Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World – Vol. 18 Ch. 4

Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World. Volume. 18.

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‘Chapter 4:- THE STARS ETCHED INTO HISTORY.’

 

 
Sub-chapter 1.

“I am sorry for being unable to aid you at the crucial moment. I have no excuse for my failure.”

Reinhard apologized as everyone’s attention focused on him. And as the Sword Saint lowered his head, no one could muster an immediate response. It would be simple enough to smooth the awkwardness over on a surface level, but they could not hide their true feelings with something so half-hearted.

It was still true that during the few hours when they most desperately needed every last bit of fighting power, Reinhard had been nowhere to be found. They could not help wondering what would have happened if he had joined the assault on city hall.

Because of that, none of them could assure him that it was all water under the bridge.

No one except—

“You got that right, you jerk. Do you know how much trouble we had while you were gone?”

—Subaru, who followed that up with a pointed little jab to the Sword Saint’s chest.

His only reaction was to look at Subaru apologetically. Subaru simply snorted.

“And if you were gonna come at all, you should have done it fifteen minutes earlier. I ended up having to give a performance way outside my comfort zone thanks to you. That was supposed to have been your job.”

“Forgive me… However, that was an excellent speech worthy of your reputation. Even if I had been asked to do the same, I would not have been able to manage a broadcast that stirred the people’s courage so magnificently. You were the right choice for that task.”

“I think people would be looking for different things if it was you and not me.”

Subaru jabbed Reinhard in the chest once more for good measure after receiving his wry smile and praise. And then, as the hero still looked apologetic, Subaru held his finger out in front of Reinhard’s face.

“Reinhard, forget a hundred other people. I’d take you over a thousand soldiers. So how ’bout it, can I pin that much hope on you? I’ll be counting on you.”

“”

Even that did not even begin to describe how reassuring his presence was. Having Reinhard’s help was like knowing a full army of reinforcements stood at their back.

Reinhard blinked his blue eyes at how open Subaru’s anticipation was. But his surprise soon faded as the Sword Saint’s lips curved into a smile.

“Yes, you can count on me. If that is what you want, then I’ll live up to your expectations.”

“Oooh, so reliable… I can feel my heart fluttering.” Subaru flashed Reinhard a smile, putting him at ease before turning to the others and pointing back at him. “All right, we’ve got Reinhard with us now. You guys should say whatever you want to say while you can. At times like this, it feels way worse to be all awkward and careful around one another. Besides, it isn’t every day you get a chance to tell off the Sword Saint when he’s practically begging you to be mad at him. Let him have a piece of your mind.”

“”

“And once you’re done picking on him, let’s get down to business and figure out how to save everyone,” Subaru announced with an easy wink.

He could hear some startled breaths but saw that Otto and Garfiel simply broke into grins at Subaru’s familiar tough act.

Well, it was fine as long as at least one or two people could tell how he really felt.

—He had just done a whole speech about not shouldering everything yourself, after all.

Sub-chapter 2.

Afterward, everyone voiced their own complaints with Reinhard (details omitted), and then they got settled in the conference room and prepared to discuss the best way to retake Pristella.

Otto and Reinhard had rejoined the party—and while Otto’s fighting power was negligible, Reinhard’s assistance was a game changer.

With that in mind, Subaru wanted to move the discussion along, but before that—

“By the way, what happened to Felt? She was with you when all this started, right?” Subaru asked Reinhard before they broached the first subject.

Reinhard’s expression darkened a bit at that. Though he had been looking like that most of the time since getting there.

“To be clear, I’m not blaming you or anything. It’s not like I think you just holed up somewhere safe to protect Felt or anything…,” Subaru said, softening the blow.

“Agreed,” Anastasia added nonchalantly, “but I would like to know what you were doing and where you were doing it while we were out of communication. It’s not like we’re playin’ house here, after all.”

She petted her fox scarf as she looked Reinhard directly in the eye.

The focus of her question was what Felt’s faction had done that morning—the group had apparently gone to see Reinhard’s father, Heinkel, to discuss something—and what their members had done since.

Wilhelm obviously didn’t get along with him, but it seemed like everyone in the Astrea family found interacting with Heinkel rather awkward. Subaru was probably not the best person to say it, but it almost felt like—

“It’s like a family that gives the cold shoulder to a kid who holed up for years and turned into a professional NEET…”

“Apologies for interrupting while you indulge in your odd imagination, but if Mr. Reinhard is finding it difficult to speak on the matter, perhaps I can elaborate?” Hoping to set aside Subaru and the alien analogy he was entertaining, Otto offered to clear things up. The way he looked at Reinhard almost made it seem like he already knew what had happened.

“Oh yeah, you were with Reinhard, but don’t tell me that was from before all this even started?”

“Not since it started. I only met up with them at the very end of it all… Even so, I have a general grasp of the situation.”

“Thank you, Otto. But it is my family’s problem, and it involves Lady Felt as well. This is a difficult subject for me, but I should be the one to explain.” Reinhard shook his head, and then, after pausing for a second, said, “First of all, I’ve said it many times already, but allow me to apologize once more. I should have been the first person to come your aid, and yet it was only at this late hour that I was able to join you. You have my deepest apologies.”

“…On that point, I do believe our position is unchanged. It is difficult to wholeheartedly forgive your absence, but you are nonetheless essential to the coming battle. If you wish to make amends, I ask you do it with your sword,” Julius responded, nudging Reinhard forward in his own way.

Reinhard’s expression softened at his friend’s words, and he added a soft “Thank you” before continuing.

“When the Witch Cult carried out their first broadcast, Lady Felt and I were leaving the second district to go speak with Vice-Captain Heinkel.”

Reinhard’s voice was wooden as he referred to his father by his official title. That alone was sufficient to show just how strained their relationship must be and how wide the gulf between them truly was.

“It’s not exactly my place to comment, but she really decided to go talk to him after everything that happened at breakfast?” asked Subaru.

“She is not so irresponsible as to shirk what must be done out of mere personal discomfort. She set forth fully intending to negotiate with the vice-captain. And naturally, I accompanied her in that.”

“Incidentally, I suppose I shouldn’t ask how the negotiation went.”

“That does involve internal matters, after all. But it would be fair to say that discussions were not overly favorable.”

Reinhard’s tone obliquely indicated how much of a struggle the meeting had been. And even without that clue, it had been a negotiation between Felt, who was still impulsive and straightforward by nature, even if she had grown, and Heinkel, who made no effort at all to hide his base vulgarity. It was not hard to imagine things getting complicated fast.

And while they were going at it—

“That was when the first broadcast occurred. I could hardly believe my ears, but I immediately thought to act. I had actually made certain arrangements beforehand in the event of an emergency. In fact, I even prepared a way for Lachins and the others to reach me if the need arose.”

“Ah, yeah, I know. I…well, I had a chance to talk to Lachins.”

Subaru was familiar with the magic signal that Reinhard could use as a beacon to home in on after spotting it in the sky. Lachins had actually used it during one of the loops when Subaru asked him to summon Reinhard. Unfortunately, the “just call Reinhard” plan had been put on hold because of Sirius’s nasty ability.

But Reinhard had not been exaggerating about intending to come immediately if he got the signal from one of his allies. And yet he had not been able to do anything for hours while the cultists had free rein. What could possibly have stopped him—?

“—Lady Felt was held hostage by Vice-Captain Heinkel.”

“”

For a second, Subaru failed to understand. And it was not just him, either. Everyone in the room was at a loss for words at the absurdity of that statement.

“It was an irrevocable failure on my part. And with Lady Felt at sword point, I failed to find an opening to counterattack and remained held there.”

As he gritted his teeth at the shameful memory, Reinhard’s expression was etched with the regret burning inside him.

Hearing that, Subaru realized why Reinhard’s face had darkened when he was first asked what had happened. The master he had sworn to serve had been taken hostage by his own father, of all people. And because of that, he had been unable to leave. It was shocking to think about how troubled he must’ve been and how much heartache he must have endured.

And it had not ended there, either. There was an even darker possibility.

“…So then…what? Was he an agent of the cultists?”

Reinhard’s shocking admission opened the door to a cruel and terrible possibility.

Subaru had heard that cultists sometimes wormed their way into local governments undetected, but he didn’t want to imagine what it might be like to discover someone in your family could be one.

Particularly not after learning about all the different terrible, nauseating Archbishops who existed besides Petelgeuse.

“—I don’t know. If he was, then…”

But Subaru’s theory seemed to be provoking complex feelings in Reinhard. Subaru himself looked dubious, as did half the people around the table, but Anastasia, Julius, and Otto all seemed to have reached a different conclusion.

Reinhard furrowed his brow and slowly shook his head.

“I have no intention of defending him on the basis of our blood relation, but the vice-captain is almost certainly not connected to the cultists. At the very least, there is no reason to suspect that based on what he said after taking Lady Felt hostage.”

“That’s absurd. Why would he take her hostage, then? What would be the point…?”

That was when Subaru noticed it. Given Reinhard’s melancholic expression and the matching miserable looks that Otto, Anastasia, and Julius all sported, there was a reason Subaru could think of for Heinkel to do that. It was a terrible reason, utterly beyond redemption, but not one that he could simply laugh off as unthinkable.

“You can’t mean…he stopped you from leaving…in order to protect himself?”

“—. He said so himself. ‘Your precious master and the father whose blood runs in your veins are both here. Would you really abandon them to save some strangers you’ve never seen before?’”

“What kind of father would say something like that?!” Subaru’s anger boiled over, and he slammed his fist into the wall.

He had been weathering extreme flashes of emotion all day, ever since morning, but he never would have guessed such rage would be caused by someone not connected with the Witch Cult.

If he was going to end up hating people, it would’ve been preferable to limit it to just people connected to the Cult.

“Lady Felt said that he was just bluffing. That she would be fine and that I should go fight. But I disobeyed her command and stayed. I’m the one to blame.”

“Like hell you are! There isn’t anyone here who doesn’t know exactly who’s to blame!”

“Even so, that choice was mine. I am the one who made it.”

Reinhard would not yield responsibility, no matter how much Subaru might shout. He could only regret that stubbornness verging on a perverse, meaningless obstinacy.

“In the end, it remained a stalemate. I was unable to act in the aftermath…and the situation remained unchanged during the second broadcast as well… I’m sure Lady Felt was disappointed in me.”

He could not hide his own disappointment in himself. It was practically dripping from his expression, which just made it all the sadder that he did not realize how hurt he looked.

Based on what he had seen that morning and the night before, it looked to Subaru like Felt and Reinhard’s relationship had changed quite a bit over the past year. And it seemed the insertion of his father into all of it had brought about another major shift.

“So then, what happened to Felt?”

Anastasia directed the conversation forward again, not touching on the look on Reinhard’s face.

She was the only royal-selection candidate present, as well as having been entrusted to decide the fate of the city by Kiritaka, a representative of the Council of Ten. At the very least, she was keeping her sympathy to herself while prioritizing the smooth continuation of the discussion.

“You’re here now, so is it safe to assume the problem was resolved?”

“Yes, Lady Felt has met up with her retainers, and at her judgment, she is currently standing by at a shelter with the vice-captain, who has been placed under arrest.”

“Under arrest? As in you caught him?”

“His arms and legs have been bound, and he has been gagged. Lady Felt contented herself with meting out that much punishment. Was it not for Otto’s help, it might have been much more difficult.”

“Wait, that’s when Otto showed up?” Subaru was surprised, given there had been no sign of Otto making an appearance before this.

“It’s true,” Otto himself said as he adjusted his hat. “Though it was sheer happenstance that I stumbled upon them. Having seen their interactions at the inn, though, I quickly grasped the gist of the situation.”

There had been the incident in the morning that had touched on the deeply rooted problems of the Astrea family and the territory managed by Felt’s faction. Having seen all that and then actually bearing witness to Heinkel holding Felt hostage just to keep Reinhard from leaving, a person didn’t have to be a genius to guess what was happening.

“I judged it the worst possible situation for Mr. Reinhard to be unable to act while the cultists were freely running around. Just the thought of it was bone-chilling, so I knew I had to do something.”

“And that’s when you pummeled Heinkel and saved Felt?”

“Wait! Wait! Don’t just nod along like that’s obviously how it would go! I wouldn’t do something that rash! I merely distracted him with a simple spell to create an opening for Lady Felt to escape.” Otto sighed as he corrected Subaru’s mistaken guess. “Thankfully, there was no difficulty finding everyone, what with your big performance. It would have been nice if I could have helped sooner, but I had quite a lot on my plate.”

There had been a few digressions, but Reinhard was nodding, acknowledging that Otto had indeed come to their aid.

Otto had really put in a lot of work behind the scenes, like always. He was the ultimate behind-the-scenes talent.

“Still, though, what were you doing up until then, Bro? Honestly, given your strength, wandering around out on the streets would be suicide.”

“I was a little surprised at how vigorous your concern for me was earlier, but I really did endure all sorts of twists and turns… I suppose I should elaborate.”

Clearing his throat, Otto pointed outside the tower.

“This morning, as I had planned, I headed to the Muse Company alone in order to reinitiate negotiations with Mr. Kiritaka. However, I had some time to spare, so I got off the dragon boat early to walk the rest of the way… That was where I encountered the Witch Cult.”

“You mean the broadcast? No, wait, that would’ve been too early.”

Capella’s first broadcast had been after the noon bell. Even with a leisurely detour, there was no way Otto wouldn’t have reached the company before noon.

Otto nodded.

“Correct, it was not the broadcast. On the way to the Muse Company, I encountered the actual Witch Cult… In fact, I encountered someone who called themself an Archbishop. Near the second district’s control tower.”

“An Archbishop appeared before the broadcast went out?!”

Subaru was shocked, but it was not that unbelievable a story when he thought it through. Sirius and Regulus had also been doing as they pleased at the time tower before the broadcast. Other than Capella, who was occupying city hall, the Archbishops had apparently been free to wander the town and take in the sights.

And the one he had encountered could not have been any of the aforementioned three.

“So then, the one you met was…the Archbishop of Gluttony, huh?”

“…Yes. At least that was how they identified themself. And I cannot imagine any reason to lie about it, so I am certain it’s true. They looked like a child, but I doubt actual age has any bearing on their appearance.”

Otto’s description matched with the Roy Alphard Subaru had seen.

He didn’t want to know the standard for selecting Archbishops, but Gluttony had been a child. A child whose arms and legs were not fully grown and who had clearly never finished maturing…a child with a hideous, scornful grin.

“I assumed it was some thoughtless child’s mischief at first, but when I tried to draw the attention of the person guarding the tower…he was pulverized. Literally. With a splat.”

“”

“After watching someone’s entire body get smashed flat, I had no choice but to believe. The nearby guards and the city’s security forces quickly surrounded the Archbishop…but they did not stand a chance.”

The way Otto’s face paled spoke to how gruesome the encounter with Gluttony had been. An average person could not hope to lay hands on Gluttony, and Otto had been powerless to do anything.

Dragged into the battle without any choice, Otto had given it his best shot, but—

“In the end, the control tower was captured, and I could not say whether anyone else managed to escape.”

“You did well coming away from something like that still in one piece. You were facing an Archbishop, after all.”

“That was through no action of my own. It was only thanks to the people around me. Members of the White Dragon’s Scale who joined the battle recognized me and gave their all to allow me a chance to escape.”

“…Them again, huh?”

Kiritaka’s personal troops had played a crucial role there, too. They were the cornerstone of Pristella’s defenses, and the majority of them had gone missing, together with Kiritaka himself. And now it was clear that at least some of them had given their lives fighting Gluttony in order to fulfill their duty.

“I fled into the waterways during the confusion. Hearing the cultists’ broadcast later, I realized I could no longer act carelessly, so I moved discreetly…which is when I encountered Mr. Reinhard’s group.”

“So that’s how you met up.”

And then resolving the stalemate over there brought them back to the present.

Subaru’s face twisted up as he listened to the tightrope walk that Otto had endured to survive and meet back up with everybody. His path had been no less trying or death-defying than anyone else’s in the room.

“And there were even people who sacrificed themselves to buy you time to escape. That’s rough.”

“Truly—it pains me as a merchant to be unable to repay my debts.”

Otto bit his lip, mortified by the weight of what he was bearing. Debts must be settled—Anastasia had said it, too, but it was a pet saying that Otto had a habit of pulling out. Under that creed, he had to do something to make good on his debt.

“So I shall pay it back by guaranteeing the fate of this city—and judging by your performance earlier, I suppose I can count on you to do enough work for the both of us, Mr. Natsuki.”

“Damn it, Otto…”

Subaru’s anxious nerves relaxed a bit at the sudden change in tone as Otto gave him a wink.

The tightness in his shoulders went away—tension that had been there ever since he began his speech.

“”

What Otto was getting at was that he had his own reasons to fight. And by conveying that, he was letting Subaru know that he wouldn’t let his friend shoulder the fate of the city alone.

He was trying to tell Subaru there was no need to get too worked up.

“Ngh…”

Subaru’s face felt hot, an intense embarrassment welling up at having his tough-guy act seen through.

Who did Subaru think he was? Someone who could decide the fate of a city? A symbol of hope and the people’s wishes? It was ridiculous to even imagine.

The city and the people who resided within it were not so insignificant and light that Subaru could shoulder them all by himself. How had he forgotten that until Otto pointed it out?

“If you take your little bit of strength and add in my little bit of strength and top it off with Garfiel’s stupid amount of strength, it all adds up to something quite sizable. Why not think of it like that?”

“‘None can lift the quain stone alone,’ huh? Every once in a while, you’re kind of amazing, you know that?”

Subaru pulled out one of Garfiel’s inscrutable sayings and found himself amazed yet again by Otto’s steady hand. Otto was always saving him. He suspected that even if he tried his hardest, he would probably never be able to pay him back for everything he’d done, so he decided to do whatever he could to be worthy of his friend.

“Ain’t that a nice group you’ve got there? Really know how to keep things moving, don’t ya? It’s heartwarming.”

“Ah, my bad, we kind of started talking like it was just the two of us.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Besides, it looks like Natsuki’s finally relaxed a bit,” Anastasia teased, welcoming the change.

She had noticed how tense he really was. Scratching his head sheepishly, Subaru quickly changed topics.

“Now that we’ve covered what you two were doing, the next topic we should be discussing is…”

“—I would like to address the four demands that the Witch Cult made,” Julius proposed.

His golden eyes narrowed as he pointedly held up four fingers and looked around the room.

“They are not to be negotiated with, of course, but it is crucial to know what they are after. We know the silver-haired maiden, and we know about the Witch’s bones from what Mr. Kiritaka told us, but…”

“An artificial spirit and the book of knowledge…” Reinhard furrowed his brow. “I’ve no clue as to what that book might be, and as for the former, the very idea of an artificial spirit sounds dubious as well. Does such a thing even exist?”

His doubts were shared by many in the room. No one outside of Emilia’s camp would have heard of either of those things before. Other than Anastasia, whom Subaru had told earlier.

“”

Subaru glanced over at Anastasia. She was just looking at him, and as if sensing his intent, she nodded. Subaru decided that he would have to explain the two demands to everyone as well.

“—Sorry to interject yet again, but if I may.”

But before Subaru could say anything, Otto raised his hand. Seeing that, Subaru guessed he was thinking of revealing that Beatrice was an artificial spirit. He had been about to explain that himself anyway, so he wasn’t against it, but—

“If it’s Beako, then I can…”

“No, this is about the book of knowledge, not Beatrice.”

“Hn?”

Subaru’s eyes widened in surprise.

Not looking at Subaru, Otto sighed slightly in resignation.

“I’m sorry—I’m the one who brought that into the city.”

Sub-chapter 3.

Everyone in the room was utterly shocked by Otto’s explosive confession.

They weren’t sure such a book even existed, and yet the person in possession of it had just announced himself to them all. Surprise was a natural reaction, but Subaru’s shock was immeasurable because he had been so sure that he had already seen the last of that book—that both copies were burned and gone from the world.

“Wh-why did you?”

“First, I should be clear to prevent misunderstandings. While I did bring the item that would be called the book of knowledge into the city, I am not the one currently in possession of it. And the cultists’ demand was a bolt out of the blue for me as well.”

“That’s a roundabout way of puttin’ it. What exactly do you mean?”

Noticing Subaru’s troubled reaction and Otto’s studiously calm response, Anastasia cocked her head.

“Allow me to explain.” Otto nodded. “I suspect that most of you are not aware of the book of knowledge. Put frankly, it is apparently the origin from which the Gospels that cultists possess are derived—those suspicious magic tomes that record the future of their owner. Its passages are also supposedly far more precise than the Gospels.”

“The origin of the Gospels? When put that way, it makes some sense that they would want it. It is a blasphemous comparison, but I suppose it is similar to the Dragon Tablet?”

“Unfortunately, it’s a bit difficult for me to say, because the book of knowledge was largely burned by the time I obtained it and was little more than charred scraps.”

“Charred scraps…”

Otto’s words also described the fate of the two tomes in Subaru’s memories.

Beatrice’s book had been burned in the fire along with all the rest of the contents of the forbidden archive. Meanwhile, Roswaal’s book had been burned by Ram and lost in the Sanctuary.

As he had told Anastasia before, both of the books had been burned to ash. Which meant that if Otto had picked up the charred remains of one, it was most likely to have been Roswaal’s copy.

“Ah, I think I know what you were after, Otto. The restorer Darts, right?”

“…There’s no hiding anything from you. Yes, that was it precisely.”

Otto nodded in resignation at Anastasia’s quick thinking. And Julius and Reinhard both seemed to understand as well from that exchange.

“Wait up there. Don’t go leaving me behind as the only one not getting it. What’s this ‘restorer’ thing about?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. A specialist in magic who restores items. Darts is particularly well-known for his skill when it comes to this craft. If it’s him, then he could even restore a book from its mere ashes.”

“From its ashes?! Wait, that’s actually possible?!”

“On the strength of that reputation, I secretly requested the restoration of the book of knowledge. So unless he took it during the evacuation, the book is currently being kept in Darts’s workplace,” Otto said, revealing the location of one of the objects the cultists demanded.

“…When did you have time to ask him to do a job like that, Otto?”

“After the negotiations at the Muse Company collapsed and I parted ways with everyone yesterday. Darts is deeply curious about ancient and rare items, and he was quite enthusiastic about taking the job…”

When he had heard the cultists’ demand during the broadcast, Otto had probably been thrown for a loop. And his story explained how the burned book of knowledge could be in the city.

But what Subaru could not understand was what Otto’s real reason for restoring the book had been.

As had been made eminently clear, Subaru did not think highly of the book of knowledge. And considering the pent-up grudge he bore against the Witch who’d made it, he had honestly felt pretty good about its being burned to ashes. So why had Otto wanted to restore that devil’s book?

“I will have to ask that you allow me to leave out how I came to be in possession of it and what my goals were in restoring it. I merely wanted to make clear that the book actually exists and where it is currently. Any further, and it becomes an internal matter.”

“At the very least, one of the factions in the Witch Cult has named the book of knowledge as its goal. Where do you believe that the blame for that lies?” Julius pressed.

“I believe that there is no point in trying to pin responsibility for the actions of the Witch Cult on anyone other than the Witch Cult themselves. If I were to be hounded regarding that, though, then I would have no choice but to respond with similar boorishness,” Otto fired back, his eyes narrowed as he looked at Anastasia.

Between the lines, he was clearly asking whether blame should also be placed on the one who had invited the royal-selection candidates to the city in the first place; whether blame was not to remain solely with the cultists.

Seeing that, Julius shook his head.

“Apologies, that was wrongheaded of me. Naturally, I did not mean to blame you. Their crimes are their own, of course, and they are the ones who must atone for those crimes.”

“I agree.” Otto nodded.

Then, faced with Subaru’s doubts, Otto looked him in the eye and said, “We can discuss it later.”

He meant he would reveal his true goal in due time. That meant he was asking Subaru to set aside his doubts for the moment and come back to the topic later in private.

“Either way, it is clear that the book of knowledge actually does exist. In which case, we should assume for the sake of our planning at least that the artificial spirit also exists,” Reinhard said, shifting to a new topic with the previous one more or less settled.

And that meant the topic that Subaru had started to bring up before Otto’s unexpected confession.

“On that note, Anastasia, I was thinking of telling them…”

“Mm. Yeah, I guess we should.”

“?”

Anastasia’s gaze seemed distant for a moment. Feeling odd about her reaction, Subaru clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention.

“Can I have your attention? Sorry for always talking, but I’ve got something to say about the artificial spirit.”

“Are you sure, Mr. Natsuki?” Otto checked, realizing what Subaru was going to say.

It was a topic that touched on Beatrice’s origin, so he probably judged it to be a delicate subject, but Subaru had decided that it was necessary to explain. Everyone in the room was an ally, and the conflicts among different camps could be set aside for the moment.

“I’m not going to hold anything back here. The artificial spirit they’re after is my partner Beako—Beatrice. Right now, she’s recuperating with the injured.”

“Lady Beatrice? I see. That makes sense…” Julius nodded in acceptance.

“Makes sense?” Subaru cocked his head.

“Ah.” Julius touched his hair. “I knew that Lady Beatrice was a powerful spirit, but I felt a somewhat mysterious signal coming from her. Upon my learning that she is not a natural spirit, it makes sense.”

“…Is that just something that any decent spirit user would recognize?”

“I’m not sure what you are getting… Ahhh, you are worried about her. I see.”

“If they could tell at a glance, or by getting close to her, that would be a problem.”

Currently, the cultists had demanded an artificial spirit, but they had not named Beatrice specifically, so it was unclear just how much information they really had about the artificial spirit.

If the enemy did not know what she looked like or her name, then they could simply keep Beatrice’s true identity a secret and not let anyone else find out. But if the enemy had a way of checking, then it would be a lot harder for Subaru to leave Beatrice’s side.

“You need not worry,” Julius said to put Subaru at ease. “The reason I felt an oddity was because I have been blessed with so many opportunities to interact with spirits due to my blessing. It would be safe to assume that most people would not be able to notice under normal circumstances.”

“I see… Gotcha. That’s…yeah, that’s a relief.”

Hearing that, Subaru exhaled the weight that had built up in his lungs. Reinhard and everyone else nodded, indicating that they had not noticed Beatrice was a special spirit in that regard. At least Subaru would not have to worry about her drawing all sorts of dangerous attention.

“Still, though, that crazy book, and the spirit thing, too—basically everything comes back to your place.”

“…You don’t have to tell me that. I’m starting to despair for the world. Maybe I got cursed somewhere along the line or something.”

“Despair for the world? That’s a riot!”

Ricardo opened his mouth wide, and his booming laugh shattered the mood building in the room. That unrestrained laughter helped Subaru right himself just a bit.

“”

The truth was just like he said, though. The cultists were coming straight for Emilia’s faction with their demands. Otto and Julius’s back-and-forth had ended with an agreement that no one was to blame for what the Witch Cult did other than the Witch Cult itself, but with so many things overlapping, it was entirely possible that the others would start to turn a cold eye on Emilia’s camp. But by making a point of saying it like that, Ricardo nipped the friction in the bud. He rarely fussed about the details, or perhaps was just plain careless, but as expected of the leader of the Iron Fangs, Ricardo could read the room and set the mood like the best of them.

Although—

“If anything, I’m almost startin’ to wonder if you’re actually human yourself! You lived through gettin’ washed away by the flood, after all. You hidin’ anything from us?”

“You are reading the room, right? That was intentional, right? It’s starting to feel like that was just natural, which is a scary thought.”

“You’re best off not thinking too hard about it. By and large, he’s not thinking anything at all when he does that.”

Subaru was starting to regret his admiration for Ricardo’s rude act, which seemed less and less like an act, but Anastasia just shrugged it off before continuing.

“Anyway, the artificial spirit definitely exists, too. Naturally, just like with what Otto was sayin’, we aren’t gonna give ’em anything they want. Right, Natsuki?”

“Damn straight. I’m not giving up Beako until I die of old age. And I’m gonna cuddle up with her to sleep even when I’m an old man. So there’s no way in hell I’m gonna let the likes of them get their hands on her.”

Seeing Subaru’s unyielding determination not to give in to the cultists’ demands, Reinhard nodded firmly.

“Understood. We cannot afford to accept even one of their demands. Depending on the situation, the wedding ceremony could perhaps have been overlooked, but—”

“No! That’s a hard-and-fast nay! Because the person that white-haired asshole is trying to marry is my Emilia-tan!”

“—?! I had a bad feeling about it, but it really was Lady Emilia, then! I had assumed her not being here was because she had taken shelter…!”

Reinhard stared in wonder, and Otto turned pale in shock. Seeing that, Subaru apologized for not explaining sooner.

“I’m ashamed to admit it, but she was taken away right before my eyes. That ‘silver-haired maiden’ is Emilia. But I’m not going to let that happen. I’m the one who’s gonna marry Emilia.” Subaru pounded his chest with an eruption of righteous indignation and love.

“”

Otto clutched his head at Subaru’s out-and-out proclamation, and Reinhard’s eyes widened.

“…Huh? Did I say something weird?”

“Not weird so much as… I’m surprised to hear you actually say it out loud. I was astonished by your performance over the metia earlier as well, but I just felt it again now. You’re a real man’s man, ain’t ya, Natsuki?”

“What’s with that tepid response?! I really did say something weird, didn’t I?!”

Anastasia shook her head no as Ricardo obviously snickered. And Garfiel’s nodding with arms crossed and Otto’s slumping were just the usual responses.

“Even you’re looking at me weird, Reinhard.”

“I was surprised—and astonished like Lady Anastasia—I suppose. I had, to some extent, sensed how you felt, but I would not have expected you to express your feelings toward Lady Emilia so explicitly and confidently.”

The surprise fading, Reinhard’s cheeks softened, and from the look in his eyes he appeared to be genuinely moved. Subaru could hardly believe he was getting teased by someone as honest and forthright as him.

Which would mean Julius, that paragon of knightly chivalry, must be pretty annoyed—

“”

“Julius?”

However, when Subaru nervously turned around, Julius’s reaction was nothing like what he’d expected. Julius’s golden eyes were narrowed, watching Subaru with what almost felt like jealousy. An earnest yearning that stirred the depths of his heart.

“” Julius returned to his senses after a moment. “Apologies. I was just thinking about something. Did you need something?”

“No, it’s fine… Ah! Anyway, moving on!” Realizing he had lost track of the conversation for a moment, Subaru spun around to take in the room. “I’m going to get Emilia back with my own two hands, and I’ll kick Greed’s ass to do it. There’s no room for negotiation on that.”

“Very well, then that’s what we shall do. If that is how it is, then he is not someone who can be overlooked or forgiven.”

As he agreed with Subaru’s determination, Reinhard’s eagerness for battle welled up. Getting goose bumps from that, Subaru continued, “Also, it looks like you’re feeling pessimistic, Otto, but it isn’t all bad. Even after she was caught, Emilia-tan didn’t just sit around waiting for us to make our move, either. She managed to get in contact with Al once and pass us some info on the enemy.”

“Lady Emilia did something that sophisticated?! Is she all right?!”

“You could at least comment on how dangerous that must have been, man… Anyway, can you fill them in on what she told you, Al?”

It was clear from his reaction just what Otto had expected of Emilia, but Subaru lobbed the conversation to the man leaning against the wall in the corner of the room.

“”

Al slowly raised his head and stepped away from the wall sluggishly.

For some reason, he had been like that ever since Subaru’s speech. Between that and the intense exchange before the speech, everything about him seemed very different from usual. It was really starting to bother Subaru. But Al just nodded listlessly as Subaru focused a concerned gaze on him.

“Yeah… That little lady wasn’t discouraged at all about being behind enemy lines. Maybe she was confident she wouldn’t be killed since Greed wanted to marry her.”

“Yeah…I’m not so sure about that part.”

Subaru tilted his head as Al scratched at the seam of his helm.

It was not that unreasonable a thought, but in Emilia’s case, Subaru suspected she would have done basically the same thing even if the situation had been drastically different. For better or worse, she always prioritized others over herself. That side of her made Subaru happy, but it was also incredibly worrying at times. He had wanted more information about her and wanted her to be safe while she was captured, so even just knowing that much was fortunate, but…

“…Emilia let us know which control tower is controlled by Greed and which one is controlled by Lust. And from Otto’s story, we can be fairly confident which tower contains Gluttony, right?”

“Correct, it was the control tower in the second district. And from Emilia’s timely intelligence report, we know Lust is in the first district and Greed is in the third district, which makes the fourth district Wrath by process of elimination. That’s valuable enough information to merit her doing something rash,” Anastasia summarized.

“So there you have it,” Subaru said with a light snap and a wink. Greeted with wry smiles, Subaru, undiscouraged, turned his finger to Al.

“And we’re grateful to you for bringing this information back, too…so what are you sulking about, Al? Is it just ’cause I didn’t listen to your warning…?”

“I ain’t sulking. An old guy like me gettin’ bent out of a shape like that wouldn’t be cute anyway.”

“Cute’s got nothing to do with it… I don’t really want to admit it, but we got our asses kicked pretty hard the last go-round, and I don’t want to fall into the same trap as before.” Subaru spread his fingers, holding out his hand to Al.

Al looked down at the hand through his visor and then looked back at Subaru dubiously.

“I want you to help us out this time. Fight the good fight so I can save my love.”

Subaru papered over his more earnest feelings with a joke as he waited for Al’s response, trusting that in the end he would just crack wise and give in.

But—

“—If that’s really how you feel, then I’m not against helping out.”

There was no intimacy in Al’s voice as he brushed Subaru’s hand away in seeming annoyance.

“”

“Uh…”

Subaru felt a chill down his spine. The tone that was so clearly different from normal and the gaze he could not read behind the pitch-black helm caught him off guard. In that moment, Al pointed a wild, frayed rage right at Subaru. Subaru recognized that mysterious, almost violently aggressive feeling as something he had encountered before. But he could not remember where he had sensed it or the form it had taken then. He simply couldn’t connect the two.

And while he continued struggling to make sense of it all, their awkward stare-down continued—

“Hark. Please lend me thine ears— Thine eyes evoke a heated, racing heart.”

“Ugh—?!”

“Eep?!”

Totally caught off guard by the sudden interjection, Subaru spun around, sending the newcomer flying with a shocked gasp. She went rolling backward for some distance before dramatically crashing into the spare tables lining the wall.

“Ugyah! My elbows! My knees! The pain of every bone in my body breaking! All six of my ribs just snapped! I’m sure of it!”

The small figure curled up under the tables, writhing in pain with an earsplitting scream. Subaru’s eyes widened as he turned around and caught his breath. The girl rolling around on the floor, unleashing every last bit of her quirky personality, was—

“Liliana?! Wait, if you’re here, then that means…”

“—Naturally, I brought her here myself, commoner.”

“Oh.”

Right after confirming Liliana’s presence, the owner of that voice, the walking embodiment of arrogance, stepped into the room. Footsteps rang out, luxuriously and magnificently, emphasizing the overwhelming aura of the brilliantly red woman. Her bloody crimson eyes lorded over the occupants as she pulled a fan from her voluptuous cleavage.

“The actors have all gathered. I suppose I should praise your prudence in waiting for the guest of honor to assume her seat. Be sure to maintain that diligent attitude going forward.”

Smiling and apparently in a very good mood, the crimson beauty Priscilla Bariel joined the fray.

Sub-chapter 4.

“P-Princess! You were safe!”

Everyone, Subaru included, was surprised by Priscilla’s sudden appearance. But among them all, the quickest to snap back to reality was her retainer, Al, who quickly dashed over to her.

“I was worried, since I couldn’t find you anywhere I looked… Gragh!”

“You fool.”

The joy at reuniting with her lasted but a moment, though, as she smacked Al upside the head with a splendid crack. The sound echoed in the conference room, and Al was sent flying, only coming to stop after landing in a heap next to Liliana. Knowing from personal experience just how powerful that fan could be, Subaru reflexively groaned.

“Explain yourself, Al. Not only did you fail to accompany me, but I find you here playing around with these commoners. You and Schult have a duty to watch me, heed my voice, bask in my scent, and obey my every command. Nothing more and nothing less. And you, Schult: making your master personally search for you? Does your impudence know no bounds?”

“Ugh. My humblest apologies, Lady Priscilla…”

As she mercilessly kicked Al, a young, pink-haired butler peeped nervously out from behind her back—Schult, the person she had been searching for.

“So you really did manage to follow through on that… That really is some amazing tenacity.”

Priscilla had led Liliana and Schult through a city filled with menacing demi-beasts where violence and chaos could erupt at any moment thanks to the cultists’ devious machinations. The way she carried herself and her general sense of absolute confidence easily surpassed Subaru’s wildest expectations yet again.

“It was like that at the inn this morning, too. You really like to surprise people, don’t you?”

“You commoners merely collapse into shudders when faced with my peerless beauty and presence. If you would then bow your head in that awe, I might grant you mercy, but every last one of you is utterly lacking in charm. Of particular note…”

Priscilla and Anastasia did not seem to get along particularly well, and they engaged in a bit of verbal fencing, but after that, Priscilla turned her eyes to Subaru as she trailed off. The pressure made him a little claustrophobic as he managed to ask, “What?”

“…That clumsy broadcast earlier. That was your voice, was it not?”

“…And what if it was?”

“Hmph. There is no need to be so tense. I am fair in judging results. I simply call it like I see it—and currently, the eyes of the masses have turned to you. And I have decided to take them back with my own hands.”

“…Ummm, so in other words…?”

“Do not make me spell everything out for you. My noble lips do not need the pointless labor.”

Her eyes narrowed confrontationally as she sat herself down in one of the seats around the table, leaned back with a squeak, and crossed her arms, emphasizing her buxom figure.

“So report the current situation and be quick about it. You will become my hands and legs and fulfill thy roles. And be grateful, for I shall reward you by joining your plan.”

“W-wait, Princess! Are you seriously planning to go at it with those cultists?!”

“Would you have me flee, Al? If so, impudence would not begin to describe your transgression.”

Al tried to argue with Priscilla, who had sat down and announced her participation in the plan, but she glared back at him, causing the iron-helmed man to tremble.

“It was I who decided to visit this city, and it will be I who decides when to leave this city. I will brook no other person’s directions. Particularly not the mad ramblings of zealots.”

“”

“—Everything in this world exists for my convenience. As my retainer and jester, you should know as much, Al. My very existence is the embodiment of the will of the world. My actions themselves are divine providence.”

There was no breaking Priscilla’s steel will—no, diamond would probably be more accurate. And Al should have known that better than anyone else there.

“Um, uh, that is just how Lady Priscilla is, so…”

“…Yeah, I know. Sorry for worryin’ ya, Schult.”

Al shrugged his one arm weakly and smiled wryly at Schult, who had struggled to find the words to comfort him. The prickly air he had directed at Subaru moments earlier disappeared.

He had made up his mind—Priscilla’s domineering personality had finally done the job.

“Otto, maybe we could step out for a real quick moment?”

“Yes, of course.”

Al lost out to Priscilla’s demands and started calmly explaining the situation to her. Taking advantage of that lull, Subaru led Otto out into the hall to pick up a certain topic—the restoration of the book of knowledge—and to press him on what he had been thinking when he’d decided on that wild course of action.

“Garfiel, call us back once the conversation’s moved on,” Subaru said before leaving the room.

They stood across from each other out in the hall. Otto looked at Subaru quietly before starting in.

“It was one year ago. Immediately after cleaning up the problems in the Sanctuary. After the marquis’s snowstorm melted away, while I was looking around the village, I found it by chance… No, it was not by chance. I was explicitly searching for it due to what Ms. Ram had said.”

“If you found it there, then that would mean there’s no mistake that it was the remnants of Roswaal’s book.”

“Yes. His was the one whose contents I wanted to confirm. And for once, I was in luck.”

It was a bit of self-deprecating humor about his naturally poor fortunes, but Subaru was not in the mood to share a laugh when it came to these books. There was already a bad taste lingering in his mouth from talking about them, and when he saw that, Otto’s smile disappeared as well. And then he took a deep breath and sighed heavily.

“What do you honestly think of Marquis Mathers?”

“Of Roswaal?” Subaru thought about it for a moment. “I think I can’t let my guard down around him. And there was the thing a year ago, too. But his real goal is clear now, and as long as our goals are aligned, he isn’t a threat. Right now…he’s more of an accomplice.”

“—I cannot find it in myself to trust Marquis Mathers in the least,” Otto responded bitterly, almost seeming to write off Subaru’s thoughts as far too easygoing.

The sharpness of that response made Subaru catch his breath.

“‘The thing a year ago’? Yes, that’s right. There was the situation last year in the Sanctuary. And before that, he seems to have schemed many different things as well. Though when it comes to this topic, both you and Lady Emilia seem to have been content to easily forgive him.”

“…I haven’t forgiven him at all. I’m still pretty pissed about what he did, and it still bothers me. But that doesn’t change the fact that we need him. I just think that getting all up in arms about it won’t help anything, and Emilia’s the same.”

“And I’m saying that that, that right there, is naive. I did not, however, say that it was a bad thing.”

Otto glared at Subaru as if he was looking at something incredibly vexing. Subaru could understand the irritation he was feeling, he really could, but…

“It is all right. You and Lady Emilia can be that way. There is no need for either of you to change at all. Because I will be there on guard where you are not.”

“Be on guard?”

“My job is taking care of internal matters, so I have had many opportunities to interact with the marquis. And during the past year of observation, I have not noticed any signs of schemes or suspicious artifice. However, that is only in the present tense. I cannot speak to what he might have done in the time before that. Say, for example, if he had perhaps arranged some sort of long-term scheme.”

Subaru was at a loss for words. He could feel the weight of how much Otto was watching out for them, constantly thinking and planning and observing. The doubts he had regarding Roswaal were well-founded. And it was only natural that every action would provoke a reaction. For better or worse—if anything, precisely because it was bad.

“If he was obeying the directions for the future laid out in the book of knowledge, then by looking at the book, it should be possible to determine what, if anything, he arranged. And that will surely be beneficial at some point in the future.”

Otto explained with clenched fists, as this time Subaru experienced irritation welling up inside himself.

Just like Otto had said, he had been the one best able to observe Roswaal from up close during the past year. And Otto had watched his each and every move without letting down his guard the entire time. And having done that, he’d judged that there had been no traces of hidden machinations over that time. That was a relief, but an inability to let it go at that was Subaru’s worrisome friend’s bad habit.

—In his own way, Otto wanted to trust Roswaal. But regardless of how he felt about the current Roswaal and his future actions, he could not just easily forgive the past schemes that might or might not even exist.

“So what you wanted out of the book of knowledge wasn’t anything about the future.”

“It was what was recorded in the past. I wanted confirmation that no one else inside our camp will be hurt. That is why I retrieved the book and sent it out to be restored… I’m sorry for my selfish actions.”

Otto lowered his head and apologized. Subaru had nothing to say, since he or Emilia also should have noticed the things that Otto had been worrying about. He was struck again by just how much Otto was saving him day in and day out without his even realizing it.

Why would he go so far for—?

“I’m not going to talk about that. It would just be boring.”

Realizing what Subaru must have been thinking from his expression, Otto raised his head and cut him off. In the end, the discomfort just deepened as Subaru scratched his head and sighed.

“I understand now. And I can understand why you picked up the book. I’m not mad, either…but them wanting the book is definitely a problem. What are we going to do about it?”

“Regardless of the result, I was thinking of recovering the book now, whatever state it might be in. It’s quite possible that Darts has been injured in all of this, and I don’t want it to fall into the cultists’ hands even by chance. It is my responsibility.”

“…Taking back the four towers is our top priority. We can’t afford to divert any fighting forces for that.”

“Need I remind you that I managed to make my way through this dangerous city and even bring the Sword Saint with me? And while I may look like this, I’m particularly skilled at finding a way to survive by relying upon the aid of animals around me,” Otto explained, pointing to his lips in a veiled reference to his blessing of language.

In actual fact, when it came to just staying alive, Subaru trusted Otto more than anyone else. And with the enemy’s main forces holed up in the towers, Otto’s chances of success were not terrible.

“That’s not enough to remove all doubt, but that’s the same for everyone simply by being here in this city, and you have to put all your effort into recovering Lady Emilia. We both have weighty responsibilities.”

“I know. I’ll slap Greed down and marry Emilia. Those are my jobs here.”

“Feel free to do your best on the latter if you’d like, but that’s the spirit, at least.”

Seeing Subaru steel his resolve again, Otto turned back toward the meeting room. Nodding at his suggestion to return, Subaru started to turn toward the door as well—

“—Sir Subaru.”

A soft voice called from the stairway, stopping him in his tracks.

Turning back, he was met by Wilhelm’s gaze. The same Wilhelm who should have been by Crusch’s side.

“You go back first, Otto.”

“Understood. I’ll keep the discussion on track.”

Nodding to Wilhelm, Otto returned to the meeting room. Meanwhile, Subaru headed over to Wilhelm, who bowed slightly.

“My humblest apologies for not joining the meeting. I’ve caused you all nothing but trouble.”

“It is what it is, Wilhelm. No one thinks badly of you for it. And um…how is Ms. Crusch?”

He had heard that she was in a poor state—in fact, he had practically been told she had been hurt badly. Badly enough that it would be difficult for her to be seen like that, given her beauty.

Seeing the concern that Subaru could not fully hide, Wilhelm averted his blue eyes.

“She opened her eyes just moments ago. It is still too early to say for sure, though…”

“She woke up?! That’s a huge relief! I was so worried.”

“—Lady Crusch asked me to call for you. Could I perhaps trouble you to accompany me?”

Subaru rejoiced at the good news, but he cocked his head at Wilhelm’s next statement. Of course he would gladly welcome the chance to talk to Crusch. And he wanted to be able to confirm with his own two eyes that she was safe. But—

“She has requested it herself. Still, please understand that Ferris is by no means excited about it.”

“…No, he wouldn’t be, would he?”

What Ferris had said before was still eating away at his heart.

Subaru had been the only person in the position to save Crusch during the battle with Capella on the top floor of the tower. Ultimately, he hadn’t been able to give her any reliable help, and Ferris likely hadn’t forgiven him for that yet on an emotional level, even if he understood the reasons.

And Subaru could understand that feeling so badly it hurt.

“Ferris might say something impolitic, but please do not heed it. And if possible, I would ask you to forgive it. He understands, but there are some feelings that he just cannot help.”

“I can understand hating everyone around you when you can’t do anything to help someone precious to you. I don’t want to assume that one moment’s darkness is all there is to a person.”

If venting like that could help him calm down a little bit, then who could blame him? Subaru had the resolve to stand there and take it if that was what he needed.

“…This way.”

Closing his eyes at that, Wilhelm led Subaru to his master’s room.

For a moment, their two sets of controlled footsteps echoed in the hallway.

“Sir Subaru, there is one thing I would like to report from the battle at the tower.”

“What? Something other than Crusch…?”

“It is about the cultists who accompanied the Archbishop…those two fighters.”

Subaru caught his breath slightly. It was a problem he had imagined. Mimi had received a wound that would not close, and Wilhelm’s old wound had reopened. The two extraordinarily powerful swordsmen that the cultists had brought with them—

“One of them is Eight-Arms Kurgan. A general of the Empire of Volakia and a swordsman who desired to be the strongest above all else. He was an eight-armed greatsword user who wielded four different greatswords. He died over ten years ago.”

“If he died already, then, um, doesn’t that…?”

“And the other one…”

Wilhelm continued, cutting Subaru off. He stopped walking and Subaru stopped as well. His back to Subaru, Wilhelm remained silent. Subaru instinctively took a step forward, coming up beside him—and immediately regretted it.

That was something he should not have seen.

“—The other is the previous Sword Saint, Theresia van Astrea. My wife, who should have fallen to the White Whale and died in the expedition fifteen years ago.”

His voice remained calm. That alone spoke volumes about how sturdy his mental fortitude was. But it didn’t matter one bit when Subaru saw how painfully warped the Sword Devil’s face was. Rage and pain and a swirling, dark emotion that could not be described in a single word were threatening to tear the man apart.

“Is there any chance that your wife and the empire’s general are somehow both still alive…?”

“…No, it is not possible. My wife and Kurgan are both dead. That is an indisputable fact. However, there is a fool somewhere on this earth who has disgraced their memories in death.”

Wilhelm gritted his teeth as he confirmed that his wife really was dead. Subaru thought about that.

—A blasphemous desecration of the dead.

In other words, a type of necromancy. Some sort of magic to manipulate corpses was a staple of fantasy genres. Naturally, in a fictional world, it would not be that odd for a magic for reviving the dead to exist, but there was no convenient magic like that in this world.

The dead could not be revived. That was an unwritten ironclad rule that Subaru had learned over the course of the past year and change. So Kurgan and Theresia’s being there was not the result of resurrection, but of someone using magic in order to turn the dead into puppets.

“There were once those who could manipulate the dead using a forbidden technique. During the Demi-human War decades ago, several people joined the demi-human side during the kingdom’s internal struggle and became the kingdom’s greatest enemies by raising a host of corpses to add to their ranks.”

“The kingdom’s greatest enemies, capable of raising a host of the dead…”

“The hero of the demi-humans Libre Fermi, the great strategist Valga Cromwell, and—” Wilhelm paused for a second. “The witch Sphinx. A being most foul who caused an ocean of blood to be spilled by both humans and demi-humans alike without even batting an eye. The one and only witch other than the Witch of Envy who left her bloody name in the kingdom’s history.”

Sub-chapter 5.

Wilhelm named a witch Subaru had never heard of before. The witches Subaru knew were Envy—Satella—and the six others associated with the deadly sins, whom he’d met in Echidna’s tomb. That there were more witches came out of nowhere.

“Then, do you think that that Sphinx is connected with this situation now?”

“No. My apologies, I was not clear enough. The witch Sphinx was destroyed back during that war and is most certainly dead. She is surely not connected to the current incident.”

“She’s dead? You’re sure, right? A witch pretending to die in order to be able to act freely sort of fits the mental image I have of them.”

There was the way Satella appeared whenever Subaru came close to the taboo of revealing his Return by Death ability, and there was the way Echidna was living it up in her domain after having died, too.

“They don’t die no matter how many times you kill them, almost like cockroaches…”

“I cannot speak to the sort of impression you may have of witches, but Sphinx was merely referred to as a witch out of convenience. The more important point is the magic that Sphinx used.”

“Which is a magic to raise the dead…?”

“At the time, they were commonly called corpse soldiers. That taboo technique is the most likely culprit behind the current situation.”

Corpse soldiers was a blunt, easy-to-understand, and brutal phrase. A dead person, someone who had been lost, was moving again, and calling them a corpse soldier hammered home the reality of the situation.

And Wilhelm’s beloved wife was being used as one of those corpse soldiers. Subaru could not even begin to imagine what he was feeling.

“My wife passed away. I was unable to protect her.”

“”

Subaru regretted his bitter expression, because it had made Wilhelm feel compelled to say it again.

His foolish inability to keep his emotions from showing had forced Wilhelm to repeat it.

There was nothing he could say as he watched the older swordsman’s face. Not a single thing.

“Apologies for keeping you here so long. I mustn’t make Lady Crusch wait any longer. Please proceed inside.”

Wilhelm bowed and pointed to the door at the end of the hall.

The farthest room. That was where Crusch was waiting for Subaru. His feet were heavy, like the bottoms of his shoes were clinging to the floor.

That was surely an expression of the weakness of his heart as he started to feel daunted.

“—It’s me. Subaru Natsuki. Crusch?”

Knocking on the door, he called out hoarsely. There was a moment’s silence, and then the door slowly opened inward.

“Subawu…”

Ferris appeared on the other side. His gruesome appearance made Subaru catch his breath. His eyes were swollen and red from crying, and his chestnut hair was an absolute mess. His body was covered in spatters of blood that belonged to other people, and perhaps because he had not even spared a thought to wipe them away, there were even dried blood spots on his cheeks and neck.

“…Ah, I was…I was told Crusch asked for me…”

“Mm. She’s in bed… Don’t you dare pull anything.”

His voice was strained, a hint of hatred seeping into the warning. But the hatred was not directed at Subaru. It was an all-encompassing hate. What was consuming Ferris was an aimless rage, a hatred of everything in the world.

Taking a deep breath, Subaru continued inside behind Ferris. The room was not very large. Originally it had been a break room, and it was divided into several little spaces with beds for naps. And Crusch was in the one farthest to the back.

The woman lying on the simple bed noticed Subaru.

“…Sir Su-baru?”

Her lips moved, calling his name. In trying to respond, Subaru felt his throat clench. Steeling himself and feigning calm, responding in such a way as to keep her from worrying—he could not even do something as simple as that.

“A-pologies for my un-sightly appear-ance…”

“…No, no… That’s not…that’s not it…at all…”

Seeing Subaru stiffen, Crusch apologized weakly, but Subaru desperately spoke up, trying to smooth things over, flustered by her pained demeanor.

She had been afflicted by a horrific black curse after having been bathed in Capella’s blood. Her neck, arms, legs—huge swathes of her skin—were covered in a mottled black pattern. It was not hard to imagine that it was the same for the skin that was not showing as well. The network of black veins spreading across her body pulsed unnaturally, like a venomous snake constricting itself around her slender body.

The hideous curse was an insult to her hale, unblemished skin.

And of course the affliction did not stop at her neck. Her dignified, sharp beauty, which brought to mind the keenest of blades—the whole left side of her face was enveloped by a mottled splotch of black. The right side of her face remained clear, almost as if by malicious design, forcing Subaru to constantly compare the two sides, evoking an anger that something so noble had been so deliberately defiled.

Her left eye was covered by an eye patch, and he was hesitant to even imagine what the eye underneath looked like. He could understand why everyone had so adamantly insisted on his not seeing Crusch in her current state. The sheer difference between how badly they had been affected—it was just too cruel.

“Is this…is this really the same dragon’s blood curse as I have?”

If so, then what could possibly explain the cruel difference between their conditions?

The same black pattern was covering his right leg, but beyond the appearance, there had been no effect on his leg at all. It did not hurt, and nothing about it felt off. But it was clearly different for Crusch. Her pained wheezing, the way she trembled every time the network of vessels pulsed as if she were experiencing tremendous pain…

“Ferris…”

He turned to Ferris, one of the best healers in all the kingdom, to ask if he could do anything, but that did nothing more than rub salt in the wound as Ferris bit his lips at his own powerlessness.

He dug his nails into his arms as he looked down. He regretted his powerlessness more than anyone else ever could. Given what he knew about their relationship, Subaru could be sure that Ferris had tried every possible method to help her—far more things than Subaru could begin to imagine.

“Crusch… Why…?”

Why had she called for him when she was clearly suffering so much? He doubted she could do anything. Was there something she wanted to say? Did she want vengeance against Lust for doing that to her? To curse Subaru?

He placed his ear close to Crusch’s lips as she wheezed painfully, not wanting to miss anything she might say.

“…Th-ank good-ness you are safe…”

“”

“I heard…you were exposed to the blood…like I was…”

She seemed relieved. There was a gentleness to her voice.

The next moment, Subaru realized what he had really been feeling and almost wanted to die from anger at his own pettiness.

He had been thinking that it would be so much easier if she just blamed him. Because of that, he had looked down on her noble spirit and doubted her virtue. She had simply been worried for him, worried that he was suffering the same excruciating pain that she was.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

For doubting her, for her having to suffer like that, for being unable to do anything to relieve her pain: It all melded together into one great ball of remorse. He instinctively reached out, taking Crusch’s limp hand. Her hand was covered by the mottled blackness. It looked distorted and was slick to the touch, which only emphasized the terrible state she was in. But—

“Gh, ahh?!”

For a moment, an intense pain coursed through his veins, like he had grabbed a red-hot iron. Pain shot through his hand, and he reflexively let go of Crusch’s hand and looked at his own.

—His hand, which should have been normal, now had the same black pattern.

“Let me see your hand!”

Ferris took his hand, examining it as he stared in shock. The light of healing magic enveloped the dark veins, but there was no trace of pain nor sign of the black affliction fading.

But Subaru realized what had happened instead.

“Ferris! Crusch’s hand!”

“What…?”

Spinning around, Ferris widened his yellow eyes. The reason for his shock was Crusch’s right hand, the one that Subaru had held. The swollen blackness on her right hand had faded ever so slightly.

“Did it shift to my body from hers…?”

There didn’t seem to be any other way to explain the way their bodies had reacted. The stark difference in what their hands looked like now was proof.

The curse afflicting Crusch’s body had shifted to Subaru.

“B-but nothing happened to me! I touched her countless times while caring for her… See? It isn’t moving! I—I…”

Hearing Subaru’s hypothesis, Ferris touched the black flesh and tearfully shook his head. He was overwhelmed with anguish not by the possibility of a treatment, but at his own inability to do anything. The stark reality before him—his own inability to save his master—was just a never-ending series of difficult-to-bear blows.

“Even though I can’t help her…”

“Move aside, Ferris… I need to test this…”

He felt bad for Ferris and the shock he must have been feeling, but verifying what was happening took precedence.

Setting Ferris aside, Subaru faced Crusch again. She looked confused at what was happening as she looked up at him, her right eye tearing up. Subaru held out his hand, touching her cheek so that his hand covered her left eye, the one masked by an eye patch.

“Gh-gaaaaaaaaah!”

Immediately after, it felt like his brain was being seared and magma was flowing through his veins. The curse afflicting Crusch’s body traveled through his fingers, seemingly burning, melting, and bursting his nerves as they went.

Was this what Crusch was feeling with every moment that passed? She had been bearing something like that and even still had been worried about him? In that case, he would—

“—Ahhh.”

Before realizing it, Subaru fell back to the floor, his mouth puckering and sputtering like that of a fish out of water. Beside him, Ferris, who was watching Crusch…

“That’s…”

Had it had at least a little effect?

Crusch’s right eye was blinking in shock. The sign of the curse, the black pattern running across her left cheek, had faded somewhat. Seeing that, Subaru knew he had gotten some response. Lifting himself heavily, he prepared to try again.

If it could change that much from one time, then if he repeated the action enough, she could be saved—

“You mustn’t, Sir Subaru… Have you not noticed?”

“What?”

But it was Crusch herself who stopped him. Her amber eyes were focused on his outstretched hand. Following her gaze, he noticed what she was seeing and belatedly understood what she was saying.

His right arm was covered by swollen black masses just like his right leg. That part was fine, though. He had successfully taken the curse from Crusch. That change was exactly what he wanted. That alone would not shake his resolve. But the amount of curse he had gained was also clearly not commensurate with the amount that had been taken from her. He had just lessened the curse on her left hand and part of her face, but his right arm from his elbow down to the back of his hand was covered in the black mass. It was not a one-to-one exchange. It was one to ten, maybe even more.

“That’s not enough to stop me.”

The instant he absorbed it, it hurt. But once it was inside him, it showed no sign of hurting or eating away at him. Unlike Crusch’s, his pain only lasted for an instant. And there was no question which of the two of them was better suited to bearing the hideousness of the curse.

If it would save Crusch, then he could put up with parts of his body getting hideous-looking welts.

“You mustn’t, Sir Subaru… I cannot accept that.”

“Don’t be stupid. I’m fine with a little bit of pain. This is way better than getting an impulsive tattoo, anyway. So…”

“There is no guarantee it will remain that way… If the both of us are unable to fight…that would be fatal given the current situation…”

Crusch was worried more about the people of the city than about her own fate. That was a logical point, but Subaru didn’t think everything could be decided so logically.

“Ferris, stop Sir Subaru…”

“I—I… Lady Crusch, I…”

“Please. Right now, the people need him more than they need me…”

Ferris hesitated precisely because Crusch was absolutely the most important thing to him in the entire world. And no one could blame him for that hesitation and doubt. No one in the room was wrong. But merely not being wrong did not make them right.

“Do not be swept away in a burst of emotion. Please, Sir Subaru…”

“I understand what you’re trying to say, Crusch, but I still—”

“You said it, did you not? ‘Just leave everything else to me.’”

“—!”

His desire to prioritize the ones closest to him was broken by Crusch’s plea. The words she chose, the strength with which she spoke, had he really said that himself? And, having heard him say that, Crusch was now telling him to follow through, to keep his word?

“Say it to me, too, please.”

“”

“‘Leave everything else to me.’”

She waited for Subaru’s response with a pained smile.

Catching his breath, moving his tongue inside his dry mouth, Subaru quietly closed his eyes.

Having been scolded for clinging to the chance to save someone right in front of him without thinking of what would come later, having been told something he should not have needed to be told, then at the very least—

Then at the very least, for that one moment, he should do what she wanted—

“Crusch, please take your time and rest.”

“…Sir Subaru…”

“You can leave everything else to me.”

“—Thank you.”

He could at least fulfill the role asked of him, say the words that she wanted to hear from him.

“”

Hearing that, she exhaled a deep breath, as if relieved. Then she weakly closed her eyes—proof that she had only been carrying on as she had through sheer force of will. Her breathing became shallower, and she was soon too busy battling the encroaching curse again to pay attention to anything else.

In order to free her from that even a minute sooner—

“Sorry, Ferris, but I have to go.”

“…What should I do?”

Adjusting Crusch’s blanket, Subaru stood up and spoke softly. Ferris looked exhausted as he turned to Subaru for some sort of consolation.

Honestly, he wanted to just tell him to stay by Crusch’s side. But Ferris’s abilities would not allow that, given the situation.

“We need your strength. There are sure to be more people hurt going forward. There are going to be a lot of people we won’t be able to save without you. So please.”

“…But I couldn’t even save the one person I most wanted to save…”

“Ferris…”

“Sorry, that was stupid of me… Let me stay here with her a little longer.”

Turning away, Ferris sat down in the chair next to the bed. Subaru tapped his shoulder lightly, glanced at Crusch’s resting face, and then left the room.

When he entered the hallway, he was greeted by Wilhelm, whose head was lowered just like when he had left. Perhaps realizing what had happened inside, he thanked Subaru.

“You have my gratitude for answering Lady Crusch’s wish.”

“It’s not anywhere near as noble as you make it sound. If anything, she lit a fire in my belly… What the hell is going on with my body, though?”

Absorbing Crusch’s curse, and also seemingly weakening the effects of the dragon’s blood, and then the resistance to the Witch Factor, and his ability to Return by Death… It was all incredibly shady.

Would he ever get a proper answer to all these questions?

“Either way, I’m going to have to try this again with her after everything else is all cleared up.”

“Is your right arm truly well?”

“Yeah, though I know it looks terrible. Guess I’ll have to stick to long sleeves and maybe some gloves, too. But if a couple of permanent scars are all it takes to save a pretty girl, then you won’t find me complaining.”

It was his body, and he did feel a certain amount of reluctance. But his flippant statement was also fairly close to how Subaru truly felt about it. If there was no other solution, then he would be fine with bearing her curse for her. Even if it ended up covering his whole body in that nasty mottled black, he could just apologize to Emilia and Rem and Beatrice and ask for their forgiveness.

“That’s something to worry about once we get through all this. Let’s head downstairs. They should be getting to how to attack the towers around now.”

“—Reinhard is down there now.”

As Subaru started to hurry to the conference room, he was stopped in his tracks by Wilhelm’s murmur.

For a split second, he flashed back to the scene at the Water Raiment Inn. The reconciliation between grandfather and grandson, and the way it had been ruined and their chance at reconciliation stopped in its tracks—

“Please do not misunderstand, Sir Subaru.”

However, Wilhelm shook his head, allaying Subaru’s fears.

“I do not feel any resistance to fighting together with Reinhard. But I have one request for you.”

“A request?”

“—Could I ask you not to reveal the identity of the corpse soldiers to Reinhard?”

“”

Subaru was at a loss, unsure what the meaning of Wilhelm’s soft-spoken request was.

He had only just heard about them from Wilhelm: a technique that desecrated the dead and had been used in the city this time to—

“Do you mean don’t tell him about your wife…about his grandmother?”

“Yes. I don’t want him…I don’t want my grandson to have to deal with my wife being turned into a corpse soldier. He would surely blame himself. And it is no one’s fault but my own.”

“Your fault? It’s—”

He wanted to say it was not Wilhelm’s fault at all. But he could not say something like that so thoughtlessly. Recalling the scene from that morning, he also remembered what Heinkel had said. Something that should have had no credibility at all—but even so, Wilhelm had not denied it.

He’d said that Wilhelm had blamed Reinhard for his wife’s death. It was hard to believe, but neither of them had denied the charge.

“Sir Subaru, are you aware that the blessing of the Sword Saint is a unique one?”

“…Not particularly. Mostly just that it’s a blessing that all the people called Sword Saint in history had and that having it made them super powerful.”

“At a high level, that is not mistaken, but there is one point where the blessing of the Sword Saint is notably different from all other blessings. That point is that it is an inherited blessing.”

“An inherited blessing?”

Wilhelm nodded as Subaru exhaled. The old swordsman’s eyes were closed, his expression twisted as if he was remembering a painful past.

“It was inherited through the generations, passed down from the original Sword Saint, Reid Astrea. The blessing resides in the Astrea family’s bloodline, and the next Sword Saint always arises from a descendent of their house. My wife inherited it from the last Sword Saint, and Reinhard inherited it from her.”

“A blessing inherited among family… I see, so that’s how it was. So when you lost your wife, it was inherited by Reinhard.”

Something caught in Subaru’s head as he tried to understand the situation.

The previous Sword Saint had fallen to the White Whale, and as a result, Reinhard had inherited the blessing. It was a painful past, but in a sense, it was just the natural order of succession as well. But the argument that the Astrea family had had earlier that morning did not fit with the official story.

Wilhelm’s grief, Heinkel’s scorn, and Reinhard’s silence—all of them seemed to be arguing against the legitimacy of the blessing’s inheritance in some shape or form.

And the reason for that was—

“It occurred in the midst of the battle with the White Whale.”

“”

“—Reinhard inherited the blessing while my wife was in the middle of the hunt. She lost her blessing during the fighting and became nothing more than a single regular woman, which left her unable to support the rear guard alone.”

—That was the origin of the rift in the Astrea family.

The blessing had been transferred to the next generation while she was right in the middle of fighting during the White Whale hunt. This would have left the former Sword Saint on the battlefield without her blessing. And entrusted with the rear guard of the enormous force, she’d fought to protect the lives of the many soldiers who depended on her and breathed her last in the course of duty.

“It was none other than I who stole the sword away from my wife. It was I who made the woman beloved by the Sword God abandon her sword. And that was what invited her doom.”

“Wilhelm…”

“The Sword God did not forgive my wife for her betrayal. Imagining what she must have thought, having her blessing go away on the battlefield, leaving her nothing but the sword I had made her abandon to rely on…I could not accept it. It is true that I berated Reinhard for inheriting the blessing. Fool that I was, I could not forgive my young grandson, who was grieving his grandmother’s death and struggling with the far-too-heavy fate he had been burdened with. I assure you—I regret it deeply.”

The regret he had shared with Subaru the night before—this was the mistake he had made.

Reinhard was not at fault at all, but despite understanding that, in his grief, Wilhelm had refused to acknowledge the fact. As a result, a fatal fracture had split the Astrea family, dividing them.

“I do not want to go through that pain again. Because Reinhard was not to blame at all for her death. There is no reason for my grandson to shoulder that burden at all.”

Because of that, he wanted to resolve it with his own sword, without revealing the truth to Reinhard.

Subaru could understand those feelings, that regret, and that resolve so badly it hurt. In which case—

“Crusch and Ferris, and your wife and Reinhard… If you try to carry everything by yourself, you’ll be crushed under the weight of it all. And even if I keep quiet about the corpse soldiers, they’ll still show up somewhere.”

“That is an unnecessary concern.”

“Eh…?”

Subaru was trying to warn him that it was an unrealistic gamble with poor odds, but Wilhelm merely smiled. The Sword Devil’s expression warped into a fiercely valiant grin.

“—There is no way that my wife—that Theresia won’t come to meet me.”

Sub-chapter 6.

“”

The mood tensed when Subaru returned to the conference room.

The reason was Wilhelm. He and Reinhard traded glances, and after a silent exchange of sorts, they adopted positions standing on opposite sides of the room. Subaru could not help the complex feeling he had knowing what Wilhelm had on his mind, but there was nothing he could say, so he reclaimed the empty seat at the table between Garfiel and Otto.

“Sorry for the delay. Where are we at?”

“The explanation is more or less done. How were things up there…? What of Lady Crusch’s condition?”

“…Not great. Not hopeless, either, though. There might just be something we can do for her, but it’ll have to wait until we’ve dealt with the cultists first.”

“I see. That, at least, is a bit of good news.”

Otto straightened himself up, and the others sitting around the table looked a little bit relieved.

Unfortunately for them, Subaru was not going to explain exactly how he could help her. He knew that if he did, someone was sure to try to stop him, so he would just ask for forgiveness instead of permission if things came down to it. Though the best thing would obviously be if they could beat Lust and find a way to get rid of the mottled blackness entirely.

“Either way, it is unlikely Crusch will be rejoining the fight. And Ferris wants to stay with her, so that means the relief squad and the people from the Iron Fangs will probably need to stay here. How’s that sound to you guys?”

“City hall’s right in the middle of the city, so it makes sense to set up our command post here. It’s not going to change the basic plan for a simultaneous attack on all four of the control towers, either. But…”

“But?”

“There’s someone who’s got her own thoughts about that plan.” Anastasia glanced over the table at the person sitting across from her.

It didn’t take much imagination to guess whom she meant without even needing to look. Even in their current predicament, the crimson candidate casually fanned herself, showing no spirit of cooperation at all.

“Priscilla? What crazy idea do you have now?”

“It sounds as if you presume to know me, commoner. Then tell me, could you predict this? I shall go to the control tower in the fourth district to behead that Wrath or whatever resides there.”

“Wh…?”

Priscilla looked smug as her majestic declaration caught Subaru entirely off guard. He was well and truly taken aback by her plan. Anastasia nodded when she saw the shock on his face.

“See? She’s been like that the whole time. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do about it.”

“We have to stop her, obviously…is what I’d like to say, but…”

Ordinarily, her suggestion would be unbelievably rash, but when he thought it through coolheadedly, there was a certain merit to her plan, too.

Crusch had joined the attack on city hall earlier, so he could not reject Priscilla’s suggestion just because she was a royal-selection candidate. And there was no way to argue that she was lacking in strength. At the very least, she was powerful enough to easily slay the ferocious demi-beasts roaming the city. She did not pale in comparison to Crusch in her swordsmanship, either. As an amateur who had observed dozens of experts, that was how Subaru rated her strength.

“This is asinine. I possess both strength and beauty. So what reason is there to hesitate? Do not think me a fool who renders herself useless in the opening scenes or some weakling who never had the strength to stand and fight in the first place.”

“I do not believe I can allow that to pass without comment. I am certain you could not possibly be referring to my master as a fool, could you?”

“It sounds as if you have someone in mind, old man. Being forced to leave the stage during a warmup before the main performance even starts could hardly be called the action of a person fated to play a leading role. I suppose it was just a misjudgment on my part to have expected more.”

Priscilla and Wilhelm were clashing dangerously from word one. Ordinarily, it was a situation to just let something like that go, but for various reasons, Wilhelm was not quite composed enough to let it slide. And Priscilla was so totally unchanged from her normal self that it was hard to imagine her ever not behaving like that.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m the weakling and the fool, so let’s just move on. Quit arguin’ among ourselves.”

“I’m not so kind as to unconditionally lend an ear to the prattling of a weakling, she-fox.”

“Being weak isn’t the same as being incapable of winning. And how are you going to get the people around you to act how you want without a little show of magnanimity? We’re all pissed off here, so just have a little patience.”

“Hmph.”

Subaru was amazed at Anastasia’s mediation skills as he watched her talk the both of them down and silence their squabbling. They both still looked annoyed, but Priscilla retracted her prickly attitude, and Wilhelm sheathed his sharp aura.

Of course, the mood could hardly be called harmonious. Given the situation, they had to prioritize moving the conversation forward regardless of how some people felt about one another.

“Then, would that mean Sir Al will be accompanying you to slay the Archbishop of Wrath?”

“Spare me your nonsense. Bringing that jester would only darken my glorious procession. And obviously, I will be leaving Schult here as well. He is only with me to be a pet.”

“…In that case, were you perhaps actually intending to go there by yourself?” Julius pressed in a sharp tone, as if to say there was no way that that could be acceptable.

“Yeah, Princess,” Al responded, agreeing with Julius. “Even you can’t just declare you’ll be fine alone. At the very least, take the Sword Saint with you…”

“Don’t go giving away our strongest trump card with a cheap ‘at the very least’! And you, do you actually have some plan that makes you think you can win?”

“Of course. And in the first place, don’t jump to conclusions. I never said I would be going alone. The diva there and I shall hunt the Archbishop of Wrath together.” Priscilla snapped her fan closed and pointed it at the corner of the room.

“The diva…”

Liliana was sitting cross-legged on the ground there, dozing off with her lyulyre in her arms. She snapped back to reality at suddenly being called onstage. Her jaw dropped as she responded.

“Y-you chose me?! And for what reason would you suddenly do that?!”

“Commoner, there was no lie in the previous conversation, correct? That irksome chaotic presence proliferating throughout the city was something evoked by the Archbishop of Wrath’s impudent Authority?”

“Y-yeah, there’s no mistaking it…”

Remembering how the residents in the shelter had been set free by Liliana’s singing, Subaru inhaled sharply.

He had considered using Liliana’s music to counter Wrath’s Authority as well, but the problems were the danger of bringing her to a battlefield and her reluctance to use her singing as essentially a weapon—a tool to counter that Authority—

“Can you explain, Subaru? What is the connection between Miss Liliana and the Archbishop of Wrath?” asked Anastasia.

“…You heard about how Wrath’s Authority works, right? It creates a resonance between the hearts and minds of the city’s residents, which has been causing unrest and panic to spread unchecked. We used the broadcast to amplify and spread courage, but Liliana’s singing can do the same thing. Honestly, it can probably do an even better job.”

After all, they only had to hear Liliana’s singing. There was no need for the tightrope walk that Subaru had carefully navigated after carefully choosing his words and mustering what little courage he had to offer. Her music was the real deal—just her singing could captivate people’s hearts, and experiencing that pure passion firsthand was enough to free people’s hearts from Sirius’s Authority.

“How much did your singing move the masses’ hearts when we were going around between the shelters before? You need only do the same again. Merely steal away the hearts of the vulgar masses.”

“Wh-what a violent logic! B-but I only encouraged people with my singing. I don’t have any confidence at all that I can meet such a weighty expectation…”

“I see. So then you do not have faith that the music you have inherited from your forebears in eras long past will succeed.”

The way Priscilla sniffed expressed such disdain that it caused Liliana’s eyes to change instantly. She had been trying to beg out of the fight with a servile, polite smile, but her expression suddenly turned serious.

“What do you mean by that?”

“It should not require deep thought to understand. Those are the songs you have so devoutly continued singing, and yet in the moment when people’s hearts are crying out for salvation, you shrink back and fall silent? I have no need for such a craven, whipped dog. At least a wild mutt still howls freely. Hark, a eulogy for a whipped dog.”

“A-ah, ah! You said it! There are some things you just shouldn’t say! Fine, then! I’ll do it! I’ll let you hear it! If I remained silent now, I would lose everything! If I hesitated now, Mr. Kiritaka would spin in his grave!”

Priscilla’s tremendous instigation brought on a terrific explosion from Liliana. Her face was bright red as she fired back, plucking the lyulyre’s strings at high speed.

“I was of a mood to sing a requiem for the fallen Kiritaka, but nay! A scramble to steal away hearts? I say let them come! The songs that I have inherited would never lose to some mysterious ability no one has ever heard of! Because the power of music is even more mysterious!”

In a fit of excitement, Liliana leaped atop the round table and played her lyulyre while lying down. Flustered by her performance, Otto and Schult quickly pulled her back down to the floor. Subaru ignored Liliana, who was starting to compose a rock ballad in the corner of the room, as he looked Priscilla in the eye.

“I know full well that both her singing voice and her stupidity are on the level of national treasures. And I also agree she could be a perfect counter for Wrath’s ability. But there’s no proof it will work as planned, either.”

“I would never embark on a fight where I had any chance of losing. The very logic of this world proceeds only in the manner that is most convenient to me. And there is no one who values her singing more highly than I. I shan’t allow her to suffer a single scratch above her shoulders.”

“…Singing starts with the diaphragm, so I’m pretty sure it won’t mean much if there’s anything missing from her waist up.”

Priscilla was showing no sign of yielding, but Subaru wanted one final nudge. If there was at least some proof they could point to that Liliana’s singing would work against Sirius, then…

“Hey, Reinhard, by any chance, do you have some kind of ability to see the power that people have—right, blessings? Do you have some kind of ability to see blessings or something?”

“There is a divine protection called the blessing of judgment that allows one to know people’s blessings. I see. If she truly does bear a songstress blessing, then that could serve as evidence to accept Lady Priscilla’s contention.”

Reinhard rested his hand on his chin in thought. Subaru had turned to him because he figured he might as well try, but it was only natural that Reinhard did not just magically have the solution to something like that.

“Don’t worry about it.” Subaru waved him off. “That was too much to hope for. Anyway, if we could just get a little bit of data about how much effect Liliana’s singing has…”

“There is no need for that—I was just blessed with one.”

“Huh? Blessed with what, a child? You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”

That was the first thing that came to mind at that turn of phrase.

Smiling awkwardly at Subaru’s reaction, Reinhard looked closely at Liliana. Liliana seemed to writhe under his gaze, but he ignored her reaction.

“That is surprising. She is indeed a bearer of the blessing of telepathy.”

“I’m more surprised by you than her blessing, honestly. Huh? Wait, what did you just say? You were granted something?”

“This isn’t the time for joking around. Put simply, the telepathy blessing is one that allows the bearer to convey their feelings to others. Ordinarily, it just acts on a level that allows one to share one’s thoughts with another who is particularly intimate, but…singing? I had never considered that possibility before.”

Reinhard was purely admiring the power of Liliana’s songs, but Subaru still had not scooped up his jaw from where it had dropped when Reinhard started explaining the blessing. He had called Reinhard’s strength a cheat and beyond superhuman before, but this was just too much. He was way too beloved by God, the world, or fate. Whatever was responsible, simply granting the blessing the moment Reinhard desired it…

“”

When he thought it through that far, Subaru noticed something tripping him up.

There was not really any way for him to describe what had just happened other than by saying Reinhard had received the blessing he desired on the spot. In and of itself, that was an incredibly envious position. But it also felt like something was tremendously wrong about it in a way that he couldn’t quite place.

Either way, though—

“Nay! Please entrust this task to me! I shall surely follow through. Have no fear. I shall do nothing but sing. Nothing but…sing. Just singing…right? There’s nothing else, right? Right? Right, Lady Priscilla?!”

“Where’d that concern come from all of a sudden…? Anyway, for now I suppose we can leave the Archbishop of Wrath to Priscilla and Liliana? And we’ve got Reinhard’s seal of approval that she should be able to counter Wrath’s Authority.”

“I guess I can accept that. Everyone else okay with it?”

Ignoring Liliana, whose face was blinking back and forth between stop and go, Subaru checked around the table, with Anastasia responding for the group. There was still some reservation on everyone else’s face, but they all seemed ready to accept it on a theoretical level.

The only one who looked entirely at ease was Priscilla herself.

“How absurd. I’m the one whose life is being staked on this diva’s voice. Do you really believe I would risk my fate on something I did not trust completely? Her singing is worthy of that much.”

When she put it that way, Subaru really didn’t have anything else he could say. It was true, after all. Priscilla was the one who had seen the potential in Liliana, and she was the one who would be fighting Sirius while entrusting her fate to that potential. There was no mistaking that she was heroic in her own right and excelled in ingenuity and prudence despite how she spoke and behaved.

“Still, though, I want to do whatever I can to reduce the risks…”

“Why? It would never happen, even hypothetically, but were I to die it would only benefit your master. Her greatest obstacle would disappear without any effort on her part. Shouldn’t you welcome that?”

“Don’t you dare assume that.”

“”

Subaru immediately shot down Priscilla’s intimation with a cold look. Trying to win by increasing the odds of another candidate’s dying in order to boost Emilia’s chances would be the lowest of the low. He didn’t want anyone to die. And he would certainly not welcome that result if it truly did come to pass.

“You got what you wanted, right, Princess? Let’s just let it be now… Princess?”

“…It’s nothing, I was just caught unawares by a thought I had not considered.”

“”

“What, are you sulking? How cute for such a hulking man.”

“…It’s not that at all.”

Looking away, Al propped his head up on his arm as if it was no concern of his. Priscilla harrumphed and leaned back in her seat, done speaking.

Finally the discussion could move on to the next topic.

“After several twists and turns…as for the other groupings…I have a suggestion. The first district, where Lust is waiting, the one we all have a bone to pick with—that is probably where the enemy’s greatest concentration of forces will be. The Archbishop as well as two cultists. And possibly a slew of demi-beasts, too.”

“You suspect that they are all Lust’s personal forces?”

“Given how the demi-beasts look, it seems a safe bet they are connected to Lust. As for the two cultists…”

“—They are most likely sword masters being manipulated by a technique to control the dead: corpse soldiers,” Wilhelm interjected.

Subaru was a little bit surprised that he’d volunteered that information himself.

“Corpse soldiers,” Julius murmured to himself. “I’ve seen note of them in past records. The result of a deplorable, forbidden technique from the era of the Demi-human War. The witch Sphinx’s taboo magic.”

“She has claimed to be a member of the royal family who is long dead and claimed to have the dragon’s blood that is locked away in the castle. Even if the claim about dragon blood is in fact merely a bluff, she does appear to have an extreme obsession with the kingdom and its history. It is possible she is capable of employing forbidden techniques that have been sealed away in the kingdom’s dark past.”

“It feels as though that logic is a tad of a reach… Can you truly be sure?”

As expected of Julius, he was latching on precisely where Subaru would rather he not dig too deeply.

He could always just say that one of the corpse soldiers was Theresia, and that would be proof enough, but that was exactly the point that Wilhelm had asked him not to bring up around Reinhard. This meant Subaru was stuck trying to figure out a way to get out of it without saying that too explicitly.

“—If they were corpse soldiers, then the one I was duking it out with had to be Eight-Arms Kurgan.”

And it was Garfiel sitting right next to him who came to the rescue. Garfiel had his arms crossed and was scowling with his teeth bared.

“A swordsman that strong with eight arms…there ain’t anyone else it could be. Not that I can think of, at least. You got anyone else, Finest Knight?”

“You fought with them personally, so if you say so, then I would defer to your experience. Among the many-armed tribes, it is exceedingly rare for one to be born with eight arms. If that someone was also extraordinary strong, then…”

“There ain’t anyone else it can be. And that other woman’s gotta be on the same level as him.”

“Corpse soldiers, you say? And going so far as to use a woman as well. Lust is a rather detestable opponent.”

Miraculously, Garfiel and Julius had managed to advance the conversation just enough without dwelling on Theresia’s true identity. Reinhard’s brow furrowed a bit at the point about one of the corpse soldiers being a woman, though—

“There’s no mistaking they are using corpse soldiers. Fortunately, they don’t seem to be able to turn the whole graveyard on us. There’s either some kind of limit on numbers, or maybe Lust just prefers quality over quantity.”

“And the taboo technique of corpse soldiers that disgraces the dead is a fitting technique given the Archbishop of Lust’s self-avowed interests. I see. It is painful to wrap my head around the possibility, but there is a logic to it. I can accept it.”

“The convincing piece of evidence being how terrible her personality is is a pretty grim indictment, though,” Subaru said, grimacing bitterly.

There were similar expressions around the table as they all nodded in agreement.

Capella was the one who had conducted the citywide broadcasts, so she was the one cultist everyone could immediately recognize as being utterly twisted and rotten to the core. And as luck would have it, that shared recognition was enough to convince the room.

“Anyway, back to what I was going to say before… I wanted to leave dealing with Lust to Wilhelm, and if possible Garfiel as well.”

“Wh—? General?!”

Once he decided the room was ready, Subaru put forth his original proposal: sending Wilhelm and Garfiel to deal with Lust.

Their reactions were polar opposites. Wilhelm nodded quietly, having already expected this, while Garfiel, who was completely caught by surprise, opened his eyes wide in shock. From his perspective, that was a natural reaction—

“You’re going to go save Lady Emilia, aren’t you, General? In that case, I should…”

“I’m grateful you’d say that, and trust me, it’d be incredibly reassuring to have you with me. But I think this is our best answer from a force-distribution perspective… Besides, you have your own scores to settle, right?”

“”

Garfiel fell silent. That line hit right where it hurt.

Wilhelm was not the only one with a connection to Lust and her troops. The man who had been changed into a black dragon by Lust’s Authority was someone Garfiel knew. And also, Lust’s subordinate, the corpse soldier Theresia, had—

“Mimi got it bad, and her two brothers shared it, too. All three of them have been unconscious since fighting to get away from the Muse Company— You get it, right?”

The blessing of the grim reaper was extraordinarily powerful. Just a single wound would continue eating away at someone until their life force gave out. There was no escape from that death without defeating the person who possessed the blessing. Garfiel had his reasons to be fighting on that battlefield just like Wilhelm did.

“As you are all aware, my master, Lady Crusch, is currently suffering due to the effect of Lust’s contemptible ability. As Lady Crusch’s vassal, I have a duty to fight for my master.”

“If possible, I was hoping to learn more about this supposed link to dragon blood from Lust. Was that also part of why you’re rarin’ to go there, Mr. Wilhelm?” asked Anastasia.

“It is as you suggest. Because of that, I would like you all to leave the slaying of Lust to me…”

Wilhelm’s swirling bloodlust filled the room. Everyone hesitated to argue with his unshakable resolve and his loyalty to his master.

All except for his one blood relation.

“—I am against this proposal.”

“…Reinhard…”

“You are not calm and collected, Grandfather. I can understand your hostility toward the Archbishop who so grievously harmed Lady Crusch, of course. However, that anger will only cloud your sword strikes.”

“…You would argue that I cannot adequately serve Lady Crusch while insufficiently calm?”

“Out of concern for Lady Crusch, we cannot afford to fail to defeat Lust. In that case, it should be I who takes that role. At the very least, I will not fall behind the enemy in terms of composure.”

Reinhard’s logic was sound and based in a desire to resolve things in the surest way possible. And it was true enough that Wilhelm was not entirely coolheaded about the fight that lay before him.

But when Reinhard said it, Wilhelm’s—no, the Sword Devil’s lips curled into a sneer. It was by no means a kindly old man’s smile—it was the grin of a ferocious beast.

“My not being calm and collected is only natural, Reinhard.”

“Yes, but…”

“Who do you think I am? What do you think your grandfather is? I am the man hailed as the Sword Devil. A hopeless man stuck in the middle of transforming himself into a mere blade, and unable to follow through with conviction, ended up falling in love with a woman. But it is precisely because of that half-heartedness that I never once held back in the slightest in the face of what needed to be done.”

His fierce grin had banished his gentle expression. And now that he had broken free of that facade, what appeared was the face of a devil starved for blood and the clash of steel. The devil who was bewitched by the blade, his blue eyes only ever seeking a single other light—

“When I’ve decided to bare my sword, my heart burns with an unbearable heat. Not coolheaded? That is how I always am on the battlefield. And yet I’ve still lived to this ripe old age. I have no interest in rotting away without fulfilling my duty to my master. Your concern is neither needed nor desired.”

“That argument is mere idealism…”

“Conviction is nothing but idealism backed by a resolve to see things through to the very end. Having persisted fourteen years, my rusted blade was still sharp enough to claim vengeance for my wife—it is too soon for me to sheathe it for the last time.”

It was Wilhelm’s conviction that had avenged Reinhard’s grandmother in the Battle of the White Whale. And there was nothing Reinhard could say in response to that. However, he averted his eyes, still unable to fully accept it.

“The battlefield that needs you is elsewhere, Reinhard,” Wilhelm continued.

“And where exactly might that be?”

“—Please take Reinhard with you in the battle you are about to embark on, Sir Subaru.” The Sword Devil looked Subaru in the eye. “You will have to face Greed in order to recover Lady Emilia. Please have Reinhard be your blade for that battle.”

“Wilhelm…”

Subaru scratched his cheek and sighed softly at Wilhelm’s proposal. He then turned to face Reinhard and met his blue-eyed gaze.

“I was going to get to that next, but…yeah, I want you to help me fight Greed. There’s no way we can beat that crazy narcissist without you.”

It was possible to generally guess the Authorities of the Archbishops from the phenomena that happened around them, and based on that, the Authority that Regulus had was on a whole other level in terms of lethality. There was no way to explain what happened as being the result of anything other than something absurd like invincibility. He didn’t want to believe it was true invincibility, with no weakness or opening of any kind, but—

“We need someone strong enough to fight Regulus head-to-head in order to figure out how to defeat his apparent invulnerability. In terms of offense and defense, if we compare them head-on, he’s almost certainly the most powerful of the Archbishops by far. So I want you to lend me your strength.”

“”

“If you frame it as me planning to slam invincibility and the most powerful force into each other to see what happens, that makes it sound like some weird test of strength.”

Pair the illogical with the illogical and the absurd with the absurd.

Even if he wanted to fight fire with fire, that was not usually an option, so the one time he actually got the chance to do it, Subaru was not going to be picky about it. He was sure that that was the best choice.

“An opponent who is unaffected by attacks of any kind, you say? Certainly, if there were a monster like that, then I would be the best choice. But…”

“—I’m asking you, too. Could you please help the general and Lady Emilia?”

Reinhard was still unsure, even after hearing about Regulus’s invulnerability, but to his surprise, Garfiel stood up and lowered his head. He kept his forehead pressed to the table as he bowed low in order to plead with Reinhard.

“I’m a failure as a guard. Since coming to this city, I haven’t been able to carry out any of the roles I was given, the things I had to do no matter what. Because of that, on the biggest stage of this huge fight, I’m here desperately trying to repay the debts I owe other people instead of being able to fight for my own camp…so please!”

Garfiel’s fangs were trembling as he accepted his own weakness and the results of his own failures.

“Garfiel…”

The red-haired Sword Saint fell silent for a moment—

“—Then give me your word. Just as you have your expectations of me, I will hold you to the same standards. Give me your word that you will surely follow through on your end as well.”

“Ah…yeah. Yeah, leave it to me! Between me and the Sword Devil, there ain’t no enemy that can stand in our way!” Garfiel straightened up, his fangs grinding.

“Okay. Then I will trust in your and my grandfather’s victory—and I shall become Subaru’s blade.” Reinhard nodded.

“”

And like that, the Sword Devil and the Sword Saint—grandfather and grandson, two fellow swordsmen—exchanged gazes and shared a firm nod. With Reinhard finally agreeing to join his fight, Subaru was sure he wouldn’t feel more confident even if he had an army a million strong at his back.

“Sorry for the selfish request, Reinhard.”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind. No matter the battlefield, I will always do my best. So if I can help you and Lady Emilia in the process, then all the better.”

“I really am sorry for always relying on you. I know I’ve already relied on you far too much because of how strong you are, but…I’ll do my best to make up for anything you might be lacking, so you can count on me.”

“”

For a second, Reinhard fell silent, and his eyes widened. Subaru cocked his head at the odd reaction, but Reinhard just shook his head and chuckled softly.

“No, it’s nothing to you, I imagine— Yes, I’ll be counting on you to take care of whatever I cannot.”

“—? Yeah, feel free to get your hopes up, ’cause I know I’ve got high hopes for you.”

With that, they had confirmed the groups that would be attacking the first three control towers. That left just one—

“—By process of elimination, Ricardo and I will be tasked with Gluttony.” Julius spoke stiffly, drawing everyone’s attention.

As he said, of everyone who had gathered in city hall who could fight, the only ones left who could face Gluttony were he and Ricardo. But—

“…Are you all right, Julius? You’ve seemed a bit off for a while now.”

“My apologies for worrying you. However, I am well. If we are talking about physical condition, then I cannot really complain with Subaru here.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Naturally, a consideration for the state of your right leg. Please don’t snap at me like that. I had no intention of getting into it with you in this moment.”

“Mrgh…”

Subaru felt a little sad getting parried so flatly.

Anastasia was not the only one who felt Julius was acting rather strangely. Subaru did as well. But he couldn’t tell what the source of the strange behavior was. And Julius declined to answer the deeper question as he nodded gracefully, a resolute gleam in his eyes.

“Ricardo and I shall take the remaining Archbishop, Gluttony, an opponent we encountered at city hall and have a connection with— In other times, he is an opponent you or Sir Wilhelm would have preferred to have drawn, but having been entrusted with him anyway, rest assured that we will prevail.”

“…Yeah, I guess so.”

Julius said aloud exactly what Subaru had been thinking.

—Defeating the Archbishop of Gluttony was precisely what Subaru had wanted to accomplish himself. And Wilhelm, with Crusch suffering on the floor above, was in the same position as Subaru.

Gluttony’s Authority, the ability to consume memories and names—when Subaru thought of how Rem had suffered due to that power and was even now in a wakeless slumber, he wanted nothing more than to crush Gluttony with his own two hands. Punch, kick, stomp, and make that cultist regret everything until there was nothing but tearful pleas for forgiveness—that was what he wanted to do.

And he was yielding that chance to someone else—

“I really don’t want to leave it to anyone else. You know I wanted to bring Rem back myself. I believed that was my role.”

“”

“But still, if I don’t get a choice about it, if I have to leave it to someone else, then I want to leave it to you. Don’t get the wrong idea, this was process of elimination… Still, you are the person I trust with this. As much as I don’t like it, you are one of the few people I could bear to have take my place.”

Rem’s memories and her very existence were still being held hostage.

Emilia was being held hostage and was waiting to be rescued.

They were both precious to Subaru, both people who had to be saved no matter what. He wanted to be able to show off for both of them.

—Because Subaru was Emilia’s knight and Rem’s hero.

“I’ll defeat Greed and bring Emilia back, so I’ll let you beat the crap out of Gluttony this time… Don’t screw it up.”

“—I shall live up to your expectations. This time, this time for sure.”

Julius nodded deeply, accepting Subaru’s faith in him. The Finest Knight then looked to Wilhelm and nodded slightly.

“Sir Wilhelm.”

“Sir Subaru managed to say most everything that I wanted to say. It is true that I cannot forgive Gluttony for what happened…therefore I shall entrust that to you as well, Sir Julius. There are just slightly too many rogues in this city at the moment.”

“Agreed. I shall accept your thoughts.”

Bathed in Wilhelm’s keen battle aura, Julius quietly closed his eyes, taking encouragement from it.

And watching their exchanges quietly, Ricardo opened his toothy mouth wide.

“Man, y’all sure like to talk like I’m not here! Not that it really bothers me, though! And I can’t say you’re wrong about this bein’ the best deployment, either.”

“You’re the kinda guy who’s down for just about anything. And there’s nothin’ cute about a guy as big as you gettin’ all pouty… Take care of Julius, though.”

“Don’t you worry. You ever known me to tell a lie, Lady Anna?”

“…Could you quit with the names already? I am your master.”

Ricardo guffawed as Anastasia’s cheeks puffed out in a cute pout. Ricardo’s black eyes were filled with a pained kindness as he looked down at Anastasia.

“In that case, all the matchups are settled.”

Looking around the table, everyone nodded at Subaru’s concluding statement.

“The fourth tower, Wrath, will go to the Priscilla-and-Liliana pair. And Al will stay behind for defense… That’s all right with you, yes?”

“A fool who would dare try to control people’s hearts while I remain on this earth? Absurd. I will grant that empty-headed dunce a fitting punishment.”

“I shall sing, sing, and sing, for I am but a mass of flesh whose purpose is naught but to sing. I shan’t regret my life, but I shall regret my stage. All right, I can do this. I can feel it now! I’ve got this!”

“”

Priscilla was fanning herself as Liliana focused her all on a mysterious sort of auto-suggestion. Al’s expression was hidden, but it was clear as day that he had not really come to terms with the situation yet. And it was just as clear that Priscilla had no intention of paying his discomfort any heed. There were still a lot of questions about how their pair was going to work, but they were the ones most confident of success.

“Next is the first district, Garfiel and Wilhelm taking down Lust.”

“Yeah! This is gonna be like Mezoreia’s panorama. I’ll grab it all with this fist of mine.”

“Please leave it to us—we shall settle things with the corpse soldiers as well.”

They had a difficult battle ahead of them, but the two of them probably had the strongest spirits. The Sword Devil Wilhelm fighting out of fealty to his master and for the sake of the beloved wife he had never forgotten. And Garfiel in search of a resolution to the shapeless emotions rumbling around in his soul. They were both setting out for a battle with things they could not concede hanging in the balance.

“And the second district. Julius and Ricardo, you two are taking on Gluttony.”

“It is the role I’ve been entrusted. If I cannot live up to that trust, then I can hardly call myself a knight.”

“My family got hit real hard by those bastards. I’ll knock ’em around ’til they’re beggin’ for mercy.”

When it came to connections with the cultists, the two of them had been relatively far removed from them until today. But having people close to them fall in battle and having been entrusted with the feelings of Subaru and their other comrades, they had more than enough reason to fight. They would be able to wield their swords freely.

They were comrades with whom Subaru had walked the fine line between life and death before. He did not need a reason to be able to trust them.

“And finally, Reinhard and I will take Greed in the third district. I’ll be counting on you.”

“—Yes, leave it to me. And I’ll be counting on you as well, Subaru.”

Reinhard nodded easily. However, that alone was more than enough reassurance, proof that his mind was already clear and focused even before the fight began in earnest.

As they were about to take the fight to the cultists, they couldn’t afford any mistakes. Subaru pointedly straightened up and stood tall. And with the deployments all confirmed, Anastasia clapped her hands.

“In that case, if everything’s decided, all that’s left is handing out the conversation mirrors… We have three. Assuming I keep one here at the base, who’s going to take the other two?”

“If possible, I’d like the Wrath team to have one. As for the other…either the Lust or Gluttony team would be fine.”

“Why’s that?”

“Wrath’s Authority is affecting the entire city. That being gone or not changes the situation in a big way, so it would be best to get that report as soon as possible.”

Hearing that, everyone nodded. As for the remaining one, he figured it was fine for either of the two remaining non-Greed teams to take it.

The reason for that—

“Put bluntly, Reinhard is handling Greed. His Authority seems to be some kind of conditional invincibility, so while I don’t want to be overly optimistic, there is a nonzero chance of us finishing up with him real quick. If that happens, I want Reinhard to be able to join up with whichever team needs the most help.”

“And depending on how the conditions in the city change, we can give directions to the general populace from here using the broadcast metia. That’s another thing that becomes a more viable option once Wrath is down,” Otto added.

“That’s quite prudent. You’re gettin’ awfully reliable, ain’t ya, Natsuki?”

Anastasia smiled in admiration before tossing the mirror in her hand over to Priscilla, who deftly caught it with her fan and rolled it over to Liliana.

“Wh-wh-wha—?!”

“You take it, diva. I do not carry anything heavier than silverware.”

“You lazy… As if that fan of yours isn’t heavy enough with all those decorations.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Can you not appreciate its elegant design? Do you not comprehend the beauty of this chasing and engraving? It does not begin to compare to that shoddy item lying there. Do not dare hold it to the same standard as mere silverware.”

“So it is heavier than silverware…”

Priscilla’s obstinacy aside, it was decided that Liliana would take the conversation mirror. After watching her slip it into the bosom of her small outfit, they gave the last one to Wilhelm. It was Julius who made that decision, sliding it across the table to the older gentleman.

“In consideration for the differing number of enemies in both locations, it would be best for the Lust team to have a means of instant contact. I don’t believe either of you is likely to fail, but please report in if you deem the situation to be dire.”

“Understood. Though I agree that such a situation is unlikely to occur.”

Wilhelm slipped the final mirror into his breast pocket in accordance with Julius’s suggestion.

With that, they had divided up the squads and distributed the items they had to pass around. They had made their preparations for the decisive battle.

“Let’s wait a little bit, and then all of us should leave at once. This is the official start of our plan to take back the city,” Subaru said.

There was tension in everyone’s face as they all nodded. There was a quiet weight closing in on them that felt wrong to Subaru.

“Do you guys not get the feeling that us looking all serious and depressed like this is just going to lead to everything going wrong?”

“That’s another odd thing for you to say, Mr. Natsuki. What are you talking about?” Otto responded with a bitter expression.

“It’s not odd at all. It’s important. It’s an iron rule of life that no matter how many or how few people you manage to bring together, a group with no morale and no unity is just a mob. So what do we do to keep that from happening? Maybe have everyone say something all at once or something? Even if it’s just for show.”

Subaru stood up and clapped his hands together loudly. Then he held his fist up for all of them to see.

“Let’s do this, guys! We’re gonna throw everyone who gets in our way out of the city! We’ll show those cultists who’s the boss and get our happy ending back!”

“”

Hearing that, everyone looked at one another, and then, a half beat later, they held their hands up one after the other.

“Ooooaaah!”

They all raised their voices, and Subaru’s lips cracked into a smile as he felt the electric excitement crackling over his skin.

Their cries were all over the place, they felt aimless, and it was hard to say those gathered were really united given the mixture of fists and palms raised in the air. But these were Subaru Natsuki’s comrades. The people he would fight alongside in order to retake the city. It was hard to come by a group as fine as they.

They had been beaten up good, cornered badly enough that for a moment there it had looked like they were not going to be able to recover. But they had returned to fight.

—The final decisive battle for the Water Gate City was beginning.

“—We’re gonna win this fight!”

And the meeting of the round table ended with that final, fittingly Subaru-esque line.

Sub-chapter 7.

—Having finished her secret conversation with Al, Emilia had returned to the bedroom and disposed of the ice sculpture that she had used as a body double. Nothing seemed to have been disturbed, so it appeared her absence had gone unnoticed. Or else they had been thrown off by the finely crafted ice sculpture.

Emilia regretfully returned the sculpture to mana as she appreciated her handiwork.

“…I’m surprised. I did not expect you to return.”

“Eep!”

All of a sudden, a voice called out from behind her, causing Emilia to jolt in shock before turning around. When she did, she saw #184 standing at the entrance, looking right at her.

She had last seen her cleaning up the room Regulus had destroyed, but there she was, her eyes narrowing as she watched Emilia panic before letting out a small sigh.

“You went to such effort to leave a replacement behind. Did you have a change of heart?”

“What? A replacement? I’m not sure what you mean. I’ve been resting here the whole time since I was tired. Right here in bed… Ah, it’s cold! Ah, I mean it’s not cold at all!”

“”

The bed was absolutely freezing from having an ice sculpture lying on it the whole time she was gone, so it was practically rejecting her body warmth. But admitting that would only confirm her lie, so she resolutely endured the cold and went to lie down in the bed.

“See, I’ve been here all along. I would never have done something like run away.”

“…Yes, of course. My mistake. But that would truly be odd. Why did you not simply run away while you could?” #184 asked quietly.

“…If I did that, it would have been bad for you and the other wives and the people in the city,” Emilia responded, sticking her legs out of the covers and sitting on the edge of the bed.

#184’s eyes were cool and emotionless—but something about her felt off to Emilia. At first it was just a vague feeling of unease, but it gradually came into a fuzzy focus. The emotion hidden deep in her eyes looked almost like a desperate plea.

“Did you by chance want me to run away?”

“”

“But why? If I did that, then it would be bad for you and the others.”

Thinking back on their exchange, Emilia started to wonder if #184 had noticed the ice sculpture left on the bed but chosen not to report it to Regulus. By doing that, she would delay the realization that Emilia was gone, which would’ve given her more time to get away.

In reality, Emilia had had no intention of fleeing, so her effort had gone to waste, but—

“No, if you hadn’t hidden it for me, Regulus would have found out I was sneaking around investigating. So thank you anyway…”

“Please don’t thank me. In the end it did not amount to anything—I had intended to muster just a little bit of bravery at the end of my life, but even that was meaningless.”

“”

With that, #184 tightly clenched her arms. Her hands were visibly trembling. Emilia realized that her delaying the report she was supposed to give had taken every last bit of her courage.

Regulus had casually tried to kill #184 out of nothing more than a mild irritation. If that was an everyday sort of occurrence, then she and all the other wives were living day in and day out with death hanging right over their heads. How much courage had it taken to endure that level of terror that had become an everyday phenomenon?

“Why did you come back?”

“—Um.”

“It would have been better if I had just been consumed by his anger after you never returned. Whatever became of the city, whatever became of us. This just means it will go on and on. This unchanging, never-ending time will just continue until it all ends.”

#184 spoke fervently, half clinging to Emilia, half cursing her. Biting her lip, Emilia stood up.

“In that case, if you could stand up once, then let’s try again together. I haven’t given up yet.”

“I can’t. I gathered what little willpower I had left and got nothing in return. Just thinking about trying again makes everything inside me freeze… Anything more is impossible.”

#184 shook her head desperately as Emilia watched, unable to say anything. Her eyes locked on to Emilia as she continued, the light in her eyes frozen—no, dead.

“You are free to decide that you will not give up. However, I will never have that choice ever again. And I’m sure the other women in this hell are the same.”

“”

“I was just a normal girl living in a small village in a mountain valley with my family. In order to marry me, he eradicated my mother and father, my siblings, my neighbors, and all the villagers who merely knew my name and face. All his wives have experienced similar fates.”

Her eyes dead and dull the whole while, #184 spoke of what had happened when Regulus demanded her hand in marriage.

It was a horrific, almost unbelievable story, but the only ones who could laugh it off as a joke would be those fortunate enough not to know Regulus. He was more than capable of committing such heinous acts. That was unmistakably something he would do. He had created a paradise of his own making, served by the wives he had forcibly wedded.

“…Regulus said there were two hundred and ninety-one…”

“Yes. And two hundred and thirty-eight have already passed away, leaving only the fifty-three here in this city.”

“Those wives who passed away…”

“Do you really need me to spell it out?”

Her hoarse response scoffed at Emilia’s question. No, it was more self-deprecating than that.

#184 was exhausted with existing and with the curse that had consumed their lives. She had reached the present day at the cost of her very will to resist. And after trudging her way through those terror-filled days, she’d stumbled upon evidence of Emilia, the one whom Regulus had chosen to be his new wife, running away. What had #184 felt in that moment?

Her statement that she would never have the will to resist again had surely been true in a far deeper sense than Emilia realized.

Emilia had only just begun to scratch the surface of what it took to spend a life with Regulus, but for #184—for all the women here, it was something that had already shaved away pieces of their very souls.

“”

Though it had not been intentional, Emilia realized just how important a thing she had shattered, and realizing that, she lost sight of what she could possibly say to #184. Even if she said something baseless in the heat of the moment, it would never reach this woman. She frantically searched for the words, anything she could possibly say to reassure or bolster #184.

She was desperately, desperately searching, but she could not come up with anything. There didn’t seem to be a right answer. No ideal or essential wisdom.

No matter how she looked, she could not find the words to tell #184 the thing she most wanted to convey. Emilia was terrified from the depths of her heart, as if it would all slip away from the palm of her hand. A cold despair crept into her heart.

And at just that instant—

“—Um, can everyone actually hear me through this? Mic test, mic test. One, two. One, two.”

—the voice Emilia most wanted to hear rang out from above, as if extending a hand to her.

Sub-chapter 8.

It was a faltering performance. Even if a listener was inclined to be generous, it could not be called impressive.

“It looks like this is actually broadcasting, then. First of all, let me apologize for surprising you. I imagine a lot of you were worried or steeling yourself wondering what you would be told next. But please don’t worry. I’m not a member of the Witch Cult.”

Even though it would have been fine to lie, it was brutally honest even where it did not need to be, not even hiding the sort of thing that would cause the people listening to feel more anxious. And yet, at the very end of it all, it said, as if to kick away everyone’s unease—

“—But even so. Even with all that, I can’t run away from this. So I’m going to fight. That’s the sort of person I am.”

It was a shock and almost certainly exactly what Emilia wanted most in that moment. It was the thing that the people of the city most wanted in that moment.

“I want to believe. I’m weak. And pathetic. But I haven’t given up yet. Please let me believe that I’m not the only weakling who doesn’t know how to give up.”

Ahhh, it really is not fair at all.

Trembling and meandering but obviously his best effort, it made anyone listening almost want to cry. It almost felt like the speaker’s pulse could be heard through his voice, even though that was obviously impossible. It nearly brought tears to her eyes.

“Or am I really the only one?”

—No, no you’re not.

“Am I the only one who can still keep going…who still wants to fight?”

—No, I’m okay. I can keep going.

“I’m not, right?”

—No, you’re not. Absolutely, from the bottom of my heart, you’re not alone.

“You can still fight, right? You won’t let the weakness consume you, right?”

—I can hear your voice, so I’m okay. It’s fine. I’m not scared of anything.

“—I am Subaru Natsuki, the spirit user who defeated the Witch Cult Archbishop of Sloth.”

Just hearing that alone was enough to blow away all the cold despair encroaching on Emilia’s heart.

Even though just a little while earlier it had felt like she had fallen into an inescapable dark abyss. Even though she had been unable to move forward or backward, cursing her own powerlessness. Just hearing that voice had relieved her. Had satisfied her.

Because he had said it. Emilia’s knight had said it.

“—Just leave everything else to me!”

He had said to leave it to him. So no matter how dark things might seem, he would blow it all away. No matter how impossible or absurd, he would overcome all the odds. There was no doubt he would succeed.

That was why—

“…That voice just now…”

“—That was my knight. He’s always really trying his best.”

The broadcast ended as suddenly as it had begun, leaving a stunned #184 in turmoil. And standing before her, Emilia held her hand to her heart and smiled softly.

“”

Looking into Emilia’s eyes, #184 opened her own eyes wide, and she was at a loss for words. It was because of how Emilia looked as she spoke about her knight, but Emilia did not realize it. She then looked #184 in the eye as she continued.

“I won’t run. I won’t disappear and leave you all here.”

“—! Why?”

“You shared your painful past with me, as well as what you’re feeling now. But as scared as you must have been, you still tried to help me.”

Even if it was only once, even if she felt broken down and lost, she had fought back; she had conquered her fear even if only for an instant. So Emilia would do the same—she would do her best not to bend or break.

“I want you and everyone else to be able to find happiness. A wedding is a ceremony to bring happiness to two people who love each other very much. The bride has to be happy, too.”

When she thought of marriage, she imagined a scene of blissful happiness between two people who adored each other. In the back of her mind, she saw the image of Fortuna and Geuse—they had not been married, so they never became husband and wife, but that was what Emilia wished for them. For their sakes, Emilia dearly wanted them to have been able to be married. Their relationship, the way they loved each other—that was surely what a proper marriage should be like.

“I know people who loved each other but weren’t able to get married. And to this day, it makes my heart hurt to think of them.”

That was why—

“—I can’t stand the idea of a marriage that isn’t happy. I don’t want that sort of relationship for anyone.”

Just thinking of it made her stomach roil. She hated the very idea of it. Emilia fundamentally refused to give in to something like that, so she would not give up on the city or on #184 or any of the women here. She would carry them all in her own hands. And if that was not enough, she would borrow someone else’s hands, too—someone like her knight.

“Th-that is a lovely thought, but…as I said before, if there were anything to be done, it would be for you to escape alone.”

“Alone…? No, that isn’t what we should do at all.”

Emilia shook her head, gently rejecting #184’s statement.

#184 had revealed she was alone in the world, with no one left to turn to—but that wasn’t true. Not any longer. It was none other than Emilia’s knight who had revealed that when his voice could be heard all throughout the city.

But she had no intention of just leaving everything to him.

“I was never alone. That was dangerous; I almost forgot that.”

“What are you planning?”

Even though she was insistent that it was none of her concern, #184 was still asking what Emilia’s plan was. Seeing her riled emotions, her frozen emotions stirring into life, Emilia could not help an odd feeling that that was the same sort of thing Subaru saw.

To #184’s shock, her response was—“We’re going to hold a wedding ceremony.”

 

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Diamond. Diamond. Diamond.

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