——In the distance, there was a sound like bells ringing.
A crashing wave of bell tolls that surged violently, then receded like a tide, receding and surging over and over.
His temples throbbed fiercely, and he felt something hot welling up from deep inside his nose. But by biting his tongue, splitting his lip, and tasting blood, he forced his consciousness to focus on the sharp pain.
The agony that tore through his chest, the sense of loss unaccompanied by any feeling of reality, the rage that could only howl against the sheer injustice of it all—he smothered it all beneath the immediate taste of blood.
"Are you all right? You seem to be suffering—"
"You seem to be in pain—is your stomach hurting? Did you have an accident?"
Two voices, nearby, full of concern.
It hadn't been long, but they were voices he'd grown familiar with. Sometimes irksome, sometimes annoying, sometimes a source of relief, sometimes one he'd placed his trust in.
——And now those same voices wrapped themselves in an entirely different timbre, cruelly trembling against his eardrums.
"Yeah—I'm fine."
Sensing their stares, he answered briefly without lifting his face. He kept his eyes shut. The cause of his face being pressed into the futon, the surge of violent emotion, had somehow subsided into the waves. If he opened his eyes, his irises might still be faintly red from the aftermath—but keeping them closed meant they couldn't pick up on that.
He breathed steadily, striving for calm within his own heart.
The initial shock had passed. The suffocating, cotton-wadded despair was slowly being overcome. But the sense of loss he still felt acutely was weeping quietly inside his chest.
Even so, he ought to be able to grasp enough of a starting point to move forward.
"Sorry for worrying you. I was, uh—just a bit groggy from sleep, you know?"
Once he opened his mouth, his tongue worked. He spun a half-hearted quip with dry lips and produced a raspy "ha ha" of a laugh. ——He still couldn't open his eyes.
While his lids were closed and he gazed into darkness, maybe the world would be repainted entirely. Or maybe he'd slip into a fleeting dream of dozing—that kind of ending would be fine too.
Ah, if everything were just some scheme of Roswaal's, trying to deceive him—how wonderfully infuriating and yet oddly comforting that thought would be.
That notion seemed like such a stroke of genius, like it was striking at the edge of the truth, and he felt the knot in his chest loosen ever so slightly.
As if he'd been saved by his own heart's excuse, Subaru let out a small, escaping sigh.
"Yeah—that's right, isn't it?"
Trembling, he opened his eyes. In the world that blurred and expanded before him in that one instant—reality was thrust upon him.
Standing on both sides of the bed, leaning on the frame and looking down at him, were the twins.
No emotion could be discerned there. In the span of four days, he should have built up at least something between them—yet all of it had vanished like haze into who-knows-where.
"Are you all right—?"
The words of concern left both pairs of lips simultaneously.
Their gazes shifted, tracking Subaru as he sprang up from the bed as if launched. As for Subaru himself, he was retreating from them as though struck by a chill, obeying some urgent instinct to put distance between them.
"Sir, please don't move so suddenly. You need to rest—"
"Sir, it's dangerous to move all of a sudden. You haven't rested enough yet."
Fingers reaching toward him—and he twisted away reflexively. Their eyes narrowed with a look of quiet pity, but Subaru was in no mental state to pick up on that change.
An unbearable sensation.
The sensation of being treated as a stranger by people he knew.
Just days ago, he had tasted the same feeling—in a crowd, in an alley, in an abandoned house. But this time was fundamentally different. The situation was different, the time was different, the experience was different.
This wasn't a fresh start with people he barely knew. This was a one-sided reset with people he should have forged a bond of trust with.
The dissonance of knowing someone who had become a stranger—nausea surged up and his stomach churned.
The twins, maids both, were beginning to notice the change in Subaru, whose trembling eyes now held something resembling fear as he stared at them.
A faint silence fell over the room, each side waiting to see what the other would do, neither able to act. And so— "Sorry—I can't, right now."
Subaru lunged for the doorknob and hurled himself into the hallway. His movement was a split-second faster than the twins' attempt to stop him.
He savored the chill of the corridor through the soles of his bare feet as he dashed forward, heaving a great breath. Relentlessly, recklessly, without understanding a thing.
He didn't know what he was running from. He didn't know why he had to run. He could only obey the instinct that screamed—if he stopped, they'd catch up—and keep sprinting.
He simply couldn't stay in that room.
Alarm bells were clanging violently inside his head. His heart, his instinct, his very soul was screaming that he had to leave. He didn't know why. He could only obey.
He raced past one similar-looking door after another, staggering through the corridor in an ungainly crawl, on the verge of collapse at every step.
And then, gasping for air, as though guided by something, he reached out and opened a door— ——and slipped himself into the Forbidden Library, where rows upon rows of bookshelves stood in silence.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ Once he closed the door, the library was sealed off completely from the outside world.
From that point on, opening this door from outside meant the same thing as chasing after every handle in the entire mansion.
Gasping, he leaned his back against the door and slid to the floor.
Though he was sitting, his knees shook uncontrollably. His fingertips, reaching out to suppress the trembling, refused to stop—like a dry drunk whose liquor had run out.
"If I did a paper-sumo match, I'd probably hold my own. Ha ha."
His self-deprecating words had no edge. The dry laugh only served to highlight the emptiness within.
The library's hushed air carried the scent of old paper, pouring a painfully tranquil ease into his current, desperate state.
He knew it was nothing more than a small comfort, but clinging to it was the only solace available to Subaru right now.
Over and over, he repeated deep, measured breaths. Then— "You barged in without even knocking. What a frightfully rude individual you are."
From between the bookshelves came a voice that mocked him—like a fish flopping on a hillside, gasping for air.
Deep in the dim room, seated before a small wooden desk, was a girl with cream-colored hair. Always the same, always unshaken, always maintaining her distance from Subaru—the guardian of the Roswaal mansion's Forbidden Library.
She snapped her book shut with a clap, and with one hand tucked that oversized volume under her arm— "How did you break through the 'Door Crossing'? ...Both just now and earlier."
"Sorry. Just—just let me stay for a bit. Please."
He pressed his palms together in supplication and, without waiting for an answer, shut his eyes. ——He needed to face reality and himself in this quiet, undisturbed space.
He had to calm down. Accept reality. His name was Natsuki Subaru. This was another world—the Roswaal mansion. The twins were Ram and Rem. The one before him was Beatrice. This was the mansion's Forbidden Library—the ability he'd nicknamed "Door Breaker" let him slip in and out with surprising ease. There was no wound on his left hand. No proof of effort. The promised morning would never come. The promise he'd made. Tomorrow, with someone, together, somewhere—.
"Right—
Silver hair gleaming under the moonlight, and a bashful smile came flooding back to memory.
Even beneath the moon, a girl whose radiance rivaled the vast starry sky—the promise he'd made with her.
"Beatrice."
"...You're on a first-name basis now, are you?"
"What's the date today? And do you have any idea what time it is?"
Subaru fired the questions unilaterally at Beatrice, who had fallen silent, pressing on when she looked offended.
She regarded his pushiness with an irritated expression, then snorted and said— "For Betty, who spends her time in this library where time is frozen, the dates and hours outside mean absolutely nothing."
"In other words?"
"I couldn't care less."
"Damn! Useless! I'm the fool for expecting even a little!"
"Always running your mouth, this one..."
Beatrice wrinkled her nose at Subaru's blunt, desperate words. The girl's cute face twisted with displeasure, but Subaru prefaced his next remark with "but"— "At least you're not treating me like some stranger. And just now, you said both 'just now' and 'earlier' when talking about 'Door Breaker.' God, it's so confusing!"
"What are you muttering about on your own... Do try not to make a racket in the library. The tranquility might be disturbed."
She replied with a sigh, then—exasperated by Subaru's silent glare— "It was only three or four hours ago that I played that little trick on your ill-mannered self."
"What happened to the 'time is frozen' setting..."
Too weak even for that, yet he still managed to seize on a technicality, making Beatrice bristle.
While carrying out that familiar routine, Subaru turned over her words in his mind.
——Three or four hours ago, Subaru and Beatrice's encounter.
That probably meant the first time he'd woken up in the Roswaal mansion. After the illusory infinite corridor had been dispelled, and he'd stumbled upon the right door on his first try.
That time, Beatrice had dragged something massive out of him psychically, and he'd passed out without the slightest ability to resist.
When he next awoke, he'd been laid in bed—and Ram and Rem had been there— "So what I'm in right now... is the second time I woke up in the Roswaal mansion?"
He recalled the barely-protruding memory and nodded to himself.
The maid twins coming to wake him up together—that had only happened on that day. And Subaru occupying a bed in the guest room—that had only been on the first day.
In other words— "So I've gone back from five days ahead to four days ago...?"
Having taken proper stock of his situation, Subaru defined it that way.
By the workings of some mysterious power, he had once again traveled backward through time. And not in a form he'd chosen—to a timeline he hadn't wanted.
He could understand that reality, but coming to terms with it was another matter entirely.
He clutched his head and tried to think about what could have caused this return.
Subaru had performed "time regression" only once—the very first day he'd been summoned to this other world. Having died three times, he'd saved Emilia and judged that he'd broken free from the loop.
In fact, the time regression he'd defined as "Return by Death" had not occurred again since, and the five days at the Roswaal mansion should have passed in perfect peace.
And yet here he was—suddenly regressing in time. Without warning, without anything to indicate it was coming.
"Are the conditions different from last time? I assumed it happened whenever I died, but what if it actually rewinds about once a week...? No, even if that were the case—"
That wouldn't explain why he'd rewound to this particular day.
The mechanism behind time regression was unclear, but thinking back on the repeated time, there should have been at least some rules. One of those was the question of where he revived.
If he hadn't escaped that loop, he should have been waking up again in front of the vegetable vendor Scarface.
"But in reality, instead of a scarred middle-aged man, it's two maids who look like angels—though my reception was closer to hell than heaven, back then."
As he spoke, Subaru patted himself down to confirm he was unharmed.
If the previous conditions still held, the reason for this time regression was clear. Namely—he had died.
The problem was— "If I died, how did I die? Everything was normal up until I went to sleep. And after falling asleep—at the very least, I don't recall being in any situation that would count as 'dying.'"
Even if the sedative had worked too well, was there really such a thing as a death you couldn't remember even a fragment of?
Poison or gas—he could have been sealed in unconsciousness forever while asleep. But that implied assassination, and Subaru couldn't think of any reason someone would target him. As things stood, he couldn't fathom that he had even a sliver of that kind of value.
"Then perhaps—a forced loop triggered by failing to meet the clear condition."
If he thought of it as a game, it meant he hadn't triggered the necessary flag. But he had no idea whose scheme this flag was part of, nor could he guess what kind of flag served as the trigger.
It was hard to play through a game when the on-off state of the flags wasn't clear. He had a tendency to lean on walkthrough sites—the worst vice of the internet age.
"Trading info with friends over word of mouth, getting fed fake intel, and slowly making your way forward... that's how it's supposed to be fun, right?"
"I thought you were just mumbling to yourself, but it's turned into a thoroughly boring atmosphere."
Beatrice remarked with a bored expression as she watched Subaru sink into the sea of his own thoughts. He raised his face at her words, and—as though frustrated by being ignored—the girl curved her lips.
"Dying, living—it's all so pointless and dull by human standards. And what you end up with is delusional rambling and baseless claims. Utterly hopeless."
She shrugged dismissively, cutting him off with characteristic coldness. But Subaru felt a degree of relief at that unchanged hostility toward him as he rose to his feet.
He brushed the dust off his rear and reached for the doorknob, when from behind— "Leaving already?"
"There's something I need to verify. The moping will have to wait. Thanks."
"I didn't do anything. ...Now get out. I have to set the door barrier back up."
The words, devoid of anything resembling kindness, were oddly soothing to Subaru right now.
She probably didn't intend any kindness, but as if pushed forward by those words, he stepped out.
He turned the doorknob and stepped into the cool breeze. It ruffled his short bangs, and a faint sting touched his eyes—he covered his face with his arm.
Then the wind died, and through the soles of his bare feet he felt the sensation of grass—within his field of vision— "Yeah—she really is beautiful."
His heart skipped a beat as he caught sight of a silver girl, slightly out of breath, near the garden.
That high-handed little minx, he thought with an inner scold aimed at the precocious girl.
And then— "Subaru!"
The girl noticed him, those amethyst eyes going wide as she hurried over in a fluster. From her lips, spilling out like the chime of a silver bell, came just three syllables—a bond that brought a fresh tremor to his heart every time he heard it, no matter how many times.
Without thinking, his feet moved toward the approaching girl.
Meeting his gaze as she took in his entire body, the corners of her eyes softened with relief. But almost immediately, she composed herself and straightened her posture and expression.
"You had me worried sick! The moment you woke up, you vanished—Ram and Rem were running all over the mansion in a panic."
"Sorry. Beatrice kind of detained me for a bit."
"Again? I heard she played a trick on you before, too..."
Emilia, this beautiful girl whose worry she made no effort to hide—her defenseless posture drew Subaru's hand halfway toward her before he restrained himself and his own weak heart.
To do so here would be rash. It would undo the very purpose of the quiet he'd gathered in Beatrice's room. His aim wasn't simply to avoid being falsely accused.
All Subaru could offer the worried Emilia was a vague smile. And yet, even in that uncharacteristic behavior of his, Emilia didn't press too close—that aloof distance she maintained.
It was only natural. The current Subaru being "unlike himself"—she'd only spent a little over an hour with him since they met. There was no way she could know.
Between them lay an unbridgeable four-day gap.
Only he knew of the four days she didn't.
"I'm having some real 'receiving transmissions from another dimension' kind of thoughts, huh."
"Trans...missions? What does that mean?"
"Just me being a poet for a moment. Anyway—thank god you're safe."
Black knee-high socks beneath the skirt on her lap. The overall black-based, active style was the same one that had filled Subaru with delight on that first day.
Naturally, the body beneath those clothes had been unharmed when she'd survived the battle in that loot house.
"The body beneath those clothes—my brain is going in kind of a NSFW direction right now."
"I was trying to say 'thank you for saving me,' but... that look in your eyes is seriously unsettling."
Glowering at him, Subaru managed to produce a natural, wry smile.
Little by little, he was finding his rhythm again. He needed to shift gears, wet his lips with his tongue, and get back to being Natsuki Subaru.
When you really thought about it, this was lucky.
This time he wasn't starting from in front of the vegetable stand. No micro-flag of getting killed by a stray dog, no opening where he'd say something stupid to Emilia and tank her affinity from the start. The Elsa gut-festival ending was completely out of reach.
After surviving that battle in the loot house, having shared the brink of death itself, the two of them should have forged a passionate bond that no outsider could penetrate.
What was now just a small ember could, with the right catalyst, burst into a towering blaze and bloom into a magnificent flower.
"Positive thinking—that's me."
Looking back with that forward resolve, he realized this was also an opportunity.
Unlike last time, when he'd had to cross the loot house's absolute death line, this time there was no crisis standing between him and whatever had caused this loop.
In other words, all Subaru had to do was calmly trace a route he'd already rehearsed—while polishing it into a more perfect answer.
Just by taking the same route, that moonlit promise would be struck.
——And if he took an even better route, how much more might that moonlit promise be elevated?
"Heh—this time around, I'm starting at the climax...!"
"You seem pretty fired up, but you really are all right?"
"Hmm? Oh yeah—top shape, couldn't be better. A little low on blood, had a huge chunk of my life force drained, running on fumes both mentally and physically since waking up, and it feels like my mental fortitude took a full-power baseball bat to the face—but I'm great!"
"Isn't that what you'd call 'injuries covering every inch of your body'?"
"Pinches become chances, and baseball's really a game that starts in the bottom of the ninth with two outs—I read that on a book cover once."
He snapped his fingers and gave a thumbs-up.
At Subaru's attitude, Emilia's shoulders dropped as though the tension had been wrung right out of her.
"Well, as long as you're fine, that's what matters. Anyway—heading back to the mansion? I actually have some business here, so I'm going to stay."
"Oh—fairy consultation time? I won't get in the way. Can I hang around? And wake
"I don't mind, but you really have to not interrupt, okay? This isn't playtime."
Emilia tilted her head at Subaru, who was wiggling his fingers, and told him in the tone of an older sister speaking to a child.
Her big-sister mannerisms were just so endearing—and in Subaru's heart, a flame of resolve was kindled.
"All right, then—let's go, let's go. Time is finite, the world is vast, and the time of me and Emilia-tan is only just getting started."
"Hmm... wait? What did you just say? Where did the 'tan' come from?"
He guided the objecting Emilia along by pushing her back—just as he already knew, he had no intention of ever correcting that slip. And even that was one of the bonds forged across the four days he'd lost.
"—I'll take it all back."
He murmured softly as he followed her retreating figure—dissatisfied expression and all—deeper into the garden.
He paused for a moment, watching the silver hair recede, then lifted his gaze to the sky.
——In the low eastern sky, the sun was rising with spiteful persistence.
Five more times that would repeat, and then the promised time would arrive.
He would watch the sun come to welcome the promise he'd made with a girl suited to moonlight.
——There was time. And he already knew the answer.
"I don't know who's behind this torment, but I'm gonna take it all back and shove that smug look right off their face. Don't you underestimate the modern kid who snaps easy."
He clenched his fist at the sky and declared war to no one in particular.
It was his first clear act of rebellion—against the force that had imposed "summoning" and "looping" upon him the moment he'd arrived in this world.
The battle against his second loop had begun.
He would overcome the one week at the Roswaal mansion and learn what came after those days.
He would protect the promise made under that moon—the promise he had sworn.
"You've got it coming, fate...!"