Cold words hung in the center of the screen.
The atmosphere in the library, which had only just eased, immediately grew tense again.
Betty's grip on Natsuki Subaru's sleeve tightened instinctively. Emilia raised her head, her violet eyes still a little damp, now tinged with unease. Shaula stood beside Natsuki Subaru, her movements, which had only just relaxed, turning rigid again.
Natsuki Subaru watched the screen, the bad feeling in his heart growing stronger.
But the next moment, as though something had occurred to him, he let out a soft breath.
[Natsuki Subaru: Let's not rush to see this as a bad thing.]
Natsuki Subaru's words appeared in the discussion area.
[Natsuki Subaru: At least so far, the screen has given us plenty of information, and rewards too. Ley, Roy, and the witchbeasts will all be coming next. Every little bit we learn means a little more preparation.]
Emilia looked up and hesitated.
[Emilia: But if the playback takes too long, won't Gluttony and the witchbeasts outside have already arrived?]
Her words silenced the library for a moment.
Just then, another line of text suddenly lit up.
[Otto: We probably don't need to worry too much about that.]
Natsuki Subaru froze for a moment.
[Natsuki Subaru: Otto?]
[Otto: It's me. After the screen finished just now, I checked how much time had passed around us. Although we watched for a long time, not much time passed in reality.]
[Otto: More precisely, there's a considerable difference between the playback time within the screen and the passage of time in reality. At least for now, it doesn't seem likely to keep us here until the enemy comes knocking.]
Emilia and the others visibly breathed sighs of relief.
[Emilia: Oh, so that's how it works.]
Looking at the words in the discussion area, Natsuki Subaru couldn't help smiling.
[Natsuki Subaru: That's Otto for you. You really do always notice what matters most at times like these.]
[Otto: Please don't praise me so suddenly. I still haven't quite adjusted.]
[Natsuki Subaru: What? Did the me on the screen scare you just now?]
[Otto: He certainly did.]
Natsuki Subaru's smile stiffened.
The people around him were startled too, as though they hadn't expected even Otto to be frightened by the Natsuki Subaru on the screen.
The next line slowly appeared.
[Otto: But it was mainly your opinions of me that shocked me.]
[Otto: I'd never imagined receiving the highest praise of my life.]
Natsuki Subaru paused, then a smile slowly returned to his face.
[Garfiel: Hey, Otto, don't go sellin' yourself short here.]
[Garfiel: The captain and I both trust you. Ain't that only natural?]
Otto's text paused for a moment.
[Otto: Hearing you say it so directly actually leaves me a little unsure how to respond.]
Several more lines lit up in the discussion area, but it didn't descend into chaos as it had before. Everyone seemed to know that this wasn't the time for a lengthy discussion.
[Garfiel: And captain.]
[Garfiel: Next time anyone dares leave you lookin' like you did on that screen, I'll tear 'em apart.]
Natsuki Subaru felt a little warmth in his chest as he read that line.
[Natsuki Subaru: I know, I know.]
[Natsuki Subaru: But let's watch the screen for now.]
He raised his head and looked at the expanse of black unfolding again.
[Natsuki Subaru: Let's see what it wants to show us this time.]
An image appeared on the screen.
People streamed back and forth along the bustling streets of the royal capital.
An earth dragon as large as a carriage hurried past along the street, while vendors' cries, footsteps, and conversations mingled into the most ordinary of days in this other world.
Natsuki Subaru stood amid the crowd in his tracksuit.
He looked awful.
Weariness showed beneath his eyes, and his gaze held anger and despair he could barely conceal.
Outside the screen, Natsuki Subaru's heart suddenly sank as he looked at that face.
That face was all too familiar, dressed in a tracksuit and standing on a street in the royal capital, like himself not long after being dropped into this world.
No, something was wrong. Those eyes.
When he first arrived in another world, he should have been bewildered, panicked, and still a little recklessly excited.
Yet in the eyes of his onscreen self, only anger and exhaustion remained.
The Natsuki Subaru in the image glanced down at the ground, then bent over and casually picked up a branch from the roadside.
Holding the branch, he passed all manner of pedestrians and headed toward a secluded alley.
There weren't many people there.
It looked like a good place for an assault.
Natsuki Subaru stood deep in the alley, waiting quietly.
Before long, footsteps came from the entrance.
"Hey, what's with that dumb look on your face?"
Natsuki Subaru turned to look.
Three men blocked the alley's exit.
The large, medium, and small trio stood in a row, familiar malice on their faces, as though they already saw the foreigner before them as easy prey delivered to their doorstep.
The one in the middle spoke viciously.
"Hand over your valuables if you don't want to get hurt."
They hadn't noticed the mood of the person before them.
Or perhaps they had noticed and simply didn't care.
To them, a strangely dressed foreigner with an ugly expression was merely cornered prey, no matter how angry he might be.
But all that greeted them was Natsuki Subaru's murderous gaze.
The next instant, he moved.
The branch in his hand thrust forward, piercing the big man's throat while he was completely off guard.
As blood spattered, the other two hadn't even reacted.
Natsuki Subaru grabbed the boy in the middle by his hair and ear, and with all his strength, slammed his head into the wall beside them.
A dull impact rang through the alley.
The boy collapsed.
A streak of blood trailed down the wall.
When the big man fell to the ground, the branch drove deeper into his throat. Blood kept gushing out, quickly soaking the ground.
That should put them out of commission.
That was what Natsuki Subaru thought.
Seeing his two companions fall, the shortest man's face turned ashen.
Run, or not?
He hesitated for only a few seconds.
But those few seconds had already cost him his only chance.
Stupid.
So stupid.
Idiots should pay for what they do.
Cursing him inwardly, Natsuki Subaru reached out, seized his neck, and lifted him to eye level.
The man's face gradually turned purple, tears and drool spilling down together.
Natsuki Subaru stared at him, his voice frighteningly low.
"Including this time, do you know how many times I've run into you?"
The man couldn't speak.
Natsuki Subaru didn't wait for his answer, either.
"Eighty-eight."
He said.
"I guess this is what they call practice makes perfect."
"Funny, isn't it?"
The next second, he slammed the man into the ground.
The man's body twitched once, then quickly went still.
The alley fell silent.
Standing among the three, Natsuki Subaru looked down to make sure they would never get back up before slowly relaxing his hands.
For Natsuki Subaru, who had experienced eighty-seven loops, this sequence of actions no longer required any thought.
A few seconds.
Just a few seconds were enough to dispose of these nuisances.
Then he could go help Satella sooner.
Natsuki Subaru glanced down at the blood on his hands, then took a deep breath, as though slowly forcing the emotions threatening to spill out back into his body.
Then he walked out of the alley.
Outside the screen, the library was silent.
No one spoke right away.
The atmosphere, which had eased somewhat with Natsuki Subaru's return, grew oppressive once more.
Emilia watched the boy on the screen, her face turning paler by the moment.
That was Subaru.
Subaru, wearing his strange black-and-white tracksuit, still knowing nothing.
But those eyes no longer held the panic and awkwardness she remembered from their first meeting.
Only irrepressible anger remained.
"Eighty-eight times..."
Betty quietly repeated the number.
Her fingers slowly tightened around Natsuki Subaru's sleeve.
"Subaru, had you already died that many times back then?"
Natsuki Subaru didn't answer immediately.
He watched himself walk out of the alley on the screen, recalling what had happened then.
Of course he remembered his first day in the royal capital.
He remembered the alley, Elsa, the pain of having his stomach sliced open, and the moment Reinhard descended from above.
But why had the version of him on the screen failed so many times?
Ram frowned at the Natsuki Subaru on the screen.
[Ram: The Barusu on the screen was thinking about Satella just now.]
Emilia's shoulders trembled slightly.
Natsuki Subaru pressed his lips together too.
That was the name from the very beginning.
To avoid dragging the newly arrived boy into trouble, that silver-haired girl had given him a false name-the very name that should never have been used.
She had meant to make him back down.
She had wanted him to stay away from her.
But to Natsuki Subaru, who knew nothing, it was the first name he had heard in this world.
She was also the first person he had met in this world.
And the first person he had wanted to save.
[Julius: Had he already died eighty-eight times without even understanding the situation?]
[Anastasia: And it seems he has to pass through this alley every time.]
[Anastasia: The same alley, the same people, the same obstacles.]
[Anastasia: So many times that, in the end, even killing became a way to save time.]
Meili stood to one side without speaking.
She had seen plenty of murderous gazes.
But the Natsuki Subaru on the screen was different.
He didn't look like he was enjoying it, nor did he seem simply angry.
It felt as though he had already turned those three from people into stones in his path.
All he had to do was kick them aside, and he could keep moving forward.
[Shaula: Master looks like he's suffering.]
Natsuki Subaru was silent for a while, feeling a chill.
[Natsuki Subaru: That guy... has he still not met Reinhard? Otherwise, why would he have died over eighty times...]
After those words appeared, the discussion area briefly fell silent.
The Natsuki Subaru on the screen had already left the alley.
Sunlight fell on him again, but in the shadows behind him lay only three people who would never move again.
And he didn't look back.
Once outside, watching Satella's retreating figure, Natsuki Subaru made his vow for the eighty-eighth time-
This time, he would save the girl named "Satella."