Interlude: Cheers

――For Petra Leyte, the Witch of Melancholy, the ending she should aim for, arrive at, and reach had only ever been one from the very beginning.

That was from the moment when, before becoming the Witch of Melancholy, Petra Leyte—just an ordinary village girl—ended up reading something outrageous like Natsuki Subaru’s 『The Book of the Dead』. That was from the moment she learned that Natsuki Subaru had kept fighting to change the fate of many in exchange for his own 『Death』. That was from the moment that, by sharing unremarkable days together, she came to cherish who Natsuki Subaru was—what made him rejoice, what made him grieve, what made him feel happiness and unhappiness.

――Gathering up all those different reasons, bundling and wrapping them together, it was already decided.

「Because, in the end, Subaru wants to do something about Al too, right?」

Honestly, from Petra’s point of view, it’s a preposterous story. If she were to tick off one by one the things Al has done, even using all the fingers on her hands and feet wouldn’t be enough, so she’d have to mobilize the 『Invisible Hand』 to bend the extra fingers she lacks. That’s how many irreparable things Al has done.――But even so, she doesn’t think that makes Al a dyed-in-the-wool fiend who did it all while sneering at everything.

「I wonder if this, too, is me being poisoned by the influence of Subaru’s book……」

It’s immodest to say it herself, but Petra is a realist, and the scope of what she can take on is narrow. Rather than narrow, it’s more accurate to say she’s deliberately keeping it narrow. Because if she used every bit of capacity she has without holding back, Petra is confident she possesses a vessel that can pack in a fair number of things. She isn’t embarrassed about that. But even if she used every last corner of that capacity, she can’t think of treasuring everything she could cram in. And yet――,

「Subaru’s greediness……」

But that’s what I like.――No—correction. I like that too. And because she can’t change such a Natsuki Subaru, Petra Leyte will do it. It’s a painful decision, like having her very flesh sliced, like her heart being mercilessly torn apart.

――Make Natsuki Subaru 『Return by Death』, and reset all that has happened.

From the moment she left the Pleiades Watchtower and decided to go together with Imaginary Subaru, Petra Leyte has pressed forward toward that ending.

She insisted forcefully on becoming the bearer of the Witch Factor of 『Melancholy』, centralized in herself—save for a few exceptions—the payment of the price that accompanies using the Authority, played every sharp bargaining chip without hesitation, and by offering up all the information she could convey, determined the policy of the 『Aldebusters』.

「If the reason the 『Witch of Envy』 is running wild is because I read the book—then we can use that too, right?」

Ever since the Sin Archbishop of 『Gluttony』, Roy Alphard, was let out of the Prison Tower and she realized the effect of his Authority, a question had lingered in Petra.――If the 『Memory』 of Petra who read 『The Book of the Dead』 were stolen, how would the 『Witch of Envy』 judge it? And she also wondered if that wasn’t, just as it was, Al’s plan—he said he had no intention of destroying the world—to drive off the 『Witch of Envy』. Therefore, when the 『Aldebusters』, with their full strength, defeated Roy Alphard, as they bound the barely-breathing Roy, she made him a promise.

「If you want to eat me, I’ll make you a chance.」

Of course, it was a promise she fully intended to break without mercy if she didn’t need to keep it. Having taken on Natsuki Subaru’s bad influence, Petra is an outlaw who doesn’t give a damn about breaking promises to people she hates. And in case that unlikely event did come to pass, she had managed to secure a reassuring ally.

「Sister Rem is amazing.」

Quietly—and setting aside the heavy favoritism born of Natsuki Subaru’s influence—that’s what she thinks. Rem realized Subaru’s 『Return by Death』—at first she called it 『Time Regress』, and although the trigger was Old Man Rom uncovering the true nature of Al’s Authority, she still reached it on her own. Rem realized on her own that Natsuki Subaru was someone who had kept fighting at the cost of his life.――While that makes her happy, she also can’t help but feel frustrated.

「But that’s why I can entrust it to Sister Rem.……No, it has to be Sister Rem and no one else.」

Even if, along the way, there were however many good things, even if she gained feelings however hard to let go of, Petra Leyte decided to overturn all of it and make it as if it had never happened. And that meant, properly speaking, that even welcoming Rem—who had at last reclaimed her 『Name』 and 『Memory』, who had truly returned—would disappear as well.

Knowing that and still choosing to do it, Petra had an obligation to involve Rem. As comrades equally aware they would vanish, and as fellow women who, from the bottom of their hearts, want the person they love most to let nothing slip through their fingers.

It can only be entrusted to someone who has convinced themselves this is the only way, someone who can throw everything away for love. To someone who would keep searching, right up to the very, very edge, for a better answer elsewhere, you can’t entrust something this cruel. So here, Petra and Rem will see it through.

「Subaru and Emilia, you’re tired, aren’t you? I’m sorry. And yet I end up becoming a burden too. I’m sorry. I wanted to keep on, forever and ever, saying the thanks that were never enough……」

I wanted to say thank you, and thank you in its truest sense. As Petra Leyte, who has read 『The Book of the Dead』 and knows everything, I wanted to cheer on Emilia, who walks a thorny path, and Natsuki Subaru, who chose to grind himself to dust to support her along that road. That won’t come true. Petra Leyte will do her utmost, but she’ll go back to being a village girl who knows nothing. That’s frustrating, that’s sad, and I still haven’t said enough thank-yous and I’m-sorries. Even so――,

「……I wonder if I did everything I could」

Within the limited circumstances, didn’t I do everything I possibly could? Al must have prepared an all-star lineup so he wouldn’t lose, and yet when it comes to the trial and error to push that back, we only get one shot, so even unfairness has its limits. But we did it. We pulled it off. When Otto, who shouldn’t have any Memory, joined the fray midway, I have to admit I was a little taken aback, but that too, all of it, was thanks to everyone taking part.

「Hehe, this is kind of amazing, right? Will you fall for me?」

『――。That's right. I'm going to fall in love』

Tilting her head slightly, she greets him with the cutest face she can stage for herself. At Petra’s adorable gesture and question, Imaginary Subaru smiles bashfully like that. Is this a trick Petra uses to make him say it? Or is it so convincing that the real one might say it too?

「Well, since I’m about to disappear, I might as well take it in the way that’s convenient for me」

She gently reaches out, lays her hand over a hand she can’t touch, and laces their fingers. A phantom perk of this sort should be allowed. She worked very hard.

『Come to think of it, can I ask one thing? I mean, it’s weird for me to ask from my position, though』

「Mmm? What?」

『Before you got the Witch Factor from Clind, Petra paid a price once for the transfer… you didn’t tell me, right? I’ve been wondering what that was』

「Since I didn’t tell you, how about we leave it with you not knowing?」

『That’s so cruel』

Even his pathetic expression looks cute, and Petra lets out a small snort. But, as expected, imaginary or not, Subaru is Subaru. The things Petra hid because she didn’t want him to see or know— even as a resident of her head, he won’t overstep. Relieved by that, Petra sticks out her tongue with a playful flick,

「Se-cret!」

She made Imaginary Subaru pull a wry face, but Petra wants to keep this hidden. It’s fine to have at least one maiden’s secret she won’t show even to Imaginary Subaru. Besides, this maiden’s secret has just a touch of girlish cunning.

Back then, Petra offered Clind one particular possibility of her own as the price. It was――,

「――The possibility that I would become Subaru’s bride」

Clind, who knew Petra’s feelings, was quite astonished at the time. Bearing what seems to be the very heavy history of a dragonkin, the way he looked at Petra as she devotedly offered up her own possibility— that deeply moved reaction is hard to forget. Which is why she felt sorry.――Because with that price, Petra became certain.

「If I can offer that as the price, then I truly have that possible future」

Considering the performance of the Witch Factor of 『Melancholy』, strictly speaking it would mean she offered to the world the influence of ‘the various efforts Petra would make to obtain a future in which she marries Subaru.’ But such fine points, in that moment, meant nothing to Petra.

What matters is believing in a future where Petra Leyte becomes Natsuki Subaru’s wife. And that was proven by none other than the Witch Factor that touches the core of the world. Because she had that certainty, she decided to see it through and ran all the way to the very end.

So――,

「Do your best, me.――Whether I can seize my chance depends on how hard I try!」

That is a cheer from the village girl who became the 『Witch of Melancholy』 and used the Witch Factor for her own happiness, sent to her future self who will not become the 『Witch of Melancholy』.

――A somewhat weighty cheer of love from a tough, shrewd girl of another world.