Chapter 19 - "An Enemy Too Large"

—Just how much time has passed since we started running?

With no real sense of the light outside and a stretch when I was unconscious, it felt like anywhere from a few hours to half a day since it all began—anyway, about that long.

"Miraculously, it looks like we managed to shake our pursuers..."

Catching his ragged breath and wiping the sweat running down his jaw, Subaru glanced back through the lukewarm stench, straining to make sure he couldn't hear the footsteps of any unseen pursuers. Until just a short while ago, they'd been hounded without letup by groups of the Kingdom's soldiers, with no time even to breathe. The road had been blocked, their escape routes cut off; the choices—get caught or force a breakthrough—kept flickering through his head, and both sides had been one hair’s breadth from disaster, but—

"Thanks to that ridiculously huge earthquake, we somehow... Come to think of it, since we came here I don't remember ever running into an earthquake—so what was that?"

"Betty was surprised by that rumble too, but... now's our chance. Subaru, let me see your arm. I'll cast healing magic on the burn."

"Oh, that helps."

With that, Subaru set Beatrice—whom he had been carrying all this time—down on the ground. Beatrice opened and closed her palm as if to check it, then wrapped Subaru’s right arm—the one with a handkerchief tied around it in place of a bandage—in a faint healing light. The dull ache that had been there all along eased little by little, and an involuntary sigh slipped out.

"So you were just toughing it out after all. If it was that rough, I wish you'd told me sooner."

"No, I honestly just blanked on it while I was panicking. The moment I calmed down—ow, ow, ow—the pain came rushing back. H-hurry... help me..."

"Yes, yes, what a helpless child. I'll finish right away, so don't start sniveling."

"Thanks, Beako-mama! ...Is the Mana situation pretty tight?"

"— To be blunt, there's not much to spare."

"...Well, yeah."

At Beatrice’s reply as she tended to his burn, Subaru scratched his cheek with his free hand. Given how extravagantly they'd been throwing things around at Miklotov's mansion, it couldn't be helped. Minya's shadow magic, Shamak fired off in rapid succession, and on top of that even E.M.T.—with Subaru serving as Beatrice's external Mana tank, unreliable as he was, he was probably on the verge of running dry. He could only lament, yet again, how poorly suited he was to another world.

"Back in the Empire, I was oddly on a roll... Maybe you can cram more dreams in when your body's shrunk?"

"That was far too unnatural a state, with your Od distorted, so Betty doesn't have a very good impression of it. Who knows how much human experimentation they did to make that happen."

"He's not even an enemy anymore, and we've already left the Empire, and yet Olbart—well, the Shinobi—just keep getting darker, huh..."

Indeed, molding one's Od—that soul-like stuff—into whatever shape you like hardly seems like something you could do without practice. Which would mean Olbart, or the Shinobi village, had been practicing molding souls; no wonder the name "The Vicious Old Man" was no lie.

"—It seems the soldiers are busy dealing with that earlier rumble. The vigilance on the wind is receding, the tension has eased. For the moment, it's safe to say we've shaken them."

With that, the one to join the conversation was Crusch, who had been scanning the surroundings with sharp eyes. The sewer was lit by a Lagmite ore lamp with its output turned down; narrowing the amber eye not covered by her eyepatch, she fell silent as she watched Subaru's arm being treated. For an instant Subaru wondered at that reaction, then quickly realized the healing light must have reminded Crusch of something close at hand and impossible to forget.

"...This isn't something we can talk about now, is it."

Honestly, the situation was surging ahead at a furious pace. For Subaru, ever since that episode with Al at the Pleiades Watchtower, it's been nonstop—one thing after another, with no time for his nerves to rest. The rise of the Divine Dragon Church, Crusch's recovery, then the commotion at Miklotov's mansion and now Natsuki Subaru the fugitive—it's been a disaster.

—What I really wanted, if I could meet Crusch, was to talk about Felis's dismissal.

He wanted to confirm with Crusch the reasons and true intent behind dismissing Felis, to feel out some kind of compromise, to help repair the relationship between the two of them after their falling-out. Felis would surely call it arrogant meddling, but he didn't care. In others' eyes he was an insufferably selfish, arrogant man—that was Natsuki Subaru.

"—To you two,"

"...Huh?"

"To you two, you have my thanks—for coming after me in a situation like that."

"——"

Suddenly lowering her voice to tell him that, Crusch made Subaru close his mouth. To feel, from just that single 'I'm grateful,' like this half day of nothing but running had been paid off—that was, even by his own reckoning, far too cheap. Still, at the very least, if he hadn't chosen back there to follow after her, he wouldn't have been able to draw those words out of her now.

'But I can't exactly toss out a casual you’re welcome on my side. The burn hurts, and it looks like you even covered me from Tiga, but the thing that kicked off the fight in the first place was you, Crusch, and I'm definitely making Emilia-tan and the others worry and causing trouble, and brave little Beako has steeled herself to spend four hundred years of hell with me...'

'Subaru, Subaru, just because you can't get your thoughts together doesn't mean you can randomly rub Betty's head all over. You'll ruin Betty's cuteness.'

'Ah, sorry... It's true! I've ruined it this bad... it's unbearable to look at!'

'That's not true! Even if my hair's all a mess, Betty's cuteness doesn't fade—in fact it's the discovery of a brand-new charm point!'

Having her hairstyle mussed by Subaru's idle hands, Beatrice couldn't very well interrupt the treatment, so she had to just take it and shouted like that. That familiar back-and-forth loosened, just a little, the tension that felt like it had hardened even his innards, and saved him. —Yes, it was right when Subaru casually felt relieved.

'Heh'

'—! Crusch, did you just laugh?'

A small sound that rippled the air made Subaru, before he knew it, open his eyes wide. Looking, he saw Crusch, standing by the filthy wall of the sewers, with a hand to her mouth. Meeting Subaru's gaze, she added a single 'Sorry,' then,

'Watching that exchange so lacking in tension, I couldn't help myself. How immature of me.'

'I got nothing to say back about the whole tension thing, but it's way better than you staying all strung up forever. You'd only shown me a scary face this whole time.'

'A frightening face, huh. There's also this eye to consider.'

'No, even with one eye like that, you're still a beauty, Crusch.'

'——' 'Subaru...'

'Huh!? Did I just make the mood worse again!?'

Crusch, a hand on her eyepatch, narrowed her eye, and Subaru, earning even Beatrice's exasperation, flailed in a panic. However, after a small sigh, Crusch slowly shook her head,

'You are... no, you two are strong.'

'If you mean me and Beako, then yeah, making it plural was the right call. Me without Beako is small fry at best. But—'

'But?'

'...This kind of strength, you should have had it too, Crusch.'

At Subaru's reply, Crusch pressed her lips into a line. Seeing that, Subaru reconsidered his own words, wondering if he'd gone too far—her expression that should have loosened for just a moment, he'd made it stiff again. As he hesitated over what to say next, Beatrice gave his arm a light pop.

'There, it's done. For now, it shouldn't be anything serious.'

'Mm, got it, thanks. ...Yeah, it feels a bit tight, but it's not bad.'

'Leave the handkerchief as it is. It might get itchy, but your skin might get all oozy, so make sure you don't absentmindedly scratch it.'

'That's scary as hell, message received loud and clear. —So, then.'

Offering double thanks to Beatrice for giving him a well-timed breather, Subaru turned back to Crusch. The wound had been dressed, and they'd shaken off their pursuers for the moment. Which meant there was a mountain of things he wanted to talk with her about anew. First, what he wanted to confirm as soon as possible—

'Crusch, do you have anyone to turn to in this situation?'

'Someone to turn to, hm. I did, before it came to this. But I cut that off with these very hands.'

'...From the way you say it, does that mean the person you were counting on was—'

'Yes. Miklotov McMahon—before his wicked scheme came to light.'

'Oh my god...'

She nodded matter-of-factly, and Subaru, feeling as if darkness closed over his vision, looked up to the heavens—only to have his gaze bounce off the not-very-high, filthy ceiling of the sewers. Subaru wasn't in much of a position to talk either, but there were far too many entry points that made one want to rely on Miklotov on the information front for the Kingdom. With the matter of the Divine Dragon Church, and how even Crusch, as a candidate for the royal selection, had been put in a difficult position and still thought the same—you could see the caliber of Miklotov's character. However—

'And that Miklotov was harboring a scheme on the level of overthrowing the nation...?'

'Yes. —Lord McMahon welcomed my unscheduled visit readily. However, saying he was expecting a caller, he had me wait in a separate room...'

'A separate room. And?'

'I sensed a suspicious air toward me, left in the guest room, and toward the guest he was about to receive. So when I moved to question his intent, the people of the house barred my way—and the rest is as you two know.'

'What we saw...'

Miklotov had been slashed, and servants and guards lay collapsed all over the manor. Even if she layered on explanations of the chain of events that led to cutting them down, it was still not an answer one could easily accept. In the end, the problem was that the only grounds on which Crusch had suspected Miklotov and the others was a suspicious wind—that is, something arising from the "Blessing of the Wind" she possesses.

"——"

Obviously, Subaru cannot share the "Blessing of the Wind" that she places absolute trust in. So aside from his wish to believe Crusch, he cannot hold any certainty. And that is—,

"—The same as I was back then."

Talking with Crusch, Subaru felt a tight pain in his chest. It was the exact mirror image of an exchange he had once had with her—back when the royal selection had only just begun, the very same situation as when Subaru's eyes were clouded by hatred for Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti, the Sin Archbishop of Sloth who had inflicted devastating damage on Roswaal Manor and Arlam Village.

"Back then, my blood rushed to my head, I got completely blinded because nobody would understand me, and I couldn't bring myself to listen to a single word from the people around me..."

Crusch saw through that distortion, clouded through and through by hatred and rage, and cleanly cut down my foolish, hotheaded stance. —This is a replay of that with the positions reversed. Crusch's words and deeds now are the same as Subaru's were, when he swung around information obtained by a means others could not possibly understand—'Return by Death'—and threw a tantrum because no one would accept it. Of course, Crusch appears more rational than the stupid Subaru of back then. But unlike the powerless Subaru, Crusch has strength—and standing.

"—As I thought, I can't."

"...Subaru?"

"Once I've realized she's the same as me, abandoning Crusch here isn't an option for me anymore. Whether it's to help her or to stop her."

Beatrice, at his side, gazed quietly at Subaru as he bit his lip and clenched his fist. Back then, Crusch was about to face the big showdown of the White Whale's subjugation. Even so, she kept patiently engaging with Subaru—the ignorant, obstinate, and rude one. And in the end, she lent an ear to Subaru's words and helped him accomplish his great wish. This time, it's Subaru's turn to do that—if she is right, stand at her side; if she is wrong, then stand in her way and stop her, even so.

"Crusch, I—"

"—Wait, Natsuki Subaru."

Just as he was about to give voice to the resolve that had clicked into place, Crusch stopped him. However, her expression was far too earnest for it to feel like she'd simply cut him off. She closed the distance to Subaru and the others, shielded them behind her, and strained her eyes toward the darkness of the sewers. Even when he looked the same way with the same caution, nothing came into Subaru's sight—

"—Someone's there. You may hold your breath, but emotions ride the wind. You cannot escape my sight."

"—! We should have shaken off the pursuing soldiers..."

"Likely a party with designs apart from theirs. I'll say this: continued silence gains you nothing. Failing that, we may deem you hostile—"

"—Wait, wait, wait! Don't be hasty! I get it! I get it already!"

It was just as Crusch, short sword somehow drawn, was about to ready herself. Spurred by the rising tension and her warning, a panicked voice answered from the darkness at the far end of the channel. After the surprise that Crusch's eye had been correct, Subaru knit his brows at the voice itself with a "Huh?" —He had heard it before.

"That voice just now..."

"Damn it! I'm coming over there now! Got it? Don't you pull anything! We ain't got the slightest intention of tangling with you guys!"

"That depends on how you act. Let me make it clear I cannot make a careless promise. Moreover, you are alone while we are three; numerically, you are at a disadvantage—"

"—Hold on, are you Chin?"

"What?"

Crusch, who did not lower her guard toward the blustering man, raised an eyebrow at Subaru's question. Pressing against Subaru's side, Beatrice also murmured softly, "Chin...," and—

"If I'm not mistaken, he was the man we saw in Priestella."

"Yeah, that's right. These days he's being looked after by Felt..."

"—We're here 'cause that Felt told us to come. Tch, this ruins my image."

Clicking his tongue in displeasure, the man slowly emerged from the darkness with both hands raised. And, just as expected, it was a man with an even nastier glare than Subaru's—the whites showing all around his eyes—Rachins, one of the back-alley trio Tonchinkan, who had at some point joined the faction led by Felt.

"Ohh, Chin...! Every time you show up, you give me a fresh surprise."

"Shut it! I told you before I'm not \"Chin\"! It's Rachins!"

"Chin, perhaps."

"I told you I'm not \"Chin,\" you shrimp!"

"You're a reckless Chin, you know."

While Subaru was moved to see a familiar face after so long, Rachins and Beatrice were pointlessly bickering. In fact, the last time he had seen Rachins was back in Priestella—at the scene of Sirius’s outrageous rampage that had kicked off the Witch Cult’s worthless assembly. Of course, they had confirmed his safety afterward, but it was a relief to see him hale and hearty like this.

"Anyway, it's good to run into a familiar face. I've got things I want to ask you—"

"Halt there, 'Chin' or whatever you are. Unlike Natsuki Subaru, I do not know you, sir."

"Crusch!?"

In stark contrast to Subaru, who had reflexively rejoiced at meeting an acquaintance, Crusch’s wariness did not soften at all as she leveled a sharp gaze and a dagger at Rachins. Come to think of it, Rachins hadn’t stayed at the "水の羽衣亭", and after the run-in with Sirius he had dropped out of the line, so there had been no timing for him to meet Crusch face-to-face. Crusch’s side being on guard was only natural—or so it seemed, but—

"Huh? You don't know me, Duchess Karsten? That's pretty cold, ain't it?"

"...What?"

"Sure, I'm not exactly in a position to chat casually with folks of such lofty standing as a duchess, but you're one of the people who learned the sword from my old man, yeah? If you tell me you've no recollection whatsoever, then I guess the old man didn't do much of a job, huh."

"——"

Sticking out his long tongue as he declared this, Rachins left Crusch looking perplexed. Subaru, for his part, could only be floored by Rachins’s brazen-as-hell guts.

"Hey, come on, you can't just make stuff up like that..."

"I ain't making it up! ...For what it's worth, I come from a halfway decent house. Enough that, you can count 'em on one hand, but I've even rubbed shoulders with ducal houses."

"Seriously? If not, your delusions are off the charts, man..."

That said, when someone speaks with this much confidence, it starts to sound like the truth—proof that neither hearts nor words are worth relying on. With that in mind, Subaru timidly watched Crusch for her reaction, and—

"—. ————. ——————. Might you be the son of Rickert Hoffman, who served as the Royal Instructor?"

"Ha! Hear that? Looks like it jogged Duchess Karsten's memory."

"For real?!" "Seems real, I suppose."

After taking her time and forcing the words out, Crusch spoke a single name. Rachins’s confirming attitude made Subaru and Beatrice instinctively exchange glances. To think Rachins really was of Lugunica nobility.

"So how’d that turn you into a back-alley thug who bullies the weak?"

"Shut the hell up! People got their circumstances—don’t pry!"

"As for circumstances, Betty and the others have plenty, you know. It seems your coming here isn’t unrelated to those circumstances either, I suppose."

"Nngh...!"

"Yeah. Beako's right. ...Crusch, could you lower that? Chin's probably fine. I vouch for him."

"—. If he makes a suspicious move, or if the wind so much as blows, I'll cut him."

"Moves aside, how the hell am I supposed to answer for the wind...!"

With Rachins trembling and quivering as he said that, Crusch slowly lowered her dagger and eased out of her ready stance. That said, she didn’t go so far as to sheathe it, and with her single eye she kept a careful watch on Rachins’s every move. Anyway—

"All the same, glad you made it. How did you find us?"

"Nothing fancy. I ain't the only one looking for you lot. Gaston and Camberley are prowling other places, searching around."

"So you just happened to draw the winning lot, then? Truly nothing special, I suppose."

"Shut it, shorty. I found you, didn't I? That's what matters. So—what the hell's going on with you lot?"

"As for that, it's a long story, and I doubt I could make you buy it. So let me hear your side first. —How are Emilia and the others?"

Knowing it was rude, Subaru brushed aside Rachins’s question and asked. Ever since fleeing Miklotov’s manor, he hadn’t had a proper chance to get any information from the outside. His heart was a gooey mess of anxiety, worry, and impatience.

"The fact that we're with Crusch should have reached Emilia and the others' ears. Which means we've been causing them a killer amount of worry and trouble..."

A double whammy: the mental burden of worry and the physical burden of being questioned by the Kingdom. On top of that, the faction must be in utter disarray. However, Subaru’s prediction was overturned—dramatically, and in a way he hadn’t even imagined.

"Uh—"

"—?"

When asked, Rachins widened his eyes, the whites showing all around, then, uncharacteristically, wore a look of concern for Subaru and said. It was—,

"The half-elf from your lot has been detained at the castle. And the rest of your faction have fled and disappeared. Same as you—they're all wanted."

△▼△▼△▼△

—Emilia's detention at the royal castle, and Rem and Otto's escape from the noble residence.

It was bad news like heaven and earth being turned upside down. He chewed over what Rachins had told him again and again, ruminating so his brain could swallow it all without leaving anything behind. He piled effort upon effort to somehow understand. He did, but—

"H-How did it end up like this...?"

"...Even Betty didn't see this coming, you know."

Stunned, face gone pale, Subaru muttered that and noticed his teeth were chattering. Apparently, events that go too far beyond understanding can even steal the heat from a human. The cold blood ran through his body, to the point he felt as if the tips of his fingers and toes might get frostbitten and necrotic. Holding Subaru's hand, Beatrice quietly shared her warmth. Even so, his body's trembling would not stop. The situation was, beyond Subaru's shallow imaginings, bad.

"Because of me... because of me, Emilia and everyone..."

"Tch. I get you wanna say that kind of crap, but quit putting on the 'it's my fault' face. In a situation like this, any way you look at it, you've been set up."

"Huh?"

A piercing ringing filled his ears, and Subaru, staggering with dizziness, blinked in spite of himself. At Subaru's reaction, Rachins folded his arms and clicked his tongue in irritation. Just now, Rachins had said as if it were only natural that they had been 'set up.'

"What do you mean, 'set up'...?"

"What do I mean? Exactly what it sounds like. Don't you think it's weird? All of a sudden, too many inconvenient things are happening all over the place."

At the dumbstruck Subaru, Rachins shrugged with a sigh. In place of Subaru, whose head felt partly numb and dull at his words, Beatrice answered, "So you mean—"

"That Betty and the others are being hunted, and Emilia's been shut up in the castle... is that it?"

"—Not just that. The reason the folks in your faction bolted without a word is because they realized the other side was out to kill them."

"Out to... kill!?"

"It's a figure of speech, a figure of speech! In reality, you can't just up and kill a candidate for the royal selection. ...That's why that spitfire could at least send us out."

At the dangerous word that flew out, Rachins kicked the grimy wall while Subaru's eyes bulged. But despite the blunt attitude, thanks to Rachins patiently talking it through, Subaru's ability to think finally began to recover bit by bit. In short—

"Someone is working behind the scenes to knock Emilia out of the royal selection. And my actions played right into it, and Emilia got caught at the castle. Otto and the others, realizing what the one plotting this was after, ran before they were pinned down... is that about it?"

"There's just one thing Betty wants to add to that. There's a possibility Emilia isn't the only target of that villain."

"Not just Emilia?"

"—"

At the remark, Subaru raised his eyebrows, and Beatrice nodded and jerked her chin. Following that motion to look over, he found Rachins's sour face, tongue prodding the inside of his cheek. It was, to look at it, the face of a human whose sore spot had been poked—

"...Are you saying the reason Chin came to us isn't just because Emilia and Felt became friends?"

"Damn, a runt who notices things she doesn't need to..."

"It's Betty's job to make up for what Subaru lacks. And if it's little by little, over and over... do you want to have that driven into you, human?"

"Then teach your master to call people properly, too!"

Raising his voice at Beatrice, with whom he apparently had poor chemistry, Rachins let out a deep sigh. Then, after hemming and hawing for a while,

"...The one they grabbed at the castle isn't just the half-elf from your lot. Felt, too. They slapped some flimsy charges on her, and that bastard Reinhard's been bound hand and foot."

"Reinhard!? And Felt's been caught too... In that case, the one being targeted isn't Emilia, but the royal selection itself!?"

"Took you long enough. That's what we were suspicious of, so before Felt got dragged to the castle she ordered us, 'Find the guys. Once you do, don't leave one alone.' Thanks to that, we ended up running all over through places that stink like a sewer."

Given that it would put the faction at a disadvantage, it's understandable Rachins didn't want to talk about it, but whether we have that information or not changes the very premise entirely. Subaru had been convinced his own actions had simply been used for a personal attack on Emilia, but apparently the enemy's aim was on a whole different level.

If there's a risk that not only Emilia and Felt, but along with them Subaru and Reinhard—and even the faction on each side—are being reached for, then there's no way it's a coincidence. It's a covert plot aimed at the royal selection, one that will send the Republic of Lugunica into convulsions. And Subaru, for his part, had heard something along those lines before.

"Crusch, did you hear that!? What you said was—"

Subaru, lifting his head in excitement, turned to Crusch, who had been overseeing the discussion. Up until Rachins joined them, Subaru hadn't been able to fully trust the validity of Crusch's remarks grounded in the 'Blessing of the Wind', but the deluge of piled-on information had the power to lend a certain persuasiveness to the suspicions he couldn't bring himself to accept. Perhaps even Miklotov's scheme that had driven Crusch to draw her blade was connected to malice bent on ruining the royal selection. However—

"Hey, Crusch?"

Getting no response, Subaru looked at Crusch in puzzlement and doubted his own eyes—Crusch, standing by the wall, was nodding off. To start dozing in the middle of the talk, and that too while they were supposed to be on alert, was behavior far too out of character for Crusch. Noticing and calling out, Subaru was met by a clearly vacant look from Crusch, and—

"…My apologies. A sudden wave of drowsiness. It's probably… the strain on this left eye…"

"Strain…? Since when has that eye—"

"I'm leaving the rest to you… Subaru… sir…"

"Hey!"

As if she'd reached her limit, her upper body swayed unsteadily and then Crusch suddenly pitched forward. Subaru hastily caught her, and a dagger slipped from Crusch's now-limp hand, striking the ground of the waterway with a high, ringing clatter. But she herself paid the sound no mind and began to let out the quiet breaths of sleep.

"You’ve got to be kidding me. In the middle of a conversation this important… she fell asleep!"

"Hey, what the hell is up with the duchess? People have been saying all kinds of crap—lost her 'memory', wrecked her body, and now her head’s gone screwy?"

"Huh!? How dare you talk about Crusch like that! I’ll knock your block off, you bastard!"

"I wasn’t the one saying it! The hell’s your problem!?"

"Oh, enough already! Don’t pick a fight over every little thing! From the look of it, she’s just sleeping. Just like the girl herself said, it seems her fatigue pushed past its limits."

Beatrice shoved herself between Subaru and Rachins and, peering at Crusch’s sleeping face, delivered that judgment. To Subaru’s eyes as well, there was no sign that the unconscious Crusch was suffering in any particular way; it simply looked like an exhausted body seeking a sleep as heavy as mud. Still, as Beatrice said, if this was a side effect of the 'Dragon Eye' Crusch had told them about, then that unnatural thing clearly wasn’t something they could afford to leave alone. If anything—

"…The sacrament of the 'Divine Dragon Church', and Tiga’s testimony. There’s no way that, together with the situation of a candidate for the royal selection being put in the crosshairs, this is unrelated."

Frankly, it strains credulity to think these things aren’t connected. But, paradoxically, that leads straight to suspecting the organization known as the 'Divine Dragon Church'. The 'Divine Dragon Church' is a religion deeply rooted and widely spread in the Republic of Lugunica. Even if they recognized it as a hypothetical enemy, just how much of it should they treat as the foe? Given the situation, they had no choice but to suspect Tiga—but then what about Sakura? …What about Filore?

"If the worst of my imaginings hits the mark, it’ll gut me too—but it’ll break Emilia’s heart…"

Even as it is, Emilia is confined in custody at the castle, and she probably doesn’t know whether Otto and the others—let alone Subaru and Beatrice—are safe. To ease that burden on her heart even a little, he had to make a move. The best move. With that resolve, Subaru hoisted the sleeping Crusch onto his back and held her firm. In the meantime, Beatrice picked up the dagger and slid it back into its sheath, and the two of them exchanged a nod.

"Rachins, we’re not getting anywhere like this. Since you went out of your way to come, you’ve got a place where we can talk a little more easily, right? Let’s move."

"I don’t like being ordered around, but I’ll go along without picking a fight every time. That said, I can’t promise how well we can throw off watchful eyes in the Royal Capital as it is now."

"…It really drives home, all over again, just how bad a spot we’re in."

The enemy is wielding a vast—truly vast—power, scheming to ensnare Subaru and the others. Probably, the very fact that they were able to rendezvous with Rachins here like this and hear from him was a miracle aided by no small amount of coincidence. Or perhaps calling it a miracle would be an insult to Rachins, who tracked down Subaru and the others on Felt's orders. In any case――,

"I want to let Crusch rest somewhere calm as well. If her body and mind can relax even a little, we should be able to have a proper talk. So――"

"――How perfect! At precisely this instant, this very split-second, I've been itching—absolutely itching—to invite in the fugitive who's throwing the entire Royal Capital into chaos!"

"――Wha—!?"

At the utterly out-of-place voice that rang through the sewers, Subaru—carrying Crusch on his back—and Beatrice and Rachins alike snapped their eyes wide and turned around. The voice had come from beyond the darkness of the channel where the meager light of the Lagmite ore did not reach. But there, Rachins clicked his tongue—"Tch"—and hurled something――,

"Oh, let there be light! Kuhahahaha, how thoughtful, how considerate!"

A hard clack struck the sewer floor, and then a white light dazzled through the gloom. What he'd thrown was Lagmite ore itself, which emits light when jolted. Just as Rachins intended with his split-second judgment, it laid bare the figure hidden in the dark to Subaru and the others as they turned. It was――,

"...A mask?"

"Hey, hey, hey—if the first thing that pops into your head on seeing me is 'a mask,' that's just way too literal, isn't it? Put a little more thought into it. Choose your words as ardently, as passionately as if you were trying to woo the woman of your dreams. Kuhahahahaha!"

As he said this, shaking with laughter, the speaker was a man—one could tell only that he was tall. For he wore black garb that covered him completely from head to toe, and on his face was a jester-like mask.

In the darkness, the white jester's mask floating pale into view only accentuated the abnormality. From his words and deeds, his bearing, and the vicious gaze leveled through that mask, they understood in an instant—within five seconds of meeting.――This jester in a mask was bad news. As if to prove it――,

"Feel free to die, you lot. The only one I need is the woman lying there!"

In that instant, a gigantic blaze—nothing like the feeble light of the Lagmite ore—lit up the darkness of the sewers, and an immense wave of heat surged toward Subaru and the others.