"Damn it! I can't see them anywhere...!"
Standing in the street and gazing up at the sky, his eyes sweeping across the numerous scaffolding platforms, the masked youth—no, Al—ground his teeth and growled in frustration.
The sheer absurdity of what had just happened only fueled his irritation, his heart churning with rage.
It was a development that could only be called insane.
"Subaru... Louis..."
In stark contrast to Al's open fury, Medium spoke with a subdued expression. The young girl in her dancer-like outfit hugged her pale limbs tight, worried about the two who had vanished from the scene.
However, the emotions behind that muttering were far from simple concern alone. It was impossible to pin down as mere worry—it was inextricably linked to what Subaru had declared before disappearing.
"Louis is..."
"—The Sin Archbishop, huh."
The words slipped out, finishing what Medium had left unsaid, and her eyes went wide at having been heard.
Ignoring Medium's reaction, Abel stood with his head tilted skyward just as Al had done. Having donned his mask once more, his expression was unreadable. Yet that he was far from pleased with the situation was plain from the finger he tapped against his crossed arm.
"Abel, the two of them are..."
"—What matters is regaining control of the situation. Our course doesn't change. Unfortunately, we've lost yet another card to play."
Abel's cold reply cut short Medium's tentative question. He made no direct mention of Subaru or Louis, but his meaning was clear: he had no intention of going after the two of them.
Hearing that, Medium felt both anxiety and relief stir deep within her—worry for the two of them, and relief at not having to face them.
And there was fear, too—the fear of having had something unspeakable spoken as a joke, in a situation where no one could laugh it off.
"You're just gonna leave them be?! My brother's gone and become a kid inside his head!"
"And what would you have me do? Your situation hasn't changed much either. Let me make this clear—if either you or Medium becomes useless, I will leave you behind."
"Gu—!"
"Don't think the choice to ally or not rests solely with you, clown."
Al, at a loss for words, wished to reunite with the separated Subaru, but Abel shut him down without mercy. Though, it should be noted, Al's concern was focused squarely on Subaru—Louis's existence was a distant second.
In fact, Al's stance toward Louis, now revealed to be a walking time bomb, was unmistakable.
"I can't let my brother be alone with that brat..."
Holding his mouth, Al muttered through clenched teeth, his hostility toward Louis laid bare.
Medium seemed as though she wanted to say something in response, but she herself couldn't settle on how she felt about Louis, and her atypical hesitation took the shape of silence.
With a glance at the two of them, Abel looked up at the sky once more. The scaffolding and rooftops stretched endlessly, but Subaru and Louis had already vanished—jumped off to somewhere, anywhere in the魔都, leaving behind not even a trace in the chaotic jumble of the city below.
"Imbeciles," he murmured, and the single word, unheard by anyone, drifted into the air.
△▼△▼△▼△ And so, in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, Subaru found himself separated from his allies.
His hasty decision had been anything but well-thought-out. Acting on impulse, he hadn't remotely considered the consequences.
Even so, had he let himself be rushed into a decision on the spot, he would certainly have regretted it. To avoid that regret—to ensure he wouldn't look back on this with bitterness—this was the choice he had made. Of that much, he was sure.
And now, Subaru was already beginning to *regret* having made that choice.
Because— "Gwah, uwaah!"
"Stop it, Louis! That's enough!"
From behind, Subaru had Louis in a half-nelson, prying the girl's small body away from the pursuer she'd mounted—a man who had already lost consciousness.
After parting ways with Abel's group and leaping across the scaffolding networks strung through the city, Subaru had been searching for Orval to find a way to reverse his child-like state when the pursuers caught up.
It seemed the attackers had identified both the shrunken Subaru and Louis—who had not accompanied them to the watchtower—as targets. Abel's guess had been right on the mark.
In other words, Orval and
As a result, the pursuers had tracked down Subaru, who was now traveling alone with Louis, and had nearly caught them when— "Eat this!"
—Louis's combat prowess, already demonstrated on the street, exploded forth, and the pursuers were swiftly neutralized.
That much was welcome. Even before his limbs had shrunk, Subaru's fighting ability had been, frankly, pathetic. Against townspeople who didn't know how to fight, with a portion of Yorna's power granted through her Soul Marriage Technique, he should have been completely outmatched.
The problem was that Louis didn't stop attacking even after the pursuers were down.
"Gwah..."
"Don't 'gwah' me! If you keep going, they'll die! These people are just scared, that's all! That's no good at all!"
"Ugh."
Louis kicked her legs and, upon hearing Subaru's rebuke, settled down.
He wasn't sure if she actually understood what he'd said, but at least she'd gotten that he was angry. With that settled, Subaru tended to the fallen.
Though "tended" was generous—he had no first-aid kit. All he could do was elevate their heads, wipe away blood from wounds, and similar basic measures.
"These people too..."
"Mm?"
"They're desperate. Trying to protect their place to live."
The sheepmen and deer-horned youths Louis had knocked down were in their late teens or early twenties—roughly the same age as Subaru normally was. The people around the inn, the sheepman boy who'd launched Subaru down the street—ages all over the map, and they didn't exactly look like friends.
But there was a definite bond between them. It was the horns growing from their heads.
Some had one, some had two, but horns were horns.
The impact those horns had on their lives was no laughing matter for Subaru, who knew
"Maybe it's a good thing
Rem was a member of the Oni race, born with the trait of horns on her forehead.
Unlike the beastmen, her horns weren't a permanent fixture, but as someone of a horned race, perhaps she hadn't been entirely removed from the kind of circumstances these people had endured.
He'd never heard such stories from
"If it were Ram, she wouldn't give a damn what anyone said."
Ram was someone who walked her own path to the letter. No matter what outsiders said about the horn problem, she'd just snort through her nose and blow them away with a dismissive "Hah!" That kind of dependable strength.
Someone who refused to be bound by race or title—she'd be fine.
—Or would she, even if she knew the truth about Louis?
"...What an idiot."
"Gwah."
Pressing his fist to his forehead, Subaru withdrew the self-indulgent thought out of shame.
Louis, squatting beside him, tilted her head at his gesture.
Ram wasn't here. Emilia wasn't here.
Even Rem, the closest of them all, was still far away in
"Anyway, standing around here is bad. I need to hide fast."
Honestly, when he considered his original plan, even hiding was a waste of time. He was supposed to be the one chasing someone down, not the other way around.
And yet, here he was, on the running side.
"Abel probably won't come looking for us... right. He's mad, and finding Orval is more important, so I think that's what he'll focus on."
"Mm."
"Should I regroup with Taritta? She's probably being chased by a bunch of people in an unfamiliar city too... No, that won't work."
Running a hand through his hair, Subaru shelved the idea of meeting up with Taritta, who knew nothing of the situation.
He didn't think he could explain to her why they weren't with Abel's group. It would mean lying, and lying wouldn't solve anything.
Medium was the problem. And Taritta, once she learned that Louis was a Sin Archbishop, would regard her as dangerous and want to keep her at a distance—just like the others.
"I'm worried about Taritta, but Abel's group might be looking for her anyway."
In the current state of affairs, he wanted to avoid reuniting with Abel's group, whom he'd only just separated from.
Nothing had been resolved regarding how to handle Louis, and clashing with Abel's group would just lead to the same arguments. He didn't want to have another shouting match and end up hating everyone.
And he didn't want to hate himself for failing to convince them.
"Come on, Louis. We're heading for the 'Abyss with a View' to find Orval."
"Uwaah."
As he spoke, Subaru took Louis's hand and pulled her along.
She'd been a child who didn't know where she was going to begin with, but ever since she'd used her power—the authority of *Gluttony*—that uncertainty had only grown.
So— "If you don't want to die, don't leave my side. I don't want you to die either. ...Not right now."
"Mm, okay."
Whether she understood or not, Louis nodded as if accepting it. Seeing the girl still grinning at him, Subaru let out a deep sigh.
Two children, wandering aimlessly through an unfamiliar city, chasing after the answer to a riddle— "This is basically just being lost for real."
That was all he could manage—a weak, powerless murmur.
△▼△▼▼△▼△ —After that, Subaru and Louis's chase-and-flee odyssey only grew more desperate.
The reasons were straightforward: he had no grasp of the city's geography, communication with his companion was limited at best, and—perhaps the biggest factor—Subaru's luck was genuinely terrible.
In any case, they were running through the魔都 with pursuers on their heels, unable to even search properly for the "Abyss with a View," as precious time slipped away moment by moment.
"Louis! Don't fight! Run, run, run, run!"
"Mm! Ugh!"
Subaru threw his entire body in front of Louis as she was about to spring forward, stopping her with a literal tackle.
He climbed onto her small back, forcing himself into a piggyback position, and Louis steadied him so he wouldn't be shaken off. Then she launched into a high jump to escape their pursuers.
"Don't let them get away!"
The shouts came from the horned beastmen patrolling the魔都.
It seemed the pursuers were exclusively horned people. Within the Chaos Frame, plenty of hornless demi-humans lived alongside them, but the order to capture Subaru and Louis apparently hadn't been extended to everyone.
"That girl Tanza seemed to be acting on her own..."
Tanza, the deer-horned girl—even if she held a position similar to Yorna's secretary, the scope of people she could command had to have limits.
If every resident of the Chaos Frame became a pursuer, escape would be impossible. But it seemed even she was operating right at the boundary of her authority.
Still, being pushed to that boundary was more than enough to keep them pinned down. From Subaru's perspective, a little more leeway would have been nice.
"Ugh... they're still coming! Louis, don't engage! We're running!"
"Hmm?"
"Don't 'hmm' me! It doesn't matter why! The point is, it's not okay!"
With Subaru on her back, Louis bounced from windowsill to scaffolding protrusion, hopping across the cityscape. She clearly wasn't thrilled about running without fighting.
Her expression said she could win if she just fought, and Subaru responded by pinching her cheek in protest.
Sure, if Louis fought, she could probably take down the pursuers.
But if she fought, the pursuers might die. Even if she only knocked them out, there was no guarantee she'd stop there.
Just moments ago, if Subaru hadn't intervened, Louis might have hurled them from the high scaffolding down to the ground far below.
Louis's innocence—the kind found in an infant or a toddler—hadn't been lost.
But she'd regained the power of *Gluttony* with that innocence intact. To Subaru, it felt no different from the original *Louis Arneb* running rampant—a thought that terrified him.
If this Louis were ever to revert to *Louis Arneb*— "—Then Abel's thinking would be right."
If that was the case, then running away from that street and falling out with Abel's group would have been unnecessary.
Subaru wouldn't have needed to agonize over what to do about the existence of this girl named Louis.
That was why he couldn't allow it.
"I won't let you kill anyone else."
As long as
"—Mm."
The arms wrapped around Subaru tightened, and Louis turned her gaze forward.
She seemed to have shelved her dissatisfaction and decided to follow Subaru's lead for now. With renewed determination, Louis hopped and bounced through the streets, golden hair trailing behind her as she fled from the pursuing beastmen.
But— "Relentless... bastards!"
It was only natural—fleeing without fighting back didn't accomplish much—and the beastmen proved difficult to shake. They knew the terrain, and one of them had a flame burning in a single eye, the product of Yorna's Soul Marriage Technique. Rather than widening, the gap between them was closing.
"If this keeps up—"
*They'll catch us,* Subaru thought, grinding teeth that belonged neither to a child nor an adult.
It was in that moment that— "This way, you two."
"Huh?"
"Mm?"
Louis kicked off a wall, attempting to shake the pursuers' sightline with a sharp, clean movement. But before Subaru could verify whether it had worked, a voice called out to them as they dropped into the street.
A thin-faced youth was beckoning them over. At a glance, he had no horns on his head, but that didn't exactly put Subaru at ease.
"Hey, you're..."
"You're being chased, right? Looks like your pursuers are pretty serious. Take it from me—your best bet is to listen to what I have to say right now."
Meeting Subaru's guarded stare with an amiable smile, the youth beckoned again. Then, as Subaru and Louis caught their breath, the youth pointed to a cart parked on the road.
A cart stacked with barrels, and the youth was pointing specifically at the gaps between them.
"With your small bodies, I'm sure you'd fit perfectly in here."
"B-but even if we hid in there..."
"There's no time. The stars' arrangement shifts by the second. Whether you avoid this alignment or accept it—well, that's entirely up to you."
"..."
"However—I do think it would be in your best interest to go along with it."
The youth waved his empty hands back and forth, smiling to show he meant no harm.
Subaru agonized over whether that smile could be trusted. But, as the youth said, there was no time to waste on indecision.
So— △▼△▼△▼△ "They went this way!"
Flushed with urgency, the men appeared and began searching for the fugitives' trail. In the process, they spotted a youth leaning against a wall and the cart beside him.
"Hey, you—did two kids come through here?"
"Huh? Are you... talking to me? I'm sorry, but I've just been resting here for a bit..."
"I'm asking if you saw anyone during your rest—ah, forget it!"
A bull-horned man stomped closer, giving up on extracting useful information from the evasive youth. However, that didn't mean he overlooked the cart.
Abandoning the interrogation, he turned his attention to the cart instead.
"Hey, what's in this shipment?"
"Well now, what do you think? What kind of merchant do I look like to you?"
"Tch."
The bull-horned man clicked his tongue at the youth's elusive replies and glared at the cart. Then he grabbed one of the stacked barrels, his right eye flickering with flame, and casually tipped the load with one arm.
With a tremendous crash, the neatly arranged barrels tumbled out of alignment. Stacked barrels swayed left and right—had anyone been hidden in the cart, the shifting weight would have crushed them.
Satisfied with what he'd seen, the bull-horned man released the barrel.
"Sorry for the trouble."
Leaving those words behind, he departed with his companions.
"Hey, please put the barrels back!" the youth called after their retreating figures, but received no reply. He shrugged his narrow shoulders.
"My, my, what rude people. I really don't know what to think."
Muttering as though talking to himself, the youth approached the cart once the street was deserted. But instead of climbing into the cargo bed, he crouched down and peered underneath.
And there— "Good thing you didn't hide in the cargo bed. If you had, every bone in your body would've been snapped by now. That would've been pretty rough, wouldn't it?"
"...Please don't say such scary things."
"Mm."
The youth spoke casually despite the chilling words, and under his watchful grin, Subaru and Louis crawled out from beneath the cart.
When presented with a cart full of barrels, hiding in the cargo bed was the natural assumption. Subaru had been about to do exactly that, but a bad feeling had stopped him.
"But there wasn't time to escape, so we hid under the cart."
"I think that was a pretty solid call, actually. If he'd been pressing me any harder, I would've cracked almost immediately—I'm not very good at lying."
"...Well, it's not like you're one of us, so that's to be expected."
Subaru, who'd been clinging to the cart's wheel axle beneath the cargo bed, brushed the dirt from his hands and clothes, then did the same for Louis, who was equally filthy.
It appeared the pursuers had genuinely lost track of them, so he owed this youth his thanks for that.
"But why did you help us?"
"Why did I help? Hmm, let me see... Ah, how about this—I couldn't bear to watch kids being chased down like that."
"Your phrasing makes it sound like you just made that up on the spot..."
"Am I that obvious?"
Caught out by Subaru's flat stare, the youth scratched his head with a sheepish expression.
His smile aside, Subaru noticed that the youth didn't look like a demi-human. No horns, and no animal-like ears or other distinguishing features on his skin or nails.
Then again, he gave off a different kind of "outside the Chaos Frame" vibe.
"Who are you..."
"Ah, name's
"Not much you can tell me? What's that supposed to mean?"
"What I mean is, I helped you because it just felt like the right thing to do."
With a grin, Ubilk ran a finger through his gray hair.
His mannerisms and his put-together appearance suggested to Subaru that Ubilk held down a proper occupation. His light traveler's clothing looked like it hadn't come cheap, either.
He was transporting a cart, so probably a merchant.
"Is that a merchant's instinct?"
"A merchant's... oh, this? Ha ha ha, no no. I'm not a merchant or anything of the sort. And this cart doesn't belong to me."
"Huh!? But back there, you let those guys think—"
"I never once said I was a merchant. Nor did I ever claim this cart was mine. It just happens to be sitting here. Probably belongs to that shop over there, wouldn't you say?"
Ubilk pointed at a nearby shop, adding "That one, maybe? Or possibly the one over there," rattling off guesses with a wave of his hand. He was clearly joking, but not entirely—Subaru could tell that much.
So the man had bluffed his way through the encounter with the pursuers with nothing but sheer nerve.
"Uwaah."
"A-ah, I know."
Subaru was falling into the youth's rhythm when Louis suddenly tugged his sleeve.
The implication—*are we just going to stand here?*—made Subaru snap out of it, reprimanding himself for his own carelessness.
Even if they'd shaken the pursuers, nothing about their situation had actually improved.
"So, Ubilk, thanks for helping us. But from now on, you should really think more carefully about what you do. Something bad's going to happen to you someday..."
"Aww, are you worried about me? I don't look *that* hopeless, do I? I consider myself pretty street-smart, but you sure don't see it from over there, huh."
"No, it's not that I'm suspicious or anything—it's just, we're in a hurry."
In truth, he was a little suspicious.
Not in the sense that Ubilk was working for Tanza or Orval, but in the more fundamental sense that he could simply be a dangerous adult with no connection to any of it.
With just two kids—Subaru and Louis—even a sketchy adult was genuinely frightening.
If the man turned out to be dangerous, Subaru wasn't sure he could stop Louis from retaliating, even with her current power. Against a dangerous adult, kids were at a disadvantage.
"Well then, we've got places to be. Thanks again for your help."
And so, Subaru took Louis's hand and set off with only a brief word of gratitude.
But— "Hold on, hold on—no need to be so cold! Let's help each other out! I think the spirit of mutual aid is a beautiful thing, you know."
As he spoke, Ubilk jogged after them on his long, thin legs.
The suspicious-dangerous-adult index in Subaru's mind spiked immediately, and Ubilk's standing became precarious. Specifically, Subaru's grip on Louis's hand tightened involuntarily, and with a small "Ugh?" of pain, Louis picked up on Subaru's wariness toward Ubilk.
Depending on how things went, Louis might take Subaru's implicit backing as license to launch herself at Ubilk and stuff him into one of his own barrels.
"Hey, Ubilk, are you flexible?"
"Me? Well, in my old line of work, being flexible made it easier to handle all sorts of situations, so I was definitely a stretching person. But, er, what exactly are you asking?"
"N-no, it's nothing... This spirit of mutual aid—do you actually need our help with something?"
"Oh, no no, it's nothing like that. 'Mutual aid' just slipped out—I don't need anything from you. Ha ha ha."
"..."
The suspicious-dangerous-adult index climbed yet again.
On top of that, a new index—the maybe-not-dangerous-but-I'd-rather-not-be-involved-with index—was established for good measure.
Either way, this was not someone Subaru wanted to stick around with.
"Ha ha ha... Aww, the mood's gone cold. This is the same feeling I get when I'm surrounded by people who don't like me. Am I disliked?"
"If possible, I'd rather not think of it that way..."
"Oh, honest! I like honest people. Well, since you're in a hurry, and you're honest, and I happen to enjoy honest people's company—let's have a serious chat."
"—!"
Ubilk bent down, bringing his face close to Subaru's. Startled, Subaru flinched backward, and Louis, stepping forward, thrust her small hand between them.
She pressed her palm against Ubilk's cheek and let out a threatening "Ugh!"
"Well now, I've been rejected. I thought I was pretty good with the ladies, but maybe having a rival changes things."
"...Ubilk, I'd advise you not to anger Louis too much. She's, well, stronger than she looks."
"Ah, so the name is Louis."
Ubilk nodded with satisfaction, and Subaru swallowed hard.
Having his name known wasn't a problem per se, but he realized he'd given away information he shouldn't have. He didn't want to reveal anything more to someone whose nature was still unknown.
"Ubilk! This serious talk—what is it? If there's nothing, we need to go!"
"—I wasn't really planning to wander around town today."
"Huh?"
"And yet, here I am, aimlessly strolling about. And when I get that feeling, I figure there must be a reason. So I followed my instincts, ended up here, killed some time leaning against this cart, and then..."
Ubilk touched his forehead, then let his fingers trail down—past the gentle crinkle at the corners of his eyes, over his fair, translucent cheeks, along his well-defined jaw—and finally snapped his fingers.
Subaru, who'd been drawn in despite himself by the deliberate performance, jumped at the snap. Ubilk grinned wider at the reaction and flicked the snapping fingers back and forth.
"You two came hopping over the rooftops and landed right in front of me."
"..."
"...Oh dear? Did that not land?"
Tilting his head, Ubilk looked between the unresponsive Subaru and Louis.
Louis might simply not have understood the story, but Subaru was different. He'd heard Ubilk's answer, and the words had just failed to come out.
He'd half-expected some grand, sweeping explanation— "So you were just out for a walk, and we happened to show up while you were resting?"
"Well, that's one way to put it. But I could also say it this way:—all of this was guided by the stars."
"The stars... like fate, or something like that..."
Despite the romantic phrasing, Subaru's shoulders drooped.
In the opening act of a story, at the scene where a man and a woman first meet, such words might carry a certain charm. But here stood shrunken Subaru, a perpetually-small Louis, and the oddball Ubilk.
There was no romance to be had.
"Am I being laughed at?"
"N-no, it's fine. Since Ubilk isn't exactly serious anyway—and we'll probably never meet again—it doesn't bother me that much."
"That was a pretty sharp remark. That edge reminds me of an old friend of mine."
"Ubilk has... friends?"
"Ha ha ha, sure I did."
The rude thought had slipped out involuntarily, but Ubilk didn't seem offended.
For just a moment, Subaru caught a glimpse of something complex beneath Ubilk's perpetually unserious, sweet demeanor—a complicated feeling toward that old friend.
"Anyway, meeting here must be fate. Hmm, I know! I actually do a bit of consulting work on the side. What do you say—want to have a consultation?"
"There it is! No thanks... wait, no—I heard on TV that answering 'no thanks' just lets scammers twist things to their advantage. I don't want one!"
"It's not a sales pitch, and I'm not here to scam you. I simply want to fulfill the role I've been given."
"A role you've been given?"
"That's right. My coming here today must have meaning. I suppose guiding you and Louis through this consultation is what the stars have arranged."
Crossing his thin arms, Ubilk nodded with the air of someone who understood it all.
Unfortunately, his conviction didn't quite resonate with Subaru. All it did was push the suspicious-dangerous-adult index even higher.
Ideally, Subaru would just leave Ubilk behind and run. After all the trouble of shaking the pursuers, getting tangled up with an even more troublesome character was the last thing he needed.
"If you're thinking of running, it won't work. If you try..."
"If I try?"
"I'll scream and tell those people exactly where you are. Wouldn't that be a problem?"
"That'd be a massive problem...!"
Still, if it came to that, Subaru wouldn't hesitate to unleash Louis. He had no desire to kill Ubilk, and he intended to restrain Louis with everything he had, but he was prepared to go nuclear if it meant avoiding leading the pursuers back to them.
And besides— "Look, the less you know about our situation, the better. If you heard it, you might get dragged in, and I don't think you'd be able to handle it."
Even without Subaru and Louis doing anything, Tanza and her people might go after Ubilk. And if that happened, it would be Subaru's fault.
He couldn't let Ubilk get caught up in that.
But— "Oh, don't worry about that. Like I said, I do consulting—and I'm the kind of consultant who doesn't need to hear the details."
"That's impossible!"
"There, there—just think of it as being conned and go along with it. Now, if I may have your hand."
Breezing past Subaru's concerns, Ubilk cheerfully took Subaru's hand.
Since his right hand was linked with Louis's, it was his left hand that was seized. Surprised by the slender, almost feminine feel of Ubilk's fingers, Subaru quickly checked on Louis.
"Ugh."
Thankfully, Louis was watching Ubilk intently but hadn't done anything rash.
Though that meant Subaru now had to keep his eyes on a situation that felt like a balloon being slowly inflated toward an inevitable pop.
"Look, Ubilk, neither you nor I has much time..."
"Aww, now you've got *me* feeling anxious. —But, it's done."
"Huh?"
Subaru had been nervously eyeing Louis's gaze fixed on Ubilk's thin neck as he hurried him along, and now his arm was released.
Ubilk held his palm toward Subaru's face.
"—The answer you seek already lies within you."
"...?"
Caught off guard by the unexpected words, Subaru stared with wide eyes.
Seeing his blank expression, Ubilk tilted his head. "No good?"
"It's not that it's no good—I just don't really understand what it means..."
*The answer I seek.* What an absurdly vague thing to say.
It sounded like the kind of thing a TV fortune teller would say back in the old world. The kind of vague statement that applied to anyone—a classic con artist's line.
"Pretty sure almost everyone is looking for *something*..."
"Hmm, I wouldn't say that's as big a deal as you might think. Unfortunately, I can't read the movements of stars that grand in scope."
"Star divination...?"
"It's probably something right in front of you. See? You two were being chased, weren't you? That's a problem too. Maybe the answer is related to that?"
"But I already know why those people were chasing us—"
Ubilk, apparently confident in his consulting abilities, tried to dig into Subaru's thoughts to find the correct answer.
It gave off a slight con-artist-vibes, but as Subaru engaged with him seriously, a faint stirring began to surface within him.
"..."
That stirring felt like something terribly important.
Of course, a hunch from a shrunken Subaru was hard to trust. But while a child Subaru's *reasoning* might be unreliable, a child Subaru's *instincts*—those weren't affected by the size of his body, and there was room to trust them.
The problem Subaru and Louis were currently facing was— "—'The Abyss with a View.'"
The answer was already inside him. That was what Ubilk had pointed out.
Subaru didn't intend to dig into whatever trick might be behind that. But he'd felt it.
If he pulled on that thread of instinct, he could reach the answer he was looking for.
"Mm?"
"I think I might've figured something out."
Louis peered into Subaru's face, furrowing her neat eyebrows. At the slightly firmer note in Subaru's voice, her blue eyes went wide, and then she broke into a happy little smile.
Glancing at Louis's change in expression, Subaru exhaled and looked at Ubilk.
"The consultation actually worked."
"Oh, good. I'm relieved too. If I'm going to take on the role, I like to do it properly. Well then?"
"Yeah, we're off. Thanks for everything, Ubilk. —Let's go, Louis!"
"Aah aah!"
Subaru gave a parting nod to the one-eyed Ubilk, grabbed Louis's hand, and broke into a run.
He dashed off on pure instinct, then stopped once. When he turned around, Ubilk was watching him with round eyes—perhaps the sudden departure had caught him off guard.
Subaru waved and called back: "Ubilk, I'm telling you this for your own good—go back home! Stay put, stay out of trouble, and quit the conning!"
And with that—filled with genuine gratitude—Subaru offered his own selfish little piece of *advice.* △▼△▼△▼△ And so, after seeing off the two children as they rushed away— "'Quit the conning,' he says... That's a pretty harsh farewell."
Alone in the street, the youth—Ubilk—laughed and scratched his cheek with a finger.
Reflecting on the strange encounter, he sensed from the boy's parting demeanor that he had, at the very least, been of some use. That thought eased a weight in his chest.
As for the rest— "I should probably get back to my room before Kafma gives me grief. And if something really did happen, I'd be in trouble if I weren't there. Still..."
He turned once more in the direction the children had gone, and Ubilk closed one eye.
Then— "—Even if it's the role of the *Star Reader*, one has to wonder what the stars truly desire."