Sky Curtain
["Even so, this is a bit much."
Playing with her braid as she surveyed the bookshelves, Meili murmured to herself. Hearing her, Subaru turned away from the shelf he had been facing.
"What is it? You weren't interested even back when we were solving the riddle, but now that we're here, you're finally curious?"
"Hard to say... it's just, the more dead people you know, the more books you can read, right? In that case, there should be lots of books I can read."
"-"
Meili sat on the floor and spoke nonchalantly. Subaru's hand stopped. His reaction left Meili looking puzzled, but his feelings were complicated.
Meili had killed many people, so she knew many dead people. -What could he say to her, an assassin despite her young age?
"Sympathy is just a one-sided perspective, too..."
Whether to grieve or marvel was something an outsider could not know. But seeing Meili take no distress in it made Subaru sad.
-After the library on the third floor, Taygeta, opened, the group faced its enormous collection, each repeatedly proceeding by trial and error. Experiencing the "memories" of the departed gave them an opportunity to learn things they could never otherwise know.
Simply knowing how the library worked was enough to imagine the immense possibilities it offered. But-
"If all the books of people who died in the past are here, like the scarf lady said, does that only count people who died after this tower was built?"
"I don't know. If it does, that's four hundred years' worth of... Books of the Dead. We'd never finish reading them."
Honestly, even reading the titles alone would take an enormous amount of time. In fact, after Subaru and Julius had "pulled out," none of them had touched another Book of the Dead. Four hundred years of history was a heavy weight, after all.
"Personally, I'd rather solve this without going through that experience if we can..."
"There you go talking nonsense again. I don't think big sis or Beatrice could feel at ease with that. What are you going to do about the naked lady?"
"Don't make it sound like I fall for every girl I meet... no, I can't deny it, but let me deny it anyway, okay? Anyway, about Shaula..."
At Meili's question, Subaru cast a dejected glance toward Shaula.
She was being questioned by Julius and Anastasia a short distance away. When she noticed Subaru's gaze, her eyes immediately lit up, and she blew him a kiss.
Subaru swatted the kiss away.
"Hee-hee-hee-hee... you're such a bad man, big brother."
"Somehow, hearing you say that hurts more than hearing it from Ram or Miss Anastasia."
Sure enough, a girl who looked so young had become disillusioned with him. His chest aching at that, Subaru scratched his head and said:
"Um, I know the timing's strange, but can I ask you something?"
"Ohhh... big brother, you're such a flirt."
"No! Not like that!"
"I'm kidding... sure, ask whatever you like."
Meili tilted her head slightly and narrowed her eyes, an air of beguilement about her. Subaru offered a preamble before getting to the point.
"All right, then, I'll take you up on that. When did you start working as an assassin?"
"-Pfft! Ahahahahaha!"
"Huh!? What!? Why are you laughing?"
He had asked in all seriousness, yet Meili burst out laughing, leaving Subaru startled. Wiping tears from the corners of her eyes with a finger, Meili said with a smile:
"Sorry. I was just wondering why you'd ask that now, of all times. I've been at your mansion for a year, you know? But you only want to talk about me after coming into this tower full of sand?"
"...I can't blame you for thinking that. Why didn't I ask when I gave you the dolls, right?"
"It's because you give me presents that I like you, big brother, you know? Hee-hee-hee-hee."
Meili covered her mouth and giggled, watching Subaru with teasing eyes. Her reaction embarrassed him. Indeed, it was rather late to be asking that sort of question.
And surely he wanted to ask now because this was a library housing the "memories" of the dead. Staying here inevitably made him conscious of "death." So-
"Until we came somewhere like this, I'd completely forgotten..."
"Forgotten what?"
"This past year, you've just been a girl who plays with dolls to me. And I don't think I'm the only one who sees you that way."
"-"
Of course, he was not foolish enough to have completely forgotten how dangerous Meili was. He remembered being extremely wary of her when they first captured her and locked her in the dungeon. But she had neither tried to escape nor attempted to harm anyone at the mansion. And so their vigilance toward her had gradually relaxed.
"A lot happened, but you've gotten pretty close to Petra, too, haven't you?"
"Honestly... you know, Petra is very hard to handle."
"Is she?"
"Yes, she is. Because she didn't know whether I was a friend or an enemy, she said I could like her, and then I wouldn't betray you."
"Whoa, that's a bit too impressive. Petra really is a little devil..."
Subaru was surprised to hear, unexpectedly, that Petra had gone to such trouble dealing with a dangerous person for their camp's sake. He had never imagined there was such a story behind the heartwarming exchanges between Petra and Meili.
"Don't tell me everyone besides Otto and Roswaal is putting this much thought into things..."
"Big brother and big sis... especially big sis. I think everyone works so hard so she can keep being herself."
Sitting on the floor with her knees hugged to her chest and her chin resting on them, Meili offered that assessment, and Subaru nodded along. Acting to protect Emilia.
As her knight, Subaru naturally considered that his duty, and everyone in their camp kept it in mind in some form.
Subaru tried to pay attention and do his part as much as possible, but in this respect he was always a step behind his quick-witted companions. He had never expected even Petra to be doing it.
Letting Emilia keep being herself.
-Everyone in their camp wished for that, in a sense different from being overprotective.
"...I started this work about five or six years ago."
"...You're willing to tell me?"
"You asked because you wanted to hear, so I'm telling you. It's not like there's anything to hide."
Meili looked somewhat exasperated. As she tilted her head, her blue braid slipped off her shoulder. While Subaru's eyes followed its swaying tip, she began speaking matter-of-factly.
"I said this before, but in my case, it was less a job and more following Mama's orders. Because if I disobeyed, she'd get very scary."
"Mama, huh."
Subaru knew that, although she called her that, she certainly did not mean it literally. If anything, she was probably closer to an adoptive mother, but from Subaru's perspective, she was the culprit behind Meili's warped personality, so he very much wanted to dismiss her as a "twisted mother."
Using fear to make a young girl obey and work as an assassin.
"I already knew that witchbeasts would listen to me, so this work wasn't that hard. Besides, Mama took me in and raised me for that purpose in the first place."
"Wait. Took you in? Doesn't that mean..."
"-? Oh, I'm an orphan. I was abandoned in the forest before I was old enough to remember, and witchbeasts kept me alive."
What she said so casually was deeply shocking. Raised by witchbeasts while still a baby-
"I guess we can't call you a wolf child. But would witchbeasts really raise a human baby?"
"Not an ordinary baby, probably? But I was born with the ability to get along with witchbeasts... that's what saved me."
Meili paused there. While Subaru stood speechless, she continued:
"And maybe this Divine Protection was why I was abandoned in the first place... so I don't know whether it's good or bad. Hee-hee."
"Meili..."
"Oh? Wasn't that funny? I thought it would make you laugh."
Meili looked surprised, and Subaru did not know what to say to her. Should he look pained, or make a dark joke? At the very least, Subaru's emotional armor was not thick enough to choose the latter.
"Don't make that face, big brother. I don't mind at all."
"You say you don't mind..."
"Being born with a Divine Protection makes things harder to begin with. Like the internal affairs official and that fanged big brother... I'm sure they'd understand."
She cited Otto and Garfiel, both of whom had Divine Protections, as examples of the unavoidable hardships faced by those born with one.
Otto had said something similar before. A Divine Protection that seemed immensely convenient to others actually brought its bearer hardships no one else could understand.
"I was abandoned because of my Divine Protection, then taken in because of it, and that led to working as an assassin, and now things are like this with you and everyone... it feels so strange."
"...If you mean you've had a hard life, you certainly have."
"From my point of view, it's really abnormal that you didn't kill me."
"That discussion ended ages ago. There won't be a second time, and no matter how many times we go over it, the conclusion won't change... oh, Meili, a hypothetical question."
"What is it?"
Meili tilted her head, looking up with just her eyes. Subaru gestured toward the bookshelves. Countless books lined them. Every one was proof that someone who had passed away had once lived in this world.
"If your family's books were among these... would you want to read them?"
"My family? Not Mama, but the people who actually gave birth to me?"
Meili looked surprised, and Subaru nodded. It was perfectly natural. Although Meili said her parents had abandoned her, as a baby she could not have known whether that was true. In any case, her parents had most likely given her up for some unavoidable reason, and the answer might lie in this library.
"I'm not interested at all."
But Meili answered Subaru's question without interest. She was neither putting on a brave face nor bluffing, but answering with undisguised honesty. There was not even hatred or anger, simply a complete lack of concern.
"I see..."
"Don't misunderstand, big brother. I don't resent being abandoned by my family, you know? How should I put it? They're not people I hate."
In her life, she had no interest whatsoever in the family who abandoned her. -It was almost as though she were saying that, apart from bringing Meili into this world, her parents were people with no connection to her. That was understandable.
Subaru breathed a sigh of relief. A journey of self-discovery-though it sounded terribly clichéd, tracing one's origins had meaning.
That was what Subaru thought. But ultimately, that was an outsider's opinion. If Meili herself said she did not care, he could only accept it.
"This makes me question the value of this library's existence more and more..."
"Let me ask you something. If I said I wanted to read them, what were you going to do?"
"-? Look for them. Finding them right away would be hard, but if we investigated your background and learned your parents' names, then took some time..."
"Big brother, you really are a complete idiot."
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
Insulted so bluntly, Subaru could only raise his voice. At his reaction, Meili turned her head aside, stood up where she was, brushed off her bottom, and looked at the bookshelves.
"I mean, with this many books, how could you ever find the one you want?"
"I think if there's a possibility, it's worth trying."
"Well, that's a shame. There's no one I want to read about anyway..."
Meili's voice gradually faded as she spoke, and Subaru frowned in puzzlement. Then Meili turned back and said:
"I just thought of something. As more people die, the number of books here increases too, right?"
"Yeah, probably."
"Then how do they get added? For example, if you died here right now, big brother, would your book suddenly appear? I'm very interested."
"Good point! But sorry, I can't test it for you!"
It would be surprising if she thought anything could be interpreted in a positive light. But Subaru was not going to gamble his life on it.
Hearing his answer, Meili pouted in dissatisfaction.
"Subaru, Meili, you look like you're having fun talking. Did you discover something?"
Hearing their conversation, Emilia came over. Having looked around the library, she wore an expectant expression, but unfortunately, they had gained nothing besides idle conversation. He felt too guilty to answer that way.
Just as Subaru thought that-
"Oh, big sis. Listen, listen. Big brother was just declaring his love for me."
"Declaring my foot!? If anything, I was talking about how important Emilia-tan is!"
"That makes me ve~ry happy, but you don't need to deny it so loudly. Being treated that way would make Meili feel lonely, wouldn't it?"
Without showing the slightest embarrassment, she lightly brushed aside Subaru's message of love. After mildly chiding Subaru, Emilia apologized to Meili:
"Sorry, okay? Subaru's like that. He can't help trying to look cool. I'll remind him, so if you hear him trying to look cool too, Meili, forgive him."
"...Big sis, what do you think of big brother?"
"-? Subaru is my very important knight..."
Not understanding the intent of the question, Emilia widened her eyes and answered. At that, Meili smiled faintly again and looked at the crestfallen Subaru.
"You really do have a rough road ahead, big brother."
Faced with Meili's pity, Subaru could only fall silent again.]
"Looking at this, the half-devil really is far too oblivious."
Priscilla opened her folding fan and mocked her mercilessly. But there was no real malice in her red eyes; she seemed more like a spectator commenting on a play she enjoyed.
"That child has already made himself perfectly clear, yet the half-devil's answer was both innocent and accurate-she said, 'He's my very important knight.' Someone completely unaware of what she was answering instead gave the most complete answer."
She closed her folding fan,
"That, too, is a talent. Though she herself will probably never realize it."
Garfiel leaned against the wall, arms crossed, but his gaze never left the Sky Curtain.
When he heard the part where Meili mentioned that "Petra is a little devil," the corner of his mouth twitched slightly:
"That little brat... she usually looks so sweet and cute. Never thought she'd use a line like 'You can like me' to handle an assassin. Should I call her smart, or say she's got too much nerve..."
He fell silent for a while,
"But then again, everyone in the mansion has their own way of doing things. The captain protects everyone his own way, and Petra has her own weapons, too."
When Petra heard that conversation about herself, her body stiffened slightly.
Her fingers gripped her skirt a little tighter than before, and her breathing briefly grew shallow, but her gaze never left the Sky Curtain.
She remembered that conversation. She remembered making that decision only after thinking for a long time-Meili was strong, and if she truly wanted to hurt someone, there were not many people in the mansion who could stop her.
But what if she had a reason not to betray them? "I can like her" was something she had said only after thinking for a long time. After saying it, she had even worried that it might seem too deliberate, that she might be seen through.
But when Petra heard Meili's words-"Petra is very hard to handle"-from her own perspective, she finally realized that Meili had seen through all that hesitation and testing. And even after seeing through it, she had still chosen to stay.
Petra spoke softly, as though to herself:
"...Lord Subaru was always worried about Meili back then. He felt he couldn't truly understand her. But he didn't know that simply being able to keep treating Meili normally was already something other people couldn't do."
She raised her head,
"He told Meili then, 'This past year, you've just been a girl who plays with dolls to me'-he thought he was just saying it casually, but perhaps those were exactly the words Meili most wanted to hear."
Emilia stood at the front of the crowd, her hands clasped before her. Seeing herself crouching beside Subaru and Meili in the Sky Curtain, and hearing herself say, "Subaru is my very important knight," she suddenly felt that perhaps she had been simpler then than she was now.
Simply reducing all those complicated relationships to a single answer-"He's my knight."
But now she knew more. She knew Subaru was Flugel, knew Subaru came from a distant other world, knew that before becoming her knight, Subaru had already borne the weight of four hundred years.
Yet even knowing all that, she still wanted to say those words. Not because they were the only answer, but because they were her true feelings, which had never changed.
"When Subaru was in the tower, he was always thinking about how to protect other people."
She said softly,
"He hadn't fully remembered who he was back then, but he was already standing in front of Meili, asking her those questions about her past. He wanted to understand her. He wanted her to know she wasn't alone. That's Subaru-he would do the same thing anywhere."
She paused.
"So whether he's Flugel or not, to me, he's just Subaru. Someone who's always giving everything he has for others, but never remembers to look after himself."
["Anyway, where are the stairs leading upstairs?"
"So far, we have zero clues..."
Emilia tilted her head, while Subaru tilted his the other way and sighed. After finishing his conversation with Meili, he felt utterly defeated by the girl younger than himself.
With no other choice, they changed course. This change of course meant prioritizing the challenge of the second floor-the next "trial" of the Pleiades Watchtower-rather than making use of the countless Books of the Dead in Taygeta.
"In the end, this library is too much for us right now..."
"Mm... even if we try our hardest and find the name of someone we know, it's ve~ry hard to tell whether that person knew what we want to know."
Emilia looked regretful, and she was right. The Books of the Dead could hardly be called a source of information suited to their needs. Finding the information they wanted in the memories of dead people whose faces and names they could match would take an enormous amount of time and lottery-winning luck.
They had neither at present. Time went without saying, and counting on his own luck was practically suicide for Subaru.
"So the information we want is probably on the next floor."
"But we can't get up there. I jumped onto the bookshelves, but that didn't work either."
"You're pretty bold, Emilia-chan..."
Once they changed course to finding the stairs to the next floor, Emilia had immediately jumped onto the bookshelves to check for hidden stairs. But
unfortunately, she had found none, so her bold action had borne no fruit.
Incidentally, when she jumped onto the shelves, her short skirt had fluttered daringly, throwing Subaru into a panic-
"Oh, don't worry. Puck taught me how to keep my skirt from flipping up. He called it a ladylike way to protect myself, so I've always paid attention to it."
"I have mixed feelings. I want to praise Puck and condemn him... well, never mind that for now."
Setting aside that shocking revelation, Emilia's attempt had established that they could not force their way to the upper floor by physical means. That left their search for the stairs to the second floor at an impasse.
It was practically a makeup exam for the "trial." Making things too tricky would only sap the challengers' motivation, but perhaps Flugel, the possible designer, had taken even that into account when building the Watchtower. How infuriating.
"I'd love to see what his parents look like... though, come to think of it, what he looks like is a mystery too."
"-Subaru, may I have a moment?"
As Subaru and Emilia talked, Julius approached and spoke to them.
With Anastasia accompanying him, he should have been tackling the library from a different perspective than Subaru and Emilia, raising hopes that he had discovered something.
"Well, did you find anything?"
"Unfortunately, nothing that could be called a real discovery. I made a circuit and looked over the shelves, but found no pattern in the arrangement of the books. They don't appear to be sorted by name or period either."
"Titles aside, even the dates are no use..."
The arrangement of the Books of the Dead was one slender hope for making use of this library. If the books they wanted were easier to find, the place would become far more useful.
How the Books of the Dead increased in number had also come up in his conversation with Meili. Since the books were not arranged chronologically, pursuing that clue was essentially a dead end too.
"In other words, we still don't know what we don't know. So we thought we'd see whether you and Miss Emilia had found anything, Natsuki."
"Hmm-sorry. We didn't find anything on the bookshelves either..."
"Oh, so that's why you climbed onto them. My, I was wondering what you were suddenly up to..."
Learning the reason for Emilia's earlier actions, Anastasia gave a faint, wry smile. Beside her, Julius raised a finger and said,
"May I interject? I believe Subaru and Lady Emilia have reached the same conclusion: this Taygeta library is too much for us. We simply don't have time to examine its entire collection."
"Yeah, that's what we thought too. That's why we're looking for the stairs to the next 'trial.'"
"That's fine as well. However, while searching, I thought of a way to make use of this library."
"A way to use it... what did you come up with?"
"Yes. Naturally, we enlist the resources of the entire nation."
Faced with a shortage of manpower, Julius made his proposal in all seriousness.
"The entire nation...?"
Emilia's eyes widened in confusion, while Subaru immediately snapped his fingers beside her.
"I see. That never occurred to me, but we could do that. Now that the barrier stopping people from reaching the Watchtower is gone, all that's left is crossing the sea of sand full of demon beasts."
"And then they could reach the tower. Even so, it would remain an adventure. But if we could employ sheer numbers, this library would be worth reporting to the kingdom."
"The value of these records is nothing to sneeze at... they could fill in plenty of gaps in that history you love so much."
"That would merely be incidental."
After promptly answering Subaru's teasing, Julius immediately shook his head.
"No, it would be a lie to say I have no expectations on that front. My apologies. I do have a personal interest."
"Don't overthink it. What's wrong with acting out of self-interest? If you're going to reflect that hard on yourself, where does that leave me, when everything I do is one hundred percent self-interest?"
Subaru expected something in return from the start. He did not discard his self-interest and act on a sense of duty alone. Always acting for himself was Subaru's principle and policy.
"And not to put too fine a point on it, but I get the impression Miss Anastasia's reason for wanting to become king is even more full of selfish desires. Right?"
"Mm~ that's right. I want to become king to satisfy my desires. It just happens to benefit the people around me as a result. That's all."
Anastasia brushed aside Subaru's impertinence with an unbothered smile. Then, stroking her scarf, she said,
"Still, it's interesting that someone like Julius and I ended up as master and servant. That's what I think. Don't you agree, Miss Emilia?"
"Personally, I'm happy when the enemy isn't in sync. It'd be an even bigger help if you broke up over musical differences... ow! Emilia-chan, that hurts!"
"No saying mean things.-Miss Anastasia, I've never really understood how things are between you two, so I can't comment. But however perfect my opponents might be, I'll keep trying in my own way, together with my knight."
As she said "my knight," Emilia took hold of Subaru's sleeve and puffed out her chest. Deeply moved, Subaru exhaled through his nose.
"I may be incompetent, but I won't lose to anyone."
"Nobody was calling you incompetent."
"...Sometimes, I truly find you two frightening. I simply can't tell which parts are serious and which aren't."
"Leaving me aside, Emilia-chan is basically serious about everything. Cute, right?"
Julius gave Subaru's wink a wry smile, and the derailed conversation finally came to an end. Anastasia clapped her hands to get the main topic moving again.
"All right, all right. Back to what we were discussing... we don't have enough people, so we bring in outside help, yes?"
"Yes, precisely. We should now be able to bring a large survey team into the tower. Not only to find the way upstairs, but if we could discover something in this library..."
"Yes, I understand.-I do understand, but I find it a little frightening."
"Frightening?"
Interrupting Julius's enthusiastic explanation, Anastasia shook her head in reluctance. Her knight frowned, and his mistress raised a finger to begin explaining.
"Let me say this first, all right? I'd welcome more people too. After all, just looking around this library takes a great deal of effort. Especially since I'm short-just looking at the bookshelves makes my neck hurt."
Anastasia tapped her neck, then continued.
"But the foundation of business is thinking from the other party's perspective. Well, not just business, really. It's a basic principle of life that helps in any situation. So let's think according to that rule."
"Think from the other party's perspective? But whose perspective should we consider?"
"The person who built this tower, prepared the 'trials,' and left Shaula here... right? Think about how that person felt, then consider it. Doesn't that make things clearer?"
"A twisted personality?"
"That's what I think too."
Subaru turned down the corners of his mouth, and Anastasia nodded in agreement. Their exchange left the earnest Emilia and Julius looking troubled.
But Subaru and Anastasia, with their skewed personalities, understood each other perfectly. Suppose, as Anastasia suggested, someone with a nasty personality wanted to make the tower harder to conquer-
"Shaula! I have something to ask you. Come here."
"Master~? Coming, coming~ I'll be right there-!!"
At Subaru's call, Shaula, who had been playing with Meili beside the stairs out of sheer boredom, immediately came running. She slid across the floor as though skating, then knelt before Subaru.
"What is it, what is it? Master, what do you want me to do?"
"Having you stare at me with those sparkling eyes makes me feel guilty... do you know where the stairs to the second floor are...?"
"Nope! I've never been above the fourth floor!"
"For all four hundred years? That's an astonishing fact..."
If her account was true, Shaula had spent as long as four hundred years in the Watchtower.
If she had devoted that entire time to watching the dunes, then her loyalty was nothing short of breathtaking.
Honestly, having her regard him as her master felt like a heavy burden.
"Miss Shaula, could I ask you something?"
As the two reached a standstill, Anastasia stepped in.
"Miss Shaula, you're that, aren't you? The guardian of this Pleiades Great Library, correct?"
"That's exactly right."
"I see. Then, if my guess is right... four. No, five?"
"Hmm~?"
"-The secret internal rules you were ordered to keep in guarding this tower, Miss Shaula. There are five, right?"
"-Guh!?"
Those words, delivered with a gentle smile, startled Shaula. Her dumbfounded stare and jolting shoulders revealed the truth of Anastasia's suspicions more clearly than words. The others, however, did not understand what Anastasia was talking about.
"Internal rules? And secret ones? What's going on?"
"N-no, Master! It's not that I hid them! Nobody asked, so I didn't say anything. I really want to get that part down in black and white!"
"Enough. Tell us everything."
Panicking after Anastasia saw through her secret, Shaula hurried to defend herself, while Subaru demanded that she explain at once. Faced with his forceful attitude, Shaula poked the fingers of her hands together and said,
"For example, if you and the others left the tower without telling me, Master, I'd have to kill you without mercy."
"That came out of nowhere!"
"It's not like I'd do it because I wanted to! It's just an example! This was always something I couldn't disobey~"
Subaru gaped at this declaration of hostility, while Shaula shrank back and shook her head. Sitting slumped on the floor with her arms around her knees, she pressed her ample breasts against them.
"How could I ever kill you, Master? It would all be over if I got killed, but this really puts me through the wringer..."
"If you hate it that much, resist... don't tell me it's another contract."
With an unpleasant premonition, Subaru uttered that word. It came to mind if he gave serious thought to Shaula's identity.
A guardian who had watched over the shrine where the Witch was sealed in the Sage's stead for four hundred years-a being capable of carrying out that duty for so long, who had actually lived for centuries.
Neither her lifespan nor the laws governing her life could be human.
"You're not a spirit like Beako, are you?"
Beatrice had been bound to the Forbidden Library for four hundred years by a promise that did not exist.
If Shaula was like her, disposing of people who tried to approach the Watchtower for four hundred years while waiting for someone who could break the conditions.
Then perhaps, like Beatrice, she too was-
"No way. Spirits? Who could stand being around those floaty things? I absolutely refuse... what? Why did everyone suddenly start looking so scary?!"
"Eighty percent of the people here have ties to spirits!"
Including an immature spirit arts user, there were three of them, as well as a little girl who was a spirit herself and someone whose body was temporarily possessed by a spirit.
The only ones without such ties were the oni sisters waiting downstairs, and Meili, who watched happily as Shaula made herself even smaller.
"Then what are you? If you're not a spirit, there's no need to cling so desperately to a contract."
"What are you saying, Subaru? Even if you aren't a spirit or a spirit arts user, you should keep a promise you make to someone, shouldn't you? Promises are important. Now, repeat after me."
"No, I was wrong just now. That was only a figure of speech..."
"Promises are important. Say it three times."
"Promises are important, promises are important, promises are important."
Emilia had scolded him from an unexpected quarter, but fortunately, saying it three times earned her forgiveness.
Setting aside Subaru and Emilia's foolish exchange, Shaula's stubborn attitude seemed utterly hopeless. Yet it was hard to believe that it was merely a matter of deep loyalty.
"Damn it, Emilia-tan scolded me. It's all your fault! Damn you, hurry up and spill!"
"Wow~ what a baseless accusation. But that's my master! I'll talk!"
As Subaru pressed her, Shaula, the target of his misplaced anger, straightened her posture and raised her hand.
"What's required of this unworthy disciple is simple. Allow me to announce it openly. First, anyone challenging the Pleiades Great Library absolutely must not go outside."
"An impossible condition right off the bat."
"Don't worry! There's a way out! How-ever, you have to finish the Great Library's 'trials' and reach the first floor, Maia. Then everything will be okay."
Shaula raised her thumb as she spoke.
"Incidentally, if you break that condition, I'll immediately turn into a heartless killing machine, and my promise to you will be null and void, Master. I'll attack you then."
"It takes priority over your promise to me?! I'm hurt!"
"Ooh~ to think I managed to hurt you, Master. I've improved too! This must be evolution! The culmination of four hundred years!"
"I was being sarcastic!"
"So was I!"
After that back-and-forth, Shaula raised a second finger, waving her fingers rhythmically as she continued.
"I'm bored, so I'll keep going~. One, leaving before completing the 'trials' is forbidden. Two, breaking the rules of the 'trials' is forbidden. Three, disrespecting the library is forbidden. Four, destroying the tower is forbidden. Five... um~ five is... oh~ there isn't a fifth."]