that world were capable of using such voices.
“Whoaaa! You were in a super-tight spot, mister! You were totally gonna die just now!”
“You were in danger of slightly missing the rendezvous point. This is thanks to Sister’s intuition.”
With a great and silly laugh, the beast people siblings, Mimi and TB, lined up alongside Subaru riding their large dogs. Their roar wave having rescued him from peril, Subaru looked over to them and raised a fist.
“Hey, I was going all out back there! But thanks, I thought I was gonna bite it!”
“Ohh, thank you! You are very welcome! Yaay!”
“I understand your feelings of confusion… The man above is an Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins, correct?”
Ignoring Subaru and Mimi’s banter, TB glared up at the sky and inquired in a tense voice. The little cat’s monocle-covered eye caught sight of the madman, his habit flapping in the wind, and narrowed.
“What’s that, that’s amazing! That old man’s all balled up and flying! Amazing!”
“I have never before seen such a creepy method of flight.”
“Ohh, right! That’s what it looks like to you two!”
Subaru, able to see Unseen Hands, and Mimi and TB were viewing reality differently. To the two of them, Petelgeuse, balled up like a gymnast, must have seemed to be flying all on his own, but Subaru beheld the nightmarish sight of tentacle-like evil hands throwing him again and again—well, both were awful sights, really.
“Either way, I’ll deal with that one! Take care of the rear just as planned, ’kay?”
“Understood. Let us go, Sister!”
“Oh yeah! Ah! Mister, mister!”
Subaru would continue his dramatic escape from Petelgeuse while leaving subsequent Witch Cultists to the two of them. But just before changing course and departing, Mimi raised her hand to Subaru—
“If you win, it’ll be really cool!”
“Yeah! Leave it to me!”
At Mimi’s words, Subaru gave the little cats a thumbs-up as he leaped forward, praying they would have good fortunes in battle.
Split apart by the roar wave they’d eaten, the Witch Cultists bore down on the pair, weapons in hand. At that point other members of the Iron Fangs—Rajan and company—leaped in from all directions, whereupon general combat began.
Subaru turned his back on the clashing of swords and pointed tauntingly at Petelgeuse high overhead.
“Come on, Lord Archbishop! If you get distracted by kitties and lose track of me, you’ll never live it down!”
“—You, you, how far, how far will you go, how, why?!”
Naturally, even Petelgeuse’s cheeks stiffened as his attacks were thwarted over and over. Having arrived in the current situation from having lost himself to rage, the madman finally realized that he was in a disadvantageous circumstance. His fingers lurking in the forest had been destroyed one by one, his Unseen Hands, in which he’d held absolute confidence, had been seen by another, and that very moment, his disciples had been ambushed and split apart, and Petelgeuse was alone.
Did that situation not mean he had been dancing on Subaru’s palm in every way?
“That cannot be! There is nothing! Nothing recorded of this in my Gospel! What are you, then?! YOU receive favor, and yet you belittle the Witch! You resist, you obstruct the trial I conduct, thwart my PLANS…!”
In midair, Petelgeuse clutched his Gospel, holding it high as he shouted.
His fingers had been taken away, and his authority was ineffective. He did not know it yet, but Emilia and the others had already been evacuated, so his vile acts to bring about the trial had failed before they had begun.
Perhaps, to Petelgeuse, this was what a nightmare looked like.
“What…what are you…?!”
Petelgeuse screamed at the absurdity of it all, froth rising to the corners of his mouth. Subaru calmly replied, “I’m doing this for the fourth time—when it comes to nightmares, I’ve seen enough to kill me.”
He didn’t care about Petelgeuse’s confusion or his laments. Deny it all he could, it was useless. The instant before his eyes was the future he’d crossed multiple nightmares to reach—
“You truly, trulytrulytrulytrulyyyy! You are Pride—”
“My name is Subaru Natsuki.”
When Petelgeuse shouted tenaciously, teeth creaking, Subaru invoked his own name.
“Knight of the silver-haired half-elf, Emilia.”
“—!”
“I don’t know about this Pride business, but that’s the only title I need. The rest can go to hell!”
He silenced Petelgeuse with a point of his finger and his caustic words. The next moment, the forest opened all at once. Ahead, another rocky place appeared—but this was not the rocky place where Subaru and Petelgeuse had faced off earlier. That said, it was not Subaru’s first visit to the spot.
There, once upon a time, Subaru had lost his life.
“What is this place…?!”
“Earlier I came to an end here. So this is the place that’ll be your end— It’s that kind of spot.”
Arriving at their destination, Subaru commanded Patlash to slow her pace.
Chasing them through the sky, the change in scenery, and Subaru’s statement made the madman wary, causing his vile visage to contort.
“—”
Petelgeuse released himself from the evil hand grasping him, carrying him through the air, and fell to the ground. The madman landed, slowly lifting his face as he stood opposite the precipice, straight toward Subaru.
“If it was YOUR goal to invite me to this place…what is it you have prepared?”
“That goes without saying. A mortal enemy—yours and mine alike.”
When Petelgeuse asked in a low voice, Subaru dropped from his land dragon and declared as such. His words made the madman grimace. Subaru closed one eye. When he did so—
“—Mortal enemy? Once again, it is quite something, the ways that you address me.”
The interrupting voice of a third party made Petelgeuse’s head practically bounce as it swiveled around.
Petelgeuse already realized that he had been lured. On guard against a surprise attack, the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins stuck a finger into his mouth, strongly biting it as he surveyed the area.
But his caution against a surprise attack was utterly meaningless.
“I did not believe I would ever have another opportunity to hear such words again.”
Saying this, the speaker leaped straight down from the top of the precipice to the rocky ground below. A surprise attack seemed unthinkable to him as he landed lightly, using a finger to set his handsome hair, askew from the wind, in order.
“—”
Petelgeuse stifled his voice as his eyes widened, gazing at the handsome figure.
However, the handsome man merely stood at Subaru’s side, saying nothing of the madman’s threatening gaze. Subaru glared at the side of his calm, collected face, grimacing in pronounced annoyance.
“What, you’ve got a problem with my announcement?”
“No, I was concerned that you might be recalling previous events of which you could not be unashamed… It seems you are truly audacious. I am impressed that you would say such a thing in front of me, even now.”
“How about I repeat it in your sleep so you see it in your dreams, hmm?”
“I shall pass. Once is quite enough. Should I hear such a statement a second time, it shall be difficult to sear from my memory.”
Drawing his slender sword, the knight answered Subaru’s biting sarcasm with sarcasm of his own.
Subaru couldn’t even remember how often the sight of his perfectly kempt royal guardsman uniform and his purple hair swaying in the wind had annoyed him. It burned him that that abominable sight was so dependable that moment.
“Julius Eucleus, assigned to the Knights of the Royal Guard of the Kingdom of Lugunica.”
Identifying himself, Julius poised his drawn knight’s sword, pointing its tip toward the madman.
The next instant, lights of six different colors rose up and swirled around Julius, demonstrating their power to the wide-eyed Petelgeuse.
“—I am the sword of the kingdom, the sword that shall strike you down.”
“A spirit knight, IS it…? Just how far, truly, just how far will you…”
Petelgeuse’s teeth clenched as he received those spoken words. His anger was not so much directed toward Julius for joining to battle as toward the quasi-spirits nestling close to him. On top of that, the madman glared at Subaru and spoke.
“So this, too, is YOUR doing…! Never before have I been so humiliated…!”
“That so? Well, do enjoy—this is your just deserts, y’see.”
Subaru replied to Petelgeuse, in whom so much hatred seethed that he clenched his teeth hard enough to split them. Then Subaru patted Patlash on the head, commanding her to depart from the battlefield.
“You’ve been a big help this far. We’ll settle the rest.”
“—”
Patlash rubbed Subaru’s head with her nose in apparent concern before slowly shifting from the rocky place to the forest. Seeing her go, Subaru took a deep breath.
“Let’s do this, Julius.”
“You’re fine with this?” Julius inquired.
Subaru threw his shoulders back at the question. Unshakable determination rested in Subaru’s eyes as he opened his mouth and spoke.
“I won’t retreat, I won’t bend, I won’t lose. I don’t wanna lose anyone else.”
“I am the man who beat you terribly. Though I swear even now that I had significant reason for doing so, that is no more than self-righteousness so far as you are concerned.”
Julius answered Subaru’s resolve by speaking of the unforgettable karma that existed between them.
Those words suddenly stirred bitter, out-of-place memories. The humiliation and anguish of that time came vividly rushing back, as if something sharp bit deep into his chest.
“I am not digging up the past in the hopes of washing away the shame. Your resolve is weighty, formed by each decision and action you have taken along the road to this point. Accordingly, I ask you: At this juncture, can you carry out your long-cherished desire with me at your side, not dispirited in any way?”
“—”
“Can you trust in me?”
Julius’s question was extremely vague, coming off as out of place and even vaguely immature. But his meandering drew Subaru’s attention to the barbs continuing to assert themselves in the deepest parts of him—a necessary ritual, so that he might turn and face them.
At the royal selection conference, Subaru had put on a disgraceful display; at the training ground, his good name was not restored, but rather smashed all too perfectly at Julius’s hand, his infamy redoubled.
The devotion of one girl had continued to motivate Subaru, enabling him to rise to his feet again. And now that he stood and faced forward, there was a different girl he wished to support.
Guided by these twin lights, he struggled against fate. He wondered, how could he put the feelings from back then into words now? What kind of passion did he hold, what fierce emotions scorched within him, what colors of light burned bright within Subaru at that time, in that moment?
“I really hate you.”
“Yes, I know.”
“That graceful air you give off annoys me, the way you talk sounds stupid and shady, and on top of that you clearly look down at me, and now that I think about it, you kissed Emilia’s hand the first time I set eyes on you. When someday I’m lavishing kisses over Emilia-tan’s entire body, what, that’s gonna be an indirect kiss with you? Gimme a break!”
When he thought back, he’d hated Julius even before they had exchanged words for the first time.
The entire sequence of events leading to Emilia’s treating him cruelly began with Subaru’s antagonism toward Julius. At the royal selection conference, it grew significantly; at the training ground, it exploded; and the ashes continued to smolder thereafter.
Even that very instant, they remained very hot, never ceasing to scorch Subaru’s breast.
“You broke my hands and feet, cracked my skull, you even chipped my permanent teeth. Even if they all got healed up, you’d expect the trauma to be real for anyone. Do you even know what holding back is?”
“I would like to point out that was still a great deal of restraint.”
“Seriously, that’s ‘holding back’ for you? I really do hate you the most.”
Subaru, the self-declared knight, had known repeated shame for his powerlessness, ignorance, and recklessness.
Julius had beaten Subaru to demonstrate what a knight was, fulfilling his role with capability and force.
Subaru couldn’t help but pity himself for playing the role of comic relief, but if he set that aside, the man remained, well and truly, the knight Subaru had always wanted to be.
“I really hate you, ‘Finest of Knights.’”
“—”
“Because of my shame, I know that you’re one hell of a knight. That’s why I trust you.”
More than anyone in that place, more than anyone in that place in the past, Subaru intimately knew Julius’s sword.
Hence, it was him to whom Subaru entrusted his fate.
For at that time, Subaru had come to know the weight behind his sword.
“I’m counting on you, Julius—everything I have, I give to you.”
“—”
Subaru spoke those words to Julius from close enough for two people to shake hands.
Upon hearing those words, Julius closed his eyes. He slowly opened them a few brief seconds later. Julius beheld Subaru in his yellow eyes, nodding strongly toward him.
“Then I shall answer that shame with all my spirit.”
When his sword rose, pointing to the heavens, the quasi-spirits granted their blessing to Julius’s decision. The vibrantly colored quasi-spirits seemed to revolve around the sword as they danced in the sky. Among them, the two quasi-spirits colored white and black emitted the strongest light—and this increased still, strengthening and rising until Subaru’s vision was practically burned away.
Then, when the light shining on the battlefield with the precipice at its back finally relented, the madman moved.
“…Has your farce finally reached its END?”
Petelgeuse, who had kept his silence while watching the exchange between Subaru and Julius, inclined his head. His eyes were bloodshot as he pointed two bloody fingers toward the pair, creating countless vile, pitch-black hands in the process.
“And just what can you do with the addition of a single spirit knight to the fray? It is absurd that any mere spirit could hinder ME, MY path, MY love, MY diligence! You shall fall! I shall tear the others to pieces! I need only commence the trial anew! For my diligence knows no slothful surrender, nor demise!”
“—”
“Ahh, AHH, ahh, Sloth, Slothslothslothslothslothslothslothsloth—!!”
His tongue stretched so far that his throat seemed unable to contain it. Petelgeuse dug wounds into himself deep enough to reach bone as he shouted his premonition of death, sending his Unseen Hands to smash the pair flat in one blow.
The evil hands rushing toward them exceeded a hundred, resembling a tsunami capable of covering the whole world, one that would swallow Subaru and Julius up like two pieces of driftwood, crushing them and tearing them into a thousand pieces—
“—Al Clarista.”
A rainbow-colored glimmer flashed forth, mowing the onrushing Unseen Hands down in an instant.
The aurora borealis danced wildly, reflecting light at seemingly random angles to create blades tracing shimmering arcs. Bathed in that glimmer, the black phantasms dispersed like mist down to their roots, and the savagery they were to wreak was permanently halted.
“…What?”
“You should not act so surprised.”
Julius, who had swung his rainbow-imbued blade, elegantly replied to Petelgeuse’s dumbfounded utterance.
“If they can touch us, we can touch them. If mutual interference is possible, a rainbow aura imbued with the six elements can cut it.”
The six types of quasi-spirits contracted with Julius all rested within the cavalier’s sword, giving off rainbow hues. The glimmering aurora of his blade turned it into a beautiful and frighteningly powerful enchanted blade.
However, that wasn’t what was bothering Petelgeuse. The madman resentfully shook his head, his feelings of consternation causing bloody tears to flow as he pointed at Julius and spoke.
“You, YOU cannot see them. Surely you cannot. That exceeds the fact that my Unseen Hands have been cut…! That is the problem! You, you cannot, you cannot possibly see them, and yet…beyond me, they are seen by T-TWO!!”
The fact that after Subaru, Julius could also keep his Unseen Hands at bay made his teeth shake down to the molars, his face stricken less by anger and confusion than by deep, powerful fear.
It was the fear of having his final refuge, the very foundation of his faith, ripped away from him.
For the first time, the sight of Petelgeuse like that made Subaru feel sympathy toward him as a human being—but this was overridden by a sense of accomplishment. Take that, will you? He truly, finally, had found an edge.
“A base villain like you who knows not the favor of the Witch cannot possibly see the grace granted unto me alone…!!”
Visibly spitting blood as he screamed, Petelgeuse was denying the reality before his eyes. Accordingly, Subaru taught him just what was happening, further pounding that reality home.
“I’m the one who sees them, Petelgeuse.”
“…! What?!”
“I’m the one who sees your Unseen Hands. Julius is just seeing what I see. It feels even ickier than I expected, though.”
This was the quintessence of Nekt, the magic to share one’s thoughts.
Normally the magic was used to link together the minds of human beings within Nekt’s area of effect, enabling simple telepathic conversations. However, it required careful use, as befitted high-ranking magic. Once Julius had explained the dangers thus: “If the empathy level is too high, the boundaries between the self and others become blurred, and beings become mixed with one another.”
If you mixed two minds together enough, in other words, synchronized the senses, raising the effectiveness to its highest extreme—
“It is possible to mentally maintain two persons’ senses joined as one—though I had certain doubts about your sanity when you first made this proposal.”
“But we pulled it off, didn’t we? When you put men and courage together, they can do anything.”
Through the power of Nekt, Subaru’s and Julius’s senses were completely synchronized on a deep level.
That moment, through Subaru’s sense of sight, Julius had to be seeing it, too—the sway of Petelgeuse’s countless Unseen Hands seemingly dyeing the forest black.
Subaru was also aware of the mana coursing through Julius’s entire body, and of the warm pulses imparted by the quasi-spirits that flowed into him.
The input from the five senses was doubled in the process, creating the incredibly discordant feeling of having ten senses.
“Just to get this out of the way, I don’t think we can keep this thing going for all that long.”
“I completely agree. Even if you beg, I shall never do this for you again.”
As Subaru twisted his lips, Julius gave his words an ironic laugh as he poised his blade. With the aura-imbued cavalier’s sword, even Unseen Hands, Petelgeuse’s trump card, could be opposed head-on, but neither of them had any room to send a shred of pity or mercy the madman’s way.
“Why you…why you, why you, whyyouwhyyouwhyyouwhyyou whyyouyouyouyouuuuuuuu!!”
Petelgeuse wailed as his unfocused bloodlust made the shadows explode.
Evil hands beyond count scattered and flew in all directions, forgetting even to aim as forest, ground, and boulder were destroyed, shorn, and sent flying.
The shameful sight of the madman surrendering to his basest impulses was so repulsive, it made one want to turn away, but Subaru clenched his fist tighter, not averting his eyes in the slightest.
He absolutely could not avert his eyes for the remainder of the battle.
From the opening to the conclusion, Subaru had to burn the battle into his eyes for both their sakes.
“Doesn’t feel too good to have my fate and yours be one and the same— Let’s get this over with.”
“Yes, so we shall.”
The knight sliced away the pitch-black evil hands pouring down upon them; with a horizontal slash, he neatly sliced one onrushing hand in two.
Julius watched as the arms thus burned away turned into black specks, scattering only to be swallowed by the wind and carried away. He laughed and said,
“With your eyes, I shall strike him down, Subaru Natsuki—my friend.”
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Diamond. Diamond. Diamond.
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