——The sight of Subaru emerging alone from the tomb sent Garfiel's hostility spiking to the point it felt like needles piercing his skin.
Inside the tomb versus outside, the intensity of the cold was a different world entirely.
Compared to the tomb, which had at least some insulation, the frigid
The ceaseless blizzard and the white curtain that kept obscuring his vision——Subaru's breath felt like it would freeze the instant it left his mouth, and he couldn't stop the shivering that emanated from his very core.
Hugging his own shoulders and shivering, Subaru endured Garfiel's glare.
The young man bared his fangs, clicking them together, then directed his attention to what lay behind Subaru.
"Doesn't look like anyone's about to show their face from behind ya, huh?"
"Nope.
"Asleep, ya say?"
"She's exhausted. For two days straight, it's been wake up, take the trial, wake up, take the trial, over and over. She's drained, body and soul. She hasn't even eaten. A girl pushing herself that hard——it's too much."
Thinking about how Emilia had forced herself through the trial again and again, only to fail each time——her frustration, and his own inadequacy, he could imagine all too well.
It was exactly the same helplessness he himself had tasted time and time again.
"————"
Deep in the tomb, in the trial chamber, Emilia was sleeping with a peaceful expression on her face.
He recalled the warmth of Emilia's body as she had held him close with her burning embrace, whispering blind devotion to him, and Subaru was struck by a love so fierce his blood seemed to boil, and a regret so deep it made him want to die.
He remembered how Emilia had blushed, how her voice had trembled with passion, how she had tried to drown him in all the words he had wanted to hear, with every ounce of her emotion.
How many times had Subaru wished he could simply sink into that soft oblivion with Emilia beside him? No one could know.
But he had severed that temptation——Emilia's temptation, which could ensnare even gods——and come outside.
He had no intention of telling the sleeping Emilia about what was happening out here. Nor did he intend to let Garfiel's malice reach her.
In stark contrast to Subaru's quiet resolve, the flames of Garfiel's fury showed no sign of waning.
Kicking through the snow at his feet, Garfiel continued to snap his white fangs with a sharp retort.
"You ain't draggin' the half-blood out, the snow ain't stoppin', and you come back with that grim face empty-handed. So what kinda satisfaction ya gonna give me for that, huh?!"
"——Emilia told me she loves me."
"...... Haa?"
Perhaps it was because Subaru's words had cut in with such force, so out of place. For an instant, Garfiel wore an expression that said he had no idea what he had just heard. But he quickly concluded he was being mocked, and his expression turned even sharper.
"Can't even see what's goin' on, huh? Looks like it ain't just the half-blood in there that's outta her mind, it's you too! In a situation like this, you think it's time for some damn pathetic lovey-dovey bragging, huh?! HUH?! HUH?! AAH?!"
The fury radiating off Garfiel carried heat——the snow that touched his body turned to white mist and evaporated. The impression that Garfiel's frame had grown a size larger wasn't a trick of the eye; he was beginning to shift his physical state from human toward the great tiger.
Seeing this, Subaru's expression didn't waver.
He kept the same face he had worn when he spoke those words of bragging, and looked at Garfiel with dry eyes.
Before the furious Garfiel, Subaru repeated himself.
"Emilia said she loves me. She said all she needs is for me to be there."
"——You little—"
"With that adorable face, that sweet voice, gestures that made me tremble, so close I could feel her breath, so close our skin almost touched…… she told me that."
"And so what!? That half-blood's been clingin' to ya since the moment you got here——I knew that from the start! If you're so happy about being in love and want some kinda blessing, I'll spell it out real simple for ya——"
Bristling words mixed with growls, and Garfiel's hostility began to warp his body. And just as it looked like he might lunge at any moment, his words pierced through Subaru.
——He had reached his limit.
"……There's no way she would."
"Haa? I can't hear ya——speak up—"
"——There's no way Emilia would say she loves me!!"
"————"
Raising his face, Subaru screamed.
The torrent of emotion was so violent it silenced even Garfiel. Subaru glared at the stunned Garfiel and, with an anguished expression, detonated his heart.
He cast away the words exchanged in the tomb. The warmth they had shared. The love he had confirmed.
It was precious. Of course it was precious. And yet, that which he could not let go of would not truly shine inside him.
How wonderful it would have been if he were foolish enough to keep being deceived by that false radiance.
But it was
"There's no way she'd say that. That Emilia loves me…… that she depends on me, that she's entrusting everything to me, that as long as I'm there she doesn't need anything else…… absolutely not."
"Wh-what the hell are you sayin', huh?!"
"The idea that she'd be that dependent on me, that she'd say her feelings for me are her entire world——she would never say that. If
How many times had Subaru wished he could be the most important person to Emilia?
But at this stage, he didn't think so highly of himself as to believe he had truly become Emilia's number one, nor did he underestimate Emilia that much.
The person Emilia trusted most, the one she would cling to in the very end, was Puck.
Right now, because Puck wasn't appearing before her, she had simply chosen Subaru as her next closest thing to rely on.
He didn't want to believe that her confession of love, those hot fingertips, those trembling breaths——that it was all a lie.
He didn't want to believe it. But ——it wasn't real.
Raising his face, Subaru glared at Garfiel.
The violent wave of emotion had subsided somewhat from Garfiel's face. Now it was Subaru's turn to bare his fangs.
"Who was it that pushed her to the point where she had to cling to someone worthless like me!? Who drove her to the point where her heart was broken over and over, and yet she still couldn't bring herself to stop——who made her worry about that so much?!"
"That's how it's gotta be, ain't it!? She chose that herself! You gonna blame me for that, or the rest of the Sanctuary, huh?!"
Matching Subaru's intensity, Garfiel fired right back.
At Garfiel's barking response, Subaru slowly shook his head.
Who had pushed Emilia to this point?
He already knew the answer without asking.
"It doesn't matter who's to blame. It's decided. ……It's my fault."
"——Haa!?"
"It's my fault. Emilia was pushed that far because of me. Because of me, because of you, because of all of you."
"Don't screw with me. If she crumbles under pressure, then that's just her capacity, isn't it!? With that weak a mentality, she's got no business raising such lofty goals——she deserves to be laughed at!"
"Right. You're right about that. Emilia is too kind to bear such weight head-on. So she takes it all on herself, can't confide in anyone, and gets crushed. ——The truth is, I should have been the one doing that."
Facing Garfiel's anger, Subaru felt his own heart growing cold, as if it had fused with the white landscape around him.
He felt a clear, almost written-out sense of what he needed to do.
"That's right. It's what I had to do. That's why I'm here…… I'm the one who said that to you, so what the hell have I been doing……"
"What are you doin' convincin' yourself all on your own, huh? ……Nah, forget it. Forget it. This ain't gonna go anywhere. 'The thirst of a Moldbag can't be quenched.' If you can't do it……"
"You'll go into the tomb and pull Emilia out…… is that it? You think you can do that?"
"……What's that supposed to mean?"
A low-voiced threat. Garfiel's words, intended to intimidate, instead prompted Subaru to voice a groundless hypothesis.
"Garfiel, I already know you're a 'Sin Archbishop of Greed.' I know that only you have the right to command the copies of Ryuzu."
"————"
"Which means, necessarily, that you——as a Sin Archbishop——have entered the tomb before. ……Or rather, you've undergone the trial."
"——You…… little—"
"You challenged the trial, didn't you? I don't know why you're so stubbornly hiding that. Whether it's because the Sanctuary's residents have a rule against entering the tomb, or because of Ryuzu, who went inside to save you after you entered……"
"————"
Garfiel's complexion changed.
As expected, his family was a wound that cut deep. Seeing his expression shift to anguish, Subaru continued constructing his theory in real time as he spoke.
"I heard from Frederica that you entered the tomb. I also know that Ryuzu went inside."
"A-ah…… that blabbermouth……! She didn't just escape from here, she went and started kissin' up to the people outside too……!"
"There's someone who'd be in trouble if that got out? For starters, who did the Sanctuary residents make their contract with? The Sanctuary was created by the
"That's enough——!"
Not letting him finish, Garfiel kicked off the ground and launched himself at Subaru like the wind.
His iron-piercing claws aimed for Subaru's face on the shortest possible trajectory—— "——The one making it snow is Roswaal."
"————"
Before Subaru's eyes——at the point just before Garfiel's claws would have reached him—the attack stopped.
Wearing an expression of dumbfounded shock, Garfiel stared at Subaru, who nodded slightly.
"It's not Emilia. Puck isn't there either——Emilia can't do this. Even if, by some million-to-one chance, Emilia were causing this, there's no way she could talk to me about it without letting even a hint slip."
"That's…… also just…… your convenient imagination……"
"Right, it's just what I believe. That even if she were driven to desperation, she wouldn't be the kind of person to throw a tantrum that would ruin everything around her…… that's what I believe."
If he called it process of elimination, the person being treated as the culprit might not appreciate that.
But it was far from baseless.
"The one binding you all to the Sanctuary is Roswaal too, isn't it?"
"You hear that from Frederica too?"
"Hardly. I pieced together circumstantial evidence and information, then took a leap of faith based on preconceptions and bad impressions. ——Looks like I hit the mark, though."
"————"
As Garfiel fell silent, Subaru let out a white sigh.
The strange sense of deflation you feel when someone you suspected as the mastermind turns out to genuinely be the mastermind. It was obvious that Roswaal was scheming something, but maintaining the contract that kept the Sanctuary's residents trapped in this place, tormenting them with snow——what was it all for? He thought and thought, and no sane answer came.
Then, "I guess the only move is to go punch him right in his smug face."
At Subaru's resolute murmur, Garfiel lowered his arms.
The same intense emotion that was swirling inside Subaru could be seen flickering across Garfiel's face as well.
※※※ "——It seemsss you're quite angry, doesn't it?"
Lying on the bed of the room they had been directed to, Roswaal greeted Subaru and Garfiel's arrival with those words, smiling cheerfully in his usual clownish makeup.
"That's about the size of it. Right now, I'm pretty damn pissed. And as for me, you can see this guy looks ready to lunge at any moment, right? Watch what you say."
Standing with his back blocking the entrance and spreading both arms wide, Subaru jerked his chin to the side. Garfiel, growling low, stood where Subaru indicated.
The beastly breathing was proof that Garfiel was barely holding onto his human form through sheer willpower. Even indoors, the cold permeated through the stonework. Both Subaru and Roswaal were exhaling white breath, but Garfiel's exhalations carried so much heat they might as well have been tinged red.
"An interesting combination. I believe Garfiel once boasted that when Subaru-kun returned, he'd tear him apart vertically? My, my."
"Circumstances may have changed a bit. Whether they really have or not, until we check, I won't know who to turn into ground meat."
"Could you stop having a naturally terrifying conversation? And Roswaal, don't just accept those ridiculous statements like they're perfectly normal."
When heading for the mansion from the Sanctuary, Subaru's exchange with Garfiel had been bad enough to leave a lingering taste of self-disgust. Garfiel, who surely hadn't forgotten that humiliation, had probably unleashed some choice insults at Roswaal and Emilia——it wasn't hard to imagine.
As Subaru knit his brows, Roswaal shook his head, saying "Now, now," and with one eye closed, stared at Subaru and Garfiel with his yellow-only pupil.
"If that's how it is, then that's how it is, Subaru-kun."
"You really do hate me, huh? I'm hurt, Roswaal. You wouldn't care if Garfiel tore me apart and ate me?"
"Oh my, oh my, now that's a pessimistic thing to say. It's not like it's a foregone conclusion that Garfiel would win if you two fought, is it?"
"You think I could win? Hear my track record, and even you'd tremble with fear."
After all, since being summoned to this other world, Subaru had almost no experience of winning a "fight" on his own, despite the fact that he was never free of wounds.
Beating up that thug in an alley, barely taking down the Jaguar Knot, and delivering the finishing blow to a near-death Petelgeuse——that was about it.
"I'm starting to feel like my record's better than I thought, but if I went at Garfiel in peak condition, I'd be a chunk of meat in two seconds. That's how well I know myself."
"Is that so? I think, given the right conditions, it might actually be a decent match."
Narrowing his eyes and looking Subaru up and down, Roswaal mused. Examining those words, Subaru could unfortunately find nothing to agree with.
Subaru shrugged, dismissing Roswaal's words, and almost at the same moment, Garfiel's heel cratered the floor.
"Who the hell cares about that right now!? There's something way more important we need to talk about, aren't you tired, you two?!"
Creating a crater in the center of the room with his heel, Garfiel bared his teeth and hurled insults at Subaru and Roswaal.
Before getting to the main topic, that light feint of provocation clearly didn't sit well with the straightforward Garfiel. Then again, it wasn't exactly Subaru's style either——he was no good at that kind of scheming.
Following Garfiel's lead, Subaru nodded once and then cut straight to it.
"The snow outside——you're the one making it fall, Roswaal."
———— At Subaru's question, Roswaal remained silent.
Subaru, too, closed his mouth, waiting for Roswaal's answer. Silence fell over the room, broken only by the wind freezing against the windows from outside, and the sound of Garfiel's teeth clicking together in a rhythm as methodical as the ticking of a clock.
"Subaru-kun."
"Yes."
"——Did you hear that from me?"
"————"
It was a question that made no sense.
Subaru had run through several simulations in his head of what kind of response Roswaal might give.
There was the pattern where he would grin fearlessly and say, "Well spotted." There was the pattern where he'd stammer, "Wh-what are you talking about…… do you have, do you have proof!?" and show his composure cracking. The most likely scenario had been that Roswaal would deflect with, "I'm not quite sure what you mean by that," dodging the question entirely.
But Roswaal's actual answer differed from every one of those imagined responses.
"Me neither. We're literally talking right now——how could I possibly have that conversation? Did you mishear something?"
"Huh…… really? Is that so. ……That's disappointing."
Unable to parse the meaning of those words, Subaru showed his confusion. At that, Roswaal looked down at Subaru's words, exhaled weakly, and murmured.
His usually pale profile somehow looked even more hollow than usual. To Subaru, it seemed to have nothing to do with his physical condition——it came from something about the state of Roswaal's heart.
"——That's right. A mishearing, just a mishearing. How strange of me to say that."
When he raised his face, Roswaal immediately retracted what he had said and offered a thin smile.
The smile traced by his rouged lips looked different to Subaru from his usual one.
But Subaru paid no mind to those subtle changes in Roswaal. It was Garfiel who took a step forward.
"You ain't gonna deny it, are you?"
"Being suspected and stammering out a clumsy defense would only make me look more guilty, wouldn't it? Besides, I'm quite aware that my usual words and actions haven't exactly earned your trust."
"Then you know what's comin'…… right?!"
Exhaling sharply, Garfiel closed the distance between them in an instant.
Approaching the bed, Garfiel reached out to seize Roswaal's throat. In that split-second movement, Subaru couldn't even call out to stop him.
But—— "You——"
"No one is permitted to disrespect Lord Roswaal, Garf."
Her right hand clamped down on his extended arm, and Garfiel glared at Ram in front of him, his throat rumbling.
Subaru hadn't realized Ram was inside the house, and her sudden appearance startled him——but at the very least, thanks to her, immediate bloodshed had been avoided. He let out a sigh of relief.
And then—— "Ram. You really are a fine maid."
"Yes, Lord Roswaal——"
When their conversation brushed past his ears, Subaru didn't find anything odd about it.
Roswaal was simply acknowledging Ram for having risked her body to protect her master. There was nothing strange in that. Ram had indeed performed her duty.
What was the problem? Frowning, Subaru thought.
He stood at the bedroom entrance. Before him was Garfiel's back, and beyond Garfiel's small frame stood Ram. Behind them both was the bed where Roswaal had been lying under the pretense of recuperating——that was the layout of the room.
——When had Roswaal gotten up?
"————"
It felt like the span of a single blink.
In the instant Subaru blinked, Roswaal had risen from the bed and walked over to where Ram and Garfiel were scuffling.
And then—— "————"
What was that?
Something like a human arm seemed to be protruding from Garfiel's back.
Extending from his chest, punching through the center of his back, it had five squirming fingers. To Subaru, it looked like a right human arm.
"G-gu……"
Before his eyes, Garfiel's body shuddered violently.
Gradually, the back of his jacket began to stain crimson, and Subaru could see his knees buckling. Unable to support himself, Garfiel collapsed to his knees, and the arm vanished from his back.
In that instant, from the hole left where it had blocked the wound, a torrent of blood gushed forth.
"——Eh?"
Garfiel crumpled. Looking down at him were Ram and Roswaal.
And from Ram's chest—— "Ros……"
"You really were a fine maid."
Interrupting the weak voice trying to call his name, Roswaal spoke gently.
His left hand softly stroked Ram's pink hair, and Ram, cheeks flushed, accepted it with a beatific expression.
——From the corner of that smiling mouth, fresh blood spilled, a heartbeat later.
Of course.
Her chest had been pierced from behind.
The arm was withdrawn.
Ram's small body, unable to withstand even that slight impact, toppled forward.
Catching her was Garfiel, who was hemorrhaging profusely from his own wounds.
He caught the girl falling into his arms and cradled her—— "Ro……zu…… Ra-mu…… Ram, Ram, Ram, RamRamRamRamRam!!"
In an instant, the hatred threatening to consume his mind was swept away by the sight of his beloved.
Garfiel screamed the girl's name over and over, unleashing a blood-tinged howl as pale blue phosphorescent light erupted from both his arms.
Subaru knew that vivid glow was the effect of healing magic.
He knew that Garfiel had said he wasn't skilled with it, but could use it nonetheless.
Garfial was, even now, pouring everything he had into healing Ram——even as he himself bore a fatal wound through the chest.
His body began to transform in time with the pounding of his heart.
Hair spread across his exposed skin, fangs extended, and his pupils narrowed to slits. The musculature of his body increased dramatically, and as his frame grew a size larger, his clothes began to tear apart.
He was becoming the great tiger——losing his reason. The beast's instinct to protect his own wounded body clashed violently with the human desire to save the life of the beloved person before him.
However—— "————"
"Becoming a beast is quite troublesome, you see."
Tilting his head slightly, Roswaal said this as his foot flashed toward Garfiel.
The long leg swung sideways, becoming wind——and struck Garfiel's temple dead-on. With a sound light enough to be an egg cracking, Garfiel's head burst into a vivid red in a manner almost like a joke.
The body that remained from the neck down gushed blood from the severed neck like a fountain, filling the room with the stench of iron as the corpse collapsed onto Ram.
Ram, pinned beneath, didn't move a muscle, her face still wearing that faint smile.
Even Garfiel's healing magic had not activated. The moment Roswaal's hand left him, the heartbeat that had kept Ram's body functioning——destroyed at the heart——had already stopped.
Garfial had simply been pouring his entire soul into something that was already gone without realizing it.
"Even for me, it's quite difficult to cast other spells while I'm maintaining weather manipulation of this scale. ——A sorry showing for a court magician, I admit."
Wiping the blood from his foot on a nearby sheet with rough indifference, Roswaal—the man who had killed both Ram and Garfiel barehanded—turned his gaze to Subaru, who hadn't moved.
Then Roswaal spoke, in tone and manner no different from usual.
"Now then——shall we talk, Natsuki Subaru-kun?"