——Life on the gladiator slave island of
Subaru's performance during the "Sparca" had apparently won him popularity among the gladiators who duked it out on the island, and wherever he went, he received a welcome much like the one in the great hall.
Even in a place where fighting was forced upon you, the customs of the Volakia Empire didn't change.
So the principle that strong people earned respect still held true, and the "Sparca" put on by Subaru and the rest of the "Group" had apparently been exactly to their liking.
"Skinny little brat, but he's got nerve."
That was, roughly, the general consensus on Subaru.
The fact that Subaru — a kid you could wring dry with one hand if you felt like it — had put up a decent fight against a gladiator beast lion must have been quite entertaining for them. Unlike the fake Cecilus, the fact that Subaru was actually age-appropriate might have contributed to that impression. That's how bad the fake Cecilus's reputation was.
"I'm just living as myself, so I couldn't care less what others think about me. In the end, once everyone sees the results, they won't have anything to complain about. Ah, I meant that in a figurative, not physical, sense."
That was roughly his reaction upon hearing, in passing, what people thought of him.
He'd had a feeling, but the fake Cecilus had absolutely no concept of bending himself to fit in, nor any consideration for getting along with those around him on amicable terms.
A rock-solid will that refused to bend, and the power to see it through to the end — that was what legitimized the fake Cecilus's presumptuous sense of self.
And by the rules of both Ginunhive and the Empire, that was considered correct.
"But being disliked for it isn't exactly a good trend. Like the Group, we can't survive on this island alone."
"He's got the power to survive on his own... That brat's arrogant behavior is backed up by the confidence that he can get away with it..."
"Tch. Don't like him, but it's none of our business. If we're talking creepy brats, two of 'em is more than enough for me."
That was the Group's impression of the fake Cecilus.
Harsh, perhaps, but also a natural way of thinking. After all, unless you were absurdly strong and safely in your own league, every gladiator here was desperately focused on simply surviving another day.
There was basically no time to worry about anyone else — that was just the way things were.
"Well, I get that Heihin thinks we're creepy brats, but what about you,
"...I don't care about that. What I'm more concerned about, Master Schwartz, is—"
"Hm?"
"—Master Schwartz, are you truly planning to leave this place?"
The question came in a voice caught somewhere between exasperation and reproach, and Subaru couldn't help but widen his eyes and turn around.
In the communal quarters given to the gladiators — a shared dormitory of sorts — Tanza, Subaru's roommate, furrowed her round brows and let out an exaggerated sigh.
"It is not 'hm.' These past few days, you've been having a wonderful time with all the gladiators, but do you remember our original objective?"
"Our original objective...?"
"—That being, to leave this island and return to Chaos Flame."
At Subaru's seemingly clueless response, Tanza's voice turned stiff.
The girl then averted her gaze from Subaru, prefaced with "I'm sorry," and continued: "I had intended to follow Master Schwartz's plan. But if Master Schwartz isn't going to take the initiative, that changes things. I need to return to Lady Yorna."
"————"
"Right now, we still know nothing about what happened to Chaos Flame after the fact. I know Lady Yorna is safe — the favor she bestowed upon me still lingers, which tells me that much..."
As she spoke, Tanza touched her right eye.
That gesture was the same thing Subaru had witnessed in the魔都 — the residents who had been affected by Yorna's "Soul Marriage Art" burning with that same light in their pupils.
Severing a lion's head in a single breath — that probably wasn't within Tanza's natural ability. The power of favor bestowed by Yorna was alive and working within her.
"So Yorna's safe, then?"
"...Physically, yes. Whether her heart is, I cannot say."
"Yeah, that makes sense. Yorna cared about everyone in the city, after all."
She was too kind, and that was why she'd been treated as a rebel time and again for failing to follow the Empire's policies.
Subaru thought he could, to some degree, understand both Yorna's circumstances and the feelings of Tanza and the others who had been protected by Yorna's convictions.
So he understood, too, why Tanza wanted to return to Yorna right away.
"But rushing too much won't help either. Flailing around blindly won't get you what you want."
"But I cannot afford to be as leisurely as Master Schwartz!"
"Le... leisurely...?"
"Yes. Over these past two days, when I thought you'd be searching the island for escape routes, instead you've been chitchatting with the Group, or shooting the breeze with other gladiators..."
Tanza ticked off Subaru's activities from the past two days on her fingers.
It was true — over the last two days, Subaru hadn't been looking for back exits or figuring out how to move the only drawbridge connected to the outside. He'd just been talking to people.
Sometimes it was Weitz and the others from the Group. Other times, he was prioritizing gathering intel — island rules and interesting stories — from people who'd been on Ginunhive for a long time.
To Tanza's eyes, this must have looked incredibly leisurely, and perhaps it even seemed like Subaru was preparing to settle down and rot on this island.
But if that were the case — then— "That's a huge misunderstanding, Tanza. I have people I want to see just as badly as you want to see Yorna. I absolutely have to go back."
"...Those people you were with before?"
"Abel and company, sure, but also... there are people in the big walled city. And in the country next door to the Empire. I'm a busy guy, you know."
"————"
Subaru listed people he wanted to see in multiple places, and Tanza fell silent.
She probably thought that her feelings for Yorna — a single person she cherished deeply — were greater than Subaru's scattered connections, but she didn't say it aloud.
That alone was enough to show how earnest she was. If Yorna was the one who'd taught her all this, Subaru could only admire Yorna's dedication to education.
"Still, I think I'm better at making efficient use of my head."
"—? What do you mean by..."
Tilt her head at Subaru's words — and the moment she did— "——Bassuu! The drawbridge is going up! New arrivals are coming!"
With that loud, boisterous voice, the fake Cecilus came bounding down the corridor. The force of his entrance made Tanza jump, but Subaru's reaction was the opposite.
"Here they go!" He sprang to his feet on the spot. "They're earlier than I heard — coming at this pace?"
"No, no — that's why the previous Bassuu Group's Sparca was an exception. The new arrivals are three people joining the same Group as Bassuu, not the usual. After the failed escape attempt, everyone who jumped into the lake ended up at the bottom... They urgently patched the shortage with us."
"So that's how it was."
Just as the shrugging fake Cecilus explained, the previous Sparca had been an irregular event.
Originally, a batch of gladiator candidates was supposed to enter Ginunhive together with Weitz and the others, but before they could set foot on the island, they'd all attempted a mass escape. The attempt failed — the carriage overturned, and those who fled from the drawbridge into the lake all became fodder for the aquatic magic beasts.
As a result, Weitz and the Group's Sparca had been postponed due to insufficient numbers, and was shelved until the right headcount could be assembled — but then— "Then me and Tanza showed up, and Weitz and the others must've been pretty bummed, huh."
Because the numbers were filled, the Group had to hold a Sparca — and to add insult to injury, the newcomers were Subaru and Tanza. And Tanza had been unconscious at that.
Effectively, it was a four-person Sparca with one sullen-looking brat added to the mix.
All three of them must have thought it was the worst day of their lives.
"Though it turned out to be the best day of my life."
"Oh my, what a confident expression. So, so, Bassuu — what will you do?"
"Yeah, I'm going to check out the drawbridge. I also want to talk to the people coming from outside."
"That might be a little tricky. Unlike last time, I think the Sparca will start pretty quickly this time, so you probably won't get a chance."
"I see... That's a problem, but there's still a way around it."
Resting his chin in his hand, Subaru gave his answer — and the fake Cecilus's eyebrows perked right up.
Whether from interest in Subaru's answer or from a sense of fond regard, the reaction was easy to read. The type who couldn't hide a thing — but also, someone you couldn't afford to let your guard down around.
In this world, there were plenty of people with high favorability ratings who were perfectly capable of killing you.
Given the fake Cecilus's reputation around the island, treating him like a ticking time bomb was about right.
Of course, being too timid around him would only shorten the fuse, so finding that sweet spot was key.
Anyway— "Looks like things are finally moving forward. Tanza, what about you?"
"W-wait, what do you mean? A scheme with Lord Segmunt?"
"A scheme? Absolutely not! I have no idea what Bassuu is thinking, and even if he told me, I couldn't say it's anything grand. He simply asked me to let him know when the drawbridge was about to go up. Everything from here on out is inside Bassuu's head!"
"...Master Schwartz?"
The fake Cecilus cheerfully advertised his ignorance — there was no getting information from him. Tanza's gaze shifted to Subaru. The look in her eyes was almost accusatory, as though he'd been keeping secrets, though Subaru didn't think he had.
He had, admittedly, been trying to move carefully.
"For now, let's go look at the drawbridge while we talk. It'd be stupid to miss it."
With Tanza looking like she wanted to say something and the fake Cecilus looking delighted, Subaru led them away from the communal quarters and headed toward the upper levels of the island where the drawbridge was visible. Inside the island, the gladiators were granted a fair amount of freedom — as long as your day-to-day behavior wasn't especially egregious, you were unrestricted in everything except sleep time and death matches.
There were set times for bathing and meals, which you had to follow, but it was worlds apart from the slave life or prison existence you might have imagined.
Ginunhive had its arena at the center of the island, which served as the event stage for grand spectacles where outside spectators and the like were brought in. The arena and its surroundings were the parts exposed to outsiders' eyes, so they were decorated quite lavishly and flamboyantly.
Meanwhile, the gladiators' living spaces beyond that were spartan — bare minimum facilities for daily life, and an overall "gray" feel to everything.
"But there's a healing ward, and a library too, right?"
"They only started filling it with books after Governor Gustav took over as island master. Apparently, it's become quite the companion for everyone's downtime."
"Yeah, there were tons of books. Would've been nice if I could actually read them."
Nodding along to Tanza's words, Subaru scratched his temple with a finger.
He'd studied the writing system of this world, but it seemed to have been promptly evicted from his shrunken brain — he could only vaguely make things out now.
Some of it was vaguely stuck in his memory, so with effort he could decipher it, but reading a single page required the kind of mental gymnastics usually reserved for treasure hunts.
"If anyone found out about this, sis would absolutely roast me..."
One way or another, the person who'd been most patient in helping Subaru study the written word was his sister —
On top of that, he'd left
"Master Schwartz?"
"—To get off this island, there are two walls standing in our way. One of them is the drawbridge — the thing connecting the island to the far shore."
"...Yes, I'm aware."
Built atop a solitary island in the middle of the lake, it served as the stage for operating the arena.
Half the drawbridge extended from the island, half from the far bank, and it could only function as a bridge once both halves came together. Normally, it was raised so no one could cross — a real headache.
"So it's usually down and only goes up when needed?"
"That — no matter how many times you hear it, it just doesn't click. That's exactly why I want to see it in person."
The fake Cecilus's tone was like explaining things to someone who just wouldn't listen, but in Subaru's mind, the image of a drawbridge was stubbornly fixed: a single bridge split down the middle, with each side being raised and retracted by the respective shore.
Naturally, with that image, a drawbridge was something you "lowered."
"So, Master Schwartz — what's the second wall?"
Brushing away the mental diagram in his head with his hand, Tanza pressed for the continuation. At her words, Subaru took a small breath, then: "Needless to say — the curse seal. The one Gustav placed on every gladiator."
"————"
Tanza's round eyebrows drooped at the edges, and her face turned serious.
It was a given — this was a problem she already understood without being told. It was the curse seal.
Every gladiator on Ginunhive had been branded with a curse mark. Should they violate the curse seal's terms, it would activate and claim their life. That was the greatest reason why Gustav, as Governor, continued to reign as absolute ruler of this island.
No one could defy Gustav, and defying him meant death.
Even without defying anything, as long as the curse mark remained unsealed, you could never know when a violation might cost you your life.
The method of unsealing it, and the details of the curse — only Gustav himself knew.
"What's scary is not knowing the detailed rules. You could be living your normal life and die without ever realizing you'd violated something."
"Well, Governor Gustav did seem to put people's minds at ease when he first took over — he explicitly spelled out the things you absolutely must not do, like 'don't resist the guards,' 'no disputes among gladiators outside of death matches,' 'don't try to escape the island on your own,' that sort of thing. These days, most of that anxiety has faded."
"Explicitly stated... Don't resist the guards, no fighting among gladiators outside death matches, don't flee the island on your own — right?"
"Exactly."
"—That last one's still the problem, though."
The ruleset governing life on Ginunhive — that was the curse seal Gustav had established.
And yet, it was a fact that this put them on a direct collision course with Subaru and Tanza's objective.
"Besides back doors, there are other ways to break the curse seal and stop being a gladiator, right?"
"Oh, certainly. The most famous method is the reward earned through the annual grand spectacle — a death match held in the presence of His Excellency the Emperor. But there are other avenues, too, such as a spectator paying a large sum to purchase a gladiator's freedom. Which means gladiators also need to be easy on the eyes — glamorous, magnificent, beautiful."
"...That kind of matches my idea of gladiators, vaguely."
It sounded close to the image of gladiators in the Roman Empire and such.
He didn't know the details, but the vibe of slaves forced to fight with swords — that was, literally, the same position as "sword-slave."
He'd heard that some famous gladiators had staged rebellions alongside their fellows — but— "What I want isn't a rebellion but an escape. More like a great prison break."
The most useful reference would be escape-from-prison movies and stories.
Though, Subaru's knowledge of those was pretty hazy. It probably wouldn't apply directly, and he'd have to find his own answer.
"Either way, to get off this island, we need to deal with two things — the drawbridge and the curse seal. That's why observing the drawbridge is absolutely mandatory. Got it?"
"...Understood. Though, that still doesn't explain why Master Schwartz spent all that time leisurely waiting for the drawbridge to move."
"You really hold grudges, huh..."
Told off by Tanza's dead-eyed stare, Subaru scratched his head with a helpless expression.
While they talked, the three of them reached their destination — a high vantage point. Halfway up the slope toward the island's center, where the terrain rose like a mountain, they found a balcony built at a spot where you could survey half the lake.
It was less a terrace and more like a watchtower, and there were already a few other people loitering around — other gladiators who'd come to rubberneck.
Among those rubberneckers, a figure turned around and waved at them.
"Schwartz, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, Heihin — you're here too? Come to gawk?"
"Gawk, my ass! ...I heard new sacrifices were coming. That's all."
Heihin — a lizardman, a member of the same Group as Subaru. Despite his tough demeanor, he was actually quite a scaredy-cat. Not a bad person, but not someone you'd praise wholeheartedly either.
His excuse didn't entirely deny the gawking part.
"Heihin, did you want to see the new arrivals?"
"Nng..."
"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."
At Tanza's gentle inquiry, Heihin twisted his large mouth and hesitated. But before long, unable to endure the silence, Heihin burst out, voice trembling: "Fine, yes! I wanted to see the faces of the bastards coming next! Happy now?"
"Nothing wrong with that, but what's your reason? If you're here because you survived your own Sparca and want to see whether the next batch will survive theirs, that's pretty cruel."
"Like I'd do something that nasty! ...Though I guess people like that do exist."
Heihin denied Subaru's suspicion — that he was different from them.
Subaru chose to believe that answer, for the time being. He did understand that Heihin was a coward, not a bad person. That much was clear — the guy who seemed least suited to Ginunhive's rules was Heihin himself.
"...So what are you guys here for?"
"We're not here to gawk or rubberneck. Of course, I'm curious about the people being brought in this time, but really I want to see the drawbridge."
"The bridge? What are you, a kid... —you ARE a kid!"
"No, yeah, your voice is way too loud."
Heihin blustered — maybe to cover up his own feelings — and Subaru grimaced at the sheer volume. Then he leaned against the railing beside Heihin and gazed out at the lake below.
Though it was still early in the day and the sun was high, the area around Ginunhive was overcast and dim. For some reason, this region never seemed to see clear skies — the clouds hung there year-round. The sky alone was enough to darken anyone's mood.
"Well, some people enjoy that kind of atmosphere. Different strokes."
"Surprising. I figured Ceci would be the type to love sunny days... but I guess since he calls himself 'Thunderlight,' clouds don't bother him."
"Hmm, come to think of it, they never have — but now that you mention it..."
The fake Cecilus pressed a hand to his mouth, eyes sparkling at this unexpected discovery, while Subaru shrugged. The three of them lined up at the railing and waited for the drawbridge to activate.
And before long— "O-ohh—!"
At first, there was the sound of gears and mechanical parts clattering into motion somewhere.
Subaru imagined it worked on the same principle as the arena's iron gates springing up, but the scale was incomparable. A bridge of that immense length would require correspondingly enormous gears, or a great many of them turning in concert.
Before Subaru's eyes, slowly, the drawbridge began to "rise."
"————"
Slowly, gracefully, it revealed itself — the drawbridge that had been submerged deep in the lake.
Just as the fake Cecilus had corrected time and again, the bridge was operated by a gear-driven mechanism, and it "rose" from beneath the lake's surface to make its appearance.
It wasn't a raised drawbridge being lowered — it was a sunken drawbridge being "lifted."
Technically, it wasn't a single bridge rising. Multiple interconnected bridge segments floated up from the lake bed to form one continuous span. The segments rose horizontally, linked together, and the whole thing completed as vast quantities of water drained away.
The same mechanism was at work on the far shore — the other half of the drawbridge rose there as well. The two halves joined into one, momentarily liberating Ginunhive from its isolation.
"That thing that's moving the bridge..."
"There's supposedly a control tower that operates the drawbridge. It'd be inside that, I imagine. I've never actually been in there, so I don't know what waits inside, but..."
"—The control tower."
For a bridge of that scale, sneaking it up or down would be difficult.
But crossing the lake in a small boat wasn't realistic either, what with the aquatic magic beasts lurking in the water. They still weren't thinking hard enough about practical escape methods.
"...It looks like that's the carriage carrying the new arrivals."
Beside the deep-in-thought Subaru, Tanza, who'd been watching the far shore, murmured that.
A single carriage was being drawn slowly across the drawbridge by a huge, black gale horse — a military mount outfitted in armor that looked remarkably tough. Surrounding the carriage, soldiers rode on slightly smaller steeds. Their vigilance had clearly been heightened after the previous carriage's overturn.
"Oh my — that's Governor Gustav. He's come to personally welcome them."
On the island side, at the base of the drawbridge, a group waited for the carriage's arrival. In the center of the black-uniformed guards, standing notably tall with his chest puffed out, was Gustav.
This, too, was probably precaution after the previous carriage incident. Or perhaps Gustav always made a point of being present for arrivals like this.
"From here to the far shore... a little over a kilometer? Less than two?"
The distance made it hard to be sure, but the drawbridge appeared to span roughly that.
Even with the weight-distribution mechanism, a drawbridge of that length was beyond imagination. If magic or some special magical tool was used in its foundation, it was an extraordinary piece of engineering.
As Subaru assessed the drawbridge's state— "Wh—!?"
The one whose voice cracked was Heihin, who'd been watching the drawbridge alongside them.
No — what he was watching wasn't the drawbridge, but the approaching carriage. The gale horse had finished pulling it across, and the passengers were being unloaded.
They were being handed over to Gustav as gladiators — or more precisely, as gladiator candidates. Upon seeing that group, Heihin's eyes went wide.
"You... you idiots... they caught you...!"
Heihin pressed both hands to his face, glaring down through the gaps between his webbed fingers.
Subaru understood what his words meant, now that he could see the new arrivals clearly. They were all lizardmen — like Heihin. The scales on their bodies varied in color, suggesting different subspecies or tribes, but broadly speaking, they were all of the same kind.
And Heihin's reaction made it clear he knew them.
"...You bastards... used me as bait to escape, and look where it got you..."
Heihin's bitter murmur made Subaru narrow his eyes.
During the Sparca, when Subaru had fought to learn about Heihin and the others who'd participated alongside him, he'd heard the circumstances of how Heihin had been brought to Ginunhive.
Heihin possessed the ability to change his scale color to mimic others, and he'd been forced to serve as a decoy — a sacrifice to buy time for his companions to escape from the slave traders.
In other words, judging by Heihin's reaction, those people— "They're the ones who used you as a decoy?"
"Ngh..."
"Heihin..."
At Subaru's words, Heihin's expression changed. Tanza looked at him with concern. She probably didn't have warm feelings toward him either, but she had some sympathy for someone she'd exchanged words with.
But Heihin snorted at the pair's gazes.
"Good! Serves 'em right! They used me as bait, so now they get to see what stupid looks like! After putting me through all that — they look pathetic! How ridiculous!"
"Hmm."
"What?! You got something to say!?"
Heihin sneered, spitting the words out. The fake Cecilus closed one eye in response, and when the reckless Heihin took the bait, the fake Cecilus waved his head back and forth with a "no, no."
"I've not a single complaint. I was simply struck by surprise and admiration at what a thoroughly generic loser's line that was."
"A loser's line...?"
"What else could I call it? I've thought about this for some time — why is it that people who are so obviously supporting characters keep saying exactly what supporting characters would say? If they'd just watch a single picture book, they'd realize how foolish it sounds."
Standing before the trembling Heihin, the fake Cecilus clapped his hands together with a sharp crack.
Drawing all eyes and attention to himself— "Take a good look around. I haven't read every story in existence, but when you go through the tales that catch your eye, there are many roles to be found. Named characters speak with words befitting their status, while those without names speak with words befitting their insignificance. And this applies surprisingly well to reality beyond the pages of fiction."
"What the hell are you babbling about...?"
"The weak say weak things! The strong say strong things! The leading man says cool things, and the no-name bit player mumbles in a voice no one can hear! How utterly bizarre, don't you find? Isn't it just fascinating?"
"————"
"Why does everyone so eagerly choose to play the part of the extra? You're all actors who need to live out your own lives. Of course, the only leading role is mine."
Keeping all eyes on himself, the fake Cecilus lightly tapped his feet in their zori sandals, drawing not only visual but auditory attention as well.
And then— "So before you speak, why not think it through carefully? Doesn't your line sound awfully like the dialogue of a no-name extra who's about to die?"
"—!"
Heihin gulped as the fake Cecilus leaned in close, staring up at him from below.
With that same grin, the fake Cecilus swiftly stepped back. But Heihin, apparently frightened by the fake Cecilus's eyes, was already breathing hard by the time he realized it.
Then, as if fleeing from the fake Cecilus, Heihin turned his back— "Heihin."
"What now! Just leave me alone! The only time I have anything to do with you people is during the Group—"
"What about the others below? Weren't they your companions?"
Subaru called after the departing Heihin and asked. At those words, Heihin snorted.
"I told you! Those bastards used me as bait, and after that they screwed up too! Why should I care about a bunch of idiots like that!"
"—But when you dropped your bag off the cliff, they shared their food with you, didn't they?"
At Subaru's interjection, Heihin's eyes went wide.
"Heihin — they also helped you escape from bandits, took over fire-building duties when you couldn't get a flame going... The last impression may have been a bad one, but—"
"————"
"Thinking that last face is the whole of who someone is... that's just too sad."
There was a saying: in extreme circumstances, a person's true nature comes out.
What a load of nonsense — Subaru wanted to tell that theory to go screw itself.
Placing someone in an abnormal, desperate situation and then judging their entire being by the one action they happened to take — what an absurd idea.
If that were true, then the things Heihin, Weitz, and Idra had done during the Sparca — was that their true nature?
A coward, a craven, a con artist — and that was all they were?
But they hadn't run. They hadn't pulled a fast one. They hadn't lied. There had been a moment when they cooperated with Subaru, and because of that, they were all alive now.
So— "Maybe if you talked to them, you'd hear a different story."
The people Subaru had come to love weren't people he'd loved from the very beginning.
He'd seen their ugly sides too. But still, Subaru wanted to love them all. And that wasn't something special to him alone.
"...Creepy brat. Running your mouth like you know everything."
Heihin's reply was a venomous murmur toward Subaru's appeal.
From his perspective, Subaru was bringing up conversations he'd never had with Heihin, and it must have been quite uncomfortable. Still, something outweighed that discomfort— "They won't make it through a Sparca. So it's no use."
With that parting shot, Heihin finally walked away from the vantage point without stopping.
But — did Heihin realize it? His answer just now wasn't born from his own feelings. It was an excuse — "I can't because the situation won't allow it."
Once that situation changed, that excuse would no longer hold.
"Master Schwartz, I feel for Heihin and his acquaintances, but..."
As they watched Heihin's retreating back, Tanza gently tugged at Subaru's sleeve. Her round eyes shimmered with both sympathy and urgency.
Having seen one of their obstacles — the drawbridge — with her own eyes, her desire to leave the island had only grown stronger.
It went without saying that leaving this island was far more important to Tanza than Heihin's feelings. And naturally, Subaru felt the same.
Subuar had things that were genuinely important to him, things he needed to prioritize. Compared to Heihin and everything Subaru had encountered thus far — it wasn't even close.
But— "—Bassuu, that's what you'd call a thorny path."
"Ceci..."
As Subaru wrestled with the burning sensation in his chest, the fake Cecilus spoke.
In front of the turning Subaru, the fake Cecilus lightly hopped up onto the railing with a "Yo." A nerve-wracking sight, but he balanced nimbly on the narrow railing— "Even when you make the best possible choices within your given circumstances, it's rare that everything goes your way. The one who can obtain all of that possesses a prerequisite — the qualification of being a chosen leading actor. If that isn't the case, and you desire what's beyond your station—"
"And if you do?"
"Then there is only death."
As he spoke, the fake Cecilus's body tilted dramatically over the far side of the railing. Seeing this, Tanza gasped and instinctively reached out— But faster than that, the fake Cecilus bent his knees and killed the momentum of his fall. Crouching down, he came face to face with Subaru on the other side of the railing— "So it's much easier to simply accept the situation for what it is."
"...Accept it?"
"Yes, precisely. That fate cannot be changed, and that what is before you is entirely natural. What you cannot break through with your own strength will inevitably obstruct the path ahead. Accept that you must carve your own path and no one else's."
Still crouched, balancing perfectly without so much as a tremor, the fake Cecilus declared this. As Subaru absorbed those words head-on, the rumors about the fake Cecilus resurfaced in his mind.
During the Sparca he'd participated in, the fake Cecilus hadn't moved a muscle until his allies were annihilated.
After that, the moment he'd ended up alone, he'd killed the gladiator beast, and from then on, he'd continued fighting death matches without any Group companions, taking the lives of everyone he faced — all the way to the present.
"So that's why you don't help people?"
"If you can't break through obstacles on your own strength... If you borrow someone else's power to accomplish something, you won't be able to overcome it the next time you encounter the same thing. You can't borrow power forever. Everyone dies. Even I am not immortal."
He understood the intent. The logic wasn't without merit.
But that was an argument only someone as strong as the fake Cecilus — someone who could slice through any problem — could afford to make. It was harsh. It was unkind.
"And besides, Ceci — even you must admit that encounters can change a person. If someone changes, maybe they'll go on to overcome the next obstacle. And also—"
"And also?"
Standing on one foot atop the railing, resting an elbow on his bent knee and propping his chin, the fake Cecilus struck a casual pose. Subaru bared his teeth, glaring at that smiling face.
Against this superhuman who could cut through everything alone — as an ordinary person who couldn't survive alone— "Ceci, you tell me to accept it, but this feeling — this refusal to accept — that's what matters."
"————"
"This refusal to accept — it's the driving force that lets you save someone. Even if people call it the selfishness of a naive brat, that's what it is."
Yes — that's what Subaru wanted to believe.
It had nothing to do with the size of his body. It was what
He wanted to believe. In this naive reasoning that refused to be cut away by the pretense of adult wisdom.
"Ahaha!"
Hearing Subaru's declaration, the fake Cecilus's expression changed.
From a thin smirk to a broad, satisfied grin.
Catching that in the corner of his eye, Subaru decided what he needed to do and started walking.
"Master Schwartz?! Lord Segmunt, what are you—"
"Oh, excellent, Bassuu! It aligns perfectly with my philosophy. Cool people say cool things, and strong people say strong things. Each role begins with speaking befitting one's station. That fighting spirit — truly, the spirit of a rebel against fate!"
"Lord Segmunt!"
Tanza turned on the fake Cecilus, who was giggling atop the railing. But Subaru couldn't afford to waste time watching the two of them.
His destination was twofold. One was just a quick stop, but the other would require a bit of arguing, persuading, or possibly a shameless demand.
He'd prepare for that in due course— "Nuul!"
Subaru hurried back into the island at a brisk pace, heading for the healing ward at a near run. He threw the door open, and the figure inside — rocking gently in a boat-like chair, dozing off — startled awake.
A thin frame, an impressively long beard hanging down, and a q-tip-like impression of an old man — this was Nuul, the one who occupied the healing ward and served as a healer.
The old man shook his head, blinking at the intruder. Subaru prefaced with a quick "Sorry, sorry," then— "—That thing I asked you to make. Is it ready?"
△▼△▼△▼△ "There's another Sparca coming... We've got a reason to watch..."
That was how Weitz had extended his invitation — an invitation that showed absolutely no feel for the moment — and Heihin cursed him silently for it.
They were often stuck together because they'd been grouped into the same team, but Heihin and Weitz just didn't click. It came down to the fundamental incompatibility between Heihin — who charged in on impulse — and Weitz, who actually had real nerve. Heihin knew his own flaw: he couldn't hold back and always started with the provocative remark.
Knowing didn't help. He'd never been able to fix it.
Because of that, he'd suffered through one miserable experience after another. Being sent to Ginunhive as a gladiator was the direct result of his big mouth.
It was true that he'd been used as a decoy to help his companions escape from the slave traders. But the root cause was Heihin's own slip of the tongue that had drawn the slave traders' attention in the first place.
He'd been unable to find steady work even as a day laborer, was on edge, and had gotten into it with people in a bar who were clearly signaling danger — and they'd held a grudge.
After days of harassment that bordered on stalking, it escalated to outright violence. His companions, trying to protect themselves, had made a decision.
"I know that much..."
For all his cowardice, Heihin's restless disposition had always gotten him into fights, which in turn invited trouble. And yet, right up until the end, his companions had tried not to abandon him.
He'd grown sick of relying on their mercy and, putting on airs, had said: "When it comes down to it, just leave me behind." Even then, he'd believed that some part of them would never find the courage to actually do it.
In the final moment, they wouldn't have the courage to cut him loose — that's what he'd told himself, convinced they were cowards just like him, and he'd let himself lean on them.
"You're the most hopeless one of all, and you know it..."
To be abandoned after that, to be used as bait, to be made a sacrifice — throwing a fit about it was absurd.
Heihin knew how foolish that was.
But if he didn't say those things, he couldn't protect his own heart. He wanted to believe it wasn't his fault, that the other side was wrong and that was why he'd suffered.
If only he could curse his companions — the ones who'd gotten away — then he could justify himself.
"Then why the hell did you guys get caught too...!?"
He'd gone and gotten himself captured, thrown into this desperate situation — and somehow, they'd been caught too. They'd robbed him of his righteous cause for cursing them, and now Heihin was nothing but a bitter man.
Nothing but a bitter man, watching helplessly as his companions walked to their deaths.
"The Group was apparently formed from this batch of arrivals. Unlike our time, they're being thrown in right away..."
Peering down at the arena from the spectator stands, Idra crossed his arms and spoke with a trembling voice.
He was trying to hide the tremor, but failing. Idra was putting on a brave front, but at his core, he was no less a coward than Heihin.
Still, Idra had the presence to keep up the act. Heihin didn't. It was pathetic.
"—The Sparca will now commence!!"
As the spectator stands filled with a motley crowd of gladiators, Governor Gustav's booming voice echoed across the arena.
During their own Sparca, there hadn't been time to take it in, but at one corner of the arena, there was a stage — or rather, a seat of honor used during spectacles — from which Gustav could survey the entire venue.
Looking down from there, Gustav spread wide all four of his arms.
Instantly, behind Gustav, a passage leading deeper into the arena opened up. From beyond the iron-gated corridor, a gladiator beast slowly emerged.
It was different from the magic beast Heihin and the others had fought — this one had bird-like wings sprouting from both its arms, and its enormous body was covered in what looked like soft, plush fur. A colossal rat.
But appearances were the only difference. His instincts screamed that its ferocity and lethality were no less than the beast he'd faced. A different gladiator beast didn't mean a lower difficulty.
"The new arrivals... that's them."
Amid the beast's low growl, Weitz spoke — and just as he said, the gate on the near side opened, and from it emerged this Sparca's participants: five lizardmen.
Each one trembling with scales rattling from nerves and fear — Subaru recognized every face.
His last hope — that he'd been mistaken from a distance — crumbled.
Heihin pressed his face downward, understanding that there was nowhere left to run.
By some cruel twist of karma, the coward Heihin had survived his own Sparca. And now his companions — brought to the same place, destined to die in a Sparca they couldn't survive — what kind of curse was this?
Had his cursing caused this?
If so, Heihin's curse was quite powerful indeed. In that case, why not curse everyone else on this island — no, everyone in the entire Empire — curse them, curse them, curse them until there was nothing left— "...Idiot."
"—Huh?"
"Starting with the slave traders who dumped you and your friends here, that's where you'd begin..."
As Heihin wallowed in that pointless escapism, Idra's stunned murmur snapped him back to reality.
Something had happened. Idra was staring wide-eyed at the arena, frozen in shock. And it wasn't just Idra — Weitz beside him, too. No, not just the two of them.
—The crowd of gladiators in the spectator stands were murmuring in astonishment.
The reason was obvious, and Heihin's expression mirrored theirs as he looked down at the arena.
Because there, standing beside the five lizardmen, was a sixth person who had no business being there— "Wh-what the — what the hell are you doing, Schwartz—!?"
Voice cracking, Heihin called out the name of the person who shouldn't have been there — the black-haired boy.
The same boy who'd parted ways with them at the vantage point just moments ago, who'd thrown those cheeky words at him — upon hearing Heihin's pathetic cry, the boy spun around to face them.
And there, amid the trembling lizardmen with the life-or-death Sparca looming before them, he pointed straight at Heihin in the spectator stands with a sharp, resolute gesture — and declared: When asked what he was doing— "—The strongest reinforcement you'll ever get."