"——You sure cut a pretty dashing figure with that declaration of war."
Fifteen minutes after Subaru had declared war on the Demon Beast Forest with it looming right before them,
"When you think about it calmly, there's no condition requiring you to fight on the front lines, Barusu."
"Whoa, whoa, hold on. Sure, that's technically true, but just look at this overflowing enthusiasm! This distinguished one-handed sword, passed down from the village youth brigade — I'm living the fantasy right now!"
"That sword only ended up in your hands because
"Can't exactly deny that one."
Gripping the unfamiliar handle once more, Subaru let his shoulders drop and exhaled.
A single-handed sword with a black scabbard and a copper-colored hilt, its blade roughly the length of Subaru's forearm. Its surprisingly light weight was hard to hide his confusion over. He'd obtained it following Beatrice's advice, after she'd frantically stopped him from charging into the Demon Beast Forest empty-handed.
The gravity of the situation had deepened with every passing minute. That sense of urgency was precisely why he'd been ready to storm in immediately, but looking back with a clear head, he could honestly admit it would have been nothing short of suicide.
Behind that attitude of seeming impossible to get through to lay a girl who, despite everything, had a knack for getting the job done — that was the difficult nature of the vertical-rolled-hair maiden.
"Oh, by the way — can you actually use a sword, Barusu?"
"Dunno, it's iffy. I technically hold a second-dan in middle school kendo, but I don't think you can really count that as equivalent to actual swordsmanship."
Swinging the sword at his hip back and forth, feeling its weight, Subaru answered.
Three years of middle school kendo, followed by occasional form practice whenever he had free time. Compared to a total novice who'd never held one, he'd say he could handle himself a little — but not by much beyond that.
This ill-fitting single-handed sword had been lent to him by one of the young men in the village youth brigade.
He couldn't very well say "I'm about to enter the Demon Beast Forest," so after a rather strained set of excuses, he'd managed to get his hands on it. How useful it would actually prove to be remained an open question.
And the items entrusted to him by the villagers didn't stop there.
"There's stuff in my pockets… snacks, a pretty stone, and — WHOA! There's a bug in there!"
Rummaging through his stuffed pockets, Subaru shrieked at the unpleasant sensation. A winged insect that had been trapped in the cramped space flew free of his hand and vanished into the depths of the forest. Watching it go, Subaru wiped his forehead.
"Those damn kids shoved all kinds of garbage on me when I wasn't looking. I'll give 'em a proper scolding later."
"It's proof that you're loved. …Though I'm not sure what anyone sees in a man like you."
"In the innocent eyes of children, the true essence of yours truly sparkles on through."
Ram looked at him with flat, exasperated eyes, on the verge of snorting, as Subaru waggled a finger side to side and went, "And—moreover—"
"This isn't just for me. There's thanks for
"…Sure."
Hearing Ram's half-reluctant voice, Subaru nodded with satisfaction, multiple times.
The exchange they'd had before leaving the village had touched Subaru's heartstrings in its own way. And for Ram, who'd witnessed the same thing, he hoped she felt the same.
——Leaving the village and entering the Demon Beast Forest.
It was the children — those still recovering from the mana siphoned from them — who had sensed Subaru and the others trying to slip into the forest without the villagers' knowledge.
They had been about to personally thank Subaru and Rem, and when they noticed the pair, they'd shoved all manner of things into Subaru's pockets as tokens of gratitude.
The snacks, the pretty stones, even that winged insect — for those children, each one was a physical expression of their thankfulness. He couldn't very well treat them with indifference. The bug got away, though.
And as Subaru floundered under this rather unnecessary outpouring of gratitude, the children had smiled and said: "Please bring Rem-rin by later so we can thank her too… okay?"
They didn't know where she was now — how dangerous a place she was in, what she was risking her life to fight for.
And they didn't need to know.
Because —, "Don't you worry, you little brats. For those little hooligans who'd sneak into a dark forest in the dead of night without even consulting anyone, I'll make sure to give the big sister who dragged them along into it a proper lecture too."
He might as well add the reckless idiot who charged into the forest on his own, got savaged by a dog, and caused a massive commotion for everyone around him.
One night of seiza while getting an earful from the village chief — that sounded like a hell of a good time.
Naturally, the corners of his mouth twitched upward as he imagined that little tableau.
And to Subaru, whose cheeks had softened into a slight grin: "Be that as it may, you're slow, Barusu."
Ram had drawn far ahead and turned back, looking at him with that fed-up expression of hers.
Ram breezed through the forest — terrain that should have been rough — with effortless strides. Despite wearing the same maid outfit as always, her footwork was no different from crossing the mansion's garden.
Subaru, on the other hand — "W-wait, ease up a bit! I'm running low on blood and, uh, guts. Oh crap — I forgot to tell
"You haven't said 'I'm home' since last night, so yesterday evening's 'I'm heading out' is still in effect."
"Is… is that how that works…?"
Struggling with his swaying body and spinning head, he used the single-handed sword as a makeshift cane and tottered onward.
The march was, to put it mildly, not swift — it was only adding to Ram's impatience up ahead.
Unlike last night, they were searching the forest in broad daylight. Visibility was far better than after sunset, but even so, the dense canopy overhead kept sightlines poor.
He felt like they were walking through similar terrain to last night, but he couldn't rule out the possibility that they were heading in the completely wrong direction. The forest's depth could throw off even a person's sense of direction — Subaru seriously entertained the notion that, if he were alone, he might have lost the trail and ended up wandering without hope of finding the exit.
"Barusu, wait a moment. —Farsight, activate."
Ram held up a hand to stop him, murmured the incantation, and her right eye blazed an intense crimson.
Ever since entering the forest, Ram had periodically used her Farsight to search for Rem somewhere within. But unfortunately, she'd yet to find her.
Either Rem hadn't entered Ram's field of vision, or —, "Don't think the worst, idiot! Lady Fate'd be only too happy to make it come true…"
He flicked his own head, banishing the grim possibility that had surfaced.
It had been three or four hours since Rem had deceived her sister and the villagers and plunged into the forest. Given that Subaru and Ram were following in her wake, there was no telling just how deep she'd penetrated. Considering the sheer magnitude of her objective, even sprinting from one end of the forest to the other wouldn't have been enough.
He reflected, once more, on the hopelessness of Rem's quest — and on just how slim his own odds of survival were.
Even so, he was disgusted with himself for still being too cowardly to steel his resolve.
"Ugh, pathetic. Focus — focus, man. Your job right now is to guard Ram while she's using Farsight. Don't think about anything else."
He drew the single-handed sword from its scabbard, sliced the air lightly, and tested the feel of it.
The sound of it cutting through the air was quiet, and its weight was slightly lighter than a wooden practice sword. The blade's length made it easier to handle, and from here on out, it was purely a question of whether he had the resolve to wield a real blade.
"In a real fight, keeping the edge aligned is probably the hardest part for an amateur."
A novice swinging a blade would have it wobble, making it impossible to cut through anything cleanly.
Facing forward, he aimed at a slender tree branch, raised the blade, and slashed upward from below — the branch, about as thick as Subaru's wrist, was severed without resistance, spun through the air, and hit the ground.
He couldn't help but admire his own handiwork. The surprising "lack of resistance" drew a breath of amazement from him, and he continued his swordplay.
One strike, two strikes — with every swing, branches and leaves flew, and the ferocity of his cuts intensified.
Reconfirming, with some surprise, that his three years of middle school kendo and subsequent practice swings had actually paid off, he got carried away and swung the blade in a wide lateral arc— "Oh."
With a high-pitched clang, the blade sank halfway into the thick trunk of a tree.
Easy in, hard out. The embedded blade wouldn't budge no matter what, and Subaru broke into an internal cold sweat as he turned to check that Ram was still deep in Farsight, then planted his foot against the trunk and heaved with all his might to pull it free.
"Bad, bad, bad — this looks so lame! Losing my sword on top of that would be the ultimate LARP moment! Come on — come out — I don't even care if the blade snaps in half, just come out—"
"——Barusu. Something is looking this way."
Behind Subaru, who was struggling to free his stuck sword, Ram — her vision still occupied by the Farsight — shouted a warning.
Her words that something was watching them sent a chill down his spine. If Ram, who could share in another's field of vision, was saying that, then that entity— "It's close enough to see us with the naked eye…!"
He released the handle he couldn't free and frantically scanned his surroundings. To his left — a shadow leaping from branch to branch, hurtling toward him at terrifying speed.
Recognizing it as the same four-legged beast he'd seen all too often, he immediately abandoned the effort to extract his sword. He crouched down, scooped up a handful of suitable stones— "No time to pull out the holy sword — take this!!"
Hurling a fist-sized rock at full strength at the airborne shadow. The spinning mass had enough force to incapacitate on a direct hit, but it was the throw of an amateur. With a moving target, whether it landed was squarely in the realm of miracles.
His follow-up throws were equally futile, each stone vanishing into the depths of the forest. As if mocking Subaru's feeble resistance, the beast landed on a branch, bowed it low, and executed a razor-sharp glide — touching down and crouching low, just a few steps from Subaru. But— "Welcome — come oooon in!!"
As if he'd read the move all along, he unleashed an uppercut-style full swing.
The strike aimed at the landing beast's face had chosen the now-empty iron scabbard as its weapon. If the stone barrage missed, this was the follow-up he'd predicted — perfectly timed. The thick hilt-end of the scabbard would crush the beast's snout — that was the plan.
"Haahh!?"
A tremendous whiffing sound echoed through the air, and Subaru's footing, planted on dried grass, went spectacularly out from under him.
At the moment of impact, the beast had dipped even lower, and its charge shifted the point of intersection just enough that the scabbard only clipped the fur on the beast's back. Conversely, Subaru's now completely exposed back — wide open after such an over-committed swing — was laid bare for the beast to tear into with its fangs as it twisted its body around.
Directly behind him, the beast wheeled around, scraping the earth, fangs bared. A chill ran up his neck, and he tilted his head back just as those sharp canines were about to tear into his calf— "Timing is everything — what exactly are you playing at?"
A gale seized the leaping beast in midair, violently disrupting its trajectory and throwing off its aim.
Caught off guard by the unexpected intervention, the beast tumbled to the ground and tried to scramble upright — but its limbs were shaking violently. It collapsed where it stood, unable to move.
Subaru, having retrieved the scabbard, stared down at the immobilized beast with a mix of unease. He held the scabbard raised overhead, ready to strike, and sidestepped over to Ram's side.
Ram extended a palm toward the crouching beast, glanced at Subaru standing beside her, and let out a derisive "Hmph."
"In the span of a brief moment, your equipment has become impressively pathetic."
"I'll own the significant drop in offensive capability. So — what happened to it?"
He pointed at the beast and looked to Ram for answers. The creature had closed its eyes, lying perfectly still as though it had fallen asleep.
Once she'd confirmed its state, Ram lowered the palm she'd aimed at the beast.
"It's over."
"Huh?"
"I said I stopped its breathing."
The casual way she said it left Subaru half-skeptical as he approached the beast. It looked like nothing more than a sleeping animal, so he prodded it with the tip of the scabbard. Getting no response, he boldly flipped it over. Its limbs sprawled limply, tongue lolling from its mouth — there was no life in it. It was dead, all right.
"What… what did you do to it?"
"I told you, didn't I? I can use a little wind magic. I severed the tendons in its limbs with wind blades, then sealed its throat to stop its breathing. —I don't intend to drag things out."
Ram spoke as though it were nothing. Looking closely, Subaru could see faint traces of blood dripping from the tips of the beast's limbs, and the agonized expression on its face spoke of suffocation.
Having confirmed all this, Subaru found he couldn't suppress the flood of questions swirling in his head about Ram. Where was the "I can use a little magic"? Why did it lack any dramatic flair? This was practically assassination— But Subaru wasn't the only one who wanted to comment.
Before Subaru could sort through his many candidates, Ram fixed her gaze on the single-handed sword still lodged in the tree trunk and delivered a single word: "Useless."
"Ugh."
A blunt assessment, needing no elaboration — and those were the words that cut deepest.
As Subaru clutched his chest and dropped to one knee, Ram gave a small shrug and walked over to the trunk. Placing her palm against the wood, she once again used wind magic to carve into the trunk's surface and free the blade with ease. Subaru scowled, but when Ram casually tossed the sword toward him, he scrambled to catch it.
"Thanks, but maybe don't toss a naked blade in a vertical spin next time!?"
He gave up on catching it cleanly and collected the sword from where it had embedded in the ground. Wiping off the dirt and sliding it back into the scabbard — back to square one — he was thinking something cold to himself when Ram tilted her head.
"Be that as it may, even that Urgarm chose you over the defenseless Ram. Same as last night — it seems you're quite popular with them."
"Aah, yeah. My pheromones must really be firing on all cylinders."
He clasped his hands together before the beast's corpse, then scratched his head while vaguely confirming Ram's observation.
Being targeted by the beasts as their priority — that had continued from last night. And as those results piled up, Subaru's theory was drawing closer to certainty.
In any case — "So, did your Farsight find Rem just now?"
"No, unfortunately. She might be even deeper in the forest. We should pick up the pace. …Though that also accelerates the probability of you being attacked."
Ram gazed past Subaru, touching her pale cheek with a thoughtful finger.
Her eyes darted between Subaru and the beast's corpse, and after a vague sort of deliberation, she seemed to reach a conclusion and nodded.
"Because you look weak, after all."
"You deliberated and that's what came out? The nerve."
"Then — because you're easy prey."
"That doesn't change the fundamental issue one bit, oh dear sister."
"We can't help anyone just by talking. Let's find Rem."
"…Right, right."
Having someone so stubbornly set in their own pace as a partner made things more than a little frustrating. Ram, paying no heed to his inner turmoil, turned toward the depths of the forest.
Chasing after her, Subaru suddenly spoke up on a question that had been nagging him.
"Can I ask about 'Hornless'?"
It was a word Ram had used of her own accord before entering the forest.
A word that, in a vague sort of way, he could guess the meaning of. Without stopping or turning back, Ram answered: "It is the epithet given to a fool of the Oni race who has lost her horn."
The word Oni conjured last night's scene in Subaru's mind.
In the forest — drenched in blood, laughing. Rem's figure, laughing uproariously. And from her forehead, that sharp white horn protruding — unforgettable. She had looked exactly like the demons from fairy tales.
But on Ram's forehead — her twin — there was no trace of any such horn. Of course, it might be hidden beneath the white frill of her maid headdress, but that possibility had just been denied by the woman herself.
As if sensing Subaru's unspoken confusion, Ram slid her fingers into her pink hair.
"I lost the single horn I had, thanks to a little… incident. Since then, I've relied on Rem for everything."
"…Oh — did I bring up something bad?"
"Why would you?"
Ram turned back, genuinely puzzled, tilting her head. Subaru scratched his cheek in response.
"No, I don't know how much a horn means to the Oni as a race, but my guess is it's a pretty big deal. And I felt like I was being awfully rude about it."
"If so, you've only unearthed something that's old news by now. —Well, rest easy."
Dropping her voice just enough to give Subaru a mild scare, Ram's expression softened ever so slightly.
"Whatever it meant back then, I've made my peace with it now. Losing my horn also let me gain certain things and saved a life in the process. You might call that part of heaven's will."
How magnanimous, Subaru thought.
But after saying all that, Ram prefaced her next words with "However," and a shadow fell over her expression.
"Rem probably doesn't see it that way. —Which is exactly why we need to find her quickly."
Ram faced forward and signaled Subaru to stop with a hand gesture.
It was time for the Farsight. This time, he'd be extra vigilant about her surroundings.
Her right eye blazed crimson, and her vision leapt from here to somewhere far away. From that vantage point, it jumped again, searching for its target.
Borrowing the vision of a compatible party — Subaru didn't know, and hadn't asked, how that act altered one's perception of the world or what kind of burden it placed on the caster.
Each time Ram used the Farsight, tears of blood traced down her pale cheeks, her legs trembled as though she'd walked an entire day, and her body — stubbornly pressing forward — swayed as though struck by dizzy spells. Even so, Ram refused to stop advancing through the forest.
Subaru could tell he shouldn't leave everything to her, especially not when she refused to speak about her pain or discomfort.
In the essential ways, the twins were cut from the same cloth. If someone had to suffer, neither would hesitate to be that person.
Including Emilia, the women of that household were perhaps too quick to put others before themselves.
"Maybe you should try looking at your own feet like I do. —Don't I just make you sick with how cool I am?"
He kicked at the grass beneath him. A tuft of it flew into his mouth and the kicked-up dirt got in his eyes — a spectacular miscalculation. He spat it out in a panic, mortified by his own lack of composure.
But somehow, Subaru felt a little lighter, as though the tightly coiled knot inside him had loosened. Maybe a fool like him was exactly what was needed.
So — "Ram — are you worried about Rem? Because she matters to you?"
He knew it was a bad idea to interrupt her during the Farsight, but he asked anyway.
Eyes bloodshot, her vision directed elsewhere, Ram's response came a beat late.
"Obviously. She may be stronger than Ram. But that's no reason not to worry."
"…Yeah."
"Even if she's better at everything than Ram could ever be, Ram is still her older sister. That position alone — I will never let it waver."
It was under an ironclad resolve that she exercised her standing as the elder sister.
Only now, having learned this anew, did Subaru recognize just how deeply he had underestimated her — thinking she wielded that role for nothing more than pride.
And once he admitted that, Subaru had no choice but to steel his own resolve.
"The ideal would've been linking up with Rem first, but…"
He scratched his head, saying that as he began stretching his legs.
Perhaps sensing something unresolved in Subaru's demeanor, Ram finished her Farsight search and returned her vision to the present. She wiped the blood pooling in her right eye with a cloth from her sleeve and furrowed her brow, looking perplexed.
"Barusu — what exactly are you planning to do?"
"Right now, it's like I tagged along just to slow you down, right? I told you before we entered the forest, remember — that I'd be useful in helping Rem."
It was still a toss-up, but he liked his odds at roughly seventy-thirty now. Of course, the remaining thirty — representing the very real randomness of bad luck — was a lingering concern— "Seventy-thirty — that's a rare slot for the higher side. You think I'd throw that away? —Ram, feel like crossing a dangerous bridge?"
"A young man alone in the forest with a hungry beast — as a maiden, I can't imagine a situation more perilous than this."
"Smartass, you."
He laughed, then took a deep breath and opened his eyes wide.
If his reasoning was correct, this would change everything. He knew it was necessary, but that didn't stop his heart from trembling.
—Being scared was nothing new. He was a coward through and through; everyone knew that. Whether he spent his life cowering in the mud or actually put his plan into action, the outcome was all that mattered.
Hurling an ambiguous mix of encouragement and rebuke at himself, Subaru spoke.
If his theory was right, it was already coming.
"Ram — actually, I—"
——He was about to say "I'm returning by death."
The thing he was forbidden to speak of — he was on the verge of uttering it. His words teetered on the edge of breaking the taboo, and Ram's face, which had been tensing in anticipation, froze.
No — time itself had stopped.
The world drained of color. Sound vanished. The very concept of time was ripped away at the roots.
And in this world where all things lay equally motionless, only one being — the sole entity exempt from that constraint — materialized before Subaru's eyes.
"——There you are."
His murmur never actually produced sound.
But he poured every last drop of venom into it that he could, wishing with all his might it might reach the thing before him. If it understood him even slightly, the relief would be immeasurable.
——In this world frozen in time, the only thing unaffected: a black haze.
It appeared from nowhere, and before the bluffing Subaru, it began to take the shape of an arm. Fingers formed, a wrist emerged, an elbow sprouted, an upper arm extended — up to that point, it was the same transformation he'd witnessed the last time. But this, the third visit, brought further changes.
"Up to the shoulder…"
Beyond the upper arm, a shape resembling a shoulder took form.
From fingertips to shoulder, what had been created was now fully deserving of being called "a single arm."
From its first appearance, it had been gradually coalescing into a clearer form. With each recurrence, the haze's encroachment advanced — a terrifying thought — but Subaru was given no time to dwell on it.
As Subaru shuddered at the black haze's growth, the fingers slipped into his chest without hesitation.
Through the thin layer of flesh over his ribs, sliding along the bone, and driving straight for the heart protected within his breastbone.
He knew it was coming, but some levels of pain simply could not be endured.
The agony of having one's heart directly grasped was beyond the realm where screaming and thrashing could convey it.
An agonizing, unbearable stretch of suffering continued.
His heart's rhythm went haywire, blood was forced through his system in chaotic surges, and his entire body screamed. Blood welled from his eyes, and the molars he'd clenched cracked under the pressure.
Enduring pain so severe that any of those reactions would have been natural, Subaru was frozen and couldn't even externalize it — all he could do was bear it.
Eventually, the pain receded into the distance, his vision whitened — , "——Barusu?"
At the call, Subaru realized he had sunk to his knees.
Drool hung from his mouth as he hung his head, and he hastily wiped it on his sleeve as he stood.
"Close one — must've been a daydream."
"You're just as far from recovered as I am, Barusu. Don't push yourself — leave it to Ram. Now then, to find Rem, we need to—"
She stopped mid-sentence. Ram's expression changed in an instant, and she scanned their surroundings.
In the forest, where silence had fallen, wind swayed the branches and the faint rustling of leaves was the only sound. Listening intently, Ram turned to Subaru.
"What did you do, Barusu?"
"…I took a gamble. A painful one."
That excruciating agony — not a trace of it remained anywhere in his body now.
He cursed the cruelty of a method that left damage only on the mental side, but at least it had preserved his physical strength. For that alone, he felt a sliver of gratitude.
After all — , "The wind is disrupted… a beast stench is approaching. And in large numbers."
The deep green around them lost its stillness, becoming agitated. Ram's face snapped to the right. Following her gaze, Subaru spotted multiple red points of light closing in from the distance.
Five of them at first. They'd make contact in perhaps ten more seconds. Ram turned to face them. Subaru drew the single-handed sword from its scabbard at her side, bracing for the unavoidable battle.
"But we still haven't found Rem…!"
"Don't worry. Chances are, she won't be far behind."
"How can you be so sure?"
Ram shot him a sharp, intimidating glare, and Subaru shrugged.
"Rem's goal is to hunt down every last beast in this forest. —As long as I'm here, they'll keep flocking to me as prey. Which means eventually, Rem will have no choice but to come to us."
He'd been thinking about it. He'd been puzzling over it for a long time.
The reason the beasts singled Subaru out as their target.
In this repeating loop, every time Subaru encountered the beasts, he was cursed. Rather than being an unavoidable fate, it was a kind of compulsion — whenever he crossed paths with a beast, he would invariably be chosen as the target.
The beasts reacted to Subaru's presence with excessive aggression. And the answer to why could be traced back to someone else who'd exhibited that same overreaction. Specifically— "The
The beasts were said to be humanity's enemies, spawned by the Witch.
And they had always reacted with disproportionate hostility toward Subaru, who carried the faint reek of the Witch. Entering the forest and being attacked by every single beast — it was the same reason.
If they were drawn in by the faint scent clinging to him, then why not put on a one-man perfume show?
Every beast in the forest — every beast that had ever cursed him — would converge, and the Rem pursuing them would be forced to join up as well. He'd make it that extravagant.
That was Subaru's master plan: link up with Rem and save himself in the process.
——He dubbed it "The
As always, it was a fighting style that kept him safely out of the front lines, but the plan was working out.
Back when he'd once tried to tell Emilia about Return by Death and the haze had appeared, Beatrice had muttered something that had been stuck in his mind ever since. That had been the key.
Each time the haze materialized, the Witch's scent around Subaru grew stronger.
——That haze, almost certainly, was connected to the Witch in some way.
And so every time it appeared, the Witch's aura emanating from Subaru intensified — which, as a result, made him the perfect lure to draw in every beast.
The suffering no one could know, the agony no one could share.
Turning the very fate that had inflicted those things back on itself — the exhilaration of that was so satisfying it made him forget the threat closing in on him, twisting the corner of his mouth upward.
——Yes! I've finally struck back at the fate that set up this loop!
Cheering silently in his mind, he tightened his grip on the single-handed sword and braced himself against the approaching beasts.
And he declared at full volume to Ram, who had taken her position beside him: "So when it comes to the actual fighting, I'm totally relying on you — thanks in advance!"
"Might I suggest you reflect, after the fact, on exactly what it is you just said."
Ram's sigh came a beat too late. The wind blade she launched crashed headlong into the swarm bearing down on them.
——The battle against the beasts was about to begin anew, with a new cast.