"—You've finally come to your senses."
When Subaru opened his eyes, the sunlight had tilted far to the west.
Halfway up the cliff — the spot Subaru had reached during his first fall gaped open in a break in the forest, a gap where the trees gave way to the sky.
In the chaos of the beast fight, there had been no room to notice, but sitting here where the sky was visible, an inexplicable sense of relief washed over Subaru.
The illusion of being freed from claustrophobia, no longer hemmed in by trees — that was probably what did it. Even this dead-end situation, which shouldn't have changed at all, now made selfish little hopes bubble up, as if maybe something, anything, had shifted.
"If you have something to say, why not just say it?"
"…Something to say?"
"You're dull, outdated, and you've got that miserable dead-end look on your face. Completely hopeless."
Standing atop the sheer cliff face, her ever-present dress was strikingly out of place — a jarring mismatch, as though she had been cut out of a completely different painting and pasted onto the landscape.
"…Standing there in that outfit, you're the last person who should be talking about 'the great outdoors.'"
"Betty didn't want to come tromping through some dusty mountain either, you know. If you hadn't scurried off to a place like this, there would have been no need to set foot here."
Beatrice flicked her hem and delivered the words with undisguised irritation.
Subaru furrowed his brow at her remark, and then — belatedly — noticed.
All the serious wounds he had sustained — the bloodstains, the torn clothes — nearly all of their traces were gone, the injuries closed up.
The left wrist that had been dangling, the gash on the right arm where bone had been visible, the right leg he had thought was paralyzed — everything was back to normal.
"There were too many to erase the scars entirely. Consider them a memento of your own incompetence, would you?"
Looking closely, traces of fang wounds remained here and there. But they were so faded you could only spot them in bright light, and more importantly, Subaru had never been the type to care much about appearances.
Pure and simple, having his wounds healed like this was the greatest relief of all. But still — "Why…?"
"…Why what?"
"Why did you save me? I…" —Even with Beatrice, the one who had formed the contract with him, he hadn't been able to confide in her at all.
Subaru's choked-up attitude drew the same exasperated look Beatrice always wore. She snorted softly, then shrugged.
"Protecting your safety is the contract Betty entered into. If my partner goes and dies in a pathetic bloodbath, it reflects poorly on Betty's reputation, doesn't it?"
"I thought the deal was only until this morning…"
"If you've got the energy to nitpick, I'd be happy to put a fresh wound in the same spot for you. —How about a nice custom-made scar right on top of the old one?"
"I'm sorry thank you please forgive me."
Subaru pressed his forehead against the rock face and bowed frantically, doing whatever it took to defuse Beatrice's quiet fury.
Regardless, even if she'd been needling him — she had still — "…You're still going to keep the contract with me…?"
"A contract is a contract. It remains valid until one party falls. …When you think about it, not setting a clear expiration date was a failure on my part."
Acting as though the earlier nitpicking had never happened, Beatrice carried on as if she'd completely forgotten the time limit Subaru had mentioned.
Sharp-tongued and impossible to get along with. —That had been the overwhelming impression of Beatrice, and yet now, seeing this unexpected show of mercy, Subaru felt something strike him at the core.
Words failed him as the feelings surged up.
Beatrice watched Subaru fall silent, and without acknowledging the change in his expression, pointed a finger at him.
"Oh, by the way. There's something Betty needed to ask you."
"…What?"
He braced instinctively — depending on the question, he might be forced into another confrontation with that dark fog.
But what came from her lips had nothing to do with his fears.
"The wound Betty healed — did you deal with whoever inflicted it? Or did they get away?"
"…? The wound — you mean the black wolf thing? If that's what you're asking…"
Subaru slowly approached the cliff's edge and pointed downward, showing Beatrice.
There, at the very bottom, the carcass of the beast still lay where it had fallen. Beatrice stepped up beside him, confirmed it with a nod, and — "Was that the only one?"
"If there had been two or more, I'd have been torn apart twice as fast, no question."
That he'd managed to dispose of even one was purely a stroke of luck.
If they'd attacked as a pack, there would have been a classic manga-style dust cloud, and when it cleared, Subaru's neatly polished skull would have been rolling across the ground.
Beatrice touched her chin and closed her eyes for a moment. Then, as though she'd reached her conclusion, she gave a small shake of her head.
"I don't sense any other presences nearby. It was probably straggler — one that broke away from the pack. If it just happened to slip past the barrier and stumbled into you, then your bad luck must be truly extraordinary."
"I've been suspecting I'm actually a walking disaster myself, for the record."
It felt like every misfortune in his life had piled on top of him all at once.
Even if someone guaranteed that no more misfortune would strike him after this, he'd want nothing more than for them to dole it out gradually instead of all at once.
Ever since coming to this other world, the clearest memories that came back to him were all ones laced with pain.
And yet there should have been just as many happy ones.
He felt something weak and aching stir deep in his memory, and Subaru lowered his gaze, hiding his expression. But Beatrice paid no mind to his sentimentality.
"If that's the case… well, there's no point in dwelling on it."
"What do you mean? It's annoying when you just settle things on your own like that. Whatever fact you've figured out, I want to see it, hear it, touch it."
"It would only add one more thing you can't do anything about. Rather than worrying about that, shouldn't you be thinking about what to do with yourself from here on out?"
She rebuffed his approach, and once again Beatrice clearly blocked off the retreat Subaru had been searching for.
To drive the point home to the silent Subaru, Beatrice folded her arms.
"Let me make one thing clear — this is the limit of what Betty can do for you. Back at the mansion, you should try to find an opportunity to explain yourself to the older of those sisters. If such a chance exists, you were the one who threw it away."
"If only I could—!"
He wanted to scream that he'd already said everything he could.
Without that crushing constraint — that thing that felt like someone wringing his heart to pulp — Subaru would have bared everything, begged for forgiveness.
That nothing he could offer would heal
But even that much had been denied to him, so instead he'd fled all the way to a place like this, been attacked by a wild animal, and ended up crawling on the ground, barely clinging to life.
"I'm such an idiot. …No. I really am an idiot."
Once again, he'd been about to use that situation as an excuse, to look the other way.
Excuses, justifications, protests, self-preservation — repeating them over and over had brought Subaru to the cliff's edge. It was proof, in both a literal and psychological sense, that he'd been cornered with nowhere left to run.
Running, running, running, running — and now, which way were his feet even pointing?
"…Why would you, of all people, still…"
"Whim. At the very least, if you're going to die, do it somewhere I can't see, or Betty won't be able to sleep at night. —But if you're still flinching at this point, even that seems unlikely."
The warmth stripped away, Beatrice's words cut into him with nothing but severity.
Her gaze was the kind you'd give something utterly worthless, and Subaru found himself swallowing hard with a dry rasp.
"If I chose to run…"
"Betty will at least help you get away unseen from the people at the mansion. After that, wherever you disappear to is your business."
It was a curt way to put it, but it was unmistakably the truth.
Beatrice never said anything she didn't mean. That much was evident from the fact that she'd come all the way into these mountains to find him and hadn't abandoned him even when she found him cowering pathetically.
Surely, if Subaru chose to run, she would validate that choice.
Not out of compassion — but out of indifference, tempered only by the terms of the contract.
But what if — "
"What if I said I wanted to talk to Ram?"
"…It's pointless. The older sister has no patience left to listen to a single word from you. No matter what you say, she won't hear it. She won't believe it."
At Subaru's suggestion of a different path, Beatrice unusually lowered her gaze as she answered.
What surfaced in her mind was probably the image of Ram, left behind at the mansion — Subaru's abandoned figure still echoing in the space she occupied.
What state she'd been in after Subaru fled — given Beatrice's current demeanor, it was clear enough that the situation must have been unspeakable.
Looking at Beatrice with her lips pressed shut, Subaru tilted his head back and let the sky fill his vision as he chewed on his own stupidity.
That moment — that place — had been the watershed.
Subaru should never have run from that place. Even if he hadn't had the resolve to endure the pain, he should have faced Ram.
He'd missed the chance, and the opportunity to mend things between them was gone. And once something had slipped through your fingers, it never, ever returned.
The rift that had opened between them — it was that deep, that vast.
"The older sister endured, for her sister's sake. And the younger sister lives, for that older sister's sake. Without either one, those two are incomplete."
Beatrice's languid voice cut through the silence.
Before Subaru, who had lowered his gaze, Beatrice played with her own luxurious hair.
"If even one is missing, the whole thing ceases to function. And now that the older one has gone that far, I doubt she'll last much longer."
"What do you mean by that? What do you know…?"
He had the sense she was saying something enormous.
Subaru lunged toward Beatrice as if to grab her, demanding the true meaning behind her words. But — "You're too ambitious, too full of yourself, and your manners and your eyes are terrible, human."
She took his hand, and her body twirled like a dancer. Caught up in the spin, Subaru's legs tangled under him, and before he knew it he'd landed flat on his back. The impact forced the air from his lungs with a grunt, and Subaru's eyes flew open.
"She's never going back to normal. When you think about that, it makes you feel certain things. Of course, Betty may not have the right to say that."
"You just figured that out on your own…? Quit playing the big shot. Spouting cryptic nonsense and acting like some important person — give me a break."
Was she stringing him along by doling out information bit by bit, enjoying his reactions? Subaru cursed her for the poor taste. But Beatrice shook her head.
"You're the one who — just four days, and not even four days spent properly together — what could you possibly know about them? And even if you knew, what could you do? Stop imposing your own fantasies. You have no place at that mansion anymore."
"As if I don't…"
Know anything — he started to say, but the words died in his throat.
At least, in Beatrice's subjective view, that was all he was.
But even if he told her about the ten days he'd experienced — what would it matter?
Looking back on those ten days, what exactly could Subaru claim to have learned about them?
Could he claim he'd obtained anything at all — anything that would let him push back against Beatrice's sharp gaze as she looked down at him now?
"…So in the end, I didn't know a damn thing, I was clueless about everything, and I just threw a pointless, pathetic tantrum all on my own…?"
—You know nothing.
Beatrice's words held no falsehood.
Subaru knew nothing. He hadn't learned a thing. He'd squandered every chance and drifted to this point with nothing but himself.
Lying spread-eagle on the ground, Subaru covered his face with his palms and stared into the dark.
In the pitch-black void, what he recalled were those few peaceful days spent at the mansion. Those days shattered to pieces, and Subaru's heart shattered along with them.
"Follow the edge of the barrier as you make your way through the forest. Once you reach the highway on the far side of the mountain, walking to the nearest settlement won't be difficult."
The implication was clear — that was the extent of the help she was willing to offer.
Her contract truly amounted to nothing more than 'the safety of Subaru's person within her reach.' If there was no factor tying into her own convictions, then Subaru might as well be a stone by the roadside — as far as she was concerned, nothing had changed.
Beatrice began walking, searching for a safe point to descend the cliff. Subaru stood up slowly, intending to follow dazedly in her wake.
Leave the mansion, forget everything, and flee somewhere far away. He didn't know if he'd be able to live, but this was a life he'd struggled so hard to pick up. He'd treasure it. He'd hold onto it tight.
"—And just like that, you're going to pretend you never heard any of those cries?"
The words slipped out before he could stop them, and Subaru seized his own chest, biting down hard.
He had heard voices full of hatred. A roar of resentment had chased after him. Screams drenched in curses — *I'll kill you* — had been hurled at his back.
But before all of that — hadn't that girl been crying?
Something that should have been shattered was screaming inside his heart.
"Hey. Am I really thinking something this stupid…?"
His throat trembled. His stomach clenched. A chill that raised every hair on his body spread through him, and Subaru's breathing, standing there rooted in place, turned ragged and sharp.
He knew, even as it happened, that he was thinking something insane.
It was ludicrous. It didn't make an ounce of sense. It didn't add up, and when you weighed the cost against the benefit, the answer was obvious.
"A blind man could see it. Yeah — that's right."
—Is that really enough?
"Of course it's enough. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah — glad to be alive! All's well that ends well!"
He tried to shake off the doubt and step forward.
But his feet refused to obey his brain's command. They stayed put, forcing the argument upon him.
Someone's question. An inner question — his own.
—Is that really enough?
"So, it's obviously—"
—What does it even mean for that to be "enough"?
He couldn't find words to answer the question from within. And in the meantime, the voice piled on question after question, demanding an answer.
—Is it okay to have lost your place in that world?
—Is it okay to be cut off from those people?
—Is it okay to leave behind the people who were still there?
—Is it okay to have shaken off that girl who was crying?
—Can you really give up on the future that was supposed to exist there?
"—To hell with it."
The risk was extreme, and the chance of any reward was vanishingly small.
High risk, high reward — in the life of Natsuki Subaru, it was the most impossible option imaginable.
In fact, the moment it came down to wagering something, Subaru could declare with certainty that it was already a loss as far as his way of living was concerned.
Not getting deeply involved in anything, not choosing anything, just letting the current carry him.
That was how he'd lived. If he could just keep living that way, wouldn't it be fine even here in this other world?
"I worked so hard… that's right — didn't I go through hell just to pick up this life?"
And yet he was willing to turn a blind eye to the bonds he'd forged, to betray the warmth that had truly existed, to brush away even the mercy of heaven that had found him in his refuge — and if the conclusion he reached at the end of all that was *that*, then he was nothing more than a joke.
"No. Even for a punchline, a clown would be a hell of a lot better than me."
A buffoon who couldn't even make anyone laugh — not even himself. What possible value did something like that have?
Subaru didn't know. And he didn't want to know.
"That's right. I picked up this life. …And so—"
He drew a breath and raised his head.
"—I'm the one who decides how to use it."
The warring parts of his heart aligned, and Subaru's will unified into a single, clear resolve.
A cool breeze drifted past and tousled his bangs, and Subaru squinted at the ticklish sensation. In the far-off sky, the sunset was painting the world in shades of orange as it sank toward the horizon.
The fifth day's sun — the one he'd wanted so desperately to see — was now disappearing, drawing toward its end.
And watching it go, Subaru finally remembered.
Why he had wanted to see that sun so badly in the first place.
"…Step back."
Beatrice's low murmur came without warning as she circled toward Subaru.
She raised a hand, signaling him to freeze, and her delicate face hardened with vigilance as her gaze swept the surroundings.
"Bea—"
"Silence."
The question was cut off instantly, and Subaru too let his eyes roam, searching for the source of her alarm.
He didn't know what Beatrice had sensed or what she was guarding against.
And so the fact that he spotted it before she did was nothing but pure chance.
"…Ram."
The pink-haired girl his whispered word described had spotted Subaru — and was smiling radiantly.
She stood high above, perched atop the crown of a towering tree. Using a thick branch as a foothold and bracing one hand against the trunk, Ram held her position at that impossible height.
Their gazes locked. Subaru's breath caught. And in that instant — The air split.
A semicircle of earth was carved away from the cliff face, sending a plume of dust and debris erupting around them.
"Guah—!"
Subaru threw his arms over his face as the blast of earth and grit roared over him. A few seconds later, he hesitantly lowered them. Before him, the rock face had been gouged into a clean half-moon.
The destructive power of that phenomenon sent a chill racing down Subaru's spine. Not from imagining what would happen if he were caught by it.
—He was remembering what it had felt like when it hit him.
"From back then…"
The time before, when he'd been fleeing through these mountains with Ram chasing him. The blow that had torn away his right leg, and then the final strike that had carved into his neck.
An invisible slash — he'd never once stopped to consider the true identity of its wielder.
"…So it was the two of them."
He felt something heavy settle in his chest and then drop away.
It was absurd, he knew. But what he'd felt in that moment was a pang of loneliness — the certainty that she, too, had given up on him — followed by an inexplicable sense of relief.
Relief that he hadn't earned. Subaru clicked his tongue.
Still clinging to that sentimental notion that they were only complete as a pair.
"You've been found. —Her clairvoyance is troublesome."
"Clairvoyance, huh…"
Quite the grandiose ability — right up Subaru's alley.
True to Beatrice's grave tone, Ram's movements were swift. She crouched low, then slid down the great tree's trunk as if gliding.
She hit the ground with considerable momentum, converting it into a sprint, and with a single bound launched herself from the trunk to the cliff shelf where Subaru and Beatrice stood.
She'd arrived.
"I've finally found you. I didn't expect Beatrice-sama to still be with you, though."
Ram's eyes blazed as she delivered the words, as though she were staring down a hated nemesis.
Seeing that young face twisted with hatred, Subaru's chest was wracked with anguish.
Her outfit was the usual maid's uniform, but the meticulous presentation it normally bore was now utterly disheveled.
The skirt was riddled with snags and holes. The white primp was gone from her head, and the once neatly arranged pink hair was tangled and wild, stripped of all its elegance.
—The dressing, the hair — the two of them had always done it for each other.
Subaru knew that, too. He vaguely recalled them telling him about it once.
And there were so many other things he knew.
"Step back. Under the terms of the contract, Betty is obligated to protect this human. Even if it's you, I won't hold back."
"Beatrice-sama, it is you who should step aside. I, in turn, cannot afford to hold back against Beatrice-sama."
"What a delightful joke. Did you just say you'd hold back against Betty?"
"Beatrice-sama, have you forgotten that this is not within the mansion? The Forbidden Library is far away, and we are deep within the forest — in these conditions, do you have the confidence that you can protect that man from me?"
Before the silent Subaru, the two girls' fierce standoff continued.
From Beatrice's narrowed, frustrated eyes, it was clear that Ram's hardline stance was no bluff.
Beatrice's power was limited, and under these conditions, Ram held the advantage — that much was probably true. But Beatrice still refused to yield.
Subaru stood behind her, watching — And then he grabbed the two long ringlets in both hands and pulled them apart with a satisfying *boiiing*.
He let go. The massive ringlets bounced magnificently. Boing. Boing.
"Mmm. Surprisingly satisfying."
"Wha— wha— wha— wha—"
Beatrice's eyes went wide, her lips trembling, as she turned around in a shaking rage.
Subaru tilted his head at her with a simple "What?" And then — "What the hell do you think you're doing!? At a time like this — are you trying to die!?"
"Don't be stupid. I don't want to die — not even a little. Dying really is something you only have to do once at the end of life. I mean that with every fiber of my being."
As he spoke, Subaru pulled her shoulder aside, stepping in front of her despite her stamping feet.
Ahead of him stood Ram, her face frozen in disbelief. She tightened her guard as Subaru stepped forward, biting her lip.
"What nerve. Does this mean you've finally come to your senses?"
"Not quite. If I had to put it into words… I'd say I've made up my mind."
"About what?"
Ram furrowed her brow, unable to read Subaru's intent.
Subaru pressed his palms together and bowed deeply.
"I'm sorry. Because I was such a coward, I caused you a lot of pain."
"—! So you were going on about
"No. Sorry, but I genuinely don't know about that. Honestly, there's a mountain of things I don't know. But—"
He paused, took a single breath, and continued.
"—I decided I want to find out."
"Oh, now you say that!? Of what use is that now!?"
Subaru's declaration of resolve was met only with the conviction that he was speaking nonsense. Ram stamped her foot like a child throwing a tantrum.
"Rem is already dead! It's too late — nothing can be undone! Even if you figured something out now, what could you possibly do!?"
"I'm not going to pretend I can do something amazing. Look at this mess — it's the result of me doing nothing. Nobody knows that better than me."
This wasn't him giving up. Even now, regret stabbed through his chest.
He was sick of his own stupidity. If humiliation could kill, he might already be dead.
And yet — flailing around pathetically, living pathetically, making a disgusting spectacle of himself — this was where it had all led.
And this was the conclusion he'd reached.
"What could you possibly know about Ram and Rem!?"
"Nothing — because I never tried. The parts that matter most, I still don't know a damn thing about. But listen —"
For ten days, Subaru had walked beside them.
They didn't know that, and even if they heard it, they'd never believe it.
But Subaru remembered every one of those ten days.
Even if they had forgotten — the things he'd seen with them, the things he'd laughed about with them, the time he'd spent with them — his soul remembered all of it.
It wasn't that he knew nothing. Subaru knew them.
And knowing them, knowing everything about them — "You didn't know that, either."
"Knew what—"
"That I love you — both of you!"
The blunt, tactless one — and her meddlesome older sister.
The overly formal, seemingly polite — and sharply sarcastic younger sister.
In the days spent with them, Subaru had found those moments precious.
Even with the memory of being killed by their hands, those were memories he could never forget.
If he could share that time with them again, he'd choose to do 'that' — without hesitation.
At Subaru's scream, Ram simply stood there, eyes wide, frozen in shock.
Of course. From her perspective, Subaru's words were nothing but the ravings of a lunatic. One more piece of senseless babble from a madman, indistinguishable from ten thousand others.
The decision to cut them off came in an instant.
Her thoughts halted. The stiffness in her body released. And the moment it did, Ram's hostility was put into motion.
But even an instant was an instant.
"————!"
His feet were moving before her judgment could be executed — one split-second faster.
Turning his back on Ram, darting past Beatrice, Subaru's body launched itself forward at full speed — toward the cliff.
"Wait—!"
Behind him, a girl's piercing shriek rang out.
Which girl it was, Subaru's consciousness couldn't register as he ran.
His thoughts were a mess. He'd thought he'd made up his mind.
But his heart betrayed him, pumping pain through his entire body, and his limbs felt heavy as though filled with lead.
Even at a dead sprint, the world moved in agonizing slow motion — as though every second he could buy would coax him to waver again.
Ridiculous. Even now, he was still hesitating.
It was obvious when you thought about it. He'd fought so hard, clung so desperately to life.
Even when he'd said he wanted to die, he hadn't been able to overcome his survival instinct.
And yet here he was.
"…I forgot to thank Beatrice…"
He muttered the thought that still lingered, and in doing so set everything else aside.
The cliff was closing in. How many steps? Counting them was terrifying. His heart felt ready to break — no, it felt like it had already broken. This wasn't sane. He wasn't in his right mind. The urge to laugh was clawing its way up, and yet he couldn't laugh at all. There was nothing to laugh about.
Even if he kept living on like that, it would be living as though he were dead.
If he was going to give up on the future that existed in that place, then for Subaru, it was the same as dying.
If you're going to live a dead man's life, then what did it matter if he spent this one however he pleased?
The cliff's edge loomed before him. The height was more than enough. A previous guest was waiting for him at the bottom — he'd kept them waiting quite a while. And sorry about this, but he wasn't heading to the same place you were.
"A good guy like me goes straight to heaven when he dies, after all."
His feet left the ground. He clawed at empty air. He touched nothing. Reached nothing.
His body wavered. His balance broke. Up or down — he couldn't tell anymore.
Fast. The wind was fierce. His eyes stung. His head throbbed. The ringing in his ears grew distant. It felt like he'd left his heart behind. The high pounding was gone. An ill-omened bell tolled.
If death was the end, then so be it.
There was no difference between dying and living as though dead.
But if — if by some miracle — he could go back.
—Because *she* had screamed, "I'll kill you!"
Then he would — "—I'll definitely save you."
The moment the words left his lips, his head struck hard, unyielding ground.
The sound of something shattering rang out, grand and final, and then — nothing. He could hear nothing anymore.
Not even the roar of hatred. Nothing at all —.