Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World – Vol. 12 Ch. 3

Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World. Volume. 12.

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‘Chapter 3:- A FOUR-HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD CRY.’

 
Sub-chapter 1.

When Subaru passed through the gate, slipping through the front courtyard, he looked up at the sun overhead.

Its position in the sky was a bit inclined to the west. Based on that, the time seemed to be a little past noon.

Roughly half a day since leaving the Sanctuary, Subaru emitted a light sigh as he finally arrived before the majestic facade of Roswaal Manor. It was a sigh of relief that he’d at least made it safely that far.

“Could you not show me such a flabbergasted-looking face?”

“…I am not flabbergasted whatsoever. I am merely surprised at your exceedingly quick return.”

Saying this was a tall, golden-haired woman whose jade eyes were open wide—Frederica. Coming out to receive the arriving guest, she was beside herself when she noticed it was Subaru in the entryway. From her point of view, he’d returned after only a single day, a virtual somersault. It was natural for her to be surprised.

—However, to Subaru, his time away had been one of repeated upheaval.

“I have a reason for the quick turnaround… It relates to you, too.”

“…And so you have returned alone? You did not bring Lady Emilia with you?”

“You know full well why Emilia can’t leave the Sanctuary, right? You don’t need to put on an act. I think you’ll find I’ve returned a lot better informed than you might assume.”

Tension was gripping Frederica, something Subaru intended to relieve as he raised both of his hands. He didn’t want to spark any fruitless arguments. His suspicions about Frederica had already been cleared up once before.

He believed she was positively uninvolved in both the raid on the mansion and the calamity occurring in the Sanctuary.

All she had done was give Emilia that crystal, offered several false pieces of information about the barrier, and refused to explain who had commanded her to do so.

—That said, the secret she was keeping close to the chest was one he absolutely had to expose…

“…Come to think of it, I’ve sworn to expose the secrets of brother and sister alike. Man, I’m a disagreeable guy.”

“Are you speaking to yourself? Also, the way you are staring at my breasts… Y-you mustn’t…?”

“I won’t go so far as to say I’m not interested in them, but that’s not what I’m thinking, okay? Anyway, let’s…”

“—Huh?! Subaru?!”

When Frederica noticed the inappropriate place he had let his gaze linger, she reacted by hiding her cleavage and squirming away. Right as Subaru started claiming that it was a misunderstanding, a lively, high-pitched voice rang out. He could hear energetic footsteps approaching as a small, adorable girl in a maid outfit—Petra—raced down to the pair.

“Wah! You came back really fast, didn’t you?!”

Lining up beside Frederica, Petra looked up at Subaru, her eyes sparkling with delight at his return. Her reaction made Subaru cross his arms and turn his eyes toward Frederica.

“Hey, see that? This is what a maid’s supposed to be like.”

“Petra is a special case. I am simply not as charming… Ahhh, so cute.”

“—? Su… Master Subaru, Miss Frederica, is something wrong?”

Petra tilted her head, looking puzzled by the exchange between the pair. Glancing at Frederica, who was enraptured by the adorable sight, Subaru patted his own chest in relief.

Petra and Frederica. He was truly glad that he was able to reunite with both of them safe and sound.

Getting to meet Petra again was making the corners of his eyes particularly hot. —After all, Subaru’s last memory of Petra was from the height of the tragedy at the mansion, when he grieved at seeing her reduced to only an arm.

“…Master Subaru?”

“Nah, I was just thinking, seeing Petra heals my heart sooo much. Seeing your face is a serious relief. Come to think of it, Petra, this time around, you’re the only one I can talk to without worrying about anything.”

As Petra watched with upturned eyes, Subaru flashed a smile and stretched a hand toward her. He proceeded to stroke her reddish-brown hair as if he was combing it, something she happily accepted.

“Master Subaru, let us put that envia— That charming cuddling for later. You wanted to speak with me, yes?”

“Sounded like a bit of your true feelings slipped through for a second there, but not dragging things out is a big help… Is talking in the lounge okay?”

“I shall be there with tea. Petra, show him in.”

“Yes, Miss Frederica. Master Subaru, this way, please.”

Briskly dividing their duties, Frederica headed to the kitchen while Petra pulled Subaru’s hand as she guided him along.

“”

The moment Subaru began walking into the mansion, the urge to head to Rem’s room instantly sprouted inside of him.

However, Subaru suppressed that impulse out of a sense of duty. At that moment, he felt that if he prioritized his desire to meet her, something precious to him would break.

For a short while, he would carefully, carefully hide Rem deep within the confines of his consciousness—

“…Come to think of it, there’s something I have to say to you, Petra.”

“—? What is it?”

“Thank you for the charm, Petra. It saved me. Probably in a different way than you intended, though.”

As Petra walked not so much ahead of him than in a more normal side-by-side manner, Subaru showed her the handkerchief wrapped around his right wrist as he conveyed his gratitude. That handkerchief had truly saved him in an unexpected way.

“Really? I helped Subaru?”

“Yeah. It saved my li— Well that’s not quite exactly how it saved me but pretty close.”

“—? —? I don’t really get it, but I’m glad! That makes me really happy!”

Easily accepting even Subaru’s vague, half-baked reply, Petra’s face broke into a brilliant smile, something that brought a great measure of peace to Subaru’s mind.

—Enough to make Subaru firmly swear to his heart that this smiling face was one of the things he had to protect.

Sub-chapter 2.

When Subaru returned to the front entrance, Petra was staring at him with her cheeks sourly puffed up.

There was not even a hint of the smiling face that Subaru had vowed to defend just under an hour before. With her red face and wet eyes projecting dissatisfaction with all their might, Subaru felt distinctly ashamed of himself.

“Petra, how long are you going to sulk like that? If you keep this up, you’ll be causing trouble for Master Subaru, yes?”

“But—but, Miss Fredericaaa…”

“No buts. You heard what Master Subaru said. And yet, you are being unreasonable as a maid… No, the issue precedes being a maid. You understand, don’t you?”

“Uughu∼∼.”

Chided by Frederica, Petra hung her head in chagrin. He felt sorry for Petra as he watched her get a scolding, but Subaru knew that any intervention would only fan the flames. Though he felt bad about it, this was one point that Subaru could not yield, even if he had to become a demon in the process.

In the lounge, Subaru had proposed a plan to the pair based on his experiences from all the failed attempts he had made so far. The contents of that plan were the cause of Petra’s sour mood, for he had proposed that—

“—We shall leave the mansion empty, temporarily concealing ourselves in the village. That is what you require of us?”

“Yeah, I’m counting on you. Sorry for the unreasonable demands.”

“It was only just the other day we had the Witch Cult affair, so if that is your reasoning, then I cannot refute you.”

The basis behind Subaru’s plan made Frederica sullenly cast her eyes downward.

It had only been one short week since the Witch Cultists under Petelgeuse’s command had mounted an attack on the mansion and the village. The still-fresh memories and scars from what they had done were tremendously effective for persuading Petra and Frederica.

—His goal was to evacuate the pair from the mansion and distance them from Elsa’s imminent attack.

This was the strategy Subaru had decided on when he returned to the mansion with maximum possible speed. For the sake of persuasiveness, he’d explained that it was a precaution against Witch Cult remnants rather than assassins. For that reason, they would flee to the village not in maid outfits but outfits any village girl might wear, so as to conceal their connection to the mansion.

To be blunt, Petra notwithstanding, whether Frederica would do as he asked was a real gamble, but—

“—I cannot shirk this duty. After all, Master Subaru, you are entrusting me with your beloved dragon and a woman most precious to you.”

“…I really didn’t mean to bring that up as a way to persuade you. I’m leaving them in your care because I trust you.”

“My, such killer words. Master Subaru, you are truly skilled at tickling a maid’s heart.”

“I! I think that, too…!”

Petra raised her hands up, hopping as if declaring she was also present, drawing a pained smile from Subaru as he shifted his gaze to his arms—and to the sleeping face of the lovely girl he held within them.

Wearing thin blue pajamas over her upper body, it was the girl who continued to sleep without making even the slightest sound—Rem.

Subaru had picked her up from the bedroom in which she slumbered, carrying her all the way out of the mansion like that. She was no exception—

“Rem, Petra, Patlash—I’m entrusting them all to you, Frederica. I plan on rendezvousing with you as fast as possible, so…”

“I hope that you are able to come to terms with Lady Beatrice so that she might join us as well. —Truly, I do.”

“…Yeah, me too.”

Subaru replied to Frederica as his back teeth bit into his cheek.

When would he actually be able to fulfill that vow? Even Subaru did not know if it would be this time around or at some point in the future. But he would most certainly fulfill it. That he swore on his life.

Casting that vow into a future with no guarantees, Subaru hoped he could be forgiven for doing the best he could along the way.

“Could you cheer up for me, Petra? It’s tough to be hated like this.”

“Muu, in that case… Subaru, you said earlier that I saved you, right?”

As Subaru raised the proverbial white flag, the sulking Petra looked like she had suddenly recalled the thanks she had received earlier. When that elicited a nod from Subaru, she held a finger up and said, “Then, an expression of gratitude, please! I’ll let you off in exchange for one dayte!”

“A date? Where the heck did you hear about…? Must be from that time with Emilia, huh? You really have a sharp memory, Petra.”

The adorable proposal made Subaru recall his first date with Emilia, his reward after the demon beast incident. At the time, they’d gone together from spot to spot around Earlham Village, meaning the villagers and the children had seen them. Apparently, Petra had remembered the word from way back then.

“Got it. If that’ll do, then consider this escort job accepted. I’m honored to be Petra’s first date, so I’m looking forward to it.”

“Yes! It’s a promise!”

Petra’s face brightened with the appearance of a beaming smile, her foul mood seemingly forgotten.

That face offered nothing short of salvation. Through one girl’s sympathy, it felt like even his failures could be swept away.

“Well, I’m going to go call Patlash over!”

Straightening her back with a spring, Petra energetically raced for the rear of the mansion. She seemed almost too worked up, but her consideration for others was probably a large part of that.

The astute girl had probably sensed that Subaru still had more to discuss with Frederica.

“…Let’s make this promise again someday, Petra.”

Watching the girl receding in the distance, Subaru whispered those words for his ears alone.

This was a world that would likely vanish. The promise they exchanged would not remain within her. However, Subaru would never forget.

—All so that they could make the same promise again when it was time to choose the correct future.

“She is a good girl, isn’t she?”

“Yeah. Let me be the one to brag about her sometime, all right? I’m the one she chose for her first date after all.”

After watching Petra head off, only Subaru and Frederica remained. With the exception of Rem, asleep in Subaru’s arms, the two were alone—making this the ideal opportunity to speak openly.

Surmising what was to come, Frederica’s body was slightly stiff as she reoriented herself toward Subaru. And then—

“I know you’re about to set off and all, but can I ask you a—? Actually, make it three questions.”

“That is incredibly sudden and exceedingly shameless of you. It would depend upon the specifics.”

Adjusting how he held Rem while he broached the subject, Frederica knitted her brows. There was a twinge of unease that came over her jade eyes. For a time, Subaru mulled over just what he ought to probe at before he finally asked, “I want to ask about Garfiel. He’s been inside the tomb. Did you know?”

“—. Is there something between you and Garfiel?”

“You’re the one who warned me to watch out. Harsh words, you know? I know about your relation to Garfiel, too. That’s why you don’t have to cover anything up.”

“In but a single…really, in half a day, you would seem to have gained a great deal of the master’s trust.”

Gazing in wonder at the breadth of Subaru’s knowledge, Frederica voiced that conclusion as if speaking to herself. She apparently thought that Subaru had obtained the information from Roswaal, something he made no effort to correct.

—After all, information nigh impossible to learn in a single day was a weapon Subaru and Subaru alone wielded.

Using that as leverage, Subaru wanted to discover Garfiel’s true intentions, an irreplaceable piece of information for him to devise a way to clear Sanctuary.

Given the fact that he had the qualifications to be an apostle, his bias toward the Trial, and the slight measure of sympathy he had shown Emilia as she challenged the tomb, there was no mistaking that Garfiel bore special feelings toward that tomb.

If this was the core component of the differences in his actions from each of Subaru’s runs, then that was how he would unravel the thread.

“Did you hear anything about me from…my little brother?”

“…I don’t really want to say this, Frederica, but most of it was bad. Garfiel said that you abandoned your birthplace and left.”

“”

“Ah, er, but since it’s him, it could just have been his foul way of ta—”

“No, it is fine. Thank you for your consideration, but I am all right.”

Firmly shaking her head, she left Subaru choking on his words, unable to continue. During that time, Frederica narrowed her eyes, averting her gaze almost as if to stare into the distance as she began to explain.

“It has been over ten years since I departed the Sanctuary. I have not spoken to my younger…to Garf, once in all that time. The gap has remained unbridged ever since.”

“…Frederica, is it all right if I asked why you left the Sanctuary?”

He already knew the reason why she was not held captive by the barrier enveloping the Sanctuary. The barrier, which bound those who carried mixed human and demi-human blood, did not activate if that mixture was too weak.

She was not a half-blood but a quarter. This was the reason Frederica could leave the Sanctuary.

“Still, being able to leave and leaving are two different things. I tried asking Garfiel what he wanted to do after the barrier was lifted, too…but he didn’t answer.”

“I…see. I probably wanted to create that for him.”

Subaru put on a puzzled look when he heard the vague explanation, one focused around the word that. Not noticing his reaction, Frederica seemed to be trying to coax an answer out of something amorphous that rested deep inside of her.

“Someday, the barrier will be lifted. I was absolutely certain of that. Perhaps that was simply wishful thinking on my part. If the barrier was lifted finally, the people living inside the Sanctuary would be freed…and they would come outside, having no more idea what to do than Garfiel does right now.”

“So you wanted to create that ‘something’ for them, Frederica?”

“Close. It is very much like that. A place for them, perhaps—something to give courage to those dependent on the Sanctuary, a spark for them to step outside.”

Frederica seemed satisfied with this explanation as she touched a hand to her chest. Subaru had never seen her act this way, like a bud gently blooming into a flower.

The people dependent on the Sanctuary were those with nowhere else to go due to irrational ostracism and discrimination. When the barrier was lifted and even the Sanctuary was lost to them, where would they go?

—To answer that question, Frederica had been working toward a new place they could call home.

With such conviction roaring inside of her, an earnest light shined in Frederica’s jade eyes. Coming back to Subaru’s question, “As far as the tomb is concerned,” she offered as a preamble, before saying, “to the best of my knowledge, Garf entered the tomb only once. If he took the Trial, it could only be then… I do not know whether he challenged it again thereafter.”

“So what was the result at the time? I imagine that he failed, but…”

Shaking her head, Frederica had a grave look on her face.

“At the time, I was unable to rush into the tomb after him. Grandmother simply told me that Garf had not returned, and it was Grandmother who entered the tomb and brought him back…”

“So Ryuzu is the one who brought Garfiel back, huh?”

The natives of the Sanctuary could not lift the barrier. Ryuzu had previously told him that she was bound to the place by a pact. For that same Ryuzu to enter the tomb was akin to defying the Witch’s commands.

Considering the circumstances of Ryuzu’s birth as a replica, this was truly on par with an act of rebellion against her creator.

Small wonder, then, that Garfiel revered Ryuzu, who had gone that far to rescue him and thought of the Sanctuary as a precious place.

But for the result of that trial to be Garfiel becoming an Apostle of Greed, he had to have wanted something.

“When she returned, Grandmother kept their trip to the tomb a secret. And ever since, Garf stopped saying he was going to enter the tomb. He’d said he was going to liberate the Sanctuary by his own hand and show Grandmother and the others the outside world.”

From Frederica’s lonely words, Subaru realized a truth that she herself had not.

Frederica had departed the Sanctuary in order to build a new home in anticipation of the day liberation would come. She was waiting. —Waiting for the time when Garfiel would free the people of the Sanctuary.

Frederica had ventured to the outside world to support the hope her younger brother once embraced—

And yet, that hope had been dashed midway, and now Garfiel took great pains to protect the Sanctuary.

So that’s what it was. This was the true motive behind Garfiel’s actions. Grieving for a future he could no longer see, he protected the present instead. This explained the apparent contradictions in his actions to date.

“—Master Subaru, I ask that you somehow take good care of my uncouth younger brother.”

“…Even if you say that to me, there’s not much I can do.”

As Subaru sank into thought, Frederica bent deeply at the hip as she made her request. Subaru was at a loss for how to respond. But Frederica slowly shook her head side to side and smiled.

Making no attempts to hide her mouth and leaving her sharp fangs on display, her beaming face was beautiful enough to captivate him—

“Master Subaru, the reason I ask is because I now believe you are up to the task. I will have you know, I have some confidence in my ability to read people.”

Frederica’s statement, somehow coming off as playful, made Subaru avert his gaze. He wanted to answer her expectations. But could he really say he was prepared to fulfill them this time around?

It was because he had no such conviction that Subaru could not bear to meet her gaze and hesitated in his reply.

“I humbly ask that you take good care of my younger brother.”

Even so, it was this Subaru with whom Frederica spoke once more, repeating her request with a smile still on her face.

“Master Subaru, please allow me to take Rem. Your arms must be at their limits?”

“…Yeah, actually I’ve been really been pushing it. It’s not like I can afford to just drop her, after all.”

Frederica opened her arms, which also signaled the end of the conversation. Indulging in her benevolence, Subaru handed over the sleeping Rem. He had heard once unconscious people were supposed to be far harder to lift than anyone who was awake, but her body didn’t feel heavy to him. It was as if having her name and memory stolen away had left her diluted, almost like she was going to fade away.

“”

When Frederica’s arms embraced Rem, he brushed aside the slumbering girl’s hair, burning her face into his eyes, as if this would ensure his hope, his vow they would be reunited might reach her even as she dreamed.

“—Have you already thought of a method to find Lady Beatrice?”

If there was any time to spare, he’d have spent all of it caressing Rem like that. As if to discard that lingering regret, Frederica asked Subaru, who was staying behind in the mansion, about what his next move would be.

How did he plan to find Beatrice, presumably in the archive of forbidden books even at that very moment, and bring her out with him?

“If she really wants to hide, there’s no way I’ll find her no matter what plan I come up with.”

“Then what shall you do? It is necessary for Master Subaru to meet with Lady Beatrice, after all.”

“I told you. That’s if she really wants to hide.”

As Subaru repeated himself, the Frederica’s arched in doubt. Faced with her questioning gaze, Subaru finally pulled his fingers away from Rem and turned back toward the palatial building.

It was a big, overly broad manor. Beatrice had as many hiding places as it had doors. But—

“There’s no one who plays hide-and-seek who doesn’t wanna be found. I always find her because she’s hiding with the hope that someone will find her.”

And it was probably that single loophole that tied Subaru and Beatrice together.

“Take care of Rem, Petra, Patlash, and yourself too, okay?”

With that, Subaru bid Frederica farewell one last time. In response, Frederica, with Rem still in her arms, bowed respectfully.

Sub-chapter 3.

The instant he touched the doorknob, Subaru wore a pained smile as he had the sense that he’d grasped “correctly.”

After all, once seeing Frederica and company off, he returned to the mansion, did a few light stretches, and walked off to search for Beatrice, whereupon the first door he selected was a bingo.

If the words he had exchanged with Frederica at the entrance were true, this game of hide-and-seek was rigged.

To begin with, the timing of just when she began that game of hide-and-seek would greatly alter how he interpreted this series of events.

To find out for certain, Subaru took a breath and twisted the doorknob—

“—You finally showed up, I suppose?”

Alongside that single phrase greeting came a current of air mixed with the unmistakable musk of old books.

That unsociable tone of voice, that grumpy way of speaking—hearing that Subaru instinctually release the tension in his shoulders. The worries that hounded him just moments before, the travails he had endured up to that point—for a brief moment, he was able to forgot them as he raised a hand in greeting.

“Heya, Beako. Haven’t seen your face in a while, but you haven’t changed one bit.”

“It has only been three days, and yet somehow the way your flippant tongue irritates me has not changed at all, either.”

It was the mistress of the archive of forbidden books and its rows of bookshelves who responded. At the center of the room, surrounded by those old books, a young girl was sitting on a wooden stool with her cheek resting upon her palm—Beatrice.

While gazing at her, Subaru abruptly realized that she was always sitting on that stool. The Archive had proper desks and tables. And yet, she was always there, ready to receive guests.

That was how she was when Subaru first met her, and the numerous, many times Subaru had visited since—

“…Could you cease and desist with that unpleasant gaze, I wonder? There is no reason for you to look at Betty with such eyes.”

“If you’re talking about my mean mug, then unfortunately the same one I was born with. I hate to admit that, but I’ve got no intention of getting a replacement now. Putting that aside… I came here today with a different reason in mind than all the other times before.”

Subaru’s words heavily implied the reams of information he’d gained about Beatrice during that loop. And it was she herself who had told Subaru that if he wanted to understand, he ought to change places and obtain that knowledge in the Sanctuary.

In fact, Subaru had learned why Beatrice continued to obsess over the archive of forbidden books and about the magical tome she possessed. He would not claim that he had discovered everything there was to know about her. But it was still enough to be a thread he could follow.

Subaru’s gaze, imbued with determination, made Beatrice’s cheeks stiffen slightly.

“…In the Sanctuary, did you find out, I wonder?”

“If you’re asking just how much I know, that’s hard to say. I learned a bit, but definitely not everything. I’m using the power of guesswork to fill in the parts I don’t have.”

“Then do as you please… It is an ironic idea either way, I suppose.”

She let out a sigh, and right after, Beatrice’s expression abruptly relaxed.

When she took off her mask of obstinacy, what rested beneath was the gentle, charming smile she was born with and a forlorn blue glimmer in her eyes—the sight unwittingly left Subaru at a loss for words.

Her fleeting, fragile beauty left him unable to draw in his breath. That charming smile was just too lonely—

“The long, long pact is coming to an end. —This time, the end of the end shall come to an end, and Betty can finally be freed from stagnation. Though I must say—”

Cutting off her words there, Beatrice’s eyes narrowed teasingly as she continued, “…For Betty, having you be the one to do it is an exceptionally ironic conclusion, I suppose?”

Sub-chapter 4.

Mesmerized by her words and her charming smile, Subaru blinked hard for a moment to regain his bearings.

“Ironic…ironic, huh? I guess being able to talk like you know it all is another benefit of your precious book?”

Beatrice’s charming smile and the annoyance he felt made Subaru a tiny bit aggressive.

When he sent a glance her way, Beatrice sighed deeply and sent a hand behind her stool, and from there, pulled out a single tome—a black-bound book of knowledge—and held it against her chest.

Such a book of prophecies recorded the possessor’s future and guided that possessor to a better path—Beatrice’s fingers grasped this book, what Roswaal had described as falling somewhere short of a truly complete product.

Indeed, the girl had said to him that her actions to date had been in accordance to what was written in that book.

Having saved Subaru, smiling with him in the mansion, stubbornly continuing to say this was her own place—everything was as recorded in the book. However—

“If everything was according to the book, your own will had nothing to do with it. That’s what you’re saying, right?”

“…So many questions. If you know about this book, no explanation should be necessary.”

“I told you, I’m filling in the gaps with guesswork. You and Roswaal hide way too much stuff. That’s why it’s been such a pain in the rear to bring you out of here.”

“Bring me out…?”

Beatrice’s murmur bore the echo of her having heard an unexpected phrase. Receiving this, Subaru said, “That’s right, I’ve come to bring you out of this archive of forbidden books. We can call it a temporary evacuation but…if I’m being honest, I don’t wanna bring you back here. This place, it’s unhealthy.”

“Wh…what do you think you are saying, I wonder? Bring me out of here? What self-serving…!”

“Your face says this wasn’t what you had in mind. Isn’t everything I do written in that book of yours?”

Pointing at the book, Subaru posed the question to the unnerved Beatrice. His assertion sent the girl’s face flying into shock, her fingers trembling as she opened the book and flipped through its pages.

As if clinging to the book, as if trying to reel the future in, her big eyes were filled with gloom as she flipped the pages.

“Why…?”

The girl’s attitude toward the conduct Subaru himself had pointed out rubbed him in a very bad way. Perhaps it was irrational of him. And yet, a smudge of anger welled up within his chest.

In the blink of an eye, the instantaneous relief he felt when he got his wish for a reunion with Beatrice was blotted out.

“Why are you clinging to that book? That’s not something you need to do.”

“”

Subaru suppressed his anger at the feeble gesture and murmured. During that time, Beatrice was desperately flipping the pages, her eyes running through the book in search of salvation.

She looked so very frail. She was always full of confidence, sitting haughtily upon her stool, greeting Subaru as if he was nothing but trouble, grudgingly lending him her aid—

Was that not the librarian of the archive of forbidden books, Beatrice, who Subaru Natsuki believed in?

“You’re right here in front of my eyes. —When I’m talking to you, look at my eyes, not the book, damn it!”

“—Ah.”

Stomping his feet, Subaru stood in front of Beatrice. When his shadow was cast over the open book, Beatrice looked up, realizing for the first time that Subaru was standing right next to her.

Subaru felt anger at the sight of himself reflected in her pupils. He had the face of a child abandoned by his parents. It was both Subaru and the actions of the girl bound by the book that had left him with that expression.

If that pensive face, that sullen face, that frail, fleeting face, if any and all of those things had been recorded in the book, then where was the girl Subaru had been meeting until now?

—What face did the girl named Beatrice truly make?

“Gimme that—!”

“Ah…!”

Extending his arm, he seized the magic tome Beatrice was clutching by force. Instantly, she attempted to resist, but her trembling fingers had no strength in them, and Subaru easily tore the book away from her.

It was lighter than he had expected. That fact, too, irritated him. A single tome this light had cast such a dark shadow over Beatrice’s entire way of life? Just how much power did the notations within possess?

And how much of Beatrice’s actions, words, emotions, were all done according to the book—

“—Eh?”

Grasping the book he had torn away, he violently flipped the pages with his fingers. His eyes ran across the contents to read what was written therein. In so doing, he meant to discover Beatrice’s true thoughts.

And yet, Subaru gazed in blank astonishment as his eyes leaped across the book’s interior.

There was nothing written on the page he had opened. He flipped the page. There was nothing on the back side, either. He flipped the page. Flip. Flip. Flip, flip, flip as he might…

There was not a single sentence or even a single character on so much as a single page. It was blank pages with nothing written on them over and over—

“—It has been like that for a long time now.”

Addressing the bewildered Subaru, whose eyes were bulging in surprise, Beatrice murmured almost as if uttering a soliloquy. With the book stolen from her two hands, the girl used them to cover her face instead, so that Subaru would not see the expression now resting upon it.

With nothing more than a broken voice, she put her withered emotions to her tongue and continued.

“It has been many years since that book has shown Betty’s future…”

Pulling her knees close, Beatrice curled up and shrank atop of the stool. Realizing that was a posture that would not yield to interference, Subaru endured his impatience and waited for her next words.

From this halting silence, Beatrice began her confession with a lecture on her duties as a librarian.

It was a lecture about the true nature of the archive of forbidden books and unraveled the history behind it.

“The role granted to Betty is to maintain and preserve this archive of knowledge, to continue and protect this place until the time we shall someday be reunited… I suppose?”

“Archive of knowledge…”

Standing up, Subaru surveyed the array of bookshelves that entombed the room. His legs had brought him to this place many times over, and a great many times his eyes had perused a number of the books found within. It was from this that Subaru knew that the archive contained a huge variety of books, including texts that even he could understand and most likely various types containing forbidden knowledge as well.

This collection was impossibly vast, lacking rhyme or reason, almost as if books of any and every type had been stuffed into the place.

“It was established by someone who loved storing knowledge above all else.”

The murmur was full of fondness, of cherishing, of yearning.

It was those words trickling out of Beatrice that made the image of someone Subaru knew float up into his mind.

“…I had a vague suspicion…ever since I found out that Roswaal was connected to that Witch.”

The first clue was the administration of the Sanctuary, passed down through the Roswaal family generation after generation. Roswaal had said this was a role entrusted to them by the Witch. Based on his extraordinary obsession with the Witch and his behavior to date, Subaru had somehow managed to guess.

There was a spirit in that very Roswaal’s mansion, one who had come to dwell there long ago. There was no pact between Roswaal and this spirit. This, too, was something Roswaal had openly declared.

Who, then, had been at that mansion and made a contract with the spirit to protect the archive of forbidden books?

“Beatrice. You’re—Echidna’s contracted spirit.”

“”

The breath that trickled out of her was reply enough. That small thing was sufficient to know what rested within her heart.

Beatrice was a spirit contracted to Echidna the Witch. It was Beatrice’s duty to serve as guardian of the essence of knowledge of the Witch who styled herself as greed for knowledge incarnate, craving to know all there was to know in the world.

Perhaps she had granted the girl her book of knowledge as a reward or as a tool necessary for her duties. Even if that was so, it had already ceased to function—

“…You said earlier that the book’s been blank for years now?”

“It is the truth.”

“It’s not like I’m doubting you. Actually, I really am doubting you. I mean, come on. If not, you… Without anything being even written in that book…”

—For that meant she had granted Subaru her aid several times over…of her own free will.

“”

The confirmation that he could not put into words was the greatest hope Subaru had discovered in that entire loop.

Previously, he had begun that loop with the knowledge that Beatrice possessed that magic tome. When she told Subaru that all her actions to date were simply what was recorded in that book, it had been a heavy blow to him.

He had known Beatrice for scarcely two months—but during those two months, Subaru had talked with her many times, they had been involved in many events, and sometimes they had laughed together.

When he was told that had all been a sham, it had been a time of agony and disbelief—but he had checked the magic tome of blank pages because he’d suspected it would confirm his suspicions.

By healing the gut wound he had received in the royal capital, by letting Subaru be close to her when the tragedy at the mansion drove nails into his heart, by cooperating with the investigation into the cause of his curse—Beatrice had saved Subaru many times over.

He believed that all that was unrelated to what was written in the book, and so, too, the days of fun they had spent thereafter—

“Without any relation to the book, you…”

“—Did I not tell you last time, I wonder?”

As Subaru’s voice broached the subject of gentler things, seemingly clinging to hope, Beatrice interrupted.

Her voice did not tremble. In front of Subaru, his breath catching as she interrupted him, Beatrice slowly lowered the hands covering her face—and what emerged was emotionless, like a Noh mask.

Her face, unfeeling like something completely artificial, made Subaru shudder, gripped by a strange sensation. For some reason, the impression she gave off at that moment was like the Ryuzu replicas—the same as that of a copy.

As Subaru’s lips twisted in horror, Beatrice remained expressionless as she continued.

“Someday, That Person will come to the archive. Betty was told her duty is to wait until then.”

“…!! For That Person you said?”

The term that suddenly leaped into his eardrums made Subaru open his eyes wide in astonishment. That Person, the words Subaru had heard several times over during that loop—Roswaal had told him to say those words to Beatrice, as if it was a deeply suggestive term.

Having missed his opportunities to say it himself to Beatrice, some twist of fate had made him hear those words from Beatrice herself, leaving Subaru bewildered.

Beatrice, interpreting his confusion as a sign that he simply didn’t know what she meant, explained further.

“It is as I said. Betty is to continue to protect the archive of forbidden books until That Person appears. It is Betty’s duty to protect the stored knowledge so it may be handed to That Person, I suppose.”

The complicated emotions with which Betty spoke of That Person stabbed him in the chest. The tone of her voice was complex, at once full of loveliness, hatred, impatience, resentment, and exhaustion.

Those reverberations made Subaru stuff his heart full of hateful words toward Roswaal, who had so lightly told Subaru to bring up That Person to her.

And more than that, he could not fail to sense an ominous disquiet in Beatrice’s demeanor.

“Someday, someone will fulfill the promise of the archive of forbidden books. Betty has always awaited the day That Person would arrive as written in the book.”

“Wait, Beatrice. Calm down a little. You and I are both too worked up. Let’s calm down a bit, and—”

“But That Person never came. Nor will the book say who That Person is. And so time has passed, and so too much time has passed, and that is why…”

He couldn’t let her say any more. Even though he was certain of this, the words refused to come out.

What should he say that she might not speak the words? If he said the wrong thing, there would be no stopping her. He didn’t know what the correct answer was. Hence, all that trickled out was a broken breath.

“I do not care if you are not That Person. I shall bear it if it must be you. —Are you the one who shall end Betty, who shall bring an end to the pact, who shall take this life, I wonder?”

This was Beatrice’s desire. Her earnest wish was for a way to end the end of the end.

“”

Subaru could not pull his look away from those eyes brimming with sorrow.

Beatrice’s greatest wish slid into his eardrums, but its contents would not sink into his head. —No, it was not that they couldn’t enter. His brain was merely rejecting them, doing everything it could to prevent him from understanding.

But even so, he did comprehend. It was conveyed to him. The eyes, the voice, the thoughts of the girl before him were screaming it at him.

—Her desire to end the end of the end at the far side of a very long pact.

“You’re saying…because of that you…want to die?…”

“Strictly speaking, it is different from ‘wanting to die.’ Betty desires the end of the pact. Perhaps desires freedom from the pact to which she has been eternally bound.”

“If the only way to do that is taking your life, how is that different from wanting to die?!!”

Subaru wrung his voice out at the girl who refused to understand. He was shouting in anger. He slammed the magic tome in his grasp onto the floor. Just like that, the blow unraveled the old tome. Its blank pages fluttered and danced within the archive.

Blank pages scattered, flitting back and forth in the space between Subaru and Beatrice. Sweeping them away with an arm, he howled.

“You wanna die? Cut the crap! Saying you wanna die… Even if others would let you say it, I… That’s the one thing I won’t let anyone say in front of me!”

If you died, your life could not be brought back. That was an iron rule. That alone was absolutely inviolable.

Only Subaru Natsuki was different. That was why there was value in him and him alone casting away his life. Even if he died, it had meaning, something he had been able to demonstrate with tangible proof.

Beatrice was different. Everyone else was different. This was something he absolutely could not allow.

“That is a very self-serving thing of you to say. —What do you understand about Betty, I wonder?”

However, her reply to his irritation was so very cold, as sharp as any blade.

Spreading her skirt, Beatrice set her feet onto the stool and hopped onto the floor. Then she gestured toward the archive with a hand.

“Betty has spent many years here, obeying the pact…four hundred years.”

“Four hundred years…”

That phrase again, thought Subaru, grimacing. He felt tempted to click his tongue.

Many of that world’s important historical events were clumped up together four hundred years prior. That had been the era of the Witch, the end of destruction and the beginning of prosperity, the patronage of the kingdom, the contempt for half-demons—it was an abominable era that was responsible for the fates of so many.

Beatrice, too, was born in that era and had lived since then until the present day.

“Obeying the pact, I lived under the same roof as the Mathers family, who stood in the same position as I, spending my days in accordance to what was written in the magic tome. I would hardly consider those first several decades to be suffering at all, I suppose.”

Subaru felt a chill as he listened to her voice and the grandness of the details she spoke of.

“But even during that time, the world shifted. The first Roswaal that Betty knew passed away, and the next generation inherited the duty. Betty has been watching this act of replacement the whole time.”

The girl explained calmly. This reflected the blandness of the passage of time, the frayed nature of the reality she had experienced.

“I waited day after day for That Person who was supposed to come someday…but was I at all anxious, I wonder? After all, Betty had the book. As long as she trusted and waited, as long as there were amended pages, then surely, one day.”

“But that’s…”

The remains of the magic tome were scattered all over the floor. Subaru knew that from Beatrice’s perspective what was written on those blank pages was very cruel indeed. To Beatrice, that whiteness denoted despair.

At some point, the book of knowledge, which to her was a symbol of hope—

“No matter how many times I checked each and every day, there was no change in the text… The span of time until I became certain was incredibly trying.”

“”

“I have seen the revision to the final page in my dreams over and over. Perhaps I continued to yearn for That Person, who I did not know, face unknown to me, opening the door so that I might receive the blessing of a duty fulfilled.”

“…Beatrice.”

“Each time someone’s hand reached for that door, Betty’s heart was betrayed.”

In other words, whenever someone had opened the door, entering the archive of forbidden books, yet was not That Person.

Subaru was probably included as one of those who disappointed her with every visit. Beatrice’s despair only ever continued to piled higher countless times. Subaru had only added to the wounds she carried within her.

—Wounds he had unreservedly, rudely, thoughtlessly gouged into her, over and over, never healed and were still oozing blood.

“As I spent my time like that, I realized… No, perhaps I knew it all along?”

“Realized what?”

Knowing of her suffering, knowing that he had added to her wounds, his voice trembled.

And as his own sins tore at his chest, Beatrice softly smiled.

It was a forlorn, frail smile, just like when she had stated she wanted someone to end it all.

“—When no more is written in the book, it means that the owner’s future has come to an end.”

“You’re wrong…!”

The fitful denial that flew out never reached Beatrice. It simply bounced right off her immovable, resigned heart. A baseless emotional argument was not what she sought. She wasn’t looking for someone to console her either. The answer to her question had already come out from inside her. Out it came, into the open.

“Why…do you have to…?!”

Even so, Subaru’s emotions would not permit it. He refuted Beatrice’s surrender, her desire for death.

“So you came to a conclusion all by yourself!! This is what happens to everyone when they’re worried and mull things over all by their lonesome! That’s when things go in bad directions, just like this! You start thinking, This is the only way, and you agonize over that thought… That’s when you think the only road in front of you is the worst one possible!”

Because he was Subaru, someone who’d railed against his own powerlessness as he threw himself against hardship over and over, he understood.

A senseless destiny pushed people into isolation. And with the compulsion to continue to stand and face it alone, black fingers would entwine around any heart fighting that lonely battle.

But that was a rule that didn’t need to be followed. He wanted to convey that to her.

If only he could return to Beatrice the power of the similar words she had once spoken to him, Subaru could—

“If what you want is someone to do something to help, say it so people can understand. One sentence is enough. Say that you’re sad. Say that you want help. If you can say that…even I…!”

If she did that, surely she would notice. —There was no need to give up at all.

“A whole bunch of times, you… That’s why this time I’ll…!”

“…Do something to help?”

“That’s it… Call out for help, just like that.”

“Do something to help…”

“That’s it! That’s it, that’s it, that’s it! If you say that and reach out with your hand…”

“Betty, wants to be saved from this…sadness, this suffering…this darkness…”

“Yeah, leave it to me. I’ll—”

Her tiny, shaking fingers reached out toward Subaru. He reached a hand out toward hers.

His blood was rushing to his head. That moment, all he wanted to do was to embrace the girl before his eyes, to shower her with kindness. That moment, Subaru had completely forgotten the reason he came for a visit to begin with.

But that was for the best. Thanks to that, he had discovered this girl tormented by loneliness. Then and there, Subaru was being driven solely by the burning sense of duty residing in his chest.

If he took her hand, Subaru would be accepting another weighty burden. He didn’t care. Beatrice was someone he could not abandon to begin with. All he had done was confirm that in his heart.

His soul was shouting as loud as it could. And Subaru simply obeyed its call.

Save her. Rescue her. After all, that girl is to you.

“Is that why…?”

The fingers she had stretched out indeed reached Subaru’s own.

He grabbed hold of her frail, trembling fingers, strongly joining their hands so that neither could let go. He looked into Beatrice’s eyes, unsure if he should smile or send a nod her way instead.

Her blue eyes were filled with a great many tears—

“—Betty wants you to kill her, I wonder?”

—She flung Subaru’s hand aside. The salvation she sought was nothing so cheap.

“—Ah.”

His hand cast aside, his fingers grasping nothing at all. The rejection made his heart go numb.

He could not raise his voice to ask, Why? Beatrice’s eyes would not let him.

“”

It was too late for that. Those eyes were filled with too much despair—with too much that could not be undone.

“I have spent four hundred years…always here alone.”

“B-Beatri…”

“I continued protecting this place always alone, while That Person who’s certain arrival never came, I suppose.”

He could not look away from Beatrice’s two eyes.

He called out her name. But the current Subaru hesitated to do even that.

“I do not know how many times I thought of throwing it all away. I do not know how many times I wished I could forget everything. A hundred times, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred million, and still it was not enough…”

In that dimly lit room, Beatrice had spent a very, very long time steeped in loneliness.

Holding her knees, sitting on top of that stool, she had continued to cling to hope and despair for someone whose name she knew not.

Just how many times had loneliness killed this girl’s heart?

“You want to save me…? You want to do something to help me…?”

“—Ah.”

“Just how many times do you think Betty has asked exactly that? Did you think Betty simply gave up, not once thinking of such a thing, I wonder?”

The words were halting, but they were imbued with steadily increasing heat. Her eyes held an intensity light.

Anger, disappointment, sadness, dejection—Subaru didn’t see any of that. It was simply the glimmer of her tears.

“Are you saying that if I reached out with a hand, you would pull Betty out of this darkness that has no end in sight? Are you saying that you would teach me the correct answer for this never-ending blind alley, I wonder?”

“”

“If you were going to do that…then why…then why…?”

As Beatrice lowered her face, she breathed in, leaving a brief pause in time.

This was the final opportunity, the only moment left where he could get a word in. It was that or nothing.

And yet, Subaru hesitated out of fear. Afraid of hurting her, he said nothing.

Beatrice lifted her face. She was glaring at him. She opened her mouth, baring her teeth—

“—Why did you leave Betty alone for four hundred years?!”

“!”

“I was alone! Always! Always, always, always, Betty was here alone! I was lonely! I was scared! I felt abandoned; I felt like I could not fulfill the single duty assigned to me, uphold the promise I made… I thought I was going to be alone here forever!!”

Tears spilled out, coursing down from Beatrice’s large eyes.

Passing over her cheeks, a deluge of sorrow fell from her chin onto the floor. As her searing tears struck the floor, Subaru’s heart was struck by an incredible blow, cracking and smashing it to pieces.

“You came to save me?! You came to rescue me?! Why didn’t you come sooner?! Why didn’t you embrace me from the beginning?! Why?! Why did you leave Betty by herself?!”

Her words became a blade, became fire, became steel, wounding Subaru’s heart one after the next. In various forms, in various meanings, she tormented Subaru with every suffering she had endured.

And Beatrice was only showering him with the tip of the iceberg of four hundred years’ worth of pain.

Just how much did the words of someone like Subaru Natsuki ring true compared to Beatrice’s four centuries of isolation?

“Words, like, save me, do something to help me…! Over four centuries, have I not exhausted such pleas long ago, I wonder…?”

“”

“It is not as if no one came during those four hundred years. Among them were humans who attempted to bring Betty out. They sought Betty’s power as a high-ranking spirit…”

“D-don’t lump me in with people like that! All I want is to—”

“It has nothing to do with Betty’s power. You merely wish to save the person before your eyes… Did I claim there were no naive sorts like you among them, I wonder?”

“A…uu…”

“But they did not bring Betty out. Of course not.”

After all, Beatrice continued her words, making a very forlorn smile as she said,

“Half-hearted resolve cannot erase the pact that binds Betty. It is impossible for mere humans.”

“What should I…?”

“—Make Betty number one.”

The words tossed his way were so very quiet and yet so very sharp.

Subaru felt like fine needles had been thrust through his eardrums, sending a blow shooting right through him.

“Make, Betty your number one. Think of Betty first. Choose Betty first. Overwrite the pact. Blot out the pact. Bring me out of here. Draw me to you. Embrace me.”

“”

“That is absolutely impossible for you, I suppose?”

Beatrice’s sincere, earnest plea was enough to clamp down on his heart.

The request was unspeakably heavy, one that did not permit a thoughtless nod.

“Your number one has been long decided. Therefore, you cannot save Betty.”

Emilia was inside him. Rem was inside him. Both were inside him. Betty’s words were clear.

When he thought of both of them, Subaru’s heart leaped and grew hot. This was the answer carved upon his soul.

Beatrice’s words were the truth. It was probably beyond Subaru to make Betty his number one priority.

“That is why I wish you to destroy Betty…the worthless girl who desires to destroy her pact, to turn her back on her duty as a spirit, who has accomplished nothing and no one for four hundred years.”

“That’s…how important the pact is to you? If you don’t like it, if you want to stop, why don’t you just stop, then? If it’s not something you do out of your own will whatsoever, then—”

“—Is it not the one thing that gives Betty’s life meaning, I wonder?”

Subaru couldn’t find an answer for that. Instead, Subaru posed a different question, and in so doing, he committed a base sin.

Instantly, despair filled Beatrice’s eyes as she stated her words in a thin voice.

“Betty is a spirit who lives for the sake of this pact. It was the first role I was granted in this life. Selfishly cast this aside and live… That is what you are telling me to do?”

“It’s not selfish at all, damn it! You’ve already hung in there for four centuries!! Who’d blame you after you protected a single promise for all that time! Who could?! You’ve done enough…”

“No one would blame? That is not so… Betty would! Betty absolutely cannot permit it! Beatrice the spirit cannot permit such a haphazard way of life!!”

Stepping forward with a trembling foot, Subaru attempted to grasp the little girl’s shoulder. But Beatrice angrily rebuffed his attempt, thrusting his touch aside and putting distance between them.

He stepped back and coughed. He felt weak. What meaning was there in having a voice if it could not reach her?

“”

She was glaring at him. Her eyes were filled with tears. Biting her lip, she grasped the hem of her skirt.

She’s far too small, he thought.

How could everyone have abandoned this little girl for all that time?

“You… are not That Person spoken of in the pact, I suppose…”

“”

“But would you become That Person? Would you make Betty your number one?”

Subaru had no words.

This was not something he could easily agree to nor could he impulsively refute her words.

He could not heal Beatrice’s loneliness. Four centuries were too much for his mind to even grasp. Unless he spent an equal amount of time alone, there was no way to truly learn what was in her heart—

“Betty knows best of all that there is nothing you can do.”

“Beatrice…”

“Therefore, kill Betty by your own hand. Suicide is the same as violating the pact. Is it something a spirit absolutely cannot do, I suppose. I cannot even choose to die by myself.”

“Why me…?”

Beatrice stretched both arms toward him in an earnest plea.

Unable to look directly at the hands she haltingly stretched forth, Subaru covered his face with both of his own.

“Why are you entrusting me with your final—your four centuries’ final end…?”

“Why…I wonder?”

They were tearful words. They were words making excuses, evasive words merely spoken to block things he disliked out of his ears.

Beatrice did not scorn Subaru for his cowardice. She simply sighed.

Then, after a momentary pause, she slowly nodded and said, “—Ahhh, I understand now. Betty is probably entrusting you with her final moment because…”

Once he heard the answer, there was no going back. —He was certain of it.

And yet, his decision came too late. He had realized too late. It was too late for everything.

“—Sorry to intrude mid-conversation, but…”

A voice he should not have heard spoke. Hastened by a terrible chill, Subaru flipped around.

Then he saw her.

“—Is it all right if I become That Person for you, I wonder?”

Carrying a black curved blade in her hand—a kukri knife—the black-clothed Bowel Hunter stood at the archive’s entrance.

Sub-chapter 5.

To Subaru, the voice of the woman he heard behind him was the backing track to his very first death.

Since being summoned to that other world, Subaru had experienced a great many perils, sometimes losing his life to them, but that black-clothed woman’s existence remained a symbol of death to him nonetheless.

Wearing a black mantle, clad in an outfit unsparingly exposing her curvaceous physique, her black hair, as rare in that world as Subaru’s own, tied in a triple knot, the woman had a lustrous, sensuous beauty to her that far exceeded the norm.

—There stood Elsa Gramhilde, aka the “Bowel Hunter.”

“—Oh my, so you were here, too. So tell me, how did your body fare after that? Did the insides of your belly get all prettied up again?”

Noticing Subaru, frozen from shock, Elsa slightly opened her eyes wider and tilted her head, almost like greeting an old friend.

She posed that question, but from the beginning, she had not come in order to hold a conversation. Speaking and acting in ways no normal person could understand, the person before his eyes, speaking things like that as if they made perfect sense, was a dyed-in-the-wool madwoman.

“—Whose permission did you obtain to step into this archive, I wonder?”

As Subaru stood rooted to the spot, a voice abruptly slipped past his flank, aiming the question directly at Elsa.

It was Beatrice, with cold hostility trained upon the insolent intruder. Her posture remained the same as when she had confronted Subaru earlier, but she was glaring at the trespasser without the slightest hint of tears on her face.

Elsa responded to the girl’s question while slowly stroking her own long hair.

“It wasn’t locked, so all I did was open the door and come in. If you want to have an important conversation, I think you really should remember to lock the door first…”

“Such a frivolous reply… This is Betty’s archive of forbidden books. None may enter without permission.”

“Ahhh, that is what you mean. It is quite simple, really.”

When Beatrice questioned her further, Elsa nodded as if finally understanding the meaning of the question. Then she indicated the still-open door with her hand as she explained.

“Your magic to isolate a space…it uses doors as catalysts, yes? Now-lost Dark magic that links doors to other doors, was it?”

“…That is correct, I suppose. But just because you know that…”

“Oh my, once you understand that, it’s quite simple. When facing magic that affects closed doors…as long as I go ahead and open every last door, I eliminate all your options, don’t I?”

“—?!”

Elsa indicated a very simple method indeed for breaking Beatrice’s Passage spell. Those words made Beatrice eyes go wide, unshakable proof that this was the correct answer.

Simultaneously, Subaru realized that this was the reason for the inexplicable sight he saw earlier in the loop—when he discovered all the doors in the mansion flung open.

That was not a ransacking—a violent means of searching every nook and cranny for people within the mansion—but the vestiges of a search completely and solely devoted to finding Beatrice.

“I told you, yes? It’s a very simple matter. It did take a little time, so I’m rather relieved to have finally found you. —I’m truly glad to have reached you before Meili returns from the village.”

“—Village? You said ‘village’ just now?”

As Elsa patted her chest in relief, words rolled out of her mouth that Subaru could not ignore.

She said “village” and a person’s name. Meili—Subaru remembered that name. He was sure it was the same name Elsa had mentioned when appearing at the mansion on a previous run.

Considering the situation, it was probably the Beast Master attacking the mansion with her at the time—

“What’s that Beast Master doing at the village…?!”

“Well, of course she went there; her targets fled into the village after all. When you’re hired to do something, it’s only right and proper that you do your utmost to achieve optimal results, yes? So we divided our labor.”

“Div…ided…?”

“You may have the advantage in quantity, but I have the advantage in quality. Most of all, I have been granted an opportunity to open a spirit’s belly. I’ve always wanted to try that.”

As she spoke, Elsa licked her lips. Taking in the meaning of her words, Subaru felt the fact that his judgment had been fundamentally mistaken plunging into him like a stake.

His plan to have Rem, Petra, and Frederica take shelter in the village had failed.

Now he knew that Elsa and her allies would continue chasing after their targets even if they were no longer at the mansion. No matter how soon Subaru acted, the scent of blood would be invariably reach the archive of forbidden books, just like this—

“—Shielding this child, are you?”

“Damn right.”

Changing where he stood, Subaru stood right in front of Elsa, as if to shield Beatrice behind his back. If Elsa’s target was Beatrice, there was no way he could allow that wicked blade to reach her.

Besides, he couldn’t leave the village as it was, either. The Beast Master was doing something at the village. If he raced there that very moment… No, idiot! The enemy’s standing right in front of you… But over there, death was closing in on the village, on Rem—

“…For you to do such a thing, preoccupied as you are with idle thoughts, is nothing but a nuisance. If you will not do it, does Betty really mind if it comes by her hand, I wonder?”

“Shut the hell up. I told you what my answer is. I’m dragging you out of here.”

“More importantly, how about the two of you spend your final moments together, exposing your bellies to me like good, obedient children?”

With despair written all over Beatrice’s downcast face, Subaru made an urgent plea to her. Elsa offered a totally unwelcome suggestion, but he had no time to deal with that.

He inched back, moving toward Beatrice. Simultaneously, Elsa advanced.

His brow steadily grew hotter, the heat increasing gradually like the quickening beats of his heart—

“You get along so well. I’m so jealous. —I’ll make sure to pose you side by side like little angels.”

Elsa stretched a thin smile over her lips, and the next instant, she lowered her stance and shot forward like an arrow. Using the momentum, she moved toward the pair in the archive of forbidden books with her first step; by the second step, she was already closing the gap in the blink of an eye; and by step three—

“—!”

His eyes could not keep up with her speed. Subaru’s thoughts coalesced into an instant decision even faster than that. He’d decided that if he met Elsa, he had to use it. Once again, he chose to use—

“Sha— “—Shamak!””

—With simultaneous chants, darkness suddenly sprung out of the thin air.

Ceaselessly pouring out, the shadowy murk swept across the archive, obscuring everything in a field of incomprehension. The bookshelves, the stool, and the onrushing butcher were no exception.

If exceptions had to be named, they would be—

“—! Come on, Beatrice!”

Instantly, Subaru, an exception to the magic’s effects, clenched his teeth as he grasped the arm of the girl who had been chanting—Beatrice—sweeping her light body into his arms as he ran straight ahead. There was darkness woven by magic before his eyes. However, he leaped into the gap on the left that he had intentionally created—slipping past the butcher.

He’d already confirmed that Shamak was effective on Elsa. With Elsa trapped for the moment in a sea of incomprehension, he left her behind as he fled out of the butcher’s range as fast as he could.

“…Let go of me.”

“Just be quiet! If you seriously wanted me to, you wouldn’t have done that!”

As he held Beatrice in his arms, he smothered her words of rejection from above.

Subaru had tried to abuse his incomplete Gate to chant a spell to drive Elsa off. It was Beatrice who had interrupted midway, activating her spell on a scale incomparable to what Subaru was capable of.

With the same tongue that had said, “I want to die; leave me be,” she had taken action so that someone might live. He wondered exactly who the chant was meant to keep alive—

“”

As Subaru ran with her in his arms, Beatrice’s hands firmly grasped Subaru’s clothing over his chest. Seeing this in the corners of his eyes, Subaru said nothing. He did not press the point.

For in that moment, he thought, it was enough.

“Beatrice! How long will Shamak hold her?!”

“Not for very long, I suppose. It was never particularly effective magic to begin with… What will you do?”

“What’ll I do? What’ll I do? It’s obvious what I’m gonna do!”

He practically tumbled as he raced out of the archive. The place he emerged into was a corridor on the first floor of the mansion’s main wing. Fortunately, the front entrance hall was close by. From there, he would head outside and rush toward Earlham Village—

“Is it all right to leave that woman in black, I wonder?”

“We don’t have time to mess around with her! It’ll take awhile for her to bust out of Shamak. Right now, we’ve gotta—”

Beatrice’s words went in one ear and out the other. Adjusting his grip on the girl he carried, Subaru sprinted with all his strength.

At any rate, that moment, he had to get to Earlham Village.

With unease still racing through him, Subaru’s breathed hard as he desperately, desperately ran.

—For he had seen the black plume of smoke hovering over the landscape on the other side of the windows.

Sub-chapter 6.

Rushing past the front gate, Subaru continued to run down the street, riding his ragged breaths.

“Haaah, haah, haah!”

Beatrice did not feel heavy in his arms. This was neither because her body was small nor because she was a spirit. It was because he was single-mindedly running.

For the burning urge that drove his body into motion was so powerful that he paid no attention to himself.

Normally, the distance between the mansion and Earlham Village took fifteen minutes of walking to cross—far less if at a run, let alone an all-out sprint.

And yet, it was slow, much too slow. It was as if his body simply could not keep up with the speed of his quickened thoughts. It was as if he was already too late. It was as if he had been too late before he’d even set off. And yet—

“…Even if you go now, it will achieve nothing.”

“Don’t say stupid things! It’s—it’s possible what she said was just a pack of lies…!”

“That is nothing as lofty as hope. Is it merely regret or avoidance of reality, I wonder?”

The heartless words Beatrice murmured from so close he could feel her breathe pierced his brain—no, the thrust had come from reality.

Forcing his eyes open, he gazed upon the rising black plume in the distance. Ironically, as he had gone back in time on multiple occasions, it was now a very familiar sight.

This was proof. That very moment, a tragedy that could not be undone was taking place beneath that plume of black smoke.

“And even if we could do something, Betty is already…”

Those words, foretelling the end, made Subaru’s head heavy with anger and sadness.

Was this anger directed at Beatrice for holding her life in such contempt? Was this sadness directed at himself, the fool who had failed despite so many opportunities? He no longer knew which.

What was right, what was wrong? Subaru knew where he had gone wrong. Therefore, what he craved was an answer as to how he might be right.

As for what he wanted to do by confirming what rested beneath that black plume of smoke, that was already—

“—Huhhh? What are the two of you doing in a place like this, Mister…?”

“”

With his face lowered in an attempt to hold back the stuff welling up behind his eyes as he ran, Subaru was slow to notice. When he looked toward the voice straight ahead, he saw that a petite figure was standing midway on the road that continued toward the village.

It was a young girl, hands crossed behind her back as she calmly walked along the path.

Her dark blue hair was tied in a triple braid, and the girl of the same age as Petra wore a black outfit over her entire body. Her eyes and nose seemed quite refined, and her yellow-green eyes gave her a mysterious air.

Someday, she would grow into a demon—that was the impression, the foreboding that Subaru felt when he saw the girl.

Of course, there was also the creeping realization that no innocent little girl would be standing there. However, that bad feeling was sparking an altogether different sensation—

“Oh, Elsa, so sloppy of you to let someone escape. Let me guess, she was all overconfident and careless again, like usual?”

“You’re… Wait, you’re that…”

“—? Ahhh, maybe you don’t recognize me. I had my hair dyed a different color before.”

Bewildered, Subaru came to a halt and all the exhaustion he had been ignoring came rushing back all at once. However, Subaru forced it down with long breaths, focusing his mind on the little girl before him.

The girl toyed with her triple braid, performing a pirouette that made her black mantle flutter as she said, “That day, it was a lot of fun when we played together. Let’s play some more today, shall we?”

“Th-the Beast Master…!!”

“Meili Portroute. There’s no need to call me an uncharming name like that.”

The girl—the Beast Master—introduced herself as Meili, drawing her lips in as she visibly pouted. It was precisely because the gesture was so childish and innocent that it was all the more frightening to behold.

Behind the girl’s adorable gesture loomed the plume of black smoke, proof that a tragedy had occurred. There was no mistaking that the little girl before his eyes was the very cause of that tragedy.

“You’re…a monster just like Elsa!! What did you do to the village…to Rem and the others?!”

“Errm, I don’t know which one was this Rem person, but I’m very passionate about my work, so I always make sure to complete the task I’ve been assigned. Namely the big maid and the little maid from the mansion—it’s too bad the little maid turned out to be Petra, though…”

“Too bad? What do you mean, too bad? Too bad, too bad… Wh-what have you done…?”

“It’s all right; she was a friend of mine you know. So I made sure it was settled with one bite so she wouldn’t feel the pain…”

Putting her hands together, Meili nodded, smiling as she spoke as if this was her idea of mercy.

“—Ah.”

Learning from this report that the girl he had exchanged the promise of a date with had already met her end drained the strength from his knees.

Before he realized it, Subaru had crumpled to the ground, sinking down to his knees in bewilderment.

“”

Deep down, he had already known.

The moment he looked out the window after eluding Elsa, Subaru realized his own mistake.

Beatrice had even pointed out he was avoiding reality, but even so, Subaru had stubbornly made his way toward the village, if only to scrounge one extra second before he was forced to gaze directly at cruel reality.

He’d pretended to see a glimmer of hope, but that was only his miserable self-defense instincts at work.

“…What a buffoon you are. If you were going to give up in the end, should you have resisted to begin with, I wonder?”

“”

“You said such grandiose things to Betty, yet this is the result. Would I not truly like to show you your miserable face in the mirror, I wonder?”

The abusive words came from right beside him as he rested on his knees. Before he realized it, his arms had been brushed aside, and the little girl who he had been carrying in his arms stood upon the ground. Her face showed nothing less than utter disappointment.

Everything she said was true. He’d arrogantly flapped his lips to say this and that, yet in the end, he hadn’t saved anyone—

“—I have changed my mind. Betty’s life is wasted on the likes of you, I suppose.”

“Eh…?”

There was a sound of footsteps. The figure standing beside him turned to look forward. Beatrice advanced a step, putting the kneeling Subaru at her back as she and Meili wound up glaring straight at each other.

That demeanor elicited an “oh my?” from Meili, her voice trickling out in surprise.

“You wanna fight? From what I heard, you shouldn’t be fighting this…”

“Perhaps that would be convenient for others, but it is a terrible misunderstanding. Betty is the guardian of the archive of forbidden books…and does not forgive those who would disturb the archive. That’s all there is to it, I suppose.”

“…Hmmm.”

With a hard voice, Beatrice invoked once more the position she had already tried to abandon. For her part, Meili gave an unenthused reply. However, somewhere in her narrowed eyes was a glint of annoyance.

“I really hate it when a plan goes sideways, you see. Thanks to Miss Big Maid bringing the others along, I’m well behind schedule as it is, and I don’t want to fall behind any further—”

“How terrible for you. Incidentally, regardless of how much time you save, the likes of you cannot…”

“—That’s why I’m going to stick with the division of labor and leave you to my partner…”

Tilting her little head, a cruel flicker remained in Meili’s eyes as she stated those words to Beatrice. There was a sound of a blowing wind as Beatrice slightly raised her eyebrows, wondering what those words might mean.

The sound of the wind—no, that was not wind. It was death approaching, heralding a slaughter.

“Beatri—”

When he noticed, Subaru tried to raise his voice to convey that as soon as he possibly could.

But it was too late. A figure in black seemed to glide as it thrust down the street in a straight line, slipping above Subaru’s head as he knelt still, seemingly dancing toward Beatrice’s turned back as she said, “I came all the way here to visit you—isn’t it rude to run away?”

There was not even a moment of difference between when she announced her bloodlust and when she lashed out with her black blade. —Subaru thought for certain that her blade would impale the little girl’s chest as if sucked into it, with nothing she could do to stop it.

“!!”

Shaking off incomprehension, the pursuing butcher launched her surprise attack, landing a direct hit with her merciless blade only to be greeted by the echo of a tinny ring. The sound in no way resembled that of metal severing flesh and bone.

“—If you believed Dark magic cannot be used as a means of attack, you were far too naive.”

The arm swinging the blade bounced back, throwing Elsa heavily off balance as Beatrice stated those words. It was clear that this statement was no exaggeration when shots of lights surged toward Elsa one after another. Elsa evaded with backward leaps, avoiding them with acrobatic evasive maneuvers.

“How surprising. To think that you could do such a thing. How delightful.”

“Minya—mana arrows of stagnant time. You should have a good taste of them, I suppose.”

As both Elsa’s eyes glimmered with fury, Beatrice taunted her as she continued gathering magical energy.

Crystal arrows radiated purple as they hovered and rotated above the little girl’s head. They quickly became too many to count, and the missiles seemed to lock on to Elsa as if they had minds of their own.

“Outside the archive of forbidden books, this is the utmost I can muster…and yet, it is sufficient to hunt down the likes of you!”

The big guns had come out. A moment later, Beatrice launched the purple arrows in a single volley. With no need for a bow, the arrows of magical energy shot through the wind, bearing down upon the butcher, who had lowered her body in the manner of a spider.

“Certainly, it was a surprise seeing this the first time, but now that I have seen it once—”

Elsa intercepted the countless arrows bearing down upon her with swings of her black blade, filling the air with wildly dancing sounds of crystals shattering. The fragile arrows fleetingly shimmered as they scattered apart, unable to reach Elsa—

“Was I not clear, I wonder? That you should not take me lightly and that this is enough with which to hunt you.”

“—This is an error on my part, it would seem.”

Licking her lips, Elsa’s cheeks reddened in arousal as she replied.

The right arm she used to grip her bladed weapon shattered at the wrist, and the severed remains fell onto the ground. The damage continued to spread in a wave across her shoulder and leg, engulfing her entire right half, leaving Elsa’s body cracking as if it was made of delicate glass.

Dark magic: Minya, arrows of stagnant time—having demonstrated their true worth, victory and defeat had been completely decided.

Beatrice showed no futile compassion, such as asking to hear her final words. She thrust an arm toward Elsa, clenching her open hand.

That was all it took for countless arrows in the sky to converge upon Elsa, impaling the entirety of her body.

Repeated destructive impacts caused a cloud of dust to rise from the street. When the dust settled, what remained was a remorseless and cruel yet somehow overwhelmingly beautiful work of lethal art.

Crystal arrows were thrust through her entire body, half of it shattered like inorganic matter. Such was Elsa’s death.

“Aaaah. Oh, Elsa, how truly, truly stupid of you.”

With the menace dispatched, Subaru gawked, unable to process what was happening. In Subaru’s place, it was Meili who reacted, having observed the same battle.

Taking the death of her comrade in stride, Meili showed no sign of pain or loss, wearing only an exasperated look on her face after seeing the result of the battle. Exactly as she had stated, there was no emotion upon it save disappointment toward Elsa.

It was twisted. It was strange. This was a place filled with death. To show such contempt for it—

“Now then, with your companion like this, is it your turn next, I wonder? Even the opponent is a child, Betty shall show no mercy.”

“Oh, don’t say that… You and I don’t look much different at all. We could have been such wonderful friends…”

“A bald-faced lie. Is such a convenient thing even possible with the likes of you, I wonder?”

Though Meili was blatantly taunting her, Beatrice’s emotions remained undisturbed as she replied. Above her head, the purple arrows that had so thoroughly pierced Elsa took aim at Meili.

Considering what had befallen her partner, Meili had to have noticed that she was in imminent and extreme peril. How was it that she could remain so calm despite that fact?

She was not afraid of death. She thought nothing of death. Perhaps this was the reason why Meili and Elsa could toy with the lives of others as they had.

“”

Beatrice’s eyes narrowed, seemingly seeing right through Meili’s demeanor. From the tiny wavering of the purple arrows’ tips, Subaru knew that they were ready to be loosed.

If launched, Meili would die, just like Elsa. She was their enemy. It was the right thing to do, and yet—

“She’s a…child.”

“—An enemy is an enemy, child or no. There is nothing to be gained from allowing her to live.”

“That’s… But…what about making her say who…asked her to do this or something…?”

“You mean today’s job? Well, you see, that’d make my client angry, so nope. I won’t say a word.”

At the last minute, Subaru voiced an idealistic argument in an attempt to counter Beatrice’s sound logic. And it was not even Beatrice but Meili who sliced it down as a foolish notion.

Of course she did. Even Subaru himself had no idea what he wanted to do. Perhaps he simply didn’t want to witness the death of a child. Or perhaps—

“Killing a kid, that’s just…”

“—! You, saying such things again—”

With a broken voice, he offered his feeble thoughts of revulsion. His murmur made Beatrice twist her lips and look back. Then she turned a tiny palm toward Subaru, stretching it out toward him when—

“—Eh?”

—a light impact pressed into Subaru’s shoulder, sending him falling onto his side. With that unexpected act leaving him unable to remain kneeling, Subaru’s eyes opened wide with incomprehension as he gazed up at Beatrice, the one who had pushed him.

Her anger toward the stupid exchange from a moment earlier ran stale, and then, somehow, her expression shifted.

Beatrice’s eyebrows fell as she let out a breath of instantaneous relief, forming a thin smile in the process.

—The tip of a black blade was poking out of her chest.

“—My, what an odd feeling in the hand. A spirit’s belly really is different.”

The blade penetrating from behind and peeking out of her chest slowly slid downward, as if to widen the wound. Beatrice’s body gave a heavy shudder. Subaru, dumbfounded, could only watch.

“…With this.”

Haltingly, abruptly, something was woven by Beatrice’s lips.

That instant, Beatrice’s expression and eyes spoke the feelings coming and going through her heart.

“Finally…”

“Wait…!”

He didn’t know what he was trying to say to her. He didn’t know what she was trying to say to him.

And these were things that Subaru and Beatrice would likely never know for all of eternity.

Weakly, Beatrice’s body leaned forward and crumpled to the ground. The force of the movement drew out the blade. There was no bleeding from the wound. In its place, light gushed out, as if dislodged from the little girl’s flesh. Subaru could tell from her extremities turning into particles that her very existence was melting into the world around them.

“W-wait…”

He didn’t know to whom he made that earnest plea. All he could do was beg as he stretched a hand toward the light.

Please don’t take her away. Please don’t take this girl away. Don’t carry her away.

The light scattered. He desperately tried to gather it back together. And yet, the motes passed through his hands, vanishing in the blink of an eye. In the span of a single second, Beatrice had become insubstantial.

He couldn’t reach her. He couldn’t save her. How did this happen? Who could do this to her—?

“—Elsaaaaa!!”

“You don’t need to shout. I can hear you just fine.”

As he ferociously howled, the side of his face was slammed hard by the tip of the kukri knife.

The hard impact jostling his brain, Subaru rolled violently across the ground. His eyes rolled, his thoughts raced fruitlessly, and his heart could not catch up to the speed of the world spinning around him.

“You took your sweet time. I was getting worried. She was about to kill me, you know…”

“Such a cheeky girl, even after I saved you. As for taking my sweet time, I’m offended at how easily you can say such a thing.”

As he lay faceup, a pair of figures leaped into his field of vision against the backdrop of the sky. The spectacle horrified him. Standing right beside Meili, flippantly running her mouth, was none other than Elsa Gramhilde.

The woman who had been blanketed by purple arrows all over, with half her body shattered, was calmly standing right there. There were no visible wounds on her body, but the side effects of the damage had wrecked her clothing, leaving her exposed and half-naked.

There had been a battle. Without doubt, fatal wounds had been inflicted upon her. And yet—

“Don’t tell me, you’re…you’re not gonna say you’re immortal or something…?”

“No? That would be incorrect. I merely live a tad filthier than most. A boon granted by a malicious soul. Though I am fresh from being broken to such an extent, I can count the occasions on one hand.”

Implication oozed out of that crazed memory as a lustrous, wicked smile came over Elsa. After that, she shifted her eyes to Meili, standing at her side, and said, “One spirit and two maids… Meili, you’re finished with everything in the village?”

“Yeah, but my shadow lion lost to the big maid and the black land dragon…”

All three targets had been at the mansion—it was Subaru’s thoughtless decision that had made the villagers into victims. Put more bluntly, Subaru had killed them; just as he’d killed Rem, Petra, Frederica—and Beatrice.

—This was as far as I go this time, huh?

“What unsightly eyes you have.”

“Ga…gyaaa—?!”

The instant his mind recognized impending death before him, a scalding sensation shot through his left eye.

Just before the heat burned him, the last thing he saw in the left of his field of vision was a dull black glint—from that, he gathered that the kukri knife in Elsa’s hand had gouged out his eyeball. His brain wailed at the terrible sensation of having lost a part of his body, and Subaru reeled from the pain and the bleeding.

His right eye could see his optic nerve getting pulled out like a string. His right eye had witnessed the death of the left. His face had an impossible cavity, a blank space, a meaningless hole in it. His left eye had been lost forever.

“Oh my, Elsa, you’re so cruel… What a poor thing.”

“One must struggle to live until the very last moment. Otherwise, what meaning is there to life?”

Elsa replied to Meili with a cold voice. Among the short and few occasions he had come into contact with Elsa, this was the first time she had looked upon him with an emotion that could be called…scorn.

“The spirit was the poor thing. To think she sacrificed herself for the sake of a child like this.”

But ironically, it was none other than Subaru Natsuki who agreed most with Elsa’s words.

Beatrice was an idiot. Why had she done such a thing? She was the one who’d said she wanted to die, wanted someone to kill her. —Why?

“”

Wanting to know the answer to that, Subaru held back the blood coursing from his left eye socket as he moved his remaining right eyeball, looking in Beatrice’s direction. Beatrice was lying on the ground, light gushing as she faded away. There was no longer anything left of her little body from the waist down.

—Her vanishing arm was turned in Subaru’s direction, hand open.

“No way. Bea—”

The change in Subaru’s eyes told Elsa and Meili that something was wrong. However, it was already too late, even for them. At the cost of her life, Beatrice the Great Spirit, Librarian of the archive of forbidden books, cast her final spell—

The blue crystal, still in Subaru’s pocket, glowed.

—A teleportation occurred.

Sub-chapter 7.

When he came to, the first thing he did was confirm he was not dead.

“”

The existence of a cavity where his left eye had been told him he continued to live. It was one hell of an easy way to tell. Even Elsa had her moments. The loss of one eye was a remarkably easy-to-understand indicator of a human being who was missing something.

Subaru treated the wound left by his lost eye by wrapping the sleeve of his ripped jacket over his head.

It was pretty crude as first aid went. He’d stopped the bleeding, but there would be no subsequent care whatsoever from a trained nurse or anyone else. That was for the best. If he wasn’t dead that very moment, he didn’t care about whatever happened after.

—Subaru had already decided. He would pay for the crime he had committed in that world with death.

He’d already lost too much. That world was already wrecked, far too painful to continue living in. Just like before—no, more so than before, Subaru had committed a sin that made him lose so many things.

If at the cost of his own life, he could get those things back, he would not even hesitate.

This was a world that had to end.

He had to undo Rem’s death, Petra’s death, Frederica’s death, Beatrice’s death—all of it.

His regrets at Rem dying in a place he could not even reach, the promise he exchanged with Petra, the words he had vowed to Frederica, his reply to Beatrice’s laments—he would carry them into the next world.

If there, he could find an answer, everything else could probably be written off.

“It won’t… I won’t let it… I’ll remember…”

He murmured his self-awareness. He repeated his self-admonishment. He could not escape the fact that Subaru Natsuki—was a criminal.

His powerlessness had caused many deaths. His worthlessness had caused many laments. His recklessness had caused many torments. His inconsiderateness had trampled many a world underfoot. He was an apostle of atrocity.

“”

In that room filled with a vile stench, Subaru wobbled as he rose to his feet, placing a hand against the wall. With his left eye gone, the vision of his right hand alone lacked a sense of depth, making grasping things an ordeal. He had no intention to deal with such inconvenience for long, but he would not permit himself an easy death, like a quick slice to the neck.

Only after he returned with something that rivaled his sin could he begin to be forgiven for the death he carried with him.

“This is…”

Looking around, he saw a white floor and white walls in his narrowed field of vision. The unnatural white space, the foul stench hovering in the air—these he remembered, allowing him to form a guess before he could know it for certain.

—This was the Sanctuary. It was Ryuzu Meyer’s experimental facility, hidden deep within those Lost Woods.

“Ha.”

His breath trickled out. He couldn’t really call the broken breaths that trickled out either dry or wet.

He’d been teleported to the same spot again. His connection with the place ran far too deep. As if it was testing him. Testing, experiment—the experimental facility was laughing at him.

—Was this the power of the stone? Or was it the final flicker of Beatrice’s life?

He didn’t know. There were far too many things he didn’t know. He couldn’t leave things like that.

Regrets, regrets were limitless. He could not allow those regrets to shackle his legs, to pin him in place.

“Right now…”

He sank his sense of loss, his sense of despair, down to the lowest depths of his psyche, as his legs slowly stepped forward.

He’d go back with the knowledge of what happened to the Sanctuary when Subaru was absent. If he could at least do that much—

“”

Was that a vow or was it a wish? Subaru did not understand even that much as he headed outside the facility. He left the room, went through the passage, breathing white breaths, trusting his weight to the wall, dragging his feet.

After some time passed, he finally arrived at the entrance that led outside, and then Subaru saw.

A silvery world dyed wholly white—the landscape of the Sanctuary enveloped by snow.
 

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Diamond. Diamond. Diamond.

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