Whether to head toward the sound or not—the hesitation lasted only a few seconds.
Subaru himself wasn't entirely sure what tipped the scales.
It could have been the loneliness of being lost, that craving for human contact. It could have been his meddlesome nature—the kind that couldn't resist playing bystander the moment he spotted trouble. Or perhaps, having repeated those first few hours over and over, the silver-haired girl had never let a scene like this slip by.
Despite his gut telling him something was wrong, Subaru stepped forward—and stumbled right into the thick of it.
"What the hell are you laughing at, bitch!? You want me to blow that pretty face of yours off, huh!?"
"Quiet down, you lowborn thing. Those lacking in breeding always seem to pick fights without any class."
Spitting fury and spraying saliva, the man glared with rage. The voice that answered him was crystal clear, sharp as a blade, and laced with lethal poison.
Subaru peeked around the corner, head only, cautiously sizing up the situation.
Ahead, in a narrow alley, a girl had been cornered by three men, her escape routes completely cut off.
He almost sighed at the textbook thugs-picking-on-girls setup, but what really caught his attention wasn't the situation—it was the girl herself, a figure so out of place in this dingy alley that it was almost absurd.
Vivid orange hair gleamed like it had captured the sun itself, gathered by a barrette and cascading down her back. A dazzling crimson dress that would show off its full splendor at a ball or a noblewoman's tea party—but in a grimy, uneven back alley, it looked utterly out of place.
Ornaments adorned her neck, ears, and fingers—each one obviously a first-class piece even to an untrained eye. Altogether, the full ensemble would bankrupt Subaru a hundred times over.
And standing amid all those lavish accessories, the girl's own appearance outshone every last one of them.
Sharply slanted red eyes. Thin peach-blossom lips. Skin white as fresh snow. A beauty so devastating that artists would collectively snap their brushes in defeat—and Subaru was once again reminded just how absurdly different this otherworld's standards could be.
Surrounding her, the men bared their aggression with furious shouts.
The girl met them head-on with a composed stare. There was not a hint of bravado in her attitude—nor, for that matter, did her slender frame seem to harbor the strength to brush them aside.
Though, even if it did, he should probably treat the situation as unconfirmed.
Arms crossed, the girl lifted her ample chest and settled into a nonchalant stance. The men interpreted the gesture as further provocation, their tempers visibly rising— "H-Hey! Sorry to keep you waiting!"
Without thinking, Subaru thrust his hand up and wedged himself right in the middle of the standoff.
Drawing the gazes of all four—three thugs plus the girl—onto himself, Subaru offered an apologetic knife-hand gesture toward the thugs.
"Looks like there's been a little trouble here, but could you let it slide for my sake? See, I know it might not be obvious from the look of her, but this girl's got a few screws loose up here. You get what I'm saying?"
In a city whose dark side was anything but safe, here she was dressed head-to-toe like a celebrity begging to be mugged. If that wasn't the look of someone whose brain was running on half power, what was?
Setting aside the fact that he himself had gotten lost after losing his mind over a beast-person's fluff, Subaru brightly told the frowning men, "Right then, we'll be off!"—and grabbed the girl's hand.
"Mm."
"Come on, let's not bother these gentlemen any further. Today's the day we're supposed to split sweets and feed each other 'aah'—"
Spouting a fabricated version of his fantasy date schedule with
"Oh?"
The arm he held was seized by another hand from above. With a twisting motion, Subaru's body was wrenched off-balance. Bent forward, his torso spun around as if being ground in a circle— "Do not touch me so casually."
His wrist was wrenched free—and the instant he thought it was over, he felt a palm press against the back of his head. A powerful force drove his skull forward, and before he could do a thing, his face slammed into the wall.
"Gugurgh!?"
"There we are. The moment you step outside, it's this nonsense. Men always gravitate toward me on account of my figure. Honestly, there's no room for carelessness or letting one's guard down."
Looking down at Subaru writhing and clutching his battered face, the girl spat the words as though tossing aside garbage. Subaru, half in tears from the pain of his nose scraping against the stone wall, looked up at her from the ground. Driven by a surge of indignation, he staggered to his feet— "Read the room! That was the classic thug-saves-girl scenario, Pattern A! You were supposed to catch on to that! Don't tell me it's the whole template where you don't even realize my intentions!"
"I have no idea what you're saying. I simply did as I pleased. That is all."
"Face-planting a girl into a wall on the first meeting isn't 'strong personality'—that's a whole other level of scary!?"
Not only had his intention to rescue her gone completely unregistered, he'd been treated like a groper and then given the finishing move by the victim herself. Had he not been blessed with a constitution that made nosebleeds unlikely, or had his teeth stuck out just a little more, the outcome could have been catastrophic.
Wincing in pain and humiliation, Subaru belatedly noticed the silent thugs staring at him. Having put on such a pathetic display right in front of them—and having dropped the bag of lingas when his face hit the wall—Subaru propped the bag against the wall once more and said: "What, go ahead and laugh. I went in all cool to rescue the girl, and not only did she not even notice my intentions, I got a face-crash for my troubles. Laugh your ass off—call me pathetic, go ahead!"
"No… I can't really laugh at you, honestly."
The genuine sympathy in the man's words actually made Subaru wish they'd just laughed instead. He let his shoulders sag.
Then, taking a deep breath and pulling himself together, he squared up once more.
"Take two! All right, villains! As long as I'm here, you won't get away with whatever you want! If you wanna pass through here, you'll have to beat me first! Heh heh—after this fight's over, I'm gonna open a bakery back home. I've even got a promise to marry my childhood sweetheart!"
Fired up by his own bold proclamations, Subaru cut a defiant figure as he squared off against the men.
He shielded the girl behind him, carefully watching the men's movements. Three against one—if he could land the first surprise attack, he had a chance—and right up to that point, his thinking was sound.
"Huh, wait—aren't you guys familiar-looking?"
Tilting his head, he compared the faces of the three men before him against his memory—and snapped his fingers in recognition.
"Oh, it's the Tontonkans! Wait, seriously? Does the capital have, like, zero thugs besides you guys?"
No wonder they looked familiar—these were the bumbling trio Subaru had nicknamed Tontonkan on his very first day, the ones who'd hassled him after his summoning. Having actually died at their hands once before gave him a slight twinge of tension— "But honestly, the overwhelming feeling is more like all the tension just drained out of me… What's your deal? You guys pull this every day? Every day? One day? Summer vacation?"
"You're the one who came barging in, knocked his head, and started spouting nonsense!"
"Hey, I really don't wanna deal with this guy. You handle him."
"You think I want to? Just shove him a bit and he'll probably go away."
Whether it was caution or the tension simply draining away, the men exchanged glances and began whispering among themselves in front of Subaru's thoroughly deflated expression.
As the thugs seemed on the verge of losing all fighting spirit, the girl—who'd had nothing to do with any of this exchange—finally spoke up.
"This is tedious. Are you boys or are you girls? If the latter, then at least put some effort into your appearance and show me something worthy of my admiration. Muscles bulging everywhere, covered in unnecessary body hair—how revolting. You must look absolutely hilarious."
Hand resting lightly on her chin, she fired off a barrage of mockery and contempt without a shred of restraint.
For a moment, all four of them—the three thugs and Subaru—didn't quite process what she'd said. But when the meaning finally sank in, they all erupted at once.
"Don't piss me off, you damn bitch!"
"Who are you calling girls, you little—!"
"Who do you think you are, running your mouth like that!?"
"Seriously, don't push your luck! You wanna know whether we're girls or not? We'll take that body of yours—that sex appeal way overdrive body of yours—and do whatever we want with it to show you!?"
A chorus of classless retorts burst forth, turning all four into a thug squad.
The last one in particular was tinged with an nastiness that could stir up controversy later. And the person who'd shouted that last line—Subaru—was already clutching his shoulders, breathing hard.
"Oh no. What am I doing, teaming up with the Tontonkans…"
Even he was taken aback by his own opportunism.
Honestly, the girl's attitude was so awful that the thugs' outrage was completely justified. But that didn't mean he should just stand by and watch her get harassed.
"I feel super sorry for you guys, but my principles haven't changed. And it's not like I don't have my own issues with you. If you want to blame someone, blame the you from day one."
"That stuck-up girl is one thing, but what the hell are you in the end, brat?"
Ton scratched his head and spat the words at Subaru with evident discomfort. It seemed Subaru's existence had been completely wiped from their memories.
Despite having been blasted by Emilia's magic, soundly defeated three-on-one by Subaru, and then having Subaru ambush them later—their memories were remarkably selective.
"Of course, none of those events happened in this world line. Honestly, if they do remember anything, it'd probably be something like 'some handsome guy showed up'—the version with the shallowest connection to me."
It was the most peaceful possible explanation. They'd basically avoided interfering with each other afterward, so it was only natural they wouldn't remember Subaru.
And Subaru was just starting to feel a little twinge of loneliness about that when— "Oh, I remember now! This guy was in the shopping district alley a few days ago…"
"That's him—the crazy kid from back then! He hasn't changed one bit!"
"Seriously! His outfit was different so I didn't notice!"
Chin snapped his fingers as it clicked, and Ton and Kan followed suit, retrieving the memories one by one. Subaru let the subtly disturbing phrase slide, clapped his hands in gratitude that they'd finally remembered, and said: "Exactly! So we're not strangers to each other. So, for my sake, how about you look the other way—"
"Are you stupid? Instead of 'not strangers,' wouldn't 'enemies' be more accurate? It just went from three-on-one to three-on-two, that's all."
"One more and it'd be a fair fight. Nobody wants to get hurt, right?"
"I stand corrected. Not three-on-two—three-on-one-on-one."
"You shut up for a second!"
Subaru was desperately trying to smooth things over with bluster and improvisation, but the girl was steamrolling ahead with her own agenda, completely ignoring even his intentions to de-escalate.
If he could time-leap back five minutes, he'd tap his own shoulder by the wall and whisper, "Honestly, this is a total waste of effort." But that and everything else was water under the bridge.
He knew from hard experience that these weren't the patient type.
He felt the mood shift—from anger to something colder and sharper. The killing intent. By now, it was practically a familiar sensation since arriving in this other world.
Each man's hand was inching toward his waist. It was only a matter of time before they drew their bloodstained tools of choice.
"…Can't be helped. I really didn't want to use this one, though."
Judging that conflict was now unavoidable, Subaru shook his head and cursed his own inadequacy.
He'd failed to talk his way out of it—as usual, he'd been pushed to his absolute limit, forced to play his trump card in a life-or-death situation. Just once, he'd love to get through something with style to spare.
"Stop right there. Push this any further and it won't be a game anymore."
Palm open and aimed at the three men, Subaru tried to keep them in check. But Chin, the one with the shortest fuse, was already veins bulging on his forehead.
"Huh? You getting the wrong idea here? We're on top, you're on the bottom. Don't you dare order us around."
Killing intent naked in his eyes, Chin reached into his coat to draw a knife.
Subaru moved one step forward before the blade could clear its sheath—thrusting his face directly into Chin's line of sight—and spoke in the deepest, most menacing voice he could muster.
"You sure you wanna talk like that? You won't regret it?"
"What?"
"I'm telling you—I know Reinhardt. Me and Reinhardt? We're tight. The moment I call, he comes zooming in."
"Wh—!?"
The words from Subaru's mouth had Chin stumbling back, face drained of color.
Operation "Borrow the Tiger's Ferocity" was a go, and the enemy was thoroughly rattled.
The name Reinhardt had sent a tremor through the Tontonkans. They'd want to call it a bluff—but unfortunately, they were among the very people who'd witnessed Reinhardt coming to Subaru's aid firsthand.
There was no way they didn't know the power of that slightly off-his-rocker swordsman.
"So? Right now, one word from me and we can call it even. Want to?"
Seeing the effect, Subaru immediately pressed both palms together above his head, swaying his hips with maximum confidence, projecting an attitude of complete composure to intimidate the men. In truth, unless Reinhardt was the type of hero who conveniently appeared whenever a citizen screamed, a fight here would absolutely end badly for Subaru. It was, frankly, a desperate bit of pantomime.
Unable to see through his cold-sweating interior, the men ground their teeth in frustration and said: "We'll let you off this time."
"But remember—we didn't lose!"
"And we didn't flinch just because you dropped Reinhardt's name!"
Their obligatory post-defeat boasts and unnecessary exposition only made them look smaller as they hurled vulgar curses and departed the alley.
Subaru watched them round the corner and vanish completely, then finally exhaled all the tension he'd been holding in a single, shuddering breath, bracing his hands on his knees.
"Ahh… that was rough. I was seriously panicking. A battle of the small fry—and it looks like my small-fry powers won out in the end… It's a small world!"
A quip to restore something resembling composure, and Subaru turned to the girl behind him.
Just as he'd been putting on a brave front to preserve his own mental balance, maybe she'd been maintaining that arrogant attitude as her own form of self-defense— "What? Why are you making that pitiful, beggar-like face? I have nothing to give you."
"No, I'm being completely genuine here. A simple 'thank you for saving me' wouldn't kill you, you know?"
"Saving me?"
The girl tilted her head, genuinely puzzled.
She closed her eyes in thought for a moment, then nodded as if it had finally clicked, letting out a small "Ah."
"So that rambling you were doing earlier was an attempt to rescue me? Hm. I hadn't noticed."
"I did all that and you didn't even notice!? Do you know how unrewarding that is!?"
Subaru clutched his head and twisted his body, physically manifesting his shock. The girl watched him with a bored expression, then said nothing of consequence.
"Oh dear. What a waste of time. Stealing from my finite hours—that's a serious offense."
"So no 'thank you' after all…"
As he mumbled about gratitude, he couldn't help but think of
Subaru's slightly self-aware, wheedling tone didn't faze the girl. She simply turned her head toward him and said: "Don't get the wrong idea. I would have been perfectly fine without you. You merely happened to resolve something that would have resolved itself one way or another. To hold that up as some kind of personal achievement—how laughable."
"Huh? What do you mean? Like, 'I'm super strong on my own so I didn't even need help'? Something like that?"
"No, something simpler. This world is arranged to suit my convenience. Therefore, no disadvantage can befall me. The reason I was saved is because of me. And you dare claim that as your achievement—stolen credit. Don't you find that shameful?"
As though it were self-evident, as obvious as the sunrise, as though it were universal common sense, the girl puffed out her chest and proclaimed her own absoluteness.
She declared with perfect nonchalance that every phenomenon sided with her, that every event was the result of her own actions.
And on top of all that, she had the audacity to call Subaru's rescue attempt stolen credit.
Witnessing her radiance—bright as the sun itself—Subaru made his definitive judgment.
This was absolutely the kind of person you did not want to get involved with.
"O-Oh. Sorry for the unnecessary interference, then."
With this type, you didn't provoke them with extra words. You accepted what they said at face value.
Subaru made no show of resistance and nodded with exaggerated agreement, then hurriedly scooped up the bag of lingas he'd propped against the wall.
He'd scattered a few during the face-slam, but thankfully none seemed to be damaged. The greengrocer's old man's kindness was intact—what a relief.
"Well then, let's part ways. Both of us should try walking where the sun shines a little more, yeah?"
He raised a hand, performed an about-face, and turned his back on the girl.
First, put some distance without rubbing her the wrong way on foot—then once he hit the corner, break into a full sprint and escape.
That was the plan. He was counting the steps to the corner when— "Stop."
A low voice from behind stopped him in his tracks, and Subaru cursed his own weakness.
He should have pretended he didn't hear and just kept walking. But having stopped, no excuse would work now.
As a small act of rebellion, Subaru replied without turning around.
"Y-Yes?"
The faintly obsequious tone didn't escape his notice—he could already feel the power dynamic shifting in her favor. But the mentally weak Subaru did his best to hold his ground by refusing to turn around, and the mentally superior girl found even that pitiful resistance meaningless.
"What's in that bag? Show me."
She strolled around in front of him with perfect composure and gestured for him to lower the bag he was clutching.
He had no obligation to obey. But refusing would only drag things out. With a grimace, Subaru complied, tilting the bag's opening toward her.
Seeing the pile of ripe red fruit, the girl blinked her crimson eyes several times and said: "I can't tell from looking. What fruit is this?"
"What do you mean, 'what'? They're lingas. Never seen one before?"
He'd assumed lingas were common since they appeared at breakfast at the Roswaal mansion. But maybe they weren't? Or perhaps the Roswaal mansion's dining standards were simply that high—and the fruit itself could be quite expensive. Though, that theory had already been debunked by the earlier exchange with two copper coins. So what remained was a pure, genuine question.
As Subaru furrowed his brow in puzzlement, it was the girl who showed the more dramatic reaction.
She peered into the bag once more, then looked up at Subaru with a condescending smirk.
"You lie. Don't make me laugh. Listen carefully: lingas are white fruit. They are absolutely not red like this."
"…The inside, once you peel the skin, is white."
Subaru snapped back, annoyed at the obviousness of what she was saying. But it was the girl whose expression drained of color at his response.
A sense of unease creeping in, Subaru ventured: "Wait… seriously? You've never seen a linga before it's peeled?"
"Hm. Now that you mention it, I've only ever seen them as they appear on the table. —I understand. Hand it over."
Murmuring to herself in satisfaction, the girl thrust one hand toward Subaru, demanding he give her a linga.
Subaru might have protested that high-handed attitude, but what he saw in her other hand stopped him cold.
While her left hand was extended toward him, her right was tucked inside her coat—and when it emerged from the folds of her luxurious dress, it was gripping a short-bladed dagger.
The hilt was adorned with gemstones, clearly a high-end piece, but the way it caught the meager alley light with a sharp gleam suggested its sharpness was no mere ornament.
He'd gone in to save a girl who was about to get mugged, only to end up being mugged by that very girl. Subaru's head spun at the sheer absurdity of the situation.
As Subaru fell silent under the strain of his overtaxed brain, the girl said once more: "Hand it over."
"I'll split it in two and see the inside. That'll tell me whether your mouth is good for anything besides spouting lies."
"The sight of a knife in an alley is giving me a visceral sense of disgust…"
"Hurry up."
Resistance was futile—the linga was seized from his hands and cleaved in two on the girl's palm.
She wielded the reverse-gripped dagger with a practiced ease that belied her appearance. Once the two halves revealed their white flesh, she caught the droplets beading on her palm and touched them to her tongue.
"Sweet and sour… Yes, this is definitely the taste of a linga."
"Are you satisfied now?"
The girl finally looked convinced—or so she seemed. Subaru deployed a full customer-service smile, silently begging: in fact, please, take that one as a gift, just let me go already. He had no idea how long he'd been separated from Emilia—it was impossible to tell without a watch—and he didn't dare find out.
But the girl was merciless, showing not a shred of consideration for his pleading.
"Interesting. Hand over the rest—all of them. I'll split every last one and check."
"Are you out of your mind!?"
That declaration went beyond mere arrogance into outright tyranny. Even Subaru was pushed past his limit.
Trembling with rage, Subaru confronted her: "One got smashed and that was already meaningless—why should I hand all of them over to you!? Absolutely not! These lingas—these lingas are proof of the bond between me and one particular man! They're not just fruit—they're fruits of bond!"
"Enough nonsense. Then let's do this."
Disregarding his passionate speech entirely, the girl continued in her one-sided manner.
She pointed at the bag of lingas Subaru was holding, and her lips curled sideways into a dazzling smile.
"A wager. What do you say?"
"A… wager?"
"Yes, a simple little wager. Something like guessing heads or tails on a tossed coin. One linga per round. How about it?"
She was proposing a coin toss, but Subaru scoffed at her.
She may have looked like she was making a concession, but the premise itself was ridiculous.
"Your whole argument is garbage. First off, there's no benefit for me in this wager. The only thing I get is 'your lingas won't be taken'—but I could get the same result by just running like hell right now, couldn't I?"
"Of course. I'll offer you a reward as well. Let me see…"
The girl touched her chin thoughtfully. Then she sent Subaru a sultry sidelong glance, crossed her arms to accentuate her ample chest, and said: "If you win the wager, I'll let you touch my chest. How's that?"
Offering her own body as a gambling chip, Subaru let out a long breath and shook his head.
That reckless willingness to stake herself on a gamble, that destructive mindset that clearly had no thought for consequences—people who ruined themselves at gambling were always like this.
And this beautiful girl in front of him probably thought every man would be enchanted by her charms. How tragic. And how sad.
When his reply took too long, the girl eyed him with a hint of confusion.
Meeting her gaze squarely, Subaru told her in no uncertain terms: "Take better care of yourself, damn it… You think something like that would work on me!?"
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ —And thus: "That makes seven wins in a row for me. Only three lingas left."
"No way!? I'm going to be stripped of everything!?"
In that back alley, Subaru had suffered loss after loss in gambling—and was rapidly losing everything he had.