"—Whoa, it was just like you said. What the hell — none of this is even close to clean."
Peering behind a tilted shelf, Subaru scowled at his own handiwork.
Having taken off his butler's jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves, Subaru had assumed the posture of a cleaner — except the label on his forehead should've read "amateur" or "clueless."
He'd been making decent progress at estate work, applying his natural knack for fiddly tasks.
That was what he'd been thinking right up until this moment, which made it feel like someone was holding up a mirror to his hubris.
Watching Subaru's self-reflection from behind, one shadow let out a soft "Hmph!" through its nose.
"Oh dear, you really are just Barusu after all. I thought you'd grown a little, tried giving you some slack, and this is what I get... Have some shame."
"Yeah, I've got... a comeback! How can you sit there looking so smug?! You haven't done enough work to lecture me!"
"
"Not the ability to work quickly — the ability to dodge work!?"
Not victory through battle, but victory without fighting — that was true military strategy.
Put nicely, it carried that sort of air; put bluntly, it was an exceptional talent for slacking off. Either way, since Subaru hadn't been able to call her on it that morning, anything he said now was too little, too late.
That said — "Isn't it exactly what neither you nor I want — that the spillover ends up on
"Hmph... Impertinent, coming from Barusu. But I'll grant you have a point."
As Subaru scratched his head miserably, Ram narrowed her eyes at him. Then both their gazes drifted to the far end of the room, where a figure was bustling about busily.
A blue-haired girl in a maid's outfit — the hem of her skirt swaying as she wrung out a wet cloth and wiped down the room's nooks and crannies — "—Rem."
"Ah, yes, sorry. I got a little carried away. How was it behind the shelf, Subaru-kun?"
Rem turned at his voice, smiling softly as she addressed him.
Having that gentle smile directed at him made Subaru feel guilty for the pathetic answer he had to give, but there was no sense hiding it, so he caved immediately.
"Yeah, it was exactly like you said. Even the spots you can't see need a thorough cleaning... My habit of just making the surface look good and calling it a day is really not cutting it."
"No, that's not true at all, Subaru-kun. When it comes to making things look good on the surface, no one can touch you. You're the best in the kingdom!"
"That sounds like grounds for a defamation suit!"
He knew Rem meant no malice, but that was quite the cutting assessment.
Subaru was all too aware that he excelled at making things look good on the surface — "As expected, you're truly gifted at seeing through to the heart of things, Rem."
"Shut up, Ram! I'm already self-aware about it, so stop making me feel worse!"
Subaru shot a sharp look at Ram, who was sitting on her bed hugging her own arm. But she returned him an even sharper glare, and he slunk away in defeat.
Rank, power, authority — at the bottom of the hierarchy here stood
"Damn, getting bullied by the senior maid is rough... On that note, you're so kind, Rem!"
"Yes, of course. Rem would never say anything harsh to Subaru-kun. I believe that even without me saying anything extra, Subaru-kun will understand on his own."
"Bitten apart from the inside by her kindness."
Carved up on the outside by his elder sister's poisoned tongue, shredded on the inside by Rem's sweet venom.
He was starting to lose track of whether his situation was actually fortunate or he'd just convinced himself it was — but that, too, was probably just a matter of mindset.
"Ugh, stop getting down on yourself, Natsuki Subaru. Ram aside, all you have to do is live up to Rem's expectations. I'll do it! Right, Rem?"
"That's the spirit, Subaru-kun! Rem is impressed!"
"Heh, this positivity is one of my strong suits too. So, where should I start?"
"Let me see. First, the window frame isn't clean at all, so let's redo that. For the top of the shelf, don't just stand on your toes — use a proper step stool and give it a thorough wipe. Like you saw behind the shelf, it doesn't need to be done every day, but if you neglect it for too long it becomes a real problem. Then there are the bed legs and underneath the mat..."
"It's a concentrated barrage that's going to knock me flat on my face!"
Rem's critiques poured out like water through a cracked dam, and Subaru couldn't scribble mental notes fast enough. Still, even from Subaru's perspective — the acknowledged kingdom champion of making things look passable — there was apparently that much room for improvement in a room he'd thought was reasonably clean.
"Seriously, Rem, you really do notice everything. Is that part of maid training too?"
"Of course. Oh, but if you put yourself in the other person's shoes, some things just naturally become visible. Rem is always thinking about Subaru-kun, after all."
"It's flattering, but you keep spotting my dust-covered flaws one after another..."
Rem's earnest, tight-fisted response was adorable, but Subaru felt terrible about it.
Still, the fact that she could direct her attention to every minute detail and deliver impeccable work was proof that Rem's maid fundamentals were ironclad, modesty aside.
Truly, the reputation of an all-purpose maid was well earned.
"Naturally. After all, Rem is Ram's adorable little sister."
"So you're the one bragging about it?!"
"That brazen attitude suits you too — it's part of your charm as an elder sister."
As Ram held her ground regally atop the bed, Subaru and Rem's voices volleyed back and forth.
It was all just another scene from the daily life of the maids and servants working at the Roswaal Mansion — △▼△▼△▼△ "—Guwaah! Daah!"
A moment of weightlessness, then the pain of hitting hard ground.
He'd known he was falling and had braced for impact, but the shock was still considerable.
Worst of all, a thick branch had been waiting where he rolled, catching him across the shoulder blade with a brutal grind. The unexpected pain brought tears to his eyes.
"Tch-tch... Ah, at least there was no follow-up attack beyond nature itself. Thank god for the knife..."
Wiping his eyes, Subaru got to his feet and sheathed the knife in his hand, taking a breather.
He spun around and looked up at the trunk of the great tree that had been suspending him moments before.
From one of its thick branches, a long vine stretched down to the ground. The vine had been cut midway through with a knife, but at its severed tip — "A noose... I'd seen something like this in manga before, but I can't believe this kind of trap actually works."
As he spoke, Subaru untangled the vine noose that had been fastened around his right ankle.
A trap set into the ground — once your foot passed through this noose, it cinched tight and hoisted you into the air. Honestly, even after having been caught in it himself, Subaru had no idea how it actually worked mechanically.
And he didn't have time to puzzle it out.
"No memory, but the knowledge and dexterity Rem used to have are still intact... Now that I'm the one chasing, I can really see she's Ram's sister."
It was an obvious thing to say, but the reality was hitting him all over again. Not that this was the way he wanted to be reminded, which left a bitter taste.
It had been over an hour since Subaru had entered the forest in pursuit of Rem.
Following the masked man's advice from their encounter on the other side of the forest, Subaru had seen through the disguise Rem had used to cover the route she'd taken fleeing with Louis.
Thanks to that, the distance between him and the fleeing pair was undoubtedly shrinking. But the biggest factor keeping that distance from reaching zero was Rem's wariness.
Having been alerted to the
Since taking that brutal first hit, the number of traps Subaru had discovered — or been unpleasantly introduced to — was no fewer than ten. The fact that Rem could pull this off while fleeing with an immobilized leg, and with a dependent in tow, left Subaru nothing short of awestruck.
"Grass snares and shallow pitfall traps would be one thing — those at least have a certain charm..."
Small traps designed to trip Subaru or twist his ankle. Those kinds of traps caused minimal damage and didn't pose much of an obstacle to the pursuit.
The problem was the sheer number of them — Subaru had to be on guard at every step through grassy areas and thick leaf litter.
"With Rem's arm strength, the bottleneck was that she couldn't dig a pitfall deep enough to trap a foot in one go... The difference in their natural physicality really showed."
Interspersed between these small traps were medium traps — like the vine noose that had just hoisted Subaru up — using fallen trees and vines, designed for genuine immobilization.
If Subaru hadn't been lucky enough to get his hands on a knife, escaping that vine trap would have cost him a ton of time. Or his blood might have rushed to his head, significantly delaying his resumption of the chase.
And the thing that made Subaru most hesitant — even as impatience pulled at him — "Shh!"
He drew the Guiltywhip from the small of his back and lashed the ground where it looked suspicious.
The next instant, two, then three branch strikes carrying tremendous force whipsawed toward that exact spot. Had they connected, it wouldn't have been surprising if one or both of his arms had broken.
Large traps designed to completely neutralize Subaru's mobility — they weren't numerous, but their mere existence was slowing his advance.
The thick branch strike waiting at the forest's entrance could be considered part of this same category.
As Subaru pushed deeper into the forest, the danger and power of the large traps he discovered kept increasing. This wasn't Rem losing her restraint — it was her growing.
"Being chased while making traps, and she's learning and leveling up her trap game the whole time... Damn, ever the diligent student, Rem. Not what I needed her to be working on right now, though."
Subaru knew Rem was a hard worker who excelled at putting in effort, and he was glad that this quality hadn't vanished even in her current memoryless state — but that was a separate matter from the present problem.
In short, Rem was growing through combat. Given that Subaru's own growth had essentially plateaued, the already steep gap in ability was becoming more pronounced by the minute.
He needed to catch up to Rem before this gap became truly insurmountable, but — After neutralizing the large trap in front of him, Subaru held his breath for a moment.
What he scanned the area searching for was Rem's next escape route — the one this trap had been designed to cover. To find it, he needed to trace the scant traces she'd tried not to leave behind.
Of course, the possibility that she'd left no traces at all existed, but the current Rem didn't have the ability or composure for that. Therefore — "Found it."
He spotted a small mark where bark had been peeled away, hidden in the gaps between the trapped trees.
It had nothing to do with the large trap — just a trivial scratch, like a cat clawing at a doorpost. Yet these childlike marks were exactly what had guided Subaru this far.
In the end, their true identity was the traces of a "dependent."
Ironic as it was, the factor dragging Rem down and allowing Subaru to catch up was the very existence of the Archbishop she was fleeing with — Louis Arneb.
Subaru didn't know how well Rem and Louis got along, but from these traces it was clear Louis wasn't being cleverly cooperative with Rem's movements.
No matter how desperately Rem tried to erase their tracks, Louis was undoing her work.
"Damn..."
Even as Subaru registered this welcome news — and the advantage it gave his pursuit — his spirits didn't lift.
Naturally. The thought that Louis's existence was indirectly helping him — when he considered what that vile Archbishop represented — was not something he could celebrate.
Even if Louis hadn't directly stolen Rem's "name" or "memories," the sin of the three siblings as Archbishops of Gluttony was equal. Not one of them bore lesser guilt.
That she had no body of her own, or had gone down the wrong path in life — none of that mattered.
That was Subaru's conclusion regarding Louis Arneb, the one thrashing and screaming in that white world.
So even if he successfully caught up to Rem, when the time came to convince her, Subaru had no intention of compromising on what to do with Louis.
But before all that — "Why do I have to be playing this stupid game of tag with Rem...?!"
The thought of catching up to Rem and discussing what to do about Louis made Subaru bite down on his lip as frustration at the sheer injustice of it all surged back.
He had known the possibility existed that Rem would awaken without her "memories" or "name."
Of course, having the old, fully intact Rem come back would have been ideal — but given the precedents with Crusch and Julius, Subaru hadn't been able to hold out much hope that Rem would wake up in her original state.
That fear had come true. Rem had forgotten everything — including herself and Subaru.
Even so, Subaru had believed he could hold steady and support Rem.
That
And yet here he was, in a forest with no one to rely on, chasing after Rem as she ran.
"Why does it always end up like this...? Why is it always..."
Why couldn't everything just settle neatly into place for once?
Rem waking up having remembered everything, surprised by the time that had passed, but then weaving the next chapter of their story together. That should have been enough.
Or even if Rem's state was exactly as it was now, having companions around to fight alongside him would have spared him this suffering. That would have been fine too.
Fate always prepared the cruelest path for Natsuki Subaru.
And it didn't just aim that cruelty at Subaru — but at the precious people around him as well.
"Had enough crying about it yet, Natsuki Subaru?"
Gritting his back teeth, Subaru slapped both his cheeks hard.
The sharp pain and shock jolted his consciousness, temporarily leaving behind those feeble feelings.
Yes — fate always showed him the cruelest path.
And precisely because of that, Natsuki Subaru had been beaten by the whip of hardship time and again, spitting blood each time, yet always rising to his feet and facing forward.
"The man who finally turned the very hardships blocking his path into his own whip — that's me."
Strictly speaking, the Guiltyroa — the原材料 for his whip — hadn't been that much of an obstacle, and among the hardships that had stood in his way, it ranked on the easier side. But that was how he played it up.
Talking himself up, pumping himself up, filling his clever little head with heat to find a way to fight — that had always been Subaru's way.
He'd stubbornly stuck to it. There was no other way. So today would be no different.
"Think, think, think, me. If I keep chasing like this, eventually Rem will figure out what Louis is up to. Once that happens, the trail goes cold. Before that..."
He had to either catch up to Rem or find a way to get ahead of them.
Analyzing the gap in their combat capabilities, Subaru thought as hard as he could about both their strengths and his.
In the current situation, Rem's strengths were the dexterity and thoughtfulness she hadn't lost even without her memory, her ability to improve through practice, and — though this part would have to wait — her cute face and voice, and the way Subaru wanted to stare at her in motion for much longer.
In contrast, Subaru's strengths were his skill with the whip and knife, the traces Louis annoyingly continued to leave behind, his naturally menacing glare (a charming quirk, that one) — and above all, the fact that he knew what kind of person Rem was, even better than the memoryless Rem knew herself.
"...Rem has to know I'm chasing her."
The countless traps were proof — Rem was fully aware of his pursuit.
Otherwise, there would have been no reason to prepare this absurd number of traps. She should have set down a handful as a precaution and prioritized fleeing.
The only reason she kept laying traps was because she was certain Subaru was pursuing her. And the reason she could be so certain was, as expected, the Witch's residual scent.
"Just how badly does my body reek right now..."
He sniffed his own arm and caught a whiff of grittiness and sweat, but it didn't seem like anything that potent. Of course, it was hard to notice your own smell — but in this case, the Witch's residual scent was only perceptible to those sensitive to it.
He'd heard from Rem and Beatrice that it faded day by day, but apparently it spiked dramatically in the aftermath of or frequency of Return by Death.
And in the past half-day, Subaru had stacked up multiple instances of "Natsuki Subaru × 2" inside the Watchtower before being thrown into this place.
In other words — "Right now, I'm the man who reeks more of Witch than anyone in the entire history of life in this other world."
Whether the Witch's residual scent had a ceiling was unclear, but given Subaru's recent record, the stench he was giving off had to be substantial. In that case, his pursuit had almost certainly been detected.
And if no matter how much she ran the gap wouldn't widen, Rem was probably getting anxious too.
Normally, goading the opponent into mistakes by making them impatient was one of Subaru's standard plays — but since he wanted to rebuild a friendly relationship with Rem, he wanted to avoid pushing her to that breaking point.
"Win on one front, lose on the other."
And that was exactly what his current situation exemplified in the worst possible way.
As he thought this, Subaru continued disabling small and medium traps two, three at a time, following the traces Louis left behind as he tracked Rem's movements.
Truly, it was like being Hansel picking up breadcrumbs. The difference was that Subaru was alone, while the pair was the ones running away.
"Ah, this one's in a spot that's easy to find. Next..."
Spotting another peeled patch of bark, Subaru set his course.
Since Louis had no intention of letting Subaru know where they were, the traces lacked any consistency, and many were extremely difficult to find.
The truth was probably that Louis, left to her own devices while Rem was busy setting traps, was simply doing whatever she pleased.
He went a while without finding easy clues, so having a clear one was a relief.
"Thank goodness it was still here. If Rem finds it and wipes it out, the trail would..."
He was about to say "go cold" when Subaru stopped mid-sentence.
Then he turned back to a tree he'd just passed and looked at the stripped bark. It was a large, sturdy tree, and the bark had been peeled from a fairly conspicuous spot.
Could Rem really have overlooked this?
......
The confused footprints on the grassland. Rem's steadily improving trap skills. And this — the brazenly obvious peeled bark right in front of him.
These pieces clicked together inside Subaru's head, completing a puzzle of dissonance.
Soon, a single answer crystallized within him.
"If it's the Rem I know..."
The sharp-eyed, attentive Rem would have erased any obvious trace.
The fact that it remained meant that, unless Rem was suffering from tunnel vision — "There!"
Ahead on the path he'd been about to take, Subaru ripped a thick clump of grass from the ground and hurled it.
The clump, heavy with dirt at its roots, traced an arc and flew into the tall grass — — the instant it landed, a tremendous crash erupted as the grass sank into the earth and a massive pit swallowed the ground.
"Whoa...!"
The pit that appeared before Subaru's eyes was so enormous it made the previous small traps look like nothing. But the trap didn't end there.
Toward the newly opened pit, surrounding trees shrieked and snapped as they toppled inward. Fallen logs tumbled one after another into the hole, quickly filling it back in.
Had Subaru fallen into that pit, he'd be trapped and buried alive right about now.
At this point, the masterstroke had been revealed — all the preceding traps had been psychological misdirection.
What had served as hints for the pursuit was actually a trap meant to bury Subaru alive, lying in wait with its jaws open.
It was a typically Rem-like tactic, and Subaru wanted to praise her for it — "But the Rem I know wouldn't stop there."
Setting a psychological trap and having the pursuer walk into it, stopping them in their tracks — that would have been the ideal outcome.
But the Rem Subaru knew was thoughtful and hardworking, with a cute face and voice that warmed his heart just by watching her move, and — "When she's had enough of waiting, she comes at you herself. —Right, Rem?!"
Turning around, Subaru looked up at the tree with the peeled bark.
And right at that moment.
"—!!"
Rem, teeth clenched, launched herself from the tree's branch straight at Subaru.
△▼△▼△▼△ She couldn't shake her pursuer, and her traps couldn't stop him either.
When placed in that situation, what would the Rem Subaru knew do?
If she knew the opponent's position by smell and had figured out what breadcrumbs they were relying on, she'd turn those to her advantage — lure them into a trap and cut off the root cause.
And Subaru's read had been spot on.
The problem was — "Haahaaa!"
The gap in their combat ability meant Subaru couldn't stop Rem from lunging at him.
He let out a pained "Gwah!" as he was sent flying by Rem's descending arm.
Honestly, that he could still move this well with his injured leg, and that his body had instinctively tried to catch Rem as she fell — both were beyond what Subaru had anticipated.
"You're relentless — absolutely relentless!"
"W-wait, Rem, just listen..."
"Shut up!"
Her swinging arm connected, sending blood streaming from Subaru's nose. A bloodstained plea, perhaps, but Rem — blind with fury — was in no mood to listen.
She crouched low on the forest floor, her blue eyes boring into Subaru.
"If you'd just given up on us back there, we wouldn't have done anything more. But you chased after us... Please, just stop!"
"Hearing it put so simply actually hurts like hell..."
"My nose is about to break! I can tell when you're getting close. And it's even stronger than it was on the grassland before..."
Holding his bleeding nose, Subaru staggered to his feet.
Subaru on his feet, Rem on all fours. The situation seemed to favor Subaru, but it was an advantage that raw strength alone could overturn in an instant.
And if Rem started moving with just her arms — quick and agile as a spider — then Subaru really would be thrown into a pit and that would be the end of it.
Closing the distance inch by inch, Subaru knew his only option was to clear up this misunderstanding right here.
"Rem, please listen. I know I apparently reek something terrible to you..."
"...Yes, you stink."
"That's oddly nostalgic...! I know I stink, and I know it feels like something sinister, but I have no hostile intentions toward you!"
Raising both hands, Subaru showed he had no intention of opposing her.
But no matter how he insisted, the wariness in Rem's eyes didn't fade. That was how powerfully the Witch's residual scent was pressing down on this empty version of her.
Truly, no matter how far he went, anything to do with the Witch never led anywhere good.
"I know I stink and that my first impression is terrible. I've been putting up with my own existence for eighteen years now. So please, let me make a fresh start."
"...A fresh start?"
"I was the one in the wrong. You'd lost everything and were scared, and I couldn't even explain a single thing to you. It was all about my circumstances — I never considered how you felt..."
His eagerness and impatience — those were what had prevented him from considering Rem's feelings.
He could easily blame those and defend himself. But what was the point of a hollow self-defense at a time like this?
What he needed weren't words to protect himself.
They were words to reach Rem — to unravel that stubborn heart of hers.
"You matter to me. I just want to protect you. So please, listen to me. Don't reject me. —Give me one more chance."
......
Hands still raised, Subaru bowed deeply at the waist and pleaded.
With everything he had, not sure if his sincerity had truly come through, but pouring every ounce of his feelings in. If it could move Rem's heart even a little — if it could buy him time to explain — "Is that all?"
"...Huh?"
"That's all you have to say in your defense?"
At Rem's response, Subaru tentatively raised his head.
The emotion in her voice was different from what Subaru had hoped for. But it was also different from what he'd feared — and that brought confusion.
Rem's voice was tinged with quiet fury — with barely contained wrath.
"R-Rem...?"
"The fact that you chased us down, and that your body reeks of something incredibly sinister — of course I think that's suspicious and wrong. But —"
She cut herself off there, pressing her lips tightly together.
Her blue eyes flashed with hostility, regarding Subaru — who still didn't know what was coming next — as a villain utterly beyond forgiveness.
"More than any other reason, the fact that you tried to abandon that little girl is something I can never forgive. How can you expect me to trust someone so heartless and despicable?"
"Ah —"
In that accusing gaze that condemned his evil, Subaru was struck speechless.
As the words sank into his brain, Subaru understood: right from the start, in a completely different way from the Witch's residual scent, he had made the wrong choice and lost Rem's trust.
His naturally menacing glare and the residual scent that had been imposed on him — neither was truly the reason Rem had lost faith in him.
It wasn't something he'd been born with — Subaru had damaged her trust through his own actions.
Even if that person had been an Archbishop — the embodiment of evil — from Rem's eyes, knowing nothing, Louis had been a small, vulnerable girl. And Subaru had overlooked that.
......
In that instant, Subaru couldn't find the right words to say.
He had overcome hardships countless times, died when he couldn't, and searched for solutions from new angles — but the answer to this moment wasn't inside him.
Apology, excuse, truth — which should come first?
Apologize for the fact that he'd tried to abandon a child?
Spin a justification that there had been reasons for it?
Confess the truth that she was a young monster?
No matter which he chose, he couldn't see it changing the look of distrust in Rem's eyes before him.
And that result had already been sealed in stone through Return by Death.
"You've gone silent, I see."
Growing impatient with Subaru — whose gaze darted away, whose cheeks had gone rigid, who had nothing to say — Rem lost her patience.
She pushed her upper body up with effort, trying to put distance between herself and Subaru. —She didn't seem to intend to knock Subaru out and be done with it here.
Perhaps she'd thought the beaten-down Subaru wouldn't come after them.
Of course, that wasn't the case. Even if she shook him off here, Subaru would keep reaching out until Rem took his hand.
Goodbye — that was never happening. Never. But — "—R—"
He tried to call out to Rem as she turned to leave.
First her name — without thinking of what would follow, he called out to her.
And then — ......
As Subaru reached a hand toward Rem's twisted back, a change entered his field of vision.
It was a shadow, glimpsed briefly through the dense trees — one he recognized.
"—Rem!!"
Faster than the thought had formed, Subaru threw himself at Rem's back. Startled by his sudden movement, Rem's small body went rigid.
The instant he wrapped his arms around her small body — — an arrow loosed from a powerful bow sailed over their heads, and the massive tree directly behind them was struck dead center and blown apart.