Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World. Volume. 18.
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‘Chapter 1:- PICKING UP THE PIECES.’
Sub-chapter 1.
“Emilia, are you a virgin? This is crucial.”
For a split second, Emilia couldn’t process what she was being asked.
“…”
She was surprised by the suddenness of the question, but the situation being what it was, she struggled with how she should respond to such an odd confrontation. With only a single blanket to cover herself, Emilia took a deep breath.
As she was forced to confront such an incomprehensible situation and try to understand what was going on, Emilia’s instinct was to try to recall everything that had happened so far.
—Following an invitation from Anastasia, a fellow royal-selection candidate, she had traveled to the Water Gate City of Pristella, one of the five great cities in the Kingdom of Lugunica. During her time there, she met with Crusch and Felt, two other candidates who had also received invitations from Anastasia, and they all enjoyed the welcoming, peaceful atmosphere. The next day, after a rather tense breakfast, she set off into town with Subaru and Beatrice, running into the Songstress Liliana…and then finding out that Subaru and Beatrice were facing off against one of the Witch Cult Archbishops by themselves. As soon as she learned this, Emilia quickly joined the fight. Their enigmatic foe may have been covered from head to toe in bandages, but she proved to be a powerful opponent, wielding flames and chains with equal skill. Emilia fought her hard, but they had been pushed to a point where defeat was looking inevitable when— What did happen after that?
When Emilia came to, she was lying on an unknown bed in a room she did not recognize inside an unfamiliar building. And when she stepped outside the room to see what was going on, she found herself in the hallway face-to-face with a white-haired man dressed in an all-white suit. Standing before him, she was unable to move, even forgetting to breathe.
—Who is he, where are we, and why am I here?
Now, as Emilia caught her breath and started to think—
“Ah, my apologies. It seems I’ve surprised you. I must admit that was an error on my part.” The white-haired man—Regulus Corneas—smiled and raised his hand. “I am sorry for the sudden question. Truly, I apologize. You see, I’m the sort of man who can genuinely apologize when I believe I am in the wrong. There are utterly unbearable louts in this world who refuse to recognize their own faults and merely shift blame with an unending stream of excuses, but on a fundamental level, I stand apart from such lowly, inferior people. You agree, don’t you?”
“Ummm… Yes, it’s important to be able to apologize from your heart, sure…”
“Just so! That’s it exactly. Being able to apologize is crucial. Thank goodness. People who can’t even understand something as simple as that are far more common than you would think, but since we both share that understanding, I’m sure we will get along famously in our married life. That’s a relief. There is no mistaking we were fated to be joined together.”
Regulus’s eyes sparkled excitedly as he nodded to himself over and over, completely ignoring Emilia’s apparent shock. After looking her up and down, he continued.
“You see, I’m not inquiring as to your chastity out of a vulgar curiosity. As I said, we are husband and wife, and spouses must of course be joined together out of a powerful bond of mutual love and understanding. In order to maintain a relationship like that, it is only natural that it is a requirement that both parties must entrust all of themselves to their partner. Which is why I would like to be sure.”
“Sure of what…?”
“Sure that you have not been touched by another man. But to be clear, I ask this with only love in my heart, so while it might cause you some small amount of discomfort, I really must insist. It’s my duty both as your husband and as a man.”
Regulus’s thoughts flowed out with great expressiveness and verbosity. Emilia felt something was off about Regulus himself as she was tossed about by the flood of words.
“………”
She was overwhelmed by the vehemence of his insistence, but that was not all. His figure, his voice…something about him was stirring the depths of her memories. But she couldn’t seem to figure out why, and it soon slipped away, before she could manage to figure it out. But she could say one thing for sure—this man was incredibly focused on one certain word.
“So please allow me to ask again: Emilia, are you a virgin?”
“Um, can you explain what that means? I’m sorry, that’s not a word I’m very familiar with.” Faced with the same question once again, Emilia averted her purple eyes apologetically.
It was clearly something that held great meaning to Regulus, but she simply didn’t understand what he was getting at.
“…What?” Regulus’s expression tensed when he heard that.
Right as Emilia was starting to feel uneasy, his eyes suddenly widened.
“—Marvelous. You truly are the manifestation of my ideal maiden!” Regulus exclaimed, grabbing her hands as an animated smile crossed his face.
Emilia’s eyes widened in shock, but Regulus paid no heed to her response and celebrated like a child who had just gotten his hands on the toy he had been dreaming of for so long. He nodded to himself over and over, and his eyes gleamed with a feverish light as he stepped in closer.
“Yes, I knew it! I had always had some misgivings as to whether using virginity as a metric was really the best way to answer this question. But that’s it exactly—true purity lies in the heart. Physical virtue is only natural and expected! But what truly matters is being immaculate in spirit as well… As fulfilled as I am, you have still managed to reveal a new truth to me!”
“Ah, um, that’s nice, I think…?”
“Indeed it is. And let me say, you pass with flying colors. You are perfectly suited to be my wife. And in the future, I won’t have to do something as silly as inquiring into the virginity of my brides. Anyone impure enough to understand the very concept would only diminish the value of the station. A woman who has committed adultery in her heart is not fit to be my wife.”
Letting go of Emilia’s hand, Regulus rapturously regaled her with the future he saw for them.
She still couldn’t quite grasp the true meaning of what he was saying. In fact, all of his talk about being husband and wife had come out of nowhere. In her mind, husband and wife described the loving relationship her father and mother shared, which seemed at odds with Regulus’s idea of marriage. Maybe he was thinking of something else that merely sounded similar?
“Ah, how careless of me. I’ve said too much. I shouldn’t leave you standing there in such a state for so long. Let’s get you a change of clothes.” Noticing Emilia’s bewildered silence, Regulus clapped his hands. “Come along, #184.”
A door opened on his command, and a doll-like figure joined the two of them in the hall.
“”
The beautiful woman in a white dress approached, elegantly trailing long blond hair. Her pure, unblemished white outfit must have been coordinated with Regulus, whose appearance radiated all white. Standing silently at Regulus’s side, she politely curtsied as she looked at Emilia.
There was no emotion in the woman’s expression. Emilia’s breath caught as she noticed the lifeless, doll-like eyes.
“Prepare a change of clothes for her—for #79. Once she is ready, go help the others prepare for the ceremony. She will be joining all of you, so do try to get along and look after her.”
“”
“Mm-hmm. You’ve stopped smiling like I requested. Good girl. You are an excellent wife.”
Regulus smiled, satisfied by the woman’s silence and lack of expression as she did nothing more than nod. He then stepped toward Emilia, who still had not grasped what was going on, and, as if it were nothing, he reached his hand out and caressed her silver hair without a hint of hesitation. Her body stiffened in response to a gesture that felt entirely different when a certain black-haired boy did it.
“Well then, I shall see you later. She will make you even more beautiful.”
“Right…”
Emilia was filled with doubt and resistance, but at the same time, her instincts were telling her not to openly defy this man, that Regulus Corneas possessed great power. A horrifyingly vast amount of power.
“Good girl.”
Nodding at her short response, Regulus smiled and leisurely turned away. She watched him disappear down the hall, and when he was finally out of view, her shoulders gradually relaxed at last. Her body had instinctively tensed up, completely on guard against him without her ever realizing it.
His mere presence felt just as menacing as the horde of great rabbits—
“—This way.”
The woman’s voice was beautiful, like a perfectly tuned harp. But there was no emotion in her voice, either. And something about that pained Emilia.
“Your clothes.”
“Um, I really appreciate it, but I have a lot of questions. Like where is this, for starters? I was in the great plaza in Pristella, and then— Ah! Wait!”
Ignoring Emilia’s questions, the woman had quickly started walking.
“Um, could you please listen? I really need to send a message to my friends. I’m sure they’re all worried about me, and I’m worried about what happened to them, too…”
“”
“Excuse me, are you listening? Can you hear me? …Arghhhh.”
The woman just kept walking forward, back straight, not lending an ear to Emilia. And as Emilia started to pout after all her questions were ignored, the woman finally led her to the room beside the one she had woken up in. It held all sorts of clothes and accessories, almost like the dressing room in a castle. But just like the place she had woken up in, something about this room made it feel different from the coldness that the rest of the building radiated.
“There are so many clothes, but…this wasn’t originally what this room was for, was it?”
“These were all brought here by our husband. Please get dressed, #79.”
“…Is that number supposed to mean me? He—Regulus called me that, too. Who are you?”
“I am #184, one of his wives—just like you.”
Closing the door, her back to it, the woman who called herself #184 responded. Her voice was as cold and emotionless as before, but Emilia was still a bit relieved to just be able to talk with her.
“Thank goodness you finally responded. Um, what should I call you again…?”
“#184. Please be careful; he is picky about the numbers.”
Hearing that warning, Emilia placed her hand on her own chest.
“…That number thing is bothering me, too, but I assume it’s safe to say that when he was talking about marriage and spouses, he meant me? If so, I don’t recall ever agreeing to marry Regulus…”
Thinking back, she could not remember ever arranging anything of the sort. #184 narrowed her eyes ever so slightly.
“You may not have such intentions, but he most certainly does. And your will has no bearing on his desires.”
“That’s strange, though. Marriage is something two people who love each other do together, right? I don’t even know him.”
This discussion about marriage didn’t mesh at all with how Emilia understood the concept. And from what #184 was saying, Regulus sounded less like a good husband and more like…
“—It’s like he’s one of the wicked kings I’ve read about.”
“”
Emilia was still busy studying for the royal selection, and the names of many kings filled the pages of history, including some whose names were recorded for not particularly flattering reasons. Dictators, for example—rulers who refused to listen to others and insisted on obstinately following their own course above all else.
“That’s a perfect description of him.”
“Huh?”
“His bearing is undoubtedly that of a king… He is well deserving of the title ‘the little king,’” #184 murmured softly.
Emilia could not catch what the woman had said, so she asked her to repeat it, but #184 tightly pursed her lips.
“……Your clothes.”
“What? Wait…”
#184 was even more unyielding than before to cover up her momentary slip of the tongue. She stepped forward to remove the blanket Emilia was using to cover her body—
“—Gh?!”
Without warning, a loud noise and violent tremor rocked the town.
“Watch out!”
Emilia caught #184, who had stumbled from the sudden jolt and blast. Emilia swung her head around and then leaped to the window of the changing room. Searching for the source of the noise, she saw something unbelievable.
“That’s…the floodgate?!”
Her lips quivered, and her purple eyes opened wide as she watched a huge floodgate—one of the massive devices that controlled the flow of water in all the city’s waterways—open with an ominous groan.
With nothing to hold it back any longer, the water rushed into the city all at once. Pristella was laid out like a bowl, designed so that water would flow toward the lower levels—to the center of the town.
In the distance, the heart of the city was visible—city hall. And that tall structure was already being swallowed up by water.
“That’s…”
The roads were flooded as a rolling wave swept away people and goods alike. Emilia clutched the windowsill in shock, hearing the imagined pandemonium in the back of her mind.
It was beyond anything she could imagine, and while she watched in shock, all the people were tossed about, desperately struggling to survive.
What had happened?
The city’s residents and her fellow candidates who had also traveled here—were they safe?
And there was another who came to mind.
“Subaru…”
Her knight was somewhere out there, too. Was he safe?
She closed her eyes, imaging his smile as she prayed for his safety.
Praying, pleading, Emilia kept her eyes shut tight.
Sub-chapter 2.
Voices were echoing far, far in the distance.
“”
Voices that he could not identify. Male, female, young, old? Were they coming from above him or below him? He couldn’t say. It sounded like a battle cry. Then it was more like a grieving wail. A scream, a sob, an enraged bellow, a jagged lamentation.
All these sounds rained down around him like a waterfall, crashed over him like a giant wave, swirled around him like an inescapable vortex. It was almost like someone he had finally met after a long, long time was opening up about everything they had held back for years.
And, swallowed up by the unending deluge of voices, he lost track of where he even was.
“”
Hands, legs, head, bottom, chest, back—it all blurred together. In that enormous swell of voices, his sense of self was gradually melting away, losing shape. He was becoming indistinct, fading and scattering until the countless voices were all that remained.
The voices became dark and stagnant, intent on breaking down his identity, reducing and draining it. He was sinking into that darkness, unable to resist. But right when he was about to resign himself to merciful oblivion, he realized there was a thread bound inextricably around his core that rejected the stagnation around him.
“”
There was something writhing deep inside him, a thread that refused to stop fighting the black stagnation—the two forces claimed ownership of his self, fighting, each trying to steal him away, to kill the other off.
And then finally…finally—
Sub-chapter 3.
“—Imbecile. How long must you insist on imposing your clueless, carefree face on the world?”
“Gh, aaaaaaaah!!!”
Subaru Natsuki awoke with a scream as he experienced the feeling of his face being gripped by a crimson flame. He jolted up at the intense heat enveloping his face, and the pain of it scorched his eyes. He groaned and flailed on the ground while cradling his face. His heart was pounding, and it felt like all the blood in his body was boiling from the heat—
“Wh-what—what happened…?”
“Ohh, what a pitiful creature. Such an ill-kept head to begin with, and now that it has been bleached out by all the water, apparently nothing remains on the inside. At this rate, you won’t even be fit for your role as a jester.”
“That outrageous arrogance and lack of consideration for others…”
Subaru wiped away the tears welling up as he turned toward the source of the caustic voice verbally lashing him. His blurry vision gradually cleared, and what appeared was a beautiful girl who seemed like a walking personification of the color red—
“So it is you, Priscilla.”
Priscilla sniffed haughtily, crossing her arms, almost like she was deliberately emphasizing her well-endowed chest.
“Who else would I be? As if another as beautiful as I could exist in this world. If your eyes fail to detect something that obvious, it would be best to spoon them out and at least save yourself the trouble of carrying around such useless appendages.”
“There’s no way that would be better! And I feel obligated to point out that when it comes to beautiful women, the other royal-selection candidates are all top-tier knockouts… Not that that matters anyway!”
Subaru had gotten sucked into Priscilla’s pace and reflexively retorted before he got ahold of himself.
He had been unconscious and had woken up to discover Priscilla was with him. His first thought was that he had died and restarted another loop at the park, which would’ve placed him just before the Archbishop of Wrath, Sirius, was scheduled to start her atrocity in the plaza by the time tower.
Right as Subaru started to wonder why he had been returned to that point after dying…
“Where is this…?”
That guess went out the window as he realized he did not recognize his surroundings. There was none of the natural greenery that filled the park. He was in a narrow alley. And for some reason, it was muddy and filled with puddles.
“And it’s not just the ground, either… I’m practically dripping here.”
Grabbing the sleeve of his tracksuit, Subaru was baffled by his waterlogged condition. His whole body was wet. As if he had cannonballed into a bath with all his clothes on. Had there been some torrential rainstorm while he was out? If not, then—
“Did I fall into the canal? Or was there some terrible flood…?”
“—Yes, sirree! That’s exactly what happened! Your humblest Liliana was trembling so much in awe at it all that it’s almost like I’ve invented a new dance! See!”
Subaru’s fearful guess was affirmed by the surprise entry of a voice that came with musical accompaniment. The source of both suddenly appeared from behind Priscilla. Dark skin and an oddly aggressive manner of speech marked her as the city of water’s peerless Songstress.
“Liliana! I’m glad you’re safe… Turns out you were with Priscilla!”
“I mean, you and Lady Emilia and the little lady all left me behind with Lady Priscilla in the park! And with the whole town gone topsy-turvy like this, I was so scared, I couldn’t bear to move a single step away from the oh-so-reliable Lady Priscilla’s side.”
She didn’t hesitate at all to whine before latching on to Priscilla’s waist. It was the sort of brazen behavior that normally would’ve earned her a one-way trip to the executioner’s chop from Priscilla, but for some reason she was extraordinarily tolerant of Liliana because of her rare talent.
Liliana was trembling like a fawn as Priscilla nodded and patted her head.
“As the diva said, soon after you left the park, a boorish rabble defiled the waters of the city. Exceedingly merciful as I might be, even I cannot forgive such an outrage. I was on my way to relieve them of their heads when I noticed a certain foolish commoner floating in the water.”
“Ahh, I see. And this foolish commoner floating in the water… Did you perhaps mean me by that?” Subaru asked, pointing to himself.
Priscilla just sniffed as if to say, Who else could it be? Choosing to interpret that as an affirmative, Subaru felt his confusion grow.
“I was floating in the water…? Why? That doesn’t make any sense…”
He thought back to the last thing he could remember: Subaru had been on the top floor of the city hall building. He had been defeated by a dreadful monster, the Archbishop of Lust.
Capella had used Lust’s Authority to freely transform herself into a beastly form, and unable to withstand her fierce barrage of attacks, Subaru’s right leg had come free. After losing a lot of blood, he had been writhing in pain…
“But I’ve still got my leg. It’s still connected. The bandage is coming undone, but… Ugh?!”
The wrap around his badly wounded leg had gotten filthy from being drenched in blood and fetid water. But as he removed it to check his leg, he shouted in disgust at what lay beneath.
“Wh-what happened?! Ugh?! Wh-wh-wh-what is that?!”
“”
Drawn by Subaru’s response, Liliana came closer out of curiosity and immediately turned pale. Beside her, Priscilla peered down, eyes filled with revulsion.
All three of them were looking at Subaru’s right leg, which should have been torn off during the fighting with Capella. But despite his remembering differently, it was still attached—and covered by hideous black flesh.
“”
He felt no pain in his foot.
Caught up in the shock of seeing the condition of his limb, he rolled up the leg of his pants, revealing the full extent of the black, wriggling, vein-like protrusions extending up from his foot. A cautious touch confirmed the leg had some give to it, similar to that of normal human flesh. Ignoring its appearance, he could even call it fully healed.
“To be clear, your limbs were all attached when we found you. That hideous leg has nothing to do with us. And judging from the look on your face, it’s clear you weren’t born this way.”
“…Thanks for catching me up while I was dealing with the shock of finding this nasty stuff that someone embroidered on my leg without my permission… There’s no way this is the result of healing magic, right?”
Nodding along to Priscilla’s response, Subaru ruled out what seemed to be the most likely way it could have happened. As far as he knew, healing magic operated under the basic principle of increasing the natural recovery ability of a patient’s body. It was not regeneration, so scars would be left after healing. In fact, there were plenty of those on Subaru’s body already.
But the dark mass on his leg was nothing like those scars. He could confidently say it was not the result of healing magic. The healing magic he knew was a gentler, warmer, miraculous power that saved not only bodies but even souls. The sort of thing that Ferris was proud of, that Beatrice had mastered as if it came naturally to her, that Garfiel had studied for the sake of his wish, that Rem had so earnestly offered freely. This black mark on his leg was a blasphemous desecration of that sort of miracle.
“Just to be sure, commoner, am I correct in assuming that your leg was not originally some sort of oddity that could reattach itself even after being violently removed?”
“That sounds like you’re asking just to ask, but yeah, my body doesn’t work that way. I’ve had my leg torn off before, but I died… Almost died that time.”
“You’ve had a body part torn off before?! What a life!”
When Liliana heard such an absurd answer to an absurd question, her excitement bubbled up.
But when he thought back to what had happened before, at least during that first loop, there had been no sign of his body gluing itself back together. And there hadn’t been any situation later in which he’d ever displayed any kind of hyper-regeneration, either.
Priscilla nodded and simply said “I see” at his response.
“Don’t raise your voice,” she ordered curtly as she swung the fan in her hand with the flick of a wrist. Unable to follow the red fan’s path, Subaru and Liliana peeled their eyes in an attempt to figure out what was going on, but her target became all too clear before long.
“—Gh!”
There was a faint numbness, and then Subaru’s leg was struck by a burning heat. The edge of her fan had grazed his leg, leaving a sharp gouge in his thigh.
Subaru was hit by two different shocks: The first came from the realization of how skilled she must be to do something like that with a fan, and the second came from the realization that she was the kind of person who could slice open someone else’s leg with zero hesitation. But both thoughts were erased by the even greater shock of what happened next. The cut on his leg was deep enough to reveal bone—until the black flesh swallowed it up. Within seconds, it was as if it the wound had never been there at all.
“”
Subaru gingerly touched the spot with his finger, at a loss for words at the revolting miracle that had just taken place. The site of the wound was completely fine. The pain had disappeared, too.
“Ummmmmm, I could be wrong, but there might be something wrong with your leg…,” Liliana commented nervously.
“It’s weird how normal it feels. What is even going on with my body…?” Subaru was shocked by the unnatural healing.
Something is wrong with my leg. What the hell happened?
“—Wait, is it because Capella dripped blood on my leg…?”
It had happened when his consciousness was fading from the pain and the loss of so much blood after he lost his right leg. It was not a clear enough memory for him to be absolutely sure, but he was fairly confident he remembered her cutting her own wrist and dripping the blood over his wound.
Capella had said something about it while he was suffering from the unbearable pain.
“Something about becoming a hideous lump of flesh and doing the same thing to Crusch…”
“Sharing her blood, you say? That sounds rather like some sort of curse. I’ve heard that many of the rituals that northern practitioners of such arts are fond of using involve such roundabout rites. Perhaps it’s something along those lines?”
“Curses, curses… Right, a blood curse. That’s it! A dragon! She said something about dragon blood!”
Priscilla’s low voice triggered something in the foggy recesses of Subaru’s memories.
Right before he had passed out, while he was writhing in pain from coming into contact with her blood, she had claimed that dragon blood flowed in her veins. Whether that was metaphorical or just a straight-up fabrication, it might be a good clue worth following up.
“Dragon blood… That’s one of the three great treasures left to the royal family of Lugunica by the Holy Dragon.”
“I dunno any details, just that something like that exists…” Subaru furrowed his brow.
“—It grants abundance to lands withered and barren, rejuvenates all destruction that has been wrought, heals the most incurable illnesses in an instant, and becomes a light to wash away indelible despair. Those are the properties of the blood of the great and Holy Dragon.”
“”
A lyrical response reached Subaru’s eardrums. There was a mysterious look on Liliana’s face as she plucked her lyulyre and softly sang. Acknowledging Subaru’s gaze, she bowed solemnly.
“It’s a verse from the fellowship of the Holy Dragon Volcanica as passed down in the Kingdom of Lugunica. The great treasures bequeathed to the kingdom were the dragon’s blood, the Dragon Tablet, and the Covenant.”
“…That dragon blood sure sounds like it could do just about everything.”
Subaru was a bit taken aback by how different Liliana could be when it came to songs and folklore, but he was more concerned with what her verse had described. Rejuvenated destruction and healed illness came pretty close to describing his leg’s strange condition, but the parts about treating barren lands and light that washed away despair felt more questionable when he looked at the hideous black pattern on his body.
And when he considered that this hunch was based on something Capella had said, it became even more dubious.
“I don’t know what caused it, but considering the wounds I had before going into that fight were healed, too, I guess I should count it as a plus… Gh! Hey, that hurts! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“You really do insist on being noisy. Don’t make a fuss over something so minor,” Priscilla responded in a bored tone after grazing the nape of Subaru’s neck with her fan.
She looked at the edge of her fan and flicked it with her finger.
“Hmmm, wounds to other parts of your body don’t appear to be affected. If we were to tentatively accept that leg of yours as the blessing of the dragon’s blood, it would seem the sacred dragon is a far cry from the legends that have been passed down.”
“What?! What are you saying, Lady Priscilla?! No matter how voluptuous and beautiful and buxom you are, there are certain things that cannot be said! No matter how voluptuous you are!”
“Oh, you would dare oppose me? Disdain for the Holy Dragon must sit quite poorly with you.”
“Naturally! The Holy Dragon Volcanica is a living legend! To we who sing to preserve the legends of the past for the future, to us bards, the Holy Dragon is our greatest benefactor! If I let contempt for the Holy Dragon pass without comment, I and my honor would both cry!”
“That spirit is admirable. But now what? How will you make me retract my words?”
“Please remove Sir Natsuki’s head from his neck! Right here and now! Then watch and behold as the Holy Dragon’s blood and its miraculous power rejoin his severed head with his body where he stands! If you would please!”
“There’s no way that would work!” Subaru howled at the absurd one-act play unfolding before him.
Unfortunately, the nape of his neck was still hurting. As Priscilla had said, it looked like the healing was limited to his right leg, and it would probably be safer to assume it was really just the parts around the black flesh.
“Anyway, this isn’t the time for experiments. The authenticity of the dragon blood aside, if my leg is like this, I’m more worried about Crusch. If she suffered something along the lines of what happened to my leg…and also, before that…”
Setting aside the oddity of his leg, Subaru finally returned to his first question. The one that the weirdness with his leg had made him forget—why had he been floating in the water?
“What happened to everyone? Garfiel and Wilhelm and the others were fighting with me…”
“Ah, um, as to the reason, you see, the truth is…” Liliana raised her hand.
“Wait, you know what happened?!”
As Subaru leaned in, she pointed out into the distance. Following where she was pointing, Subaru was baffled by the sight. He could not see anything particularly special or out of the ordinary. It was just the wall surrounding the city and one of the four floodgates that held back the water around the city—
“Wha—?”
After getting that far, Subaru remembered that both he and the ground were soaking wet. Liliana had even said it at the start. The canals had overflowed.
“No matter how dull a fool you might be, even you should understand by now.”
The crimson-eyed girl nodded when she saw Subaru’s ashen face.
Priscilla opened her fan with an audible crack and covered her lips with it as she spoke.
“It is as you suspect. One of the great floodgates was opened, and a torrent of water surged into the city. You were floating because you had been caught in the flood.”
Sub-chapter 4.
One of the city’s great sluice gates had been opened, allowing a deluge of water to consume Pristella.
The mass of water had left the confines of the city’s channels, creating a flash flood that spilled out into every corner of the city. That much water was unheard of, and almost half the city had been submerged at one point. The still-flooded roads scattered here and there around the city were a remnant of that.
It was miraculous that Subaru had survived the flood and was simply plucked out of one of the canals.
“The one silver lining is that the gate that was opened was quickly closed again, which is way better than just leaving it open. And almost all the residents managed to escape to the shelters, too…,” Liliana explained.
“But not all of them.”
“…Most likely, yes. It’s sad and unfortunate and heartrending to say, though,” she said, nodding in response to Subaru’s regretful murmur.
Thanks to her, he had a general grasp of what had happened to the city while he was unconscious. A massive flood from the gate being opened, which would have required access to the control towers that controlled the gates. The only ones who could have done it were the members of the Witch Cult, who were currently occupying the towers.
Meaning the flood had been their doing, and—
“It was revenge for attacking city hall, then. Makes sense.” Priscilla had reached the same conclusion as Subaru.
“Ngh.” Subaru grimaced.
“What, do you mean to tell me you didn’t expect your actions to have consequences? If you act, so will your enemy. Making an example early on is just standard practice,” Priscilla declared mercilessly.
“If anything, this feels almost half-hearted,” she continued, fanning herself gently as she tried to deduce the Witch Cult’s aims. “I would have expected something even more despicable if they are as disgraceful a rabble as the rumors say. I suppose I should assume they value the items they demanded on the broadcast as too important to allow themselves to get too carried away.”
Hearing her cold, calculating deductions, Subaru was chagrined to realize that his actions were likely what had brought about the current situation. Ever since coming to the city of water, he had suffered a string of complete and absolute failures: He had been killed by Sirius three times; Emilia had been kidnapped by Regulus; Beatrice was in a coma after saving him; he had gone to city hall in order to face Capella with his friends, only to end up being toyed with by her; and to top it all off, the town had been almost totally flooded by the cultists in retribution. He was on the verge of exploding in anger at how pathetic he was.
Subaru covered his face with his hand and stared up at the sky.
“Um, um… Please don’t brood, Sir Natsuki. The situation is definitely awful, though—almost ‘What’s next, tying my arms and legs and throwing me in a lake?!’ levels of terrible!” Liliana was waving her hands and legs as she held her lyulyre against her scrawny body, and her twin tails flapped around on either side of her face.
That she still did not give in to despair, even in this dire situation, was splendid, truly worthy of praise.
And—
“Aaaargh! Damn it! You think I’ll let it end like this after losing this much?!”
“Wah?!”
The hand covering Subaru’s face clenched into a fist as he howled. Liliana, who had been intending to raise his spirits, leaped backward instead to cling to Priscilla in shock at the sudden shout. Naturally, Priscilla dodged the bard and casually knocked her aside. Ignoring Liliana’s cute cry as she hit the ground, Priscilla looked at Subaru with something akin to interest for the first time.
“That’s unexpected. So you refuse to break over something so trifling, I take it?”
“Setting aside the question of whether this is trifling or not, that’s the general idea. This is nothing compared to that nasty Witch’s trials. It’s way too early to be giving up on anything.”
Every battle had been a loss, his right leg was covered in some alien black substance, and the city was headed downhill fast—but he wasn’t about to give in just because of all that.
Now that he had a firm grasp on the current situation, he steeled his will as he came to a conclusion about what he should do first.
“—I need to meet up with everyone who stayed back at the Muse Company. Once we regroup, we can kick those assholes out of the city for good.”
“Can you really do that?”
“That isn’t the real question. It’s whether we do it or don’t. And I’m not about to choose don’t. Whatever we do, though, priority number one needs to be rejoining the crew. What are you going to do?”
“”
There was a flame dancing in Priscilla’s eyes. She stood there silently, waiting for Subaru to continue.
“You know, I still haven’t forgotten what happened back at the Water Raiment Inn—if anything, I’m still holding a grudge about it—but this and that are two different things. But being with someone you know is good for peace of mind, and Al was with us, too, not long before this. It might be easier for you to find him if we stick together.”
“Al was with you?”
“Yeah, though he left before the fight. He was wandering around the city looking for you.”
Al had split off from the group before the assault on city hall, but Subaru was still a little worried about whether he had gotten caught up in the flood. He wanted to assume Al was safe, what with how aloof and perceptive he seemed to be, but…
Hearing that, Priscilla thought for a moment.
“I understand your line of thought, but I have something I must see to first. And I have no intention of accepting your invitation if it means putting that off.”
“What could be so…?”
“But your show of resolve wasn’t half bad. So I’ll grant you a reward.”
“A reward?”
Subaru cocked his head at the unexpected response.
Priscilla reached out and grabbed Subaru by the shirt and pulled him to the ground, where he fell down next to Liliana with a grunt. He looked up in order to give Priscilla an earful for suddenly throwing him down—
“What the hell was that for all of a…? Wha—?!”
—until he saw a misshapen silhouette leap out violently at Priscilla.
“—!!”
The grotesque being howled sinisterly as it launched itself high into the air. It had four short, hound-like legs and twisted fangs lining its mouth. Just that would mark it as little more than a particularly ugly beast, but everything else was abnormal. It had swords and spears protruding from its back and torso. Not hanging from its body. Not stuck into it. The weapons were growing out of its body. It was literally a fusion of flesh and steel creating a truly hideous silhouette.
“That’s…not a demon beast! What is that?!”
“Ahhhhhhh! That’s a demi-beast!” Liliana screamed as she crawled across the ground.
While that was going on in the background, the grotesque monster that Liliana called a demi-beast took aim at Priscilla’s pale neck. Its sickening, unclean fangs drew near, but Priscilla easily deflected it to the side with the fan in her hand, forcefully knocking it down. One of the swords fused with its body gouged the earth underneath, creating a groove in the ground between Subaru and Liliana. A shout froze in his throat as he saw how sharp and dangerous it was.
“Well? Unsightly, isn’t it? These hideous, inferior brutes are rampant in the city right now. Not even beasts, and yet insufficient as tools. Incomplete from birth, a botched job from creation—thus demi-beasts.”
Priscilla stood there calmly, having knocked aside the demi-beast with her fan as Subaru watched stiffly. He was shocked by how at ease she appeared as he pulled Liliana away from where the demi-beast had fallen.
Behind them, the demi-beast writhed in agony as it leaped up, its spit-flecked jowls twisting around as it searched for the one who had attacked it. Something about it felt off to Subaru, and he quickly realized why. Its eyes.
“It doesn’t have any eyes… Did something blind it? Wait, did it just never have them to begin with? What?”
Its head looked similar to a dog’s. It had a snout with a vaguely canine nose and jaws, but there were no eyes where there should have been. It was true that some creatures simply didn’t develop vision, then, but this one had empty, hollowed-out pits where eyes would have been. It had eye sockets but no eyeballs. There were no scars or any other signs that they’d been removed, either. It was all incredibly cryptic. What were demi-beasts?
“Look closely, commoner. If you would wander this city, you might encounter one of these monstrosities at any time. They are coarse and incomplete creatures, but they have enough strength to easily hunt down one or two helpless fools.”
“Hey, who’s supposed to be helpless?! I’ve…”
Subaru reached for his trusty whip to drive home his point, but he had lost it either in the fight with Capella or else when he fell into the water. Farewell, Guilty Whip.
And with him unable to deny the helpless-fool point anymore, Priscilla intentionally made a sound with her shoe, drawing the demi-beast’s attention toward her. Gnashing its fangs, it obediently bounded toward her, drawn by the sound.
“Look how it clings to sound. It is comical how inexperienced they are in dealing with their world without sight. That shows this is not their natural state. But that is just the sort of being they are.”
“What are you saying…? Hold on a second! You said they’re all over town? There are more like this out there?!”
“They have spawned everywhere. Without eyes, without ears, without a mouth…like a mockery of a living creature, they are all flawed in some form or another. One can only assume their creator’s sense of beauty is catastrophically broken.”
Right after Priscilla said that, the demi-beast launched itself into the air again. Unable to see, it relied on its ears to leap toward her approximate location. Naturally, she swayed out of the way of such a clumsy attack with ease. When the demi-beast’s fangs caught only air, it quickly turned after landing and prepared to attack again—
“—What a truly pitiful existence. In my great mercy, I shall grant you rest.”
And, having said that, Priscilla slowly drew a crimson sword from the sky.
“”
Subaru was shocked by the sudden appearance of the sword, but more than that, he was enchanted by the sword’s beauty.
The bright-red blade that appeared was gilded with strange and beautiful ornamentation. It was radiant enough to be easily worthy of being called a treasure sword. From the hilt to the blade, it was entirely scarlet, and in Priscilla’s hand it glimmered brilliantly, like she held a living flame.
“—Ah.”
Cloaked in an inferno that enchanted all who beheld it, the sword flashed as Priscilla allowed the blind demi-beast to experience the blade firsthand in all its glory. The creature split down the middle and then burst into flames. There were no dying cries as the single crimson slash transformed the demi-beast into cinders.
“The gleam of this sword of sunlight and the knowledge that demi-beasts abound are my reward for your determination,” Priscilla said as Subaru watched the demi-beast’s death with eyes wide open.
Looking over at her, he saw that the crimson sword was already gone from her hand, replaced by her usual fan. It almost felt like it had been an illusion, but the demi-beast’s ashes were proof enough that it had been real.
“That’s quite the foolish look on your face. Don’t tell me you missed your opportunity to see something you will never see again? If so, my whim shan’t visit again, so you have only your own unworthiness to blame.”
“…There’s so much to comment on there that I’m not even sure where to start. What even is your actual power?”
“What an empty question. I can’t even work up the will to answer.”
Priscilla fanned herself leisurely as she openly ignored Subaru’s question. Liliana, whom Subaru had forgotten he was still holding under his arm, started flapping her arms and legs.
“Come on, Sir Natsuki!”
“Huh? Ah, my bad. Did I touch somewhere inappropriate? Though where would that even be on you?”
“How rude! They may be small, but they are there! But this isn’t the time for that!”
Twisting her body, she slipped free from Subaru’s arm, hit the ground with a thud, and quickly leaped to her feet. She left Subaru and Priscilla behind and ran to the intersection up ahead. Peering around the corner, she waved at them to come over.
“I knew it! Look! There is someone hurt here! Help! Please help him!”
“There is?! Were they attacked by that demi-beast?!”
Subaru frantically rushed over to Liliana. There was a young man lying facedown in a pool of blood. He had wounds on his shoulder and back.
“Are you okay?! Hey! Crap, he’s totally out of it. The wounds aren’t too deep, but…”
There was no response when Subaru called out to the young man. After checking his wounds, Subaru quickly tore the man’s shirt and performed simple first aid.
“You seem quite familiar with how to deal with this sort of thing…”
“It’s the product of my mentor’s spartan training. I’m amazed you noticed he was here, though.”
“Yes, I was sure I heard something. Like a heartrending voice pleading for aid.”
“What are you, some hero of justice…? All righty, that’ll do for first aid.”
Subaru sighed in relief after stopping the bleeding and tying off a splint. The wound did not look life-threatening, at least.
“But we can’t just leave him lying here, either. What do we do…?”
“Then carry him, commoner. My goal is the shelter down this street. If you take him there, they should be able to stabilize him.”
“There’s a shelter nearby? Right, you mentioned having some errand or other when you turned me down…”
“Let’s go. Do not slow me further.”
Paying no heed to Subaru, Priscilla said whatever she pleased and then started walking away. Subaru silently shook his head and then lifted up the unconscious man. He felt a dark irony that he was practically relying on his blackened right leg to brace himself as he followed Priscilla. Liliana tottered along behind them, still full of concern about the young man’s fate.
“Time and again you really do seem to be a man with good timing.”
“What?”
Priscilla flashed a dark, crimson smile.
“You should etch into your eyes one more time just what the current state of this city is.”
Sub-chapter 5.
There was an odd air to the area. Even Subaru could notice almost immediately from the way his skin crawled.
“”
When they stepped into the shelter carrying a wounded person, they were met by many different gazes. A moist, cloying, depressing emotion rested within those eyes. An oppressive, vague negative feeling that was uncomfortable to be around and made it hard to breathe.
This location was apparently a shelter that had been constructed in the basement of one of the buildings in the fourth district.
It had been designed to protect residents in the event of flooding, and its sturdy door had been sealed, keeping all the water out. But even so, the mere fact that they had escaped the flooding was not enough to soothe everyone’s worries, given all the danger threatening their city. That much was clear enough from the way they buried their heads in their knees and from the potent fear that appeared in every face that wasn’t just looking down at the ground.
“This is bad for the heart. What is this feeling…?”
Leaving the injured man in the care of the healer on duty in the simple medical room setup at the shelter, Subaru slowly looked around the underground area, gulping bitterly.
There were a lot of people. There were enough crowded here belowground to make the shelter feel cramped. But it was quiet. Very quiet.
They were holding their breaths, avoiding one another’s gazes, looking down in silence. As if they were trying to avoid drawing attention to the fact that they were still alive.
“I see, he’s not here, either.”
Priscilla was cast from a different mold, though, able to carry herself without any hesitation even in this uniquely oppressive environment. On the one hand, it was certainly a regal quality to remain so unaffected by one’s surroundings, but it also did nothing to ease the fear and uncertainty gripping people’s hearts, which made her seem more like a tyrant than anything else in the moment.
Almost naturally, something akin to annoyance started welling up in Subaru’s chest. Priscilla was always so full of arrogant self-confidence, and he felt a sudden urge to tear at her face, to peel away that haughty mask—
“At the end of the day, a mediocre man remains a mediocrity. You’ve been completely bewitched after such a short time.”
“Wh-what are you talking about…?”
“There was a barbarous gleam in your pupils. It is only natural that the mere sight of me ignites lustful passion, but the desire to harm beauty is mere brute savagery. Can you truly say you know not of what I speak? Well?”
Interrogated by the woman whose face he had just considered clawing off, Subaru was suddenly dumbfounded.
“”
Why had his emotions boiled over so suddenly? It was not that odd for him to feel antagonistic toward her, but there had been no reason for it to suddenly get so intense and violent.
—It was almost like he had lost control of his emotions.
“No way…”
As that thought occurred to him, a chill ran up his spine. The discomfort grew and grew until his arms and legs were trembling, and he couldn’t keep his teeth from chattering.
The way his emotions were unnaturally shifting in a way he could not control reminded him of something.
“Sirius… Wrath’s Authority…? Is that what’s causing this?!”
Subaru pinched his cheek, clearing his head with a dose of pain as he gritted his teeth.
Naturally, Sirius was not in the shelter. Subaru could not hear her voice, either. But he could not escape that sense of gloom, that unpleasant sensation of being tossed into a pot of simmering emotions until they were all scorched black.
The moment after Subaru realized what was happening and how dangerous it was—
“—What’s your problem? The hell do ya think you’re staring at?!”
A middle-aged man near the back of the shelter shouted, teeth bared and face red. His rage seemed to be directed at a younger man near him. His anger still obvious on his face, the older man approached the younger man and gave him a hard shove in the chest.
“If you’ve got something to say, then say it! Well?! What’s your problem?!”
“—Ngh! Fine, you really want to know?! Take a look around you! You aren’t a boy anymore! Have some self-control! We don’t all need to know how pissed you are! It’s a pain in the ass for the rest of us, you washed-up piece of shit!”
“Stop it! Stop it! Please, just stop it!”
The younger man’s rage exploded at the older man’s provocation, and the woman beside him started crying as she cradled her head. Unable to hold back her emotions, she started sobbing uncontrollably, which only stoked the older man’s anger and the younger man’s righteous fury.
And the explosion of emotions did not stop there.
“This isn’t good! The other people are getting affected…”
It was slow at first but quickly picked up speed—a wave of intense emotions spread throughout the shelter. The explosive increase in noise after the previous silence made it feel like pandemonium had broken out in the blink of an eye.
“This isn’t good! Priscilla! If we don’t do something, people are gonna die!”
“Fool. You’ve lost your calm as badly as they have. Just sit down and shut up.”
“Is this really the time for that?! Even in a situation like this, you’re still… Gh.”
Impatience turned his vision red, and he tried to grab Priscilla, but she evaded his hands with a simple sway and grabbed his hair, pulling his face close to hers.
“Gah?!”
“Listen, commoner. Your fears will become reality. The unpleasant feeling that corrupted this city’s water will warp people’s hearts, steal their rationality, and rob them of their kindness. However—”
Priscilla coldly explained the tragedy that would befall the shelter as Subaru’s face tensed and his lips quivered. But as she trailed off, she looked to the center of the room.
Subaru naturally followed her gaze. Standing there was…
“Hark. Lend me your ears—Pristella wavers, reflected in the water’s surface.”
The plucked strings of the lyulyre created clear, high-pitched chords that pierced the pandemonium. In an instant, that sound shattered the rage and grief that had gripped the shelter. Everything paused for a brief moment. And into that split-second gap, something slipped:
Music.
“”
Right as feverish emotions were about to boil over, an ephemeral melody emerged from the lyulyre’s strings. And everyone who heard it was shaken to the soul by the voice that accompanied it.
Liliana’s tongue danced, giving form and shape to the song welling up inside her. That strain of music struck the people, Subaru, and even Priscilla alike, captivating the crowd from the moment the sounds hit their ears and making their bodies, their minds, and their very souls tremble.
Her song had stolen their hearts. There was no other way to put it. They were taken back and returned to their rightful owners.
Subaru could feel himself being set free from the confining emotions of Wrath’s invisible web. This was the power of song. The brilliance of Liliana’s music, the music the Songstress unleashed, was a power beyond reason capable of shaking people to their very core—
“—Thank you very much for your kind attention,” Liliana said with a bow.
By the time she finished, the dark emotions that had dominated the shelter were long gone.
—There was only a thunderous round of applause that welled up naturally from all sides.
Sub-chapter 6.
“Thank you! Thank you! My apologies for such an embarrassing sight.”
“You…”
With her performance over, and after the ripples of her singing voice had faded, and she had finished introducing herself to her tearful audience, the Songstress faded away and Liliana took her place.
When Liliana winked awkwardly and gave Subaru a thumbs-up, his shoulders slumped—not because of some inexplicable emotion but because of his own exasperation.
“So you’ve returned to your senses. That is quite the accomplishment by the diva.”
“I don’t really have room to argue. You seemed fine even without the song, though…and for some reason that actually makes sense to me. Wrath’s Authority was creating a resonance with everyone’s emotions.”
For Priscilla, whose ego was so strong and whose sympathetic impulses were so limited, it made sense that the effect of Wrath’s Authority would be weaker. At least that was how Subaru interpreted it, given the calm demeanor she had projected both before and after the song.
The pandemonium in the shelter was unmistakably the effect of Sirius’s ability. The worst possible outcome had been avoided thanks to Liliana’s song, but it gave Subaru chills to think of what might have happened without her.
Most likely, the original impetus had been something trivial, but everyone in the shelter was under intense stress from the oppressive, closed-off atmosphere and the presence of a dangerous group in the city. And when they were unable to fully manage that pressure, darker thoughts started to slip into their hearts, which Sirius’s Authority then amplified until even the most minor friction with someone else in the shelter could set it all off. And when it exploded, the resulting damage created a pandemic of intense emotions that could lead only to tragedy.
And that was—
“That is the unsightly, meaningless reality currently occurring everywhere around the city.”
“”
“You described this unpleasant atmosphere as an Authority, did you not? ‘Wrath’s Authority.’”
“…Yeah, that’s right. This is the work of one of the Witch Cult Archbishops.”
Priscilla’s crimson eyes narrowed in distaste. Even without the effects of any Authority, Subaru could sympathize with the ire resting deep within her gaze.
Subaru had thought he had a sufficiently healthy respect for how dangerous Sirius’s ability to amplify and propagate emotions was, but his understanding had been too simplistic. It seemed all too possible now that Wrath’s Authority had extended its reach across every part of Pristella.
And the majority of people in the city had fled to the shelters. If they felt the effects of that ability with so much fear and unease in their hearts, the potential for disaster would be unimaginable.
“The careful training to always go to the shelters if anything happens has totally played into their hands here.”
If Wrath’s ability could share and amplify people’s emotions, the strength of the effect should be proportional to the number of people inside the area of effect. The people around you became mirrors for emotions, and you in turn became a mirror for them, accelerating and amplifying the effect.
People being near others strengthened Wrath’s ability and increased its potential to infect more people and spread. This observation spoke to the lie Sirius was hiding. Hers was not a power for allowing people to understand one another at all. It was a nightmarish power that forced people to isolate themselves and remain alone in a situation where fear and unease dominated the mood.
“That makes me a tiny smidge vexed, so I believe I shall have to hold out a bit longer.”
“Liliana…”
Subaru absorbed Liliana’s words with quiet surprise as she pointed to the deepening furrows in her brow.
It was clear now that her music had the ability to free people from Sirius’s Authority. And she, fully aware that it had that effect, had been traveling from shelter to shelter, singing as she went.
—When she had been staying at Roswaal’s manor and her music had invited trouble, she had gone so far as to say “I don’t want my singing to be used as a tool,” even when her life was hanging in the balance.
For that same Liliana to use her singing like this—
“What the situation calls for is captivating people with song, which is right up my alley!” Liliana said with another lousy wink.
There was no denying she was the city’s Songstress.
“So then that goal you mentioned before is helping Liliana go around to all the shelters?” Subaru asked Priscilla.
If that was the case, that would mean Priscilla was also acting out of concern about the chaos that had struck the city. Right as Subaru was on the verge of reconsidering his view of her and realizing that perhaps he had badly misunderstood what lay in her heart, that train of thought was suddenly interrupted.
“Fool, as if I would bother with something so inconsequential as that.”
Subaru pursed his lips at the textbook Priscilla response.
“Inconsequential? …Fine, then what is your goal? Why are you visiting all the shelters?”
“I’m looking for Schult. If I don’t, he will almost certainly cry. And I cannot stand seeing a child’s teary face.”
“”
Subaru’s mind froze at the unexpected response. It was something only Priscilla would say. Not noticing his reaction, Priscilla shrugged as if to indicate she had little choice in the matter.
“Al can take care of himself. The fate of another fool is of no concern to me. But Schult’s charm is irreplaceable, so I have to recover him personally. He’s quite the troublesome retainer.”
Considering there were no stronger emotions in her voice, it was a fair guess that was how she really felt. But the reason she gave for moving around a city embroiled in such trouble—to search for her lost young retainer—was not something Subaru had expected.
It was surprising, but he could accept it. It was indisputable that she was busily walking around looking for her servant, after all. And she just happened to be helping Liliana with her goal as well in the process.
“What’s that look on your face?”
Priscilla looked over at him suspiciously, but Subaru waved it off with a vague “It’s nothing” and a sigh. But he felt like he understood. And that was enough, given the situation.
Taking a deep breath and filling his lungs, Subaru looked out at the now-stable mood of the shelter.
“This shelter should be fine now. I’m going to go now like I said before. I need to meet back up with everyone.”
“Aye-aye! Lady Priscilla and I are going to another shelter now. Music is still needed… I am grateful to be a bard, so now’s the time to cash in and earn some more self-respect!”
“Phrasing!”
Despite the grave situation, Subaru could not help laughing and latching on to how she put it.
He turned to Priscilla again. It had only been a short while, but he was grateful for the many things she had given him. He never would have guessed the day would come when he could interact with her so genuinely.
“Thank you for all your help. Let’s meet again after all this is over. And you should really look for Al, too.”
“As if I would lend an ear to anyone’s instructions. I will simply do as I please. You should run along now and worry about cleansing this city’s befouled waters. If you manage to actually accomplish something, I shall personally reward you.”
“Just so you know, unlike your retainers, I don’t have any particular interest in licking your boots.”
And with that, Subaru turned away from them as Liliana saluted, and Priscilla was not even bothering to look at him anymore. He departed from the shelter and started racing through the city.
Priscilla and Liliana would head to another shelter to stop another latent explosion of emotion that was just waiting to go off. He could trust them to take care of that, so Subaru would need to follow through on his own role.
“First is Muse… If everyone is still okay, then that’s where they would go.”
The Muse Company was far from the fourth district. But he had all the motivation he needed. All that was left was to steel his nerve.
This isn’t even close to being over. Not by a long shot. And I’m going to prove it.
Sub-chapter 7.
“”
A blind, bloody-smelling demi-beast was sniffing at the ground in front of him.
Holding his breath to keep from being noticed, Subaru examined it, feeling a sense of righteous anger as he compared it to the other demi-beasts he had come close to encountering.
The demi-beasts Priscilla had labeled hideous, and Liliana had scorned earlier for their inability to sing, came in a multitude of forms, and Subaru had felt reluctant to lump them all together under the same repulsive description.
In exchange for lacking something—eyes, ears, mouth—their bodies were fused with swords or shields or other inorganic objects. They had been transformed into something that could not naturally occur in some horrible design.
The demi-beasts were the unnatural creation of an aberrant mind. So turning it around, if he could accept that they were unnatural life-forms, then it was entirely believable they had actually been designed. And there was at least one being currently in the city who was capable of manipulating the bodies of living creatures.
“Capella, you piece of shit…”
The demi-beasts’ parent, or perhaps creator would be the better word, appeared in Subaru’s head. The Archbishop of Lust, Capella, practically an embodiment of all the malice of the human world. Subaru could absolutely believe that she would create such incomplete creatures as demi-beasts and set them loose all around the city.
But that thought raised a question: Then where is she getting the ingredients for the demi-beasts?
“—!!”
“Ah.”
When he gritted his teeth, he inadvertently twisted his foot slightly, grinding a pebble against the ground beneath his heel. The blind demi-beast immediately turned its head toward the sound and violently dashed over toward Subaru.
The ax growing out of its head was heavy, making it look absurd as it ran. The edge of the ax scraped the ground, sending sparks flying continuously as it closed in. Subaru leaped aside as it approached. Then he used a slight groove in the wall as a foothold to acrobatically launch himself over the demi-beast.
“And up we go!”
His right leg was in disgustingly good shape, and he could move better than ever because of it. He easily leaped over the demi-beast and left that stretch of road behind as it frantically spun around searching for him.
“—Girrrrrrrrrrrah!”
All of a sudden, an awkward shout rang out. Subaru evaded the surprise attack by jumping straight up and spreading his legs. The demi-beast passed under him, but having lost his balance, Subaru rolled when he hit the ground. He was planning to use the momentum of the roll to start running away when—
“…Crap…”
Right in front of him was another demi-beast, quietly standing there, barring his path. It was one without a mouth, which was why it had grumbled instead of roared. The one whose charge he had just dodged had no ears, meaning all three types roaming the city were represented here.
“”
They were surrounding him front, back, and to one side, cornering him.
Looking to the open side, he saw the wall of a dilapidated building that was deteriorating from age and lack of maintenance. With enough momentum and motivation, it wouldn’t be impossible to get over. The goal would be something like what Felt had done when they first met.
The way she had run, leaving Subaru behind begging for help with Larry, Curly, and Moe surrounding him—thinking back on it now, he could not help feeling an odd sense of fate that those four had ended up in the same camp.
Soothing his nerves with some pointless thoughts, Subaru crouched. The demi-beasts surrounding him bent their knees, but Subaru was ready to go for the wall one step ahead of them—
“—Please don’t move, Subaru. I don’t want to miss.”
But a voice that was far surer an option than trying to get out of the situation on his own made him abandon that desperate plan.
The three demi-beasts barreled down on Subaru as he stopped, all aiming to hit him with their blend of ax and fangs, swords and claws—but none of them reached him. Because each and every one of their attacks was deflected and knocked back by a single slender knight’s blade.
“My apologies, but his continued survival is necessary for this city. I humbly request that you withdraw!”
The elegant knight Julius Juukulius attacked the three demi-beasts simultaneously with sword and spirits.
His sharp blade cut through the eyeless beast’s torso in a single broad sweep while the earless and mouthless ones were swallowed up in a red glimmer and consumed by flames. Purged by a raging inferno, the warped creatures turned to ash and collapsed without a sound. But the blind beast continued to attack despite having sustained an obviously lethal wound.
“Julius!”
“You need not worry.”
—The eyeless beast’s head was sent rolling by an elegant, arcing slash.
This was not the time nor place for idle thoughts, but it was truly a beautiful slash, one that held Subaru’s gaze. The flash of steel precisely struck at the weakest point of the demi-beast’s neck, ending its life without prolonging its pain.
If there could be any mercy in the act of ending a life, then that attack had been the embodiment of it.
No matter how incomprehensible the creature’s unnatural vitality might be, losing its head was still lethal. The same went for reducing its entire body to cinders. Subaru felt a strong sense of pity for the demi-beasts as they fell.
“Are you unhurt, Subaru?”
Flicking the blade that had cut down the demi-beast, Julius turned to Subaru.
“Yeah.” Subaru nodded. “That was a dangerous spot to be in, though. Thanks for the help. And from the looks of it, you’re doing okay, too.”
“I cannot deny that. In the end, I was swept up in the flood from the gate opening, which left the battle at city hall unsettled. I was concerned when I saw you fall into the water and lost track of you.”
Julius shook his head slightly as he placed his hand on Subaru’s shoulder. Surprisingly, there was an unconcealable trace of relief in the gesture. As if he was still processing the fact that Subaru had returned alive.
“What happened at the tower? Honestly, I can’t really remember much of the back end of the fight with Capella…with Lust.”
“You don’t remember? A black dragon attacked the upper floor and carried you and Duchess Crusch away. I immediately went after the black dragon to try and retrieve the two of you when the floodgate opened…”
“And in the chaos, I ended up falling into the water and getting washed away?”
“If I was to be honest, I had thought your chances of surviving were fifty-fifty at best. You did well to make it back safely.”
Julius kept nodding to himself, his hand still on Subaru’s shoulder, welcoming his return. Hearing that, Subaru realized his situation had been far more dire than he realized. But against all odds, he had returned safe and sound. And now he had been reunited with Julius.
“What about everyone else? Are they safe? I remember Crusch was in trouble. I was hurrying to get back to the Muse Company just now…”
“I understand the feeling, but for now calm yourself, please. Allow me to alleviate your first concern: Everyone who went to take back city hall returned alive… Knowing that you have survived and are safe, I can now say that confidently.”
“Everyone made it back alive… I see…”
Overcome by relief after hearing that news, Subaru slumped down to the ground. He had been more anxious about that than he had realized, and for a moment he could not force his quivering knees to carry his weight.
“After facing so many powerful enemies, I’m glad everyone survived… And there weren’t any losses to that flood, either?”
“It was a perilous situation. From what Sir Wilhelm said, they were close to being overwhelmed by the enemy when the water hit, and it was entirely possible we would have suffered losses if the battle continued. It’s ironic to think that was the Witch Cult’s doing.”
Subaru furrowed his brow. There was more scorn directed at himself than regret in Julius’s voice.
From what he was saying, it sounded like that flood that had exacted such a terrible price from the city as a whole had actually been a massive boon to Subaru and the others fighting at city hall. And it was probably at least partially because of it that Capella had failed to kill Subaru and Crusch when they were at death’s door.
Which meant that the Witch Cult had shot itself in the foot by opening the floodgate when it had. Though it was also doubtful whether it put much stock in the outcome of a single battle.
“There are several other things that I have to tell you, but for now, it’s good that we did not miss each other. Currently, the Muse Company is empty, and no one is there. You were about to waste a trip.”
“No one? Why? Anastasia, Ferris, and my Beako should still be there…”
“Regarding that, try to remain calm while I explain.”
Subaru gulped as things took a disquieting turn. Seeing that, Julius took a breath before continuing.
“…While we were attacking city hall, the Muse Company was also attacked. Their aim was the gentleman Kiritaka of the Council of Ten, but in the end, Lady Anastasia took command, and those who remained were forced to abandon that base.”
“It was attacked?! But it was a shelter! There were lots of wounded people there, right?!”
Other than the Iron Fangs members there as guards, the vast majority of the people at the company had been noncombatants—including Beatrice, who was in a coma, and Mimi, who had sustained an incurable wound from the blessing of the grim reaper. Hetaro and TB shared the burden of their sister’s wound and were in a dangerous condition, too.
There was no way they could have safely fled an attack with so many people in that sort of condition—
“Wait! What happened to Beatrice? To everyone?!”
“They succeeded in just barely getting all the wounded out safely at immense personal effort. Lady Beatrice and Mimi and her brothers were also safely carried away. However, the whereabouts of Mr. Kiritaka Muse and the members of the White Dragon’s Scale who stayed behind with him at the Muse Company are currently unknown… We don’t know whether they survived.”
“Damn it! I’m sure Liliana would be sad if she heard that…”
Even hearing that Beatrice was safe, Subaru could not really be happy given the losses that might have been incurred. Considering the enemy’s goal, it made sense that Kiritaka would be targeted. The Witch Cult’s demand was for the Witch’s bones to be turned over to them, and only members of the Council of Ten could tell them the location.
“Having lost the Muse Company, we have shifted to using city hall as a base. We should head there. Everyone is worried about you, and Garfiel in particular is running himself ragged.”
“That’s not good, but we’re heading to city hall? We took it back?”
“When the gate was opened and our battle there was cut short by the massive surge of water, our enemies abandoned the building. However, they broadcast one final message before they did so. Did you hear it?”
“…That was right around when I was bobbing in the water.” Subaru pursed his lips.
It did not sound like recovering city hall was really something that could be celebrated.
Hearing his response, Julius furrowed his brow and hesitated for a moment before responding.
“It was after they caused the canals to overrun and were wreaking havoc in every part of the city. I was struggling to grasp the chaotic situation myself when Lust’s voice rang out from the sky.”
“”
Subaru quietly urged Julius to continue. Seeing that, Julius nodded and took a long, deep breath.
“Lust…or perhaps I should say the Witch Cult placed additional demands in order to free the city as punishment for attacking the tower. In addition to the Witch’s bones, they had three new demands.”
“…Which were?”
“—A book called the book of knowledge. An artificial spirit. And also…”
Just those two alone were more than enough to provoke Subaru, but the final demand actually made Julius pause even after he’d said that much. Seeing him hesitate, Subaru steeled himself as he wondered just how repulsive the final demand could possibly be.
However, Subaru quickly realized that that hesitation was out of consideration for him. Because the final demand was the most absurd, the most out of place, and the most impossible for Subaru to accept.
“…the wedding of the silver-haired maiden. Something you would surely never allow.”
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Diamond. Diamond. Diamond.
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