The half-expected, harmonious negotiation with
While the result undeniably reeked of having leaned on her good will, lamenting his own inadequacies over that could wait until later.
The objective was achieved. Reflection could come after. It'd be pointless to start wallowing in "what ifs" while still in the middle of doing it.
Subaru paused, absently touching his chin as he thought about the time.
The Forbidden Library was completely cut off from the outside world, with no way to gauge the time out there. There wasn't even a crystal stone serving as a clock, and in that respect, he thought, the library's guardian girl really did live a remarkably free sort of life.
From the feel of the stubble on his chin, roughly seventeen hours had passed since he'd last shaved. It was probably around ten in the evening.
If you factored in the fact that he'd started his dead sleep on
He'd been huffing and puffing about not wasting a single second, and yet here he was. The more he thought about it, the more pathetic it sounded.
Since self-loathing could spiral endlessly too, Subaru decided to steer the conversation toward the real topic—the look of barely contained frustration on Beatrice's face made it clear her patience was running thin.
How much could he explain without touching on the core of the matter?
He'd stay vigilant against that dark haze in her eyes, and tackle her doubts one at a time.
"…So you want to know more about curse users?"
"Yeah. I know that type of practitioner exists—different from mages or spirit users—but I don't know much beyond that."
"Asking about weird things again, as usual. Even if you knew about those people, there's not a shred of benefit to be had from it, I suppose."
Just like the last time he'd only touched on the surface, Beatrice's expression as she spoke about curse arts was far from bright. She'd already made clear she didn't like how they approached mana, but this time he needed to dig deeper.
"If I remember right, that system can basically only be used to harm other people, right? I heard it was popular in some northern country, something like that."
"If you know that much, then maybe you don't really need to ask. —Curses can plant illness into a target, impose restrictions that forbid certain actions, or simply reap their life outright… It's a thoroughly nasty system."
"Well, sure, anything depends on how you use it, but when it's that skewed, the only application I can see is dragging other people down."
That was precisely what curse arts were—so-called "curses."
The supernatural power to bring others misfortune was something that could arise in any culture or society, no matter the era. The fact that it actually held enough power to affect real people was, he supposed, a phenomenon unique to this world.
The "ox-hour pilgrimage" and the like—those were arguably in the realm of curse arts too.
While turning such thoughts over in his mind, Subaru leaned forward, trying to get the tight-lipped Beatrice to talk.
"So here's what I wanna know… How do you stop a curse?"
Countering a curse user head-on was inherently difficult when you didn't know who they were. But the advantage Subaru had in this situation boiled down to one thing: he knew an attack was coming.
Even if he didn't know the curse user's identity, he knew they were using curse arts. Taking steps to defend against that was only natural—practical and sound. Even he could recognize it as a solid plan.
But— "There isn't one."
"…Huh?"
"There is no way to defend against a curse once it has been activated. A curse will fulfill its purpose and run its course on the target. It will not simply vanish, I suppose."
"Instant-death resistance nullification, seriously…?"
Beatrice's flat delivery nearly broke Subaru's spirit on the spot.
A sneak attack using instant-death-resistance-nullification magic—just the thought conjured images of a mountain of backlash, an absolutely brutal combat condition.
"And the incantation happens the instant battle begins. I've got no way to resist—hey, I'm screwed. I'm totally screwed. This is some real trash-tier game design right here."
He clawed at his head, once again keenly aware of just how bad his situation was.
The faint glimmer of bright conditions that had surfaced moments ago shattered into splinters. Subaru's mind boiled over, desperately searching for an alternative strategy.
His face was split between blue despair and the red defiance of a man who refused to lose—the Baron Ashura state. Beatrice looked at him and— "However, I was only speaking about curses that have already been activated."
She said, lips curling into a smile as if she'd just revealed the punchline.
"…Huh?" Subaru exhaled, lifting his head. Beatrice's smug expression filled his vision. She wore the satisfied look of someone who'd successfully baited a fish onto the hook—but Subaru's chest was frozen solid.
Sensing the colossal temperature gap that had suddenly erupted between them, Beatrice's eyes wavered just slightly.
"…I don't think you need to be that angry."
"I. Am. In. Real. Trouble. Right. Now."
He managed to squeeze out those broken words, barely keeping his emotions in check.
Inside, his mind was a hurricane of curses and vitriol aimed at Beatrice, but voicing that now and picking a fight with her was the last thing he wanted.
After all, a sliver of bright possibility had finally begun to show.
Straightening up, Beatrice raised a finger and delivered her lecture.
"As I said before, there's no way to block a curse once it's been activated. However, if the curse hasn't been activated yet, it can be interrupted. Before activation, it's nothing more than a formula—a set of instructions. Disassembling it is well within the ability of anyone with a reasonable amount of power, I suppose."
"Like who?"
"In this mansion, Betty, first and foremost. Naturally, Nee-chan as well. After that, Roswaal and… the three little brats might not manage it. Oh, and you can't either, I suppose."
"That one I know from painful personal experience…"
He'd been on the receiving end more than once or twice.
Setting that aside, Subaru pressed closer to Beatrice.
"A formula before activation—how do you even spot one? Wait, so a curse needs preparation before it can be set off?"
"Obviously. The more powerful the formula, the greater the burden on the caster. That's true of anything, I suppose. Especially so with curse arts. Considering the targeted, person-to-person nature of the effects, it's a fair price to pay, I suppose."
"The price for a curse… Can you even guess what it might be?"
A desperate question—the tone of a man grasping at straws. Beatrice closed one eye, pondered for a moment, then licked her lips.
"The specifics vary depending on the kind of curse you're casting. But there is one absolute rule that never changes."
"An absolute rule…?"
He held his breath. Beatrice paused, and he silently urged her to continue.
Reading the plea in Subaru's gaze, Beatrice gave a small nod.
"—Physical contact with the target of the curse. That is the mandatory requirement."
The moment those words sank in, Subaru's mind spun at breakneck speed. Casting a curse required physical contact between the caster and the target. Which meant—in the first loop and the second, Subaru himself had been face to face with that curse user. He dug through his memories, trying to recall the person.
"Setting aside everyone in the mansion…"
He excluded the residents who could serve as curse targets from consideration and retraced the days of his first eight days.
During that time, he'd lived as a servant in the mansion and had virtually no contact with anyone outside the household. The only external entities he could possibly have encountered during that period were— "—The village at the foot of the hill."
Both the first and second loops, Subaru had visited that village.
And now that he thought about it, both times he'd gone on the crucial fourth day. He'd been cursed by the curse user in the village, returned to the mansion with the formula still in place, and then the curse activated—death. The pattern replayed vividly in his mind.
If the curse user was staying in the village, then the case where
In that loop, he'd gone to the village, and she'd simply been chosen as the target. Depending on the circumstances, it could just as easily have been
It connected. It connected. Everything connected.
"Beako. How many people live in the village closest to this mansion? Do you know?"
She furrowed her brow at the sudden change of subject. But Subaru's expression was far too serious for her to comment on it. She simply shook her head.
"I don't know. Sorry, but Betty doesn't have much knowledge of anything outside this Forbidden Library, let alone the mansion itself, I suppose."
"Right. No, that's fine. I was reaching a bit. Besides, I could just ask Roswaal about that much… Next question."
Were there any curse users among the villagers, or was the culprit among temporary visitors?
If it was the latter, tracking them down wouldn't be particularly difficult. Simply ask the villagers directly, root the caster out, and that was that.
If it was the former, however, identifying them would be an enormously difficult task. If the enemy had prepared that far in advance, they'd be essentially helpless—but— "Actually, the opposite possibility is less likely."
If they took it as a given that this situation was connected to the Royal Selection, then the plague that wiped out the royal line had only occurred about half a year ago.
Including the time it took for Emilia to be named a candidate and for the framework of the Royal Selection to take shape, the current crisis was a freshly minted battlefield, no more than three or four months old.
He couldn't imagine anyone with the foresight to plant a curse user among the villagers ahead of time. If such a person existed, they'd have to be someone with the power of prophecy—or someone who "knew about the Royal Selection in advance."
Once he'd thought that far— "The curse user is an outsider. And finding them shouldn't be that hard…!"
He spoke the words aloud, then began probing his own reasoning for holes.
There were a few rough edges, but the overall deduction held up. From the curse user's perspective, they were still in a pre-action state. At this point, the fact that their existence had been discovered was something only a god or a demon could have known.
He glanced upward, searching for a clock—but of course there was none.
He clicked his tongue, then recalled the stubble-timer measurement from earlier and chewed on the fact that it was still "the night of the second day."
There was still one full day of grace before the fourth day, when the situation began spiraling toward its worst.
Which meant he had a window for a counterattack against the curse user—a chance to strike first.
"I've got your tail, you little bastard…! I didn't die once and nearly get killed a second time for nothing, you piece of trash!"
A glimmer of hope. The situation was turning.
It felt as though despair was cracking open and light was pouring through from the other side. Subaru clenched his fists involuntarily, his voice trembling with elation.
Beatrice, who had been left behind from his euphoria midway, looked distinctly displeased.
Her lovely cheeks flushed red, and she pouted her lips to express her irritation.
"Asking someone for their cooperation and then carrying on like that is really quite something, you know. If what I just told you was useful, perhaps you have something to say to Betty, don't you?"
"Oh, right! You saved me! Thanks to you, I can see the light! Beako, I love you so much!"
"W—What!?"
He lunged, slipped his hands under her arms, and hoisted her light body into the air. Subaru raised Beatrice above his head and began spinning around.
Despite the extravagant dress, the girl's body was as light as a feather. On top of that, Subaru was in high spirits, and the synergy sent the spinning speed into overdrive.
"Put… Put me down, I suppose!"
"Hahaha! At this rate, I could fly! No, let's just fly together, Beako! I can fly! You can fly!"
"Don't get carried away, you little—!"
"Gya—!?"
A blast of magic power fired point-blank from directly above struck him dead-on. The impact pierced in through the top of his head and shot straight through his body, exiting cleanly out the backside. He hit the ground hard, dazed by the torrent of mana raging through his innards.
Meanwhile, Beatrice, freed from his grip, described a magnificent parabolic arc through the air.
Just when it seemed the girl would crash into whatever lay beyond, she abruptly halted mid-flight. She flipped lightly, letting her skirt flutter, and descended to the library floor with an elegance that was almost unsettling in its calm.
She looked down at Subaru, who was still sitting dazed on the ground, shaking his head in disarray. Sniffing disdainfully in that familiar manner of hers— "That's what happens when you get full of yourself and act all buddy-buddy, you know."
"That's not the only thing I've seen, though. —You were cute."
"—!? I'll kill you!"
"Too slow!?"
The second shot drilled straight through his chin, sending him tumbling into the depths of the library. He rolled across the floor, slammed into a stepladder, and was buried under the wooden planks that toppled down on top of him. With corners jabbing him everywhere, tears welling up from the sheer pain— "I maxed out the affection gauge and unleashed my super move and THIS is what I get?! What were you upset about? Spit it out!"
"You threw yourself at me, you picked me up like a little kid, you spun me around, you peeked at my underwear, and you spouted nothing but shallow sweet nothings—all of it! Your very existence is infuriating, I suppose!"
"Total existential negation is really sad, so cut it out! It's bringing back my hikikomori days, and that wasn't even that long ago…"
Come to think of it, his hikikomori days felt like they'd happened in the distant past.
In truth, given the sheer number of loops, he'd come so far from that life that it was beyond calculation. He wondered if everyone back then was doing well.
In any case— "Now that I've circled back around to calm, things have gotten a lot better, actually. …Tonight is going to be rough, but tomorrow I'll head to the village."
He decided to investigate the curse user's identity.
He probably couldn't go alone—he'd need either Ram or Rem as a companion. And if a confrontation with the curse user was on the table, having one of the two who excelled in combat by his side was practically a mandatory condition.
If fortune smiled on him, he'd defeat the curse user. And if fortune smiled doubly, he'd confirm that he and the curse user had no prior relationship. With that, the whole thing would be resolved.
Mission 2: "Conquer the Roswaal Mansion"—cleared.
"Compared to Mission 1, the difficulty was insanely high, seriously."
He was pretty sure Mission 1 had been "Defeat the thugs." Looking back, he'd really come a long way.
He recalled the back-and-forth with those thugs—which now felt like it had happened ages ago—and then turned his thoughts to his days in the mansion.
He knew it was premature, but this was the first time the dead end he'd been helpless against had finally started to open up. He wanted permission for at least this much celebration.
Was there anything else he needed to resolve? Subaru made sure not to neglect checking his own footing.
The fact that things were looking up was exactly why he suspected a trap lurking in the details. It was the vigilance of a cautious man, but one particular word snagged his attention.
That word was— "The
"What is it?"
"Right. The Witch. Rem too…"
One word, and the memories it evoked came flooding back.
That word—Witch—had appeared time and again in every corner of his experience. And Subaru still didn't truly understand what it really meant.
In the world Subaru knew, the Witch was nothing more than a brief fairy tale—a storybook snippet called "the Witch of Shadows," too short to even qualify as a proper legend.
But now, when he thought back, she'd come up during the loop on the very first day after being summoned. And in this repeated cycle at the mansion, that name had surfaced more than once.
Subaru looked up, meeting Beatrice's puzzled gaze.
A flicker of unease ran through him—would she even answer? The last time he'd brought this up, Ram had shut him down cold, and Rem had come at him with murderous intent.
Even Emilia, he recalled, had shown some resistance to the topic. So, carrying that anxiety with him— "Beako. —Do you know about the Witch?"
"……"
The question hung in the air, but no answer came immediately.
Beatrice closed her eyes at the word that had just vibrated her eardrums, falling silent as if confirming the weight of it.
Subaru, equally unsettled by her reaction, could only wait.
He feared—feared that this single word had once again struck a nerve.
"The one who would swallow the world whole. The Queen of the Shadow Castle. —The Witch of Envy."
The words, murmured suddenly, made Subaru gasp and widen his eyes.
Without acknowledging his reaction, Beatrice let a weary sigh slip from her lips.
"In this world, the word 'Witch' refers to only a single being. And speaking her name is something considered taboo, I suppose."
"Everyone fears her. Everyone is terrified of her. No one can stand against her."
"Yes, that is so. If anything, the question of whether you know about her is the strange one. Of course you would know. In this world, the Witch's name is the third thing you learn after your parents' and your family's names."
"You don't say… That's a bit much…"
He tried to laugh it off, but when he couldn't find even a trace of humor in Beatrice's expression, the words died in his throat.
If this wasn't a joke, then the Witch was, without exaggeration, a symbol of abhorrence to the entire world— "The Witch of Envy,
Beatrice spoke in a voice drained of all emotion, then closed her eyes once more.
At the name—one he'd heard before—Subaru let out a short "hah" and went rigid, the weight of the name pinning him in place.
"It is said she ruled the night. It is said human words could not reach her. It is said she envied all things in this world. It is said none who beheld her face survived. It is said her body will never decay, never weaken, never end. It is said even the combined power of the Dragon, the Hero, and the Sage could only seal her—not destroy her."
Beatrice rattled off these accounts one after another, not giving Subaru a chance to interject.
Then, as a final preamble— "Lastly, it is said—"
She opened her eyes.
"—her form was that of a silver-haired half-elf."