The “Master Swordsman” had, at full power, swung his sword. Once. Only once, and this was the result.
Subaru kept yelling, trying to get through the pain and the wind, as finally, the storm lost its strength and the various items tumbling to the ground signaled its end, along with the chorus of dull creaking sounds from the building.
Subaru tossed away the remains of a scroll-like object that had landed on his head and checked that both Rom and Not-Satella were still okay. It looked as though Subaru’s cover wasn’t completely enough, as Rom looked as though he was covered in milk and other things, but Subaru thought he deserved to be cut a little slack.
“What do you mean, ‘Fighting monsters is my specialty’? You’re enough of a monster yourself!” shouted Subaru.
“Even I get hurt when you say things like that, Subaru,” replied Reinhard, the root cause of all of this destruction, with a weak smile as the gusts of wind blew his fiery red hair.
After all of this, even Reinhard had beads of sweat formed on his cool-looking face, and in his hands…
“I’m sorry for pushing you so hard. Rest well.”
…his two-handed sword disintegrated. Something of such a poor making could not last even one of Reinhard’s true swings. The strike was enough to make the steel of the sword’s blade rot away, so as for Elsa…
“Forget a corpse, I don’t even see any trace of her left… This is all just from one swing of your sword?”
In the path of Reinhard’s attack, which had seemed to rip through the very fabric of the world, there was absolutely nothing left. In the destruction, the counter next to the cellar’s entrance was blown completely away with all of its chairs, and the residual waves of damage extended even into the open space in front of the building. The resulting gusts of wind had wrecked the supports of the building, and it seemed ready to collapse at any moment.
The space where Elsa had been standing was of course within range of Reinhard’s attack, and her tall, black-clothed figure was nowhere to be seen.
“But then, that means…” Subaru said, stretching his stiff body and breathing a big sigh of relief.
Still unable to quite believe had happened, Subaru turned to look at the silver-haired girl still leaning against him. Not-Satella’s breathing was still shallow, but when she saw Subaru looking at her she turned her violet eyes toward him.
“Is it over…?” she asked weakly.
“Yeah… In the true sense of the word, it looks like it is,” Subaru said, helping her stand.
Not-Satella ran her fingers through her own hair, and with still uncertain steps, let go of Subaru, while Subaru stared.
“Why are you staring at me like that? That’s very rude of you,” she said.
“Your limbs and head are all still attached to your body, right?”
“…Why wouldn’t they be? Could you please not say something so ominous?” replied Not-Satella, not understanding what Subaru was trying to say.
As Not-Satella stared back at Subaru with an annoyed look in her eyes, Subaru gave her a thumbs-up and smiled.
“That’s right. I mean, that makes perfect sense. I, myself, have all my limbs; I don’t have a knife stuck in my back or a huge hole in my stomach!”
“The way you say that, it sounds like you had experienced all of that at one time.”
Well…he had.
Because of Subaru’s uselessness, Not-Satella had had her life taken, Rom lost his arm and his head, and Felt was cut down, too.
“Now that I think of it, Reinhard, I haven’t thanked you yet. You really saved us there. There’s also what happened in the alley… Did you hear the screams of my heart or something, my friend?”
“Well, I certainly would be proud of myself if I could do that, friend,” replied Reinhard, relaxing his shoulders, looking sorry. With his chin, he motioned toward the entrance of the loot cellar. As Subaru followed with his eyes…
“Oh hey,” said Subaru as he saw the person there, feeling his mouth form an unexpected smile.
At the entrance to the loot cellar, which had been at this point pretty much destroyed, was a small blond-haired girl with a canine tooth poking out from her mouth, hiding in the shadow of one of the few pillars left standing.
“That girl over there was running frantically down the street, where she asked me for help. The only reason I was able to come here is because of her. After that, I was just doing my job as a knight.”
“Is flattening old buildings part of your job description?”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh, Subaru?” said Reinhard, wincing and putting his hand over his chest.
Despite having dealt this much destruction, the fact that he was acting just as friendly with Subaru as he had before was frightening in and of itself.
“That’s…”
Not-Satella, still trying to regain her footing, had noticed Felt.
Subaru stepped between them, running to Felt’s defense.
“Wait a minute. If she hadn’t called Reinhard for help, we both probably wouldn’t be here right now. So for my sake, overlook her crimes and please don’t turn her into an ice statue.”
“I wasn’t going to do that! And what do you mean, ‘for your sake’?” Not-Satella rubbed her fingers up against her brow, looking tired.
Even in that action of hers, Subaru was able to feel happiness in some way.
Since everyone was alive, they could all be joking around.
“I guess now it’s all up to my negotiation skills…which are something I’d never want to put my trust in!”
“What is with you, all of a sudden? The way you’re flailing about like that is really lame.”
In response to Not-Satella’s words, Subaru put his hand on his chest and reenacted Reinhard’s previous reaction. Of course, it didn’t look remotely as cool and dignified as when he did it.
As Reinhard watched Subaru’s antics, he smiled. He raised a hand toward Felt, who was looking in on everyone, and started walking toward her.
Subaru watched from behind at Reinhard’s gallant figure as he walked over to Felt, and he couldn’t even feel envious of him. Subaru could only shrug his shoulders and think that this was the difference between someone who had it and someone who didn’t.
Even while Felt was cautious of him, perhaps because she was feeling gratitude that he had come to save everyone, Felt didn’t try to run away as Reinhard approached.
Watching the two, Subaru felt like smiling, when…
“Subaru!!”
…Reinhard suddenly turned toward him and yelled, and Subaru realized that they hadn’t escaped danger yet.
Scraps of the building had been thrown up, and underneath them was a black shadow. The black shadow, with black hair trailing behind it and blood dripping from it, kicked firmly off against the ground and accelerated. Holding a blade that was bent out of shape, a bloody Elsa wordlessly raced toward Subaru.
“Enough already…!”
After having somehow survived Reinhard’s incredible strike, Elsa’s murderous eyes were filled with a pitch blackness. The murderous intent that she released was greater than any she had before, and it sent chills racing down Subaru’s back.
It would only be a few seconds before she was close enough to strike, and in that short amount of time, Subaru sent his thoughts racing.
One instant and it would all be over. Elsa was counting everything on this one strike. Reinhard wouldn’t make it in time. If Subaru could stop Elsa this one time, Reinhard could handle the rest. Not-Satella didn’t even have time to turn around.
Where was the target this time? Subaru had experienced this twice before: two deaths, the fear and the pain. He would protect her the third time.
Protect the girl!!
“She’s aiming for your stomach!!”
Subaru pushed Not-Satella out of the way, and using the club from before still in his hands, he guarded his own stomach as Elsa’s strike collided with him.
The horizontal slice
felt less like a cut and more like being struck by a heavy blunt object. The force of the collision swept Subaru off his feet and he felt the world spin 180 degrees as he vomited blood. It wasn’t just his vision but his entire body that was spinning.
Unsure of how far he had been thrown, Subaru struck the wall, unable to catch himself.
“There you go, getting in my way aga—” spat Elsa, clicking her tongue as she watched Subaru fly.
“That’s enough, Elsa!”
As Reinhard came running up, Elsa understood that there was no longer any meaning in continuing the fight. She threw at Reinhard her knife, which had been completely bent in that last attack that Subaru took. Her aim was off, but the throw succeeded in drawing Reinhard’s attention away from her, and that was enough.
“One day, I will open the stomachs of everyone here, so take care of your bowels for me until then!” she cried, using a part of the collapsing building as a foothold to leap up onto the roof.
It didn’t look possible to chase her down as she leapt lightly from roof to roof as she made her getaway.
Reinhard, who was not interested in pursuing this fight any further, didn’t run after her.
After Reinhard watched Elsa go, he ran over to the silver-haired girl.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m perfectly fine! Can’t you see?! Rather than me, you should be worried about…” shouted Not-Satella, before racing over to the wall with her unsteady feet where Subaru was collapsed upside down.
“Are you all right?! What were you thinking?!”
“Ugghh… Oh… It’s no big deal… If there was ever a time to act before thinking that was it, don’t you think? I’m the only one who could move, and I was able to quickly guess where she was going to attack,” said Subaru, raising one hand to Not-Satella as she walked over to him and using the other to carefully touch his tender stomach. He was immensely bruised, and everything under his clothes as he lifted them up was purple.
“Ugh…” said Subaru, disgusted by the way it looked, before turning over and getting back on his feet.
“She’s completely gone now, right?”
“I’m sorry, Subaru. This is all my fault for letting my guard down. If you weren’t there we would have been in trouble. If that person there had gotten wounded, then…”
“Stop stop stop stop! Don’t say it! Don’t say it! I forbid you to speak any more than that! You’re going to steal my thunder,” said Subaru to Reinhard as he tried to apologize, and smiled at him as he went quiet.
After that, Subaru slowly turned around to face the silver-haired girl looking up at him. She fidgeted and then stood up beside him. They were about two steps away from each other. If Subaru reached out with his hand, he could touch her. It had been a long time coming, and Subaru paused to think about everything that had happened for him to get here.
As Subaru closed his eyes in silence, the girl looked as though she wanted to say something, but before she could open her mouth, Subaru pointed a finger up to the heavens.
With his left hand on his hip and his right hand pointed in the air, Subaru disregarded the surprised stares coming from all around him, and declared in a loud voice, “My name is Subaru Natsuki! I know there’s a ton of things you want to say and a ton of things you want to ask, but before all of that let me confirm just one thing!”
“W-what…?”
“I totally just saved your life right now from that terrible weapon, didn’t I? We okay so far?”
“O…kay?”
“It means everything’s fine. So, are we okay?!”
Subaru used his upper body to form an O and a K, and while the silver-haired girl in front of him seemed to twitch a little, she replied.
“O-okay…”
“I’m the person who saved your life! Your rescuer! Now you are the heroine I rescued. Don’t you think that I should get some kind of reward? Don’t you think so?!”
“…I understand. Only if it’s something I’m able to do, though.”
“As long as you understand! Now I only have one, just one request of you!” Subaru put his finger out in front of him to emphasize this point.
While the girl looked a bit worried in response, she seemed to find her determination and nodded firmly.
“So my wish is…”
“Go on.”
Subaru smiled, showing his teeth, then snapped his fingers and then gave a thumbs-up, striking a pose.
“…I want you to tell me your name.”
The girl’s eyes opened wide in shock, and a moment of silence fell upon the two. Subaru’s gaze would not waver, and he looked the silver-haired girl in front of him straight in the eye.
The girl then put her hand to her mouth and started to giggle, her white cheeks blushing, and her silver hair swaying behind her as she smiled.
That smile of hers was not one of resignation, or a faint fleeting smile. It was not a tragic smile, either. She was simply smiling because she was happy. That was all there was to it.
“…Emilia,” she said, laughing.
“…”
Hearing that single response Subaru took in a short breath, and then breathed out.
In response the girl straightened herself, put a finger to her lips, and smiled in a teasing sort of way.
“My name is Emilia. Just Emilia. Thank you, Subaru. Thank you for saving me,” Emilia said, holding out her hand.
Looking down at that hand, Subaru hesitantly took it in his. Her fingers and wrist were slender and her palm was small, and her hand was very warm. It was a living hand, with blood running through it.
—Thank you for saving me.
Subaru wanted to say the same to her. She was the one who had saved him first. With this, he had finally repaid her, after dying three times from blade wounds to get here.
After all of that pain and suffering, after all that fighting with everything he had, his reward was her name and a smile.
Ahh…
“Man, that wasn’t worth it at all,” said Subaru, smiling as he gripped Emilia’s hand.
7
That would have been a good place to end the story. However…
“Though really, I have to say I’m surprised to see you’re all right,” said Reinhard, as though he had been waiting for the right moment to jump in after Subaru and Emilia had finished, breaking the silence he had been forced into before.
Even from the perspective of a man with Reinhard’s skill, Elsa’s final attack must have seemed overwhelming.
Subaru gently put pressure on his hurt abdomen and pointed to the club lying on the ground. The spiked club was thick and sturdy and had worked well as a shield, even though that was not its true purpose.
“I quickly guarded myself with that thing. If it weren’t for that, right now I’d be cut in two,” said Subaru.
“You’re right. If it weren’t for this—” Reinhard started to say, reaching for the fallen club to pick it up.
“—I wouldn’t have been able to avoid ‘BAD END 4,’” Subaru laughed, finishing his sentence.
“Huh?”
As Reinhard picked up the club, part of it slid across a smooth cut going through it, and fell to the ground with a thud. Cut completely in two, its service was done.
Reinhard slowly looked up at Subaru with an uncomfortable look on his face. Subaru followed Reinhard’s gaze nervously and pulled up his tracksuit. Just as before, everything was purple and bruised, but there was a slight change. A red line suddenly ran straight across his abdomen.
“This doesn’t look good. Even I can see what’s coming next.”
Just as Subaru finished his statement a searing pain shot through him, and then his stomach opened along the cut, spilling bright red blood everywhere.
“S-Subaru?!”
Right beside him, Subaru could hear Emilia’s panicked voice.
Subaru had finally been able to hear her name and now it looked as though this was going to be the end, again.
But even if that w
as the case, Subaru was sure he would return to this place again.
Subaru’s vision shifted sideways, and he thought that he must have fallen over. He could see that Reinhard was panicked as well, and as Emilia looked straight at him, close to his face, he could see that she was very distressed.
She looks cute even when she’s panicking… What a place this fantasy world is, Subaru thought, feeling he had thought something similar before, before the pain and shock swept his consciousness away like a storm at sea.
EPILOGUE
THE MOON IS WATCHING
Reinhard looked on from a distance at the faint blue light, its wavelengths those of water, the element of healing, and let out a soft sigh that no one around him could hear.
Signs of grief showed on his handsome profile as well as traces of tension left over from the battle. If you were to take the image of his figure as he stood in front of the ruins behind him, it would surely be a masterpiece of art. Such was the way he stood.
However, Reinhard had a deep sense of regret in him, the weight of which could not be lessened by words.
“…All right. That should do it,” came a voice like silver bells to Reinhard’s ears, as he had continued to blame himself, his eyes closed.
Emilia brushed her hand across Subaru’s forehead, as if wiping it, and brushed away his hair as he lay propped up against the wall. She made sure that there was still a look of redness, of life in his face. Emilia then stood up and nodded.
“I’m done treating him. He’s probably made it past the worst of it.”
“That’s good to hear. Now that that’s taken care of, Lady Emilia…” Reinhard said as he walked swiftly over to Emilia, knelt down on one knee, and bowed his head. Reinhard’s every motion was executed without any fault, and perfectly adhered to proper etiquette.
“Due to my shortcomings, I have caused you a great deal of stress. I am prepared to take whatever punishment you deem necessary in response to my failure.”
Reinhard placed his sword in front of him as he knelt and apologized for his failings.
As a knight, this was the most sincere way he could apologize. No matter what might befall him, Reinhard was prepared to take any punishment without complaint.
Re: Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Vol. 1 Page 22