The room was frighteningly quiet.
Natsuki Subaru had just confirmed that he was not a fake, but Return by Death still weighed on everyone's minds. They were all digesting what they had just heard.
Emilia held his hand, and Betty clutched the hem of his clothes. No one spoke right away.
Just then, the screen lit up again.
[First playback complete. The number of observers will increase for the next scene.] [New observer: Otto Suwen.]
At the same time, Otto Suwen, far away elsewhere, also saw the screen.
He had been about to check his surroundings when his vision suddenly darkened for a moment. There was no magic circle, no incantation, and no enemy appeared. Only a screen hung quietly in midair.
Otto instinctively took half a step back, his hand already reaching toward his waist.
"...An attack?"
But the screen did not attack. A few lines of text merely appeared on it.
[New observer: Otto Suwen.] [Basic records synchronized: Return by Death.]
Otto froze.
"Return... by Death?"
As those words entered his eyes, the color slowly drained from his face.
At first, he could not believe it. He even instinctively quipped:
"Something like this... is real?"
Otto's breathing stopped for a moment.
"Mr. Natsuki..."
He murmured that name.
So many things became painfully glaring in that instant.
The judgments he made as though he had already stepped into the traps, despite knowing nothing about the enemy.
The way he always managed to tear open a path in the worst possible circumstances, despite having no chance of winning.
And the pained expressions Natsuki Subaru sometimes showed.
As though he had already foreseen an ending.
As though everyone else was still standing at the starting line, while he alone had crawled back from the pile of corpses at the finish.
It was not as though Otto had never found it strange before.
He had simply never considered this possibility.
Who would ever consider it?
Who would imagine that the reason someone knew so much was not intelligence or luck, but that he had already died countless times?
"You've got to be kidding..."
Otto raised a hand to his forehead, his knuckles turning slightly white.
He wanted to say so much, to ask Mr. Natsuki about it.
But when the words reached his lips, he could not get a single one out.
Yet the records synchronized by the screen were too clear. The more he read, the quieter he became.
[Julius: Can you see this screen too, Mr. Otto? Has this screen connected to the outside world?] [Otto: Who are you? What is this? And how is Mr. Natsuki? Is he safe right now?] [Emilia: Subaru is here.] [Ram: He's all right for now.]
Otto first felt a little relief, then felt even worse.
[Otto: What I just saw... was all of it true? Is Return by Death real?]
Anastasia answered calmly:
[Anastasia: At least, the screen judged it to be the correct answer.] [Natsuki Subaru: I wish it were fake too.]
The screen lit up.
The scene showed not the Sage's Tower, but some remote countryside.
Natsuki Subaru softly asked a little girl, "Do you know me?"
On the screen, Natsuki Subaru's clothes were neat and clean, and his voice was gentle. He was not screaming wildly or breaking down.
Natsuki Subaru smiled at the girl, trying his best to look unthreatening.
The little girl shook her head.
"No."
Natsuki Subaru watched her quietly.
He did not press her with, "How can you not know me?" He simply smiled and thanked her softly.
"I see. Thank you."
Then he stood up and left.
Those outside the screen began to sense something was wrong.
Emilia's face was full of worry:
[Emilia: Why is Subaru asking that again?]
Betty frowned:
[Betty: Something is wrong with him.]
Otto felt that this Natsuki Subaru seemed even more off than the Natsuki Subaru from before, but he could not say exactly what was wrong.
[Otto: Something certainly seems off.] [Emilia: What's wrong with Subaru?] [Otto: Mr. Natsuki doesn't normally speak like that. Something must be wrong with him. Let's keep watching.]
On the screen, Natsuki Subaru did not stop after leaving the little girl.
He approached the next passerby, a boy in his teens.
And he still asked the same thing:
"Hey, do you know my name?"
The boy silently watched Natsuki Subaru, unsure what the correct answer would be.
"Do you know my name?"
The repeated question was like a snake coiling tightly around his neck.
Faced with that abnormal sense of pressure, he merely remained silent.
Natsuki Subaru seemed to grow impatient. "Do you know or not?!"
The boy's legs gave out, and he sank to his knees.
"N-no, I don't."
He watched the boy, and his disappointed voice rang out:
"Is that so?"
Then Natsuki Subaru continued searching for the next person.
Only then did those outside the screen finally realize: he was not merely asking in passing.
He was asking this question over and over.
[Ram: This doesn't look like he's asking for help.] [Betty: Then what are you trying to say?]
Ram was silent for a while.
[Ram: Ram doesn't know yet.] [Anastasia: If he only wanted to confirm who he was, he shouldn't be asking like that.]
As Natsuki Subaru himself watched his counterpart on the screen, his expression grew worse and worse.
He managed to ask quietly:
"Is that... really me? Is this my future?"
Natsuki Subaru's figure appeared on the screen again.
He was making his way through a forest.
Emilia said, "It's time for lunch. I'm a little worried about you."
Hearing this, Natsuki Subaru told Emilia, "Thank you, Emilia-tan. I was just getting too hungry to walk."
Betty's voice came from behind them. "Stupid Subaru, pushing yourself like this even when you're hungry."
Natsuki Subaru turned around and stared closely at Betty.
Betty said, "What is it?"
"The way you said that was so cute, Betty. Could you say it again?"
Betty's face instantly flushed, and she turned away. "Hmph!"
Then he took out the equipment and began preparing an outdoor meal.
"I get to have my favorite mayonnaise again."
Natsuki Subaru happily took out the ingredients.
Ram sniped from beside him, "I certainly don't see what's so good about that stuff."
Natsuki Subaru and Ram began arguing over the subject, and even Emilia and Betty beside them got dragged into it.
Everyone joked and squabbled for a while.
Natsuki Subaru concentrated and began making food that everyone would like as much as possible.
Then he imagined everyone finding it delicious. That really was a happy thing, and it could motivate the person cooking, too.
Scenes from before he had crossed over flashed through Natsuki Subaru's mind. He had only gone out to buy something...
If it was this simple, I should have properly told Mom how happy it made me.
That was what Natsuki Subaru lamented.
As he cooked while reminiscing about the past,
Meili suddenly showed her face.
"Oh my, oh my, big brother Natsuki is cooking today? That's a little worrying."
Hearing Meili's words, Natsuki Subaru replied, "I'm not feeding such a rude child."
"No! That's practically abuse!"
Julius was approaching Natsuki Subaru from the side and spoke up for Meili.
"She's only a child..."
Hearing him, Natsuki Subaru only found Julius annoying.
"This is between Meili and me."
Julius said righteously, "Ensuring a friendly environment is also a knight's duty. I bear responsibility for that as well."
"Honestly, Julius, you have to argue with everything I say."
Emilia laughed. "You really do get along as well as ever."
Natsuki Subaru said, "Um, Emilia-tan, about what happened before, I'm really..."
He could never get the word "sorry" out, and everyone froze in place, waiting for Natsuki Subaru's answer.
That strange silence lasted about two minutes before it was broken.
Shaula approached from up ahead. "Master, there's nothing going on up ahead."
The next instant, Emilia outside the screen trembled slightly.
Because Shaula had walked straight through her body.
More precisely, she had walked through the body of the "Emilia" in the scene.
The silver-haired girl still stood there, a stiff smile on her face.
But Shaula's shoulder had already passed through her arm, without the slightest pause in her steps.
Outside the screen, everyone was suddenly startled.
Betty murmured to herself, "What's going on?"
No one answered.
Watching Shaula stand within Emilia's phantom, Natsuki Subaru frowned.
Shaula noticed the change in her master's expression. "What's wrong?"
Natsuki Subaru looked at the scattering phantoms and shook his head. "Nothing. This isn't your fault."
Hearing her master's words, Shaula said happily, "Really? More importantly, you're cooking, Master. I'm so happy. I'm practically starving."
Then she moved forward and hugged Natsuki Subaru's arm tightly, a blissful expression on her face.
Outside the screen, Ram's expression changed.
[Ram: Only Shaula is real. What happened?] [Julius: It appears we're illusions.]
"Don't you know not to bother someone who's cooking? What if I cut my hand?"
Shaula chuckled. "Then I'll gently lick your wound for an hour! No, five hours!"
Hearing that, Natsuki Subaru suddenly laughed. "You're such an amusing woman, Shaula."
Everyone watched Natsuki Subaru on the screen look down at the food in the pot, a faint smile still on his lips.
They gradually realized what was wrong here.
Outside the screen, Otto stared at it, the color slowly draining from his face.
He had just been about to ask whether Mr. Natsuki knew what had happened, but now those words stuck in his throat, and he could not get them out.
Because an even more terrifying thought had surfaced.
[Otto: In that future... where are all of you?]
No one answered.
Ram said nothing either. It wasn't that she hadn't noticed the problem; she simply didn't want to voice that conjecture.
If the Emilia in the image was fake, Betty was fake, and Ram herself was fake.
Then where had the real ones gone? Were they dead? Missing?
Or-was the Natsuki Subaru in the light screen actually already somewhere with no one else around?
Natsuki Subaru himself watched that scene, his face frighteningly pale.
He saw his other self cooking with his head lowered, saw his other self talking to people who weren't there, saw his other self smiling as though he hadn't noticed anything. But that smile brought him no comfort; it only made him feel cold.
"Was that really... me?"
In the light screen, after Natsuki Subaru finished cooking, he sat to one side with Shaula and ate. Emilia, Beatrice, Ram, Julius, and the others were nowhere beside them.