“I can’t talk like that in front of you, it’s embarrassing… Sheesh, Frederica! Move on already!”
“Oh my, even though you glossed it over previously, that childlike charm of yours is falling by the wayside.”
Frederica hid her mouth as she smiled, shifting her gaze from the eyebrow-twitching Emilia toward Subaru as she said, “Master Subaru, I heard plenty about you from Lady Emilia… No, more than plenty.”
“Fred—er—i—ca!!”
“Yes, yes, I understand— So let us speak, Master Subaru, so that whether you found the archive of forbidden books or whether you did not, it does not become a roadblock.”
“Become a…roadblock?”
Unable to get the gist of the mystery phrase, Subaru knotted his brows in incomprehension. As he did so, Emilia gently touched Subaru’s shoulder, nodding as she continued.
“Subaru, we didn’t doubt you’d meet Beatrice, but whether that girl would answer your questions is another matter, yes? I mean, both you and Beatrice are reeeally stubborn…”
“The excessively cute way you put that bothers me a little, but you have a point. So?”
“I made a promise to the villagers, and I have a lot of things I want to ask Roswaal about myself—so I asked Frederica to tell me about the Sanctuary.”
“”
Subaru’s throat caught over the fact that Emilia had acted for the sake of achieving their original objective.
The Sanctuary Emilia sought was the very same Beatrice had revealed as his path to answers. With such a sad face and voice, she had told him that the answers to all his misgivings were there in the Sanctuary.
So, too, had she said the “half-beast girl” would show him the way, namely—
“And did Frederica tell you about the Sanctuary?”
“I lost to Lady Emilia’s persistence. I had been told to disclose as little about that as possible…but it seems strange to conceal it from the two of you.”
“Um, I happen to be here as well…”
“It seems strange to conceal it from the two of you.”
“Would you please correct that line?!”
Setting Frederica and Otto’s remarks aside, Subaru was surprised the issue had moved forward in his absence. As he had the thought, Emilia kept her hand on Subaru’s shoulder, lowering her brows.
“Subaru, was that all right? You’re not upset I decided without you?”
“N-nah, I’m not upset at all. I whiffed it on my end, so if anything it’s a huge help.”
“Really? I’m so glad. So, Subaru, there’s a favor I wanted to ask of you…”
Subaru was still off balance as Emilia looked relieved, lowering her eyes as she continued. When he heard the word favor, Subaru suddenly felt a bad premonition.
The word favor had precipitated something once before in precisely the same fashion—
“Wait! Don’t tell me that favor is…me staying here at the mansion?”
“Eh?”
“If so, time out! Let’s talk this over! Certainly, I can’t call myself in tip-top physical condition, and Ferris stopped being my doctor, but it’s not like I live a life of combat alone! If anything, fighting with the mind is where I really shine, well no, that’s a little off, too, but…!”
Emilia’s eyes went wide as Subaru desperately tried to make his case. But it was a place where such fervor was necessary. The situation certainly resembled when they’d headed to the royal capital for purposes of the royal selection. However, what was decisively different from then was the readiness in Subaru’s heart.
He wasn’t following Emilia without a plan or a care. This time was different from what had taken place before.
“Don’t even try to stop me. I’m going with you. I can’t let you just leave me…”
“Of course I’m not leaving you here. Come with me.”
“If you tell me you’re leaving me, just no, no way, no h— What did you say just now?”
As Subaru’s ferocious emotions reduced the breadth of his vocabulary, her words seemed to slap his face, knocking him back to his senses. As that sank in, Emilia took the hand in contact with Subaru, touching it to her own breast as she spoke.
“I told you, come with me. I’d be worried sick on my own.”
“…”
“Subaru, I’m…relying on you. Subaru, I…need your strength.”
—Subaru could not put into words the impact of Emilia’s quiet plea upon his own heart.
His mouth hung open. With Subaru unable to say a word, Emilia’s expression clouded over with concern. Her violet eyes wavered as she stroked her own long, silver hair and said, “Err…did I say something strange?”
“…My motivational switch is all yours, Emilia-tan. Whether you’re flipping it on or flipping it off, one word from you and everything’s on auto. I seriously can’t get enough of you.”
Covering his face with his palms, Subaru extolled Emilia’s graces with a deep sigh. “Eh? Eh?” went a confused Emilia, buffeted by the deeply meaningful statement, to which Subaru replied, “Back at you,” sticking out his own tongue.
After all, Emilia was throwing Subaru for an even bigger loop than he was throwing her for.
“It would seem you have put your differences in order.”
“Yeah, sorry for the lovey-dovey stuff. I just couldn’t help myself.”
“Lovey-dovey…?”
When Frederica tried to revisit the topic of conversation, Subaru turned to face her once more. Off to the side, Emilia seemed to have a question mark floating over her head, but she immediately regained her composure and gazed Frederica’s way.
Frederica nodded toward their gazes, and her emerald eyes beheld the pair as she spoke.
“As has been conveyed to you, I have no objection to speaking about the route to take to the Sanctuary. It is just, a little time is necessary to prepare… Two days, perhaps?”
“Prepare… Ah, that figures, it’d be leaving the mansion empty. That shouldn’t take…”
“No, I shall be remaining here at the mansion. It is Lady Emilia and Master Subaru’s duty to head toward the Sanctuary. Managing the mansion is mine.”
“Wait, you won’t come with us?! How are we supposed to get to the Sanctuary, then?”
Subaru was taken aback, never having expected her to refuse to go with them.
Frederica’s cooperation was limited to her telling them about the Sanctuary rather than actually leading them to it. Now he understood the source of Emilia’s worry during the earlier exchange, but Subaru simultaneously noticed something else.
Namely, the sight of Otto Suwen leaning back, arms crossed, exceedingly confident, even cocksure.
“Hey, you over there, what’s with that self-confident, puffed-up look? We’re in the middle of an important conversation.”
“Ho-ho-ho. You are a poor guesser, Mr. Natsuki. In the first place, should you not have wondered just why I am in attendance during such an important conversation?”
“You have a point. This isn’t something an outsider should hear. Say, does this mansion have a dungeon?”
“Such statements are not where I meant to steer the conversation, you know?!”
“The mansion has a cell, yes. I can assure you that it is reasonably comfortable.”
“Miss Frederica, could you please leave such questions unanswered?!”
Subaru had meant it as a joke, but it had brought the existence of a cell, and Roswaal Manor’s dark underside, to light.
Either way, Otto’s shoulders sank in dejection at his being tag-teamed when—
“Hey, cut it out, both of you. You mustn’t treat Otto like some kind of outcast.”
In Otto’s stead, it was Emilia who rose to her feet in righteous indignation. Putting her hands on her hips, she glared at the comedic combo in question, Subaru and Frederica both.
“What a terrible thing to say to someone who went out of his way to offer his cooperation. And without Otto’s help, it’s going to be reeeally hard
going to the Sanctuary, won’t it?”
“Ohh…! Did you hear, Mr. Natsuki? Now this is how you should have reacted!”
“Ahhh, it’s been a while since I’ve said E M D, so I’ll say it now. E—M—D—!!”
“E, M…eh?”
When, in high spirits, Subaru invoked the old phrase, Otto registered the highest bewilderment score of that day. Setting his confusion aside, Subaru had grasped the circumstances from Emilia’s statement.
“In other words, Otto said he’d go with us as far as the Sanctuary. To be blunt, I’d have had to leave all the dragon carriage driving to Patlash, so it’s a huge help, but…”
“But what? That method of speaking implies something. Does my goodwill sit ill with you?”
“Sorry, the only merchant I expect freebies from is a guy with a fruit store and a scary face. That might be nicer on a human level, but it’s a lot simpler to believe a merchant wants more than goodwill for collateral.”
Cadmon, Anastasia, Russel—names and faces of merchants he’d come into contact with in the capital came to mind. In terms of personality, Otto was the closest to Cadmon, but in terms of mercantile tendencies, he was closer to the last—
“I can read your ulterior motive. The gist is, be cooperative with Emilia to get as close to her as possible and make a good impression on her backer Roswaal. Even more than getting your oil bought up, the point of coming with us is to get close to Roswaal, right?”
“Er, um, having my deepest secrets brought out into the light is a little…”
“Otto…is that true?”
“Lady Emilia’s sincere eyes are painful, painful, painful! I am very sorry! It is for the most part exactly as he said! But believe me, I did not mean for any harm to come from it whatsoever, so please forgive me!!”
Though Otto tried to be defiant, he did not quite manage it, confessing as he conceded defeat to her sincerity. Subaru wearily shook his head at Otto’s demeanor; this time it was his turn to pat Emilia on the shoulder.
“Well, let’s not be too hard on Otto. You make it look easy, Emilia-tan, but it’s really hard for people to act on someone else’s behalf out of goodwill from the heart alone.”
“I don’t think I’m really such a good person…but doesn’t that go for you, Subaru?”
“I exhaust all my efforts for Emilia-tan for my own personal reasons. Hmm, if it’s one hundred percent impure, does that make it pure…?”
You want other people to think well of you. When you boiled things down, that was the starting point for actions taken in the course of interpersonal relations. That said, human life was not so dry that you could declare it an iron rule. It was merely a matter of degree.
Human beings were simply too complex to express in a single sentence.
“Even with your ulterior motive plain to see, we actually think pretty well of you. So relax already.”
“That does not sound very reassuring coming from you, Mr. Natsuki, but…”
Subaru responded to the dejected Otto with a teasing smile before turning back toward Frederica.
“OK, Otto’s helping. So the three of us get to hear you talk about the Sanctuary.”
“Understood. Incidentally, has the master spoken to either of you about the Sanctuary?”
With Subaru & Co. sitting side by side on the sofa, ready to listen to her speak, Frederica posed them that question. Upon receiving it, Subaru and Emilia glanced at each other’s faces as she said, “To be blunt, he said almost nothing about it to me. From the snippets I heard, it sounded like some kind of secret base several hours away… The fact that it was the first suggestion for evacuating people makes me think I wasn’t wrong.”
“Once…Roswaal told me that it was a place that would someday be…necessary for me…”
“Necessary for you someday…?”
The unexpected statement left Subaru looking toward Emilia with surprise in his eyes. That gaze sent Emilia apologetically lowering her own eyes. But before Subaru could ask a follow-up question:
“It sounds like something the master would say.”
Frederica closed her eyes, her tone sounding faintly amused. Then she grasped the hem of her skirt, curtsying deeply. And then—
“I shall now speak of how to enter the place called the Sanctuary of Clemaldy. You must not speak a word of this to anyone else. Also, upon going to the Sanctuary, there is one name you must not forget.”
“…”
“Garfiel. You must pay heed to the individual by that name. In the Sanctuary, that individual is the one you and Lady Emilia must approach only with the greatest of caution.”
Complex emotions resided in Frederica’s open emerald eyes as she put that name upon her lips.
CHAPTER 2
THE ROAD TO THE SANCTUARY
1
As a result of the conversation with Frederica, they set off for the Sanctuary in the morning two days after.
“To be honest, I’m gettin’ restless just waiting around, but…”
Arms crossed, Subaru made a sound in his throat, the impatience in his heart unavoidable. But, according to Frederica, two days of preparation were necessary to get to the Sanctuary. Subaru could not dismiss her opinion.
“The Sanctuary is protected by a special barrier…the Lost Woods of Clemaldy. The barrier keeps outside presences away by leading them astray, hence why it is called the Lost Woods. Two days of preparation are required to nullify that barrier.”
Thus had Frederica explained, intuitively calming Subaru so that he was not tempted to let haste make waste.
Though at first, Subaru found the talk of the “barrier” rather fishy, Frederica’s explanation after the fact made him accept that it was the case.
“It’s a place with a history of accepting demi-humans… Huh.”
When he voiced the special way it had been expressed to him, Subaru vigorously scratched his own head.
It was something of an iron rule in fantasy worlds that there was friction between human and demi-human races. This world apparently was no exception. In the Kingdom of Lugunica, too, scorn against demi-humans was customary with many people. Subaru’s experiences to date had led him to form a particular conclusion.
The prejudice and scorn toward demi-humans was likely an extension of the deep-rooted enmity toward half-elves.
Even so, perhaps due to some kind of conciliatory policy in the capital, he’d seen quite a few demi-humans in the Merchants’ District and in the slums. However, he’d seen none in the Nobles’ District—
“From what I read in a history book, they had this civil war called the Demi-human War in just the last century, too. Come to think of it, I heard a song related to that from Liliana, too, didn’t I…?”
Liliana was a bard who had stopped by at Roswaal Manor during one of her journeys. He was certain that one of the songs she had sung during her stay at the mansion touched on that historical event.
“Kind of late to realize it, but…‘The Ballad of the Sword Devil’ sounds a lot like Wilhelm’s nickname. Maybe that song’s why he came to be called the Sword Devil in the first place…”
Subaru gave a satisfied nod as the manly sight of the swordsman he imagined melded with the heroic tale inside his head.
As a matter of fact, Wilhelm was indeed the main character of “The Ballad of the Sword Devil,” but Subaru, petty man that he was, dismissed out of hand the idea that he personally knew a man whose name was recorded in the annals of history.
“Ah, Master Subaru, so you were indeed here.”
Subaru was thrown off his train of thought when the door quietly opened and a voice spoke to him through it. When he looked back, he met the eyes of the girl peering in through the gap of the door.
The girl with reddish-brown hair and a ribbon on her head entered with an adorable smile as she addressed him.
“It’s almost time to leave, so I thought if you weren’t in your room, you might be here…”
“Servant lifestyle got me used
to waking up bright and early… Wait, properly speaking, I still am a servant, so I’d better stop talkin’ like that…”
“But I think… I believe those odd clothes suit you better than a servant’s uniform, Master Subaru.”
“You’re payin’ attention to your words, but you need a little more practice choosing them, I guess?”
The girl gave a pained smile as she quickly corrected her own words as Subaru rose from his chair and gave his back a stretch. The young girl in the servant’s outfit—Petra Leyte—gazed at Subaru with her round eyes.
Petra was one of the children living in Earlham Village who’d long befriended Subaru. There was a reason she was dressed in a maid outfit that very moment.
“Gotta say, it’s only two days since asking for maid applicants in the village, and only one since you’ve actually been in the mansion… I’m impressed you were able to find me without getting lost. That’s almost too good for a girl your age away from your parents like this.”
“I’m already twelve years old, plenty old enough to be a working g—I mean, an adult. Master Subaru, please treat me like a proper adult.”
“I’ll think about it when you master polite speech and get Frederica’s stamp of approval. Until then, you’re an apprentice maid in on-the-job-training, so I’m gonna treat you as cute as I feel like!”
Subaru shot the precocious Petra a smile as he mussed her hair with strokes of his hand. Petra gave an enjoyable kya! sound as she squatted, perhaps certain she was making a clean getaway.
Either way, it had been a simple process to get Petra into the mansion as a maid.
Frederica was keenly feeling the limits of a single person’s power to manage the vast mansion. When she’d sought applicants from the village to help her, it was Petra who had responded.
At first, there was concern about her young age, but Petra’s personality and suitability for the job had both proved exceptional.
“Compared to you, Master Subaru, she is highly proficient, and her future prospects are bright. She stands out among all the girls I have taught to date… Ah, Master Subaru, please sit down and relax.”
That was the assessment Frederica had given after instructing Petra over those last two days. As a matter of fact, it was difficult to recruit someone like Petra who could grasp the details of the mansion and its environs in such a short time.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 10 Page 6