Elsa.
The person behind the commission for Felt to steal the royal selection insignia.
The Bowel Hunter who liked slitting people's bellies open.
As long as Satella kept chasing Felt, she would inevitably encounter her in the end.
And all that awaited that silver-haired girl was inescapable death.
If he wanted to save her, he couldn't do it on his own.
As Natsuki Subaru told the guards that Elsa had been sighted in the slums, he mentally sorted through the routes he had already tried.
The Bowel Hunter had disemboweled him no fewer than fifty times.
That woman simply wasn't an opponent he could defeat in hand-to-hand combat.
Against the trio of thugs in the alley, he could observe them over and over, memorize the logic behind their movements, pick up on their habits before they struck, and eventually finish them off in seconds.
But not the Bowel Hunter.
The moment he responded even slightly differently from the last time, that woman would immediately change her movements too.
Then, a second later, her blade would slice his body open.
Himself, Felt, Old Man Rom, Satella.
Not one of them could win.
Since one person wasn't enough, he could only get more people to stop her.
"Aaargh!"
"Run!"
Screams rang out continuously through the slums beneath the night sky.
Natsuki Subaru stood at the edge of a rooftop, looking down at the battlefield below.
No.
It couldn't even be called a battlefield.
It was nothing but a one-sided slaughter.
The alluring figure of Elsa the Bowel Hunter darted through the crowd, her black hair flying in the night wind, her curved blade tracing one cold arc after another. Every flash of steel left someone clutching their abdomen as they fell.
The guards were certainly stronger than ordinary people, far stronger than those three men in the alley.
But against Elsa, they still weren't enough.
Nowhere near enough.
"So it still doesn't work."
Natsuki Subaru spoke quietly.
He had thought these guards could at least hold her off for a while.
All he had done was increase the death toll.
Next time, just stick to keeping the peace in the royal capital.
I'm sorry to those of you who died this time.
But it's all right.
Next time, everyone will come back to life.
As Natsuki Subaru watched Elsa kick the last guard away, he had already deemed this attempt a failure.
Then this is as far as I go.
Killing myself should feel a little better than being killed by the Bowel Hunter.
At least I won't have to watch my belly being slit open again.
But just then, a figure suddenly cut through the darkness.
That person moved as swiftly as a white blade.
He leaped down from between the rooftops, landing amid the blood and corpses strewn across the ground.
Not a speck of filth stained his white knight's uniform.
A greatsword hung at his waist.
Most striking of all was his hair, a red as vivid as flame.
"This ends here."
A clear, resolute voice rang out through the darkness of the slums.
Natsuki Subaru's hand stopped.
Standing on the rooftop, he watched the young man who had suddenly appeared, his pupils contracting slightly.
Who?
Who is that guy?
Elsa stopped moving too.
Looking at the red-haired young man blocking her path, she slowly curled her lips into a smile.
"My."
"What a lively night this has turned out to be."
The red-haired young man wasn't swayed by her smile. He merely looked at her calmly.
"Elsa Granhiert, the Bowel Hunter."
"Your violence ends here."
Elsa narrowed her eyes.
"Hearing you say my name like that really makes my heart race."
The instant those words left her lips, she vanished from where she stood.
A moment later, her curved blade slashed toward the red-haired young man from the side.
Fast.
Too fast.
It was a speed Natsuki Subaru hadn't been able to fully follow even after dying dozens of times.
Yet the red-haired young man merely shifted slightly to one side.
The blade skimmed past the hem of his clothes.
Elsa's eyes widened slightly.
Before she could draw her blade back, the red-haired young man had already picked up a slender sword a guard had dropped on the ground.
There was no wasted movement.
Just a single swing.
Elsa flew backward like a puppet with its strings cut, smashing through the wooden wall beside her.
The crash thundered through the slums.
Standing on the rooftop, Natsuki Subaru froze completely.
I don't understand.
Why?
Why can this guy send Elsa flying so easily?
In his previous loops, he had kept throwing away justice, dignity, and compassion, playing every card he should and shouldn't have without scruple, yet the result he had risked his life to obtain hadn't even measured up to a single strike from this man.
That monster who had killed him no fewer than fifty times.
That Bowel Hunter he couldn't overcome no matter how he struggled, how much trial and error he went through, or how he prepared in advance.
Against that red-haired young man, she had lasted only a single exchange.
Elsa rose from the wreckage, blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, yet her eyes shone brighter than before.
"Impressive."
She licked the blood from her lips.
"What's your name?"
The red-haired young man answered calmly.
"Reinhard van Astrea."
The moment that name was spoken, Natsuki Subaru had no idea what it meant.
Nor did he know that this red-haired young man before him was a hero in the hearts of countless people in this world.
He merely stood on the rooftop, watching Reinhard suppress Elsa step by step.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Every attack Elsa launched was easily seen through.
Every time Natsuki Subaru thought that curved blade was about to find its mark, Reinhard would evade it with an even more effortless movement, then strike back.
Natsuki Subaru suddenly found it absurd.
How could this world be like this?
Then he seemed to understand something.
So that's how it is.
People like this exist in this world.
Without needing Return by Death.
Without needing to have their bellies slit open over and over.
Without needing to memorize every route, without needing to use other people's deaths as attempts.
All they have to do is stand there.
All they have to do is draw their sword.
And they can effortlessly cut through the despair I could never overcome, no matter what I did.
Elsa was sent flying once again.
This time, she lay amid the wreckage and did not move for a while.
Natsuki Subaru stared at the scene, his eyes wide.
At some point, tears had begun rolling down his face.
His knees kept trembling, and his fingers slowly tightened.
Satella was saved.
I changed Satella's fate of dying.
This is the result I wanted.
This should be the ending I risked my life to reach.
But why?
Why do I feel so sad seeing this?
Natsuki Subaru stood on the rooftop, staring blankly at the red-haired young man's back.
The wind swept across the rooftops of the slums.
Yet he remained as though nailed to the spot.
So the answer I died so many times to find...
Was just to have a real hero arrive in time.