CHAPTER 3

THE SELF-DECLARED KNIGHT AND “THE FINEST OF KNIGHTS”

1

“May the grace of the spirits be with you.”

Climbing aboard the dragon carriage for evacuation, those were the words of prayer Emilia left the expeditionary force upon her departure from Earlham Village. To Subaru, that grace was as powerful as any blessing.

With only the best intentions, Emilia was deceived via an exaggerated performance for her own sake and sent away from Earlham Village along with the villagers themselves. Time continued onward.

It was also after Subaru had made full use of Return by Death to capture Kety—the finger from the Witch Cult lurking among the traveling merchants.

Subaru watched the horde of dragon carriages run off as his eyes shifted to the formation of knights accompanying them. Ten knights had been selected from among the expeditionary force to escort the evacuating carriages. The chance the Witch Cult would detect the evacuation was low, but they’d sent a detachment just in case.

The dragon carriages had two destinations: the royal capital and the Sanctuary. Subaru knew nothing about the latter except the name, but the fact that Ram had given it her stamp of approval was proof enough it was safe. Their safety was no doubt far more assured than that of Subaru and the others facing the decisive battle with the Witch Cult.

After all, the greatest combat power in the expeditionary force was escorting Emilia and the others.

“Sir Subaru, I pray for your fortune in battle.”

“Take care yourself, Wilhelm,” Subaru said after Wilhelm brought up the rear of the detachment from atop his land dragon. Facing the battle to come without Wilhelm was akin to rolling the dice. However, where the impending decisive battle with Petelgeuse was concerned, the Sword Devil’s presence was not an indispensable element for defeating the madman. For that reason, fully aware it was a reckless request, Subaru had insisted on entrusting the defense of Emilia and the other evacuees to Wilhelm, to which he had readily agreed.

“Well, Petra and the others did jump at the chance to take care of Emilia…”

The children had merrily accepted Emilia aboard their carriage, just as Subaru had asked. The children had led Emilia by the hand, making her relieved that they had not rejected her. Remembering that scene, deep feelings of warmth arose in Subaru’s chest—and at the same time, pangs of guilt.

“Using happy feelings to fool Emilia into going along with the situation and escaping… I’ve become quite a villain, playing with people’s hearts like that. That stuff about me not reading atmospheres or human hearts seems like a lie now.”

Grimacing in self-derision, Subaru vigorously scratched his own head.

It was too easy to dismiss his deceiving her as his hoping for Emilia’s safety. Even so, the fact was, it had put her mind at ease. Besides, asking her to ride with the children had been a calculation by itself.

“Even if the lie’s exposed, as long as someone holds Emilia back…”

The gentle Emilia probably couldn’t shake off the hands of people concerned for her from the bottom of their hearts. Hence Subaru had intentionally created a situation where the children would bond with Emilia.

“She’ll look down on me if that part ever comes out, so I’ll keep that a secret for life…”

Puck, too, had agreed that it was better that way. The spirit, his fellow actor cooperating with the performance—or rather coconspirator—would not be leaving Emilia’s side.

Emilia’s security was guaranteed like never before—at least, he wanted to believe that.

“Looks like the village types and the half-demon girl left already. Looks like ya did pretty good, huh?”

As Subaru collected his thoughts, he heard hearty Kararagi dialect tossed his way from behind. When he looked back, he saw Ricardo coming over, carrying his great hatchet with him. Subaru glared at the dog-man’s dog face and spoke.

“Stop calling my pretty Emilia a half-demon, you half-mutt!”

“Ohh! Gettin’ called a half-mutt is surprisingly humiliatin’! I’ll have to remember that one!”

He let loose a hearty, sarcastic laugh, and his forbearance drained the bitterness out of Subaru’s strained smile. However, Subaru’s cheeks soon tensed anew as he walked beside Ricardo and turned toward the forest.

“So how’d it go? Got the job done like I asked?”

“Hey, we split up to hit them by surprise in places they never expected to be attacked, right? If I screwed that up I’d quit my post. Every last part went great. We kicked their asses all over the map!”

Ricardo amiably showed him the blood still stuck to his great hatchet, patting the map on his hip with his palm.

“Meaning we were right the places marked on that map were where their hideouts were.”

“That’s what they get for bein’ so methodical with their plannin’. You did good, bro.”

Ricardo bared his fangs. The original owner of the map on his hip was, in fact, Kety the Witch Cultist. Thanks to his capture according to Subaru’s scheme, they’d gained both his conversation mirror and his map. The map contained a highly detailed layout of the Mathers domain, and ten places had been marked upon it.

The markers were probably for Witch Cult hideouts—and to find out for sure, Subaru had sent Ricardo & Co. to the closest marker on the map. The results had apparently been as expected.

As if to prove that information correct, members of the Iron Fangs leaped out of the forest on their ligers, merrily galloping around the village square and by all appearances unscathed.

“Yahoo! We slaughtered ’em all!”

“Sister, do not say such foul-sounding things! We took proper captives!”

The smiling banter between the siblings, smelling of blood, made Subaru pat his chest in relief. He was happy about victory, but also that no one had been lost in the process. No matter how high the odds of victory, the one sending people off to battle always had reason to be concerned. Likely those reasons had been greatly minimized because of that map.

“And besides that…luck’s really fallin’ your way, bro.”

“—? Whaddaya mean by…?”

“The hideout you picked me to hit had this layin’ around.”

As Subaru cocked his head, Ricardo took something out of the cloth tied around his waist and tossed it Subaru’s way. Subaru immediately caught it, and his eyes went wide at the light sensation in his palm.

This was a mirror—indeed, the spitting image of one he had seen very recently.

“A conversation mirror…and this has to be on the other end of the one Kety had!”

“Accordin’ to our info, the Witch Cultist we captured was communicatin’ by mirror. Now that we got this from the ones I just mopped up, they won’t be tellin’ the other Witch Cultists nothin’… Real convenient, bustin’ up their communication network like that. Ya couldn’t ask for a more promisin’ start!”

When Subaru’s eyes popped wide at results beyond his wildest hopes, Ricardo opened his maw in a great laugh.

If his deduction was fact, they certainly had gained even more of an advantage over the Witch Cult. But after the feeling of everything going well had been followed by his tasting heaps of bitterness the last time around…

“—”

“Hey, bro. You don’t look very happy.”

“…No one escaped the hideout you smashed? If even one escaped, it’s all for nothing.”

“Whaddaya think this sharp nose o’ mine is for? Of course not. Just…”

Ricardo strongly thumped his chest, but suddenly he awkwardly lowered the tone of his voice.

“I’m sure no one got away, but it’s kind of a problem if there are other mirrors.”

“I knew it! What? What was it?! Some kind of fatal flaw… There’s an issue that’s gonna knock out the entire foundation of the operation, isn’t there?! Shit! I knew things were going too well!!”

“Hey, hey, what’s with the fantasies of damage?! Ya can’t be a general and be a worrywart like that! Besides, there’s no guarantee somethin’ bad happened, so stop assumin’!”

As a pale Subaru clung to him, Ricardo retorted with an overly intimidating face. Then the dog-man wrapped an arm around Subaru’s head, choosing his words to rectify the latter’s stubborn paranoia.

“Look here, see? It’s not like anything bad’s happened. Just we can’t celebrate till the Witch Cult’s smashed flat… Ahh, seeing’s faster than talkin’ anyway. Hey, bring in that guy from earlier!”

As Subaru grimaced, his head still in Ricardo’s grasp, Ricardo indicated for his men to bring something over. When Subaru saw what they carried, his expression shifted—first to worry, then to disbelief.

Atop a liger, a single human being was being carried in, his entire body bound by rope.

“~~!!”

When the person noticed Subaru and Ricardo, he wrung out a muffled wail. Perhaps it was an objection to the impropriety of his treatment, or perhaps a plea to spare his life—

“We found ’im in the middle of the Witch Cult roost. I think he just got captured by ’em out of bad luck, but… Hey, what’s with ya?”

In the middle of his explanation, Ricardo found it odd that Subaru’s eyes were nailed to the wrapped-up person. But this was surely the natural reaction for him to have.

After all, the bound man wriggling around there was none other than—

“Pfft.”

Unable to contain himself, Subaru let out a small sound. He pointed to the young man bound hand, foot, and even torso, and burst out laughing.

“So you got yourself captured! I thought I was never gonna see your face here, Otto!”

And so Subaru called out the last name in the dramatis personae, excess misfortune having thus far denied him the stage.

2

After letting quite a few laughs fly at his expense, Subaru freed Otto from his bonds.

“Though I am…not particularly inclined to simply say, ‘Thank you very much for aiding me…’”

“Hey, is that how you talk to the group that saved your life? You wouldn’t want nasty rumors to spread, would you?”

“What kind of base villain are you?! What a person! Oh, fine, thank you very much! Thanks to you my life has been spared! Not that living brings any great comfort, damn it all!”

Half in desperation, Otto spoke his thanks to Subaru, who was bullying him with full knowledge of his precarious circumstances.

Otto had been discovered when Ricardo & Co. raided a Witch Cult stronghold. Apparently he’d been affixed to a cross in a cave in the mountains, and he had been rescued on the verge of becoming a human sacrifice.