"Well then, I'm heading out now. Won't be back till tomorrow, but—like I've said before, there's no need to push yourself to take on the 'Trial.' You should rest up a little."
"I knoooow! Subaru, come on, stop making that worried face. I'll be a good girl and stay put and rest today, just like you told me to."
Subaru let out a wry smile at her endearing manner, carefully concealing the pain in his heart behind his expression.
It was just before noon—the same day Subaru had finished his morning talk with Garfiel and stopped by Emilia's place, a few hours later.
"Natsuki-san, all the preparations on this end are done. All that's left now is to depart."
"Oh, nice work as always. The speed at which you can clear out and hit the road is truly praiseworthy. Mind if I start calling you 'Otto the Midnight Fugitive' from now on?"
"I'm not entirely sure what 'fugitive' means, but I'm fairly confident it's an inglorious term, so I'll have to politely decline."
Otto curled his lip in distaste at Subaru's retort. But this time Subaru offered a genuinely good-natured laugh. Then, looking past Otto, he spotted several more wagons lined up behind the one he and the others would be riding in.
Six wagons in total—capacity of forty-two. That accounted for the refugees from
"Well, that's because you were smart enough to talk to Garf first, wasn't it? Ryuzu-sama is a reasonable person, and without Garf interfering, there was no reason the negotiations would stall."
"Though as far as Ram is concerned, I'd like to lodge a complaint about the fact that nobody even attempted to negotiate for Roswaal-sama's return to the mansion."
"He's too perfect as a hostage of hostages. When I tried to work that into the bargain, I couldn't come up with a single decent argument. Just getting the villagers home should count as a win—take it."
"Ram will allow that, as 'not bad, for Subaru.' You're welcome."
"If I say thank you here, doesn't that mean I lose?"
Subaru shuddered at Ram's usual insistence on claiming credit for everything under heaven, then turned to look at Emilia, who was fidgeting beside her.
Her amethyst eyes were clouded with worry and unease, but when she noticed Subaru's gaze, she chased those emotions away— "Thanks, Subaru. If you hadn't spoken up, I might never have realized this was even possible."
"Emilia-tan, you've got enough on your plate as it is. Let us handle the stuff around you. Right now, the big thing is right in front of us. I'll sort out everything else—so don't worry about it."
Subaru thumped his chest confidently, and Emilia stifled a small laugh behind her hand. Then, brushing away the tears that had welled up with her finger, she nodded.
"Okay. I'm counting on you, Subaru. So..."
"I know, I know. Once I've delivered everyone, I'll turn right around and come straight back. Oh, if I left any favorite stuffed animals back at the mansion or something, I can grab those while I'm at it."
"I grew out of stuff like that ages ago. And I'm not asking you to come back early or anything. I mean, sure, I'd be happier if you did, but..."
"Then what were you going to say?"
"...Just... be careful, okay? It'd be nice if you came back early, but more than anything, I just want everything to be all right."
"Oh man, that hit me right in the heart."
Feeling the pang of romance in his chest, Subaru clutched at his struck heart and stumbled backward. Emilia tilted her head at her own unconscious remark, but Subaru took several deep breaths at her little gesture and held out his palm.
"OK, OK, got it. I'll come fluttering back to your side—fast and safe. Pinky promise?"
"Pinky promise—like how Petra does it? ...Okay. Let's do it."
"My, how honest."
Subaru bent his knee for the approaching Emilia, and their fingers intertwined—one from the wagon, one from the ground. They recited the usual words, hooked their pinkies, and broke them apart. A promise made.
Emilia stared at that broken pinky for a moment, then met Subaru's gaze with those amethyst eyes.
"Subaru. For a spirit artist, a promise is..."
"Super important, right? I learned that the hard way. I won't break any more promises with you, Emilia-tan. And I'll try my best to keep my promises to everyone else too. That cool with you?"
"Mm. I suppose I have no choice."
Emilia smiled. Having witnessed that smile, Subaru straightened up, rolled his shoulders, and then looked up at the sky, raising both hands toward the heavens.
"All right! Let's set off for real this time! Destination: Arlam Village, forty-four people total! It's quite the procession, but everyone—let's do this!"
Subaru's call was met with a spirited round of replies, and the great march began.
—The road home, leading the liberated hostages back to the village after hard-won negotiations.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ The decision Subaru had come to while watching Emilia's sleeping face after his conversation with Garfiel was this: accept Garfiel's proposal, and then negotiate to free the hostages from the
After putting Emilia to sleep, Subaru gathered the key figures at Ryuzu's home once everyone had awakened and laid out the proposal.
Given how contentious his debate with Garfiel had been, he expected significant pushback—but in reality, Ryuzu simply nodded along with Subaru's position, offering no opposition whatsoever, even putting forth several concession proposals of her own. The negotiations went exactly the way Subaru had wanted, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
Afterward, he explained the situation to the awakened Emilia, then gave the same explanation to the refugees who had gathered in the Great Hall. The villagers were stunned at first, but their joy upon learning they could return home was so genuine it made Subaru happy too.
Despite the fact that their being trapped here in the first place was his fault, all the villagers' gratitude was directed at Subaru as he explained their release—which led to a few rather awkward moments. But beyond all of that, this procession was finally underway.
"You know, it really was unexpected," Otto said from beside Subaru on the driver's seat.
Just as on the way here,
"Were you napping just now?"
"Just lost in thought—don't be so suspicious. I was half asleep and didn't catch that. What were you saying?"
"If you're going to dodge it, at least dodge it all the way to the end. ...Anyway, I was saying it was surprising. All of this."
Subaru's responses to Otto were, as always, half-assed. Whether Otto had simply gotten used to that temperature or didn't care anymore, he barely reacted and just turned his head toward what he'd said.
"I never thought they'd release the villagers so easily. From a merchant's perspective, you hold onto every bit of leverage you can—it's always better for you down the road."
"Is that really the merchant talking? Or are you secretly a corrupt official? Are you not shifting further and further into villain territory in my eyes? Someone intervene."
Now that he thought about it, Subaru couldn't really remember Otto ever doing anything that seemed properly merchant-like. The product he'd introduced himself as selling had been a huge quantity of oil, and for all Subaru knew he might be an arsonist or something. It was probably too late for this, but doubt about Otto's background crept in.
"What's with that look, like you're staring at some suspicious person?"
"That is exactly the look I'm giving a suspicious person. Are you really a merchant? Can you point to any time you actually acted like one in front of me?"
"You literally made me sort through stacks of top-secret documents and manage ledgers and do all kinds of bookkeeping right in front of you, Natsuki-san! Do you have the memory of a goldfish!?"
"No, see—if I frame that as highly sophisticated covert intelligence-gathering rather than bookkeeping, the 'agent' angle seems far more plausible..."
"You want me to somehow guide Natsuki-san's unpredictable way of thinking? I'd need to become God first, and even then it'd be easier said than done."
"Hey, did you hear that, Patrasche? The guy next to me just said he wants to become God... kinda sketchy, right?"
"Oh, dammit! Why does it always come out like—ah! Even Patrasche-chan is starting to pity me! Please stop, won't you?!"
Patrasche gave a small bark in response to Subaru's call, and Otto clutched his head in despair at the sound. Apparently, that single bark contained Patrasche's own assessment of Otto. The blessing of the "Word Soul" could be a troublesome thing indeed.
Then— "You guys never change no matter where you go, do ya?"
Garfiel ran alongside the speeding wagon and sighed in exasperation.
The wagon train was still following the forest path, so the speed wasn't particularly great. But these ground dragons were still far faster than Subaru could ever sprint. Keeping pace effortlessly, bounding along with light steps, was Garfiel—he'd been escorting the evacuation group from the Sanctuary without so much as losing his breath.
"In the old days, I coulda done this whole thing like 'Bakim the Horse-Chaser's Great Tale' and it woulda been endearing, you know."
"Proverbs are supposed to use short phrases to clearly convey meaning... I feel like I've never once actually had a conversation with you."
"The hell are you saying?"
Garfiel wrinkled his snout, looking irritable. Subaru shrugged at the beast's expression and, from atop the wagon, addressed the ground-bound Garfiel: "Say, you volunteered to guide us, but you haven't actually been leading. Have you given up on your job?"
"Ain't what you think. Your ground dragon's just too damn smart. This is a path I've only run once, and it's already got it nearly memorized."
"Well, she's our pride and joy. This is nothing to her. If you want, she could also do fire-juggling, ball-riding, unicycling—hey, please don't swerve like that, Patrasche!?"
Patrasche made her refusal to perform circus tricks evident by the way she ran, and Subaru flailed in panic atop the wagon. Garfiel let out a rough snort at the sight and looked over at Otto, who held the reins.
"So that guy beside you was sayin' something interesting, huh? Hold onto your leverage, was it?"
"That's right, I do think so. I don't think it's the most honorable idea, but... the more hostages you have, the more options you have. And for something like stoking a sense of crisis, the more you've got, the more cards you can play..."
"Hey, hey, hey—is this guy actually a merchant? He's gotta be one of those guys who committed crimes in his homeland and got chased out, right?!"
"Why does my reputation always solidify in that direction?!"
Otto's current predicament was, at this point, partly his own doing, and Subaru tilted his head. Then, steering the conversation back on track: "Either way, I'd already run it by Garfiel. The deal was to accept his conditions... which means things worked out without getting complicated."
"Conditions... as in?"
As Subaru hesitated, Otto jumped in with the question, and Garfiel answered with a smirk, his sharp canine teeth on display.
"Simple enough, yeah? That crybaby princess takes the rest of the 'Trial' herself—no, we have Subaru do it instead—and then we get the Sanctuary unlocked lickety-split."
"That's—"
Otto's eyes widened at Garfiel's words, and he looked sideways at Subaru. After several false starts, he finally managed: "Natsuki-san... are you sure?"
"When you say 'are you sure,' what exactly do you mean?"
"Well, there's the burden of taking on the 'Trial' itself, but more than that—shouldn't that role belong to Emilia-sama?"
It was the same thing Subaru himself had agonized over, and Otto pressed the point despite his obvious hesitation. As Subaru frowned, Otto continued relentlessly.
"Of course, I don't fully understand what the 'Trial' involves, and I'm well aware that Emilia-sama's current state isn't ideal. But if we're thinking about Emilia-sama surviving the Royal Selection, she'll need the support of the Sanctuary and its people. To miss that opportunity would be..."
"How long it'll take is uncertain. If the support base crumbles in the meantime, we'll have put the cart before the horse. And above all, Emilia herself might..."
"Reach her limit? I don't think so. I've been watching, and Emilia-sama seems to have a strong core to me. Right after finishing the Trial and coming out of the tomb, sure, she's shaken—but in every other situation, she's kept her composure."
Subaru bit his lip at Otto's fair point.
From Otto's perspective, Emilia's situation probably didn't seem as dire or close to the breaking point as Subaru knew it to be.
—He couldn't see the mask she wore only when someone other than Subaru was around.
Even in this moment, seeing off the evacuation group, Emilia could maintain the same composure she always had whenever a third party was present.
But the instant she was alone with Subaru, she lost that composure entirely and fell back into that fragile state from the morning.
To simply write that off as Emilia relying on Subaru—that was something no one could do.
As Subaru faltered, Otto looked ready to press on. But the one who deflated his momentum wasn't Subaru— "That's enough talk. We're about to hit the Sanctuary boundary. Once we cross, I can't follow anymore, y'know."
"Out of curiosity—what actually happens if I try to force my way through anyway?"
"Never tried it, so I dunno. But thinking about what happened to the princess back then, it'd probably take your consciousness with it? Ah, but that don't matter."
Subaru seized on the distraction with relief, and Garfiel tilted his head before leaping. With his agility, he landed silently in the back of Subaru's wagon. Turning to face the two of them, he pointed a finger.
"As a condition, you bring the folks back behind us to the village and then come back... ah, you there don't actually need to come back."
"Don't be ridiculous—I'm coming back too! I still haven't had a proper audience with Margrave Mathers!"
"Huh? You haven't? I haven't introduced you yet?"
"That's right! I've been here nearly a week, but every time I try, it's either bad timing or he's 'resting'—Ram-san turned me away over and over!"
Otto's shoulders heaved with indignation. Given his spectacular lack of timing, Subaru had to wonder if this was divine bad luck at work—but— "Probably deliberate. From the day of the 'Trial' onward, even I haven't been allowed to see him, with good reason."
Subaru murmured the speculation to himself.
Since the first day he'd challenged the Trial, Subaru had barely crossed paths with Roswaal. Officially, the explanation was the same as for Otto's being kept away—Roswaal was focused on recuperating. But it was obvious that wasn't the whole story.
After all, the moment Subaru mentioned he'd challenged the Trial, he'd essentially been thrown out.
Subaru's memory of the way Roswaal's expression had changed—upon hearing that Subaru had taken on the Trial but Emilia had failed to overcome it—was vivid. It was an expression he'd never seen before.
That mask of perpetual, theatrical composure had cracked, and for one instant, raw emotion had flashed through—whether it was anger or grief or something far more complicated, Subaru couldn't tell.
Since then, Subaru hadn't crossed paths with him once.
"Bad time for thinkin', but whatever—when you come back, use the same path. We won't attack this time, so don't worry. Worst case, just don't forget the password."
"Password?"
"When you cross this boundary, if you say the right password, you won't be treated as an attacker. The password is 'Baila Baila is under the Grimor.'"
"Huh? What? Baily Grimo?"
Of course. The worst possible scenario—a meaningless, nonsensical phrase as a password.
Subaru scowled, immediately guessing who had come up with it. Garfiel crossed his arms with an air of "obviously," while Otto hurriedly jotted the password down on a memo. Deciding to leave the memorization to Otto, Subaru turned back to Garfiel.
"So anyway, just saying that gets us through?"
"I ain't the only one on watch duty, y'know. There are others inside who've got more blood in their veins, if you catch my drift. To those kinds of people, you lot are perfect pawns to throw at the Trial."
"Now that you mention it, you did say something about that before."
There was the faction led by Ryuzu who wanted to be freed from the Sanctuary, and then there was the opposing faction whose aim was to keep the Sanctuary as it was.
Garfiel's warning was essentially: when you cross paths with that second group, don't give them an opening.
"Got it, understood. You've done a lot for us in all kinds of ways... though I guess we'll be seeing each other again in half a day anyway. Thanks, Garf."
"It's the old lady's request—don't make a big deal out of it. Besides, there's one more thing..."
Garfiel waved his hand, then trailed off. His uncharacteristic hesitation made Subaru furrow his brow.
"Ah—" Garfiel continued. "When you get back to the mansion, Frederica's gonna be there, ain't she?"
"Yeah, she should be. Come to think of it, you said something like you knew her. What's the deal?"
"Old acquaintance. I don't have anything particular to say, but..."
"I'll let her know you were worried about her. She'll probably have something to say about it."
"...I ain't askin' you to do that."
Garfiel turned his gaze away, then, as if shaking off Subaru's grin, leaped again. He dropped from the wagon to the ground, parting from the evacuation group at the boundary between the Sanctuary and the forest. Hands on his hips, he watched them go.
"Don't run away, Subaru! Keep your promises even if it kills you! That's the one and only condition for me letting you all escape!"
"Yeah, yeah. My promise-keeping power's been through the roof lately—don't worry!"
Subaru called back with a grin at the words that echoed through the forest and raised his fist toward the receding Garfiel. Matching his gesture, Garfiel raised a fist as well.
He held it up like that until his figure was swallowed by the shadows of the forest, watching Subaru and the others all the while.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ —Once they crossed the boundary and left the forest, no major problems arose on the road.
The distance from the Sanctuary to the mansion was roughly eight hours without interference. They stopped twice for rest along the way, but the villagers' eagerness to return home won out—each break was cut short in an urgent forced march.
Thanks to that, the evacuation group arrived at Arlam Village in exactly eight hours. They'd departed just past midday, and by the time they reached the village, several hours had passed since night had fully fallen.
"Stiff as all get-out from sitting... but thank god."
Subaru climbed down from the wagon, stretched his lower back, and let out a sigh of relief.
Throughout the village, cries of joyful reunion rang out in the night, and some people were even weeping with happiness. Given what the village had been through, Subaru knew none of this was an overreaction. No one was laughing at the display.
It was the first time in days that Arlam Village was full of people again, and despite the late hour, its vitality had returned. The villagers who'd worn such somber expressions at the Sanctuary now wore uniform smiles.
The留守 group who'd stayed behind could breathe a little easier, knowing their families had returned safely.
"Natsuki-san, are we heading straight back without stopping?"
Otto jogged up to Subaru, who had stepped away from the commotion to watch over everyone. Otto looked around and then addressed him.
Subaru shook his head.
"That's way too hasty. Let's take a short break first. Besides, I need to go to the mansion and explain the situation to Frederica and Petra."
"Right, right. And I need to get together with the other merchants and work out the details anyway."
"Work out details with the other merchants?"
Otto pointed. Standing there were the owners of all six wagons.
They were merchants who had been hired under the pretext of evacuating villagers and had ended up detained at the Sanctuary just like everyone else. They were relieved to be free, naturally, and the way they looked at Subaru carried a certain...
"I might be imagining it, but it feels like I'm seeing dollar signs in their eyes—in another world, no less."
"Well, the conditions when we were hired included the option to purchase the cargo, among other things. I'd like to come to a consensus on exactly how much to charge. Oh, of course we won't ask for anything outrageous. But they've also been through quite a burden with this hostage situation, so... brace yourself for it to sting a little."
"Eh, it's not my wallet getting hit. As long as they go easy on the estimate, maybe watching Roswaal turn pale won't be half bad?"
"As expected of Natsuki-san! You really get it!"
Otto clapped his hands and went trotting off to join his fellow merchants.
The rapturous cheers of the merchants at Otto's triumphant return rang through the village at night. It seemed louder than the villagers' celebrations, but Subaru decided to consciously ignore that and headed for the mansion.
As for the villagers, everything should be fine. The merchants' claims would be handled by Otto, and the one left to deal with it would be Roswaal. Subaru looked forward just a little to the ugly face Roswaal would make when that time came.
Fifteen minutes on foot from Arlam Village, and there it was: Roswaal's mansion.
In the darkness of night, only the mansion's lights asserted their existence against the shadows, giving it a decidedly eerie atmosphere when viewed from a distance after sundown.
Standing before the gate, Subaru gazed at the mansion and noticed that most of the lights had been turned off. The only illuminated areas were the entrance hall, the servants' quarters, and one room near the top floor—Roswaal's office, if he remembered correctly.
"Otto was handling the paperwork when we left, but I bet it's piled up again over the past week."
Frederica had shown her all-around maid abilities in that department, with an aptitude for office work that rivaled Otto's. But that wasn't all she had to do. Even adding Petra to the workforce, keeping the mansion running took considerable effort.
Thinking of her working away at paperwork late into the night made Subaru appreciate the burden all the more.
"I've gotta drag that Otto deeper into this quagmire and make him my personal office-work machine—put him to work like a mule. A perfect office drone."
The young man was probably back in the village right now, grinning at the prospect of a big payday. As Subaru schemed about how to artfully spring the trap on him, he pushed open the gate and stepped onto the mansion grounds.
He headed for the entrance, knocked on the door with a knocker shaped like a hawk— "Sorry to bother you so late. The fire department's here, whe—"
His high-pitched knock echoed into the night, followed by the usual offhand call.
Having said it, Subaru wondered—what actually happened in this world in cases of fire or disaster? He tilted his head, sinking into that idle speculation. But— "No answer."
He'd been expecting Frederica, at least, to respond with wind-like speed, so the lack of reaction was a letdown.
He waited a bit longer, but no one came to greet him, so Subaru abandoned the wait and simply pushed the door open.
"Honey, I'm hooooome! Food! Bath! Bed!"
Striking the pose of a tyrannical husband, he issued his three commands with dramatic flair. But there was zero reaction to this as well.
Enjoying the nostalgic feeling of performing to no audience, Subaru decided to head upstairs—to the servants' quarters, to look for Petra.
"If Frederica's in the office, she should be there. I'll find Petra first... oh, and I need to look for Beako too."
The three remaining occupants of the mansion surfaced in his mind one after another.
Reuniting with the precocious Petra and the insufferably polite Frederica was one thing, but reuniting with that girl with the spiral curls would require some resolve on Subaru's part.
Last time, the way they'd parted—it had been ugly.
He'd gotten not a single answer to the questions that truly mattered, and instead he'd been driven away by a tearful voice and a crumpled face. And that had been that.
"I mean, 'apologize' doesn't even make sense—I don't even realize I did anything wrong..."
Still, he'd thought that if they met and talked, something would change.
He'd said goodbye to yet another piece of the past and felt like he'd made a little progress. With how he felt now, he sensed he could face her in a different way.
So— "I was going to say, let's start with a reconnaissance..."
He knocked, then burst through the door to surprise her—only to find an empty room again.
He hadn't exactly been hoping for a caught-changing-clothes moment with a little girl, and it seemed that wasn't going to happen anyway.
Petra's personality reflected in the room—decorated with cute little trinkets but kept neat and tidy. The owner, however, was nowhere to be seen.
Subaru tilted his head under the light of the crystal lamp.
"Leaving the light on and going out—that doesn't sound like responsible Petra. If she's not here, maybe she's studying in the office?"
That did sound like Frederica's spartan approach.
Alongside her maid duties, she might be training Petra in office work, trying to forge her into an all-purpose maid. If Petra could pull that off, it would be incredibly helpful, but Subaru, already outclassed by Petra in domestic skills, would be left with even less standing.
"Not yet—I still have the edge in basic arithmetic! Don't underestimate modern Japanese compulsory education!"
He took the stairs two at a time, arriving at the top floor. In the middle of the corridor stood a set of double doors. He cleared his throat and knocked.
The solid sound echoed and surely reached inside. But once again, no answer.
"———"
This was getting strange. Subaru raised his guard another notch, masking his concern with a casual demeanor as his eyes swept the corridor from end to end, then settled on the office door. He pressed his ear to it, straining to catch any sound from within, but the thick door revealed nothing.
From the outside, his chances of gathering any more information were slim.
—Petra's room hadn't been ransacked. It was perfectly orderly, the bed made as though its occupant had simply planned to return and sleep.
The mansion itself, at a glance, showed nothing out of place. It bore the hallmarks of Frederica's meticulous work—clean windowsills, not a speck of dust.
Which meant Subaru's heightened vigilance applied solely to their absence.
"———"
He applied the slightest pressure to the door, opening it without a sound.
Light spilled from the room into the corridor, and by that light, Subaru scanned the interior. An ebony desk, a leather-upholstered chair. A bookshelf against the wall. A breeze cutting through.
The window was closed. But there was a chill draft. Something was wrong—he knew it instinctively.
Subaru glided into the room and followed the breeze. Then he noticed.
A shelf at the back of the room had slid aside, revealing a hidden door in the wall—large enough to pass through. Beyond it, a spiral staircase stretched downward, descending far, far below— "Right. There was a hidden passage here. I remember, I remember."
This was from a previous loop.
After the villagers of Arlam Village had been slaughtered by the
And after passing through the hidden passage into the underground— "I think that's where
He had no certainty, but he vaguely recalled frozen corpses of
He'd since forgotten about it, deeming it unimportant. But now— "Why would this be open...?"
Someone had used this passage, which meant there had been reason to evacuate.
And who could have used it? Naturally, someone who lived in the mansion and knew of its existence—Frederica. The simple conclusion was that she'd fled through this passage with Petra. The question was: "From what?"
A woman as astute as Frederica would have had sound grounds for her decision.
Since there were no signs of a struggle in the mansion, whatever threat had loomed must have been detected in advance. The phrase "Witch Cult" flickered through Subaru's mind, but he shook it off.
"If that were the case, Frederica not leaving so much as a note would be too unnatural. Plus, the villagers had no idea anything was wrong... If it was something as dangerous as the Witch Cult, she would have taken action to avoid involving the villagers."
At the very least, Frederica had harbored no doubts about supporting Roswaal's backing of Emilia. If so, she would have done the best she could. The fact that the villagers knew nothing meant it wasn't the Witch Cult.
In any case— "Frederica and Petra have probably left the mansion. ...If that's so, then I—"
For a moment, Subaru stepped toward the passage, intent on following it to rendezvous with Frederica. But what stopped him was a girl whose name hadn't come up once in all his reasoning.
Even if Frederica had decided to flee, would that girl have gone with her?
"The
That insufferably smug girl with the spiral curls would have certainly refused Frederica's proposal.
She would have shut herself away in her Forbidden Library, declaring with a huff that nothing could faze her, brushing aside all concern and consideration—and she would have made a sad face about it. Without a doubt.
Without a doubt. Which meant— "I'll drag her out!"
No matter who else left her behind, Subaru would not.
It didn't matter how she believed her solitary fortress to be impenetrable.
He couldn't possibly leave a small girl alone in a place he knew to be in danger.
"Then it's settled—!"
Turning his back on the hidden passage, Subaru exhaled sharply and burst out of the office.
The most reliable way to find Beatrice was to open every door in the mansion one by one. Somewhere along the way, Subaru would feel it—"something" about a door that connected to her Forbidden Library. All he had to do was follow that instinct until he found her.
He'd start with the doors on the top floor— "Whoa?"
His foot caught on something, and Subaru went stumbling.
More than painful, the sheer awkwardness of his clumsy start burned. This wasn't exactly the entrance he'd been going for.
Bracing himself on the corridor carpet, Subaru looked back to see what he'd tripped over. Just past the office door, something was lying on the floor.
Pink. Quite long, trailing all the way to where Subaru stood. He followed it with his eyes, tracing it back, and saw— It was pouring out of the gash in Subaru's side.
"Hah?"
The left side of his shirt was cleanly torn open, and pink intestines spilled from within.
It had started at the threshold of the office, trailing all the way to his feet, where it had now tangled around his ankle. Which meant—without his noticing—he'd been cut open.
"...ghh—"
The moment it all registered, a rising clot of blood clogged his throat, and his vision turned crimson.
Trembling fingers tried to push the spilling organs back inside, but his strength wasn't enough. His knees buckled, and he collapsed. His torso pitched forward.
He didn't understand what had happened. He had been running. Just running.
"I told you, didn't I? You made a promise."
A voice spoke.
From directly ahead—from above where Subaru lay fallen.
He couldn't raise his head. His consciousness clung desperately to the organs spilling out, the blood pooling, the world slipping away.
His body temperature plummeted. Each time he coughed, blood clots choked his throat, staining his face crimson. His blurring vision struggled to make out the world.
It's ending, his instincts told him.
Understanding this in some distant corner of his mind, Subaru nonetheless refused to let it end here.
He had to gain something. He couldn't let it end. He had to grasp at something—anything— Footsteps rippled outward, treading across the blood that stained the corridor a deep red. A black figure.
Dark robes. Slender. Black hair. A sensual gaze looking down at him with something like affection.
He recognized those things. And when the memory of having been "cut open" clicked into place, Subaru understood.
Not the Witch Cult—just a clear, certain threat. It was— "Until we meet again, be sure to keep my gift nice and warm."
A declaration of love, utterly deranged.
Subaru clutched something certain from those words—and consciousness faded.
Fading. Fading. Fading. Dimming. Dimming. And at last— Something vanished, something ended, and then—once again, it began.
—The fourth loop raises its curtain.