The fact that his countermeasures against the Witch Cult had been conspicuously inadequate amused him even less.
Setting aside that dissatisfaction for the moment, Subaru ordered the more immediate questions in his mind before starting.
“First, the people of Earlham Village. Ram said they were safe and sound, but is that really true?”
“Please rest at ease. The state of my body may make that diiiifficult to believe, but I aaaam a lord, after all. I negotiated earnestly upon their behalf and had the cathedral opened to give them shelter.”
“Cathedral, huh? I’ll ask for more details about that later. Next…”
“Tell us what you meant by ‘Witch’s Tomb’ earlier.”
As Subaru moved ahead, Emilia intervened, choosing the next topic for herself.
It was one of the issues on Subaru’s list, so he had no objection. But Subaru didn’t think the hard voice and the way she asked felt very Emilia-like.
Roswaal responded to the tense Emilia’s question with a wry smile and closed one eye.
“It means exactly what it says. This is the final resting place of the Witch named Echidna, once known as the Witch of Greed—and to me, these grounds are holy.”
“The Witch Echidna…”
The tone with which Roswaal replied to the question, and put the name to his lips, made Subaru’s breath catch.
His reply was quiet and gentle, yet filled with sharpness that clawed at the mind. There was no echo of his normal clownish demeanor; what filled his voice was emotion that pounded hard into Subaru’s chest.
The instant Roswaal invoked Echidna’s name, his expression looked softer for what might have been the very first time.
“…”
Seeing the side of his face, Ram, attending at his bedside, gently lowered her eyes. Subaru did not notice her reaction; rather, he touched a hand to his own chest.
For some reason, the name Echidna—a name he shouldn’t have known—strangely churned within him.
“Subaru, are you all right? Is something wrong?”
“Nah, I’m fine… More importantly, we know this is the place a Witch died. But, Roswaal, why are you safekeeping a place with a history like that? Do you have some kind of connection with this Witch?”
“The reason is simple. This land has been under the care of the Mathers family, passed down from generation to generation. It began under the lord of this house at the time…the Roswaal from which I inherit this name. In other words, it is from this Roswaal in history that this Sanctuary has been passed down.”
When Subaru broached the issue of his relationship to the Witch, Roswaal followed suit, filling in the blanks. The explanation left Emilia touching her own lips, knitting her refined eyebrows.
“‘In history’… Then the Mathers family has been involved with the Witch of Greed since long…”
“—Echidna.”
“Eh?”
Emilia’s eyes opened wide when the name alone was abruptly slipped in. Roswaal trained his eyes toward Emilia. “Echidna,” he repeated, making certain she heard him.
“Pleaaaase, employ her name when referring to her. Calling her the Witch of Greed implies all sorts of nefaaarious things, does it not? And it is somewhat looooong.”
“Errr, I understand. Then can I take this to mean…this is Echidna’s final resting place, and the Mathers family has taken care of it because it was involved with her for a reeeally long time?”
“Yes, that is correct. Having said that, ‘taken care of it’ is somewhat exaggerated. Echidna’s barrier means that outsiders cannot pass through the Lost Woods without the proper formalities. On top of that, the barrier has a special effect on those whose blood fulfills a particular condition. You have experienced this as well, Lady Emilia?”
“It’s true, I lost consciousness when I came into contact with the barrier. But, according to Garfiel, the barrier only causes trouble when half-bloods like me come into contact with it. It didn’t do anything to Subaru, right?”
“Er, actually, I can’t really say it did nothing to me…”
“Eh? What do you mean by that?”
When Subaru scratched his cheek and murmured, Emilia lifted her face in surprise.
She didn’t know that once the barrier had knocked her out, Subaru had been teleported while she slept. Along the way, Subaru hadn’t found a good time to bring it up, but also, he had hesitated greatly to do so.
After all, he couldn’t discuss it without discussing its connection to Frederica’s crystal.
If Frederica had conveyed that Garfiel was a dangerous person, entrusted Emilia with the crystal, and on top of that, plotted to have that crystal teleport her, he wondered what objective Frederica had in doing so.
“Subaru, if something happened, tell me. We decided we’d discuss important things, didn’t we?”
“We did, but this is…”
“Subaru.”
The earnest gaze and the plea of her voice made Subaru’s shoulders sink in resignation. From there, he took the blue crystal out of his pocket and explained the circumstances to all present.
He explained that the crystal had reacted to the barrier, teleporting Subaru alone to a different location in the Sanctuary. There he’d met a girl, been led to the ruin, and lost consciousness while inside. Later, he’d been caught by Garfiel and brought along, bringing them back to the present.
“Frederica handed over this crystal before we left the mansion. There’s no question it reacted to the barrier and made the teleport happen. Emilia was the one carrying the crystal to begin with, so…”
“Barusu, what you are trying to say is that Lady Emilia must have been the target?”
As Subaru spoke of the circumstances, Ram summarized the last part in his stead. Her assertion made Subaru draw in his chin. The image of the young girl he’d met in the forest came back to him.
The girl had been emotionless, doll-like. She had done Subaru no harm, leading him to the ruin and running away—and he had to wonder, had that been intended for Emilia instead?
“If that is true, it was Lady Emilia who would have been teleported by the crystal during the time the barrier had robbed her of consciousness. If so, it is most fortuuuitous it was Subaru who was sent in her place.”
“And then I hooked back up safe and sound. Body doesn’t have…anything special wrong with it.”
Subaru rotated a wrist, smiling at Emilia as he asserted his robustness of health. But, as he smiled at Emilia, she lowered her head and gingerly posed a question to Roswaal.
“Frederica said the crystal was necessary to pass through the barrier, and why she was giving it to me… Was that true?”
“…Unfortunately, the proper formalities for passing through the barrier do not involve an object. I suppose that is proof Frederica was up to some kind of scheeeeme.”
Roswaal’s reply made Emilia’s words catch in her throat as her listless shoulders sank. Of course they did. The talk just then had established Frederica’s infidelity as a virtual certainty.
“Frederica’s worked for you a long time, right? Over ten years is what I heard.”
“…Yes, that girl was still veeeery young when I first employed her. She is a very capable girl, and not once has she acted in defiiiiance of my will…”
When Subaru posed a question in Emilia’s stead, Roswaal shook his head in apparent dismay. Then he glanced meaningfully toward the edge of his vision, whereupon Ram accepted his gaze with a solemn nod.
“And so Frederica’s scheme has ended in tears… That just now was a joke.”
“Was it really a joke? It sounded pretty serious to me…”
“It was. But the punishment will not be—now we know that Frederica is deeply related to the present circumstance here in the Sanctuary.”
To Ram, Frederica was a coworker of particularly long standing. Knowing her coworker had been unfaithful, she nonetheless spoke calmly, her face betraying no unrest concerning that fact.
“What do you mean by the circumstances in the Sanctuary? What is happening here right now?”
“Lady Emilia, did you not think it strange? That Ram and I, and the villagers fleeing to the Sanctuary, remained in this place rather than return to the mansion?” he asked.
“Eh? That’s… I thought it must be because of your wounds, Roswaal,” she answered.
In point of fact, Roswaal, lying on the bed, bore wounds that were quite deep. Even if he was to return to the mansion for treatment, he couldn’t be moved without having recovered to at least some minimal degree.
But Roswaal shook his head, seemingly telling her that was not the reason.
And then—
“Currently, all present fiiiiind ourselves imprisoned in the Sanctuary… Ram, the villagers, and myself… Ah, now that you have entered, that includes the two of you as well.”
“Huh?”
Subaru and Emilia were both dumbstruck at the casual yet explosive statement.
3
“…Imprisoned? That doesn’t, well, have a very nice ring to it.”
Somehow, Subaru managed to recover from the initial shock and wring out those words. Emilia managed to swallow down her own surprise, giving the injured Roswaal a painful stare as she said, “Then, Roswaal, don’t tell me that those wounds were from…”
Emilia was in shock as she combined the sight of him wounded with his earlier statement. Neither could Subaru, having arrived at the same thought, conceal his own shock.
“There’s someone in this village who can overpower Roswaal, hurt him this much, and keep him captive? That’s no laughing matter.”
Subaru touched a hand to his chin, nervously pondering a foe powerful far beyond his expectations.
Roswaal was the kingdom’s preeminent magic user; the demon beast disturbance had proven that in earnest. Subaru could not believe that anyone could easily put Roswaal through this much pain and suffering.
Who in the world had done this to—
“Wha—? You’re still doin’ chitchat? You shouldn’t push a wounded guy too much. ‘Make a mottled Kuchibashi run and it turns black,’ you know?”
“—!”
Surprised by the sudden voice, Subaru turned around in a hurry. At the end of his gaze was Garfiel, who’d appeared at the entrance to the room. He took a look around the room and whistled toward Emilia.
“Hey now, what’s this greeting all of a sudden? Wha—? Are you that ticked off with me?”
“I’m being on the safe side, since the earlier conversation made me think the most dangerous person here is you.”
Garfiel audibly clenched his teeth in amusement. Emilia stood on guard with Subaru and Roswaal at her back, seemingly to shield them from him.
Being shielded by Emilia was a thing in itself, but Subaru blinked hard at a separate issue. Namely—
“Hey, what’d you do with Otto? He was with you, right?”
“Ahh? What, that noisy guy? Him, well… You get it, don’t ya?”
Garfiel nodded defiantly, and his sharp gaze turned even sharper. Subaru, sensing bottomless hostility from his statement, felt the hairs on his back stand up.
Emilia lowered her stance, as if she had the same sense from Garfiel as he.
—The atmosphere grew strained. At the drop of a pin, combat between the two would become unavoidable.
“Ha! Fine, if you want a piece of me, I’ll be happy to… Daaah?!”
“It is not fine at all. Know your place, stupid Garf.”
But the atmosphere primed to explode was smashed apart by the powerful impact sound of an iron tray.
Circling around his back during the exchange, it was Ram who had brought Garfiel down with a single, merciless blow. As Garfiel writhed in agony, Ram looked down at him, sighing as she addressed the others.
“Lady Emilia, Subaru, it is equally unsightly of you to jump to conclusions so quickly. Garf has nothing to do with Master Roswaal’s injuries… He may look like a simpleton, but he is not quite that thoughtless.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes, Lady Emilia, he had nooothing to do with it. I was about to say so that very moment.”
Roswaal’s utterly shameless exaggeration left Emilia lowering her arms, astonished. Then she rushed over to Garfiel, kneeling upon the floor, in great haste.
“I-I’m very sorry! I completely misunderstood… I was certain you’d eaten Otto or something…!”
“Wow, Emilia-tan, your ideas are really something! Even I didn’t think he’d gone that far!”
Though it was certainly true Subaru suspected Otto’s life had been in danger, he hadn’t suspected Garfiel of doing such a thing.
Following in the flustered Emilia’s footsteps, Subaru checked to see how Garfiel was doing. Garfiel, shaking the head Ram had struck with that hearty blow, opened his mouth wide at the pair’s assertions.
“As if I’d munch on a guy like that. He’s noisy, and he says stuff a guy ain’t emotionally prepared for, so I ditched him back at the dragon carriage.”
“You’re being pretty vague there, and you kick up a ruckus even without Otto…”
His suggestive demeanor had caused a misunderstanding that had nearly led to a great disaster. That disaster had been averted by Ram.
“Thanks a bundle, Ram. Don’t want any unnecessary bloodshe— Hold on, your tray’s all bent out of shape!”
“A necessary loss to stop Garf. Next time, it would seem I should use the corner, not the flat of the tray.”
Ram took inspiration from the bent tray for how she would deal with him next time.
Setting Ram’s demeanor aside, Garfiel, the victim of her pummeling, plopped himself into a chair in a corner of the room. Then he rubbed his head as he looked at Ram and said, “Ram, if you feel sorry ’bout that at all, how ’bout some tea?”
“Please wait while I head out briefly to gather fallen leaves.”
Making a sound from her nose at the grandiose request, Ram really did head out of the house. Subaru had to wonder just what she intended to do with fallen leaves. Though that tugged at his mind, what also tugged at it was the ardor with which Garfiel watched Ram’s back as she departed.
“I was wondering this from the exchange at the village entrance too…but what? You have a thing for Ram?”
“She’s a fine woman, ain’t she? Ain’t exactly weird for males to be attracted to strong, capable females.”
“We’re not dividing chicks by male and female, so stop chirping about that, sheesh…”
Garfiel had replied openly to Subaru’s question, but his road to romance was treacherous. Ram’s affection for Roswaal ran deep, hanging over his prospects almost like a curse—
That was an unmistakable side of romance in any world, but—
“Well, then. Based on that reaction, you don’t look like ya talked about the important stuff yet. You’re free to turn into pieces of garbage if ya want, but…you should talk ’bout it to Lady Emilia, at least.”
“To me?”
With Ram absent from the room, Garfiel tapped his foot as he refocused the conversation.
Emilia was surprised that her own name was in his statement, but Garfiel paid her surprise no heed, sending his dangerous look stabbing right through Roswaal.
“The fact she got past the barrier means she’s wrapped up in our business. What the hell’s with this peaceful, pleasant conversation? You people playin’ around or somethin’?!”
“I’m not sure why you have a bee in your bonnet, but…this business we’re wrapped up in doesn’t sound unrelated to this whole imprisoned business.”
Garfiel, as snippy as ever, narrowed his eyes at Subaru’s assertion. Feeling as if he was facing off against a fierce, overbearing beast, Subaru put the conversation to that point in order in his head and said:
“According to Roswaal, this isn’t imprisonment by brute force. Regardless of how you look and act, you can’t be short-tempered and violent enough to…”
For an instant, being h
urled by Garfiel reemerged in his memories.
“…to do that kind of thing.”
“Subaru, you seemed reeeally unsure just now…”
Subaru, on the receiving end of a rare quip from Emilia, looked straight at Garfiel. Receiving his gaze, Garfiel said, “Go on,” urging Subaru to continue. “I’ll listen. If you ain’t the dirt stuck to a half-demon’s foot, that is.”
“Half-elf. Next time I’ll get Roswaal to light your butt on fire.”
Garfiel lowered his head as Subaru shamelessly proclaimed he would borrow another’s power for his retribution. At his reaction, Subaru lifted a finger, turning that finger to indicate the Sanctuary outside.
“I’ll continue. Now that imprisonment by force has been crossed off the list, what other way can I think of? To be honest, I don’t have much information to go on…but there’s one thing that sticks out in my mind.”
“…You mean the barrier?”
“That’s right. You’re so smart, Emilia-tan.”
Coming up with the answer on her own, Emilia had sounded unsure in her answer, but her view was in line with Subaru’s own.
If neither Garfiel’s brawn nor Roswaal’s injuries was responsible for the imprisonment in the Sanctuary, it left the barrier as the only possibility—the barrier with a special effect originally meant to protect the Sanctuary.
If it had been a simple barrier, Subaru might not have come to such a farfetched idea, but at any rate…
“When she came in contact with the barrier, Emilia fainted. According to Garfiel, that’s not an effect limited to Emilia—it’s like that for most of the people living in this Sanctuary, he said.”
“In other words, Subaru…you think that it’s the barrier’s effect that’s keeping Roswaal and the others in here and preventing them from returning to the mansion?”
“There you go again! Exactly. Wow, Emilia-tan and I are in perfect sync today!”
Elated that they were thinking along the same lines, Subaru went for a high five. But, when Emilia tilted her head rather than play along, Subaru gently eased his hand down and looked at Garfiel.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 10 Page 13