Mana gathered at the tip of the staff, and the incantation woven from it rewrote the world.
The wind that blasted forth became a blade, and the blade rushed toward the figure standing at the center of the swirling vortex, then detonated—scattering destruction in every direction without restraint.
"—————!"
At the heart of the vortex—standing where the reversing blades were aimed—was Garfiel, roaring as he gazed upward.
The descending blade struck Garfiel's torso, its keen edge carving diagonally through his rock-hard abdominal muscles. He bled, yet was not cleaved in two—and that was because he had launched himself backward in a single bound.
The judgment to immediately disengage when faced with the choice between counterattack and evasion. Though a faint flicker of hesitation lingered in the corners of his eyes, he shielded his head with his arms to avoid a fatal wound, and Garfiel slid across the ground, escaping the wind blades.
But these were blades unleashed in a surprise attack meant to decide the outcome of the battle.
The wind would not so easily grant Garfiel's escape. As he retreated, the severing pursuit closed in. Garfiel kicked off the ground, clicked his tongue at the invisible slash— "Tch, damn you—!"
Right after retreating a great distance, the shouting Garfiel met the wind blade head-on.
His stomping heel drove into the earth, and from the soles of Garfiel's feet, the ground was cut away in a square shape, tilting diagonally as it bounced upward. The wind blade was hammered down by the earth surging from directly below, shearing away the surface of the soil before dissipating.
The upheaved ground fell in accordance with gravity, and an earth-shaking rumble sent clouds of dust billowing into the air.
Before such a cataclysmic, overwhelming spectacle, any ordinary person would have lost their voice and frozen in place.
However, the person who had launched the ambush was no ordinary human—nor was this the first time she had witnessed Garfiel perform such a feat.
"Sh—!"
"Tch!"
Breaking through the cloud of dust and bursting forth was a girl, her short skirt flipping with the motion.
Beneath her neatly trimmed pink hair, pale-crimson eyes burning with fierce will caught the light. From the tip of the staff she held, mana was being released in quantities sufficient to warp the atmosphere itself, and invisible wind blades extended from it as well.
A textbook example of a wind mage's precise control—one that extended its effective range far beyond what the surface appearance would suggest.
Despite their fragile look, the wind blades possessed a cutting power that surpassed any half-decent sword. Garfiel had been readying his claws to counter, but even he was at a disadvantage against blades with no physical form.
Still in his defensive stance, Garfiel lowered his body and leaped backward to flee—but his retreat was cut off by
"Ul Hula!"
"Guah—!?"
A brief incantation. The weakest tier of wind magic. Struck from behind, Garfiel's back took the blow, and the single step he needed to make his escape was preemptively sealed. There was no real damage. But he was stalled.
Lifting his gaze, he saw that Ram had already raised her blade— "—————"
Before he could think about what the best course of action was, Garfiel's body had already moved.
Claws, fangs—the weapons at his disposal were useless for intercepting a wind blade. Dodging was also difficult when the initiative had already been lost. That left only one path.
"Rrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaah!!"
Roaring, Garfiel leaped, and both his hands struck outward from either side at the invisible edge of the blade. It was like a barehanded catch against a steel blade—but against an intangible, invisible edge, this action could serve as no real defense.
Even so, the wind blade, for all its ethereal nature, did exist—that much was fact. Its cutting edge, disrupted by the impact of Garfiel's palm strikes, lost its concentration and merely tore diagonally across the skin of his body rather than slicing through it clean.
By the time Ram judged that the attack had been nullified, it was already too late.
"Sk—off, ya bastard!"
A front kick launched at close range targeted Ram's torso the instant she had touched down.
The sole of the boot, capable of piercing atmosphere and shattering stone, nonetheless could not reach her. She had dropped her stance so low it almost looked as though she were lying on the ground, and with another wind blade freshly conjured, she began sweeping at Garfiel's feet.
"—————kuh!"
Standing on one leg and on the verge of losing everything below the ankle, Garfiel leaped. He succeeded in dodging Ram's blade, but— "Your feet left the ground," she whispered.
The whisper had barely grazed his eardrums when Garfiel's body was hammered down by a heel strike descending from directly above.
The outlandish blow came from Ram, who had flicked aside the wind blade, launched her body into the air, and unleashed the kick while rotating vertically.
Suspended in midair, Garfiel could absorb none of the impact. His arms, raised in a last-ditch block, creaked under the force as he went flying, bounced off the ground, and slammed into a tree trunk behind him before finally coming to a stop.
Exhaling a ragged breath, Garfiel fixed Ram with golden eyes burning with fury.
But— "Ul Hula."
There, the full destructive might of the wind was concentrated upon the entire stretch of forest—centered on Garfiel, the invisible assault ravaged the woodland.
"Guh— ah—"
The raging gale battered Garfiel's body, tore at it, flung it about, and churned him together with the thrashing forest in a single violent embrace.
Tossed about until he could no longer distinguish up from down, and with his feet still off the ground, Garfiel had no means of defending himself. He could only be felled before Ram's magic.
When the wind finally ceased and the fury had passed, Garfiel barely managed to remain standing.
However, covered in blood and gazing up at the sky, he sank to one knee—half his consciousness already blown away.
He had thrown himself into a meticulously laid trap and taken two blasts of high-tier magic head-on.
The fact that he was still alive at all spoke volumes about the depth of his vitality. Ram had, in a sense, anticipated as much—which accounted for her lack of mercy.
Having confirmed the extent of Garfiel's damage, Ram let out a quiet sigh. Then she turned her gaze toward Otto, who had been standing behind her, merely observing the ambush.
"I knew it, but what a pathetic, unsightly sight."
"Evaluating someone who fought with body and soul quite so harshly is a bit much, wouldn't you say…?"
"Everything comes down to results. Whether things went well or they didn't. The process leading up to it is secondary to the outcome… which is why I'll say it again. A pathetic, unsightly sight."
"Wow, you really are merciless. …She really is the kind of person Natsuki-san was talking about, huh."
Without a single word of praise for Otto's efforts, Ram gave a small snort at his wry smile.
As a result of his struggle, the damage Otto had dealt to Garfiel was respectable in its own right. Setting aside the nuisance value of the small traps he'd laid between attacks, the final strike had been charged with enough power to have reasonably brought Garfiel down.
However, if there was one miscalculation on Otto's part— "It seems you couldn't break through Garfiel's 'Earth Spirit's Blessing.'"
"The Earth Spirit's… what now?"
When Otto asked for clarification, Ram let out a small sigh. She shook her head in exasperation and looked down at the bewildered Otto with a gaze of thorough contempt before sighing again.
"How much more disappointment do you plan to show me?! Even I'm starting to get hurt at this point!"
"Garfiel's 'Earth Spirit's Blessing' is exactly what it sounds like—a blessing that lets him receive the bounty of the earth. As long as his feet are planted on the ground, his body is clad in the tough protection of soil. —As if that weren't enough, earth-attribute magic is the worst possible match. My trump card from the Wind system, and of all things it had to be a golem…?"
Ram pressed her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, bowing her head.
"Your luck is so abysmal it's beyond even pity."
"Wow, my terrible luck has finally exploded on the scene even in a moment like this—how terrifying! And for that matter, if you knew about it, Ram-san, shouldn't you have told me? I could have contributed in a completely different way!"
"Ram-sama, if you please."
"Why is everyone trying to kick me to the absolute bottom of the hierarchy?!"
Ignoring Otto's clamoring, Ram shook the tip of her staff as she stepped forward to deal with Garfiel.
He should have been unconscious by now, but Garfiel's bottomless stamina was nothing short of astonishing. When the
Ram's foot stopped mid-step, and a faint crease formed between her brows.
Sensing the drying of the air with her slightly parted lips, she let the tip of her red tongue peek out briefly. Then— "Garfiel."
"…Tch, really now. You're one merciless woman, I'll give ya that, damn it."
Responding to Ram's call, Garfiel—who had been hanging his head without strength—lifted his face.
In his wide-open, sharp eyes, rage and hostility burned with undimmed ferocity. His exposed canines clacked together in small, sharp sounds, declaring that his fighting spirit had not waned in the slightest.
The ambush should have been a complete success. There had been no better-feeling execution.
And yet, the monster known as Garfiel Tinsel had still not been defeated.
Though he was spilling a staggering amount of blood, there was no noticeable fatigue or damage in the casual manner with which he rose to his feet. The wind blades and strikes had affected nothing beyond the surface.
His skin was thinly slashed, and he had taken countless blows that grazed past his vitals—but not a single one had landed with enough force to meaningfully impede his ability to fight.
"Ya pinned me against a tree and fired off that magic, and I honestly thought, 'This is it, I'm done for.' I racked my brain harder than I ever have in that one instant, trying to figure out what to do. But not a single answer came up, y'know… so I stopped thinking."
He had abandoned complex thought and surrendered himself entirely to instinct, letting his body move on its own to evade.
In the end, his instincts greedily chose survival, and within the unavoidable onslaught, he had brilliantly guided himself to sustain only the minimum damage necessary.
It was the culmination of his species' instinct—as a creature born to fight.
Even Ram, stone-faced as she was, could not help but draw a faint breath at his combat sense.
Though his raw stats fell short of hers, Ram prided herself on a quality no one could surpass—the ability to choose the best course in any situation. For her, this was a rare encounter with someone who could stand on equal footing.
On one hand, she thought, not here, not now—but on the other, the fact that her opponent was Garfiel gave rise in Ram's heart to an indescribable feeling, one that served as one root of a deeper emotion she could not easily articulate.
"Hey, Ram. Why are ya takin' their side? How'd it come to that?"
"—————"
"Do ya even realize what that means? Takin' their side means agreeing to this plan to unleash the Sanctuary. Ain't that goin' against Rozwaal's wishes? That guy… at the very least, right now, he shouldn't want the Sanctuary unleashed."
"You think you can speak about Rozwaal-sama as though you understand him, in front of Ram, Garfiel? We've known each other long enough—you ought to know that Ram would never, ever lend her ear to such foolish talk."
"I know how stubborn ya are. That's exactly what I fell for about ya, I tell ya. Which is exactly why I can't wrap my head around this. If you're not giving up your Rozwaal supremacism, then why take their side? If I knew the reason ya got talked into it, maybe it'd make sense."
At Garfiel's words, Ram closed her eyes once.
The sight of Ram trembling her lips and suppressing some emotion was rare. Garfiel's eyes widened at this, but the emotion vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
"Ram is… taking the action that she believes holds the greatest meaning toward her own wish. That's all."
"Yer wish…?"
"Obviously, the fulfillment of Rozwaal-sama's deepest desire. —There is nothing else."
At Ram's unequivocal declaration, Garfiel exhaled deeply.
She had no intention of continuing to discuss the contradiction between her actions and her aspirations with Garfiel. No one could understand Ram's feelings—no one except this man, who had noticed what lay at the heart of her and made this overture because of it.
"You're a truly infuriating man, Barusu. …Though even Ram doesn't know why."
Ram harbored an ineffable irritation toward Subaru.
It included physiological aversion, and the resentment accumulated through their time together, and many other things—but beyond all that, it seemed rooted in something far more fundamental.
As though he were some hateful enemy who had stolen something precious from her of his own accord—Ram held this inexplicable feeling toward Subaru.
And yet, Ram had gone along with Subaru's invitation because the proposal he put forward had shaken something deep at the very core of her heart.
"You should be just about recovered enough to stand by now, shouldn't you?"
"How demanding you are… I'd think even one healing spell wouldn't be too much to ask, you know…"
"You needn't worry. Ram is completely incapable of healing magic. There was never any need for me to learn it."
"You're the first maid I've ever met who's so completely unrelated to anything healing-related!"
Otto let out a shriek and forced his trembling legs to bear his weight as he stood.
His swaying body finally stopped producing nosebleeds. Even standing, he was nowhere near being counted as a fighting force.
Still, despite this, the unyielding look in his eyes prompted Garfiel to snort with irritation.
"I already showed ya with that last exchange that you're done for, y'know? Used my trump card and I'm still standing here fit as a fiddle—can't ya see that? You're too stubborn for your own good. You'll scare off a good man, y'know—hey!"
"As it happens, I haven't lost so much of my survival instinct that I can gracefully accept defeat. Even if I'm left with nothing but the clothes on my back, as long as I have my body, I can still start running. My friend—at the very least—seems like the type who would say exactly that and then start running."
"…Tch, that guy again."
At the word "friend" from Otto's lips, Garfiel clicked his tongue.
"What's so trustworthy about a smooth-talker like that? He's got no real strength. No talent. His mouth just spins around and around, and that's the size of it. Is a guy like that worth lending your strength to, huh?"
"Whether he has value—that's a good question. Right now, perhaps Natsuki-san doesn't have that value."
"…Huh?"
"But the future is another matter entirely."
At this unexpected answer, Garfiel tilted his head. Otto's smile deepened as he spoke.
Despite the fact that his stamina was utterly spent and most of his strategies had been crushed by brute force, with virtually no hope remaining—Otto's face betrayed not a trace of anxiety as he said: "I am a merchant, after all. I think it's not a bad idea to invest in someone who looks like they could bring me returns down the road. Natsuki-san… there's something about him. Something that makes me think he might just pull off something truly big."
"—————"
"Of course, that's only true on the condition that he isn't snuffed out right here and now. So for now, while Natsuki-san is nothing more than a bud, I figure my role is to clear away the pests and prune him a bit—see what kind of flower he blooms into, and what sort of value it might hold."
"A troublesome person, that one," Otto muttered with a scratch of his head and a wry smile. Hearing this, Ram let out a bored sigh.
"Honestly, I don't know what about Barusu is worth being so impressed by. He's weak, he's useless, and he can't even make a proper cup of tea. On that point, I agree with you, Garfiel."
"That might be going a bit far… but maybe not, actually."
"However, Barusu is the sort of man who has strangely good timing when it counts."
Ignoring Otto's timid attempt to play peacemaker, Ram delivered her verdict.
The two men both cocked their heads at the word "timing," and Ram tilted her chin down.
"Timing. That's what Barusu is—a man whose only strength is his timing."
For all his everyday uselessness and incomprehensible lack of any discernible value,
When
When the injured Subaru was carried back to the mansion, and a disturbance caused by magical beasts erupted over the following days—even in bringing that crisis to a close, Subaru had saved the village children and played a role in eradicating the beast horde. He hadn't made the single greatest contribution, but the fact that his presence had been a lifeline was undeniable.
When Emilia returned from the capital and the mansion was entrusted with her care, and an ominous presence spread across the surrounding area including the village—Subaru had returned with reinforcements and extricated them from danger in spectacular fashion.
Natsuki Subaru was, to an abnormal degree, a man of impeccable timing.
There was not a single quality that drew her to him, and she felt absolutely nothing in terms of his appeal as a member of the opposite sex. Ram couldn't understand what was good about him, and it had frustrated her. What exactly had been so frustrating—what had been nagging at her—she couldn't recall.
In any case, that was the sum of what Natsuki Subaru was.
And it was precisely for that reason that Ram, on this occasion— "You can trust Barusu's timing alone. —If Barusu judged the moment right and chose to act on it, that may be our only chance of snatching a victory."
"So in the end, Ram-san, you do have some degree of trust in Natsuki-san, don't you?"
"Ram-sama, if you please."
"Are you really going to keep pushing that one!?"
Displeased by the grinning man who had sidled up beside her, Ram silenced him with a sharp glare.
In this way, the two of them were united in affirming Subaru's objective. They had reached a tacit understanding about forming a temporary alliance, and about keeping quiet while Subaru bought them time.
She was well aware that they had bought sufficient time already—but— "Somehow, I'm still not sure why the desire to keep fighting hasn't faded. It honestly baffles me."
"It's humiliating to have both traps and ambushes land this cleanly and still not bring him down. For all his Garfiel mannerisms, he's got some nerve. —I'll make sure he understands."
"Wow, scary. This lady is scary. That sleeping girl back there—is she really all that nice? I'm starting to think Natsuki-san might have been lying."
Otto muttered his unnecessary commentary under his breath.
Ram tested the grip of her staff, once again raising the concentration of mana.
Against the two who showed no sign of releasing their fighting stances, Garfiel maintained a long silence. He lowered his head, listening to their voices, and then—slowly—he stepped forward.
"—————"
The two of them tensed as they felt the renewed intent to fight.
But their resolve was— "…Enough."
A hoarse whisper, barely audible.
Otto and Ram both furrowed their brows at the same time.
"Thinking's too much of a pain—"
In a voice completely drained of energy, Garfiel murmured.
And then— "————————————————!!!"
A beast's roar reverberated through the air, so powerful it shook the entirety of the Sanctuary's forest.
Every living creature in the forest trembled and bowed its head beneath the sheer oppressive force.
The great beast had arrived.