This was the first time Subaru had ever come face to face with the
He had heard the name "Witch of Envy" countless times, and he had even confronted the threat she embodied during the loops originating from this
He had tasted the pain of having his heart crushed for defying rules forcibly imposed on him more than once or twice, and it was far harder to hold a favorable impression of the Witch who had hijacked
Now, after his exchange with
Before the pressure emanating from the Witch standing before him, Subaru muttered in a hoarse voice.
She was a slender woman.
She hung both arms limply at her sides, standing without any pretense as she gazed his way. Her body was clad in a pitch-black dress—a dress woven from shadows rising from her very feet, rippling as though in rhythm with the beating of a heart.
It was a long-sleeved dress, but from the wrists down, unnaturally pale fingertips were visible. Like the other Witches, it was safe to assume the Witch of Envy was also blessed with beauty befitting her station.
However, the most essential piece of information for making that judgment was missing.
"I've caught glimpses a few times, but… what's the principle behind that?"
From the neck up, the Witch was shrouded in pitch-black shadows that made her impossible to see.
Unlike the pitch-black dress she wore, those shadows drifted like a veil of mist, concealing the Witch of Envy's features from Subaru's view.
Despite Subaru's exasperated question, the Witch offered no response.
While a growing sense of frustration burned in his chest, Subaru wiped the sweat from his forehead and glanced around—at the other four Witches, who maintained their silence.
"———"
Reading the changes in their expressions, Subaru felt something unexpected.
As far as he knew, the relationship between the Witch of Envy and these Witches was that of killer and victim. Meeting face to face once more with the person who had killed you—at least Subaru thought he understood what kind of psychological toll that would carry.
But the Witches' expressions were all different from what he had imagined.
One wore a gentle smile. One gazed at her with pitying compassion. One displayed the very picture of indifference. And the last one— "So you broke through my boundaries to come all the way in here. To set foot so gracelessly even in my dream castle… You really are self-centered to the very end, aren't you?"
Only Echidna alone harbored hostility in her eyes as she glared at the Witch of Envy.
That hatred, so close to loathing, coming from none other than Echidna surprised Subaru. Just moments ago, he had declared his parting on the premise that she was devoid of such emotions. Seeing her lay her feelings bare like this made him question whether he had misjudged her.
However, the practical issue of addressing those feelings had already passed.
The real problem now was how to deal with the still-motionless Witch before him.
"In the first place, what is she even doing here…?"
"Maybe she got mad because you blabbed about things you shouldn't have? I really don't understand men who are so loose-lipped. I can kind of understand her indignation."
"That's easy for you to say, but I don't know! And anyway, are you siding with that Witch? Wouldn't you and the other Witches consider her your enemy?"
"'Your enemy'—what a remarkably stupid-sounding phrase. …I'm going to confirm whether what you're saying is true or not, starting now."
Narrowing her eyes at Subaru's words,
She slid between the gaze fixed unblinkingly on Subaru and the Witch of Envy, puffed out her ample chest, and stood proudly before the Witch. Then— "Can you hear me? It's me, Minerva. The Witch of Wrath, Minerva. If you remember me, or if my voice is reaching you, answer me."
"—! Wait, hold on! As far as I know, you can't have a conversation with her! And if you provoke her with some reckless action—"
"You'd do well to keep quiet, haaa."
To Subaru's eyes, Minerva's declaration was nothing short of reckless. But the words he tried to use to stop her were cut off by
Subaru turned with just his eyes, and Sekhmet wiggled, changing the size of her reddish-purple fur ball.
"Far longer than the short time you spent with her, haaa. We've been together with that one, haaa. It's natural to worry, but haaa. Let's leave it to Minerva for a bit, haaa. She does sometimes act without thinking, haaa. Well, this time she probably has thought it through to some extent, haaa."
"I can hear you, Sekhmet! If you don't want me to fail at diplomacy and have us all swallowed whole, don't say things that'll make her angry! She'll fly into a fury!"
"People breathe right in front of you and that's enough to set you off, haaa. Facing someone like you who actively looks for reasons to get angry, haaa. What exactly am I supposed to do, haaa?"
Despite the lukewarm assessment, Minerva did not divert her attention from the threat before her.
The Witch of Envy, too, could have taken any number of actions during their exchange, yet she simply stood there motionless, continuing to stare at Subaru past Minerva.
It was true that this was markedly different from the Witch's previous, purely visceral responses.
But that only meant she was not immediately resorting to hostile action—whether that put her in a position where conversation was possible was another matter entirely.
Minerva was pursuing dialogue, and Sekhmet had entrusted her with full authority to do so. If that was the case, then what of the remaining two— "I-I… if Minerva-chan is… doing her best, th-then I'm… o-okay with it… I'll k-kill her though… if Minerva-chan gets… h-hurt…"
"Your words carry a certain weight, but I've told you repeatedly that your compatibility with her is far too poor. The only one here who can match her is Sekhmet. —You understand that, don't you?"
Echidna admonished the belligerent
"Even I can't keep her movements sealed indefinitely, haaa. You should know by the relation of our abilities that I'm not suited for that sort of thing, haaa."
"Of course I know. That's why you just need to crush her limbs and wring her neck. Physically immobilize her and cut off her breath, and I can use my power to expel her from this space entirely."
Carmilla's words sounded almost cute by comparison, given the fierce hostility Echidna was radiating. Her tone was light and airy, but the undisguised loathing seeping through every word made it impossible to take it as a joke.
It was enough to convince anyone without question that when it came to the Witch of Envy alone, Echidna's negative feelings were beyond doubt.
Meanwhile, behind them, this volatile conversation continued as Minerva's confrontation with the Witch of Envy pressed on. If anything, Minerva had taken one step closer, as though trying to prevent the other Witches' conversation from reaching the Witch's ears.
"———"
Holding his breath, Subaru watched Minerva advance in silence.
Minerva's actions struck Subaru as nothing but reckless, but he couldn't even fathom why the Witch of Envy had appeared here in the first place.
If it aligned with the situation so far, the Witch had shown herself because Subaru had broken a taboo. But the treatment Subaru had received from the Witch for breaking that taboo amounted to nothing more than manifesting an arm and crushing his heart—and when she had actually appeared in person to interfere, she had simply devoured everything in sight, one thing after another.
Friendly contact was out of the question. The Witch of Envy had never so much as properly expressed her own will. The Witch's intentions remained as inscrutable to him now as they had ever been.
So what kind of action the Witch would take against Minerva was a complete unknown to Subaru.
—If Minerva were swallowed by the shadows, the three behind him would move immediately.
If the expectation placed in Sekhmet was real, the Witch of Sloth would crush the Witch of Envy with her power, and Echidna believed she could drive off a weakened Witch of Envy.
But if that was the case— Why weren't they doing it right now? Subaru couldn't help but find it strange.
"———"
Strange as it was, the fact that the first contact with the Witch of Envy had been left entirely to Minerva was already strange in itself.
Carmilla, who would not hesitate to counterattack if provoked, was one thing, but Sekhmet had no desire for active confrontation, and even Echidna, brimming with enmity, had not rashly launched a preemptive strike in defiance of Minerva's will.
What exactly were they after— "You've got a look on your face like you can't see through the Witches' schemes and you're being played."
"…………"
"That said, for them… oh my, it would be a disgrace to the name of Witch if it were too easy to see through our inner workings. We'd prefer not to be underestimated."
"Don't put on that cute act with me. —If you really want to keep the Witch of Envy at arm's length, isn't now the perfect chance when she's completely defenseless?"
"I see. So that's how it looks to you from where you're standing. Well, well… yes, I suppose so. As for me, of course, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Ideally, I would hurl every power at my disposal and obliterate her without leaving a single trace…"
Echidna cut herself off there and narrowed her eyes.
There was something uncharacteristic about her attitude. How well had he really known her, even now he couldn't be sure, but he sensed a reluctance in her that didn't fit the Echidna he knew, and Subaru waited for her to speak.
After a brief silence, Echidna spoke.
"If I exerted myself to eliminate her, only to be targeted by the other Witches afterward, that would be putting the cart before the horse. Setting Minerva aside, it would be a losing proposition to make enemies of Sekhmet and
"I can't follow your reasoning. Why would they turn against you if you tried to get rid of the Witch of Envy? Wouldn't she be the common enemy of all of you…?"
"That's… not… the same… is it?"
Cutting into Subaru's question was Carmilla, who had remained silent until now. Without looking at Subaru's surprised expression, she kept her eyes fixed on the standoff between Minerva and the Witch of Envy, speaking in a flat, halting tone.
"The one… who is our enemy… for all of us… that's true, but that's… a different story… from that girl… isn't it?"
"I don't get what you're saying. What exactly are you all…?"
"We don't know which one the 'her' standing here is, so haaa. It's not just a matter of reluctance to act—it would be fundamentally wrong for us to take the initiative, haaa."
"Which one…?"
Sekhmet's answer carried forward from Carmilla's words. But even that only deepened Subaru's confusion. His understanding of what they were saying came from a completely different angle.
One step closer, Minerva narrowed the distance to the Witch of Envy once more.
Then she spread both arms wide, assuming a non-threatening posture, and spoke to the Witch of Envy.
"—Are you the Witch of Envy? Or are you
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ Subaru felt as though a statement had been made that overturned everything he had understood until now.
What Minerva had said was vastly different from the facts Subaru knew. But that it was neither Minerva's delusion nor some kind of joke was affirmed by the silence of the other Witches who had lived through the same era.
At Minerva's call, for the first time the Witch of Envy's shoulders trembled ever so slightly. The black haze covering her head stirred, and her body seemed to turn toward Minerva.
—In this moment, for the first time, the Witch had placed Minerva within her awareness.
"———"
There was no gap left for Subaru to question the meaning of what had just been said. More pressing still was the way his throat went dry from the taut tension.
Even with the Witches' confirmation, it had far surpassed anything Subaru had been thinking.
Minerva's statement—that is to say— —the possibility that the person known as the Witch of Envy, Satella, was an entirely different individual.
No—that was overthinking it with the limited information at hand.
How many times had he been burned by making judgments based on surface-level information and clinging to preconceptions? One should always consider possibilities, but equally, one must not be shackled by them.
Above all, right now, he should not let his attention stray from the scene before him for even a second.
"Since she's not attacking me right off the bat despite my first question… there's still a chance, isn't there?"
Saying this, Minerva closed the distance even further.
The space between the Witch of Wrath and the Witch had shrunk to a mere five steps.
"If she were the Witch of Envy, she could have started throwing 'envy' my way the moment I stood between her and Subaru, so that's not something I was too worried about."
Four steps.
"Still, if she's really Satella, I wish she'd at least said something first. I know it's a difficult relationship to face—those last faces she made when she swallowed me up back then, I haven't forgotten them."
Three steps.
"I think I'm in a much better position than the rest of the five. Setting Typhon aside, I was the closest to her… the one who was most like a friend, or at least that's what I believed."
Two steps. She lowered her gaze.
"That's… what I believed. And because I believed it, that's why—!"
She lunged. With only two steps between them, Minerva's body bent forward, power coiling into her back legs.
Then— "—Do you have any idea how it feels to be ignored in a reunion like this!?"
The ground exploded, and in a single lunging step, the distance of two steps was erased.
Minerva charged through the cloud of debris, twisted her body, and launched a fist loaded with her entire being from her shoulder. It pierced the air, broke through the wall of speed, and hurtled toward the Witch's head with a thunderous roar, aimed straight at the face veiled in darkness— "—See? Just as I thought."
Minerva's fist stopped just moments before it would have struck the Witch's face.
The Witch's shadows had not extended to snare her arm. Minerva's own will had halted her arm just before it fully extended.
Still with her fist cocked, Minerva straightened her torso, shook her golden hair, and said: "Look. The one who doesn't need to dodge my fist is Satella—not the Witch of Envy. Echidna, there's no need for your guard."
"Hmm, how to put it. I genuinely admire your willingness to put your own body on the line to prove your point, but that's a separate matter. If it were simply that the threat of your existence was underestimated, then the other would not have moved. That's precisely why—Sekhmet."
"You're not trying to use some excuse to get me moving, are you, haaa. You're just as stubborn as ever, Echidna, haaa. Accept it—she's Satella, haaa."
Echidna fell silent as Sekhmet let out nothing but a sigh.
The Witches' ultimate weapon showed no sign of moving, remaining a fur ball as ever. And Minerva, now standing close enough to touch hands with the Witch—Satella—turned back to Subaru.
Met with those blue-green eyes, Subaru could only stand there in a daze, still unable to properly grasp the reality that she stood right beside the threat.
Minerva huffed at his state and pulled a displeased face.
"What are you spacing out for? Get over here already."
"Get over here…? Even if you tell me that…"
"What's the matter? That's not very manly of you. I've just gone and proven with my own body that it's fine, so shouldn't you walk over here with confidence? Isn't that right? Or are you saying that even with all this groundwork laid out, it's still not enough? If someone tests the bridge for you by tapping it and you still can't cross, then tell me—what would make you cross?!"
"Don't just get yourself all worked up! It's not that I'm too scared to go over there! The reason I can't go over there is because I don't understand why I should!"
Matching Minerva's heated tone with his own, Subaru protested his situation of being left behind.
He pointed at Satella, who seemed removed from the immediate threat, stamped his foot, and looked around at the Witches who appeared to be easing out of their combat stances.
"In the first place, what do you mean the Witch of Envy and Satella are different people?! You all were talking about it like it was obvious, but I'm starting from zero here! I don't have any of that knowledge!"
"It's quite straightforward, really. When an incompatible existence is forcibly made to absorb a Witch Factor, adverse effects like that can occur. There's a part that could be called a Witch personality generated by the Factor's influence, and a struggle between that and the original self… or so I'd put it. To me, they're the same existence, so I've never quite understood why you lot insist on distinguishing between them."
"A separate personality…!? Then what—you're saying that the one who swallowed you all and committed those atrocities recorded in history was only one half of her personality, while the other half was harmless…?"
"That's not quite right."
Echidna stopped Subaru as he tried to process the information with shock. She shook her head and corrected his reasoning.
"Drinking the world halfway dry, drinking the six of us Sin Witches—that was all the doing of 'Satella,' not the Witch of Envy."
"What—!? No, that doesn't add up! If the one who swallowed you was Satella, and the one over there is also Satella, then that means…"
"It does add up, that's just how it is, haaa. We won't forgive the Witch of Envy, haaa. But we don't hold a grudge against Satella, haaa. It's as simple as that, haaa."
"I-I'm… Satella-chan, is… okay, I guess… I don't h-hate her… I think she's… better than the Witch, is all…"
Sekhmet and Carmilla both agreed with Subaru's question in a way that only deepened it further.
It seemed to be the unified view of the Witches, but Subaru couldn't grasp it. The one who had annihilated them was a dual personality, and they forgave the personality that had destroyed them, but not the one that hadn't—what did that even mean?
"I've been arguing that the distinction itself is meaningless… We're at an impasse. That's why I can't simply ignore that will and eliminate her. If I, a fragile spiritual entity, were to be struck down after eliminating her, I wouldn't stand a chance. Even for me, if my soul alone were scattered, I could never return."
"But… isn't that a huge risk for the other five as well? You're the one keeping the other five's souls safe. If you were to disappear, the other Witches would…"
"They've accepted their own 'death.' That's why they have no attachment to lingering on as souls alone. —They'd rather die true to their beliefs than bend themselves to survive. That kind of thinking is precisely what makes them Witches."
At Echidna's definitive statement, neither Sekhmet nor Carmilla raised any objection.
Their judgment was too clear-cut to call merely "graceful," and Subaru was rendered speechless by the sheer intensity of how these Witches lived their lives.
To become what you wished to be—everyone could harbor that aspiration.
But to carry that through in life, and even after death—no one could claim such a thing with certainty.
"Minerva, too…"
Was she the same?
Or perhaps she, more than anyone, could have been the first to be destroyed by the Witch of Envy's hand. Yet Minerva had trusted the Witch who hadn't lifted a finger against her up until she reached arm's length, and in the end, had proven that trust right.
Subaru couldn't understand their relationships.
If they shared bonds of mutual trust, then why had the Witch of Envy destroyed the other six Witches? And why did the Witches forgive that?
Echidna's way of thinking was still something Subaru could comprehend.
But even so— "So I get that that's how you feel. I can't say I'm convinced, but I understand. But I still haven't heard why she came here."
"———"
"I get that she's not attacking without provocation. I'll accept that. …But that doesn't make her safe. If the one I've been dealing with all this time is the Witch of Envy, then what does Satella want with me? The Witch of Envy has been nothing but a source of torment for me. Even if you suddenly tell me she's someone different, I can't just accept that."
Moreover, if you pieced together the Witches' accounts, the one who had swallowed them all was undoubtedly the Satella standing before him. Then if it had been the Witch of Envy who devoured the Sanctuary, didn't that mean Satella was capable of something no less terrifying?
Feeling a sense of crisis, keeping his guard up, pushing her away—who could fault him for that?
"What did you come here to do? What is your purpose? Until I know that…!"
"If you want to know, then you should come over here yourself."
Minerva cut off Subaru as he raised his voice.
Hands on her hips, she stared at him, her lovely face openly displaying irritation.
"Enough with the endless excuses and hedging. I'm standing right here next to her, and nothing has happened. She came here to meet you. If you can't even bring yourself to approach her with all of this, then I can only conclude that we misjudged you."
"Misjudged my ass! Don't go sizing me up on your own! Don't shove your assumptions onto me! What do you even know about me?!"
He refused to be forced into someone else's preconceived mold and follow along with it.
Once before, when he had shouted the same thing, a voice had answered him. He remembered those words. Those words had become his support.
—If he couldn't betray the version of himself that had been saved by those words back then— "Ah, damn… I'm being an idiot…"
It was an irrational, emotionally driven decision, swept along by momentum.
How many times had he been burned for making exactly this kind of choice? He had reflected on it. He needed to pay attention to the finer details of things, kill his emotions, act coldly—guided not by the movements of his heart but by solid facts. He had to maintain an unshakeable heart of steel.
That was what he had always wished for.
"You're too slow."
"Being afraid to get close to someone I nearly fought to the death with… Damn, I guess you would understand that, wouldn't you. Fine, whatever."
"We have our own complicated feelings, you know. Unlike me, Sekhmet and Carmilla are just much more mature about it. I happen to have a reason to take her side."
Minerva approached, clicking her tongue at Subaru's protests, and shrugged. Without giving him the chance to ask about that reason, she made way for him.
With the Witch of Wrath stepping aside, Subaru naturally found himself facing the Witch—Satella—at close range.
"———"
Involuntarily, Subaru swallowed hard, robbed of words by the sheer strangeness of the presence before him.
He had seen her from afar, and had observed her more closely as he approached, so he should have known—but the pressure she exuded and the dissonance she imposed on his senses could not be shaken off.
The shadow-dress clinging to her body depicted her form and curves in an almost scandalously provocative way, and the fact that her head was invisible only added to a kind of perverse allure.
All of those impressions were swept away by the dissonance of her unrecognizable head.
"———"
Looking at her from up close, Subaru realized that this perceptual obstruction was not physical.
It appeared as though darkness covered her face, but in truth, no shadow was physically blocking his view.
The reason he couldn't see the Witch's face was something far more fundamental, rooted in the psyche.
It wasn't physical interference that hid her face. It was something instinctive—she was deliberately not letting herself be seen.
"Everyone averts their eyes from their own most abhorrent delusions."
"…………"
"If you cannot see her expression, that speaks to the state of your own heart."
From behind, a piece of advice came flying—advice that corroborated exactly what Subaru had just deduced, and which he could have done without.
Suppressing the urge to click his tongue, Subaru ignored Echidna—or rather, he didn't have the capacity to spare any attention her way—and continued facing Satella.
Even now, Satella had taken no proactive action.
All Satella had done was appear here. Everyone else had made a commotion on their own, desperately trying to prevent any escalation on her part.
The fact that her mere existence inspired such terror was itself a vivid testament to how dangerous she was.
And just as Subaru grew impatient with the inaction— "——!"
"———"
Suddenly, he saw two hands extended before him, and his throat froze.
Without sparing so much as the blink of an eye, Subaru had been concentrating all his awareness on Satella's movements. After a split second, anything could happen—so that tension was thrown into disarray by hands that seemed to appear from outside his field of perception.
It wasn't that he was surprised he couldn't see the movement. Subaru had clearly seen Satella's arms move. And yet, he was startled by the fact that his own consciousness had quietly witnessed the entire process from the moment the arms were extended to the completion of the gesture.
"What are you… really? What do you want from me?"
The fact that he had been unable to take any effective action against those outstretched hands—and his half-conscious understanding of what that meant—made Subaru seize upon words in a flash.
As if wringing them out, so that he wouldn't have to acknowledge that fact, so that he wouldn't have to face it.
"If you're the one giving me the power to start over… then why…?"
He couldn't fathom Satella's intentions.
And standing here, face to face with her, close enough to touch, having shouted repeatedly and consciously that she was dangerous—his body, which refused to listen, was beyond his understanding.
—The meaning of his body's unconscious impulse to feel 'relief' in her presence.
"——u"
"—Huh?"
Still unable to accept what his own body was telling him, Subaru's reaction to the sound that struck his eardrums was delayed. This time, at least, it was a correct response to an event that had truly come from beyond his intentions.
Holding his breath, Subaru waited for what came next.
Straight ahead, Satella kept her still-invisible expression turned toward him, and Subaru, watching with bated breath, waited for her to speak once more. She took her time, slowly, and at last said: "——masu"
"———"
"I have loved you all this time. Only you—all this time, I have loved you."