——Subaru's consciousness was once again summoned into a world shrouded in dark mist.
A world ruled by nothing but pitch-black nothingness.
His consciousness alone drifted in the void, and Subaru vaguely became aware of his own existence.
No one was there. Nothing was there. Nothing was happening.
There was no beginning. No end. A world where only nothingness existed.
Surrendering himself to the sensation—like being cast adrift on a vast, empty ocean at night—Subaru let even his thoughts slip away, sinking into the waves of inaction.
And then, suddenly, change came to that world of darkness.
Right in front of him—or rather, in front of where his consciousness alone remained—someone was standing.
A shadow stretched vertically from what seemed to be the ground, taking on the shape of a figure and rising into existence.
He couldn't see the face. The form was hazy. Still, he vaguely thought it was probably the shadow of a woman.
The shadow wavered, then slowly extended a hand toward him.
If he just reached out his fingers, he would be able to touch. And at that moment, Subaru realized that where only consciousness had existed before, he now possessed a body that could respond—though only a right arm and a half-formed left hand had materialized.
His consciousness hesitated as he watched the fingers extending toward him.
The gesture was tender, as if cradling something precious, and for some reason it made him want to cry.
It was an inexplicable sentimentality—as though he had been waiting for this very thing for ages.
The shadow shifted further, and Subaru instinctively tried to press his own fingers against that hand—but stopped. No, he was stopped.
A white hand reaching from behind had enveloped his own.
Soft, almost feverishly warm.
He wanted to turn around, to see the owner of that palm. But unlike his arm, his field of vision wouldn't obey his will, and he simply couldn't turn.
His movement was restrained as though forbidden, and gradually the grip of the palm grew stronger, pulling his consciousness backward.
That, in effect, meant parting from the shadow before him.
The outstretched fingers moved as if pleading, clinging, aching—as if beckoning Subaru.
In contrast to his captured right hand, his still-empty left hand reached toward those fingers, but it existed only halfway, scraping uselessly against the darkness without ever reaching them.
His heart trembled. His passion screamed. —But there was no mouth to give it sound.
Growing farther away, farther away, vanishing—the shadow.
It reached out its fingers one last time toward Subaru, who looked ready to cry, "—ove you"
The final words he couldn't quite make out grew hazy too, and the world disappeared.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The first thing Subaru saw upon waking was a familiar, extravagant ceiling.
In a mansion brimming with aristocratic tastes, even the servants' private quarters existed in a state of decorative excess. When it came to a guest room meant to welcome visitors, it was inevitable that the décor would go overboard—serving as a showcase for the master's authority and everything else.
No matter the reason, the discomfort it gave to a commoner like Subaru was plain as day.
Using the shorter-than-average thinking time it took to fully wake, Subaru idly mused about such things.
Then— "—Are you awake?"
Five seconds after opening his eyes—once Subaru's consciousness was fully alert—the voice came.
It originated from right beside the bed, extremely close. Subaru tilted his head on the remarkably soft pillow and looked over, "...Good morning,
"Guh...? Is that a greeting from your homeland, Subaru-kun?"
"No, back where I'm from it's more like a regional dialect. All I really know is 'danke.' 'Buono' was different, wasn't it?"
He suddenly worried—in this world, were there language differences between countries? The nature of how Subaru's linguistic comprehension actually worked had never been properly examined, so that issue would need to be handled quite carefully.
Anyway— "Waking up to a maid right beside me—this is every boy's dream, in a sense."
"...Considering the trouble Rem caused this time, making up for it with something like this—"
"Ah, no need for that self-deprecating stuff. Nono—more importantly—"
Sitting up, shaking his head with each word, Subaru gingerly raised his right hand from beneath the covers. It was firmly clasped with the hand of the blue-haired girl, "Did I do this? Like, I grabbed your hand and wouldn't let go? If so, that's pretty embarrassing. It's like when I was a kid and couldn't let go of my favorite towel."
"No, well, that is..."
In response to Subaru's question, Rem fidgeted with their still-connected hands, then barely tinted her cheeks as she lowered her gaze, "I was the one who held your hand."
"Wait, what? Just so you know, I sweat like a beast when I sleep—especially my hands and around the groin. Summer heat rash is a life-or-death problem."
"Subaru-kun..."
"Hm?"
Glancing at their clasped hands, Rem mumbled and faltered. Subaru waited with a calm demeanor, without rushing her.
Taking several breaths, Rem looked up at him with her eyes from underneath, "You looked like you were suffering in your sleep... so I took your hand."
"You held it for me?"
"Rem is ignorant, talentless, and full of flaws. That's why I never know what to do in moments like this. Since I didn't know, I thought... I'd do what I would have most wanted done for me."
Even if it led to embarrassing memories, her halting words were clumsy but earnest.
Still, Subaru looked down at their joined hands and let a faint smile slip across his lips—for Rem had made her feelings clear.
In front of Subaru, who had been like a child trembling from a nightmare, she had chosen this gentle method.
Sometime in her own past, on a night when she too had felt like crying, someone must have held her hand like this. And the fact that she had done that for Subaru made him feel flustered and happy at the same time.
"That said—stop putting yourself down so much, Rem-rin. That kind of thing isn't good. A negative spiral is easy to fall into but a pain to climb out of."
"...You may be right. In Rem's case, I've already lost track of the exit."
A feeble smile. It didn't sit right with Subaru.
Though he was bubbling with feelings inside, "...Anyway, forget the aftermath for now—I want to hear how things actually went down."
"Yes. How much do you remember, Subaru-kun?"
"Old Roswaal came raining down fire from the sky going full berserker, and then an overexcited Rem bear-hugged me into unconsciousness. That's where it cuts off."
"...Then I suppose I'll start from after that."
Rem began to recount the events that followed in a matter-of-fact tone.
After Subaru lost consciousness, Roswaal conducted a sweep of the Wolgarm within the forest. Even while unconscious, Subaru continued to emit a faint trace of the
The pack that had blended into the shadows of the miasma was wiped out by the flames, and the stragglers scattered throughout the forest were incinerated along with them.
"So, regarding my curse..."
"With the caster's death, there is no risk of it activating. Roswaal-sama,
"Well, with three opinions backing that up, I guess I can relax..."
Not knowing exactly where the curse had been placed, Subaru rubbed his chest and let out a sigh of relief.
At least the time bomb planted directly in his body had been defused. He'd nearly died for it so many times that just remembering made him short of breath.
"Roswaal-sama personally handled the village's chaos as well. The children are all in good condition, and the village has mostly returned to normal."
"Oh good, oh good. But you know—they must've been devastated that their beloved big brother Subaru came back all bloody and tattered. Some of them must've cried, right? Ah, well, can't be helped, I guess."
"—Yes, that's right."
As she said this, Rem slowly and meaningfully pulled Subaru's blanket away. He instinctively curled up, going "No way," but the gesture was immediately halted.
The cause lay beneath the blanket—Subaru's clothes. They were the same work-style garments he'd been dressed in on his first day at the Roswaal mansion, when he'd been carried in injured. But there was something off about them—specifically the lower half. Covered— "Covered head to toe in drawings... Was this a cast for a broken bone?!"
"Out of kindness, Roswaal-sama invited the children from the village over, and they left these behind."
"Good grief, those kids..."
Suppressing the urge to click his tongue, Subaru examined the drawings. From his perspective they were upside down, and the handwriting was messy, making them quite difficult to read.
But they were all in simple letters that even Subaru could make out, so after taking his time, he managed to read them all.
"Good grief, those kids."
Same words as before. But the emotion behind them was subtly different.
Leaning back against the bed's pillow, Subaru turned his gaze toward the window, wishing the time would come when he could return to the village as soon as possible.
*'Thank you for bringing Rem-rin back'* • *'Thaaaaank you'* • *'You look cool even though you look uncool'* • *'Let's keep that promise and do the radio exercise'* • *'I love you'* "Heh. Idiots. Obviously I like you guys more than you like me."
So easy to say "I love you"—their words are cheap, Subaru thought.
He didn't realize that this would come back to hit him like a boomerang.
While Subaru grumbled under the warm gaze directed at him, Rem straightened her expression and then, with trembling lips, "There is something I need to tell you about your body, Subaru-kun. Regarding your condition."
"Mm, yeah, right. Forget the curse—my body was pretty much in emergency mode even apart from that."
Even as he said it, Subaru belatedly noticed that Rem was holding his right hand—which shouldn't have had a shoulder attached to it.
Testing it with a little force, he felt no discomfort and no pain. Treatment must have been administered. The healing magic of this world really was something else.
That was what Subaru was thinking when— "I'm sorry, Subaru-kun."
Right in front of Subaru, who was reaching an optimistic conclusion, Rem bent at the waist and bowed her head.
Not knowing why he was being apologized to, Subaru waved his hand at her, "Head up, Rem-rin. My condition isn't bad at all? My shoulder's back in place, nothing else hurts. I'm in perfect shape, perfect."
"That is not the case. The conspicuous wounds have indeed been treated, and thankfully there are no lasting aftereffects that would impede daily life. But—"
Cutting herself off, Rem let a shadow of anguish fall across her face, "The scars will remain. On my body, of course. And on my heart as well. Moreover, due to the repeated treatments, the mana in your body is on the verge of exhaustion."
"Ah, that explains it. I was feeling a little sluggish. ...But that's not a big deal. A man's scars, anywhere except his back, are badges of honor—and when it comes to wounds of the heart, I'm one tough customer."
Giving a thumbs-up, Subaru smiled, trying to wipe away her guilt.
It wasn't a lie. If Subaru's heart had been as fragile as glass, he never could have greeted this morning with her hand in his like this.
If they were going to talk about emotional scars, Subaru had experienced things that would have made it perfectly reasonable if he couldn't even meet Rem's gaze.
Thinking that far, Subaru looked steadily at Rem.
Short blue hair. Features that leaned more toward cute than pretty. An expression he'd once thought was lacking in emotional variety now shifted and changed moment to moment. Not frightening. Not frightening at all. There was the Rem who had sent him spiraling through loops, and there was this Rem who was genuinely overjoyed at his return. Everything depended on how things turned out—that was what he felt.
There was the Rem who went berserk thinking of Roswaal, and the Rem who jumped to hasty conclusions thinking of Subaru. And once you accepted there was no risk of friendly fire, there was the Rem who charged into berserker mode with her rationality out the window—that too was a fact— "You look calm and collected, but honestly, Rem-rin, you're not level-headed at all, are you?"
Her usual behavior at the mansion, her work as a senior maid training Subaru. Judging by those standards, Rem came across as an extremely capable person with cool-headed judgment.
But when the situation drifted outside those boundaries, she had a tendency to go charging off in the most wildly unpredictable direction.
Subaru wasn't exactly one to talk when it came to snap decisions, but in Rem's case it was especially troublesome because her impulsiveness was backed by actual fighting ability—and the strength to make good on it.
At Subaru's observation, Rem froze for just an instant, then hung her head weakly.
Keeping her face lowered, she murmured, "I know that."
Then, as if pouring out what was in her heart drop by drop, "Rem is powerless, talentless, a failure of the Oni. That's why no matter what, I often fall short no matter how hard I run. That's why the only way I can think of to catch up with my sister is to start running ahead of her."
She covered the face that had been visible with her hand, and continued as if wringing the words out, "My sister would have done better. My sister wouldn't have stumbled in a place like this. My sister definitely wouldn't have wavered. My sister would handle it easily, no question. My sister would never make a mistake. My sister, my sister, my sister—"
Cutting off, Rem looked at Subaru with eyes that held a feeble light.
What floated in her eyes was not tears. It was emptiness, and resignation, and despair.
"Rem is... a substitute for my sister. A vastly inferior one who can never catch up to the real sister, no matter how much time passes. A failed copy."
—and suddenly, a faint shimmer of moisture welled up in her eyes.
"Why was it Rem's horn that remained? Why didn't my sister's horn remain? Why was my sister born with only a single horn? Why—why were my sister and Rem twins?"
Her lips trembled as though searching for her own reason to exist.
The drops pooling in her eyes traced her cheeks, leaving a sorrowful glistening on her pale skin.
Subaru fell silent. Unable to endure that silence, Rem hastily wiped her tears, broke composure, and forced an awkward smile, "S-sorry. I said something strange. Please forget it. I've never said this to anyone before, so this is strange and—"
"Hey, Rem."
Rem spoke rapidly, trying to take back what she'd just said.
Subaru cut through her words, calling her name. Breaking the silence—what words would Subaru choose? Rem raised her face, afraid of the answer.
And to her, Subaru said, "Where's the punchline?"
"...Eh?"
"I said, the punchline! The big finish that has everyone rolling on the floor laughing. There's got to be one—you just gave a whole monologue."
Not understanding what Subaru was getting at, Rem's eyes darted about in confusion, "What on earth are you..."
"That's how unfunny your story was. —Rem, you were in the middle of something before. Remember?"
At his question, Rem's eyes clouded over. Seeing her reaction, Subaru grinned and said "Can't be helped," then raised his left hand and held up one finger in front of Rem.
"All right, let's review. First idiot: saying she couldn't save me. Can you see me right here, bouncing along? I've got both feet on the ground."
He wiggled his feet as a demonstration. Rem seemed to grasp the topic Subaru had brought up, but she still shook her head weakly, "That's just results-based reasoning..."
"An old saying goes, 'All's well that ends well.' If you're grading the middle of the race, honestly, I look even worse than you. That aside—second idiot: trying to carry everything by yourself and go it alone, huh?"
He winked, holding up a second finger, "I mean, going berserk for my sake is flattering, I guess, but that's a matter of time and circumstance. More than anything, if you'd just consulted with me, we'd have figured out a better approach."
When it came to the demon beast hunt, the logic in Subaru's words was self-evident. Rem bit her lip in shame over her rashness, swallowing her rebuttal.
Of course, this was hindsight analysis based on seeing the outcome—and the overwhelmed Rem didn't catch that, while Subaru quietly stuck out his tongue and silently apologized for being mean.
Then Subaru slid his face into view beneath her lowered one.
Seeing her startled expression, he grinned and held up a third finger, "And then, the third idiot you couldn't say back then. No, the third one already snuck out back then, so technically it's the fourth idiot. A bunch of idiots."
"There's nothing I can say, because Rem did all of those things."
"Yeah, that. That's the fourth idiot."
He pointed it out to Rem, who couldn't break out of the pattern of self-deprecation, then fluttered all four raised fingers, "Obsessing over things that already happened and only looking backward—"
"——"
"Rem, you're always going 'if only my sister, if only my sister,' practically worshipping
As Subaru recalled Ram's specs and contrasted them with the ideal Rem kept describing, the gap was staggering. In every ability, the older sister was inferior to the younger. As they themselves were well aware, Ram was outclassed by Rem in every metric—so much so that Rem had absolutely no need to put herself down.
But at Subaru's assessment, Rem shook her head in rejection, "No, that's not it. My sister—the real my sister—was so much more. If she still had her horn, if my sister's horn was still there, then..."
"But Ram doesn't have that 'if' horn. So the high-spec Ram with a horn isn't one I know."
Cutting off Rem, who was trying to deny herself with a predetermined answer, Subaru touched his chin with his left hand, "The Ram I know is just like I said. Her cooking, sewing, cleaning, manners, and her mouth—all worse than Rem's. ...Well, I kinda like that about her."
Her attitude was so arrogant that clashing with her every now and then wasn't so bad.
The distance between them in their relationship—Subaru found that kind of thing comfortable. And when it came to the question of whether she had a horn or not, "Probably, the only one worrying about that kind of thing is you, Rem."
He recalled the brief conversation he'd had with Ram in the forest.
Her attachment to being Oni didn't seem to weigh on Ram that heavily. If anything, Ram seemed like she wanted to do something about Rem's fixation on it.
As for doing something about it himself—Subaru harbored no such grand notions.
After all, he was a hopelessly young punk with comically little life experience, an introvert even thinner in density than his own age group.
The lip service of someone like him—how could that possibly resonate with anyone's heart?
He wouldn't get his hopes up. He wouldn't try to force it to land.
What each person had to come to terms with inside themselves was something that ultimately couldn't be outsourced to anyone else—it had to be handled on their own.
So what Subaru told Rem was an exceedingly simple imposition of his own feelings.
"If you hadn't been there, I'd have been chomped to pieces by dogs by now. You saved me. I'm alive right now because of you. It's not just your sister—it's because of you."
"...If it were the real my sister, she would have done better."
"Maybe. —But the one who was there was you."
Smothering her weak rebuttal, Subaru pressed his left hand over their still-clasped right hands.
Rem's head snapped up, and Subaru gave her a wry smile, "I'm glad you were there, Rem. Thank you."
"—!"
At Subaru's words, Rem let out a strangled sound from her throat.
Then she turned her face away, hiding her expression from Subaru, "Rem has always been... a substitute for my sister..."
"Quit with that lonely self-definition. For starters, you're in completely different categories—Ram and Rem. After all, you've got the older-sister type and the younger-sister type—sometimes those can cause a war."
An irreconcilable difference in preference—though Subaru thought privately that both had their merits—Rem squeezed her eyes shut.
"Well, here's the thing. From now on, take advantage of the twin dynamic. If Ram's brain is quick but her body can't keep up, you handle the parts she can't. A beautiful sisterly bond, covering for each other's weaknesses—that makes you the strongest team."
"I suppose Rem's rashness is a flaw after all..."
"Don't nitpick when things are going well. Oh right—I just thought of something."
Clapping his hands, Subaru's face lit up with what he thought was a brilliant idea.
Then, leaning toward Rem, who still had her face turned away, "Rem-rin, you just asked something, didn't you? About why Ram doesn't have a horn but you do."
"...Yes."
"Well, I don't know the details of why Ram lost her horn, and I won't pretend to understand. But since I don't understand, I'll just say what I can say."
Subaru tapped his own forehead—right where Rem's horn used to grow, "You can be Ram's substitute for the missing horn. You two can be the happy 'Oni' duo together. It's got a nice ring to it."
"—Ah..."
"And besides, even if you call yourself a substitute, there's no substitute for Rem that exists for Ram. Can you imagine what would happen if Rem disappeared?"
Rem couldn't—she was speechless—but Subaru knew that future.
He had seen her scream in agony over her sister's death, wailing as though the world were ending, driven mad with fury as she sought to destroy whoever was responsible with every ounce of power she had.
"...Still..."
Even so, Rem wouldn't readily nod along to Subaru's words.
Persuading people was never easy. In her case, she had been wrestling with these feelings for years upon years—the knot in her heart was as hard as iron.
To such a stubborn person, Subaru scratched his head and said, "Fine, then let's do this. You keep comparing yourself to this idealized version of Ram in your head, and no matter what you do, it never measures up, right? Then just get rid of that idealized Ram you're measuring yourself against."
"That's not something I can do easily. Rem has always been, with my sister..."
"If you want an evaluation, ask me. I'll give you a much more honest assessment than the Ram in your head. Just so you know, I've got no ability to read the room, so I'm going to be blunt. No flattery, no mercy, nothing held back. So there."
He grinned and ruffled Rem's blue hair with his left hand.
She squinted, tickled by it, and Subaru let out a small breath, "Back in my hometown, they say 'a demon would laugh if you talk about the future.' So—"
With Rem unable to say anything, just letting him lead, Subaru tilted his head and continued, "Laugh, Rem. Stop looking so morose and laugh. Let's talk about the future while we laugh. All the time you wasted looking backward—let's spend it looking forward, having a conversation. Starting with tomorrow, for starters."
"...Tomorrow."
"Yeah, tomorrow. Anything's fine—like whether tomorrow's breakfast should be Japanese or Western, or whether you put on your right sock or left sock first, even something that mundane. Any boring, trivial conversation works—because it's a conversation about a future that exists thanks to tomorrow."
Spreading his hands, Subaru wrapped up his speech that way and shrugged at Rem, asking for her answer.
She hesitated for a moment, then drooped her brows with a troubled expression, "Rem is very weak. So I'll probably lean on you."
"That's fine? I'm weak, stupid, bad at reading the room—I mean, just saying it makes me depressed, but that's how I live, expecting everyone around me to cover for me. We can just lean on each other and move forward."
Because she always tried to carry everything alone, her eyes were fixed only on that burden, and she couldn't see the road ahead. If you were walking with both hands empty, like Subaru did, it'd be a lot easier—though somehow, luggage still found its way to you. But if carrying it all alone made it impossible to see ahead, you just share the load with someone. Something like that—how about it?
"Let's walk shoulder to shoulder and laugh while we talk about tomorrow—about the future. Talking about next year with an Oni while laughing together—it's been my dream."
"...You've got the demon part down."
"Right?"
He closed one eye and crooked his mouth, and Rem, caught up in the moment, let out a small laugh.
And then, from the corner of her laughing eyes, tears suddenly spilled over. They tumbled down, ceaseless, overflowing freely—but Rem kept on laughing.
Laughing through tears, laughing through tears, Rem pressed her face into the bed to stifle her sobs and her laughter, and still her tearful laughter fell softly into the room.
Subaru kept gently stroking her hair the whole time.
His right hand remained firmly clasped with hers all the way to the end.
Gently, gently, he kept on stroking.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Recalling the days at the Roswaal mansion.
The first loop began, and he died on the fourth night—cause of death: exhaustion.
Entering the second loop, he died on the fourth night—cause of death: killed by Rem.
In the third loop, he despaired and died on the evening of the third day—cause of death: slaughtered by Ram.
In the fourth loop, he rallied and died on the evening of the fifth day—cause of death: fatal fall from a leap.
And the fifth loop. He was bitten by dogs all over, clawed to ribbons from every direction, lost a massive amount of blood and mental energy, and was left with scars across his body that he wanted to look away from—but he'd picked up every last piece, or so he thought.
His relationship with Rem and Ram. His standing within the mansion. The village children were saved. The demon beasts in the forest were exterminated and no danger remained. A full twenty-odd days of adventure—all's well that ends well.
Yes, all's well that ends well. It should have been.
"It's not like I'm angry or anything. Yes, that's right, not angry at all. It's just that the person I was devotedly nursing turned out to be gone when I woke up, so I went to look for him and found him bound to a chair like a hostage—and I was left completely out of the loop. But I'm not the kind of small-minded person who would get upset over something like that."
Sitting in a chair beside his bed, toying with her own silver hair with one finger, this young woman cornered Subaru with her sour mood.
Without her presence, Subaru would have been sweating buckets just trying to endure.
It had been ten minutes since she entered the room, and most of that time had been occupied by this lecture thinly disguised as resentment.
That said, when she first came in, she had thoroughly checked his physical condition, confirmed he wasn't still injured, let out a sigh of relief—and only after composing herself and settling into the chair did she switch gears and begin. Her earnestness did come through, at least.
Anyway, "It's not like I'm angry."
"Yes,
"I said I'm not angry! If you really believe I am, then I suppose I have no choice but to accept that apology. —Seriously, don't make me worry like that."
Swept up in Emilia's momentum, Subaru apologized. Emilia smiled with satisfaction at this, then added one last touch—a tender, loving color to her smile.
That was absolutely unfair. How was he supposed to brush that off when she said it with that face?
After Rem had finished crying and left the room (she had strongly impressed upon him that the fact she'd been crying was to remain an absolute secret, so he was now deliberating how to casually avoid letting anyone find out), it was Emilia who came to visit the tossing-and-turning Subaru.
Her behavior upon arriving was as described above. But once it was all done, what remained in her eyes was nothing but tender concern for Subaru's well-being—and it was unbearably embarrassing.
"Even so, Subaru, you really can't go five minutes without getting hurt, can you? You only came to this mansion because of an injury, and it's only been four days since then..."
"It's not like I enjoy getting hurt! It's just that the world is a little hard on me, that's all... So the least Emilia-tan could do is spoil me rotten to balance things out!"
"The second I try to give you a sweet smile, you run away. I'm not doing it anymore."
"Nooo! I threw away my chance! Damn it, Beatrice, you should've done a better job! What's this about being tied up?!"
Still having not seen the face of the ringletted girl since waking, Subaru shouted her name as a way of venting his frustration at the unfairness he'd endured.
At the word "tied up" from Subaru's mouth, Emilia's eyes drifted into the distance, "You fell asleep in the chair, and when you woke up, you were fastened to the backrest. I was completely startled."
"Startled—that's kind of a rare expression."
"Don't joke about it. ...And
Pouting her lips, Emilia looked a bit angry.
Subaru could only respond with earnest contrition.
Puck, as it turned out, had done what he intended—keeping Emilia out of harm's way. Beatrice had apparently given up on the approach of convincing him and pivoted to forcibly locking him down. The two of them had blocked her path, leaving her with no way forward—that must have been a thoroughly miserable experience.
If it were Subaru who had been left behind, he'd have felt exactly the same way.
Though even if the same situation arose again, he was fairly certain he still wouldn't have taken her along.
"But you saved me again, huh?"
"Hm?"
"I said, you saved me again. I invited you to the mansion to thank you for saving my life, and yet here we are. I'm, like, super grateful."
Pressing her palms together, Emilia let her composure crumble into a wry smile.
Hearing this, Subaru finally exhaled, "No, no, it's fine, really. I only did what I wanted to do, and it wasn't like it had nothing to do with me. That's right. I did it."
As he said it, he finally gained a sense of it.
Something that had been solidifying in his chest dropped away with a soft thud.
The twenty-odd days of repeating, looping days he had endured—he had reached their end.
All that pain, all that heartbreak, all that being broken down and crushed—and still, the thing he had desperately sought was finally, finally within reach.
He had done it. Only now could he actually feel it.
"I figured Subaru would say something like that, but that doesn't settle things with me. Roswaal, Ram, and Rem—they'd all want to thank you too."
"Yeah... All right, I'll take you up on that. I'll have Roswaal renegotiate my employment terms to something more favorable, and Ram and Rem can be my exclusive maids for a while—muahaha. And!"
Placing a hand over his mouth with a lecherous grin, Subaru swayed his body side to side toward Emilia, who leaned back slightly, and he pointed a finger at her, "Will Emilia-tan be giving me a reward of some kind too?"
"...You're so money-minded. Just so you know, it can only be something within my ability. ...Speaking of which, last time you asked for my name."
"Hmph, don't underestimate my greed. This new me has no place for such softness! Avarice, greed, a whirlpool of libido—it drives me forward!"
Unable to get out of bed, Subaru still struck a dramatic pose with both arms raised diagonally.
Seeing Subaru in such high spirits, Emilia didn't expect a half-hearted request to follow, and straightened up to face him squarely.
Her posture said *let's hear it*, so Subaru nodded and searched his brain for his hastily assembled "Emilia-tan Reward List."
Among the options ranging from minor adventures to dashing up a staircase in grand leaps, Subaru deliberated, made his selection, and— "Then let's go on a date, Emilia-tan."
He renewed the promise he had made twenty days ago.
"A what?"
"We go out together, just the two of us, see the same things, eat the same food, do the same things, and share the same memories."
"...That's enough?"
"That's more than enough."
That was where the first step had begun.
How much hardship Subaru had gone through for the sake of that longed-for date with her.
Along the way, all sorts of feelings had accumulated, and the threshold Subaru sought with each loop kept climbing higher—but the hurdle he wished to clear at the very end had always been right there.
That was why a promise like this was the fitting conclusion to these repeating days.
"I want to brag to the village kids about Emilia-tan anyway, and there's an amazing flower field there. Just walking through it without a thought—already special to me."
"The meaning of 'greed' in Subaru's dictionary might be different from the usual one."
"Just you wait. Sooner or later, my audacity will freeze that smile right off your face. E—M—B! (Emilia-tan, Magnificent Bodhisattva!)"
The promise was sealed, and Subaru struck a victory pose, shouting it out loud.
Hearing Emilia's small sigh of exasperation, Subaru gazed out the window with a buoyant feeling—eagerly awaiting his body's full recovery.
The direction of the village. The destination of his promised date.
Letting his thoughts drift there, Subaru suddenly thought of the demon beast forest.
The curse that had taken root in his body—it had lost all its power, apparently.
That meant the Wolgarm in that forest had been exterminated. It had all started with a single beast that had slipped through the gap in the broken barrier.
In the end, everything had been resolved with the total annihilation of one side.
There was an inexplicable aftertaste of wrongness.
He couldn't simply be happy that the dangerous beasts were gone. Not wholeheartedly.
He suddenly recalled—there in the forest, in a frenzy, the feeling of driving his sword into that demon beast's body.
The sensation of steel biting into flesh was unique, and it lingered vividly in his palm.
The sensation of taking a life.
He thought that someday, even that feeling would fade.
With the passage of time, this vague thing that visited his chest would surely disappear.
A sensation he hadn't known before coming to this other world.
Until the day came when he would forget it—what could he do now— "Subaru."
"Hmm?"
Turned around by the call.
From afar—at Subaru's gaze that had gone distant—how did she read its meaning?
Emilia brushed back her silver hair, walked to the window, and drew open the curtains.
Sunlight that had been blocked flooded into the room all at once, and her silver hair was swallowed up in a dance of light, gently pulling Subaru's eyes toward the sight.
And then, to the silent Subaru, Emilia gave a soft smile, "On our date, let's bring a flower bouquet."
"—Yeah."
Receiving that smile, Subaru covered his face with his palm—*I can't win against her.* Until the day came when he would forget, he would engrave it in his heart without forgetting.
It was self-righteous, a sentimental imposition—but he didn't think it was wrong.
Because Emilia's smile seemed to tell him it was right.
The two of them sat together, smiling at each other as time slipped by.
—At last, the morning sun of the fifth day arrived, and kept gently shining down on the two of them.