—Even now, there are times when I think back on that moment and am overtaken by regret.
My outstretched fingers were shaken loose, and my name was called with a tenderness that made my heart ache.
Her parting words were suffused with affection, and in the corners of her smiling eyes were tears and resolve—and something far more than enough to seal my voice shut.
"————"
What should I have said? Even now, I don't know.
What was I thinking? I can no longer recall.
What should I have done? Even now, the answer eludes me.
—And so, even now,
"…Ryuzu."
What spilled from her lips was a fragment of memory so old that even giving voice to it felt nostalgic.
When the emotion exploded and she spoke that name, the time that had stagnated within Beatrice—four hundred empty years—came rushing out all at once.
Beatrice had shut herself away in the Forbidden Library, waiting for the arrival of a certain "someone," only after the girl named Ryuzu Meyer was lost, the place known as the "
The loss of the one person she had been truly close to—someone she could call an intimate presence.
Beatrice's devastation at having lost that person before her very eyes due to her own inadequacy was plain for all to see, and everyone knew that only time could heal her wounded heart.
And so, her mother's conclusion was simple and clear.
"Someday, that Warlock will surely come again to destroy this body of mine. I intend to have countermeasures prepared by then… but even that cannot be called foolproof."
"Yes, Mother."
"If we should meet again, it will be a fight to the death. Given the enemy's overwhelming power, my chances of survival are fifty-fifty… perhaps slightly worse than that? Unfortunately, Roswaal's Gate has deteriorated to the point where he is useless in a fight."
At
She wasn't holding back—rather, her emotions had mostly ceased to manifest since that day. One learns just how profoundly an overwhelming sense of loss can reverberate when the emotional pendulum swings back.
Or perhaps, understanding this instinctively, her heart had simply frozen.
Watching Beatrice, whose expression hadn't changed in the slightest, Echidna ran her fingers through her white hair.
"I was never suited for combat, even among witches. If I cannot even borrow the power of Roswaal, that prodigy of sorcery, then I must exhaust every possible strategy before the faintest glimmer of victory appears."
"…What should Betty do?"
It was well known that Roswaal had been driven to the brink of death in the battle that sustained the Sanctuary's functions. Every last one of his Gates had been destroyed, rendering him essentially crippled as a mage.
Imagining her peer, lying in bed, perpetually hovering between life and death, Beatrice addressed Echidna in a voice tinged with despair.
"Stall for time, just as Roswaal did, until Mother's术式 can be completed? Or should I sacrifice myself—a powerful Od manifest—to serve as the core of the术式? For Mother's sake, there is nothing I would hold back. …Please, use me however you see fit."
Pinching the hem of her skirt, Beatrice performed a curtsy, displaying her utmost trust in her mother.
In truth, this was far too fragile and ephemeral a thing to call "trust." It was merely that Beatrice had no grasp of her own current mental state—and even if she had understood herself, the answer she gave would likely have been the same.
A spiteful desire for revenge, outrage at her own helplessness—there was nothing distinguishing her from someone who was self-aware of it and someone who wasn't.
"…I see. Hearing you say that makes it easier for me to ask this of you without guilt. As expected, you are a fine girl, Beatrice."
"…Yes. Betty is Mother's daughter."
Ordinarily, being praised by her mother like that should have brought boundless joy.
Echidna knew this, and so she rarely said such things aloud with the intent of praising Beatrice. But now, those magical words fell upon an empty chest with a hollow sound.
Perhaps this heart would never be kindled with warmth again, no matter what was said to her.
That was what she believed, which was why she couldn't react in time to Echidna's next words.
"Beatrice. I am entrusting you with the management of my library of knowledge. Until the time comes, continue to guard the library as its warden, protecting the knowledge within. —So that no one can take it away from you."
"…Eh?"
"You happen to possess a rare aptitude for shadow magic. Apply the power of 'Door Crossing' to connect an isolated space with a familiar location. …Let us call it the 'Forbidden Library.' I want you to store and protect every piece of knowledge I possess, compiled into books."
Leaving Beatrice wide-eyed with confusion, Echidna continued to speak at length.
Beatrice, who had expected to be ordered to accompany her mother on a life-or-death battle, was utterly stupefied by this unexpected role.
Even as she observed her daughter's agitation, Echidna continued to speak fluently.
"The Forbidden Library should be connected to Roswaal's estate. I will dispose of all my research facilities and prepare for the final battle. Forgive me, but I cannot spare personnel to transport the books. You will have to rely on Roswaal for the bookshelves and labor."
"W-wait…"
"I will not set a deadline. Both you and I have already been freed from the shackles of mortality. The length of the turning seasons holds little meaning. That said, given the possibility that I will be lost, leaving it indefinite would be irresponsible. So then…"
"Please, wait—!"
She drew a breath and cried out.
Before her, her mother was saying things that Beatrice could not comprehend.
No—her instincts screamed that she must not comprehend them. Echidna's thoughts were an abyss, perpetually exceeding the domain that ordinary mortals could grasp. Therefore, her words were the absolute optimal solution, and Beatrice had never once considered interrupting her.
But now was different. It was different.
If she let Echidna speak every last word here and now, she would surely regret it.
Once all of Echidna's thoughts were laid out completely, they would become an irrefutable optimal solution. The world would move to affirm that judgment, and Beatrice would be powerless to resist it.
Therefore, to prevent that, she had no choice but to interrupt her before she finished speaking.
"Mother… what are you even saying? The Forbidden Library, something or other—I don't understand any of it! Betty wants to be with Mother!"
"Even if you were there, your presence would have negligible impact on the battle against the Warlock. Of course, having you there would improve my odds slightly compared to not having you… but it would be marginal. It falls within the margin of error, one might say."
"Even so—if being there is better than not, Betty will help Mother! That's—"
"That will not do. The risk of both of us being annihilated far outweighs the minuscule increase in my chances. Since my probability of surviving the battle is below fifty percent, I believe I must take steps to ensure my knowledge is preserved for future generations."
And that act of preserving her knowledge for the future was the management of the Forbidden Library that she wished to entrust to Beatrice.
Beatrice cursed at that moment the powers she possessed—Door Crossing, and the ability to create a personal dimension. If she didn't have these abilities, her mother would never have asked this of her— "M-me… Betty's power was for… this?"
"————"
"Mother knew from the beginning that it would turn out like this… If that's the case, then the Forbidden Library, and even… the Sanctuary…"
"There is a difference between possessing the means to foresee what will happen and actually exercising it. I did indeed have the means to see this outcome, as well as the ability to avoid it. However, I swear by the way I chose to live—I did not use that power. Please, at least believe me."
Echidna shook her head, denying Beatrice's strained accusation.
Then, approaching Beatrice, who was biting her lip, Echidna pulled a single book from the bookshelf and gently held it out to her daughter.
"This is…?"
"A copy—imperfect, I admit—of the Tome of Wisdom that I possess. The术式 of the Tome is both advanced and complex, and I was never able to fully decipher it… but it should at least serve as a simple guide to its owner's future."
Accepting the offered book, Beatrice turned its cover with trembling hands.
Looking up at Echidna, she found her mother gazing at her with the same distant look she always wore.
"There are two copies. One is for you, and the other I have sent to Roswaal. He will take care of the rest once he reads the book. It is an imposition, but I ask that you accept my wish."
"————"
With trembling eyes, Beatrice looked down at the book and realized, too late, that she had been too slow.
Thinking she could simply not let her say it, not let her put it into words—that wasn't enough.
Echidna—her mother—had already decided on every answer.
No matter how much Beatrice cried and begged now, it would not change the outcome.
The "
"Let us return to the matter of the deadline. Even if I do not return, eventually someone must open the library. When that happens, make sure you can recognize them. Someone worthy of inheriting my knowledge will come for you."
"Someone will come… for Betty?"
"Let us call them 'that person.' The deadline shall be until the moment 'that person' opens the door to the Forbidden Library and tells you your role is finished. —This is my final wish."
Final wish.
At those words, Beatrice held her breath and looked up once more at Echidna's face—Echidna, who was looking at her again.
Her mother's expression, unchanged from the ordinary.
But in that expression, at this moment alone, Beatrice thought she detected an emotion she had never seen before.
"Betty. —At the very least, live well."
--- After parting from Echidna, Beatrice took up residence at Roswaal's estate as her mother had instructed, and using the full extent of her shadow magic, she created the "Forbidden Library" and filled it with her mother's books of knowledge.
The sea of knowledge that Echidna had spent her entire life collecting and committing to writing—locked away in a room crammed with it in the form of books, Beatrice could almost feel as though she were being embraced by her mother.
Whether her younger self actually thought so was another matter entirely, but Beatrice obeyed Echidna's command.
Had she not been consumed by that role, she would not have been able to endure the ever-present sense of loss that gnawed at her small chest. And even within the Forbidden Library, where time was forgotten, it continued to corrode the girl for ages untold.
"Copying the soul… overwriting the vessel…"
She had no precise sense of how long she had spent in that empty existence.
Only—when enough time had passed that she could no longer recall how long it had been since she'd had a real conversation, an adult Roswaal began visiting the Forbidden Library.
"Sorry to barge in again today."
A gaunt young man with an unkempt beard dragged his feet as he entered the room.
Leaning on a staff, moving with labored reluctance—Roswaal, whose body had been utterly destroyed in the battle against the Warlock and whose Gates had been depleted of most of their function, had become someone for whom even daily life was a struggle.
And yet, once he had recovered some degree of strength, he had been forcing his crippled body to endure, appearing as though he were burning away his very life force as he sat before the bookshelves.
His face and body had wasted away to skin and bone. The refined features once known for their handsome elegance had long since lost their luster, and only his sunken yellow eyes burned with a feverish madness.
"…Do as you please."
In principle, Beatrice did not want anyone setting foot in this Forbidden Library.
Until Echidna's prophesied "that person" arrived, this place was to remain Beatrice's own "Sanctuary"—untouched by any other eyes.
And yet, Roswaal was the sole exception. He alone was a peer who, like Beatrice, had lent his strength to fulfill Echidna's wish and had spent a considerable stretch of time alongside her.
It was only to Roswaal's wish that Beatrice's heart could grant the opening of the Forbidden Library.
Perhaps it was that faint sense of companionship from Beatrice that ultimately determined the fate of
"————"
Stepping into the Forbidden Library, drowning in the sea of Echidna's knowledge, Roswaal struggled throughout the rest of his life, trying to find something within it.
Whether that struggle bore fruit was something beyond Beatrice's knowledge.
All she knew was that Roswaal L. Mathers—the man who had studied alongside Beatrice under Echidna—passed away a little over a decade after Echidna and Beatrice parted ways, just as he was entering his thirties. The estate's management was inherited by the next generation.
"Good day. A pleasure to meet you, Beatrice-sama. The previous head had told me about you."
"…So Roswaal is dead?"
"The previous Roswaal has passed. However, rest assured. As the current Roswaal L. Mathers, I will carry on your duty and the debt of gratitude owed to my predecessor."
So saying, the second-generation Roswaal smiled at Beatrice.
—In his smiling eyes was a pair of heterochromatic irises, one yellow and one blue.
--- There is little worth recording of what came after.
Even after being passed to the next generation, the family continued to bear the name of Roswaal.
Knowing that the Mathers lineage's way of being was a means of honoring the memory of the late Echidna, Beatrice still did not allow subsequent Roswaals unrestricted access to the Forbidden Library.
This was only natural. For Beatrice, the only one who deserved special treatment was the first Roswaal alone. Anyone other than the Roswaal who had shared her thoughts was merely an imposter bearing his name.
Since they provided Roswaal's Estate—the very foundation that maintained the Forbidden Library—she would grant them certain small conveniences, but nothing beyond that.
If Beatrice were to open the Forbidden Library of her own accord in the future, it would be for that one person alone—the "that person" from her mother's prophecy.
The long, long wait for the person entrusted to her by her mother had forced solitude upon the girl for an eternity.
"Your power is magnificent. Please, lend me that power as my spirit—"
—How noisy. Go away somewhere.
"So long, so lonely, in a place like this. It's too cruel a fate. No matter who ordered it, this should not be allowed."
—What would you know? This precious duty that Mother placed upon me.
"Knowledge should be shared, shouldn't it? Imagine how many could be saved if the knowledge here were spread. You should understand that for yourself."
—How many are saved doesn't matter. The only ones Betty wants to save are a precious handful. And the only one who can save Betty… is already gone.
Four hundred years of time.
Even though she hadn't asked for it, hadn't permitted it, no small number of people had found their way to the Forbidden Library.
They, the various visitors, had each directed their words at Beatrice as she fulfilled her role as the library's warden, and in the end, they had all invariably demanded that she open this library.
There were times when she wavered, wondering whether their offers, their propositions, their orders might be right.
There were countless times when the door was pushed open, when she noticed the sunlight flooding in from outside, and she thought—this time, surely, it's "that person."
But, despite Beatrice's expectations, none of them knew the role of "that person," and the book in their hands never confirmed that they were the one.
And so Beatrice had brushed aside every word, every outstretched hand, rejected them all, and endured by clinging only to her mother's words.
During those long years, Beatrice's heart came to be dominated by resignation and disappointment.
She should have exchanged more words with the first Roswaal.
From the moment his presence—the only one who shared her memories of Echidna—was lost, Beatrice had been forced to stand alone against the immense concept of time.
When that happened, with no one to rely upon, Beatrice hardened her heart and had no choice but to retreat behind an impenetrable wall of solitude that would not yield to anything.
The result was that, over the course of four hundred long years, the girl's cage took shape.
Whether it was locked from the outside or from within— —even Beatrice herself could no longer tell.
"Hey, Betty. It's been a long time. It's me—
When that impossible reunion occurred, it may have been the only event that slightly thawed Beatrice's frozen heart.
"Ni-nii-chan? What are you doing… here?"
"My dear daughter got herself mixed up with the Roswaal of this estate, so I came along to look after her. I never imagined Betty would be here. I'm happy to see you."
The small cat spirit who washed his face with his tiny paws and smiled shyly was named Puck.
An artificial spirit created by Echidna's hand, just like Beatrice, Puck was the only being she could truly call a kindred spirit—born under the same circumstances.
Four hundred years ago, the time Beatrice spent with Puck had been brief, though it felt both long and short.
Puck, who had been created before Beatrice, had departed from their presence before the battle against the Warlock began, and should have been wandering the world in accordance with his purpose.
Perhaps she had half-considered reunion impossible and Puck all but dead to her—so when they met again, she felt her heart stir for the first time in decades.
But that joy was short-lived— "After I parted from Betty, I wandered the world for about three hundred years before I finally found
"Oh… is that so? But I'm envious of you, nii-chan. Betty still has the duty Mother gave me…"
"Mother? Who was that again?"
"————"
Puck tilted his head in genuine puzzlement, no trace of humor in the gesture, and Beatrice remembered.
Several contracts made between Puck and Echidna at the time of her departure. She hadn't known the exact details of the clauses, but Puck's complete forgetting of Echidna was living proof of at least part of them.
"…No, it's nothing. I'm just happy to see you again, nii-chan."
"Me too. I'm glad, Betty."
Having fulfilled his purpose and the meaning of his creation, Puck's existence was radiant to Beatrice. And she knew that her desire to confide in him would only impede his path.
And so the girl fell silent, offering a sad smile as she wished the best for the being she called her brother.
This unexpected reunion with a kindred spirit brought Beatrice a small measure of joy—and far more anguish—pushing her heart toward the end of her four-hundred-year vigil.
Comparing herself with Puck, who had fulfilled his role, Beatrice was stunned by the chasm between them.
And she thought: "…I can never smile the way nii-chan does anymore."
Beatrice resolved to have as little involvement as possible with the half-elf girl whom Puck doted on.
If she didn't, she would surely one day unleash all her pent-up frustration upon the girl. Against the beloved daughter of the brother she adored—who had done nothing wrong—she would surely commit an unforgivable transgression.
Calling upon her self-restraint and killing her emotions was something she excelled at.
For four hundred years, she had done so relentlessly as the world greeted the morning sun, bid farewell to the setting sun, and sank into moonlight.
It was second nature. A practiced act. A thoroughly familiar resignation. That was all.
Into those days—an intruder suddenly forced its way in.
"Don't hurt me, okay?"
"I have to admire how thoroughly you commit to even casual jokes."
It had truly been ages since someone had entered the Forbidden Library without permission.
Looking down at the boy who had fainted after she forcibly siphoned the mana from his body, Beatrice exhaled softly and stroked her own hair.
Tossing the boy out of the room by throwing him into the labyrinth through the connection between spaces—that was pure spite.
Spite at having been forced to help treat the boy's injuries when he'd been carried in the previous day. Spite at having fulfilled the half-elf girl's wish through Puck's request. Spite at being unable to voice a single complaint about any of it.
Her intent had been to vent her frustration by causing trouble for the boy.
But instead, her power of Door Crossing had been seen through in a single shot.
The boy had probably not even noticed how badly shaken Beatrice truly was.
"I suppose I don't want anything more to do with that brat."
After ejecting the boy from the Forbidden Library, Beatrice declared as much.
She didn't understand the reason he had managed to reach the library in one attempt. Perhaps his mana affinity was specialized in the shadow attribute, and by chance his wavelength had aligned with hers on that particular day. That seemed the most likely explanation.
But even if the boy had an aptitude for shadow magic, he had no aptitude as a mage to begin with.
He would only be staying at the estate for a few days—and it was precisely because of this that Beatrice could ignore the small knot that had taken root deep in her chest.
"Betty. I heard you were mean to that boy? That's not okay, you know. He's Emilia's savior too, so you have to apologize properly."
The next morning, when Puck appeared at the Forbidden Library and scolded Beatrice for the previous day's events, she found herself face to face with the very boy she'd resolved never to interact with again.
"So we meet again, and what's this—what did you just say, you lolita?"
"What does that word mean? I've never heard it before, but it's giving me an unpleasant feeling."
"Means you're too young and off the board. Not really my type."
"…Being spoken to so rudely, Betty almost feels sorry for you."
Words exchanged, none of them pleasant.
She'd had no intention of apologizing to begin with, and this exchange obliterated whatever remnants of that intention remained.
Beatrice, who had sat through breakfast in silence and breathed a small sigh of relief upon seeing Puck's resigned expression, thought she'd been let off the hook.
In exchange, however, the boy's long-term stay at the estate was now being decided.
As the situation grew increasingly unbearable, Beatrice excused herself from the breakfast table and retreated to the Forbidden Library. This estate was cursed to begin with, and now was a time of crisis.
The boy, who didn't seem to have much backbone, would surely fold soon enough and disappear.
All she had to do was endure until then.
"Yo, Beatrice. I finished my work and had some free time, so I came to visit."
Unaware of her train of thought, the witless-looking boy barged into the Forbidden Library as though it were the most natural thing in the world, pestered Beatrice unprompted, and repeated this cycle every time he found a free moment.
Even Beatrice was rendered speechless by this brazenness.
In the past, there had been several people who possessed the qualifications to enter the Forbidden Library without Beatrice's permission. But every last one of them had come seeking the knowledge within, or drawn by the presence of Beatrice herself—a spirit of formidable power.
Open their mouths and they'd demand the release of knowledge. Or demand a contract with Beatrice. They were all the same.
"Beatrice—those ringlets you've got, can I pull them so they go boing-boing?"
"Do you have a death wish?"
With a straight face, the boy said whatever came to mind. Everything about him was like that.
When he first woke up and began working at the estate, he seemed somewhat cowed for the first day or two, but after that, his presumptuousness became extraordinary.
And then, suddenly, he said: "I'm backed into a corner with no options. Honestly, I need your help."
—The boy had gotten to the bottom of the monster disturbance in the surrounding forest.
Seeing him drenched in the "curse" of the magical beasts, consulting Beatrice about the dispelling and the investigation of the cause, she felt he was somehow different from the boy she had known before.
And at the same time, she noticed.
The shadow-attribute energy emanating from the boy's body—its strangely distorted crescendo.
The monster disturbance ended without Beatrice's involvement, and the boy seemed to have mended fences with the maid sisters, earning his place as a true member of the estate.
After that, as the boy recovered and became even more forward than before—pestering her with an ever-bolder familiarity, smacking his lips over the mysterious condiment he called mayonnaise—Beatrice began to entertain an impossible fantasy.
—A boy who showed little interest in knowledge or Beatrice's power.
Could he be the very existence she had been waiting for?
Exhausted from days of suspecting without any basis, Beatrice tried to reach that conclusion, but restrained herself by opening her prophecy book, which bore no writing at all.
If the prophecy book showed nothing, then that boy could not possibly be Beatrice's awaited "that person."
For starters, the boy was lacking in most of the qualities Beatrice expected in her awaited person.
His expression was terrible. His attitude was terrible. He had no refinement, and he was short. He had something he valued more than Beatrice, and he was not kind to her.
If anything, she couldn't find a single good thing about him. What the half-elf girl or the blue-haired maid's younger sister saw in him was genuinely beyond her understanding.
Since he had no redeeming qualities at all, he should just stay alone, unloved by anyone.
If that were the case, she might even be willing to adjust her manner when he appeared at the Forbidden Library.
She had even thought such things, once.
"Beatrice. I am thinking of inviting Emilia-sama and Subaru-kun to the Sanctuary."
When Roswaal returned from the capital, those were the words he spoke to Beatrice.
A thousand questions raced through Beatrice's mind. But Roswaal silenced every last one of them with a single action.
He ran his fingers over the cover of the prophecy book he held.
"…You understand, don't you? Beatrice."
"I… understand. …Do as you please."
That was all Beatrice could say.
When she heard that Roswaal had departed for the "Sanctuary" ahead of her without showing his face to anyone, Beatrice resolved to shut herself inside the Forbidden Library.
The writings in Roswaal's prophecy book that pointed to a result touching the "Sanctuary."
Hearing that, she had indeed harbored a glimmer of hope that her own prophecy book might hold something too. But Beatrice's prophecy book continued to show only blank pages, leaving her heart stranded in a wasteland.
She knew what had happened to the "Sanctuary"—born from Ryuzu Meyer's sacrifice.
She knew that four hundred years had passed without that place being released. She knew it was harboring those who had been cast out of the demi-human races, waiting for the time of liberation.
She knew it was a wall that had to be overcome if the half-elf girl was to aim for the throne.
—But if that place were to be unsealed, what would become of Ryuzu Meyer's sacrifice?
Her own powerlessness, which had failed to save Ryuzu Meyer at that time.
The unbearable sense of loss that had served as the catalyst for Echidna's farewell.
Having lost all direction, her emotions—she had felt them pulsing once more, the very ones she thought had frozen—and Beatrice at last understood that she had reached the endpoint of her fate.
Outside the estate, she didn't know what was happening in detail.
When the boy returned from the capital, he carried the keepsake of a dear someone she remembered. Seeing it, gaining once more the visceral sense of having been left behind by the world, Beatrice sent the group off to the "Sanctuary."
Resigning herself to the belief that whatever they brought back from the Sanctuary would surely be her answer.
--- "Because… Betty has decided!"
Before that answer could be brought back, she felt violence accompanied by "death" sweeping through the estate.
And when she realized where the source lay, Beatrice at last understood that fate had truly forsaken her.
"I will not break my promise to Mother. …But there is no meaning in spending any more empty time like this!"
"That person" would never come. But she could not stop waiting.
If that was the case, then Beatrice had no choice but to let someone steal from her the option of "waiting."
For that, she would not hesitate to hand her life to whoever came to take it.
If only, at the very end, there existed someone to whom she could entrust this role—if only even slightly—then she could believe that her faintest wish had been granted.
And so, when the boy—
Because it seemed to her the first time that fate, which had never once tried to save her heart, had finally offered her some kind of reward.
If her life were to be taken at his hands, her promise rendered void—then so be it.
"I'm getting you out of here, Beatrice. This time, I'm dragging you out into the sunlight with my own hands, and we're going to play until that dress is covered in mud and you're black from head to toe."
—What had suddenly possessed him to say that?
"How presumptuous. No one asked you to do anything like that."
What was he talking about? She couldn't understand.
The boy had never once acted like "that person." He'd never snatched her prophecy book and said, "Sorry to keep you waiting."
"Don't keep getting jerked around by a blank book and a four-hundred-year-old verbal promise. What you want to do—that's for you to choose, Beatrice."
"————"
—And yet, why was the boy now stirring the heart of Beatrice, who had already steeled herself for the end?
She had been thinking only of bringing things to a close.
Seeing the boy return, she had held the expectation that she would end it at his hands.
And yet, the boy was trying to show her a future different from the hope she had nurtured.
She didn't want that.
A heart that could want such a thing had long since worn itself out over the span of four hundred years.
"If… if you were 'that person'…"
That was supposed to be the case—but hearing the boy's indignant voice, something shifted inside Beatrice's heart.
Like flowers budding in the season of thawing snow, dormant emotions shuddered and revealed themselves.
If she let those words escape her lips, there would be no turning back.
She would be letting go of the mother's words that had bound her for four hundred years, and clinging instead to something entirely new.
Knowing this, Beatrice spoke the decisive words: "Will you… become Betty's 'that person'?"
"Are you stupid? I'm not going to be your 'that person' or whatever that's supposed to mean."
The instant the words left her mouth, and the boy's face twisted in mockery, the hope that had sprouted was betrayed.
After that, she was so consumed by anger that she drove the boy from the room. She didn't remember the details clearly.
But she was keenly aware that, before the irreparable thing she had uttered could lead to irreparable consequences, the situation had been defused.
"————"
What kind of fool did that make her?
All she had done was betray the mother's directive she had kept faithfully all along—and the betrayal had been rejected without bearing fruit, reducing her vow to something bitterly cheap.
"I'm tired now, aren't I?"
Then let whatever came next unfold as she had decided.
She had been wrong from the start to even entertain the thought of letting that boy's hand end her life. He was not the sort of person with a clean enough heart to dirty his hands for someone else.
He was the same as Beatrice—worrying pointlessly about trivial things, too indecisive to decide anything, layering excuses endlessly. A weak-hearted person.
Therefore, the "death" that would bring Beatrice to her end would come in a different form— "Finally, I'm back! Hey, idiot! Don't kick me out in the middle of a conversation! Come on, at least hear me out to the end…!"
"————!"
"Peroooh!?"
As if cutting through her thoughts, the boy violently barged into the Forbidden Library once more.
The instant she saw him open his mouth to say something, Beatrice's emotions boiled over. She unleashed a wave of mana that sent him flying.
Unable to contain herself, she watched him blow out of the library and heard the door slam shut behind him.
Even though the negotiation had completely broken down, ending with his own devastating remark—what an incredibly brazen mentality this boy had.
Making a statement like that and then showing his face without a shred of shame—Beatrice could not comprehend such nerve.
Pressing her hand against her small chest as though suppressing her irritation, Beatrice exhaled— "Give it a rest! Are you throwing a tantrum?! If you keep resorting to violence, nothing's ever going to get—"
"You're the one who should give it a rest!"
"Uwaaah!"
A two-stage assault: a mana blast without any restraint aimed straight at his head, followed by a second wave into his torso.
She heard him scream, tumble, and crack his head against the wall outside the door, confirming his agony before the Forbidden Library and the corridor were once again sealed off.
His persistence was unbelievable.
Whether he simply didn't know how to give up, or he was entirely unaware of how deeply his thoughtless words had cut into Beatrice's heart—either way, the boy continued to refuse the farewell of Door Crossing.
"…This isn't a joke, you know."
Muttering with a look of disgust, Beatrice dragged a stepladder from the back of the room and settled into her usual position before the door, clutching the prophecy book, glaring at the entrance.
—That boy would come again, trying to push that door open.
Armed with selfish logic and an emotional sales pitch that paid no attention to her feelings, he would appear without fail.
Over and over and over, she would reject him and drive him away.
You are not "that person."
He had voluntarily relinquished the right to take Beatrice away.
And so Beatrice would absolutely, positively not be taken out of here.
She would end here, alongside the promise that would never be fulfilled.
For the present Beatrice, that was the only salvation left to her.
--- Blown away and thrown from the room, slamming into the wall and having the breath knocked out of him.
Since Beatrice's persuasion attempt had failed, this marked the sixth time he had assaulted the Forbidden Library and been rejected. The repeated beatings in such a short time had, ironically, improved his ability to brace for invisible attacks.
On the other hand, it seemed that Beatrice's mana blasts were also approaching the limit of what Subaru could withstand without serious injury—a situation that demanded constant vigilance.
"As if I should be training my damn evasion skills right now—screw this! She's not listening to a damn word…"
Wiping sweat with his sleeve, Subaru willed his knees to stand.
He'd been running nonstop since the previous day, and with blood loss and setting broken bones on top of it, his stamina was utterly spent. His vision was blurred with exhaustion, and he was moving his body on willpower alone.
"Before long, this is really going to be bad…"
Keeping low and turning his head, Subaru clicked his tongue—not just from fatigue, but from the worsening visibility. The conflagration from the battle with the great magical beast had spread, and the entire estate was engulfed in flames.
The lower floors of the main building were almost entirely consumed, and black smoke could be seen billowing from both the west and east wings.
Many of the magical beasts that had been inside the estate had apparently fled due to the spreading fire, so no creatures blocked Subaru's frantic path. But the temperature inside the buildings had risen to that of a kiln in mid-firing—sweat evaporated the instant it formed, and his exposed skin felt as though it might ignite at any moment.
Before long the buildings would begin to collapse, and Subaru's life would end in the flames.
Before that happened, he had to fulfill his purpose and escape this place with Beatrice.
And yet, the heart of Beatrice—the one person who mattered—remained stubbornly sealed shut.
"At least with the estate burning, there are fewer door candidates—that's something, I guess…"
The only silver lining of the great fire was roughly that much.
The effect of Door Crossing, which connected to the Forbidden Library, was limited to functional doors within the estate. In other words, doors that had been left open or burned away were outside Door Crossing's scope.
The more the estate burned, the fewer doors that could serve as passage to the Forbidden Library.
"Even so, I'll be cooked alive before the doors run out."
And he didn't want to think about what would happen if every door in the estate burned away.
He wasn't sure of the exact mechanism by which Beatrice's Door Crossing linked space to space. Perhaps the estate's destruction could sever the Forbidden Library from the material world permanently.
The only other location he could think of where the library might be connected—outside the estate—was the laboratory in the Sanctuary where Ryuzu Meyer slept in crystal.
"But in her current mental state… is there any chance she'd connect that place and the estate…?"
Once before, Subaru had been sent to the Sanctuary through Beatrice's Door Crossing.
He had a theory about why that irregular event had occurred.
At that time, Beatrice had been in the grip of an emotional explosion, and had forcibly ejected Subaru from the Forbidden Library.
Against her will, with an intense consciousness of "parting"—and through Beatrice's Door Crossing in that state, Subaru had been sent to that place.
That place was, for Beatrice, a symbol of painful, sorrowful separation. That was why Subaru had been sent there.
If that was the case, it was hard to imagine that this time, Beatrice's Door Crossing would lead to that place.
Beatrice was not thinking of parting—she was thinking of an end.
Once her connection to the world of the estate was severed, Beatrice would finally reach the end.
In Subaru's present state, her decision seemed to lead inevitably to that outcome.
"I'm not going to let you end like that—no matter what!"
Taking a deep breath, Subaru broke into a run in a low, ground-skimming sprint.
The door that had been flung open remained open. Searching for the next one, he pushed through the billowing black smoke toward the depths of the estate.
Building materials burned. In the roaring flames, something cracked and burst, the sound hammering against his eardrums.
His skin blistered under the searing heat, and the superheated air burned his eyes, but he grimaced and endured.
Choking on the smoke that crept into his nostrils, he spotted a door that hadn't been opened yet and lunged for the doorknob.
The heated doorknob blazed with temperature, scorching his palm without mercy. The skin on his hands was already a mess of peeling burns from previous encounters. He was long accustomed to biting down on his back molars in pain.
Enduring the sharp pain that lanced through his temples, he kicked the door open.
"————"
He burst in, tumbling into a room that enveloped him in the scent of old books.
Gasping, he stared up at the shadowed ceiling from his supine position.
The familiar atmosphere, and the prickling sensation of anger on his skin—it was, unmistakably, the Forbidden Library.
"You again—have you no shame?!"
"Ha! As if! I'll come as many times as it takes to drag you out of here! If you don't like it, then come with me this time! Do that, and this whole back-and-forth ends right here!"
"Enough of your trash talk! The estate is burning—you know that, don't you?! If you don't escape right now, you'll be consumed by the flames and burn to death!"
Beatrice sprang to her feet, breathing hard, and glared at Subaru with her small body.
The girl sat on her stepladder, her round eyes straining upward to their fullest, her passionate fury at Subaru laid bare.
For an instant, the barest flicker of emotion passed through the corner of those eyes, and Beatrice's lips trembled.
"Or… do you intend to burn to death along with the estate and Betty?"
"Are you stupid?! How many times do I have to say it before you get it?! I have absolutely no intention of dying with you! I came here to get you out alive!"
"——! How selfish can you possibly be?! Get out—now!"
Rising, Subaru lunged at the bookshelf and weathered the first mana blast.
The sensation of a gale slamming into his entire body, and a second wave that seemed to drain his life force at a glance. Beatrice had her left hand raised toward the ceiling, her face twisted in pain as she forced a smile.
"I forcibly stripped your mana away. That feeling—it's been a while for you too, hasn't it?"
"You… damn…"
"If your grip on the shelf loosens, that's the end of it. So stop bothering Betty already!"
The instant his knees buckled, a third mana blast struck Subaru squarely in the chest.
A shock like colliding with an invisible wall of air sent him hurtling back toward the door. As he tumbled, nearly blown outside— "Ugh—! No!"
He extended his limbs and braced himself, catching his nearly-ejected body against the doorframe.
Searing pain shot through his limbs, and from experience he could tell his arm was either broken or heavily cracked. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to ignore it.
"Wha—"
"After being on the receiving end this many times, even I've learned a thing or two about taking hits. So—have you finally softened up enough to listen?"
"Your chance to speak with Betty is over! You threw that away yourself—how do you not understand that?!"
"I don't get it. But honestly, aren't you the one engineering this?"
Leaning against the doorframe to pull himself up, he spat blood from his split lip.
Watching Beatrice furrow her brow in incomprehension, he let out a bitter laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"Because my continuous assault apparently wasn't a total waste after all. If you really wanted to reject me, you wouldn't be playing around with soft attacks. You could blow me away for real—you have the power. That'd be much quicker."
"…You want Betty to kill you?"
"Can't do it, can you? That was my bad—I'm sorry. But if you really wanted to reject me, you have a much simpler way."
In the past, Beatrice had refused to kill Subaru even with tears in her eyes.
He had not yet reached the point where he could understand her feelings and reasons at that time. So he could only speculate—combining what he knew of her past with that refusal.
And yet, having made this inquiry, he was genuinely appalled by his own maliciousness.
But if he didn't do this, Beatrice would never realize.
The contradiction between her actions and her feelings, and the fact that Subaru was still here.
"If you truly don't want to see my face, then lock yourself in this library, Beatrice."
"What are you… talking about…? Betty hasn't taken a single step out of this library! It's you who keeps barging in—!"
"No, you're wrong. If you genuinely intended to shut yourself in here alone, there's no way I could have found my way here this many times in such a short span. Your rejection is only skin-deep."
"That's only because you're… exploiting Door Crossing in practice! And the estate is burning, so the number of doors is dwindling…"
Her words faltered, Beatrice's denials growing weaker by the sentence.
Taking Subaru's words to heart, she had begun to doubt her own feelings. On top of everything, Beatrice had just lost the pillar that had sustained her for four hundred years. She was wavering.
She could no longer tell whether Subaru's words were right or whether her own emotions were right.
"————"
Even Subaru didn't actually know.
He didn't know why he could reach Beatrice's Forbidden Library so many times in such a short period without hesitation.
It could be because the estate's doors had burned away, reducing the options.
Or perhaps his latent shadow attribute was manifesting in the crisis, allowing him to see through every use of Beatrice's Door Crossing.
Or—perhaps, as Subaru said, Beatrice hadn't truly rejected him in her heart, and the gateway of Door Crossing remained open to him.
He wanted to believe that. He hoped with all his heart.
But regardless of the truth, what mattered was this: Natsuki Subaru had reached the point where he might be able to take Beatrice out of here.
"You're not—you're not Betty's 'that person'!"
Unable to contain herself any longer, Beatrice grabbed the hem of her skirt and screamed.
Abandoning the thoughts racing through her head, Beatrice broke down as if crying.
"I told you—you're different! I said you're not—that's what I said, didn't I?! If you were 'that person'… even if it was a lie, if you'd just said so, Betty would have believed it. Even knowing it was a lie, I would have had no choice but to believe!"
"Beatrice…"
"But you said I'm not! You said I'm stupid! Yes, that's right—you're absolutely right. Betty is stupid, a complete idiot, unable to forget a verbal promise made four hundred years ago… and so! No matter what you say, it's over!"
Choosing rejection, Beatrice screamed. Around her, an invisible wind swirled.
A torrent of mana whipped her dress and long hair into the air, and an air of menace tightened throughout the Forbidden Library. Sensing the greatest gale yet about to break, Subaru trembled at the thought of taking an unrestrained blow.
The urge to retreat, to flee behind the door, gripped him.
Suppressing it by sheer will, biting his already-split lip even further, Subaru faced forward.
Because he had to convey what needed to be conveyed.
"I am…"
"————"
"I am not your 'that person.' I'll say it as many times as it takes. I'm not the prince on a white horse you've been waiting for. Even if I stay here until the very last moment, I never will be!"
"——! Then! Betty will simply rot here!"
"That's not happening. I won't let you make that choice. Until you have a change of heart, I'll come here as many times as it takes. 'That person' will never come. The promise can't be kept. —But I won't let you die."
"I hate you… I hate you so much!!"
The instant the words left her lips, Beatrice's emotions erupted.
In that moment, the torrent of mana that had been building took on a single purpose, transforming into a pillar of white light that flooded Subaru's field of vision.
There wasn't even a gap to perceive being struck by the wind.
A shockwave that pierced through him, striking from his chest to his back, churning every organ. Every drop of blood reversed its course, and it felt as though everything was being wrung out through his pores.
His vision spun, his equilibrium vanished, he was overwhelmed by a sensation of weightlessness, and he could no longer hear, smell, or see. Perhaps this was what people meant by a near-death experience.
—But Natsuki Subaru knew something.
"What's wrong?"
Suppressing the vomiting sensation that made it feel as though his insides were about to spill from his mouth, he forced strength into his voice so his weakness wouldn't be detected.
The sensation of the ground beneath his feet—that awareness alone gradually brought his body's senses back. He had limbs, a head, his organs hadn't left his mouth, and his soul hadn't escaped its vessel.
In other words: same as always, he'd nearly died.
He knew this was not "death" as thoroughly as he knew his own name.
"It can't be…"
Blurred, unsteady, swaying vision.
Just barely able to make out that he was inside the library, he saw the girl before him staring at her own hands as though she couldn't believe what they had done.
It was Beatrice.
She too could not understand why Subaru was still alive, still in one piece.
There was nothing mysterious about it. Subaru had known this would happen.
There was no way Beatrice could kill him.
"Beatrice…"
"————"
His consciousness was fading. But through sheer stubbornness, he held together his fragmenting mind.
Before him, the girl wavered. She looked at the battered Subaru with an expression that betrayed her inability to understand why her rejection had failed.
And so—because he thought his voice might still reach her now—using what little awareness he could gather, he spoke: "I… am not… your 'that person'…"
"…………"
"But—"
With those repeated denials, Beatrice's face twisted as though she might cry.
If the conversation ended there, it would be just another repeat of what had come before. Before that could happen, before Beatrice's emotions could swell any further, Subaru pushed the words out: "I want to be with you, Beatrice."
"————!"
"I want to be by your side so that your kindness doesn't have to make you sad."
"Aah… hng…!"
Beatrice's expression crumpled.
It looked as though she were suppressing rage, or holding back tears, or preventing some indescribable emotion from surfacing.
But Beatrice swallowed her words, drew a ragged breath, and picked up the book she had left on the stepladder. She flipped through the pages—roughly, frantically—her fingertips crumpling the paper, and she let out a small growl.
And then— "——What the—?"
Before Beatrice could take any action, Subaru's vision suddenly warped.
It had nothing to do with his fading consciousness or blood loss—it was a concrete, physical problem.
In truth, the world of the Forbidden Library had begun to distort before Subaru's eyes.
The ground undulated beneath him, bookshelves lost their balance and toppled in succession. Books scattered across the floor, and in an instant the ground was buried in a sea of paper.
Even then, the warping did not cease.
Eventually, even the ground beneath Subaru's feet heaved like an accordion, and he could no longer maintain his balance.
"What is… this…?!"
"————"
Clinging desperately to the doorframe, Subaru looked toward Beatrice.
In the midst of the heaving room, only the area around Beatrice remained intact. The stepladder she had been sitting on did not stir, and Beatrice leaned against it as she looked back at Subaru.
"————ah"
Before he could say anything, the ground beneath his feet tilted sharply.
With a sound like tearing paper, cracks ran through the floor where Subaru had been standing. Beneath the floorboards, a black void stretched out—without question, he would be flung somewhere other than through Door Crossing.
Or perhaps, trapped in a non-existent space like a sub-dimension.
"Damn—"
The instant he recognized the hole and pulled his foot back— The world tilted in earnest, and gravity claimed him, sending him falling backward. The open door swallowed him whole, and via Door Crossing, spat him back into the burning estate.
"Ugah—!"
The moment he was thrown out, Subaru screamed at the heat of the wall he'd slammed into.
Lifting his head, he saw that he had been ejected into a corridor of the estate that was now completely engulfed in flame. Beyond the fact that this was the main building, he could confirm nothing else.
Engulfed in flame, Subaru looked at the door he had just come through and realized it was already half-consumed by fire. He was speechless.
In this state, the mere fact that Door Crossing had worked at all was a miracle. Even if he tried to leap through again, there was no way it would connect back to the Forbidden Library.
"Shit… if this is the main building…"
If he could reach the top floor, perhaps there would be doors still in their original state.
From the number of doors, he vaguely grasped that this was not the uppermost floor. Steeling himself, Subaru pushed through the flames toward the staircase.
Smoke stung his eyes, tears flowed without restraint. Each breath scorched his lungs, and the black smoke threatened to steal his consciousness—pressing his coat to his mouth, he barely held on.
He wouldn't last more than a few minutes. Could he even reach the Forbidden Library?—No. Weakness was not permitted here.
Above all, he could not forget Beatrice's final expression.
"That idiot—making that face again…"
The numbness from Beatrice's mana blast gradually left his limbs.
Dragging his body to obey his will, Subaru sprinted toward the end of the corridor, burning away his very soul.
Beatrice's expression flickered in his mind.
He had seen that face in a previous loop too.
The face Beatrice had worn when she had been killed by Elsa—after Subaru had confronted her alongside Beatrice and they had supposedly defeated her.
The face when Beatrice, shielding Subaru and shoved aside, had her stomach torn open.
She had looked at the unharmed Subaru, and without a word, converted her body into particles of light.
But he had not forgotten her final expression from that time.
She showed no relief at having shielded Subaru, no joy at being granted the "death" she had longed for—her face had simply crumpled.
—She had worn the unmistakable expression of someone who found loneliness unbearable.
"That's why I'm not—going to let you be alone…!"
Spitting the words, he plunged into the flames to find a way.
He felt something writhing, something foul within him, but the searing heat and the pain of skin blistering prevented him from dwelling on it.
If anyone were to observe Subaru at this moment, they might have recoiled at the sheer horror of the sight.
Because Subaru, running through the inferno with the vow to rescue the girl, was wreathed in an immense shroud of black miasma, as though cradled in a cloak of shadow.
Unaware of this, Subaru smashed through a towering wall of flame and reached the staircase.
Gasping, he saw the stairs leading upward and understood he was on the second floor. He stepped onto the staircase, intending to charge to the top floor in one burst—and that was when he noticed.
"————"
Hearing a dragging, wet sound, Subaru looked down.
The source was below. That was impossible, his rational mind insisted.
The only sounds around him were the roaring of the building and the crackling of fire.
In an estate on the verge of collapse, on the first floor of the main building—which was also the origin of the fire—there was no way anything could be moving.
Subaru, who had been dashing about the estate all this time, knew that even the magical beasts had fled the blaze.
Therefore, this dragging sound could only be a hallucination.
—Then what was that?
"…No way."
A shadow dragged itself out of the flames, scraping along as it came.
Aiming for the upper floor, setting foot on the same staircase Subaru had taken, the shadow stopped at the landing between the first and second floors. Sensing Subaru's presence just above, it looked up.
The shadow was a woman in black clothing, a black blade hanging at her side, with black hair.
"Elsa…?"
"————"
The shadow did not answer. But her silhouette was unmistakably that of the black-clad woman Subaru knew.
Why was she here? Could it mean that Garfiel had been defeated? If so, Subaru's fight—the fight to save everything—would end in total defeat— "No… that can't be…"
Shaking his head, he refused to accept that conclusion.
He had to believe in Garfiel's strength. He had wagered on Garfiel winning, no matter how powerful the enemy.
Otto, Frederica—they had all done everything they could to rescue Petra and
Garfiel too had sworn to give it his all.
Without trusting his allies, how could Natsuki Subaru have made it this far?
"Garfiel shouldn't have lost. So why are you here…?"
Believing in Garfiel's fight, Subaru hurled words at the shadow below.
A woman who shouldn't be here. What lay behind her actions?
But as he tried to question her, Subaru noticed.
No—he was made to notice.
"…You're not Elsa anymore, are you?"
The black eyes gazing up at him held not a shred of the light of will.
They were so hollow that it seemed impossible a pair of eyeballs still sat in those sockets.
The dragging sound came from her lower body, which looked as though it had been flattened into a ruin. And yet she still moved—this was unspeakably grotesque to Subaru.
He had known she possessed a vitality that defied death, but to think she couldn't die even after being destroyed to that extent.
"But I don't have time to pity you…!"
Even if she couldn't die, Subaru had no sympathy to spare.
Thinking of what Elsa had done to them, this was arguably merciful. But he had no particular interest in tormenting a walking corpse.
He could only accept that she would be buried under the collapsing estate and consumed by the funeral pyre.
"Just let the fire take you. I need to find Beatrice—"
Shaking his head, he turned to leave the shadow behind and head upward.
"Hah?"
With a light sound, the shadow leaped below.
And with its mouth gaping open, aimed at Subaru, a viciously-shaped blade came sweeping down.
"————"
The wind of the blade grazed the tip of his nose, and Subaru forgot to breathe, forgot his heartbeat.
That was how naturally, as though simply taking a step, the shadow had come to claim his life.
But the slash fell short, shattering the floor just before his toes.
Not because the opponent was pulling her punches, but because the lower body that had launched the leap was dead—she lacked the leg strength. Without that, the strike would have killed Subaru without question.
"This isn't a joke—!"
Kicking the falling body reflexively, Subaru threw himself onto the staircase.
Racing upward in a single burst without even breathing, he glanced back over his shoulder. The shadow he had kicked was already shaking its head, planting its limbs on the ground with the clumsy, puppet-like movements of something inhuman, and pursuing him up the stairs with a spider's crawl.
"Are you kidding me…?!"
He had once sarcastically called her a spider-woman, but he hadn't truly meant it.
Stunned by the shadow's inhuman movements, Subaru flew up the staircase to the top floor. Imagining the shadow in pursuit, he hurled himself into the third-floor corridor wreathed in fire.
In the very center of the corridor lay the study. The most fortified room in the estate—at least its door should still be— "——ROOOAAARR!"
"What the hell?!"
As if waiting to intercept him, a beast with the head of a lion roared from within the flames.
Missing its mane, half its body charred—it was unmistakably the magical beast they had supposedly burned to death in the dining hall.
The beast, barely alive, had returned to guard this door in compliance with its master's orders. Was that it?
If so, then Subaru had truly leapt into the fire like a summer insect drawn to flame.
A rendezvous inside an inferno was no joke—it was almost poetic.
Half its body twisted in agony from its burns, the beast swung its arm tipped with massive claws. The strike that shaved the wall and bore down on his neck would, even in its dying state, harvest Subaru's life more easily than a weed.
"You're nothing but a one-trick pony—!"
Ducking low, Subaru avoided the blow by diving headfirst beneath it.
He had learned the habit of magical beasts: they always aimed for vital points. Correctly predicting it would target above the neck, he dove in with a forward roll, slipping under the beast's armpit.
Fooled completely, the beast snarled in fury and tried to turn toward Subaru. But it didn't get the chance.
"————"
"————ROOOAAARR!!"
The shadow that had been pursuing Subaru sank its teeth into the half-dead beast.
Caught off guard with its back turned, the beast took the black blade's strike head-on. The left hind leg that had been supporting its massive frame was cleaved from the root, and the beast let out a death scream that echoed through the corridor, blood spraying from the ragged wound.
Its serpentine tail whipped around, striking at the shadow that crawled along the ground.
With movements that exceeded human limits—like something from a nightmare—the shadow dodged, swatted the tail aside with the black blade, and plunged the blade's tip into the wound of the severed limb, gouging deeper.
Listening to the unbearable screams reverberating, Subaru seized the opportunity and made for the study door.
Halfway there, he kicked open the door to the records room, but it didn't connect to the Forbidden Library—merely a wasted detour. Behind him, the battle between the beast and the shadow continued, but the only sounds were the beast's screams. The outcome was already decided.
"Beatrice…!"
Reaching the study, Subaru threw open the door with a prayer in his heart.
If the Forbidden Library spread before him, the monstrous battle would finally be over.
But fate was cruel—before Subaru's eyes lay only the ransacked study.
"Damn… not here either…!"
As if to demonstrate the strength of Beatrice's rejection, the study refused Subaru's wish.
He wanted to look for other doors, but he couldn't descend to the lower floors of the burning estate anymore. Either way, the possibility of other doors— "The hidden passage…"
A passage opened by mechanism—it was conceptually difficult to call it a "door."
A bookshelf had slid open to reveal a passage beyond, but the chances of it leading to the Forbidden Library were extremely slim.
The only other possibility—if there was a door beyond the hidden passage.
"There should be a door to a small room partway through… but"
In a previous loop, that was where Elsa had ambushed him.
But whether that door fell within the range of Beatrice's Door Crossing was unknown. Above all, this feeling of being guided from door to door—it felt like Beatrice's will, trying to chase Subaru out of the estate through the hidden passage.
Or perhaps she knew the estate's current condition and was showing him a way out so he could survive.
If that was the case, entering the hidden passage would not lead to the Forbidden Library.
He would be guided outside the estate—toward the mountain cabin at the end of the evacuation route—and Subaru would lose his chance to rescue Beatrice forever.
"I don't even have time to think?!"
Behind the deliberating Subaru, he heard the death cry of the beast as it received the killing blow.
The creature that had inadvertently been buying him time had finally been done in by Elsa's shadow.
Shaking his head, Subaru threw himself into the hidden passage.
A spiral staircase that descended deep beneath the estate greeted him, but the fire seemed to have reached even here—the heat and smoke made the space uninhabitable.
Pressing his hand against his chest to suppress the pain, Subaru steeled himself and plunged down the stairs. Having just descended, he now went further below. Fanned by the stifling heat, Subaru could no longer even bear to imagine what color his exposed skin had become.
At last, reaching the bottom, Subaru peered into the darkness at the far end of the corridor with ragged breath.
The smoke appeared to have seeped through gaps in the stone of the spiral staircase, but the underground corridor—though still radiating heat—showed no signs of fire.
In exchange for not being burned, he had lost his light source. Subaru groped forward through the darkness.
After advancing roughly ten meters, he reached a space of modest width and found the door to the small room he had been seeking. His feet stopped.
"This… is…"
In this hidden passage, Subaru had never made it beyond this door. Therefore, whether another door existed on the other side was entirely unknown.
In other words, for Subaru, this might be the last possible door that could connect to Beatrice—assuming the hidden passage functioned as a passage at all.
"————"
Shaking his head to banish his doubt, Subaru reached for the doorknob.
If it was Beatrice's will to guide him here—a will to keep Subaru alive—then this was a losing gamble. Even as he feared this, his hand touched the knob— "Ugh! Not this door again!"
The sensation of his palm searing made him cry out, and Subaru grimaced as he glared at the door.
As though reflecting the outcome playing out in Subaru's mind, the door's reaction stoked a sense of frustration—until he noticed.
"The doorknob is… hot?"
There was lingering heat, yes, but the underground corridor bore no trace of fire.
The smoke and heat must have seeped through the gaps in the stone staircase. If his guess was correct, then the room's door could not possibly have reached this temperature.
And yet, the door was hot—as though it had been sitting in open flame.
"…Beatrice. If you can hear me, then listen."
Without touching the door, Subaru tilted his chin slightly upward and murmured.
Believing that his voice could somehow reach the girl who wasn't here.
"Did you guide me all the way here? If you knew there was no other way out of the estate besides the hidden passage, then I've got to hand it to you—that's some next-level scheming."
He had to admit the strategy of guiding him all the way here was impressive.
The Elsa-lookalike and the beast along the way were probably unrelated to Beatrice, but Subaru had been funneled here whether he liked it or not.
If he opened this door and reached the mountain cabin, Beatrice's plan would succeed.
"But it looks like things aren't going to go that smoothly. …Even if I open this door, I can't run away the way you want me to. It's not just some matter of pride—I mean, partly, yeah, but there's something more urgent."
Speaking to someone who might not even be listening, Subaru continued in a daze.
Lightly kicking the door that blocked his path with his toe, he let out a sigh.
"If I open this door, I'll probably die. The rest of you might not understand, but the other side of this door is in a very specific state right now. It's hard to explain, but… someone who knows the essence of science can tell."
Setting aside the dud in the dining hall, the modern knowledge in Subaru's mind was screaming.
The door before him was in the condition common at fire scenes—a door you absolutely must not touch.
No joke—Subaru's life was genuinely in danger.
Whether this voice reached Beatrice. And if it did, whether Beatrice would believe his words.
"Beatrice. I'm about to open the door. —I'm going to leave it to you to judge what to make of my words."
Knowing that something life-threatening awaited him on the other side, Subaru felt an odd sense of calm.
It wasn't composure, nor was it resolve.
He was simply able, with perfect tranquility, to entrust his life to someone else.
Because that was how it was.
"—Beatrice. I believe in you."
As he spoke, feeling the pain of his searing palm, Subaru flung the door wide open.
And then— --- Rather than descending the spiral staircase, the shadow fell into the underground level.
"————"
The blood that flowed from it was as murky as filth, and the sight of it dragging its crushed lower body was a nightmare beyond human reckoning. In its right hand it clutched a vicious black blade, and in its left, the heart of the slain magical beast—squeezing it as though testing its texture, the shadow advanced deeper into the corridor.
Crawling as it was, the shadow retained a human shape, but whether a human will remained within it, even the shadow itself could no longer tell.
All it knew was that its body had been destroyed to the point of incapacitation, its life force ground down beyond any hope of revival—the shadow's vitality had already been spent.
If asked why it could still move, the answer would be that before becoming a shadow, its former personality had been sustained by an obsession of extraordinary intensity.
Eventually, the shadow reached the deepest point of the corridor in silence.
Without purpose, without will—it existed only to corner the living and take their lives. Sensing the presence it had been pursuing just beyond, the shadow flickered its vicious blade in a slow arc.
"————"
With a dull sound, the door before the shadow was cleaved in two.
Kicking the remnants aside, the shadow peered into the darkness beyond— "————"
A faint breeze swept past, and the shadow experienced the illusion of being swallowed by the darkness before it.
White smoke billowed from deep within, slightly obscuring the shadow's front.
In the next instant—oxygen poured into the room where incomplete combustion had been occurring, combining with the latent fire to erupt as searing heat.
A backdraft.
The shadow—a mass of destructive impulse stripped of all reason—could never have detected such a phenomenon.
"————"
The eruption of flame engulfed the shadow, and its body was consumed entirely by the inferno.
Having lost all regenerative and recuperative power, the body—already past the point of mere decay—was wrapped in flame that reduced everything to ash, and passing beyond carbonization, burned away in an instant.
The fire's momentum did not stop with consuming the shadow. It raced through the underground corridor, turned the spiral staircase into a sea of molten heat, blew apart the study, and detonated.
—This time at last, Roswaal's Estate was collapsing, approaching the moment of its final end.
--- Gazing upon the state of the Forbidden Library that had admitted him, Subaru swallowed hard.
Cracks ran through the floor near the entrance; the hole that appeared to lead to a sub-dimension was still there. The toppled bookshelves showed no hope of restoration, and in some parts of the room, flames had begun to climb.
The final state of Roswaal's Estate had at last begun to affect even the Forbidden Library.
"————"
However, catching a pair of eyes fixed on him from inside, Subaru suppressed his shock and refocused.
For now, he could only concentrate on this one girl.
—Because this was surely his last chance.
"You are an idiot…"
"The very first thing out of your mouth is that?"
"Well, isn't it true? Betty tried everything she could think of to let you escape, and you squandered every last opportunity and came back. …I don't think there's a single door left in the estate, you know. Even the Forbidden Library is starting to catch fire."
It was true.
Flames had spread to a portion of the toppled bookshelves, and the books she had treasured were turning to ash one by one.
Everything here was flammable. It would all burn through with terrifying ease.
"Then this is it—for both of us."
"…Yes. It is. Betty will ask for nothing more. The knowledge that was meant for 'that person'—the flames have reached it, and the promise has been completely broken."
"Is that so. Then listen to what I have to say—this is the last time."
"…………"
Beatrice's vacant eyes drifted toward Subaru.
Neither affirmation nor rejection—but at the very least, her response indicated a willingness to listen. Seeing this, Subaru set his jaw and drew a small breath.
The words he hadn't been able to convey the last time they parted.
And the words he wanted to convey now—he would deliver them completely.
"Beatrice. —Please, help me."
"…H-huh?"
He said it boldly, unashamed.
Beatrice's eyes flew wide with astonishment as the soot-covered boy spoke with absolute certainty.
She must have imagined what he would say.
Facing an inevitable end, Beatrice had surely simulated many of the words Subaru might say.
I want to save you. I won't leave you alone. Manly words like that—the cool, dashing words she had once expected from "that person."
But when Subaru tried to convey his honest feelings, he found he couldn't do it.
"I thought about saying something cool like, 'I'll free you from your loneliness' or 'I'll rescue you.' But… it all felt like half-hearted, spur-of-the-moment bravado. So I really thought about it—how do I actually feel about you? What do I want to say to you?"
Without a single word, Subaru offered Beatrice the full truth of his heart.
And he was all too aware of the cowardice in leaving it to her to decide how to receive it.
"I don't need to save you or anything like that. Honestly, you don't need my power at all. You're strong, smart, beautiful… if you put your mind to it, you could have done anything, become anything."
"————"
"You had more than enough strength to live on your own. Of course you did—otherwise you couldn't have lasted four hundred years. So when I said I'd lend you my strength or save you, none of it could have reached you."
"————"
"But even you—strong, brilliant, capable of anything—were afraid of being alone. It was hard. It was lonely. So nobody can blame you for clinging to the idea of 'that person.'"
"Who gave you… the right… to speak about Betty's feelings… when you're the one who rejected me…!"
Biting her lip, Beatrice fixed Subaru with a look brimming with something like hatred.
But her trembling gaze couldn't quite commit to hatred. Clutching a passion that seemed ready to dissipate at any moment, struggling to hold onto it, Beatrice watched Subaru shake his head.
"I know, you know. I know how kind you are. If someone's having a nightmare, you take their hand to reassure them. If someone's stuck in an impossible situation, you reach out and carve a path for them. Even if it's someone you despise—if someone close to them is lost, you grieve for them."
"Speaking as though you… understand…"
"I'm too weak to be of any help to you. But if there's something I can do so I don't have to leave you alone, it's to cling to you and beg."
In front of Beatrice's wide eyes, Subaru extended his right hand.
Burned and ravaged—a wretched sight. Still, it was better than his left, which had accumulated too much damage to even look at.
He wiped it, straightened it, and tried to make it presentable enough to hold a girl's hand.
"Beatrice. Help me."
"————"
"Help me—the me who can't live without you."
If anyone were listening from the sidelines, this must have sounded like the most pathetic, most laughable form of coercion imaginable.
You can't live without me, so take my hand—that was the threat.
Not knowing what he could do for her, he was demanding she teach him what she could do for him, and using that as the reason to force her to go on living.
It was selfish, unreasonable, and utterly hopeless coercion.
"That's… not fair…"
"…………"
"Saying that… in that way… after everything—after rejecting Betty—after saying you're not 'that person'—now you—"
Her words tangled, she hesitated, she struggled, and Beatrice tormented herself.
Unable to tear her gaze from the outstretched hand, Beatrice clutched the book in her arms even tighter.
Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes.
"Four hundred years—all alone! After spending that lonely time, even if I take your hand now… you'll die soon enough! A human lifetime is nothing to Betty—just the blink of an eye! And now… to cling to something like that!"
"Your four hundred years—I can't even imagine them. I can't pretend to understand. Not even one-twentieth of that—I haven't even lived that long. The fear you feel at the thought of my death after… I'm sure I can't fully grasp it."
"Then! Then… your words don't solve anything!"
"But I can hold your hand tomorrow."
"————"
"And the day after that. And the day after that. I can't promise you four hundred years, but I can spend those days with you. I can't promise you eternity, but I can treasure you—today, tomorrow, and every day."
"————!"
"So, Beatrice. —Choose me."
Subaru had already made his choice.
He had presented the option to Beatrice. Now, it was up to Beatrice's decision.
Would she faithfully uphold her mother's words, be consumed by the flames here, and put a full stop to four hundred years?
Or would she forget the promise she had made with her mother, abandon the hope of meeting "that person," and take Natsuki Subaru's hand?
"You… are not… 'that person'…"
"Nope. Don't lump me in with whatever other guy you had in your head. I'm me. Natsuki Subaru. Forget all that mooning over some faceless stranger from four hundred years ago."
"————"
"Rather than being terrified of a separation that might come someday, let's live together through the tomorrows that are sure to come. I'm weak, but I've got big plans… so if you stay with me, you'll be so busy keeping me in line that you won't have time to think about being lonely."
"…Nngh…"
"Choose me, Beatrice."
He would say it as many times as it took to reach her.
Because he could feel the girl's wavering heart.
So that he could shoulder her guilt at hesitating, her shame at breaking a promise—the selfishness of being Natsuki Subaru.
So that this girl would never again have to cry alone.
"You're going to disappear anyway…"
"There's no such thing as eternity. The future you fear will come someday. Eventually, you'll be left behind by the one who can't live as long as you. But if we waste what we have together just because we're scared of goodbye, then we've both lived too little of our lives."
"You're going to leave me anyway…"
"Let's stay together. Let's try living together. Let's keep going. Let's pile up so many memories that the fear of goodbye is drowned out—memories we can laugh about with our chests puffed out, saying it was so much fun. Enough to make up for—and then some—your lonely four hundred years."
"Even if you do that…! Someday you'll be gone!"
He stepped forward. The distance between them closed.
In the trembling girl's eyes, his own reflection stared back.
Pathetic, bedraggled, and light-years away from the prince on a white horse she'd waited four hundred years for.
Just the usual, ordinary Natsuki Subaru.
"Maybe the time I spend with you is nothing but an instant in the eyes of someone who'll live forever. Then I'll engrave that instant into your soul."
"————"
"That a man named Natsuki Subaru was so vivid, so incandescent, that even across all of eternity he wouldn't fade to sepia!"
With a sound like glass shattering, the world of the Forbidden Library began to crumble.
Before he knew it, Subaru and Beatrice were surrounded by fractures in space and fire.
But he felt neither heat nor fear.
In this moment, there was only Beatrice in Subaru's heart.
And in Beatrice's heart, there was only Subaru.
Beatrice's trembling arm clutched the book her mother had given her.
Believing that loosening her fingers on it would heal four hundred years of loneliness, Subaru reached out his hand.
He shouted: "Choose me! Beatrice!!"
"——ah"
"You were always sitting in front of that door because you wanted someone to come take you outside!!"
With a final, decisive sound, the world met its true end.
The Forbidden Library—that girl's lonely cage—was engulfed in the peeling away of reality and flame, and vanished.
Just before that happened— —A book fell to the floor of the Forbidden Library with a thud.
--- Passing through the hidden passage, Otto and the others reached the mountain cabin and watched from the hilltop as the estate burned.
"————"
Otto, Petra, and Frederica. And Rem, carried on Frederica's back—the four of them had safely evacuated through the hidden passage to the mountain behind the estate.
The mountain, and particularly the area around the cabin, appeared to be protected by an elaborate barrier that kept magical beasts at bay; neither wild beasts nor the ones used in the assault could be seen anywhere.
But there was no room for the joy of having survived, no margin for cheerful conversation.
All four gazed at the estate, waiting with the intensity of a prayer for a visible change to appear. Trusting that Subaru and Garfiel inside were safe.
"————"
Putting off treatment of his wounds, Otto watched the estate without blinking. He knew that Petra, right beside him, was gripping his arm with a strength impossible to guess from her small frame.
She was surely overwhelmed with worry. It was well known that the young girl harbored strong feelings for Subaru. Thinking of her distress, Otto could only pray for their safety.
"————"
To reassure Petra, he gently placed his hand on her brown hair.
Meeting her surprised gaze with a smile, Otto turned his attention back to the estate.
And he noticed.
"…What's that?"
From the center of the main building of the burning estate—from around the area where the study had been, near where the hidden passage had opened— An enormous column of flame erupted with terrifying force.
The windows blew out, and the fire spread with terrifying speed, consuming everything around it. At last, the estate's form was finally lost entirely, and the structure collapsed.
"Aah…"
Hearing Petra's despairing voice as she witnessed this, Otto gritted his teeth.
He too was staring down the same reality that Petra had recognized, and he fought with everything he had to keep from screaming that it wasn't true. If he broke down here, it would crush the heart of the girl beside him—the one who, more than anyone, wanted to weep.
But his thoughts were swiftly overturned.
"Otto-san, that!"
"Wha—?!"
A small palm slapped Otto across the cheek just as he was about to look away.
Shocked by the stinging impact, Otto's eyes went blank—but when he saw Petra's expression of wild joy as she pointed at the estate, he whipped his head around and understood.
"Hah… ha…"
—From the collapsing estate, a single pillar of white light rose toward the sky.
Like a rainbow, the light bent at a high angle, stretching its tip far to the east—as though declaring that its destination lay that way.
Otto knew what was in that direction.
And so, as Petra's face broke into a radiant smile while she cried out "That! That was it, right?!", Otto managed a weary grin and said: "I'll leave the rest to you. —Honestly, I'm exhausted."
--- At that same moment, the same light that had put Otto's shoulders at ease was also observed by Garfiel—who wore nothing but a cloth wrapped around his waist—through the one eye that wasn't swollen shut.
"Hah! Looks like you pulled it off, Boss! Now that's what I call a man of his word! 'Houshin kept his verbal promise even in death'—that's the stuff!"
Having escaped the burning estate and dashed into the forest, Garfiel clutched his side and laughed uproariously.
Beside him lay the girl whose limbs had been bound with the same cloth as his waist wrap—Meili, unconscious and crumpled on the ground.
He had no intention of gloating about war spoils, but as a living witness to the attack, there was much he needed to find out.
More than anything, though, Garfiel's convictions would not permit him to kill the girl.
"Still, that black lady oughta be nicely roasted by now."
Gazing at the collapsing estate, Garfiel let out a breath.
He had hurled a magical beast at her to crush her—an indirect method, lacking the visceral sensation of direct contact—but there was no denying that Garfiel had chosen, of his own will, to slay a being akin to a human.
His fingers trembled faintly, and he felt the grip of a nauseating pain in his gut.
But with a single shake of his head, Garfiel pushed it down and sat beside the sleeping Meili, leaning against a tree.
"The aftermath of victory and the feeling of a kill—those can all wait. There's nothing more my hands can do now, no matter how hard I try. …It's in your hands now, Boss."
Thrusting his fist forward, Garfiel fixed his gaze on the tail of white light stretching across the sky and said: "When this is all over, you better believe I'm gonna have to smack you around, 'cause there's a guy I still owe a face-slapping to!"
--- —She had been caught.
She had known she would be. And yet, she had reached out and caught him.
The moment she took that hand, the moment she clung to its warmth, she had known—she could never return to the lonely nights of before.
She had always warned herself that building a life on a warmth that would eventually be lost was the height of madness.
But that voice, calling out to her.
Those eyes, looking straight at her.
Those hands, reaching for her because she was needed.
She had known—she could never refuse.
—Subaru.
"Ah, that's right."
—Subaru, Subaru.
"That's right. That's my name."
—Subaru, Subaru, Subaru.
—Subaru!!
"…You finally called my name."
--- —A blinding blizzard raged.
A white curtain so thick it blotted out the world, and breath that froze the instant it touched the outside air—the cold was beyond anything imaginable.
The wind that buffeted her was frigid, and the shards of snow it carried cut with razor sharpness.
Yet even in this ferocious storm, the silver-haired girl stood facing forward, her amethyst eyes blazing with iron resolve.
"I absolutely, absolutely… will not let anyone be lost!!"
Both hands wreathed in faint light, the silver-haired girl unleashed a colossal torrent of mana.
In the heart of the blizzard, the ice magic grew and took on radiance. A pale blue glow cut across the world like a blade of light, and the white magical beasts crossing its path were cleaved apart, one after another.
A horrible, staccato sound—short teeth chattering together in a chain.
The incarnation of hunger—an ancient calamity that had specialized from time immemorial in the single act of devouring prey, beyond all hope of salvation or coexistence.
Facing the ever-multiplying killing intent that was appetite, the silver-haired girl did not retreat a single step.
But her breathing was ragged, and part of the mana she could not yet fully control had begun to crystallize, encasing half her body in white ice.
At this rate, before long, her own magic would transform her into an ice statue.
And yet, even knowing this, the girl could not fall back.
"————"
She glanced behind her.
There was everything she had to protect from the onslaught of the white magical beasts.
The crumbling ruins. And, placing their wishes upon her small back, countless lives.
And standing outside the ruins, watching the girl's battle in a daze—a man. And in his arms, a pink-haired girl who lay motionless, as though dead.
Half her body was on the verge of freezing. And yet, in the girl's heart, a fire burned that would not be extinguished.
Having seen that, who on earth could bring themselves to utter a word of despair?
What she was fighting for. Who had entrusted her. Why she stood here.
"I won't… let anyone decide how anyone's story ends! They all joined hands like that, all of them… and I'm going to protect that! Because that's what I promised Mother—!"
A torrent of pale blue light crashed headlong into the wave of magical beasts bearing down on them.
Not even a death cry—the beasts simply stopped moving within the white radiance. Seeing their companions' wretched fate, the beasts immediately began gnawing on the ice, turning to cannibalism.
A sight too horrible to endure.
But perhaps—perhaps humans who clung to hope looked much the same.
Even so. Even if they did.
"As long as I can remember what Mother and Juu-kun taught me, and what everyone showed me today, and the words that he wrote for me… I won't give up."
And so—even if her body were to be encased in ice—she would not regret this, not ever.
The blizzard pressed in, the beasts' onslaught narrowing ever further, closing in on the girl and those who depended on her.
If it came to it, she was prepared to throw away her very life.
But at the moment she steeled herself for that, she heard a voice.
"You don't have to push yourself like that, Emilia-tan."
"————"
With a sound, someone had dropped from a height and landed beside her.
She turned to look, but the blizzard was so fierce, the white curtain so thick, that she couldn't see the newcomer's face.
But the girl knew—who it was.
The voice, the manner, and above all, in the moment she needed him most, he would never fail to show up.
"You can hang back now—it's my turn. —Newbie bonus and all, y'know?"
"Sorry. I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."
She could almost hear the wry smile in his voice.
The figure that stepped forward brought with him a second, smaller shadow.
And two voices reached her ears.
They were bright, as though they had been waiting for this moment for ages: "I don't care what happens anymore."
"Yeah—let's get it done. —Together, you and me!!"
The first battle of the spirit Beatrice and the contractor Natsuki Subaru—the two who would join hands again and again in the fights to come—had begun.