The sensation of hard ground, as always cold, roused Subaru's consciousness.
Opening his eyes while lying face-down, Subaru pushed himself up and spat out the dirt and gravel that had gotten into his mouth. Spitting at the earthy taste and looking around, he found himself in a dim darkness where his vision was unreliable.
—This was the Tomb. The room of the Trials.
The world where Subaru's story restarted in the same place, at the same point where it had ended.
While feeling relief at having returned, the suffocating weight of facing a world that might become hell once again threatened to close in around him.
Sensing the harbinger of a dead-end in his thoughts, Subaru shook his head to reject it.
Then he rose to his feet, dusting off his body as he turned his gaze around the room—until he spotted
"............"
Subaru hesitated for just a moment before calling out to her and rushing over.
What flashed through his mind was the image from just before he was pulled back—Emilia, who had placed the fading Subaru on her lap and exchanged a kiss with him, unaware that he was about to disappear.
Unconsciously, he touched his own lips with a finger, furrowing his brow at the dry, rough sensation.
At the final moment, Subaru—who had been coughing up blood—must have had his face quite a mess. There was no way to know what Emilia had been feeling when she kissed him, but it certainly wouldn't remain as a pleasant memory.
It was the same for Subaru, who had been at death's door. He could recall the event itself, but the sensation and emotions of that moment did not carry over.
Subaru's first kiss in life, and his first kiss with Emilia, was blocked by the impermanence of death, leaving behind no sentiment whatsoever.
"————"
However, Subaru's hesitation wasn't born from regret over the kiss.
The recollection of the kiss wasn't about dwelling on memories—it was the crisis he felt over Emilia's transformation. —The Emilia who had become dependent on Subaru and retreated from reality.
When
If that was the result, then what had Emilia been like in the previous loops?
"............"
Subaru had left the Sanctuary four times to return to the mansion. Of those, he had only been able to return and reunite with her once—during the previous loop. But what about the other three times?
In all other cases, the Sanctuary had already been attacked by the
Even if Emilia's mental state had been stable, it could be inferred that she hadn't been able to withstand the onslaught of the magical beast. But what about her heart?
"What the hell does it matter what happened—if she ends up like that because I'm not there, then I have to be there..."
There was nothing optimistic about this situation.
There was no point in indulging in the future and covering up what he might overlook.
To seize the best possible future, he had to continuously prepare for the worst.
This world prepared for Subaru the most cruel and unreasonable fate imaginable.
And so of course, Emilia,
"What I have to do is..."
Save Emilia's heart, save the people of the Sanctuary from the threat of the Great Rabbit, and save his companions at the mansion from Elsa's rampage. —It was a path that was far too steep and perilous.
—Could he do it?
The weak voice within him, seeking an escape route, an excuse, a safety net, posed the question.
—It's not about whether I can or can't. I have no choice but to try.
Baring his teeth at that weakness within himself, Subaru spoke the resolve needed to not go back on his vow.
Identify the problems and obstacles, clarify the conditions for success, construct a timeline, determine the most efficient use of his time, and keep trying no matter how many times it took.
Even if his heart wore down with every failure, if there was a future he could grasp through it, then that was all he wanted. No matter how many terrible things he had to witness.
And so— "—Emilia. Are you okay?"
He reached out and shook the shoulder of the beloved girl lying before him.
At Subaru's touch, her closed eyelids trembled, and Emilia's consciousness was pulled back from the world of the Trials—from the past to the present.
Her eyelids opened, and a deep violet radiance reflected Subaru. Within mere seconds, tears welled up, and Emilia—denying the past—clung to Subaru.
And so, Subaru held her back in his embrace, swearing with words that he would become her pillar of support, while also making a firm vow in his heart.
—He would protect Emilia and save every single person.
Not someone else.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ Sorting through the information he hadn't been able to process at the end of the previous loop, overwhelmed by confusion.
The most critical piece was probably
Roswaal, who had been devoured by the fangs of the Great Rabbit before Subaru's eyes, his life scattered to the wind.
Roswaal knew about Subaru's "Return by Death."
He hadn't figured out that death was the trigger, but he knew that Subaru was "starting over."
Whether he had learned this after arriving at the Sanctuary or even earlier, Subaru didn't know—but that too was probably recorded in the Gospel that Roswaal possessed.
In the previous loop, Subaru hadn't been able to recover Roswaal's Gospel.
If Roswaal had it tucked inside his coat, then it was inside the Great Rabbit's belly along with his body. Even if it had been at the safe house where he'd been recuperating, Subaru hadn't had the mental capacity to rush inside to confirm it.
And so he couldn't touch upon the contents of what was written.
—Ultimately, what was Roswaal's goal?
If he was acting in accordance with what was written in his Gospel, then where lay the reason he'd thrown his life away at the very end? —The answer, too, was likely contained in the Gospel's contents.
Roswaal was, with his life on the line, trying to adhere to what was written in the Gospel.
Subaru didn't know in what format the entries in Roswaal's Gospel were made, but acting according to those entries was the signpost leading to the future he desired—just as it was with Petelgeuse's Gospel and the others.
The Gospel of the
Roswaal, on the other hand, was different.
Roswaal, who could act with "starting over" in mind, would, when a future that deviated from the entries came to pass, pay with his own life to erase that divergent timeline—as though it had never happened.
Petelgeuse, who handled deviations with flexibility. Roswaal, who refused to allow any deviation and enforced the entries to the letter.
Both were troublesome opponents who possessed a Gospel, and both shared the motivation of bringing the Gospel's contents to reality—but their approaches were fundamentally different.
In Subaru's eyes, the nature of Roswaal's dependency was worse than Petelgeuse's.
—The problem was the content of Roswaal's Gospel.
If the conclusion of this Sanctuary and mansion incident was recorded there, then as long as the story needed to reach Roswaal's desired ending, tragedy would repeat itself over and over.
The snowy landscape of the Sanctuary from the previous loop, too, could be understood as Roswaal acting to make the Gospel's contents a reality. In other words, that snowfall was a phenomenon that was supposed to happen every time.
The reason Subaru hadn't encountered it before was that he had never once returned to the Sanctuary after leaving it and heading back to the mansion.
Roswaal's snowfall upon the Sanctuary was a means of isolating Emilia.
What meaning could that possibly have?
The unbearable pressure from those around her should have been more than enough to erode Emilia, even without such an roundabout scheme. A sense of responsibility so strong that Emilia would sensitively pick up on everyone's expectations and clench her teeth against anxiety and helplessness while continuing to push forward.
To the point that, without Subaru by her side to lean on, she would lose her anchor and spiral into self-destruction.
Was it Roswaal's goal to push Emilia into self-destruction?
But if Emilia stopped acting "for someone else's sake," then the Sanctuary would never be liberated. If it wasn't liberated, then when the Great Rabbit came, there would be no option to "run."
There were many contradictions between Roswaal's actions and his attitude toward Emilia.
And above all, there were the words Roswaal had tossed out just before being torn apart.
—To cut away everything except what truly mattered.
That was what Roswaal had murmured.
He had also said that by doing so, Subaru could become like him.
Whether Subaru wanted to become like Roswaal was beside the point—searching for the meaning behind those words, the essence was that Roswaal had cut away everything except what mattered to him, and that was where he stood.
In truth, the resolve to throw away even his own life—there could be no doubt about that.
If the entries were enforced, Emilia was driven into isolation, and the situation was resolved in the desired manner—would Roswaal then obtain that one precious thing?
Or what was Roswaal's true intention in telling Subaru about it?
Either way— "I'm absolutely not letting go of anything."
Emilia mattered.
But of course, there were so many more things Subaru wanted to protect, so many people he wanted to be beside—more than he could ever count.
His narrow world would become unbearably bleak if even one piece went missing.
Gluttonous and selfish as he was, Subaru simply couldn't endure that.
And so he couldn't listen to what Roswaal said.
"Roswaal, I'm not—going to become like you."
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ After somehow managing to calm the sobbing Emilia, Subaru left the Tomb with the sleeping girl in tow.
The crowd that had been waiting was surprised by his failure at the Trial and by Emilia's condition, but as before, Subaru's first priority was to move Emilia to Ryuzu's house so she could rest.
Along the way, there were various moments—Garfiel's deliberately bright demeanor, which in its concern for the mood came across as painful to witness, and Subaru's awareness of the meaningful glances Ryuzu kept sending his way—but Subaru made no mention of them.
The former was deliberately left alone for now, to be examined later when he needed to confirm certain things.
And as for the latter, Subaru already had a vague sense of what those glances meant.
"Yo, lend me your face for a bit."
Handing the sleeping Emilia over to
He couldn't tell if this was the same location as before, but the expression on Garfiel's face as he regarded Subaru was unmistakably the same.
Eyes blazing, Garfiel glared at Subaru.
That was clearly a world apart from the atmosphere just after they'd left the Tomb—it was unmistakably born of hostility.
Naturally, the first question that left his lips was— "You..."
"What did you see inside the Tomb...?"
Subaru cut in before Garfiel could finish, and veins bulged on the older boy's forehead—only for Garfiel's eyes to go wide when the very words Subaru had intended to say were spoken by him instead.
Strangely enough, when Garfiel showed that kind of caught-off-guard expression, it wiped away the aggressive impression he'd built up until now, and something almost childlike peeked through.
At Subaru's half-lidded gaze, Garfiel quickly shook his head and steeled himself, grinding his teeth.
"Creepy as hell, but if you already know then let's cut the chase. Spill it—honestly, no holding back. Unless you want things to hurt."
"Fair enough. I've got plenty of things I want to confirm too, and I'm a busy man. —I'll answer your question, but in exchange, will you answer one of mine?"
"You think you're in any position to be laying down trade conditions? I'm the one who gets to eat you, and you're the one who gotta throw someone else's meat on the table to save yourself. Like that thing about the 'Maiage who, after his brother, offered up his younger sibling.'"
"That's the worst one out of all the idioms you've used so far."
Shrugging in response, Subaru let his gaze fall and chose silence for a moment.
Garfiel was clearly anxious, but he still didn't rush Subaru. Subaru took a deep, heavy breath and decided on his answer.
"I took the Trial inside. I saw the past."
"—! So you really did have the qualifications... And the result was..."
"I failed. It's not that easy—to deny or accept the past on a whim. ...Emilia went through the same thing."
He told the truth in the first half and a lie in the second, watching Garfiel's reaction to each.
Upon hearing that Subaru had taken the Trial, Garfiel's expression had changed drastically—but when he heard it hadn't been completed, his shoulders visibly sagged with relief.
"You look pretty damn relieved there."
"What...?"
"That you're happily accepting Emilia's failure, and that the Sanctuary won't be liberated—that's what I thought."
At Subaru's words, Garfiel, who had been knitting his brow, seemed to catch on and snorted. He lowered his stance slightly, glaring up at Subaru from below.
"You—what did you see in the past... no, what did the Trial show you...?"
"How this Sanctuary came to be, some light background details. And you and Ryuzu, I'd say."
"—! No way... did you learn about my..."
That was probably what Garfiel was about to say—"about my past?"—and Subaru preemptively shook his head.
Subaru hadn't delved into the specifics of the Trial's contents, the things Garfiel was worried about.
However— "I don't know what you saw in the past. But I can guess why you're keeping quiet about having taken the Trial."
"You... even that...?"
"Just a guess, though. If I'm overstepping, feel free to get mad."
Subaru and Garfiel had known each other for barely a day in this world.
Most of the information Subaru would learn through contact with Garfiel from this point on was, under normal circumstances, far from something he'd be told this early.
That, of course, applied equally to Ryuzu Meyer herself, who lay sleeping in the trial grounds.
And so here too, Subaru was playing it by waving around the existence of the Trial and
Currently, Subaru couldn't think of any new information he could gain from talking with Garfiel, or any new moves to make going forward.
All he wanted now was to end this conversation quickly.
But— "—Hey. Why aren't you re-challenging the Trial?"
"————"
To Garfiel's silence, Subaru pressed further with that question.
Hearing it, Garfiel hung his face, refusing to show his expression to Subaru.
His arms hung limply at his sides, the guarded stance having gone slack.
And so, Subaru judged that an immediate attack wasn't coming.
"I can't help but feel like there's no consistency in your behavior. You push Emilia forward to liberate the Sanctuary, but you look relieved when she fails. And yet, if you truly intended to prevent the Sanctuary's liberation, you're being half-hearted about it."
In the ultimate analysis, if Garfiel truly didn't care about consequences, all he had to do was go berserk and take Subaru and Emilia's lives.
Naturally, the refugees' and Roswaal's feelings would be at their worst—but if Garfiel's goal was genuinely to obstruct the Sanctuary's liberation, that was the most certain and efficient way.
Despite this, Garfiel never went beyond the very last line—that is, the point where Subaru would spirit the refugees out of the Sanctuary.
—There was a boundary line inside Garfiel that Subaru hadn't yet identified.
If he could clearly discern it, "I was hoping I might be able to count on your help."
"—Ain't—no way I'm doing that."
At Subaru's words, Garfiel faltered mid-sentence before retorting.
Looking up, Garfiel shook his head with none of his usual intensity.
"Like you said, our interests don't align. I ain't gonna actively interfere, but I ain't gonna actively help either. I'm neutral. Neutral is fine."
"You got any self-awareness that you look nothing like a neutral party?"
"Ain't—I'm not doing this because it suits me. I'm doing this because I have to."
Saying something so unlike himself, Garfiel irritably kicked the ground, sending up a cloud of dust as he turned his back to Subaru.
"If that half-devil passes the Trial, then that's that. Once you're inside, you need to pass the Trial to get out—I understand that much. But whether you go outside after the Sanctuary opens up is a different story."
"............"
"If you wanna leave, go ahead and leave. But don't do anything in there. And you—don't you dare cross over to our side any further. Do that, and I won't do anything."
"Even if I say that your strength is needed out there?"
"...There's nothing you people can give me that I actually want. That's all I got to say. Don't do anything unnecessary."
Not listening to Subaru's argument, but speaking with a measure of rationality, Garfiel left the scene.
Up until now, Garfiel had shown strong resistance when conversations encroached on certain territory—yet this time, he hadn't gone on the offensive against Subaru.
Where did that difference lie? Where was his true intention?
"There's a mountain of things I want to think about... but..."
Shoving his fingers through his black hair, Subaru left the tangled information to sit in his head without sorting it out.
He wanted to organize it, structure it, and derive an answer—desperately.
"But even that... thinking about it alone isn't going to get me anywhere."
If he got lost in the labyrinth of his own thoughts, Natsuki Subaru would be swallowed by the spiral of negativity once more. To prevent that, what Subaru needed now was...
"Can I... rely on you again?"
All he could do was think of the only person in this world to whom he could bare his troubles.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ Driven by unbearable emotion, Subaru's feet carried him away.
After parting from Garfiel, the steps he took quickly broke into a run.
Breathing hard, sweat beading on his brow, eyes trembling, Subaru ran.
There was one destination—the Tomb, illuminated by the moon hanging in the night sky.
This was after what had just transpired.
Having said he wouldn't interfere with Subaru's actions, Garfiel wouldn't get in the way.
There was no one who would stop Subaru from charging back into the Tomb.
Arriving at the entrance, he stopped and roughly wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve.
Through repeated deep breaths, he stilled his ragged breathing, then looked ahead into the darkness of the Tomb.
What he needed was in there—or rather, in the castle of dreams that could be called an abyss: Echidna's world.
"If I wish to know... if I want to find out..."
When summoned, the white-haired
With a desperate feeling, Subaru had believed her and come here.
There were so many things he wanted to hear, wanted to talk about, wanted her to help him think through, wanted her to help him find answers to.
He wanted the Witch of Greed alone to confide in, and for her to show him the way.
What he needed to do and what he wanted to do were one and the same.
All he needed now was a way to make that happen—an answer beyond the dead end he kept hitting alone.
"————"
Heading to Echidna's castle, laying bare all his worries and doubts before her, begging for her warmth—there was a part of him that felt pathetic about it.
He couldn't deny the fear that by confiding everything in Echidna and breaking the taboo, the shadow of jealousy might once again engulf the Sanctuary, and his legs trembled at the thought.
But even so, Subaru wished.
He wished that the Witch's guidance might provide a clue to break through this invisible dead-end of fate.
"Right now, I should... meet the conditions."
He was this lost.
He was this desperate to exhaust every option.
If not Subaru—who was currently this lost and desperate—then who could be called an apostle of Greed?
He would throw away his life as many times as it took. His pride, too, he would sacrifice if that was what it took.
This was the very best that the pitiful, wretched, powerless, and ignorant Natsuki Subaru had to offer.
"I'm counting on you, Echidna...!"
Steadying his breath, Subaru steeled himself quietly and stepped into the Tomb.
He entered the room of the Trials, which had already accepted one challenger this night, surveyed the square space, and advanced to the center.
"Where to go and what kind of ritual is needed... I guess it's anyone's guess."
The second time he'd been invited into the dream, Subaru had been desperate for answers—and other than that, he'd still been in the crawling, beaten posture he'd been in right after Return by Death.
He didn't think there was some special condition requiring a particular offering.
For now, Subaru knelt on the spot, clasped his hands together, and closed his eyes.
In his mind's eye, he pictured the white Witch's form, and as if calling out to her, he laid bare his emotions. He pleaded with her, conveying his desperate desire to pull back a future that had hit a dead end.
"————"
And so, Subaru waited in silence as time passed.
The cold air of the Tomb grazed his bare skin, and yet he was aware that cold sweat was seeping from his forehead.
He was searching. Desperately.
He was yearning. Earnestly.
If he wanted this much, desired this much, and still couldn't reach it— —Then perhaps "greed" was nothing more than a vast desire that exceeded human capacity.
"—?"
Just as a wave of weakness was about to overtake him, the closed-eyed Subaru perceived a sudden intrusion of white light into the darkness behind his eyelids. —No, it wasn't just a perception.
"————"
White light invaded his vision, gradually—gradually—eroding the pitch-black world.
He realized that his kneeling body had toppled sideways onto the ground, and that his consciousness was being torn from reality and pulled into another world.
—The invitation to the castle of dreams had begun.
To Echidna's waiting castle, where he would have the conversation he needed to finally seize the future.
In his fading consciousness, Subaru could only fixate on that single thought— '—Look upon this impossible now.' In the instant before consciousness fell, he thought he heard such a voice.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ A sensation like being drunk shook Subaru's entire nervous system.
He didn't know what had happened.
Consciousness returned with startling abruptness. It was like a channel switch.
A switch to a channel with an entirely different atmosphere from the previous one, the noise of the transition still ringing in his awareness.
Right after "Return by Death," Subaru had felt a similar sensation.
The horror of the world just before death, and the dissonance of the situation immediately after returning—it carved not only into Subaru's mind and body, but even into his very soul.
'————' And having awakened, Subaru tried to make a sound and realized no sound would come.
He tried to reach for his throat, and then belatedly realized he had no sensation of a throat, nor of a hand.
'————?' Hands, feet, eyes, mouth—more than that, even his body did not exist for Subaru in this moment.
Only his consciousness floated in the void, observing the world from above, as though he had become nothing but a vantage point.
An unnatural sensation, as though his body had been lost inside a dream.
And yet, as though this wasn't the first time he'd experienced this state—that too must have been because he felt as though he were dreaming.
Thinking that way, Natsuki Subaru tried to detach his consciousness from the scene before him.
But that was impossible.
Without a body, Subaru couldn't even turn his head or close his eyes.
All he could do was watch—the scene that was being burned into his consciousness against his will.
"...lier."
A small, rasping voice.
A voice so weak it was difficult to make out what was said.
And yet— '————' He understood instinctively.
Bad. His consciousness-only existence sensed it with pure instinct.
It was a voice he should not have heard.
It was something he should not have noticed.
There was something there he should never have known.
But no matter how his consciousness screamed otherwise, the scene burned into him didn't change. It wouldn't disappear. It simply forced its "result" upon Subaru, carving it into him.
"Liar... liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar..."
The repeated words, the previously indistinguishable syllables taking clear form, the sound spoken as if forgetting how to stop—tears began to mix in.
It was a wretched sight. Sorrow that would not leave his ears. To see it, to hear it—that was the supreme suffering of this world.
'————' Why was he here?
Why had he been made to notice this?
He'd failed. He'd erred. His judgment had crumbled. He should never have noticed. He should never have known. He should never have been made to realize.
—If he didn't believe that, then he— "Liar, liar! Subaru's... liar!! Liar—!!"
Tears pouring from her violet eyes, Emilia collapsed to the ground, screaming.
As if condemning betrayal, as if denying the nightmare before her, she thrashed her long hair like a child, screaming in madness.
—Laid out before her, before the bed where