Thoom. Thoom.
From somewhere both near and impossibly far, a sound like a heavy, hollow bell boomed in low reverberations.
The sensation of sound vibrations pressing close—eardrums transmitting noise that rattled the skull, then threading down through bone to the very tips of fingers and toes.
Blood flow had thickened to a sluggish crawl, and there was a revolting feeling as though sludge had been poured into his veins.
His organs had weakened to the point where it felt like lumps of wet clay had been packed inside his belly.
Oxygen couldn't reach his brain; the thoughts that surfaced were sparse and unreliable.
The deep, resonant sound showed no sign of stopping. His eyeballs rolled around behind his lids as though tumbling freely inside their sockets.
"—"
With his body feeling agonizingly slow, weighed down by a lethargy that pinned him in place, and with nausea churning alongside his muddled thoughts, Subaru slowly opened his eyes.
His vision, accustomed to the darkness behind his eyelids, struggled to accept the white light intruding upon it.
The world was a blur, colors flickering and writhing across a washed-out white expanse—like a child had spilled paint across a blank canvas.
That impression, too, gradually receded as the world before him began to settle.
After ten-odd seconds, when his pupils finally recovered, what spread across Subaru's vision was a dim room and a filthy ceiling. Along with that—the hurried footsteps and partial figures of numerous people bustling around him.
"Oi, the big bro's come to!"
The shout cut through the tinnitus that still hadn't faded, striking Subaru without warning.
The unnecessary volume carried force behind it—enough that everyone who had been frantically working froze in place, their gazes snapping toward the source.
"Cat-ears lady, get over here! Rest of ya, keep working! My bad for yellin'—back to work, people! Time's money, y'know!"
"Oh, seriously, quit it with the noise, nya. I've told you over and over and you never listen. There are lots of people who need to rest, so get back to your own job already, meow!"
The massive figure who clapped his hands together and then apologized for the racket he'd drawn was a dog-headed beastman speaking in Kansai dialect. Approaching him with an indignant huff was the cat-eared young woman—no, young man.
"Looks like you're awake, nya. Can you understand the situation…? Actually, can you even talk?"
"…Ah. Ferr…is?"
"That's right, it's everyone's favorite Ferris-chan, nya-nya. So, you're
To Subaru's hoarse reply, Ferris delivered a rapid-fire torrent of information.
Subaru forced his sluggish brain to move, chewing through each word and swallowing them down.
He craned his neck to survey his surroundings. Only then did he realize he was apparently lying on an improvised bed made of layered clothing and fabric.
And indeed, just as Ferris had described, the area had taken on the form of a field hospital.
Around him, people lay on makeshift beds much like his own, groaning in pain and suffering as they received treatment.
The stench of blood and muffled sobbing crisscrossed the grisly scene. Magical healing alone wasn't enough—through the corner of his eye, he caught sight of wounds being stitched shut with needle and thread.
"Wh-what… what exactly…?"
"You still seem confused, nya. Take it slow—try to remember what happened before you passed out. Once you recall that, the answers should follow naturally."
It wasn't exactly cold or dismissive.
Ferris's words weren't gentle, but that wasn't a matter of his mood. He simply had no room for softness. His sleeves were rolled up, and his pale skin and cheeks were streaked with numerous bloodstains.
It wasn't hard to imagine how much demand had been placed on Ferris—a first-rate healer—in the midst of this carnage. And the cause of this disaster was— "The
"Really, they're the worst, nya. I knew that, but… I have to admit I still underestimated them. I never imagined they'd go this far. I should have imagined it. I should have *had* to imagine it."
Biting his lip in frustration, Ferris dipped his chin at Subaru's murmur.
The regret quivering through Ferris was painfully clear to Subaru, too. But now wasn't the time for that. There were things he needed to confirm.
"E-
"…………"
"Th-the Greed guy… the Sin Archbishop took Emilia, and then I…"
His voice trembled because he already knew—the gut feeling had been right.
Ferris averted his gaze and maintained his silence. That answer told Subaru everything he needed to know.
At the very least, Emilia hadn't been brought to this place.
And if the scene before he'd lost consciousness was any indication, she had fallen into Regulus's hands— "What about
"…Beatrice-chan."
"That's right. Beatrice—the girl who was with me, what happened to her? The one with the ringlets and the dress, with that cute bratty face… B-Beatrice?"
That Emilia had been taken by Regulus was almost certainly true.
Given Regulus's behavior, the likelihood of him harming Emilia—while it couldn't be called certain, was probably low. Unforgivable, but at least for the moment, perhaps manageable.
But what about Beatrice? Sirius had been there too, not just Regulus. And Sirius had harbored intense hostility toward Beatrice.
If Subaru was safely here in the field hospital, then he'd escaped Sirius's clutches. But who had protected him, and how?
"Come on, please. Tell me. What happened to Beatrice…?"
"——"
The absence of an answer gnawed at his anxiety, and Subaru pleaded desperately with Ferris. Ferris closed his eyes for a moment, then exchanged a glance with the towering beastman standing nearby—Ricardo, leader of the
Following their gaze, Subaru's eyes flew wide open.
"Beatrice…!"
A short distance away from the others receiving treatment, a girl in a dress sat alone.
She lay on one of the improvised beds, completely motionless. The moment Subaru spotted Beatrice, he flung aside the towel blanket draped over him and tried to scramble over to her.
But the instant he tried to sit up, a crushing weight slammed down on his head, and on top of that, his right leg locked up in pain—his balance crumbled.
The weight in his head was from the lethargy, but the problem with his right leg made no sense.
He hurriedly dropped his gaze downward, and the sight of his own leg stole the breath from his throat.
"O…ah…"
"If Beatrice-chan hadn't cast healing magic on you, Subaru-kun would've lost that leg entirely by now. You should be grateful to her, nya."
Subaru's right leg was missing roughly half the flesh from his thigh. Compared to his left leg, his right was grotesquely thin—bandages were wound in layer upon layer around it, as though sealing away something wicked. A splint-like brace had been affixed to immobilize it as well; that was presumably why he couldn't move it.
Without thinking, his fingers reached toward it. The instant he touched it, a jolt like being struck by lightning threw him backward.
"I remember…!"
It was Regulus's parting blow.
Before departing with Emilia and spouting his nonsense, Regulus had scooped up earth behind him with the casual ease of an animal kicking sand—and hurled it at Subaru's leg.
In that instant, Subaru's right leg had suffered wounds as though torn by a beast's claw. This was the result.
"When I got there, big bro's leg was basically just skin and meat hanging by threads. I figured it was a goner for sure. That girl cried her eyes out while hammering out healing magic, and somehow managed to hold it together."
"After that, Ferris-chan stacked even more treatment onto the transported Subaru-kun. Since it's Ferris-chan's healing, I guarantee it'll be restored to normal eventually—but for now, we need to reattach the bone and nerves and wait for the flesh to regenerate. No overexertion, nya-nya."
Ferris crossed both arms into an X shape, forbidding Subaru from pushing himself. But Subaru couldn't simply accept that and stay away from Beatrice.
With a heavy sigh, Ferris watched Subaru futilely trying to inch his body along. Then a massive palm seized the crawling caterpillar of a man— "I'll carry you over to that girl for now. Figure you'd do the same, big bro, so…"
"Sorry. Thank you."
"No worries, no worries."
Carried bed and all by Ricardo, Subaru was placed beside Beatrice's makeshift bed. Leaning forward from there to check on her condition, he found Beatrice lying perfectly still—so silent he couldn't even hear her breathing.
That the spirit Beatrice would sleep like a human was partly to avoid wasting mana through activity, but also stemmed from the disadvantage that she couldn't disappear into a vessel like Pack could, meaning she needed to minimize her burden however she could.
Because of that, seeing Beatrice's sleeping face wasn't uncommon for Subaru.
But he had never seen her sleep this quietly—looking, for all the world, like a corpse.
"Is she… just sleeping? I'm freaking out here."
"'Sleeping' might be a bit misleading, nya. Right now she's fully shut down all her functions as a spirit and entered a dormant state… hmm, it's close to a state of suspended animation."
"Suspended animation—why…!?"
He touched Beatrice's forehead and flinched at how cold the heat emanating from it was. He traced her eyelashes, touched her cheek—none of it drew the faintest response. On top of that was Ferris's report. The one who answered Subaru's ashen expression was Ricardo, who had crouched down.
"Cat-ears lady says she burned through every last drop of mana she had. Realistically, that's what it'd take. The plaza where I just happened to find you, big bro—there were just about as many people with the same injuries as you scattered all over it. Every single one of them, that girl kept alive on her own until they couldn't die, nya."
"——"
At Ricardo's lament, Subaru's breath caught.
People with the same injuries as Subaru—meaning the damage had been amplified because Subaru and the others had shared the sensation of having their legs torn by Regulus. Sirius's handiwork, without question. It seemed the Sin Archbishop had withdrawn from the scene at some point, but Beatrice's desperate battle had begun from there.
Subaru, and everyone with injuries like Subaru's, had been treated equally.
Of course. Subaru was a greedy man who asked for too much. The girl who'd ended up spending time with someone like that could never bring herself to abandon anyone.
That was why Beatrice had wrung out every last drop of mana she possessed, saving people's lives at the cost of collapsing.
"Is Beatrice… going to be okay…? Even if she rests?"
"…Honestly, not great, nya. No—let me be blunt. It's bad. Even if Ferris-chan is a top-tier healer, spirits are outside my expertise. And this girl isn't exactly an ordinary spirit, is she? There's almost nothing I can do."
"Wh-what should we do!? I have to save Beatrice, I…"
It had only been one year.
He'd taken her out, promised to make her happy—it had only been one year since then. Beatrice's story couldn't end here.
She was supposed to be happy, and happy, and happy—happier than anyone else.
"If the problem is she might vanish from mana deficiency, can't we bring more from outside? If you're her contractor, couldn't you supply mana from your own—"
"…You idiot Subaru-kun. Her gate is collapsed—she can't receive mana from an external source, nya. Sending it through Subaru-kun would be the fastest route, but—"
"Right, right—the Gospel fruit! If I had Gospel fruit, I could boost my insides and squeeze out mana to give to Beatrice…!"
"You idiot!"
Ferris's furious glare struck Subaru like a slap, stopping him cold.
Surprised by the unexpected sharpness of that stare, Subaru flinched. Ferris quickly seemed to regret his outburst, fidgeting with his bangs.
"Don't make me say it again, nya. That stuff is… genuinely, truly dangerous, nya. For Subaru-kun's body in particular, it's nothing but poison at this point. Doing that would just mean two dead bodies instead of one… Do *not* do it, nya. Absolutely not."
"…………"
Beneath Ferris's harsh words was a pleading undertone.
That earnestness made Subaru close his mouth and retract his rash proposal.
Ferris was an expert in healing magic. Naturally, he had already run through countless ideas for treating someone who had collapsed. The shallow ideas Subaru could come up with had long since been considered and discarded.
"I understand your worry for Beatrice-chan, Subaru-kun. I do. But this isn't something we can fix this very instant. Right now, instead of worrying only about her, there are so many other things we need to think about…"
"Right—outside of Beatrice… yes, Emilia! And also…"
Ferris's words brought Subaru back to the bigger picture. He looked around the room.
The space that had become a field hospital was still strewn with numerous bodies—but that was what struck him as odd. It wasn't just people with right-leg injuries like his own. There were far more people who had been brought in for entirely different reasons.
"First of all—where even is this, and what's the situation…? No—what's going on right now? Why is this place overflowing with wounded people?"
"A Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult—you said it yourself, big bro."
"That can't be all, though. Can it? No. I only saw two Sin Archbishops. But this level of destruction clearly wasn't caused by just those two. Actually, thinking about it now—it was the wrong assumption to think Sin Archbishops would come to a city *without* their followers."
The two of them had been so overwhelmingly threatening that they'd been the first thing Subaru focused on.
So Subaru had fixated narrowly on the two high-threat Sin Archbishops—but, just like Petelgeuse, it was far more natural for them to arrive with their Witch Cult followers in tow.
If that was the case, the scale of the damage made sense.
"Two Sin Archbishops and their Witch Cult followers. Isn't that what's attacking the city right now?"
"There's actually a lot to say about that, too…"
Ferris made a bitter face and started to respond to Subaru's conclusion.
But his words were cut off mid-sentence. Before he could elaborate on Subaru's assessment, an interruption came from a direction no one had anticipated.
It was— *'Heeey! Heeey! Heeey-heeey!'* Ringing through the space was an off-key, shrill voice.
Its carefree tone was utterly at odds with the grim atmosphere. In the middle of a deadly serious discussion, it was as if someone had accidentally switched the channel to a variety show—that kind of absurd insensitivity was the closest comparison.
"What… is that…?"
The voice made Subaru look up and frantically scan the room. But the speaker never appeared in his field of vision. He immediately realized why.
The sound was coming through like a loudspeaker or public address system—Subaru had encountered something nearly identical just this morning.
"Magic devices for broadcasting… making announcements across the city?"
*'Hey there, you worthless sacks of garbage—how ya doin' out there? You never get tired of listening to my beautiful voice day in and day out, do ya? You're all just swooning over it, aren't you? A-ha-ha-ha-ha!'* As if to confirm Subaru's suspicion, the magical broadcast continued.
The voice belonged to a woman who spoke with a childish kind of cruelty—trampling all over courtesy and spitting on it. Her laughter pressed against the inside of his eardrums, triggering a visceral wave of disgust.
"What the hell is this idiotic voice. Hey, this is—"
"Shh—be quiet, Subaru-kun."
Ferris pressed a finger to his lips and pricked his ears, silencing Subaru.
His expression had gone deadly serious. Ricardo wore the same guarded look, and the injured patients lying nearby were pressing their hands over their ears, stifling sobs.
It didn't seem like any of them were hearing this voice for the first time.
*'Now then, now then—for all you worthless trash who can't contain your arousal at a beautiful girl's voice, I've got a super important announcement for you! I was thinking, I'm bored now, maybe I should just go home… psych! I'm kidding! Day and night are still young, aren't they? A-ha-ha-ha-ha!'* Creeeak. Creeeak. Creeeak.
The sound of something grinding.
The voice was brimming with the wicked pleasure of holding a mirror to someone's ear and dragging sharp claws across it.
What. What was this. This voice—this woman—who was she?
Cold sweat beaded on Subaru's forehead, and he swallowed hard at the changes in his body.
Before his mind could catch up, his body was already registering something wrong.
*'My hilarious joke aside, let me continue with the announcement. Like I said before, we've taken over this city! Every last one of you is a bird in a cage—no wait, you're all BUGS in a JAR! A-ha-ha-ha!'* "—!?"
*'Bugs should know their place—trembling at the whim of whoever holds the jar, getting your wings and legs and heads pulled off for fun. A-ha-ha, how pathetic! You're all so pathetically sad! You should be grateful for our mercy in thinning you out. A-ha-ha-ha-ha!'* Repeated again and again—laughter drenched in nothing but malice.
The supreme pleasure of looking down on others, crushing them, violating their very existence.
Subaru knew someone who embodied that better than anyone.
*'S-s-so. You dimwitted imbeciles probably can't figure out what my generous words really mean, nya-nya. So let me break it down nice and simple for you useless flesh heaps—slobbering over the chance to be humiliated, aren't you? A-ha-ha-ha-ha!'* "——"
*'Bugs in a jar get toyed with according to the owner's mood—which means the only thing you bugs can do is stay on our good side! While we're in a bad mood, we might take your wings or legs, so you'd better tremble in fear—pathetic creatures, aren't you? But while you're bringing us our treats, I've got the tender care of a mother who won't even snap your head off. Soooo— A-ha-ha-ha-ha!'* Subaru listened in silence, following Ferris and Ricardo's lead.
Each word, each breath, left something thick and foul pooling in his chest. But he sealed it away with an iron will.
And then—something dawned on him.
What was this feeling?
*'I'll be making demands of you worthless trash again soon! All you have to do is scramble around with ugly faces, screaming that you don't want to die, and wring out whatever you can to deliver to us! Do that, and I—whose kindness is said to have moved all of humanity to tears—might just consider letting go of the jar! See? Simple! A-ha-ha-ha!'* She was clapping her own hands in excitement, stamping her feet as though sitting in a chair.
The content of her words, her imbecilic way of speaking, and that grating voice were all grating on Subaru's nerves—but the problem ran deeper than that.
Since a moment ago, there had been another sound.
It was probably coming from the same room as the broadcasting magical device. Sliding in alongside the woman's voice, cutting through the broadcast, it had reached Subaru's ears—faintly.
But he couldn't identify what it was.
It felt like one more step, just a little more, and he'd reach the answer—but it wouldn't come.
Not because he couldn't understand it, but because his instincts were refusing to.
Don't notice it. Don't notice it. You don't need to know.
His heart pounded. He could hear the rush of his own blood. Rejection. Understanding. Rejection. Understanding.
—The faint sound, to Subaru, was the buzzing of countless insects.
Close. Incredibly close to the truth. But—was that even possible?
The fluttering of insect wings, slipping into the broadcast equipment? He didn't know the capabilities of this world's magical devices, so it was purely speculation. He was only registering the dissonance against his own internal common sense.
But that dissonance and that buzzing clung to his eardrums, refusing to let go.
*'Well then, that's all for my generous announcement! Sincere condolences to you perverted trash! As for you bugs—do your very best, why don't you? Like I said… each of us has seized one of the four control towers managing this city's waterways. I'd advise against doing anything funny! The death faces of drowned humans are disgustingly ugly to look at! A-ha-ha-ha-ha—!'* The shrill, threatening laughter faded out naturally, and the sound cut off.
The buzzing that had been clawing at Subaru's anxiety fell silent too, and a wave of relief washed over his body. Immediately after, Subaru looked up at Ferris and Ricardo.
"How am I supposed to take that broadcast?"
"There's no 'how'—it is what it is. …Pathetic as it is, our current situation is that we've been outmaneuvered at every turn and are completely on the back foot."
Ferris's answer came through clenched teeth, his expression grim.
There had been plenty of concerning details in the broadcast, but Subaru had grasped the essentials—the purpose and the affiliation.
"So that was the Witch Cult's…?"
"The first broadcast came while you were asleep, Subaru-kun. That was the second one. In the first broadcast, they introduced themselves. A Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult, the one in charge of 'Lust.' But…"
Ferris cut himself off there, wrestling with whether to say more.
Subaru tilted his head, confused by the hesitation.
The Witch Cult's self-introductions were, annoyingly, always by the same template. What came after the title was the name.
Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult, "Lust"—a third Sin Archbishop.
Their name was— "I know it sounds fishy, so I don't expect you to believe it, nya. But the opponent did introduce herself this way."
Ferris prefaced it with a clear disclaimer that the credibility was low, and then spoke.
"