Accompanied by
Moonlight blocked by the trees—the darkness of the forest fell pitch-black. Dodging the trees that stood in their path and pushing through branches and leaves, small abrasions that drew blood sprang up across their bodies here and there.
The stinging pain of minor wounds, and the frustration of groping through the dark with nothing but touch to guide them.
All of it—the lack of time included—weighed heavily on Subaru's mind.
"Honestly, I didn't expect it to be this dark. You're doing all right, Rem-rin?"
"In the forest, in the mountains, my divine blessing helps—More importantly, please don't raise your voice so much. Control your breathing too, and your heartbeat is loud."
"As... if... I'd... stop..."
Refuting in a whisper, syllable by syllable, Subaru followed slowly behind Rem's retreating back.
Without her, he'd have long since lost track of where he was and ended up stranded in the middle of nowhere. Whether it was night vision or something else, Rem's steps were light and sure, without the slightest hesitation.
She carved a path through the pitch-dark forest that Subaru could barely make out, clearing the way so the person following her could walk more easily.
At the bottom of a darkness where even moonlight couldn't reach, the only thing to rely on was Rem's back ahead of him. That small figure in front looked so large that without thinking, he reached out and pinched the hem of her maid uniform.
"...What are you doing?"
"In a moment of vulnerability brought on by the darkness, I instinctively clung to you—that's the tableau."
"If you want to hold on so you don't get separated, at least grab my shoulder properly or something."
"I didn't want to get in the way of your unwavering stride. But I couldn't hold back the loneliness. That wistful, tender little heart of a maiden just came spilling right out..."
"Which mouth is saying that...? You were actually a little cool for a second there."
Rem looked completely at a loss for words, exasperated. She let Subaru keep pinching her hem as she stopped in her tracks, scanning their surroundings in a slow circle, sniffling softly.
He pointed at her police-dog-like gestures: "You keep doing that sniffing thing—can you actually track by scent or what?"
"The one thing that can't be faked is scent. Appearances, voices—those can be faked, but the essence that seeps out from a being simply can't be," Rem declared, brimming with confidence.
That was the only thing Subaru could place his hopes on—that her keen nose would reach their target.
As he gazed at her, he suddenly had the feeling he'd once had a conversation with Rem based on scent before. That time, it had been the
Thinking back, he seemed to recall
Standing beside the lost-in-thought Subaru, Rem turned her face right and narrowed her eyes. Subaru's gaze was pulled the same direction, but all that spread out was the same unchanging darkness.
Frustrated by that, he turned back to Rem: "The kids' scent?!"
"I can't say for certain, but it doesn't smell like beasts."
"That's good enough. Let's go!"
"This way."
Subaru chased after Rem as she lowered her body and broke into a run, still clutching the hem of her dress.
There was, almost imperceptibly, a buoyant lilt in Rem's voice. In the darkness, she'd glimpsed what was literally a ray of light, and her steps had unconsciously quickened.
Then again, hope and anxiety were two sides of the same coin.
The fact that Rem hadn't definitively declared the scent was the children's—perhaps her subconscious was quietly acknowledging the same unease.
That was precisely why the two of them needed to find answers as quickly as possible.
Rem, leading the way, swung the iron ball in her hand recklessly, tearing through the trees that filled the path from edge to edge. There was a strong sense of urgency in that crude approach, and Subaru, following behind, naturally started striking the ground harder with each step.
He was out of breath, his legs heavy. But his consciousness was sharp. Gradually, his eyes began to adjust to the total darkness, and the faintest hint of the forest's landscape started filtering into his vision.
Then, all at once, Subaru's field of vision opened up before him. In the forest, there was a clearing where the trees had parted wide. A gentle hill spread out under an open sky, and the moonlight pouring in lent the scene an almost otherworldly atmosphere.
And on that gentle green hill, bathed in the brilliant blessing of moonlight— "It's the kids!"
Sprawled across the green ground, limbs splayed in every direction, lay the children.
He rushed over and, together with Rem, checked on their conditions.
Six in total were collapsed. No visible external injuries on any skin he could see. None of them were conscious, but their breathing hadn't stopped.
"They're alive. —They're alive!"
They'd made it in time. Subaru clenched his fist and cheered.
But Rem, who had been examining the condition of a girl lying nearby, prefaced with "No": "They're still breathing, but the exhaustion is far too severe. At this rate..."
"Exhaustion... A curse?!"
The children's faces were deathly pale, their ragged breathing like fish hauled up onto a hill, gasping for air. Cold sweat beaded their foreheads, and their pained sleeping expressions were as though they were being tormented by nightmares.
Curse arts—having had it assail him many times himself, Subaru could observe it from the outside. He bit his lip: "There has to be something. Can't you do anything, Rem? Can't you dispel the curse?"
"Rem's abilities aren't nearly enough... If only my sister were here to see this situation..."
Just as Subaru was prodded by urgency, Rem too admitted with frustration her own inadequacy. But she quickly shook her head, as if casting off that weakness: "Regardless, I'll cast a healing spell as a stopgap. We need to restore at least some of their stamina."
"Right, please. What should I do?"
"Keep watch of the surroundings. And gather the children together in one spot."
Following Rem's instructions, Subaru lined the children up in front of her. Gazing piteously at the children struggling to breathe, Rem traced a circle on the ground with the iron staff.
A circle large enough to enclose all the children. She crouched at its edge and laid her hand upon it: "O healing of water, grant your blessing—"
Following the incantation, a faint blue light rose within the rough circle and gently enveloped the sleeping children's bodies, slowly seeping inward.
Even Subaru, who was woefully lacking in magical knowledge, could sense the radiance was a wave of healing—a gentle, soft shimmer.
As time passed, the light permeated the children's bodies, and gradually their labored breathing began—however slightly—to grow more peaceful.
"That's amazing, Rem. With this..."
"I told you, it's just a stopgap. As long as I keep speaking to the mana inside their bodies, they'll hold on for now. But once that runs dry, it won't even serve as emergency treatment. We need to eliminate the root cause as quickly as possible."
"Dispelling the curse, right. That means we have to go back to the mansion and ask Beako and
"—Subaru?"
Right after steeling himself for an immediate retreat, he suddenly heard his name called and was startled. Looking toward the voice, he saw a brown-haired boy barely opening his eyes.
The boy, who seemed to have regained consciousness, focused his gaze on Subaru and gasped in pain: "Subaru... Suba..."
"You're awake, Luka. Good, good boy, you're a strong kid. But don't push yourself. I'll get you home right away and put an end to whatever's hurting you. You can count on me—just rest quietly for now..."
"One person... deeper... still... deeper in..."
"...Hey, what did you say?"
Luka was trying to tell him something, words coming in broken fragments.
Sensing something he couldn't afford to miss in those fragments, Subaru asked again. But Luka had already closed his eyes and slipped back into unconsciousness, so his words didn't reach him.
Subaru quietly muttered "damn it," then turned his gaze toward the depths of the forest: "The ones who were at that place during the daytime—the missing kids are them... Ah, damn it, it's real. That servant girl isn't here."
Six people lay here—all of them children whose names Subaru recognized. But the one missing from this group was the girl who had led him to the dogs' location during the day. A timid girl, perhaps shy, who'd had a hard time fitting into their circle.
She was nowhere to be found. And Luka, in his briefly recovered consciousness, hadn't said "help me" or "it hurts"—he'd said that "she was taken deeper in."
A child who hadn't even turned ten yet, still in a life-threatening condition, and instead of worrying about himself, he'd been concerned about someone else—a friend's safety.
"Son of a bitch."
Cursing again, Subaru rose to his feet.
Perhaps she hadn't caught the exchange with Luka, as Rem looked at him with a question on her face. Subaru turned to her and pointed his finger: "Question, Rem. If I keep the healing spell on the children continuously, can you extend the time limit?"
"...In the current situation, yes. But it really is just buying time. Rem would be tied down here too."
Unable to read Subaru's intentions, Rem's response was halting.
Listening to her, Subaru's mind spun wildly. What should he do? What was the best move for him—who was utterly useless in this situation?
There was only one option he could think of. It was quite the gamble, but— "Rem. One of the kids has been taken deeper in. I think that's where those magical beasts you mentioned are."
"Deeper... but if they were taken one at a time, then that means—"
Rem was about to voice the worst-case scenario, but Subaru stopped her with an outstretched palm, silencing her. With a furrowed brow, he said: "I know the situation's bad. But we somehow managed to save the lives of kids I thought were beyond help. Shouldn't we at least try to save the rest too?"
"If you get greedy, you might end up dropping the ones you could've safely carried back."
"That's exactly why I need you to make sure that doesn't happen!"
Rem's nose wrinkled at his persistence. Subaru spread both arms wide in front of her: "With your strength, carrying six kids and running should be a walk in the park, right? Meanwhile, I used to think I was pretty strong, but six kids? No way. Two at best, three if I really push it. I can't use healing magic, and right now there's practically nothing I can do here. So I should make effective use of the piece that has its hands free."
"..."
"I'll go check on the kid deeper in. Rem, you take the children back to the village. —Don't worry, I'm not gonna do anything reckless, stupid, or suicidal. Hand the kids off to the villagers, then fly back here."
Rem listened in silence to Subaru's outlandish reasoning.
Seeing that her gaze hadn't softened one bit, Subaru nevertheless kept talking his way through with a smooth-talker's silver tongue: "If the kid deeper in... in the worst case, I'll turn back too. But if there's still hope, I can at least buy some time."
"I don't even know what kind of opponent we're dealing with, and I don't know how long it'll take me to get back. In the worst case, we could lose track of each other and fail to regroup..."
Subaru's judgment seemed unacceptable to Rem, and she grabbed his sleeve, pressing her argument.
Was she worried about him, or simply unable to stomach his reckless proposal?
*I'd like to think it's the former,* he thought, offering a wry smile as he gently pried her fingers from his sleeve. Taking her freed hand: "Nah, I won't lose track of you."
"On what basis...?"
"Oh, I've got plenty of basis."
He grinned, tapped his own nose with a finger, then pointed at her face: "You've got confidence in your nose, right? And as it happens, apparently I give off a pretty obnoxious stink. I've been told so multiple times by L-rin, V-ko, and the like."
Rem fell silent, eyes wide.
Double-pointing at her stunned expression, he turned it back on her—like payback directed at the Rem she used to be, the Rem this Rem didn't know: "Even if nobody else notices, you alone would pick up on my scent. The foul stench clinging to me, the lingering trace of the guilty—that's right, isn't it?"
"How much... do you know, Subaru-kun?"
"Who knows. I don't know a damn thing. There's a whole lot I don't know, and yesterday, today, and tomorrow, no matter how many times I repeat it, I can't seem to reach the answer I want."
At the sudden shift in topic, Rem looked thoroughly bewildered. While he felt a twinge of sympathy for her reaction, he was also somewhat amazed at his own state of mind—that he could turn something like this into a moment to laugh about.
Really, he'd have to give himself a pat on the back for those thick nerves of his.
"Just like you seem to have a whole bunch of things you want to ask me, I've got a whole bunch of things I want to ask you too. So once everything's settled, let's have a proper talk. All night long, in each other's rooms, in our pajamas—a late-night girls' talk. It's a promise, okay?"
And with that, he forcibly interlaced the finger he'd been holding with her own.
With their pinkies linked, Rem looked at Subaru with puzzled eyes. Before her, Subaru waved their interlocked fingers up and down in a wide arc: "Pinky swear."
"Wh-What was... that?"
"A promise ritual from my homeland. Break it, and you have to swallow a thousand needles. A thousand points of damage in one hit—so in an RPG where your HP's only three digits, that's an instant-kill move."
Overwhelmed, Subaru's words and actions had gone beyond Rem's comprehension. As she sat buried in layers of confusion, lost for words, Subaru prefaced with "In short": "I trust Rem-rin. And I want to act in a way that makes Rem-rin trust me too. That's the promise I want to make right now."
"————"
"I told you, didn't I? I'm the type who keeps promises and makes sure others keep theirs too. So don't worry—everything's gonna be fine."
"Pu...?"
Unable to hold back any longer, Rem let out a sigh of exasperation mixed with a helpless smile.
Still unable to suppress her laughter, Rem kept chuckling softly, and as if drawn in, Subaru too laughed without making a sound.
Once they'd had their fill of laughter, Rem raised her face: "I'm making you promise. —And I really am going to ask you all sorts of things."
"I'll tell you my first crush's name, any name you want—except the girl I'm currently into."
"I already know that."
"Even though it never reaches the person in question!"
He was recreating that exchange they'd had—something he'd left behind somewhere—and in doing so, Subaru found his satisfaction. Rem, with a serious expression: "I'll be right back. Please, absolutely do not do anything reckless. You'll have Lady
"I don't want Emilia-tan mad at me either. I'll be careful. —Besides, I'll be fine. Today, I'm pretty much demon-powered."
"De...mon-powered?"
"The demon version of divine possession! My latest favorite thing!"
Crossing both arms and spreading his legs, he grabbed at empty air in a new pose.
What did Rem think of Subaru's frivolous bravado?
She didn't comment on his attitude, simply leaving behind: "See you in a bit."
Then she gathered all the children into one bundle and lifted them onto her shoulders. For a small-framed girl to carry six people on her slight frame—however young they might be—it was like a street performance. Even in this situation, watching that departing back, Subaru couldn't help but smile.
Left alone on the gentle hill in the forest, in a world that had fallen silent, Subaru exhaled deeply and slowly turned in the direction Rem had gone: "All right, then. Let's do this, self."
Spurring himself on so he wouldn't tremble, he bit down hard on the pinky that had just made a promise, and broke into a run.
—What awaited him at the end of the road: despair, hope, or something else entirely.
The fourth morning that should have come so many times already felt impossibly far away.