Far away, his consciousness drifted between the waves.
Rippling waters, a drowsy haze—his awareness rose and fell in the liminal space between dream and reality.
"—a method, there must be another—"
"—don't think so. After that, do as you please."
Far away—no, close—somewhere on the border between there and here, voices of people arguing could be heard.
A pleading voice. A voice pushing away. A voice choked with tears. A voice frozen with emotion. Voices.
Then, softly, his palm was enveloped by a gentle warmth.
He recognized it as the touch of someone's hand, recalled from memories of feeling it more than once.
He had felt this warmth before, surely.
And yet, that touch of a palm suddenly grew distant.
It left his hand—farther, farther, so high he couldn't reach, higher and higher.
Then— "—I will definitely save you."
Only that fierce resolve remained, left behind as everything else faded away.
Everything was disappearing, being left behind, gone. Far, far away.
And then— ※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ How many times had he been forcibly cut off from consciousness and woken up like this?
Staring at an unfamiliar ceiling pattern, Subaru idly wondered about that.
There's an old pillow talk joke about counting ceiling stains until they run out, but given the stain count at this otherworld's level of craftsmanship, it'd take considerably longer. He smirked at his own pointless thought—then his side seized up and a pained groan slipped out involuntarily.
"Ow ow, that hurts…"
He tried to touch his aching side, but the moment his left arm moved, a wave of wrongness exploded through it. Following that feeling, he brought his left hand in front of his face, and seeing how ugly it looked, he understood.
From his fingertips to his wrist, his left arm was covered in raised white scars. Furthermore, the wounds were crudely held together by twisted, unsightly thread-like material—it looked exactly like something a child who was terrible at sewing had mangled together, and if someone told him that, he'd believe it.
But that wasn't the only thing that felt wrong.
He lifted the hem of his clothes and found similar stitching on his tensed right side. Then both ankles, his upper right arm, around his right shoulder—his rear too, the list went on and on. Every spot bore scars and stitches, making him feel like some kind of patchwork cyborg.
As he ran his hands over the changed parts of his body, gentle memories began trickling back along with faint pain.
Right. He'd gone deep into the forest to find the children, encountered a mana beast, and then— "I was sure I was dead, though…"
He'd shielded
The beast's jaws had easily crushed, torn, and shredded his body like rags. He'd felt the life draining out of him and had been half-convinced it was over.
"I won't call myself a mummy man, though. Looking at all this needle-and-thread repair work, I'd say the image of a jiangshi fits better."
Or if they'd stuck a single screw in his head, it'd be more like Frankenstein.
And then, halfway through that thought, it hit him—just how carefree he was being.
"—Right. No time for dumb jokes. Rem and the kids—"
He vaulted off the simple bed and scanned the room to get a grip on the situation.
An unfamiliar ceiling. A crude sleeping area. A narrow room with shabby furnishings—not even remotely reminiscent of the Roswaal mansion.
And then, right beside the entrance—sitting in a wooden chair with her face drooping as she slept, he noticed the silver-haired girl.
"
She showed no response to his call.
Her nap seemed deep, her breathing quite heavy. Her beautiful silver hair was, unusually, slightly disheveled—as if she'd had no time to tidy it. More than that, he could see bloodstains and mud caked in patches all over her clothes.
Himself, injured. Waking up in a bed. Emilia, asleep in a chair right beside him. And her clothes, stained with blood.
Even someone as dense as Subaru could piece together the situation from those clues.
In short— "I've gone and owe Emilia-tan another one, haven't I…"
"Maybe. I think you should be grateful to Rem to some degree too, but personally I think there are others you should thank even more this time."
Responding to Subaru's self-reproaching mutter was a gray cat who appeared from behind the silver hair.
"So—good morning. How does it feel to wake up?"
"Wouldn't exactly call it tip-top. Somewhere along the way I got turned into a patchwork cyborg. Makes me want to escape before they mess with my brain and go on a masked hero revenge spree against the organization."
"Patchwork… ah, you mean the thread. It was a necessary procedure. But just for healing, the mana in your body wasn't enough. Even stitching you together required tools. Without that, you'd be in pieces right now."
"That's a creepy thought! And couldn't you have at least gotten someone better at sewing?"
Even if he didn't mind the stitches themselves, he had complaints about the shoddy craftsmanship. Especially as someone who held the title of S-rank in sewing, he wanted to drill the basics into whoever did this.
Puck waved a paw dismissively at Subaru's words.
"It's been so long since I put a needle through a human body. I was tensing up all over the place—it was tough."
"Of all people, you! And how did you even manage sewing with that tiny body!?"
"You were lying still, so it was easier. You were bleeding so badly I had to freeze the wounds as I went in a lot of places, but just bear with it."
"So that's why the scars are so white… I mean, I'm a guy so I won't fuss about marks, but still."
He looked over the various scars, then turned back to face Puck.
Puck cocked his head at Subaru's posture, but Subaru bowed deeply to the cat with the dark eyes.
"You saved my life. Thank you. I picked up my life once more."
"Mm-hmm, being honest is a good thing. Besides, you did plenty yourself this time. For you to collapse after all that would've been too tragic. So we're even—that's that."
Puck answered without the slightest embarrassment. Relief loosening the knot in his chest, Subaru said "Well then," and continued— "You say I did plenty, and I'm happy to hear that… but what actually happened after that? Honestly, my memory cuts off at the point where the dog things were chomping on me in the forest."
"Chomping—that's a cute way to put it. Given your condition when you were brought in, I'd have gone more with 'CHOMP CRUNCH RIP TEAR SQUISH SQUELCH SHRED.'"
"Whoa whoa, with those sound effects I'm definitely dead. We're talking missing five or six arms here—too many for just me."
"Mm, well, the blue-haired maid girl was in pretty bad shape too."
He heard that said so casually that his throat went ice-cold. Puck added "That said—"
"In her case, the oni transformation heals wounds at a breakneck pace. By the time she carried you back to the village, her visible injuries were mostly gone. Didn't even need healing magic."
"Don't scare me like that for nothing. …Anyway, Rem made it back to the village too. And the other one—kid I brought back with me—"
"They're safe, so relax. Six children plus one more makes seven. And thankfully Subaru and the blue-haired girl are strong. Your decision turned out to be completely correct in the end."
Puck clapped—making a silent gesture since the paw pads muffled any sound. The sight was oddly heartwarming, and Subaru's mouth almost softened into a smile, but he shook it off.
"Puck, I've got a few questions—if that's okay?"
"Keep your voice down so Rem doesn't wake up. I'm manifesting on mana I stored up during the night, but when I was out in the middle of the night I was using Emilia's od."
"Od?"
"Mana is what you draw from the outside world. Od, on the other hand, is what's originally inside a living being—literally the power of the soul. Unlike mana, using od takes a toll on the body, so I'd rather she didn't use it too much."
As he spoke, Puck cast a worried glance toward Emilia.
Subaru's gaze drifted to her sleeping face, and he found Puck's words perfectly understandable. If it meant saving someone, Emilia would never hesitate to sacrifice herself. Given that Puck had been needed the night before, and that it was herself paying the price, Subaru could imagine she'd made that decision without a shred of hesitation.
"So that means Emilia-tan cut into her own life force to save me?"
"That too, yes. But yesterday my main role was the children—the ones Subaru brought back from the forest. My purpose was undoing their curses."
"The curse—right! That too. Are the kids okay? The curse?"
"That's fine too."
Puck held up a paw to stop Subaru from crowding in, then twisted his cat face into an endearing smile.
"Recovery magic kept their deterioration well in check, and the curse removal went smoothly, so no problems there. I've definitely lifted the children's curse."
He thumped his chest like stamping it with a seal of approval. Subaru let out a deep breath, relieved that his actions hadn't been for nothing.
And once the relief set in, the body's demands came rushing in—such was human nature.
"Oh—"
Right after peace of mind took hold, Subaru's stomach let out a piercing scream.
He touched his belly, registering a hollowness that felt almost like pain, and remembered that he'd missed dinner the night before.
"By the way, I don't get hungry as long as I absorb mana."
"Didn't ask. But mana's everywhere, right? So basically you just breathe air and you're full—like a plant."
"Don't need water or sunlight either. All I need is love. If you're going to be with a spirit, that's something you must never forget."
"Yeah yeah. Hey—can I go outside?"
He pointed at the door and asked. Puck crossed his arms and nodded a few times.
"I think that's fine. Better to move around a bit and check on yourself, given all the patchwork. Oh, and the thread gets absorbed into your body on its own once it's taken to the wounds."
"Oh good. I don't think I could pull off fashionable with these worm-like stitch lines. Like being born two hundred light-years too early or something."
At the valiant joke, Puck tilted his head with a smile.
It didn't land. The real golden combination was supposed to be starting with a retort like "Light-years are a unit of distance" and then pivoting into "that far off in terms of star sensibility."
With Puck's permission, Subaru headed for the door.
On the way, he gave a small bow to Emilia sleeping right beside it. Her sleeping face caught his eye, and that peaceful expression nearly made his breath run wild with mischief—but the nearby guardian's sharp gaze killed that idea instantly. Defeated, he stepped outside.
And— "Oh, well—figures."
Stepping out the front door of the building, Subaru caught sight of the village in a state of commotion and let that slip out.
The morning sun had barely begun to rise, but the central plaza was already packed with people.
It was a small hamlet. Judging by the number gathered, nearly the entire population was accounted for. Elderly, women, and children huddled together with anxious looks, surrounded by a ring of sturdy young men standing guard.
The group forming that protective circle was the youth brigade that had also helped search for the children the night before. Subaru craned his neck without finding the face he was looking for among them, then headed toward a different, busier building.
Before he got there— "—Barusu, you're awake."
He heard the voice from behind and stopped, turning around.
He'd guessed who it was from the way she called him, but seeing her face in person, he felt relief win out naturally.
Standing behind him was the pink-haired maid—
She had the sleeves of her familiar uniform rolled up, carrying something like a strainer loaded with a large pile of steamed sweet potatoes.
Faint wisps of steam curled off the potatoes, carrying a scent faintly reminiscent of salt, and Subaru's empty stomach erupted with anticipation and excitement.
When Subaru's gut let out a sound not far from the onomatopoeia Puck had used earlier, Ram snorted through her nose, then— "After all the worry you caused with injuries that severe, the moment you wake up you're after food? How pathetic. Did you catch rabies from those dogs?"
"What kind of condition is 'catching rabies from dogs'—and I'll keep my 'huh, heh, eh, really, so you were worried about me?' retort to a reasonable level."
He straightened up, crouched low, swayed from side to side, and sidled up to Ram with a smug face.
At Subaru's teasing behavior, Ram narrowed her eyes.
"Eat."
"Sor fo!"
A steamed sweet potato was forcibly shoved into his mouth, practically crushing his throat.
To make matters worse, a searing heat ravaged the inside of his mouth. Subaru looked skyward, panting like an animal—"Hafu! Hafu!"—and then— "I thought I was gonna die! But it was delicious!"
"Of course it was. Freshly… well, freshly steamed."
"What's with that smug look, it's infuriating! But it was delicious!"
"Fine, fine. Here's another one—shut up and gobble it down."
He received the potato with childish delight. Ram watched him with a momentary look of contempt, then— "Well, regarding last night—I'll say it properly. Good work."
"'Good work'—you're so condescending no matter what. But I mean, it's fine… Is that really something you'd thank me for?"
"If anything were to harm the villagers, the lord would be held responsible. If the children had continued being threatened by that Ulugarm pack…" She looked toward the forest. "Your actions were correct, Barusu."
"Ulugarm, huh…"
So that was the name of the black mana beast.
Quite a grand-sounding name. He'd heard it was the kind of creature that could kill you on sight, in a single encounter.
At Subaru's nod, Ram gazed toward the forest and continued.
"Last night, I re-secured the barrier that had apparently loosened. I also spent the night checking for any issues with the barrier, so there shouldn't be any mana beasts getting through."
"Unless they come from this side? What if kids climb over the barrier, go to the other side, and come back carrying a baby—then all that's pointless."
"That stings. Ever since the barrier was established, we haven't even had minor skirmishes with mana beasts, so people let their guard down. —I'm telling you now."
Her somewhat sharp tone probably came from her own frustration. For Subaru, it was about the unpleasantness of being dragged into it all. For her, it was likely directed at the villagers who hadn't followed Roswaal's instructions properly.
Thinking of how far her loyalty extended, Subaru felt sorry for whoever would end up being lectured.
While mentally apologizing to that poor soul, Subaru suddenly felt dizzy.
His body wavered and he grabbed his head. Ram lightly steadied him with one hand.
"Don't push yourself. In truth, with the Great Spirit and Lady
"If Beako's name is coming up, then I owe her too… Devastating!"
"It's rare enough that Lady Beatrice left the Forbidden Library, let alone the mansion itself—all because the Great Spirit asked her to. She can't operate at full power outside the mansion, you know."
With Ram's support, Subaru steadied himself and shook his head lightly.
He felt like he was low on blood. There was a lassitude similar to his first morning at the Roswaal mansion—his hands and feet felt heavy. Probably a severe mana deficiency. Puck had said the thread work alone required substantial effort, and given his own low reserves, it wouldn't be surprising if he'd bottomed out.
"I'll keep watch over the village for a little longer before heading back to the mansion. I want to see how the children are doing after the curse removal… and also关于 the Ulugarm countermeasures."
"Countermeasures—can't we just slap up a barrier and call it done?"
"That might have worked for the skirmishes we had before."
At Subaru's modest question, Ram replied in her usual expressionless manner.
But when he met those supposedly emotionless eyes, Subaru couldn't stop the goosebumps that raced up his spine as if ice had been driven down his back.
She looked at him, and spoke word by word, as if making sure each one sank in.
"To let them cause this much damage to the village—and to you, Barusu, someone connected to Lord Roswaal's mansion—and then to simply leave it alone? Unthinkable."
"A-And what do you intend to do…?"
When Subaru involuntarily slipped into formal speech, Ram let her intimidation vanish in an instant. She lightly ran a finger through her pink hair.
"Annihilation. —Though, of course, that's once Lord Roswaal returns. Once he's back, it won't take long."
There was no room for argument in those words brimming with absolute trust.
He might not know the full extent of Roswaal's power, but he could clearly feel the tremendous trust Ram placed in him.
Afterward, Subaru plundered two more steamed sweet potatoes from Ram before they parted ways.
She headed toward the cluster of anxious villagers huddled together—presumably her own way of showing concern. That her expression of care came in the form of sweet potatoes was so perfectly, quintessentially Ram.
"But man, these sweet potatoes are good. The salt level is seriously perfect."
Nibbling on a potato, Subaru continued wandering the village.
He was checking on his own condition while also verifying the safety of the children recovered from the forest. The children themselves were still asleep from last night's exhaustion and the mana drain of the curse removal, but their parents showered him with more gratitude than he could handle.
Honestly, he hadn't done it to be thanked, and the gratitude made him so flustered he nearly died—more embarrassed than he'd ever been, he couldn't even muster a proper joke before fleeing out of sheer mortification.
Wiping cold sweat from the unexpected welcome, Subaru decided he'd accomplished his main objective. He went back to the room where he'd first woken up, intending to wait for Emilia to wake—when it occurred to him that he hadn't yet faced the blue-haired girl.
—Suddenly, a vision flashed through his mind: an oni drenched in blood, laughing uproariously.
The instant it did, Subaru's body trembled—not from fear, he thought.
It was something more overwhelming, like standing before a vastly superior being—one he couldn't quite put into words. Perhaps humans called that awe.
White horns sprouting from her forehead, wielding inhuman power to obliterate mana beasts—she was exactly the image of an oni from legend.
And standing before her—could he behave normally? That worry gnawed at him.
"No no no, I was totally fine with Ram, who's her twin—so what am I worried about? If Rem's an oni, then Ram's an oni too… Isn't that an incredibly rare experience!?"
He let the lighthearted quip drown out his fear, then shook his head to clear the memory.
It was because he kept replaying last night's most shocking scene that he felt that way. He needed to recall something vivid, exhilarating enough to wash away those intense images— An iron ball crushing a mana beast's head, blowing apart its torso, smashing through the pack.
"Oh wait—even skipping the oni part, all that comes to mind is splatter. And ugh, now that I remember it, it's making me sick…"
The feast of blood and viscera hit him suddenly, and Subaru clamped a hand over his mouth against the urge to vomit.
He stumbled to the edge of the building and crouched in a patch of grass, breathing hard. It seemed like he could hold it down, and he let out a shaky breath of relief.
He'd only just stuffed steamed sweet potatoes into an empty stomach, after all. And they were a precious gift from Ram, made with her own brand of care. Wasting them would be a disgrace to his name.
He managed to hold back the nausea, praising himself as he nodded firmly.
Then, composing himself to face Rem— "—Right on time."
From beyond the bushes, a girl with cream-colored hair in ringlets appeared. Spotting Subaru, she beckoned him over.
"I have something to talk to you about. Come along for a moment—'Oro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro—'"
The refined end of Beatrice's sentence was swallowed by a gurgling sound, and everything Subaru had been holding back came flooding out.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
He thought distantly, huh, she's actually kind of cute when she screams, as he continued spewing the potatoes that had made their second debut.
White, white—the steamed sweet potatoes poured out without cease.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ After the commotion died down, Subaru was led by Beatrice to behind a building at the edge of the mana beast forest.
This area used to have small independent shops lined up in a row, but given that it was the morning after the mana beast incident, no villagers were wandering around here without purpose.
The shell of abandoned homes made this the perfect spot for a secret conversation within the village.
"So you drag me all the way out here—what's this about?"
"You've got quite a different attitude from when you were groveling earlier. Won't you reflect on that?"
"Ah, thanks for rubbing my back earlier, I'm feeling a bit better. Oh—that reminds me, you also helped stitch me back together, right?"
"When the same sort of gratitude is given for the front and back, it makes Beatrice wonder how she's supposed to handle you."
Subaru wanted her to accept his genuine gratitude either way, but— Setting that aside, Beatrice was acting entirely unlike herself—her gaze kept wandering, and she nervously fidgeted with the hem of her skirt with her fingers.
She had something difficult to say. It was uncharacteristically hesitant for her, who usually spoke her mind freely to Subaru. Perhaps the fact that her expression, age-appropriate for once, made her look like "a child afraid of being scolded by her parents" played a role too.
Seeing that face, Subaru couldn't bring himself to push her along with his usual roughness. He crossed his arms, leaned against the building, and waited for her words.
But he didn't have to wait long.
His not pressing the matter seemed to have given her the push she needed to decide.
Beatrice closed her eyes, then—as if steeling herself—pried them open.
And then— "Nii-chan has his reasons for what he does. But keeping that from you wouldn't be fair to you, I think."
Nii-chan—that could only be the name she affectionately used for Puck.
Subaru pictured the small gray cat he'd just spoken with and tilted his head in question at her tone.
Beatrice faced him and continued.
"Nii-chan has been siding with that half-elf girl, so he prioritizes her. That's correct conduct for a spirit. But Beatrice has her own reservations."
"What are you—"
Subaru's words—what are you trying to say—went unfinished.
Because Beatrice had already spoken over him.
She declared it.
"—Within half a day, you're going to die."