The search of the third floor, "Taigeta," ended without yielding any results.
"Sorry. I looked as hard as I could for clues, but…"
Of course, recovering his memories here and now would have been the best possible result. But he'd barely had any awareness of having lost them in the first place, and throughout their search, he hadn't once felt like they'd truly found nothing.
"—? Master, what's wrong?"
"Hmm? Nothing at all."
When Subaru glanced her way,
No ulterior motives, no malice, no deep thoughts.
In short, she was thinking about nothing whatsoever—but to Subaru in his current state, that attitude of hers felt like salvation.
At the very least, it was far better than having someone scrutinize his expression at every turn, worry excessively about him, or watch his every move with anxiety.
"It appears there's no discernible pattern to how these books are arranged. They don't seem to be sorted by title or chronology. In fact, even books I found yesterday don't appear to be on the same shelf—I confirmed through memory that they aren't."
"Now that's one unfriendly and troublesome library," Julius remarked as he surveyed the archive.
With its overwhelming collection alone already daunting enough, having the books scattered in random positions on top of that made it an absolute nightmare for anyone trying to use the library as intended.
Even if the book they were looking for existed, they'd never find it like this.
"For example, what if we just pull books out one by one and pile them on the floor? The bookshelves line the walls all the way around the room—well, there aren't really 'corners'—but if we pick some spot as a starting point and do a systematic sweep, wouldn't we eventually turn up something?"
"If I'm not mistaken, it would be wise to refrain from doing that. It would likely violate one of the prohibitions within this tower. It could be seen as—disrespect toward the archive,"
"I feel like you used to pile books on the floor quite a bit, actually, Beatrice."
"That was because those particular books were correctly stored that way!"
Beatrice's strained excuse drew a sharp-eyed stare from
While this librarian banter played out beside him, Subaru furrowed his brow at the word "prohibition."
"Sorry, sounds like something I'm not in the loop on again. What's this prohibition you're talking about?"
"Oh, sorry. I don't think I ever properly explained."
Emilia raised a finger at Subaru's question.
"Actually, there are several rules you have to follow inside this tower. Things like, you can't leave the tower without finishing the 'trials,' you can't do anything bad in the archive, you can't destroy the tower—that kind of thing."
"I see. So putting books on the floor counts as doing something bad in the archive. …By the way, who enforces these rule violations?"
"I am, I am, I am! It's the Star Servant, yours truly! Well, actually, when a rule gets broken, I just suddenly get this jolt of electricity, and then I turn into a bloodless, tearless killing machine! So please, try not to break any if you can help it!"
"A bloodless, tearless killing machine… You?"
Subaru snorted skeptically at Shaula's enthusiastic hand-raising.
Setting aside how much of her joke to take at face value, it was hard to imagine this bright, boisterous girl transforming into a remorseless killing machine. Besides, the question of what a woman's slender arms could really do—though that kind of reasoning didn't hold up in a fantasy world with magic.
And in truth, Shaula wasn't exactly on their side. He'd heard she was the Star Servant—the supervisor—of the
She held an irregular position unlike Meili's, serving as a coordinator to push the tower's "trials" along efficiently. Though she gave off absolutely none of that impression.
"If your position is really that important, then cut me some slack out of the kindness of our bond."
"Oh, you bad person! Master, that's totally dirty! But even that slightly naughty side of you is kinda hard to resist! If it were up to me, I'd want to honor your request like the mountain of wishes it is, but this has basically nothing to do with my own will, so give up and do the fair-and-square sportsmanship thing—get along with everyone and work hard!"
"Useless."
"Owwie!"
The plan to unfairly recruit the supervisor into his corner failed spectacularly—the supervisor's authority turned out to be far too shallow.
As a bonus, Subaru flicked Shaula's forehead when she aggressively leaned into his space during the conversation, sending her charming face pitching backward. He then let out a weak sigh.
Then— "…It seems like Subaru and Shaula have really become good friends."
Emilia whispered those words at their exchange.
It sounded like something she'd frame as heartwarming, and Subaru, embarrassed, turned around saying, "No, no, that's not it—"
"————"
But the momentum of his witty retort died when he saw the look on Emilia's face.
Emilia wasn't smiling. She simply had her eyes lowered beneath her long lashes, her violet irises shimmering with a lonely light.
Subaru caught his breath at the sight, and Emilia noticed, quickly waving her hands.
"Oh, no, it's fine. Being on good terms is a really great thing. That gloomy look doesn't suit Subaru at all… Yeah, it's totally fine."
She forced a smile and spoke as if convincing herself.
"A-Ah, Emilia. Hey, I…"
Running a hand through his hair, Subaru struggled to find the right words for Emilia.
Right now, anything he said felt like it would be the wrong answer.
The truth was, the correct answer for this situation existed only in the memories he'd lost. Every possible choice he could make was the wrong one—such was the nightmarish situation he was in.
In a moment like this, what words could he offer a girl trying to hold back her grief— "Hey, so what do we do now?"
A sweet voice tossed a stone into the silence that was about to settle.
Looking over, it was Meili, sitting on the floor of Taigeta with her cheek resting on her palm. From her low vantage point, she swept her gaze across the adults' faces.
"We couldn't find any clues about Onii-chan's memories. That's a shame, but oh well—if so, what's next? Keep searching for memory clues? Or…?"
She paused there, then raised the finger still propped against her cheek and pointed at the ceiling.
And with a vaguely provocative smile, she added: "How about we try going up again? Put Onii-chan's memories on hold for now."
"…That's worth considering," said Echidna, her expression thoughtful.
At Echidna's positive reaction, Emilia's eyes went wide.
"Wait. I feel the same urgency. But I can't just leave Subaru like this."
"I understand how you feel. Julius, and everyone else too—we all agree it would be best for Natsuki-kun's memory to return. …But consider the current situation from this angle: what if Natsuki-kun's loss of memory is part of the tower's 'trials'?"
"Subaru's memory is part of the 'trials'?"
At Echidna's unexpected words, not just Emilia but everyone else tilted their heads in confusion. Only Echidna closed one eye as if to say, "Listen."
"I think we can all agree that common sense doesn't apply in this tower. It's hard to believe that what happened to Natsuki-kun has nothing to do with the tower. That's precisely why we came all the way to Taigeta. —Broadly speaking, we can consider that his memories were taken by the tower."
"His memories were taken by the tower—what a cool, chuunibyou-sounding line. If this weren't about me, I'd be excited and eager to go along with it… But wasn't the trial on Taigeta already finished? Isn't it weird that his memories would get snatched here?"
"Right. That's why I believe the reason his memories were taken isn't directly the 'trial' itself, but rather a violation of the prohibitions. Even though Taigeta's trial is complete, the tower's overall functions haven't been fully served. Just like how you can't take books out or disrespect the archive."
Echidna's deduction was laid out, and Subaru twisted his head and neck deeply in thought.
In short, Echidna was saying this: "So you're saying that yesterday's me broke the prohibitions here and got clocked in the head? Honestly, the part about us trying to find a shortcut is so on-brand that I can't even argue against it…"
"But if that were the case, wouldn't Shaula have been angry?"
Emilia interjected into Echidna's confirmation. She raised her hand and pointed at Shaula, recalling their earlier exchange.
"If he'd broken the rules, Shaula should have gotten angry, right? That's a completely different matter from memories."
"True. It's possible that Barusu foolishly broke a rule, but Shaula hasn't shown her fangs at Ram and the others even now. How do we explain that?"
Ram picked up where Emilia left off, fixing Shaula with a stare from her rose-colored eyes as she said, "Or else—"
At that gaze, Shaula let out an uncomfortable "Eeep" and ducked behind Subaru.
"Don't tell me you actually abandoned your role for Barusu's sake?"
"That would be far too optimistic a reading. However, as Shaula herself said earlier, she has a weak sense of her own role as the one who carries out the punishments within this tower."
Julius shrugged and stepped up beside Echidna, supporting her theory.
"The prohibitions presented to us number four. If those prohibitions are broken, the penalty given may not be uniform. Shaula might turn hostile and attack us—but for instance, the punishment for disrespecting the archive might be memory loss…"
There, Julius stopped. His yellow eyes turned momentarily toward Subaru.
"————"
The emotion that passed through the depths of those eyes was bizarre and complex—its meaning unreadable to Subaru.
But Julius quickly resumed, saying, "However—"
"We have no time to test whether this theory is correct."
"If it's really just losing memories, you could always offer up the four or five hours of memories from when Barusu woke up as a test subject. The damage would be minimal."
"Don't turn my memories into guinea pigs! Memories make up who a person is! Even just four or five hours of me is still me! I'm not some bad
"I was joking."
Ram tossed those words coldly at Subaru, who was trembling violently with his head and limbs shaking.
Whether she was truly joking or lying was honestly a little suspicious. He felt that way because, despite the short time they'd been together, he'd gathered that she was likely the type who was noble and unwilling to show vulnerability.
In short, it wouldn't be surprising if she genuinely wanted to erase the shame of having unintentionally shown a weak side to Subaru.
Regardless, whether Echidna and Julius's theory was correct or not, it was well worth considering as one possibility.
At the same time, Subaru had his own thoughts about this memory loss.
Specifically— "Honestly, putting aside whether either of their theories is true, I'm against the idea of desperately rummaging through everything here. Something tells me that even if we scramble around desperately, those lost memories aren't going to turn up."
"Do you have any basis for saying that?"
"It's a gut feeling. And if this really is part of the 'trials,' then maybe if we clear the tower's trials completely, my memories will just pop right back?"
"————"
At Subaru's words—finger raised and wagging side to side—Emilia and the others exchanged glances.
But this wasn't a negative reaction born of distrust. It was the exact opposite—a response of surprise, as if picking up a seed of hope.
Emilia clenched her fist tightly in front of her chest and nodded several times.
"That's… right. If Subaru's memories were absorbed into this tower, then once the tower's 'trials' are over, maybe we'll get them back."
"'Absorbed' sounds a bit too cute, but that's the spirit, that's the spirit."
"Yeah, that's the spirit!"
Emilia struck a cute fist-pump pose, and Subaru smiled with a sense of relief.
Watching this, Beatrice shook her head with a look of exasperation.
"I can't tell anymore which one of you is encouraging which," she muttered.
Indeed, their positions were completely reversed—but Subaru thought this was fine.
Having found a thread of hope to grasp, the light had returned to Emilia's eyes. That fact filled Subaru with immense relief.
She was the kind of girl who didn't suit a dark expression. And she genuinely cared about him. The idea that he was the reason for her dark expression was deeply troubling.
"And here I was, making moves like that in front of a girl from the top of the world…"
"I don't know what you're saying, but shall we shelve Subaru's memories for now? If we're going to finish the tower's 'trials,' then like Meili said, the only way is up," Emilia said.
"Up, huh? Let's see—we're on the third floor, so next would be the second floor."
As he spoke, Subaru looked around the archive. He hadn't walked around extensively, but he'd already observed the room more than thoroughly.
A room with nothing but bookshelves. Which meant there was no staircase going up to be found.
"Where's the staircase to the second floor?"
"That's on the fourth floor. There's a staircase that connects directly from the fourth floor all the way down to the second floor, but…"
Emilia made a complicated face and quietly glanced toward Julius. Julius, receiving that look, furrowed his brow and said, "Please don't worry—"
"I won't act on my own like yesterday. As I swore at breakfast this morning. However, even setting that aside…"
"The first 'Sword Saint,' Reid, is tough, huh. Now, what to do about that…" Julius and Ram exchanged bitter expressions. And it wasn't just the two of them—virtually everyone present shared that feeling.
The exceptions were Shaula, who grimaced as if she'd tasted something far more than bitter— "Ah, sorry. So who's this Reid, exactly?"
—and, as always, Natsuki Subaru, who remained hopelessly out of the loop.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ The first "Sword Saint,"
That, apparently, was the name of the examiner stationed on the second floor of the Pleiades Watchtower.
The title of "Sword Saint" was already new to him, and to hear it came with the qualifier of "first" only deepened Subaru's expectation of encountering a seriously powerful character, as his otaku instincts screamed.
And those expectations were not disappointed—this "Sword Saint" was, in fact, an overwhelmingly powerful individual.
Yesterday's group that challenged Reid had experienced a power gap resembling that between an adult and a child.
Even so, Emilia, who had apparently managed to scrape together a victory through a combination of skill and luck, was impressive—but— "The problem is, a memory-less me is useless when it comes time to actually do something."
At breakfast, he'd loudly proclaimed that fresh ideas would come pouring out to help them clear the tower, but from what he'd heard, the second floor's "trial" was a straightforward contest of strength. In other words, there was no room for cunning tricks or modern-knowledge superiority.
"Would scattering flour and triggering a dust explosion work…?"
His go-to easy superweapon, the "dust explosion"—but he'd heard that actually setting one off required precise fine-tuning of the flour quantity. Besides, in a situation where food had been declared scarce, he simply didn't have the guts to scatter flour willy-nilly.
And for all he knew, there might not even be any flour available.
"In that case, I'd want to count on the cheat ability granted to me as an otherworld summon."
Subaru placed his palm against the stone wall and channeled his will—nothing. No shockwave burst from his palm, and the wall didn't shatter into pieces. All he felt was the rough texture against his hand and a vague sense of emptiness rising in his chest.
Unfortunately, it seemed Subaru hadn't been granted a straightforward physical enhancement cheat.
Still pressing his palm against the wall, he lightly pivoted and threw a kick. To his surprise, his foot rose easily enough, leaving a shoe print at a considerable height. His toes hurt. Strike two.
"Then magic it is. Beatrice, tell me what spells I can use."
"If it's magic, then Subaru can never use it again."
"Never!? Why!? Did I dabble in forbidden spells!?"
"Perhaps you overused the beginner spells you were told not to use and destroyed your gate. That's why Subaru can never use magic again."
"I broke it with beginner spells!? How lame!"
He'd heard it wasn't some grand sacrifice of a mage's life to cast a supreme spell—it was simply that he'd blown out the main valve with beginner magic. Subaru wanted to scream to the heavens at the unfathomable extent of his patheticness.
With or without his memories, Natsuki Subaru's otherworld life had started from rock bottom.
"Having good people around me… I guess that's the one silver lining."
Opening and closing his palm lightly, Subaru let out a deep sigh full of that sentiment.
Having people who knew him—whether one-sided or not—was a lifeline. Without them, he'd have been thrown into a completely unknown world with no special abilities whatsoever. Honestly, he wasn't resourceful enough to survive on his own with nothing to rely on.
So this current situation was salvation. —Even if it meant he was the one wearing the dark expression.
"————"
Subaru held his breath, then dropped into a squat.
He'd checked his body's condition, his magical abilities, and the presence or absence of special powers.
This was a sudden pocket of free time before ascending to the second floor.
While Emilia and the others prepared to face the second floor's challenges, Subaru busied himself checking whether his body possessed any special abilities he might have overlooked.
He punched walls, prayed to walls, seethed at the fact that his magical talent had dried up, ran around the tower a bit, and after approaching the question from various angles, arrived at a single conclusion.
Which was— "I… think I didn't get anything at all…"
Sprinting down a corridor, slightly out of breath, Subaru accepted this reality.
He felt his stamina might have improved marginally compared to his memory-self. His hip flexibility when he'd kicked the wall was also noticeably better. But this was the same as his scars and the grotesque condition of his arms—the result of a year of effort that this version of him had no memory of.
The modest strength of an ordinary person who couldn't even meet their parents' expectations, earned through相应的 effort.
There was no trace of any special power bestowed by a so-called "god."
"I even tried the transformation poses, just in case…"
He'd gone full Ultraman, tried Kamen Rider, even struck Pretty Cure poses and Sailor Moon stances—but nothing worked.
So he really was the type of otherworld traveler who'd been thrown in with nothing but his own body.
"All I can do now is bet on the possibility of awakening in a crisis. …Damn it."
He scratched his head furiously, grinding down the seeds of anxiety welling up in his chest.
In front of Emilia and the others, he might have been able to mask it by keeping up appearances to some degree, but looking at his situation from a bird's-eye view like this, there was nothing but anxiety in his position.
He'd lost his memories. There was no longer any room for doubt.
The evidence was overwhelming, and honestly, right now his desire to "believe" was stronger than anything. How could he still be here if he couldn't believe that?
He wanted to stay here. This was the only place he had now. That was why he wanted the power to be here.
"In the end, all I can do is cling to bonds I don't even remember. That's enough to make you cry."
Whether in this world or the other, Natsuki Subaru was always the one who took and consumed.
He could feel how seriously Emilia and the others were worrying about him, and that made him curse the borrowed position he occupied.
"Going to the second floor isn't going to change what I can or can't do, but…"
The reason his heart had rejected being left behind, of staying behind as the caretaker, was probably that.
After explaining about the second floor's guardian, Reid Astrea, the others had split opinions on whether Subaru should accompany them.
The one who argued most strongly against bringing him was Emilia, and while the others weren't as forceful, they also seemed opposed to Subaru's inclusion. The probability of Subaru being useful in tackling the second floor was considered low, and Reid Astrea's temperament, as they'd heard in stories, was deemed harmful to Subaru in his current state.
So in the normal course of things, Subaru would have been left behind—but— "—I was the one who insisted on going with you."
Emilia and the others had wanted to leave Subaru behind out of concern for his well-being.
Being treated so kindly was, for the current Subaru, a joy laced with venom. The Natsuki Subaru who still had his memories would certainly have gone with them, and they would never have even debated whether to bring him along.
It seemed unlikely that the presence or absence of his memories affected his abilities. In other words, setting aside his knowledge, current Subaru should be able to perform just as well as his memory-self.
He'd tried various things to verify this, but nothing had borne fruit.
"Insisting that Beatrice leave me alone, only to end up like this—it's not looking good."
He recalled the little girl's face who had been the most reluctant to leave him alone, looking grim about it until the very end.
After checking his body, magic, and skills for any cheat abilities, Subaru had asked Beatrice to step out for the portion where he tested transformation poses.
Doing multiple poses in front of others was, needless to say, embarrassing. Beatrice had of course resisted fiercely, and a back-and-forth struggle ensued.
"If you leave Subaru alone, he'll just lose something else! Beatrice won't budge an inch!"
"I appreciate the feeling, really, but I'm about to do something I can't let anyone see!"
"There's no need for such cold courtesy between Subaru and Beatrice!"
"No, I'll be getting naked. I'm going to do a moonlight makeup."
He'd resorted to brute force, ultimately breaking her will with sheer enthusiasm.
In the end, Subaru had managed to settle it by receiving Beatrice's ironclad command to absolutely not do anything unnecessary and to regroup with them no matter what.
"Even though she calls me her contractor, it doesn't really click. But from the sound of it, things seemed to go well between us and Beatrice. That doesn't feel like me at all. …Was it really even me?"
Curling his lip, Subaru reached behind his waist—where a whip was stowed—drew it out, and casually swung it, tapping the tip against the wall. He reeled it back in. And hit his own leg.
"Guoh…! Doesn't the body remember this kind of thing…!? Or was it all style, and I couldn't actually use it even before I lost my memories…?"
Clutching his shin where he'd taken a hard hit, Subaru rubbed his leg with tears in his eyes.
Really, choosing a whip as his weapon of preference said it all. Not a sword, not a gun—a whip. It had the feel of someone who mistook being different for being cool.
"If I could use it before, then what's gone is just what's in my head?"
Still rubbing his leg, Subaru crouched and thought about it. And after thinking, his cheeks twisted at the sheer hopelessness of that possibility.
If his current theory was correct, what a pathetic shell had been left behind.
He'd lost his memories, caused worry to the people who should have been with him, lost everything he'd built up and become useless—and yet the only thing that remained was the history etched into his body, with a polished exterior on top.
Wasn't that nothing but a paper-mache man?
"Heh."
Subaru exhaled softly and stood up.
Internally, he found the four-character word that had surfaced in his mind laughably trivial.
Paper-mache? What was he even talking about, at this point?
—Since when had Natsuki Subaru NOT been a paper-mache man?
"Ah, forget it. Idiotic. This is no time to be tanking my own motivation…"
He thumped his own forehead with his fist, sighed, and began coiling the whip. He wasn't even sure how to wrap it properly, struggling through the process before finally getting it back around his waist.
As he did, he noticed the callus on his palm—different from the kind you get from swinging a wooden sword, one that spoke to a full year of accumulated training. He idly traced it with his tongue. Hard. Bitter.
"You should've at least kept a diary of your training for times like this. Useless."
He directed his irrational frustration at his pre-memory-loss self, then slowly began to walk.
He hadn't confirmed any cheat ability, but in a sense, the fact that he'd found nothing could be considered a收获. Now he wouldn't be tempted to act based on something that didn't exist.
That was perhaps a bit too negative a form of positivity.
"Oh, oops, wrong way."
After taking a wrong turn down one path, Subaru ended up on a different floor entirely.
Before him, spreading wide, was a spiral staircase—the unnervingly massive spiral staircase leading to the lower levels of the tower.
In a tower said to consist of six floors, ascending from the sixth to the fourth floor would have required climbing an estimated hundred-plus meters of stairs.
Compared to mountain climbing it might have been easier, but the tower's interior was suffused with a heavy, gloomy atmosphere, so the effort required was surely greater than it looked.
"Come to think of it, this tower is also strangely built… Though I guess saying that in a fantasy world is a bit late."
This was a world where certain plants could heal you just by being near them. And even back in the original world, there were many structures that could only be thought of as beyond human comprehension. The pyramids were one such example.
Thinking about it that way, there wasn't that much difference between this tower and the pyramids.
"I wonder if the me from before did something like searching for commonalities with his original world."
The "me from before"—even using that expression made him feel a little weird.
He felt as if some gear had gone wrong between before and after losing his memories. There was supposed to be no before or after to a person. Past and present—they were all continuous.
So here too, Natsuki Subaru was— "Oh?"
Subaru, as if shaking off his melancholy, turned his head and let out a sound like a breath being released.
It was truly an offhand exhalation.
Nothing more than an involuntary sigh prompted by an unexpected thought.
Nothing more, nothing less.
And yet, pushed forward by that tiny, insignificant shock— "————"
Subaru let out that sigh of no consequence whatsoever—and the world flipped upside down.
"Huh?"
His feet had left the ground. —No, it wasn't just his feet. His entire body.
His body was wrenched from the ground, tossed into the air, completely losing all sense of orientation, swallowed by a weightless sensation.
Swallowed by the weightless sensation, Natsuki Subaru's existence began to fall.
"W-wait—"
A tremendous rushing sound like a ferocious wind tore through his eardrums.
He couldn't understand. He understood nothing. Right now, Natsuki Subaru was falling. He was falling—spinning through the air in a corkscrew, plummeting straight down.
Falling, falling, falling, falling—as consciousness struggled to catch up with reality.
He was falling.
"W-wait, wait, wait—"
His vision spun, his limbs flailed in empty air, and after不知道 how many seconds had passed since he'd been thrown out, Subaru finally grasped what had happened to him.
He was falling. He was plummeting. He was crashing—from far above, toward far below.
He'd been swallowed by the massive black maw that gaped wide where the spiral staircase made a sharp turn. Straining his eyes in every direction, he could see plain stone walls streaming past at high speed from bottom to top. —No, the walls weren't moving. Subaru was falling, and because he was falling, his field of vision was reversing, streaming past, cascading downward.
The sensation of being tossed around, and随之 the rising nausea—sour stomach acid spilling into the void.
"—Blgh—"
He couldn't breathe fast enough, and stomach acid choked his throat.
A sharp pain jabbed deep into his nose, his organs had all broken free from their positions and were rampaging chaotically inside his body. His vomit was surely covering his face, his clothes, the entire floor— Emilia would be exasperated. Beatrice would be furious. Ram would stare at him coldly. Julius would sigh. Echidna would shrug. Meili would laugh. Shaula would point at him.
Through that absurd sense of urgency, Subaru lost sight of his own essence—and lost it.
He scraped with his fingers but couldn't find it. It wasn't in the sky. It wasn't inside him. Where had it gone? Where was it?
After his memories, now he'd lost himself too. Nothing but things lost.
"Mama."
A sour-tinged whisper escaped, and with it, Natsuki Subaru lost consciousness.
His awareness cut out, the thread of memory grew tenuous, and then— And then— And then————— And then————————————————— Something hard.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "Subaru! Hey, Subaru, are you okay?"
The first thing he heard upon waking was a silvery voice.
The touch of slender fingers on his arm, the breath he could feel so close. Clinging to those sensations, Subaru's consciousness slowly surfaced, and he opened his heavy eyelids.
—Right before his eyes was a terrifyingly beautiful moon fairy.
"I mean, Emilia…?"
"Oh, Subaru, thank goodness. You've woken up. I was so, so worried."
At Subaru's voice, the girl before him—Emilia—let out a breath of pure relief, pressing her hand to her chest. Watching this, Subaru's eyes widened as he looked around.
A room covered in green ivy, with himself lying on a bed woven from that very ivy. Emilia, who had just let out that sigh of relief, and beside her stood the beautiful ringlet-curled little girl.
"Emilia, being that gentle might keep Subaru from learning his lesson. You should be harsher—otherwise he won't understand how worried Beatrice and the others were."
"You're right. See, even Beatrice says so! When Subaru went missing, everyone panicked, and when they found him collapsed, they almost cried…"
"There was no need to say things that didn't need to be said!"
Beatrice's face flushed red as she huffed in irritation at Emilia's innocent words.
Watching their exchange, Subaru simply tilted his head in bewilderment.
"Huh? What, was I dreaming?"
"—?"
At Subaru's words, both Emilia and Beatrice tilted their heads in unison.