—Locking eyes in a silent standoff, Subaru swallowed hard at the feel of sweat tracing down his forehead.
It was a spacious room. Two beds were lined up along the far wall, and the space near the door was wide enough to comfortably fit his entire bedroom from his old world — with room to spare.
The luggage that had been brought over from the mansion was arranged neatly in that open area, but it occupied barely a fraction of the room's total footprint.
With Subaru standing planted in the center, he could put on a full-blown stage performance and not so much as nick a single piece of furniture.
"Are you seriously not going to let me through no matter what?"
Feeling his lips go dry from the tension, Subaru forced the words past the burning tightness in his throat. His voice was low, carefully hiding the tremor in it. The obstacle before him — the figure blocking his path — spread both arms wide, shielding the door from view, and held firm.
Knowing that posture was futile, Subaru still clung to that sliver of hope and let a pleading look cross his face. For just an instant, he caught a flicker of wavering in the eyes looking back at him — but it dissolved without leaving the faintest trace behind the iron wall of her professional resolve.
"Even if it's a request from Subaru-kun, I cannot let you pass."
The figure blocking his way —
Exhaling a sigh at that obstinate stance, Subaru put on a show of exaggerated nonchalance and shrugged his shoulders.
"Come on, think about it calmly for a second, Rem. Here I am, abandoned and left behind, and it's not like I've got some massive network of contacts or anything. In other words, once I leave this room, there's nothing I can do anyway. You get that, right?"
He rattled off the words in rapid succession, trying to chip away at Rem's vigilance. She listened, then smiled sweetly and said, "Yes."
"Ordinarily, there's no way leaving this room would lead to the fulfillment of your wishes. It's not a place you can reach so easily, and even if you somehow got there, I can't imagine you'd have any cards to play."
"Right?"
"But that's only if we're talking within the bounds of Rem's common sense."
With that crisp rebuttal, Rem continued to watch Subaru, her smile never wavering. Her gaze traveled from top to bottom, and the sheer scrutiny of it made Subaru straighten his spine involuntarily. Then she went on.
"With Subaru-kun, there's no telling what outlandish idea you might come up with to achieve your goal. There's no guarantee you haven't already cooked up some means that lies entirely beyond Rem's imagination."
"That creepy mix of trust and distrust you've got going on for me is seriously unsettling. I'm not nearly as far outside the box as you make me out to be, you know!"
"If Subaru-kun believes that, then I suppose that's how it is. At least, within Subaru-kun's world."
He tried to gently correct Rem's thinking, but her image of him had been set so firmly in stone that no amount of talk was going to shift it.
In any case, persuading her with words and getting her to step aside was looking like a near-impossible proposition. If that was the case, his only option was to somehow outmaneuver her and slip past.
"That's its own kind of nightmare though… If this is how it starts, I hate to think what's waiting at the end…"
Muttering through a sigh, Subaru scratched his head and narrowed his eyes in thought, looking at Rem.
No — his gaze was aimed past her, toward the other side of the door to the inn, the one through which
—And so: "Oh — house-sitting!?"
Having returned to his room after breakfast and finally catching his breath, Subaru was informed of the day's plan and let out a cry of sheer shock.
Before the stunned Subaru, the only people in the room were Emilia and Rem.
And it was Emilia who had provoked that opening scream — the one who now stood with her hands on her hips, looking down at Subaru as if to say "obviously."
"Subaru, you haven't forgotten why you came to the capital, have you? To check on the well-being of your acquaintances here, and to get your own body treated. That's what we agreed on."
"Well, yeah, but I was kind of hoping we could stretch that into something a bit more—"
"Absolutely not! This isn't some leisure trip — outsiders aren't allowed in. I can't even take Rem with me."
The intensity in Emilia's voice was unusual, and with yesterday's fiasco still hanging over him, Subaru couldn't muster the tongue to fire back. He glanced toward Rem in the corner of the room for help, but the blue-haired maid shook her head.
"I'm afraid I can't take Subaru-kun's side on this one, either. It's Roswaal-sama's wishes as well, and Emilia-sama's reasoning is correct. Please understand."
"Damn it — no allies!? But after what happened yesterday, I can't even argue back. So frustrating!"
Even Rem, who was normally a devoted Subaru partisan, had her priorities firmly in order.
Yesterday's fiasco — in short, the incident where he'd disobeyed instructions and gotten lost — had resulted in some pretty heavy restrictions on Subaru's freedom of movement within the capital.
On this point, Subaru had to concede that it was entirely his own fault, and now that he'd managed to reconnect with Old Man
"No, I also wanted to see
And naturally, he wasn't including Elsa among the people he wanted to see, so there was absolutely no factor that would increase the proportion of women. Here he was, summoned to another world in a fantasy setting, and all he'd managed to do was stack up flags with male characters. What was even the point?
"It's fine, I've still got the main heroine flag going…"
"You're muttering to yourself again, and I really don't think that's a good look."
Being told off by Emilia — the actual main heroine — with that reproachful glare, Subaru had no comeback and fell silent. Once she'd confirmed that Subaru had no more objections or twisted logic to throw at her, Emilia nodded with satisfaction.
"I'd say it shouldn't take too long — except, honestly, I'm not sure how long today will take. So go ahead and have your meals with Rem. If you wait around, you'll probably end up being kept waiting way too long."
"Hmph. If Emilia-tan is going to be that mean about it, I've got plans of my own. Right, Rem? Let's treat ourselves to a feast today, just the two of us!"
"No. Today's menu features whole roasted ringa, ringa salad, ringa pie made with generous amounts of ringa jam, and ringa juice squeezed fresh for after the meal."
"An all-ringa spread!? You — you scarf-faced fiend!"
He'd brought home nine ringa himself not so long ago, but Subaru conveniently forgot that detail as he summoned a vision of the grim-faced fruit-shop owner hovering in the void. He held up a finger to the thumbs-up grinning apparition and bid it farewell, then bared his teeth in a grin of exasperated resignation.
"Fine, whatever. Ringa is my favorite fruit anyway! Seriously, it's ringa night fever! Let's chow down on the whole lot, together!"
"Oh, no. Rem is a maid who knows exactly which strings to pull, so I won't interfere with Subaru-kun's enjoyment of his beloved ringa. You can have every last bite."
"You — you look like you're on my side, but every now and then you just cold-bloodedly throw me under the bus!?"
Rem's attitude — less "aware of her position" and more "fully weaponizing her position" — sent Subaru into a shriek. The two of them bickered back and forth like a comedy duo while Emilia watched with a thoughtful expression, but she quickly shook it off and shook her head.
"In any case, I'm leaving everything in Rem's hands. Roswaal told you to be thorough too, I'm sure, so do be thorough. —Really. Be thorough."
"The way you even set up a pause to repeat yourself — I must really be on Emilia-tan's mind!"
Subaru gave a thumbs-up to Emilia's earnest admonition.
Seeing that familiar gesture, Emilia placed her palm over the hand he'd thrust out. The unexpected contact made Subaru draw a sharp breath. He'd built up a fair amount of tolerance for having close conversations with her by now, but he was still hopelessly weak against a surprise ambush like that.
Emilia, for her part, seemed not to notice the change in his breathing.
"Subaru — I'm not asking for too much."
"O-oh…?"
"Please — just let me believe in you."
She murmured it softly, almost as a prayer, her eyes briefly closing. The words stopped Subaru's thoughts dead for an instant.
He turned her words over in his head, chewing on them, swallowing them, and letting the meaning and intent sink in fully— "A-ah! Totally, I'll absolutely do it! I'll live up to Emilia-tan's expectations! That's basically the reason I'm alive!"
Without entirely understanding what she'd been referring to, he reflexively gave his wholehearted affirmation. Accept first, act later — that was the Subaru way.
To those words, tinged with a certain unavoidable on-the-spot desperation, Emilia's violet-dark eyes filled with a trace of sorrow.
"Yeah. —I believe in you."
That was all she said, quietly, almost to herself.
—And thus, the story circles back to where we began.
Emilia and Roswaal had headed off to the royal castle, leaving Subaru behind at the inn under Rem's watchful eye. He'd spent his short stretch of free time doing writing exercises.
As it happened, having largely conquered the "i" characters, his next objective was to begin learning the "ro" characters. If the "i" characters corresponded roughly to Japanese hiragana, then the "ro" characters appeared to be the katakana equivalent — with the exception of some slightly different shapes, the patterns were much the same as the "i" characters, so he预计d this phase of study wouldn't take nearly as long as the last.
About an hour and a half into his ro-character practice — "getting bored" wasn't quite right for a Subaru who was genuinely enjoying his studies, but "unable to sit still anymore" was spot-on accurate.
Learning the script gave Subaru a tangible sense of the other world seeping into his bones, and he genuinely appreciated that feeling. That was why he threw himself into his daily assignments without complaint — the learning motivation was real.
But when the weight on the other side of that motivational scale was Emilia, everything else became irrelevant.
Just as Subaru was rising and making for the door, Rem quietly stepped in his way. The all-purpose maid — who simultaneously handled cleaning, luggage sorting, and Subaru's study supervision and tutoring — had caught wind of his casual remark about "going to pick some flowers," read straight through to his true intentions, and moved to block them.
Namely, his scheme to slip out of the inn and head for the castle.
He did feel a twinge of guilt about going back on his promise to Emilia.
Her anxiety — or rather, her certainty — had been well-founded, and the judgment she'd shown in ordering Rem to keep watch on him proved she had a solid read on who Subaru was as a person.
And yet, even understanding all of that, Subaru could not simply sit at the inn and wait.
"I know I'm being paranoid just because I had bad experiences in the capital last time, but…"
He'd already pieced together what kind of ordeals Emilia had faced during her previous visit to the capital.
She had come to the city incognito, yet the enemy had targeted her insignia, threatening to strip her of that title — and nearly take her life.
If Subaru hadn't been there, her fate would have ended that day. That much was clear.
—Reflecting on the day they first met, Subaru couldn't help but become conscious of his own position.
He had been summoned to another world without warning, and had been given not a single thing that could be called a purpose. On the surface, he played the carefree optimist, but as for what lay beneath — he was rather reckless and impulsive, with a tendency to simply go with the flow.
In short, his outside and inside were pretty much the same, and looking back on everything that had brought him to this moment, it was hard to deny that he'd been swept along by the current.
He couldn't deny it, but— "For a guy who gets swept along, I'd like to think I've been choosing which current to swim in."
He wouldn't deny being swept here, but there had been other choices — other directions he could have gone and ended up somewhere else entirely. That he was here now was, in its own way, a choice Subaru had made.
Dropped into a world with no purpose.
It was precisely because of that position that he could shrug off the blankness of his situation and think this way: If no purpose had been given to him, then he could decide one for himself.
"I'll save Emilia."
It wasn't just because she had saved him.
The desire to be of help to Emilia — that came from somewhere deep in the bottom of his heart, overflowing out.
"In other words — love power."
"…What did you just say?"
"No, sorry, I got too into it and now saying it again is kind of embarrassing…"
Rem tilted her head and asked, and Subaru immediately regretted his muttered words. Then he cleared his throat, got his head back in the game, and started running through options for breaking through the obstacle in front of him.
Even if he got past this, he didn't have a single idea for how to infiltrate the castle. But one thing was certain — nothing would happen unless he got out of here first.
That was the Subaru way: not just going with the flow, but riding the momentum too.
"That said, the situation still sucks."
Directly confronting Rem, who stood before him with arms spread wide like a gatekeeper — as far as he could tell, that was a guaranteed game over.
The gap in their physical abilities was stark, and Subaru was far from peak condition. Most of his flanking maneuvers would be swallowed up by that overwhelming difference in power, and he didn't possess any special ability that could bridge that gap.
He'd even considered slamming down a Shamak for a smoke-screen escape, but he didn't have any bocco fruit on him, so the only result would be puffing out smoke and passing out. Besides, the use of Shamak had already been strictly forbidden by the mansion's residents.
Thus was Subaru cornered on all sides. His ability to think wasn't any sharper or faster than the average person's — so there was only one more trick left up his sleeve.
That trick was— "Nn… Could this be…!"
"Subaru-kun?"
His face suddenly drained of color. He clapped a hand to his forehead, and his whole body swayed.
As his knees trembled and his breathing grew ragged, Rem quickly reached out and gently steadied his crumbling shoulders.
"What's wrong, Subaru-kun? Don't tell me you've fallen into despair at the sheer recklessness of your own idea…"
"How would you even quantify your assessment of me as a numerical value!? N-no — I can't… ugh, it hurts…"
Holding his chest as he was propped up, Subaru finally sank to his knees on the floor, groaning in agony. Rem knelt beside him in the same way, leaning close.
"Not your head this time, but your chest? Are you all right?"
"Oh, it was my head before? No, my chest hurts… This is — it's that thing…"
"There's a certain shallowness to the atmosphere you're giving off right now, but do you actually know the cause?"
Rem's concern — fairly stern in its edge — flew at Subaru's pathetic display. Listening, Subaru grabbed at Rem's collar, drew his face close to hers, and trembling, whispered— "—Ma."
"Ma?"
"—Mayo… ne… syndrome."
Am I really going to go with this again? he mentally berated himself. Really? A second time?
But once the words were out, there was no backing down. This was the unbreakable policy of
"It's the withdrawal symptoms that hit a mayoneer when they're low on mayonnaise… Rem had been keeping mine under control, but after a full day away from the mansion — I can't believe it progressed this fast…"
"Oh no… What should Rem do…?"
"Make me mayonnaise… If I can just get my hands on some mayocchu, my life will be saved… Ugh, it hurts…"
Finally unable to even stay upright, Subaru collapsed sideways to the floor, clinging to Rem as he went. Rem cradled his head in her lap, gently stroking his forehead as she whispered the word "mayonnaise" under her breath.
"I'll need to get eggs, oil, and various other things… But—"
"It hurts… I'm going to die. Please, Rem. You're… you're the only one I can count on…"
"—Rem is the only one you can count on?"
She couldn't bear to watch him suffer. But she couldn't look away either — who knew what he might do if her guard dropped?
Rem had been torn between her own feelings and her orders, but those final words from Subaru seemed to deliver the knockout blow.
She clenched her fist and murmured with fierce determination, "Rem is the only one!?"
"Then I understand! Please leave it all to Rem — to Rem herself!"
"Right on — and up you go!"
Rem sprang to her feet without warning. The motion sent Subaru tumbling off her knee to crack the back of his skull against the floor, and Rem's enthusiastic lunge drove her heel into his ribs for good measure.
The maid in full berserker mode seemed entirely oblivious to the devastation she'd wrought. She quickly tidied herself up and announced— "Then Rem will go gather the ingredients right away and start making mayonnaise! Subaru-kun, don't lie around on the floor — please rest properly in bed."
"This agony has… nothing to do… with mayonnaise…"
"Hm? Yes, I know. Rem will do her very best for Subaru-kun's sake. And when that's done… heheh, I'm looking forward to it."
Rem interpreted Subaru's anguish entirely through her own lens, flashed an abnormally adorable smile, and dashed out of the room.
Clutching his chest in pain, Subaru watched her go and confirmed that his objective had been achieved. Confirmed, yes — but he was still stuck in place for a while, felled by accident.
When the pain finally began to subside, he rubbed the bump that had risen on the back of his head — ever so casually — and rose to his feet. He brushed off the dust from lying on the floor, rolled his neck, and muttered— "Man, that was a dumb plan, but it worked. I'm a little worried about Rem's future, but I'll just chalk this up to being saved by how gullible she is."
As for the ribs and the back of his head that had paid the price — those were necessary sacrifices.
If pain had bought him a way forward, then this was a win he should be grateful for.
"Now I just need to leave a note for Rem and get the hell out of here. If I walk out the door and run right into someone, it's game over…"
He left a hastily scrawled note on the table, threw open the window, and looked down. His room was on the second floor, and if he grabbed the drainpipe or something on the way down, the drop wasn't terribly dangerous. The alley below saw little foot traffic, so the risk of being spotted and mistaken for a panty thief was low.
"Alright then — time to move. I didn't spend my childhood voluntarily trying to sneak into my own house from the balcony during my parents' surprise inspections for nothing."
Scaling buildings up and down along pipes and conduits was right in his wheelhouse. Squeezing through a window fitted with iron bars using his rubbery flexibility was a skill born of necessity — one he'd privately dubbed "Rubberman," plural.
Digging through those memories, Subaru set his hands on the windowsill and, with remarkably little hesitation, slipped his body down into the alleys of the royal capital.
—Right after Subaru had quietly slipped out of the room…
"…All the same, I have to admit — I'm a little hurt that Rem was expected to fall for such an obvious trick."
In the center of the empty room, Rem had returned. Standing by the table, she murmured to no one.
She retrieved the note Subaru had left behind. The barely legible "i" characters read, simply: "went to pick flowers lol."
A sophisticated inside joke from a guy who was anything but sophisticated — that was Rem's assessment based on Subaru's character.
"He didn't have to go climbing out the window like some kind of daredevil. I wasn't going to stop him from leaving the room…"
She had been lurking in the hallway, planning to watch for him to emerge from the door. This was the result of that well-meaning concern: she'd sensed the presence vanish from inside the room, hurried back, and found the window flung open and the note left behind. He'd clearly gone out the hard way.
"Oh, Subaru-kun… You really are a hopeless case."
Rem's expression, even as she said those words, held a hint of something oddly cheerful.
She took the note Subaru had left — whatever the content, it was addressed to her — and carefully folded it, tucking it gently into the inner pocket of her maid uniform.
For a moment, she pressed her hand to her chest over the letter, eyes closed, lost in some private contemplation. After indulging for a good while, she exhaled with satisfaction and opened her eyes.
"—But what exactly is Roswaal-sama thinking?"
She tilted her head, a hand on her cheek, and voiced the question that had been turning over in her mind since reviewing her master's orders.
The instructions she'd received that morning, from a master who had only just woken, had been as follows: "Do not interfere with Natsuki Subaru's actions. Even if Emilia orders you to do so."
When Rem had asked what was meant by that, she had been quietly refused an answer. Left with no alternative, she could only obey as a servant. She felt some guilt about defying Emilia's command, but the priority of orders in her world was Roswaal above Emilia — that much was certain. Though there was one exception, in the case of Subaru entering certain places…
In any case— "Please come back safe and sound, Subaru-kun."
She didn't think he'd rushed out with no plan whatsoever — but even so, here was a boy who would put his own safety second without a moment's hesitation if it meant running toward someone he needed to help.
All Rem could do was pray that his wish would come true, and hope that along the way, he wouldn't come to more harm than he could bear.
—The first of those was Rem overestimating him, and the second was Rem romanticizing him.
All in all, Rem's assessment of Subaru was far too generous. She closed the window through which he'd slipped out, turned back to the room, shook her head as if to cast off the conflict she'd been wrestling with, and threw herself into her duties as a maid.
And so Natsuki Subaru was unleashed upon the capital for the second time, without anyone knowing whose hands he was truly in.
—And thus: "And so, without a plan in the world, off went Natsuki Subaru."
Having safely descended into the capital — Rubberman, as he now styled himself — Subaru's inner state was, frankly put, about as blank as it got.
He had no way to reach the castle on his own. More to the point, he couldn't even make it past the checkpoint between here and the noble district, let alone get anywhere near the castle.
He'd toyed with the idea of relying on Shamak to get through the checkpoint, but after running through the same conclusion over and over — that he'd just end up collapsed on the roadside, coughing up smoke — he'd nixed it.
Overreliance on Shamak was its own problem.
"Shamak's pretty versatile, sure, but honestly I just don't have the juice for it. If I could at least regulate the mana cost when casting, it'd be a different story…"
After the whole mabeast incident, Roswaal had given him a few lessons on magical technique back at the mansion.
According to the court mage's assessment, it would take roughly two years of training for Subaru to achieve the mana handling of a competent mage. Twenty years of training to his absolute limit would produce a mage who was barely above third-rate. And before any of that could happen, the body he'd been running ragged would need six months or more just to recover.
"Fighting without magic was never an option, so it's not like I have regrets…"
As for what would happen to his body if he abused the gate again, Roswaal had simply said he couldn't say.
So for the time being, Shamak had to be taken off the table entirely. It wasn't that painful — it was just removing an option he'd never really had in the first place.
"Farewell, the romance of magic. That's… sad. Or rather, frustrating and regrettable."
But that was the long and short of it for Subaru.
Unlike
That sense of loss would catch up with him eventually — but not today.
"So the long and short of it is, I need to find a way into the castle without relying on any magical power. Wisdom, connections, anything — lend me whatever you've got, I'm begging you."
"…And what exactly am I supposed to do when I hear that?"
"Forget that — don't have dangerous conversations on the edge of someone else's shop. We're trying to run an honest business here, and if weird rumors start spreading, how exactly are you going to make it up to us?"
"Honest business? The owner's face isn't exactly giving off law-abiding vibes. Being connected to some old geezer in the backstreets like this means the rumor ship has long since sailed."
"Man, you've got quite the mouth on you for a brat…"
The one pulling a sour face at Subaru's breathtaking insolence was the scar-faced shopkeeper — a white scar running vertically from his forehead to his chin — and a broad-shouldered old man who had crammed his hulking frame into the narrow shop.
Subaru — who felt as though the stink of sweat in the room had just gone up a notch for everyone, himself included — sighed and said, "Still, though…"
"So the shop connected to Old Man Rom turns out to be yours. The world's a small place — or rather, the capital's a small place. Or maybe 'like attracts like' is the right saying?"
"Don't lump us together."
"Don't say that in unison like that! Unlike the gorgeous maid sisters I know, having a bald guy and a scarred face doing a buddy act is a terrible look for everyone involved."
The two exchanged glances and grimaced at each other. For the record, the shop was indeed still open for business, but its foot traffic was equally low regardless of Subaru and Old Man Rom's presence or absence.
Despite a decent location on a decent shopping street, the owner's own face had turned the difficulty up way too far. Bondage-play recommended — a lifestyle choice Subaru could relate to.
"Hey. Why is your hand on my shoulder?"
"Well, you know, I just feel a certain kinship with a fellow sufferer — we both just want life on easy mode, you know? God really isn't fair."
"Don't drag me into your pessimism. Unlike you, I've got a wife and a daughter. I'm a winner."
"No way — no way, no way, no way!"
The sudden declaration of victory from someone he'd considered a kindred spirit hit Subaru like a physical blow, scrambling his behavior.
He stumbled backward and turned to Old Man Rom, wanting to press him on what he'd just said. The bald old man looked Subaru squarely in his quivering dark eyes and nodded firmly.
"True story. And a beautiful wife at that, plus a cute daughter."
"You son of a — ! This is the first time I've been dealt this kind of blow since coming to this world, damn it!!"
The full fury of having been summoned to another world boiled over.
Letting the dark, churning emotions rising from the depths of his stomach take the wheel, Subaru lunged at the shopkeeper — only to be immediately met with a steel-armed counterattack to the forehead that sent him crashing back.
"I am… I am powerless…"
"In another context, maybe, but right here and now that's nothing but a sore loser's grumble."
Old Man Rom looked down at Subaru, who had thrown a tantrum and been promptly knocked flat, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
When he'd been summoned, he'd arrived brimming with excitement, fully expecting the matter to be about Felt. The actual content — a request to help with Subaru's scheming — was annoying enough to be angry about, but the old man's good nature showed through in the way he set aside his irritation and genuinely joined in on the worrying.
Subaru felt no particular guilt about shamelessly mooching off that goodwill. Being able to put his own selfishness first while deferring that sentiment to later — that was one of Subaru's strengths.
So it was that— "I'll ask again. How do I sneak into the castle quietly?"
"With that imagination of yours, why don't you just commit a major felony and get yourself thrown into the castle's underground dungeon? You'd hit your goal right away. You'd also lose your head along with the rest of your body, but hey."
"Give me something constructive for once! That's why this shop never gets any customers!"
"Don't say that, boy. The fact that Kadomon's shop isn't popular is exactly why we can have these little private chats. Think of it that way and it's not all bad. Right, Kadomon?"
"You two got some kind of grudge against my shop or something?"
Glaring at them with a deadpan expression was the shopkeeper — Kadomon — and Subaru and Old Man Rom exchanged a glance, shrugged, and denied it in unison: "Nah."
Watching their infuriating gestures, Kadomon irritably traced the scar on his face with a finger.
"Quit with the talk about sneaking into the castle. With the king absent, it's not the highest priority right now, but that doesn't mean getting caught sneaking in is going to come with a slap on the wrist."
"Ah, the danger is as high as you'd imagine, I'm sure. Get caught, and you die."
Kadomon's words drew a nod of agreement from Old Man Rom.
Their conclusion was effectively a counsel of despair for Subaru's plan. They had no reason to put themselves at risk, so that was only natural.
"Well, when you put it that way, I don't exactly have a crystal-clear reason to put my neck on the line, either…"
Unlike before, he didn't have a life-or-death stake driving him.
He could just go back to the inn openly, take a nap, and wait for Emilia and the others to return while licking mayonnaise off the fingers Rem had made. That was one option.
In fact, if he did that, Emilia would probably be happy about it. That was certain.
But— "Why am I this desperate?"
Subaru half believed, like a calling, that he needed to be at Emilia's side.
He didn't know how much help he actually was to her. He didn't know — but he thought that if he was there, he might be able to make a difference when she needed help.
And if he wasn't there, he wouldn't even get the chance to make a difference. In that case— "I know it's self-centered, but I want to be by her side… That's just how I feel."
Even a small distance from her was enough to gnaw at him with a fear so sharp it felt like his body was on fire.
That was reason enough to step forward even when balancing his own life on the scales.
"Well, the bad karma of this place — the capital — is definitely a factor too."
Being a hotbed of dark omens related to the royal selection, Subaru's anxiety showed no signs of running dry.
If this were a place where he could be more confident that Emilia wouldn't come to harm in his absence, he wouldn't be feeling this much agitation.
"I don't have to be right beside her — I just want to be close enough to see her face. Is there any way to make that happen?"
"It's not as simple as you make it sound. Getting past the checkpoint could probably be managed with a modest bribe, but all the way to the castle…"
He probably wasn't moved by Subaru's attitude, but Old Man Rom could read that the boy wasn't about to give up, either. The alternative — leaving him to his own devices, watching him get arrested and executed — would leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth, and so even Old Man Rom began earnestly plotting a way into the castle. Compared to Rom, who was already deep into accomplice territory without realizing it, Kadomon didn't have that deep a relationship with Subaru.
While the two of them earnestly exchanged ideas, Kadomon watched sideways with a look of weary exasperation.
"Just keep it out of my shop's way, whatever you settle on."
His tone was half-hearted — he had no reason to get deeply invested — but Subaru pouted at that indifferent profile.
"Don't say that. Despite having no customers, you're still busting your ass keeping this shop running on a real street. There's gotta be a hint in that kind of stubborn, hard-working life."
"For the record, business is a little slow today, but we're doing fine overall! …Rather than some convoluted scheme, why not just go to the checkpoint and explain the situation? Your friend's at the castle, right? …What was she like again?"
He offered that sensible opinion, then scrunched his brow as if searching his memory.
Apparently, the image of that silver-haired beauty wasn't coming into focus very well in his mind. That was the power of the hood woven with anti-detection magic — and the result of having seen it firsthand.
In any case, the sensible option he'd suggested was unfortunately not viable.
"If I did that, Emilia-tan would find out for sure! The ideal is to lurk in the shadows and watch over everything while looking like I haven't done a thing. Operation: Secret Superpower Behind the Scenes."
"What is that? It's supposed to be stealthy, but the name screams self-promotion."
"Ugh, fine. How about I sneak in with a shipment of goods being delivered to the castle? There's a merchant caravan scheduled to bring food supplies to the castle today, so if I'm lucky…"
He said it offhandedly, as if making conversation, but Kadomon's scarred face froze the moment those words left his mouth.
Because he'd seen the way Subaru's eyes lit up the instant he heard that information.
Kadomon looked as though he regretted the slip, clamped his mouth shut, and started to raise a hand to signal "forget I said that"— "That idea — YES!"
Baring his teeth in a thumbs-up, Subaru flashed a grin and winked, moving far, far faster than Kadomon could manage a retraction.
Old Man Rom threw his head back and gazed at the sky as if lamenting the recklessness of it all.
The sunlight pouring down made his bald head shine — pale and faint — in the light.