He tenaciously yearned for a body, deluding himself with his lust for “love” from the Witch—and behind it all, he was a spirit without a body of his own, with a craving for affection and physical contact that could never be fulfilled.

Gradually rotting away from a craving that could never be sated, Petelgeuse’s mind fell into madness.

No one would ever accept a being like him in the first place.

“I don’t have a special attack or a super spell, but I’m taking you on anyway. I ain’t letting you get past me, and no way am I letting you get to the one behind me…!”

“Mr. Natsuki, I didn’t know you cared…!”

“Will you shut up a second?! I’m trying to act cool here!”

Whether Otto was flippant or serious, Subaru shut him up and turned back to face the madman.

Thanks to the amount Julius’s sword had burned away, the total number of Unseen Hands was barely enough to propel his own scamper. The number of arms waving above his head, available for attack, was seven—the exact amount he’d started with.

Petelgeuse savagely clawed at the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust as he drew nearer to the dragon carriage. The evil hands swung upward, making tree limbs fly, and pounded down from the sky above, each blow splitting the earth. Black fingertips lightly grazed the rearmost parts of the wagon, digging deep wherever they touched regardless of their strength.

Subaru calculated the range was such that the next blow would land for certain. If a direct blow of identical force landed in the center of the wagon, the dragon carriage would roll onto its side, killing Subaru and Otto both.

The next move would decide the match.

“Mr. Natsuki, we are coming out of the forest—!”

At the same time Otto spoke, Subaru’s field of vision, covered by green, suddenly brightened.

The dragon carriage flew out of the forest as if punching through a wall and slid down a grassy incline. Petelgeuse chased them out, clawing the ground as the mass of shadow seemed to swallow rocks and fallen trees, all becoming a twisted spirit set to consume the rear of the dragon carriage as well.

They cut through the forest and onto the highway. Emilia and the others they were chasing were not far beyond.

Subaru couldn’t lead Petelgeuse before them—before Emilia. The Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins couldn’t appreciate his goal, but he would not permit Emilia’s heart to be wounded.

Therefore, accordingly, Subaru Natsuki would set his life ablaze then and there—

“We’re out of the forest—no more holding back!”

“LOVE! LOVE! Love is everythiiing—!!”

Tears of blood streamed out as Petelgeuse opened his toothless mouth, laughing maniacally.

Subaru listened to his cackling voice as he sprung loose the cargo inside the wagon. He dragged one of the heavy, lined-up containers forward as the pungent scent of the liquid within clogged up his nose.

He wrapped his arms around it and picked it up. Then he hurled it at the mad, bloody laughter.

“Burn in hell, Petelgeuse!”

“—!!”

Simultaneously, the Unseen Hands stretched into the sky swung downward in a cascade of destruction.

But Subaru moved faster, before the evil hands could reach.

As the vile laughter floated in the air, Subaru hurled the pot he carried—the oil pot—toward the madman. The ceramic vessel crashed and shattered, the contents within spectacularly smearing the madman’s corpse. The preparations were complete.

The pitch-black, evil hands were falling—to blow the dragon carriage asunder, and Subaru with it.

Heedless of that, Subaru stretched his right arm straight forward, pointing with his fingers arranged like a pistol. At the end of his fingertip was a red light—for it was there that the red quasi-spirit he had borrowed from Julius resided.

“Gonna borrow your power, Julius Juukulius.”

“Whyyyyy YOUUUU—!”

“Rental Goa—!!”

It was an incomplete chant by a novice magic user to an uncontracted quasi-spirit, two incomplete things piled upon one another—but his will was focused upon that single point, granting the incantation strength.

And for it to interact with the world around him, only a spark was needed.

His mana, like a gas tank running on fumes, connected to the power of the quasi-spirit, sending a tiny spark of minimal destructiveness rushing toward Petelgeuse. And then his wicked mouth, covered in blood and oil, opened wide.

“AaaaaaAAAAA!!”

That instant, Subaru’s vision was enveloped by vivid, soaring flames.

Petelgeuse’s entire body was bathed in ignited oil that burned with incredible heat. Billowing waves of flame scorched the inside of his flesh, and Petelgeuse’s wordless scream clawed at the air around them.

Against the spirit that was Petelgeuse, Subaru had inflicted the greatest blow possible. The elements were Otto’s cargo of oil pots and Julius’s quasi-spirit, granted as a safety net. All of it was borrowed—he’d simply patched them together for a very Subaru Natsuki–like attack.

“It’s over for— Gahh!”

A moment after he saw the end of the match, Subaru noticed the existence of a pitch-black, evil hand lashing above his head. The evil hand was being swung like a grim reaper’s scythe, its course reckless and its target undefined.

However, the arm collided with the wagon, instantly sending it flying, grazing Subaru in the process. The dragon carriage violently bounced from the impact, and the wagon that had taken the direct hit was wide open, looking like some beast had taken a bite out of it.

With the carriage gouged, Subaru was among flying pieces of wood as he tumbled deeper into the wagon. His calf was torn in the process, making him clench his teeth as the pain felt like it was setting his brain on fire.

“—Gahh! Shit, that hurts! Aw, damn it!”

Subaru’s voice went ragged as he pressed a hand on the bleeding wound. But Subaru had the time neither to bandage it nor to curse his misfortune. The reason was simple: Black fingertips were grasping the rear end of the wagon that very moment—

“Giiiive MEEE, haaand it OVERRR…”

The dragon carriage heavily rocked as the fiendish, burning face of Petelgeuse crawled up into the wagon.

“—”

The thing that climbed into the wagon had abandoned a complete human form.

The missing parts—the lost right half and torn-off lower extremities—had been replaced by wriggling black hands. Of his original body, only his head was not charred red and black. Though the fire had spread to even his habit, he somehow managed to hold his body in one piece, but even so, the sheer ugliness of the being shone through…

Almost as if to assert beyond all doubt that this was a repulsive monster wearing the skin of a human being.

“You look awful…not that I’m really one to talk, I suppose.”

Grimacing from the spasm-like pain, Subaru bore it and rose to his feet. The bleeding of his leg had not stopped, but the opponent was far closer to the brink of death than he.

Petelgeuse’s entire body had been decaying even before being set on fire; he was already at death’s door. He wasn’t seeking a war of attrition, either. The next instant would settle it for both of them.

Subaru did not have many trump cards to play; indeed, they were few. All that Subaru had left for a weapon was cunning.

“Bo…dy—CANNOT vanish… Cannot…allow…to vanishhh…”

“Hey, I told you already, come into mine and you’ll have a really bad time! Who cares about the Witch?! She’s just taking us for a ride, you and me both!!”

Petelgeuse spoke with difficulty, craving Subaru’s body as he repulsively crawled forward. As he raised his voice, refusing to give in, Subaru tried to break the madman’s spirit.

But Petelgeuse showed a reaction to that shouting voice that he had not shown to that point.

“—Witch, Satella…”

Suddenly Petelgeuse murmured with lucidity as he lifted up his face. His visage was half-destroyed, his cheekbones raw and exposed, yet reason returned to the madman’s eyes.

His disjointed eyes wavered, and one caught sight of Subaru, then the other. Together they blinked with madness.

“You are…dangerous. Danger, danger, dangerdangerdangerdanger dangerdangerouuuuss—!”

“Aaah?!”

“YOU receive, receive—ceive—ve—her Favor, yet deny her love! And YOU have driven me, me, me, meeee! This close to the point of death, death, deathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeaaaath!”

Petelgeuse’s head swayed and trembled as he ranted incoherently. But behind that fury, the power of the evil hands steadily spread, consuming the wagon and stealing Subaru’s foundation out from under him. If the evil hands were unleashed with nowhere to run, Subaru had no chance of victory.

The madman’s intelligence had returned; he was chasing Subaru out of intellect, not instinct. With the cards stacked against him, Subaru inched away, and at the same time, a single possibility came to mind. And then—

“The Witch, Witch, Satella…SATELLLAAA! Love, love, looove! I was loved! I WAS loved!! Satella, me—Satella loved me! I shall not forget, for even an instant! Even if YOU forget, I—shall—not!!”

Tears flowed. These were not tears of blood, but real tears.

Truly, since their first chance meeting, this was the first time Petelgeuse had shouted about love while sane.

Be it affection or passion, it had dragged Petelgeuse from the brink of madness back to reality. Petelgeuse’s stagnant eyes shone with the firmness of will as they glared at Subaru.

“You are dangerous! You shall someday pose a threat to the entire Witch Cult! Before that! Before your hand can reach Satella! Here! Now! By my hand! By my diligence! To sunder myself from Sloth, and repay Her love…YOU shaaall DIE!!”

Petelgeuse shouted, and his body, unable to withstand the unleashing of the power of the evil hands, burst open and broke apart. But Petelgeuse was no longer bent on taking Subaru’s body, but rather, on killing Subaru, so that a threat to the Witch Cult would not be left to fester—and thus protecting the Witch he worshipped.

These were the actions of a beast, but performed with will, with intellect…

“I’d probably have lost if you’d stayed a monster, you know.”

When Petelgeuse saw what Subaru had taken out of his pocket and held in his hand, his eyes went wide.

His reaction made something in Subaru’s heart cry out. But he bit back the sentiment that momentarily reared itself, hoisting his arm aloft.

Swinging his arm high, he flung the small, black book—the Gospel—at the tip of Petelgeuse’s arm.

“Ahhh…Satella!”

In a daze, Petelgeuse let a low, quiet voice trickle from his mouth.

It was a voice immersed in tranquility, calling out the name of someone lovely beyond measure.

Desiring the heavens, Petelgeuse raised his left and only remaining arm toward the sky. Obeying his will, the evil hands stretched toward the Gospel, the black fingertips reaching for the book dancing in the air—and the next moment, it came.

He caught the Gospel just as it was enveloped by wind, just on the verge of blowing away. It was affected by the wind. Meaning it was beyond the blessing. In other words—

“—?!”

As Petelgeuse grasped the book, his body heavily bent back, bathed in ferocious winds. His feet were dragged, splitting the already gouged-out floor of the wagon; half his body was cast beyond the dragon carriage. And, as a result of being cast beyond the wind repel blessing, he was wholly immersed in turbulence.

Once upon a time, Subaru had fallen into a similar circumstance during horseplay on the way to the capital.

Without the wind repel blessing, he was taking all the wind and shaking of a dragon carriage running at full speed over horrid footing. He couldn’t possibly have held out.

“—Aaah, AAAAAAH!!”

Subaru let out a great shout and put his foot down the instant Petelgeuse’s balance greatly faltered. He forgot the pain of his torn leg and leaped, bouncing into the air. He had no tremendous power to turn the tide of a battle—that’s why he had to make his move when it counted most.

“—”

Petelgeuse shouted something as Subaru rushed over. Subaru couldn’t hear a thing. He threw caution to the wind, lowering his head for a charge, and leaped toward Petelgeuse’s flank.

Unseen Hands shot out. The speed of the hands thrust out had slackened; with Subaru’s concentration at its zenith, they might as well have been standing still. As he cocked his head and violently swerved his body, a fingertip grazed Subaru’s cheek as he closed with his foe. The sense of oppression from the powerful evil hands was such that Subaru almost unwittingly shut his eyes.

“Wilhelm taught me two things.”

Hands grazed him. Pain ran through part of the skin of his neck, cheeks, and ears, which felt like they’d been touched by hot steel. The bursting heat scalded his thoughts, and he bit down a painful cry that threatened to tear through the inside of his throat.

He dodged. He breathed. He wasn’t done yet.

“That I don’t have one smidgen of talent with a sword…”

The pain was scorching, but he became relaxed, at ease.

These twin elements intruded upon Subaru’s mind as he looked straight before him. On the other side of the hand Subaru had dodged was another hand, snapping toward his face—

“…and the courage not to shut my eyes when I’m being smacked!!”

He shouted and ducked his head. The hair on the back of his neck got a shave as he evaded by a hairbreadth. Dead ahead, Petelgeuse’s face stiffened in shock, and into the side of that face, Subaru slammed his fist.

“—!!”

The haymaker struck Petelgeuse’s cheek, causing him to greatly snap backward. His body lost its footing, and Petelgeuse was hurled out of the dragon carriage. And then—

“Oooooo—!!”

Petelgeuse hung upside down in the air before being dragged back to the dragon carriage. A piece of his habit had snagged on the wagon, and his body, connected to the dragon carriage, was being dragged along the ground.

Blood scattered. Flesh exploded. As the damage piled up, even the Unseen Hands came unmoored as the being known as Petelgeuse was undone. Even so, Petelgeuse raised his decaying face and glared at Subaru, his inverted gaze brimming with hatred.

“It is not o-ov-over—it is not…o-overrrr?!”

“Nah, this is as far as you go.”

As Subaru spoke to the excessively tenacious Petelgeuse, he revealed the Gospel he held in his hand—that which Petelgeuse had dropped when Subaru struck him, and the last thing the madman’s heart clung to.

Subaru flipped to the latter, blank half of the tome, pressing his finger against it.

He had touched the finger to a wound, covering it in blood. With this, he placed his imprint upon the Gospel.

“Your end is right here!”

In red I-script, Subaru wrote the word END on the open, blank page.

When Petelgeuse beheld the sight, his tongue trembled from the blow. The fierce emotions spreading like a wave through his eyes were so complex that Subaru could no longer read any of them.

And then, before he could put his emotions into words, the end came.

“—!”

The dragon carriage bounced high up, and Petelgeuse, dragged by the wagon by the sleeve of his habit, came loose… Then the tattered habit was caught by a wheel of the dragon carriage, turning at high speed.

Pulled in by the snagged habit, Petelgeuse’s body, stripped of limbs and blood, was pulled straight toward the wheel. The end was in sight. Mixed with the sound of a habit tearing, flesh and blood bursting, in his last moment, Petelgeuse looked up at his foe and shouted.

“—Subaru Natsukiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!”

His scream echoed and became his death cry.

Petelgeuse shouted Subaru’s name as body and voice were swallowed by the wheel; and thus ensnared, they were pulverized, with bits of blood, flesh, and bone scattering out as his life was trampled away.

With the loss of its body, the essence of the evil spirit dwelling within was drawn in until it, too, dissipated.

“—”

One last, final Unseen Hand stretched toward the tip of Subaru’s nose—

Just on the verge of grasping Subaru’s head, the hand stopped; from the tips of its fingers, it fell apart and vanished. This fact revealed that Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti well and truly was no more.

“This time, rest in peace forever…Petelgeuse.”

It was over. Certain of that, Subaru flopped onto the wagon.

Instantly, the pain he had been ignoring to that point came rushing back, and Subaru moaned as he rolled around in the wagon.

“Oww, this is bad, it’s so bad, I’m gonna die. Oww, this is bad, this is bad…!”

Tears welled up, and the sharp pain would not relent. His bleeding wounds throbbed, and he felt like needles had been thrust inside his body. Only the physical pain of his wounds racked his chest.

He did not pity Petelgeuse. Madman, evil spirit, Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins—there was no point on which he could sympathize with Petelgeuse, aka Sloth. He’d run amok all on his own, and this was the result.

He’d shouted delusions of love, arbitrarily imposed them on others, and ended up secluded and alone.

No one needed to nurse pity for a man such as Petelgeuse meeting his end.

No one, save Subaru, needed to be tormented by such sentiments.

“No one was ever gonna understand you. Of course you’re dead. You had it coming. No one—no one—will forgive you— That’s why…I feel for you…that much, at least.”

He was understood by none…unloved by the one he loved…a lonely monster.

This time, Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti was truly no more.

Nothing left of him remained in anyone’s chest, anyone’s heart.

…None, save the nail called “pity” driven into Subaru’s chest nonetheless.

6

“Mr. Natsuki, are you all right? You are wounded to no small extent.”

“Hell no, I’m not all right. I used to bawl my eyes out when the anesthesia ran out after dental work.”

Subaru moved from the half-destroyed wagon to the driver’s seat, mumbling thus as he smeared salve on his wounds. Bandages and homemade salves seemed to be necessities of travel; he’d helped himself to what the dragon carriage held.

As Subaru, done treating his wounds with teary eyes, handed the salve back to Otto, he pointed to the dragon carriage’s wagon and spoke.

“I’ll put the word in to have Roswaal pay for dragon carriage repairs, too… So how much time have we lost?”

“None whatsoever. If anything, we have gained time, thanks to having two land dragons earnestly fleeing… Something really came after us?”

“Yeah, a sloth. Never heard of ’em? They’re animals with long hands that make funny noises.”

When Subaru played dumb, replying with a deep sigh, Otto abandoned pursuing the matter further. Subaru shrugged at the sight; then he glared at the Liphas Highway’s horizon.

What Subaru yearned for was beyond that horizon, its silhouette not yet within sight, but—

“I’ll catch up to you. This time, I’ll save you.”

“You think we will make it in time?”

“We’ll make it!”

It sounded like Otto asked not out of concern, but to gauge what Subaru’s resolve was made of. Hence Subaru put on a smile, baring his teeth as he replied with a hearty voice.

“Besides, I have to finally bring Rem some good news. A man has to live up to expectations.”

“That is the name of a woman you’ve fallen for?”

“It’s the name of the girl who’s fallen for me!”

Subaru said it not with ardor or a blush, but simply as a matter of fact. For a brief moment, Otto was taken aback by Subaru’s reply, but that expression immediately crumbled.

“Ahh, then we cannot fail to look good for her, can we?!”

With a joyful shout, Otto snapped the reins, and that sharp sound made the land dragons increase their running speed.

They ran, they ran, and the dragon carriage went, seemingly flying, down the highway—

Almost as if to reel in something precious over the horizon as it threatened to pull away.

All Subaru Natsuki could do was pin his hopes on the future.

7

The dragon carriage’s speed increased, and the sounds of the wind and terrible rocking echoed inside the wagon.

“Wah—!”

“It’s okay. Hang on tight. There’s no need to be scared.”

As the children huddled in a clump to endure the shaking, Emilia sent a strong smile their way. Seeing her smile, the anxious children muttered, “Yeah” and nodded several times over.

Such strong children, thought Emilia in admiration. Any child had worries in its chest, yet these desperately clenched their teeth, continuing to fight against fear with nary a whimper.

It was enough to make Emilia think, I can’t put on a shameful display in front of them.

By rights, a dragon carriage was protected by a wind repel blessing. But currently, the blessing of their dragon carriage was not functioning.

There were various conditions that might cause the effects of blessings to lapse, but for the wind repel blessing, it was very simple: either the land dragon’s legs had come to a halt or it had gone outside the area affected by the blessing— In this case it was the former.

Once stopped, it took time for a dragon carriage’s blessing to be restored. And currently time was what they lacked.

“—”

As the wagon ferociously rocked, Emilia braced herself, strongly grasping them with her hands as she shut her eyes. She focused her ears beyond the dragon carriage’s curtain-covered rear, listening to the fierce swordplay in the distance.

About two hours had passed since they’d left the village, evacuating because of a criminal group said to be lurking in the environs of the village. Midway, they’d split from the group Rem was leading to the Sanctuary, and Emilia’s group was set to make good time evacuating to the capital—but the situation had rapidly changed a short time ago.

“…Lady Emilia, may I have a few minutes of your time?”

From beside the dragon carriage, then taking a short break, Emilia heard the voice of the aged swordsman guarding them speaking to her.

The individual calling himself Wilhelm Trias was a retainer of Crusch’s, and even Emilia could tell that he was a man of exceptional swordsmanship behind his gentle demeanor.

The fighting spirit Emilia sensed from his hushed voice was all it took to make her brows buckle with concern.

“Has something happened?”

“It is of minor concern. Accordingly, I wish to take several men with me and eliminate that concern. I ask that you forgive my rudeness in leaving your side.”

“…It’s all right. What’s wrong?”

“It is only driving off wild dogs, a trifling matter. We shall catch back up with you soon enough.”

When Wilhelm made that statement with a polite bow, Emilia sensed that something was off. Immediately after, she realized that he had been speaking out of consideration for the children all around her.

Considering Wilhelm’s duties, she could guess what he was trying not to say, and what these “wild dogs” amounted to.

“Am I not needed?”

“—”

She knew that the question she posed was an impolite way to repay Wilhelm’s considerate words. Wilhelm narrowed his eyes when, even so, Emilia could not refrain from asking.

I’ve gotten on his bad side, thought Emilia. However, unexpectedly, the old man’s lips formed a smile.

“Lady Emilia, please continue evacuating in the dragon carriage. Please take good care of the children.”

The emotion contained in the smile was neither disappointment nor disdain. He clearly longed for something dear to him.

To Emilia, perplexed and unable to understand the meaning of what she saw, Wilhelm quietly turned his back.

“With a lapsed blessing, I expect the dragon carriage shall rock rather fiercely. Make sure not to let go of the children.”

“Sir Wilhelm, I…”

“Lord and retainer truly are alike—your eyes are just like his.”

Wilhelm parted with that deeply felt murmur, breaking off from the dragon carriage column with other guards.

Emilia did not know the true intent behind the murmur. But she had no time to pursue the matter. Immediately, at the instructions of a different knight, the dragon carriage convoy resumed its evacuation. And with the blessing no longer functional, the dragon carriage set out, its rocking robbing Emilia of the luxury of immersing herself in thought.

And so, back inside the ferociously rocking carriage…

The children huddled with Emilia in the canopied wagon of the dragon carriage. She tossed several blankets over the children, held their trembling hands, and continued to pay attention to the situation outside, ready to act immediately no matter what was coming. And explaining the situation outside to Emilia was—

“That old man and the others are clashing with someone behind us. A battle is breaking out.”

—a voice, reverberating in Emilia’s head as it relayed the tactical situation outside. Somehow, Puck sounded very laid back, floating unseen as he watched the situation unfold.

“Do you know how many there are?”

“Twice as many as we have, but…mm, it’s completely all right. That old man is incredibly strong, so there’s nothing for you and me to do, Lia. Wow, he cut another one down…”

Emilia kept her fighting spirit and kept the tension off her face, nodding at her telepathic exchange with Puck.

As a spirit, Puck had ways to know what was happening outside even without materializing. Emilia was using a minute amount of power to listen to his words and keep apprised of the situation.

“It would be no laughing matter if I materialized for no reason and was out of energy when you really need me. Besides, if I come out now, I’ll end up a toy for the children.”

“I think that’d be a good thing. Your cuteness would make them forget all their worries.”

“Hey, don’t say such scary things, daughter of mine. Anyway, that’s how it looks outside.”

Even as they exchanged lighthearted telepathic banter, Emilia was a bit grateful to hear Puck’s report. But the corners of her lips rose stiffly as she painfully rued her own powerlessness.

Puck had guaranteed Wilhelm’s strength with the sword, but Emilia had power to fight with, too. Wilhelm had declined Emilia’s aid out of consideration for her position. Even though she understood that, Emilia was still chagrined over merely being protected by others.

She was unable to bring about the results demanded by her station. Her authority was a paper tiger; she was seen as a figurehead candidate from inside and outside the kingdom, and no one would claim her capabilities were up to the task, even as fiction.

And in spite of that, she was shackled to her position, her authority placed in a yoke, the decision to wave her power around denied to her.

Then what in the world was she there for?

“…Subaru.”

When, in a small voice, her lips invoked the name of the black-haired youth, Emilia shook her head at her own weakness.

She had no right to call that name, almost like she was pleading for aid. If, that moment, she was calling out his name, it was not for want of power. It was—

“Hey, everyone, don’t worry! No matter what happens, your big sister will protect you!”

It was for want of courage, so that Emilia might do what Subaru would in her place.

When Emilia spoke those words to them, the huddled, curled-up children lifted their faces. Her words sent the children, shoulder to shoulder with tears in their eyes, looking at one another’s faces, and their voices came all at once.

“W-we’re all right!” “Don’t you worry about anything, Big Sis!” “W-we promised, so it’s okay! We’re not letting go, so…!”

It was instantly obvious the children were putting on a brave front as they clung to Emilia’s arms and legs. They wrapped around both arms, both legs, and even her hips and shoulders; Emilia’s body went rigid from the heat from being touched by others. But it was by no means a disagreeable sensation.

It was just that, at the same time, something felt off about their words.

“Promised… Who did you make a promise with? To do what?”

“He said not to let go of Big Sis.” “He said you’d do reckless stuff if he’s not with you, so…!” “He said he’s worried if no one’s watching out for you!”

As each reply came in turn, Emilia was shocked by her own reaction. Emilia felt like it was extremely overprotective, and even that she was being looked down upon…but she felt strong consideration pouring out of the words.

“—”

That way of speaking sounds like…

Emilia felt a throb in her chest the instant she had the thought.

Once she noticed it, she could ignore the throb in her chest no longer. Its assertion grew stronger at an ever-increasing pace, and Emilia’s eyes wavered with bewilderment as it gently clawed against her heart.

Led by that throbbing, Emilia opened her mouth to ask, “Who said…he’s worried about me?”

“Ah, no, that’s…!”

The question immediately made the color of Petra’s face change. Her adorable cheeks reddened as she shouted, interjecting with a desperate voice, but she was not in time.

“Subaru!” “Subaru said it!” “He was worried you’d feel lonely!” “Subaru said… Ah, right, we weren’t supposed to say that…”

The children scrambled to be the first to say his name, but the last speech resulted in a hand going to the mouth. Then they all realized they had misspoken. “Oops,” Petra said quietly, clutching her head.

But as Emilia blinked her eyes, she didn’t even notice the looks on the children’s faces.

“Suba…ru…?”

She’d had a feeling. Emilia could sense him from the words out of the children’s lips.

But it can’t be, said her feelings of denial, and they had won out. After all, Emilia had hurt him, speaking terrible words and leaving him in the capital, far away.

There, where Subaru’s greatest desire was to reach out and offer Emilia his hand, she had turned her back on him. That had to have been a great betrayal.

Why, when Emilia yearned for someone to save her, had Subaru’s name come out?

It couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.

Emilia had lived a life of disappointments.

She had been betrayed, repudiated, estranged; to her these were natural, expected things.

She wanted to be trusted, accepted, sought; but to her these things were impossible.

That was why, when Subaru behaved kindly to her, she’d rejected even him, and all the kindness he offered.

It was not that she couldn’t believe he was being considerate to her. That she was worthy of his compassion—this Emilia could not believe.

If she piled expectation upon expectation, the blow when it all came crashing down would be unfathomable. Therefore, if he would someday distance himself from her, it was better if she distanced herself from him…

…before the pile between them climbed high enough to come crashing down.

And yet, why—?

“Subaru…came to the village? He…came back?”

With the children maintaining an awkward silence, Emilia could only let out that dumbfounded murmur.

Even then, the dragon carriage rocked ferociously as the battle between the knights and the pursuers continued. Emilia had a duty to protect the children, and that duty came first.

Yet Emilia’s heart was being rocked far harder than the carriage, swaying greatly to and fro.

If Subaru had returned to the village, a number of mysteries began to make sense.

It explained why Ram knew so much about the expeditionary force rendezvous. It explained why the villagers had been so cooperative with the order to evacuate. It explained why the members of the expeditionary force had so deftly handled the affairs of a domain of which they should have known little.

The simple presence of one person, Subaru Natsuki, neatly tied these mysteries together.

If Subaru was with the expeditionary force, she understood why Ram did not go against his word. To the villagers, Subaru was the savior of the village; it was natural that they would not reject his proposal.

More than anything, evacuating the villagers and Emilia, sending them ahead while he stayed behind with the expeditionary force to deal with the threat, was very Subaru-like. Too like him.

The actions were too like the Subaru Natsuki that Emilia knew—

“Why…?”

Her murmur was tinged with incomprehension and sorrow. The emotions welling into her violet eyes made them faintly tremble.

If this was all the result of Subaru’s actions, they had changed little from before—far too little. She’d hurt him, pushed him away, and yet, even so, Subaru had stayed the same.

“I hurt him that much, and put that sad a face on him… Why did Subaru come again to…?”

She didn’t know why he’d tried to save her.

She’d tossed the question his way after Subaru was deeply wounded in both body and heart at the royal selection conference and the training square. At the time Subaru had not given her an answer. And so Emilia still didn’t know.

Even though she’d given up, breaking the relationship between them, bringing it to an end without ever knowing…

“Why…?!”

“That’s obvious…!”

Emilia spoke, her voice breaking and on the verge of tears; it was the wild voice of a red-faced Petra that answered.

The reaction, which made it sound like the girl knew the answer to the question she harbored, made Emilia look at her, hanging on her words.

But before the two could open their mouths any farther, the dragon carriage was assaulted by the largest jolt to that point.

“—?!”

The dragon carriage wended its way forward with incredible force, flinging around the bodies of Emilia and the children within. Instantly Emilia grasped hold of the wagon, stretching her arms and wrapping them around the children to the greatest possible extent.

However, the dragon carriage continued wending its way, not leaving her a single moment to calm down; the movement was as if they were fleeing from something. Simultaneously, a voice echoed inside Emilia’s brain.

“Lia, someone’s coming from the rear at incredible speed—”

Prompted by Puck’s warning, Emilia shifted her eyes toward the dragon carriage’s rear. Beyond the curtain flapping in the wind, she caught a glimpse of the cause of the dragon carriage’s meandering movements: Something was chasing them…and drawing nearer.

“I’ll…!”

I have to face this, thought Emilia, instantly trying to move.

But when she tried to stand up, her body was held back by light weights, unable to move. When she lowered her gaze, she saw them: the children grabbing her arms and clothes, not letting her go for anything.

“We won’t let go!” “You can’t go!” “We promised!”

Emilia, firmly grasped by the children, could not escape.

They were bonds she could have shaken loose, but Emilia did not move. When Emilia hesitated, Petra glared sharply at her face, shouting with a tearful look, “Are you going to make Subaru cry this time?!”

“—?!”

The girl’s shout sent a ferocious tremor—both through the meandering carriage and through Emilia’s heart.

The dragon carriage braked all of a sudden, and centrifugal force struck, sending Emilia, still linked to the children, flying into the air. Reflexively, she oriented herself onto the blankets, safely protecting everyone from the impact.

Swallowed by the rocking and the blankets, Emilia somehow managed to shake her head loose and sit up.

“Just now, what was th—?”

“Lia, it’s right behind us!”

Puck materialized beside her head, pointing behind the tilting dragon carriage.

Heeding Puck’s voice and motion, Emilia swiftly rose up, shielding the children behind her. At the same time, she unleashed her magical energy, and cold air dropped the temperature inside the carriage with incredible force.

Just as Puck had said, someone had caught up to the dragon carriage. The next moment, someone raised the dragon carriage’s curtain.

Then, when she saw who was standing there, Emilia was dumbstruck.

“Why…?”

With ragged breaths, his shoulders heaving up and down, a lone young man climbed into the dragon carriage.

The sight made Emilia’s eyes shake fiercely in bewilderment.

Her lips trembled. Emilia forgot the circumstances, and with a frail, minute voice, she spoke his name.

“—Subaru.”

She spoke his name.

8

When Subaru thought back, it was a horrible way to meet someone.

It hadn’t even been an hour since Subaru had been summoned to another world, adrift and unable to tell left from right.

In that state, he’d walked into an alley, and according to script, he’d been surrounded and half-killed by punks. His trip to another world was about to end in death within the first few hours.

Subaru remembered every little thing from that time: her words, her demeanor, her grandeur.

He’d never, never, never, never forgotten.

It was because of her that Subaru Natsuki could live in that world, standing on his own two feet.

“Mr. Natsuki, that’s—!!”

Having dispatched Petelgeuse’s delusions earlier, the dragon carriage had been racing down the Liphas Highway when Otto, watching the horizon from the driver’s seat, shouted to Subaru as he caught sight of their target.

When Subaru followed his gaze, spotting the wriggling silhouette at the edge of the horizon, he too shouted.

“There!! Otto, give it everything you’ve got!!”

“I’ve been giving it everything this whole time!!”

With a powerful flick of the reins, the two land dragons picked up speed.

The jet-black land dragon stared straight ahead, wringing everything out of her spirit as she raced to fulfill Subaru’s wish.

—After she saved him in that first encounter, he learned about her as he forced his way into her life.

He knew she was stubborn, she was obstinate, she put on a strong front, and she was kind.

He knew that he was unworthy to gaze at the side of her face. The very shame of it rang shrill within his chest.

He knew that his own incorrigible foolishness had made those sweet feelings go to waste.

Back then, he’d sworn. Subaru had certainly sworn it.

“I’ll…save you.”

He’d striven to uphold that promise.

The deaths had piled up, he’d cut a hole open in Fate, and somehow making it past all that pain and suffering, Subaru had reunited with her, reforged their bonds, and earned her smiling face once more.

Subaru would never forget the flood of emotions that had struck his chest at the time.

“Wilhelm!!”

“Sir Subaru?!”

By the time they caught up with the silhouettes on the horizon, it was already a battlefield where knight and black figure clashed.

Already a number of corpses lay upon the ground. The gallant figures riding around responded to Subaru’s voice. Wilhelm blinked hard at the sight of Subaru, for the speed of the dragon carriage atop which he rode did not relent. The Sword Devil gripped a bloody blade, and the question of what Subaru was doing in that place nearly came to his lips, but—

“Where’s Emilia?!”

Subaru’s next shout, and the emotion filling his black eyes, made Wilhelm instantly cast the question aside.

Then Wilhelm pointed the tip of his sword ahead of the galloping dragon carriage and spoke.

“There! Straight ahead! Toward the Great Tree!!”

Lifting his face, Subaru set his sights on an even more distant horizon. He realized that they’d already made it halfway across the Liphas Highway, reaching as far as the Great Flugel Tree, where they’d waged the decisive battle against the White Whale.

“—”

That much having been confirmed, the dragon carriage sped through the battlefield, never lowering its speed.

He didn’t stop. He needn’t inquire about their safety. That would be an insult to the brave fighting of Wilhelm and his men, and more importantly, they were words Subaru should have spoken when they’d parted ways.

Subaru had asked Wilhelm to put Emilia and the others’ safety on his shoulders. Wilhelm was acting in accordance with the trust Subaru had placed in him. Accordingly, there was no need for Subaru to stop, nor for Wilhelm to question why he raced forward.

Their exchange of glances was over in an instant, whereupon Subaru and Otto’s dragon carriage left Wilhelm behind. However, the Witch Cultists were not about to simply let him go. Several of the figures kept the knights busy while others kicked off the ground, chasing after the dragon carriage, when—

“I am your opponent.”

Caught by surprise from behind, a Witch Cultist was sliced in half like a tall stalk of bamboo. Bathed in blood spatter, the Sword Devil swung his treasured sword as he shot the dragon carriage a satisfied smile as it raced into the distance.

“It is a perfect opportunity to repay my debt of gratitude. And even though he did not say the words, I am pleased the one who asked it understands—indeed, I am…honored.”

With the treasured sword granted by his liege in his right hand, he accepted a cavalier’s sword tossed by one of his men in the left. The Sword Devil poised the swords crossed as his glare shot through the Witch Cultists.

“As if I would let anyone stop a man who wants to meet his woman. You and I both stink too much of blood to be present at their reunion— You will all remain here…as corpses.”

His pronouncement of their sentence of death made the Witch Cultists, purportedly shorn of emotion, tremble all over.

Amid that sense of tension pulled taut, the Sword Devil bent forward, racing onward with a smile carved onto his lips.

The expression was a complex one—both that of a happy devil bathed in blood and the strained smile of an old man reminiscing on the sins of his youth.

“Mr. Natsuki, I see them! The evacuating dragon carriages are over there!”

With the battlefield left behind them, Otto, in the driver’s seat as the dragon carriage picked up speed, raised his voice. As he pointed forward, Subaru, sitting right beside him, caught sight of the dragon carriage convoy moving off in the distance. The throbbing in his chest strengthened as Subaru clenched his fist, his emotions astir.

As they closed the distance bit by bit, the dragon carriage convoy was thrown into confusion when it sensed Subaru’s carriage catching up. The column of dragon carriages began to weave around, and Subaru earnestly raised his voice.

“Stop! It’s me! Not an enemy! Stop, please stop—!”

“—?! Mr. Natsuki?!”

“Please stop! It’s an emergency! I need to check inside the carriages!”

The knight in the driver’s seat of the leading carriage realized it was Subaru pulling alongside and shouting to him; he rushed to bring his carriage to an urgent halt. At his command, the land dragon neighed, and one by one, the dragon carriages behind him lowered their speed with such force, they nearly rolled onto their sides.

And then—

“Ia, come on out! Otto, get Patlash loose from the dragon carriage, please!”

Time was precious. Subaru didn’t even wait for the dragon carriage to stop before leaping down. He broke his fall with a pathetic-looking roll that was a far cry from a graceful landing. He instantly rose to his feet, the red quasi-spirit Ia floating right before his eyes.

“Ia, can you tell which dragon carriage is booby-trapped?”

The quasi-spirit did not reply. But she asserted her existence with an increase of heat, rushing ahead of Subaru toward the column of dragon carriages, and flew circles above a carriage with a canopy.

From Ia’s reaction, Subaru rushed to the dragon carriage without the slightest doubt in his mind. He violently stripped away the curtain covering the wagon, squinting as he peered into the poorly lit interior, and—

“—Subaru.”

When he realized a voice, clear as a bell, had called his name, Subaru was struck by a wave of anxiety that threatened to make him break down then and there.

Inside the wagon was a beautiful girl with silver hair and violet eyes, staring dumbfounded at Subaru.

It was the sight of the girl he had pursued over and over, hoped for over and over, bent and broken himself over and over in the process, yet even so, he had never once managed to give up.

He was overflowing with emotion. Irresistible urges welled up within him.

However, Subaru gritted his teeth, instantly cutting his indecision away.

“Ia! Where is it?!”

Trailing behind Subaru, the quasi-spirit emerged within the wagon, flying around inside like an illusion. Scattering her mana like tiny specks of fire, the red quasi-spirit strongly illuminated one of the wagon’s corners.

“Puck! Can you let me strip only this part off without setting off what’s behind it?!”

“An unexpected reunion, and already you’re making dema…… Mnggh, so that’s how it is?”

Puck, eyes wide at Subaru’s presumptuous call, realized something was wrong under the floor. The little cat narrowed his eyes at the area indicated by the quasi-spirit, swishing his tail as he made use of his power. Gathering his mana, he froze the floorboards, whereupon Subaru violently stomped on them, shattering them. Then he thrust an arm into the hole thus created; when he felt his fingertips wrap around it, he yanked it out.

“—Found it!!”

With a shout, what emerged from under the floor was a sack made of unusual material with complex symbols written upon it. It seemed to be made of some creature’s hide, but the repulsiveness of the feel of it instinctively made him ill.

“A sack of demon beast hide—”

As Puck put into words the cause of his distaste, Subaru opened the sack. The inside was jam-packed with glowing magic crystals, corroborating Otto’s testimony.

But that very moment, the magic crystals grew hotter, like they’d just begun a countdown sequence.

“What timing…! Puck, can you stop this?!”

“I don’t think I can. I can contain the blast, though.”

Puck looked at Emilia as he shook his head, seemingly offering a glimpse of his final trump card. The gesture made Subaru realize that it probably meant Puck manifesting in his true form, overcoming the problem by brute force.

It was a crude measure, but certainly it was possible for Puck to minimize the damage. It was possible, but…

“No, you can’t!”

Subaru turned that plan down.

Certainly that method would do to keep everyone safe. But it would come at the cost of revealing Puck’s form as a Great Spirit, and awe at the sheer enormity of that power made the rupture of Emilia’s relationship with the villagers inevitable—Subaru couldn’t even stop himself from shuddering as he protested.

After all, just then, Emilia and the villagers were finally on the same stage, coming closer together bit by bit—

It wasn’t like at the royal selection conference. Showing her power off like she had there would only be a hindrance to her relationship with the villagers. That was why he could rely on Puck like that only if it was truly the only way, the most final of final resorts.

“Think. Think, think, think…!”

If the magic crystals he’d retrieved lived up to their billing, they’d turn the entire prairie into a sea of flame when they exploded. There was practically no time left until they exploded. It would be difficult to toss them somewhere far away. But if he relied on Puck, it would leave a dark shadow over Emilia’s prospects in the royal selection. He wrung all his cunning to think of something before he’d have to redo things at the cost of his life. This time, there had to be something he could do for Emilia—

“—That’s…it.”

He let out a murmur. Exactly one way had come to mind.

It was a ridiculous, laughable conclusion. He wasn’t sure he could actually pull it off. However, within the current limitations, it was the one possibility he could think of that had miraculous prospects of victory.

The instant he thought of it, Subaru’s body practically leaped into motion.

With difficulty he picked up the heavy sack, his arms and chest scorched by the incandescent magic stones. Subaru ignored the pain and leaped out of the dragon carriage. And behind him—

“Wait…!”

In a shaking voice, Emilia called for Subaru to stop.

His legs, which had no time to stop, stopped. His body, which had no time to turn around, did. He stared straight at the eyes into which he could not look. They did not have the time to exchange words, yet exchange words they did.

“Subaru, why…?!”

This why included the various whys apart from that moment.

There was the why of that instant, when he had come aboard the dragon carriage; there was the why toward his creation of this situation; and from long, long before…

She was likely repeating the question she had posed in that room in the royal palace, too.

At the time, Subaru had been unable to give Emilia an answer to her question.

At the time, numerous emotions had surged within him that he had yet to sort out. Taken individually and separately, it was not that they were mistaken…but they were not correct, either.

It was the place where he had been given only one chance to reach out to her, and he’d let it slip through his fingers.

That place was the one chance he had earned, and he’d lost even that, kicking everything down the road.

He’d reunited with Emilia, gaining the chance to talk with her, and he had a mountain of thoughts and feelings he wanted to share. No matter how much he tried, it would never be enough to cover it all.

Many, many words floated into his thoughts, filling his throat, but that’s where they vanished.

Contained with him was a flood of emotions and ideas, but in that moment his entire body and soul yearned for one thing.

What to talk about? What to tell her?

What words to choose? How would he face her?

“Why…?”

She asked him once again.

He took a short breath. And then, in a single phrase, Subaru told her.

He told her the one and only thing that gave his life meaning, even when covered in all those wounds.

“—I love you, Emilia.”

9

In one go, they passed through the curtain of the dragon carriage, practically ripping it as they leaped out.

The instant the dazzling light of the sun burned Subaru’s eyes, a huge black frame stood before him, blocking the sun’s rays. It was Patlash. Subaru’s favorite dragon had predicted everything before he had even called her, offering him her back.

Subaru leaped on, placing the leather sacks emitting high temperatures between his own belly and Patlash’s saddle. He proceeded to take the reins, and the land dragon galloped on a path in the direction of the sun.

Behind him Otto was surprised by Subaru’s actions; the knight in the driver’s seat was shocked as well. The children leaping out from behind the curtain raised their voices, as did Emilia.

Subaru heard them calling out to him. But he didn’t look back. There wasn’t time.

Every feeling he wanted to convey, every word he wanted to speak, it had all been summed up in that single phrase. There was nothing left for Subaru to do there. In that moment there was only one thing he needed to follow through on.

“—”

Patlash became the wind, instantly leaving the landscape behind them.

The effect of the wind repel blessing had expired, so the shaking and gusts assailed Subaru without mercy. But the land dragon’s agile movements protected her master, and Subaru, trusting his favorite dragon in equal measure, left everything to her.

He could feel through the leather bag that the magic crystals were becoming white-hot. Quietly, that heat increased with every passing instant. They were on the very brink of exploding. Subaru’s belly, and Patlash’s back, sensed this as they desperately dashed forward.

As his eyesight darkened from pain, he saw their destination coming into view at the edge of his vision.

It was the legendary Great Tree, snapped at its base and lying on its side. Lying beside that legendary tree was the headless corpse of a demon beast that had grown over the course of a long, long time.

The expedition force had probably had its hands full just hauling the head of the enormous demon beast away. Due to their freezing the massive fallen body to hold back the onset of rot, there was a chill in the air all around it.

Patlash ran toward the frozen carcass as Subaru ran his eyes toward the center of the White Whale. There rested the fatal sword wound inflicted by the Sword Devil.

“—!”

Drawing up right alongside the corpse, Subaru leaped off Patlash.

Then, without hesitation, he raised the powerfully hot leather sack high and stuffed it into the demon beast’s wound. The giant corpse’s wound was large enough that, even in its frozen state, there was plenty of space to pack the leather sack into it.

“—”

Having disposed of the leather sack, he instantly turned back. Subaru leaped back onto Patlash and grabbed the reins to immediately turn away, then the two of them circled around the corpse, slipping under the fallen Great Tree’s shadow.

Subaru was practically dangling from the saddle as Patlash raced onto the grasslands. By the time the land dragon had taken a second or perhaps third step, the magic crystals reached the point of ignition, and light surged up from them.

All Subaru could feel was the shaking and wind from their mad dash. With his body shaken all around, he lost sight of which way was up, but he knew from the impact he felt that they’d escaped to where he’d intended. Subaru fervently clung to the trunk of the tree while Patlash curled up her body, covering Subaru with it.

Immediately after that—

“—!!”

There was a ferocious shock wave and blast of wind, along with the sound of the explosion, which echoed over the highway so fiercely that Subaru thought his eardrums would burst. A torrent of heat streamed past the White Whale’s remains and the Great Tree, singeing Subaru and Patlash’s flesh.

The light from the explosion passed through his closed eyelids, searing his eyeballs. But Subaru clung firmly to his handholds, gritting his teeth as he endured the pain.

The shock wave churned up his internal organs, and it felt like even the powerful roots of the Great Tree would be ripped from the soil. However, the tide of destruction finally began to abate—

“—?”

Subaru, realizing that at some point he’d stopped feeling anything, lifted his head.

He tried raising his voice, but his ears were ringing so badly he couldn’t hear a thing. When he opened his eyes, he couldn’t see anything through the hanging blast cloud.

He reached out with his hand and felt the hide of the land dragon right beside him. He couldn’t tell from warmth, but his palm felt the movements of a living creature. She was alive. His shoulders eased in relief.

“—?!”

The next moment, he felt something moist touch the surface of his unseeing face.

When it repeated over and over, he wondered if it might be Patlash’s tongue licking his face. He made a strained smile at the doglike show of affection. Also, her tongue was so coarse, he felt like his face was being filed.

However, he didn’t lift a finger to stop it, nor did he raise his voice.

It figured that he was tired. He was completely out of endurance, no longer able to move a single step.

He wondered if it would be such a sin if he gave his body a little break.

“—!”

When he felt the faint stirring of the air against his skin, Subaru somehow managed to move his head.

He could see nothing. He could hear nothing. But for some reason, it felt good.

He could hear nothing. At that moment, nothing at—

“—Subaru!”

Ahh, whaddya know. Turns out I can hear something.

The sigh of relief was the last thing Subaru did before his mind fell into a deep, deep sleep.

10

When Subaru came to, his mind had entered a world of darkness once more.

Having lost his body, Subaru Natsuki continued to hover in that vast, empty space as nothing but consciousness.

As usual, the world had neither ground nor a discernable sky.

Nothing but darkness spread out before him in an ephemeral dream, one he would forget when he awakened.

“—I love you.”

But in that blank, hollow world of nothingness, there was an charming “someone” he couldn’t meet anywhere else.

Always it gave Subaru a soft, numbing throb, as if he were filled with joy at a painful embrace.

“—I love you.”

The darkness unwound, the shadow formed, and the captivating “someone” appeared, approaching Subaru as she whispered her love.

He could not see the expression on her face. However, that “someone” was likely spinning words of love with a face drenched with anguish.

He wanted to be touched. He wanted to be longed for. Reflexively, Subaru’s heart was drawn in.

He wanted to respond to her love, to repay her for it. He would never be able to repay love granted to him with anything less than love of his own.

And yet—

“—Subaru.”

He heard it. A lovely voice from other than “someone” was calling his name.

His thoughts alone understood. A lovely voice apart from the “someone” filling the dream with black shadow was calling him to the world of white light.

As he understood this, a white light, something that should not exist in the land of darkness, was born.

“—I love you.”

“—Subaru.”

Simultaneously, the voices were tossed his way. He wanted to respond to the shadow’s love. He absolutely had to respond to the love of the light.

He realized that his mind was being drawn away from the voice of that “someone” toward she whose voice reached him from the land of light.

The voice of that “someone” held grief at the state of Subaru’s heart, for she was being left behind.

Two arms woven from shadow stretched out, but they did not reach his incomplete body. As Subaru grew distant, he heard the voice tremble, sadly calling out as it sought him over and over.

“—I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.”

“—Subaru, please.”

The whispers of love repeated over and over, whereas the call of his name contained a simple plea.

Remember who you are.

Remember what you have to do.

Remember the words you must exchange, in the world where you belong.

He couldn’t stay there.

So—

“Next time, I’ll probably come to meet you.”

With nonexistent lips, surely unable to convey his feelings, he spoke his farewell to the “someone” fading in the distance.

They were words of departure, an oath that they would meet again. That “someone” let out a small gasp.

Then Subaru’s mind was enveloped by a light that blotted out the world of darkness as he slowly melted away.

“—I’ll be waiting.”

That echo was the only thing left as Subaru Natsuki was torn from the ephemeral dream…

11

His mind floated up through the sea called sleep, breaking the surface called waking as his eyes opened.

The tears of his waking eyes stung them like poison. His blurry vision saw thin, wavering violet.

Her breathtaking beauty was so close that they practically breathed the same air, truly close enough for the hot breath from her pink lips to reach him—making him nervous enough to die on the spot.

“Isn’t your face a bit close?!”

“Wah! Ah, Subaru! You’re awake! I’m glad, really I am.”

The violet that was so near turned out to be Emilia’s eyes; the realization that it was her face that had been close enough to breathe on him snapped his mind awake. As Subaru flew into a panic, Emilia watched him, patting her breast with a look of pure relief—the angle was odd.

“Emilia-tan was super close while I slept. So this heavenly feeling against my head is…”

“You don’t need to say it out loud. It’s a lap pillow. Not bad for…a good sleep?”

“How can I complain? There’s no pillow that’s more luxurious than this. It’s a pretty nice reward for working so hard.”

Subaru shot her a teasing smile as he let his head rest upon her without complaint. As he did so, Emilia pursed her lips in a small smile, quietly gazing upon Subaru’s smiling face.

The mood had shifted. It had changed from each making sure the other was safe…to their exchanging the feelings lying beyond that.

“Errr, can I ask you about a few things? For instance… Right, is Patlash okay? I remember I felt like she was licking my face right before I passed out…”

“Goodness, and there’s so many things I want to ask, too… That land dragon was licking you quite awhile after you passed out, too, Subaru. She really, really raised a fuss when people tried pulling you away, and if Otto hadn’t had a word with her, she might never have left your side.”

“Whoa, Patlash, how far are you gonna take this loyal dragon thing? I’m falling in love.”

They’d known each other for only two days, but the number of ordeals they’d been through together was already unmatched. If Crusch was going to give him a reward for helping deal with the White Whale, he couldn’t even conceive of one besides Patlash anymore.

“She was badly burned, but her life doesn’t seem to be in danger. I conducted the initial treatment, but Sir Wilhelm is having Ferris examine her right now, so…”

“Eh? Ferris caught up, too?”

Subaru was both relieved and surprised to hear Ferris’s name come from Emilia’s lips. The kingdom’s greatest healer having joined up with them was good news. And the fact he was there meant—

“Does this mean I’ve been sleeping for a long while?”

“Two or three hours, maybe? Don’t worry, thanks to conversation mirrors, Ferris and them were able to link up, so all the wounded people are all right.”

Emilia smiled pleasantly. One of the conversation mirrors originally owned by the Witch Cult rested in her hand. It was the one Subaru had kept for communicating with the expeditionary force left back in the village. She’d used it to converse with Ferris and the others, which accounted for the smooth rendezvous.

“So everyone’s gathered around here, huh?”

“Ferris is still treating people… Julius, too. I was surprised. I mean, I would never have imagined you and Julius together, Subaru.”

“I had a reason for that bluer than the mountains and higher than the seas. Explaining the circumstances of that subject from part one would get really long and messy, y’see…”

The relationship with Julius that had surprised Emilia was difficult to explain with words. Or rather, that very moment, even Subaru didn’t know how to describe it.

If he had to put his complex emotions into a few short words that represented his overall appraisal of the man—

“I will hate that guy forever.”

“What’s with saying that all of a sudden?”

“I was trying my best to express the feelings I have for him that are hard to put into exact words… So where is everyone right now?”

Not wanting to talk about that any further, he switched topics. “Let’s see,” said Emilia, making a small, strained smile at Subaru’s demeanor as she spoke. “Ferris told everyone to take a break until he finished healing people, but he should be right about done. Once that’s over, we’ll be heading for the capital again. There’s a lot of things I have to speak to Crusch about, after all. That’s thanks to your hard work, Subaru.”

“Yeah, it totally was hard. Seriously felt like a game as the away team. I got through it with bluff, bluster, and guessing right about some little things. Just thinking about it twists my stomach!”

“Yes. Really…thank you.”

Emilia’s sincere gratitude made Subaru, attempting to hide his blush, able to hide it no longer.

But credit was credit. There was no point hiding it any longer.

“That’s, right…I’ve, finally gotten back, haven’t I?”

When he finally looked around, Subaru saw that he and Emilia were all alone inside the canopied dragon carriage’s wagon.

The surrounding area held no sign of people; only the sound of the wind broke the silence. It was as if they were the only two people in the whole world—it was just like back then.

Wounded all over, his mind hazy, he’d awakened to find the two of them all alone.

“I feel like I’ve been seeing a long dream…”

As a matter of fact, the events from the moment of their departure to that time around—the final loop—seemed unreal, very much like he’d been dreaming.

That was how extreme and prolonged a situation it had been. It had been nothing but a veritable nightma—

“A bad dream…… No, not that.”

“Was it a good dream?”

Emilia cocked her little head slightly, and her question prompted Subaru to continue.

The question made Subaru close his eyes, reminiscing on the time he had nearly declared a nightmare.

He remembered the many despairing situations that had visited him, places that he wanted to drive out of his head many times over.

His string of foolish acts. His self-serving behavior. His overbearing arrogance. How he’d cruelly betrayed expectations. How his spirit had been pummeled and broken by loss and despair. How he had once been ruled by madness, enough that when he sank into clarity, he sought to throw everything to the wind—and how, at the end of that, someone saved him.

He couldn’t pretend it hadn’t happened. Were it not for all those things, the Subaru of that moment would not exist.

Therefore, even if those days had been like a nightmare, inflicting nothing but hardships upon him…

“—It was good, really.”

That long, long, nightmarish time remained nowhere, save for inside Subaru himself.

He could treat it as the past. But he could not allow himself to treat it as a dream.

The tragic results created by his own actions, and the horrific results they’d courted, were all his to bear.

Subaru was prisoner of the supernatural power of Return by Death. He had used that power to blaze open a new future. So this cross was his to bear.

“…How much have you heard?”

“Almost nothing. Julius said I should hear it from you.”

“That meddling piece-of-shit bastard.”

Was this his idea of being considerate? Inside his brain, Subaru spit invective at the handsome young man.

Then Subaru gently sat up from Emilia’s lap, meeting her gaze with his own…

…as if to continue his words where they’d left off back then.

“That day, you asked me why. Why did I come save you? Why did I try so hard for you with this and that? Why, you said.”

“Yeah, I asked that. And also, why you claimed I had saved you… I never did anything like that. I haven’t at all. It’s been only you saving me… I haven’t given you anything. And in spite of that, you get so hurt for my sake…”

“Nah, back then I was all messed up…”

A part of him could not dismiss himself as just messed up.

It wasn’t that he was messed up at all. At the time, thinking of himself only in terms of foolishness and frailty, the human being called Subaru Natsuki had honestly believed those words.

He had been pushing his own conceited emotions onto her, and wanted only for her to accept them.

Subaru knew of a man who had loudly asserted such self-serving love in his final moments, for it was Subaru himself who had watched this while leading the man to his demise.

Properly speaking, the sight of the Sword Devil offering up proof of his love had also been burned into his eyes.

“At the time, I was thinking only about me. I accept that. I was saying it was for your sake, but I was just drunk with the idea of ‘I’m doing this for you.’ I put into my own head that if I acted drunk on that, you’d accept me.”

“Subaru…”

“Sorry. I was using you, and drowning in my own joy. Everything you said back then was true. I was wrong…but I wasn’t wrong about everything.”

He conceded that he’d used Emilia for his own benefit. But there was one thing that he would not concede.

“I want to help you. I want to be there for you. That’s serious, that’s true, not a lie.”

“…Yeah, I know.”

Emilia nodded at Subaru’s words. Then her violet eyes greatly wavered and, blinking once, she stared at Subaru.

And then—

“—Subaru, why do you help me?”

They were the words she had spoken then. It was a question she had also posed several hours before.

Then, like before, the words were offered in search of an answer. Subaru had but one to give.

“I want to be there for you, because I love you, Emilia.”

Subaru looked straight back into Emilia’s eyes and stated it plainly.

In the end, the summary of the basis of Subaru’s actions was exceedingly simple.

Wanting to be there for her, to stand by her side, to render her aid, to see her smiling face, to walk beside her, to live with her from now on—

Every last part of it was because he loved Emilia with all his body and soul, from the crown of the head to the tips of his toenails.

That was why, even at the risk of death, and in fact numerous deaths, no matter how hurt or hated or anguished he might be, even if he had to crawl to do it, he’d come back.

Just how many opportunities had he missed, only belatedly coming up with that simple answer?

He was truly in awe at the extent of his own stupidity.

“—”

Listening to Subaru’s reply, Emilia opted to close her lips and keep her silence.

But that silence did not last long. Abruptly her composure crumpled; she bit her closed lips, and her wide-open, violet eyes grew moist.

It was the look of a girl who might break into tears at any moment, a girl who didn’t know how to cry.

“I…I’m…a half-elf…”

“I know that.”

Emilia earnestly shook her head, replying in a shaking, halting voice.

“I’m a half-elf, with silver hair… I’m hated by all kinds of people because I look like the Witch, they hate me. They truly, truly hate me.”

“I’ve realized. I know. And those guys are blind.”

Judging from appearances alone, and on top of that, basing everything on a resemblance to an arch-criminal from the distant past was ridiculous. How did anyone who didn’t know a single thing about Emilia’s true nature have any right to hate her?

“I have almost no experience interacting with people, and I don’t have any friends. I have no common sense, and I’m ignorant of how the world works. That’s why I say weird things from time to time…and because of my pact with Puck, my hairstyle practically changes on a daily basis, and my reason for wanting to be queen is…really, really selfish…”

She lined up her shortcomings one after another, even including things she didn’t need to mention, offering a glimpse at her deepest vulnerabilities. Yet that timidity, that frailty, that lack of confidence—in that moment, Subaru thought it was all lovely.

Hence, Subaru gently shook his head.

“Emilia, whatever anyone says to you, whatever you think of yourself, I love you. I really love you. I super love you. I want to be together with you, always. I want to hold your hand, forever.”

“Ah…”

“If you tell me ten things you hate about yourself, I’ll tell you twelve that I love about you.”

When Emilia seemed to try to pull back into herself, Subaru wouldn’t let her escape, keeping his eyes glued to her as he stated how he really felt.

Emilia closed her little lips, looking at Subaru, and as she continued to look, tears welled in her eyes. When they grew to the point of overflowing, she blinked, letting droplets fall, tracing paths down her white cheeks.

“That’s the special way I want to treat you.”

“…This is the first time since I was born that I’ve been so happy to be treated as special.”

He reached out with his hand, gently suppressing the flow of tears. With Subaru’s hand touching her cheek, Emilia put her hand over his, and the body warmth exchanged between the two felt intensely hot.

“Why…twelve?”

“Because one hundred percent ain’t enough to express how I feel.”

When Subaru laughed, face brimming with a wide grin, Emilia answered with a tearful smile. Her face was dazzling, as if each and every falling tear were a diamond. Subaru felt so satisfied from seeing just one charming smile that he had to laugh at himself for how easily content he was.

And so they smiled together, as Emilia rubbed her cheek against Subaru’s hand.

“I’m so happy. Really happy. I never once thought the day would come that someone would tell me they loved me.”

In the days until that point, special had meant something entirely different to Emilia. That was why she was extremely frightened of receiving special treatment from anyone. Subaru knew how she felt about it, but had given her special treatment despite it all.

Even if it wasn’t from anyone else, even if it was only Subaru in that whole world, the way he treated her truly was…special.

“Is this really fine? For me…for someone like me to be this happy, to have such happy feelings, it feels like an indulgence…”

“It’s absolutely fine. Let’s indulge ourselves. No matter how happy you are, it doesn’t bother anyone else, and you can always give some of the excess to other people.”

Which was why—

“You can take it slow, Emilia. Slow, gentle, take your time falling in love with me. After all, I’ll be walking right by your side, doing my best to make you weak in the knees.”

“—!”

“Eep,” went Emilia, making a little sound from her throat. She proceeded to grow red in the cheeks, lowering her eyes. Then she touched a hand to her breast, quietly staring at Subaru as he smiled at her. And then…

“Thank you, Subaru. For helping me.”

…Emilia smiled pleasantly as she said those words to Subaru. They were words she had spoken once before.

Realizing that fact, Subaru laughed. Emilia, realizing the same, laughed, too. She laughed and laughed, and suddenly, tears began to flow from the corners of her eyes. Subaru reached his hand out to Emilia’s long, beautiful silver hair, gently stroking it as if combing through it.

He remained by the adorable girl’s side as she gently continued to cry.