——He had lost the bet.
What filled Subaru's heart was the exhausting, hollow sense of defeat—of having lost a gamble in which he was supposed to have thrown everything away.
He had believed—no, he had *hoped*—that she, a girl who harbored such strong feelings of dependence on him, might perhaps do exactly that.
That perhaps she would throw everything else aside and choose him.
It had been a fragile dream. An arrogant thought. He should have known better from the start.
The very reason he had chosen to run away was that he could find no value in himself—so what exactly had he been expecting?
"M-Right now… I might not be able to laugh yet, but… see, once we actually start doing it, I'm sure we'll be able to laugh. Yeah, that's right. So, um…"
Even though the conclusion had already been reached, what slipped out of Subaru's mouth next was a half-hearted, pathetic attempt to smooth things over.
He couldn't come up with a single effective rebuttal to Rem's words. But if he stopped talking, his hope of changing her mind would vanish. Maybe, if he kept at it, she might still have a change of heart.
If he kept talking to her, surely—though that, too, was probably just wishful thinking.
"…Rem has been thinking about it, too."
With that, Rem murmured softly while still gazing at the pleading Subaru, her eyes closed.
She tilted her neatly sculpted face slightly upward.
"When we arrive in
Holding up one finger, she added to the future Subaru had just painted, layering her own plans on top.
"Fortunately, I received an education thanks to Lord Roswaal's benevolence, so I think it should be fairly easy to find work even in Kararagi. As for Subaru-kun… we might have to find you manual labor, or perhaps you could look after things around me."
She smiled faintly, teasing Subaru good-naturedly about the one thing he was completely useless at.
It was a fair assessment, given that Subaru's knowledge of this world was shallow and his skills were nonexistent.
"Once our income stabilizes, we should find a more decent place to live. In the meantime, I'd like Subaru-kun to study so he can take on other work… until you can actually hold down a job—about a year, maybe. Subaru-kun, I'll need you to work hard on that, and once you can stand on your own, we'll move up faster."
Her educational philosophy was surprisingly spartan.
She occasionally took over
"Once we're both earning and we've saved up a decent amount… maybe we could buy a house. Maybe even open a shop. Kararagi is a bustling center of commerce, so I'm sure Subaru-kun's more eccentric ideas could find a use there."
Clapping her hands together, Rem sketched an almost recklessly optimistic future in the air.
It was as though Subaru, too, could clearly see the vision she conjured.
In it, Subaru would still be causing Rem trouble, still being pampered by her—but at the same time, shouldering at least some measure of responsibility, working hard and sweating for her sake.
*I really hope it turns out like that,* he thought, and meant it.
How happy he would be, working that hard—for her sake and her sake alone.
"Once work is going well… um, this is embarrassing, but… children, maybe. They'd be half-demon, half-human, so they'd probably be quite the handful. Boys, girls, twins, triplets—they'd all be adorable."
Her cheeks flushed pink as she gave a small shake of the head, realizing her imagination had raced a little too far ahead.
Counting on her fingers, she tallied up the number—and, somewhat terrifyingly, stopped once she surpassed ten.
"Of course, not everything will go smoothly, and I'm sure things won't play out exactly as we imagine. Maybe no boys will be born, and it'll be girls one after another, and Subaru-kun will feel a little outnumbered at home."
"…Rem."
"But even when the children grow up and hit that age where they start treating Subaru-kun gruffly—Rem will still be on Subaru-kun's side. We'll be the talk of the neighborhood, the couple everyone calls doting, and we'll spend our time together slowly, aging together…"
"…Remuu."
"I'm sorry to Subaru-kun, but if it's possible, I'd like to go first. In bed, with Subaru-kun holding my hand, surrounded by our children and their children, quietly saying, 'Rem was happy,' being sent off like that…"
He couldn't raise his face.
Rem's imagined future pricked at Subaru's heart—gently, tenderly, wounding him.
"Happily, so happily… I want to end my life that way."
"All the way to…"
Rem closed on that future brimming with bouncing, ticklish, heart-rending, achingly poignant happiness.
What remained in Subaru's chest after hearing it all was a fierce, indescribable surge of sorrowful emotion.
His throat trembled. Something heavy sank into the depths of his stomach. His head ached. Something hot welled up from behind his eyes, and he shook his head to ward it off.
"If you… if you think that much…"
That Rem would go on running with him, no matter how far, no matter where— But that plea could not reach her.
"If Subaru-kun can smile and wish for that future… Rem would sincerely be okay with dying like that."
She bore a grief even greater than Subaru's, yet still managed to smile—and his words simply could not reach her through it.
Staring, stunned, at that heartbreakingly tender smile, Subaru finally understood.
No matter how desperately he clung, he could not overturn Rem's resolve.
He had lost the bet—clearly, irrevocably, with no room for doubt whatsoever.
"————"
A crushing wave of exhaustion bore down on him, as though something immensely heavy had settled onto his shoulders.
A limpness that threatened to make him crumple to the ground right there. He barely held himself together, just managing to avoid collapsing in the most pathetic way, and covered his face with both hands in despair.
Rem had refused to travel with him.
And that meant his means of saving her had been cut off. If he stayed by her side now to protect her, what awaited was the cruel fate that would befall her on the way back to the mansion—and the dead end of a tragedy that could not be changed.
But then what? Was he supposed to leave Rem behind and flee alone?
That would leave him with the gnawing anxiety of an unknowable future, but at least he could escape the unavoidable despair bearing down on him right now. Of course, the ultimate outcome of events that would occur regardless of Subaru's presence or absence would remain unchanged. He would simply be spared from witnessing the fact—able to hide his eyes and ears, pretend not to know, and avoid staring reality in the face.
Even that degree of consolation was something the current Subaru desperately wanted to cling to. But what kind of salvation was there in accepting it alone?
Picking a fight. Drowning in a sea of madness. Throwing everything away and running—fate would never permit any of it.
So then what, exactly, was Subaru supposed to— "If I could live alongside Subaru-kun… that Subaru-kun thought of bringing Rem along to wherever he wanted to run—that makes me truly, deeply happy right now. I'm happy. —But, it's no good."
Rem pressed a hand to her chest, tore up the ticket of escape Subaru had offered her, and bowed her head, her cheeks flushed with a torrent of emotion.
She knew—she herself knew better than anyone—that if they ran, if they kept running, the fairy-tale future she had just described could come to pass.
Yet even so, she denied that story—happiness and all— "Because I feel like, if we ran away together right now… Rem would end up abandoning the Subaru-kun she loves most."
"————"
What was she saying?
Slowly, Subaru raised his head and stared at Rem with vacant eyes.
Rem gazed back at him with a sorrowful smile, yet her eyes were unwavering, piercing straight through him. Overwhelmed by that resolve, Subaru listened as she continued.
"Subaru-kun. Tell Rem what happened."
He shook his head. He couldn't. If he did, Rem would die.
"If you can't tell me, then trust me. Rem will find a way to make things work."
He shook his head. He couldn't. If he let her, Rem would die.
"…But at the very least, let's go back for now? If we take our time, think things through calmly—maybe a good idea will come to us."
He shook his head. He couldn't. If he waited, everyone would die.
"I've already struggled… I've already thought it through. I've suffered… and so, I've given up."
No one believed in Subaru.
No one had any expectations of Subaru.
Everyone had warned Subaru that his rash foolishness would lead nowhere.
He had ignored them all, worn himself down, made a fool of himself, and arrived at where he was now.
That time—That erosion of his heart—to Subaru, it was— "—Giving up is easy. But"
Suddenly, Rem spoke those words in opposition to Subaru's feeble resolve.
—AKIRAMERU NO WA, KANTAN.
The instant those words reached his ears, an incomprehensible shock tore through Subaru's entire body.
A lightning-bolt impact, as though he had been struck on the crown of his head—the overwhelming sensation was beyond words. It exploded inside his chest, and a scorching feeling, as though every pore in his body had been flung open, consumed him from head to toe.
"Giving up is… easy…?"
"Subaru-kun?"
"Don't—you dare—kid me—!!"
The words tore out of Subaru's teeth, his voice threaded with venom, directed at Rem, whose eyes were clouded with confusion.
This was no joke. Giving up was easy? Just casually throwing away his purpose, turning his back, opening both hands and breaking into a run—that was supposed to be effortless?
What utter nonsense.
"You think giving up is easy?! You think it's that simple?!"
The unbearable, pent-up emotion exploded, riding his tongue and pouring out in a roar.
Rem flinched in shock at the outburst, and passersby along the main avenue of the royal capital turned to stare at Subaru's furious display.
Ignoring the intrusive stares of the crowd, Subaru fixed his glare solely on Rem standing before him.
"You think I'm just sitting here doing nothing, thinking nothing, cutting everything away without a second thought, throwing it all aside and giving up—that's what you think?!"
It had been an agonizing decision. He had wept blood, screamed until his throat went raw, and through that experience learned that his efforts still would not reach—that was what made it a decision.
To give up on everything—put into words, it sounded like such a simple conclusion. But the sacrifices he had made to arrive at that conclusion must never, ever be belittled.
"Giving up wasn't easy either…! Believing I could fight, believing I could do something—that was a thousand times easier to bear…! But there's nothing I can do! There's no path forward! The only road left is the one that leads to giving up!"
Fate's dead end mocked Subaru from behind every road it had closed off.
He had fought and fought, stood his ground time and again, devised plans, tried to entrust himself to others, even tried to run—and none of it was enough.
He could no longer pick up all the pieces.
When even the people he wanted to save refused to extend a hand, how could he possibly say he'd keep trying? Who had the right to tell Subaru he was giving up too soon?
Could anyone say those words after enduring the same experiences Subaru had, tasting the same suffering and hardship, seeing the same hell?
"If there was something I could do… I would… I would really…"
He genuinely wanted to do something.
He genuinely wanted to save them, to rescue them, to refuse to let them be taken away.
But he couldn't reach them. Fate would not let him reach them. This, too, was the result of everything—every day Subaru had lived up to now, every moment had bared its fangs.
And so Subaru— "Subaru-kun."
Rem's voice reached him, as he hung his head, wrung dry of both words and emotion.
The ringing in his ears was deafening. The misery of having laid bare his most wretched truth was unbearable. He could not bring himself to look up at her face.
To this wretched, hopeless, pitiful loser who had been crushed by fate— "Giving up is easy."
"————"
"But"
Rem repeated the words that had just driven Subaru into a frenzy.
At those words, Subaru trembled—unable to believe what he was hearing—and slowly raised his head.
Why couldn't she understand?
After everything he had done, after pouring out every ounce of his anguish—could she still not comprehend his suffering?
The frustration churning inside him, the resentment, the petulant sorrow— "——It doesn't suit Subaru-kun."
Before that declaration, delivered as Rem stared straight into Subaru's dark eyes—all of it dissolved.
Rem spoke clearly, as though she believed with absolute certainty that what she said was true.
"How much pain Subaru-kun has endured, what he knows that has caused him such suffering—Rem doesn't understand. I know better than to flippantly claim I understand."
"————"
"But even so, there are things Rem knows."
"————"
"That Subaru-kun is not the kind of person who can give up on something halfway."
Before this man who stood before her in abject despair, having thrown everything away and spoken the very word *give up*—Rem wove her words without shame, without fear, without wavering.
"Rem knows."
"————"
"That when Subaru-kun wishes for a future, he is someone who can smile while speaking of that future."
"————"
The man who had described the world he and Rem would have escaped to—surely a world filled with peace and comfort—with a guilt-ridden, twisted expression. Yet Rem did not mock him. She did not look away in disappointment. She spoke on with steady eyes.
"Rem knows."
"————"
"That Subaru-kun is someone who cannot give up on the future."
With the weight of conviction, Rem said those words to the bowed head before her.
In her eyes there was only a sincere radiance, and upon that light floated nothing but the unshakable belief in Subaru from the depths of her heart.
Subaru was overwhelmed by that fierce, luminous certainty.
Because it was nothing but a misunderstanding on her part. A laughable misreading—nothing more than a statement born from overestimating who
He did not know what kind of noble, proud person Rem saw reflected in him.
But the real Subaru could not possibly be anyone that remarkable.
The one who spewed self-deprecation, who crumbled under adversity, who recognized his own wretched smallness, and who—coated in the shame of defeat—tried to run away—that was Natsuki Subaru.
"Tha—That's not… I'm not that kind of person… I'm…"
"That's wrong. Subaru-kun hasn't given up on everyone—on
Her voice was firm in its denial. But she was mistaken. Subaru had cast them all aside.
"I have given up! I've given up! Picking up everything was impossible from the start…! My hands are too small—everything slips through, and nothing is left—!!"
"No, that's not true. Subaru-kun has—"
No matter how far he went, no matter how low he sank, she denied his resignation at every turn.
Why—why would she not accept what Subaru had become, after he had displayed such wretchedness, such ugliness? How could she still refuse to acknowledge his flaws?
What did she see when she looked at him?
The sheer unpleasantness of it was more than he could bear, and— No matter what you say, no matter how much— "—What do you know about me?! What could you possibly know about me?!"
The fury, the inferno blazing inside his chest, erupted in scorching red.
Roaring, Subaru slammed his fist into the wall beside him. A hard crack, blood blooming from his shattered knuckles against the stone, and he smeared it across the surface with his palm.
"I'm this kind of man! I have no power but sky-high ambitions, no wisdom yet I dream constantly, I can't do anything but I thrash around uselessly…!"
Everyone had something—at least one quality to their name.
And by nurturing that single strength, everyone found the place where they belonged.
—But Natsuki Subaru did not even have that. He did not have that, and yet the height of his aspirations was absurdly, grotesquely beyond what he deserved.
"I…!! I hate myself!!"
Grinning, deflecting, clowning around, running away—never once facing reality head-on. And before that reality, Subaru bared his true self for the very first time.
Natsuki Subaru hated himself more than anyone, more than anyone in the world.
"It's always all talk! Acting all high and mighty when I can't do a damn thing! Never lifting a finger myself, but the one time it comes to complaining, suddenly I'm an authority! Who do I think I am?! How the hell do I have the nerve to live without a shred of shame!? Huh?!"
Because he could not elevate himself, he took the petty route of dragging others down to make himself look better by comparison. Because he could not accept being inferior to others, he resorted to nitpicking to protect his flimsy pride.
"I'm empty. I'm hollow inside. Of course I am… Yeah, obviously—of course that's how it is! Do you even know what I was doing before I ended up here, before something like this could even happen to me?!"
Before he fell into another world.
Back in his original world, in those days of unchanging, mundane, boring routine—what had he done?
"—Nothing."
He had indulged in laziness, sunk into sloth, and spent his days untouched by either effort or self-improvement.
Yet he hadn't exactly given up on himself, either. He had entertained the comforting notion that when the time came, surely he could put in real effort.
"I did nothing… I didn't do a single thing! I had all that time! I had all that freedom! I could have done anything—but I did nothing! And this is the result! This is the result—this is who I am now!"
If he had used that abundance of time wisely, Subaru could surely have become anything.
But the real Subaru squandered his given time lavishly, and in the end obtained nothing, created nothing.
And so, when the moment came when he truly wanted to do something, he had no strength, no wisdom, no skill—nothing to show for it.
"My powerlessness, my incompetence—all of it! All of it is because of my… my rotten core!! To have done nothing and still harbor ambitions of achieving something—there's a limit to how deluded you can be! The bill for my laziness, the consequences of my magnificent habit of wasting my life—it's going to kill me, and it's going to kill you!"
He was beyond saving. He was beyond help.
Even if he were reborn, he would surely walk the same path, waste the same amount of time in the same way, arrive at this place with the same mindset, and arrive at the same regret.
His rotten core would not change. Natsuki Subaru was nothing more than a man with a nature that shallow. That fact was unshakable.
"That's right—nothing about me changed. Even ending up in this place, nothing was different. That old man Wilhelm—he saw right through that part of me too, didn't he? Isn't that right?"
Back in the royal capital, at Crusch's estate, Subaru had taken up the sword under Wilhelm's tutelage.
Through defeat after defeat, battered and broken yet still charging forward—the old man had seen through Subaru's true intentions even then.
*"When a person has no intention of becoming stronger, I rather felt there was little point in lecturing them on the mindset needed to grow stronger."* During those days of training, after each time he knocked Subaru down, the old man had spoken to him of a swordsman's resolve—of what it meant to wield a blade—and each time he shook his head.
At the time, Subaru had denied it, saying he didn't understand, that Wilhelm was talking nonsense. But deep down, he had understood perfectly well what those words meant.
"I wasn't trying to get stronger, and I wasn't trying to overcome anything… I just wanted to prove that I wasn't doing nothing—that I was making an effort… That's all it was. I was striking a pose, something easy to understand, just to justify myself…"
Rejected by Emilia, having humiliated himself worse than anyone at the royal selection ceremony— Unable to bear the gazes of those around him, the awareness of their judgment, he had put on the appearance of "trying hard" so that his effort would be visible—and tried to protect himself.
*I'm doing my best. It's not like I'm doing nothing. I'm trying to change.* That was all it had been—a search for an excuse to compromise, which had led him to that hollow performance.
When "trying to change" was itself proof that nothing about him had changed at all.
"I just wanted someone to say it's okay! I wanted someone to say it can't be helped! That's all it was! That's all I wanted, and so I was putting on that whole charade of throwing myself into things! Even making you study with me—that was just a pose to cover up the embarrassment of it! My core—my pathetic, small, cowardly, filthy core—none of it! None of it has changed…"
The bluster was peeling away. The vanity was crumbling.
The vanity that could not bear to be thought ill of by others. The selfishness that insisted on proving itself right. Breaking through the thin shell, spilling out.
"…I knew it all along, you know. That it was all my fault."
Blaming someone else, citing some excuse, attacking it loudly—that would have been easy.
He could have avoided seeing his true self. He could have avoided showing his true self. As long as that outer shell didn't crack, no one would see what he carried inside.
Weak, selfish, nothing but whining—and yet desperate to be loved.
He could have avoided having someone see that ugly self. He could have avoided seeing it himself.
"I'm the worst. …I hate myself."
Having vomited up every last drop of the dark filth that had pooled in his chest, Subaru drew a ragged breath.
It was the murkiness he had carried since arriving in this other world—no, since before, since his days in the original world—every last bit of that pent-up despair, and he had spilled it all without restraint.
Even he thought it was enough to make him sick.
And even after purging it all, that suffocating sense of revulsion refused to fade. Wasn't it supposed to feel lighter after getting it all out? Wasn't that only logical?
But it didn't lighten even a fraction. And now that he had finally recognized his own foolishness by putting it into words, the shame was so overwhelming he wanted to die on the spot.
And on top of all that filth—to still be thinking only of himself at this very moment, right now, was the most contemptible thing of all.
Right here, right now, before Rem—the girl who looked at him with eyes full of trust—he had taken her brightness and tried to smear it with black tar, only to then put his own feelings above hers, worrying about himself before worrying about her.
That was who he was, in the end.
Even acknowledging his worst qualities, his flaws, his shortcomings—that did not mean he could instantly fix them. If anything, the holes in him were impossibly deep and dark, and even the will to try to mend them might have been drained away.
The gaping void was proof that Natsuki Subaru was incomplete. And his inability to even begin trying to fill it was itself a testament to that decay.
A Subaru not even worth pitying. At the bottom of that worthless heart, at the dregs of his pathetic self, the blue-haired girl at last— "Rem knows."
"————"
"That Subaru-kun is someone who has the courage to reach out his hand, even in a darkness so deep he cannot see what lies ahead."
—And still, Rem did not abandon him.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ Suffused by absolute affection and boundless trust, Subaru was seized by an anxiety unlike anything he had ever known.
After everything—after cursing himself so bitterly, after parading the ugliest parts of his soul, after confessing straight to her face that it was all a lie, that he was beyond saving, that he was trash— —Why was she still looking at him with eyes brimming with such tenderness?
"I love when Subaru-kun touches my hair. Through his palm and my hair, I feel like we're connected."
Quietly, haltingly, as the silent Subaru offered nothing in return, she began to speak.
"I love Subaru-kun's voice. Every time I hear a single word, I feel my heart grow warm. I love Subaru-kun's eyes. They're usually sharp, but when he's trying to be kind to someone—they soften, and I love that."
Without waiting for Subaru to respond, Rem pressed on.
"I love Subaru-kun's fingers. For a boy, they're beautiful, but when he holds my hand, they remind me that he's still a boy—they're strong and slender. I love the way Subaru-kun walks. When we walk side by side, he sometimes turns back, as if checking that I'm keeping up properly—and I love that way of walking."
His heart was screaming.
With every word Rem wove together, a cry echoed through Subaru's chest.
"…Stop."
"I love Subaru-kun's sleeping face. So defenseless, like a baby, and his eyelashes are a little long. When I touch his cheek, he softens, and even if my lips brush against his, he doesn't notice… It makes my chest ache so much, and I love it."
"Why…?"
Why would she continue?
Why would she keep hurling these words at him—the fool who had nothing, the hollow shell of a man?
"Subaru-kun says he hates himself. But I wanted him to know that I've seen all of Subaru-kun's good qualities—the ones he doesn't know he has."
"That's all… a lie…!!"
What Rem saw was a convenient illusion.
The real Subaru was nothing like that. The real Subaru was far filthier—the exact opposite of the Subaru she so kindly saw. Behind that smile of hers lurked a Subaru steeped in malice.
"You just don't get it! No one knows themselves better than I do!"
"You're the one who only knows yourself! How much of the Subaru-kun that Rem sees do you actually understand?!"
Reflexively, Subaru raised his voice—and as if to drown him out entirely, Rem shouted over him.
It was the first time since arriving at this place that she had raised her voice, and it took Subaru by surprise. Startled, he held his breath—and only then did he notice the large tears gathering in the eyes of Rem, who was trying so hard to maintain her composure.
There was no way Subaru's words had not wounded her.
After hearing Subaru's relentless self-destruction, there was no way her gentle heart had not ached.
And yet, she still believed in him.
Knowing the full ugliness of what Subaru had said about himself, Rem still believed in Subaru.
"Why… why do you… believe in me so much… I'm weak, and small… and I ran away… It was the same before—I ran away—so why…"
—Why do you believe in me like this, when I'm this pathetic, this unreliable, when I can't stop losing to my own weakness? Why do you believe in me when I don't even believe in myself?
"——Because Subaru-kun is Rem's hero."
Those words, bestowing unconditional and absolute trust, made Subaru's heart tremble quietly.
No matter what terrible circumstances were heaped upon him, no matter what flaws were paraded for all to see—in that single sentence lay a wish strong enough to repel every last trace of malice.
And Subaru—late as it was—finally realized his mistake.
He had misunderstood. He had misread the situation entirely. He had been wrong.
He had been convinced that Rem—Rem alone—would endlessly tolerate his decline. That no matter how weak and wretched he became, she would forgive him.
That was wrong. A mistake. A fatal act of stupidity.
—Rem alone would never permit Subaru's self-indulgence.
Everyone had told Subaru: you don't have to do anything. Just stay put. Don't waste your energy.
No one had any expectations of him. They had all told him his actions were meaningless.
—Rem alone refused to accept that weakness in Subaru.
Stand up. Don't give up. Save them all. She alone kept saying it.
No one believed in Subaru. Subaru himself had abandoned Subaru—and yet she, alone, would never abandon him, never accept that surrender.
It was the curse Subaru himself had placed upon her.
"That in that dark forest, in a world where even her sense of self had become uncertain, when all Rem could do was rampage—Subaru-kun came to save her."
"————"
"That when Rem could not wake up, and when onee-sama was exhausted from overusing her magic—Subaru-kun stood as a decoy against the mabeasts to buy them time to escape."
"————"
"That there was no chance of winning, that his life was truly in danger—yet Subaru-kun survived and came back into Rem's arms, still warm."
"————"
"That after waking up, after smiling—he said the words Rem wanted to hear most, at the moment she wanted to hear them most, from the person she wanted to hear them from most."
The curses Subaru had laid upon her spilled from her lips.
Those curses were deep and gentle, binding her heart with chains named trust, and even now they held her fast.
"My time had been stopped. Since that night of fire—the night Rem lost everything except onee-sama—Rem's time had been frozen still."
Revealing a fragment of her terrible past, Rem gazed steadily at Subaru.
In her eyes there was not so much as a flicker of doubt—only unwavering devotion.
"You thawed my frozen time, Subaru-kun. You melted my frozen heart and gently set it moving again. That moment, that morning—how much Rem was saved. How happy Rem was. Subaru-kun can't possibly understand."
And so, pressing her hand to her chest, Rem continued.
"—Rem believes. No matter how painful or difficult things become, no matter how close Subaru-kun comes to breaking—even if everyone in the world stops believing in Subaru-kun, even if Subaru-kun himself can no longer believe in his own worth—Rem believes."
She spoke, and took one step closer.
At arm's length, she reached out both hands and wrapped her arms around the neck of Subaru, who hung motionless, unable to move. The force that drew him in was gentle, yet the unresisting Subaru found himself pulled into her embrace without any power to resist.
His head was cradled against Rem's chest—she was the shorter of the two, yet her embrace enveloped him completely—and from above, her voice descended.
"Rem was saved by Subaru-kun. That Subaru-kun is the real hero."
He felt her lips touch his forehead—warm, tender, a touch that radiated outward.
From that single point of contact, heat spread through him, and something nameless swelled in the depths of Subaru's chest.
Blood returned to his limbs, which had been unable to move. The noise that had been filling his skull began to clear.
"No matter how hard I tried… I couldn't save anyone."
"Rem is here. Rem, whom Subaru-kun saved, is right here."
"I'm empty—a hollow shell. No one would listen to a word I said."
"Rem is here. If it's Subaru-kun's words, Rem will listen to anything. I want to listen."
"No one has any expectations of me. No one believes in me. …I hate myself."
"Rem loves Subaru-kun."
The hand on his cheek was burning. The eyes gazing at him from close range were glistening with tears.
Her very existence—the way she was—affirmed the absolute sincerity of those words.
"Is someone like… me… okay…?"
No matter how many times he had fought, no matter how many times he had started over, every time he had ruined everything.
Everyone died. His hand couldn't reach. Everyone died. He hadn't thought enough.
Empty, powerless, slow-witted, his actions too late—even his desire to protect someone wavered like a leaf.
Was even *that* self acceptable?
"Subaru-kun is enough."
"————"
"Rem doesn't want anyone but Subaru-kun."
If there was someone who could believe in a self he couldn't even believe in— Could Natsuki Subaru fight?
—Could he fight fate without giving up?
"If you're empty, if you have nothing, if you can't forgive yourself for that—then let's start now. From here."
"From… where…?"
"Just as Subaru-kun set Rem's frozen time in motion again—let Subaru-kun set the time he believed was frozen into motion again, right now."
All those days he had spent doing nothing, the time he had wasted, the years he had let slip by without meaning—he had been drowning in regret, shame, trying to turn it all into resignation.
Rem smiled at Subaru.
"Let's start from here. From one—no, from zero!"
"————"
"If walking alone is too hard, Rem will support you. We'll share the burden, and walk together, supporting each other. You said that to Rem that morning, didn't you?"
Side by side, laughing about the future—that was what Subaru had said.
Leaning on each other, supporting each other—that was how he had said they would walk.
"Please show me the cool side of you, Subaru-kun."
Because he had shown her nothing but the uncool side, over and over.
He had been the one to place that never-fading curse upon her.
Subaru bore the responsibility. He had an obligation to fulfill it.
"…Rem."
"Yes."
She answered softly at the sound of his voice.
He raised his face. He looked forward. He met Rem's eyes—gentle, warm, waiting for the answer he would give.
And so, because Subaru wanted to be the Natsuki Subaru that she had loved— "—I love Emilia."
"——Yes."
At Subaru's confession, Rem simply smiled—as though she had known everything all along—and nodded.
That smile, that kindness—and Subaru, knowing full well how cruel this was— "I want to see Emilia smile. I want to help her build her future. Even if I'm told I'm in the way, even if I'm told not to come—I want to stay by her side."
Having received Rem's feelings and now reconfirming his own—he still held the same conviction.
But the way that growing resolve felt inside him—it was different from before.
"Using 'because I love her' as a free pass to expect understanding for everything… that's arrogant, isn't it?"
"…………"
"You don't have to understand. Right now, I want to help Emilia. I want to bring her—whose future is waiting to be painful and cruel—into a future where everyone can smile together."
So— "Will you help me?"
He extended his hand to Rem, who stood right beside him.
He knew it was cowardly. He knew he was exploiting the feelings of someone whose confession he had already turned down. But because the girl who loved him believed in a Subaru who could not walk straight—he needed her help.
"I can't do anything on my own. I'm lacking in everything. I don't have the confidence to walk straight ahead. I'm weak, fragile, and insignificant. So—would you lend me your hand, so I can walk straight?"
"Subaru-kun, you're terrible. You turn someone down and then ask them for something like that?"
"And I'm in no position to ask, when you just turned down the most important proposal of my life."
Subaru laughed weakly. Rem let out a small, irrepressible chuckle.
They shared a moment of laughter, and then Rem straightened her posture, elegantly pinched the hem of her skirt, and gave a slight bow.
"Humbly, I accept. If that means Subaru-kun—Rem's hero—can face the future with a smile."
"Yeah—watch me from the best seats in the house."
She took his hand, and Subaru drew her close as they exchanged their vow.
A small "ah" escaped Rem's lips, and her small frame settled into the warmth of Subaru's chest. Grateful for the existence of this soft, warm girl who had loved him— "—Watch me become the greatest hero your man has ever been!"
His chest was burning.
The Rem in his arms pressed her face against his chest, hiding her expression.
Her breathing was warm. Her forehead, her cheek—warm where they grazed him. And surely, most warm of all were the tears falling from her eyes.
—Even now, Subaru could not love himself. He still hated who he was.
But there was a girl who had said she loved him, even so.
There was a girl who wanted him—the him that was him, even still—to love her back.
—Emilia, I'm watching you. Rem, I'm watching you. And so, I will not bow my head.
"————"
It was borrowed courage, but the feeling he held in this chest—he could believe it was real.
Starting from here. From zero.
The story of Natsuki Subaru.
—The isekai life that begins from zero.