"—It's there."
Subaru squeezed his eyes shut tight, gritting his teeth in anticipation of the stabbing pain that was sure to come.
But his grim resolve— "…Huh?"
Despite his declaration, nothing at all happened to Subaru's body.
"…Hmm."
He raised his head and pressed a hand to his chest, confirming that nothing was amiss. Across from him,
He hurriedly glanced at her, but there was no noticeable change in the way she looked at him. Her breathing, her gestures—everything was normal. He had braced for the worst, staring intently at the area around the chest of her mourning dress, but— "I can't say I'd live up to your expectations, but I'm not exactly confident in the size of my chest. If it were
"I… wasn't staring for that reason. No, more importantly than that…"
As though it were the most natural thing in the world, Echidna continued to speak, and Subaru responded on autopilot, his thoughts still stalled. He clapped a hand over his mouth, desperately killing the trembling in his voice and the emotions that came with it.
"I… When I die, I turn back time and redo the world. I'm using 'Return by Death.'"
"I heard. Actually, I read about it before you even told me. What a rare situation indeed."
Cheerfully, as though it were nothing, Echidna digested the fact Subaru had revealed and gave a nod.
But it was precisely this attitude of hers that struck Subaru like a bolt from the blue—the most abnormal thing he could imagine.
—Once spoken aloud, no matter how strong one tried to keep one's heart, that resolution would be effortlessly crushed by the punishing hand of retribution.
The trauma of that iron-clad prohibition—of Subaru himself being punished, or the heart of whomever he confessed to being torn apart—had coiled itself around him in a way that could never be wiped away.
That was why Subaru could never bring himself to do something as reckless as "testing" it. Without Echidna's encouragement, he never would have pushed past his hesitation and forced the words out.
It had taken that kind of monumental resolve. And yet now it had so casually— "Why doesn't that hand come…?"
"You almost sound disappointed that it doesn't come at all. At this rate, it sounds like you're regretting having missed the chance to kill me. That stings, you know."
"You know full well that's not what I mean—!"
"Of course I do. Without any leeway in your heart, you wouldn't have been pushed this far."
Echidna maintained her unhurried pace, ignoring the turmoil wracking Subaru's emotions. Unable to contain his irritation toward her any longer, Subaru clicked his tongue, then sharpened his already piercing gaze.
"Answer me clearly. No matter how many times I say that I'm using 'Return by Death,' will that hand—the
"So you do understand that it's the Witch's hand. …Yes, that's correct. This is my dream, my castle. A phantasm conjured from the dream I saw as I died. No one is permitted to enter without my leave."
"Can you guarantee that?"
"How cautious. —I guarantee it. The only Witches who can exist here are the six: Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth, Wrath, and Pride. There is no room for Envy to intrude."
A forceful answer from Echidna in response to Subaru's insistence.
Subaru took a sharp breath, held it for a moment, then slumped back in his chair in exhaustion after a stretch of silence. He let his shoulders droop, hung his head, and let out a long, long exhale.
"So that's how it is… I see… I see…"
"————"
Covering his face with one hand, Subaru simply repeated the same words over and over again.
As though confirming it. As though unwilling to let it go. As though clinging to it.
Because this was the first time in his life in this other world that Subaru had been freed from the Witch's clutches, and the first time he could speak of the taboo he'd been carrying.
"My, what a sentimental expression."
Echidna loosened her lips into a thin smile as she watched Subaru get swept away by endless waves of emotion. She ran a finger through her white hair.
"It must have been weighing on you that heavily, then. Having such obsessive love directed at you—well, I suppose it's understandable."
"Sorry. Yeah, there's definitely a lot welling up. Calm down. …There. I'm calm. Now that I'm calm, there are things I want to talk about. There's a mountain of things I want to talk about."
The restrictions on speaking about Return by Death no longer applied.
If it had taken him time to fully grasp that fact, then his heart was already racing ahead after accepting it.
The catharsis of being able to say out loud everything he'd held in until now, everything he was still carrying—a light like hope pierced through the suffocating closure he'd felt. However— "There's one misunderstanding you seem to have."
"…?"
"It's true that within my castle, the demonic hand that binds you cannot intervene. So I understand why you'd get ahead of yourself at the thought of being able to reveal secrets you've never been able to tell anyone before. But… whether I'll actually listen to whatever it is you're burdened with, or conveniently cooperate, or offer advice—that's an entirely separate matter."
"Wha—…"
Those words struck like a bucket of cold water on the heart that had been building momentum.
In front of the now-silent Subaru, Echidna wore the expression of someone who had merely stated the obvious. At her unexpected response, Subaru could only mask his confusion and disappointment.
He let out a sound that was neither "ah" nor "uh," his gaze drifting aimlessly.
The light he thought he'd glimpsed, the catharsis he'd hoped would carry him past this dead end—it was slipping from his grasp. As he stood there, unsure of what to do— "When you make that look like a lost child, it puts me in a rather difficult position. I'm not asking for anything that complicated, you know."
As she spoke, Echidna tilted her head with a troubled expression and tapped the white table three times with an extended finger. Following her gesture, Subaru saw that the finger she'd used to strike the table was now pointing at one thing—the untouched cup that had been served to him.
"You've been invited to the Witch's tea party. If you intend to let conversation bloom here, shouldn't you at least first provide proof that you've accepted the invitation?"
"…You're really hard to read, you know that."
"I thought I was about as transparent as could be from the very start."
Looking back, Subaru could indeed recall that Echidna had been unhappy that he'd completely failed to read the mood of the tea party and had flown into a rage without so much as glancing at the cup.
As payback, one could argue that the emotional wound Subaru had suffered was far worse.
"Damn it—fine!"
He snatched the cup from the table and downed the amber liquid inside in one gulp. Despite the time that must have passed since it was poured, it was still at the perfect temperature—perhaps befitting something served at a Witch's tea party.
He drank so fast he couldn't even register the taste. Subaru roughly wiped the trail of liquid from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.
"There—finished. Does that make you ready to acknowledge me as a participant in this tea party?"
"When you gulp down my bodily fluids with such vigor… hmm, it does make the body flush."
"Wha—! I forgot about that—!"
The Dona tea trap from the first tea party caught Subaru once again.
He clapped a hand over his mouth, fighting down the urge to vomit, while Echidna watched with undisguised amusement. Then she smiled, carving a grin into her exquisite features.
"Very well—I acknowledge you. It was your question of 'why' that opened the door to this tea party. And you who have tasted the tea the Witch offered are now a full-fledged participant. As the host of this tea party, it is my duty to welcome you. —Now, go ahead."
She clapped her hands lightly, Echidna's twin eyes blazing bright with curiosity.
"Tormenting your head for answers—that, too, is bliss to me."
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ —Rather than the start of a tea party, this might be better described as the start of a Q&A.
The Witch of Greed, Echidna, who possessed vast knowledge thanks to a certain "Book of the
Being able to put into words—without the slightest difficulty—everything about Return by Death, something he had never been able to confide in anyone before, along with the information he had gained through it: that was the greatest blessing of all.
Facing someone who could get to the heart of the matter, the questions Subaru had long put off, deeming it pointless to even ask, came pouring from his lips. The first to break through was— "So the one causing my 'Return by Death'… that's the Witch of Envy? Is that right?"
"That's roughly the correct understanding. As for the actual mechanism behind Return by Death, I'd need to observe your death myself to know for certain—but I can't kill you here, so that's a condition that can't be fulfilled."
"I can't die in here?"
"This is nothing more than a fleeting dream—a temporary perch for the spirit I've pulled in. Do you really think that dying in a nightmare would cause your actual body to die?"
"Well, if the dream was bad enough, I could see shock death being a thing…"
In fiction, there were countless stories where dying in a dream world had consequences in reality. If one were to use those as examples, it wouldn't seem strange at all for dying in the Witch's mental world to lead to the death of the body.
"Still, it'd be weird to insist I'm going to die when I've been told I won't. In any case, it means I don't have to worry about dying no matter how foolish I act in here."
"Your mind could shatter into pieces and you'd return to your body as a husk, though."
"Being a walking corpse is basically the same as being dead… Actually, it's worse! At least I can still use Return by Death!"
During one loop originating in the
But he could intuit that having his mind broken here would not be the kind of damage that could be healed by shock therapy.
"A situation where I can't even choose when to die—no thanks. …Ideally, not dying at all would be best, obviously."
"The fact that even 'death' can be thought of as a tool to attract the conditions for victory—that's truly an unknown value, even for me. Even I cannot observe my own 'death' and store it as knowledge."
"…But you're dead, aren't you? You died and now you're here playing ghost—don't you remember anything about dying?"
She had explained to him from her own mouth that she was a bodiless dead person. That the soul of Echidna, after dying, had been sealed and imprisoned by the Divine Dragon
"That's not quite right. My body—the vessel that held my soul—was indeed destroyed upon death. However, the soul itself was sealed away by Volcanica before death could fully take it."
"So… your body died, but your soul didn't. Since the contents never actually experienced death, it's a slightly different state from having gone through 'death' proper?"
"That's one way to put it. So—though this may be a self-serving opinion—I envy your current state. To be able to observe your own 'death'… no, to be able to experience it not once but over and over, without anyone's permission… there's no one else in the world who's been granted that."
"…Depending on how you hear that, it sounds like something a tremendous masochist would say. There's not a single death I've experienced that felt good, not even once."
With no ill intent, but wearing the air of someone thoroughly fascinated, Echidna was getting on Subaru's nerves.
For Subaru, the endpoint of death always existed as a consequence of his actions, and those consequences were always proof that his goal had gone unachieved.
His aversion to death had not faded one bit. It was no different from how he'd felt when he was still inexperienced. He wouldn't deny that he'd grown somewhat accustomed to facing it—but that was all.
At Subaru's remarks, Echidna gave a small laugh and said, "What a terrible way to put it."
"The power that lets you redo your 'death'—no, the power that won't grant you the peace of death—that's undoubtedly the Witch of Envy's. When did you realize?"
"People have been telling me all sorts of things that seemed to point to various connections. As for me, I honestly don't have any direct memories of meeting this jealous Witch. But when her name keeps popping up every time you turn around, it's not hard to imagine that the 'hand' that only appears in certain situations is hers."
Two arms, and a black shadow whose silhouette was now vaguely visible across his entire body.
The one who, when the forbidden words were spoken, would inflict pain upon Subaru while simultaneously acting with tender affection. Pain and love—a sadistic obsession devoid of any gratitude Subaru could feel.
"I have absolutely no idea why someone I've never even met would fixate on me like that. …You, by any chance?"
"Well, who can say. Understanding her mental state isn't something even I—or anyone else—could manage. And even if it were possible, I'd pass, thanks."
"For someone who claims to want to know everything in this world, you're awfully harsh toward the Witch of Envy. Well, considering what she's put you through, that might be understandable."
Echidna seemed to exist on a plane beyond ordinary mortals—and in truth, she was.
Creating an entire world from nothing, maintaining a state unchanged from her living self despite being dead, possessing the knowledge to answer Subaru's questions without the slightest hesitation.
All of it was proof that she was a transcendent being—the Witch of Greed.
Yet even such a transcendent being couldn't escape the pull of favor and distaste. For Subaru, this created an unmistakable knot of unease.
"You may have an inflated impression of me, but even a Witch was once human. One cannot escape the emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and one's likes and dislikes, nor one's tendencies toward the people one interacts with. Compared to the other Witches, I take pride in having a greater tolerance, but still…"
"Well, it'd be hard to trust your curiosity for everything in the world if you were picky about people's preferences. You'd never satisfy that curiosity of yours, would you."
"Quite. So I'm able to tolerate most beings. No matter how vulgar and lacking in any redeeming qualities, I make the effort to show a certain degree of understanding toward their mental state. I want to know everything—to be fulfilled. But—"
She cut herself off, and Echidna lowered her gaze slightly, her expression changing.
The Witch who always wore a composed smile and never forgot to observe the other person's attitude—her mouth was, for the first time, overtaken by unmistakable loathing, wrapped in a fury that bore it.
"That one—the Witch of Envy—is the sole exception. She alone I choose not to tolerate, not even to make the effort. I have never encountered a being so unforgivable, not across all the time I lived and all the time I've been dead, not in all the memories of the world I've observed."
"…It's not just because she killed you, is it. That level of anger…"
"Death doesn't carry that much meaning for me—not when I can be here as I am. But she did something even more unforgivable to me. I believe all actions are efforts made to obtain results… But what she did—there is absolutely no accepting it."
Having purged her pent-up emotions, Echidna closed her eyes and shook her head.
With that one revelation and that single gesture, every trace of violent emotion vanished from her face as though blown away. In its place rose the familiar, observant smile.
"Let's stop talking about that Witch. Regarding the principle behind your Return by Death, I can make a conjecture, but I have no proof. And even if I did, it's the sort of problem that would have no effect on your deaths. Do you have any questions outside of the cause itself?"
"Outside the cause…"
Having her simply confirm the very foundation of Return by Death had, paradoxically, left Subaru more bewildered than before. This power that resided within him—he was aware that regardless of the intentions of its source, he had been using it, or rather been made to use it, effectively, in exchange for pain.
The bitter truth was that there were countless outcomes he never could have reached without this power.
And it would probably remain something he had to rely on going forward. Taking that into account— "—Do you think my 'Return by Death' has a limit to the number of times I can use it?"
"Hmm… I see. Knowing that you have a power to redo 'death,' it's a natural question to arrive at."
As far as Subaru could recall, he had already died sixteen times in this world.
Every single one had been accompanied by pain and loss, but even as he experienced such circumstances, Subaru had returned and redone the world each time.
Having seized results through this process, Subaru still lived under the constant shadow of the terror that came with death—the nagging feeling that this time might be the last.
"It's… only natural to wonder, isn't it."
He had already overturned the "death" that was supposed to come only once, multiple times over.
Because he had carved out this world using that very power, he couldn't help but think about the helplessness he'd feel if it were taken away.
Until the very moment he was sent back by Return by Death, Subaru had no way of knowing whether he would end or not.
The despair of being crushed midway through his goal, experienced over and over again—if it all simply cut off and vanished at the end, just how terrifying would "death" truly be?
"I should preface this by saying it's nothing more than my own conjecture. I have a vague hypothesis about the principle behind your Return by Death, so please allow me to speak to you in accordance with that prediction."
"…Yeah. Let's hear it."
"Your Return by Death—I believe it operates under limited conditions, but the number of times it can trigger—"
He held his breath.
Subaru locked eyes with Echidna and stared straight back at her, feeling the brief pause before her words stretch into an eternity.
The conclusion he ached to hear—and then— "—Likely, there is none."
"…………"
"Your 'death' has no end. No matter how many times you die, no matter how many times you decay, your soul is permitted to turn back the flow of time and redo everything—until you shatter the fate that brought death upon you. No matter how savagely you're killed, no matter how thoroughly your body and mind are broken."
Echidna's conclusion—having heard it, Subaru felt his mind go blank for a single, suspended moment.
Once that blankness had washed his head clean, what next began to fill the empty space was— "—I see."
The quiet acceptance of what he had been told, and the desperate effort it took to keep his entire body from trembling.
He pressed a hand to his mouth, head bowed, eyes closed.
There was no panic, nor was there any visible relief at learning that Return by Death carried no limit.
Sensing this, Echidna furrowed her brow slightly, as though a question had formed in her mind.
"You don't seem nearly as surprised as I expected."
"…………"
"For you—or rather, for anyone—that power should be extraordinarily significant, to overturn the absolute nature of 'death.' And you are powerless, yet the obstacles standing in your path are far too steep. I thought there would be a bigger reaction."
"Sorry my response was disappointing. But—"
Infinite retries—that had been one of the optimistic conclusions Subaru himself had arrived at regarding Return by Death. So while being confirmed in that by another person didn't exactly come as an overwhelming shock, there was more to it than that— "Just because I swallowed that doesn't mean I'm going to immediately jump to some brain-dead conclusion like 'Awesome, I can never die, so now this isekai life is basically easy mode!'"
"You've received the answer you expected and are already looking beyond it. You're sharper than I gave you credit for—whether that's a good thing or not is another matter."
"Every time I use Return by Death… or more precisely, every time I think about confiding in someone and feel the Witch's presence growing closer, I can feel that black shadow getting nearer."
The first shadow Subaru had seen when he'd spoken the forbidden words had been a single arm reaching for his heart.
But with each repetition, the outline it revealed grew from faint to clear, until now it was even visible as a vague silhouette across his entire body.
If that shadow were to take on a sharper outline in the future— "When that shadow takes full shape, that will be the limit of my Return by Death. When that shadow becomes real, I don't think I'll be able to reject it."
"Hmm. What's that based on?"
"Instinct."
Two short syllables, and Echidna's eyes widened.
Subaru rested his cheek against his fist on the table, looking up at her from below.
"It's something only someone who's actually met that shadow can understand. If anyone else besides me could know it… it'd probably be some madman who'd been broken by the same suffering I've been through. Someone who's no longer alive."
A sentimental ache pulsed in Subaru's chest. Echidna gazed at him, her eyes narrowing as though peering into something deep within. But she quickly shrugged.
"It's frustrating that I can't understand that intuition of yours, but my conjecture more or less confirms it. Your Return by Death has no limit. However—only under limited conditions."
"Limited conditions."
"The one who forces you into Return by Death is the Witch's obsession. As long as that source of obsession isn't severed, you will not be permitted to meet your end."
"The source of obsession…"
"Either killing the Witch herself who's obsessed with you, or having her lose interest in you… Either way, judging by what I see of you, the difficulty would seem to be near-impossible."
Killing the Witch of Envy—a world-spanning aspiration that even the combined efforts of the Dragon, the Sage, and the Sword Saint had failed to accomplish four hundred years ago.
It meant surpassing the feat of those who, despite having covered half the land in shadow, had been unable to kill her and could only seal her away.
"Getting her to lose interest in me sounds a heck of a lot easier, though…"
"You have at least some idea that that's completely impossible, don't you?"
"…………"
"Only you would know from direct experience with the Witch's shadow, but as someone who knew her back then… I'm afraid I have to agree."
Echidna wore a bitter expression. Subaru didn't know the extent of the enmity between her and the Witch of Envy four hundred years ago, but it was clearly a rift that time had done nothing to mend—if anything, it had only grown deeper.
Unable to deny her words entirely, Subaru exhaled through his nose and let his back press against the chair with a creak.
Just as Echidna said—the hope that the Witch of Envy would simply lose interest in him was one Subaru could not bring himself to believe in.
He had never imagined that someone whose face he didn't even know, someone he had never properly met, could fixate on him so blindly. Someone who, quite literally, seemed intent on violating the entire world.
"You accept it awfully easily, don't you."
"…Hm?"
"For lack of a better way to put it, everything I've said so far is a stack of inferences. I can't prove any of it, and frankly there isn't nearly enough material to take on faith."
Echidna closed one eye, clearly finding it perplexing that Subaru was taking her opinions at face value.
And Subaru had to agree.
His association with her was short, and above all, she was a Witch. Considering that, one could argue there wasn't a single reason to trust her.
But— "That's my instinct too."
"…Instinct."
He was vaguely aware that he believed—just believed—that he could trust what she said.
Perhaps it was because in their short conversation, every time she had revealed the knowledge she possessed, she had shown genuine reverence for that knowledge. Something about it convinced him.
Her excessive curiosity sometimes made her boorish or crass—those flaws were evident often enough—but— "If you close your eyes to all that, I think you don't lie. —At least, that's what I believe."
"…Is that instinct as well?"
"Yeah. Instinct. I mean, you could say a guy's instinct who's died sixteen times over isn't worth much, and that'd be that."
With a wry grin, he scratched his head, trying to ease the tension with a self-deprecating joke.
Hearing this, Echidna held her breath. Then she reached for the cup on the table, lifted it to her lips, and moistened her tongue before saying— "You may have a talent for wooing Witches."
—The smile she wore was unlike any she'd shown before, a new expression etched upon the corners of her mouth.