Bursting from the room, racing down the corridor, and leaping down the stairs.
Landing on the landing after skipping three steps, pivoting mid-air and leaping once more, his feet hit the first floor — and with his face turned upward— "—
Shouting loud enough for the entire mansion to hear, Subaru made for the entrance hall.
He was on the verge of bolting straight outside, but what stopped him in his tracks was Ram's figure, already standing at the entrance.
Rather than having gotten ahead of him, she had simply been closer to the entrance to begin with — which also meant she had more idle time on her hands than Rem, who was busy preparing meals in the kitchen.
Whatever Ram saw in Subaru's flushed, wild-eyed expression, a flicker of surprise crossed her typically composed features as she— "What's the matter, Barusu? You look so flustered..."
"Sorry, but I'm heading to the village. It's no use trying to stop me, and even if you could, I'd still go — but I figured leaving without telling anyone would just cause confusion."
"To the village...? What for...? No, before that — weren't you listening to Lord Roswaal's instructions? Tonight, Ram and the others have been entrusted with the mansion. Do you not understand what that means?"
Ram's gaze sharpened as she confronted Subaru.
Above all else, prioritizing Roswaal's will was her creed. Subaru's dismissive attitude toward her master's orders had clearly struck a nerve.
But Subaru was in no mood to back down either.
"We don't have time for a back-and-forth, so I'll cut straight to the point. —There's a wicked spellcaster in that village. I figured out who it is, and I have to go."
"...You want me to accept that reason — something a child would make up?"
"I don't exactly have another way to put it, so give me a break. If you don't believe me, ask Beako — she'll confirm it. As for the rest..."
"Sister—"
While Subaru tried to argue against Ram's deepening suspicion, the great doors behind them opened and Rem appeared. Seeing the two of them arguing at the entrance, she glided over to stand beside her sister.
"Sister, what's going on..."
"He says he wants to go outside to slay the wicked spellcaster in the village. —What do you think we should do about that, Rem?"
Hearing her sister's succinct summary, the younger girl's eyes widened in bewilderment.
Once she'd processed the words, she turned a skeptical gaze toward Subaru— "Sister, sister. Subaru-kun is telling such terribly boring jokes."
"Rem, rem. Barusu does have first-rate talent as a clown, I'll give him that."
"Ram, Rem. I goof around, sure, but there are times I'm dead serious."
Their synchronized remarks drowned out Subaru's, leaving both sisters momentarily speechless.
Seizing the opening their reaction created, Subaru stepped forward— "I know it's hard to believe, and I know it's a lot to ask you to trust me when I'm suddenly rushing off like this. So I won't ask you to just let me go without conditions."
This was a crucial turning point for Subaru as well.
He licked his lips, faced the silent pair, and made his proposal, holding up a finger— "I'm going to the village. If you don't trust me, you're welcome to come along — judge for yourselves. But I can't leave
"Making your own rules as you please... Besides, if we're meant to follow Lord Roswaal's orders, there's no reason for me or Sister to go with you..."
"Yeah, none. If all we're talking about is following Ros-chi's evening orders, sure. But was that the only order Ros-chi gave regarding me?"
"......"
As if he'd hit a sore spot, Rem lost her words.
His shot-in-the-dark remark must have struck closer to home than he realized.
The two of them had received orders from Roswaal to keep watch over Subaru's movements. He'd already pieced that much together from the fragmentary information of his previous loops.
Rem continued searching for words to counter him, but it was Ram who broke the flow of conversation with a quiet sigh before she could.
She raised her hand slightly— "Very well, Barusu. I'll permit you to act on your own authority."
"Sister—!?"
Rem was stunned by how easily her sister had raised the white flag. But Ram turned her raised palm toward her younger sister and continued with, "However—"
"As Barusu already knows, I can't let him go alone. If I approve his solo action here, that would mean defying Lord Roswaal's orders."
"Right. So what's the compromise?"
"It's irritating, but I have no choice but to take Barusu up on his earlier offer. Ram stays at the mansion. Rem goes with Barusu. If he does anything suspicious... that's the condition."
"Couldn't have asked for more."
Subaru raised his fist, signaling his agreement with Ram's terms.
Ram let out a small sigh, then turned to her sister, who seemed a bit lost in the conversation— "Rem, that's the situation, so I'm counting on you. I'll handle
"Sister, don't use that look too much..."
"This isn't the time for that. I'll use it if I have to. You should do the same, Rem."
Rem had nothing more to say to her sister's matter-of-fact tone.
After an exchange that only the two of them could fully understand, Rem swallowed down numerous words and turned a decidedly unfriendly gaze toward Subaru— "Subaru-kun, I'd very much like to hear the details."
"On the way. There's a chance things are already going south in a big way."
If Subaru's worst-case scenario was correct, the consequences wouldn't be something anyone could laugh off as an exaggeration. Not just for Subaru personally, but from a much broader perspective as well.
He gave her a light pat on the shoulder, thanking Ram for letting him pass.
Then, with Rem — who still didn't look entirely convinced — in tow, Subaru headed for the entrance.
And just then— "—Subaru, are you going somewhere?"
From the grand staircase of the entrance hall, a silvery, bell-like voice floated down.
Unable to help himself, Subaru looked up. There stood Emilia, her silver hair swaying. His shouts from earlier must have reached her too.
Slightly out of breath, she looked down at the three frozen at the entrance— "I heard a loud voice, so I came down to see... Did something happen?"
"Maybe something, yeah. What can I say, Emilia-tan? Well, don't worry about it. Actually, no — it'd make me happy if you worried just a little."
To keep Emilia from fretting unnecessarily, Subaru put on that act on purpose.
Same old flippancy from Subaru — but whatever Emilia saw behind it— "You've got that look on your face again — like you're about to do something reckless."
She saw right through him instantly, her expression turning reproachful. Scratching his head at her piercing insight, Subaru tilted his neck with a frown— "We just now barely finished arguing about that..."
"It's no use trying to stop you, is it?"
"Yeah, pretty much. In fact, if you stopped me, it'd create problems in a number of ways..."
"Okay, okay, I get it. I won't try to stop you."
Emilia descended the stairs, came to stand before them, and placed her hands on her hips.
Stared straight into her amethyst eyes, Subaru suddenly found himself unable to look away, as if drawn in by their radiance.
She reached out toward the frozen Subaru, lightly touching his chest— "I was going to tell you not to push yourself or do anything crazy, but that seems pointless too."
"Depends on the situation, yeah. And honestly, I don't want to do any of that either."
Words like "effort," "try my best," and "give it my all" — the kind of thing he'd rather avoid altogether.
Still, when he was the only one who could change the situation, Subaru had no choice but to act. How had he become such a troublesome person? —He figured the girl before him had a lot to do with it, and managed a wry smile.
"—May the blessings of the spirits be upon you."
"What was that?"
Subaru tilted his head at the murmur that came while her hand was still on his chest. Emilia let out a small, knowing laugh— "It's a farewell blessing. It means 'come back safely.'"
"Oh, like a flint-and-steel sending-off? Then I've got to answer in kind. Emilia-tan, may victory's glory be yours—"
"Yeah, yeah."
Emilia let Subaru's salute pass, then turned her gaze to Rem. The younger girl had been silently watching their exchange, and she straightened at Emilia's look.
"Rem, you be careful too. And keep an eye on Subaru so he doesn't do anything reckless."
"Yes, Emilia-sama. Understood."
"I'm really not trusted, am I?"
"What are you talking about? It's precisely because I trust who you are as a person that we're even having this conversation."
"What kind of trust is that? It could be taken as a compliment or an insult, and that's kind of freaking me out."
Emilia had shifted into lecture mode, hands on hips.
There were probably countless things she still wanted to say, but that was as far as she took it. Sensing Subaru's urgency, she gave his back a gentle push— "Take care."
"Yup, I'm off!"
Pushed from behind, he responded with a raised fist and dashed out of the mansion, leaving Emilia and Ram behind. Rem bowed to the mansion before following, and he could feel her gracefully pulling up alongside his sprinting pace.
"So, about those details I'd like to hear..."
"There's a curse user in the village. Beatrice removed the curse from me, but I was cursed too — and if things go wrong, the whole village could be wiped out."
"—You're serious?"
Running alongside him, Rem's breath caught and her eyes went wide.
Subaru answered with a silent nod, fixing his gaze on the village ahead.
If the curse user were a rational human, such measures wouldn't have been necessary to imagine. But if Subaru's hypothesis was confirmed, the worst was entirely possible.
And so Subaru ran. Rem, sprinting alongside him, understood the gravity of the situation and ran in silence.
In the distance, beyond the trees, lay the village — and the two of them tore through the darkness of night toward it.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "—Subaru-kun, over there."
Subaru heard Rem call out, her voice taut with tension.
Rem's figure was well ahead of him, her voice coming from far in front. She was pointing toward the village, its outline now clearly visible — and her expression said it all— "The village... it's way too bright."
Reaching the same conclusion, Subaru sensed that something was wrong.
His sprint had slowed to a pace that was too fast to walk, too slow to run — his footing heavy with fatigue.
Rem, unable to hold back her urgency, looked at Subaru with frustration — but even with her pressing him, his side was in too much pain to so much as shout.
"Go ahead of me... go..."
He gestured for her to go on ahead, but Rem shook her head.
The reason for her accompanying Subaru was precisely the reason she couldn't leave his side. She was supposed to be keeping watch over him — splitting up here would defeat the entire purpose.
Whether she'd reached the end of her patience with Subaru's lackluster attitude— "Oh, very well. Just don't bite your tongue."
"Huh, wait, Rem-rin, what are you—!?"
Rem dashed back to Subaru's side, reached out, and grabbed the back of his neck with ease, lifting him up like he weighed nothing.
The same overwhelming display of strength she'd shown back with the wine barrel.
Slung over Rem's shoulder, Subaru's body hurtled forward through the air in an upside-down position.
Experiencing Rem's full-speed sprint firsthand, Subaru was struck speechless by her physical prowess. At the same time, he was now certain his judgment to bring her along had been correct.
What could a helpless, useless Subaru have accomplished jumping into the eye of the storm alone? Including the bluffing back at the entrance, securing Rem as combat power had been the right call.
"We're here. Subaru-kun, are you alright?"
"That was fast, as expected... Now, the state of the village... ughhh."
Hands braced against the wall, Subaru fought the nausea caused by being shaken around and his accumulated fatigue.
Rem, ignoring Subaru's pathetic state, scanned the area. The two of them, standing out as they did, caught the eye of a villager who happened to be passing by.
"Aren't you two from the mansion? At a time like this..."
"Perfect timing. Has something happened?"
Rem seized the young man who had hurried over and pressed him with her question from above. His eyes widened slightly at her forceful tone, and he replied in a faltering voice, "Y-yes, actually—"
"The thing is, several children from the village are missing. We know they were playing before it got dark, but after that..."
Rem opened her mouth to press him with further questions.
But Subaru moved before she could. Still breathing hard, he grabbed the young man's shoulder, turned him around, and— "Missing — do you mean Ruka, Petra, and Mild?"
"Y-yes, that's them... Do you have any idea where they went?"
His worst fears confirmed, Subaru clicked his tongue and kicked the ground. "Shit!" Then he fixed his gaze on the edge of the village — toward the wall that bordered the forest— "You're looking for the kids? Just you?"
"The whole youth brigade, plus the village chief."
"The kids are in the forest. Searching the village won't find them."
The young man's expression changed at Subaru's certainty. He looked like he still had questions, but Subaru clapped him on the shoulder and broke into a run— "I'm heading into the forest first. Go tell everyone — the kids are in the forest!"
The young man called out a question from behind, but Subaru didn't stop and sprinted on.
Rem hurried after him, unable to reconcile his air of certainty.
"How could you possibly know..."
"I know because I heard it — twice — that they were found deep in the forest, all alone and crying—"
Surrounding the village was a tall wooden fence. The two of them climbed over the section nearest the forest and landed on the soft earth beyond — inside the forest.
Threading their way between the trees, watching for roots and muddy ground, they pressed deeper.
"Even if we're talking about the forest, the area is too vast. Subaru-kun, do you have any idea where..."
"If the kids' words are right, it should be this way..."
He advanced on memory alone, but his steps were heavy — he was tracing hearsay, nothing more. To make matters worse, visibility was pitch black, with no way to confirm they were heading in the right direction.
But— "The barrier... it's been broken."
Hearing the surprise in Rem's voice, Subaru clenched his fist — his judgment had been right.
Right before them, Rem pointed out a crystal embedded in a massive tree trunk. It had clearly been dark for a long time — one of those mysterious objects he'd seen several times in the forest.
Subaru's memories held scattered references to a barrier connected to the forest. When had Ram directly warned him about not going deep into the mountains?
"What happens when the barrier breaks?"
"'Mabeasts' can cross the boundary line. That's exactly why checking on the barrier is a villager's duty..."
"No point in saying that now — what's in front of us is what it is. More importantly, what are these mabeasts?"
Still visibly shaken, Rem answered Subaru's question— "Mabeasts are non-human entities possessing magical power... They're said to have been created by the
"The Witch again..."
The repeated mention of a word he couldn't ignore made Subaru grimace, but the first half of Rem's answer had confirmed everything — the identity of the curse user, and the harbinger of the disaster now befalling the village.
"—! Subaru-kun, what are you doing!?"
Rem cried out in alarm.
Before her, Subaru had crossed the tree that had served as the barrier and was about to press deeper. He turned back to the astonished girl and held out his left hand— "The kids are deeper in. I have to go save them."
"Do you have proof? To cross the barrier, you need Lord Roswaal's permission..."
"The scar on the back of my hand is proof."
He pointed to the back of his left hand — there, a wound he'd sustained during his visit to the village earlier that day.
The marks of canine teeth, left when the children had surrounded him and given him their own baptism.
Pointing to this very wound, Beatrice had told him— That the being who had left this mark was the one who had cursed Subaru.
The first time. The second time. And now this time.
The entity behind every instance in which a curse had fallen upon Subaru — and the same one that could threaten Rem in this, his fourth world.
There was no longer any possibility other than that being.
"It was the dog the kids were fond of. What if that dog-like thing wasn't a dog at all, but something that was cursing every single person it bit?"
It wasn't man-made — it was more like a natural disaster.
Just as there had been plagues spread through rats, if something spread explosively through animals, what would become of a small village like this was easy to imagine.
The safety of the children who had chased that dog into the forest was in just as much danger.
"The more time we waste, the worse it gets. I don't know if the kids are cursed yet, but either way, we need to get them all and bring them to the mansion for Beatrice to remove the curses."
"Wait. You can't just make that kind of decision on your own — and besides, the situation is far too suspicious."
"Huh?"
As Subaru tried to push into the forest, Rem clung to her objections. She pointed back toward the village — and by extension, the mansion— "A problem like this happens to strike the very moment Lord Roswaal is away? You really think this isn't aimed at the mansion..."
"Then what do you propose? We abandon the kids who are definitely in danger right now, head back to the mansion, and shore up our defenses? If you're fine with every villager being dead by tomorrow, that's certainly one option."
Subaru knew his words were cowardly even as he spoke them.
Rem was only trying to mitigate risk. That was a perfectly natural feeling, and she was in no way deserving of blame.
But whether he held his tongue or cowered, the moment that demanded a decision would always come.
No matter how limited the choices, he had to pick one of the cards laid before him. Of course, he could always choose not to choose. But the regret of doing so — that was the greatest of all, carved deep, deep into the bottom of his heart, even now.
"Rem, let's go. The two of us — it's all we can do."
"Why go this far... What does this village even mean to you, Subaru-kun..."
It was the first time Subaru had heard Rem waver like this. Rem, who never let her composure slip, no matter what.
But when she was asked to make a decision without the master and sister she trusted, she showed the fragile, age-appropriate face of a young girl once more.
Subaru felt an aching empathy for that human weakness. But they didn't have the luxury of comforting each other's wounds right now.
Neither in terms of time nor in terms of emotional capacity.
Even as he urged Rem forward, Subaru's legs trembled for reasons beyond mere fatigue. Of course they did. He knew the very entity that had taken his life twice and Rem's once was waiting for them ahead.
To make matters worse, his strongest ally in combat had no inclination to go deeper. Considering the possibility that he might have to go in alone, how could he possibly hold back the cowardice he'd tried so hard to suppress?
But Subaru slapped his own cheek to banish his weakness.
The sharp crack made Rem look up. Meeting her gaze, Subaru took a deep breath and spoke in a low voice— "—Petra, when she grows up, wants to work making clothes in the capital."
"...What?"
"Ruka says he wants to take over from the village's top lumberjack, and Mild wants to make a crown from flowers gathered in the flower fields and give it to his mom."
"..."
Counting off the faces that appeared behind his eyelids one by one, Subaru continued— "Meina was so happy about having a little brother or sister on the way, and the twin brothers, Dain and Kain, are competing over who gets to marry Petra."
A small laugh escaped him.
Then, shaking his head at the silent Rem— "How can I not be connected? I know their faces, their names, what they want to do tomorrow."
Subaru didn't like kids.
They were loud, overfamiliar, spoke without respect, and above all, lacked any sense of decorum.
Rude, impudent, reckless, inconsiderate — it was almost like looking at someone in a mirror.
Subaru was far from a good person at heart.
Even when he saw reports of horrific incidents on the news, no matter how staggering the numbers on paper, if it didn't hit close to home, he'd forget about it after a single night's sleep — that's how heartless he was.
So he didn't like them, and kids who weren't close to him — what happened to them didn't matter.
In fact, Rem was right — hunkering down at the mansion and prioritizing Emilia and the others was far more in keeping with who Subaru was.
But— "I made a promise — that we'd do radio calisthenics again tomorrow."
During the loop on his first day summoned to this world, Subaru had surely thought the same thing.
If he just abandoned them, things would be easier. But he couldn't do that — and that was why he ran.
He looked at Rem.
She was torn. Uncertain.
A feeble sight. A sight of someone lamenting their own inadequacy. And it was Subaru's own reflection.
Looking at her, weaker than himself in this moment, he felt disgusted with the version of himself that was trying to find resolve.
That pettiness — cowering in fear and then trying to prop himself up by using someone else — was something he loathed from the bottom of his heart.
If even his own cowardice could be put to use, then so be it.
"I'm the kind of person who keeps promises — and makes others keep theirs. —I'm doing those radio calisthenics with those kids again. No matter what. So I'm going in."
He'd never known courage could be so terrifying.
Subaru was too busy fighting to keep his trembling hands still to notice that his voice was shaking as he spoke.
Watching Subaru's back, Rem quietly closed her eyes.
If she chose not to follow, he'd accept that too. Going back now to round up the villagers would cost too much time. At the very least, he'd leave that much with Rem and go— "I suppose... there's no helping it."
"Rem?"
Rem loosened her lips into a faint smile and looked up at Subaru.
For what might have been the first time, she let a clearly legible emotion show on her face as she turned to the surprised Subaru— "The job Rem was assigned is to watch over Subaru-kun. If I let Subaru-kun go alone here, I wouldn't be able to fulfill that, would I?"
At her teasing words, Subaru stood dumbfounded for a moment, then shook his head— "Yeah, that's right. Make sure you keep a close eye on me — make sure I don't do anything suspicious."
"Yes, I will. —Now then, shall we go?"
Rem glided to his side, and Subaru straightened up, feeling as though they were finally standing side by side in the truest sense.
As he felt a strange warmth and was about to thank her, he suddenly noticed something.
In Rem's hand, an iron flail had appeared at some point — a metal ball connected to an iron handle by a chain. It rested in her grip, producing a light metallic clink that belied its weight.
"Uh, Rem-san, what's that..."
"For self-defense."
"No, but that's—"
"Self-defense."
With Rem at his side, and with that exchange between them, the two pressed on into the uncharted forest.
All the while, Subaru did his best to rebuild the courage he'd barely managed to muster, as it threatened to drain away once more.