"Downing the
Roswaal sank a little deeper into his bed as he spoke, stroking his chin with his eyes closed. What he had recited were the events Subaru had reported during their nighttime conference—the whole string of incidents that had transpired in Roswaal's absence.
Subaru thought he'd done a decent job keeping his tendency to ramble in check, presenting an objective account stripped of boastful crowing and self-pity. And now, reflecting on his own deeds afresh— "…In all honesty, it sounds like the exploits of someone you'd suspect of delusional rambling. Since when did you swap into the protagonist of an adventure serial, Barusu?"
"Coming from you, that stings just a little… Though even I think my performance was pretty questionable. This is off-the-charts crazy by any standard, whether I'm grading myself or anyone else is, right?"
The sort of result that would make even Zhuge Liang flee barefoot. Hearing
"There's really nothing else to call it except an outcome beyond all expectations. Maa~san, I never thought you'd pull off something like this. Even I… yes, nobody could have predicted it, could they?"
Having finished digesting those surprises inwardly, Roswaal tucked his chin and offered words of praise. He held his expression unusually serious as he fixed Subaru—seated in the chair before the bed—with his mismatched eyes.
"Well then, allow me to formally express my gratitude. Thank you—for protecting my domain and its people. And for your tremendous contribution to Lady
"O-oh. Yeah. Right. When someone puts it that formally, it kinda makes me shrink back, you know? It's not like I did anything worth all that…"
"Barusu, you don't seem to understand the full weight of Roswaal-sama's words of gratitude."
Subaru had been about to interrupt Roswaal's earnest thanks, but Ram stepped forward and cut him off. She looked down at Subaru with that same unwavering, piercing gaze of hers.
"Interrupting your superior, and worse, tossing dismissive words at their gratitude—normally that would be utterly impermissible. Moreover, Roswaal-sama holds the rank of Margrave, bearing one of the pillars of power in the
"———"
"Roswaal-sama, by virtue of his position, cannot easily bow his head to those beneath him or dispense words of gratitude so freely. You would do well to appreciate what it means that he has done so for you."
Ram's voice cut like a whip, slicing away Subaru's casual thinking. Hearing this, Subaru could find no rebuttal and lowered his eyes. Then Roswaal raised a hand lightly in mediation, going "Now, now~m."
"What Ram says is a bit~m of an exaggeration. My words aren't really worth all that much."
"Roswaal-sama."
At Ram's worried interjection, Roswaal nodded and continued, "However~m—"
"Setting aside the weight of my words, the magnitude of what you accomplished is plain for anyone to see, Subaru-kun. And it's easy to imagine the disappointment and grumbling that would be directed at me if I failed to offer commensurate rewards."
"…So what are you saying you'll give me?"
"A reward befitting your deeds. —Subaru-kun, do you remember what happened in the hall during the Royal Selection?"
Seeing Subaru choke up, Roswaal's twin eyes narrowed slightly.
What flashed through Subaru's mind, pierced by that gaze, was the wretched memory that still burned with shame and self-mockery whenever he recalled it. That declaration, that reckless remark—every last bit of it had been the rambling of a naive brat who knew nothing of the world, nothing of himself, and had gotten everything important mixed up.
But even so— "Yeah, I remember. No way I could forget. …I think I can never afford to forget."
"Then I wish to reward your merits thus: to make real the words I spoke to you in that hall. —Once you have safely left this place, I will appoint you as a knight."
Subaru raised his head. He blinked in bewilderment, unable to process the meaning of those words in an instant, and Roswaal nodded at him.
"Someone who participated alongside the Duke in subduing the White Whale, who struck down one of the Witch Cult's Sin Archbishops—such a person cannot remain nameless. Your name, the name of 'Knight'
He had roared that he would become Emilia's support—a empty-handed youngster with nothing to show.
That dream-struck youngster had been broken time and again by reality, driven to despair, sunk into madness, turned upon everything with vengeful contempt, and been saved by love—and now, he was here.
The entirety of that journey would be proven to hold genuine worth by the 'honor' Roswaal had spoken of.
Including the merits of
"…I'll accept that. Gladly. If that gives meaning to that battle, then—"
"It is a feat worth boasting of, and I won't let anyone make a fool of it. You have earned the right to stand tall at Lady Emilia's side. With your own strength."
"…Not my strength alone, though."
A mutter that barely left his lips in response to Roswaal's words. Roswaal seemed not to have caught it, furrowing his brow faintly, and Subaru closed his eyes once to take a deep breath. Then he opened them again and gave an intentionally breezy shrug.
"That was intense, huh. If I keep playing the serious character too long, it's gonna be embarrassing when I go back to normal. I can already feel my face heating up."
"You're right~m. Hah~yaha, doing something so out of character has left my shoulders stiff. It's really not like us to have a proper, serious discussion."
Matching Subaru's change of mood, Roswaal relaxed his own expression as well, dissolving the atmosphere that had built up. Ram let out a small sigh at the exchange between her master and Subaru, then spoke up.
"Next, there must be something Barusu wishes to ask Roswaal-sama, correct? That's why you asked that Emilia-sama be kept away from this conversation."
"Your sharpness is appreciated for keeping things moving. …It's not that I wanted to treat Emilia-tan as an outsider, but with her around, I figured Ros-chan would clam up."
Ram shot Subaru a sidelong glance and, after looking at the spot where Emilia had been standing a moment ago—confirming anew the empty space she had left—continued.
"So you've asked Rüegis to accompany her on an inspection of the '
"I appreciate being asked, but when I think about the long term, I don't want to go charging ahead based on short-term desires. Otto will probably join up with her partway, and as for the worry about Emilia being alone… What if that guy Otto gets handsy with Emilia-tan? I'm getting worried now—Emilia-tan is absurdly cute."
"Talking yourself into anxiety in real time really isn't a great habit, you know? In any case, your reasoning isn't wrong. —For my part, I would never utter anything I don't want Emilia-sama to hear."
Roswaal aired this out shamelessly while Subaru's mind wavered with unnecessary worries. Subaru clicked his tongue inwardly with a "Just as I thought" as Roswaal, with a wink, openly confessed to his information control.
"You're deliberately restricting the information you pass along to Emilia-tan. …What the hell are you thinking, pulling something like that?"
"I think information triage is a necessary thing, you know~m? Emilia-sama's importance as a Royal Selection candidate is far greater than my own. But her person, her knowledge—neither has been refined to match that station yet. She is still on the path of learning, and piling too much upon her would only create undue strain…"
"That's the kind of high-minded talk someone who can actually give Emilia-tan a free environment to learn at her own pace is allowed to make! Keeping information that could change the situation from someone just because they don't know it yet—that makes no sense. And it's not good for you either."
Subaru pressed on in a quiet voice, holding back a tongue-click, even though he knew full well that Roswaal's words were nothing but surface-level deflection. Roswaal watched this facade of composure with one eye half-closed, silent.
Roswaal often watched Subaru like this—one eye, the left one, the yellow one—staring intently. Those eyes made Subaru squirm with nameless unease. Reading his discomfort perfectly, Roswaal smiled.
"Well~m, I did think you'd eventually come around to pressing me on this. That's exactly why I've been bracing myself properly for this occasion."
"Bracing yourself…?"
"I made up my mind to actually answer Subaru-kun's questions instead of dodging them. Running isn't exactly an option in this wrecked condition of mine, so the timing seems just right~m, wouldn't you say?"
He laughed aloud, lightly slapping at his thigh on the bed as he spoke.
Subaru stared for a moment, momentarily stunned by the man's audacity— "…What brought this on?"
"It's a bit~m disheartening that you trust me this little. Of course, given the history between us, I can't say I blame you."
"I know I'm being openly suspicious, and I apologize for that, but given how things have been… You've got a bit~m of a habit of keeping secrets. …I can trust you this time, right?"
"Of course."
At Subaru's wary gaze, Roswaal nodded and spread both hands lightly.
"Over these past few days, the merit you've shown has been sufficient proof to open my closed heart. Rest easy. I have now been convinced to trust you and to welcome you into my inner circle—as an accomplice."
"Hold on. Something about that makes me feel like I'm about to be saddled with some heavy baggage. You don't need to open up that much—let's just stick to the essentials."
"Oh my~m, and here we were building up such momentum. How cold."
"I mean, if you suddenly hand over everything, it's less 'trusting' and more 'overwhelming'…"
They bickered like a couple with fundamentally different ideas about how much emotional vulnerability is appropriate at the start of a relationship, then Subaru cleared his throat and gathered his thoughts.
"Putting the 'accomplice' stuff aside for now—let me ask what I came here to ask. The reason you've been limiting the information you give Emilia-tan. That's where we start."
"———"
Once again, Subaru fixed his glare on Roswaal's half-closed eye.
The impact of Roswaal's curation of information given to Emilia—counting the previous loop as well—was beyond calculation.
If she had recognized that her birth—a half-elf—was information that刺激ed the Witch Cult, more effective countermeasures could have been taken against Petelgeuse's attack on
Conversely, that would have affected Subaru's own actions in response, which in turn could have changed the outcome—and ultimately, even Rem's fate— "Answer me, Roswaal. You want Emilia to become queen, same as me. You'd be just as screwed if she dropped out mid-way. So why the hell are you hiding information that puts her at a disadvantage? It makes no sense!"
"In response to that question, I will say this: —Your observations are all entirely correct. And precisely because they are correct, that is why I am limiting the information I give to Lady Emilia."
"…!? I don't follow. You're saying that hiding information that would disadvantage Emilia without her knowing is somehow necessary for her to win the Royal Selection?"
"That is exactly what I'm saying. And I do think that value… existed, you know~m?"
Roswaal's answer threw Subaru's thoughts into disarray. He furrowed his brows, confusion plain on his face. At that reaction, Roswaal shifted on the creaking bed.
"What you're trying to say, Subaru-kun, is essentially this, correct? —Upon hearing of Emilia-sama's participation in the Royal Selection, the Witch Cult might take action. And indeed, the Witch Cult did act, launching an assault on my domain. I could have anticipated that possibility and prepared countermeasures beforehand…"
"…Y-yes! Exactly! Anyone would think that! It's common sense around here that the Witch Cult has a connection to half-elves, right? You must have known that. So why didn't you prepare anything… No, before that—why did you leave the mansion and hole up in the 'Sanctuary'?"
"I was confined in the 'Sanctuary'; I didn't consciously leave the mansion unattended for—"
"Sophistry won't work here. You entered that confined state because you challenged the tomb to vent the resentment of Arlam's residents. In other words, the result of me clearing out the village for the Witch Cult—and before all that, you didn't return of your own volition."
"There's merit in arguing with someone who pushes back with reason. That's always~m a good sign."
When Subaru shot down the flimsy excuse, Roswaal simply shrugged with an easy air—he clearly hadn't expected it to work in the first place. Subaru didn't appreciate that attitude and took a step forward— "…Ram."
"Roswaal-sama is an injured man. Even so, he could incinerate you with a flick of his finger, but—I will not permit violence in my presence."
"You're okay with this?! You were treated as a sacrificial pawn too, you know! He knew those maniacs were heading for the village, and he bailed on the whole situation, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves! You can't be fine with that!"
"There is nothing to be fine or not fine about. Ram accepts everything Roswaal-sama chooses to do. However Ram is treated, however Ram is cast aside—it is all the same."
"You—!!"
The depth of Ram's loyalty, incomprehensible to Subaru, choked his throat with rage.
The reason he didn't lash out physically in that instant was either that his reason was calmly telling him he couldn't defeat either person before him, or perhaps— "…Even Rem became a sacrifice for something this incomprehensible."
"…? I don't know who you're talking about, but someone else's name has nothing to do with Ram. For Ram, Roswaal-sama is everything. Everything else is trivial."
Subaru's strangled plea did not so much as ripple Ram's heart.
He had known this—that there was no point in appealing to a woman who had forgotten Rem's existence. And at the same time, he understood something else.
He had always thought he understood the depth of Ram's abnormal devotion to Roswaal.
But that stubbornness harbored a madness different from the Ram Subaru had known. The cause, as before, was rooted largely in the forgetting of Rem's existence.
He didn't know the details of what had happened in their past. But piecing together the fragments Rem had told him, it was clear that the two sisters had shared a relationship of mutual dependence.
Guilt toward her elder sister and a sense of inferiority—Rem had swung between those feelings, deepening her complexes and her dependence on her sister. That instability had been visible yet unremarkable; but facing her younger sister, Ram had shown traces of the same.
Just as the world to Rem had been largely composed of Ram, the world to Ram had also been composed of two people: Rem and Roswaal. Rem, having resolved one of her complexes, had been expanding that narrow world to include Subaru and others—she had been changing. But Ram's world remained narrow.
Having literally forgotten the being that had occupied half of that world, Ram's world was now composed solely of Roswaal.
Her extreme, almost fanatical devotion to Roswaal stemmed from that.
"Ram, don't provoke Subaru-kun too much either. And Subaru-kun, I don't think you intended to get violent with me either. Your feet just slipped forward a little, that's all."
"If Roswaal-sama says so."
"Yes~yes. It's fine, it's fine~e. Right, Subaru-kun? You look angry, but you're not truly enraged. You would never be so reckless as to lose yourself and take a swing—that would destroy the conversation, and that's a choice you can't afford to make."
"What do you mean…?"
"It's simple~m. The old you would have exploded at some point during our discussion, started shouting, and ruined the whole thing. The fact that you didn't—that you kept your anger bottled up and continued the debate—that means you've grown up, Subaru-kun."
At Roswaal's light, surface-level applause, Subaru felt the hot surge of unspent fury in his chest. But he held back, knowing that giving in would be playing right into his opponent's hands, and forced the wave of rage down with a deep exhale.
The fact that this very act confirmed Roswaal's earlier words was not lost on him, and he couldn't help but feel frustrated with himself.
"Now then~m, enough bullying the young man. Since you've shown me signs of growth, it's only proper for me to demonstrate some measure of adult magnanimity in return."
"…Fine. Then give me a straight answer to my earlier question. No dodging. Why did you hide the Witch Cult from Emilia? And when you knew the Witch Cult was coming, why did you—yourself the strongest fighter—leave the mansion?"
"Both questions can be answered with a single response. —I did those things in order to avoid confronting the Witch Cult myself."
"Hah—?"
The quiet, orderly reply actually delayed Subaru's comprehension. He chewed it over, swallowed it, let the words savor in his brain—and then the meaning sank in.
"I don't understand. So you avoided fighting the Witch Cult… for what purpose? You don't have some kind of physical revulsion toward them, that can't be it! If you'd been there—you and your power—they'd have been wiped out in an instant! The casualties…"
"Indeed. Had I been present, the damage from this affair would certainly have been far less. I understand my own capabilities, and I am aware that I am among the top ten fighters in this country. I will say it plainly: had I been there, the Witch Cult's attack would have been repelled with ease."
"Then you knew that and still—!"
"That's precisely why."
He held up a finger to stop the spluttering Subaru, then pointed that finger toward the ceiling.
"If I had been the one to shine, it would have been neither Lady Emilia's achievement nor yours. There would be no point in my gaining renown."
"———huh."
Subaru genuinely could not comprehend what he had just heard.
He prayed Roswaal would continue—tell him it was a joke, a throwaway quip—and waited in suspended silence for the next words.
But Roswaal simply tilted his head at Subaru's silent stare.
"You have no rebuttal? When the disaster was so obviously coming, tell me—what reason would there be not to make use of it?"
"Y-you… do you even understand what you're saying…?"
"…? I'm not sure what you find problematic, Subaru-kun. Is that it? The damage to Arlam Village, the mercenaries and private soldiers who helped repel the Witch Cult and Lady Crusch's people… Are you suggesting that somehow those losses could have been prevented?"
Roswaal read every tremor of Subaru's inner turmoil and spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
That answer made Subaru's blood run cold.
Once before, when he'd spoken with
That incident had made Subaru acutely aware of the unbridgeable gulf between his own sensibilities and those of spirits. Conversely, he had understood that the anger he felt then was directed at something fundamentally different in nature.
But Roswaal had no such distinction. He understood the cause of Subaru's anger, he knew what Subaru wanted to say—and with full awareness, he was capable of making the cruelest of judgments.
But that— "That's hindsight, isn't it! I sort of get what you're saying—who takes command against the Witch Cult, who earns the glory, that has a considerable impact on the Royal Selection. …And if Roswaal had done it, the desired effect wouldn't materialize. But!"
Baring his teeth, Subaru swung his arm wide.
"Do you have any idea how many people died because you weren't there and told no one?! Yes, there weren't massive casualties. There weren't—but they weren't zero either! People died! Not just on our side—the Witch Cult's people too…"
"Even had I been present, my handling of the Witch Cult followers would not have differed at all. I would simply reduce every last one of them to ash. I'd face accusations of collateral damage from those on our side, but grudges from the enemy? That's rather beside the point, wouldn't you say?"
"…! Even so, there could have been a more… No, that's not the point! Everything is hindsight, can't you see?! Yes, it turned out well. The damage was minimal. The enemy was annihilated. Emilia-tan is safe. The people of Arlam were evacuated safely. …But all of that—every bit of it—was pure coincidence! If things had gone the way they really should have—"
If things had gone the way they should have, before Subaru could do anything, the villagers, the mansion, Emilia— "They should have all died! It shouldn't have gone smoothly like this time! Everyone would have been mutilated, tormented, put through agonies… and killed!"
Subaru clamped a hand over his face, desperately suppressing a voice on the verge of tears.
Behind his shut lids, the unforgettable vision of hell surfaced once more.
The village burning. Corpses scattered everywhere. The bodies of children. And Rem's lifeless body, discarded in the mansion's garden. The world freezing, ending.
—A world that would never have been overturned if Subaru hadn't possessed 'Return by Death.' "If you'd been there, none of that would have happened. …You knew, and you watched them die. You were the one who killed them, over and over…"
"Please don't put words in my mouth. It was the Witch Cult who attacked, not me. And the Witch Cult's attack was preemptively thwarted by your own hand—there were no victims as you describe. You're merely repeating the same delusions."
"…I see."
At Roswaal's cold response, Subaru dropped his shoulders and answered in a low voice.
Delusions—once that label was stamped on his words, Subaru had no way to overturn it. As long as he could not speak of 'Return by Death,' he could not condemn Roswaal with events that, realistically, had 'never happened.' Only Subaru knew that hell. And the one who had erased Roswaal's responsibility for unleashing that hell—was also Subaru.
"…If I'd stayed a useless waste, what would you have done? You want Emilia to be queen too, right? The odds would've been so lopsided it wouldn't even qualify as a bet. …The chance of it ending right here was supposed to be far, far higher."
"But you overturned those odds. —Are you dissatisfied with that?"
"I am. You don't strike me as the type to leave things to uncertain variables."
There were different kinds of people who wagered bets. Those who bet on luck alone in a fight with no certainty of winning. Those who left nothing to chance, assembling the best hand they could and reserving only the final sliver for fate.
And those who prepared every step in advance, orchestrating a fix while calling it a wager.
"You're not the type to gamble in the first place. So how could you do this?"
"…Because I believed in you."
At Subaru's repeated question, Roswaal lowered his voice and answered.
Hearing that, a bitter laugh escaped Subaru's lips before he could stop it.
"So you're not actually going to answer seriously."
"Whether or not you believe my words is up to you, but I am telling the truth, you know~m? I've decided that tonight, in this place, I will not deceive you. What I cannot say, I will say I cannot say. What is inconvenient, I will keep silent. But I will swear that everything I do say is the truth."
Roswaal delivered this in a solemn tone. But how much of that could Subaru take at face value? After the conversation so far, Subaru's opinion of Roswaal had already plummeted across the board, and he had no spare capacity to accept it at stated value.
His sanpaku eyes sharpening further, Subaru glared as Roswaal rolled his neck.
"I will say it once more. —The reason I made the judgment I did this time was because I believed in you. I believed that if you saw Lady Emilia's situation as dire, you would work to establish the alliance with Lady Crusch, then throw yourself into repelling the Witch Cult, and earn merit doing so."
"Even if that were true—why would you believe that of me?! What do you actually know about me?! We spent a single month together—did I really look like the kind of man who could pull something like that off?"
At Roswaal's brazen string of fine-sounding words, Subaru stamped the floor in rebuttal. He jabbed a finger and shook his head, denying the very words he'd just spoken.
"That's bullshit. When you and I parted ways, I was genuine scum. The only reason that scum improved even slightly was because of everything that came after. And everything that came after exists nowhere except inside me. —What exactly did you believe in?!"
Roswaal half-closed his eyes. That yellow gaze rested on Subaru, uncomfortable and unyielding.
As though shaking off that stare, Subaru kicked the floor hard.
"This is pointless! If this is how you are, you're just some empty-headed fool who trusted a dumb kid to do everything right and threw away your own position, your own future, your own stakes in the gamble—all because you felt like playing! There are no words for how recklessly irresponsible that is!"
"…It seems tonight's discussion has reached its end~m."
In contrast to Subaru's open fury, Roswaal murmured almost wistfully.
Hearing that, Subaru let out a sharp "Yeah!" and spat his lingering frustration.
"If you're not going to talk to me honestly, there's nothing more to say. After what just happened, there's no way I could believe anything you tell me."
"I can only be purely~m sorry that my reputation in your eyes has utterly collapsed. …I don't think confirmation is necessary, but tonight's conversation—Lady Emilia—"
"As if I'd tell her. Whether it's word for word or embellished, there's nothing to gain from it. You're calculating hard enough to keep your mouth shut, so of course you'll babble whatever's convenient here."
No matter where Roswaal's true intentions lay, friction between Subaru and him would be detrimental to the continued pursuit of the Royal Selection. More than that, right now Roswaal's camp—Emilia and the Arlam villagers included—needed to stand united.
It galled Subaru to play along with Roswaal's scheme, but undertaking the 'Trials' would raise Emilia's standing relative to the others. —All of it, playing out on the palm of his hand.
"You understand everything, harboring an unbearable anger toward me, and yet… you still can't flip the table over. As expected~m, you are exactly the person I took you for."
Clenching his teeth against the frustration, Subaru heard Roswaal's voice.
Roswaal's expression twisted into something thoroughly loathsome as Subaru raised his head.
"You are, indeed, perfectly suited to be my accomplice—wouldn't you say?"
"…You won't die a good death, you bastard."
"Of course not. I will undoubtedly burn in hell. That is precisely why I must indulge in as much tyranny in this world as I can before then."
At Roswaal's parting words, Subaru shot him a sharp glance, then turned his back without another word and stalked out of the room.
Continuing the conversation would only be a waste. Roswaal had no intention of revealing his true heart, and Subaru could not shatter those schemes—and so, it would only be a futile exchange.
But— "Don't think for a second that everyone is going to dance on your strings."
Clenching his fists tight, walking through the night, Subaru steeled his resolve anew.
Tomorrow, Roswaal would set Emilia to face the 'Trial,' attempting to overturn the contempt toward half-elves held by the people of the Sanctuary and the villagers of Arlam.
In that process, the burden it might place on Emilia was something that man would not consider. Regardless of how many wounds she sustained, how much her heart was worn down—he would simply laugh and bend everything to his will. Then— "I won't let that happen. That girl… Emilia, I will protect her."
The qualification to face the 'Trial'—if the dream he had seen in the tomb was no mere dream, it should have been granted to him.
Even if it was born of the
"That… is what I have to do in this 'Sanctuary.'"
Beyond his upraised fist, a pallid moon hung in the sky.
Clenching his fist as though to seize the unreachable light, Subaru painted in his mind the image of that silver-haired girl he held dear, and steeled himself to clash head-on with the clown's malicious schemes.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "…Was that truly all right?"
In the room after their companion's violent departure, Ram quietly asked. Hearing this, her master shook his head feebly.
"I had expected that kind of reaction~m. Understanding it in advance doesn't make prying at a young man's heart any less heavy, you know."
"You don't need to put on an act in front of Ram."
"I appreciate the concern, but what I said just now was sincere. What—do I look like I was secretly enjoying myself doing that in Ram's eyes?"
Ram turned her gaze away in silence, which served as her answer to her master. She straightened the bedsheets that had been disturbed during the exchange, and when her fingertips touched something hard near her master's side, she pulled it out from beneath the sheets.
"Roswaal-sama. This was here."
"Oh, my~m, sorry, sorry. If Subaru-kun had seen it, things would have gotten complicated~m. Still, sitting on something like this—how sinful. I should be more careful."
He accepted the object with evident care and gently ran his fingers across its surface. Then he placed a finger against his chin.
"Anyway~m. I've confirmed Lady Emilia's qualifications, and I've stoked the fire under Subaru-kun. The 'Trial' will begin tomorrow night… What do you think will happen, Ram~m?"
"Ram could never hope to fathom Roswaal-sama's thoughts. …Surely Roswaal-sama already knows how it will turn out?"
"It's not quite that convenient~m. It's certainly superior to the incomplete thing the Witch Cult holds, but it falls short of what she truly seeks—it's merely a counterfeit. And my exchange with Subaru-kun just now, how much of it was scripted…"
Roswaal sighed as if in self-reflection. Ram raised her brow slightly, then, timidly and hesitantly— "Then… the things Barusu said just now were…"
"Quite a bit was an act, but… the majority of it was honest~m, you might say. After all, I knew full well Subaru-kun would react that way. I knew—but even I have some things I want to get off my chest every now and then."
Roswaal waved a hand as if making an excuse, then continued.
"Besides~m, it would be dreadfully dull if I were the only one who felt irritated at having the object of one's affection belittled. A petty little bit of spite on my part, you might call it."
Roswaal smiled as he spoke.
In his arms, held with the utmost care, was a book with a black cover.
Roswaal's fingertips traced its binding, slowly, slowly.
With fondness, with fondness, slowly, slowly—.