—I don't want to die.
"Hah—ha—hahh—haa—hah—"
Gasping for breath, clumsily tangling my legs, spitting out the grass and dirt that got in my mouth when I tripped, drool and blood trickling from the corner of my lips, I sprinted through a darkness so thick I couldn't see what lay ahead.
The glow of the crystal lamps had vanished into the distance. Even the moonlight was blocked on this road, and darkness had fallen over everything.
A silence so loud it rang through my skull. No useful sound reached my ears. I was stranded in a world of absolute quiet where I couldn't even hear my own breathing, not even the beat of my heart.
—I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die.
I kicked off the ground, pushing forward through the dark. And yet the unrelenting blackness was so total that I couldn't even tell where I stood, couldn't tell where my feet were headed.
I'd already tangled my feet and fallen—I'd lost count of how many times. Every time, I must have strayed further from the original path. So where was I even going now?
There was a place I had to reach.
There were people I had to meet.
There were people who'd been heading there together with me.
And yet here I was, swallowed by a darkness without end, utterly and completely alone.
"Someone—!"
The blackness swallowing my vision, the silence severing the world—it was so terrifying that I screamed.
My hoarse voice, shaking so hard I could taste blood, should have carried into the far reaches of the night. But the only reply to that shriek was silence—the kind that came with pain, repeated over and over.
Nobody was here. I'd been left behind.
No one was coming back. Of course. No one wanted to die.
If you stayed here, if you came back to this place, within reach of this darkness—you knew it would cost you your life. Who could possibly return?
I could feel despair stabbing quietly into my heart. A coldness spread through my chest, and my limbs began to go numb, as if ice water were flowing through my veins instead of blood.
My body was recognizing the end and refusing to fight it.
But— "No… I don't want… to die…"
My mind, my emotions, my soul—they rejected the body's response, which was trying to accept the end.
I shook my head, threw a tantrum against the fate that tried to shove oblivion onto me, and dragged my limbs—heavy as if filled with lead, unable to convey even a trace of fighting spirit—forward.
Forward—no, running. Just running. I had no destination. Fleeing blindly. Wandering, lost, endlessly.
—From far, far away in the darkness, I heard a sound.
It shook the air, pushed back the darkness. An end taking shape, drawing closer.
Desperate, with the speed of a turtle, I tried to put distance between myself and the thing bearing down on me from behind.
Putting on the ugliest, most pathetic display imaginable, Subaru thought.
—How did it end up like this?
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "The merchants and dragon carriages here—anyone willing to sell their legs for money, buy them from me, every last one!"
The itinerant merchants exchanged bewildered glances at Subaru's "business proposal." In unison, they twisted their cheeks into smirk-like expressions, as if to say, Was that supposed to be a joke?
But when
From there, a scramble of volunteers erupted, Otto at the forefront.
In the end, of the fourteen itinerant merchants at that relay point, ten agreed to travel with Subaru's group.
At first, negotiations were difficult, but with Otto's proposal, everything settled cleanly into place. A method that left no one at a loss— "We'll entrust cargo transport to the four who own large carriages and wagon attachments. Later, back in the royal capital, we'll distribute profits through the guild. In this case, we offset shipping fees against sales, you see."
Otto had deftly reconciled the competing claims, and now he led the group of ten at the head, explaining with a pleased expression. Despite being the youngest, he'd immediately laid out a path to agreement that convinced everyone, and the way he articulated it showed a merchant's natural gift.
Of course, this was the result of Otto throwing himself into the opportunity with all his might—not missing the once-in-a-lifetime chance to offload the kind of inventory that could make or break a merchant's career.
"I'm happy to have my oil purchased, but what's the reason you need this many dragon carriage legs?" Otto asked, arms crossed, glancing at the departure time as he watched the fellow merchants transfer their cargo.
Receiving the question, Subaru began with "Well—" and then said: "We're heading back to the Mathers domain. For now, the cover story is that I'm a servant under Margrave Roswaal's employ."
"I'm aware. Margrave
Subaru smiled bitterly at Otto, who kept glancing sideways at him, gauging his reaction. If
"Well, can't really deny it. The creepy part is true."
"I'll be sure to tell your employer. Actually, that's exactly the sort of answer I was fishing for. That said, Natsuki-san, you don't exactly look like a noble's servant."
"Just a trainee. The only passing grades I've got are sewing and bed-making."
Regardless— "Let's assume you really are on the Margrave's errand. But why does he need this many dragon carriages? Surely the Margrave has his own?"
"Like I said, we need the numbers. There's a lot to transport, so ideally the wagons would be empty. ...In your case, Otto, we're buying your oil too, so there's no getting around it."
"I'm grateful for that. So, what exactly is it you need hauled...?"
His lips were smiling, and his hands were deferentially folded in a placid gesture. But behind those narrowed, relaxed eyelids, his eyes were frozen, watching Subaru with an unblinking gaze.
He clearly hadn't swallowed the story about being a Margrave's errand runner whole. Beyond that, regardless of whether the identity was real, he was concerned about how dangerous the cargo might be.
A perfectly reasonable concern, really.
If the identity of being a Margrave's attendant was genuine, then the fact that they had to hire outsiders to carry whatever it was spoke volumes.
On the other hand, if the identity was a lie, he'd be hauling goods for people impersonating a Margrave's associate. At maximum, his vigilance was entirely warranted.
And if that suspicion led to a refusal, it would be disastrous.
So Subaru decided to hide nothing about why he'd hired them.
"The cargo is people."
"People?"
"Yes. Human beings. There's a village near the Margrave's estate. Small—fewer than a hundred villagers total. I want to load them up and move them."
That was the reason Subaru had hit upon hiring Otto and the others.
The dragon carriage Subaru and Rem rode in was quite large—built for hauling heavy cargo, with a correspondingly sizable wagon pulled by the dragon. According to the shop, it could pull ten-odd passengers with ease.
"People...? This isn't, say, transporting corpses, is it? Because if so, I'm very sorry, but I'll have to decline—"
"Exactly so. That's why I want to bring you along."
If that was the case, with multiple dragon carriages, it should be possible to evacuate every villager.
Originally, Subaru had been so focused on rushing to rendezvous with
If he'd realized that any later, at worst, he might have been forced to load only the mansion residents—including Emilia—and the village children onto dragon carriages for a safe-zone run, then make multiple dangerous round trips.
In that sense, running into Otto and the others here had been fate's prank—a rare stroke of luck that worked in Subaru's favor.
Perhaps sensing lingering doubt in Subaru's words, Otto furrowed his brows in confusion. Subaru uncrossed his arms and said, "Actually—"
"Near the Margrave's estate, we're planning a large-scale mountain hunt."
"A mountain hunt?"
Otto leaned forward at the unexpected term. Subaru nodded gravely with a serious expression.
"That area has been home to jaguar-note—magical beasts—for ages. Until now, a barrier kept humans and beasts separated, and we managed to coexist. But recently, a jaguar-note crossed the barrier and caused casualties. It's become quite the fuss."
"So that's why you mentioned a mountain hunt? But..."
Otto pressed, sensing a gap in the story. Without a word, Subaru tugged up the sleeve of his right arm. At the sight, Otto gulped with a choked "Ugh" deep in his throat.
What his trembling eyes captured was Subaru's upper arm, still bearing the faint but unmistakable scars of fangs and claws. Beneath his clothes, numerous other wounds remained, impossible to erase.
"Thanks to the Margrave's goodwill, I got treatment in the royal capital after nearly dying. The treatment's mostly done now, so I'm on my way back."
"I-see... That explains it. But then, why isn't the Margrave handling this himself? Why are you arranging dragon carriages on the road, Natsuki-san?"
"The Margrave plans to eliminate the threat quickly without evacuating the residents. But looking at my injuries, you can see the beasts could strike again. So I want insurance. I'm not saying I don't trust my employer—"
Subaru lowered his eyes and spoke with an apologetic tone. Otto murmured "Hmm" and, after a moment of silence, said: "I understand. I'm sorry for prying into things you'd rather not discuss. I won't mention the injuries—I'll make sure to explain things smoothly to everyone."
Looking at Subaru with concern, Otto's kind face bore a bitter edge. He was probably feeling guilty for inadvertently pressing into Subaru's wounds.
That was a bit too soft-hearted for a merchant.
"No need to worry about it. You can even tell them exactly what I said. It's way better than having them suspect things for no reason."
Otto, who was kind at heart, seemed to accept this. "Alright," he nodded.
Watching him, Subaru clenched a small fist inside his own mind, thinking that the one who was truly the worse person here was himself.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ They left the merchants' encampment about an hour after negotiations ended.
Cargo was transferred to the four large carriages, leaving nine dragon carriages and merchants with lighter loads. Including Otto, who kept his oil loaded, that made ten companions. With Subaru and Rem's carriage, that was eleven in all—tight, but it should be possible to fit every villager.
The stay-behind group—who planned to set out for the royal capital at dawn—parted ways. Subaru's eleven carriages departed down the highway in the dead of night.
Among the stay-behinds was Ketty, the gaunt merchant who'd introduced Otto to Subaru. Waving goodbye to him, Subaru reflected that he really had no luck with that man.
"If we run through the night without stopping, we should reach the Mathers domain sometime after dawn," Otto called over from the dragon carriage running alongside.
Even though he wasn't raising his voice particularly loud, it still carried over clearly. Apparently that was the work of the wind's blessing that earth dragons possessed. Unaffected by wind and vibration—it probably extended to things like this.
For Subaru, who had a sand cloth wrapped around his mouth and struggled to breathe, the fact that he didn't need to shout was a genuine relief. He nodded and replied, "Sorry about the rest."
"Not at all! No complaints here. I'm getting inventory off my hands AND paid handsomely for shipping—I'm invincible! I once ran for three days and three nights straight!"
"You collapsed and passed out the moment negotiations ended, didn't you?"
"Huh!? Did you read my mind!?"
Subaru smiled wryly at Otto, flustered at having his punchline stolen. Then he turned his gaze to Rem, who held the reins beside him.
Rem's face, the lower half hidden by the sand cloth Subaru had rewound, was even harder to read than usual. He'd prided himself on being able to pick up on her emotions despite her flat expressions—so this was a somewhat unwelcome development.
Especially now, when what she was thinking consumed him.
Then— "—Subaru-kun."
"...! A-ah, what's up, Rem? Something wrong?"
She'd called out just as he was staring at her profile. Subaru choked down a gasp in the back of his throat, then deliberately projected a calmness that was almost exaggerated.
Hearing this, Rem shook her head slightly.
"It got quiet, so I thought you might be tired. The shaking and sand are pretty bad, but if you want to sleep, go ahead. I'll keep watch."
"I want to say I'll take you up on that, but I'm wide awake. Besides, having Rem do all the work looks terrible."
"But Subaru-kun, you've just recovered from being sick."
Her concern, her upright posture—Subaru was struck silent.
Her tone was gentle, but her will was unyielding. At the very least, Rem would never assign Subaru any role on this dragon carriage that would burden him.
And every time she was this kind to him, the thorn lodged in his chest dug deeper.
He couldn't tell what Rem's true intentions were—that she was this wholeheartedly devoted—and the fact that he wanted to know and didn't want to know at the same time was twisting his contradictory heart into knots.
"Rem, you..."
"Yes?"
The worry slipped out before he knew it, and he'd called her name.
She'd caught it clearly. Her response was immediate, and she was waiting for what he'd say next.
He'd stepped right into the source of his anxiety. Right now, he could retreat with a single "It's nothing," and Rem wouldn't push. But not knowing what she was thinking that made her not push was itself a torment, and that was painfully obvious.
If that was the case, he might as well lay it bare.
"Rem, do you have any doubts about what I'm doing? I haven't explained a single thing to you—about the
Gritting his teeth, swallowing the words of weakness, suppressing the voice that threatened to waver with anxiety, he posed the question. It was something he'd wanted to ask and been terrified to ask for so long.
Hearing this, Rem closed her eyes once.
"Lord Roswaal gave me a directive. In the royal capital, I'm to respect all of Subaru-kun's decisions."
And with that, she revealed her face—the one frozen into the mask of a servant.
Hearing the answer, Subaru's expression went rigid.
Roswaal had ordered it. So she followed Subaru's lead.
That meant— "He told you... Roswaal...?"
"Yes. He didn't give specific instructions on what to do. But he said that in the capital, I should follow Subaru-kun's lead in everything. Rem has been trying to do exactly that."
Rem's supplementary words refused to process properly.
What echoed hollowly in Subaru's head, over and over, was simply— "Roswaal's... order..."
The reason she didn't raise objections to his actions, the reason she followed him—was because of her master's command.
That meant, didn't it, that all this time she'd been at his side, it hadn't been by her own will?
No—more than that, even Rem being here beside him right now— "Subaru-kun?"
Was she suspicious of his sudden silence? Rem tilted her head toward him, brows slightly furrowed. Even that worried gaze was something Subaru could no longer take at face value.
Was it only because of Roswaal's order that she worried about him, gently supported him when he was about to collapse, always stayed by his side when he was on the verge of going mad from loneliness, followed along as he pursued what he believed was right?
To put it in more extreme terms—was it possible that Rem, deep down, didn't actually approve of his actions?
"———"
Nausea surged up. Subaru swallowed the sourness rising in his stomach. The vomit he'd suppressed had nowhere to go, and it became a bomb that spread shivers through his entire body.
His limbs went numb. His vision flickered. His brain itched unbearably. He wanted to crack open his skull right now, jam his fingers in, and scratch at whatever was writhing inside.
But no amount of pressing fingers to his scalp would ever break bone. All he could do was grit his teeth against the unbearable itching and endure the crushing pressure in his gut.
He didn't want to think. He didn't want to think.
The more he thought, the more he reflected, the more he sought—the thing he wanted drifted further away, the ideal transformed into a fantasy, and hope was overwritten with despair and disappointment.
"Subaru-kun?"
He was sick of it. He was done.
He didn't want to think. Didn't want to doubt. Didn't want to believe. Didn't want to be betrayed.
Clutching his head, shutting out every response from the world, he withdrew inward.
Rem called Subaru's name several times, but seeing him like that, she must have assumed he was trying to sleep. She stopped calling and turned her eyes forward again.
In that moment, Subaru finally—truly, by his own hand—became completely and utterly alone.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "—baku-kun. I'm sorry, please wake up. Subaru-kun."
His consciousness was roused by the sensation of a voice.
He felt a hand touch his shoulder. Lifting his head and rubbing his bleary eyelids to clear his vision, what came into focus was the face of a familiar girl.
"Rem...? What's it?"
As consciousness surfaced and he recognized her, a dull ache pulsed deep in his chest. But it wasn't unbearable.
Suppressing the expression from his face, Subaru waited for Rem's answer. She looked apologetic for having woken him, then said: "We should be approaching the highway fork soon. In daylight, it's a road you can't miss, but right now we're relying only on the crystal lamp."
She pointed to the light—mounted beneath the thick neck of the earth dragon, which was still driving relentlessly forward.
In a world without exterior lamps or other lighting equipment, visibility at night depended on the glow of lagmite ore, primitive torches, or something as unreliable as moonlight.
For earth dragons with sharp night vision, lagmite ore alone was enough to run without losing the way.
"Unfortunately, I can barely see a thing. There's a small one on the driver's seat, sure, but it only lights up my hands."
There was one inside the carriage as well, but it wasn't powerful enough to reach the driver's seat. Either way— "So you're saying you can't find the road?"
"No. Before we lose it, I wanted to check the map. There's a map in the cargo at your feet—could you pull it out?"
"Down here? This?"
He fumbled in the darkness with his toes until something bumped against his foot, then dragged it over.
It had some weight to it. He pulled it onto his lap and rummaged inside.
"Hmm... not sure which one's the map. And even if I find it, it'll be too dark to read."
"Don't underestimate a demon's night vision," is what I want to say—but I'm not really that confident about it, so..."
Rem's expression clouded with uncertainty. Then, suddenly, something flashed through Subaru's mind in the darkness. Come to think of it— "Wait a sec."
Calling out to Rem, Subaru pulled out the small pouch containing his personal belongings. Inside were a hand towel Rem had given him, a pouch of pocket money, and similar items. He dug through it by feel.
"Found it."
In Subaru's hand was something cold and hard.
Even after he'd pulled it out, Rem couldn't make it out in the dark and tilted her head. Subaru held it for the first time in a while, opened it in his hands, and pressed the power button.
"I haven't turned it on in ages. Hope it didn't die on me... oh."
After a brief silence, a startup animation appeared on the screen. Then, exactly one second later, Subaru's hands were flooded with blinding light.
The sudden brightness made Rem raise her eyebrows in surprise.
"Subaru-kun, what is that?"
"A lost piece of technology—or rather, a future-tech cell phone. Barely functional, but it's alive, and that's all that matters."
For the first time since his summoning to this other world, the phone powered on. Low on battery, but it blazed with light.
It was one of the items from his original world that Subaru had brought along when he'd fallen into this one. He'd brought a few personal items, but by far the most useful was this cell phone—with the caveat that it only lasted as long as the battery held out.
"I didn't know when I'd need it, so I kept it off. Never thought it'd come in handy as a lamp."
Thanking civilization for an unintended use, Subaru illuminated the cargo inside the wagon. The rolled-up map was easy to spot, and he pulled it out and held it over Rem's lap.
"I'll keep the light on. Check the map."
"Thank you."
As he angled the light for her, Subaru let out a small breath she couldn't see.
It seemed he was managing, somehow, to keep the tremor inside from showing.
"Natsuki-san, what is that? I've never seen one before."
The voice—on the verge of cracking with excitement—came from Otto. Riding at the left of Subaru's carriage, he leaned over to peer at the device.
"A crystal lamp I've never seen... no, it's not crystal, is it? The material itself looks nothing like anything I've seen."
His excitement was infectious; another carriage caught up slightly behind on the right. The one craning their neck to look was a middle-aged man wearing a bandana. But he too, despite his age, had a childlike gleam in his eyes, fixed on the phone in Subaru's hand.
Under normal circumstances, Subaru might have cracked a joke at their eager reactions. But right now, he simply didn't have it in him.
Shaking his head, he preface with "Sorry, but—" to the two men who clearly wanted an explanation.
"It's a secret tool the Margrave has me carrying. If anyone found out the details, I might disappear. You'd better forget you saw it."
"Whoa, what kind of money-smelling backstory is that?"
Otto's interest was only further inflamed. Subaru bit his tongue internally. But the conversation was cut short by Rem, who said, "I understand."
She looked up from the map and pointed ahead in the direction of travel.
"Shortly ahead, we should reach the Great Flygel Tree. If we follow the highway northeast from there, we should enter the Mathers domain."
"The Great Flygel Tree?"
At the unfamiliar term, Subaru cocked his head. Otto, still animated, raised a finger.
"The Great Flygel Tree is a massive tree that towers over the middle of the Rifause Highway. 'Pierces the clouds' might be an exaggeration, but it really is enormous. There's a legend that a sage named Flygel planted it hundreds of years ago."
"So that's the Great Flygel Tree. Any word on why he planted it, or what else he did?"
"Well, it was hundreds of years ago. And Flygel isn't particularly well-known for much besides planting the tree, honestly."
*Some sage*, Subaru thought, but kept it to himself.
They continued straight for a while, and gradually, Subaru's own eyes began to make out a towering silhouette against the night.
"Whoa... that's incredible."
If he were comparing it to the original world, the only thing that came close were those 'thousand-year-old tree' features he'd seen on television specials.
The age was supposedly only a few hundred years, according to Otto, but if there was a difference in growth rates for the vegetation here, this tree possessed a majesty rivaling those ancient giants despite the shorter span.
The trunk was so tall its crown vanished from sight. Branches stretched skyward in tremendous numbers, supporting a thick canopy of leaves. What anchored the massive trunk were roots that snaked along the ground like enormous serpents before plunging into the earth.
It didn't grow in a forest—a single colossal tree standing alone on an open plain. There was no mistaking it as a landmark.
While Subaru stared at it in awe, Rem coolly handled the reins and adjusted the carriage's course slightly. Following the map, they'd now head northeast into the Mathers domain. Eyes still on the Great Flygel Tree as it drew near and then receded, Subaru murmured: "If I'd had some battery left and a little peace of mind, I would've taken a picture."
He peered at the screen—one bar of battery remaining—and muttered with a grimace. Otto caught the mutter and asked, "Wait, what's that!?" Subaru snapped back, "Nothing!" in a foul mood and settled himself back onto the driver's seat.
Then, pulling his attention away from the tree, Subaru suddenly noticed.
"Huh, where'd the bandana guy go? He was on the right side a second ago."
He scanned the surroundings, but the man who should have been there was gone.
Maybe he'd fallen behind? Subaru glanced back, but all he saw was a carriage that had been running behind the bandana man—with a conspicuous gap where the man should have been.
"Don't tell me he got distracted staring at the tree and fell out of formation."
"What's wrong, Natsuki-san? Are you looking for something?"
"What do you mean, 'looking'? He's your companion. The cool-looking older guy in the bandana who was running on our side just a minute ago—where'd he go? Back to his childhood, climbing trees or something?"
Otto looked at Subaru blankly, as if he couldn't comprehend a word of what he'd just said.
"What are you talking about, Natsuki-san? Nobody was running on my side."
—Huh?
The meaning of those words wouldn't register. Subaru stared, struck dumb.
Otto gazed back at him, completely sincere. There was not a trace of joking in his expression. He was genuinely, thoroughly puzzled by what Subaru had said.
But that, to Subaru, made no sense.
"What are you saying? A second ago, you and he were looking at my phone together, wide-eyed like you were about to drool."
"Oh, is that what you call that thing? More to the point—are you guaranteeing my safety after having overheard all of that?"
"Don't dodge the question!"
Subaru shouted down Otto's attempt to deflect, and looked to the right. There was still nothing there—just empty space, the man nowhere to be found.
But he couldn't have been imagined. Subaru remembered his face, his voice.
"—?"
Then, as Subaru glared at the vacant space, his vision blurred.
It was a hazy sensation, as if a mist had fallen before his eyes. He blinked several times, but the wrongness wouldn't lift.
The dim darkness still ran alongside him, and it struck him as uncannily eerie—stirring a sense of dread.
So Subaru unfolded his phone again and shone the light to the right.
Seeking traces of the man who should have been there, driven by the need to identify the source of that inexplicable feeling he couldn't shake— And in the light that flooded out— "—Huh?"
Subaru's gaze locked with an enormous eye floating in the darkness.
A roar shook the sky, and fog settled over the Rifause Plain.
—Fog descended upon the Rifause Plain.