Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 7
Page 8
Subaru had arranged the place and the people for negotiations. There was no necessity to Subaru deceiving them. Of course, the calculation that they would think that way was one of the pieces of insurance Subaru had employed.
But that was based on nothing more than the pros and cons of success aligning atop the thinnest of ice.
The type of “lie” Subaru was seeing through was based on a false initial impression. And it was the kind of lie that need never be exposed if it brought results…ever.
But it was different as far as Rem was concerned.
Then, as ever, Rem stood as Subaru’s ally. Subaru was deeply aware that Rem was now the closest person to him in the other world.
To continue lying to Rem held a completely different meaning than maintaining the deception with Crusch and the others. Making her accept it after she had realized it was false left an entirely different impression: namely, that he didn’t reveal the lie to Crusch and the others because the pros and cons aligned that way, but he didn’t reveal it to Rem because he didn’t trust her.
He couldn’t help if it made her think that way, for whether she did or not, he absolutely could not reveal the truth to her…
“Rem, I…”
“It’s fine, Subaru.”
“Huh?”
Subaru planned to use words to somehow smooth things over and protect Rem. But Rem rejected that with a shake of the head, a thin smile coming over her lips.
With Subaru too surprised to close his mouth, Rem turned a sincere look toward him and spoke.
“I understand you enough to know when you are lying, Subaru. I have been watching you a great, great deal, after all.”
With a bashful, blushing smile, Rem teasingly touched a finger to her lips. Then, she moved the finger in Subaru’s direction and continued.
“I also know you won’t tell me the reason for the lie. But the fact that you won’t speak to me about it does not bother me that much, you know?”
“”
“After all, I believe in you, Subaru.”
At the base of the Great Flugel Tree, a breeze passed between the two as they faced each other.
With Subaru stunned into silence, Rem gently put a hand to her breast and stated before him, “Subaru, if you say that you know where the White Whale shall appear, I believe you. If you say the Witch Cult is after Lady Emilia and the others, I believe you. Even should you say the moon shall fall and destroy this nation, I shall believe you, Subaru.”
“…Well, I wouldn’t go quite that far.”
“Yes, I suppose not. But that is how serious I am.”
The smile vanished, and Rem stared at Subaru with very serious eyes. Then, she silently lowered her hips, grasping the hem of her skirt with both hands as she curtsied.
“I adore you with all this body and all this heart, Subaru—furthermore, now and in the future, I shall never, ever doubt you, Subaru.”
“”
“Therefore, it’s not necessary whatsoever to push yourself into a corner to make me believe your lie.”
Subaru barely managed to choke back the heat welling up from his throat.
He pressed down on the inner corners of his eyes, turned his face up, and opened his trembling mouth wide and exclaimed, “Ahh! Man, staring at this huge tree really raises the tension!”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“I won’t be able to calm down unless I’m looking up at this tree! There’s no other reason at all, but I won’t be able to look down for a little while!”
“Yes, I suppose not.”
Subaru put on a show to keep his face turned up so that tears might not fall. It was a frail bluff on his part, but Rem, enveloped by gentle benevolence, did not call him on it.
That moment, Subaru understood the true extent of his own idiocy all over again.
If only he could have divulged everything to Rem from the very beginning. He couldn’t have just told her everything, but if he could have at least conveyed to her the tragedy yet to come, Subaru would no doubt have been spared having the tragedy repeated a second and a third time.
Subaru couldn’t explain the reasons why, so he thought no one would believe him if he said anything. Thus, he decided he had to go it alone, leading to various failures over and over.
But Rem was different.
She wasn’t asking for a reason. She’d believe Subaru, even if he didn’t explain. Just like that moment, she forgave Subaru, in her gentle, affectionate way, for not speaking the truth.
“This is when, instead of sorry, you say thank you, huh?”
Having desperately held back the tears, Subaru somehow managed to face Rem once more. Rem made a beaming smile and nodded at his reply.
“To be honest, I feel like I’ll only be able to return super-tiny little pieces of everything you’ve given me, Rem…”
“That is not so.”
Rem lowered her head slightly as she denied Subaru’s words.
“I really do understand that speaking like this will only bring you suffering, Subaru. That I have spoken regardless is my own selfishness.”
“I don’t think of it like that at all. I’m the bad one for hiding stuff.”
“But it really is selfish of me even so. I am sorry.”
The words were self-effacing, but when Rem lifted her face, her expression was sunny. Seeing Subaru happily falter from the inconsistent sight, Rem tilted her head.
“I thought…it would be nice if you passed on to others a tiny bit of the load you carry. As I am now, that you had no one to do so makes me…unbearably sad.”
“I…”
In that moment, Rem conveyed her resolve, the firmness of her feelings.
Subaru leaned against the trunk of the Great Tree and took a deep breath.
“I…love Emilia.”
“Yes.”
He revisited the words he had once exchanged with Rem.
He knew that the words wounded her deeply, that they were words that made her suffer, yet Subaru spoke them once more.
However—
“But…”
“”
“But when you’re with me, my heart trembles… Go ahead. You probably think I’m a terrible guy now.”
He wondered if the word terrible even cut it.
But they were Subaru’s honest feelings.
For even though he knew he could not answer Rem’s hopes, only her words had warmed his heart so.
Somehow, the breath Rem let out seemed hot as she said:
“Truly, you are a terrible person, Subaru.”
“…I know.”
“That is a lie. I love you.”
“I…I know that, geez.”
Subaru’s face turned beet red as she stated plainly how she felt all over again.
If it were not night, that redness would have surely stood out. Subaru turned his back, as if trying to conceal the red surface of his face, and began to walk away from the tree.
“Time to head back,” he said. “We need to get mind and body ready right up to when the White Whale appears.”
Before he passed in front of Rem, he grasped her dangling right hand.
When her hand was grasped, Rem raised her voice in a little ah, but immediately hurried to match Subaru’s walking pace, staring at the side of the young man’s face, one he did not wish her to see, with teasing eyes as she said:
“Subaru.”
“…What?”
“I am fine with being your second wife.”
They were words to make a man unwittingly halt in his tracks.
When Subaru, unable to resist, looked toward her, Rem made a face like that of an adorable puppy, seemingly wagging her tail as she awaited Subaru’s reply.
Oh, good grief, just how far is this girl gonna—?
“If Emilia-tan’s a very generous first wife…”
“Well then, when we get back you must convince Lady Emilia. I shall try hard as well.”
Rem clenched the hand not grasped into a fist, ve
ry animated as she spoke with a smile.
Speaking jokingly like that broke all the tension, driving home to Subaru how weak he was. He truly couldn’t hold a candle to the girl.
No man could hold a candle to a woman, be it Emilia or Rem, in that kind of situation.
Not that he really minded accepting that particular weakness, compared with the other ones he had known to date…
3
With the approaching hour growing nigh, the area around the Great Tree grew taut with the tension particular to the field of battle.
Having taken meals and sleep in shifts, the condition of the expeditionary force gathered in the battle zone was tip-top. The land dragons and ligers for the cavalry were breathing roughly through their noses, eagerly awaiting the signal.
Everyone lowered their breaths and calmed their hearts, continuing to wait for the time to come.
In the night sky of the Liphas Highway, the strong wind made the clouds flow quickly.
As the clouds obstructed the moonlight, not a moment passed without gazes raised, checking to see that it was not the White Whale’s giant body swimming in the sky above. That was how much vigilance ruled the hearts of all present.
“It is a short time until the appointed hour.”
When Crusch made that small murmur, Ferris, standing beside her, nodded briefly, glancing from the corner of his eye. In that moment, not even Ferris, having served Crusch for so many years without ever losing that witty nuance, could voice a single jest.
It was not that he’d been swallowed up by the strained tension. It was because Ferris knew his role—that of one of the expeditionary force’s lifelines—and had wholly set his heart upon fulfilling that duty.
It was more than likely true that Ferris’s actions would alter the final number of victors surviving the battle.
Crusch believed that her force would emerge victorious. But she was not so conceited as to think they could slay the White Whale without sacrifices. Nonetheless, she held self-confidence that she could mitigate the number of casualties required.
That self-confidence came from the trust she held in Ferris, her knight, so perhaps one could question if it ought to be called self-confidence.
“”
The sword-armed Wilhelm stood in front of her, on the very front line of the expeditionary force.
Of the six swords on the aged swordsman’s belt, he wielded one in each hand, poised to rush out in an instant. The quiet antagonism wafting around the Sword Devil was in a polished realm, honed to a fine point as he faced the moment for which he had so yearned.
Crusch could not fail to be enveloped by an out-of-place sense of admiration at the Sword Devil’s sheer purity—that a person could maintain a soul so pure, so unswerving.
Crusch thought from her heart that one day she, too, would arrive at the same realm.
“”
The faces of each brave warrior of the expeditionary force alongside Wilhelm had an expression of hardened resolve, their morale high.
They obeyed Crusch’s command, but as they awaited the White Whale, surely their hearts harbored doubts of their own—both about Subaru, the primary source of information for the White Whale’s emergence, and the fact that they had far too little time to develop bonds of trust between them.
And yet, they obeyed without a single contrary utterance, for they deeply valued Crusch’s judgment. Crusch was strongly aware of her own duty to respond to the trust they placed in her.
“”
As the time limit approached, the brimming will to fight was reassuring, but inside, Crusch was nervous.
Crusch touched the hilt of her treasured sword, ensuring by feel that the engraved crest of the lion was truly there. It was a habit from her youth, a little spell by which she poured resolve into herself.
They had to win.
She felt the presence of Ferris at her side and the legacy of the Lion King on her fingertips. However mighty the foe, it was all Crusch needed to fight.
And then—
“—!”
Abruptly, it rang across the Liphas Highway, subsumed by the darkness of night.
She was slow to realize that the series of light sounds making her eardrums tremble resembled music of some sort.
When she turned her eyes toward the source of the sound, she saw Subaru putting his hand on the shining metia. It was from the metia in his hand that the music was noisily flowing.
It was the signal Subaru had said would announce that the time had come.
“All hands, on alert—!”
At Crusch’s shout, the expeditionary force poised as one.
According to Subaru, the White Whale would appear within tens of seconds after the metia alerted him. If he was to be believed, it would not be strange for the White Whale’s giant body to be swimming in the sky that very moment. With the metia having alerted him, the place had to be correct as well.
She had plenty of room for doubts, but Subaru had given her no reason to doubt him. Crusch set her misgivings and apprehensions aside, honing her nerves as she awaited the demon beast.
“”
Amid the silence, she felt no sign of the enormous demon beast appearing.
The expression on her face was not disappointment, properly speaking, but after a minute had passed with no change on the field of battle, Crusch could not help herself from being, for one, unnerved.
Discrepancies in the information. Mistaken assumptions. Some kind of random accident.
There was no change in the silence that had descended over the Liphas Highway; there was no sight of the enemy in the landscape around her.
As before, the moonlight was obstructed by clouds, causing a large, dark shadow to fall over the plains, but—
“—!”
Looking up, Crusch instantly cursed her own shallowness.
The moonlight vanished as a shadow fell over the plains.
The altitude of the cloud intercepting the moonlight was gently descending, coming before their eyes.
—But a cloud, it was not.
’Twas a demon beast, floating in the sky in the form of a gargantuan fish.
As Crusch sucked in her breath, virtually everyone in the expeditionary force came to the same understanding. Then, as if their minds were one, they tossed their gazes toward Crusch.
—They were waiting for the command for a preemptive strike.
They had succeeded in taking the initiative, catching the White Whale at the moment of its appearance. All that remained was to launch a surprise attack as planned, seizing control of the front.
“”
Crusch breathed in, as if to settle her heart upon the first command to unleash.
The White Whale had yet to notice the puny beings arrayed against it. The way the White Whale was moving its enormous head was as if to check where it was. And as it acted thus, its guard was down, full of openings—
That settled it for Crusch.
“—All hands…”
Full-scale attack, she went to command when—
“—Nail it!!”
“—Al Hyuma!!”
As signal leaped ahead of Crusch, mana was simultaneously deployed via magical incantation.
The world made a sound as if it had frozen over, bringing forth enormous and incredibly dense pillars of ice. Each and every one of the icy pillars rivaled the central pillar of a mansion, with there being four in total. Launched at super-high speed, the pillars raced through the sky and scored a direct hit on the White Whale’s torso; with a slight delay, the demon beast’s scream and spurting blood poured down to earth.
When Crusch hurriedly looked, the land dragon Subaru and Rem were both riding was galloping, cutting across the vanguard. As Subaru clung to Rem’s hips, he raised a fist, and Rem, having succeeded in her own duty by launching the preemptive magical attack, wore a very satisfied expression.
How the two of them jumped the gun—rather, got the jump on the rest—rocked the expeditionary force.
Not in anger but in mirth.
“All hands, follow that pair of fools!!”
Crusch’s order erased the unrest as the various members of the expeditionary force began the offensive. Dust kicked up in the process, and on the other side, the White Whale’s cries grew loud once more, echoing across the night sky of the Liphas Highway.
After much waiting, the Battle of the White Whale had begun.
4
No matter how many times Subaru experienced the wind repel blessing, he could not help thinking of it as unnatural. Vibration, wind, posture—the impossible phenomenon blocked all those things from affecting them.
While Rem sat squarely on the land dragon as it ran, Subaru put a hand around her hip as he strained his eyes. He licked his lips, which had begun to dry, moistening them a bit as he sucked in his breath.
The cell phone alarm had rung as it was set to, and the White Whale had appeared in the twilight above the plains.
He could only describe the emergence of the giant body as splitting the sky and crawling out of the resulting shadow. Its massive body instilled primordial fear in Subaru, with all the memories of it having menaced his life surging back into his heart.
When he looked around, tension was running through the expeditionary force, noticing it just as Subaru had. As prearranged, they ought to be launching an all-out attack at Crusch’s order.
But for a brief moment, the feeling of oppression had left even Crusch drawing a blank, her breath caught.
It could only be called a critical error, but such was the terror of combat the extreme situation had wrought.
Accordingly, Subaru patted Rem’s shoulder.
“—Nail it!!”
“—Al Hyuma!!”
A half second before Crusch breathed out, that shout cut the covers of the gun barrels on the front.
Responding to Subaru’s voice, Rem gave direction to the vast amount of mana she had woven together. This gave rise to four of those vile pillars of ice, with their sharply tapered tips mercilessly gouging holes in the White Whale’s underbelly as it floated in the sky.