"---"
Chewing on the unbelievable fact, Subaru felt cold sweat spreading across his entire body.
This was, to his knowledge, one of the most terrifying situations imaginable.
A familiar scene. A conversation he'd heard before. This went beyond déjà vu.
It wasn't that he felt like these events had happened — they genuinely had. And that could only mean one thing: he had returned by death.
"But... why...?"
There had been no warning at all.
For Subaru, it felt as though he'd blinked and the world had switched tracks.
The lack of any real sensation was so complete that he'd even begun to suspect his own Authority had malfunctioned — that perhaps, for some reason, the "death" part of "Return by Death" had been skipped, and only the "return" had triggered.
"Am I an idiot? No, I'm definitely an idiot."
Subaru checked himself, stopping his own desperate attempt to find optimism in the face of what was right in front of him.
Crazy as it sounded, he had to trust Return by Death. Not once, in all the times this power had sent him back through time, had it ever triggered without death as the trigger.
If time had been reversed, then Subaru had lost his life. That was absolute.
"Okay, I've accepted that. Accepted it, so what now, me?"
He pressed a fist against his forehead, commanding himself to be calm despite the violent shaking inside.
If he'd accepted that he'd returned by death, the next thing to focus on was the cause of death. Looking back at the moment just before — mere seconds ago — he tried to recall what had happened.
"...Nothing comes up."
But when he replayed the moment where he must have died, nothing surfaced.
He groped through his memories searching for even the smallest foothold, and found nothing.
The tavern he'd been heading toward. Flop chatting beside him. The bustle of the main street fading into the distance. The faint, shadow-smell unique to an alley. A hard sound he'd barely caught — that was all he could pick out.
None of it connected to anything that could have endangered his life.
"Damn it, why am I always like this...!"
If he'd just been more alert to changes in his surroundings, he wouldn't have made such a fool of himself — Subaru cursed and berated himself for his carelessness.
But a part of his reason, already weary, cast a flat look back at him.
He didn't have surveillance cameras. He couldn't be on guard around his own body twenty-four hours a day. And he wasn't some master who could pick up on the smallest shift in his environment and respond in an instant.
That assessment hadn't changed even now, after reliving his own memories and scrutinizing himself.
Which was exactly why he couldn't stop thinking and couldn't stop acting.
"...This situation is similar to when
On the road to the
That sand-sea baptism had begun with a flash of white light so fast he couldn't even react — Subaru had been obliterated, and the ensuing battle had been nothing short of hell.
Not knowing what had happened, not knowing the cause of death, only knowing he'd died — this situation was truly a reprise of that first death in the sand sea.
However, unlike then, this time he was in the city.
The environment was fundamentally different from the sand sea, where he'd been prepared to face death at every moment.
"In this situation, what could possibly take my life...?"
The first thing that came to mind, given this death without warning, was Shaula's sniper shot — that impression was still strong.
If that were the case, one might assume he'd been sniped again, but Subaru had died in an alley — not high up, but a place with poor sightlines, sandwiched between buildings on both sides.
If someone were sniping, the line of fire could only pass through front-to-back, and it didn't seem like ideal terrain for taking aim. Of course, given that he couldn't be sure how accurate his memories were, there was a possibility it was actually a sniper's dream spot with a clean line of fire — "— Daddy? You've been frowning more and more since a while ago. What's wrong?"
"Ah..."
"Were you not listening to my advice? A frown drives fortune away! Once it's gone, chasing after it is a fool's errand! I, for one, always keep my money on the ox cart!"
Flop gestured extravagantly in front of Subaru, hands on his chest, putting on an over-the-top performance.
Even while recognizing that this was all an act to cheer up the frowning Subaru, he couldn't help but tense up at those gestures.
If he was searching for the cause of death, he'd simultaneously need to search for the perpetrator.
In that case, if Subaru's death hadn't been from a sniper, the most likely suspect would be Flop — the person who'd been with him, the one closest to him.
But at the moment of Subaru's death, Flop had been in Subaru's field of vision, and there'd been no sign whatsoever of him preparing to attack.
Of course, he knew there were plenty of people in this world capable of killing him without him noticing anything, in a single blow. But Flop didn't seem like one of them.
First of all — "Does Flop have any reason to kill me?"
The most likely scenario would be something like pretending to be kind while robbing Subaru. But it seemed like there was little reason to go to all that trouble in the middle of the city.
He'd originally met the O'Connell siblings outside the city gates, while they were all in line.
If he wanted to pull off the deed without being discovered, he could have tricked Subaru and lured him away before entering
Flop could have scammed them outside the city, taken the horn, and cashed it in here.
There was no rational explanation for the motive.
Plenty of people had tried to kill Subaru before, but every one of them had some rational reason. Unless they were a mindless Demon Beast, that was an absolute rule.
So — "Why does Flop treat us so well?"
"Hmm? That's a rather sudden question."
"Sorry to spring it on you. I just... got a little anxious."
At Subaru's seemingly random question, Flop raised his well-shaped brows in surprise.
While putting on a wry smile at that reaction, Subaru held his breath waiting for Flop's answer. There was no rational doubt. So it came down to whether he could believe it or not.
Flop, who'd been so kind, who'd gone out of his way to look after them.
He wanted reassurance — that Flop and his sister Medium had no ulterior motives, that it was okay to trust him.
"Hmm."
Perhaps Subaru's inner turmoil showed in his eyes, because Flop's well-featured face softened, his eyes narrowing.
The expression of self-assured confidence without basis — the one Flop always wore — faded away, and what remained was an intellectual-looking, handsome man.
And before Subaru, who was holding himself stiff, Flop shook his head.
"It's not complicated. It's simple. What my sister and I are doing for you and your wife and your niece, because we think it's for the best..."
"What you're doing?"
"— Revenge, obviously!"
"...What?"
Spreading his arms wide, Flop proclaimed this to Subaru in a booming voice.
The clash between that energetic, cheerful delivery and the ominous content was so jarring that, for a moment, Subaru couldn't process it. He was left speechless, eyes wide.
Before the frozen Subaru, Flop ran a hand through his bangs and said, "Listen up, okay?"
"My sister and I — we used to live on the edge of life and death! We were abandoned by our parents and grew up in a facility that took in orphans... and it was absolutely terrible!"
"An orphanage..."
A hazy image of an orphanage-like facility surfaced in Subaru's mind.
However, it wasn't hard to imagine that the conditions and facilities of an orphanage in this world would be vastly different from what he imagined in modern society.
The terrible conditions would have involved a world beyond anything Subaru could imagine.
Growing up in such a place, Flop revealed with animated gestures: "Every night, we huddled together with children in the same situation, and we made up our minds to escape from it. And then, my sister and I got the opportunity to flee. The first night we spent without being hit, I made a vow. — Revenge."
"Revenge... against the people at the orphanage?"
"No. Against the world."
With the same expression as when he'd loudly declared "revenge," Flop clenched his fist.
To Subaru's skepticism, Flop leaned forward with a passionate look: "My sister and I grew up being beaten by the adults at the facility. But were those adults who hit me happy while they did it? No. They were unhappy too. Unhappy adults were hitting unhappy children. Could anything be more wretched?"
"---"
"Even the adults who resort to violence aren't happy. I became a merchant and decided to pull myself and my sister out of misery. And I want to help as many people as possible escape it too. Like the person who pulled us out of there that night."
"That's your revenge against the world?"
"Exactly. My sister and I are struggling against a world that forces misery onto people. Helping you and your wife was part of that."
After saying this, Flop scratched his nose with a slightly embarrassed air.
Taking in both that gesture and the intensity of Flop's words, Subaru was rendered speechless. As that warmth slowly seeped into his brain, his decision was made immediately.
"Thank you, Flop. I'm glad the people we ran into at the queue were you and Medium."
He'd been looking for a compass — whether he could trust Flop or not.
And the answer he'd been offered exceeded what he'd asked for. Then it was settled.
Subaru would not doubt
He resolved to believe wholeheartedly in that noble desire for revenge against the world's injustice.
Then what remained — "Flop, the feng shui on this road is pretty bad. How about you take us a different way?"
"Kei? What's a kei? Could your frown and that look in your eyes be because of that?"
"It's an item for divining fortune or whatever — the look in my eyes is unrelated! But this road is bad. Even if it means a detour, please."
Riding Flop's kindness like a wave, Subaru pushed the conversation forward with some force.
If he'd decided Flop wasn't the killer, the next pressing issue was avoiding the "death" that was coming. Whether it was a sniper or something else, it was definitely an attack.
If he could avoid the conditions that triggered that attack, he could avoid "death."
First and foremost, he needed to avoid retracing his earlier steps.
Change the route. Shift the timing. Evade the harm heading his way before it struck.
If he could do that, he should be able to dodge the unwanted "death."
"Though honestly, I've never wished for a 'death'... only once or twice, maybe."
And even those had been reluctant choices forced by dire circumstances.
Unless he was driven to a situation where dying was the only way to save someone, Subaru would never choose "death." Honestly, Subaru felt like taking revenge on the world too.
"I don't know about the kei, but I like that serious look on your face. It'll be a bit of a detour, but let's take a different route."
"That'd be a huge help! Let's try to stick to the main streets where there are more people."
"You got it."
Fortunately, Flop didn't press Subaru on his unnatural-sounding words and went along with it.
Following his guide, they changed the route to the tavern. They doubled back from the path they'd originally taken, choosing a route that would take them through the main streets and then through as few alleys as possible before reaching the tavern.
Even if there had been a line of fire in front of the tavern, that didn't change the fact that Subaru was being targeted. But if he knew the attack would come in the alley before the tavern, there were countless ways to respond.
At the very worst, seeing Subaru on guard might make the enemy back off — "Well then, Daddy, let's take this road —"
Passing by Subaru's side, Flop was about to guide them down a different path.
That was the moment. — Flop, glancing back at Subaru, suddenly went wide-eyed as if he'd noticed something.
"Wha—"
Subaru tried to confirm what had caught Flop's attention, but it was impossible.
Because Subaru's mouth was not forming words of inquiry toward Flop — it was blown wide open to expel a torrent of blood.
"Guh...!?"
It happened in an instant.
Something seized the back of Subaru's head, forcing it upward. And then, a searing sensation sliced across his exposed throat, and blood burst forth.
Drowning in the flood of blood and pain, Subaru understood — his throat had been cut.
"Gah..."
Clutching the wound on his neck with both hands, Subaru searched for a way out amid the excruciating pain and blood loss.
The wound was deep and wide, a major vessel severed and blood spurting out. He needed to wrap his discarded jacket around his neck to stop the bleeding — no, first he needed to flee from here, from the enemy behind him.
And Flop was here. He was sorry for doubting him. Even after trusting him again, he might not be forgiven, but Flop was here.
"Uh, m..."
Get back, pull her out, tell her to retreat, it's dangerous. Even if she refused, drag her away. As long as Rem was alive. She had to be alive. For that reason, stop the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood, stop it, stop — "Ah—"
△▼△▼△▼△ "— Daddy, you shouldn't frown like that."
"---"
"There's no luck to be found under a scowl without a smile or any composure. You're going to be looking for companions for your journey, right? In that case, you need to seek out good connections."
Flop pressed his finger between his brows and rubbed in circles, making his case with conviction.
Watching that performance, Subaru instinctively put both hands to his neck. There was no searing sensation, no feeling of his life bleeding away. No pulse accompanied by the gushing of blood.
No sense of his life draining out, no beating rhythm drawing him closer to "death."
"...Then you should lose that frown — what's wrong, Daddy? You look pale."
Seeing Subaru fall silent, Flop looked at him with concern.
That earnest gaze of his reminded Subaru of the moment just before — the instant his throat had been slashed.
Yes, his throat had been cut.
His throat had been cut, blood had sprayed, his instincts had screamed that he needed to run, but even those alarms had faded — and now he was back in this moment.
In other words, he had died. Return by Death had triggered again.
And this time, it was different from the first instant death. This time, it was clearer — the hostility had been given form.
"...Bgh."
Touching his throat, Subaru frantically recalled how to breathe — something he'd forgotten. His shoulders heaved as Flop reached out and asked, "Are you okay?" but Subaru didn't have the composure to respond.
But he couldn't stay here, either.
"F-Flop, today is, um, a feng shui-disaster day. Let's head back...!"
"Fusui? But with that complexion, you should probably rest a—"
"No, resting won't help! It's a fit that only goes away when Rem holds my hand!"
"I-Is that so...? That's rough!"
Burned by urgency and desperation, Subaru blurted out nonsense, but the good-natured Flop seemed to prioritize the atmosphere over the content of his words.
He grabbed Subaru's shoulder, then let himself be grabbed in turn, nodding with surprise. Pulling Flop along, Subaru hesitated between going forward or backward.
Forward was the planned route. Back was where he'd had his throat cut.
It felt like either direction led to a dead end where his life would be in danger. So Subaru tried to take a different alley — neither forward nor back — and return to the main street.
He'd failed last time, but the enemy wouldn't want to murder Subaru and Flop in a public place. If he wanted to make the enemy cautious, heading for the main street was the priority.
"Daddy! Your hands are freezing cold! You should have your wife warm them up!"
"Yeah, I want to see Rem's face as soon as possible."
He could get scolded for coming back without accomplishing his goal. That was fine.
The point was to get back to Rem — "— No."
A doubt swirled in Subaru's mind: could he even go back?
Without knowing the enemy's identity, he considered the danger of returning to Rem. He didn't know where the enemy had been targeting them from, but if they went back to the inn, wouldn't they just be handing their base to the enemy?
"---"
Curse his own lack of foresight, Subaru bit his lip — and at that same moment, the view opened up.
Leaving the alley, Subaru and Flop emerged onto the city's main street. The foot traffic left and right was nothing compared to a true metropolis, but it was far better than the alley where the hidden tavern lay.
Still, plunging into a crowd required courage. While avoiding that, he needed to decide on his next course of action.
"The street should be here, so the inn should be over there. In that case, let's head that way —"
"No, Flop! I can't go back to the inn! Meeting up with Rem is out of the question!"
"That's the same thing you said before!"
He'd become the very image of an emotionally unstable person, but his earlier concern kept Subaru from returning to Rem. At the same time, stringing Flop along without giving him any information was unkind.
But what could he say to convince him?
These weren't
Even expecting Flop's good nature to cover that was too much.
"Damn it...!"
He didn't have nearly enough cards to play to break out of this situation.
He was separated from Rem, an irreplaceable person. The place where he was being attacked was an unfamiliar city. The person with him was Flop — kind, but with no combat ability. And Subaru himself had no strength to speak of.
Until he knew who was targeting him, he wouldn't even know who to watch out for.
"Could it be... the Hunter?"
When he mentally defined his opponent as an invisible assassin, the first possibility that surfaced was "the Hunter."
Once in the Budenheim forest, the Hunter had killed Subaru, and after that, had targeted him once more when he was with Rem. In the end, they hadn't crossed paths since then — but what if the Hunter had continued to track Subaru all this time?
In the Budenheim forest, the Empire's camp, and the Shudrak settlement, Subaru had always been with someone. To avoid engaging a foe with combat ability, the Hunter might have chosen to strike precisely when Subaru was alone with the powerless Flop.
"If that's the case, their fixation is like a bear whose prey was stolen. Why target me so relentlessly? What about me —"
"Daddy? Are you all right? What exactly are you brooding over? If there's something I can help with, you should talk it through first. You're acting strange."
"Flop..."
With Subaru scanning left and right down the street, nerves fraying, Flop called out to him.
Gripping both his shoulders, Flop's earnest gaze and pleading offer made Subaru seriously consider gambling on Flop's good nature.
Maybe Flop would believe him and lend his strength.
"Flop, I hate to keep leaning on you like this, but can I tell you something?"
"Of course! And if it's something I can't help with, my sister might be able to. We cover each other's weaknesses, after all."
"In fact, it might be more of a Medium problem..."
If the enemy was coming at them with ruthless violence, maybe the only answer was to meet it with greater force. Medium's strength — clearly greater than Subaru's or Flop's.
With all of that in mind, Subaru tried to explain the situation to Flop — keeping Return by Death secret, but telling him that someone was persistently targeting him.
"Actually, someone has been following us —"
"What was that?"
"Huh?"
Steeling himself, Subaru was about to carefully explain the situation to Flop, making sure not to mention the penalty of Return by Death.
But the moment he started speaking, Flop's gaze drifted off into the distance. He furrowed his well-shaped brows, narrowed his eyes, and looked toward the street.
Reading Flop's reaction to something he'd noticed, Subaru noticed it a beat later.
"---"
In the distance, someone was screaming.
Not just one person — multiple people were shrieking, shouting, raising their voices. And those voices were carrying an increasingly desperate urgency, multiplied by a sound that was nothing like screaming — "What the—!?"
Flop's eyes went wide and his voice caught in his throat. Subaru turned in the same direction.
And the next instant, seeing what Flop had seen, Subaru was struck dumb.
— An enormous wheel was bearing down on them.
"Daddy, watch ou—"
Before Flop could finish the word, impact swallowed Subaru's entire body. His body was launched, bouncing and tumbling across hard-packed earth again and again.
The momentum didn't stop. He slammed into a wall. But it didn't end there — a second impact crashed into him as he fell, sending his body flying once more.
"Ah... guh."
He tumbled and rolled, sprawling on the ground as his vision darkened.
It wasn't that the sky had suddenly clouded over. Something else — something different — had snuffed out his sight. He didn't know what it was, and even if he figured out the truth, it wouldn't end well.
But if there was one thing he could say — "Die... die..."
His entire body was screaming to his instincts: you're going to die.
Having experienced over thirty "deaths," Natsuki Subaru had a rough sense of how much damage his body could take before his life gave out.
This time, he had clearly exceeded every limit.
"---"
Dull, throbbing pain.
But it wasn't a matter of which part of his body hurt. What hurt was everything. His entire existence had merged with the phenomenon of "pain."
It wasn't that somewhere hurt. Natsuki Subaru himself was "pain." Of course it hurt — that was the nature of the thing. Everywhere. Everywhere. It hurt. The pain would not fade.
In the distance, ringing in his head — tinnitus, a sound like a train whistle.
Woven through it all was the mingled voices of people — no, there was no joy. It was pandemonium. Pandemonium — as if that were funny. What kind of four-character idiom was that?
Against the sound's rhythm, the events unfolding were too heavy and too hard.
"Ih... ah... I..."
He couldn't form words.
The mouth he tried to use to speak was torn apart. His teeth were gone, the wind blew through freely. Something had been split open and air was leaking through. There was blood, and sound, and "pain."
Something — something — something — "Ih... ah..."
Something had killed Natsuki Subaru again.
△▼△▼△▼△ "— Daddy, you shouldn't frown like that."
"---"
"There's no luck to be found under a scowl without a smile or any composure. You're going to be looking for companions for your journey, right? In that case, you need to seek out good connections."
Flop pressed his finger between his brows, kneading skin and muscle.
Watching that performance again, Subaru clutched his own shoulders. He thought about his intact mouth, and about the "pain" that had been erased.
— He'd died again.
"And... and this time, that was... a dragon carriage?"
The impact had shattered him, sent him flying, left him helpless, and his life had guttered like a candle in the wind.
Dominated by the "pain" that his entire body screamed, Subaru had been killed. Lost his life.
"---"
His shoulders shook. His knees buckled.
Even if his body didn't remember the calamity that had befallen him, his soul did. The impact of being torn apart, the pain — even though it had been wiped away, it was still eating at his soul.
At last, Subaru could no longer hide the terror he felt at the malice descending upon him.
The first instant death. The second, a slit throat. And the third, crushed by a dragon carriage — none of them could be coincidental. It was, without question, a will to kill Natsuki Subaru.
And it had killed him without mercy. And most terrifying of all, despite three "Returns by Death," Subaru had gained nothing more than "there is an enemy."
The enemy left him no information whatsoever when he died.
"Then you should lose that frown — what's wrong, Daddy? You look terrible."
"F-Flop..."
Once again, Flop was worrying about Subaru's changed complexion.
The commotion on the main street had probably been a reaction to a dragon carriage going out of control. And at the moment of impact, Flop had been reaching out to try to save Subaru.
He hadn't made it in time — Subaru had taken a fatal blow — but Subaru found it hard to believe that Flop, who'd been right next to him, had come through unscathed. He must have been caught up in the chaos too.
"Before all of this..."
The enemy might not have been satisfied with just killing Subaru and withdrawing.
Both the first and second times, Flop had been a witness. If the enemy was cautious, it would only be natural to silence the witness Flop.
Which meant that all along, Flop might have been killed alongside Subaru.
Flop might already have been dragged into the nightmare Subaru was trapped in.
Unacceptable. Subaru ground his teeth.
"! Flop!"
"W-What is it!?"
Chewing down his fear with his molars, Subaru turned his gaze forward.
And with that resolve, he seized Flop's hand, startling him badly. But there was no room to consider Flop's surprise.
Given what had happened before, the countdown to death had already begun.
Forward: hell. Backward: hell. Avoidance: hell — a threefold misery.
Even so, he had to find a way to survive. — Not just for himself and Rem, but to return this kind brother who'd helped them back to his sister.
So — "— Flop, run!"
"That's quite sudden! What's going on!?"
"Nothing and everything — life is limited! We can't waste a single second!"
Stopping to argue in earnest would be a fatal mistake here.
Subaru judged as much and, as he had before, tried to bulldoze through Flop's resistance with forceful logic. Sure enough, swept up by his momentum, Flop nodded. "That's certainly true!"
"Life is short. We should treasure our time if we want to achieve my sister's goals and mine, but —"
"Run! We need to get to the tavern right now! Details later!"
"F-Fine! Fine, so stop pulling! You're messing up my bangs!"
Dragged by the arm, Flop stumbled and let out a cry.
Listening to Flop's near-wail, Subaru pressed forward along the path they'd already traveled — hurrying toward the tavern, their original goal, to hire an escort.
But that wasn't the real objective.
To be saved from this unrelenting chain of "deaths," to gain the help he desperately needed right now — that was why he ran.
△▼△▼△▼△ "You want to hire the best fighter in the area?"
The tavern owner, a middle-aged man whose hair had begun to show white, raised his eyebrows at the breathless Subaru.
Looking him up and down with the gaze of someone sizing up something suspicious, the owner studied the boy who was doubled over, heaving.
Subaru was well aware that his appearance and age lacked any sort of persuasive authority. Bursting into a tavern and immediately pitching something like this didn't help.
The fact that he hadn't been dismissed as a prankster could almost be counted as a blessing.
Currently, Subaru and Flop were inside the tavern that had been their original destination.
At first, Subaru had been instantly killed in the alley just outside the tavern by some method. That had left him rattled, but perhaps rushing there without stopping had worked — no demonic hand had appeared to stop them as they barreled in.
Still, it would be premature to conclude he'd escaped his predicament for that reason.
"So I need to borrow the strength of the best fighter."
"The best fighter around here? That'd be Rohaan."
Catching his breath, Subaru pressed the question again. The owner shrugged, then glanced at Flop, who was equally winded.
"Flop, I thought it'd been a while since you showed your face, and here you are doing good deeds again. You know this won't earn you a single coin, right?"
"I'm only doing the trades I want to do. My trading partners aren't limited to people. Sometimes I make unfavorable deals with the world itself."
"That's what we call being a pushover, you know."
The owner and Flop seemed to be on familiar terms, because he evaluated Flop's behavior with exasperation.
Though Subaru had heard directly why Flop was helping them, it was apparently common knowledge among those who knew him that he was this good-natured.
The owner wiped a glass while casting a sharp look at Subaru.
"Like I said, he's a pushover. But don't get any bright ideas, okay? This idiot and his sister help just about anyone who crosses their path, which means plenty of people owe them favors."
"...I don't plan on being ungrateful either. I'll repay every kindness."
"Ha ha ha, I look forward to that! The day you repay him!"
Flop straightened his disheveled bangs with a comb from his pocket and gave a cheerful answer.
While being saved by Flop's magnanimity and poise, Subaru turned to the interior of the tavern and asked, "Which one is Rohaan?"
"Oh, Rohaan's the one over there — face-down at the end."
"Face-down at the end...? That's not exactly reassuring."
Even as he said it, Subaru peered cautiously in the direction the owner had indicated. In the dim tavern interior, amid several men smoking pipes, he spotted a man sprawled over a table in the corner.
A man around fifty with long, unkempt hair loosely tied back, a weapon — a sword — at his hip.
The table before him was littered with empty glasses, making it clear he'd been drinking heavily well before the sun went down.
"...That's the best fighter?"
"His drinking habits are awful, no argument there, but he can fight. His drinking habits are just awful."
"Hearing it twice just makes me more nervous."
Being warned twice by the tavern owner about someone's drinking habits was not a good sign.
The man had to be quite the drunk. But beggars couldn't be choosers. What Subaru needed right now was not good character or a strong liver — it was someone who could throw a punch.
Someone with the power to save Subaru from his current crisis.
"Hey, Rohaan. Mind hearing me out for a second?"
"Hmm?"
With Flop in tow, Subaru steeled himself and approached Rohaan's table. He shook the collapsed man's shoulder and called out. Rohaan looked up with a bleary response.
A ruddy face, bleary eyes, and features that might have been decent if not for a thoroughly reddened nose.
"What's the matter, friend? What business does yours truly have with me...?"
"You're slobbering all over the place... Just listen. I want to give you a job — whoa, you reek of booze!"
"Oi oi, rude lot, you lot are..."
Rohan swayed upright and let out a long breath. The stench of alcohol was so powerful it was almost visible. Subaru turned his face away.
This wasn't someone who'd had a few drinks during the day. Even heavy drinkers had limits.
"I've never actually been around a real lush before... Roswaal and Otto barely drink, and
In the Emilia Camp, the only ones who drank were Roswaal and Otto, with Ram and Frederica joining in for social occasions. Everyone else abstained.
Subaru was apparently of legal drinking age in this other world, but he'd never felt particularly inclined to drink, and that remained true today.
"So honestly, I don't have the best impression of drunks... but seriously, is this guy really the best? I'm not messing around here."
"Coincidence. I'm not running this place for fun either. It's definitely him."
"Damn, you're serious..."
With the owner's guarantee confirmed, Subaru made a bitter face and turned back to Rohaan.
Rohan sat limply in his chair, holding an empty glass upside down over his face, trying to catch the last drops on his tongue.
"Tch, not enough booze. Hey, friend, buy me a drink, won't you?"
"Oh, you want a drink? Understood. Owner, one drink for him —"
"Wait, wait, Flop! As much as I appreciate your kindness, right now, could you keep that goodwill in your wallet!"
Subaru shut down Flop, who was about to buy the drink as asked, and planted himself in front of Rohaan, who was pouting. Slamming both hands on the table: "Rohan, I'll cut to the chase. We're not buying you a drink. But we can pay you a fee — enough to buy plenty of drinks. I want you to take a job."
"Aaah, a job, you say...?"
"That's right. I need an escort. Starting from this very moment."
Speaking boldly through the wall of alcohol fumes, Subaru laid out his terms.
Hearing this, Rohaan fixed his bleary gaze on Subaru for a long moment.
"...You're awful fierce. Sounds like you're in quite the pickle, friend?"
"Yeah, it's no joke. What do you say? This is all I can offer."
"Daddy, that's..."
Flop's eyes went wide as he tried to stop Subaru. But Subaru held Flop back and set a pouch — every last coin they'd gotten from selling the "Demon Beast horn" — on the table with a thud.
Just to be safe, he hadn't split any off for Rem.
This was, without exaggeration, the entire fortune of their party. There was no more to offer.
"Oi oi, this is..."
"This is what I can put on the table. So — do you take the job?"
"---"
Rohaan opened the pouch and peered inside, then fell silent. His face was still ruddy, but the bleary look was gone, replaced by sharp evaluation.
Of course, hiring a guard at a tavern — someone doing mercenary-like work — and showing him all the money Subaru carried was a considerable gamble.
Given that they'd crossed the border, Subaru didn't have a precise sense of the Empire's prices, but the currency value didn't seem dramatically different from the
With the amount Subaru had laid out, they could live comfortably for a year, at least.
"Yours truly's rates are high — I was about to say, but seeing what you've put up front..."
"Just so you know, I can't negotiate a raise."
"I don't doubt that. And this 'not messing around' business seems to be the truth."
Rohaan rubbed his reddened nose, then slowly stood. He picked up the pouch of gold coins and tucked it gently into his pocket.
"Even if you ask for it back, I won't give it back, you know?"
"I won't, even though it hurts. Not as long as you do the job properly."
"Heh."
Rohaan laughed through a boozy breath and took the job.
Hearing that answer, Subaru felt the tension he'd been carrying in his shoulders finally release. The anxiety that had been dominating his mind loosened — "Daddy, was that really okay? That money..."
"It's fine. There's no price on safety right now. Sorry for startling you, Flop, and thanks for the introduction."
"...If you say it's fine, then it's fine with me. Luckily, I'd already paid the lodging in advance!"
As for the inn, Flop and Medium's share, along with Subaru's party's, had already been settled — Subaru and his group had covered it.
There was no risk of the impropriety of hiring Rohaan without being able to pay for lodging.
"So, employer — I haven't even caught your name yet?"
"Oh, right. Sorry. I was in such a rush. My name is —"
"Wait."
Having been asked his name, Subaru panicked about the dishonor he'd already committed. But just as he was about to introduce himself, Rohaan held up a hand.
He thrust a palm toward Subaru's face, and his sharp gaze was aimed past him — toward the tavern's window.
"R-Rohaan?"
"...Something's off. You've been followed, haven't you?"
"---"
At Rohaan's low, guarded voice, Subaru's breath caught.
Flop was confused beside him — "What do you mean?" — but Subaru alone had an inkling of the presence Rohaan had sensed.
Not "could it be," but "as expected." The strange presence Rohaan had picked up — the thing that had been following Subaru — was the same enemy that had attacked him in the alley.
Three times the enemy had killed Subaru, and this time, they hadn't given up.
"Who exactly are you being chased by?"
"I'm dead serious when I say I don't know who it is. But I figured they'd make a move if we stayed outside. That's why I hurried to hire you."
"I see. Maybe I should have pushed a little harder on the price."
In truth, there was nothing left to push with, but Rohaan said it lightly.
However, though there was a trace of tension and seriousness in Rohaan's tone, there was no fear. That was likely the confidence of someone whose skill matched their bravado.
Indeed, with the alcohol haze clearing from his eyes, Rohaan's bearing carried the unmistakable presence of a strong fighter.
"---"
Rohan's weapon was the single sword at his left hip.
It was a rare sight, even now — a sword as opposed to the more common Western-style blades. Amid a world where European-style weapons predominated, Rohaan's katana stood out.
Combined with his unkempt appearance, Rohaan's overall look was vaguely reminiscent of a ronin — though a less distinguished one, perhaps.
"Rohan, the enemy is..."
"No need to be jumpy. Whoever they are, if they stand in front of yours truly, I'll cut them clean in half. I've got a drink in me, and my sword is in peak form."
"A drunk sword style? Never heard of it."
But it didn't sound like bluster, and Subaru chose to believe in Rohaan's confidence.
He circled around to the opposite side from the window Rohaan was watching and tugged on Flop's sleeve.
"Flop, let's leave this to Rohaan."
"Leave it? I don't even understand what's going on! Daddy and the guard — what exactly are you fighting?"
"That, I also —"
Subaru was about to say "don't know," which would only heighten Flop's anxiety, but before he could, the situation moved on its own.
However, the enemy didn't burst through the front door, and Rohaan didn't charge outside to meet them.
Instead — "Blgh..."
A large man stumbled through the tavern entrance and collapsed inside, groaning.
At the sudden event, Subaru practically jumped. But the other patrons merely watched with practiced indifference.
Apart from Rohaan, the other drinkers — presumably they were involved in mercenary-like work too — observed the fallen man with mild interest at best.
Only Flop and the tavern owner moved to rush over.
Though in Flop's case it was concern for the man, while the owner clearly didn't want his floor getting dirty.
"Hey, you! Are you all right? Stay with me!"
"Guh... guh..."
"Guh guh?! Is that your name? Hold on, Mr. Guh-Guh!"
"N-No, Flop, that person is..."
Flop tried to lift the fallen man, but the man's response was groaning, not a proper self-introduction to a stranger.
Moreover, the fact that a man was bursting into the tavern in the middle of this situation — "Guh..."
"! Flop, get away!"
The prone man suddenly grabbed Flop's arm as Flop leaned over him, trying to pull himself up.
In that instant, Subaru's instincts screamed. He yanked Flop backward, away from the man.
— And then.
"!!!"
The groaning man's body swelled, and in an instant, glowed blood-red.
His distended body detonated, and a tremendous explosion tore through the tavern.
"Gaaah!!!"
Screams echoed through the interior. The crimson light splashed in every direction, and Subaru realized immediately — the flames spreading everywhere came from the man, who had been turned into a human bomb.
"Flop!"
"I'm— I'm all right, Daddy! But this is..."
Blown together by the blast, Subaru and Flop stared in horror at the chaos engulfing the tavern.
The man's body had detonated — presumably because he'd been fitted with a fire-attribute magic stone. Given the way he'd suffered, the stone might have been inside his body.
It had exploded, and fire had leaped to every surface. And that wasn't all — "Cough! Wh-what the hell is this?! My eyes — my eyes!"
Amid the flames, one of the drinkers caught up in the chaos grabbed his face and screamed. Looking around, it wasn't just him — the men around him were all doing the same.
At the center of the tavern, the epicenter of the blast, smoke billowed. The men who'd been bathed in it were covering their eyes and noses, screaming in agony.
And then — "You — don't stay inside! Everyone, get out now!"
"A ma—"
A man streaming tears shouted, and the face-covering men stampeded toward the entrance en masse. Seeing the press of bodies, Subaru tried to raise his voice to stop them.
Both the exploding man and the agonizing smoke — they both seemed designed to escalate the chaos inside and drive everyone outside.
But no matter how desperately Subaru shouted, he couldn't stop men driven by pain.
The result — "!!?"
A second explosion ripped through the entrance, and the men who'd crowded there were blown away in a single mass.
The second blast was larger than the first, and the men caught in it couldn't even shield each other before being engulfed head-on by the explosion, charred black.
The searing heat and the shockwave washed over Subaru, leaving him frozen at the scene of carnage.
Nightmare after nightmare unfolding, one after another — he couldn't believe this was real.
"How can this—"
"Tighten up, employer! If you collapse here, yours truly will be in trouble too!"
"---"
Subaru's frozen, stunned form was seized by the collar and hauled upright. It was Rohaan, his face now covered by a sleeve.
He gestured for Subaru to get low so he wouldn't breathe the smoke.
"Owner! We go out the back! The front is watched!"
"R-Right! This way...!"
Blood running from his forehead, the owner obeyed Rohaan's instruction without protest.
Rohan gestured toward the owner crawling along the floor, then slapped Subaru's back. "Go!"
"You, and you over there too! If you don't want to die, move — now!"
"I-I have no intention of dying! My sister and I are still on our journey!"
"Damn it!"
Urged on by Rohaan, Subaru and Flop followed the owner toward the back. As they ran, Subaru's mind was a storm of confusion and fury — at the enemy, and at himself.
Of course he was angry at an enemy capable of such atrocities. But he was also furious at himself for misjudging the danger, even while knowing the enemy existed.
The enemy had gone so far as to send a dragon carriage careening through the main street.
That had put a considerable number of people at risk. He should have taken the fact that the enemy was willing to disregard collateral damage far more seriously.
Because of that, the men who'd simply been in the tavern had been caught up — "! The back door won't open!"
Before Subaru could berate himself further, the owner, who'd reached the back door first, let out a scream.
He was desperately trying to wrench the door open, but it refused to budge. Had the explosion warped the door, or — "This is bad! The front entrance is completely blocked! If we stay like this —"
"Out of the way! A door like this —"
Over Flop's shout, Rohaan burst forward. The interior of the tavern was ablaze with red fire and filling with black smoke. He drew the sword at his hip and, in one fluid motion, slashed at the sealed door — a flash of silver light — "— oh."
The silver arc cut through the closed door in a single stroke.
It was close to the technique Subaru knew as iaijutsu. While letting off a single, breathtaking cut, Rohaan didn't take a moment to admire it — he kicked aside what remained of the door.
"All right! It's open! Everyone, stay low!"
Opening the back door, Rohaan shouted to Subaru and the others behind him.
The spreading chaos was beyond anything, but escaping from a burning tavern — a life-or-death situation — looked to be just barely possible.
Rohan's battlefield judgment and skill had proven reliable. Now they just needed to leave this place immediately and deal with the malevolent presence — "---"
Then, suddenly, Subaru stopped breathing.
Something nagged at him. — Predicting the thoughts of this meticulous, merciless enemy.
He'd planted a man-turned-human-bomb inside the tavern, used irritating smoke to flush the patrons out, then detonated a magic stone at the entrance to blow them all away.
Then he'd sealed the front entrance and, by some means, the back door too. They'd broken through that seal and were escaping through the back — "Rohan—"
Something was off. Subaru was about to voice that nagging sense of wrongness.
If the enemy was meticulous, why would they let up the attack? He tried to call out to Rohaan to share this suspicion.
There was no reply.
"---"
Rohaan, who'd leaned out through the back door, lurched backward and collapsed.
Subaru, Flop, and the owner stared in mute shock at the fallen Rohaan. The top of his skull, above the forehead, was crushed, and an eyeball hung limply from its socket.
Anyone could see that Rohaan was dead, his head caved in.
"Hh—"
The owner's eyes went wide at the savage death. He was about to scream.
But he couldn't do that either. A blow swung from beyond the flames pierced the chest of the man who'd been taking a deep breath, and it ripped his upper body apart without mercy. His torso was peeled open, scattering bone and viscera, and the owner tumbled into the flames.
The smell of burning flesh came immediately, but the owner let no scream escape. Instant death.
"---"
From the smoke and flames, a figure slowly emerged.
Stepping over the hacked and kicked-open door was a man with a damp cloth wrapped around his face.
The man held a long-handled axe, and Subaru understood — this was what had crushed Rohaan's head and killed the owner. But his understanding stopped there.
"W-Who are you? Why would you do this?"
Trembling, Flop — who had witnessed Rohaan and the owner's deaths just as Subaru had — stared into the flames at the figure, his voice shaking. He glared through his terror, as if trying to bore hatred into the one who'd mercilessly slaughtered the tavern's people one by one.
But — "Something like this should never be— oh."
"---"
Flop's head, raised in righteous condemnation, met the direct impact of the man's axe.
The man didn't waste effort striking with the flat. He used the edge, slamming it into Flop's forehead beneath those long bangs, splitting the contents wide.
Brain matter scattered, mixing the red of blood with the red of fire, as Flop died.
With a sickening wet sound, Flop's body crumpled. Blood pooled and crept toward Subaru, who'd sunk to the floor. — No. Subaru's pants were already stained with something else entirely. Terror. He'd wet himself.
In the flames, the blood-soaked axe hanging at his side, the man's silhouette was terrifying.
At that tenacity, that relentlessness, that sheer horror, Subaru's soul trembled.
"Why...?"
It was a profoundly stupid question.
Flop had asked something similar and been killed without hesitation. Naturally, there was no reason for the man to show Subaru mercy. Subaru would die. Be killed.
He couldn't step back. He didn't have the courage to crawl away. His eyes were locked on the man.
Looking at the man was terrifying. Looking away was terrifying. He couldn't do either.
"Why — why?!"
All he could do, like a fool with one trick, was scream desperately.
The man said nothing in response. Face still hidden, he slowly raised his axe, holding it straight above the slumped Subaru's head.
And — "Why?!"
"— Wouldn't want to tell you anything, would we? Can't have you running away again."
To Subaru's blood-curdling scream, the man gave his final answer.
That matter-of-fact tone, the casual voice — Subaru's breath caught.
He tried to match that voice to something he'd heard somewhere.
"Bl—"
Faster than that, the descending axe split Subaru's skull.
A small, hard sound rang out.
Rang out.