Chapter 29 - x

Rem did not understand the details of what occurred after that point.

What she did grasp was that at some point, they'd lost consciousness, only to awaken far from home with a huge mansion all around her, and that her sister, who had lost her horn, was there with her.

Her sister had regained consciousness first and was overjoyed to see Rem awaken, but Rem was lost in thoughts of her twin, whose abilities ranked lower than the average person's now that she had lost her horn.

On the surface, her behavior was largely unchanged, but there was no trace of the talent she had commanded in every area. Now that she struggled with even minor things, Rem had many opportunities to help her.

And so, one would think that Rem would develop a superiority complex toward her now universally inferior sister—but one would be wrong; the inferiority complex took root in Rem's spirit even deeper than before.

In other words, Rem felt shame at the fact that her sister had gone from beloved by the whole world to having to endure life at the bottom.

Rem's guilt was spurred on by the admiration she had for her older sister. Had Rem's heart been filled with only jealous thoughts, no doubt it would not have been so. But Rem loved her sister. And she was not so shrewd or self-serving to live and forget the thought she'd had that moment when her sister's horn was broken.

"I have to do everything in Sis's…Sister's place…"

Rem changed how she addressed her older sister and put her days of hiding in her shadow behind her. Rem's battle had begun.

In all things, in all duties she was assigned, all she could think was, Sister would do this. She'd always been right behind her sister, watching. Her sister's judgment had never failed.

Even so, the results were always less than she expected. That was natural, for her sister was incredible. With a flawed little sister like her, even both of them working together could not reach the same place.

Rem had to blaze the trail that was properly her sister's to have blazed, to have walked, to have led her down, and to lead her older sister along it by the hand.

—There was no longer any individual life for the girl known as Rem.

To Rem, the only thing she could do was "live the life Sister would have." That she could not fulfill such a role made her unable to believe that she had any real value.

Days and months passed. There, in the mansion that had taken them both in when their homeland was burned away, the gap between their reality and Rem's ideals wore at her day after day.

It was not that she minded her role as a servant. The lord of the manor had benevolently given them a place to stay, and moreover, she adored her older sister enough that she did not mind offering up body and soul.

If problems arose during these untroubled days, Rem took full responsibility.

You have done well, the master would say in praise. She had heard such words from her homeland many times over.

Don't force yourself, her sister would say to Rem out of concern. But even forcing herself was not yet enough.

Why do you push yourself so hard? one irresponsible person had asked Rem.

—That was obvious.

Because she was inferior in anything and everything. Even if she pushed herself to the breaking point, whittling away her soul and burning her body to ash, she would never reach that which ought to have been.

—What could she do to atone?

And so, Rem dedicated her life to cutting open the path that her sister ought to have walked herself but that Rem had stolen from her.

For Rem was a substitute for her sister in all things and nothing more.

5

With her obsession strengthened, the seven years wore upon Rem.

Others dutifully commended Rem on a daily basis for her earnest hard work, though to Rem these efforts never yielded satisfactory results. Even Margrave Roswaal praised her as a capable worker, to the point that he commanded her to serve at his side during that significant time when the royal selection was underway.

And yet, all the praise she earned filled Rem's chest with vague unease.

The days and months had not made her sense of guilt fade away; indeed, they had only reinforced it—and she continued to live her life for the sake of her older sister.

And then, Lady Emilia and Sister had returned from the royal capital, bringing a foreign element into the mansion.

"My name is Subaru Natsuki. Zero work experience! Pleased to meet you!"

The wounded lad had been brought into the mansion because he had saved Emilia's life. Upon waking, the young man negotiated with Roswaal and gained for himself the position of apprentice servant in no time at all.

Naturally, Rem was gripped by a deep sense of distrust toward the youth of uncertain origin. In particular, she could find nothing to like during the first two days, when the young man had plastered a smile on his face and worked constantly to win her and her sister's favor.

Furthermore, there was a scent wafting around him that triggered memories in Rem that she could barely endure. It was the scent of the witch —the miasma that surrounded only a few beings in the entire world.

Ever since her homeland had become a sea of flames, Rem's nose had learned how to pick out the scent.

She did not know why. She knew only that it triggered abominable memories and that seven long, bitter years had taught her that nothing good came from that which accompanied the scent.

She had been unable to make her antipathy plain in front of Roswaal and Emilia, but instead, she had often found herself staring at the young man while he seemed at war with himself.

Now that she had lost her horn, Sister had no need for any relationships other than her one with Roswaal, whom she adored. To Rem, who had stolen her sister's proper place, there was nothing more important than protecting the place her sister could be at ease. And Rem would show no mercy to those who threatened their home.

As far as anyone else could see, the boy showed no sign of untoward behavior whatsoever. Yet even as her sister told her that they should only watch, Rem thought he should be driven out of the mansion as soon as possible.

By the time something happens, it will be too late. Such was the conclusion Rem had formed at the time.

—And then, she saw Subaru sleeping on Emilia's lap.

Rem gave Emilia's opinion on the matter a great deal of weight, but internally she was still struggling to think of how she should treat the person known as Subaru.

Rem, who had strictly observed Subaru's every action because he was an outsider, understood that he tried his utmost in everything he did— including the sarcasm. It was in complete contrast to his frivolous manner.

And seeing him struggle so hard to produce results in spite of inferior ability reminded her of someone, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

From the following morning onward, she saw Subaru's demeanor and behavior in a different light. The strained atmosphere evaporated; how he approached everything changed, even if his technical skill had not.

He had gone from striving without a tangible goal to burning with desire to accomplish something. Naturally, his approach to work changed as well. He still held others back, but the quality of his work did rise a little bit.

Rem, who welcomed no changes to her environment, still regarded Subaru as a troublesome interloper, but she felt like she should at least not regard him as an enemy.

Then, when Roswaal was absent, disaster struck.

"—Worst case, the whole village might get wiped out."

Rem, ordered by her older sister to accompany Subaru, half doubted the extreme scenario he'd suggested so seriously. However, when they reached Earlham Village, the children really were missing, and the barrier that should have blocked off the forest had been breached and was no longer functioning.

"Rem, let's go. We have to do something."

Rem had recoiled at Subaru's invitation to go into the forest to rescue the children from their plight.

Of course it was strange. Rem could not grasp why someone so powerless would act so desperately for children he barely knew.

Subaru was not being reckless. He was well aware of his own weakness.

And still he did not hesitate to ask others for the things he lacked. What incredible arrogance, she had thought.

They had gone into the forest, found the children, and used magic to save them. Even when Subaru wanted to go deeper into the forest to find the missing last child, Rem was not surprised.

With eyes that said he was useless, an expression that said he didn't measure up, a voice that bit back the urge to give in many times over— Subaru never stopped struggling.

When Rem watched Subaru head into the forest by himself as she healed the children, her heart fluttered furiously. She was filled with warmth that words could not express.

After Rem had handed the children over to the young men of the village, relying on the miasma of the witch to reach Subaru once more, she had found him in a life-and-death situation, surrounded by a pack of demon beasts.

Seeing the sleeping girl in Subaru's arms had cleared away all Rem's doubts.

As Subaru ran, Rem leaped into action, running interference for him against the attacking mob of demon beasts. Blood and pain toyed with her, but Rem felt light, as if a weight had been lifted from her heart.

Not once had she imagined that trusting someone, trusting Subaru, could feel so good.

The next moment, Rem had sustained an impact that plunged her mind into darkness. In its place, her demon instincts took over, and she began an indiscriminate slaughter.

She learned the pleasure of making flesh fly apart. She felt delight at indulging in her power, completely forgetting her goal.

Her demon instincts demanded more blood, more lives— "—!"

The collision against her back had sent Rem flying, dulling her reactions.

Something was holding her down. When she looked behind her, she saw Subaru's face. The relief on it snapped Rem from reflex to rational thought.

She saw a ferocious demon beast right next to him, its fangs drawing near. She needed to jump, to reach out, to save him—so thought Rem when suddenly, the miasma tickled her nose.

That made her delay her decision by a single moment. And then…

"—Gaaaaah!!"

…Rem finally realized that she had not changed at all.

She had committed the sin from long ago…again. 

CHAPTER 5

ALL IN

1

—When Rem regained consciousness, her feet were not planted on the ground.

There was an arm firmly around her waist. Someone was carrying her. She did not think that the rough manner was any way to touch a girl. Though that was indeed the case, the owner of the arm was sprinting recklessly, with not a shred of concentration for anything beyond that.

"—Barusu, go right at the broken tree in front! You are slow!"

"Don't…demand the impossible… I'm—haghh—running…as hard as I can…here!"

Two familiar voices, one more intimately so, were yelling at each other from close by.

The intense up-and-down shaking jostled Rem's head back into consciousness.

"…Subaru, what are y—"

"—! Rem…you're awake?!"

Subaru kept running as he voiced his delight and glanced down at her. Rem looked up at him, her mind still rather hazy, when something unexpectedly caught in her throat.

The side of Subaru's face was wet with blood. Maybe he'd cut his forehead? The scars all over his body from the night before had whitened; at some point, new wounds had been made on top of them, staining both with fresh blood.

Ram, her pink hair swaying as she ran beside Subaru, made a faint, pleasant smile toward her.

"…I am so glad, Rem… You are one high-maintenance girl…"

Ram's words were few, but only those who really knew her knew this particular smile. She reached out and stroked Rem's blue hair. A moment later— "Fulla!"

She conducted the Blade of Wind incantation and used the resulting attack to slice through the trees—and cut the demon beast charging at them into discs to nourish the plants on the forest floor.

For a moment, Ram seemed dizzy; her steps went astray, making her lightly bump into Subaru's body.

"Owwwww! Ram, you know better than to touch my right shoulder, geez!!"

"…Be quiet. You would have been bitten if not for me. You can at least be a wall for me to lean on."

"At least pick the other should—Owww!"

Subaru was half in tears as he cried out in fierce pain.

Ram put her weight on Subaru as she bled from the scar of her lost horn.

Rem watched both of them as the current situation slapped her in the face.

Why was she in a place like this? Why were they protecting her?

"Wh…y…?"

"Ah?"

"Why…did you not just let me be?"

She trembled as she voiced the question. Subaru stared down at her with a look of disbelief as Rem's quivering lips continued.

"You and Sister coming made it meaningless. I…I have to do this myself… I should be the only one getting hurt…"

"It's a little late for that. Ram and I are all beat up already! Hell, maybe more than you are!"

Subaru was prone to exaggeration, but he seemed to believe every word of that last sentence. She wondered what Ram thought of that, but her beloved twin did not enter the conversation. Rem felt like her sister had left her out on a limb as she desperately tried to find the right words.

"It…it is my fault. I hesitated last night, that is why… I have to take responsibility… If I do not, I cannot face you or Sister…"

"Now may not be the best time for it, but we're actually, you know, talking! That's seriously awesome…"

"Really, you should not have been bitten at all—"

Though Subaru didn't look like he was listening, he apparently heard her words loud and clear. His face went stiff, looking at Rem as she confessed her sin.

Rem's shortcomings had caused Subaru to risk himself to shield her during the forest battle the night before. When she saw the fangs had punctured and ripped Subaru's flesh, bathing him in blood, she could only gape at what her conduct and judgment had wrought.

The same scent as on that day long ago, when everything had been burned away, had hovered thickly around Subaru. And Rem had caught a whiff of it, leaving her unable to move.

"It is because I hesitated to reach out to you that you nearly died. And then your body suffered too many curses to lift. That is why I—"

"You went off to deal with it by yourself to atone for it, right?"

Just as Subaru nodded in acceptance, Rem drew in her chin, once again acknowledging her own sin.

Rem was prepared to be scolded and scorned. Subaru should have given her a tongue-lashing before she had set foot into the forest again.

She had not let him because she had not a moment to spare to save Subaru. That, or she was unprepared to face the consequences of her weakness.

—Rem, resenting her own frail heart, thought it must surely be the latter.

She was prepared to accept whatever words he struck her with, however stern they might be. After all, that was only the punishment she deserved for the crime she had committed.

"Rem."

"Yes."

—Subaru's face was truly right before her eyes.

"Bonk."

"—?!"

The hard smack sound of bone upon bone sent sparks into Rem's vision.

For an instant, the sharp pain narrowed Rem's field of vision as she put a hand on her forehead in confusion. When not in her horned form, her flesh was no hardier than an ordinary human's.

No doubt others would be able to see a faint, reddening bump from the impact to her brow.

Rem's eyes were still wide, with no idea what was going on, when Subaru looked down at her.

"To begin with, are you an idiot? No, you are an idiot."

"Barusu. You split your split forehead and it is bleeding again." Ram butted in to speak. Subaru shook his bloodied face.

"I'm an idiot, too. I know that already! But your little sister's an even bigger idiot!"

Rem realized that Subaru had head-butted her. She didn't understand the significance at all.

"Now look here, in my homeland, they say, 'Three women make a market.' Not that that has anything to do with this. But they also say, 'Three heads are better than one.'"

What's sagacity, anyway? Subaru murmured to himself after he spoke. "Er, anyway," he said, twisting his neck as he continued, "it's like how it's easier to snap an arrow with three people than a person might think."

"I am guessing you are using that somewhat unlike the original…"

"A-NY-WA-Y! Don't think about it all by yourself and rely on the people around you! You understand what I'm saying, right?! If you had your heart grabbed like m—"

Subaru was about to say something when his expression changed to one of pain.

"That was over the line, huh…? Th-that's a little strict, ain't it?"

"What are you talking ab—? Wait, Subaru, the scent of the witch is suddenly much thick—"

Rem pinched her nose, twisting her body away from the repugnant smell.

Right beside her, the horrible, abominable stench wafted about. What had suddenly caused it to—?

But Subaru moved to set Rem's misgivings aside with a statement of his own.

"Well, I need you to switch gears on that for now. I'll switch gears, too."

Rem was agape, but the serious look on Subaru's face told her to push that question down the road. Subaru looked ahead as they ran, the tension and caution in his eyes growing stronger.

Simultaneously, Ram, again running beside him, put a hand to her painful forehead as she began to chant.

"Ram, the villa—No, the barrier's good enough. Which way is it to get there?"

"If we can slip past the pack before us, we simply need to sprint to the left, but what are you planning?"

When Ram asked, Subaru let out a long mmm sound as he made a sour face.

"How about I push Rem onto you and I cruelly run off to the barrier on my own?"

"You intend to let me flee with Rem while you lure the Urugarum away?

Understood."

"Can you not spoil what I was trying to hide?! It's embarrassing!!"

The speed of their run did not abate as Subaru and Ram sparred with their words back and forth.

When she heard what they were saying, Rem felt a feeling of despair, like the whole world was turning black before her.

"I cannot…save you like that… Pl-please stop this. If you do this, I…"

"Luggage should be seen and not heard! It's all right, I'll get past the barrier and hook up with you there. After that, I have a special plan you don't know about to take down the demon beasts all at once. It'll be big, an easy win!"

She had no idea what "special plan" Subaru had prepared. To be blunt, she wondered if there even was one.

Was he simply papering things over? Subaru slipping past the pack by himself was all but impossible in the first place, she thought.

"You need to do no such thing… I will wipe out the demon beasts all by myse—"

She couldn't let Subaru do anything rash. Rem tried to move her arms and legs. But her limbs merely dangled, refusing to obey her commands. The most she could do was wiggle her fingers and move her tongue around a little. Nothing was working as she was accustomed to.

"Where is my weapon…?"

"Like I could carry around a heavy thing like that! I'll buy you a new one later, geez!"

Pain shot through Rem as she realized she was unarmed and unable to move, so there was nothing she could do but be protected by others. The thought drove her to despair.

Subaru gently handed Rem off to Ram.

"Don't drop her."

"I believe I have more strength than you possess in one arm, Barusu."

"Why'd you make me carry her, then?!"

"You never told me to, did you, Barusu?"

"Seriously, that's your answer?!"

Subaru slapped his own face for missing the opportunity.

Rem looked up at Subaru from her sister's arms, shaking her head at the unbelievable reality. She'd said so many mean things about him. Why was he going this far?

"Subaru, why are you going this far to…?"

"—Good question."

Her inquiry sent Subaru into thought for but a single moment. He raised a finger and smiled.

"Because you're the first girl I ever went on a date with. I'm not so cruel that I can just turn my back on you."

As he spoke, he gently petted Rem with the same hand.

"Well, I'm gonna head off for a little bit. Take care of Rem, Big Sis."

"I pray that you meet with us safely, Barusu."

With that brief exchange, they suddenly parted ways, with Subaru running one way and Ram another.

Ram ran right. Subaru ran left.

The Urugarum pack coming from the front hesitated at their prey splitting up, but only for a moment. They immediately ran off in pursuit of Subaru.

"—Sister!"

"Barusu is risking his life to buy us time. I shall make good use of it."

Sweat formed on Ram's brow as her tone made plain she had no margin for error. The combination of wounds and fatigue slowed her down considerably. Compared to Rem in horned form, it was nothing.

When Rem thought of that, she regretted what she had done enough that she wanted to cry.

If Rem could have returned to horned form, she'd have had the power to get them through this, not only to save Subaru but to carry her older sister out of danger. She could do it all.

And yet, at the most critical of moments, she was unable to even bring out the demon within her.

It was her own halfhearted weakness that had brought Subaru and her older sister here and held them back.

In contrast to the regret-filled Rem, Ram had not hesitated when Subaru offered himself as a decoy. No doubt that was because she valued Rem's life above Subaru's and, indeed, even her own. Knowing that Subaru's ploy would buy them time and increase their odds of survival, she had accepted without the slightest falter.

Though Rem thought her beloved older sister's judgment was correct, she suddenly rebelled against the idea.

Why was Sister so strong, strong enough to cut anything and everything away? What incredible part of her allowed her to make such a horrible decision so easily? Rem wanted to see for herself.

"Sister… Subaru… Subaru is—!"

"Rem. We cannot turn back. It would put his resolve to waste."

They were the words of her beloved sister. Her sister was always right.

If Rem followed her, she would surely be safe, for Ram had always been right.

—Then why did what was right feel so empty…?

"—Sis!!"

"—!!"

Ram's expression greatly trembled in response to Rem's heartfelt shout. Ram bit her lip, her eyes wide open as her feet came to a stop. Rem instantly twisted her body, escaping her sister's arms to fall to the ground, rolling as she looked behind them—and saw Subaru's back as he ran.

Far away, his run was much too slow to be called a sprint.

She saw his black hair and his wounds all over. She saw the sway of his listless right arm, devoid of strength, and the way Subaru appeared to be hiding his emotions.

Towering before Subaru was a giant, sheer black demon beast. Judging from its size compared to the rest of the pack, it might well have been the leader.

Under that fearsome gaze, surrounded by predators, Subaru ferociously ran.

No matter how much she stretched out her fingers, no matter how much

her heart quaked, she could not reach his back.

And yet, Rem shouted, as if pleading.

"—Subaru!"

She did not know if her voice reached him.

All she saw was Subaru on the run, his left hand drawing the dimly glimmering sword as if responding to her call.

2

He didn't understand it himself.

Since when had he become a man stubborn enough to do something crazy like this…?

No matter how much he wanted to put on a brave face and not make the sisters feel like they owed him, this was completely, thoroughly not like him.

With his back turned to them, the look on his face crumbled the instant he knew they could no longer see it.

He keenly felt both extremes of pain—dull and sharp alike. His mask had fallen to pieces, Subaru's magnificent face scowling as his tongue pathetically hung out like that of a dog.

"It hurts… It hurts. It hurts, Mommy, Daddy, Emilia-tan…!"

He invoked the three most important people in his life as he glanced at his dangling right arm.

The intermittent numbness in his shoulder was from his crash landing after his blow to Rem's horn. He hoped dearly it was merely dislocated.

One way or another, he couldn't rely on his right arm for combat. With one less weapon at his disposal, Subaru had no idea how he was going to face the enemy standing before him.

As Subaru ran, he found the demon beast pup standing in his path—the one that had been the bane of his existence more than once. Subaru wondered if it had a grudge against him to be so darned persistent.

"I'd like this to be the last time we meet…"

Subaru kept running as he girded himself for the cascade of stones the demon beast would surely unleash. If that hit him when his guard was down, there was no way he'd get away with just a dislocated shoulder.

Shaking off the unpleasant image of being whittled to death by a thousand stone cuts, Subaru mentally simulated dodging at the exact moment the stones would be unleashed. He gave the demon beast a halfresentful, gimme-your-best-shot glare when— "Uhh?"

He suddenly sounded quite clueless.

Subaru could scarcely believe his eyes at the scene unfolding before him.

The demon beast pup made a small howl before curling up its little body further. It seemed to be gathering all its strength. Before Subaru, whose eyes were narrowed with no idea what was coming next, it… "—!"

The fur ball suddenly grew with explosive force.

Poof—in the blink of an eye, it grew from the size of a cute, huggable domesticated dog to something larger than the largest breeds, to the point one might call it jumbo sized.

"I've seen this in manga a lot, but seriously, where does all the extra mass come from?!"

The reply to his question was a howl that seemed to make the entire forest shudder.

It used its hind legs for support as it vigorously sprang off the ground. The demon beast then struck together the claws of both its raised paws, revealing them to be sinister weapons that could slice through human bone with the slightest graze.

"Oh, so you're not gonna settle this with magic? What did I ever do to you…?"

Subaru shuddered at its decision to fight their final battle mano a mano as he looked around, searching for any avenue of escape—but demon beasts in pursuit were cutting off the back and the sides, making escape a difficult proposition.

"Man, coming after me instead of the beautiful sisters… You guys have seriously demon-cursed taste… Damn it all!"

Once he noticed it, his steps slowed as the beasts surrounded him. Apparently, Subaru had brought every demon beast in the whole forest running. His decoy operation was a huge success.

He didn't have time to have a nervous breakdown or piss his pants while begging for his life.

With all avenues of escape cut off, his only option was to run straight forward. In other words, he had to take the giant demon beast down one-onone.

He fumbled in his side pocket. He felt a rock…a piece of hard candy… something that felt sticky and icky…and…

"All I can do now is trust in Puck…!"

He took it out and tossed it in his mouth as he prayed to the gray cat with all his might.

There wasn't much time before Subaru would reach the demon beast.

They would clash in mere seconds.

That was when… "—Subaru!"

…he heard it.

That moment, Subaru heard someone call his name.

It had a painful echo, drenched in sadness as if the whole world were about to end, knowing that whether Subaru lived or died determined whether her heart would shatter—perhaps it was insensitive of him, but Subaru was happy.

I'm too pathetic. A pervert. A two-faced jerk.

It wasn't like he couldn't guess how the girl felt as she cried out his name. The fact that he smiled nonetheless was proof he was totally mad.

He smiled, and smiled, and when he was done smiling, Subaru's left hand drew out the broken one-handed sword.

The demon beast roared before him. Subaru put all his weight behind the sword as he, too, yelled out. Their voices raised a pair of discordant war cries. Soul clashed against soul.

A moment before they were within each other's reach, Subaru inhaled deeply. He pictured the center of his body. He focused on the region between chest and waist, imagining a gate connected to the outside, just above his navel.

"—SHAMAAAAK!!"

The magical invocation permeated the air. The next moment, a black cloud erupted around Subaru.

The cloud enveloped Subaru and all the demon beasts. The decisive battle in the forest was now sealed within the darkness.

3

Within the black cloud, the world was incomprehensible.

The shape of the world, its color, its scent—none of these things could be discerned here.

The single firm, solid sensation came from the soles of his feet touching the ground. If not for that, surely he would not have even known which way was up inside the darkness.

He could see nothing. He could hear nothing. He could understand nothing.

So this was the end of the world.

As Subaru felt his feet pressing against his shoes, he searched for something within the haze. Surely there was something that awaited him within the black cloud, something he had to do.

—Something, something, something, something was missing.

Faced with a world of incomprehension, he had to remember the world of comprehension.

Why had this nothingness come? Who had brought it? What were the conditions for ending it?

Remember, remember, remember the world beyond, the world that was firm under his feet.

His command to his brain made thoughts erupt like sparks.

He couldn't make it another step. His feet were drained of all strength. Sooner or later, the incomprehension would crush him, making him doubt even the sensation of his soles. If he could see that coming, the answer did not lie outside him.

If the answer was not outside his body, it must lie within. Even if he could not bring the oblivion outside him to heel, he could call upon his internal organs, all subconsciously functioning even then.

The roles had been assigned. It was time to move. And so, finally—

"—!!"

Suddenly, he felt like his entire body was on fire.

The unendurable sensation of heat ripped through Subaru's body, bringing not words from his throat but a bestial cry… No, he thought it had.

He did not understand even that.

He didn't understand. He didn't understand, but his feet, once drained of strength, moved once more.

Forward. His feet moved in the direction he believed to be forward.

Awareness, oblivion, awareness, oblivion, awareness, oblivion, over and over and over, until finally—

4

The instant Subaru broke through the black cloud, leaping outside it, his sword hit something extremely thick. The sword in his hand was ripped out of his grasp. Subaru lifted his face and bit down his shock.

Before his very eyes, the huge demon beast's head remained thrust into the black cloud—and the single-handed sword Subaru had been grasping was deep in its chest.

The surprise blow left an ugly feeling lingering in the middle of Subaru's hand—the feeling of plunging a dull blade into the flesh of a living creature. The psychological shock was greater than he'd anticipated, giving rise to what was almost an eerie, out-of-body feeling.

The demon beast, still in the world of incomprehension, couldn't even feel the blade in its body.

Even as Subaru glanced at the contradictory spectacle of a dead beast that didn't know it was dead, he shamelessly ran, putting distance between them while he still could.

His head was heavy; his whole body was sluggish. It was the aftereffect of using magical power without complete command of it, and thus burning excess amounts of mana.

In the first place, using that magic should have spewed out all the mana in his body, leaving him on the ground and unable to rise again, but Subaru had played his trump card to get around that.

"—Thanks a million, brats."

Subaru spat out the tiny remnants of the fruit's skin still in his mouth as a small smile came over him.

He'd spat out a bokko fruit, a recovery item that brought strength back to a body devoid of mana. It was amid the completely useless things the kids in the village had pushed on to him when he was heading off to rescue Rem. He had no idea where they'd found one.

The instant he was sure he had one, his head had been able to muster that plan alone. If he bit down on it at the exact moment he used his magic, maybe he'd be able to move afterward. He'd gambled his very life on it, but the scales had marvelously swung Subaru's way.

Putting his back to the demon beast trapped in incomprehension, his feet took him in the direction the barrier ought to have been.

Subaru was a beginner with insufficient mana, so he had no idea how long his Shamak would keep going. He couldn't think of any other way to buy time, so he had to get as close to the barrier as he—

"—Ah?"

But Subaru's scheme was instantly foiled by a single claw that grazed the back of his left thigh.

The sharp pain heralded the bleeding. Subaru let out an anguished groan as he fell to his knees. But Subaru's mortal foe would not permit him to kneel.

Its thick paw violently grabbed Subaru's neck, the tips of its claws digging in as it easily hoisted him up.

"Damn it all…"

Before his very eyes, he saw the gaping maw of the huge demon beast, open wide enough to swallow Subaru whole. Its fangs dripped with blood as its stinky breath hit Subaru's face. He could only smile desperately at the depth of the creature's grudge.

"Go to hell, why don't you—?!"

He yanked the sword out of the demon beast and plunged it into the creature's mouth with all his might.

"—!"

The fatal blow delivered to the inside of its mouth sent the demon beast roaring and flinging Subaru's body away.

Subaru tumbled across the ground, holding onto the sword, then held it before him as he looked up at the demon beast.

"Yeah! How's that, sucker?! Bite on that!!"

The demon beast shook its head, facing Subaru in a berserk rage. Subaru, his body drenched with blood, taunted it with trash talk.

With blood all over their faces, they only had eyes for each other. They were whittling down each other's lives.

They both understood. None of this would end until one of them slew the other.

They stood off against each other. A single spark would be enough to set them off.

The confrontation between man and beast—no, two beasts—was on the cusp of beginning. But the square impact of the fiery shot that rained down from the sky put it on permanent suspension at the sound of a man's voice.

"—Ulgoa."

"Whoaaa?!"

Subaru shielded his face as the shock wave enveloped his body and blew him back.

All of a sudden, the ground in front of him exploded into flames. The high-temperature impact enveloped his entire body with a ferocious wave of heat.

Subaru, lying on his side, shook his head as burns added to the wounds already peppering his flesh.

"What the hell just…?"

The hot, parched air seared Subaru's throat as he looked up…and saw. His cheeks stiffened in shock.

—Before Subaru's very eyes, the huge demon beast was wrapped in a pillar of fire. It was burning.

The flames licked its entire body. The demon beast's paws shuddered and tore at the ground in agony. With the air scorching its lungs, the demon beast could not make a sound as it writhed within the crimson sea and finally dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.

All that was left behind was a clump of blackened flesh that had lost two-thirds of its mass.

"—"

The unforeseen end of the demon beast was not all that surprised Subaru.

Flaming shots like the one that had burned the demon beast to death rained down from the sky one after another, plunging into the black cloud. From outside the spread of the darkness, Subaru could not see for himself the full power of the flames upon landing. But he could guess what they were doing.

Inside the impermeable darkness, the demon beasts were being destroyed without even realizing.

Subaru could no longer tell if that was cruelty or mercy. However—

"Myyy, my, myyy, who would have thooought that a mere Shamak, used chiefly for smokescreens, could be employed with this much impaaact?"

The man who had directed the demon beast's fiery-death scene floated down from the sky, a flippant smile on his face.

His long indigo hair swayed in the wind. His eyes were oddly colored: one blue, one yellow. He wore a bizarre outfit over his tall, slender body. The clownish lord, mightiest magic user in all the kingdom, Roswaal, had arrived.

Upon landing, Roswaal brushed off his pant legs and swept his long hair behind him as he looked down at Subaru.

"Ohhhh, you look rather teeerrible, I must saaay."

"You're super late to the party, Rozchi. How many times do you think I thought I was gonna die there?"

It was definitely more than a handful.

After flinging his abuse, Subaru lost his strength; he fell down then and there, not even strong enough to get up on his knees.

"You sure figured out where I was, though."

"Ah, that is because of what Lady Emilia pounded iiinto me at the viiillage. She said, 'Even if it's crazy and reckless, if he's backed into a corner he'll probably use magic, so don't you dare miss it from the sky.'"

"Damn it, Beako…you let Emilia figure it out real quick."

Apparently Beatrice had not been up to the task. Perhaps it was for the better, given how Roswaal had miraculously entered the fray at the last moment.

Subaru thought over the circumstances when a voice sounded in his ears.

"Master Roswaal—!"

He saw Ram, who'd taken a detour around the burning black cloud, cutting through some thickets. Rem was leaning on her shoulder as Ram's expression melted in Roswaal's presence.

"I am sorry to have caused you so much trouble."

"Oh no, that is quite fiiine. Indeed, you have done veeery well in my absence."

Blushing hard at the words of praise, Ram pressed a hand to her chest as she made a solemn nod.

Watching the exchange between them, Subaru let out a deep sigh of relief.

"—Subaru!"

Rem suddenly rushed over and embraced Subaru, drawing a sharp cry from his throat.

"Guh!"

Before his eyes, blue hair swayed right next to his face. The soft sensations in so many places made Subaru understand the circumstances. In any other context, he'd be overjoyed, but he had no such leeway at that moment.

"Rem, my body's banged up all over the… Ah, my mind's kinda…"

Maybe she couldn't control her feelings, but she was hugging him with all her might. Every wound on his body began to cry out as Subaru

desperately tried to pat Rem's back to appeal to her. But— "You're alive. You're still alive. Subaru, Subaru…Subaru!"

Rem was too overcome with emotion to notice how Subaru was reacting.

He felt her press her face against his chest and her warm teardrops flowing down her cheek. A wide range of ticklish sensations struck him, well beyond the capacity of Subaru's brain to deal with.

In other words—

"Oh man…not this…again…"

As Subaru spoke, his head slowly tilted forward, his neck no longer able to support itself.

His mind grew distant. The voices grew faint. Finally…

"Go ahead and sleep. When you awaken, I must thank you quite earnestly. At the very least, rest assured I shall eliminate that which threatens you."

…someone's voice sounded in his ears, serious and devoid of clownish affect.

Feeling a deeper sense of security, Subaru gently let go of lucidity.

Until the moment he fell asleep, he reveled in the warmth of the embrace and the relief of finally receiving it.

Subaru's consciousness sank into a river of unconsciousness.

EPILOGUE

TALKING ABOUT THE FUTURE

1

Subaru's mind was invited to the land ruled by the black shadow once more.

There was nothing. Only his consciousness seemed to hover in space. Subaru dimly realized that he existed.

There was no one. There was nothing. Nothing began. Nothing ended. It was a world of no being at all.

Subaru felt like he had been cast into the sea at night. He let his mind float with the fickle sensation.

Abruptly, a change came over the world of darkness.

In front, directly ahead of Subaru's mind, someone stood.

The shadow grew vertically. Before he knew it, a human silhouette stood before Subaru.

He couldn't see its face. The shape was indistinct. But he vaguely thought that it had the shape of a woman.

The shadow wavered and slowly reached out a hand.

For some reason, when her fingers gently grazed his mind, Subaru wanted to weep. The wave of strange emotion washing over him suggested that he had always been waiting for her to do so.

He had an instinctive desire for the wriggling shadow to embrace him, to swallow him whole—and then it stopped. Something had stopped it.

Subaru's mind realized that there was another shadow, its white fingers embracing him from behind.

Her touch felt soft, and not just warm but hot.

The instant Subaru felt that heat, the shadow before him rapidly faded away.

He faced his front. His heart trembled. He shouted ferociously. But the world of nothingness had no sound.

He was left behind as the shadow became distant, fading, fading away.

Finally, the shadow serenely stretched her fingers out toward Subaru, who was nearly in tears. "—ve you."

Even the words he could not hear faded, and the world fell apart.

2

When Subaru awoke, the first thing his eyes took in was an unfamiliar, ornate ceiling.

Unlike his bedroom, the chamber he awoke in was ornamented more than most parlors; even the ceiling was decked out to excess. Perhaps it was mandatory in an aristocrat's mansion, the better to show off the master's authority to other parties.

At any rate, to a boy like Subaru, born and raised in a small city, it was distinctly uncomfortable.

Subaru blinked several times in the moments it took him to arrive at that thought after waking.

"—It seems…you are awake?"

The voice came from the edge of the bed, and at point-blank range.

Subaru turned his head, which rested on an exceptionally soft pillow, and narrowed his eyes upon the girl sitting right beside him.

"I suppose in one sense, having a maid by your side when you wake up is a man's cherished desire."

"…Considering my degree of carelessness, this is the least I can do to atone."

"Man, that's such a negative thing to say, Rem. More to the point…"

With Rem's eyes downturned, Subaru sat up, punctuating each movement with a word as he took his right hand from under the blankets and lifted it up. It was firmly in Rem's grasp.

"Did I do this? If I just grabbed you and didn't let go… That's kind of embarrassing. It's like when I was a kid and wouldn't let go of my favorite towel."

"Er, no, that's…"

When Subaru posed the question, still holding Rem's hand as he glanced at her, he saw her cheeks redden just a bit.

"I…did it."

"Why? I mean, I sweat a lot when I sleep, so my palm's probably pretty nasty, too."

"Subaru, I…"

"Yeah?"

As Rem's words faltered, Subaru had a warm feeling as he quietly watched her, their hands still joined.

There was no rush involved, so Rem took several breaths before looking at Subaru with upturned eyes.

"You seemed to be suffering while you slept, so I…"

"You held my hand?"

"Yes, because I am weak and full of flaws. Hence, I do not know what I can do for someone when this happens. Since I did not know, I did the thing that would have made me happiest."

Her halting, fumbling words suggested that this was linked to some kind of embarrassing memory. However, Subaru gave his hand a smile as Rem made her feelings clear.

It was like that hand had rescued Subaru from a bad dream, as if he were a little kid. No doubt someone had held Rem's hand on some night when she seemed about to cry. Subaru couldn't help but be happy, even giddy, that she had done the same for him.

With no reason to let go, their hands remained together. Subaru kept soaking up the warmth as he inclined his head.

"Anyway, care to tell me what else happened before I read the sequel?"

"Yes. How much do you remember, Subaru?"

"Rozchi made fire rain from the sky, and you were worked up and bearhugged me. That's it."

"…So, what happened after, then…?"

Haltingly, Rem explained the aftermath in a businesslike fashion.

After Subaru lost consciousness, Roswaal had mopped up the demon beasts in the forest. The effect of Subaru's stench of the witch worked fine even with him out cold, so Roswaal had used him as bait to lure out the demon beasts, and then incinerated the remainder in the forest.

"Then the curses on me…?"

"In this case…the casters were the demon beasts that bit you. You need not be concerned about dying from those curses any longer. Master Roswaal and Lady Beatrice and the Great Spirit have already taken care of everything."

"So all three are guaranteeing it, huh…? Well, I'll believe it this time."

He'd been bitten almost everywhere else, so Subaru put a hand on his breast as he sighed with relief.

Apparently the time bombs in his body had been successfully defused. He grimaced as he recalled just how many times he'd almost died and what pain and suffering he'd gone through to achieve this.

"Master Roswaal also calmed the agitated villagers in person. Things have mostly returned to peace and quiet."

"I see. So the brats are safe, huh? But they're probably worried sick about their beloved Big Bro Subaru coming back all beat-up, heh-heh."

Subaru was lightening up the mood when Rem made a murmur rich with meaning as she pulled down the blanket covering him.

"—Yes…so it would seem."

What? thought Subaru, suspicious of Rem's demeanor, but his expression soon changed to surprise.

Under the blankets, Subaru was dressed in a gown just like the one he'd worn on his first day at Roswaal Manor when he'd been severely injured. He realized there was something odd on the parts of the gown below the waist, namely…

"There are scribbles all over it…like on a cast for a broken leg!"

"The children Master Roswaal graciously invited to the mansion wrote these things."

"Geez, those little brats…!"

Subaru clicked his tongue as he looked over their notes to him. In the first place, they were written upside down from Subaru's point of view, and it wasn't good handwriting to begin with. But since they were written in the I-script Subaru had learned, he eventually read everything.

"Thanks for bringing Rem back." "Thank you very much." "You look crazy, but you're cool." "Do aerobics with us like you promised." "Love you."

Subaru grumbled as he leaned back against the pillow, looking toward the window.

"Geez, those brats… It's so stupid. I don't even like kids…"

He was glaring toward the village and the children there who had written such things. He was looking forward to paying them a visit as soon as he could.

Then he'd give those happy, prank-playing children a real chewing out.

Rem warmly watched how Subaru's words contrasted with the look on his face. Then her expression wavered, her lips trembling.

"Setting aside the past, I need to speak to you about your body."

"Mm, ah, suppose you're right. Setting aside the curse, I pushed it pretty far, huh?"

It was only as he spoke that he realized his right shoulder, the same side as the hand Rem was holding, was in its socket. Even when he put weight on it, there was no ache. He felt no malaise from the scars all over his body where fangs had punctured his flesh. This world's healing magic can do anything, thought Subaru.

"Subaru, I am sorry."

In spite of Subaru's optimistic judgment, Rem bent forward at the waist and bowed her head before him.

"Hey, hey," Subaru said with a wave of his hand, not able to grasp why Rem would be apologizing to him.

"Lift your head up, Rem. My body's fine; there's nothing bad about it. I'm in perfect condition."

"That is…not true whatsoever. Certainly the visible wounds have been healed, and fortunately, you need not be concerned about aftereffects hindering normal, everyday life. But…"

As her words broke off, a bitter shadow came over Rem's face.

"The scars remain…not only on the body but the heart as well. Also, due to repeated healing, your body's mana is on the verge of running dry."

"Ahh, that's why my body's a little sluggish… But that's not a big problem, is it? Scars on the body are a man's medals as long as they're not on the back. And I'm pretty tough when it comes to mental scars."

Subaru pointed his thumb at himself as he smiled to drive away Rem's pangs of guilt.

He wasn't making it up. If his heart had been naive enough to have been broken beyond repair, he'd never have made it to that morning to have Rem holding his hand like that.

After all, he'd undergone wounds to his spirit that could very well have made him unable to look Rem in the eye again.

Subaru gazed at Rem intently.

She had short blue hair. Her face was more the "lovely" than "pretty" type. At first, he thought she showed little emotion on her face, but she was coming around on that bit by bit. He wasn't afraid of her. He wasn't afraid of her at all.

There was a Rem who had made Subaru loop more than once, but here was a Rem happy from the bottom of her heart that he had come back alive. It was all by chance.

There was the Rem who ran amok for her sister's sake, the Rem who acted rashly to protect Subaru, the Rem who ran off before switching to Berserker Mode so that she wouldn't cause friendly fire—

"You may look like you have it all together, but you really aren't the calm type at all, are you, Rem?"

In everyday life at the mansion, Rem had exceptionally sound, rational decision-making ability. But in a fast-moving crisis, Rem's thoughts also moved quickly, making her hasty and rash.

Subaru wasn't really one to talk about snap judgments, but in Rem's case, it was scary how she held a hammer only to see every problem as a nail. Subaru had experienced that firsthand.

When Subaru pointed that out, Rem froze for a moment before making a listless, low bow.

"I…understand."

Her murmur seemed like the first drop to break the dam of feelings she held inside her.

"I am powerless, talentless, and a reject of the demon race. That is why I could never live up to Sister. I was so slow-footed compared to Sister, and I could not think of any way to catch up beyond running faster."

Rem covered her face with her free hand, continuing her confession as if squeezing it out of herself.

"Sister did everything better. Sister never blundered. Sister never wavered. Sister was right about everything. Sister… If it was Sister, she…" Rem's words trailed off as she meekly looked up at Subaru.

What rested in her eyes were not tears but hollow resignation and despair.

"I was always Sister's…substitute. I've always, always been inferior. Truly, I am a good-for-nothing. I could not catch up to Sister no matter how much I chased after her."

—Faint tears abruptly welled up in her eyes.

"Why was I the one to keep my horn? Why wasn't it Sister? Why was

Sister born with only one? Why…? Why were Sister and I twins?" Rem's lips trembled as she sought meaning for her very existence.

The tears welling in her eyes rolled onto her cheeks, making Rem's pale flesh glimmer in sorrow.

Subaru held his silence. Rem seemed unable to bear the quiet, hastily wiping the tears off her cheek. She spoke rapid-fire, trying to take back her preceding statements.

"I…I am sorry. I said some very odd things. Please forget them. This is the first time I have said such strange things to anyo—"

"Hey, Rem."

Subaru called her name, cutting her words off midway.

Rem was afraid of what Subaru would say now that he had broken his silence but lifted her face nonetheless.

And so, Subaru said to her…

"From everything I've heard from you, you're a pretty big idiot."

"—Eh?"

"I can think of three stupid things about you. Can you guess what they are?"

Rem's eyes quivered, unable to grasp the meaning behind Subaru's words. Subaru smiled at her reaction and raised a finger in front of Rem.

"Can't be helped, then. The first stupid thing is…you're going overboard given the fact that I was actually, you know, saved. You see me waving right before your eyes, right? I have both legs on and everything."

Subaru wiggled his scratched-up legs. Rem realized that Subaru was speaking in regards to her confession but meekly shook her head even so.

"That is…justifying after the fact…"

"A wise man once said, 'All's well that ends well.' To be honest, I think my version's a lot more on target than trying to grade every part along the way. That leads me to the second stupid thing, which is you trying to carry everything on your shoulders by yourself."

With a wink, Subaru raised a second finger.

"Now, I'm super happy you flew off the handle like that for my sake, but everything has a time and a place. To begin with, if you'd talked to other people about it, we'd probably have come up with a better way."

Where hunting the demon beasts was concerned, it was crystal clear that Subaru had a point. Rem, unable to refute him, lowered her eyes as if ashamed of her own impulsiveness. Of course, his criticism was something that could be said only in hindsight. But Rem did not realize that even the tiniest bit, nor did she realize Subaru was sticking out his tongue just a little.

"As for the third… You know what it is, Rem?"

"I…do not understand at all. I am always insufficient; I can never reach as far as—"

"Yes, that. That's the third stupid thing."

Subaru pointed at Rem and how she never missed a chance to put herself down.

Then he raised a third finger and waved the three about.

"Rem, just because she's your older sister, you build her up and put yourself down to where it almost kills you… I don't think Ram's always in a stronger position than you, okay? Her stamina's worse than yours, her cooking's lousy, she slacks off work, she makes snide comments… I suppose she thinks a little too much, too?"

In Subaru's mind, Ram's specs were a long way from the pillar of perfection Rem spoke of. She was an older sister with talents behind her younger sister in every area. Surely the sisters themselves were well aware of this. That was what Subaru supposed, but Rem shook her head, rejecting his suggestions.

"N-no…you are wrong. Sister is truly… If she had her horn, you would never judge her so—"

"But Ram doesn't have her horn. So I don't know a Ram like that." Subaru, cutting off Rem's attempt to firmly deny herself, continued.

"The Ram I know is just like I described. She can't hold a candle to you in cooking, sewing, cleaning, politeness, or the way she talks—well, I don't think that last part is a bad thing, really."

It wasn't bad to butt heads with her over her haughty manner of speaking from time to time. To Subaru, the distance between him and Ram was more comfortable.

"It's probably only you who's worked up about whether she has a horn or not. Comparing someone else's good points and your own bad points just gets you bent out of shape."

"—"

"Whatever she doesn't have, you have. So accept it already… You're gentle, a hard worker, always doing your best, and your breasts are bigger than Ram's, too—"

"—!"

"Ow! Hey, don't smack me with tears in your eyes like that!"

Subaru recalled his brief conversation with Ram in the forest. There, he had learned that Ram wasn't particularly hung up any longer on what she had lost as a demon, to the point where he believed Ram wanted Rem to get over it, too.

—Subaru was not arrogant enough to think that was a problem he was capable of fixing. In the end, Subaru was just a mouthy young man lacking the length or depth of life experience to handle the job. A lecture from someone like him wasn't going to get him anywhere.

He put no pressure on himself. He imagined no gravitas in his words. It was simply something in him that refused to compromise: the idea that, in the end, you didn't get the answer from someone else—you had to just roll up your sleeves and do it yourself.

So Subaru was simply conveying to Rem his exceptionally simple feelings about the matter.

"If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead and dog food right now. I'm safe and sound because you were there. I'm alive now thanks to you. That's your doing, not your sister's."

"…Truly, Sister could have done it better."

Subaru poured cold water on her weak rebuttal as he brought his left hand over his right, which still held Rem's hand.

"Maybe she could have…but you were the one there for me."

When Rem gasped and lifted her face, Subaru put enough gratitude into his voice to make himself blush.

"I'm glad you were there for me, Rem. Thank you."

"—!"

A choked sob escaped Rem's throat at his words. After that, Rem turned her face aside so that Subaru would not see the look on it.

"I…I have always been a substitute for Sister…"

"Stop defining yourself with lonely words like that, all right? You and Ram are different genres. I mean, she's the older sister and you're the younger sister—sometimes you're gonna clash."

There would always be differences between the two. Each had their unique good points.

Whether Rem understood what he was saying or not, Subaru's encouragement made Rem squeeze her eyes shut.

"Well, I haven't really asked why she lost her horn, and since I didn't ask I don't know. I don't know, so I don't want to talk like I do know, so…"

Subaru put his left hand on the upper part of his own forehead—patting it right where Rem's horn grew out of hers.

"Ram doesn't have her horn, and you have yours, so you can just do whatever she would need a horn for. You can just be two demons getting along great. There's nothing stronger than love between beautiful sisters, right?"

"…Ah…"

"So I mean, you said you were a substitute, but Ram has no substitute for you, does she? I mean, if you weren't there for her, can you imagine the state she'd be in?"

Rem, aghast, didn't know this, but Subaru had seen such a future. He had seen Ram, despairing at the death of her younger sister, go mad and use all her remaining strength for the sake of vengeance.

"…But…"

Yet even so, Rem did not simply nod in agreement.

"I get it. So, how about we do this? You have an idealized Ram inside you that you can never compare to no matter what you do. Let's take that ideal Ram you have on a pedestal and send her packing."

"That is…easier said than done. I have always compared myself to—"

"That's why I want you to listen to how I rate her. My rating's based on reality, not the ideal. Just so you know…I don't have any talent for reading the mood at all, so I just call 'em like I see 'em, no flattery or mercy. What you see is what you get."

Subaru smiled at Rem, grinning as he stroked her blue hair. It tickled her, but she merely narrowed her eyes, drawing a small sigh out of Subaru.

"Where I come from, they say, 'Talking about the future makes a demon laugh,' so…"

Rem said nothing and merely tilted her head a bit as Subaru continued caressing her head and speaking.

"Laugh, Rem. Don't make a glum face. Laugh. Let's laugh and talk about the future. Let's make up for all that living in the past you've been doing and talk about what's to come. I mean, even if we start with tomorrow."

"…Tomorrow?"

"Yes, tomorrow. Anything's good, all right? Like, whether it'll be Japanese or Western food for breakfast tomorrow, or even if you're going to put on your right shoe or your left shoe first. It doesn't matter how trivial,

there'll be a tomorrow, so we can talk about it. How about it?" Subaru spread his arms, prodding Rem for an answer.

Rem hesitated to reply for a while before lowering her brows with a conflicted look.

"I am…very weak…so I will most likely lean on you a great deal."

"What's wrong with that? I'm weak, too. I'm not very smart, I'm not good-looking, and I can't read the mood, which gets me down even when I'm the one saying it, but I still get by because the people around me help me. We just have to lean on one another and move forward."

She had been unable to see a path for her to walk because she insisted on putting anything and everything onto her own shoulders. The least Subaru could do was offer his two empty hands and make the walk forward that much easier.

Even so, he'd just been extra baggage himself more than once…but if you couldn't see ahead by yourself, you just needed someone to share the burden with as you moved forward. That's how he felt, anyway.

"So let's laugh, hug each other, and talk about tomorrow. I've always dreamed of laughing with a demon and talking about the future, anyway."

"…You truly are possessed by a demon."

"You bet."

Subaru closed one eye with the corner of his lips curled up. Rem apparently couldn't resist making a small smile herself.

She laughed, and as she laughed, tears poured out of the corners of her eyes. The seemingly endless tears poured out, flowing and flowing, but Rem continued to laugh even so.

Rem laughed, Rem cried, Rem buried her face in a pillow to suppress her laughing, sobbing voice. Even so, her mirthful, tearful voice quietly filled the room.

Subaru gently caressed Rem's hair the whole while, his right hand grasping hers.

Softly, softly, he stroked her hair.

3

He thought back to the days he had repeated over and over in his first week at Roswaal Manor.

Subaru had a place at the mansion with a good relationship with Ram and Rem. The children of the village had been saved, and the demon beasts in the forest had been wiped out, eliminating that danger. It was a grand adventure spanning some twenty-odd days.

Yes, it should have been cause for celebration. And if not for the girl using a finger to toy with her silver hair, in a sullen mood as she laid into Subaru, it would have been.

"—It's not that I'm upset. No, I'm not upset. All that happened was the patient I'd been nursing was gone when I woke up, and when I was going to go looking for him, I found out I'd been tied to the chair and left behind.

No, I'm not upset about that at all."

A flood of cold sweat poured down Subaru's brow as he silently listened to Emilia's rant.

It had already been some ten minutes since Emilia had come to the room, but most of that time had been chewed up by a mix of lecturing and venting.

Her initial visit was out of concern for Subaru's condition. When she was certain he was fine, she had sighed with relief and switched gears to leveling her complaints on the spot. That was Emilia's personality for you.

"I'm…not upset…so…"

"Yes, Emilia-tan, you're right to be upset with me. I'm very sorry."

"Sheesh, I said I wasn't upset. But since you apparently feel guilty I have no choice… I will accept your apology, Subaru. Really, don't make me worry like that."

After Subaru gave in to her pressure, Emilia accepted the apology and punctuated her last sentence with a broad, charming smile.

It wasn't even remotely fair. How could she say things like that and make that kind of face at the same time?

After he'd made up with Rem, the maid had left, and Emilia had taken her place. The moment she'd arrived, he'd largely expected how the rest would go, but now that her lecture was finished, the way there was nothing in her purple eyes but concern for Subaru made it really hard for him to calm down.

"I have to say, Subaru, you sure get hurt a lot. And the reason you got hurt was that you came to the mansion, too… I mean, it's only been four days."

"Hey, it's not like I want all these injuries. I guess you could say the world kind of has it out for me…so, if I can at least have Emilia-tan fawning over me, it's all good!"

"I fawned over you plenty and you just ran off. You can fend for yourself next time."

"Nuaaa! I let my chance slip away! Damn it, if only Beako had done a bit of a better job!"

Subaru shouted in anger at the coldhearted girl, having not seen a single trace of her curly hair since his recovery. Emilia pouted as Subaru's words made her remember how he'd left her behind.

"I told you, when I woke up after falling asleep in the chair I was tied up

in it. I was flabbergasted."

"No one uses flabbergasted anymore…"

"Don't make light of it… Puck tried to keep me from going after both of you, too. I don't know what would have happened if Roswaal hadn't come back. Understand?"

Faced with Emilia's tight-lipped anger, Subaru could only feel ashamed of himself.

Just as he had imagined, Puck attempted to keep Emilia from putting herself in danger. Apparently Beatrice had abandoned any thought of convincing her early on and had moved straight to physical restraints. Having both of them impeding Emilia must have been pretty hard on her mental state.

Subaru knew that was exactly how he'd feel if it'd been him left behind like that. Even so, if he'd had to do it all over again, no doubt he'd have left Emilia behind once more.

"You've saved me again, though."

"Eh?"

"I said, you've saved me again, even though the whole point of bringing you to the mansion was to thank you for saving me before. Thank you very much."

Emilia put her hands together for emphasis as her face broke into a radiant smile.

Subaru, bearing the full effect of it, finally felt something go plunk in his chest.

"Err, that's fine, really! I just did it because I wanted to, and it's not like this has nothing to do with me, either. Yeah, that's right. I…did it."

As he said it, it really sank in. That was what had fallen inside his chest. Having repeated events over some twenty days, Subaru had finally made it to the end.

After having his heart broken and crushed so many times, his hand had finally reached that which he had long sought. He was finally able to register that feeling of I did it!

"That's what you say, but that won't put my conscience at ease. I'm sure Ram, Rem, and Roswaal are all grateful to you, too."

"That so…? All right, let me take advantage and have my contract with

Rozchi amended so that Ram and Rem are my personal maids for a while, muah-ha-ha. And then!"

Subaru put his hand over his mouth as he made a lewd laugh. He then swayed his body left and right as he drew closer to Emilia, thrusting a finger toward her, making her recoil ever so slightly.

"Am I going to get an Emilia-tan reward, too?"

"Goodness, if I can afford it. If it is within my power, then… Wait, last time, you asked me for my name."

"Heh-heh. Do not underestimate my greed. This time I am a man unaffected by anything so weak. I am aroused by greed and avarice and a vortex of libido!"

Though he never even got up from the bed, Subaru posed, furiously spreading his arms up at an angle.

Perhaps seeing Subaru worked up to that degree made Emilia believe the subject couldn't be avoided. She sat down, properly facing him.

As Emilia awaited the inevitable, Subaru browsed the "Emilia Reward List" in his brain. He carefully went over options ranging from the bittersweet to nighttime adventures, selecting one.

And so…

"All right, Emilia-tan, let's go out on a date."

…he would redo the promise he'd made with Emilia so many days before.

"'Date'…?"

"It means we head out together, see the same things, eat the same food, share the same memories together."

"…You're fine with that?"

"I'm fine with that."

How many hardships had Subaru gone through to go on his long-desired date with Emilia? Along the way, various other intentions had piled up with it as he leaped over one hurdle after another, but he'd finally cleared the last obstacle and reached his wish.

Hence, the promise was a fitting way to tie all the loops together.

"I want to brag about you to the brats in the village, Emilia-tan. Plus, the flower bed's just awesome. To me, it'd be special just to have a casual stroll there together."

"I think your definition of greed is a bit different than for most people."

"Don't say that. My shamelessness will freeze that cute smile on your face yet. Oh yeah!"

Subaru's teeth glinted as he did a thumbs-up and a wink.

"Yes, all right already, I'll go on a 'date' with you."

The promise having been made, Subaru clapped his hands together and exulted.

"Yessss! And that's why E M F (Emilia-tan's Majorly a Fairy)!!"

Subaru, seeing Emilia sigh at his enthusiasm out of the corner of his eye, directed his hopes for a speedy physical recovery outside the window, toward the village where they would have their promised date.

Visions of a glittering future danced when Subaru abruptly thought of the demon beast forest.

The curses that inhabited his body had lost all their effectiveness. The demon beasts had been eradicated—the end of a long chain of events beginning with a single one slipping past the broken barrier.

This time, matters had ended with one species wiping out the other. The events left a bitter aftertaste that he didn't fully understand.

He remembered how he was in a daze as he thrust his sword into the demon beast's body. The memory was fresh, and the sensation of taking a life lingered on his hands.

He wondered if he would forget that sensation someday. Surely the passage of time would make the ache in his chest subside. But until that day came, what could he do…?

"Subaru."

"Yeah?"

He looked back when she called his name.

He wondered what Emilia would think of the meaning behind Subaru's distant, absentminded gaze.

Emilia rose to her feet and opened the curtains. Light flooded into the room all at once. Emilia's silver hair was enveloped by vivid, dancing light that left him spellbound.

Finally, as Subaru sat in silence, Emilia smiled at him out of the blue.

"When we go on the 'date,' let's bring back a flower bouquet."

"—Sure."

Subaru covered his face with his palms. There was no winning against that smile.

He thought, before the day came when he forgot, he ought to carve it into his chest so that he could not.

He knew it was hypocritical and would only force the pain on to him, but he felt it was the right thing to do.

He felt like Emilia's pretty smile was telling him so. So he did.

Emilia and Subaru continued to spend time together with smiles on their faces.

—Having finally and truly reached it, the morning of the fifth day continued to gently shine down upon them.

INTERLUDE

A PRIVATE CHAT UNDER THE MOON

About half a day had passed since Subaru and Emilia had promised to go on a date together.

The man's gentle voice contained a masculine eloquence that was the product of years of experience.

"First, I must thank you for your service during my aaabsence. The situation was salvaged thanks to your efforts."

His tone was casual, but its firm, unwavering resonance made Ram's shoulders tremble.

"I do not deserve such praise. Besides, in the end it was settled by your own hands, Master Roswaal—"

"I mind not. Incinerating harmful beasts in the forest is no great expenditure of tiiime."

Roswaal waved a hand, speaking as if it was a trivial matter.

Ram was well aware that his claim was not false modesty, hyperbole, or an empty boast. She could not say a word to refute him.

They were speaking to each other in Roswaal's study on the uppermost floor of the mansion. As always, their nocturnal chats involved only the two of them.

"Leaving past events aside, let us speak of something more construuuctive. For instance, what shall become of young Subaru from here ooon, I wonder?"

"…His body is most certainly largely healed. Lady Beatrice made many complaints, but she fully exerted herself to heal him, so…"

"I wonder what illness has befaaallen her. I have known her for quite some time, and the boy is the first time I have seen her become so involved.

Surely she could not have…? Ah, surely not…"

Roswaal closed his blue eye as he discarded the implication of his own words. Ram pretended not to hear the quiet portion at the end, not wishing to disturb her master's thought process as she said, "Either way, if not for Lady Beatrice, I doubt we could have saved Subaru."

"Perhaps we should call that young Subaru's good fooortune. Indeed, there are few more accomplished healers than Beatrice. I am embarrassed to

say that I specialize only in the infliction of harm."

Roswaal shook his head and tilted it to the side a little. The corners of his lips formed a thin smile. It was a transparent, mild expression, the sort that would perfectly conceal his pleasure or displeasure from anyone but himself.

"Howeeever, I am guessing, from your stating this as the preface, that his condition is not so rooosy?"

"Yes. Barusu has had his gate forced back to life after running dry twice in a short period of time. On top of that, he has been healed from lifethreatening injuries, so…I wonder how well his gate can function after being forced open and abused like this."

"Is this the diagnosis of Beatrice and the Great Spirit?"

"Yes."

Roswaal folded his arms and closed his eyes as he mulled the report over.

Damage to one's gate, and thus, one's ability to use mana, was a fatal affliction for any magic user. Roswaal, bearer of the title of court magician, keenly appreciated the state Subaru was in.

"Though gates mend differently for each person, it would take years no matter what. He will face a very difficult choice."

Ram nodded at Roswaal's conclusion before voicing how Subaru's condition was even graver still.

"It is not merely an issue of his damaged gate but the remnants of the curses as well."

"—I thought the danger of activation has passed?"

"The casters…in this case, the Urugarum…have been eliminated, so there are no casters to activate the curses…but the rites for them still remain in Barusu's body."

"So they are intertwined with such complexity that even Beatrice cannot unravel them… My, my, that is a curse in an altogether different sense… I suppose this means we must reward his service all the mooore."

Though the rites remaining in the absence of their casters was some cause for concern, there was essentially no danger of their activating. However, Subaru's body had taken the bullets that, in the worst case, would have spread to others still, those not only in his employ but also, more importantly, Emilia.

As a result, Emilia's participation in the royal selection had been preserved. It was, in every way, service that merited a reward.

"Incidentally, Ram…concerning the iiissue of the demon beasts, did you check on what I asked you to?"

Roswaal asked with a meek look that was quite rare to see on him, and it threw Ram off a fair bit. He awaited her reply as she touched her forehead. Her finger prodded the old wound beneath her headdress. Ram felt the faint throb of the scar as she made her report.

"As far as I have determined from the corpses that remain, the demon beasts were all hornless."

Roswaal exhaled at Ram's reply. He leaned back against his chair.

"The demon beasts I mopped up were the same. Howeeever, that makes this something far larger than an issue of mere noxious beasts, does it nooot?"

"A demon beast with its horn severed will obey the one who severed it. That would mean some fool directed the beasts toward your manor or your lands in general, Master Roswaal."

"It is no doubt relaaated to the royal selection. Like the invitation to

Garfiel's land, this has interfered with us considerably."

Ram raised her eyebrows at the invocation of the well-known name.

"Gar…Garfiel, you say?"

Roswaal had a conflicted look as he shrugged. His behavior was aloof, but Ram was acutely aware that this was no small matter. Indeed, it was a battle with low odds of victory. They needed every card they could add to their hand.

Ram knew very well that she was one of those cards. Her inability to do anything but watch Roswaal battle alone chafed at her.

"Let us return to the matter at hand. Do you have an educated guess as to the 'ringleader' who severed the horns?"

"…Tentatively. But the trail has already gone cold. One of the children Barusu and Rem supposedly brought back from the forest vanished from the village the next day."

When she'd asked about the girl with braids who the two had brought back, they had said the villagers all claimed they didn't know the girl. According to the children, she became part of their group at some point, but they couldn't say when.

When she pressed further, they told her that it was that girl who had first brought the demon beast pup to the village, and it was she who had later brought the children past the barrier with her into the forest. She was all but certain that girl had been the ringleader.

"First the Bowel Hunter in the royal capital, now the Beast Mage here. Certainly a strange cast of characters."

"Yet they cannot best you no matter what they throw at you, Master

Roswaal."

"My, such a cheeky thing for you to say. Come."

When Roswaal smiled and beckoned with his hand, Ram cut across the ebony desk to be at his side. As she did so, Roswaal reached his arm around Ram's small body, pulling her atop his lap. Then—

"Because I could not be here last niiight for you, it must have been hard on you."

"I know that you are very busy, Master Roswaal. Even if you leave my needs for later…"

"Ram, I have always tooold you…"

Ram's eyes were downturned when Roswaal lifted her chin with a finger, turning her face toward his with a smile.

"You and Rem are among those beings precious to me, so few I can count them on one hand. Indeed, if some terrible fate had befallen you in

this incident, I am not confident I could have restrained myself."

His finger remained on Ram's chin as the dramatic words Roswaal tossed at her put an enthralled look on her face. Heat seemed to fill Ram's eyes as she gazed at Roswaal from close up.

"To Master Roswaal, Rem and I are—"

"Yes, to me, you and Rem are precious, vital, and irreplaceable…"

As their words piled upon one another, so did their feelings as Roswaal beheld Ram with his yellow eye, pausing for a brief moment…

"…pawns."

So spoke Roswaal to Ram in theatrical style.

His words did not carry the slightest hint of guilt, for he was stating what he regarded as pure truth.

And Ram, upon hearing her existence described as that of a pawn…

"—Yes."

…her cheeks reddened as she nodded back.

Ram's demeanor was perfectly docile and full of adoration as Roswaal pulled her even higher on his lap.

"Nooow, then, shall we begin? You pushed yourself quite considerably, yes? You are quite mana-depleted, even though I told you to take it easy."

"I am very sorry… Please."

Ram untied the headdress atop her pink hair as she acknowledged Roswaal's words. Roswaal slid a finger past her hair to where a faint white scar rested on the upper reaches of her forehead.

—It was the last vestige of her life as a wonder child among the demon people.

Roswaal grazed his finger across the scar like it was a beloved, wonderful thing.

"—The blessings of the stars upon thee."

Four glimmering colors flowed along Roswaal's arm and converged upon the tip of his finger to become a white light. The light coursed down his finger and poured into Ram's scar.

—The technique to transfer mana directly to another demanded exceptional skill.

If the elemental composition of the mana was not perfectly balanced, the mana would harm the recipient's body when converted back into energy. It was a "therapy" that Roswaal could employ because he was attuned to all four major mana affinities and was accomplished at using them all at a very high level.

For demons, the horns on their foreheads formed the pipeline through which mana passed in and out of the body. Their horns, which functioned much like stronger, finely tuned gates, were the foremost reason the demons were a powerful race.

But Ram had lost her horn due to external factors, leaving her body unable to draw in mana or emit power as her body demanded, a loss all the graver because Ram's body was top tier, even by demon standards.

Left to her own devices, her body would simply wither away. These private nighttime chats were a daily event so as to prevent that from happening.

Ram felt her body come back to life as mana poured into her through the horn scar. She let herself luxuriate in the sweet feeling of warmth filling her body from the inside out when she said out of the blue, "Ah, I forgot something. There was something else I need to report to you, Master

Roswaal…"

"Mm? And what would thaaat be?"

Roswaal continued the treatment with one eye closed while Ram sank into thought for a while. She seemed to be at odds about how to word it exactly.

"Rem has…fallen in love with Barusu."

"Mm?"

"It would seem Barusu has…grazed all of Rem's weak points."

Rem was the younger twin sister. As her older sister, Ram was painfully aware of her younger sister's state of mind. Put another way, she knew all too well that it was not in Rem's nature to be honest with herself.

"Rem has, has she? Weeell, perhaps it is not so mysterious. After all, she does not serve me out of loyalty, unlike youuu."

Ram remained quiet before her master's assessment of her younger sister in silent agreement. Unlike Ram, who loyally served Roswaal without asking anything in return, Rem viewed that as a betrayal of the self.

To Rem, Roswaal was very much "Sister's patron." Since her sister was her very purpose in life, Rem's thought process never extended beyond that. It was that line of thinking that made Rem so reckless and rash when it came to defending her community; take your eyes off her, and she'd eliminate anyone she viewed as a threat to it without a second thought.

Ram believed Subaru had been saved because he'd gained Rem's trust before she could assault him.

Of course, all that being said, Ram still regarded Rem as the cutest little sister in the whole world, someone more important than Ram herself.

—But if someone asked her if Rem occupied the highest pedestal in her heart, Ram could not simply nod and agree.

"Regardless of Rem's feelings, you shall remain firmly in my hands, Ram. Where you go, Rem shall invaaariably follow. You seeee, things shall be as before. Nooothing will change."

"I…suppose so, though now that there is one more precious thing to Rem, the chance of her acting rashly is even greater, one might say."

"Let us cross that bridge when we get to it. This is important work for tomorrow, after aaall."

As Roswaal jested, light faded from his palm. The treatment was over.

Ram felt full not only of life but also disappointment as she slid off Roswaal's lap. After Ram rose from his lap, he rose from the chair.

"Things shall be busier from here on. It shall require much labor, but I am counting on you and Rem, yeees?"

"As you wish. I am yours, Master Roswaal, as I have been since that fiery night."

Ram grasped the hem of her skirt and bent her knees in a reverential curtsy.

Roswaal noted her display of loyalty as he crossed his hands behind him and walked toward the window. He glanced at Ram, following beside him, as he opened the curtain.

When he looked up at the sky, and the full moon floating within it, Roswaal narrowed his oddly colored eyes.

"We must be victorious in the royal selection, no matter what…for the sake of my goal…"

As he murmured, he reached out his arm, wrapped it around Ram's shoulders, and pulled her close.

Able to feel the warmth of his tall body for a second time, Ram closed her eyes and leaned into him.

She listened to the voice of the man beside her, her lord and master, the man she had given her soul.

"…For the day the Dragon dies."