“All right, attention, please. ‘The Crying Red Demon.’ A long, long time ago, in a certain land, there was…”
The fairy tale began with a bitter argument. “The Crying Red Demon” was a tale of friendship between the Red Demon, which wanted to become friends with humans, and his best friend, the Blue Demon—and what came between them.
It went something like this: The two demons living on the mountain tried various things to get the Red Demon in the good graces of the villagers, culminating in the Blue Demon committing wicked deeds upon the village, only to be driven off by the Red Demon, who thus befriended the human beings. The tale ended with the Blue Demon leaving; the Red Demon, dispirited at the Blue Demon’s display of friendship, cried for the Blue Demon’s sake.
“And so, the Red Demon read over and over the letter left at the Blue Demon’s house and cried… The end.”
Subaru finished conveying to Ram a somewhat abridged version of the fairy tale. It was a fairy tale Subaru himself had read many times over. He thought he was as faithful with his words as possible, keeping his own opinions out of it.
Ram lowered her eyes as she listened to the tale. Subaru stayed in the same position as when he’d finished the story, waiting for her to speak. Finally, Ram let out a small sigh.
“…A rather sad tale.”
“I suppose so. But I think it’s a happy story, too.”
“I think the cast of characters was full of idiots… The Red Demon, the Blue Demon, and the villagers, too.”
“Well, that’s being a tough critic. Not that you’ll get any argument from me…”
He agreed that none of the three sides had enough introspection. The villagers were pure suckers, and if the two demons had spoken more to each other, they might have found proper common ground. At the very least, surely they could have avoided the need for one to put distance between him and the other for the rest of their lives.
“That’s why I love this story and hate this story. The Blue Demon’s self-sacrifice was super cool, but he was an idiot beyond saving, too. I like to think I can save myself through putting in the effort…”
“So you think that about the Blue Demon…I think it is the Red Demon who is beyond saving.”
Ram’s reply made Subaru lift his head. Ram was looking at Subaru as she bit her tongue.
“He wrapped the Blue Demon in his own desires, losing nothing when the Blue Demon lost everything. I think that is a rather horrible result.”
“What do you think the two demons should’ve done, then?”
“…If the Red Demon truly wanted to be friends with the humans, he should have gone to live in the village, even if it meant cutting off his horn. He should have done that long before the Blue Demon left.”
“Man, that’s a pretty extreme position, there!”
Subaru raised his voice at the radical view she’d provided, but Ram simply stroked her own short hair like she was saying, Is it now? She proceeded to toy with the ribbon holding her hair in place.
“Making the Blue Demon pay for something he wants is unforgivable. If the Red Demon wants it, the Red Demon should pay the price. The Blue Demon robbing him of that chance is a problem, too.”
“That’s a really strict view of it. Do you have something against demons…?”
“—Dear Guest, which of the two demons would you rather befriend?”
Subaru blinked at Ram’s question. He hadn’t really thought about it.
“…Which of the two?”
Ram nodded and stretched out both hands toward Subaru, raising one finger from each.
“On the one hand, the Red Demon who asks and asks and leaves others to pay the consequences, or the Blue Demon, the idiot drowning in his own martyrdom. Which?”
“Geez, you make both of those choices feel bad… So what, I’m a villager who just arrived here?”
It was rather rare for the point of view of the villagers to come up in a discussion about “The Crying Red Demon.” Either way, Subaru was a little lost as he stared at the two hands Ram presented before him when she said, “…What an uninteresting reply.”
“Don’t say that! Since I’ve read ‘The Crying Red Demon,’ I sympathize with the two of them, so I want to help out both, okay?”
Subaru gently pressed both his hands onto both of Ram’s hands. Subaru’s reply drew a long sigh out of Ram; she glared at Subaru, who of course was close enough to touch.
“So you’re the type who understands neither his position nor that of others… When distance grows, your type gets left behind by both.”
“Distance, huh. Why not just tell people how you feel while they’re still close? The Red Demon’s not a bad guy for wanting to get along, and the Blue Demon’s not a bad guy for wanting to help him, either. I’m the type who likes demons, not the type to just drive ’em off the island at the drop of a hat.”
Ram sighed at the grinning Subaru and looked at her own two hands as he grasped her raised fingers. As she brushed him off, Subaru shrugged and sat back in his seat, readjusting himself to face Ram again.
“You know, Ram, you seem to like ‘The Crying Red Demon’ quite a bit.”
“Dear Guest, you will someday regret fickle, indecisive thoughts such as wanting to be friends with both.”
“I don’t remember that being what we were talking about here?! I thought we were talking about demons?”
As Subaru shouted and shook his head, Ram made a small clap of her hands to indicate the subject was closed. Her quick-tempered behavior tugged at him, but Ram pointed to the book on the desk before he could say a word.
“Setting aside the tales from our Dear Guest’s homeland… What did you think of the stories of this land?”
“Let’s see… I suppose the one that stood out was the dragon one in the middle of the book and the witch one at the end. No matter how I slice it, those two are different somehow.”
Subaru gave a wandering reply as he browsed the book. Those were the two tales that had left the deepest impression upon him. The former definitely got special treatment. As for the latter…
“The witch story was like…they felt they had to put it in but they went halfway. It completely ignored story structure…like a bunch of highlights.”
“…That cannot be helped. We are in Lugunica… Of course the dragon story gets special treatment.”
Subaru nodded as he flipped the pages of the picture book on the desk.
“Right, ‘Dragonfriend Kingdom of Lugunica,’ right? Now I get why it’s called that.”
Apparently the large kingdom Subaru was staying in was called the “Dragonfriend Kingdom of Lugunica.” On world maps, it looked like the easternmost nation in the world, but apparently it had good reason to be called the “Dragonfriend Kingdom.”
It was a simple tale, really. Long ago, the kingdom had come under the protection of a dragon, forming a pact.
“The dragon is said to have lent its power to Lugunica, protecting it in times of famine, plague, war with other nations, and other various predicaments.”
“So that’s why they call it ‘Dragonfriend,’ huh. It did say in the picture book that the royal family made a pact with the dragon. This is less of a fairy tale than ancient history, right?”
“I suppose so. It’s a true story, after all. Even now, the dragon protects the peace of this land from under a great waterfall far away until the day its promise to the royal family comes to an end.”
Subaru cleared his throat as he listened to the oh-so-strict Ram speak such words.
A promise made with a dragon in ancient times… The picture book had not drawn the details, but it was a big enough deal that the kingdom had been saved from crisis many times over.
Thinking of that, Subaru suddenly realized something about the royal family that’d made the pact with the dragon.
“Hey, the family that made the promise with the dragon…didn’t it just die out?”
“It did, and suddenly at that.”
“Isn�
�t that, like, bad? Er, not that I’d know what bad means here.”
No doubt the dragon had been promised something considerable in return for protecting its promise all that time. Yet with the royal family that would be granting it dying off on him like that, who would honor that obligation?
Ram began.
“No one knows what the dragon seeks, so it was not put in the picture book. Only gods know what the dragon will do in this situation…”
At that point, Ram paused for a moment.
“Rather, Dear Guest—only the dragon knows.”
Subaru’s breath caught. He wasn’t warm, but he felt sweat on his brow regardless. He chewed over Ram’s words, swallowed them, and breathed in and out hard enough to make his stomach churn.
Negotiating with the mighty dragon was the responsibility of the ruler of the kingdom. In other words…
“That has to be a mountain of pressure on Emilia, then…”
“Yes. The dragon can protect the kingdom or destroy it on a whim… Thus, the kingdom and its destiny rest upon Emilia’s shoulders. Just thinking about it makes it seem like a story from that picture book.”
There’d been a conflicted look on Emilia’s face when she saw the picture book on the last night of the previous loop. Now Subaru understood why Emilia’s hand had stopped when she was flipping the pages.
The size and weight of Emilia’s burden had far surpassed Subaru’s expectations. His mind wanted to cry out just from thinking about the heavy responsibility borne by those delicate shoulders.
“It cannot be helped.”
“—Ah?”
“Everyone was born with a role to play and the responsibility to live up to it. This is what Lady Emilia was born to do. It is a path she must walk, no matter how treacherous it may be.”
Subaru’s voice was shaking with anger from a source he couldn’t place.
“One girl’s supposed to shoulder the whole burden like that?”
For her part, Ram’s voice was cold and logical.
“I believe it is best if others can carry it with her. However, sooner or later, Lady Emilia must be seen to climb that summit herself.”
Subaru slumped his shoulders when he realized Ram was holding back to not fuel his anger further.
He could vent at Ram all he wanted, but he’d be mistaken. Ram wasn’t responsible for the weight of Emilia’s burden; at any rate, Subaru had no right to be angry. That part really burned him.
“Oh, right. Ram, about that other story…”
Wanting to do something other than apologize, Subaru changed the subject and pointed at the picture book.
Contrary to how the story of the dragon in the center of the book had received special treatment, the story of the witch had only a few pages drawn for it at the very back of the book.
The story was titled, “The Witch of Jealousy.”
“So this witch story…”
“I do not wish to speak of it.”
Just like that, she seemed to verbally cut things off after the story of the dragon.
Subaru opened his eyes wide without thinking as Ram briskly got up, tray and cups in hand.
“I have been here too long. I do not wish to cause Rem too much trouble. Dear Guest, I shall call you again for dinnertime.”
“R-right…”
Ram, turning her back like she would brook no argument, immediately headed out of the room.
But just before her hand reached the door, Ram stopped and looked back at Subaru, left in her dust.
“About the demon story from earlier…”
“Mm, right. ‘The Crying Red Demon.’ What of it?”
“Don’t tell Rem that story. She would probably find it distasteful.”
Surely no one would have that kind of reaction over a simple fairy tale. Regardless, Subaru, feeling overwhelming pressure from Ram’s words, could only nod meekly in response.
Seeing this, Ram finally left. Subaru, feeling drained, flopped onto the bed.
It felt like there was something more to Ram’s last action than just banning him from telling Rem a fairy tale.
“What the heck’s up with all that…?”
Venting at the ceiling, Subaru picked up the picture book and flipped through the pages.
The final chapter, “The Witch of Jealousy,” was a short tale only four pages long.
“A scary witch, a frightening witch, it is terrifying to just speak her name. That was why everyone called her ‘The Jealous Witch’—”
There was no story structure, just contents conveying the raw terror of the witch. It was straight-up eerie, doubly so when written in characters meant for small children.
“And after all the trouble of studying to read this thing…”
His feelings of success, satisfaction, and the glow of having just read a book seemed to fall by the wayside.
Subaru turned in bed and switched his head to a different subject: thinking of what he could do for the remaining two days of that loop.
He’d put his preparations for the last day in order and shifted to what he’d do two mornings hence.
Subaru squished his countless worries one by one until he finally fell asleep.
5
“Err, my time here’s been brief, but thanks for taking care of me.”
In the mansion’s entry hall, all the human beings in the mansion (meaning only four people, with Beatrice not included) were seeing Subaru off as he made his good-byes.
Subaru had asked that he be allowed to stay for three days. That time had passed; that morning, he would journey onward.
Subaru wore his tracksuit and carried the convenience store bag containing his starting equipment, but he also carried a knapsack over his back that Roswaal had generously provided. The knapsack was fairly heavy from a decent sum of coinage, Roswaal explained simply.
“My thanks for taking care of Lady Emilia.”
Among those seeing Subaru off, Emilia called out to him, a look of deep concern on her face even then. Subaru, grateful for Emilia’s feelings, vividly thumped his chest.
“I’ll be fine. I’m just gonna take it easy. When I become a strong, wise, and rich man suitable for you, I’ll come riding back on a white horse.”
“You have your handkerchief? And drinking water, lagmite ore, and, and…”
“She’s totally acting like she’s my mom?!”
Emilia fussed about this and that. The way she asked last, “Can you sleep all by yourself?” made Subaru wonder just how much she longed for the company of others. Or perhaps she was acting on instinct, voicing the unease Subaru was desperately shoving down inside him.
Roswaal came to shake his hand.
“Weeell then, be in good health, Subaru. It has beeeen a short time, but it was quite enjoyable. Do not be concerned about my parting gift. Consider it a smaaall reward for the memories you created these last three days.”
Roswaal added a wink to the last part. Subaru could guess what he meant; the knapsack over his back was jingling just from their shaking hands.
“I get it; you’re paying me to keep my mouth shut. I won’t say anything. I swear on the dragon.”
“It will keep others from approaching you as part of some wicked scheme. Besides, in this nation, to swear upon the dragon is to make the highest of oaths. It is not that I doubt you, but strive not to forrrget that.”
Subaru raised a hand in response to Roswaal’s reminder; he then turned to the twins, standing behind the clown-faced nobleman. The two stood silently as Subaru reached and patted them both on the shoulder.
“You two were a huge help, especially Rem with those really delicious meals. Ram… Mm, well, she cleans toilets really well?”
“Sister, Sister, the Dear Guest’s flattery is despairingly awkward.”
“Rem, Rem, the Dear Guest’s flattery is a complete disaster.”
“Well, excuse me, I really couldn’t think of anything else! But thanks.”
Having said his good-byes to everyone, he
pushed open the front doors before he got cold feet.
From the entrance of the manor, he cut through the garden, passed through the metal gate, and continued on to the forest path that was a straight shot to Auram Village. Subaru’s stated plan was to head from there to the nearest highway, hire a passing carriage, and head to the capital—but that plan was a feint.
“Subaru, thanks for everything. If anything happens, come back anytime, okay?”
With Emilia’s statement of farewell, her words gentle until the bitter end, Subaru departed, walking the path toward Auram Village. The silver-haired girl waved until she could no longer see Subaru from the mansion. Her oh-so-adorable behavior dulled his worries and made his sense of duty burn once more.
—After heading down the path to the village for a while, Subaru stopped and cautiously looked around the area. When he was sure no one was around to watch him, he left the path and dove into the woods. He did so regardless of Ram’s and the others’ admonitions that this was dangerous due to the many wild animals within.
Ignoring their warnings, Subaru pushed his way through the foliage as he headed deeper into the forest. At some point, he ascended a slope, not slowing his pace when branches and briar patches scratched him.
He proceeded up the mountain like that for about fifteen minutes.
“Okay, I’ll do it here.”
Subaru left the greenery, the soaring sky greeting his vision. Subaru had cleared the forested slopes, arriving at a foothill nestled among the mountains. He could watch the mansion below from the cliff right in front of him.
From there, he could observe the familiar, luxurious sights of Roswaal Manor. He’d circled around from the forest path and cut through forest and mountain to arrive at the perfect observation point.
“It has an especially good view of Emilia’s room. I’ll see anything weird happening right away.”
He could make out the window to Emilia’s room even at a distance. He couldn’t see inside, but it was a good spot for watching for any signs of trouble. And on the night of the fourth day, trouble would surely come.
“In other words, tonight. All that’s left is to wait for something to happen.”
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 2 Page 16