Ram's vision went black, and the sounds of the outside world seemed to be cut off by something, receding completely.
When she opened her eyes again, all she could hear was rapid panting.
This body was running.
Or rather, Barusu was running.
The setting sun sank at the edge of the woods, its dim light shredded by the branches. Twigs kept lashing his cheeks, leaving his skin stinging, and the ground beneath his feet was wet and slippery; one careless step would send him falling. Something seemed to weigh on his chest, every breath tasted of blood, and his throat was so dry it felt about to split.
He still clutched a dagger.
That was probably the only thing this body could rely on now.
Something was catching up from behind.
The sound of chains dragging across the ground, of iron smashing through tree trunks, and of footsteps drawing ever closer mingled with his panting, closing in on his back, beat by beat.
Natsuki Subaru did not look back.
But Ram frowned within his body.
The reward the light screen had given her should have been memories about Rem. Yet all she could see now was Barusu fleeing for his life.
Who was behind him?
An enemy?
How pathetic, Barusu.
The thought had barely surfaced when a heavy rush of air came crashing toward him from behind.
Natsuki Subaru threw himself forward and rolled down the slope. His cheek scraped against gravel, and the dagger flew from his hand into the grass nearby. Before he could get up, agony shot through his leg like a red-hot nail driven into his bones.
"Aaaaah-my foot!"
A scream tore from Natsuki Subaru's throat.
Ram instinctively tried to hold it in, but this body was not hers to control. Pain bored upward from his leg bones, tearing even his breathing apart. She could only endure Barusu's pain, unable to do so much as grit her teeth.
"Mana of water, please heal this person."
A gentle voice came from behind.
A watery glow covered the wound, stopping the bleeding and forcibly pulling his body back from the brink of collapse.
Natsuki Subaru turned back, trembling.
Ram saw who had come, too.
Short blue hair, a maid's uniform, and a morning star in her hand.
Rem stood on the slope, without her usual gentle smile.
It felt as though someone had abruptly seized Ram's consciousness.
Rem?
She wanted to call her sister's name, but no sound came out. Trapped within Natsuki Subaru's field of vision, she could only watch that utterly familiar figure approach, step by step.
"If you died that easily, I wouldn't be able to get the information I could otherwise question you for."
Rem's voice was still soft.
But the meaning of her words made Natsuki Subaru tremble all over.
She had healed him not to save him.
It was only to keep him alive, to keep him answering questions.
Rem walked aside and picked up the dagger Natsuki Subaru had dropped. She glanced at it, then casually tossed it away.
"If you had stabbed Rem with this just now, you probably could have escaped a little farther."
The dagger landed in the grass with a faint sound.
Natsuki Subaru's lips trembled, his eyes fixed on her as though he still could not accept what was happening before him.
Rem looked down at him and asked:
"Please answer. Were you sent by the camp of a candidate opposed to Lady Emilia?"
Natsuki Subaru answered in a trembling voice.
"My heart will always belong to Emilia-tan..."
Before he could finish, Rem swung her right hand, bringing the morning star crashing down.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Natsuki Subaru's scream exploded through the woods.
That pain tore through Ram's consciousness as well.
She finally realized that the "memories about Rem" the light screen was showing her were no gentle recollections. This was Natsuki Subaru's death.
And the person standing before him, torturing him, was Rem.
Rem's expression did not change. Her face was still the one Ram knew, but now her eyes were terrifyingly calm, as though she were dealing with an enemy she had to extract information from.
The torture continued.
"Who was it?"
"On what terms were you hired?"
Natsuki Subaru panted, tears mingling with cold sweat.
"By Emilia-tan's smile..."
"That's priceless..."
The morning star came crashing down again.
Blood splashed onto Rem's face.
Rem merely raised a hand to wipe it away, her gaze not wavering in the slightest.
Ram felt the piercing agony and wanted to make her stop, wanted to call Rem's name.
She wanted to tell her that the person before her knew nothing.
But she could not make a sound.
She could only hurt with Natsuki Subaru, pant with him, and watch with him as Rem continued her interrogation.
"Are you associated with the Witch Cult?"
This time, hatred showed in Rem's eyes.
"The Witch Cult?"
Natsuki Subaru struggled to remain conscious, his voice halting.
"Never heard of it... come to think of it, my family's been nonreligious for generations..."
That answer earned him an even colder look from Rem.
"Please don't play dumb."
Rem tightened her grip on the morning star.
"With such a strong witch's stench wafting off you, you still claim you have nothing to do with them? There's a limit to pretending you don't know!"
Natsuki Subaru's pupils contracted slightly as he stared at the person before him in disbelief.
He did not understand at all.
What the Witch Cult was.
Or what the witch's stench was.
All he knew was that he had been hunted, struck down, healed, and then interrogated again. This person, who had once smiled at him in the mansion, now looked at him as an enemy.
"When I saw my sister talking to you, Rem was nearly driven mad with anxiety and anger."
"The culprits who put my sister through that, and those associated with them, actually had the nerve to walk right into the home precious to Rem and my sister."
Rem's voice grew lower and lower, and her grip on the morning star grew tighter and tighter.
"Rem can't take it anymore."
"Even knowing my sister only pretended to care for you, pretended to be close to you, so she could observe you."
As Natsuki Subaru looked at the furious Rem, strength gradually drained from his body. He no longer faced her, simply lying where he was and gazing at the darkening sky. Then he slowly raised his left hand, looking at his fingers covered in dirt and blood.
"I don't cut my hands peeling vegetables anymore."
"Reading and writing, too-even if it's only simple stuff, I've gotten pretty good at it."
"I kept my promise."
"I studied properly."
Tears welled uncontrollably in Natsuki Subaru's eyes.
"I can read fairy tales now."
"That's thanks to you."
Rem looked at him.
"What are you talking about?"
"All the little things you gave me."
Natsuki Subaru forced an ugly expression onto his face and looked at Rem.
"I don't remember anything like that."
When those words fell, Natsuki Subaru finally could not bear it anymore.
He struggled to sit up and shouted hoarsely.
"Why don't you remember any of it?"
"Why has everyone ganged up to leave me all alone?"
"Did I do something?"
"What do you want me to do?"
"What did I do wrong?"
"Why do you hate me so much?"
Trapped in this body, Ram listened to those words, her consciousness tightening little by little.
She suddenly remembered the amnesiac Barusu at the Sage's Tower.
He had been like this then, too.
Not knowing what he had done wrong.
Not knowing why everyone was staring at him.
Not knowing why those familiar people would look at him with unfamiliar eyes and demand that he remember, stand up, and keep moving forward.
Natsuki Subaru continued through his sobs.
"The promise to cut my hair, too..."
"Rem, you're..."
"You're all my favor..."
Bang!
A white blade of wind swept out of the shadows, striking Natsuki Subaru precisely in the neck.
His voice stopped.
The world fell silent with it.
Ram's mind went blank.
The aura of that magic was far too familiar, so familiar she could not even lie to herself. It was her own wind magic.
Natsuki Subaru slowly fell, bewilderment and confusion still in his eyes.
Even at the very end, he had not understood what he had done wrong.
The next instant, the darkness shattered.
Ram returned to reality.
Those outside saw only her body sway before she abruptly doubled over. She covered her mouth, her stomach feeling as though something had seized it hard, almost making her vomit up the bloody taste from that memory along with it.
No one knew what she had just seen.
No one knew that she had just been inside Natsuki Subaru's body, watching Rem look down at her with those eyes.
Nor did anyone know that the one who had finally ended that suffering was Ram herself.
Within the light screen, Ram's voice did not sound again.