"──Thank goodness. Natsuki, you're awake."
"Thanks to you. So, how are things inside?"
Ahead of him, Ram and Anastasia were talking. They were probably discussing their next steps and how to get through the Sand Labyrinth.
"──Miss Anastasia, the ceiling is low here. Please watch your head."
"Yes, I know. Thank you."
"Ram, the footing's a little rough. I think Patrasche should be fine, but be careful anyway."
"...Yes, understood."
"Oh, Ram, aren't you cold? You can wear my coat if you are."
"────"
Subaru stopped, took off his cloak, and held it out to her on the dragon, concerned about Ram's condition.
His concern left Ram silent, staring fixedly at him. Her gaze seemed to see straight through his thoughts, making Subaru uncomfortable.
"Wh-what? What's wrong?"
"I should ask you that, Barusu. What's with this creepy concern? What are you plotting?"
"I'm not plotting anything. I just want you all to stay healthy, that's all..."
"Pervert."
"What's perverted about that!?"
Ram's contemptuous gaze made Subaru raise his voice in a shout. Stung by her harsh assessment, he put his cloak back on.
Then he scratched his head and turned his back on them. Honestly, Ram's suspicions were reasonable. Subaru himself was bewildered by his behavior. It wasn't that he had accepted his previous "death" and was now trying to please the two of them to avoid repeating it.
He still had enough self-awareness to know he wouldn't fall into that abnormal state so quickly. So he really was simply concerned about them.
That feeling probably had something to do with having witnessed their "deaths" firsthand.
"Why are you making a face like you've bitten into something bitter? If you have something to say, say it."
"...No, it's nothing. There's just sand in my shoes. It's uncomfortable."
"If you're going to hide something, do a better job of it. Don't make girls uneasy with your clumsy excuses."
Ram's stern rebuke made the corners of Subaru's mouth turn down again. He understood what she meant, but what was he supposed to say? Surely he couldn't say, "You're important to me, and I'm worried about you, so I want to be your guard and make absolutely sure you're safe"?
"...Pervert."
"Don't go twisting someone's silence! That's paranoia!"
"You have the nerve to say that while putting yourself on a pedestal? You really are beyond saving."
"If I'm putting myself on a pedestal, you've climbed onto a shrine to look down on all creation!"
"Ha!"
With no memories whatsoever of the previous loop, Ram showed no mercy to Subaru as he struggled to sort out his feelings. He both resented that fact and found it reassuring, leaving him with strange, complicated feelings. Still, he was relieved that they didn't remember that ugly side of him.
"You really don't hold back when you talk to Natsuki, do you, Miss Ram?"
Anastasia gave a wry smile at their one-sided quarrel. Resting a hand against her cheek, she interjected in an inoffensive tone to mediate between them.
"Or did something happen while I wasn't around?"
"Sorry, but nothing would happen even if you left Ram alone with Barusu. You would merely find Barusu's gruesome corpse the following morning."
"What the hell? Are you the werewolf in a game of Werewolf? That's terrifying."
They continued trading barbs, but even so, Subaru never stopped walking. Looking questioningly at his back as he led the way, Anastasia called out.
"Natsuki, putting the jokes aside, being too eager can cause problems too, you know? At that last fork, you really didn't give us any grounds for choosing one path over the other."
If they went right, the miasma would drive them mad. Subaru never wanted to cause such a catastrophe again.
Still, that didn't guarantee the left path was absolutely safe. Subaru therefore steeled himself to be cautious and meticulous, doing everything he could to keep the two women and their ground dragon safe.
"Could this nauseating chivalry be an aftereffect of hitting your head during the teleportation?"
"What the hell!? Is showing concern abnormal? Isn't this exactly what Julius does? It's fine when he does it, but not me?"
"Well, Julius makes it look more natural. Yours is rather unhealthy... unnatural, Natsuki."
"You just said unhealthy, didn't you!?"
Subaru's eyes widened at that outrageous remark, but neither woman paid him any attention.
Being ignored left Subaru dejected. Just then, Patrasche nudged his shoulder with her snout as though comforting him.
"...You really are the kind one. What a great partner."
As Patrasche came to comfort him, Subaru felt ashamed of his own momentary hesitation.
Not only had he aroused Ram and Anastasia's suspicions, but his body had tensed in response to Patrasche's comforting gesture. Could he really protect them like this? Subaru slapped his cheeks and rallied himself.
Whatever the case, he had to race against time to get through the Sand Palace and reunite with their separated companions.
"──What's this? Do you smell something strange?"
"A smell?"
Anastasia sniffed, and her question made Subaru frown.
Following her example, Subaru focused on his sense of smell and immediately noticed the odor in question. The scent drifting from farther along the dark passage, beyond the lantern's light, was──
"Something burning, I suppose."
The breeze carried a little heat, prompting Ram's blunt observation. Subaru and Anastasia nodded in agreement. Yes, it was the smell of something burning. The simple scent of flames entered their noses, asserting its presence to them all.
"Lady Emilia rashly lit a campfire and is resting beside it... Do either of you think that's possible?"
"I agree that Emilia-tan would be the one to light a fire without thinking, but I can't buy it just yet. The smell of fire at a time like this..."
"It's too suspicious... Though I can't say there's no chance it's Emilia and the others."
After all, this could be called a long-awaited change in the monotonous Sand Palace. Yet faced with an actual change, all three of them unanimously voiced caution.
Since they still didn't know what lay ahead, they couldn't carelessly call out. But standing there staring forever wouldn't help either.
"──I'll go take a look. If I put out the light and tread quietly, I should be less likely to get noticed."
Holding his breath, Subaru stepped quietly across the sand, following the scent of flames. Ideally, Emilia and the others would be sitting around a campfire, as their earlier optimistic guess suggested. Even if not, finding any trace of people would lift his spirits. At worst, even the "Sage" roasting meat would be fine. In this situation, any change would do.
With that hope, Subaru took a slightly firmer step forward. Instantly, the ground beneath his feet collapsed, and the crumbling dune swallowed him.
"Wh-whoaaaa──!?"
Caught off guard by the collapsing ground, Subaru helplessly tumbled down the sandy slope. He rolled a dozen or so meters before finally crashing headfirst into a mound of sand.
"Ugh! Ptoo! More sand... No, more importantly, why did it collapse...?"
Tasting sand again after only a few hours, Subaru spat the foreign matter from his mouth and got up. Then his complaints died halfway out, and his black eyes widened. He stood in a vast, open space with a ceiling several dozen meters high.
The stench of scorched demon beasts drifting through the air was the smell of fire they had noticed in the passage. Some part of Subaru's mind that could still think calmly understood that. The part that couldn't remain calm was overwhelmed by the thing before him.
It was a bizarre demon beast, crying as though countless babies were wailing in unison.
The demon beast slowly approached, then stopped several meters from Subaru. What was going through that head that had become a horn? Its thoughts were utterly impossible to guess.
But the demon beast had no intention of killing Subaru immediately. Not because it was confused or hesitant. It simply hadn't yet confirmed Subaru's presence. That was all.
This demon beast has no eyes!
Keeping his mouth shut, Subaru quietly swung his arm and threw the water flask in his hand. It was his personal flask, its water nearly gone. It traced a gentle arc over the head of the demon beast whose back blazed with fire, then struck the sandy mound behind it with a dull thud.
"────!!"
The flask rolled to the ground, and the beast reacted dramatically to its sound. Its burning mane streaming, the demon beast leaped nimbly on its four equine legs and landed beside the flask. No, it lunged ferociously, igniting an explosion of flame.
Just as I thought, it has neither sight nor smell. It attacks by relying on sound.
Subaru had to move while evading the demon beast's senses. Ultimately, it was a choice between returning to Ram and the others or exploring farther into the cavern.
Though a gaze carrying that powerful intent bore down on him from above, Subaru couldn't agree so readily. This was certainly a desperate situation, but it was also a chance opportunity.
But the flames flared again, and an infant's cries rang out in every direction. In the cavern echoing with shrieks, Subaru hurriedly began climbing the sand mound, reducing his footsteps to tiny, shuffling steps.
One step, two steps. Just as he planted his foot firmly to climb the sandy slope──
A fireball skimmed past his body and exploded against the slope, its blast of heat sending Subaru flying.
"Ugh, ah!?"
The scorching heat burned his skin, and the impact battered his whole body, sending Subaru tumbling violently. He couldn't close his mouth in time. He couldn't keep himself from groaning.
The beast had clearly become aware of Subaru. How could a demon beast that sensed others only through sound pick him out amid such piercing shrieks──
Its own screams...!
"Barusu, echoes──!"
The question in Subaru's mind connected to its answer, and Ram finally shouted from above.
The instant they both reached the answer, the flames on the demon beast's back surged in intensity. The explosively swelling tongues of fire were the release of the Sand Palace crematorium's true form.
"────!!"
"──El Fura!"
Almost simultaneously with the falling flames, violent wind battered the massive body.
The released heat blasted the sand apart, while the wind swept the demon beast far to one side. The explosion tore its body open, blood streaming from the wound in its arm, and the beast toppled to the ground.
Racing across the sand, Patrasche didn't spare it a glance. She seized the clothes of the tumbling Subaru in her jaws and immediately ran to retreat.
Dangling in midair with Patrasche gripping him near the waist, Subaru swayed from side to side and looked back, tormented by poor circulation and his lingering headache.
Behind Patrasche, the demon beast staggered to its feet. The wounds on its human portion began to bubble, and in an instant, the left arm Patrasche had bitten off regenerated.
That monstrous regenerative ability worked on its other wounds too. The injuries covering its body from the earlier explosion healed one after another, and within mere seconds, the demon beast was whole again. Now there was nothing left to stop it.
Another burning fireball formed in the demon beast's hand. This time, it stretched lengthwise.
Subaru stared wide-eyed, wondering what it intended to do. The demon beast fused the spear of flame and the fireball with its arm, bringing a blazing, scorching weapon into being.
"────!!"
The demon beast swung its flame spear and brought the tip crashing down at Patrasche.
The jet-black ground dragon ducked in time with the spear's rotation──lowering herself as though diving into the sand, she evaded the strike, slipped through the narrow gap between the spearhead and the ground, and accelerated.
But the instant Patrasche raced past, the demon beast raised a hoof from directly beside her and kicked her in the flank.
The force penetrated her hard dragon scales and traveled into her body, squeezing a cry from Patrasche's throat as her organs were compressed.
Yet Patrasche had no intention of abandoning Subaru, and Subaru had no strength to spare for his beloved dragon's injury. For him, there was only the seemingly endless torment of his unrelenting headache.
Feeling his beloved dragon's breath and the heat of the blood she spat against his skin, Subaru was on the verge of losing consciousness.
Rather than suffer through this agony, I'd be better off dead──
"Don't die, Barusu! Rem will cry!"
"──Oh."
The furious rebuke rang in his ears, reaching Subaru's brain through the pain.
But what that voice awakened was anger no weaker than his hatred for the demon beast. Even though she had already forgotten.
None of you remember that girl anymore──so don't meddle in things between me and Rem as though you still understand!
"──Invisible Providence!!"
Subaru unleashed his feelings in anger. Then, almost as though taking it out on the beast, he slammed the black demonic hand into the creature passing through the edge of his tear-blurred vision.
Immediately, a monstrous wave of pain threatened to crush his skull──but before it swallowed his consciousness, Subaru's "Unseen Hand" struck the demon beast's spear head-on and broke it, paying it back.
But that was all his feeble resistance could accomplish.
"────!!"
The answer to his furious counterattack was an even more enraged, ferocious blow. The demon beast planted its forelegs in the sand and forced its enormous body to pivot around them, firing its hind legs out like a catapult.
The mineral-hard hooves gained weight and speed, spraying yellow sand as they kicked toward Subaru and the others──engulfing Patrasche, along with Ram and Anastasia, who were probably nearby, in the explosion.
The kick's force blasted away an entire section of the space, and everyone caught in the violence of the sand was sent flying in different directions.
At last, Subaru slipped free of Patrasche's jaws too. Helplessly tumbling over the sand, he crashed headfirst into a scorched demon beast's corpse that crumbled in the impact's aftermath.
"Ah, ugh..."
A headache that left him unable to speak, and a body struck by the demon beast's flying kick. Under the relentless pain assaulting him from within and without, Subaru could no longer remain conscious.
All he knew as he rolled aimlessly was that the presence of "death" was drawing ever closer.
Destruction, annihilation, throwing his life away, and falling in battle.
Merciless words like those passed through his mind, but──
In this state, with his lungs having forgotten even how to breathe, Subaru saw someone stand in front of him.
It was a small, slender figure. His hazy consciousness kept Subaru from seeing the figure's face. But that form was so familiar that he understood immediately.
It was Ram.
She stood there unsteadily, her arms spread to shield Subaru.
──Idiot, it's no use. It's no use, so stop.
Subaru wanted to say that, but his throat produced no sound. It was as though sand had clogged it. No, sand really had clogged it.
In his attempts to suppress the splitting headache, he had swallowed sand like a fool. Now Subaru couldn't make even a single normal sound.
"...Wh-why?"
He merely squeezed out that word like toothpaste, in a voice as faint as a mosquito's whine. All of this had come from Subaru's mistaken judgment. He had been too impatient. His unease and hesitation had also played a part.
Those factors had combined to skew Subaru's judgment, resulting in the situation before him. Ram and the others had been dragged into this by his stupidity.
Even so, why would you still do this for me──
"──Because Rem would cry."
Hearing Subaru's question, Ram gave only that quiet answer. For the little sister who should no longer have existed in her memories, to protect the person loved by that forgotten sister, Ram stepped forward and stood before him.
Subaru had no way of knowing what drove her to go so far. But even without knowing that, there was something he understood perfectly.
At this rate, Ram would die. Then Subaru would die after her. That ending was unavoidable.
"────"
The demon beast growled, forming two new swords of flame on its arms. Or perhaps, since they weren't shaped like swords, it had meant to make axes or hammers.
Whatever they were, they were two weapons wreathed in flame. The demon beast readied them to attack, preparing to tear the much smaller Ram to pieces and burn Subaru to ashes.
"...Come, come on. There should be something there."
Faced with the presence of "death" about to descend, Subaru reached into the depths of his suffering.
Rebelling against the agony, he kept diving deeper into his own body and mind. Seeking help from anyone outside himself──Ram, Patrasche, or Anastasia──was unrealistic. Then, even if he was scolded for dreaming or indulging in wishful thinking, Subaru would seek a solution within himself.
Because this plainly unrealistic method was still a real means available to him.
"Come on, come on, come up, get over here..."
Subaru plunged into himself like that, reaching into his murky interior, pushing aside the restless black delusions, and searching his own heart for a way out.
Not the "Unseen Hand" he had already overused. He wanted something else, some entirely new means, a way to overcome this ordeal.
But Subaru's desperate plea for help-
"-Ah."
Before his desperate struggle could bear fruit, the demon beast before Subaru raised its twin swords. The flames crossed above its head were unleashed together at Ram. The slashes scorched the air, about to mercilessly burn through, blow away, and set fire to the girl's slender body.
To reduce her feelings, her life, everything she had to nothing, to charcoal.
Envisioning that scene, Subaru screamed at his own helplessness-
-> -->
But the next instant, a beam of white light shot forth at a terrifying speed and destroyed the demon beast's entire upper body.
The part struck by the white light was literally, truly, completely annihilated.
Then countless beams of white light followed one after another.
After that torrent of white light, nothing remained there. That ferocious demon beast had been obliterated by the white light without so much as a scrap of flesh left, vanishing into dust somewhere beyond this world.
All that remained on the sand were the sources of the countless beams unleashed to erase the demon beast-long, thin white needles. They, too, turned to powder in an instant, as though weathering away.
"----"
Witnessing it all in stunned disbelief, Subaru even forgot his headache. Only when he came to his senses did he realize he was holding a slender, warm body in his arms.
It was Ram.
Though Subaru had no memory of it, he seemed to have pulled her into his arms at the last instant. Still, that should have been a meaningless act, and Ram seemed to have lost consciousness as well.
Just as Subaru thought this, he heard someone's footsteps on the sand. Slowly, slowly, the sound unmistakably approached them, heading toward Subaru and the others.
The hollow returned to its usual cold and silence, and darkness descended. The only faint sources of light were the remnants of the flames the demon beast had been scattering everywhere until a moment ago.
A small, smoking ember happened to lie beside Subaru, and its light barely allowed him to make out his surroundings. Right at the edge of his vision, an unknown person's two feet stepped into view.
Subaru lifted his head and looked toward their owner-toward the being who was probably the true source of the white light.
As he slowly raised his gaze, a human came into his hazy view.
The woman parted her thin lips, a bestial smile appearing on her face, and said:
"-Found you."
At least we speak the same language, Subaru could not help thinking.
The moment he thought that, his consciousness reached its limit. Received by the feel of sand, Subaru silently let his consciousness go.
At least he would not let go of the girl in his arms, and he held her tight to ensure it.
That was all he had left, only enough determination for that small act of stubbornness.]
The image in the Sky Curtain slowly faded to darkness there, like a book gently closing. But the oppressive weight lingering in the hall did not dissipate for a long time.
"...That was Shaula."
Emilia spoke softly, her voice carrying a complicated tremor-the sound of something lost, regained, and lost once more.
"She was waiting for Subaru in the tower, all that time... for so many years. But when Subaru met her, he couldn't remember anything anymore. If Subaru really is the 'Sage'..."
Beatrice leaned against Emilia's chest without a word. But her fingers gripped Emilia's sleeve, very, very tightly.
Garfiel slammed a fist into the wall beside him, and the dull thud made everyone nearby jolt.
"...That captain. He's always saving other people, but every time, nobody can save him. If that light had come even a moment later-"
He did not continue. But everyone knew what he wanted to say.
Ram stood where she was, her pale red eyes lowered. That sentence from the Sky Curtain still echoed-
"Because Rem would cry."
She had said those words instinctively. Perhaps some corner of herself that even she had never noticed had made the decision before her reason could.
The Sky Curtain had exposed this to everyone. But she felt no shame. Instead, it felt as though something warm had gently bumped against her chest.
"...Rem, your big sister will find you-and Barusu."
She spoke softly, so quietly that only she could hear, but she did not look away. Those pale red eyes remained fixed on the now-dark Sky Curtain, as though looking toward somewhere far, far away that she had yet to reach.
Petra stood behind the crowd, her hands clenched before her chest.
"Master Subaru..."
Her voice was soft, so soft that she seemed afraid of disturbing something.
"He always fights so desperately for everyone. But why does he have to push himself that far every time...? If only I could shoulder this pain for Master Subaru, too."
No one could answer her.
Frederica walked to her side and gently rested a hand on her shoulder.
That hand was warm, like a kind of wordless support. Petra did not turn around, but her shoulders relaxed a little.
Al still held up his parasol, his expression hidden beneath his helmet. He said nothing, and no one looked at him. Perhaps he was thinking:
As expected of you-Natsuki Subaru, the man who'll become a hero. Bro...
Meanwhile, in the distant imperial capital, Rem, who was under house arrest in a manor, had also watched everything in the Sky Curtain.
When she heard the words "Because Rem would cry," she froze.
Then tears began falling uncontrollably, and she herself did not know why. She did not remember any of those things. She could not even clearly remember who had spoken those words.
Yet when she saw Subaru holding Ram tightly before losing consciousness, when she heard those words about protecting "Rem"-something deep in her chest struggled to rise, yet could never quite reach the surface.
"-That person."
She spoke softly.
"Just how many times... has he been through this?"
The flying dragon's attack, the dangers in the Empire, those deaths in the Sky Curtain that she could not imagine-she did not know how Subaru had endured them.
But she suddenly remembered that "repulsive smell" she had once caught on him.
Perhaps it was not a smell at all. Perhaps it was something deeper-the traces left by far, far too many deaths, the embers given off after far, far too much pain had accumulated.
She had been wary of him because of that smell, had distanced herself from him, and had even treated him as a suspicious stranger.
But if those smells were all the price he had paid to save others-she gently touched her chest. It was still empty.
She remembered nothing. But she felt as though something there was awakening, little by little.
"...If I see you next time."
She spoke softly, her voice sounding as though she were speaking to herself.
"What should I say?"
Outside the window, a few flying dragons occasionally swept beneath the imperial capital's gray sky. The Sky Curtain had already darkened, but she felt as though that light still lingered somewhere, not yet completely extinguished.