——.
————.
———————————————Ah.
There was the sensation of his face being struck by jolts and impacts.
That feeling roused his consciousness from the blank void, and Subaru awakened to reality.
He tried to lift his head, tried to push his upper body upright, but the shaking blocked him. His hand slipped, and just before his head hit the floor again, a weight pressing against his midsection caught him.
Something heavy and solid bore down on his stomach. He pressed a hand to it and confirmed it was a sack stuffed with gold coins—and his memory caught up to the moment just before he lost consciousness.
"—
"Natsuki-san!? You've woken up!?"
Shoving the coin sack he'd been clutching to the side, Subaru cast his gaze around while still on all fours. As before, the darkness was thick, and the violent swaying confirmed he was aboard the dragon carriage—no mistake about it.
Directly ahead, responding to Subaru's shout, only his head turned toward him: Otto. Seeing Subaru shake his head and try to push forward, he said— "Don't move! You hit your head, and your blessing's run out. The earth dragon is running at full speed—there's no room to accommodate you, Natsuki-san!"
"That doesn't matter! Rem—what happened to Rem!?"
Subaru roared back at Otto's voice, sweeping his eyes across every corner of the driver's seat. The carriage had lost the cargo bed it had been towing, leaving only the driver's seat in an unbalanced configuration. There was barely any space for a person to fit, and he didn't even need to frantically scan back and forth—it was already obvious from her absence that she wasn't here.
Even so, he couldn't accept it until he confirmed the fact with his own eyes.
"Answer me, Otto. What happened to Rem...!"
"That young lady—"
Seeing Subaru with his voice raised, in such a state of agitation that he looked ready to lunge, Otto apparently understood the danger of Subaru not listening.
He gulped, and with the gravity of a painful decision, delivered the next words: "To let our carriage escape... she dismounted to go meet the
The exchange just before he lost consciousness had been carried out exactly as planned. That fact now reached him.
"————"
At those words, Subaru drew one breath— "Turn back."
"Hah?"
"I said turn back! We're going to save Rem. Turn back right now!"
Inside the cramped driver's seat, Subaru closed the remaining distance and grabbed Otto by the collar.
Otto, who was already struggling to control the earth dragon in its state of utter panic, couldn't handle Subaru's violent behavior. His collar seized, he cried out "Hey—!" in alarm— "Are—are you serious!? Turn back... what do you think will happen if we turn back!? Did you not see the terror of that thing—the White Whale!? It's suicide!"
"That's exactly why I'm telling you to go back and save her! I saw that monster up close!"
Otto shook his head, refusing the order, and Subaru snarled through clenched teeth, veins bulging at his temples.
The White Whale's threat was seared into Subaru's very eyes. That colossal body swimming faster than the dragon carriage, its tail casually swiping away a heavy wagon with a single flick. And on top of that, despite the fog, it had pinpointed their position without effort, and even after taking Rem's magic head-on, it had suffered no real damage.
Without question, since falling into this other world, this was the greatest enemy he had faced.
Compared to that, fighting Elsa in her humanoid form, or charging into the horde of countless Jabberwocks—those were a thousand times more manageable. Strategies were visible.
But against the White Whale, he couldn't conjure a single image of victory.
"That's exactly why—how can I leave Rem here alone...!?"
He knew well enough how powerful Rem was when she went into demon form.
That understanding was precisely what told him: even with all of her strength, she was nothing more than a helpless weakling before the White Whale.
If he left her behind, she would be lost. For certain.
That would defeat the entire purpose. That would make Subaru's survival meaningless. He had fought his way back for the sake of rescuing her. For the sake of pulling her out.
The future Subaru wished for could not exist without her in it.
Without Rem, Subaru would lose sight of even himself. He would lose the ability to affirm his own existence. Subaru needed someone who would affirm him—and that someone was her.
"Making her buy us time with that ridiculous stunt—like hell I'll accept that! If we're running, we all run together! Otto, turn back! Or else..."
"Are you out of your mind!?"
But Subaru's voice was blown away by an even louder shout.
The hand gripping his collar slipped upward, was caught in a reverse grip, and an instant later his feet left the floor as he was slammed onto his back against the driver's seat.
"Gah—!"
"Don't you get it—that in your current state, with your blessing gone, you can't even physically force your way past a traveling merchant who sometimes has to navigate the highway alone!"
Otto twisted Subaru's captured wrist, rolling him face-down and wrenching the arm into a lock. The one doing this was still Otto, his right hand holding the reins.
Subaru groaned at the unexpected counterattack, and Otto, breathing hard, said: "Understand your situation. That's what you are right now. If you go back like this, what exactly can you accomplish? Are you going to waste the feelings of that girl—who stayed behind for our sake!?"
"Don't you dare talk about Rem! You—you left her for dead... a coward like you has no right to speak her name! Turn back! Go back and save Rem right now!!"
"Enough! This is hopeless!"
Subaru thrashed, struggling to break the lock on his arm, and Otto clicked his tongue. Keeping his gaze fixed forward, driving the earth dragon straight ahead, he said— "How many more times do I have to show you how terrifying the White Whale is!? For decades it has reigned over this world, and people have tried to kill it—again and again! The fact that it still hasn't been killed is proof of its power!"
Showering words down upon the uncooperative Subaru, Otto's voice carried a fierce, helpless rage— "Hundreds of armed humans have challenged it, and they still couldn't kill it! What good will it do if we—people without weapons, without the strength to fight—go there!? Rescue the girl standing before it!? We can't even do that! There's no way we can!"
"Not before even trying...!"
"Some things are obvious! The extermination squad assembled by the
His forceful confession carried a tremor that tried to hold back tears.
Otto himself harbored a fury toward the White Whale that could never be erased. But even so, the enemy's existence was far too vast to direct that anger toward.
And so, to teach the stubborn Subaru this truth, he was forcing himself to voice words that reminded him of just how enormous the enemy was—repeating the act of breaking his own heart in the process.
"The Sword... Saint..."
Within those words, Subaru's momentum—which had refused to yield to anything until now—faltered. His dazed lips formed a single word from what Otto had let slip.
The 'Sword Saint'—that was the title given to the strongest person Subaru had seen since falling into this other world, and for Subaru, it was the very embodiment of strength itself.
Even if the previous Sword Saint was not the same person as Reinhard, if he had possessed enough power to bear the same title— "Then the White Whale that killed him..."
It would be beyond Reinhard. Beyond the strongest.
Rapidly, Subaru felt terror seizing control of his heart.
Reinhard's existence, his strength—that was what Subaru wished for with every fiber of his being. That was 'strength' itself. And if even Reinhard could only kneel before that monstrous aberration and have his life crushed—then that meant— "No way... no way something like that exists... how can this..."
He wanted to save Rem. To rescue her. He had to go back immediately, or it wouldn't happen.
His heart understood this, yet the crucial fighting spirit wouldn't reach his limbs, wouldn't reach his soul.
Looking at the crumbling Subaru with pitying eyes, Otto said in a small voice: "I am weak, and you are weak. That's why we can't save that girl. —We can't catch up to her strength."
—But Rem wasn't strong either.
Subaru knew that. He should have known it. Yet he couldn't muster a single word of rebuttal.
Head hanging, he surrendered to the carriage's rocking as the earth dragon charged straight through the darkness.
Rem, left behind, grew further and further away.
Subaru did nothing to stop it. He moved further from her. Continued moving further.
* * * * * * * * * * * Five minutes, perhaps ten, had passed since Subaru had bowed his head.
"Natsuki-san, over there—"
Otto, who had been driving the earth dragon in silence up to now, called out, squinting at something he had spotted ahead.
Slowly, Subaru raised his head, crawled to Otto's side, and looked in the same direction. —There, dimly glimpsed through the darkness, was a light.
"It's obscured by the fog, but... it's human light!"
"Breaking through the fog...?"
"Even if we've broken through, it should still be night outside, so the light doesn't make sense... they're probably just like us—people caught in the fog..."
As if to confirm Otto's conjecture, the other party—who had presumably noticed them as well—was heading straight toward them. After a moment, the carriage that pulled alongside was indeed another dragon carriage, and the man sitting in the driver's seat shouting at them was— "Finally... finally, another person...! Hey—is this fog, right!? Which means the White Whale has... come out...!?"
A middle-aged man with foam at the corners of his mouth screamed in outright panic.
He had found the faintest glimmer of hope in the night fog, and now he pulled alongside their carriage, desperately seeking answers.
Knowing that his voice carried a plea—"please let my assumption be wrong"—Otto still shook his head and said: "Yes, it's the White Whale. We've already encountered it. Fortunately, we've managed to escape for now, but until we break through the fog, there's no telling where or when we'll run into it again."
"R-really...? Oh, this is the worst. Why... why is this happening...?"
Watching the man clutch his head in despair, Subaru glared at Otto's profile as he explained from beside him. The words "fortunately, we've managed to escape" felt as though Otto had completely forgotten the fact that they had left Rem behind.
Without any self-awareness of whether this anger was justified or simply a way to deflect his own guilt, Subaru called out to Otto: "Hey."
"What is it, Natsuki-san?"
"Drop the act, Otto. 'Fortunately'? You can say something like that...? Rem—how do you think Rem felt when she...?"
Each time the words about leaving Rem behind left his lips, it felt as though thorns were being driven into his heart. The hope that she might still be alive back there, using her wits to survive against the White Whale—even that faint optimism was impossible to entertain after witnessing that threat.
Here and now, Subaru had to admit it.
Rem had stayed behind, prepared to die once again—sacrificing herself to save them. To save Subaru.
"Rem? Who's that?"
And so her resolve, her feelings— "Hah?"
"I'm sorry—Rem? There was no one by that name among the other merchants we encountered... Who are you talking about?"
Otto tilted his head, unable to grasp what Subaru was saying.
That gesture—the way it trampled over Rem's last wishes— —was enough to drive Subaru's fist into the side of his face.
The moment the blow landed, a violent jolt shook the carriage. Losing his support, Subaru tumbled backward off the driver's seat. Otto, equally thrown sideways across the seat, clutched his face and scrambled up to look at Subaru— "W-what are you doing!? What the hell are you doing!?"
Otto stared at Subaru's violence with wide, disbelieving eyes. But Subaru found Otto's behavior equally unbelievable.
Pushing himself upright from where he'd fallen, Subaru bit down on his lip and snarled— "You're one to talk...! Rem stayed behind to give us a chance to escape—and you ask who she is? Don't make me laugh! You son of a bitch... do you want me to kill you...!?"
"I'm telling you, I don't know what you're talking about! What's with you, suddenly spouting nonsense like that... Did you lose your mind after seeing the White Whale!?"
Ignoring Subaru's accusations, Otto continued to deny everything.
Blinding rage colored Subaru's vision crimson. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and the murderous impulse surging through him commanded him to snap the thin neck of the man before him.
He reached out, ready to forget everything and crush the life out of that ungrateful wretch—and— "What the hell are you two doing!? Now is not the time to be fighting!?"
"If you've got time to be screaming at each other, just get through the fog already—"
The man in the neighboring carriage, who had been running alongside, raised his voice in alarm.
His desperate plea to intervene obviously couldn't reach the two men locked in a staredown. The man's voice didn't even register—Subaru was about to act on the hostility boiling inside him toward Otto.
What stopped him, at the very last instant, was the action from the carriage beside them.
Not that the man's frantic persuasion had prompted any reconciliation.
"Break through the fog, and escape the White Whale—"
The man, mid-sentence, was articulating a practical escape plan—when his body, carriage and all, was swallowed from behind by the White Whale's gaping maw, torn from the earth.
The White Whale, having swallowed the dragon carriage and the earth dragon whole, turned its mouth upward and began to chew. A tremendous cacophony of destruction and death screams echoed from within.
Wood and iron crunched between its teeth; the earth dragon was ground between teeth like millstones and let out a shriek. The man's voice, crushed along with everything else, was swallowed by the din of destruction, vanishing before reality like a wisp of smoke.
"Wh— a—"
At its silent approach—that colossal body materializing from nowhere—and the annihilation that followed, both Subaru and Otto lost the ability to speak.
Otto's eyes trembled at the approaching majesty of the White Whale, its renewed menace. And Subaru— "Why... why are you... here...?"
He muttered through a shaking voice, his eyes fixed on the White Whale's flank, and his knees buckled to the floor.
The still-living White Whale showed not the slightest interest in the despair of the two minuscule beings beside it. It was entirely absorbed in lapping at the feast spreading inside its mouth.
"If you're here... then what happened to the girl who stayed behind to draw you in?"
He couldn't help but ask the question whose answer was already apparent, confronted by that overwhelming existence.
Of course, the monstrous aberration before him would never answer. The White Whale slowly swallowed its prey, sent it down to its stomach, and then turned its enormous eye—assessing its next quarry—toward the carriage running alongside it. Toward Subaru.
"Ahhhhhhh—!!!"
Unable to endure that pressure, Otto was the first to lose his mental equilibrium, screaming.
The earth dragon, too, understood the White Whale's presence, and upon its master's command, surged to even greater speed. For a brief instant it pulled ahead—but terrified by the overwhelming mass trailing behind— "Why, why, why, why, why... does it keep following us so relentlessly... we should have been separated...!"
Clutching at the accelerating carriage, Subaru let Otto's words wash over him. Hearing the man's screams and laments helped him avoid looking directly at his own despair.
"Why us...!? In the middle of all this darkness... why...!? Is there something—is there some kind of marker...!?"
Sobbing, screaming, refusing the death bearing down upon him, Otto's cries were painful to hear. But within those screams, Subaru caught an image he couldn't let slip by.
The White Whale that relentlessly pursued them. That monster closing in as though guided by some kind of beacon. That was— "No way..."
Rolling toward the back of the driver's seat, Subaru squinted at the White Whale swimming behind them.
In the deep darkness, the pitch-black world shrouded even that colossal body, rendering it hazy and indistinct. But even within that murk, he could just barely make out the front of the monster—its gaping maw lunging toward them.
And from the White Whale's head, the twisted, warped horn protruding.
—The Jabberwocks that had swarmed through the
And those monsters, created by the Witch's power, had a habit of being drawn to the Witch's scent that Subaru carried—to latching onto him and attacking.
In other words— "That thing too... the White Whale is also a monster...!?"
He voiced the incredible possibility, then shook his head, unable to accept the reality.
But when he thought about it, everything fit. The reason it had picked out their carriage first from among the scattered dragonriages. The reason it had relentlessly targeted this carriage even after Otto had jumped to his own. The reason it had chased them down here, despite Rem dismounting to face it, buying time with her life.
The White Whale's presence, pursuing through the darkness. And Rem's attitude—how she had hesitated, sensing something— "...Because of me...?"
Because Subaru existed. Because it tracked the Witch's scent he carried, the White Whale relentlessly hunted this carriage.
Rem had realized this fact before anyone else—had dismounted to protect Subaru. To protect him. For his sake.
"Rem, no... I... I did this... because of me...!"
Crushed by the weight of grief and guilt that surged in beyond his ability to bear, Subaru covered his face and collapsed.
The fact of losing Rem—combined with the fact that he had been the one to lose her—attacked him from inside and outside simultaneously. As Subaru was battered by that despair— "Natsuki-san..."
Otto crept up from behind, calling in a quiet voice as he touched Subaru's shoulder.
His fingertips trembled. As though unsure what words to offer, his hand was unsteady. That weak hand grasped Subaru's shoulder— "Otto..."
"Die."
The next instant, his body was shoved forward by brute force, lost its support, and was flung headfirst from the carriage.
—?
His vision inverted. The body he was shaking off spun wildly, heaven and earth lost to one another.
Just as his world turned completely upside down, he glimpsed Otto—reaching toward him, laughing with wild abandon. The man's mouth gaped wide enough to show every white tooth, drool trailing from it— "It's— it's you! It's all your fault! You— you— if it keeps chasing us because of you, then take— take responsibility and die! Ahaha! Die— please just die! Die, and save me!"
Seeing Otto in that state of madness, laughing maniacally, Subaru realized the man's mind had completely snapped.
He had heard Subaru's weak mutterings, clung to them—and in the end, been pushed to such desperation that he threw Subaru off.
The instant Subaru understood this, his body had already reached the ground.
He hit back-first, mercilessly, and not an exaggeration: every last drop of air was squeezed from his lungs. His groan was accompanied by the sound of bones breaking. His body rolled and rolled, each impact compounding the injuries, and he vomited blood.
The fact that he'd landed on soft, grassy ground offered no comfort whatsoever against the force of the impact.
Blood streamed from his forehead, abraded against the earth. The pain in his dislocated left shoulder silenced even his voice. A splintered rib pressed inward against his organs. When he opened his mouth, driven by the nausea surging up, his broken back teeth spilled out along with blood onto the grass.
The impact was so tremendous it robbed him of even the ability to register pain.
After violently vomiting multiple times, Subaru slowly raised his head and dimly watched the light of the carriage that had thrown him off retreating into the far distance.
Strangely, no resentment welled up.
The truth was that the pain and suffering left no room for it—but beyond that, there was some inexplicable feeling that prevented him from blaming Otto.
Perhaps, in some corner of his heart, he had forgiven the man for doing what he did simply to survive, when he was only collateral caught up in all of this.
"—*cough*—ghh—"
But such sentimentality was extinguished by the taste of blood filling his mouth, by the searing agony that tore through his entire body as if remembered, and by— "————!"
The impossibly vast existence that had appeared before his fallen eyes.
It was far too enormous—a monstrous aberration that drove home the sheer foolishness of trying to resist.
The White Whale had drawn close—close enough that Subaru could have reached out and touched it. From that mouth far too large for any living creature, it exhaled a fetid breath, checking on Subaru's presence.
From the perspective of a diminutive human, even the White Whale's normal breathing was equivalent to a gale. And in his wounded state, Subaru couldn't possibly hold his body upright—a single exhalation rolled him across the ground, and his fractured bones ground against each other in a complex, grinding agony that ripped a scream from his throat.
As Subaru writhed and suffered beneath it, the White Whale simply watched, motionless—as though toying with him.
Before that calm, unshakable, overwhelming superiority, no one could call it carelessness. The gap in their very existence as living beings was absolute.
It was like an ant challenging an elephant. Like a man challenging a whale—in the sea, no less. And a man covered in wounds at that. There wasn't even a framework for calling this a contest.
—I'm going to die. I'm going to be killed.
Amid senses dominated by pain and nausea, Subaru perceived the death closing in.
The despair he had tasted time and again. The disappointment of watching himself be diminished. And above all, the helplessness at his own powerlessness—once again, having accomplished nothing on a journey still far from over.
Those feelings sidled up to Subaru familiarly, draped their arms around his shoulders, and snickered at this pathetic display.
What had he done wrong? He no longer knew anything anymore.
With Rem lost, Subaru's hands held nothing. Even that wretched attempt to survive by clinging to life now felt like a laughable struggle.
Pointless. Meaningless. The lowest form of existence, accomplishing nothing.
He felt the White Whale's snout drawing closer.
Inside that open maw, teeth tough enough to crush an armored earth dragon with ease were poised to grind his flesh, his bones, his soul—to chew and scatter them.
He was about to spit out a defiant challenge—"Just kill me. Come on, let those fangs reach me"—but he couldn't even manage that.
"I don't... want to die..."
Even this was beyond him. The weakness that could not muster even a final act of defiance—this time, Subaru truly despaired.
An unprecedented helplessness flooded something cold into the depths of his chest. Every drop of blood in his body froze. In a disappointment so total that everything before his eyes went pitch black— "No... I don't want to die... help... I don't want to die! I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die... I hate it, I hate it, I hate it... help me... Rem, help me..."
Words of self-pity. Whimpers. The unceasing, filthy attachment to life that leaked from his mouth.
Clinging to the life he had already lost, to the life he had caused to be lost—the weakling who had accomplished nothing, the defeated who had achieved nothing, the speck of dust who had protected nothing—still crying out that he cherished his own life.
Crawling, rolling, sliding through a sea of blood, gnawing at stones, throwing away every last shred of pride and dignity, soiling himself, mixing the red of blood with tears and drool—all to cling to life.
Pitiful. Wretched. This was what it truly meant to be humiliated.
A sight that would make anyone turn away in disgust, hurl insults, and declare it painful to even look at. No one could call this desperate clinging to life beautiful.
He was miserable. Even a bug's existence had more charm. This revulsion—the way he would defile even the dignity of something noble and precious for the sake of his own wretched survival—was the very essence of 'a pig's desire.' "N-no... I don't... want to die... help..."
Even so, he crawled. He fled. He whimpered with cunning, seeking some chance to extend his life.
Before long, his spent body could no longer move forward. His fingertips brushed the grass but lacked even the strength to dig into the earth. The willpower to cry out had long since been wrung dry, and rolling onto his side took all the strength he had left.
"I don't... want to die... please..."
And so, sprawled on his back, the words of begging for life spilled from Subaru's mouth.
That was his last stand. He could do nothing more. Think of nothing. Start nothing—and could only submit to whatever happened to him.
And yet, the impact never came.
The death he knew so well, the crushing horror of what was to follow—it never arrived.
The terror of waiting for an end whose timing he could not guess: that was enough to break anyone's mind.
Wriggling in agony before a fear too great to endure, Subaru searched desperately with his gaze— "...Huh?"
—He realized the White Whale, which had been mere moments away, was gone.
* * * * * * * * * * * After that, Subaru ran on nothing but the desperate will to survive.
"I don't want to die... I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."
Breath ragged, legs stumbling, dripping blood blurring his vision. But he didn't flinch from any of it—he ran. Not that there was anything to see in the first place; the depth of the darkness, the density of the fog obscured everything. The fact that his vision was clouded with blood wasn't even something current Subaru could process.
In a night where neither stars nor moon were visible, Subaru couldn't see his own limbs. Even with his feet pressing against the ground as he ran, he couldn't be sure he was actually on the ground at all.
Or perhaps he hadn't noticed yet that the White Whale had already swallowed him whole, and he was simply walking further into its innards—toward its stomach—of his own volition.
"*Hic*—"
The gruesome thought flashed through his mind and chilled him to the bone. Tears streamed as he ran.
He didn't know if the tears were from the pain, the despair, or if even that distinction had been lost.
In the darkness, Subaru was alone—as far as he could go.
He had lost Rem. Otto had abandoned him. Even the White Whale had let him go.
A person who had lost all value—no one would bother with such a creature.
"I don't want to die."
He didn't even understand why he thought that anymore.
What meaning was there in being alive? What did not dying actually accomplish?
He couldn't save anyone. Couldn't protect anyone. Couldn't do anything, couldn't achieve anything.
What possible meaning was there in a man like that continuing to live?
No answers came. He knew nothing. Whether an answer even existed was itself an ambiguous proposition.
Would the day ever come when he found it? And if it did, would it be his to grasp?
The formless thoughts that raced through his mind—were they a defense mechanism to distract from the pain and fear? Or was his psyche, even in moments like this, performing its wretched habit of self-pity?
He kept running. Kept fleeing.
The existence he had left behind—the overwhelmingly powerful monster that would keep swimming as long as the fog persisted—there was no telling when it might pick up his scent again and appear before him.
Though perhaps even that terror was too much to feel for the current Subaru.
"—Huh?"
When he had exhausted every self-deprecating thought, when even the words to curse himself with had run dry—that was when it came without warning.
—He broke through the edge of the fog, and moonlight suddenly poured into his vision.
The darkness that had seemed endless ended in an instant. Unable to believe it, Subaru's body kept running—as though if he stopped, this gentle moonlight might vanish.
After running for a while, he finally, truly accepted that this was not some convenient delusion.
And as that acceptance sank in, the sensation of blood flowing through his limbs reached him—the fact that he had survived permeated his brain.
But what welled up was not joy at having seized life— "Again... I..."
Only disappointment in himself—for having scraped by, ugly as ever, and seized hold of life once more.
He had desired it so desperately, and now it was in his hands, yet it brought no feeling. Rather, an unbearable guilt surged from within, and a shame so deep he had forgotten it existed scorched through his entire body.
"Rem... Rem...!"
He pressed his face into his hands, tears streaming uncontrollably.
He knew he had neither the right nor the worth to call that name, but Subaru could do nothing but keep calling it, soothing his own soul with the only comfort left.
Dropping to his knees, weeping—how much time had passed?
It approached with a slow, creaking sound, stopping beneath his hunched form.
"You... are..."
It was a dragon carriage and an earth dragon—caked in blood, its body so damaged it had lost all recognizable shape, swaying as it drew near.
That was unmistakably the earth dragon that had belonged to Otto.
But on the driver's seat it pulled, the young man who had thrown Subaru off was nowhere to be found.
"Why are you... where's Otto?"
The question escaped his lips, but naturally, no answer came.
Shakily, Subaru rose and approached the carriage. He looked up at the wrecked vehicle and noticed— —the cross-shaped short swords embedded around the driver's seat, and the traces of blood.
It had been attacked after breaking through the fog.
Otto, who had fled in such a frenzy, barely escaping with his life—what he must have faced after that was beyond imagining.
But what had happened was clear enough, seeing the earth dragon now acting alone.
"...Let's go."
Subaru murmured, and hoisted his battered body onto the driver's seat.
He kicked the embedded blades away with his foot, gripped the half-torn reins with his intact right hand, and guided the earth dragon forward with clumsy imitations of what he'd seen.
Feeling unfamiliar reins in a different hand, the earth dragon looked up at Subaru with its round, confused eyes. But perhaps moved by how repeatedly he snapped the reins, it slowly began to move—its feet carrying it along the highway.
—Beneath the silver glow of the moon, the dragon carriage began to move slowly forward.
Two beings who had each lost someone precious to them, licking their wounds together in this pair—they moved onward, slowly, slowly, under the silent mockery of the stars.
Slowly, slowly, the dragon carriage continued running.
It continued running.