After finishing his private conversation with Ryuzu, Subaru walked alone through the forest.
Ryuzu had stayed behind in front of the crystal, saying there was something she wanted to think about. A girl with the same face as his own — what was it like to ponder things in front of the original?
The subject matter was endlessly interesting, but he wasn't sure how far he should press. Either way, the Ryuzu he'd just spoken with was someone on his side.
Four Ryuzu clones.
According to what Ryuzu had told him until now, two of them had never undergone the Tomb's Trial, and two had challenged it.
And Subaru believed that the Ryuzu who had challenged the Trial had given Garfiel some kind of advice.
The possibility that the four clones were not of one unified will.
Because they were all playing the role of the same person, he had mistakenly treated all four Ryuzus as the same being. But even though they were all portraying the same individual, they were separate beings with their own ways of thinking.
If one of them — one who had gained an experience that another Ryuzu had not — had arrived at a different conclusion, there was nothing strange about that.
For convenience, he designated the four Ryuzus as Alpha, Beta, Theta, and Sigma.
The Ryuzus who didn't know the Trial were Alpha and Beta. The ones who knew were Theta and Sigma.
He'd originally wanted to call them by the cool-sounding German names Eins, Zwei, and Drei, but he couldn't think of a fourth, so that plan fell through.
Anyway, "So I won't be able to meet the problem children Theta and Sigma for at least two more days, huh..."
The time limit before the
Since simply discussing things wouldn't immediately produce a solution, having only three days of leeway was hardly generous.
To prevent the Sanctuary's liberation, Garfiel would end up massacring the villagers.
If he was being pushed to that extent, then Ryuzu Theta and Sigma's convictions wouldn't be easily shaken. Factoring in the persuasion effort that would also be required, the outlook had to be called bleak.
"That said, even though the obstacles have multiplied... I can see a path forward on Garfiel's side, can't I? If I can somehow convince the two Ryuzus who are getting in the way, the problem is solved."
If Ryuzu Theta and Sigma were influencing Garfiel's rampage, then persuading them was tantamount to meeting the conditions for getting through to Garfiel. Since there was no visible method for directly subduing Garfiel, this was a thin and unreliable hope, but it was a light at the end of the tunnel nonetheless.
Currently, Garfiel not only had individual combat power but also commanded the Ryuzu clones other than the representatives — twenty pure copies without will of their own.
The copies were mechanical forces that didn't even flinch at their own deaths, and Garfiel felt little resistance in using them, since they had no will of their own.
That detachment was, in Subaru's eyes, far too harsh.
Setting that sentiment aside, he wanted to avoid a clash with Garfiel.
It was obvious, but subduing Garfiel by force was impossible.
If Garfiel, led by those Ryuzus and instigated by Theta and Sigma, turned against them in full, their chances of winning would dwindle even further.
"Since I've made such a big show of it and even sealed a contract with Roswaal, I can't afford to fail. I don't intend to fail, either. Whether the insurance policy pays off or not is its own thing, but I need to hold my ground where I can with my own strength."
He slapped his cheeks to keep from slipping into discouragement and shook his head to reprimand himself.
Then, facing straight ahead, "In any case, dealing with Ryuzu Theta and Sigma is going to be a cold approach. Testing the waters with Garfiel first might be worth it, but... that can wait."
He passed through the forest and returned to the Sanctuary's settlement.
The sun had fully risen, and throughout the settlement, residents and refugees from
With those scenes in his periphery, occasionally raising a hand in return to the greetings directed at him, Subaru made his way to a place insulated from all that activity.
A spot a little removed from both the Cathedral and the settlement.
— The quarters where
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ — If he closed his eyes, he could still recall that time with perfect clarity.
It had been a world of white, white, white.
Little Emilia walked alone through an endless expanse of silver.
— Don't remember this!
A voiceless cry rose up, but it couldn't reach the small Emilia walking with her head hanging low.
She looked around anxiously, her eyes darting this way and that, and then, crestfallen as her expectations were betrayed, she trudged through the snow, dragging her feet.
— Go back! Please! Don't do this anymore!
Little Emilia breathed out white mist, staring curiously at the vapor from her own mouth. Again and again, she exhaled. Her attire was nothing more than a thin undergarment and a cloak-like garment that enveloped her body.
It was an absurdly ill-suited outfit for enduring an arctic world, but there was no helping it.
After all, for Emilia, this was the first time she had ever seen snow or experienced a world this cold.
The world she had known was a forest brimming with green and warm light — nothing at all like this current world where everything was buried under snow and ice.
A place she should have known was showing a face she had never seen.
That fact was so bewildering to little Emilia that it had made her forget the reaction she should have had.
— No! Don't go any further! Go back! If you won't, then just...!
Even if she screamed until her throat tore, until it was crushed, until she coughed up blood, little Emilia would not stop. The voice went unheard, and mercilessly the girl pressed forward.
Her barefoot footsteps were painful to watch on the unfamiliar snowy path — her shoes lost somewhere along the way.
Her bare feet — which must have long since gone numb to cold and pain — were cut by branches and stones hidden beneath the snow, leaving trails of blood to mark her journey.
And yet she pressed on alone, forgetting the pain, hiding her fear of this unknown world — for what reason?
— Stop it, please... I don't want to see anymore... please...
Her pleas went unheard. Her wishes would not be granted. Her hopes were only being severed.
Even in the world of dreams, the reality she should have known forced its cruel truth upon her — showing her her past self and the shape of her greatest mistake.
"———"
Little Emilia's violet eyes gleamed with hope, as if she had spotted something through the curtain of snow ahead.
What lay in her line of sight was the trunk of the tallest tree she had ever known — the Great Tree of Prayer. This sacred tree, where prayers were offered to the unseen divine, was an irreplaceable presence cherished by everyone in the settlement.
Little Emilia had stubbornly believed that merely touching the trunk of that great tree would let her feel its great blessing upon her skin.
For Emilia in this moment, how reassuring it was that the Great Tree stood where it always had, keeping its majestic form.
In a landscape she knew but that had been transformed into an unfamiliar place, only the Great Tree had maintained the status quo — and how she was saved by that.
Breathing out more white mist, Emilia stumbled toward the Great Tree. The accumulated snow reached as high as her knees, and in the short distance before reaching the tree, the girl fell again and again, leaving her body's imprint on the pure white snowfield.
Before long, after falling face-first countless times until even her nose was red from the cold, Emilia reached the base of the Great Tree.
Her expression, which had been stiff with anxiety, softened slightly with relief — though the muscles hardened by the cold could only manage the faintest flicker of movement.
"———?"
Reaching out to touch one of the tree's roots, little Emilia's expression shifted as if she had noticed something. She ran her hand along the root, then dug at its snow-covered tip with her freezing fingertips.
— Stop!!
She dug and dug.
Driven purely by a frantic sense of urgency, little Emilia dug through the snow.
— Stop! Stop stop stop stop stop!
She didn't want to see it. She didn't want to remember.
She wanted to turn away, cover her eyes, crush her ears, and tear the world apart with her voice.
But she couldn't deceive a face that didn't exist, eyes that didn't exist, ears that didn't exist.
Little Emilia's fingertips found something buried in the snow.
And then, slowly, the girl removed the last flake of snow with her own hand— — Please stop...!!
……
…………………….
……………………………………………….
"—I shouldn't have tried to save you."
"———"
"Proof of sin. Proof of defilement. Cursed, cursed, cursed, and at the end of your suffering..."
"———"
"Go ahead and die. —You daughter of a witch."
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "—Emilia? Emilia? Hey, are you okay?!"
"Ah... wh... ah, Suba...ru...?"
When he shook her shoulder and kept calling her name, Emilia opened her eyes faintly and called Subaru's name. She shook her head for a moment, trying to reclaim her hazy consciousness, "Why is... Subaru here...?"
"Does there have to be a reason? I could stare at Emilia-tan's face all day and never get tired of it."
"That's not what I mean... umm..."
Her mind wasn't quite clear yet — there was still uncertainty in her responses.
Wanting to put Emilia at ease, Subaru slapped his knees and stood up with a smile.
"It's a real problem when you're so defenseless in front of me like that. I'm happy you trust me, but under this garment of reason, I'm just a man keeping a savage wolf on a leash. I'd like you to be more aware of me as a proper human being, Emilia-tan."
"...? I would never forget about you, Subaru. I was just groggy from waking up, so my answer came out weird... but when did I even take a nap?"
His words didn't seem to fully reach her, but there was a clear sign of wakefulness in Emilia's voice now. Once Subaru confirmed that, he tilted his chin and looked at Emilia, whose brow was furrowed in puzzlement.
"I get that you're tired, but if you're going to sleep, you should do it in an actual bed. When you sleep on the floor like this, my heart practically stops the moment I walk in."
"...Ah, sorry. I worried you, didn't I?"
"I'd barely steeled my resolve, and then this new event popped up — I honestly panicked, thinking everything was ruined. I can definitively say that Emilia-tan's sleeping face today was more moving than usual."
In truth, the shock Subaru had felt upon entering the sleeping quarters and finding Emilia was beyond words.
When his knocks went unanswered, he'd considered the possibility she wasn't there, but when he stepped inside, he found Emilia sprawled on the floor in front of the bed, her silver hair spread out around her.
Seeing that, the blood had drained from his face, and no one could blame him for nearly succumbing to despair.
When he picked her up, though, her body was warm, and he could feel her breathing and heartbeat — so he quickly realized it had been nothing to worry about.
However, "If that were all, I would've just left you sleeping... but you seemed to be having a really bad nightmare. Was it wrong of me to wake you?"
In Subaru's arms, the sleeping Emilia had been drenched in sweat on her forehead, her face twisted in anguish as she thrashed about. Subaru knew from experience that truly terrible nightmares offered no escape — a call from outside the dream was the only way to break free from the suffering.
At Subaru's words, Emilia shook her head side to side.
"Thank you so much for waking me. I was having... well, no, I was having a really awful dream... so, yeah. Thank you."
"What a terrible dream to put Emilia-tan through. I'd love to ask about the contents, but... I get the feeling remembering it wouldn't be pleasant."
"———"
The silent, bitter smile she gave in response made Subaru think about the cause of Emilia's nightmare.
It was probably the result of accumulating negative emotions, which then crystallized into a nightmare. Whether it had concrete imagery or not, he wasn't sure, "...I see. Then I won't push you to talk about it."
The way Emilia averted her gaze from Subaru and avoided further questioning told him clearly that the nightmare had been vivid and specific.
If it had been a vague nightmare, deflecting with words would have been easy. The fact that she couldn't do that was proof of how clearly formed the nightmare's shape was.
This had turned into an awkward encounter with Emilia, and considering where the conversation needed to go from here, that made things even more difficult.
Frowning in thought about how to broach the subject, Subaru touched the tip of his nose — and Emilia looked up at him.
"So... what about you, Subaru? You didn't really come here just to look at my face for no reason, did you?"
"I don't think it's all that surprising a thing to do, honestly."
"No, it isn't. You're always busy running around doing important things. You can't waste time like that just for me."
"How diligent do you think I am, in Emilia-tan's mind? I'm the kind of man who wholeheartedly supports establishing a 'National Appreciate-Doing-Nothing Day.' I'm a lazybones through and through."
He wasn't joking or exaggerating — Subaru knew himself to be an incorrigibly slothful person. Without some kind of role or purpose, he would spiral into endless idleness.
That was why, even in his original world, he had never neglected daily exercise or honing his pointless hobbies and trivial skills. He knew that the moment he let himself slack off, he'd become worthless.
— A person who could continue such efforts without any purpose would never be called lazy, but Subaru wasn't the type to notice something that obvious.
Perhaps she had something to say about Subaru's self-deprecation, because Emilia's gaze warmed noticeably after hearing his answer. Subaru furrowed his brow at that reaction, but Emilia ultimately let it go.
"Fine. Anyway, you need to tell me why you came here. Hur-ry up."
"I don't know why you're suddenly acting like a kid, but... ah, right. How about a change of scenery? We could go for a walk outside—"
"———"
"—or maybe not, since that probably wouldn't help much."
At Emilia's silence, Subaru caught his own slip of the tongue and scratched his head.
As was clear from the fact that her sleeping quarters were set apart from the rest of the settlement, Emilia's treatment in the Sanctuary was far from good.
The Sanctuary's residents and Emilia were both strays who had fallen outside their proper races, and they should have understood each other — but even among them, the stigma surrounding half-elves was apparently something special.
For the refugees from Arlam Village, credit for escaping the
Emilia's treatment in the Sanctuary was the same inflamed sensitivity she'd known in the royal capital.
She put on a brave front when she was with Subaru, but that couldn't be pleasant. How did she handle the stares directed at her when she was alone?
Since he still hadn't been able to improve the situation, taking Emilia outside would only be an unnecessary burden.
"This is exactly why I am who I am..."
Furious at his own insensitivity, Subaru gave himself a rap on the forehead.
Using the pain of bone meeting bone to reset his emotions, he turned back to face Emilia, who was staring at him with wide eyes.
"Emilia."
"—Yeah."
Having seen Subaru's expression change, Emilia seemed to realize that his demeanor had shifted as well. She straightened up and gazed back at him, her violet eyes filled with quiet emotion.
Reading that attitude and expression, Subaru understood there was no point in beating around the bush. After a brief moment of wondering how to phrase the opening words, "Do you want to tell me what you saw in the Trial at the Tomb?"
— Subaru had clearly seen the way her violet eyes glistened with terror and grief.