Standing there, Garfiel was a grisly sight even from Subaru's perspective.
His entire body was stained red with profuse bleeding, his shoulders heaving with ragged breaths. Layer upon layer of lacerations still oozed blood, and his compact but well-muscled body was exposed save for a loincloth-like covering around his lower abdomen.
He'd lost even his shoes and stood barefoot, and at the sight of him Subaru lowered his raised hand.
"...You've got quite a different look than what I expected for a welcoming committee. I figured you'd be furious, but I didn't think you'd be in this kind of shape."
"Don't worry about it. I just, y'know, slipped and took a tumble back there."
Garfiel answered Subaru's grimacing remark with a sullen glare.
Of course, that was just banter—but the sight of him injured like this stirred unsavory images in Subaru's mind no matter how hard he tried to push them away.
Garfiel, who had been tearing through the entire
There was only one possibility Subaru could think of for why he'd show up like this. Namely— "That idiot Otto—I specifically told him to give up everything and run once it got bad...!"
"He was pretty brave about it, actually. Not cut out for fighting at all, and I don't think he'd ever been in a real brawl before, had he? Yet he went on about how it was for a friend's sake and all that... He gave it everything he had, I'll give him that."
Garfiel grimaced, his cheeks twisting with irritation, and touched the white scar on his forehead.
That one had been there before, but every other wound on his body—could they really have come from fighting Otto?
A fistfight—though calling it that was generous, since it was one-sided—Subaru knew from experience what fighting Otto was like. Compared to Subaru, Otto was more accustomed to scrapes, but in this world overflowing with people whose combat abilities were beyond normal, he was solidly in the "non-combatant" category.
And yet he'd gone toe-to-toe with Garfiel, who was a full-fledged combatant and—at least among those Subaru knew—clearly one of the absolute top tier.
There was no way Otto stood a chance.
Moreover, Subaru hadn't given Otto any strategy beyond stalling with some tricks.
"...He's not dead, is he?"
A thin trickle of icy sweat traced down Subaru's forehead.
The worst-case scenario was Garfiel's claws tearing Otto apart. He wanted to dismiss it as an overreaction and laugh it off, but looking at Garfiel's state, he couldn't do that.
Garfiel himself had been beaten badly enough and pushed into a real struggle. To insist that he should have held back against Otto was absurdly selfish.
But even so—if Otto had died, then none of this meant anything.
Not Otto's death—Subaru's life would lose its meaning.
"...Subaru."
A silver-bell voice called to him from behind just as he was about to let his head hang, instinctively holding his breath.
Fingers that had hesitated to reach out touched his shoulder lightly, steadying him just as he was about to slump. That faint contact from behind stopped Subaru from bowing his head.
Without turning around, Subaru knew from the angle of that gaze—
To her, the sight of a blood-soaked Garfiel standing there in fury must have been incomprehensible. But she could sense that something far from ordinary was happening. The eyes she fixed on Subaru held more worry than anxiety.
"I'm fine, Emilia. Sorry for showing you something so pathetic all of a sudden. ...I just remembered who's standing behind me, so I've got myself together now."
As if supported by that gaze, Subaru let out a long breath and turned back to face Garfiel.
The entrance to the tomb had a slight incline, so Subaru was looking down at Garfiel ever so slightly. The latter hunched forward with hostile body language, his piercing gaze drilling into Subaru as if to kill him on the spot.
"Looks like you lot had yourselves a real fun time while I was running around, huh? Sneaking around, sneaking around... Tch. Guess you didn't know that I absolutely hate that kind of underhanded crap, huh?"
"I didn't realize I needed your permission to do something in this place. Besides, your personality type is pretty obvious, so I already knew. I figured you'd be angry, sure, but I also figured it wouldn't go beyond that."
"The hell did you just say?!"
At Subaru's unflinching tone, Garfiel scowled and snorted.
Looking down at the fuming Garfiel, Subaru hardened his expression.
"Garfiel. What happened to Otto?"
"He pulled that stupid stunt, so... I tore him to shreds, and what's left is probably feeding the forest by now."
"————"
Garfiel's response—canines clicking, tongue running over his lips—made Emilia gasp. The tremendous killing intent radiating from Garfiel's entire body. That alone conveyed just how well Otto must have fought against him.
And Garfiel, of course, couldn't have been going easy either.
So— "Then he's alive. Seriously, don't scare me like that... I thought everything was ruined for real, and my blood ran cold, no joke."
"...The hell?"
"But wait, why would he do something like that...
"Oi, oi—don't joke around."
"That would also explain how Garfiel ended up this beat-up. Yeah, that's it. There's no way Otto could've done all this alone. Man, for a second there I was starting to wonder if that guy had some hidden power and my faith in friendship almost cracked—"
"——You! What the hell are you talking about?! Huh?!"
Garfiel howled in raw fury, and the ground where he slammed his emotions down exploded.
Starting from his heel, the earth caved in, forming a crater with Garfiel at its center. Cracks radiated outward in every direction, and at the bottom of the crater, wreathed in billowing dust, Garfiel bared his fangs.
"I'm telling you I killed him! That guy put up a hell of a fight! Used some blessing I couldn't understand to turn the whole forest against me, insects and rats and everything, screwing with me nonstop! And in the end, he hit me with a huge magic spell he shouldn't have been able to use—one shot! So... I showed respect to a man who had the will to fight. With these claws and fangs!"
"The whole forest on his side... Right. The 'Blessing of Word Spirits' could be used that way too. That bastard, hiding something that important..."
"And Ram put him up to it too! That woman jumped into our fight and went all out without holding back... So I bit through her as well."
"............"
Garfiel gritted his teeth and covered his face with one hand, tilting his head back toward the sky.
Subaru watched Garfiel's anguished posture in silence, but his mind was churning over Garfiel's words again and again.
So Ram had also formed a joint front with Otto against Garfiel.
Perhaps with Ram's help, they'd nearly managed to push Garfiel to the brink of defeat. But even so, his beastman's wall had been too thick.
"While I was busy, I'm not in the mood to go chasing after the ones who fled elsewhere. But I'm not gonna overlook what you lot did anymore. Back off and don't come any closer. No one's getting into the tomb anymore. I'll collapse it with my own hands."
"If you do that, there'll be no way to open the barrier ever again. ...This 'Sanctuary' will be a sealed box garden forever. Is that really what you want?"
"That's what I want. Everything else is wrong."
Garfiel said flatly, and his foot stepped from the crater toward the tomb.
His stride was free of any hesitation—it was clear he intended to carry out what he'd just said without a shred of doubt.
Blood-soaked and battered—yet even so, there was a legitimate gap in real power between Subaru and Garfiel.
Even this wounded, Garfiel's raw strength still surpassed Subaru's.
That was obvious from the blow he'd just dealt the earth, and from the killing intent pouring off him.
But— "I-I won't let you do that."
In this place, there was one other person besides Subaru who could stand against Garfiel.
Emilia stepped out from beside Subaru and planted herself between the advancing Garfiel and the tomb. Garfiel, however, looked up at her with a flat, exasperated expression.
"Oi, oi. Don't tell me some weak chick is trying to block my way."
"I am. I won't let you destroy the tomb. I will overcome the 'Trial'—that's a promise."
"Obviously you can't! You've been sobbing and crying every single day, haven't you? On top of that, your friend's gone and you've got to be lonely out of your mind. Go cry wrapped in your blanket. Do that and I won't do a thing."
"————!"
Garfiel's cruel words brought a flash of anguish to Emilia's face. But that expression lasted only an instant—she swallowed the pain in the blink of an eye.
"I'm sorry, but even so, I can't back down. I have to face the 'Trial.' And face my past..."
"Every damn time, this again—!!"
Garfiel cut her off with an irritated hiss of his tongue, his eyes blazing with wrath.
The killing pressure from him intensified further, and Emilia's shoulders trembled. At that faint flinch, Garfiel's nose twitched with keen perception.
"So what about the past, what does that matter? You're scared of me, and yet you think you can overcome what scares you most? No one can do that—no one! That
"Now that's some harsh talk about the Witch."
"Huh?"
Subaru inserted himself into Garfiel's spat-out words. Garfiel turned his searing gaze from Emilia to Subaru and jabbed a finger at him.
"What? You gonna defend that vile Witch? They say 'Portukes has no morning or noon,' but are you really her slave down to your rotten core, huh?"
"————"
At Garfiel's words, Subaru fell silent.
Garfiel furrowed his brow, suspicious, but he couldn't understand the reason for Subaru's silence.
The Witch who slept in the tomb was
Garfiel was working from hearsay and lacked a functioning nose for miasma, so his understanding didn't extend that far.
And naturally, having had his spirit broken after a single attempt at the 'Trial,' Garfiel didn't even grasp the true meaning of Echidna's 'Trial.' "You're half-baked through and through, Garfiel."
"...What did you just say?"
Synthesizing Garfiel's words and actions up to this point, Subaru delivered that assessment.
At Subaru's cold dismissal, Garfiel's voice dropped to a menacing growl. But even facing that suffocating killing intent head-on, Subaru met his gaze without flinching.
"You figure that because you couldn't do it, no one else can. That's how you think, so that guy must be like that. —Just how far are you twisting things in your own head?"
"............"
"Sure, you're right that Emilia has failed the 'Trial' multiple times. I can't deny that she showed her ugly past and cried about it. I can't deny that she was panicking when
In front of the silent Garfiel, Subaru tilted his chin toward Emilia at his side.
Emilia looked at Subaru with startled eyes, unsure what he was about to say. But there was something compelling about the expression on his face as he delivered such a harsh judgment, so she held her tongue.
More importantly, the assessment Subaru had voiced was something Emilia herself already acknowledged. It was shameful, sure, but it wasn't something she should plug her ears over.
She made that judgment—and Subaru thought that being able to face your own shortcomings, even when you were weak, was something admirable.
So— "Even if she challenged the 'Trial' right now, the result might not change. She might lose again today and come back crying once more."
"If you know that, then why does she keep going back over and—"
"But Emilia will challenge it. As many times as it takes. —Unlike you."
"————!"
Garfiel's breath hitched.
Subaru didn't miss the momentary flicker in those sharp eyes, and pressed on without fear.
He looked down at him one more time, straight on.
"Garfiel. Emilia is nothing like you, who ran away after losing."
"——Don't! Push it!!"
The instant Subaru said it, Garfiel's right foot shattered the ground in explosive rage.
The earth upheaved from the impact. In some display of force, it formed a square wall of soil, and Garfiel's left foot launched it like a projectile.
The clod of earth spun vertically at tremendous speed, wreathed in wind, and shot past just inches from Subaru's left side before slamming into the wall beside the tomb entrance, dealing a heavy blow to the ancient structure.
Dirt, tangled vines, and moss peeled off the tomb's wall and rained down. Subaru stood there as it fell over him. Emilia beside him had flinched slightly, but having heard what Subaru said moments ago, she hadn't moved from her spot.
Seeing the quiet but solid trust between the two of them, Garfiel's eyes went wide. His bloodshot pupils blazed even more fiercely.
"What's that?! You two don't like it?! Huh?! I don't care! I don't care! Don't look at me like you've got it all figured out! Don't look at me like you've got the upper hand! If I felt like it, I could grind you two into unrecognizable mincemeat! Don't you get that, huh?!"
"I get it. That you could never do something like that."
Garfiel panted hard, kicking the ground, snarling his threats again and again. But his fierce posturing no longer registered with Subaru at all.
Of course it didn't. Through the events leading up to this, through Ryuzu's words, through the current situation—Subaru had finally seen what lay at Garfiel's foundation.
For all the fury and hostility Garfiel was projecting— "You won't kill me or Emilia. No—you can't. Because Garfiel... you've never killed anyone, have you?"
"————"
"You fought Otto and Ram too, but there's no way you killed either of them. Otto, maybe—but definitely not Ram. The fact that they haven't shown up probably means they're being kept out of commission... but that's as far as it goes."
At Subaru's words, Garfiel's agitated behavior came to a stop.
He held his breath, staring at Subaru. Hearing what Subaru had said, Emilia's eyes filled with confusion.
Having only ever known Garfiel's usual temperament, Emilia would have a hard time accepting what Subaru had just said.
But Subaru was certain.
Garfiel—in his human form, at least, when he had his own will—was incapable of making the decision to kill someone.
In the loops up to now, Subaru had clashed with Garfiel many times.
They'd disagreed. Or Garfiel had suddenly turned hostile. Once, when Subaru had rushed to attack Roswaal, Garfiel had struck him down and taken one of his eyes.
But it was also Garfiel who had treated that lost eye. And even when they'd been enemies, Garfiel had never ultimately let Subaru die.
There was one exception. Garfiel, in his beast form, had slaughtered the refugees. A memory he'd rather not recall. But for Subaru, it was a memory seared indelibly into him, and even now it stirred feelings toward Garfiel that were hard to swallow.
But thinking back on that incident, something stood out.
In his beast form, Garfiel couldn't speak. He was nothing but a beast acting on instinct, wielding claw and fang. When he'd turned those weapons on the villagers, it had surely been pure instinct.
But back then—when Garfiel had gone for the first villager, the one whose death had started the massacre—at the very last moment, down to the wire, he had hesitated.
In the moment, consumed by rage and frustration, Subaru hadn't been able to understand.
When Garfiel had approached that first person, everything had seemed to slow down, as though Subaru's desperation warped time itself. But that wasn't what had happened. That had been genuine hesitation.
And only after killing that one person—only after losing that hesitation—had Garfiel truly become a beast.
Subaru remembered the eyes of that great tiger, tasting blood and life, with nothing but loathing.
"Your eyes aren't the same as they were back then. You haven't killed anyone yet."
"And what's your basis for that, huh? Ram aside, what reason would I have to hesitate to tear apart that friend of yours?"
"Yeah, Ram aside."
"Um... do you two have something against Otto-kun...?"
Emilia timidly raised the name of Otto, who had been getting a raw deal throughout this conversation.
But Subaru—perhaps for the first time—consciously ignored Emilia and pointed at Garfiel, whose ferocious anger had drained from his expression.
"You could've hit him even just now. You just didn't want to. You only used it as a threat. Fashionable killing intent, was it? So who's the real scared one here, I wonder."
"Oi, oi, oi... Watch your mouth. You push any further and you won't know what your last words were until you hear them."
"Then quit making threats you can't back up. Deep down you're scared, but you put on a tough front—I've had my fill of that just from the deadbeats who hang around in back alleys. At least those guys had the guts to actually stab me."
"Stop it... Stop it...!"
Garfiel ground his teeth, glaring at Subaru with a furious expression.
But he was facing
"I said STOP—!!"
Another impact.
Torn earth flew past Subaru's head and slammed into the tomb.
There was no need to dodge. Garfiel had never aimed to hit.
"Go play in a sandbox if you want to throw dirt around. Don't you realize what's behind me is an Important Cultural Property? On top of that, aren't you the one who claims to be the fang protecting this 'Sanctuary'? What's behind me is the grave of the Witch who died here. She's a comrade—don't be prejudiced."
"She ain't no comrade!! She's the one—that Witch under that dirt—because of her...! I...! I..."
His tongue was running at full speed. Subaru's smooth provocations had Garfiel gasping for air.
He'd pushed through his battered, blood-soaked body to get here. On top of that, he was having this exhausting conversation, wasting energy on meaningless displays of dominance. His emotions were accelerating his blood flow—wounds that should have stopped bleeding had opened back up in places.
Breathing hard, Garfiel stopped and glared at Subaru. Then his gaze shifted to Emilia beside him. His nose wrinkled as if he'd noticed something.
"Oi... Don't screw with me. What's with that look?"
"............"
"If you've got something to say, say it! Being looked at with those eyes is way more annoying—can't you tell?!"
At whatever Garfiel had seen in Emilia's silent gaze, he barked.
Emilia's purple eyes held a complex mélange of emotions. She shook her head slightly at Garfiel's demand.
"Garfiel... what are you so afraid of?"
"What I'm... afraid of...?"
"Aren't you? That's why you're shouting, reaching out as far as you can, stomping the ground to keep yourself going?"
"What would you know about me..."
"I do know. Because..."
As Garfiel's voice diminished, Emilia paused, took a single breath, and continued.
"—I've been afraid of so many things for so long too."
Emilia's words, drawn from her own weakness, stopped Garfiel cold.
She touched her chest, her fingers moving as if searching for the crystal that wasn't there, and a fragile light filled her eyes as she went on.
"I've been scared of so many things as I made my way to today. I left everything to Puck when he was with me, leaned on him... and walked forward without even realizing I was doing it. And just today—just moments ago—I feel like I finally started to understand a little of that."
"Shut up."
"I still don't truly know what's right or what I have to do. But I think... I feel like I've found that there's 'something' there. And I can find that 'something' inside this tomb. That's why I can't let you move it."
"Quiet. Get lost. Don't say another word to me."
"...Don't you already have that 'something' inside you?"
"————!"
At Emilia's question, Garfiel snapped his head up as though a string had been cut. He bent his knees slightly, and then his compact body exploded into motion, leaping toward her.
He closed the distance to Emilia at terrifying speed—but a heartbeat before his body reached her, Subaru threw himself between them.
"Garfiel!"
"——Tch!"
Subaru extended his arm to intercept the lunging Garfiel, shielding Emilia from the trajectory, and the two collided. They tumbled together amid the impact, rolling across the ground, faces grimacing at the pain of being battered against the earth. After several flips, they came to rest with Subaru on his back. Garfiel's claws pressed against Subaru's neck, and he bared his fangs at Emilia.
"Right now! Get away from here right now! If you don't, I'll tear this guy's throat open and dye your clothes crimson red!"
"Subaru—"
Garfiel's threat put Emilia on alert.
She'd lost Puck, but she was still a spirit arts user. Borrowing the power of the minor spirits she'd contracted with, she was capable of wielding magic—more than enough to fight Garfiel, victory or defeat aside.
In the moment, Emilia moved to deploy mana.
"Emilia, stop! Don't worry about me! You can't do anything anyway!"
"Shut up! I'm sick and tired of this! Your empty words and this woman's nonsense are rotting my ears! I'll slice open that smart mouth of yours from corner to corner—if your jaw falls off, maybe you'll stop running it, huh?"
"——Guh!"
With Subaru pinned on his back, Garfiel drew a sharp claw across Subaru's left cheek. The tip sliced cleanly into the flesh, and the searing pain drew a small, strangled cry from Subaru.
But his eyes did not yield.
"If you push us away and destroy the tomb, what then...? Do you think running and running and running will let you escape?"
"Those are your regrets! Who the hell is gonna fix that for you?! That thing never intended to let any of us go in the first place! Why can't you understand that?!"
"I don't understand, Garfiel. —Because the past, and regret, can be overcome."
"————"
Subaru's declaration.
At those words, both Garfiel and Emilia drew a sharp breath simultaneously.
"It hurt so bad, was so painful, so pathetic I thought I couldn't show my face—but thinking I could do nothing about it was just me. None of that was ever true."
Even if it was a fleeting event. Even if the parents were false. Even if the memories were a reproduction—a lie.
Subaru had faced the greatest regret of his life, and there he had found both an answer and a goodbye.
The 'Trial' had indeed brought Subaru pain. The thing pressing on his chest just from thinking about it—the agony branded there was undoubtedly the mark of suffering the 'Trial' had seared into him alongside the past.
"But all of that—the pain and everything—I swallowed it whole. I took it in. ...Sure, the Witch was vile, and I'll never forget how she betrayed me when I wanted to believe."
The image surfaced in his mind: the alabaster Witch who always wore an enigmatic smile.
The tangled feelings he held toward her would never fully unravel, no matter how much time passed.
But the feelings he'd gained in that moment—there was no need to betray those.
"I'm grateful to the Witch. I'm glad I was able to face my past. I ran and ran and kept running... but I'm glad I couldn't escape."
"————"
"Garfiel. —Are you still running from the past you shared with your family?"
"Wha—?!"
At Subaru's question, Garfiel's expression changed.
He flushed red with fury, then went white with shock, and now—ashen pale.
His fangs chattered because his teeth were trembling in tiny, rapid movements.
His face looked as though he was feeling a chill—or terror—as Garfiel looked down at Subaru from up close.
"My... past... from whom...?"
"From everyone you'd expect... Do you think that's a betrayal? Or do you think it's something else?"
"Ugh, ah, hagh...!"
Emotion surged up so powerfully that Garfiel couldn't even string words together, his breath coming in broken gasps. Facing that violent tremor head-on, Subaru pressed harder.
"The Witch told you that you were afraid of the outside world."
Garfiel had no answer.
"Frederica told me she offered her hand to leave the Sanctuary together, and you brushed it off."
Garfiel had no answer.
"Ryuzu told me that what you saw in the tomb was parting with your mother."
Garfiel's answer was— "Ha, ha... oh, dear..."
"I know the broad strokes of what happened between you and Frederica. A human mother and a demi-human father—different fathers, making you and her half-siblings. As quarters, you two aren't bound by the Sanctuary's barrier. That's why Frederica went outside—to build a place where, when the barrier opened, the people inside could be welcomed somewhere."
"Sis..."
"But you stayed inside without taking Frederica's hand. Why? What did you want to do? Why are you still in this place?"
His breath was ragged.
The hand pressing Subaru to the ground was slowly tightening. It wasn't an attempt to silence Subaru—Garfiel himself was clinging to something, because he looked as though he would collapse entirely if he didn't hold on.
"In the tomb, you saw the past. You saw your mother leaving you and Frederica behind in the 'Sanctuary'... Didn't you?"
"————"
"Is that why you despise the outside world...?"
He took the silence as confirmation.
Garfiel remained mute, but he was looking at Subaru with the most feeble expression he'd worn yet. Not even a glare—just a gaze devoid of strength.
The face of a small child, terrified of having his hidden secret exposed.
A pang of guilt dug into Subaru's chest—the guilt of prying open someone else's wound. He forced that feeling down and drove toward Garfiel's truth.
Poking his fingertips into the wound he'd glimpsed, tearing it open by force, letting the blood flow— "Because your mother threw you away! Because you hate the mother who abandoned you, because you hate the outside world that took her away—is that why you despise it?!"
The conclusion Subaru had reached in his conversation with Ryuzu.
Echidna's parting words: "Garfiel is afraid of the outside world."
The separation from his family—the thorn still embedded in Garfiel's heart, still causing him pain.
At Subaru's near-accusation, Garfiel shook his head desperately.
"No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no!! What the hell do you know?! Stop talking like you understand everything!"
"That's right! What I said was a guess, and I was talking like I understood. The real truth—I can only hear that from you. If that's not it, then where is your real answer?!"
Crushed under the weight above him, Subaru raised his voice without showing pain.
Showered from below, that voice made Garfiel's face contort as he recoiled.
"You rejected Frederica when she went out into the world! You bound yourself to the mission of protecting the 'Sanctuary'! You've been sabotaging the 'Trial' that would open the barrier! What are you afraid of?! What are you afraid of?! Is it not the outside world you hate?!"
"N-No...!"
"Is it not your mother who threw you away that you hate?! You're afraid of facing the 'Trial' and being abandoned yourself—that's what you fear, isn't it?!"
Garfiel's face twisted in anguish.
He removed the hand pinning Subaru down and tried to pull away, to escape from Subaru's relentless questioning.
He would not let him go.
Subaru extended his arm, grabbed the back of Garfiel's neck, and hauled the retreating body back.
At breath's distance, Subaru glared into those blood-stained, anguished eyes, pleading with everything he had.
"Answer me, Garfiel! What were you afraid of?!"
The conclusion from his talk with Ryuzu, Echidna's words, Roswaal and Frederica's attitudes, the look Ram had given Garfiel—Subaru had seen a different answer in all of that.
If it was really true— "No, I was... I was...!"
"What did you really think?!"
"I was... I wanted... for Mom to..."
Garfiel took a shuddering breath, looked up at the sky, and said through trembling fangs.
"—I wanted her to be happy...!"
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "I was in the way, wasn't I?! Me and Sis—we were in the way of her being happy, weren't we?!"
It poured out.
Everything Garfiel had held inside until now.
"I know that! Me and Sis—we were thrown away! That's just how it is!"
The reason he'd kept locked in his chest, never shared with anyone.
"I wasn't wanted, and on top of that I had demi-human blood...! Of course that'd be in the way of living out there! They were going to leave us behind, going to throw us away—what's wrong with that?! Nothing! Nothing was wrong...!"
He couldn't hide the trembling in his voice, but he pressed his palms over his face to hide the shaking in his eyes.
"I know why we were thrown away! So I don't blame Mom for leaving us behind! Of course not! Me and Sis were in the way of Mom's life! She left the 'Sanctuary' to be happy without us!"
Young Garfiel had watched his mother leave the 'Sanctuary' behind, leaving them.
The feelings he couldn't yet understand at the time. But they had taken root, grown over a long span of years, and bloomed into a single, terrible conclusion.
That his mother had thrown them away like that.
But— "But that night... I saw. In the tomb, in the 'Trial'... I saw it, I saw it!! I saw that Mom—who left us behind and left the 'Sanctuary'... right after she left, her dragon carriage was caught in a landslide and she was buried under the rubble and died...!"
"————!"
"And even Sis doesn't know...! Sis still thinks Mom is living happily somewhere, having forgotten about us...! But that's not true! Mom died right after throwing us away!"
From Garfiel's mouth, the fragments of truth poured out in a wail.
The cruelty of what it meant—even Subaru, who knew the facts, and Emilia, who didn't, were struck numb.
In front of the speechless pair, Garfiel continued to cover his face, ragged breaths and something like sobs spilling out.
"She died... She couldn't be happy..."
Subaru had no answer to give.
"Then why?! Didn't she go out into the world to be happy?!"
Emilia had no answer to give.
"Didn't she leave us behind because she wanted to be happy?!"
Neither Subaru nor Emilia could give Garfiel an answer.
"She threw us away, but if she couldn't be happy and died right away..."
Garfiel kept asking questions with no answers.
They must have been— "What about our loneliness? What about the sadness of being thrown away? What were we supposed to do with that?!"
—Questions that had echoed inside his heart for so, so long.
"I wanted Mom to be happy!"
His tear-soaked voice carried weight.
He peeled his palms from his face, clenched his teeth, and exhaled.
"I wanted her to make it mean something—our sadness, our loneliness from being abandoned—I wanted her to let me believe that it all meant something in the name of her happiness! I wanted her to let me hate her!"
His feelings for his mother had nowhere to go, and Garfiel's heart had been sealed inside the 'Sanctuary' through the tomb.
With no outlet for his fury, he had fed his soul as fuel to keep the fire of his emotions burning.
"But Mom died!! Me and Sis—nothing came of our suffering. Mom couldn't even be happy, crushed under heavy stone and sand, dying in pain!"
Having reached that conclusion, smoldering in the ashes of his own feelings, Garfiel had made his decision.
He rose and pulled away from Subaru.
Looking up at the tomb, Garfiel spoke in a low voice.
"—I will never let anyone go out into the outside world."
His voice trembled.
It was fury, and grief, and the remnant of passion—and a fire that still burned.
Garfiel turned around.
Looking down at Subaru, who was getting to his feet, he bared his fangs.
"Being happy isn't something you get just by abandoning people and leaving! Trying to change anything comes with pain, and not everyone can withstand that pain!"
"————"
"There are so many people who can't do anything about it! Everyone here is one of them! What are they supposed to do?! Are they supposed to become sacrifices for someone else's happiness and suffer?! Are they supposed to end up like me and Sis?!"
"————"
"I will. I—"
He clenched his fists.
He stopped howling, and a quiet resolution filled his eyes as Garfiel exhaled.
"I'll protect them. Everything within my reach—I'll protect it all. I'll protect it, protect it, protect it—I swear I will...! I won't let anyone be lost...! I won't let anyone feel what Mom felt...!"
It was no longer anger. It was no longer grief. It was something that shook Garfiel's heart at its core.
Neither Subaru nor Emilia could move in the face of what Garfiel had been carrying.
Garfiel spread his arms wide before the two of them, the tomb at his back, and roared.
"I will become the barrier! A real barrier—the kind that divides inside from outside!"
"Garfiel..."
"That's why! I'll protect the 'Sanctuary'! Everyone! Gran! It's something only I can do! Only I know how! And it's fine if I'm the only one who knows!!"
Garfiel's bloody resolve, his roar, his determination.
Facing it, Subaru could not find words.
Garfiel had steeled himself with every ounce of his being.
Then— "—Subaru."
"It's all right, Emilia."
Emilia called out to Subaru as he rose and stepped forward.
He waved off her worried look and walked to stand before Garfiel.
Within arm's reach, the two faced each other.
Words would no longer stop Garfiel.
Then there was only one thing to do.
"You stubborn fool..."
"————"
"I understand your resolve. I was wrong about you. And you're still wrong about yourself. So... I'm going to set you straight."
Garfiel lowered his stance slightly, both arms hanging loose.
It looked unguarded, but it was a dead-serious posture radiating otherworldly killing intent.
Before him, Subaru also raised both hands and squared up.
Resolved that words would not reach Garfiel, he would settle this on Garfiel's own ground.
"I'm going to beat you down completely, and then I'll teach you one thing.—That you're kind, you're weak, and you're a stubborn, stupid idiot!!"