Rem

Rem had passed out.

Fortunately, she had simply pushed herself too hard fighting after awakening her oni horn, and her body's self-protection mechanism had forcibly shut down her consciousness.

Subaru limped along with her on his back, the leg Rem had bandaged herself protesting with every step.

Under Ram's protection, they continued on their way as Witchbeasts sprang from the darkness one after another. But not a single one survived a single move from Ram.

Ram found it strange, too. Why were there so many Witchbeasts tonight?

But in the face of her overwhelming strength, the oddity was merely a bit annoying to her.

After pressing onward, the three finally made it safely back to the village.

Ram took Rem off Subaru's back and, before leaving, asked him to use a Lesser Spirit to heat a tub of water. She wanted to thoroughly wash the smell of blood off Rem.

Subaru did as she asked without a word, and the turbulent night thus came to a somewhat uneasy close.

"It seems Ram has always underestimated you. Ram thought Rem could find something to do with you, but instead, you accidentally hurt Rem's confidence. Couldn't you have just kept acting like a good-for-nothing? Then none of this would have happened."

"But it wouldn't be good for Rem to keep living in your shadow, would it? And who are you calling a good-for-nothing?"

The first thing Subaru did when he woke up the next morning was drag his still-aching leg along as he limped over to Rem's house.

Ram was standing at the door, looking as though she had been waiting there especially for him. She needed Subaru to explain exactly what had happened last night.

"Come to think of it, this village doesn't even have a school, let alone a therapist. They have supernatural powers, but they're still an agricultural society..."

"What are you muttering about? Still, you did go to save Ram's sister last night. Even if you didn't seem to be much help and Ram had to come to the rescue in the end, Ram supposes you deserve a little praise."

"...Where's the praise?"

"Don't get carried away. But even so-" Ram suddenly adopted a scrutinizing expression and looked Subaru up and down. "What exactly did you say to Rem last night?"

"What did I say? I didn't say anything weird, did I?"

"Then that's strange. Why did Ram's idiot sister keep muttering your name, human, even after she passed out?"

"...Well, about that."

"...Never mind. Go on in. Rem needs you to explain a few things too."

Subaru stepped into Rem's home for the first time. The wooden house was considerably larger than his storeroom, and the interior was neat and orderly, with a faint, fresh scent of plants in the air. Before he had time to look around, a figure came running out of an inner room.

"Subaru-!!"

"Hey, Rem. Why did you come running out? Normally, I'd be sitting beside your bed, like they do on TV..."

Rem stood on tiptoe, reached out with both hands, and cupped Subaru's baby face before kneading it hard. She was strong. Even though she was still weak from having just woken up, her hands had enough strength to squish his face into several different shapes.

Yet there was a carefulness to her grip, as though she feared he might break if she squeezed too hard.

"All right. I really am here. This isn't a dream." Subaru caught Rem's mischievous little hands and pulled them away from his thoroughly reddened cheeks.

"...But... Rem saw it with her own eyes... Subaru was chewed to pieces by that crocodile... and swallowed..."

Rem's voice was still trembling. If Subaru really was alive, what had that crisp crunching sound she heard been?

"That's thanks to Anta."

Subaru held out his hand. The red Lesser Spirit appeared in his palm in response.

"If I'd stayed in its mouth, it would've chewed me to pieces right there. So Anta froze its tongue immediately and let me slide down into its stomach."

"...Back then..."

"You heard right. It was chewing ice. A human body wouldn't make such a crisp sound when chewed. Once I'd fallen all the way into its stomach, Anta used magic to make an ice sphere around me, keeping me away from the stomach acid so it couldn't digest me."

"...That crocodile. Rem was no match for it. But back then, it looked like it was in terrible pain..."

"That's right. The thing had a thick, tough hide, but its insides were no different from an ordinary beast's. It swallowed me, so I gave it a taste of ice and fire from inside its belly."

Even with her oni horn awakened, Rem alone was no match for that giant crocodile.

If the giant crocodile had found even one chance to turn its enormous, razor-toothed jaws on Rem and crush her, she would have died long ago.

But from beginning to end, the giant crocodile had never managed to launch an effective attack, because the inside of its body had been subjected to unimaginable agony the entire time.

Inside its belly, Subaru had disabled all its skills. Ice spikes pierced its stomach lining, flames scorched its internal organs, and ice and fire took turns tormenting it, leaving it unable to do anything but roll around in agony.

That was how Rem had survived. That was how Rem had managed to cut off its horn.

Rem slowly lowered her head. Her gaze fell on the little red Lesser Spirit in Subaru's palm, and the confusion in her eyes gradually gave way to envy.

"...I see. Of course. How could Rem have killed that Witchbeast with her own strength? If Subaru hadn't saved Rem in the first place, Subaru wouldn't have been eaten. In the end... Rem was still a burden to Subaru."

"Ow-!"

Rem covered her forehead and looked aggrievedly at the person in front of her, tears in her eyes. Subaru had just lowered his chopping hand.

"I told you, didn't I? If Rem dared say that again, I'd knock her on the forehead."

Subaru had never met anyone with lower self-esteem than himself. At that moment, he felt he finally understood how his mom and dad felt when they looked at him.

She really had saved him, yet she was so lacking in confidence that she disclaimed all the credit. It was infuriating, funny, and heartbreaking all at once.

"Anta deserves a lot of credit, of course. But I needed both of you to survive. There was no Mana inside that Witchbeast for us to absorb. If Rem hadn't beaten it half to death from the outside, Anta couldn't have held on that long, no matter how much strength Anta had."

Antares floated gently over to Rem and pressed against her cheek. A feeling of gratitude flowed from the Lesser Spirit.

If no one had dug Subaru out from outside, the most Anta could have done was inflict one last bout of tremendous pain on the giant crocodile before running out of Mana and dying with Subaru in that filthy stomach.

"But... Subaru was protecting Rem... and the wound on his leg is so serious..."

"So what? A man getting a little hurt is hardly a burden! Besides, scars are a man's badges of honor! I figure it'll probably heal in three days."

Subaru patted his leg and grinned.

"And Rem keeps talking about being a 'burden'-but if you ask me, I was the one holding you back the whole time. If Rem hadn't pulled me out of the oil pool, I wouldn't even have made it out of the forest. Is that a good enough reason?"

"...But Rem even dropped the sweet potato... Rem can't even do something as simple as cooking for Subaru properly..." Rem bit her lip, her voice growing quieter and quieter.

"You didn't do it properly? That was the second-best sweet potato I've eaten since I came here."

"...Second?"

"First was the one Rem steamed for me the first time. It had already gone cold, but it was soft and sweet when I bit into it. I thought right then that you had to be a genius. After that, you brought me food every day. Rem made me feel like maybe this world wasn't so bad after all."

"Even though... Rem's reasons were hypocritical..."

"Like I said! Judge actions, not intentions. The reason doesn't matter; what matters is what you did. Anyway, thanks to Rem's efforts, a few things are already undeniable facts!"

"Rem is my savior, the first friend I made in this world, and the person I least want to lose here. Are you going to argue with any of that, Rem?"

"If it had been Sister who saved Subaru... she would have done a better job than Rem."

"How did Ram suddenly get dragged into this...?"

"But I have plenty of reasons to argue against that. First, Ram's personality is a little mean. Compared to sharp-tongued Ram, tsundere Rem is more likable."

"Second, have you ever seen Ram have anything to do with me apart from yesterday? She doesn't care about me at all. I'm probably just a stray cat she picked up off the street, and as long as I can find my own food, that's enough for her."

He lowered his hand and looked at Rem seriously.

"So I'll say it again. I'm really glad you're here, Rem. Thank you."

"Mm..."

A sobbing moan escaped Rem.

"Really...? But... Rem is just what's left over from Sister..."

"I want to argue with the way Rem sees herself, but before that, why does Rem think I'm some kind of once-in-a-generation genius?"

Subaru pointed at himself with a wry smile. "My talent for magic is the weakest in the village, isn't it? Without Anta, I couldn't even use the simplest magic. So I asked Anta before to stay with me always, so we'd never be apart again."

"So now it's Rem's turn. I want to ask you a favor."

"...Ask... Rem?"

"Yeah. I still don't know anything about this world. I don't know what's dangerous or what's safe. Even though I have Antares now and have learned to use magic, I'm still scared. How many more dangers like last night will I run into? I definitely won't make it on my own."

Rem's breathing quickened. Deep inside her, her self-denial was still making one last struggle.

"...But... Rem is weak... so much weaker than Sister... so she'll always be relying on Subaru. Are you really okay with entrusting your life to someone like Rem?"

Subaru smiled in response.

"It's okay. Rem is strong too. And speaking of Antares, Antares just asked me to pass something on. Rem cooked lots and lots of meals for Subaru. All the Mana that went into restoring Subaru's strength ended up in Antares's belly. That's how Antares survived and had enough strength to protect me when I was swallowed. See? What Rem did went all the way around and saved my life in the end."

"...That... wasn't something Rem did on purpose..." Rem's voice broke into sobs once again.

"Right, you didn't do it on purpose. You were just being yourself. But that's exactly why you saved a lot of people without even knowing it. So, Rem-please keep helping me from now on."

"Live on with me in this messed-up world. I need you. Is that enough of a reason for you to stop calling yourself a good-for-nothing?"

"...That's not fair... saying so much... Rem can't argue against any of it..."

"Then don't argue. If you agree-come here."

"...Okay."

Rem threw herself into Subaru's arms. Her little hands clutched the clothes on his back tightly, as though she wanted to press him into her own body and never let anything take him away again.

She buried her face deep in the crook of Subaru's shoulder, tears welling up and soaking his collar. She smiled, and then tears suddenly spilled from the corners of her eyes-drop after drop, overflowing without end, yet Rem kept smiling.

They were tears of happiness. Crying and smiling, crying and smiling, her little face was a mess of tears and smiles, a complete, utter mess of happiness.

A child who had spent all her time as a shadow had been called by name for the first time, truly needed for the first time, and earnestly included in someone's plans for the future for the first time-only then could such burning happiness flow.

Subaru kept gently stroking her hair. Once, and then again.

Rem buried her whole self in his embrace, enveloped in that tenderness and happiness, along with her complete dependence and wholehearted trust. She failed to notice entirely-Subaru's body suddenly stiffened.

In Subaru's field of vision, outside the window directly ahead, a pink head was quietly peeking over the windowsill.

Her pink eyes fixed coldly on him, Ram rested against the window, expressionless, staring at the two people embracing inside.