"—Strategy meeting!"
The room fell silent as if doused with water as Subaru raised his hand and made the proposal.
No voice dissented. Everyone felt the need for discussion.
The topic, naturally, was the matter of the "summons to the Crimson Pentagram Castle."
"Abel wrote the letter, and the three of us went to the castle yesterday, so we're all essential to this..."
Subaru chewed over the demands Yorna had left behind through
Setting aside the risk of sending Abel directly to the castle for now, the most pressing concern was the condition of "a companion from yesterday's envoy."
Would bringing along the shrunken Subaru, Al, and Medium actually satisfy Yorna's expectations? In the worst case, there was a very real possibility they'd be dismissed as a prank.
Alternatively, there was the option of laying all of their circumstances bare to Yorna and appealing to her heart with sincerity and honesty—but— "You don't show your hand when you don't know what the other side is going to do. That's just common sense."
"Right... I mean, based on how things went yesterday, I sure can't say Yorna would definitely listen to reason..."
Subaru agreed with Abel's refusal to reveal their full hand here. Yesterday he'd avoided stating it outright, but if he had to put his impression of Yorna into words, the term "wicked woman" would be the most fitting. Her flirtatious manner of speaking and acting struck him as that of a seductive beauty skilled at toying with men in the palm of her hand.
And on top of that, she held the position of ruler of the Magic City and possessed the power befitting the title of one of the "Nine Divine Generals." Her danger level went without saying.
She was meant to be the first of the "Nine Divine Generals" they'd try to win over as a potential ally, but as Abel had warned, she was exactly the type with whom they couldn't easily reveal their situation.
"If we dump everything and she digs into the sibling thing, we're screwed. And if she hits us with something like 'You lied to me about cross-dressing, didn't you?', what then?"
"I don't want to think she'd go that far, but if needed, I could pretend to be Natsumi Schwart's loli form...?"
"W-wait a moment. I think I might lose my mind if we go that far..."
The dilemma of covering up a lie with more lies was an old story, but bearing the burden of having to "de-juvenate" yourself and still cross-dress to cover up the lie of cross-dressing—there was probably little precedent for that.
Unlike Al's helmet, wig sizing was adjustable, so cross-dressing itself was possible, but whether they needed to go that far would depend on how the conversation unfolded.
"So, what are we going to do? The bell for the Fire Hour is in about three hours, right?"
"We... should go to the Crimson Pentagram Castle. That much is certain."
Medium tilted her head as she asked the question, Rui cradled in her arm. The two of them, now the same size, both tilted their heads in unison while Subaru weighed the scales inside himself.
"First of all, there's no option of refusing Yorna's invitation, right?"
"Well, we did go through the trouble of getting her to read the letter. Otherwise, all the effort we put in yesterday, and all the shrinking we've gone through, would've been for nothing."
"If anything, only the losses would remain..."
Subaru nodded at Al and Taritta's words while also considering that retreating wasn't entirely out of the question. The mindset that you can't leave until you've recouped your bet was a textbook recipe for gambling yourself into ruin. Sometimes you had to cut your losses.
That said, what they'd lose in this case was their height.
"Should I weigh this as heavy or light..."
"If we were old and then got younger, maybe, but we just got younger. Doesn't this look like some kind of secret technique for eternal youth?"
"Yeah, exactly—"
In a sense, "getting younger" meant the same thing as "Return by Death"—an increase in chances.
If you went back to childhood while retaining an adult's knowledge and experience, you could undertake training suited to your body's growth, or retry goals you'd once given up on.
Given the situation, you'd think there would be places to turn this to their advantage, but— "—That's what you'd think, right? But things aren't that simple. It's not nearly as useful as you'd hope."
In that instant, a third party's voice cut into the conversation, and Subaru's breath stopped.
—No, he wasn't the only one who froze. Everyone in the room went rigid, unable to move on reflex, frozen in place by the presence of the voice's owner.
But the person in question was unfazed by the rising tension in the room.
"I went ahead and brewed some tea and helped myself, but does anyone else want a cup?"
He held up a steaming teacup and asked in a familiar, easy tone.
"—!"
Immediately, Taritta moved with explosive, spring-loaded speed.
In an instant, she had nocked an arrow to her fully drawn bow and aimed it at the person who had appeared—Olbart Dunkleken.
The range was point-blank—too close to miss, too close to dodge.
But Olbart simply shrugged his shoulders with a nonchalant "Now, now."
"Quit it, quit it. I don't like having sharp things pointed at me. Old folks already have to go to the bathroom enough as it is—don't scare me into wetting myself. I'm trembling in my boots here, you know?"
"What nonsense are you...! What are you even—"
"—Olbart Dunkleken."
"————"
Faced with hostility yet refusing to lose his composure, the diminutive old man made Taritta flush red. But the one who answered her question by reprimanding her was the demonic-masked man who had spoken Olbart's name.
The only person who hadn't so much as stirred from the sofa, Abel—now wearing the demon mask—exchanged a glance with Olbart, and the old man narrowed his obscured eyes beneath his thick brows.
"Well now, I already confirmed yesterday that I'm something of a celebrity, so I'm not that surprised, but that's quite the memorable face you've got. What's that, some kind of souvenir?"
"Stop spouting foolish words, old wood. What business do you have here?"
"Young folks these days don't have the patience for an old man's rambling. The people back home are getting better and better at tuning me out day by day... Kukukukukuku!"
Cackling heartily with his mouth wide open, Olbart laughed about the lonely plight of old age.
Watching the exchange between Abel and Olbart, the bystanders' bewilderment slowly began to ease. Though of course, their vigilance never fully dropped.
"But Grandpa, how did you get in? We weren't exactly not looking, you know..."
"Oh, you're the tiny one, the dancer-looking girl from yesterday! I'll let you in on a secret—you know the deer-person girl? I came in through her. Snuck in together, we did."
"Together? With Tanza?"
"Kukukukuku! How exactly I got in is a secret. Ninjutsu is my stock in trade, after all."
Olbart deflected Medium's straightforward question with a laugh and a puff of smoke.
How much of that was genuine was anyone's guess, but in any case, he'd openly used the word "ninja" himself and clearly had no intention of concealing his background.
If that was the case, then rather than delicately probing for the real reason he'd come here alone into their camp, it would be faster to ask him directly.
"So..."
"Hm?"
"So, what did you actually come here for?"
Olbart's gaze flicked toward Subaru, who was asking about the purpose of his visit. The old man furrowed his brow thoughtfully for a moment, then— "Oh, you're that one. The one in red from yesterday. The dancer-looking girl and the one-armed guy were easy to tell apart, but I was really struggling to figure you out."
He confessed that he'd had trouble pinning down Subaru's identity.
Hearing that, Subaru's eyes went wide, while Al—subtly repositioning himself—suppressed a laugh. Through his mask, he cleared his throat in a voice more muffled than usual.
"...Impressive, brother. Even the head ninja couldn't figure out who you were."
"Oh, wonderful, wonderful! That disguise of yours— I'd love to have the folks back home learn from it. How about you come be an instructor? I'd welcome it!"
"As it happens, Natsumi Schwart's schedule is pretty packed. ...Though I might be able to free up some time."
"Ho ho, you might be able to?"
Olbart's unexpected enthusiasm for cross-dressing made Subaru wet his lips, noticing the dryness in his throat as he narrowed his eyes.
Setting aside how much of his nonsense Olbart actually believed, Subaru intended to make the most of this opportunity to speak directly with the old man. First things first—the abnormal incident that had befallen Subaru and the others.
If Abel's theory was correct, the culprit was none other than this elderly figure standing before them.
"If you have any idea why we ended up like this, honestly..."
"Oh, that? That was me. Fun, isn't it? My ninjutsu."
"————"
Without any hedging or drawn-out bargaining, Olbart casually admitted to being the perpetrator.
His admission erased any further words, and Subaru swallowed faintly. The old man watched him freeze, then grinned wickedly.
"If I accidentally killed you, there'd be no end of trouble since I couldn't get any answers. So there are plenty of techniques that squeeze without killing. —Fun, isn't it?"
With that declaration, he took a sip of warm tea.
△▼△▼△▼△ The "juvenation" that had struck Subaru, Al, and Medium.
Based on Abel's testimony—one who knew the "Nine Divine Generals"—the culprit had been all but confirmed as Olbart.
Yet having it directly confirmed by the man himself was a different kind of shock entirely. All the more so when the culprit showed not a shred of remorse and carried himself with such dignity.
"————"
"Come on, don't all look at me like that. You were taught not to bully old folks—they're supposed to be cherished, you know?"
Tension spiked once more in the room. Taritta still hadn't lowered her bow, and Al and Medium had shifted their positions even more aggressively.
Al in particular was blocking the doorway, ready to cut off Olbart's escape route.
Though with his shrunken body, he couldn't wield his beloved sword freely, and his expectations for stopping this elusive head ninja by force were not high.
"Mmm..."
"That girl over there has nothing to do with me, right? She's just some random kid. If you look at me like that, it's going to hurt my feelings. You don't like the sickly-sweet smell of an old geezer, do you?"
"Stop toying with words, Olbart. I ask you again. What is your business here?"
Olbart tried to win over the growling Rui, but Abel's words struck at his profile. The old man glanced back, and Abel bore down on him with sharp, cold intensity that cut through even the demon mask.
"The ruler of this Magic City,
"That's right! The match yesterday was so that no one would lay a hand on us! We risked our lives! And yet this treatment is completely different from what was agreed!"
"Now, now, you're getting all excited and mixing things up."
Riding the momentum of Abel's attack, Subaru once again asserted Yorna's statement from the previous day. As Olbart had said, his feelings had regressed to yesterday as well, but the facts remained unchanged.
Yorna had recognized them as envoys, and Tanza had declared that no one would be allowed to lay a hand on them.
To disregard that was tantamount to a declaration of hostility against Yorna.
"Of course, if you intend to destroy the Magic City, I wouldn't give it a second thought."
"...Now that you mention it."
Abel's additional remark sent the heat draining from Subaru's blood.
In truth, Olbart's faction—the False Emperor and company—had ceded negotiating rights with Yorna to Subaru and his group. Seeing this as a misstep, they could certainly consider immediately flipping the table.
In that case, they would不可避免地 clash head-on with Yorna, whom even among the "Nine Divine Generals" was to be feared in many respects— "If you provoke her with the intent to destroy, destruction is what you'll get. Naturally, with corresponding casualties."
"Well, that vixen is troublesome to deal with. Still, it's not very fun being seen through so completely by a masked young fellow."
"A masked... young fellow..."
Olbart scratched his chin with his finger, looking like he couldn't decide if it was an itch or a pain. Catching part of his words, Subaru glanced at Abel from the corner of his eye.
Abel showed no change in demeanor whatsoever, but Subaru was already on edge from this entire exchange. —After all, Olbart was one of the "Nine Divine Generals."
Naturally, he and Abel—that is, Vincent Volachia—must have crossed paths numerous times.
Even with the mask hiding his face, Abel hadn't changed his manner of speaking or the tone of his voice. If he exchanged words with someone like Olbart, there was nothing strange about the old man noticing his identity.
"————"
Yet Abel responded with a composed bearing that betrayed none of those concerns.
Olbart, for his part, showed zero sign of having caught onto Abel's identity either. If that was the case, Subaru couldn't point it out himself—he could only conceal his inner anxiety and carry on.
Regardless— "I still haven't heard your answer, Olbart."
"—Well now, being called 'mister' instead of 'old man' does make me feel somewhat valued. So I'll let you off for pretending to be a girl."
"Olbart!"
Growing impatient with the evasive old man, Subaru sharpened his gaze. Olbart raised both hands in a "fine, fine" gesture.
"The honest truth is, what you folks say is right. The vixen told me not to lay a hand on you, and so did His Excellency."
"Then—"
"But you see, when I pricked you all, it was before yesterday's match was settled, right? If you can't complain about a knife wound dealt during battle, then you can't complain about a shrinking technique I snuck in during battle either."
"That's... sophistry!"
"Well, yeah, it really is sophistry. —But you can't overturn it, can you?"
Olbart raised one eyebrow and chuckled with cunning. Subaru was left speechless.
Olbart himself had admitted his argument was sophistry. But at the same time, his argument was sound.
If someone died from a wound inflicted during battle, and that wound had been inflicted before the ceasefire negotiations, then holding someone responsible for the tragedy after the ceasefire would not be logically coherent.
Though of course, a wound and "juvenation" were quite different in nature.
"So you see, I'm treating the question of whether to reverse your shrinking or not as separate from the vixen's orders. Got it?"
"————"
"Kukukukuku! Don't make such a grim face. It ruins that cute face of yours... though that cute face is also a manufactured imitation from makeup, isn't it? You really had me fooled."
With nimble fingers, Olbart manipulated his teacup, performing a trick to keep the contents from spilling. His words themselves were brimming with an insoluble cunning.
However, even if Taritta grew more hostile or Al and the others struggled to block his escape, there was no vision of subduing this Olbart by force.
If his cunning could be overcome, it would only be by— "That's enough, Olbart."
Only by the demonic-masked man whose overwhelming presence threatened to cut through that cunning in a single stroke.
Without changing his posture, Abel pinned Olbart down with an even sharper, colder gaze, forcing the old man to stop his teacup play.
"I believe I asked you what business you had here. How many times must I ask before you'll deign to answer?"
"When a faceless young fellow gets all stubborn, it makes you want to see those brow wrinkles even more—that's my bad habit. I'm asking you to excuse it."
Olbart closed one eye and responded to Abel's overwhelming presence with playful humor. But the gaze that wouldn't soften made the old man scratch his head.
"You really are a man with no room to spare... Well, the vixen told me not to touch you folks either, so I didn't come here to do anything to you. But if you're going to be enemies eventually, there's no harm in weakening you a little, right?"
"...That might explain why you shrank us, but it doesn't explain why you specifically came here to drink tea."
"My helmet doesn't fit anymore, and it seems like you're having trouble with that. But regardless, your reading is correct too. Ah, well—the most straightforward reason I came is really just to hear what you folks have to say."
"...Hear what?"
Olbart nodded, repeating the question back to Subaru as he fiddled with his ear using his free hand. Then, pointing out the window with the finger that had been at his ear— "That speech at the castle yesterday— even I was impressed. But there are plenty of folks who want to meddle with His Excellency, and so far they've all failed. So I want to hear from the horse's mouth why he's crossing such a dangerous bridge again."
"...And what would you do after hearing that?"
"Huh? Well obviously, I'd decide after hearing it. So to make sure you can't lie, I do a little trick beforehand—kukukukuku!"
Opening his mouth wide and spraying saliva as he laughed boisterously, Olbart made Subaru grimace.
His stance was easy to dismiss as simply poor taste when heard secondhand, but it was clear that Olbart was not the kind of person you could brush off with that alone.
To get Olbart to undo the ninjutsu that had "juvenated" Subaru and the others—and perhaps because he too was one of the "Nine Divine Generals" who should be recruited to aid Abel's bid to reclaim the throne— Rather— "...A chance?"
To win him over—that was the fundamental challenge, since the "Nine Divine Generals" were by nature difficult even to contact.
But now, due to some twist of fate, in Chaos Flame there were not only Yorna the ruler but also Olbart before them, and the one who seemed to be impersonating the False Emperor—Chisha.
Of course, winning over Chisha, who was already hostile, would be impossible— "If Abel's theory from yesterday is correct, then Olbart isn't confirmed as an enemy."
Placed alongside the "Nine Divine Generals" who were already considered the opponent's pieces, there was still hope for Olbart—that was Abel's assessment. Combined with the fact that they had reached the threshold of negotiations with Yorna, Abel's judgment could only be called correct.
If they believed his conjecture about Olbart's position, there should be room for negotiation.
However, to win Olbart over at this point— "————"
Subaru quietly glanced at Abel's profile.
Revealing the identity of Abel—the demonic-masked man who maintained his composure. —That was the absolute information that needed to be disclosed to overcome Olbart.
Honestly speaking, Subaru had nothing that would resonate with Olbart more than that.
"————"
Receiving that glance on his profile, Abel in his demon mask didn't so much as flinch.
His face was hidden behind the mask, concealing all emotion. But there was no way the brilliant Abel hadn't thought of what Subaru had arrived at.
The question was: how much should they open up to Olbart?
That was the crux of Subaru's thinking, but since Abel wasn't acting, perhaps the idea was premature. Or perhaps he too was waiting to see how things developed.
In any case, if Olbart could be won over, it would shed light on their "juvenation" problem, their manpower shortage, and the contest for pieces among the "Nine Divine Generals."
If so, then perhaps this was the moment to take the gamble— "—You know, faces are surprisingly talkative, people's faces are."
"Eh...?"
"Where your eyes go, how stiff your face is, the tiniest bit of muscle tension... Even without your mouth moving, you say quite a lot, actually."
Tapping twice near his eyes with two raised fingers, Olbart declared. His gaze was fixed on Subaru, and the old man nodded at him as he swallowed.
"For example, the dancer-looking girl relies on the archer girl. The bandaged young fellow and the tiny one are with you. And you and the archer... the masked young fellow."
"—!"
"By following each person's line of sight, you can more or less figure everything out. ...It's especially obvious when someone's weakened, isn't it?"
The words of Olbart—who looked like a kindly old man—pierced through Subaru's brain, baring white teeth in a grin.
And Subaru realized, far too late, how greatly he had misjudged the character of the man who could appear such an agreeable elder.
Olbart had stated plainly that he was the one who had "juvenated" them, and that he'd done it to hear what they had to say.
—He had never said it was to "negotiate" with them.
"You came to hear... what we have to say..."
"Coming to 'hear' something and coming to 'talk' sound similar but aren't quite the same, are they? I don't mind this kind of chit-chat, you know? But—"
"————"
"See, I'm the head ninja, and I've been living as the representative of the folks back home. So... I can't exactly trust the words of someone I haven't even properly interrogated. Too unreliable."
Without dropping the air of an old man you could reason with, Olbart laid out his thinking in accordance with the unwritten code of the ninja.
That ruthless severity was indeed reminiscent of the "ninja" world Subaru knew.
But there was a vast difference between enjoying it as fiction and having it flaunted right in front of him like this.
And— "You've got the biggest presence, you're not relying on anyone, and the masked young fellow is your leader, right? So tell me—what exactly were you after, coming to court that vixen?"
"—. And if I cannot fulfill that, then what?"
"Well, I'd just resort to other means, wouldn't I? Though being bound by the 'don't lay a hand on them' restriction does limit my options."
Olbart shrugged, his gaze and attention directed at Abel. Naturally, as the head of the ninja, it was unlikely he'd neglected to keep watch on the others.
Even without looking directly, he wouldn't have taken his eyes off Al and Taritta.
Still, even though they had bows trained on him, it wasn't wise for Subaru and the others to show any intention of attacking Olbart.
Under Yorna's decree, they had been welcomed into Chaos Flame as envoys.
Whether that protection would still apply after causing a disturbance inside, and how she would treat an unruly guest—was completely unknown.
In other words, this was a stalemate for both Subaru's side and Olbart's.
Both sides could only glare at each other while declaring their readiness to do harm.
In that extreme state of indecision— "...But where else could this situation possibly be arranged?"
Looking back at the circumstances they'd been placed in, Subaru once again posed a question to the void that had opened in his heart.
And once more, the thought arose: "Isn't this a chance?"
Olbart, bound by both the False Emperor and Yorna, unable to take any further hostile action.
Confirming which way his sympathies leaned, and catching him in a moment when he couldn't act even if he was hostile—where else but here could such a situation be engineered?
"————"
Time crept by.
Not just the tension, but the clock was ticking on the bell Yorna had set for the Fire Hour.
Time was precious. —The more they wasted, the more life bled away.
In the silence, Taritta's fingers trembled around her bow. Al and Medium held their breath. Even Rui, who could only manage a faint groan, seemed to instinctively sense Olbart's danger.
They probably couldn't choose to act. If they could, it would be— "—Abel."
"————"
Quietly, Subaru called Abel's name.
He could feel the masked man's attention turn toward him through the demon's visage. The gaze couldn't be seen behind the mask, but his awareness was focused on Subaru.
The emotion was invisible. —But the intent was perceivable, and Subaru felt it.
"Emperor Vincent Volachia."
"...What?"
Olbart raised his brow at Subaru's declaration.
Peeling open eyes hidden beneath his long, thick brows, the old man regarded Subaru's words with suspicion. It was the expected reaction—but it was far from the reaction Subaru wanted.
So, to draw out the desired response, he went deeper.
"You want to know the identity of the faceless young fellow and our purpose. Why we came to meet Yorna—the answer is—"
"Now, now, that's not something to joke about."
"I'm not joking. —Abel."
Olbart's voice wavered for an instant, a hint of surprise mixing in.
Seeing that clearly, Subaru called out to Abel at the back of the room. At this point, Abel no longer attempted to counter Subaru's words.
Simply, quietly, his elegant fingers reached up to his own face. And— "—Well, I'll be."
Olbart's voice leaked out in stunned disbelief as the hidden face was revealed.
The one who returned the old man's widened gaze was the dark-haired, strikingly handsome man—Emperor Vincent Volachia himself.
"His Excellency, you say? But that's too ridiculous. If that's true, then I'm—"
"Stir that old wisdom of yours, Olbart Dunkleken. You have the answer. All you need to do is pull it out."
"Saying something worthy of His Excellency in His Excellency's own face. ...But so that's how it is."
Overwhelmed by surprise for a moment, the elderly ninja quickly regained his composure.
With his face revealed and the emperor's command delivered, Olbart's available information apparently explained the situation they found themselves in.
Olbart stroked his chin.
"Then that means Chisha is the fake. Well played. ...So that's what this is, huh? Not very befitting of His Excellency—getting played like that."
"You think your eyes can see through to the depths of my belly?"
"Oh my, how scary, how scary."
Olbart waved both hands lazily and swallowed dryly at Abel's response.
In truth, as Olbart said, Abel was in a groggy, beaten-down state—but he concealed it with an overwhelming bluff.
Yet seeing Olbart's composure crumble, the tension finally drained from Subaru's shoulders.
Olbart now understood the situation.
That Abel had been driven from the throne, and the "Vincent" accompanying them was a counterfeit.
"All the various things that were jumbled up in my head make sense now. I was wondering why you'd suddenly gone to meet the vixen directly—that was strange."
"That was... all to keep a lid on their movements."
"Ha! Old folks can't keep up with how the clever ones think, truly. Young, smart, and handsome—that's greed, wouldn't you say? You think so too? You don't? Well, you're young too. Oh wait, that was my doing! Kukukukuku!"
Olbart roared with laughter, trying to get a laugh with his unamusing joke.
Subaru's cheek twitched as he exhaled a long breath, then glanced over at Taritta.
The Shudrak warrior still had her bow and hostile gaze trained on Olbart. Subaru wanted to get her to stand down and reset the situation.
"Taritta, you can lower your bow now. Olbart is—"
"Hm? No, she doesn't have to lower it. In fact, dropping your guard in front of someone who hasn't been confirmed as not an enemy is probably beyond that girl."
"What?"
It was Olbart himself—still in Taritta's crosshairs—who stopped Subaru as he was about to ask Taritta to stand down and talk.
The old man considered Taritta's vigilance as perfectly natural and showed no inclination to deny Subaru's hard-to-understand notion of "natural." In other words, his own danger hadn't diminished.
But if that was the case— "Our side of the story—"
"I heard it, didn't I? I said I'd decide after hearing it. And I have."
"————"
Subaru's throat tightened. Before him, Olbart's stance didn't change.
Only a quiet click of the tongue.
"I couldn't tell which way your card would turn, but so that's your play."
"Uncharacteristic of you, Your Excellency. No, the real problem was having no cards to play. ...And worse, the one who flips the table here is me. I've always wanted to try something."
"Oh? Try what?"
Olbart's course was set, and the ninja leader laughed at the deposed emperor's words.
He sneered, befitting his title of "Wicked Old Man."
"An old geezer with one foot in the grave, about to die anyway—so he wanted to try regicide just once."
"—!"
The instant those wicked words were spoken, movement erupted from the taut tension.
In that instant, each of them trampled the "no combat" rule they'd been given—Taritta, Al, and Medium all moved to stop Olbart's aim.
But— "Yesterday, you were the one I couldn't read, one-armed guy. But after you get small, your body doesn't move the way you want it to anymore."
"Guh..."
"Techniques you learn after you're old don't work as well when you're young."
Saying that, Olbart cracked his neck and waved both hands.
Blood scattered from his fingertips, and in Subaru's wide-eyed vision, a tragedy unfolded.
Al, who had lunged forward to pin Olbart down, and Medium—their throats were both gashed, and blood erupted. Small, childlike bodies—where could this much blood have been hiding?—fountain-sprayed across the room in a grand spray.
"Gah..."
"Looks like my trump card is out of commission. But killing them before the explanation was a mistake, wasn't it? My bad, my bad."
Al clutched the spurting wound and collapsed on the spot. Medium's eyes rolled back and she fell backward, motionless.
That their injuries were irrecoverable fatal wounds was obvious.
And Taritta—the only one who had been prepared to confront Olbart directly—was— "—Ah"
It wasn't that she wondered why her bow hadn't fired.
But the absence of an attack she should have made drew Subaru's gaze.
Taritta had been pinned to the wall.
Tall for a woman, Taritta's slender body was pressed against the wall, fixed in place. The reason for her pinning was a throwing weapon lodged dead center between her breasts—a shuriken.
As if it were some kind of joke, the star-shaped projectile had pierced through Taritta's chest, out through her back, and pinned her to the wall. Her heart had been destroyed—an instant kill.
"—So the principle of forbidding interference doesn't apply to you either."
Suddenly, a man's voice rang through the death-soaked room.
It was Abel, standing in the midst of the carnage he had watched Olbart create. The man who had risen from his seat looked down at Olbart with piercing eyes.
Meeting that gaze, Olbart wiped the blood that had spattered onto his cheek with a finger.
"That's right. I want to set off one last spectacular firework before I die. If I could assassinate the emperor they say is the greatest in history and then get executed for it, that would satisfy me completely."
"I couldn't read your self-destructive tastes. Was that my oversight?"
"Kukukukuku! No, no—if you'd seen through my dying wish, I'd be too embarrassed to go on living!"
Al had stopped moving, and Medium and Taritta had stopped breathing.
The conversation between emperor and retainer exchanged under these circumstances seemed like something from another world to Subaru. But it wasn't another world. It was reality. Reality, overwhelming reality.
It was the reality Subaru had arrived at through a wrong choice.
"If I take out His Excellency, I'll head straight back to Chisha from there. Chisha's the type who'd see to my execution properly."
"Wa—"
"Oh? Oh, you're still here?"
Turning at Subaru's belated voice—belated enough that things had already reached a finality—Olbart looked at him.
The old man cracked his neck at the rigid-faced Subaru's attempt to stop him, then pointed one by one at the fallen Al and the others.
"See, those ones attacked me, so I killed them in self-defense. But you don't particularly need to die, right? I'm not looking to weasel out of anything, and I don't need to silence you."
"Wh... ah..."
"Ah, I got ahead of myself there, didn't I? Decide what you're going to say before you open your mouth, kid. Though I guess I'm too impatient to wait, being an old geezer with one foot in the grave."
Olbart continued speaking in his own flat, unhurried pace, and Subaru's thoughts went blank. —No, they were turning crimson. Whether from rage or from the color of blood Al and the others had spilled, even Subaru himself couldn't tell.
But even so, no matter what, no matter how, never—here— "—You fool."
It was Abel who spat those words with contempt.
His gaze was probably boring into the back of Subaru's head. Feeling the weight of that sharp stare, Subaru understood the truth of those words in his bones.
There was no point in stepping forward to protect Abel now.
If he'd moved before Al and the others fell, perhaps something could have been changed, but— "Mmm!"
"Now, now—the unrelated girl too? His Excellency's methods really are the kind that women and children would hate."
Olbart put his hand to his forehead. Before him stood Rui. —No, Rui wasn't standing in front of Olbart. She was standing in front of Subaru.
Subaru had stepped forward to shield Abel, and Rui had stepped forward to shield Subaru, the three of them standing in a line.
It was an absurdly foolish human shield.
"I figured His Excellency was the type to die alone."
"—No one ever falls within the range of your expectations."
"Kukukukuku!"
Even now, Abel's mouth hadn't run dry. At his retort, Olbart threw his head back and laughed.
In the old ninja's eyes, neither Subaru's existence nor Rui's registered. But he wasn't so kind as to overlook someone standing before him with hostile intent.
So— "—I won't forgive you."
Burning into his eyes the face of the ninja who grinned wickedly, who sought to satisfy his own ambition—
And— △▼△▼△▼△ Blood flowed, and a searing sensation burst from his wounds.
The ceaselessly overflowing heat, however, drained the warmth from his body in an instant.
As that outpouring swallowed him whole, drowned him, blinded him, and dragged him down to the very bottom— "————"
In an instant, the lost blood rushed back through his body, and his ears filled with noisy clamor.
His hearing sharpened to its utmost limit, and he heard the sound of blood circulating within himself in the quiet space. Struck by that sensation throughout his entire body, Subaru gasped roughly.
Gasping, his vision flickering with the fading pain and sense of loss, he clenched his back teeth.
To confirm where he had returned to— "I went ahead and brewed some tea and helped myself, but does anyone else want a cup?"
In that instant, the unforgettable wicked voice heralded the start of Natsuki Subaru's newest fight.