Subaru was even worse off. It was clear that he had little experience fighting, and didn’t seem used to it at all. His clean hands and fingers were proof that he had never even tried to hold a weapon before, and his clean hair and skin was proof that he had never been wounded before.
In other words, Subaru had lived a sheltered life, one in which it was not necessary to consider fighting. Given that he had such an expensive mitia on him, it all made sense.
Felt should just accept that it served him right. Despite not knowing anything about the world, Subaru had let a notion of chivalry get the best of him and try something far beyond his means. Felt should simply laugh at his idiocy. Subaru went and tried to act cool and let her get away, so he would probably be happy to see her keep running. But…still…
“Someone! Anyone!”
Though Felt knew in her mind that she should be winding down alleys, she had run straight toward the main street. Out of breath and with an expression of panic on her face, Felt looked this way and that.
This was strange. Felt reached up and frantically rubbed her teary eyes. Even if she had reason to be sad about Rom, Subaru was someone that she’d just met. Why should she care if he died?
But Subaru had gotten mad at Elsa for Felt’s sake, and he had just about thrown his life away so she could get away alive.
Felt didn’t understand what she was feeling, but because those feelings were there in her heart, she kept running about. She had felt something in response to Subaru’s actions. Because of those feelings, her feverishness did not subside, and while she felt like she wanted to scream, Felt kept running.
Then, finally after running down a few streets…
“Please…help me.”
“Understood. I’ll help you.”
…she found a young man like red fire, and changed the fate of the world.
5
“…Reinhard?”
“That is correct, Subaru. I suppose it hasn’t been too long since we’ve last met. I’m sorry I’m late.”
The red-haired young man Reinhard turned to face Subaru, who was still toppled over on the ground, with a slight apologetic smile.
Even as Reinhard wiped the dust from his sleeve, every motion seemed trained and deliberate. The way Reinhard carried himself was different from when Subaru first encountered him in the alley with Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest, and as Subaru watched him, he thought he was now seeing a glimpse of Reinhard’s true self.
Without letting his guard down for a moment, Reinhard looked ahead, and turned his eyes toward the black-clothed beauty who was now focusing her animosity toward him. Reinhard’s blue eyes narrowed, as if he were remembering something.
“Black hair and black clothes, and your weapon is the bent blade particular to the northern countries. With all of those characteristics aligned, there’s no mistaking it. You are the ‘Bowel Hunter,’ aren’t you?”
“What’s with that super-violent-sounding alias…?” muttered Subaru.
“It’s an alias given to her based on the way she kills. She’s well-known in the capital to be a dangerous individual. However, from what I hear she appears to be more of a mercenary,” replied Reinhard faithfully in response to Subaru’s rhetorical question as he trained his clear eyes on Elsa.
“Reinhard. Ah, yes. The knight among knights…and of the ‘Master Swordsman’ lineage. Well, that’s amazing. I never thought I’d meet such an enjoyable opponent. I’ll have to thank my employer now for giving this job, now won’t I?”
“There are many things I would like to ask you. I recommend you surrender, however…”
“Would you say to a starving predator as it stands before its wounded prey, a perfect specimen and already dripping blood, to bear its hunger and move on?”
Elsa licked her thin red lips erotically with a look of ecstasy in her case as she stared at Reinhard.
“I see.” Reinhard responded, scratching at the side of his cheek as though he wished there was another way.
“Subaru, I’m going to have to ask you to get farther away, and please take that elderly man with you out of harm’s way. After that, if you could stay beside that other person there, it would help me a lot.”
“Understood. …That woman’s quite the monster, so don’t let your guard down, all right?”
“Fortunately, you could say that fighting monsters is my specialty,” said Reinhard confidently, and walked forward without any sign that he was preparing himself for battle.
Reinhard did not even reach for the sword at his waist, but continued on empty-handed.
After a sharp intake of breath, the kukri in Elsa’s hand flew forward, in a flash, toward Reinhard’s neck.
Unlike when Subaru was her opponent, there was no sign that Elsa was holding back as she made her silver strike, and it seemed to kill the very air as it raced toward Reinhard’s slender neck.
Yet Reinhard was completely defenseless. Not only did he not make any move to defend himself, he didn’t even make a move to dodge the attack.
Subaru could already picture Reinhard’s head flying off his body. However…
“I don’t really want to be violent against a woman, but…” said Reinhard, starting off in a gentlemanly way, but Subaru thought that the tone of his voice had dropped.
“…you’ll have to excuse me.”
Reinhard planted one foot down, the pressure behind it fracturing the ground beneath him, and with the other leg launched a kick so strong it created a shock wave as it collided with Elsa and sent her body flying. The back blast was strong enough for Subaru to feel it where he stood. He was speechless.
All it was, was an ordinary forward kick, but the air pressure it caused was enough to create a wind that shook the entire building.
Elsa, who took the hit head-on, was blown away like a leaf. However, she was able to reduce the damage taken by springing off the walls to kill the force of impact with her legs. Still, when she looked up, you could see the look of shock on her face.
“No, no, no, no, no. There’s no way. You’re kidding me, right? ….Just what the hell was that?”
Subaru had described certain things as being “on a totally different scale” several times before in his life, and it was at this very moment that he realized he had been mistaken. That phrase, “on a totally different scale,” existed solely for the purpose to describe this hero who stood in front of him. Before Reinhard’s existence, all of the extraordinary phenomena of this new world dulled in comparison.
“It’s just as they say…or rather, you’re more than what everyone says you are,” said Elsa.
“Well, I can only hope I’ll live up to your expectations.”
“Will you not use that sword of yours? I would like to have a taste of its legendary sharpness.”
Elsa pointed at Reinhard’s sword. She wanted to face Reinhard at full force, without him holding back. However, Reinhard shook his head.
“This sword is made so that it can only be drawn when it should be drawn. The fact that the blade has not removed itself from its sheath means that now is not the proper time.”
“I suppose I’ve been underestimated.”
“Personally, I would have preferred to take you up on your offer. So…”
Reinhard suddenly turned his eyes away from Elsa, and looked about the inside of the loot cellar. Eyes eventually settled on an old-looking two-handed sword propped up against the wall. Reinhard used his foot to kick up on the hilt, sending the unsheathed sword spinning through the air. He easily grabbed it in his hand, and swung it once lightly as if testing it out.
“…I’ll use this one to face you. Any complaints?”
“No… This is wonderful, wonderful! You had better show me a good time!”
As Reinhard gripped his blade, Elsa made the first move, darting to the side. As she made her slicing attack she leapt to increase its speed. In response, Reinhard readied a stance to swing his sword from below, straight upward.
In that moment of attack an
d defense, Subaru was able to get a clear view of what was happening.
Reinhard’s strike was sublime, it was magical, it was perfectly trained. In his hands, even a throwaway sword at its end of life, sleeping away in a cellar, shone like some treasured sword passed on by legend across generations. Reinhard’s sword technique captured every ounce of performance that could be extracted by the sword and he used it at will.
Reinhard’s blade hit its mark, just where the blade of Elsa’s kukri met its handle. Despite the fact that it was two pieces of steel striking together, Reinhard’s sword showed an unbelievable amount of cutting power and sliced the blade of Elsa’s blade right off its base.
Elsa had no words for the fate of the kukri she held in her hand. The blade had become just a handle, and as for the remainder…
“Now that you have lost your weapon, I recommend you surrender.”
…as Reinhard turned around, he held the blade of Elsa’s kukri in his free hand. With a flick of his wrist he threw it, and with a sharp sound it stuck, lodged in the wall.
Even Subaru could hear Elsa gasp.
“He really is not normal. I can’t even find the energy to joke about it.” Subaru just barely squeezed out what he thought, and hurried to put distance between himself and the battle taking place.
Along the way, Subaru went over to Rom, and somehow was able to drag his giant body to a spot along the wall.
“Rom. Old Man Rom. Hey. Baldy. You alive?”
“Who…you…callin’ baldy…”
“Who else? My only goals in life are to never go bald or get fat. You are, like, the best example for me of who I don’t want to end up like.”
Even though Rom’s response was weak, after giving him a few more slaps on the cheek, Subaru let out a sigh of relief.
Other than the fact that Rom had hit his head pretty hard, everything else looked all right. There was a chance that Rom’s memory might take a hit, but considering he was alive, it didn’t seem like much of a problem.
“Does it look like that person’s going to be all right?” asked Not-Satella as she came running up beside Subaru, her long silver hair trailing behind her. Checking the state of Rom’s injuries, she muttered, “He needs treatment,” and her hands began to glow with a faint blue light.
“Hey now, I’m just saying, but this old man’s in league with the one who stole your badge. You know that?”
“That’s precisely why I’m doing it. Once I heal him I can use his gratitude to get information out of him. People don’t tend to lie to people who’ve saved their life. I’m only doing this for my own sake.”
It was like she could not justify any of her actions unless she made a case for them being for her own sake.
Subaru gave the ever-roundabout Not-Satella a weak smile, and looked back toward the battlefield.
Elsa was on her knees but Subaru couldn’t see her face. All Subaru could think was that Reinhard had taken away her will to fight. With his old sword down by his side, Reinhard approached Elsa with his defenses down.
Surely Reinhard had confidence in the difference in ability between himself and Elsa, but pride always leads to the worst possible outcome. An alarm rang inside Subaru’s head.
“Reinhard! She’s got another blade!”
As Elsa’s second kukri was drawn from her waist, it took a bit of Reinhard’s bangs as he leaned back. With her surprise attack evaded, she turned her eyes toward Subaru.
“I’m surprised you knew.”
“Well, I’ve already experienced it once before!” said Subaru, giving her the middle finger in a bragging tone—although it really couldn’t be called bragging.
Elsa apparently decided that what Subaru was saying was nonsense and ignored him.
“However, you’d be wrong to think I have only two of these fangs. …Shall we start over?” she said to Reinhard.
“Will you be satisfied if I destroy all of your weapons?”
“If I lose my fangs, I’ll fight with my nails. If I lose my nails, I’ll fight with my bones. If I lose my bones, I’ll fight with my life. That is how I, the Bowel Hunter, do things.”
“In that case, I’ll just have to have you forsake your ideals.”
Elsa drew a third knife from her waist and held both at the ready. Worthy of the “spider-woman” insult that Subaru had lobbed at her before, Elsa seemed to fly about the room as though she were ignoring gravity, using all space on the ground and in the air available to her.
As blade met blade and steel met steel, each violent collision sent sparks flying. Kicking off from the walls and from the ceiling, Elsa continued her fighting style of attack and retreat. Reinhard met her attacks as they came.
As the battle seemed to go back and forth, Subaru gulped as he watched on.
“It can’t be possible that even Reinhard lacks the ability to settle this, can it…?”
Elsa’s abilities had stepped out of the realm of human possibility and it was hard for Subaru to even track her movements. However, Reinhard’s ability was, at its very core, legendary. Their battle was like two gods colliding with each other in the heavens, but Subaru could see that, in terms of pure ability, Reinhard was far ahead of Elsa. But then why was the battle still raging?
“…We’re holding him back,” muttered Not-Satella in response to Subaru’s doubts as she continued to heal Rom.
“Huh?” replied Subaru, and Not-Satella bit her lip, frustrated.
“Because I’m using spirit magic, he can’t fight full force. At least not until I finish my healing.”
“I have no idea what you’re trying to say.”
“If Reinhard decides to fight full force, all of the mana in the atmosphere around us will turn away from me. …I’m almost done. When I give the signal, call out to him.”
“O-okay.”
Subaru still didn’t understand her explanation, but while still a little unsure, he agreed.
The blue light continued to heal the bump protruding from Rom’s head, and another wound that had been bleeding a little. Subaru looked on amazed as the traces of blood and the opening of the wound gradually disappeared, when Not-Satella took a deep breath and let it out.
“I’m done.”
“Leave it to me. Hey, Reinhard! I don’t really understand, but get her!!!”
Subaru delivered the message to Reinhard, who had continually been on the defensive, that Rom’s treatment was complete.
Reinhard glanced back. When his and Subaru’s eyes met, he gave a slight nod.
“…What is it you’re going to show me?”
“The House of Astrea’s sword,” Reinhard replied in short and with dignity as Elsa leaped at him.
Immediately afterward, Subaru felt all of the space in the cellar warp.
6
“What?”
Subaru saw the air in his line of sight twist, and he couldn’t be sure, but he thought that the room had lost some of its light. Apart from that, the room’s temperature, which had already been falling because of all of the ice magic, dropped even further. Subaru found himself shivering and hugging his shoulders.
“Wait? Huh? Why are you…”
“I’m sorry, it’s just… Could you lend me your shoulder?”
As Not-Satella started to lean on him, Subaru, while flustering about, rushed to support her. Her slender body was incredibly hot and Subaru could feel his heart racing from a completely different reason from before. But one look at Not-Satella’s face and any ideas Subaru may have gotten were blown away.
Not-Satella was short of breath and looked as though she were in pain. It was as though she was running a high fever.
“What happened? Did you suddenly start to feel…?” asked Subaru.
“No, it’s the mana… You know, right?” replied Not-Satella.
Subaru didn’t have a clue. He would have liked to fold his arms and declare so, in his usual humorous way, but now didn’t seem to be the time for that. It was not the weight on Subaru’s shoulders that made him
decide to stay silent; it was how the entire room had changed its atmosphere, and what was happening at the source of that change.
In the center of the room, Reinhard held his sword ready with both hands in a low stance. But that wasn’t it. That stance itself had been something that Reinhard had been holding since the battle had begun. However, as Subaru looked on, it felt to him that only now, for the very first time, Reinhard was holding his sword at the ready.
“Elsa ‘The Bowel Hunter’ Gramhilde,” said Elsa, licking her lips.
“Reinhard van Astrea from the line of master swordsmen,” Reinhard replied majestically with a nod.
The presence of Reinhard’s sword overwhelmed the room, and the animosity between Reinhard and Elsa shook the air.
In this place, turned mostly to ruins, a black-clothed murderer and a lightly armored hero faced each other, and what would clash would be the blood-soaked blade of a knife against a rusted old two-handed sword. But despite the faults of one side’s weapon, Subaru held his breath. After declaring their names, both were going to try to end the battle at once. Subaru felt that he was witness to a verse from an epic tale of heroism.
Someone screamed out. Subaru couldn’t tell if it was Elsa, or Reinhard, or even himself, but a brilliant light blew off the roof of the loot cellar and ripped right through it, cutting the entire space into two halves.
Subaru couldn’t help but feel that the entire world had shifted as an immense light filled the room and whited everything out in an instant. As the light cleared, the world was subjected to another sudden shift, as the displaced space tried to return to where it had been before.
Air was distorted as residual waves from the attack swept over the room and caused strong gusts to rush, spiraling back into the center of the room. Along with those gusts, stolen items, furniture, and even materials from the building’s structure itself were pulled in.
Subaru desperately tried to protect both Not-Satella and Rom from this storm of collateral damage.
“Just what is… H-hey! Hey!!”
Subaru couldn’t really explain how all of this was happening, but he knew who caused it.
Re: Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Vol. 1 Page 21