——There was a woman. A single woman.
The woman grieved for all things. For people, for conflict, for the world—for everything under the sun.
Everything looked small to the woman. Everything, everyone, appeared as children who needed protecting.
It would have been easy enough to sweep a thousand scatterings with a wave of her arm—to dominate the people and the world.
And yet, the woman resolved that her arm would not be used for domination, but for shelter.
Thus began the woman's lonely struggle. The trial and error that followed was no easier for her.
Leading people. Binding people together. Helping people. Advising people.
All of it, one woman alone could not reach. Could not touch. Could not accomplish.
For the first time, the woman cursed her own inadequacy.
Even when she could see danger coming, she did not have enough hands. Even when people were cornered, she could not save them. That helplessness—that powerlessness.
She could see what was right before her, but the distance she could not reach could not be bridged. She could see through everything, yet what had already happened could not be undone. There were not enough lives to deal with disasters far on the horizon.
She had believed she had power. It fell far short of her wish.
She had been proud that she had wisdom. It did not illuminate the path to pursuing her desires.
And so the woman fell into despair, meticulously forging her curse of inadequacy over and over.
Beaten by every conceivable regret, endlessly torn apart by the laments of others.
Eventually, the woman understood. It was impossible. It was futile. She could not do it.
This was a grand ambition far beyond one woman's capacity—one that it was presumptuous even to wish for.
She knew this. She understood. She grasped the impossibility. ——And yet, she would not give up.
If one was not enough, then she would increase the number.
If acting alone would not suffice, then she would gather others who shared the same wish, and what was out of reach would come within grasp.
Her mind sharpened. What she could not see became visible.
She would pluck away the laments that could not be reached, the tragedies that could not be saved, the cruelty that repeated itself—through this wish.
She joined forces with the instigator, gave the Heavenly Sword a battlefield, struck a deal with the Dragon, and pressed onward toward the grand ambition.
The conclusion that would inevitably arrive at her sacred wish.
The outcome that would eventually come to pass.
That which would surely, eventually, inevitably come—the fulfillment of the grand ambition.
"I will save them. I will find a way to save them. I can see the path to salvation. ——I have seen the path to salvation."
No matter how much it wounded her along the way, no matter what she lost, she would never abandon the act of trying.
Even if the instigator vanished, even if the Heavenly Sword forgot how to smile, even if the Dragon flew off to distant skies, she would not give up.
Even if she lost her very first ally, her stride would not falter. The woman was no longer alone.
"It must exist. I have seen that it existed. ——I want to see it again."
She walked the road paved upon countless bodies. She aimed for the fulfillment of her grand ambition, built upon the sacrifice of innumerable lives.
Eventually, every tear should be within reach. When that time came, a world she could understand would exist.
Only then—only then could she reach the original wish.
And so, desperately seeking it, the woman endured unbearable pain and continued to struggle.
——The "
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "——Julius is going to rest here until his wounds are healed! Absolutely, absolutely!"
Having unceremoniously dumped the battered Julius into the Green Room,
This came right after Subaru and Julius had supported each other down the long staircase stretching from the Second Floor "Electra" to the Fourth Floor, and Emilia had greeted them both with palpable relief.
Being quick to shift gears was a virtue, and her no-nonsense approach was appreciated. She didn't ask for reasons, so she didn't give him a chance to make excuses—a swift operation. In truth, Emilia surely had a mountain of things she wanted to say to Julius, but— "What needs to be said, Subaru will have already said. So for now, you're going to rest properly, and everything else can wait. Right?"
"…Ah, she says. I'm basically in full surrender when it comes to Emilia-tan's opinions, and this time I don't think there's any room for objection, so I agree. Stay down."
At the entrance to the Green Room, Subaru shrugged at Julius, who had settled onto the vine bed. Emilia, too, had her hands on her hips and was breathing hard beside him. That sight was rather cute as well.
Receiving their words, Julius touched his bangs and let out a breath.
"Naturally. I've already imposed far too much on you and Emilia-sama. At this point, I cannot commit the shameless act of defying your instructions. I shall comply willingly."
"You could've just said 'understood' instead of dragging it out like that…"
"That's exactly right! Besides, it doesn't matter what we think—you're the one who's hurt, Julius, so you need to stay resting until you're healed. You can impose on us all you want. We're comrades, after all."
"———"
"
Crisply cutting off Julius's roundabout gratitude and ignoring his wry expression, Emilia called out to Patrasche—the Green Room's healer of injuries—at the back of the room.
The personnel left in the Green Room totaled three people and one beast—the unconscious
Under the circumstances, having one of the patients being treated inside keep watch on the people around them was the better choice. In principle, that role should have fallen to Julius.
"If Emilia-sama says so much, I have no recourse. I shall behave myself and keep my head down here."
"Once trust is lost, it's hard to get back. In that department, there's no catching up to Patrasche, who always scores high on the trust scale. If anything happens, feel free to bite down hard without mercy, Patrasche."
"———"
Patrasche let out a rumbling growl from her throat, accepting Subaru and Emilia's request—or at least, that was likely her acceptance.
Patrasche, the most "sensible" member of Emilia's camp, wore the look of someone still feeling responsible for having let Julius go off alone earlier.
Her posture, burning with the determination that it would absolutely never happen again, filled Subaru with respect.
"There you see it. Patrasche is saying, 'Next time, I absolutely will not let you slip away.'"
"For some reason, she really does seem to be saying that. It's uncanny."
"But according to our bilingual brawler-bureaucrat, that's roughly the right nuance. She's a lady, so maybe it should end with 'desu wa,' though."
Once in a while, having Otto translate with his blessing of divine speech drove home just how broad Patrasche's capacity was and how attached she had become to Subaru. Recently, even without Otto, they had developed a real sense of heartfelt communication. Although, if Subaru actually said any of that out loud, Patrasche would get displeased and smack him with her tail, so a maiden's heart was a complicated thing.
In any case, "I'll be good and focus on healing my wounds, then. Being surrounded by young ladies and relaxing in leisure—that's quite the luxury, you know."
"Just so you know, every girl in this room besides Anastasia belongs to me."
To Julius's shameless remark, Subaru pointed one by one at Rem on the bed, Patrasche, and then Emilia beside him, insisting his claim.
At this, Emilia puffed out her cheeks with a "Hmph" and said, "I don't belong to Subaru yet. …I was thinking, though—he's my knight, so doesn't that mean Subaru belongs to me?"
"That's like, an insanely flattering evaluation but also kind of embarrassing!"
Watching Emilia press a finger to her lips, Subaru experienced a whirl of emotions at the boldness of that statement—or at least its potential boldness depending on how you interpreted it. Then he turned to look at Julius, who was staying behind in the room.
Getting over the mountain of anguish would take time. But at least, as if checking whether he had managed to plant his foot on the first ridge of that climb— "While you're resting, you might start thinking about what happened and want to roll around holding your head, but don't forget Patrasche is watching."
"Rest assured. I will not display such an ugly spectacle. ——It wouldn't be elegant, after all."
"…You're already sounding like yourself again."
"Hmph."
His responses had their characteristic flair, and Subaru allowed his cheeks to soften with a measure of relief.
Two defeats, both total and crushing ones.
They must have carved unbearable humiliation and helplessness into Julius, but somehow he seemed to have weathered the first wave.
He hadn't been left alone on that long staircase. That was good.
If that had helped even a little, then the experience of making a humiliating fool of himself in front of a crowd at the royal castle had been worth learning from.
"——Patrasche, I'm counting on you."
Giving his beloved dragon one final word, Subaru and Emilia left the Green Room.
As they departed, he sensed Patrasche shifting closer to Julius and caught the hint of a wry smile from Julius at that protective arrangement.
As expected of Patrasche—faithful to instructions, the wise dragon indeed.
With both Julius's mental state and Patrasche's loyal spirit considered, they could probably rest easy about the personnel left in the Green Room.
"…Should I freeze the door shut to keep him inside?"
"Emilia-tan's infinite imagination continues to impress me, but I'd rather keep that as a last resort. Angering the Green Room's spirit by doing that would be creepy, too."
"Hmm, you're right. Fufu, I was just saying it. It was a joke."
Emilia stuck out her tongue cutely to apologize for the joke. Subaru allowed a smile to spread across his lips at her reaction, though he kept to himself that he had also been considering that very option.
——In the worst case, he had been thinking about methods to forcibly restrain someone by sheer force.
In that scenario, the ideal person to stop Julius—both in terms of ability and position—would be Emilia. Fortunately, Julius's mental state appeared to be stabilizing, so it was a relief that they hadn't had to resort to such an urgent measure. Subaru was relieved, too.
"In any case, let's leave the Green Room to its spirit in charge. From the looks of it, Patrasche's wounds seem to be healing nicely, and Julius doesn't look like it'll take long either."
"Yeah, that's right. Julius's wounds… aren't as bad as they look, so I think he'll recover quickly. The way Raid fought—it was like he was holding back."
"…Holding back his force, huh. That's not something you want to hear if you're Julius."
At Emilia's carefully wordded guess, Subaru scratched his head in agreement.
The fact that his weapon was a stick was the ultimate in poor sportsmanship, but for Raid to treat someone of Julius's caliber like an infant meant his combat power was simply outstanding.
A first-generation "Sword Saint," a sage who cooperated with the Dragon, and a key figure in defeating the "Witch of Envy"—if he was a legendary hero bearing those titles, then you could only accept it.
Whether his character was worthy of being revered as a "legendary hero" was another matter entirely.
"For now, our meeting is…"
"——We need to find a way to break through that second 'trial' before Julius's wounds heal, right?"
"———"
A cool, detached voice cut into Subaru and Emilia's conversation. Looking up, they found
She had been stuck waiting in the hallway due to the Green Room's capacity limit. Having her inner thoughts pinned with perfect accuracy, Subaru rubbed his own cheeks and said, "Is my face really that expressive? Like, that varied in what I'm thinking?"
"Your face was just plastered with worry, that's all. Right now, the only people Barusu has reason to worry about and the reasons for it are inside that room. That's all there is to it."
"That's not true. It's not limited to the people in there—everyone I'm with, I worry about. Emilia-tan and
"Ha!"
At Subaru's thumbs-up response, Ram snorted dismissively.
Then, as Ram turned and began walking away, Subaru pouted and sulked. Beside him, Emilia giggled, covering her mouth with her hand.
"It's fine. Ram's just a little embarrassed. She's not honest, that's all."
"That seems way too generous a read, but if you say so, Emilia-tan…"
With a faint smile, Emilia caught Subaru's eye. He cracked his neck and then followed after Ram. Ram was headed for one of the small rooms on the Fourth Floor.
Stepping into that room, "…Were we late? We kept you waiting too long. Is Julius all right?"
The greeting came from Beatrice, who was sitting squarely in the middle of the room. She looked up at Subaru and Emilia with a slightly sulky gaze, her wording carrying a hint of grumbling as she asked about Julius's condition. Subaru smiled wryly at her transparently unforthcoming attitude.
"Relax. It seems like he's past the worst of it. He's the type who'll brood over things endlessly because his sense of responsibility is absurdly strong, but… he's not going to spiral into self-destruction anymore."
"If Barusu says so, then perhaps that's credible. If that's the case, at least the problem narrows down to one thing, which is a relief."
Receiving confirmation of Julius's safety, Beatrice tucked her chin. Subaru nodded at her words, then looked around the room.
The small room was one of several open spaces on the Fourth Floor, where the monitoring tower assault team's luggage had been stored. Sitting in a circle, heads together, were Subaru, Emilia, Ram, and Beatrice. And then— "I'd like to hear from you in detail about that bastard,
"Eek! Master is scary! But, but, being treated so harshly by you—I don't actually hate it! The saying goes, 'even rejection is a form of love,' right?"
"She says. Master is so impure."
"A false accusation!"
Shaula clung to Meili, writhing sinuously and pressing her voluptuously feminine body against the girl. Ram seized on the comment with malice, but for Subaru, this was an outright miscarriage of justice.
In any case, "First off, everyone—good work searching for Julius. Even though I told you not to, I'm sure he'll come apologize later, but for now he's safe."
"It's fine. I already told Julius himself—just finding him safely was good enough. Right? Everyone thinks so too, don't they?"
"That's a problem when you group me together with Emilia-sama."
"Huh!? What do you mean!?"
Subaru had tried to take charge of the conversation and move things forward, but a crack in consensus had already formed between Emilia and Ram.
Surprised, Emilia watched as Ram raised one finger and said, "Excuse me? From what I've heard, the second 'trial' is something everyone who came to the tower must overcome. And yet, Knight Julius attempted his second challenge on his own judgment—this could have fractured the cooperative relationship with Anastasia-sama's camp."
"Because if Julius had failed, everyone's challenge might have been compromised?"
"Exactly. If that had happened, everything up to this point would have been wasted. It's even questionable whether the examiner on the Second Floor would let us return safely. …Including that fake sage over there."
Ram's gaze flicked briefly toward Shaula as she explained to Emilia. Shaula, apparently not expecting the arrow to turn her way, pointed at herself.
"Me? You're calling me a fake sage? That really hurts, you know! I never called myself a sage—the only name I claimed was the one Master gave me, Shaula! I'm loyal only to Master!"
"She's so impure."
"Stop looking at me when you say that! …It's not like what you're saying is wrong, though."
While perhaps a touch excessive, Ram's reasoning wasn't wrong if you were considering the worst-case scenario. Julius's actions had put all of them at risk.
Taking into account that he hadn't fully grasped the outline of the second "trial"—in fact, precisely because of that, you could call his judgment reckless.
"That's not like Knight Julius at all—which just shows how little Ram knows about him. Even considering his history with 'Gluttony,' I wouldn't have thought him capable of such an action."
"Well, I agree, but… not knowing and having my own take on it are two different things. It's like a guy's version of measles."
"Measles?"
"Chickenpox works too."
"———"
Either way, the nuance was "a disease everyone gets once."
It might sound light to say Julius's unilateral decision fell into that category, but measles and chickenpox hit harder when you got them as an adult.
If it happened at a critical juncture, even more so.
"This time, it didn't become fatal. …Let's call that enough for now."
"——Ram simply doesn't want her feet tripped up by someone else."
Ram turned her gaze away from Subaru and murmured in a small voice.
Her cheeks had gone slightly rigid. At the sight, Subaru raised an eyebrow.
"Her sister—ever since coming to the tower, she hasn't been in great shape. Perhaps the fatigue of a long journey is catching up, or the horn therapy isn't taking effect as well as it should."
"Or maybe there's something else weighing on her… no, it's probably that."
Sitting down beside her, Subaru exchanged quiet words with Beatrice.
Ram's outbursts at Subaru and Shaula—over Julius's independent action, over the frustration of having no visible way to beat the trial—were entirely out of character.
The cause was probably the frustration of being so close to a means of saving Rem, yet unable to reach it.
And naturally, as Beatrice had pointed out, exhaustion and the horn's injury were surely factors as well.
Not being in peak condition, mentally or physically.
That was what had stripped Ram of her usual composure.
"So what—you just wanna fight? Or do you wanna talk it out? Make up your mind, because I can't keep up if you don't."
Meili stepped in, interrupting the souring atmosphere that had been building. Clinging close to Shaula and fiddling with her own braid, she directed a languid gaze at everyone in the room.
"If possible, skip the fighting. I hate pain and scary things."
"You are… no, that's a valid point. That bystander position of yours is a lifesaver."
"Hmm? Hehehe, then you should be grateful."
At Subaru's gratitude, Meili smiled innocently like the young girl she was.
However, that smile carried a faint hint of something bewitching, subtly hinting at her precarious nature.
Despite that smile aimed his way, Subaru genuinely felt the weight of Meili's words. Looking back, their retreat from the earlier "trial" had been thanks to Meili's input.
That they had escaped a situation where everyone might have been in danger—in large part, it was her contribution as a companion who maintained a slight step's distance.
"Keep that up in the future. An outside eye is valuable."
"You're awful. Even if you say that, once we cross the sand sea, my job is done. I can't be of use for anything else."
"Not true. A thinking head is better in quantity, and surviving the sand sea together means we're in this tower as one. Think of it as bad luck and let me lean on you."
"———"
At Subaru's brazen declaration of dependence, Meili stared blankly for a moment. Then she let out a long sigh.
"…Now I understand why Petra-chan never gets to relax."
"—? What about Petra?"
"Nothing at all. More importantly, you want to talk to the naked sister, don't you?"
Meili turned her face away, stood, and shoved Shaula's back insistently. It wasn't that Shaula's slender arms overpowered her—rather, Shaula eagerly stepped forward and knelt right in front of Subaru, pressing her head to the ground.
"I'm a ruffian, but I look forward to working with you for a long time!"
"That earnest attitude is appreciated. As a betrothal gift, what I'd like to know is—ow ow ow! Emilia-tan!? Beatrice!? Why did you pinch my sides from both directions!?"
"Nothing." "It's nothing."
Being pinched for no reason was unbearable, but Emilia and Beatrice's expressions discouraged further pursuit.
Anyway, Subaru cleared his throat, turned back to Shaula, "The man on the upper floor was definitely Subaru… er, Raid Astrea. He admitted it himself. And you're a living witness from that era—so I want to hear from you. What kind of person was he?"
"Absolute human trash, right?"
"I heard that before, and honestly, I saw it with my own eyes."
Shaula grimaced and made an expression no beautiful girl should make, reminiscing about the deceased. Setting aside the fact that the very same person was upstairs in the same building, it was clearly not a fond memory.
Given that the sight of his face had made her foam at the mouth and pass out, that was only natural.
"What we need is to beat him, no matter what. We want to add even one more hint toward passing the Second Floor's 'trial.'"
"Think of anything—anything at all—and tell us. Raid the Sword Saint's personality, habits, relationships, likes, dislikes, weaknesses. Yes, weaknesses—I want weaknesses. Talk."
"You're really pushing, you know! If I knew his weakness, I would've exploited it for revenge! In other words, there ain't no weakness!"
"Tch, useless."
"You talk down to people more than Master, this girl…"
Perhaps she still retained some pride from being called a "Sage," as Shaula's lips puckered at Ram's lofty, condescending attitude. But one glare from Ram made her shrink back and circle behind Subaru, using him as a shield.
"Why are you hiding behind me? You're definitely stronger."
"It ain't a matter of strong or weak. It's just, instinctively, my body reacts to you like this. Probably because Master is scared—and that fear is getting transmitted to me since Master and I are of one heart and body."
"Don't pin your fear on me."
Uncomfortable with the soft sensation pressing against his back, Subaru grabbed Shaula by the scruff of the neck and forcibly returned her to her original position despite her protests.
And so the interrogation resumed— "So, in the end, Shaula doesn't know anything about the 'trial'?"
"I didn't say I know nothing. Just that now is not yet the time to speak. Probably, all the answers will be revealed once the tower's mystery has been solved."
"Wow… that's really exciting!"
"Don't trick the innocent Emilia-tan."
"Even if we don't know the Sword Saint's weaknesses, does he have any habits? If there's a habit he shows in combat, we might be able to find a breakthrough from there."
"Habits, huh? Come to think of it, when I tried to kill Raid as payback for his sexual harassment, he used to scratch his ass a lot while fighting! Isn't that a habit?"
"You were just being toyed with…"
"More fundamentally, isn't the condition for passing the 'trial' vague? Emilia was clearly accepted, but there must be other conditions—something that determines whether you qualify."
"Probably he's weak for beautiful women. That's my guess—if you're beautiful, you pass."
"In that case, Julius and I get left behind, huh… That's a dire situation."
"S-Subaru, if you try really hard and, well, maybe poke his eyes out, then perhaps—you could possibly, maybe, also pass…!"
"You're so sweet."
As they exchanged not particularly useful banter, Subaru hugged Beatrice—who was trying her best not to wound him with her words—and ruffled her hair.
Beatrice, content in Subaru's arms, let him do as he pleased and said, "Either way, Emilia being recognized was just a stroke of luck. He was off guard, and Emilia happened to land her attack, so it connected. Isn't that it?"
"And your honest take?"
"If Emilia had been trying to kill him, he wouldn't have been hit at all. So it was his carelessness and Emilia's victory."
"Huh? Was I just complimented just now?"
"I did compliment you."
"Oh, I knew it. Fufu, thanks. That makes me really happy."
Beatrice's theory and the praise derived from it made Emilia happy, and she in turn patted the Beatrice who was being petted by Subaru.
Things had gotten quite messy, but it was a heartwarming scene.
"Still, saying something changes based on whether there's killing intent sounds cool on paper, but the real thing is… who knows how serious he is."
"……We need to flip the thinking. As Barusu said, we don't know how serious he is, but we must not let him get serious."
"Not let him get serious?"
Ram picked up on the murmured words, and Subaru furrowed his brow at her pensive expression. Ram continued thinking, then said: "That's right. Emilia-sama was recognized by the examiner because she dragged out a concession from him, and on top of that, fulfilled the conditions… The breakthrough conditions for the trial seem to be quite loose."
"I agree—the criteria are fuzzy. They reflect the examiner's temperament."
"And so, the key is to entertain the examiner while presenting conditions that still qualify as a trial. On top of that, defeating the examiner—that's the condition for breaking through the Second Floor."
"———"
Listening to Ram's words, Subaru silently snapped his fingers in his mind.
Emilia had set the condition "if you move even one step," then used an overwhelming number of moves combined with a bit of fortune to scrape out a victory—taking into account Raid's carelessness, that had been the victory at the stage with the loosest conditions. A victory seized through brute force was, for all practical purposes, impossible now.
"But it's not like we can just play rock-paper-scissors and call it…"
"We need to find the conditions that would satisfy Raid and aim for those… This 'trial' really does require us to think about that."
"I wouldn't call it hard so much as nasty in a different way from the Third Floor."
After being tested for intellect (knowledge from another world), he had expected to be tested for martial strength (at the world's strongest level), but it turned out the real substance was somewhere else entirely.
In other words, the Second Floor's "trial"—different in flavor from the Third Floor's but no less designed to torment—was undoubtedly another showcase of the "Sage" who built the monitoring tower's inherent spitefulness.
And then— "What's the rush? Just take it slow, why don't you?"
"'Slow' is easier said than done."
Surveying the deep-in-thought group, Shaula leaned back cross-legged and spoke in a carefree tone. The others grimaced, but she didn't care—her eyes merely sparkled with gleeful delight.
"As long as you want to stay, Master, stay forever and ever and ever! I've been waiting for hundreds of years for Master to come!"
"Even so…"
"Take as much time as you need. Pass the 'trial' at whatever pace comes naturally. I'll be watching you the whole time. ——No matter how many days, how many years, how many centuries."
Those words carried a weight that could not be brushed off as a careless joke and laughed away.
Spoken lightly, with a smile, from Shaula—a being whose only positive sentiment existed toward Subaru—those words carried the weight of the centuries she had endured.
Here, as a guardian who had followed the "Sage's" instructions and continued to protect the monitoring tower, they carried the weight of her long watch.
Shaula said it.
That she would not allow anyone to leave without completing the "trial." And that when that rule was broken—even if the other party was Subaru, the one she called "Master"—she would show no mercy.
Being friendly, being warm, did not make her an ally.
In the assault on the
——the realization hit him through that very smile: she was not someone he could trust.