She wiped away her tears and slapped her cheeks.
She smoothed down her hair, which must have looked disheveled, and carefully straightened out the wrinkles in her clothes.
Was she looking like a mess right now?
Under normal circumstances,
"...I suppose I won't be able to face him for a while."
The crystal stone clutched in her fingers was drawing Emilia's mana through the tips of the digits pressed against it.
Simply keeping an uncontracted Great Spirit housed within a vessel required a tremendous amount of mana. Both Subaru, who had carried it before, and Garfiel, who had been drained without mercy, would have been completely dried out had they endured this mana absorption for a full day.
Of course, the force of that mana drain was negligible compared to the vast quantities Emilia now possessed.
Having recovered her past memories and remembered that she could cast magic without borrowing a spirit's help, Emilia could now consciously circulate mana through her gate—and when she did, she sensed an overwhelming flow of mana coursing through her.
It was Emilia herself who had originally made Puck's existence possible in the physical world. Puck had claimed he was gathering mana from the atmosphere, but in reality, he had most likely drawn the majority of it from Emilia's unconscious mana reserves.
All of it, so that Emilia would never have to confront the memories she had willfully forgotten.
"You really are overprotective, aren't you?"
With a faint smile, Emilia flicked the tip of the crystal stone lightly with her finger.
As if in protest, or perhaps in wry amusement, the crystal stone blinked in response.
"...Alright. Yeah. I'm fine now."
Her heart had calmed considerably.
Among the recovered memories, thinking of
But she couldn't just sit here moping forever.
There were things Emilia had to do. And those things were surely what Fortuna and Geuse had hoped and wished for her to accomplish.
She left the chamber of the Trial and headed through the stone corridor toward the exit.
Two Trials remained. Overcoming the first Trial alone had not been enough to open the door at the back of the small chamber. Presumably, only after conquering all three Trials would that door finally open.
The condition for initiating the next Trial was unclear. Whether it required exiting and re-entering, or simply the passage of time—either way, while Emilia had been in the small chamber shedding tears over the past, no Trial had rudely begun on its own. So the most likely condition was re-entry.
"What if
When told she was hated, Emilia had instinctively replied that she didn't hate her that much.
It was a bit of petty payback for all the nastiness Echidna had dished out, but perhaps she hadn't been cautious enough toward a
"I hope she's not still that angry."
Praying that Echidna would be gracious about it, Emilia made her way out of the Tomb. She knew she had reached the end of the corridor when the entrance, bathed in moonlight, came into view.
In that moment, Emilia put Echidna out of her mind and looked up with a bright, refreshed feeling.
The past she had recovered was anything but easy.
She didn't have a clear sense of it yet, but it must have been the kind of experience that fundamentally shook the core of who Emilia was as a person.
But right now, she wanted to tell the people who had believed in her that she had overcome the Trial.
She wanted to answer the one who had told her she could do it, saying: I did it.
And so, Emilia squinted against the brilliance of the moonlight as she passed through the entrance— "Welcome home, Emilia-sama."
She was greeted by
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ——Time rewound slightly, to just after Emilia had taken on the Trial.
On the way to the building where Roswaal was recuperating, in order to verify his true intentions, Subaru stopped dead in his tracks.
Garfiel, who had been walking alongside him, had similarly widened his eyes in shock. For him, this was nothing short of a bolt from the blue.
Even Subaru, who had some idea of what to expect, couldn't hide his surprise. Taking Garfiel's feelings into account to some degree, Subaru let out a sigh at the person standing in their path like a blockade.
"I knew you'd be here, but seeing it like this in person is a little deflating."
"Well, well, how unexpected. Little Ros said that Suba-kun possessed eyes that could see through everything, did he not?"
"That's him overestimating me as usual. I wonder just how highly he rates me."
Roswaal knew about Subaru's "Return by Death"—no, his "do-over"—and from his perspective, it must indeed seem like the work of an omnipotent god pulling all strings at will.
But in reality, this power was far from omnipotent. It was useless for recovering precious things he might lose. A power that came with such crippling limitations.
At Subaru's answer, the girl with long pink hair—the other clone of Ryuzu Meyer who possessed Ryuzu's will, the spitting image of the Ryuzu they had parted ways with before the Tomb—narrowed her eyes with a crafty smile.
Subaru, who had anticipated her existence, could only slump his shoulders in response, but the one who reacted dramatically was Garfiel beside him. Eyes bulging, he glared at his grandmother's face.
"Why... why is there another old hag here?! There's only supposed to be one hag who can talk! The rest of the hags with the same face don't move without my orders—"
"There are exceptions to everything. I am... let me see. If the Ryuzu you know serves as the representative of the
"So in other words, you're the system-level opponent of releasing the Sanctuary. I thought it was weird that none of the opposition that goaded Garfiel was hiding inside Ryuzu. Turns out you were the one secretly filling that role... —Ryuzu
Subaru called her Omega, the Ryuzu whose intentions were unreadable.
The one who reacted to the name wasn't the called Ryuzu but Garfiel beside her. He turned around with a bewildered expression.
"Chief, what's with that name?"
"When there are multiple Ryuzus, you need some way to tell them apart, right? So for convenience, I've been calling the four Ryuzus we know as Alpha, Beta, Sigma, and Theta. And this fifth Ryuzu who's been revealed this time is 'Omega.' You got a problem with that?"
"No way, but calling a hag something that cool is way over the top... That's lame."
"Don't say that. When you get copies of yourself someday, I'll give you a cool name too."
"Me getting copied ain't ever gonna happen..."
Subaru's knack for pushing buttons with sharp, edgy banter apparently resonated quite strongly with Garfiel's sensibilities. As the two unexpectedly found common ground, Omega let out a sigh.
"Call me what you will, it makes no difference. But you two have gotten quite absorbed in your little chat, leaving me standing here. Since when did Garu-kun and Suba-kun become so chummy?"
"Bash fists under a sunset and any two men become friends. Even if it ends with a four-on-one beatdown. Right, Garfiel?"
"You don't sound too convinced about that, Chief."
Perhaps still not fully accepting his defeat by sheer numerical superiority, Garfiel's response was somewhat grudging. In any case, that was the end of the time-buying banter while he gathered his thoughts.
When Subaru turned back to Omega, she smoothed her long hair with her hand.
"Your eyes have changed, I see. Not a little boy anymore."
"Being treated like a kid is actually kind of refreshing. Hey, Omega—is that it? Unlike the other Ryuzus, you don't have a shift rotation or anything? I'd be in trouble if Gamma, ampersand, dollar sign, and sharp started popping out too."
As Subaru rattled off symbols, Garfiel's eyes lit up one by one at each one.
Subaru deliberately ignored the fourteen-year-old's admiring gaze, and Omega patted her flat chest.
"Rest assured. I am the only Ryuzu who serves as a watcher. Truly and genuinely, I am the last of the will-bearing Ryuzus in this Sanctuary."
"You won't go back on that, right? With the ones I know, the same face shows up to like twenty thousand at most."
"The scale is incomparably different. We couldn't hide that many in this Sanctuary."
The worst-case scenario apparently hadn't materialized, and Subaru felt relieved.
Then, Subaru furrowed his brow, puzzled by Omega's calm demeanor.
"It's fine that you're so casually spilling the beans about who you are... but what gives? You've been playing the hidden ace this whole time, running behind our expectations. Why suddenly decide to show your face now?"
It was certainly an upfront attitude, but there was no reason for it.
To Subaru's question, Omega smiled faintly, without strength.
"First, the fact that my existence was exposed thanks to the reconciliation between Suba-kun and Garu-kun. It wasn't definitively proven, but the moment I was suspected to exist, I had already lost. So here I am, obediently showing my face to be judged."
"Judged—there you go being dramatic again. ...But that's not all there is to it, right?"
If Omega were genuinely committed to fulfilling her role, she still had plenty of moves to make. Even in a state of merely "possibly existing," as long as she wasn't found, she held the advantage.
"Guerrilla tactics or whatever—if you intended to interfere, you could have done anything. That's what your role as the joker was, wasn't it? Roswaal hid your existence precisely for that purpose..."
"That Little Ros's attitude is the other reason I've come out peacefully like this."
"Roswaal's attitude...?"
Subaru's eyes went wide, and Omega slowly shook her head.
Her manner carried a hint of irony, along with a somewhat resigned emotion.
"Take one look at how Little Ros is behaving in that room, and the reason I want to throw in the towel becomes self-evident. As the administrator of the Sanctuary, I lent my assistance because Little Ros had a resolute will to operate the Sanctuary in the correct manner... but when it comes to *that*—"
Omega's disappointed tone cut sharply for someone like Subaru who knew the other Ryuzus. Garfiel seemed to feel the same, offering no objection to the harsh assessment of Roswaal.
Unlike Alpha and the other Ryuzus, Omega had been alone in carrying the role of Sanctuary administrator. She didn't know when she had taken on this role, but her active period must have been far longer than theirs. Her current demeanor might well be the product of all those years.
In any case, "Putting aside what you've done so far, can we take it that you no longer intend to stand in our way, Omega?"
"From the standpoint of proper operation, there's still plenty I'd like to meddle with. Releasing the Sanctuary goes against Ryuzu Meyer's wish... but these are the times we live in. If the era no longer requires a place called the Sanctuary, then my role too becomes unnecessary. Everything I've done up to this point has been nothing more than sheer stubbornness—I didn't want to be left behind."
Omega's voice carried a tinge of loneliness, and a glimpse of anxiety about the end of her role peeked through. She was about to complete a duty she had shouldered alone for so very long.
Subaru didn't know exactly how Omega felt as she looked back on each day. Whether it was a sense of unfulfillment, or a kind of liberation, or some mixture of both—the weight of years far beyond what her appearance suggested made him think so.
"Stubbornness? Hell yeah. That's important as hell, old hag."
It was Garfiel, who had been listening in silence, who interjected into Omega's quiet confession.
Omega looked up at his words and studied Garfiel, who stood with his arms crossed, clicking his fangs.
"Me too. I was clinging to the same kind of stubbornness as you, Omega hag. No, even worse than you. But the Chief went and smashed it with brute force and numbers. I won't lie, I thought 'what the hell' at the time... but now, I kinda feel refreshed."
"Garu-kun..."
"The Chief said something like this. 'Even if the Sanctuary's barrier disappears, the world we live in won't vanish. The Sanctuary disappearing just means everywhere outside becomes the Sanctuary.' If that's the case, then there'll be stuff for both you and me to do there."
At Garfiel's answer, Omega looked down in thought.
The anxious color and the worried furrow between her brows from before had vanished. In their place was an expression of carefully weighing his words, and the blond boy nodded in satisfaction.
Subaru, who had witnessed their exchange, tapped Garfiel on the shoulder.
"Garfiel, you... you're not running a fever, are you? Saying something that smart and articulate is embarrassing, you know?"
"Chief. Even I can squeeze out some decent wisdom when I bother to use this useless head of mine. And about half of what I just said was parroting you anyway."
"Seriously? I said that? Hey, hey, hey—oh man, now I'm embarrassed."
As Subaru crouched down, ears burning red, Garfiel let out an exasperated sigh. Then, turning back toward the contemplative Omega, he waved his hand to clear the path.
"Old hag Omega, I heard what you had to say. Anything I wanted to ask, I got my answers. As for the scheming that's still going on, I'll drag it out of the bastard who started it directly."
"Do as you please. ...What should I do, I wonder?"
Omega murmured as she stepped aside. At her words, Subaru nodded in understanding.
Until now, Omega had kept her existence secret. Even Alpha and the others, who didn't know about her covert activities, hadn't been aware of her. In other words, it was only now, having finished her role, that Omega was permitted to appear before others.
"If you go in front of the Tomb, Ram and Alpha-san... Theta-san now, I suppose. They'll be waiting. They've probably caught on to some of the situation, so just talk it through with them."
"You think those two figured it out? I didn't notice a thing."
"That's because your blood circulation is about ten loops behind."
It would be strange if he hadn't picked up on it given the flow of that conversation. The many scenes of the Sanctuary-centered loops made it clear just how much his instinctive actions had gotten in the way.
In any case, Omega's worry was unfounded. Theta, who knew that her own clones existed, and Ram, who likely knew about the clones as well, would both accept her.
So the remaining problem was— "Having a sit-down with the mastermind behind all the scheming: Boss Piro."
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ When he stepped into the room, Subaru briefly mistook it for a place he'd never seen before.
In this Sanctuary, Roswaal's figure had been in this room from the very beginning. It was the room he had come to every time he tried to face Roswaal. He had even memorized where all the decorations were placed.
"Oh my, if it isn't Subaru-kun. How nice of you to visit. You must be busy and all."
Standing with his hand still on the door he'd pushed open, Subaru was rendered speechless. Roswaal turned around and addressed him in a breezy tone, swaying his shoulders with an almost playful gesture. Subaru suppressed the momentary wish that nothing was wrong and faced Roswaal head-on.
The room had been ransacked.
Overturned bookshelves, torn white sheets scattered about. The bed had been stomped through from the center, sending wooden splinters everywhere, and the mage standing at the epicenter of the destruction had blood dripping from his hands.
Seeing Roswaal pulling wood fragments from the wounds on his hands, Subaru understood—he had violently slammed himself into the bed.
"Chief..."
Garfiel, who had taken in the room's devastation in the same way, stepped half a pace forward, positioning himself to shield Subaru. It wasn't just Subaru who sensed the danger in Roswaal's extraordinary state.
Garfiel's golden eyes betrayed his wariness. He leaned forward, ready to restrain Roswaal the instant he made any suspicious move.
"My, my, what a docile little pet you've become, Garfiel."
Noticing Garfiel's posture, Roswaal taunted him with a smirk. He smiled, his lipstick-stained mouth twisting into a wicked grin.
Keeping his smile, Roswaal closed one eye and reflected Garfiel in his yellow gaze.
"I'm surprised at how quickly you switched sides. Protecting Subaru-kun like that means you've joined Subaru-kun's merry little band as well. Simply discarding the love of a mother who bound your will for so, so long—"
"Roswaal, that's not it. Garfiel didn't betray his feelings to side with us. He just changed his way of thinking a little—"
"That's exactly what I mean by cheap. Getting beaten up by a mob, lectured, and then changing your position. If your convictions can waver just because you lost a fight, then your feelings were that shallow all along. So easy to change, so flimsy."
"Roswaal!"
At Roswaal's cruel words, Subaru flew into a rage in place of Garfiel.
Having endured the fierce battle with him, Subaru now knew what feelings Garfiel had carried—the wound at the edge of his heart. He understood that those feelings were neither cheap nor frivolous.
That was precisely why he couldn't forgive Roswaal for trampling all over them.
"Take that back! What right do you have to mock Garfiel's feelings!"
"I call soft things soft. I call fragile things fragile. Is there something wrong with that? An overreaction only serves to reinforce the truth of my words. A penny-dreadful play trying to validate cheap feelings with cheap bonds. Truly... it's hard to watch."
"——!"
Roswaal's mockery drove Subaru into a fury, and he moved to close the distance.
But the one who stopped him was none other than Garfiel—the very person who should have been most wounded by Roswaal's insults. Subaru glanced nervously at his profile, imagining what must be going through his mind.
But— "Your words are light, Roswaal."
Arms crossed, head tilted slightly, Garfiel delivered that line with an air of boredom.
The attitude was surprising for Subaru—and for Roswaal as well.
Had it been the Garfiel of a little while ago, those words would have been delivered in a rage. Instead, he brushed them off as casually as if caught in a warm breeze.
"If you're saying I'm half-assed, I can't deny it. I was on your side this morning, and now I'm on the Chief's. Call me a turncoat all you like."
"From ideological reversal to brazen defiance, I see. That's quite a gap from the strength you've affirmed all this time. Ten years—a period that is by no means short for you—swapped over in a mere few days of chance encounters..."
Roswaal shrugged and shook his head at Garfiel's answer.
His mismatched eyes narrowed, clouded with murky emotion as he glared at Garfiel.
"That is what I mean by cheap. If you truly loved, your feelings would never change shape. Can your ten years, Emilia-sama's hundred years—can they really be treated so cheaply?"
"——"
"You merely interacted with Subaru-kun for a few days! What could possibly have happened in that time? How could you have accumulated feelings rivaling your love for what you held dear? That's impossible! No matter how much you pile beside it, it could never reach the level of those feelings! It shouldn't be able to! That is what it means to hold something above all else!"
Roswaal's voice rose as he kicked a piece of the broken bed that had fallen to the floor. It flew toward Subaru and Garfiel but missed, merely striking the wall behind them.
Listening to the sound of wood fragments pattering to the ground, Subaru held his breath at Roswaal's argument.
——To cut away everything except that one thing that matters most.
For Roswaal, loving something meant nothing other than that kind of feeling.
He created no precious things and needed none, beyond the one he had chosen. And so his feelings for that single thing were unwavering; to achieve it, he would hesitate at nothing.
That was what Roswaal believed feelings to be.
The instant Subaru understood his philosophy, Roswaal—as if sensing it—looked at Subaru.
In the depths of his yellow eyes, a maelstrom of passionate devotion so immense threatened to swallow Subaru whole.
"Do you remember our wager? The bet you proposed. By that bet, you bound your own greatest advantage and became ordinary. What can you do as a commoner? Nothing at all! Because you—because you are inferior to an ordinary person!"
"............"
"The only thing that made you a trump card against everything was that power. You discarded it of your own will and became a commoner—you can't even keep up with normal people within your limited lifespan! No one can! If living the same span of time, you cannot surpass feelings carved by the passage of days and months! You must not!"
Garfiel's ten years clinging obstinately to the Sanctuary, distorting his love for family.
Emilia's hundred years of abandoning a past so painful she wanted to forget it, and the guilt that came with it.
And— "Ten years, a hundred years, and my four hundred! And you—nothing but a commoner—would turn all of that on its head?!"
"Because feelings don't change?"
"Yes!"
"Because they're feelings held over a long, long time?"
"Yes, exactly!"
Roswaal affirmed every one of Subaru's questions.
That feelings could not be overturned by anyone. That feelings never, ever change or bend.
Now, Subaru finally felt he understood. He finally felt he could comprehend Roswaal.
Roswaal wanted his feelings to be affirmed.
He wanted to believe, by affirming the feelings of others, that feelings were this kind of thing.
That was why Roswaal had wanted Garfiel to remain weak.
He wanted Garfiel to stay as he was—clinging obstinately to his own feelings, desperately protecting something that never changed.
"Why, Roswaal?"
That single feeling for the one he loved.
To affirm it, Roswaal was especially fixated on observing how others loved someone.
Roswaal should have known better than anyone that people could love.
"Why do you only see the weakness in loving someone? If you understand that loving someone for a long time is a powerful feeling, why do you only look at the weak points in that belief?"
"——Because *I* believe in it."
To Subaru's words, Roswaal answered as if forcing the words from his throat.
His eyes blazed with overwhelming emotion as he glared at Subaru—the existence he loathed most in this world.
"You! Because you believe in someone's strength and place your hopes in it! I believe that everyone remains weak! That they are small, fragile beings who can do nothing but cling to a single precious thing to fulfill their feelings!"
"——!"
"For four hundred years, I have been unable to forget a single woman! Even as the time apart has grown far longer than the days we spent together, her image remains burned in my heart, unrelenting! On that day of parting, my heart shattered to pieces—and I have not changed at all!!"
Roswaal stepped forward.
Garfiel moved to block Roswaal as he approached Subaru. But Roswaal pressed a hand against Garfiel's chest, looking down at him.
"It must have been easy, hadn't it? For ten years, listening to the cries of the 'feelings' inside you and stubbornly believing in them—you could immerse yourself in the act of holding someone in your heart, couldn't you?"
"! You—"
"That was fine. That was exactly as it should be. Everyone should be like that! No one can live in loneliness! To hold someone in your heart and live on. That's all that matters... so why do you try to change your feelings? Betray them? Did you not love them after all?!"
"No! I—!"
"What changed you?! Your body, forged through endless training, lost a fight and you lost your footing?! Your ten years of feelings bend over something as trivial as having your fangs broken?! Then you're the one who spat on your own ten years!"
Roswaal's vicious words made Garfiel brush aside the hand pressed against his chest. He swung to shove Roswaal away, but Roswaal twisted to dodge. He caught the wide-eyed Garfiel's arm and hurled him.
"Wha—!"
But the thrown Garfiel planted his feet against the ceiling at the apex of his trajectory, using the force of his own throw to avoid landing on his back. He twisted his hips, completing a half rotation, landing on three points while keeping hold of the captured arm. In retaliation, he yanked the arm, pulling Roswaal in and drove his head into the man's torso.
"Guuh...!"
"Hah! Good thing I heard from the Chief that you're into hand-to-hand combat, or I woulda been completely thrown."
Standing over the kneeling Roswaal, Garfiel rolled his captured arm loosely.
Then Garfiel bared his sharp fangs.
"Listen, Roswaal. My dumb head can't make heads or tails of what you're saying. Four hundred years, blah blah, but you're not even past thirty, you young punk. Even if you add my share—roughly half that—"
He extended his arm and seized Roswaal by the collar, bringing their faces close together.
Garfiel scrunched his nose at the pained expression on Roswaal's face.
"And besides, I'm not following the Chief because I lost the fight. Losing the fight stung, sure. Like you said, my stubbornness has ten years of grit behind it. My head ain't so soft it can be flipped over that easily."
"Then why are you standing here now..."
"Because the Chief... no, rather, Ram. After I lost the fight, she told me to go into the Tomb and see the Trial. So I saw the beginning of those feelings from ten years ago—ten years later."
"Wha...!?"
With their faces still pressed close, shock ran across Roswaal's expression.
"That's impossible... You couldn't possibly have faced your past again!"
"Yeah, well, impossible or not, it happened. I did it. And I saw it. And I understood."
"............"
Roswaal glared at Garfiel as the latter shook his head. That silent stare was waiting for words to name what Garfiel had understood.
But Garfiel simply opened his mouth wide in a grin.
"What I figured out... I ain't telling you. That'd be a waste."
"What did you say...!?"
"I'll tell you one thing though—the decisive reason I follow the Chief."
He pushed aside the demand-seeking Roswaal, sending him sitting on the ground, and turned toward Subaru. Seeing Subaru flinch slightly, Garfiel let out a small breath.
"Rather than being told 'stay as you are, stay weak,' you'd naturally want to follow someone who tells you 'you're strong, and that's why you're needed'—right?"
With that most natural conclusion, Garfiel turned his back on Roswaal. He walked past the seated man and stood beside Subaru, arms crossed.
Subaru glanced over at him.
"What?"
"...Nothing. I'm counting on you."
Garfiel closed his eyes with a sour expression. Then Subaru crouched down in front of Roswaal. Chin tucked, gaze lowered, Roswaal wouldn't meet Subaru's eyes.
"Roswaal."
"............"
"Garfiel faced his past. In doing so, he may have changed his position, but his feelings of caring for his family over those ten years didn't weaken or waver. The strength of his feelings remained the same—yet he still changed. Can't you believe that?"
Even without the obstinate attachment to the Sanctuary, Garfiel's feelings had not weakened in the slightest. That love for his mother, which had flowed only one way, was now known to have been bidirectional—and Subaru couldn't imagine the shock that must have torn through him.
But looking at the Garfiel of now, who could call that 'weak'? Would anyone lament that he had wavered?
"You're the same. We're not asking you to twist your feelings for someone that you've carried all this long. We just want you to change how you show those feelings. If it doesn't require sacrificing anything else, we'll cooperate with you."
"...That is something I cannot tolerate. And so what if Garfiel alone changed his feelings? For me and for you, the person who truly matters is still there."
The hand Subaru extended, Roswaal still refused to take.
Shaking his head stubbornly, what Roswaal spoke of now was Emilia, who was currently undertaking the Trial.
"Even Emilia won't go your way. That girl will overcome it."
"She can't. She'll be crushed under the weight of her own regrets, lamenting that she ever dared to dream of 'changing,' crying and clinging to you in desperation... That is what suits her."
"There ain't no woman who looks good crying. And for that matter—have you ever even seen Emilia cry?"
Subaru recalled Emilia before their argument in the Tomb.
Emilia, overwhelmed by the heavy burden she carried and the grief of losing her bond with Puck. The tears she couldn't hold back, the expression on her face as she glared at Subaru.
Remembering that, a fire kindled in Subaru's chest.
An unbearable, scorching rage burned through his entire body.
"I've never seen a woman cry so pathetically...!"
"Hurled upon, despised—that is the fate of half-elves. Born of the same blood as the Witch of Envy, that is a curse they carry from birth. To be scorned as a 'Witch'—that is inevitable."
"Don't screw with me! What part of her is a Witch?! There's no Witch anywhere, the way you people describe one!"
The crouching Roswaal had his gaze fixed downward.
Subaru grabbed him by the collar and forced his face up, matching his furious gaze with Roswaal's own.
In Roswaal's mismatched eyes, Subaru's unbearable fury toward this world blazed.
That's right. Right now,
What part of her is a 'Witch'? There's no Witch anywhere.
If anything like that existed, it was— "If you're going to call her a 'Witch,' then it's you lot who turned her into one! By keeping on saying that being weak is natural, that being despised is normal, that her birth is to blame and nothing can be done about it—it's you who made her a 'Witch'!"
He remembered the Witch's Tea Party.
The scenes that flashed through his mind—the Witches of Sin from the past.
And then, in the moment that dreamscape shattered, he recalled
As if he could ever forget.
That face—it was identical to Emilia's.
"Has anyone—anyone at all—ever once told her that it's okay to cry when she's hurting?! That when she's sad, she can cry?! That if the tears she shed can't be wiped away, someone beside her will wipe them for her?! That there are people who would do that for her?! Did anyone ever tell her that?!"
No matter how much she suffered, she accepted it as natural.
There must have been times when her chest ached from the pain, when she was nearly crushed by sorrow.
And yet, since no one ever made Emilia cry—that must be why she was so terrible at it.
Holding back sobs, hiding her tears, covering herself while crying—everyone learned that through crying, crying, and crying again, over and over.
She didn't know that.
Because she had been left not knowing, forced to that degree—that was why she was so bad at crying.
——A world that does that, a world like that, was maddeningly hateful to the Subaru of now.
"If a world where no one stands by her side is taken for granted, then I'll change that with my own existence! I'll show you—someone who believes that even a four-hundred-year curse can't be changed!"
"——"
With Roswaal's eyes wide in shock before him, Subaru thrust his right hand toward the heavens.
Fittingly, it was the same posture Emilia—who was at that very moment taking on the Trial—had shown the Witch who hurled malicious words at her— "My name is Natsuki Subaru! I am the knight of Emilia, the silver-haired half-elf!"
Once, Natsuki Subaru had proclaimed that without any resolve, and been mocked by many for his reckless determination. Looking back at that version of himself now, he was still lacking—even more lacking than he was today.
But now, there was one thing different from back then.
No matter who laughed at him for it, Natsuki Subaru would no longer be ashamed of it.
"Emilia's coming for you, Roswaal. The girl you stubbornly believe is weak is coming to sever your final hope."
"Impossible..."
"When she peels away the weakness you cling to, one by one, and finally speaks to what's left of you... I believe you'll finally lend an ear."
Even hearing Subaru's declaration of resolve, Roswaal's heart did not yield.
Just as he himself had said moments ago. What four hundred years of accumulated time had built could not be changed by a single word.
Just as Garfiel's ten years and Emilia's hundred years required repeated words and actions to finally move.
Roswaal's four hundred years would likewise only be reached through Subaru and the others acting, speaking, and persisting.
For now, he wanted to believe that.
"...No matter what anyone says, my feelings will not waver."
As Subaru stood, Roswaal crawled past him. He reached out trembling hands, grabbed a black book from beside the destroyed bed, and clutched it to his chest.
The genuine Gospel, with the future written in it.
Garfiel and Emilia would break free from the weakness Roswaal believed in.
Ryuzu Omega and Ram would part from Roswaal, who was determined to walk the path he believed in.
What would remain in Roswaal's hands as the last vestige of "hope" was the Gospel.
Only when its writings were erased would Roswaal, laid bare, finally be ready to exchange words.
"I will make it snow..."
"Do what you want. I will crush every last one of your schemes with relentless persistence."
Subaru responded to Roswaal's murmur, as if spoken in a trance, and headed for the door. Meeting Garfiel's wordless gaze, he lowered his chin, and the two left the room together.
Last, Garfiel glanced back at Roswaal remaining inside the room—at the sight of him left behind—and murmured in a small, quiet voice: "What an idiot."
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ And so, after finishing his conversation with Roswaal and stepping outside the building, Subaru exhaled.
Deep, deep—as if wringing every last bit of air from his lungs—and let it all out before turning around.
"Crap. I went there to stop the mansion attack, but instead I ended up backing myself into a corner."
"All that stuff about making it snow—he was talking nonsense anyway. And he didn't seem like he was in any state to have a proper conversation... So it's not really your fault, Chief?"
"No, it was completely unnecessary posturing. The moment we walked into that room, I could tell Roswaal wasn't all there. What was I doing?"
Holding his head, Subaru replayed the scene where they'd simply forced their convictions on each other.
He felt he had finally grasped the true meaning behind Roswaal's beliefs and principles. And he had been able to express his own emotions and stance in response.
Telling the dismissive Roswaal the conditions for Emilia's victory—it was necessary to make Roswaal acknowledge his defeat.
But— "Because of that, I dropped the one most important item..."
"See, that's why I told you not to get all depressed. I was wondering what you were going to do too when I heard you go off like that, but you didn't say anything wrong."
"Well, yeah, that was my intention..."
"And besides... that speech was badass!"
Garfiel grinned and pointed a finger skyward at the self-recriminating Subaru.
Honestly, since coming to this other world, the pose had drawn nothing but scorn, so having someone who shared his sensibility was nothing but welcome.
Garfiel was probably trying to comfort Subaru in his own way. Probably. Definitely.
"——Natsuki-san! Garfiel!"
A voice called out to the two as they exchanged words.
When they turned, a young man was waving and running over toward them—Otto.
The one who had been acting separately from them, Otto skidded to a halt in front of the pair.
"It sounds like your talk with the Margrave is finished. How did it go?"
"I went over there and picked a fight, just as planned."
"Was that really the whole point of going?!"
The real agenda had been Roswaal's final trap for the Sanctuary, and persuading him to reconsider.
Omega's existence had been discovered en route to meeting Roswaal, but Roswaal's mind was too stubborn to change. So negotiations had broken down.
"Hey, bro. Don't be too hard on the Chief. It was a damn fine speech, you know? I enjoyed listening to it."
"You two remember what you went there to do, right? This is not going to be a funny story."
Unable to meet Otto's accusation head-on, Subaru was filled with self-reflection.
But Garfiel roughly slapped the deflating Subaru's shoulder and flicked the disgruntled Otto on the forehead. "Nngh!?" Otto recoiled, and Garfiel looked down at him as he crouched.
"Sure, things got messy. But that was always the backup plan anyway. —The problem at Roswaal's mansion? I'll handle it."
At Otto's silent, tearful rebuke, Garfiel laughed openly.
He flashed his sharp fangs and clacked them together with a snap.
"Leave it all to me. —I'm the strongest, after all."
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "And so, three idiots had a wise Earth Dragon pull their dragon carriage and race off toward the mansion."
Having finished her account, Ram pressed her hand to her forehead with a vaguely tired expression.
It was unusual for Ram to let emotion show on her face in front of Emilia, and Emilia was slightly surprised.
"I see. ...Well, there's nothing to be done about it now."
"...Is that all you have to say?"
"That's all? Well, I am a little... just a tiny, tiny bit annoyed that they didn't wait for me to come back. But it's not a big deal."
After all those exchanges, they had sent Emilia into the Tomb.
For her not to be there to witness the outcome—having vanished to a place where her voice couldn't reach—was quite something.
"But I guess they really didn't think they'd fail."
If Subaru truly cared about Emilia above all else, he would have stayed. The fact that he wasn't here meant there was someone else he needed to help somewhere else.
If she believed in him—if she knew Natsuki Subaru—then that was what she would think.
"Does he really like me, do you think? Don't you think so?"
"Barusu cares for Emilia-sama more than anyone."
"...Fufu, thanks."
At the affirmation sought by Emilia, Ram confirmed it in few words. When Emilia placed a hand over her mouth and smiled, Ram looked down thoughtfully.
Then, after a few seconds of silence, she raised her head.
"Emilia-sama, I must apologize."
"What's wrong?"
At Ram's sudden apology, Emilia's eyes went wide.
"For Ram to apologize is really, really rare."
"I think so too. ...But this is the first time Ram has bowed to Emilia-sama from the bottom of her heart."
The fact that her previous bows had been mere formalities was confessed so cleanly that Emilia couldn't help but smile wryly.
Facing Emilia's wry smile, Ram looked straight at her with her pale crimson eyes.
"Ram... did not believe that Emilia-sama would stand. That the Trial would break her heart, that she would lose the Great Spirit she had relied on, that she would even learn Barusu had been hiding his true feelings from Emilia-sama—and yet somehow stand? How could she?"
"............"
"But even after all that, the one thing Emilia-sama did not do was break. When I noticed you had left your bed and were in the Tomb... Ram finally realized she had underestimated you."
Even so, at the point Ram had pointed it out, Emilia was far from recovered.
She simply hadn't given up on facing the Trial—hadn't even considered throwing it away. She could say that with certainty.
"So that's why Ram helped Subaru and Otto-kun?"
"Ram simply judged that the future worth lending a hand to was there. If it appears that Ram helped those two, that's not the case. Ram helped for Emilia-sama's sake."
"...That might be right."
For Emilia to stand up in that moment, Subaru's words had been indispensable.
And for Subaru to prove those words, defeating Garfiel had been necessary. And to defeat Garfiel, Otto and Ram's cooperation had been essential.
So, looking only at the result, Ram had indeed contributed for Emilia's sake.
"Why did you do that for me?"
"——Because when making a wish, one must first show one's own sincerity."
"——"
With that, Ram quietly knelt before Emilia.
Previously, whenever Ram had shown even a formality of respect toward Emilia, it had been by pinching the hem of her skirt and performing a neat bow, the way a maid would.
But this was different. This was the deepest bow—the one everyone in this world made to show the utmost respect they could offer to another.
"I humbly request of you, Emilia-sama. —Please, save my master, Roswaal-sama."
"...Roswaal?"
"He is consumed by a delusion. A long, long delusion—a curse he has bound his heart with for ages. Or perhaps, Ram thought that was fine. Even if he didn't look at Ram, even if he saw Ram as nothing more than a tool to fulfill that delusion—that was fine."
Still prostrate, Ram laid bare what she had held inside.
It was perhaps the wish she had always carried while watching Roswaal from behind her mask of composure.
"But that delusion can no longer take shape. The world has already diverged from the Gospel's writings, which formed its very foundation, and Roswaal-sama can only cling to the text... Please, shatter it."
"Would Roswaal be okay even if it's shattered?"
"He would not be okay. Surely he would be thrown into disarray. He might lose the meaning of his life and crumble. But there is no one besides Emilia-sama. After walking through a world that has strayed from the Gospel, the only one who might be able to fulfill Roswaal-sama's delusion... his feelings—"
Bowing her head, Ram implored Emilia.
Only about half of what Ram was saying came through clearly to Emilia.
The Gospel Roswaal possessed—that must be the black book he had shown Emilia. That its contents and the world had begun to diverge—that was what Roswaal himself had told her.
If the world became different from what the book described, what would Roswaal do? What did it mean for Emilia to become the hope that Roswaal had lost?
"What should I do?"
"——Please take your place on the throne."
"——"
"When Emilia-sama sits upon the throne of Lugunica, Roswaal-sama's feelings will be fulfilled. Even in a world outside the Gospel's writings, a day will come when his feelings bear fruit—please, show Roswaal-sama that. Please give him a reason to live today, and tomorrow."
Before the silent Emilia, Ram continued.
It was the first time Emilia had ever seen Ram speak so eloquently, baring her heart.
Was that why?
Was that the reason why such indescribable emotions welled up from the depths of Emilia's chest?
The overwhelming, unbearable flood of feeling at realizing that the girl who had seemed to stand without relying on anyone was now, like this, placing her trust in her?
Before the wordless Emilia, Ram raised her head.
Her pale crimson eyes glistened, filled with the love that packed her small frame to the brim.
"I beg you, Emilia-sama. —Please, help him."
At those quiet words, Emilia's entire body trembled.
Once, twice—a sensation like her insides being shaken by hand, and a vibration traveling through the blood coursing through her whole body.
After those tremors ran through her, what remained inside Emilia was a single thing.
A solitary sense of mission, burning hot in the depths of her chest.
"Honestly, I don't know how becoming king would save Roswaal."
"............"
"I probably still don't truly understand the depth of your feelings either, Ram."
"............"
"But"
Meeting the eyes of the silent Ram, Emilia drew a breath.
Her confusion had vanished from her heart. Her worry no longer lingered in her mind.
Her soul was burning brighter than it ever had.
"This is the first time Ram has ever asked me for anything."
So— "All right, Ram. You believed in me, and I want to answer that right now."
It was surely because in that moment, what Emilia needed to do and what she wanted to do aligned so perfectly that there was no room for doubt—and so she said it with a smile.
"This must be where I need to start from here on out."