——He held his breath only in that single instant, when the doorknob slowly turned.
He had a feeling about it, somehow.
When he stilled himself and walked through every corner of the mansion, a single door would occasionally catch his attention with unusual intensity, as if tugging at his awareness.
Subaru, having left
The moment he arrived, the moment his fingers touched the doorknob, that nagging feeling solidified into certainty — and when he pushed the door open, there was no longer any room for doubt.
He accepted only the fact that *it was simply there*, stepped inside the room, and— "Yo. Long time no see."
The Forbidden Library stretched out before Subaru's eyes, exactly as it had always been.
The girl who was the mistress of that dimly lit room sat in exactly the same unchanged manner — perched atop the step of a stepladder she used as a chair, flipping through a book.
"I was wondering why the mansion was so noisy — so you've come back, have you?"
She raised her gaze just slightly, caught Subaru's face in her view — the girl known as
"If you've returned, then that means Ni-chan must be back too. I wonder if I'll have to put up with that girl and all the other extraneous insects tagging along."
"
"How noisy."
Beatrice snorted at Subaru's pointless banter, and in a small gesture, uncrossed and recrossed her legs beneath the voluminous skirt of her elaborate dress. Watching that, Subaru slowly closed the distance toward her within the library, choosing his words as he went.
"All the same, it's been a while since we've actually seen each other's faces. Last time was Pete— no, that doesn't count, so… before we left the capital must've been the last time. That's been about ten days, right?"
"Has it been that long already? For Betty, as long as she's spent inside this room, the degree to which time passes outside doesn't really matter."
"I can never quite follow that logic. Also — when you're talking to a person, raise your eyes from the book. I get it, you're so thrilled to see me after ten days that you're blushing, but still."
"I could make you cough up blood from that glib mouth of yours and leave your face deathly pale right this moment, you know?"
Subaru couldn't suppress the grin that spread across his cheek at the girl's unconcealed irritation.
Whenever he exchanged words with the guardian of this Forbidden Library, he simply couldn't resist trying to crack that composed, stubborn expression of hers. Teasing her with quips, goading her with actions, stoking her outrage further, and getting tossed out for it.
There was something undeniably enjoyable about even that kind of exchange. He couldn't quite figure out why he felt this way only toward her, though.
"So you're back — does that mean the commotion outside has finally settled down?"
"You noticed… well, I guess that goes without saying. Emilia-tan and
"Betty? Apologize? To whom and why — I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."
Beatrice sniffed her elegant little nose, snapped her book shut with a clap, and rose from the stepladder. She returned the thickly bound volume to the shelf, then reached up on tiptoe to pull out the next one beside it. Seeing her struggle with the height, Subaru stepped to her side and— "Here. This one, right?"
"…The one next to it, actually. If you insist on being an unnecessary busybody, you ought to at least cut cleanly."
"Ungrateful little lolicon… Here, don't drop it. Drop it on the top of your foot and it'll be no joke — this thing's got some weight."
The book he pulled out was heavy enough to catch even Subaru off guard when he tried holding it with one hand. He passed it over with exaggerated care, and Beatrice took it, cradling it against her chest. Subaru's eyes flicked to the title, but with no characters beyond the letter "I" that he could read, his linguistic abilities weren't yet up to deciphering it.
"I suppose I won't thank you, then."
"That's textbook tsundere and silent-type dialogue, but honestly, I think saying that's the same as saying 'thank you' at this point. You've already decided in your heart that it's a situation where gratitude is warranted — that tells me everything I need to know about your character."
Beatrice furrowed her brows in annoyance at Subaru's observation, turning her face away. Subaru scratched his head at her stubborn attitude and— "You don't ever have to say thanks to me, for the record. But you should say it to those two. Both of them were worried about you being left behind in this mansion."
"Worried about me? As if—"
"Don't say something that lame, like you didn't ask for it. Half the people in the world didn't ask to be born either, and they still worry about you whether you like it or not. …The second part is less about you and more about the people around you being good people."
The fundamental goodness of both Emilia and Ram went without saying. Emilia was top marks in her everyday conduct, and Ram — while a poor student in her day-to-day behavior — what lay beneath the surface was another matter entirely.
But Beatrice would not yield to Subaru's smooth-talking. Instead, she turned her face further away, bit her lip in a small, tight gesture, and— "But you ended up leaving the mansion in the end. …Leaving Betty behind."
"What's that supposed to mean? You're not about to tell me you didn't want to be left behind, are you? You shut yourself behind that door and pushed everyone away, and now you're going to play the victim?"
"Door crosser, am I? Don't just rename me with whatever self-serving, derogatory label you please. …Besides, being subjected to such presumptions is an insult to Betty."
Beatrice refused to concede a single point, keeping her gaze fixed stubbornly in the opposite direction. There was something fragile beneath that rigid front — something different from her usual self — and it made Subaru furrow his brow in helplessness.
If she was going to be this prickly before they even got to the main topic, he'd never be able to bring it up. And he certainly didn't have any miracle cure for her mood.
"Oh well. If you're going to be that stubborn, I'll just tell Emilia-tan that you were in tears repeating 'thank you' over and over."
"Don't you dare fabricate things. I haven't shed tears in a very long time."
"Oh, so that's it? You think crying is embarrassing? If you keep thinking like that when you're little, you'll have no idea how to let your emotions out when you grow up. When you're a kid, just cry your eyes out without worrying about consequences."
"That's rich, coming from a man who bawled his eyes out on his favorite girl's lap."
"Can we please forget about that!?"
The dark history that even Emilia, out of kindness, never dug up.
That time when Subaru, like a fool, had let his composure shatter, hiding his true feelings beneath manic energy — and someone had noticed the dam about to burst.
On Emilia's lap, the dam of tears had broken, and Subaru had wept and wept, unleashing every emotion he had bottled up since being summoned to this other world.
Just remembering that moment made his face feel like it was on fire. But buried beneath that same heat was a memory that genuinely shone deep within his chest.
He scratched his cheek, sealing those memories away, and glanced at Beatrice. She sat back down on the stepladder with the same bored expression, opened the book Subaru had handed her, and began slowly scanning the pages.
It was an unmistakable refusal to continue the conversation — but backing down now would negate his entire reason for coming here.
"Anyway, let's put the crying thing aside… There's something I want to ask you. Is that alright?"
"Whether it's alright or not, you're free to say what you want."
Her response came with the faint rustle of a turning page — an implicit statement that *answering* was an entirely separate matter. Not cooperative, but she hadn't refused outright, so Subaru took that as a tentative green light. He nodded once, said "right," and was about to bring up his true purpose for coming— "Oh, that reminds me — for someone who clearly noticed the commotion outside, you sure didn't do anything about it."
But what came out of Subaru's mouth wasn't the prepared topic at all. It was something closer to a rehash of their earlier exchange.
Beatrice's eyes, which had been trained on her book, lifted at his words. Subaru felt himself reflected in her piercing gaze and swallowed lightly.
"You — while you were playing ignorant, things got pretty bad outside, you know? A bunch of suspicious types had the mansion surrounded…"
"Stop."
"If I hadn't brought reinforcements back from the capital, who knows what would've happened by now. And it's not like my trip back was exactly smooth sailing either…"
"Stop, I said."
"It was tears hearing about it, tears telling the tale — like crossing the path of Quinby at the summit of crying faces—!"
A sharp crack split the air, forcibly severing Subaru's torrent of words.
The source was Beatrice's hand — she had snapped the open book shut with violent force. Seeing the look on her face, Subaru gave a sheepish grin, but the girl fixed him with a merciless, razor-sharp gaze.
"Why don't you get to the point. —You coward."
"…Yeah."
No words of denial came.
Beatrice was right. She had seen through his weakness — his desire to dodge the question he needed answered, to take the long way around.
"I…"
He drew a breath, closed his eyes, and listened to the pounding of his heart.
Beyond his closed lids, he could see her — his precious, smiling beloved.
"Do you… remember
——The question became sound, and burst against the unyielding truth of reality.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ In the world after the
He had exchanged words with her for the purpose of evacuating her away from the
He didn't remember every detail of what was said. But looking back now, there was one overlooked fact that he was certain of.
In that moment, Beatrice had made exactly one remark expressing concern for Rem — Rem, who was supposed to have returned together with Subaru.
At that point, when they had arrived back at the mansion, the letter had already been blank.
Which meant it was after the timing of Rem's attack by the Sin Archbishop — and yet Beatrice had still spoken Rem's name. Which meant— "Answer me. You remember Rem, who was in this mansion. Don't you?"
*Because I want you to remember* — the ending of his words shifted from "don't you" to "you must."
Part of that came from the certainty he had found in his resurfacing memories, and part was bravado to steel himself against the heart that threatened to sink into cowardice.
Beatrice was watching him quietly.
No emotion lingered in her eyes, and he couldn't read what she was thinking.
She was normally a girl whose feelings were so transparent — but in this single moment, he couldn't read her at all. That maddening quality burned through Subaru's anxious heart, like time itself had frozen.
"Hey…"
Why wouldn't she say anything?
Whether she knew or didn't know, it should have been an easy question to answer either way. Of course, there was only one answer he wanted. He hoped Beatrice would say she remembered Rem, and laugh off the stupidity of his question.
Having your memories devoured, your name swallowed, erased from the world — what absurd nonsense.
If she had experienced the same thing he had, if she could feel that same righteous indignation at the world's cruelty — or better yet, if she wanted to explore together the truth behind that shared feeling between them alone — that would be ideal.
So please. Say you remember.
Like Emilia, like Crusch, like Wilhelm, like all the many others — please, don't tell me you've forgotten Rem. That girl.
He wanted to hear the answer. He didn't want to hear the answer. His anxious heart, his contradictory feelings — they twisted together.
And as Subaru's mind was torn apart by that hesitation— "—I don't want to answer."
Beatrice averted the gaze that had been fixed on him and returned an answer that was neither yes nor no.
The breath left Subaru's body with a faint "ha." For a moment, his thoughts ground to a halt. Then he waved his hands frantically.
"W-wait. 'Don't want to answer'? What's that supposed to mean? The question I just asked only has two possible answers — yes or no!"
"I don't understand what yes or no even mean. And Betty's answer is exactly the same. I don't want to answer."
"That's not an answer at all!"
Subaru swept his arm downward and took one hard step toward Beatrice.
The girl on the stepladder didn't so much as glance at his violent movement, her lips pressed tight shut. That stubborn attitude fanned the already smoldering fire of his frustration. It wouldn't stop.
"The words I want to hear from you — they're not some damn non-answer!"
"Why should Betty have to say whatever words you want to hear? …Please don't make so much noise. The library might become disarrayed."
"You—!"
Caught up in momentum, Subaru moved closer to Beatrice.
He intended to force her face toward him, to make her look at him. To look her in the eye and demand to know why she would say something so heartless. That was the plan. But then— "————"
The instant he reached out, Beatrice looked at him.
And the moment he saw the tremor of emotion rippling through her eyes, Subaru's hand stopped moving. Because it was as though she— "Your question just now is the same question you'd ask someone who was devoured by 'Gluttony.'"
"——! So you really do…"
"It's the kind of thing anyone would guess if they knew about Gluttony's authority. Roswaal, Ni-chan, even
"Roswa—!?"
An unexpected name flew out, and Subaru's throat tightened involuntarily.
Roswaal knew about Gluttony's authority — which meant he, too, might remember Rem. No — before that even— "How much do you people actually know about the Witch Cult? Roswaal must have known that if it came out Emilia was a half-elf, the Witch Cult would move. Yet if I hadn't taken action, this mansion, the village — everything would have been beyond saving. What's going on here?"
"………"
"Ram and Crusch both said there was no way no measures had been taken. But from where I'm standing, it looks like nothing was done at all! Because if something had been, then that horrible thing would never have…"
"Betty can't fathom the full extent of what Roswaal was planning. However… I don't think it's accurate to say Roswaal did nothing at all."
Subaru furrowed his brow at Beatrice's explanation, searching his memory of the fight with Petelgeuse for any sign of Roswaal's hand at work. But no matter how deeply he dug, no matter how many times he turned it over, he couldn't find any such moment.
"I'm not mistaken. Or maybe I'm overestimating him. If Roswaal was doing something behind the scenes, then there's no way I should have had to go through all that…"
"If you can't see it, then perhaps no one can."
A sigh tinged with disappointment — Beatrice's words conveyed her letdown at Subaru's inability to understand. He felt a prickle of irritation, but also realized the conversation had begun drifting far off course.
"Wait — forget that. Let's talk about the Witch Cult. If you know about the Witch Cult, I want you to tell me everything. About the Sin Archbishops, about 'Gluttony' — everything. There are a hundred questions I want answered… including this."
Once he knew Beatrice was in a position to know, the questions came pouring out. All the things Puck had deflected, that Subaru had never been able to get answers to. If he could get them from her, there was hope.
He reached into his coat and produced a black-bound book. Its cover and pages were faintly stained with darkened blood — a spoil of war from his battle against a formidable foe just days ago.
"I know this thing is tied to the Witch Cult at its deepest level. I can't read the contents, but someone in your position as guardian of the Forbidden Library might be able to…"
"—The Gospel."
Seeing the book in Subaru's hands, Beatrice's eyes widened.
Her pink lips trembled slightly as she stared intently at the Gospel he held. Her eyes raced across the illegible script inscribed on its cover, and in a voice of disbelief: "Why — of all people — why would *you* have that…"
"I didn't exactly go out of my way to get it. Like I said, the Witch Cult had the mansion surrounded and were causing trouble. I took it from the person behind it all. The owner is… no longer anywhere in this world."
"Took it from them… but that means—"
Beatrice's voice shook as she reached toward the Gospel in Subaru's hands.
Even as her fingertips trembled with fine, visible quivers, Subaru hesitantly placed the book into her outstretched hands. She accepted it, traced the cover with her fingertip, and confirmed the text.
"The owner of this… you said they're dead?"
"…Yeah. They're dead. Caught in the wheels… I killed them."
Looking at the outcome, Petelgeuse's death hadn't been carried out by Subaru's direct hand.
But the chain of events leading to it, the resolve that it would come to that — everything had been an inevitable reality extending from Subaru's actions.
Subaru had intended to kill Petelgeuse. His soul understood that unless he took the man's life, there was absolutely no way to settle things with him.
Therefore, there was no doubt whatsoever that Subaru had harbored the *intention* to kill Petelgeuse.
He wouldn't say there was no hesitation, or that he felt no regret after getting his hands dirty. He hadn't pretended to be brave in front of anyone — so he wouldn't lie to his own heart.
He would not forget the killing, nor the times he had nearly been killed.
He wouldn't say something sentimental like *living on bearing the lives that man took*.
Petelgeuse was a being who deserved to die, and Subaru had killed him believing so.
That was all there was to it.
But to Subaru's words, heavy with every feeling he carried, Beatrice offered no reaction.
She simply murmured a quiet "I see…" and, still gazing at the Gospel— "You also left Betty behind, didn't you, Juice…"
"—? Who?"
"There's no need for you to know. More importantly — if you're the one who killed 'Sloth,' what happened to the
"The Witch… Factor?"
At Beatrice's question, Subaru knit his brow and tilted his head.
His expression drew a puzzled look from Beatrice, who narrowed her eyes as though trying to extract some emotion from his face. But Subaru had no idea what she was looking for. He let his irritation ride on a tongue-click.
"Don't go throwing around jargon when even you don't know what's going on. What is a Witch Factor? Just hearing the name gives me a bad feeling."
"You don't know…? Could it be that you truly don't? Then what exactly was the point of killing 'Sloth'? I don't understand."
"I was just batting away the sparks that were about to land on me! What are you trying to say?!"
Subaru was fed up with the misfiring conversation — but as his momentum built, Beatrice's demeanor was growing quieter by contrast. She pressed the back of her hand against her lips as though deep in thought, her eyes not on the book in her hands but fixed on its cover.
"This is… beyond Betty's ability to judge."
"Don't just decide things on your own — whoa!"
Beatrice, shaking her head, suddenly thrust the Gospel at Subaru with an abrupt motion.
He caught it clumsily, let out a breath of relief, then— "What the hell was that for? I said it's a dangerous book — or, well, I didn't say that exactly, but it's definitely creepy! Treat it with more care!"
"—Perhaps it's better if you keep that one. Whatever the Witch Factor chooses — or doesn't choose — either way, a decision will be forced upon you eventually. If even a little of this helps inform that choice… perhaps Juice will be at peace."
"What's with this talk about putting a drink at peace?! You — to me—"
None of it was making any clear sense, and Subaru clung to his words out of desperation. But before he could finish, a wrongness prickled at his back.
——He instinctively perceived it as the sound of space being warped by supernatural force. He didn't know why he perceived it that way, only that he did.
"You trying to kick me out?! I haven't even gotten to ask anything yet — do you seriously think I'd back down after this?!"
"Why should Betty have to tell you what you want to hear, when you want to hear it, in the words you want to hear it? Stop being so… stop being so arrogant!"
"Arrogant — just tell me what you know! That's all I'm asking! So your…"
"—Betty is—"
*Something was pulling him back* — not in the metaphorical sense, but as a literal physical force dragging his body rearward.
Space was distorting. He craned his neck to look behind him and saw that the door — which should have closed by now — was open once more, a pitch-black void reaching to swallow him whole.
There was no wind, no hand seizing his limbs.
But an indescribable pressure bore down on his entire body from the front, and an invisible gravitational pull clutched at him from behind, dragging him away.
——An overwhelmingly forceful display of the true art of *door-crossing*.
"Beaco— Beatrice!"
"Your body is the one trying to leave. Your heart is the one trying to leave."
"What are you—"
"Your fear of the answer, your weakness that wants to turn away from reality, your selfishness that doesn't want to confront your own sins — perhaps all of that is pulling your body away from this Forbidden Library."
He wanted to call it nonsense, but no voice came.
The fear of the answer, the terror that the reality might return, the guilt that he couldn't atone for everything — he had been aware of it all.
And yet— "I—"
"Betty is not… some convenient tool for you to use as you please."
"——!? Why are you so close to tears?"
"Why should Betty have to tell you what you want to hear, when you want to hear it, in the words you want to hear it, how you want to hear it? …That isn't what Betty is."
Beatrice's words, wrenched out as though squeezed dry, left Subaru speechless.
It wasn't that she had hit a sore spot — it was more like being struck from a direction he had never anticipated, and the shock left him stunned.
And in the void that opened up, his body — which had been resisting until now — slipped— "No—!"
Sucked in as though drawn by the doorway behind him, Subaru's body crossed the threshold.
Once he crossed, he would be expelled from the Forbidden Library. At the last instant, he grabbed the edge of the door and, half-thrown, managed to hold on.
He exhaled, clenched his teeth, and looked forward — there, ahead of him, was a girl with a sorrowful face.
"What you want to know, you should ask Roswaal. —Neither Ni-chan nor Betty will tell you anything."
"…Why do you look like you're about to cry?"
At Subaru's final question, Beatrice simply lowered her eyes and offered no response.
Then, the girl's outstretched fingertips found the fingers gripping the door — and pried them loose.
He was sucked in. Thrown out. Shut out.
From the doorway. From the Forbidden Library. From the heart of a girl named Beatrice.
"————"
He stumbled backward, as though spat out by the door, and tumbled into the corridor.
Before his eyes, the door that had expelled him slammed shut with savage force. He immediately reached for it, but it was too late.
"That drill-headed lolicon…"
The other side of the door that had opened was no longer the Forbidden Library, but an unused guest room.
Subaru spun his gaze around the interior, searching the mansion for anything that would pull him toward the Forbidden Library by some sixth sense — but there was nothing. …He would not be seeing her again today.
That single certainty dropped like a stone into the depths of his chest.
He had extracted nothing — not a single thing he wanted to know, not a single thing he needed to hear. He had been jerked around by a girl's cryptic words and come away with absolutely nothing, tossed out on his ear.
"What the hell. If you know something, just tell me, you stingy brat. Sulking behind a door like some petulant shut-in — what, are you the oldest son of the Natsuki household or something?"
He kicked the door that had, until moments ago, connected to the Forbidden Library, and let out a long breath.
He shook his head, trying to banish the images crowding his mind — but at the last, the expression Beatrice had worn at their parting refused to be shaken loose.
Because in that moment, she had definitely— "Wearing a face like that while shutting yourself away alone — don't be an idiot."
If he let himself think that *he* had been the one to put that look on her face, then he'd never be able to blame her for the fact that nothing had gone right.